Blizzard’s Banning Bonanza
Perhaps “bonanza,” a word that literally means “an extremely large amount,” is the only word that can fully encompass the extent to which Blizzard is banning customers who violate their Terms of Use. In the month of May alone, they banned over 30,000 accounts that were using third-party programs to farm gold and disrupt equilibrium in many other ways. Furthermore, perhaps the connotations of the word “bonanza,” which include “profitable” and “rewarding,” are also accurate speculations as to the motives of Blizzard. Cutting 30,000 accounts assuredly lessens Blizzard’s band-width and maintanence costs, and the 5-digit banning marathon in May leaves us wondering if Blizzard’s employees have a banning quota.
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World of Warcraft Monopolizes MMOG Market
(Bruce Woodcock. MMOGCHART.COM)
MMOG Chart has released updated figures concerning the state of the MMOG market, that is, a comparitive ratio of the number of subscribers of many MMOG to the whole MMOG market. It turns out, to little surprise that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (WoW) dominates the free market. But the extent to which WoW has possession of the market is quite startling. Holding 50.6% of all MMOG subscribers (indicated blue in the above graphic), WoW has an overbearing, exclusive grip on the market.
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WoW: Battlegrounds Patch
If you’re looking for information about the WoW 1.11 patch, please go here to download!
Gaming Steve, “the man with the game information”, has the latest on Blizzard’s intent to greatly improve Battlegrounds, World of Warcraft’s PvP mode. The first update is expected in patch 1.12 or 1.13, and “will effectively link 16 realms per Battleground server, in turn speeding up queues and opening up the playing field for inter-realm action”.
Joystiq reports that “Battlegrounds will undergo its biggest makeover with the release of The Burning Crusade expansion. Players can look forward to features like worldwide rankings, tournaments, and ladders when the expansion drops later this year”.
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World of Warcraft Coke Commercial
Coca Cola teamed up with Blizzard to theme a World of Warcraft coke commerical in China with singers S.H.E., also known as Selina Ren, Hebe Tien, and Ella Chen. Here’s a pictoral transcription of the commercial:
Businessman: Girls!
Businessman: Sexy is what sells.
Businessman: You get my drift?
Girls: No.
Businessman: (Turning into an orc) What do you mean, no?
Businessman / Orc: (Roars)
Girls: (Turning into elves) No is no.
Girls / Elves: (Attacking the orcs)
Businessman / Orc: (Takes some damage)
Girls / Elves: (Drinking Coca Cola)
Final Screen! You can download the video yourself from Tokyo-Genki. Funny that they run a WP blog, but don’t publicize the trackback URL…
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WoW Screenshots
VGB is proud to present an exclusive selection of World of Warcraft screenshots for your viewing pleasure:
The login screen where you log on screen
When you first start, you need to chose a character’s race: this is a human female warrior
The dwarf race is a little smaller
Why be alliance when you can be a horde night elf?
Personally, I find gnomes quite cute
Orcs are not at all sexy, even if they are women
Unless you’re into necrophilia, the undead *really* aren’t sexy
Tauren, on the other hand, have a majesty about them
I chose a human warlock, quite pretty and dangerous looking, although well figured and not at all slender
The World of Warcraft and Blizzard’s loading screen
The alliance intro movie cutscene
One of your first tasks is to kill some wolves!
For more WoW photos, please check out the WoW flickr photoset / gallery. If you’re unfamiliar with World of Warcraft, try this wikipedia entry:
World of Warcraft (commonly abbreviated as WoW) is a race/class-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the 4th game in the Warcraft series, excluding expansion packs and the cancelled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. The Warcraft games are set in the eponymous Warcraft Universe, a fantasy setting introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft is set four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard’s previous release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. As of December 2005, World of Warcraft is one of the most popular MMORPGs in the world, with more than 5 million active subscriptions.
