Scapegaming, the company that had set up and was running a private World of Warcraft server until Blizzard’s lawyers went after ‘em, now has to cough up some $88M in damages. There’s no question that Scapegaming had it coming to them, but $88M? Man alive! → Read More
As if this is a shock to anyone, but StarCraft II is now the best selling PC game of the year. Within 24 hours Blizzard sold 1 million copies, and within 48 hours that total climbed to 1.5 million copies. The game is quite popular, yes. → Read More
It seems some users are blaming StarCraft II for the fact that their pants no longer fit as well as they used to. No, wait, that’s not it. They’re blaming StarCraft II for killing their video cards. Mm. → Read More
This is just a heads-up for any ATI folks out there looking to add a little anti-aliasing to your StarCraft II-ing. ATI has released an updated driver, version 10.7a, that includes a hotfix that enables forced AA for the game. You have to activate AA inside the Catalyst Control Thingamajig outside of the game. End transmission. → Read More
How long did Blizzard spend developing StarCraft II? Since 2003, give or take some time here and there when the company needed all hands on deck for World of Warcraft. So you’d think that would be enough time to figure out how to implement anti-aliasing into the graphics engine, right? You see where I’m going with this. → Read More
As every life form in the Milky Way knows, StarCraft II came out yesterday. I’ve heard stories—anecdotes, if you will—about people pulling out of World of Warcraft raids in order to play the game. → Read More
So I just went on the Battle.net site to buy myself a copy of Blizzard’s latest game, Starcraft II. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it’s going to take 68 years before I’ll be able to buy and activate the incredibly popular new title. Apparently “It’s about time” meant it’s about how much time it’ll take before you can activate your new game. Update: Ok, the queue was grossly miscalculating. I was able to get the game after about 30 minutes. A reasonable amount of time, and I didn’t have to leave the house. → Read More
Who can forget the nonsense surrounding Real ID? Nobody, that’s who. To its credit, Blizzard quickly changed its mind after its initial decision to force people to use their real names on the official forums. Thanks to Eurogamer, we have a little bit more insight as to how Blizzard digested community feedback. → Read More
It’s like I’ve been shot in the heart. → Read More
You may have read that Blizzard spent some $100 million to develop StarCraft II. Well, that information is incorrect. Blizzard actually hasn’t disclosed how much it has spent to develop the game; that $100 million actually refers to World of Warcraft, which has been in continued developed for like 60 years at this point. → Read More
7/27 is coming soon friends. I’ll see you online. → Read More
Online gamers received quite the scare last week when Blizzard announced it would require message board posters to use their real names. This was to be done in order to fight the scourge of online anonymity. The Internet freaked out, of course, so much so that Blizzard eventually changed its mind. I mention this up to not open old wounds, but to take the time to remind you of this: there are other MMOs in the world besides World of Warcraft. In fact, I’ve been playing one such MMO, the outer space-themed Eve Online (developed by Iceland’s CCP Games), for several days now. Come, let us enter a world (universe, really) of spaceships, cross-galaxy pirate raids, and Astronomical Units! → Read More
In loving memory of the greatest message board thread in the history of the Internet: the nearly 2,500 page monster discussing the now-rescinded plan to use real names on the Blizzard message board. May the server it’s hosted on be donated to the Library of Congress. → Read More
Well, well, well. Blizzard has announced that real names WILL NOT be required to post on the official forums after all. Your level one alt is safe! → Read More
If Blizzard wanted to spark a discussion, well, job done. The company’s plan to bring Real ID to its message boards has done nothing if not freak people out. Do keep freaking out. → Read More
Let’s get one thing straight: Blizzard is totally in the right here. You’ll recall that they announced yesterday that the era of anonymous commenting on their message boards will come to an end with the release of StarCraft II. Note that all of your current posts on their message board will forever remain under your character’s name. (Don’t worry, Fernando Zorres, your secret is safe with me.) It’s only when the new system kicks into gear—the World of Warcraft forum won’t change over to the new system until Cataclysm comes out—that you’ll have to “worry.” But really, what are you worried about? → Read More
Kudos to Blizzard for putting an end to Anonymous Cowards everywhere. Well, at least on their own official forums. Starting with the release of StarCraft II in a few weeks, Blizzard WILL DEMAND~! you use your real name to participate in the forums. Oh sure, you’ll also be able to have your in-game character’s name displayed alongside your real name, but don’t let that fool you: accountability has finally reached the world of message boards. → Read More
T-minus one month and counting till the release of StarCraft II, and we’re starting to see officially branded peripherals hit the store shelves. Here’s one such peripheral: the SteelSeries StarCraft II Limited Edition Zboard. As the name suggests, it’s based on the company’s Z Board, except, you know, StarCraft-ified. → Read More
“We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology.” Thank you, finally! See, Blizzard gets it. The company’s co-founder, Frank Pearce, recently told the good folks at Video Gamer that he thinks the fight against DRM is misguided. Not that he supports end-users going around torrenting his games till the end of time, but that the way to “beat” piracy is to embrace gamers and treat them like complete jerks. → Read More
When I read this headline, I thought there must have been some mistake. I mean, as we all know, StarCraft is the life-blood of South Korea. How can Blizzard release a gimped version of the game over there? 1up calls it “heavily edited,” and perhaps “censored” is as much an overstatement as “heavily edited” is an understatement. The game was given a provisional AO rating over there, and now Blizzard has rejiggered and resubmitted it, with black blood instead of red, toned-down smoking references, and less “vulgar” language.
Remember, this is a game where you send soldiers to gruesome, extraterrestrial death by the thousand. → Read More
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