As you can see, there are updates to Battle.net coming, including a “Map Market,” which is probably for selling extra maps as DLC. Starcraft 2 is getting its expansions and a “Phoenix” version (probably a standalone thing) in late 2011, then another in 2012.

Diablo 3, as we know, is getting its release in late 2011. My god, why did they announce it so early?! And then you’ve got an expansion a year later, and a second a year after taht.

WoW is getting its expansions, one a year, plus a card game (relevant) and potentially a movie in 2012.

Then there’s the mysterious “Titan,” thought to be Blizzard’s next big MMO. It would coincide with the final expansion for WoW; you’ll notice there are no plans for more content after 2013.

[via GamesRadar and SlashGear]

There is no shortage of Groupon clones. With literally hundreds of daily deal sites popping up all over the world, it’s a pretty saturated market. Or maybe it’s the next big thing. Either way, AOL (our new corporate owner) is about to find out. It is going to launch its own daily deal site called Wow!

The site will come under the purview of Ned Brody, COO of the media, advertising, and commerce group, as well as the president of AOL’s Paid Services group. Paid Services includes all of the subscription business (both the remnants of dial-up and bring-your-own broadband), along with premium services such as SafeSocial (based on sofwtare from startup Social Shield, which just raised $10 million today) and Computer Checkup. Dial-up is a dying (but extremely profitable) business, and Brody wants to find new growth for commerce and subscription revenues. Daily deals are the new black.

While AOL is clearly following the pack here, it is not clear that is a bad thing. AOL certainly has a lot of distribution muscle through its homepage, AOL Mail, and growing network of local Patch sites (which could be a perfect place to promote local deals). AOL customers also tend to have a better than average proclivity to buy things online.

Not that Groupon needs to lose any sleep over AOL entering the market. Groupon CEO Andrew Mason is more annoyed than anything else at all the copycats. But as Benchmark Capital VC Matt Cohler pointed out onstage last week at Disrupt, “It may turn out to be the case that this daily deal product mechanism is sort of an ad unit, if you will.” He also noted that, other than Groupon’s brand (which is significant at this point), “there are neither barriers to entry nor are there switching costs in that product.” His prediction is that under those circumstances, margins will collapse as more companies compete with more daily deals.

Thinking of daily deals as a new ad unit certainly makes sense. “If you are an SMB [small-medium business],” notes Brody, “this is the first real online advertising that works. Here is an opportunity to buy advertising on a CPA basis that is proven effective.” And for national retailers who used to rely on newspaper circulars, offering deals to people online is becoming more and more attractive.

Businesses are encouraged to offer discounts in return for massive purchase volume and to treat those discounts as a marketing expense because generally the deals introduce new customers to their products and services. That is certainly the approach AOl is taking. It’s pitch to advertisers on the Wow landing page is this:

Pocket the thousands of dollars you would usually spend on advertising — Wow simply shares the revenue with you. Our message is clear: We help you boost your business and establish repeat clientele.

The Wow.com domain has been kicking around AOL since 1998, when AOL purchased some assets from CompuServe, and every time AOl uses it for a new product it turns into the kiss of death. A few years ago, it was considered as a new home for the Netscape portal before becoming World of Warcraft social network called WOW Insider. WOW Insider is now part of Joystiq, AOL’s gaming blog. Wow! is not a bad name for a daily deal site, however, so maybe this time the name will stick. “These deals are meant to Wow you,” explains Brody. Plus, it’s easy to remember.

I guess WoW players just love them some Pegasi.

Cons
• No way to determine battery power.
• Volume buttons feel a little flimsy.
• Microphone can adjust but not very well.
• In order to download drivers, you must register the product.
• Reasonable but not impressive range.
• Not compatible with consoles (at least the PS3)

The headset packs a serious punch. Immediately, when you first put them on you’ll notice they muffle out sound very well. Despite the size they feel comfortable and even after prolonged periods of play your ears won’t ache. Windows has no trouble finding the skeleton drivers once I plugged in the USB device.

I sought out to download the drivers and was surprised that they required me to register the product in order to install the drivers. Once that way squared away, I played around with the Audio Control Panel. They allow you to customize the Glyph illumination (change color, pulsation, etc). There’s a panel that allows you to customize 5 audio options that massively enhance the audio quality. There are also voice filters that allow you to mask your voice into various characters from WoW including XT-002 Deconstructor. Finally, you can bind your keys to various actions like mute to your keyboard.

There’s no way to tell how much battery life you have on the wireless headset. Eventually they will simply go off. They can be charged by a simple mini-usb cable. They also work while plugged in so you can play while charging – granted – this technically defeats the purpose of a wireless headset.

All the audio options make a huge improvement to the game. The surround sound works surprisingly well. Better than previous simulated surround sound devices I’ve ever used. Quick note: all sounds are based on the character’s perspective (not camera) so be wary if you’re in a PVP zone and you hear fire off in the distance.
I only have 3 significant complaints. They probably placed the microphone far from the mouth to prevent pop but you can only bend it so far. This can also be troublesome if you raid late at night and loved ones are in the room: you can’t mumble effectively. Other than that, the microphone works very well. The volume buttons are flimsy and often don’t feel like they work. They are sensitive but don’t increase the volume more than 2 percent making it quicker to adjust volume via the slider. You may also hit the volume (or even microphone mute) buttons while taking off/putting on the headphones. My last major gripe is the lack of compatibility of with the consoles. The PS3 can recognize some USB headsets and the WoW headphones would have made an excellent headset but alas; the PS3 could not detect the wireless USB key. I haven’t checked for the 360 yet.

You can walk around your room with the headphones on, but they won’t last a bathroom trip. This is mildly disappointing but considering you’re not meant to be roaming your household with them on, it can be forgiven. On that note, I discourage roaming around with the glyphs pulsating. Sure they may look cool to you, but to anyone else, you will be confused with a tool.

Creative’s World of Warcraft wireless headset sells at $159.99. While not completely necessary, the audio improvements they make are incredible and the headset does serve as a status symbol. There’s nothing quite like going to the kitchen with your headset on listening to music of Dalaran.

Gabriel Deleon, Nicholas’ younger brother who has like 10 level 80s, wrote these fine words.

We have a few WoW players on staff here and they’ve been pretty excited about this headset. That said, I got a chance to take a look at them and I’m quite pleased. The styling is great and the light-up logos on the sides add a fun way to identify yourself in a crowded LAN party. The wireless version is $159 and the wired is $119 and they should be available in March.

Full review forthcoming.

Only five more levels to go until, “I’ll have nothing to do anymore,” said Deleon.

Deleon played for roughly 11 hours yesterday, “with maybe a 15 minute soup break.”

His in-game player, Garrinchao, “is supposed to be an allusion to a famous soccer player, Garrincha. Turns out it’s the name of a bird in Brazil, a Garrinchao,” quipped Deleon.

Needless to say, we’re all very proud.

Garrinchao @ Aggramar [WoWArmory.com]

The Zboard keyset is a limited edition product, customized to make it easier to play the game and includes exclusive artwork. The keys are labeled with commands and shortcuts, allowing the player to pick up the game faster then someone using a normal keyboard. The keyset will MSRP for $24.99

SteelSeries also announced a limited edition Rise of the Lich King mousepad, featuring exclusive artwork from the new expansion. The mouse pad should be available now from your favorite gaming retailer, with an MSRP of $14.99

Law enforcement officials contacted Blizzard, who found the dealer in their player database, and then provided the IP address the guy was using to the U.S. Marshals. The player was located in Canada, so the marshals then contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The RCMP then arrested the suspect, who was then deported to the U.S. to face drug charges from 2007. Hats off to Blizz for doing the right thing and helping bring a drug dealer to justice. If you want to take a look at the dealer’s character, it’s in the armory.

[Via The Kokomo Perspective]

Above: Nicholas and Dave talking about World of Warcraft in the CrunchGear chat room. I threw in some stuff about EverQuest to try to be funny and they ignored me.

Nerds [CrunchGear.com]

World of Warcraft was originally released in 2004, and is currently the most popular MMO in the world. With local servers in Europe and Asia, odds are you’ve either played WoW, know someone who has, or are at least aware that there is a game called WoW available. Since the game was originally published, there’s been two expansions released, The Burning Crusade in 2007, and then Wrath of the Lich King in 2008. Since then, Blizzard has continued to release free content updates featuring new dungeons, and pvp areas, however there hasn’t been a major update in almost a year.

WoW is starting to run into the same problem faced by games like Everquest, and Asheron’s Call. The people who were going to buy the game bought it, leveled up their characters, and are maybe getting a little bored. You can only level a character up so many times before you start to find it repetitive, and while raiding and PVP is fun, finding a group can be difficult, and pvp can be frustrating for some.

So why is Cataclsym the only direction for WoW to go? Because Azeroth has gone stale. Unless they want to end up like the Ultima Online’s and Everquest’s out there, they have to revamp it. So how do they do it? They either release World of Warcraft 2, or they do something like Cataclysm: create a world altering event, that is going to make people want to start over, to create a character just to experience the new content and art. And maybe get some of those people who left for other MMO’s to come back into the fold.

What’s even better is, World of Warcraft evolves. From the most popular user written modifications, to the way the starting areas for a character works, Blizzard is always paying attention to what people really like. 2008′s Wrath of the Lich King featured a very dynamic and scripted starting area for the new death knight character, and people loved that fact that they could quickly pass through the initial ten levels, get some skills and gear, and jump into the more interesting content. Blizzard has stated that the Cataclysm expansion will have that same content with the two new races available to players, the goblins and worgens. Again, listening to the players is one of the best things they can do, because it will make people feel like they are actually making a difference in how the world is evolving and developing.

I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since it was released. Frankly, I’ve grown a bit bored with it, but the new Cataclysm expansion (at least what we’ve seen of it) has rekindled my excitement. I sure I’ll be pre-ordering it and standing out in the cold to pick up my copy at midnight.

While I haven’t logged into World of Warcraft since, I don’t know, February (for the Valentines Day things), a new expansion should bring me back into the fold. Most fans know that Blizzard trademarked the name “Cataclysm,” and that’s what we expect the name of the next expansion to be. But now! Now, friends, wow.com’s sources have pretty much confirmed two new races for the expansion. Say hello, probably, to the Worgen (Alliance) and the Goblin (Horde).

Now, as an on-again, off-again member of the Alliance, I’m obligated to roll Worgen, which is just fine with me; it’s about time Alliance gets a “cool” looking race. Conversely, you couldn’t pay me to roll a Goblin, even if i I were a card-carrying member of the Horde.

In any event, Blizzon is next week, and I’d assume Blizzard will reveal a bit more on Cataclysm. I might just have to buy the Web stream now. (If I had put any thought into this, I might have convinced TechCrunch to fly me out to Anaheim for the show itself. Oh, well!)

And yeah, I expect to be knee deep in wowwiki for the next few hours.

This is a new trailer for Mega Man 2.5D, a new version of the classic Mega Man currently in the works. It’s being built by designer Peter Sjostrand and looks like 15 pounds of amazing.

Revel in the video and here’s a 720p still.

Okay, this is one of the better “gadgets” I’ve yet seen. It’s called the WoWPod, and it’s a self-sufficient tiny room for World of Warcraft players. Easy-to-reach food and water, built-in toilet, no annoying people distracting you, etc. It’s probably the closest thing to Heaven that a certain section of our society will ever encounter.

First, some background. The WoWPod was engineered (see what I did there?) by three Wow-playing MIT students. They decided to put their real world talents to good use, in the interest of furthering their Azeroth careers. Um, that’s it.

And, if it’s not already obvious, the whole purpose of the WoWPod is to provide the perfect environment needed to safely spend 18 hours per day grinding and/or raiding. (When I used to play a lot, I used to enjoy grinding. It gave me time to think and listen to Opie and Anthony.)

And the neatest part, clearly, is that, somehow, while in-game, you can make real world food:

When hungry, the gamer selects a food item (‘Crunchy Spider Surprise’, ‘Beer Basted Ribs’, etc.) and a seasoning pack. By scanning in the food items, the video game physically adjusts a hot plate to cook the item for the correct amount of time. The virtual character then jubilantly announces the status of the meal to both the gamer and the other individuals playing online: “Vorcon’s meal is about to be done!” “Better eat the ribs while they’re hot!” etc.

That, I don’t think I have to tell you, rules.

via Boing Boing

“World of Warcraft is the crack cocaine of the computer gaming world. Some people can’t drag themselves away and will play it till they drop.” This chilling warning comes from the Swedish Youth Care Foundation, which swooped into action after a 15-year-old boy “collapsed” (says The Sun, which is quite sensational) after playing the game for 24 hours straight.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen studies claiming the game to be “addictive,” and there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence out there of people who played the game to the detriment of the professional or social life; I used to play the game as soon as I get home from class, real life friends be damned! But to compare it to crack cocaine, a drug that destroys people’s lives? (Your life isn’t destroyed merely because you spend a lot of time in Azeroth. Granted, your priorities may be out of wack, but you’re not stooping to the level of Tyronne Biggums!)

I don’t know, friends, just take a break every once in a while. You’ll be better for it; having Tier 7 gear doesn’t pay the bills.

What good is that Optimus keyboard without World of Warcraft? None good, I say, which is why it brings me great joy to see this homebrew WoW layout. It was created by one of the blokes at an Optimus Keyboard message board—message boards are the new salons—and is primarily for Warlocks.

As you can see, many (all? I’ve never played as a Warlock) of the icons from the game’s action bar are somewhere on the keyboard—I recognize a few spells on the left-hand side.

And you’d have to admit that this is merely an aesthetic mod, since when you’re playing the game it’s not like you’re staring at the keyboard. Nope, your eyes are fixated on the monitor, looking at damage meters and the like.

Still, fun, I guess. That’s the Internet’s raison d’etre: pointless, but fun stuff.

via OLED-DISPLAY.NET

When I was a kid, Pac Man was big. There were backpacks, lunchboxes, and even Pac Man board games. I remember one Christmas in particular when we were fascinated by the game even though none of the kids I played with were old enough to go into arcades – we must have been five or six – and none of us had really actually touched the game. We were enamored of the concept.

That love fell apart when one December evening they had some sort of Pac Man musical special. I don’t remember what it was about but it was something like a live-action Pac Man variety show and it was probably called Pac Man Fever. It was abysmal and turned me off of Pac Man forever. Basically it was a bunch of grown-ups running around ruining my vision of the game as a pure object.

This video is like that.

Hopefully the above video will do the same for millions of wannabe WoW players out there. This is the most awkward news report I’ve ever seen – I can’t even tell if it aired because it looks like the reporter filmed it in her living room with a Powershot – but this is like watching your uncle at a rave. If we learned anything it’s that you shouldn’t invite your MMORPGing boyfriend on camera.

By using ultra-fine polymer fibers, military researchers have been able to regrow damaged or missing organs and limbs. They will announce their findings officially next month at the 26th Army Science Conference in Florida.

One example given by John Parmentola, a director of research and lab management, involved a man who lost the entire tip of his finger while starting up a model airplane.

“That has been completely regrown . . . the nail, the bone, the tissue,” he said.

“There is one example of a young girl who . . . was born without a sex organ, and that was regrown,” he said.

The polymers act as a trellis for new cells which climb up and through the fine scaffolding. Once the organ is regrown, the scaffold is absorbed into the body and disappears.

The process cannot yet regrow complex organs like hearts but it can create skin, bone, and nails. In 2006, nanoscaffolding was used to regrow burned skin and it was discovered that skin cells will “sort themselves” into the right arrangement if given a proper foothold. Work is also being done to use the methods to repair nerve damage and spinal injuries.

Man also doesn’t lose virginity until age 30 when it’s with a strange, small woman he paid $50 in a park. In his memoirs, written in vi, he calls her a love gnome.

Blizzard released Wrath of the Lich King last night at midnight, and while I didn’t do a live UStream.tv stream of the installation—chill out, WoW Insider—I’m now prepared to give y’all a quick “here’s what’s up” of sorts.

Thankfully, the game ships on a DVD. No more “please insert disc 87” nonsense when installing. So that’s good.

The three biggest new features are the level 80 cap (increased from 70), the continent of Northrend and the Dark Knight, the game’s first Hero class. Northrend can’t be accessed till you’re level 68. Once you’re there you’ll probably run into some high-level, really powerful stuff, like bows that shoot witches instead of arrows. While the game’s packaging and general marketing campaign may have suggested that Nortrend is some icy dump, that’s only partially true; it’s not icy everywhere. There’s a good ol’ fashioned fjord there that’s filled with giants. Presumably you’ll fight the Lich King or his brother somewhere on the continent.

Now, Death Knights. Blizzard says they’re meant to be both tanks and DPS damage dealers, not unlike Fury Warriors. DKs can’t use shields, though, so there’s that. You can only create a DK—any race can be a DK—on a server where you have a level 55+ character.

Also, DKs are pure evil. Their starting area is one of the flying fortress things that were all over the place during the zombie invasion from a few weeks ago. You’re right about a small village where your first few quests involve you killing completely innocent villagers in cold blood and stealing their horses for funsies. You also kill hard working miners, only in there to put food on the table for their families, and turn them into Scourge zombies. It’s the most fun starting zone of them all. That may be because you start at level 55 and have more abilities at the outset than “run in fear” and “swing piece-of-garbage axe.” You’re able to do some damage as soon as you log in.

Double also, but DKs look amazing. (How many of you play just to get cool-looking gear?) My character, Medfresno, looks fantastic, even though she’s wearing the WoW equivalent of Wal-Mart clothes.

As to the other stuff in the expansion—the new professions, PVP areas, etc.—I have no idea. I suspect I’ll have more I that, including unhinged rants, as I come across them.

Heads up, World of Warcraft players. There’s a few of you out there.

Not only does the game come out at midnight tomorrow—I’ll probably pick it up over the weekend—but that crazy SteelSeries keyboard comes out tomorrow, too. (The SteelSeries mouse doesn’t come out till the end of the year.)

The keyboard, which has several game-specific keys, costs $70.