Toyota Tacoma ads have been pretty funny and creative, but this one takes the cake. World of Warcraft + Toyota Tacoma = brilliant. Well done, ad wizards. Well done. World of Warcraft…wha huh? → Read More
Before today, I never understood why people played as Paladins in World of Warcraft. They’re boring, get absolutely zero respect and are made to heal and heal some more. So when I fired up Digg and came across “The best reason to play a paladin”, I was skeptical as to what I’d be reading. Luckily, it was just what I needed to make this Columbus Day extra special. The image is too big for our site, so hit the link below to view the glorious masterpiece written by “Genkaku”. Just click it → Read More
http://www.gametrailers.com/remote_wrap.php?mid=25929 Oktoberfest time! Even the trolls and undead skeletons in WoW celebrate Oktoberfest, only there it’s called “Brewfest.” Will this video make you any smarter? Will it improve your lifestyle? No, probably not. But—but!—it may put a smile on your face and convince you to login to your character for a little while. Nothing wrong with that. WoW Brewfest Trailer [Kotaku] → Read More
Since 1998, wow.com has been owned by AOL. Nothing has really been done with it, until rumors started spreading the other day. Apparently, AOL is set on turning the defunct domain into a World of Warcraft social networking site. This is a great move for AOL, who has been turning web properties into exciting, popular sites that people actually want to visit (TMZ, anyone?) Now gamers will be able to log on to wow.com and talk about their class, raids, guilds, etc. You’ll most likely be able to post pictures of your character and of loot you’ve gotten. A gear search is probably inevitable, so keep an eye out to see if AOL creates its own Thottbot or Armory. No word yet on a launch date. AOL Finds An Obvious Use For WOW.com: A World Of Warcraft Social Network [TechCrunch] → Read More
The wow.com domain name has laid dormant since at least 1998, when it was acquired by AOL along with other assets of Compuserve. The domain has been coveted by a number of AOL business units over the years, though. At one point there was a discussion of it being used to house the netscape social news assets (they eventually settled on propeller.com). If our source is correct, a decision has been made as to the long term use of wow.com. It has been transferred to the AOL Games group and is currently being turned into a – you guessed it – World of Warcraft social network. That makes a lot of sense, given that the first thing that comes to mind for millions of people when they hear “wow” is the ubiquitous online role playing game. Apart from selling the domain to Blizzard (which owns World of Warcraft), turning it into a World of Warcraft related site is the most obvious way to leverage the random traffic it must receive from people looking for the game. Just don’t think too hard about the fact that World of Warcraft is already a social network… We don’t have any details yet on the functionality of the site or when it might launch, but we’re digging. In the meantime, there are plenty of social networks surrounding World of Warcraft and other MMOGs – see Rupture, Warcraft Social Network, mmoguildsites, and Guildcafe. For related news, see our coverage of Sparter, which runs a MMOG currency exchange. As a semi-random aside, click on the image above to see a clip from the Southpark World of Warcraft episode. → Read More
Merciless Cake of the Gladiator The miracle of time known as Digg gives us yet another reason to laugh at our peers. This time, it’s wedding cakes that feature extremely geeky themes. From Homestar Runner to C++ code to THE FRICKIN’ ALLIANCE CREST from World of Warcraft, these cakes couldn’t possibly embarrass you any more than your wedding already did. Hit the jump for more pics. → Read More
Any of you hardcore WoW fans will recall the “Corrupted Blood” plague that was introduced in the world of WoW a couple of years ago. It was essentially a spell cast by a high-level boss that caused afflicted players to lose a certain number of hitpoints every few seconds until dead. The thing is, the spell was viral: if a player got too close to another player, that second player would become infected, too, and so on. It was a neat idea, and the game makers most certainly did it as an experiment in gameplay. The scientific implications were likely beyond what they were thinking, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there. The Lancet Infectious Diseases will be publishing a paper on the virtual effects of the virtual plague in the September issue as a virtual example of how people transmit, handle, and escape epidemics. It’ll make for an interesting read, and it makes us glad our subscription to The Lancet Infectious Diseases hasn’t lapsed, as our subscription to Big’Uns has. Scientists Studying Warcraft Plague [kotaku] → Read More
Mia Rose is one hell of a World of Warcraft player. She’s also one hell of a whore. You see, Mia played a horny night elf in a few episodes of World of Whorecraft, which was basically porno styled in the liked of WoW. This past weekend, Mia’s account was suspended because someone posted the link to miarosexxx.com in the game’s chat channels. 10 minutes later, a GM told her she was suspended and that’s it. She hasn’t been able to get a clear response from Blizzard yet, which is no surprise. Word is that she’ll be changing servers and re-rolling a new character soon to avoid having to deal with the constant spam in her inbox. It’s a shame too. Judging by the above screenshot, it looks like she was geared to all hell and back. Whorecraft Starlet Kicked from WoW [Kotaku] → Read More
I’m going to tell you a very special secret. I missed the South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” during its original air time. I was devastated and determined to see the episode; so determined that when it came on again, it was in the middle of making love and I actually stopped and watched it. Sorry babe, but Stan just got the Sword of 1000 Truths and I’m horny for this shit. I laughed and really enjoyed how the episode stayed so true to the game. Apparently a lot of other people loved it too, because now the episode has been nominated for an Emmy TV award. There’s tough competition from shows like The Simpsons, but I think South Park is going to come out on top for this one. People love them some World of Warcraft. South Park’s Warcraft Episode Up For Emmy [Up to date feed] → Read More
Found this on a random, late-night YouTube journey. It’s eight minutes of dorked out laughs with that Simpsons touch of humor. Marge and Bart end up playing together in an MMORPG that closely resembles WoW. Good laughs. → Read More
It may say it’s in the 90s outside, but trust me when I say it’s cold. See, Hell froze over (and not in a Don Henley and The Eagles way) because some guy got World of Warcraft running on his iPhone. This mysterious video on YouTube shows a guy logging in with his character via the iPhone and messing around in Ironforge, all via his thumb and the phone of the millennium. But don’t go pitching your tent just yet. A close inspection of the video reveals the guy is running WoW on his laptop and using a program called Telekinesis to stream his desktop to the iPhone. Hey, at least someone is playing games on the iPhone. Guy plays WoW on iPhone, universe explodes [Joystiq] → Read More
How quickly they grow up. Our little Vince Veneziani’s website, SimpleWeather.com, made it to the top 25 websites Time magazine’s editors can’t live without. How cool is that? Little Vince thought up SimpleWeather while trying to make some granny porn and wanted to see what the weather was like in Boston — a real hotspot when it comes to granny porn. The resulting website — elegant, easy-to-use, and wonderfully simple — made headlines when we wrote about and, as a result, Time magazine staffers with nothing better to do read about it and put it their list. 25 Sites We Can’t Live Without [Time] → Read More
An actual addict So all this talk about video games possibly being addictive, yeah, it’s all nonsense. Well, so far it is. Whereas the American Medical Association was prepared to discuss classifying video game addiction as an actual, treatable disease, people left, right and center cried foul and the issue issue has now been sent to the “further-research-is-necessary” dustbin. There’s a chance that in five years the issue will be revisited and possibly published in a revised psychiatrists handbook. But for the time being, keep playing WoW 24/7. You’re fine. Addiction experts say video games not an addiction [Reuters] → Read More
http://embed.break.com/MzE1MTgxhttp://view.break.com/315181 – Watch more free videos If you’re planning on having children some day then I highly suggest you listen to this audio track. I don’t feel the need to explain what’s going on other than the fact that the brat was playing WoW and his parents wanted him to stop. Oh and be sure to turn your mic off or you’ll be ridiculed for the rest of your life and live infamously on the interwebs. Enjoy! → Read More
The American Medical Association is taking steps to classify Internet and video game addiction as an actual medical condition. A vote is scheduled next week where members will decide whether or not to officially apply the “addiction” label. Bah, addictions are good for people. They help build character, at least the fun ones do. In all seriousness, how many stories have we seen about some guy essentially giving up his real life to exclusively live a Second Life or to level up his Blood Elf until he passes out? Sure, this article points out that public scares like “they’re listening to too much rock music” or “rap encourages and celebrates the thug lifestyle” are common in American history, but video game and Internet addiction certainly seems to exist, at least anecdotally. AMA to vote on “internet/video-game addiction” as medical condition [South Florida Sun-Sentinel via Drudge] → Read More
Next time you load up World of Warcraft, you may have a newfound understanding for all those players running around trying to get gear. Blizzard employee Rob Pardo watches his 7-year-old daughter play on her 54 Warlock and gets a better perspective of the game. Says Pardo: Playing games with my daughter is great because it really allows me to see what is fundamentally fun about game mechanics. For example, when she was only 5 years old, she would just jump off buildings over and over and collect lots of different outfits for her character. I generally have more of an ‘achiever’ mentality when I play games, and playing with my daughter really helps give me a more rounded perspective towards games. So you see, even though Rob is more of the grinding type of player, he now can appreciate the way other people play, daughter included. Isn’t WoW rated “Teen” though? I would think it’d be a tad too violent for a 7-year-old. Children Make The Best Game Design Teachers [Kotaku] → Read More
Since today will probably be a bit slower than normal due to a certain event, I’ve been trying to find some tidbits that might just brighten up your day. Whether you play World of Warcraft or not, you’ll be sure to keel over in laughter when you listen to audio of a kid bitching at his parents about going to bed when he just started a raid. The audio runs about five minutes or so, so be sure to listen to it all. Dad starts yelling at the kid about missing his lacrosse matches, then comes downstairs screaming and ripping the computer out of the desk. It’s pretty much the best audio you’ll ever hear all day. If you like it, be sure to digg it. Audio of kid whining about WoW game [YTMND] Average White Kid Gets Owned by his Parents over World of Warcraft ! [Digg] → Read More
In order to round out our earlier nastiness we’d like to bring you a breathless piece from Business Week about how Apple will add a “totally new, $10 billion-a-year business” in just a few seconds — the seconds between June 28 and June 29 when the world explodes in a storm of fecally incontinent fanboy joyrage. → Read More
Last week, we discussed Ezra Chatterton and his World of Warcraft wishes. The boy got all he could ever ask for and the dudes in Blizzard really hooked him up with some cool gear. Now Blzzard is going one step further and is giving Ezra his very own Phoenix flying mount. Yeah, this kid went and got a friggin’ phoenix to fly around on without having to run some instance 600 times. So what makes this Phoenix mount so special? I’d say a 310% speed increase does. That combined with the fact that Ezra owns the very first one makes this a prize he’ll never forget – especially since his middle name is indeed “Phoenix”. Absolutely wonderful to hear. Now that Ezra has gotten his loot, any way we can get one of those slick Phoenix mounts Blizzard? The Phoenix Mount is indeed in game — with Ezra! [WoW Insider] → Read More
Ezra creates his own world at Blizzard’s studios Normally I’d hate on Blizzard for the constant downtime that occurs when a patch is rolled out in World of Warcraft, but after reading this article, I have a newfound change of heart. 10-year-old Ezra Chatterton has a life-threatening brain tumor which gives him massive headaches and has required major surgery. The Make-A-Wish Foundation set up a meeting with Ezra and Blizzard and let the boy get all the WoW he could handle. Ezra got way more than he expected. He sketched out characters, wrote down stats and items, and went into intricate detail of what he wanted to do. When he arrived at Blizzard’s studios, he was absorbed into a whole other world. Ezra got to provide a voice for his character in a recording studio, he designed a new weapon, created a new quest, and even got to use a special one-of-a-kind crossbow that would do major damage. In a nutshell, this boy got to do everything us gamers dream of day in and day out. Blizzard makes WoW wish virtual reality [OC Register] → Read More
