Posts tagged Joystiq at WOW Insider

Posts with tag joystiq

WoW and the PC gaming market

Posted Jun 3rd 2008 7:00PM by Michael Gray
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Hardware

With over 10 million subscribers, World of Warcraft commands a pretty hefty chunk of the PC gaming market. Stopping by my local Best Buy, I asked their Geek Squad members to simply: "Show me the machines for WoW." One guy smiled, nodded, and took me to what he called "the WoW rack."

"These are the machines," he promised me, "that'll get you through the game." According to my Geek Squad advisor, there's been more than a few memos in the store about which machines to recommend for World of Warcraft. "Corporate wants to be sure," Brian told me, "that you people can get Warcraft machines right out of the box."

Best Buy isn't alone in this preparedness. AMD Game! is a branding label that, in theory, recommends the best-of-the-best, all according AMD. They prescribe a set of base, minimum requirements for a computer, and then run that box through a series of games to be sure the game plays the way it's supposed to play. If the system passes muster, then the system is allowed to stamp itself with the coveted AMD Game! label. And, yup: World of Warcraft is certainly on that list.

And since the World of Warcraft XPS sports an nVidia card -- you can be pretty tootin' sure that gets tested as well. While the XPS still costs a little more than most might pay, it's branded, toyed-out the wazoo, and all about WoW.

WoW: Im in ur PC market, designin' ur boxes.

[Via Gamers Hell]

Introducing Big Download (beta), the newest site in the Joystiq network

Posted May 8th 2008 12:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Insider Business, News items

Our good friends at Joystiq are passing out the cigars today -- the newest site in the Joystiq network (which WoW Insider is a part of, within Weblogs, Inc., which is a division of AOL) is called Big Download, is in beta, and is open right now for your browsing and file grabbing pleasure. We'll direct you to the most important part of the site, the World of Warcraft page, where you can grab Blizzard's latest patch and trailer at your convenience (in case you haven't gotten them yet), but the site's got lots of other good stuff, too, including that sweet looking Mirror's Edge gameplay video everyone's going gaga over, and even full MMO clients like Dream of Mirror Online and EVE Online.

The site's got a decidedly PC bent, which we're big fans of, obviously, and there's a news page which will cover PC and game file news from 1 to 100% downloaded. And with a feature called "My Tracker," you can sign in and every time there's a new file for a game you want (say, a certain 10 million player fantasy MMO that you just can't get enough of), they'll tell you right away.

Looks cool to us. The site is still in beta, as we said, so stay tuned for more updates and features all the time. And what's that you say? You want a place where you can get up-to-date, virus-free WoW addons, a place that never goes down and charges no fees and requires no registration to download from? Patience, my friends. In time, good things will come.

Ken Levine loves World of Warcraft

Posted Apr 8th 2008 1:30PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends

MSNBC asked Ken Levine, creator of last year's underwater masterpiece, Bioshock, to list his five favorite games of all-time, and right there on the list, between Civ IV and Heroes of Might and Magic 2, is our favorite MMORPG. Yup, the World of Warcraft makes it into the top five of all-time, according to the guy that created the city that Andrew Ryan created.

Of course, instead of saying he enjoyed the game for its endless replayability, its pitch-perfect reward system, or its effective graphics and design style, he compares his love of Blizzard's game to alcoholism, and calls it his "always-reliable secret shame." Next time you talk about World of Warcraft in the media, Mr. Levine, would you kindly try praising the game instead of your addiction to it?

[Via Joystiq]

Comment voting is now enabled on WoW Insider

Posted Nov 26th 2007 2:13PM by Dan O'Halloran
Filed under: How-tos, WoW Insider Business, News items

You asked for it and it's finally here. We now have the advanced commenting functionality of Joystiq, Massively and many other sites in the Weblogs network.

What does this mean to you?

How about the ability to vote up or down on comments. Don't like a hateful comment? Vote it down. Appreciate an insightful response? Vote it up! Spot an annoying gold selling link? Report it!

For long time posters, you are already integrated into the system. If you want to add a picture or otherwise update your profile, just click on your name on any comment and you will be taken to the user control panel. Once there you can choose an avatar, add a URL that will be in all your posts and check out all your past commenting activity.

New posters have only a slightly different process. Post your first comment on our site, you'll be sent an e-mail confirmation. Once you've confirmed your first comment, it will appear on WoW Insider. Click your name and off you go!

Have fun and if you have any questions or comments either post below or use our contact form.

WoW Insider presents... Massively!

Posted Nov 2nd 2007 2:00AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: WoW Insider Business

We've been working through the night to put the final touches on our new MMO-centric blog, Massively. Be the first to stop by and establish your FIRST POST cred in our comments.

So what should you expect to see on Massively? The same level of in-depth game coverage you see on WoW Insider, only for more MMOs than you can count -- even if you use all of your fingers and all of your toes. While WoW Insider will still be here, covering everything about World of Warcraft, we invite you to visit Massively for all the news on the other virtual worlds in the neigborhood. And who knows: you may just find a new MMO to love.

But for those of you who need more encouragement to join us, we're launching with a bang and a 24 hours of Tabula Rasa giveaway. Every hour on the hour we're giving away Tabula Rasa swag from NCsoft to kick off two weeks of daily game giveaways. And if that's not tempting, I don't know what is.

WoW Insider presents...

Posted Nov 1st 2007 10:30PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: WoW Insider Business

Wondering why it's been hard to get in touch with your favorite WoW Insider staff over the past few weeks? Have your e-mails gone unanswered? Is the phone always busy when you try to call? Have they been missing important raid dates?

Well, it's nearly time to tell you what your friendly neighborhood WoW Insiders have been up to. Over the past few weeks, WoW Insider HQ has been a constant buzz of activity: we've been hard at work on a project that we're really excited about! And in just a few short hours, we'll get to share our excitement about it with the rest of you. And, of course, this announcement will include plenty of balloons, confetti, and fabulous prizes. Trust me: the latest addition to the Joystiq network is going to be massive.

Vote on Joystiq's Halloween pumpkin finalists

Posted Oct 30th 2007 9:01PM by Dan O'Halloran
Filed under: Odds and ends, News items, Contests

Our beloved parent blog, Joystiq, is running a videogame-themed pumpkin carving contest. The finalists have been chosen and now it's time to vote.

Honestly, I don't know how to single out one winner. The Illidan carving is so intricate, but the other finalists are just as clever and creative. It amazes me what people can do with a gourd and a teeny, tiny serrated pen knife. I tried to carve The Little Mermaid into a pumpkin for my daughter last week and it turned out more like Quasimodo. Then the mold set in and Ariel suddenly had a beard. All, all bad.

Head on over to Joystiq to see all the eye-popping finalist and vote on your favorite design.

The Joystiq network is looking for a few good writers

Posted Oct 3rd 2007 7:00AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: WoW Insider Business

Do you live and breathe massively multiplayer online games? Can you chart the history of your game characters all the way back to Ultima Online? Is the list of betas you've participated in enough to wallpaper a small room? Then you may just have what it makes to join us and make some money doing something you love -- writing about games. The Joystiq network is looking for some talented writers with an interest in those funny "massively multiplayer online" games to add to the team. Have we got your interest yet? Then keep reading for complete application instructions!

Continue reading The Joystiq network is looking for a few good writers

Weblogs, Inc profiles live on WoW Insider (and more to come)

Posted Sep 11th 2007 3:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Tips, WoW Insider Business, Virtual selves, Odds and ends

As reader Addie noticed in a tip to us (thanks!), commenter profiles are now live on WoW Insider. You can now click on your name (or any other commenter's name) after you've posted a comment, and see a list of all the comments you've ever made on any of our Weblogs, Inc. sites. You can also edit your profile-- there's not much there at the moment, but you can put in a URL if you'd like, or upload a picture.

Eventually (and like Blizzard, we probably won't be giving out a release date on this), we're aiming to put together a system much like the one our flagship site Joystiq has, with user pictures, moderated comments, pretty pink ponies, and rainbow sugar drops. I can't tell you much (mostly because I don't know much), but I can tell you to expect changes, hopefully coming sooner rather than later. And if you've got suggestions, feel free to share them, now or anytime. We can't promise we'll do exactly what you ask, but we do promise to listen to everything you say to us.

And no matter what else we implement here, we'll continue to provide you with great daily content about the World of Warcraft. Thanks very much for reading, and stay tuned-- we're doing everything we can to make the site better every day.

BlizzCon 2007: Thank you!

Posted Aug 6th 2007 3:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Events, WoW Insider Business, BlizzCon

Robin, Elizabeth, Amanda, Barb, and I all had a great time at BlizzCon, and there's quite a few people that we should thank for helping us out there. First, a huge thanks to Blizzard for putting it all together, and especially to their CM staff and the PR department for setting us up with a press pass and getting us the access we needed. Another big thank you to all the guys at Xfire, who not only co-presented coverage with us, but did a terrific job of their own, and even let us in a few doors that we couldn't have opened otherwise. Upper Deck also was kind enough to sit down with us (and provide some information on their upcoming products that I'll be posting soon). We were excited to meet Ian Beckman, maker of Azerothian Supervillians, as well as the two guys who run WoW Drama, a blog about serious business in WoW. And Kevin Kelly from Joystiq joined us for most of the convention, and helped out immensely with his experience and knowhow. Back here at the ranch, we have to thank our homebound bloggers for filling in the blanks of our coverage, and we have to give a nod to our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion, who was not only instrumental in getting some of the leaks out (and getting Frank Pierce angry at us), but also hooked us up with a few links and said some very nice things about our coverage. The guys at WoW Radio were also seen almost nonstop at BlizzCon, and gave us a nice nod as well.

And last but farthest from least, we have to thank you, our readers, who not only came up and said hi, hello, and thank you to us at both the WoW Insider meetup on Thursday (the video above is a short sweep of the crowd there at the Lost Bar, right before our trivia contest), but also on the floor as well. Back here on the site, you read your way through our 99 posts over the weekend, gave us record numbers of page views, and helped us out with comments, questions, and tons of support. Thanks very much for everything-- we really, really appreciate it.

We're far from done (we've got more BlizzCon news to report on, and of course we need to get around to the discussion of whether we really want siege weapons or not), but now that the event itself is over, we just wanted to take a second and say thanks. So thank you.

WoW Moviewatch: Time Gnomes II

Posted Jul 20th 2007 12:00PM by Ryan Carter
Filed under: WoW Moviewatch

You've seen Jimmy: A World of Warcraft Story and also Time Gnomes, both made by the evil machinima mastermind Robert Moran, and now the Time Gnomes are back for part 2 of this mayhem! Featuring the resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of the first Time Gnomes, and a lengthly Ming flashback, or two, you'll also enjoy the P-A-L-I-aladin who thinks he is all that. Did we mention that the Time Gnomes have their own website? Well, now you know.

I can't wait to hear that they have Time Gnomes action figures, or that they will hold a TimeGnomeConn in the Eastern Alps, or even get my night elf a Time Gnomes action costume to wear. Come on guys, what is taking so long? I guess I'll just dream until then. Enjoy!

Rumor: Blizzard announces Starcraft 2 in May

Posted Apr 27th 2007 11:22AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items

Multiple sources, including our buddies at Joystiq, are reporting that Blizzard is bringing a big surprise to their World Wide Invitational event, held in South Korea on May 19. And the rumors say that the surprise is none other than Starcraft 2. As in a new race, lots of changes to existing units, and a glorious return to Blizzard's RTS brilliance.

It may not be, of course. Blizzard hasn't confirmed anything yet (of course they haven't), except to say that they will be making a big announcement then. They have talked about Starcraft 2 before, and if they're going to release a new Starcraft anywhere, it might as well be in South Korea. But of course the next WoW expansion has to be announced sometime, and Diablo 3 has been going through the rumor mills for a long time, too.

No matter what Blizzard announces, you can bet it'll be seen in some form (hopefully playable... drool) at Blizzcon in August. And then whatever it is, considering Blizzard is making it, we'll probably see it on store shelves in early 2015.

Blizz Prez Mike Morhaime, #4 on PC World's Most Important People on the Web

Posted Mar 5th 2007 3:16PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

As you might imagine, we here at WoW Insider love World of Warcraft. It's the greatest thing to come along since at least Diablo. Blizzard is a great company, and when it comes to computer gaming, you could solidly make the argument that nobody does it better than they do.

But when PC World announced their "Most Important People on the Web" list today, I was surprised to see, right there in between the inventor of Bittorrent and Jimbo Wales of Wikipedia, Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment as the 4th Most Important Person on the Internet (a big jump up from a previous list). PC World cites WoW's huge player base and Blizzard's profits of $1.5 billion a year (not to mention all the money floating around WoW's black market services), but does the president of a videogame company really deserve to be two slots down from Steve Jobs, in between the man who basically created an anonymous peer-to-peer sharing system and the man who's developing the definitive online collection of knowledge?

Call me cynical, but I say no. WoW may have influence over a lot of people, but Blizzard is using that influence to nerf druids and tweak raid bosses, not affect the Internet population. Then again, the guy did appear in animated form on South Park, and Jimbo Wales has never done that. We should all know by now that these lists are just a cheap way of encouraging discussion (and attention), but Morhaime's inclusion on the list means that WoW's ascent into our culture isn't done yet.

Phat Loot Phriday: Doomulus Prime

Posted Dec 29th 2006 5:58PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Items, Tips, How-tos, Fan stuff, Instances, Quests, Features, Raiding, Phat Loot Phriday

Lots of players love getting this big red-and-black hammer as a quest reward when raiding for the first time. But not all of them know who it came from-- a WoW player who announced some sad news recently.

Name: Doomulus Prime
Type: Rare Two-Hand Mace
Damage / Speed: 158-265 / 3.80 (55.7 DPS)
Abilities:

It's not quite as good as the inset above: the real version gives you only +22 to both Strength and Stamina.
On equip: Increases your hit rating by 10.
Came from a newspaper comic! Yes, the Doomulous Prime was originally envisioned by Bill Amend, the cartoonist behind the comic strip Foxtrot. He's had a running joke in his series about "World of Warquest," a game that one of his characters plays that bears a striking resemblance to our favorite game. Allakhazam's got a lot of the strips, and even an interview (Amend plays a Night Elf, but we like him anyway).
Unfortunately, he's taking a break-- Amend announced this week that starting Sunday, his comic will only appear on Sundays. A darn shame. But our good friends at Joystiq have discovered what he's going to be doing with his time from now on: playing WoW, of course.

How to Get It: After the mace appeared in the paper, Blizzard included it with the Ahn'Qiraj patch, so you've got to go to Silithus to pick this quest up. It's called The Perfect Poison, and it'll send you to kill Kurinaxx in AQ20 and Venoxis in ZG. Both bosses are early on in the instance (and two of the easiest raid bosses in the game), so for the effort, this is one of the best quest rewards in the game. And it's just one choice of many, many good quest rewards-- if your guild is running raids at all, do this quest! Right now!

Getting Rid of It: BOP (because it's a quest reward, dur). Sells to vendors for 6g 41s 37c. Kudos to Amend for thinking up this great hunk of spiky red and black metal in the first place-- now that he's got more free time, maybe he'll be able to get his Druid up high enough to get it!

Buy an MMO calendar, save the children

Posted Dec 26th 2006 6:13PM by Paul Sherrard
Filed under: First Aid, News items

Over on our sister blog, Joystiq, Justin Murray is informing readers about a new calendar put out by MMO Portal.

From the calendar's site:

This unique 12-month calendar features the original artwork of some of today's hottest and most anticipated upcoming MMOs, each dedicated to its own month. As if that is not exciting enough, the artwork has been signed by the developers of your favorite games as well!

Included in MMO Calendar 2007:

Dark Age of Camelot
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
Eve Online
EverQuest II
Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
The Chronicles of SpellBorn
Ultima Online
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
World of Warcraft

So check it out, and understand that 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the calendar are going to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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WoW and the PC gaming market

Introducing Big Download (beta), the newest site in the Joystiq network

Ken Levine loves World of Warcraft

Comment voting is now enabled on WoW Insider

WoW Insider presents... Massively!

WoW Insider presents...

Vote on Joystiq's Halloween pumpkin finalists

The Joystiq network is looking for a few good writers

Weblogs, Inc profiles live on WoW Insider (and more to come)

BlizzCon 2007: Thank you!

WoW Moviewatch: Time Gnomes II

Rumor: Blizzard announces Starcraft 2 in May

Blizz Prez Mike Morhaime, #4 on PC World's Most Important People on the Web

Phat Loot Phriday: Doomulus Prime

Buy an MMO calendar, save the children

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