If you've ever been fascinated by the MMORPG statistics provided at sites like the Daedalus Project, here's something right up your alley; the WoW Armory Character Distribution widget, programmed to comb both the U.S. and E.U. Armories and capture data on the popularity of character names across race, class, faction, and sex.
The project is still in the testing stage, and it's a bit finicky about how you enter character names. Make sure you're always hitting the submit button and not using your enter key, as otherwise the widget will keep searching for the last name you looked for instead of your new query. Its creator, Emilis, also wrote to warn that it uses live information from both armories and will occasionally be slow as a result. I imagine it might also be inaccurate if either Armory is having problems.
The widget is tremendously fun to play with and has yielded some rather interesting results even with the completely random names I keep trying. "John" and "Mary," as you might expect, are overwhelmingly Human toons, whereas the greater share of people playing a "Sergei" and "Yekaterina" are Draenei. 3 people with a "Brutus" are actually playing female characters, and 1 person with a "Laura" is playing a male character (Emilis notes that gender-bending names are surprisingly common, although from what I can tell so far this seems to be a lot more true of male names for female toons than the other way around). Most people with a "Killer" are playing a Hunter, Rogue, or Warrior. Characters named "Bank" are mostly Human Warriors, but "Banktoon(s)" are mostly Orcs. And, yes, most of the people playing a toon named Legolas are Night Elf Hunters. Are you really that surprised?
A Dwarf Priest has a nice long post up about the relationship between Blizzard and one of the more hidden (and yet surprisingly large) groups within their population: disabled gamers. It's no secret to anyone who's played WoW for a while that a lot of disabled gamers have found a lot of solace in a social game where you can be almost completely anonymous and play a character at whatever pace you want to play. Even if you go with the lowest of estimations, there are about 525,000 people playing the game with some kind of disability in real life. That's a much bigger number than I expected, and it's a significant number of people paying Blizzard every month.
Fortunately, Dwarf Priest found that accessibility is relatively good in Blizzard's game -- most of the work is actually done with third-party addons, but the UI and display is so customizable that even with the default interface, many people without a full range of controls or movement can figure out how to play the game. For their part, Blizzard has agreed that a customizable UI is the best way to make a game accessible -- J. Allen Brack says that's a priority in this interview with Able Gamers.
Dwarf Priest has lots more, including a quick comparison with accessibility in Warhammer Online, and even a weird wrinkle in the Glider lawsuit (the botting program's creators are apparently claiming it helps disabled players play their characters). It's a very well-written post about a subject that doesn't get covered much, and there's lots of extra reading to dig into at the bottom as well.
This idea's been floated before, but a few people on the forums have responded pretty enthusiastically to the notion of introducing a "guild income tax." Others...not so much so. Basically, there was a proposal made in the Beta forums that Blizzard give GM's/officers the ability to levy a percentage-based tax on members' earnings. Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan responded, saying that it "was an interesting idea" and they're considering options for improving guild administration, but there was no way they could program a change like this in time for Wrath. Bear in mind that the original tax being suggested would apply to your toon both inside and out of raids (although no one was seriously suggesting that the tax should apply to non-raiding members of the guild).
I have to admit that I'm not too keen on the idea of a broad-based "income tax" on players, if only because the game's current mechanics make it all but certain that the main beneficiaries will be people who either can't (due to class/spec) or won't put much gold into the guild coffers. Moreover, the taxation idea acts as an incentive for people not to guild their alts, thus avoiding taxation entirely on toons that are usually the real means of support for a raiding main (someone remind me to go reserve a hunter named Swissbank). As an herbalist/alchemist, I farm a lot for friends and have been known to chuck the guild bank a few hundred gold from time to time. Maybe I'd save time and money under a system that required me to hand over 2-3% of my income, but still. Being taxed removes an element of individual responsibility, and it certainly takes away the nice feeling you have for voluntarily helping others.
If nothing else the idea's given rise to a few nice jokes (Cacora of Hellscream: "Do I get money back at the end of the year if I claim multiple alts as dependents?"), but the final word may well belong to Grig from Whisperwind: "So, Blizzard is considering taking one of the most universally loathed concepts from real life and adding it to a game. Why, they'd be silly not to do it."
One of my favorite people to read online is a fellow by the name of Pjammer on Livejournal. He's smart, funny, and a gifted writer, and if you are not sobbing by the end of "King of Masochists" then you are pretty much a terrible person. But another great entry is "The 16 Essential People In Your Life," which lists such valuable acquaintances as the Computer Security Guru, the Wolf, the Consigliere, and (most importantly) the Best Friend. Pjammer, quoting Harvey Mackay, correctly notes that 2 am is a bad time to make new friends. These are the kind of people you want in your life as early as possible, and to exercise a positive influence on its course.
My realm's seen a number of guild instability issues of late, which is something most of us have come to expect with an upcoming expansion. I've found reason to mull over how the virtual world differs from the real world with respect to friendship, backstabbing, greed, betrayal, honor, and how people choose to handle their problems. In my considered opinion it doesn't differ at all, and your experience ingame is largely determined by the network of players assembled around you, whether that alliance is a recognized one in the form of a guild or simply a more informal group of friends.
So, from my own experience and with a hat tip to Pjammer, these are the people you want in your posse for the best possible experience in the game:
Blizzplanet continues to track down hints at what Blizzard might be planning in the mobile space, i.e. on the iPhone or another mobile computing platform (that Android Dream demo looked pretty sweet, too). Recently, Blizzard posted a job opening for a web software engineer, and while of course that could be for improvements to the Armory, or for the upcoming changes to Battle.net, but considering that many mobile apps are web apps nowadays, that position could definitely be put to work developing a web interface specifically for mobile platforms.
And the second hint is a little more concrete: our sister site Massively has mentioned Vollee before -- they're a company that claims to be able to stream a PC game experience to a mobile platform like the iPhone. They've already created a Second Life client, and Blizzplanet notes that in one of their recent press releases, they mention that they've been working with Activision Blizzard on a partnership. There are a lot of games under the Activision Blizzard banner nowadays, of course, but WoW is the biggest one of them, and it's definitely the MMO Vollee would want to be working on.
Blizzard hasn't officially announced any version or WoW application for any mobile platforms, of course, and even if one was in the planning stages, there's no guarantee we'd ever see it in an releaseable form. But there's definitely a call to bring facets of World of Warcraft to mobile computing, and if they can work it out in a form they find acceptable, it would undoubtedly be popular.
DIII.net has a great writeup of everything Blizzard has said so far about the new Battle.net features, and while most of the information applies more to Diablo III and Starcraft II, there's some good tidbits in there for WoW fans as well. Battle.net is Blizzard's oldest online service -- it predates WoW by a few years and was notably used to play Warcraft 3,Diablo 2 and Starcraft online. It's making a return with a revamp for the release of Starcraft II, and in addition to the previously mentioned ability Battle.net will give playes to track achievements across all Blizzard games, the system will have a much more social feel than the previous incarnation of the service.
Player accounts, avatars, icons, and friend lists are all planned, and odds are that services like the Armory and even the WoW sign in may be tied to your Battle.net account in some way. Tournaments and rankings will be included (though it remains to be seen how this might be implemented in World of Warcraft), and Battle.net will even offer players the ability to save and share replays of Starcraft II games, and other e-sport-like features.
That last feature would be a perfect fit for WoW's Arenas, of course, but as much as players would like to be able to spectate Arena matches, odds are that there would have to be a lot of behind-the-scenes coding done on Blizzard's side. Starcraft is being built from the ground up to record matches, of course, but WoW's Arena system doesn't have that ability built in, and putting it in might be more work than Blizzard wants to do on that one area of the game. No word yet on when we might get the new Battle.net (odds are it'll come out right around the Starcraft II release, whenever that is), but from the look of it, Blizzard has big plans to expand the social networks they've built into World of Warcraft towards all of their properties.
From the traditions of Hordecake and Alliance cake comes the new form of... guildcake! Yes, this cake was seen at the wedding of Bhajrungbali and Halei, the Druid tank and healer from the guild Hadoken on Thunderlord. On the top there you can see the old school Hadoken code (down to forward and punch, don't you know), and below that, a ring of Horde symbols. Apparently Bhajrungbali made the cake design with some simple digital rendering software, and the cake makers took their inspiration from that. And the guildies who attended the wedding were happy to find that their table was called "Team Hadoken" -- you can see their FTW tablecard in the gallery below.
Looks tasty, though we're a little disappointed that Warcraft didn't make it on to the main wedding cake -- it was just consigned to a little side cake (we weren't told, unfortunately, just what kind of cake it was). But we understand -- a whole fullsize wedding cake adorned with Horde symbols would probably have been too much ownage for one wedding. Grats to the newlyweds, and thanks to Voltius and Binxi of Hadoken for sending the pictures in.
The latest Beta build had a slew of new titles for players to drool over. Of course, most of them were exactly that... titles to drool over but not obtain since most of them were rewards for being the first to Level 80 or first to skill up to 450. Technically, there can actually be more than one person who is 'first' as there's a one minute window when the Feat of Strength is accomplished. Still not very forgiving, and not exactly very casual and quite contrary to the "we want players to enjoy Northrend and not skip content" mantra Blizzard has been repeating as a justification for not having flying mounts for the first seven levels in the expansion.
What do you guys think of the new titles? Frankly, I think a lot of them are pretty darn cool. But seriously, in all likelihood, these first-to-Level-80 characters will have little to no experience of Northrend. Your realm's first Archmage is likely to have no standing with the Kirin-Tor, for example. The first Paladin to Level 80, your realm's so-called Crusader, will most probably have grinded and not actually done any quests for the Argent Crusade. Perhaps Blizzard will have some retroactive titles, such as Conqueror / Justicar or even Scarab Lord, which wasn't implemented until after most AQ gates had been opened. What're your thoughts on the new titles?
Blizzard promised us more titles and boy, it looks like they're going to deliver. WotLK Information Wiki and MMO Champion have dug up some information on what appears to be a plethora of new titles. Unfortunately, most of the them are Feats of Strength that can only be obtained by one person ever per server. Daunting? Most certainly. But what are titles if they aren't special?
First off, though, there are a handful of titles available to more than just one person. 'Arena Master' is obtained by everyone who completes the Arena Achievements. It's not quite a Feat of Strength, but there aren't too many players who will obtain a Rating of 2200 in all three brackets. Of all the Achievements required to unlock the title, those three are about the toughest ones and if you're capable of hitting 2200 in all three brackets, the rest should be cake.
One title that sounds pretty cool is 'The Hallowed', which is obtained by completing all 18 Hallow's End Achievements, the hardest of which might just be obtaining the rare Sinister Squashling. Then there's 'The Diplomat', which many players will already receive at the launch of Beta -- it simply requires getting to Exalted with Timbermaw Hold, Sporeggar, and the Kurenai or Mag'har. Obsessive questers will eventually achieve 'The Seeker' after completing a whopping 3000 quests.
Finally, there's the odd and quirky 'Salty' which can be obtained by completing all the Fishing Achievements. This is a pretty tough one that has some difficult feats like getting Mr. Pinchy, fishing up Gah'zranka in Zul'Gurub and The Lurker Below in Serpenshrine Cavern, and winning the Fishing extravaganza in Stranglethorn Vale. Pretty tough feats just to be called Salty! After the jump, we'll take a look at all the titles that only one person can get.
[UPDATE] Tigole supposedly confirms the existence of an Ambassador <Name> title for players who achieve Exalted reputation with all 5 racial factions of the Horde and Alliance. It's a nice little nod to old school players out there.
Malkavius of Korialstrasz posed an interesting question in the General Forums.Is it too late in WoW's life for new players?She told a tale of how a friend got frustrated soon after purchasing the game because of inflation and an inability to find groups. The responses were split.
Vylaria of Ch'gall believes that it's not too late for a rookie to get their start.Gathering skills help to boost the personal pocketbook, and even veteran players that reroll face the same problems with finding a group.Cptobvious of Bonechewer believes that it is easier for folks that have played other MMOs than it is for online gaming virgins.
Maybe not, but he's going to call out WoW anyway. In an interview with Videogaming 24/7, he claims that while he enjoyed World of Warcraft, EVE Online was for him personally the better game. He claims EVE has more depth than WoW, and is "a lot harder core." And he says that both games made him force himself to stop playing -- apparently they both just took too much time to play.
We've played both as well, and EVE certainly is a very deep and complex game (almost too complex for many players' tastes, we'd guess). But we'll leave the question of which game is actually better up to you. We will, however, point out that while lots of people have opinions about which games are best, not all of them are developers. If you have strong opinions about which games to play and not to play, shouldn't you be making even better games than the ones you don't like?
That Blizzard-issued BlizzCon badge not enough for you? Want something a little more customized for your character? Of course, if this year is anything like last year, Blizzard's badges will have some custom art on there (that's why they asked your character, realm, and favorite Blizzard game when you bought tickets), but just in case you want to go the extra mile, Shyka's got you covered.
She's offering custom art of your character to wear around at BlizzCon in October -- for $40 and a screenshot or two, she'll make a piece of custom art that she'll print laminate, and clasp right up for you just in time to show it off at the Anahiem Convention Center. Her art looks great -- no matter what your character is like, odds are that she can come up with something cool for you. Her schedule's way open as of this writing, too, so while the price may be a little steep (it is a custom, ready-made piece of art), you can probably jump right in and be sure to get one.
We'll tell you right now, also, that our WoW Insider folks will also be custom badged, so consider this your first invitation: if you see us walking around wearing a custom-made official WoW Insider badge (in addition to our standard BlizzCon passes), feel free to walk right up and say hello. We'd love to meet you.
David B covered the PetEmote addon way back in the beginning of this year, and now the Great Green Hunter has posted some really great ideas for custom pet emotes, for a few different families of Hunter pets. PetEmote lets your pet automatically show up in your emote text randomly, and is really good for giving your pets a little more personality of their own -- instead of just doing what you say all the time (and eating all of the food you've got to buy), PetEmote can make it seem like your pets are doing their own thing: chasing a stray bug that passes by, flicking their tails, or "giving you a sly look."
GGH's descriptions are really great, but of course whatever goes in the "Localization LUA file" in the PetEmote addon folder is what shows up in the game, so you can customize it as necessary. If you want to say your cat "waggles his butt, ready to pounce," you can do it.
Of course, if you think of your pet as just a DoT you have to feed, you might not be so interested. But having a pet and keeping track of where it is is such a huge part of the Hunter class (though PetEmote works for Warlocks as well) that giving your pets a little more personality goes a long way in game.
Consider yourself lucky if you've never seen the sight above before -- it's the sign of a former guildleader yanking everything out of the guild bank (including all the stuff above and a good 12,000g) and transferring off to another server. Good times. This is why I usually keep all of my Hearts of Darkness under my mattress at home -- the banks just aren't safe.
This isn't the only guild leader ninja we heard about this week, and it's definitely not the only messy drama -- there's lots more right after you click the link below. Don't forget to send in your tips about drama, downed and recruiting news from around the realms to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. We really appreciate it, and lovers of drama of all kinds do too.
Alice Taylor has quite the eye for scoping out awesome gaming crafts, and just recently, she did a nice roundup (and another post) that had two great handmade WoW items in it. First up was this great-looking Sin'dorei (that's Blood Elf, in case you're not up on your Thalassian) tank top -- it was originally a T-shirt that the maker, smarmyclothes, turned into a tank top with some industrious cutting and stiching. Looks great -- at $52, the price is a little steep, but then again, this is a one-of-a-kind handmade item, so you get what you pay for.
And second was this Murky hair bow -- to tell the truth, I have no idea what a hair bow does (it must tie hair back or something, right?), but I am a huge Murky fan, or at least a fan of /punting the little guy, so any article of clothing with him on it, no matter what it's for, gets my approval. The bows are two for $11, and it looks like there's only one in stock, so SugarPopRibbons is probably making them to order. But I'm sure if you're patient, you can get your hands (or hair, I guess) on one.
Seen any other great WoW crafts, on Etsy or anywhere else? Let us know!
A Dwarf Priest has 
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Blizzplanet continues to track down hints at what Blizzard might be planning in the mobile space, i.e. 
DIII.net has a great writeup of 
Malkavius of Korialstrasz posed an interesting question in the General Forums.
Who's Denis Dyack? He's 
That Blizzard-issued BlizzCon badge not enough for you? Want something a little more customized for your character? Of course, if this year is anything like last year, 
David B 
Alice Taylor has quite the eye for scoping out awesome gaming crafts, and just recently, she did 
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