•   Opinion: The best of WoW Insider: December 30th, 2008 - January 6th, 2009 –
by Joystiq Staff from Joystiq
  •   Thoughts on RPGs –
by cuchlann from world-of-warcraft « WordPress.com Tag Feed
  •   Rawr. –
by worthyrha from world-of-warcraft « WordPress.com Tag Feed
  •   MUD history dissolving into the waters of time –
by Colin Brennan from Massively
  •   A Look Inside China's Game Addiction Treatment Centers [Internet Addiction] –
by Brian Crecente from Kotaku
  •   Intro! –
by wowladiesmods@gmail.com from Wow_Ladies: Girl Gamers of World of Warcraft
  •   Blind versus Fixed Boosters: The Bad Guys –
by webofwebhead from world-of-warcraft « WordPress.com Tag Feed
  •   Logitech's Color-LCD Sporting Keyboard, New Mouse and Headphones [Consumer Electronics Show 2009] –
by Brian Crecente from Kotaku
  •   NPD’s PC Game Sales - December 21-27,Lich King on top, The Sims … –
from GameFocus
  •   Prominent developers make 2009 predictions –
from bit-tech.net

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This is such a great idea — Hearthstone of EU Eonar put together their own guild calendar, made out of desktop-sized photos of themselves in game. There’s a lot of creativity there — this shot, of one of them fishing in armor, is a good one, but it’s interesting which settings and gear they all chose to be pictured in. Some went swimsuit, some went seasonal, and of course the Hunter had to show off his Spirit Beast. Very cool.

Lots more guild news (including some much more frustrating drama) right after the jump below — not so much downed news this week, so if your guild has been working through the endgame lately, be sure to let us know at wowguildwatch@gmail.com, and you’ll see your news here next week.

Continue reading Guildwatch: P.S. Pho got banned

Guildwatch: P.S. Pho got banned originally appeared on WoW Insider on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Servers seem to be having all sorts of problems actually staying up tonight. A fair portion of the population is experiencing chronic server crashes, including my home server. A few of my guildmates canceled their 10-man raids as a result of players’ inability to stay online. Even when the server isn’t down, it’s a real pain staying connected.

We don’t really have any information as far as clear upcoming fixes or how long the issue will last, but we here at WoW Insider most definitely know how you feel. Consider this a show of solidarity. It’s lame, and hopefully it will go away soon. If you’re just sitting down now to dig into your playtime for the night, expect some interruptions.

What we do have is a little bit of information about possible upcoming realm transfers that will be opening up in the near future. Free transfers, of course. You can find Zarhym’s list behind the cut below.

Continue reading Server issues abounds this evening

Server issues abounds this evening originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week we take a look at how to gear a PvE Restoration Druid at level 80, in the hopes of preventing other trees from suffering our fate during our first 10-man Naxx run, which — no, no, it’s too painful even to think about. Pass the schnapps.

Greetings readers, and welcome to Wrath Gear-A-Palooza 2009. We’ll be running one of these for each Druid spec.

I’m not going to “rank” gear numerically, because I think that’s a fairly unhelpful means of organizing items when your access to all of them as a fresh 80 may be very limited. Generally you’re going to have access to quest rewards and faction gear before you get access to badge pieces or oft-uncooperative heroic drops, so I’ve organized the list by where you can get particular drops. It’s generally safe to assume that a heroic drop is better than a blue you’re using from an Icecrown quest, but not always. If you’re starting to move into higher levels of gear, I found the following links to be incredibly helpful, and I hope you do too:

• HoTsTree’s gear list
• Resto4Life’s post on Wowhead filters and pre-raid gear in the main slots
• Elitist Jerks post on Restoration Itemization and PvE Healing as a Druid

Otherwise, assuming a proper spec, gems, and enchants, you can successfully heal any of the game’s 5-man or raid content (10-man or 25-man) with a healing set derived from the following list. That’s a promise. This list assumes that you do not have access to 10- or 25-man raids for the time being and are gearing up primarily through questing, 5-mans, and heroics.

Continue reading Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Restoration Druid at 80

Shifting Perspectives: Gearing your Restoration Druid at 80 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our friends at GameDaily have a nice set of resolutions for game developers next year, and it’s definitely worth a read if you’re interested in seeing where they think the game industry might improve in 2009. But number three is the most interesting one for us: they suggest that game developers (and MMO devs in specific, we’d imagine) should make this the year that something else beats World of Warcraft.

It seems much more unlikely than last year: last year, we were looking down the barrel of Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, and wondering if either one of those might cause a road bump in WoW’s traffic. Age of Conan was called the steak to our game’s McDonald’s, but in the end, WoW players didn’t do much more than give it a cursory glance. And while Warhammer seemed like a good contender to the throne, it hasn’t come close to taking a bite out of Azeroth. This year, it doesn’t even seem like there will be any MMO contenders. GameDaily cites Bioware’s Star Wars MMO, but that’s not coming out in 2009, and while The Agency and DC Universe Online might be getting close to finished, it’s unlikely we’ll see them on the shelves this year either.

This might be a year of recuperation, for both Blizzard and their competitors. Lord of the Rings Online is doing well, so their big task is just to keep the content moving, and unlike last year, Blizzard has no real impetus this year to really push their playerbase to stick with the game. As with everything, we’ll have to see what happens, but I’d expect a much more subdued year this go-around for the MMO market. When the MMOs in progress now come to fruition in 2010, then things will likely get more interesting.

Developer resolution for 2009: Beat Warcraft originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s Tuesday, which means The Guild is back yet again with more wacky hijinx. Episode six is out on MSN Video now (and on Xbox Live and Zune soon), and there’s some blowback from the “eruption” at the end of the last episode. Clara continues her campaign of corruption, and Zaboo does something you should never, ever do to another player.

This episode seems long for some reason, but at the same time, it’s kind of a breather for what we’re sure will be an interesting episode next week. Felicia twittered the other week that they’re working on editing down just the last two episodes, so the hard work for them is almost over, even though we’re only halfway through the season so far.

And finally, The Guild got a tribute song last week, a video and tune put together by a fan. They’re pretty excited about it, but we’ll let you judge whether you like it or not. We will say that it is a nice effort, and it’s good to see that there are fans of The Guild out there willing to put in the time and energy to do something like that. Rock on!

The Guild episode 6 of season 2 originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider’s daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft.

I’m bored of hearing about Pandas and Pandaren, so I am declaring today ‘pandas aren’t real’ day. If you think about pandas at any point throughout the day, you must throw yourself out of a window. No, I’m not going to defenestrate myself for writing this, because I made the holiday so I make the rules. However, I will not think about pandas starting…. now!

Kevin Gass asked…

Is there a way (be it a mod or not) to alert me whenever a cooldown is done. For example, as a Shaman whenever Maelstrom is ready, a bright and noticeable pop up says it’s ready. I would love something to tell me whenever Ghost Wolf and Shamanistic Rage are ready. I would use them more often! Thanks in advance!

Continue reading The Queue: I’m sick of pandas

The Queue: I’m sick of pandas originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The final total on that charity drive we mentioned last week is in, and it’s huge. While Blizzard employee Katherine Allen aimed to collect about $5000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, she ended up picking up a whopping $34,000 (and growing) for the charity. Whether you gave in order to get entered for the drawing (she’s giving away a few yearly passes and one lifetime subscription), or just for the charity of it, she is now thanking everyone who gave on the site, and we have to thank you, too: it’s events like this that show off just how generous World of Warcraft players can be.

The drawing will be held on January 8th, so if you did give and entered the contest, keep an eye on your email inbox to see if you won. And while the contest itself is over, there’s still a few days left to donate to the cause if you missed it the first time around and still want to support the Society.

Sure, we’re known for our QQing, we’ve got untold number of loot ninjas and drama queens in our ranks, and don’t you dare nerf our class or we’ll whine like nobody’s business. But when you ask them to come through and help their fellow human beings, World of Warcraft players are one of the best communities around. Good luck to everyone who entered the contest, and thanks again to everyone who donated to the cause.

Blizzard employee raises over $34,000 for LLS originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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