Valleywag
valley spawn
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kevin werbach
Obama's net neutrality man plays Warcraft
Supernova conference organizer Kevin Werbach is part of President Change's FCC transition team. I've hung out with the guy, and I never would've guessed he belongs to not one, but two guilds in World of Warcraft. Here's his take on WoW's benefits to grownups: More » -
distractions
Wrath of the Lich King to devastate IT departments
Good luck getting your computer fixed today. Is there some strange flu that only infects sysadmins sweeping the nation? No — but Blizzard Entertainment did dump Wrath of the Lich King, an update to its online World of Warcraft videogame franchise, on the Internet at midnight last night. What this means: A lot of engineers are going to be calling in lich this morning, having stayed up to download the update and then level their new Death Knight for a foray into Northrend. Yes, World of Warcraft players actually talk like that. More » -
UC Irvine prof gets $100,000 to study World of Warcraft
The National Science Foundation has given informatics prof Bonnie Nardi $100,000 to study why Americans go crazy modding World of Warcraft, while Chinese players don't. Nardi has some preliminary thoughts on the difference:
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online video
Alex Albrecht and friends play World of Warcraft for fun and profit
The mysterious project Alex Albrecht, cohost of Kevin Rose's Diggnation podcast, has been working on, Project Lore? It's a show where he and some buddies play World of Warcraft together. It couldn't possibly be more geeky, reveling in WoW-speak like "trash mobs," "pulls," "ninja'd" and the like. Given Warcraft's millions of players, it will likely be as successful as it is incomprehensible to the olds. More » -
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virtual worlds
"Second Skin" sheds light on virtual-worlds addiction
A new documentary, Second Skin, promises to reveal why people are so obsessed with massively multiplayer titles like World of Warcraft and Everquest, as well as even more pointless environments like Second Life. By capturing the online lives of seven devoted gamers, the film captures love, greed, addiction, and depression — all spurred by something that's not even real. Second Skin premieres at the South By Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas this March. More » -
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World of Warcraft has officially consumed 10 million souls. Blizzard Entertainment, the multiplayer online game's maker, is officially an unstoppable machine. If 2007 estimates are to be believed, World of Warcraft is responsible for 12 percent of the videogame industry's $9.1 billion in software sales. [Worlds in Motion]
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virtual worlds
World of Warcraft teaches survival skills
Blizzard has finally disproved the old adage that videogames rot your brains. In fact, they impart essential survival training on players. Earlier this month, 12-year-old Jørgen Olsen survived a moose attack in Norway by playing dead — a skill his World of Warcraft character had recently learned. And then the game taught a 17-year-old in Bejing how to deal with schoolyard bullies. After losing a fight, he took a cue from the game's Fire Mage and set a match to his real-world opponent, after dousing him in gasoline. -
virtual worlds
Datecraft to provide Warcraft players with virtual social life
Ever wonder why people spend 20, 40 or 80 hours a week playing massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft? It's to meet hot chicks. That's why a band of intrepid entrepreneurs has developed a cleverly-named social network to "facilitate the building of relationships between World of Warcraft enthusiasts." The wondrous World of Datecraft has currently attracted 300 lonely WoW fanatics (judging from forum registrations). We suspect the appeal of World of Warcraft players is understated. Sure, there's the deathly pallor. But what girl doesn't swoon over a guy capable of back-handing his enemies across the Swamp of Sorrows with an Infinity Blade? That's all part of the attraction: You know he's capable of obsessively focusing on a single goal. All you have to do is switch his attentions over to you. -
AOL wants a tasty chunk of the 9 million people addicted to the massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft. Its rumored plan is to lure WOW players into AOL's clutches with a dedicated social network at its wow.com domain, dormant for years. Just one problem: Is it setting itself up for a cybersquatting lawsuit? [TechCrunch]
