Here's a helpful post from the World of Warcraft forums. Eldariel of Genjuros has written a detailed approach to adding some layers of protection onto your computer. Granted, it's something most tech-savvy World of Warcraft players probably know by now, but for people who have currently been mindful of the keylogger scare happening around the internet, then this is probably a very timely wake-up call.
The post provides definitions of what keyloggers and viruses in the said MMORPG are, and provides some helpful links and instructions on downloading software to protect your computer. If all of that fails, it even lists down the steps for formatting your hard drive to forcibly remove any unsavory elements from within. Best of all, all of the sites recommended by Eldariel and the other members of the forums are free, so there's no excuse for not getting some kind of protection on those computers.
Despite these warnings, however, it doesn't assure complete protection against the worst the internet has to offer. It does manage to give some extra bit of protection, which is always better than none. One piece of advice always given freely to newbies in WoW, however, is always there: Blizzard will never ask for your password, so don't give it out to anyone.
2Jump it up! Posted Apr 11, 2007 at 05:21AM by Mabie A. Listed in: World of Warcraft ,News Tags: Blizzard ,Exploit ,Hackers ,Symantec Yes, this is yet another news regarding the growingly rampant WoW accounts hacking. And unfortunately, you guys just might have to be paranoid a little bit more.
Roger Thompson, CTO of Exploit Prevention Labs, warns that the gangs are still "incredibly active, and it's a good exploit." By now, you should know the hackers ' MO already. But if not, it's never too late to find out. Basically, these hackers infect those sites that WoW players usually visit with keylogging software. Now, the sites need not be WoW-related, but is frequented by avid gamers. With the software installed in the computers, the hackers are then able to spy on keystrokes, and ultimately, to steal WoW accounts from unsuspecting players.
As to why WoW accounts are the ones targeted, "The guys working out how to do it are WoW players. We're pretty sure we know who (most of them) are: a couple of Chinese college students, and it turns out they're interested in WoW." They also suspect a Russian gang to be in on it as well.
For their part, Blizzard has already addressed the problem by giving a shout out to the gamers via their official website. "[An] important means of protecting your account information is keeping your system up-to-date. For instance, installing the latest Windows security patch is a good way to avoid exploits designed to steal your login and password details."
The thing is, it's most likely that this pilferage of WoW accounts will remain in the community because the players themselves do tend to be lax regarding their software security. Apart from this is the fact that there is an existing market out there for the stolen goods. Says Symantec 's senior manager for the security response team, "People are willing to buy on the black market. If players themselves were not willing to go outside the games to improve their characters, then there wouldn't be such a need."
So at the end of the day, this security problem is still -- er -- a problem. While there still are no clear-cut mechanisms on how the WoW community can actually police these hackers, as well as a well-founded check and balance mechanism to avert these kinds of incidents, each player would just have to be extra vigilant that these folks with malicious intents on your accounts don't tread on yours.
5Jump it up! Posted Apr 11, 2007 at 12:26AM by Rio S. Listed in: World of Warcraft ,Off Topic Tags: Blizzard ,Drysc It's a worldwide issue. Why are the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? Scanning through the World of Warcraft forums, we came upon a plea from a Troll Hunter named Brat.
The cash for a normal flying mount should come pretty easily just thought questing, at least it was for me and I've heard from many others that they had the same results. If I am flying around looking for nodes and I see someone clearly fighting towards one, I'll let them have it. Sometimes I'll even hover for a while just to make sure, I have time to wait and see. Well, if it's Khorium my greediness may overcome my generosity...
I'm not really saving right now for an epic flying mount, I'm just saving to buy the necessary items for raid attempts, gems, etc. The epic flying mount is a longer goal, I don't need it, and if I eventually get there then awesome, and if not oh well.
I don't think you can accurately portray anyone with a flying mount as "rich", especially when all of your available funds are going towards the mount.
Well, it pays well to be considerate. Though you can't really expect if from everybody - especially when the next guy's (and a gazillion more) also trying to make a buck.
2Jump it up! Posted Apr 10, 2007 at 10:41PM by Tim Y. Listed in: World of Warcraft Tags: Blizzard ,Nethaera A while back, two of the more exciting prospects that World of Warcraft's gaming community looked forward to were the possible addition of Guild Housing ands Guild Banks.
For those unfamiliar with these terms, a Guild House is a larger version of a Player House, which is in turn defined by WoWWiki as "a feature that gives players a place to store items and have a place to call home." Player/Guild Housing promised a literal "personal space" for WoW characters, and carried the trappings of customizable furniture, wall items, etc.
Guild banks, on the other hand, are a collective storage space for guilds. In-game, it's usually a designated character whose sole duty is to carry the guild's loot - sort of like a PC version of Ragnarok Online 's Kafra service. The Guild Bank under discussion here, however, is of an official "bank" - a literal place in-game that allowed for secure storage of a guild's treasures.
These were not promised at any particular time . I don't believe we even used the word "promise" in any statements about these. We have said in the past , however, that these are things we would like to see added to the game. I can't give you an ETA since we don't have one as of yet.
We'd like them added in, sure, but beyond that we couldn't tell you more. When we get close to a point where we actually are implementing these things, we'll do what we can to give you all a heads-up.
On the down side, the tone implies that WoW won't be getting either features soon. On the bright side, Blizzard doesn't appear to be denying that they've been thinking about these features, which makes their eventual addition in-game an ever-so-slight possibility. Of course, "eventual" can mean a very long wait - we advise guys not to work themselves over the matter, and to resume their gaming.
For those keeping track of the Benefactor Stone translation contest, two more Logos have been translated, courtesy of Curse Gaming. The symbols refer to the terms "None" and "Wonder"; the reasoning behind their iconography should be somewhat deducible, given these two and the history of prior translations.
Other than that... who knows what message the Benefactors brings to us Earthlings? Perhaps it warns of a terrible curse that will strike those who dare to make a mess of Lord British's home? We bet a curse of frogs. Of course we kid. How many more letters to go before we get the full message anyway?
We have not announced or eluded to a date when the arena season will end. There's no current date set. The end of season is dependent on quite a few factors, including PvE progression.
That's the official word from Blizzard. We advice the readers to just take the current season in stride, and see who the Arena's top teams are for the moment. As always, keep posted for further details.
Just picking up the sticks that Blizzard left behind (apparently), big ol' blue officially confirmed that they will be returning the hotfixed Priest Arena gear to the Arena vendor by the next content patch. But seeing as the patch won't be arriving for another few months, will qualifying teams with Shadow Priests be at a disadvantage at the Regionals?
Not until they can grab some serious Shadoweave gear, Priests are left to take to extrinsic tactics and hope that Internet latency spares a two second slack for them to cast Power Word: Shield on themselves or on a teammate. With that said, the five week period of no official word on the progress of the fix has been justified (at least) with an official confirmation that "it's going in with 2.1."
So worry not, Priests. The gear will be coming in with the right tool tips and the right abilities, but hopefully the hotfix changes remain the same for the official patch. Blizzard, after all, is popular for squeezing in subtle changes that really don't get documented.
On April 11 (that's tomorrow!), Upper Deck Entertainment will be releasing the first ever expansion for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Titled "Through the Dark Portal," the new expansion will be much like how the Burning Crusade was for the original World of Warcraft. Come to think of it, it is just like BC was for WoW. Hey, if the name of the expansion weren't an obvious clue enough...
Through the Dark Portal (TDP) will expand the card game to the Outland, with new races, abilities, and if that's not enough, UDE will be sneaking in a couple of game codes into some lucky booster packs. Take these codes in-game, and you can have some special prizes to grace your inventory, pets, or pouch.
For the fans, there's going to be a release celebration for the expansion packs in locations across the country. And during the event, you can try your hand at experiencing the new TDP boosters. There'll be competitions and exclusive prizes. For more specific info on competition rules and mechanics and celebration locations, check out the Read link below.
1Jump it up! Posted Apr 10, 2007 at 06:15PM by Ceasar S. Listed in: World of Warcraft ,News Tags: Blizzard With the content preview revealing alchemical changes to profession, Blizzard is taking measures to create a more enjoyable experience for the frustrated Raider, which includes retuning impossible bosses.
Keeping the new Elixir mechanic in mind, you can expect bosses that required insane amounts of flasking to be easier by the time the fix has been applied. Now while Bosses won't cry "Nerf," there are issues about keeping Raids challenging that are becoming a concern for the most experienced of Raid guilds.
The new Elixir changes currently determine what can be consumed and what effects do stack, so the challenge has just been upgraded to a whole new strategic level.
Flasks and elixirs are being nerfed so that they won't be such a concern when developing and experiencing raid content.Raid loot is getting slightly better, making raiders more capable of tackling raid content.Raid bosses are losing some of their ability to deal damage tomembers of the raid group, making raid content easier for raiders.Raid bosses are losing some of their ability to mitigate meleedamage when raiders strike glancing blows against them, increasing theamount of damage raid bosses take and making raid content easier forraiders.
5Jump it up! Posted Apr 10, 2007 at 06:04PM by Ceasar S. Listed in: World of Warcraft ,News Tags: Blizzard ,Tseric As if last week's hiccup wasn't enough, Blizzard brings 20 U.S. realms down (that's a mark down from 26 realms last week) and it's been a heavy drag on players with characters on those realms. Time is cash spent, after all. But this time around, it's no longer an authentication issue. It goes even deeper than that.
Still, Blizzard is adamant on fixing the issue and the realms should be up soon. We'll be keeping tabs on the problem that was addressed so you could note it down on your little slambook entitled "Blizzard's most embarrassing moments." So much for the scheduled maintenance downtime: realms are still down longer than usual.
Expect Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Alterac Mountains, Anvilmar, Arygos, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co., Uldaman and Undermine to be up and atom pretty soon. There's already a claim that Sentinels is already back up.
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