New Scam Targets the WOW Launcher

Details from the WOW Insider, including how to tell the fake launcher from the real one.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/31/new-scam-targets-launcher/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Musical Chairs

Activision has just restructured their top management.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/30/activision-quietly-restructures-senior-management/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Get That Authenticator NOW

The Solo MMO Player's account was blocked this week due to "suspicious activity."  After about a 45 minute wait on the telephone, he was able to talk to a Blizzard rep who looked at the account and found no signs of anything suspicious at all and apparently freed up the account while checking things.  Why his account was blocked by Blizzard is unknown.

He believes that all the email addresses used as logins have been compromised as his email address/login --which has never been used for anything else-- is being bombarded by WOW phishing emails.  (He doesn't get any other type of spam there.  I personally have never received WOW spam although I get plenty of other types of spam.  However, I do not play WOW.)

In other words, The Solo MMO Player thinks that Blizzard's list of email addresses used as logins has been stolen and is being passed around by gold sellers, spammers and phishing specialists.  The account rep says the credit card information to pay for WOW accounts is kept in another place.  Perhaps this is safe.

The rep told him that Blizzard would use his former login name when they sent emails to his address, except when they didn't.  So being able to tell a real Blizzard message from the fakes is going to be very hard.  Many of them are exact copies of official Blizzard messages except for the fake links they send the unwary to.

Go get an authenticator now.
http://us.blizzard.com/store/search.xml?rhtml=y&q=authenticator

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Story Forum and ICC Raid Buff

Blizzard's set up a new forum about the "story" of the game, which is intended to sell more WOW books serve as a platform for discussion of game lore.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/30/blizzard-introduces-new-official-story-forum/

In other news, the raid buff to make Icecrown Citadel easier has increased to ten percent.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/30/icecrown-citadel-raid-buff-has-been-buffed-to-10/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Arena and the Arcane Mage

WOW Insider interviews an arcane mage who plays 3v3 in Arena.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/28/the-colosseum-abni-mage-of-malganis/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Loading Screen Problem Continues

And folks are getting angry about it.
http://manaobscura.gazimoff.com/?p=369

The things folks have tried don't work for everyone consistently, so this is almost certainly an issue on Blizzard's end.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=24038453664&sid=1

http://12.129.242.24/thread.html?topicId=24038453664&sid=1&pageNo=2

This has happened before, too.  Here's a forum posting from 2008 about the same problem.  We have no way of knowing if it is caused by the same thing as in 2008, however.
http://wow.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=417926

Apparently Patch 3.3.3 broke the game for many Mac users.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=882882

Patch 3.3.3a supposedly fixed this issue.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/26/patch-3-3-3a-should-fix-issues-for-some-mac-users/

However, many many people, no matter what type of machine they use, are still getting stuck at the load character screens.  Good luck, all!

UPDATE:  The Solo MMO Player hasn't had character loading screen problems today (March 28) but has had several frozen screens.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Kotaku's Online Gamer Survey

Results of Kotaku's survey of 30,000+ of its readers.
http://kotaku.com/5500495/kotaku-census-2010-the-results-in-full

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Problems and More Problems

Blizzard applied Patch 3.3.3a to fix problems with last Tuesday's Patch 3.3.3 and then tried again last night with more hot fixes.  As of this morning, most folks were still having trouble getting through the character loading screen which hangs and freezes your keyboard.  Details of what has been fixed are here.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/26/in-game-fixes-for-march-26th-2010/

Some folks are recommending deleting your addons or disabling them (or emptying your cache) but the problem does seem to be on Blizzard's end, not at the user's, so this may be a lot of work that won't help you get into the game.

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Mage Macros

Macros to make your mage's life easier.
http://www.wow.com/2010/03/27/arcane-brilliance-macros-for-mages/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Activision and the Price for Modern Warfare 2 Downloads

The folks still in place at Infinity Ward after Activision ousted the founders say the pricing for the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 map packs (which has been criticized as very expensive compared to other similar games' downloadable content) was an Activision decision.
http://kotaku.com/5501945/infinity-ward-points-finger-at-activision-for-modern-warfare-2-pack-pricing

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com