Ventrilo versus Mumble

A comparison of two gaming voice systems.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/18/ventrilo-vs-mumble/

By the way, Mumble got a rave review here.  Search on Mumble and Ventrilo to see more information collected elsewhere on the Solo MMO.
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/07/mumble-new-voice-chat-software-with-rave-reviews/

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PUGs, Dead or Alive? (With Tool)

As is the way of the Internet, today I have two articles on the same topic--pick up groups, i.e., PUGs.

WOW Insider has a guest posting about the best way to evaluate players for a PUG.  It refers to the PUG Raid Organizer (which helps raiders find PUGs and helps raid organizers evaluate and track raiders), so I've added a link directly to that site below the article link.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/17/guest-post-vetting-puggers-beyond-gearscore-and-achievements/

http://pugplug.com/

UPDATE: Here's another site that allows players to connect for PUGs.
http://puggernaut.guildlaunch.com/index.php?gid=87302&page_id=44745

Before you run wild, however, you might want to read what Hugh Hancock says about how he believes Cataclysm will impact PUGs and guilds.  Food for thought....
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/07/editorial-feature-will-cataclysm-stunt-your-guilds-growth/

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Cataclysm Talent Calculator (Beta)

Blessing of Fish reports that Blizzard has set up a fully functional Cataclysm talent calculator.  He also summarizes what is known about how talents will work here.  Thanks, Zal!
http://blessingoffish.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/stumpy-talent-trees-and-awesome-hats/

Here's the link that goes directly to the Cataclysm talent calculator.
http://cata.wowhead.com/talent

Remember, this is the beta version.  Things are still in flux and who knows how this will work once the next expansion is released....

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Activision Places $100 Million Bet UPDATED

The Wall Street Journal reports that Activision has spent over $100 million developing Starcraft II per Kotaku, but Kotick expects they will make 5-10 times that much on the game.
http://kotaku.com/5589040/starcraft-ii-has-a-100-million-price-tag

The WSJ online article is subscription only (and a very hefty subscription, too!) but here is a similar article by the same author that doesn't mention development costs.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/activision-looks-to-pump-growth-with-starcraft-ii-2010-07-15

Starcraft II comes out July 27.

UPDATE:  Activision is now saying the $100 million number refers to what they spend developing and maintaining World of Warcraft.
http://kotaku.com/5594862/starcraft-ii-did-not-cost-100-million-to-make

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Blizzard's Q&A About Real ID

The meat of the posting is that the ability to remove your real name from Real ID will hit about the time Starcraft II comes out, they are trying to come up with some sort of unique ID for the forums but there won't be a way to add a game name to Real ID inside the game.
http://kotaku.com/5589238/questions-and-answers-about-blizzards-real-id-plans

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Stokpile: Auction House Advice Blog

MMO Melting Pot highly recommends this blog's advice on using the Auction House.  Here's their posting.
http://theahpile.blogspot.com/2010/06/stokpile-index.html

And here is the Stokpile blog itself, all indexed into topics of interest.  Note that the author, having reached the gold cap, has retired.  Let's hope s/he returns for Cataclysm.
http://theahpile.blogspot.com/2010/06/stokpile-index.html

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Healing Flowchart

A quick prioritization visual aid for healers.  Thanks to MMO Melting Pot for pointing this out!
http://oddcraft.net/wordpress/2010/07/07/shared-topic-triage-and-you/

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Do Your Addons Reveal Your Real ID?

Part of the problem with the Real ID system is that many addons will be able to pull your real name from the Real ID.  Inside this article on this new site (www.MMO Melting Pot.com --bookmark it now) I found a link to a script that apparently tells whether your addons will reveal your identity.
http://www.mmomeltingpot.com/2010/07/a-brief-realid-roundup/

Here's the script itself, pulled from an MMO Champion forum posting apparently.
http://www.threadmeters.com/rYhyCm/Addons_can_show_you_someones_RealID/

By the way, there are rumors that both British and French government entities are investigating Blizzard's privacy breach.  I have been wondering myself how European governments would take this policy, whether Blizzard's reversing the policy will back them off, or whether this will open an investigation into Blizzard's lax security policies in other areas.

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The Shrinking Population and the Disappearing Servers

Gazimoff explains how Blizzard is invisibly shrinking the servers and predicts how this will play out in-game as WOW's player base shrinks.  This is a must-read for players interested in the mechanics of networking MMOs.  It starts out with a history of how Blizzard organized their servers (and realms) in 2005 and continues through today with the "random" battleground and dungeon finder systems which allow Blizzard to balance their servers.  This is why you end up in the same dungeon or Battlefield over and over again, by the way.  Blizzard is putting folks where they need them.
http://www.manaobscura.com/2010/07/the-growing-yet-shrinking-world/

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Big Red Kitty Decodes Cataclysm Beta Subtext

If you want to know what playing the Cataclysm beta is like, Big Red Kitty details the experience by explaining the "real " meaning behind the beta introduction.  Funny but true!
http://www.bigredkitty.net/2010/07/13/this-is-what-hidden-meaning-means/

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