The readers at MacInTouch.com have reported a ton of frauds selling Apple goodies. If you are in the market the buy and a price looks really good, read this first.
Report: Fraud Reports: “Prices Too Good To Be True”
(Via MacInTouch.)
Seriously though, this is a great article about why WOW is fun for women gamers. I’m a little worried about the guy who says it gives him and his spouse something to talk about, but relationships will always have hiccups.
Nice thread Ravven!
“Girl Gamers” and WoW: “Ravven:
In many of the gaming sites this morning are yet more articles about developing games for girls. The BBC has an article about the games industry supposedly failing women, and Joystiq has coverage that includes quite a few (unintentionally) funny/sad comments. Although I have to admit that I would probably buy that pink PS2, I always quite quite irate about the games-that-appeal-to-women articles. Yes, we need more women game developers (Blizz? You could hire me, for example.) Yes, we need to consider what makes a game attractive to women. We shouldn’t assume that women want rainbows and pink ponies, nor should we assume that women want quick puzzle games that can be played while waiting for that load of wash to finish.
I think that Blizzard gets it right with Warcraft.
Continued reading ‘Girl Gamers’ and WoW…
Comments on this Entry:
(Burnside of Kargath on
Aug 22, 2006 5:32 AM)
I would definately agree with you that current games are great for female gamers also. My wife plays a lot of games wiht me, including Warcraft. (She’s a level 60 female dwarf priest… love that Riverdance!)
I think that the statistics are what is making people say women don’t play as many games. I blame marketing. I think the developers are doing a fine job, but I think the marketing departments of these gaming companies aren’t trying hard enough to portray the current games in a light that would make most women want to try them. You always hear about guys seeing a cool preview or article for games, but the majority of women I know that play were started on it by husbands, boyfriends, other friends, etc. Basically women get started all based on word of mouth, from my expirience.
I’d like to see a survey of current gamers to link there gender with how they heard about a game.
(Shannon Campbell on
Aug 22, 2006 11:29 AM)
I’ve almost always started games based on references — I played FFXI for two years based on a recommendation from a friend, and picked up WoW immediately after that for the same reason.
I agree — there’s no way I’d play a game centered around things that are generally considered ‘girly,’ as that doesn’t interest me at all IRL, let alone in my free time.
When I was younger I dated guys who gamed, but it was almost like they *didn’t* want to share it with me: ‘Oh, you won’t like this… it’s too hard to learn… I can get you Animal Crossing if you want to try a new game…’ Seriously. It wasn’t until I dated someone who wanted me to love gaming the way he did (and introducing me to Star Control II instilled exactly that desire) that I really started to get into it.
Of course, now I play too much WoW to probably maintain a decent relationship.. if I left the house long enough to find one. 
(Burnside of Kargath on
Aug 22, 2006 12:19 PM)
I think WoW actually is good for my marriage. Before WoW, we didn’t have a lot to talk about.
ME: How was work?
HER: Fine. How was work for you?
ME: Fine.
(End of conversation, start watching TV)
Now we are always discussing encouters, guild drama, talents, etc. It gives us something to chat about that we both have in common, and really love. Plus, we like to hang out with our WoW friends, because we both know them. It’s not like when we hang out with her or my friends where one of us is on the outside of the group looking in. We’re both included.
Although, I’m jealous of her sometimes when she gets to raid and I don’t. Sometimes you have to have a dwarf priest I guess 
(Lex on
Aug 22, 2006 1:34 PM)
I’m one of those FPS chicks who came over to WOW because of friends. WOW is my first MMO. Definitely I agree that some of the success of WOW for players in general and women in particular is the multi-faceted entertainment value.
However, the downside to that is that when you get folks together in a guild and want to accomplish an objective, you have to compromise and reconcile all those different motivations.
(Macy Helms on
Aug 22, 2006 3:55 PM)
Amen Ravven! I wasn’t much of a gamer before WoW, the except of an addiction to Black and White, and Fable. I loved Fable, but it pissed me off that I had to play a boy. I mean, how hard would it have been to give me the option of playing a chick? My boyfriend brought Dead Rising home last week, and it is the only game to touch the 360 since. I like it, but I really would like to play Francine instead of Frank.
My point is: I want games where I can see myself in thier worlds. That why I love WoW- because deep down I’m a orc warlock bent on bringing the Nether under my control. Muahahahahahaha!
“
(Via Metroblogging Azeroth.)
New Official WoW forums live: “
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
After months of testing and feedback the new official World or Warcraft forums are now live at http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com.
The new forums feature updated character avatars, displayed talent builds, easier navigation and menus and increased signature space.
The official WoW forums have been a bit of a disgrace for a while now with poor search features, limited customization and a generally cluttered look. From what I have seen from the new forums it looks like WoW may finally have forums that match the game in terms of ease of use and clean design.
Right now there seems to be a few bugs to work out still, the forums are slow to load and have already had to be restarted once, but in the end it can’t get much worse than the old forums.
Let the spamming begin!
Read‘|’Permalink‘|’Email this‘|’Linking’Blogs‘|’Comments
(Via WOW Insider.)
Newer issues statement on Apple battery recall: “Newer Technology today issued the following statement regarding Apple’s portable battery recall…..”
(Via MacMinute.)
To paraphrase: ‘Newer Technology does not explode. Or Catch fire.’
[Need we say more... Ed.]
I was just taking a minute to see what the competition was up to and Macgamer.com was a whole day behind us on the Burning Crusade hitting alpha and two days behind on patch 1.12.
It’s so great to be me!
Sony ordered by Japan to investigate battery problems: “
Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops
Now that some 6 million Sony-manufactured batteries have been recalled, and all the big names are preparing for a summit on standardizing manufacturing processes for li-ion cells, we were just waiting for the fingers to start a pointin’. Well, a pointin’ they have begun, as Japan’s trade ministry ordered Sony (with Dell) to investigate the issues surrounding how a few million batteries were manufactured in such a way that a percentage of them might just explode all crazy on their owners. The Japanese trade ministry ain’t screwing around, either — Sony and Dell are to report back their findings, or face severe penalties under Japan’s consumer safety laws. Hey, if we were Japan we wouldn’t want Sony’s flub on our hands either, you know? We’ll let you know when we find out about their findings.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
“
(Via Engadget.)
No More AB Blues: “Sean Bonner:
I’ve always thought Arathi Basin is the most fun Battleground to play because it can’t drag on, and if you have a good team can be a real blast, although as mentioned earlier it always seems to be the least played. On the three servers I’ve been on, it’s always the same. Well, those days seem to be over, a quick look this morning showed 23 AB’s running on the Eitrigg battle group. I didn’t have time to jump in, but I’m guessing grinding Defilers rep just got a lot easier. Other hordie friends have said that the influx of n00b alliance just standing around waiting to be killed is also quite delightful.
Comments on this Entry:
(Macy Helms on
Aug 23, 2006 1:46 PM)
/cheer
(Ian on
Aug 23, 2006 1:59 PM)
Actually, I’ve found that since 1.11 (or whatever patch it was that they nuked most of the NPCs), Alterac Valley rarely drags on most than an hour or two.
But yeah. Getting into ‘Alterac Valley 29′ last night a mere 7 minutes after queueing up made me do a little dance in my chair last night.
(Via Metroblogging Azeroth.)
