LOTR in WoW Speak

I actually lol a couple times and I didn't even like the movie (blasphemy I know, I've been lectured).

No sound, just a picture slideshow of "Lord of the Rings in WoW Speak":

Click here to see the post with the Slideshow.

Screenshot Caption Contest

Check out the caption contest here. In summary:

"From Friday, February 27 to March 15, players can submit clever captions for any of the past RPSA winners pictured below -- we'll pick the best one for each picture! The winners of this contest will each receive a prize package consisting of a Sony PSP handheld gaming system and a SanDisk's Memory Stick PRO Duo™. Take out your rubber chickens and clown shoes -- it's time to make us laugh!"

More Information:

• Official Rules


• The contest is not open to Minors under the age of thirteen (13). UPDATE: (thanks to this post at WoWInsider for highlighting these excluded states) It is also not open to residents of Rhode Island or Florida.


• Prizes: A. Grand Prize Winner. Five (5) qualified entrants will be chosen by Sponsor to receive a prize package consisting of a Sony PSP handheld gaming system with an approximate retail value of $249.99; a SanDisk's Memory Stick PRO Duo™ with an approximate value of $79.00.

Just in time - The Accountant Mod!

Accountant Mod - Just in time for Tax Season.

I love to play to conquer making money (buy low, sell high). Recently I found the accountant Mod and now I love checking it every day I play.

I can track how much money comes in and out

• on a daily, weekly or all-time basis
• by character
• and by purpose.

The Accountant mod is not perfect, but it feeds my need to see how I'm doing; kind of like a status bar for money. Here are some notes from my own experience:

• Auction Sales: Incoming Auction Money is listed under "Mail" rather than "Auction House." Disappointing.
• Same Name/Multi Servers: It gets a little confused if you have the same named character on more than server. It'll be fine if you want to view each one individually but only one of them will show up on the "All Chars" tab.
• Forward Basis: The mod tracks your activity from when you download it forward. It won't show your prior cash flows.

Click here to read more and download the mod from Curse-Gaming. I highly recommmend it.

p.s. You can tell this screen shot is from one of my "hub characters" because there's no money for training, loot, rewards, repairs, etc... lol, poor thing has apparently been stuck in the cities since I downloaded the mod. In fact, if you look at the background, you can probably tell what building she is in and then decipher what one of my money making schemes is. :P And I have no worries anyone will steal my idea because its too nickel-and-dime (or should I say copper-and-silver?) for anyone else but me to be dumb enough to think it's a smart way to earn a living.

WoW Post Round Up - End of February

Here are some interesting World of Warcraft posts from the past week (or so):

• Favorite Addon


• Debuffs and debuff priority


• Blizzard Warns of Password Scams


• Hero Classes?


• There is no Cow level


• Uber Chat Guide


• Warlock end-game pets


• Visuals of the Ahn'Qirag sets


• Terms of Service - Public Service Announcement

Public Service Message for US Gamers - Tax Forms

Doing Your Taxes - Step 1
Do you have your W2s?

Go to your mailbox.

No, I mean your real life mailbox.

You don't have to do your taxes today.

You only have to go through your mail and
make sure you have received all your W2 forms. Now put them under your
keyboard.

That's all you have to do. It's Sunday. Today is the day to do it. Not later. Now.

Yes, even stop surfing the internet right now to do it. If you're anything like me, you'll say "I'll do it right after this" and never get around to it. Watch, I'll go do mine now.

Okay, that was tough to stop in the middle of this and go do it but it feels good that it's done.

Why now? Because if your employer or whatever didn't send it then you can ask them for a copy now. Then when you actually DO do your taxes you'll have all the W2's you need.

And don't worry, if you open the mail it won't mean it automatically poofs 3 days later. That's just a WoW thing.

Holy Lightwell Batman!

Patch 10 Priest Notes

• Talent Calculator
• Forum Post. (If that's not "ready yet" as it is right now as I am posting, check out this post)which has the content

These are the 3 top level skills Briar (my priest) will have to choose from:

Discipline	Holy	Shadow
Power Infusion	Lightwell	Shadowform
Infuses the target with power, increasing their spell damage and healing by 20%.	Creates a holy Lightwell near the priest. Friendly targets can click the Lightwell to restore 800 health over 10 sec. Being attacked cancels the effect.	Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage by 15% and reducing Physical damage done to you by 15%. However, you may not cast Holy spells while in this form.
182 Mana 30 yd range Instant cast 3 min cooldown Lasts 15 sec	225 Mana 3 second cast 10 min cooldown Lasts for 2 min or 5 charges.	550 Mana Instant cast 1.5 sec cooldown

I have to review these & read the post a little more before I can offer any opinions. My first reaction is that the lightwell looks pretty darn cool. And depending on how it looks, could be kind of like the wells we used to see in Diablo. mmmm, Diablo .....

I am hopeful I'll like these better than I did the Paladin changes.

Noblegarden date change?

From Blizzard's World of Warcraft News page:

Events Calendar
Check out our new Events Calendar for World of Warcraft!
This calendar provides you with the exact dates for the many different events that take place throughout the year in World of Warcraft. Now you can see when each event begins and ends, so you'll never miss out on the fun! Also, whenever a new event is introduced to World of Warcraft, the calendar and our In-Game Events page will be updated with the latest information about the new addition to the game, so make sure to check back often!

Interestingly, this page says Noblegarden will run from April 16 - May 20.

But previously I posted on the fact that the In Game Events page says (and still does as I write this) March 22 - April 25.

My guess is that the one on the new calendar page is the better to estimate with since the nearby calendar specifically says 2006. The date on the In Game Events page may just be a leftover from last year.

PVP Ranking

So I was playing around on the official site and found the PVP rankings page on the official Blizzard World of Warcraft site. Just input your server and your faction and you get a list of PVP rankings.

Well guess who I found and about fell off my chair:

Standing	Rank	Name
47th	Lieutenant Commander	Braku

Look at you, you old dog. Congrats, Brak!

If you want to see more re: PVP here's Blizzard's flash page (I guess to market how wonderful their PVP system is): PVP.

And here's the raid calendar where they show the reset times.



(p.s. if you were posting in here Brak you could yell at me for using such an old picture, but since you aren't, you can't! :P)

Blizzard Chat Guide Published

/congratulate.

/chatinfo /announce.

/inspect.

Snowfall of Death?

You remember SWG right? And of course good ol' Talus?

And do you remember the....

LAG LEAVES OF DEATH?

Every time they would do one of those beautiful scenes with leaves falling we would get lagged to death. And in our "youth" that was a literal deal.

Well, with WoW's upcoming patch 1.10 apparently we're getting snowfall and rain. And all I can think is how bad Talus used to be when that happened.

Now Blizzard seems to handle things a lot better than Sony, but lag also seems to be the great equalizer. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

You are AUTODECLINED!

Autodecline Mod

It's a good thing that WoW isn't RL. Or else I'd be standing at my mailbox reading my mail when suddenly a complete stranger would slam the Crutchfield catalogue out of my left hand, slap the rest of my mail down that was in my right hand, hip check the mailbox closed and then hold a piece of paper within an inch of my face. A pen would then be hovering and expectantly twitching off to the side in my peripheral vision. This of course, is all in the hopes that I will sign the guild charter of a complete stranger who has no regard for interrupting people. And I HATE interuptions.

Enter the Autodecline Mod:

Once you've installed this, type "/ad" to bring up the option window you see here. Voila - no more guild charters in my face, no duel requests, whatever it is that you want to eliminate, you can here. Here's where I found it at curse-gaming: link to download the mod.

If it's trades that plague you, you're in luck. You don't need to download this to fix that. Hit "escape" and go into the "Interface Options." On the "Advanced" tab you'll see this at the top - it's an option to decline trades (thanks to Emp for showing me this one):

If you need to catch up on the whole Mod thing, here is a link to the introduction to Mods post.

Update: Gotta love the triple decline!

No, I don't want to duel you, I'm checking my mail!

Only 5,000 Gold?!?!?

"Guild Holds Server Hostage" - How freaking hysterical is this?!?

Read the post where I found the story here on warcry.

Quotes from the original forum post:

• We are not ignorant to the notion that without our champion Nimic ringing the gong, it will take a lot longer than everyone had intended for the gate to open.


• Like any guild, we like being notorious, remembered.


• So now the gates truly lie in your hands. In order to open the gate, we are demanding 5,000 gold. ... Once we gain this money, we will open the gates.

Bravo for hysterical dudes. But shouldn't you have asked for "1 BILLION gold?"

Update: Related post by WoWInsider

aaaaand a further update... from 1up.com. Apparently the post is gone, and it has been since claimed a joke. hmmm is it maybe because they got hate mail and realized maybe it wasn't the smartest joke in the world to do on a PVP server?

WoW Lore

The history and loreof WoW is epic to say the least and it really brings a lot to the table in terms of enjoying the content. I had collected a bunch of information and coordinated it for my own purposes. Here are some of the resources I used, plus a ton more I wish I had had at the time:

Find WoW Lore:

• Blizzard's Site
• What's written in the books by blizzplanet.com
• 5 part series by gamergod.com
• Warcraft 3 Character Guide
• WoWWiki Lore
• Stratics - Heroes, Race History

Bag-a-licious

Yes!

Marielle had bought every single bag slot in the bank and had almost filled them up. But now...

With the 1.10 patch two new craftable bag types will be available specifically for holding items related to either herbalism or enchanting. Tailors will be able to try their hand at crafting these new bags as the recipes will be found throughout the world.

These new specialty bags will function similar to how a normal bag would, but with the restriction of holding only herbs or enchanting supplies. The recipes will be made available for crafting these bags in various sizes, the high end of each type being 24 slots. Source

Summary (since you didn't really read the above):

• New Bag Recipes
• Made by Tailors
• Only for Herbs or Enchanting Supplies
• Up to 24 Slots

AddOns and Interfaces and Mods omg

What is an AddOn (or "Mod"):

• It's extra game code: It's a small bit of code (sometimes not so small) that Blizzard didn't write. Usually it's written by clever gamers. You load that code with the game (it's easy, don't worry) and it does some small function to make life easier. For example, there is a mod that tells you how long the flight is from point A to point B within the game, it even puts up a timer while you're in flight.



Add-Ons make your life easier in that I-Didn't-Realize-I-Couldn't-Live-Without-It kind of way.



• Not a way to cheat: Blizzard allows for add-ons as long as they are, among other things, within the terms of use. So, for example, you can't make/use an add-on that allows for you to "play" while afk. So you can't have a mod that will automatically reel in a fish. It can ding to tell you there's a bite, but it wouldn't be allowed to fish for you.

What does Blizzard (posters) say about AddOns (or Mods):

• Can we really do this?: If you have questions you can check out Blizzard's Exploitation policy which says: "We definitely want people to create their own UIs utilizing custom menu configurations, graphics, and even sounds. Anything that can be coded to modify the style and the look of the UI is fair game, as long as the modifications are done to the sanctioned internal files of the game. However, anything done to the UI to gain any sort of an unfair advantage over other players is unacceptable."
• Mods are Unsupported: "Just so everyone remembers, customizing the game's interface is COMPLETELY UNSUPPORTED. Blizzard may make changes to the API at any time without any regard to how they affect third party addons. Extending the game in new and interesting ways is a bonus, but Blizzard does NOT support any third party addons." (Source)
• Beware of Viruses: "We wanted to take a moment and alert you to a Trojan virus which targets World of Warcraft players by attempting to steal account passwords. This particular Trojan can be attached to any 3rd party custom UI which contains an executable (which isn't necessary for a custom UI to function), so it's very important that players are mindful of the potential danger associated with downloading files over the internet from unknown or otherwise unreliable sources. For more information, please follow the link below." (Source)

More Links:

• FAQ by a poster named Cairenn on the forums. It's worth reading through the different parts of the series. There's also a lot on troubleshooting if you find yourself having problems.
• Wowinsider's AddOns for the Complete Noob January 2007 (Pre Burning Crusade)

Find Them:

• You can download them from the internet for free.
• Forum post here. This post from the WoW forums lists mods with descriptions.
• The writer of the FAQ above is from http://www.wowinterface.com/.
• Also try: http://www.wowguru.com/
• or try: http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php (I've used this one successfully so far.)

Install the Mod:

Pretty simply - take the files you downloaded and put them in your World of Warcraft AddOns directory:

C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns

such that you have sub folders under \AddOns\ for each different mod, e.g.:

C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns\Gatherer\file, file, file
C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Interface\AddOns\Benecast\file, file, file

FAQs on Installation from wowinterface.com and from ui.worldofwar.net.


Keep them up to date:

Remember this quote from the top of the post?

Blizzard may make changes to the API at any time without
any regard to how they affect third party addons.

Ya. Sucks. /shrug

So keep going back to those mod websites to check for updates, especially right after you download a new patch and your otherwise okay mod suddenly stops working, giving you errors or messes up your gameplay.

Now go forth and download some mods. And may all your interfaces run smoothly.

WoW Post Roundup

Over the past week(?) I collected these posts from WoW feeds. They're all short items.

Post	Direct Link
Freak show Live action Pic from livejournal.com
Bit on Cheney from livejournal.com
World of Warcraft Trailers on your iPod from wow.warcry.com	Burning Crusade trailer
WoW item creater	wow.blupp.net/

Many unworthy posts died to bring you this collection.

Nobelgarden is Next

What can we expect next in terms of Holiday Content? This is what Blizzard says:

Noblegarden - March 22 - April 25
"The great feast of Noblegarden has long been celebrated by the races of the Alliance and recently adopted by those of the Horde. On this joyous day, it is customary for the nobles and lords from each race to hide coins, candy, and the occasional treasures within special eggs painted to look like wildflowers. These eggs are then scattered around the major cities for the citizenry to find. From heroes to commoners, and everyone in between - the feast of Noblegarden is meant to bring communities together to share the joy of life and friendship."

Can you say, Easter? :)

World of Beercraft

Another fun video: WoW & the Beer Song. It's more amusing-to-pass-the-time worthy rather than divert-your-otherwise-valuable-time worthy, but it made me smile: Link to Video.

That and I know how you all love to get drunk so much. (Thanks to this poster for finding it first.)

Marielle gets Around

It appears Marielle has been getting around quite a bit lately.

Here she is a while back when she visited the Eiffel Tower:

Last Year River Rafting:


And most recently in Italy at the Olympics:


I tell you, Paladins get waaaay too much vacation time.

Just say no to Bird Love

See this kids?

This is how the Bird Flu Starts...

Just say no.

Heavy Lamellar Finish

Next on the runway is Marielle.

She's a level 51 slacker dressed in

a green "Heavy Lamellar" ensemble.

Observe how the enchant on her 2H

sword shimmers off the polish.

You too can enjoy this coordinated set -

it is available for purchase at your

local Auction House, but buyer beware-

it is Bind On Pickup so be sure you're ready

to wear it when you put it on.

Valentine's Day Stuff

• 1 Panel Comic from gucomics.com
• This is just messed up: Dude in a dress
• How to get the dress post.

Earth Girls are Easy

Okay, lady. I have had quite a few quests to give you a letter or whatever (I don't open the packages, I just deliver 'em).

What kind of perfume are you packin'?... because there was more than one guy who "couldn't leave his post" to send you his card.

Stormwind... Ironforge... yeah, I see how you work this show. The gig is up woman...
the gig is up...

Happy Valentine's Day!

All your Candy are belong to us!

The only good murloc...

See? Everyone hates murlocs... click to see the full post on the genesis of this Playdoh death.

Off Topic - Chewbacca Blog

Emp we need you to translate Chewbacca's blog for us:
http://rrrrrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnhhhh.blogspot.com/

Here's just one reason why I laughed out loud:

(click here to go directly to his blog and see more pics)

Update: Please, for the love of all things funny, read this blog. He just posted a lol V-Day post.

Auction House Bomb Video

Click to watch: World of Warcraft Auction House Bomb at Google Video. Only 30 seconds. No Sound, but soooo worth the last 5 seconds.

"Baron Geddon one of the bosses in Molten Core instance has the ability to cast a spell on someone that after so many seconds goes off and does area of effect damage to everyone around that person. Before this was fixed a warlock had the effect casted onto his pet and dismissed the pet until he got to the Auction house in Ironforge where he summoned the pet and wrecked havok."

Is it bad that I think this is so.... what's the word... satisfying?

Update: 8/5/2006
Here's the video embedded:

Extra notes for Patch 1.9.3

Undocumented patch changes as listed by Blizzard on a forum post .

Below are a few changes implemented in 1.9.3 that unfortunately, did not
make the patch notes.

• Nefarian's reset should now consistently be 15 minutes regardless of what phase your raid may have wiped out on.
• The High Priests, High Priestesses, and Jin'do the Hexxer will now drop their epic items more often. Some of the rarest items from Zul'Gurub such as the Warblade of the Hakkari and Zulian Swift Tiger can now also be found a bit more frequently.
• Zul'Gurub coin and bijou drops were increased
• The stats on the Tier 1 Mage and Warlock sets (Arcanist and Felheart) have been changed.
• You now have to be out of combat to open a chest.

Update: According to QA and internal tests, the stranglethorn arena chest was not flagged with the "not in combat flag", so it should be fine. If your experiences prove otherwise, please post in the Bug Reporting forum, so we can attempt to reproduce the report.

Kwee Sells Out

Millions of Goblins Just Rolled Over in their Graves

Plague of Passion

Official Valentine's Day website from Blizzard: loveisintheair .

Some excerpts:

• Using Perfume or Cologne will allow you to tell which city citizens and guards are looking for love from the hearts over their heads.
• Once you are rejected, you will be considered "Heartbroken" and anyone you talk to will tell you to come back later when you're not so sad. Fellow adventurers can cure each other of this lovesickness by offering a Friendship Bracelet.

Picture: Taking a breather

Durn, Marielle & Emp taking a break on the water's edge.

More information on Valentine's Day Content

A most excellent post can be found over at 1UP about the World of Warcraft Valentine's Day content. Looks pretty neat. Here's an excerpt:

If players /kiss Kwee (guys, this means you too!), he'll shoot them, in true Cupid style, with an arrow of goblin love that grants a special little bonus to the player.

The Valentine's Day event actually begins a couple days ahead of time on Saturday February 11th, and ends on Thursday, February 16th...

Read the full post with pictures here. There's more information about collecting tokens from innkeepers.

Once again, the holidays seem to be my favorite part of WoW.

Interview with an Innkeeper on Valentine's Day content

One of my favorite things about WoW is the Holiday content. In their recent patch notes they said:

Love is in the Air!

Are you looking for love? All of Azeroth soon will be! As winter draws to a close the races are starting to seek that special someone. Be on the lookout for amorous individuals! Put on that special perfume or cologne, express your love, and receive gifts in return! Prepare yourself... love will soon be in the air!

So I contacted one of my sources, the innkeeper in Stormwind. She was hesitant to tell me anything but I finally got her to talk about what this might mean. Actually I don't think she realized she was giving up any content, because all I asked her was "what's up with the boxes?" She sid she ordered perfumes & colognes from "the city." Since we were in Stormwind and the locals in the Elwynn Forest generally call this "the city" I wanted to follow up and ask her what she meant. But there were people milling about and she went mum again. But at least it's a little insight into where we might find the perfume Blizzard spoke of.

p.s. I don't think Blizzard and the Groundhog are on the same page.

Patch 1.9.3 Notes

World of Warcraft Client Patch 1.9.3 (2006-02-07)

Love is in the Air!
Are you looking for love? All of Azeroth soon will be! As winter draws to a close the races are starting to seek that special someone. Be on the lookout for amorous individuals! Put on that special perfume or cologne, express your love, and receive gifts in return! Prepare yourself... love will soon be in the air!

Mac
Added native support for Intel-powered Macs such as the iMac (Core Duo) and MacBook Pro. World of Warcraft is now a Universal Application. Be advised that the minimum supported MacOS X version has been changed to 10.3.9; World of Warcraft version 1.9.3 and later will not launch on older revisions of MacOS X.

Battlegrounds
The default graveyards in Alterac Valley for each side were moved further up the tunnels away from the battlegroud exit. This should prevent accidentally leaving the battleground.

Paladin
Eye for an Eye - This talent will now still do damage when the paladin is stunned. In addition, if the critical hit kills the paladin, damage will still be dealt to the spellcaster.

Greater Blessing of Sanctuary - Paladins with Righteous Fury will now generate extra threat correctly when this Blessing procs.

Rogue
Deadly Poison V - The charges were inadvertently not increased with the new rank of the ability. Increased from 105 to 120 charges.
Slice and Dice - This ability should no longer miss.

Warrior
Shield Block - This aura will now correctly be removed when the charges are all consumed. However, it is still possible when fighting multiple opponents to get extra blocks due to technical restrictions.

Items

• Arcanist Gloves were not receiving the intended spell damage bonus; this has been corrected.
• The Stamina and Intellect on Kezan's Unstoppable Taint were inadvertently flipped; this has been corrected.
• The Enigma's Answer and Stormcaller's Wrath effects now have tooltips.
• The mana regeneration effect from food no longer causes threat.
• Quicksand Waders are now Bind on Pickup.
• The Slime-coated Leggings now have their proper nature resistance.
• Prophetic Aura, Mageblood Potion, Wizard Oils, and the Mana Regeneration bracer enchant no longer generate threat for the wearer, and should also provide the increased mana regeneration on normal ticks instead of every 5 seconds.
• The Ancient Hakkari Manslayer has the proper icon again.
  

Professions

• The Engineering schematic for the Tranquil Mechanical Yeti now requires a Cured Rugged Hide rather than Ice Thistle E'ko so that both Horde and Alliance Engineers can make the recipe.
• Stormshroud Gloves are now Bind on Equip.

Quests & Reputation

• Grammar fixed for gossip associated with the quest "Trial of the Sea Lion" in Moonglade.
  Fixed a bug with the quest "Glyphed Oaken Branch" that was having the quest become available sooner than it should have.
  The reputation modifier of Squire Leoren Mal'derath has been reduced.
• Zandalar Tribe reputation rewards for killing mobs in Zul’Gurub have been increased.
• Winterfall Spirit Beads and Deadwood Headdress Feathers now stack in quantities of 250.

Raid & Dungeons
Various bugs have been rectified in the Ahn'Qiraj dungeons.
Molten Core

• It should now be very difficult to remain out of combat while fighting the bosses in Molten Core.

Zul'Gurub

• A small number of spawns have been removed from Zul'Gurub to allow for a slightly faster clearing time.
• Increased cooldown on Poison Bolt Volley of High Priestess Mar'li.
• Slightly reduced the melee damage of High Priestess Mar'li.
• The vengance effect gained by the death of the raptor Ohgan during the Bloodlord Mandokir fight has been increased in power.
• Reduced the overall damage of High Priest Thekal.
• Slowed the rate at which the panthers spawn during the High Priestess Arlokk fight.

Hakkar:

• Melee damage reduced.
• Cause Insanity should now correctly target Hakkar's current target, rather than closest.
• Cause Insanity will no longer remove all threat gained.
• Reduced the damage dealt by Poisonous Blood Siphon.
• Increased cooldown on Blood Siphon.
• Gained an Enrage ability after 10 minutes in combat.
• No longer has the Slow ability.
• Corrupted Blood now deals direct damage with a following damage over time effect and no longer spreads to others in the raid.
• Fixed a bug that was causing Corrupted Blood to target the current target rather than the intended random target.
• Increased duration of Poisonous Cloud emitted by Sons of Hakkar.
• Shades of Jin'do are now considered Undead.
• Slightly increased the movement of Lethon's Spirit Shades.
• Reduced the duration of Lethon's Draw Spirit from 7 seconds to 5 seconds.
• Fixed a bug that would cause Lethon's Draw Spirit to spawn two spirits per person instead of one.
• King Gordok can no longer be seperated from Cho'Rush the Observer in Dire Maul.

World Environment
Royal Dreadguards, Undercity Guardians, and Ironforge Guards will now detect enemy players at the same distance as the other cities' guards.
Fixed a bug that would cause you to dismount in certain areas within the Undercity.

Patch 1.10 Preview

Some insight into what will be in the next patch (1.10): here.

Penny Arcade Comic - WoW Patch 1.9

This just made me laugh: Wow Patch 1.9 Comic over at Penny Arcade.

Diablo III?

I'm essentially playing World of Warcraft because it's as close to Diablo 3 as I'm gonna get. Or so I thought..."

From: Evil Avatar

"It looks like the Diablo III rumor mill has started up once again."

How many people are playing World of Warcraft?

According to a Blizzard press release over 5 million people worldwide play World of Warcraft. Further they also say:

"With a strong presence across Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America, World of Warcraft has quickly become the world's most popular MMORPG. "

What does that mean? Check out: ProjectMassive.com. I was floored when I compared the results of the wave one survey ("#3 - What game have you played most?") to the wave two survey (#4 - "What MMOG are you playing most?") to wave three (#4 - "What MMOG are you playing most?"). Talk about a holy cow moment!

Be part of the survey and complete the questions as part of wave 4. Then check out the in depth results on guilds, groups and online socialization at this white paper. (The research is based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is not commercially sponsored.)

They reviewed the free form answers to wave 1. I learned in the white paper that wave one they posted in online forums, etc. in certain games (they did not list WoW as one of them) to let people know about the survey. Perhaps that's why the first wave showed fewer people's playing WoW. We conducted fifteen one hour interviews with members of guilds in the game
Everquest.

I found the whole thing terribly interesting, but here are some excerpts:

• Committed players reported playing 18-24 hours per week while average players reported playing 12-18 hours per week. Uncommitted players reported playing 10-12 hours per week.
• Males comprised 90% of the sample, with 187 female respondents
  participating.