Tag: WOW

Despite the looming possibility that incoming president Barack Obama may have to give up e-mail, there is still strong expectation that an Obama administration will be sensitive to technology issues. One of those reasons is his continued appointment of people with deep connections to cyber culture. Obama's latest appointment is Tom Daschle as head of Health and Human Services (we thought that ...

We've covered some crazy things from the U.S. Army, including telepathic thought-helmets and pledges to be one-fifth robot by 2020. Interesting stuff, for sure, but perhaps a little too far-out for most. While the Army will speak about a number of similarly wacky initiatives in its upcoming Science Conference, one idea will strike fear into the hearts of gamers everywhere: a plan to deploy ...

Can racism actually exist in a world inhabited by avatars, such as 'Second Life' and 'World of Warcraft?' Researchers at Northwestern University seem to think so after conducting a series of social manipulation studies. The researchers used two different social manipulation techniques known to work well in the real world. The so-called foot in the door (FITD) approach asks a simple favor of ...

While plenty of gamers have heaped praise on Blizzard's seminal massively-multiplayer online game 'World of Warcraft' (WoW), many more have had nothing good to say about the thing, such as those who have lost spouses, friends, or family members to the clutches of the game's addictive ways. The Pentagon, however, has something rather different to say about the game. It thinks that it could be a ...

The Guardian has a great slide show of images from Geneva, Switzerland, where the 36th International Exhibition of Invention is taking place. It's the world's largest expo devoted to innovation, with more than 700 exhibitors from 45 countries showing off their ideas. They range from a self-balancing electric unicycle from Slovenia, to a hula-hoop shaped invention for viewing one's head and ...

Are you a fan of 'World of Warcraft' but wish it was a little bit cuter? Then check out 'Hello Kitty Online.' That's right, the ambassador of all things cute and Japanese is getting her own Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game or MMORPG. Currently the online world is in a "closed beta testing phase", meaning it's not yet open to the public, but it should be officially opened very ...

Postings on the job boards for Blizzard, the company behind 'Warcraft' and 'Diablo,' have given away a little secret. The boys at Blizzard are working on a next-generation Massively Multiplayer Online game (MMO). Blizzard did confirm that it was working on an unannounced MMO, but would not divulge any further details. Of course, this leaves all of us to speculate what the game will be. Message ...

Everyone figured World of Warcraft (WoW) would be successful in its own right, but no one could have imagined it would become the cultural powerhouse that it is. The massively multiplayer online game's runaway success has lined Blizzard's (the company behind WoW, Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo) pockets with boatloads of cash. So what is Blizzard doing with this deluge of income? Marketing, of ...

Online virtual worlds are taking over. It would seem as though World of Warcraft and Second Life are cultish phenomena inhabited primarily by the uber-dorky, but if mainstream television is an indicator, things are changing. Recently, 'South Park' aired an episode in which much of the animation was modified in-game footage from World of Warcraft, while 'The Simpsons' parodied the virtual world ...

Online games are no longer just for the proverbial basement dweller any longer as everyone from high-powered CEOs to your granny are meeting up in games like 'World of Warcraft' and 'Everquest' to slay beasts, gather wealth and sometimes even hook up. Recently the BBC took a look into the phenomenon of gamers finding potential mates through the unconventional means of online role-playing games. ...

We've previously posted about the 'Barbie Girls' virtual world being slapped together by Mattel as a 'Second Life'-esque haven for teens and tweens. Now, the site has entered beta mode and something surprising has happened: The service has racked up three million registered users in 60 days and is still growing. The service is signing up roughly 50,000 new users a day, a growth rate that far ...

Addiction The condition: Like just about everything else that's fun in this world, the Internet is a magnet for compulsive types. Whether it's in the form of a poker site, role-playing video games or even eBay, online addiction is estimated to affect between five and 10 percent of the population, ruining lives and relationships along the way. Think we're exaggerating? Check out ...