Friday, November 7, 2008

Malware writers targeting Facebook and World of Warcraft: McAfee

According to data from McAfee Avert Labs, the monitoring and research arm of security vendor McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE), malware attacks are growing at astronomical rates and it’s happening for one simple reason: the malware writers are making money.
Data from McAfee indicates 245 per cent growth in the number of malware being developed from 2006 to 2007, with a further 300 per cent growth projected from 2007 to 2008. And year to date, McAfee said the amount of malware generated has already surpassed 2006 and 2007 combined.
“Cyber crime has completely altered the landscape we’re dealing with today,” said Dave Marcus, director, security research and communications for McAfee Avert Labs. “All the malware we’re seeing today is driven 100 per cent by money, and is designed to harvest information we’re going to see sold on the underground.”
Marcus said there’s a fully developed underground system that has developed, almost a malware industry. One group discovers the vulnerabilities, another writes the code to exploit them, another spreads and distributes the code, then another gathers the results and sells them on the open market.
Most malware today is password-stealing trojans designed to steal usernames and passwords, usually banking information. Usually malware developers won’t loot the accounts themselves, said Marcus, but rather sell the information to a third-party for a premium, a phenomenon known as credit card dumping.
Increasingly, said Marcus, social networking is being used to spread malware, and Web 2.0 is fast becoming a malware writer’s best friend. Sites such as Facebook and MySpace are bring “used and abused,” said Marcus, as a platform to send malware out into the wild.
“Facebook is commonly used for the same thing. These sites solved one of the big problems malware writers had: how do they get their malware out to you,” said Marcus. “It’s more important than ever that our technology keeps pace with these kinds of threats, because everything is being distributed through Web 2.0 sites these days.”
It’s not just social networking sites being targeted, said Marcus. Gaming sites are an increasing target as well. With whole economies developing around online games such as World of Warcraft （ Buy wow gold ）, through the selling or trading of objects and levels, malware writers are taking note. Also, as people tend to reuse the same username/password combination for numerous logins, if malware writers get it once they can exploit it elsewhere as well.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:51:26 | Permalink | No Comments »

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Basics

What to expect from the World of Warcraft （Currency: wow gold ） expansion due out next week.
November 5, 2008 - It’s been the biggest, most recognizable name in PC gaming for almost four years now. With the Wrath of the Lich King expansion next week and 11 million worldwide subscribers, it seems like the World of Warcraft brand is something that can only be strengthened. If you’re into PC gaming at all you’ve more than likely played World of Warcraft at some point, whether only for a few days, months, or years. But just as there are still millions playing, there are plenty that have made their peace with Blizzard’s monolithic product and since ducked out. In case you’re curious what the new expansion pack will be adding, we’ve put together a list of some of the more notable features. Some of these won’t be available until the expansion pack servers go live, while some, like the new Inscription profession and achievements system, are already in the live game, added in the recent
3.0.2 patch. If you’ve been out of the loop for a while, read on for a general overview of things to come when the game ships on November 13.
New Continent: Northrend
There’s a brand new continent to explore in Wrath of the Lich King, the frigid realm of Northrend. Also known as “the roof of the world,” Northrend is the home of the eponymous Lich King as well as the infamous Scourge. Northrend will provide plenty of high-content between 70 and 80. There are approximately 10 zones in Northrend, one of which (Wintergrasp) is designated for PVP.

Players start out in either the Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord, then transition into the verdant forests of the Grizzly Hills and desolate wastes of the Dragonblight, a zone filled with, well, dragons. From there it’s into the more menacing Icecrown Glacier and Storm Peak. Along the way, in addition to a huge array of new quests, players will also get to tangle with new dungeon and raid content for all sorts of armor, items, and weaponry. So how soon will you be replacing all your gear from Burning Crusade? We’ll have to wait and see.
Hero Class: The Death Knight
Wrath of the Lich King will introduce the first hero class to World of Warcraft: the Death Knight. Hero classes are elite, high-level classes that you have to earn; there’s no way to create a Death Knight character at level 1 with a new character. Instead, you must have an existing level 55 character or higher in order to create a Death Knight who starts at level 55. Armed with their signature runeswords, Death Knights are essentially front-line tanks, capable of absorbing a lot of damage while also dishing out plenty of hurt in return. Cloaked in dark robes, Death Knights are an ominous sight on the battlefield. Death Knights rely on a unique resource system that’s based on runes rather than mana or rage. They build up runic power as they’re in combat, and this lets them use some of their more powerful abilities. They also have access to runes that have different abilities; like skills, these runes have cooldown timers that must reset before they can be used again.
New Profession: Inscription
With The Burning Crusade the new profession was jewelcrafting, and with Wrath of the Lich King comes inscription. Or, to be more accurate, with the 3.0.2 patch comes inscription. Already live in the game, the inscription profession allows for a number of useful tweaks for players. Players can make scrolls, like those that boost agility, intellect, stamina and the like, as well as special ones like a scroll of recall that returns you to Stormwind City. On these particular scrolls there’s a warning that they’re unpredictable beyond level 40, something we found out first-hand by having a level 70 character use them and winding up in Tanaris. The standout feature of inscription are glyphs which can be applied to your character to power up existing abilities. For instance, a Glyph of Rejuvenation can be crafted and applied to a Druid for the effect of healing targets for an additional 50-percent health when targets affected by rejuvenation are below 50-percent health. Applied glyphs aren’t permanent; there’s a specific glyph interface that pops up that allows for three major and three minor glyphs to be active at any one time. As of right now, only two major glyphs can be active at one time. The third unlocks at level 80, the new level cap with Wrath of the Lich King. To make a glyph, at least the lower level ones, you need different types of ink and parchment. A few types of parchment can be purchased at a vendor, but the inks need to be crafted from milled herbs. This makes inscription and herbalism go together quite well, as you can mill the herbs you pick up to fashion the inks required for glyphs. Milling herbs is easy; you just click the mill icon then click on an herb stack and if you’ve got enough, the process will kick out a pigment. If you’re beginning with inscription you’ll mill peacebloom, earthroot, and silverleaf to yield alabaster pigment, used to make the lowest level inks. The next tier up requires mageroyal, briarthorn, swiftthistle, bruiseweed, or stranglekelp to be milled into dusky pigment, and occasionally pumps out a rarely obtained verdant pigment, which are then used to turn into different kinds of ink.

Those who take up inscription get the added advantage of creating vellums, parchments enchanters can target with enchants to store for later use. This makes pairing enchanting with inscription useful as you can dump enchants onto a vellum and put the resulting scroll on the auction. So sure, it’ll be expensive to continually buy herbs on the auction house if you pass on an herbalism pairing, but being able to sell enchants as items is a nice alternative for enchanters tired of having to shout out advertisements in crowded city centers.
New System: Achievements
An interesting addition to the game in that they have little to do with the actual gameplay. Like achievements earned through Xbox Live on Microsoft’s console, tasks and goals you complete in the game earn you a points that feed into a total score. The notifications you receive for completing an achievement bear a very similar appearance to the Xbox Live or Steam counterparts as, once you complete the appropriate task, they blossom onto the bottom of your screen with an accompanying sound effect. It’s a satisfying notification, something designed along the lines of the level up sound and visual effect that adds that extra level of a sense of accomplishment.
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Inmate Sues Blizzard Over World of Warcraft

A South Carolina inmate has filed a lawsuit against Blizzard for losing touch with reality thanks to World of Warcraft （ Buy wow gold ）.
Virtual world legal site VirtuallyBlind reports that Lee Riches, a
South Carolina inmate serving a sentence for wire fraud, is suing Blizzard for losing touch with reality because of World of Warcraft and Blizzard. He claims in the filing that Blizzard…
“…caused Riches mind to live in a virtual universe, where Riches explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs. Riches was addicted to video games and lost touch with reality because of defendants. This caused Riches to commit fraud to buy defendants video games. Riches chose World of Warcraft over working a legit job. Riches mind became a living video game.”
Riches has a history of filing such suits and earlier this year filed a similar suit against Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto IV. He has also attempted to sue George Bush, Michael Vick, National Public Radio, Barry Bonds, Plato, and the Eiffel Tower. Yes you read that right, Eiffel Tower.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:47:49 | Permalink | No Comments »

World of Warcraft May Be Used as Army AI Testing Ground

The U.S. Army may use MMO games like World of Warcraft （ Currency：wow gold ）as simulation training for new artificial intelligence that would see use in holographic soldiers for training.
It sounds ridiculous, but it’s straight from the mouth of John Parmentola, the director of research for the Army’s science and technology office.
“We want to use the massively multi-player online game as an experimental laboratory to see if they’re good enough to convince humans that they’re actually human,” said Parmentola according to military blog DoD Buzz, whose report was picked up by gadget blog Gizmodo.
“I actually interact with virtual humans in terms of asking them questions and they’re responding,” stated Parmentola.
Those virtual humans are expected to show up as “photorealistic looking and acting human beings that can think on their own, have emotions and talk in local slang.”
The Army is developing holographic imagery that looks more like reality and less like Will.I.Am through “quantum ghost imaging,” a phenomenon of quantum physics in which visible copies of images can essentially be displaced.
In other Metal Gear Solid 4-esque developments, DoD Buzz reports that the Army is also at work on erasing specific memories to combat post-traumatic stress disorder as well as telepathic communication by converting electrical impulses on the scalp into wireless signals. Adding to that, Parmentola says his department is hopeful about “being able to regrow limbs on people.”
World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has a history of banning AI users, but not outside the context of automating character-building activities like leveling up or making money. But if World of Warcraft is already a virtual front in the War on Terror, it’s only fitting that the good guys should join in that fight.
For those wondering how far off these technologies may be, many of them will debut at the 26th Army Science Conference in
Orlando in December.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:46:23 | Permalink | No Comments »

Warhammer Online Players Streaming Back To World Of Warcraft

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Mike Morhaime has sold his soul to the Devil: The Blizzard CEO announced yesterday that gamers who left World of Warcraft for the greener pastures of Age of Conan or Warhammer Online are already streaming back in droves.
Despite its age, despite the much-ballyhooed launch of competing MMOGs Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, despite a worldwide economic meltdown of epic proportions, Blizzard’s venerable MMOG keeps marching along, seemingly oblivious to it all. The developer announced at the end of October that the game had reached 11 million subscribers, and that number will likely only increase after the launch of the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, just one week from today. Perhaps even more significantly, the launch of the two most likely candidates for “WoW-killer” appeared to have little lasting impact on the game’s momentum.
“Even though the quarter was book-ended by competitors in the MMO space, the World of Warcraft subscriber base continued to grow,” Morhaime said during Activision’s quarterly earnings call. “Age of Conan launched toward the end of the June quarter, and Warhammer Online came out in mid-September. To date, 68% of the players who listed Age of Conan as their reason for cancellation and 46% of the players who listed Warhammer as their reason for cancellation have reactivated their subscriptions to World of Warcraft （ Currency wow gold ）.”
“World of Warcraft also managed to grow its subscribership, despite the Olympics and the summer vacation period,” he added. “At the end of the quarter, World of Warcraft had 1.5 million more subscribers than during the same time last year.”
Morhaime’s numbers support similar comments made by Blizzard COO Paul Sams, who said in October that “well over half” of the people who cited Warhammer Online as their reason for leaving World of Warcraft had already returned to the game. In light of all this, only one question remains unanswered: How is Bobby Kotick going to feel when he finds out Morhaime signed a secret contract with Peter Moore?

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After trying

After trying other MMORPGs like Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, many who canceled their World of Warcraft （ Currency  wow gold ） subscriptions to play these games have now come back to the land of Azeroth.
Since its release nearly four years ago, World of Warcraft has become the modern definition of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). With over 11 million users and second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, hitting store shelves in a week, it seems as though there is no slowing down for Activision-Blizzard’s cash cow.
While WoW, as it’s commonly called, is certainly the elephant in the room when it comes to MMORPGs, several titles have risen to challenge it. Unfortunately, most have failed, some to the point of no return. Hellgate:
London, Age of Conan and Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa were all expected to pull in a respectable user base, but to no avail. Hellgate: London and its developer Flagship Studios are all but defunct.Tabula Rasa never caught on, and Age of Conan, which had high popularity when it initally released, has seen such a drop in users that it needed to combine some of its servers just to keep the game active.
One MMO, Warhammer Online, seemed to have the backstory and userbase to challenge World of Warcraft. With 750,000 users, Warhammer has only been out for less than two months, but user response and growth have been strong enough to indicate that the title will likely not see the same fate as some of its competitors.
Unfortunately for many MMOs, old habits die hard for some WoW fans who ventured into new games. According to Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, many of those who listed Age of Conan and Warhammer Online as the reason they were canceling their $15/month WoW subscription are coming back to the land of Azeroth. “Age of Conan launched toward the end of the June quarter, and Warhammer Online came out in mid-September,” said Morhaime. “To date, 68 percent of the players who listed Age of Conan as their reason for cancellation, and 46 percent of players who listed Warhammer as their reason for cancellation have reactivated their subscriptions to World of Warcraft.”
While exact numbers are not given, these percentages likely represent thousands of gamers who have now flocked back to World of Warcraft. While Age of Conan has essentially dropped off the radar, Warhammer Online seems to be going strong still. The biggest advantage that Warhammer has over WoW competitors is its backstory. Dating back several decades, Warhammer made its name in tabletop gaming and novels. With this in mind, there will always be a group of gamers, even its only considered a niche market, who will be loyal to the forces of Order and Destruction.
With World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King the top pre-order on Amazon, and Wal-Mart’s website also reporting strong pre-order numbers, the question remains: Who will topple World of Warcraft? At this point, it looks as though Star Trek: Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic are the front runners for “the next big thing,” but only time will tell.

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Posted by JImmy at 01:43:54 | Permalink | No Comments »

Activision financials show reliance on WoW, GH cash cows

Activision Blizzard has released its financials for the third quarter, but while things are looking strong, the company is beholden to only a few very large franchises. The company announced revenues of $711 million with an operating loss of $194 million. These financial results were better than expected, and the company has no illusions about where its money comes from: Guitar Hero, World of WarCraft （ Buy wow gold ） , and Call of Duty.
A big chunk of the losses came from “one time costs related to the business combination with Vivendi Games,” and the company has begun to aggressively invest in itself, announcing that the Board of Directors will repurchase up to $1 billion of the company’s common stock.
Digging deeper into the numbers shows just how much Activision Blizzard needs its cash cows. When looking at the report, “MMOG” is listed as providing 42 percent of the company’s net revenues. That means World of Warcraft accounts for almost half of Activision Blizzard’s revenue. With the upcoming release of the Lich King expansion reigniting interest in the title, that number will likely rise even higher. It’s also noted that Guitar Hero, as a line of games, has been the top-selling franchise across every system year to date. Guitar Hero: On Tour was the best-selling DS title this quarter.
Don’t expect these trends to slow down, which is worrying for gamers who are more interested in quality than quantity. Activision Blizzard has promised many more releases for 2009, including multiple Call of Duty and Guitar Hero releases. Guitar Hero is an easy game to cash in on: you simply add new songs, reskin some characters, and release it as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Guitar Hero: World Tour also contained a trailer for Guitar Hero: Metallica, which will feature the metal band’s music and will likely retail for $60, more with a guitar. Guitar Hero On Tour featured a somewhat clunky guitar peripheral on the Nintendo DS, and Activision already has a sequel ready to go with Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades. The company sent us a preview build of the game, and although the track list is strong, the game couldn’t have taken much time or money to complete. New note charts plus a few new art assets = a new Guitar Hero release. Expect a flood to hit the market, and that’s not including hardware, as Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick believes “every man, woman, and child everywhere needs at least nine guitars.”
Following the huge success of Call of Duty 4 and the upcoming Call of Duty: World at War, Activision Blizzard also promises more releases in that series. Blizzard also recently announced the controversial decision to break StarCraft 2 into three separate releases, a move that led to some editorial bickering over whether it was a smart move or yet another way to cash in on the title. If I were a betting man, I would expect more World of Warcraft expansions to be coming down the line as well.
The financials seem sound, and the games have maintained a high level of quality so far, but there is a very real chance of Activision Blizzard running its biggest moneymakers into the ground with too many releases, too soon. Whether gamers will continue to purchase plastic guitars with novelty face plates for band after band, or if it’s possible to create multiple Call of Duty games every year and keep the quality high, are big questions. How Activision Blizzard answers is up to them.
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Posted by JImmy at 01:42:44 | Permalink | No Comments »

One Week Until The ‘World of Warcraft’ Expansion: The ‘WoW’ Gamer’s To-Do List

The second “World of Warcraft” （Currency： wow gold ） expansion “Wrath of the Lich King” is just one week away from release.
Are you ready?
To be sure, I’ve come up with a handy list of things to do in the coming week for both casual and hardcore “WoW” players…
In the game:
- Level up! If you don’t have ten Level 70s like the average “WoW” player, it’s okay. But at least get one character up to 55 if you want to enjoy the new Death Knight class.
- Re-spec your characters. Again, if you haven’t logged on in a while, talent points have been refunded so that players can re-spec their characters according to the new abilities offered in “Lich King.”
- Clean out your inventory. Assess what items you actually need. Wrapping paper? Stacks of Netherweave Cloth? Snowballs? Quest items from quests you don’t even have anymore? Time to get rid of that stuff and make room for more “Lich King”-specific junk. (Or you could buy bigger bags and more bank slots.)
- Clean out your quest log. If you’re like me, some of your quests are completed, but you haven’t gotten around to traveling across the world to cash them in. And if you’ve got quests you’ve been meaning to do but haven’t done yet, now’s the time.
- Achieve. The new Achievements system was implemented in a recent patch, and if you’re an Achievement whore, there’s plenty of non-”Lich King” things you can do. Like read every book in the world (there’s over 40) and explore every part of every continent.
- Get a haircut. The barbershop is now available, so your characters can get their mop-tops trimmed to look good when questing in Northrend.
Outside the game:
- Pre-order the game. This may seem obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway: Avoid long lines, having to go from store to store, and cranky game store employees by pre-ordering the game. Many online outlets offer release date delivery as well.
- Check your computer specs. Is it time for an upgrade? Blizzard games usually don’t require too much but it wouldn’t hurt to see if your rig is up to speed.
- Download the patch. If you haven’t logged on in a while — presumably because you’ve been playing “Warhammer Online” or “Age of Conan” — you’ve got to remember to download the patch. Your guildmates will be half-way to level 80 by the time you’ve finished downloading that 1+ GB patch.
- Ask for time off from work. You can give advance notice or come up with a good excuse to call in sick. No one questions explosive diarrhea or violent vomiting. As for those of you in school: sorry, I can’t condone truancy. Talk to Mom and Dad.
- Spend quality time with your boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband. If your significant other is still a non-”WoW” player at this point, they’re probably not going to start now. Another option is to divorce/dump him/her.
- Exercise and eat healthy. You know how some people, before they get married, diet and exercise so they’ll look good for their wedding? I recommend doing this in preparation for “Lich King.” But instead of prepping for nuptials, you’re getting ready to sit on your butt for three days straight, only occasionally moving your fingers.
- Buy food and other necessities. If you’re not planning to leave the house during launch weekend, make sure you have everything you need. I’d also advise checking that you have an adequate supply of toilet paper.
- Buy a bedpan. That way, your mom can bring it to you every time you need to empty your bowels. (Kidding.)

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Posted by JImmy at 01:40:54 | Permalink | No Comments »