The Funeral of WoW Gold

each generation of computers seems to grow smaller and more portable than the last.

For Ben Heckendorn, that size evolution came too late for some models — but with a little creative engineering, he’s figured out how to give yesterday’s computers today’s form factor.

Heckendorn’s business card says he makes a living in design consultation and prototyping. In practice, he’s an independent contractor whose clients hire him to build custom machines, often to make them portable. He starts with off-the-shelf consumer products and, if the circuitry is simple — as with an Atari 2600 video game console (released in 1977) — the end product might be a handheld device with a built-in screen and cartridge slot. More modern hardware, such as a Sony PlayStation 3, could end up looking like a laptop.

Altogether, Heckendorn has already created roughly 200 custom machines from a dozen different computers.

Turning a behemoth of decades past into a laptop is no easy engineering feat. “A lot of things in the ’80s had this mentality where, to make it seem like it was worth the high cost, they would actually physically make it bigger,” Heckendorn said. Sometimes, a Frankenstein’s monster-type patchwork of new and old parts must be assembled to fit into a small case. Old power supplies are swapped out for smaller batteries; archaic floppy drives are replaced with CompactFlash slots. The assembly may be custom, but the individual parts are not.

Heckendorn, whose background is in graphic arts, downplays his engineering skills. “My main skill usually is with aesthetic design, mechanical design, things like that — where I just basically design something that looks good and everything fits.”

Rarely does the final product better the capabilities of the original machine: The CPU isn’t faster, it won’t run incompatible software, and if it didn’t play DVD movies before, it won’t when Heckendorn is done, either. “I think of someone sitting around, eating Cheetos and playing World of Warcraft when I think of overclocking,” Heckendorn said. “It’s always some guy, and he’s got some pile of stupid motherboards in his basement that his wife wants him to clean up — but he never does — and he’s like, ‘I’m going to overclock this toaster so I can play Quake 5!’ Just buy a better computer, moron.”

Likewise, many people who want their Xboxes modified are looking for “mod chips” that bypass various encryptions and allow the console to run pirated software. Forget it, said Heckendorn. “I try to stay on people’s good sides,” he said. “I ran into a Microsoft guy earlier this year, and he told me that they were really happy with the stuff I’ve done. … I buy more Xbox 360s than probably anyone on Earth. It makes people interested in the hardware.”

Instead of enhancing a system’s capabilities, Heckendorn occasionally combines old hardware with other existing products. Last summer, he modified an Atari 2600 game console to accept PlayStation 2 software; earlier this year, he crammed a Microsoft Xbox 360 controller into an Atari 2600 controller’s case.

The quality of his work — and the distinctive results — keep business rolling in. Heckendorn does little to promote his products, and he doesn’t exhibit at conferences or otherwise go out of is way to attract customers. His Web site, benheck.com, is the only online presence he has. “I’m lazy. I’d rather just sit around watching Law & Order.”

Heckendorn has been profiled on G4’s X-Play and The Digital Lifestyle. His laptop Apple IIGS was the cover story of the December issue of retrocomputing magazine Juiced.GS. And a custom controller he designed was featured in the independent film I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell.

That’s enough to keep orders rolling into his
Verona, Wis., home — and enough that he can be picky in which projects to tackle. “The trick is to get me to do something challenging,” he said.

His skills don’t come cheap. Heckendorn charges between $1,500 and $2,000 for each project, with a turnaround time of two to three months.

That’s a lot of money for a computer that can be bought for $10 at a flea market in its original shape. There’s certainly a “cool” factor to owning a one-of-a-kind design, but Heckendorn thinks there’s more to it than that. “People go to the junkyard, get an old car and fix it up. There’s really no point to that, but people do it because they like the car. It connects them to their past, or they want to share with their kids.

“Computers are a lot like old cars. I think that’s what it is — almost a car culture with computers,” he adds.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In an audacious and quite possibly unprecedented move likely to resonate with recession-weary consumers, Coca-Cola will give away a free sample of its Vault brand to anyone who buys PepsiCo’s Mtn Dew.

The aggressive “Don’t Dew It” promotion aims to get die-hard Dew-ers to try Vault, which after three years on the market isn’t just an also-ran to the Pepsi brand; it’s an afterthought. According to Beverage Digest, juggernaut Mtn Dew commands more than an 80% share of the citrus segment, while Vault holds about 4%.

But being No. 2 doesn’t sit well with Coca-Cola, which believes if it can get consumers to taste Vault, they’ll convert. “Simply put, it’s designed to drive Vault consideration and recruitment among Dew drinkers,” said Scott Williamson, a Coca-Cola spokesman. “We believe that when Dew consumers are offered the opportunity that they’ll like Vault better.”

It doesn’t hurt that the product will be given away for free, a tactic that has garnered goodwill and delivered significant return on investment for marketers including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Taco Bell.

Free with purchase
Via Coca-Cola’s promotion, consumers can get a 16-ounce, 20-ounce or 24-ounce Vault free with any purchase of a 20-ounce Mtn Dew. The offer, billed as the “Vault Taste Challenge,” encourages consumers to “Try Vault, with 30% more kick than Dew and a bold citrus taste.” The coupon is good through late July.

“It’s not the largest Vault promo ever, but it’s significant for the brand,” Mr. Williamson said. Coca-Cola declined to comment on the number of coupons being distributed or the overall cost of the program, but industry experts say the price tag will easily be in the millions.

“It’s going to be mighty expensive,” said David Diamond, a marketing consultant and former Catalina Marketing executive. “But as a way to leverage for increased distribution of Vault, it strikes me as very, very smart.”

Another executive in the promotions business called the deal “unusual” and “unique,” noting that it would be too expensive for most other package-goods companies. “Coupons are in vogue, and any time a consumer can buy a product and get another product free, especially with something that is so rapidly consumed, it is a significant value.”

Thanks to the recession, coupon-redemption rates are on the rise, jumping 10% in the fourth quarter after years of declines. Experts estimate redemption of the Vault coupons could reach as high as 40%.

Still strong
Mtn Dew and Diet Mtn Dew are the only brands that managed to hold their own in the beleaguered carbonated-soft-drink category last year. Both Mtn Dew and Diet Mtn Dew gained 0.2% share in the category. Diet Dew also managed to increase volume 3.7%, the only brand in the top 10 to do so, according to Beverage Digest’s take-home data, which excludes Walmart.

As for the company that invented the Pepsi Challenge, it’s unfazed by Coke’s move. “Many companies have challenged Mtn Dew over time, whether it was Surge or Mello Yellow and now Vault,” said Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s VP-portfolio brands. “What we’re seeing now is a last-ditch effort to propel Vault forward in the face of Mtn Dew growth. It’s an interesting tactic, but I think that the Mtn Dew consumer understands that the Mtn Dew product experience is unique.”

Vault’s play might be well-timed. It comes amid a name and design change for Mtn Dew that is proving unpopular with some consumers, who have expressed confusion, saying the new packaging makes the brand look like a knockoff. Those are, to some extent, the same criticisms that last month felled the Tropicana redesign. Peter Arnell, principal of Arnell Group, handled the redesign on both brands, along with redesigns across the PepsiCo portfolio.

“There’s always a concern that when you make changes, particularly fundamental changes, that you can alienate the base,” Mr. Cooper said. “But because we maintain a pretty constant communication channel with this consumer, we feel comfortable about making whatever adjustments are necessary.”

Still, Mr. Cooper downplayed the design change, calling it “incidental,” though complementary, to the brand’s overall efforts. Those efforts include heavy involvement in the gaming space, with an upcoming “World of Warcraft” partnership, and a strong digital presence.

For the most part, I have tried to avoid the common conceit of talking about everything gaming in terms of being a dad. I recall too well hearing far more about other people’s children that I cared to when I had not burdened the world with my own genetic copies, but now that my five year-old has become something of a Padawan gamer himself, I find that he is having as much an impact on me as I on him.

In the simplest terms possible, as a somewhat jaded executive gamer I find that playing with my son lets me inhabit a long lost frame of reference for looking at games, and by doing so I’ve actually found my hobby to be far more entertaining even when playing on my own.

I’ve talked at length about experiences over the past year with World of WarCraft, Fallout 3, Burnout Paradise, GTA 4 and all the staples of what I had considered an otherwise mediocre 2008. What I have not shared as much is that amount of time I have spent with games like Indiana Jones Lego, Mario Party 8, Super Mario Galaxy, Wall-E and Peggle. These are the titles that I share with my son, and often in contrast to their far more high-profile and adult peers, these are the games that populate my fonder memories.

Let it be a given that spending time with my son is immediate bonus points for any game before it has even been torn from its plastic wrapping. I don’t imagine that if I’d sat down alone with Wall-E I’d have come away with quite such a rosy impression. But, even under scrutiny the value and joy of my experiences isn’t so easily dismissed with the tropes of well-spent quality time. In fact, I find that playing games with my son allows me to approach the experience in a new way and gain joy in unexpected ways.

I play like a five year-old.

Let’s compare and contrast. Playing Fallout 3, I was always a man with a purpose. Whether that purpose was to dispatch some violent mutants or plumb the depths of some once vital
Washington landmark, I was always moving forward in the game. There was an overarching goal, and in order to reach that goal I had to meet a series of lesser goals. I was climbing a ladder, focused on the assent and rarely pausing to find out if I can see my house way up this high.

When my son and I began playing Super Mario Galaxy, I initially approached the game in a similar fashion. Each level was a puzzle of a kind, demanding that I complete it and driving me ever forward toward a star so I could unlock new levels to collect more stars. My son, on the other hand, approached the game very differently. At one point I watched him spend two minutes leading a wayward enemy around a tiny planetoid, just to see how long the angry mushroom-thingy would chase him. He laughed. I puzzled.

Twitter is the latest networking phenomenon, but don’t bet on it enthralling you in the hands of politicians, writes Annabel Crabb.

Malcolm Turnbull was booked to speak on Thursday at a technology conference in Parliament House’s under-used theatre. Waiting in the wings, he was already Twittering. That is to say, he was using his Blackberry to fire off bite-sized messages to his 5274 followers on Twitter, the newest social-networking phenomenon.

At 3.33pm his dispatch read: “Lindsay Tanner has been talking about open govt and debate! Had to remind him his boss demanded parlt ok $42b of spend in 48 hrs.”

The Opposition Leader wasn’t alone. Also in the theatre was Stephen Conroy - not the real one, the Communications Minister, but Fake Stephen Conroy, a louche Twitterland Conroy impersonator who has gathered a sizeable following in the online community. “I’m bored,” Fake Stephen yawn-Twittered at 4.45pm. “Someone blog me up a cup of coffee and a Sudoku.”

What is Twitter? It is a social networking site in which participants establish a page and use their spare moments to post messages not longer than 140 characters, describing what they are doing.

If you sign up to “follow” Kevin Rudd on Twitter, for instance, his updates will appear on your page. If he signs up to “follow” you - and such reciprocity is viewed as basic politeness in the emerging world of Twitter etiquette - your updates will reach him.

But don’t get too excited. Rudd’s updates won’t give you sneaky details about what’s for breakfast at the Lodge. His stuff is much more predictable. From early last month comes this taste: “We must act decisively to support jobs, families and the Australian economy in these difficult global financial times.”

Some Twitterers judge that the PM’s Twitters are so tedious that the man himself is not behind them.

“Kevin Rudd clearly has lackeys on the job on his social media accounts,” concluded Jason Wilson, a digital communications lecturer at the
University of Wollongong, in a recent article for New Matilda.

But sources more familiar with Rudd’s proclivities advise that such conclusions singularly misunderstand the nature of the man. “Have you ever heard him speak? That’s Kevin all right,” says one colleague.

Rudd’s Twitter site is operated out of the ALP’s national office, but it is understood the Prime Minister authors some of the direct updates.

Gordon Brown, too, is a Twitterer. His efforts well match his public persona.

Australian politicians, some of whom lurched onto sites such as YouTube and Facebook before the 2007 election, are still a rare presence on Twitter. Turnbull has a longstanding fascination with the internet and a burgeoning Blackberry addiction. He has been Twittering since last October; Rudd is a more recent arrival.

The South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, is one of the more proficient leaders in the medium. Last week he announced the departure of two ministers and the appointment of their successors, exclusively on Twitter. “Did you announce the reshuffle here b4 mainstream media? Way to go,” enthused Twitter user Mark Kemp, one of Rann’s 1118 followers.

“Yes, it’s true - even ministerial reshuffles announced on twitter!” beamed back the Premier.

On Thursday afternoon, Rann compounded the stunt by announcing on Twitter that the South Australian election would be held on March 20 next year.

Barack Obama, of course, was a regular Twitterer throughout last year’s US election campaign, although the stream ceased with his victory.

One of the last messages to his nearly 350,000 followers read: “We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion. All of this happened because of you. Thanks.”

This is the problem when politicians invade Twitterland, feels Laurel Papworth, a social-networking expert and a former telecommunications executive. She’s fortysomething and lives in Bondi, in the real world. In Twitterland, she is known as Silkcharm, “Social Networks Strategist, World of Warcraft addict, goddess of the social media workshop”.

Papworth believes politicians misinterpret Twitter and other social networking websites when they view them as just another way of pushing their message to a new audience. “A lot of them are just using social media sites for broadcast,” she says. “There’s a big difference between that and interacting.”

Obama, she thinks, used Twitter to send out supporters with “pixel buckets” to raise cash, an exercise that - while lucrative - misses the point of the exercise.

In Twitterland Silkcharm commands the attention of more than 3600 followers, including Turnbull.

“I had a funny situation recently where there was a guy over from New York, and I wanted to organise drinks,” she says. Silkcharm sent a message to followers, calling them in for a Tweet-up (an event in which Twitterers actually gather in person). To her surprise, Turnbull responded with apologies, and a request that she ring his office to organise another time.

“I had that bizarre moment when I rang the office and said I was Laurel Papworth, and there was this silence, and then I had to say, ‘Well, can you say it’s Silkcharm?’,” she laughs.

Questions of identity and authenticity are a spiralling problem for politicians as these new modes of communication grow and prosper.

Paul Keating’s treasurer, Ralph Willis, fell for a faked-up letter from Jeff Kennett in 1996, in a blunder viewed by colleagues as foolish. But how would Willis cope today, when missives could come from fake email accounts, fake websites, even quite sophisticated impersonators?

There are two Opposition leaders on Twitter, for example. Turnbullmalcolm is the real one, with 5226 followers. Malcolmturnbull is an imposter, with 267 followers and some quite exotic views on Liberal Party policy direction.

Fake Malcolm twitters happily with Fake Stephen Conroy, and there are occasional interjections from Fake Julie Bishop and Fake Wilson Tuckey.

On Wednesday your correspondent - the owner of a new and eponymous Twitter page - sent a “Tweet” to Real Malcolm. The response came by way of an email from his press secretary. “Just tried to call you re your Twitter,” it read. “Not sure if this is the real deal.” My authenticity was being checked.

That the real Stephen Conroy does not have a Twitter account is probably for the best. Most Twitterland inhabitants seem to be extremely angry about the Communications Minister’s plans to filter internet content, which they say will make the internet run up to 85 per cent slower.

With the subterranean geek army in such a mutinous frame of mind, Conroy’s decision to steer clear is understandable.

“The real Stephen Conroy is aware of the fake Stephen Conroy, and he doesn’t have his own presence on Twitter,” says the minister’s spokesman, who denied the minister was avoiding a virtual showdown with his impersonator.

“Satire is an important part of any healthy democracy,” the spokesman said.

“There are many social-networking platforms available through which ministers can communicate, and we haven’t made a decision on whether or which one should be the way to go.”

For all the pranks and imposters, it is the authentic that followers crave on Twitter. Politicians who post automated alerts and condensed press releases are derided, and those who take the time to answer remarks personally are applauded.

Tasmania’s Premier, David Bartlett, 41, runs a surprisingly frank Facebook page with an enthusiastic 1700-strong following. “David has hit the big time, made it to the cover of the South Australia Ferret News!” announced Wednesday’s update to the page, which is littered with exchanges between the Premier and his friends and constituents.

“David is thinking that swimming with Shane Gould seemed like a good idea at the time,” reads another.

Interactivity seems to be the key.

Papworth, for example, still hasn’t met Turnbull and doesn’t much mind whether she ever does; the important part of their interaction was that Turnbull made the effort to acknowledge her.

For all Twitter’s widgetry, political success on the network depends on the same ingredients as old-style politicking - time and attention. But does anyone want politicians to be glued to their Blackberries all day?

“Some members called it a new age of transparency,” wrote The Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank last week of the Republican Twitter commentary that erupted during Obama’s first State of the Union address.

“But to view the hodgepodge of messages sent from the House floor during the speech, it seemed as if Obama were presiding over a support group for adults with attention deficit disorder.”

The long awaited MMORPG “Darkfall Online,” anticipated by many during its eight years of development as the solution to the “World of Warcraft problem” - a horrifying scenario in which Blizzard continues to pour its vast riches and world class art design into its 12 million-strong MMO, dominating the MMO market for all time - went live on Feb. 26th at 9:
00 a.m. GMT.

Darkfall’s draw is supposedly its basis around “skill-based” roleplaying and combat, pioneered by Quest for Glory, Ultima Online, Asheron’s call, etc. Under this system, the level grind so lamented by WoW players (and therefore nerfed time and time again by Blizzard in their efforts to keep people from finding out that the gameplay in WoW is totally absurd) are done away with, as are developer-prescribed classes, factions, realms or PvP zones.

Instead, the idea is that as a players make these things up themselves - as a player uses a certain weapon, spell or skill, for example, they simply get better at it. Certain skills can be learned from NPCs, others from quests, and still others require prerequisites before they can be mastered.

PvP also involves the ability of the victor to fully loot the loser of all their gear and gold after a PK situation. Furthermore, characters will not be able to walk through one another, making choke points strategically viable. These aspects are part of Darkfall’s larger interest in logistics, strategy and politics in their world, where there are truly no “safe-zones.”

The bad news is that the servers are currently beta, invite-only, and only to Europeans at the moment. No U.S. release date has been scheduled as of yet. As one might expect, Darkfall has been experiencing its share of bugs and server crashes during its first week, but World of Warcraft was no different.

Massively: Behind the Curtain: Just when I thought I was out

It’s funny the things that can suck you right back in, just when you thought you were out.

I’ve been feeling pretty burned out with World of Warcraft over the last couple of weeks, and I wasn’t enjoying the feeling at all. There was a brief interlude where the Argent Tournament piqued my curiosity, so I grabbed the PTR downloader to give that a try. That lasted all of about an hour, when I realised just how long it would take me to download the files. I’m not sure if I should blame BT for my frequently crappy connection speed, or Blizzard because they can’t seem to create a decent downloader. It doesn’t matter really, as I can QQ about both equally.

Then it hit me - burn out didn’t need to be a bad thing. In a shocking turn of events, I decided to actually listen to our readers’ advice, and spend some time with other MMO, and maybe try a change of pace.

FARGO, N.D. – Devin Krauter sits on the end of his bed, tapping buttons on his video-game controller to shoot down alien beasts while chatting with other players through a headset, texting on his cell phone

and talking to a visitor.

The 17-year-old high school junior is ranked by a video game Web site among the best players at “Gears of War 2,” in which soldiers attack the enemy with an assault rifle that has a mounted chain-saw bayonet. He says the game teaches him to think on his feet — and that he thinks about succeeding, not slaying.

That intrigues Microsoft.

The software giant, which publishes “Gears of War,” is studying the reactions of avid gamers to see whether video gaming can promote learning skills that carry over to the classroom.

“We want to figure out what’s compelling about the games,” said John Nordlinger, head of gaming research for Microsoft. “If we can find out how to make the games fun and not make them so violent, that would be ideal.”

Microsoft has put up $1.5 million to start The Games for Learning Institute, a joint venture with New York University and other colleges. The goal of the research is to see whether video games — and not just software specifically designed to be educational — can draw students into math, science and technology-based programs. The institute has begun lining up middle school students to study.

Microsoft isn’t the first to explore whether video games can enhance education. For instance, researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found that playing “World of Warcraft” can encourage scientific thinking. They noted that players used math and models to handle situations in the game’s fantasy world.

Even so, groups that monitor gaming say Microsoft’s entry into this research will bring needed funds and credibility. Many studies so far have focused on educational games, not shooter games.

“There isn’t a lot of good research out there,” said Linda Burch, chief program and strategy officer for Common Sense Media.

Parents also want a closer look at potential long-term psychological and sociological effects on frequent game players.

“I would hope that the goal is to have video games that can help develop reaction and problem-solving skills, without blowing everything up in sight,” said Dave Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis.

Microsoft’s chief researcher, Craig Mundie, said on a visit to the company’s Fargo campus that games could stimulate educational abilities by helping players develop “a higher-order cognitive capability.”

Many shooter games force players to track “how many bullets and bombs and missiles do I have, and how do I spend and where do I go get more,” he said. In “Gears of War,” players must navigate underground tunnels and buildings, monitor weapon systems, gauge their health and find places to take cover.

The idea that there is broader educational value in such activities is sure to find skeptics.

Vince Repesh, a counselor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth, said he fears that gaming is replacing education, not adding to it. He recalled a couple of students coming to him for help after they got hooked on “World of Warcraft.” One student had gone from straight A’s to flunking out.

“I accused him of coming in loaded from smoking dope, he looked so bad,” Repesh said. “Turns out he’d been up for 28 hours straight playing the game.”

Not all gamers develop such extreme problems.

Shelby Cossette, 17, a junior, joined a video-gaming club at Fargo South High School. She said she wanted to meet other gamers and believes it’s a good complement to academics. “I’ve played a lot of puzzle-solving games and they actually help sharpen my brain,” she said.

The club was started by English teacher Chuck Lang. He said he believes Microsoft is doing a good thing in researching the potential of games, even if it might benefit the company through increased sales. “Why not spread this market out?” he said. “Why not promote something where kids are having fun?”