World Of Warcraft Takes The Battle To The Courtroom

The creator of the MMO Glider program which performs key "in World" tasks automatically, such as fighting, is being sued by World of Warcraft maker Blizzard. The company is demanding that Michael Donnelly stop selling Glider and return all profits that he made from Glider sales. Their argument is that the program infringes upon their copyright because it copies the game into RAM to avoid detection by anti-cheat software. The claim is also that the End User License Agreement is infringed upon by anyone who uses the tool. I like his entrepreneurial spirit but I can't stand game players who use these kind of cheats... go get him Blizzard! BBC has more here.

Online games new tool in epidemic research?

The CBC is reporting that researchers at Tufts University are considering online gaming platforms such as World of Warcraft (WOW) and Second Life as a means of studying social interaction and the spread of disease. "By using these games as an untapped experimental framework, we may be able to gain deeper insight into the incredible complexity of infectious disease epidemiology in social groups." The researchers cite a case two years ago where a programming error caused an outbreak of a highly contagious disease within WOW which left thousands of characters dead. See, there are lessons to be learned from game playing!

Free online game, unless you put a price on your time

In the world of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMO), World of Warcraft (WOW) reigns supreme and everyone else is chasing them. In an attempt to attract players, one game company has decided to make their offering free! Free to download, free of subscriptions, free!! ArchLord by Codemasters is your typical hack - slash fantasy role playing game, where you create a character and take on a world of nasty beasts in your quest for gold and weapons, all while teaming up with other players from around the globe. It's pretty, and responsive on my cable connection, and while I've only put a couple of hours into it, I'm hooked!

WOW on the iPhone?

The creator of this video, found on Gametrailers.com, claims to be playing World of Warcraft on his iPhone. I'm not that impressed to be honest, the game play looks incredibly bad... I think I'd be terribly frustrated if this is indeed for real. The system does not seem very responsive, perhaps this is due to the AT&T data network that was complained about during the last TWIT.