It’s not difficult to find any number of MMORPGs that look better than World of Warcraft from a technical standpoint. You could argue looking “better” is a subjective matter and I’d agree as someone who is a big fan of WoW’s art style, but that doesn’t change the fact that the game absolutely has room for improvement. The concept of updating a game’s graphics engine isn’t completely unheard of (see: EverQuest), and WoW is actually receiving a facelift (to an extent) in the upcoming Wrath of Lich King expansion.

Surprisingly enough, that’s not all Blizzard has in store for graphical improvements, but we shouldn’t count on being blown away by a single gargantuan upgrade. Lead producer J Allen Brack clarified some recent comments on the subject:

First off, we do have some graphics updates coming with Wrath of the Lich King, namely in three areas: shadow system, shader technology, and view distance. The shadow system will greatly improve the look of existing shadows, and players will be able to display both character and structure shadows. The new shader technology we’ve implemented enables the team to create even better looking terrain, as well as some cool ice effects. And, the view distance has been increased, so players will be able to see farther than ever before in Northrend.

Right now our focus is on collecting beta feedback and getting Wrath of the Lich King ready to go for launch, so we’re not ready at this point to talk about specific plans for future expansions. However, it’s important to note that in general we’re taking an iterative, organic approach to graphics upgrades, going feature by feature as opposed to thinking in terms of an overall “new graphics engine.” For example, we’ve discussed plans for new visuals for water, but this would be for a future content update or expansion. We also have other ideas for technical and visual improvements, but these would be for future updates/expansions as well.

So there you have it. I’ll be very happy to have greater draw distance once Lich King releases, and the prospect of seeing further graphical improvements is absolutely something I’m looking forward to.

But to you, dear World of Warcraft fan/Gaming Today reader, I ask: would you welcome graphical updates to the game or do you consider yourself a purist who doesn’t want to see the game touched?

I think many an innocent childhood ended about the same time Bambi’s mother was shot in the classic Disney film. Well now it looks like the tables have turned, and Bambi…er, “Bambina” may get a chance for revenge in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King. WoW has always been known for it’s humorous pop culture references, and it looks like the new expansion may bring even more to the table; including this homage to a certain orphaned deer. But instead of going off and crying when her mother is killed, Bambina will strike back at the hunter. If “Mother of Bambina” is killed, then Bambina transforms into “Vengeful Bambina,” and apparently goes all Steven Seagal on you. No word yet on what sort of stats or loot this new NPC may possess, but rumors are already swirling that it may be a pretty powerful foe. Now if they can just include a battle where I can fight the giant-sized Ursula from The Little Mermaid, then they’ll have covered all my childhood scars marked by Disney movies.

Via WoW Insider

Sometimes a video surfaces that makes me question the direction that humanity is headed. Granted, there are wars, famine, and species going extinct daily, over population, and high gas prices causing devastation and economical stress across the globe. So if you look at the world in that respect, two strange men donning wigs and attaching a treadmill to WoW in order to race across Azeroth is inconsequential. But sometimes, I just do not understand what compels people to broadcast their silly antics online and pretty much guarantee that they will never get a date again as long as they live.

Thanks: VG247

Manchester University has released the results of a study on the Gold Farming industry that guesstimates its profits at $500,000 a year. According to the study, titled “Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on ‘Gold Farming’: Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games,” the industry employs 400,000 people world wide who take home an average of $125 a month.

Manchester University’s Richard Heeks told BBC News that although the study is sound, the Gold Farming industry is “a digital underworld populated by scammers and hackers and pornographers” so it’s hard to nail down exact figures.

“It seems unlikely to be less than $200 million per year, and it could well be more than $1 billion per year,” he said.

At those figures, you’ve got to wonder why every time you log into Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft or any number of other MMOs you’re assaulted with offers as soon as you step inside civilization. Of course 80% of Gold Farmers are Chinese and their cost of living and standards of comfort can be quite different than those in the US.

Although the “services” Gold Farmers offer are annoying to most, they couldn’t exist without a demand. Steven Davis, chief of game security firm Secure Play agrees that it’s not likely this plague on MMOs will die out anytime soon.

“When you get people with more money than time and time than money the two will find a way to meet,” he said.

“You could get rid of it,” he said, “but you would get rid of one of the most fundamental parts of player-to-player interaction.”

I do not play World of Warcraft, although I have had many gamer friends try and talk me into playing it. While I do like to look at the screens, trailers, and the funny images posted online, I just have no desire to immerse myself in another MMORPG at this time. Today, however, Blizzard released the new Wrath of the Lich King Intro Trailer from Games Con ‘08; and to say that it got me pretty excited for an expansion that I would not normally bat a well-groomed eyelash at is an understatement.

However, that being said, that is the purpose of any great trailer and this one is no exception – gave me goosebumps actually. Plus, it is probably one of the coolest trailers I have ever seen.

Blizzard is pulling out all the stops with their new expansion, what with the necromantic Death Knight as a new character class; the added Northrend map which is the domain of  the Lich King; level caps of 80 with new powers and talents; destructible environments; the new “Inscription” profession and many more goodies.

Wrath of the Lich King is expected to be made available for both the PC and Mac on November 3, and if this trailer shows us anything, it’s that gamers are in for one hell of a ride.

An optimistic look at the effects of videogames on players has been offered by the American Psychological Association via the Associated Press. The APA goes as far as to refer to videogames as “powerful learning tools.”

Researchers gathering in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed a series of studies suggesting that video games can be powerful learning tools — from increasing the problem solving potential of younger students to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.

Evidence that playing videogames improves surgical skills is so strong, surgeons may just want to start listing their playtime experience on their resumes.

“The single best predictor of their skills is how much they had played video games in the past and how much they played now,” said Iowa State University psychologist Douglas Gentile. “Those were better predictors of surgical skills than years of training and number of surgeries performed,” Gentile said. “So the first question you might ask your surgeon is how many of these [surgeries] have you done and the second question is, ‘Are you a gamer?’”

However, the APA isn’t just talking about edutainment and simulators put purely entertaining videogames as well. The article cites studies on players of MMOs, particularly World of Warcraft.

Researchers looked at a random sample of 2,000 discussion posts about the popular multiplayer online game World of Warcraft to see what the players were talking about. The game is set in a fantasy world where players hunt, gather and battle to move their characters to higher levels. Players who work together succeed faster.

The study found the game encouraged scientific thinking, like using systems and models for understanding situations and using math and testing to investigate a problem.

Not all of the studies show videogames in such a positive light. Behavioral studies on subjects who played violent videogames are still grim.

Other studies confirmed earlier research that found students who played violent games tended to be more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games.

Still I wonder if the studies in question prove that violent videogames make players more aggressive, or that people with more aggressive personalities chose to play violent videogames. I would like to see personality profiles of the subjects before and after exposure to violent videogames. that would be more convincing proof that these games are actually changing the players’ natural tendencies.

Gamers who were saddened over tickets for BlizzCon 2008 selling out so quickly due to both the overwhelming response and technical difficulties encountered when trying to order them can rejoice. Blizzard is now offering another 3,000 tickets up for fans wanting to attend the event at the Anaheim Convention Center from October 10-11.

In the wake of all the gamers left out in the cold, company boss Mike Morhaime has issued a public apology over on the official BlizzCon site where he states that Blizzard has reevaluated the space within the convention hall and feels confident that another 3,000 rabid fans can be packed into it.

“Due to these circumstances, we’ve reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale. We know this will not be enough to satisfy the very high level of demand for tickets this year, but we want to ensure that BlizzCon remains a great experience for those of you who are able to attend.”

These extra tickets will be sold via a lottery which is only open to those who created a Blizzard account before 9:00 p.m. PDT on August 12, which is when the “Sold Out” notice crushed the hopes and dreams of many.

While it is obvious that and extra 3,000 tickets will not help curb the demand for such a popular event, it is comforting to know that the folks at Blizzard are doing all they can to try make everyone happy. Don’t you wish that all gaming companies were this thoughtful and appreciative of their fans?

Tickets for BlizzCon 2008 are on sale at Blizzard Entertainments Blizzcon 2008 site. The site opened for sales yesterday but went down due to difficulties meeting the load of purchase requests. The site is back up and ready to take your ticket order for BlizzCon 2008 which runs October 10-11th at the Anaheim CA convention center. Admission to the third annual BlizzCon event will run you $100.

Good news for soon-to-be World of Warcraft Achievement whores: Many of the Achievements in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion will be retroactive, meaning you won’t need to go back and re-do old missions or tasks to earn the respective Achievements. Blizzard has been tracking all of this data, so as soon as you boot up the game, you might unlock any number of Achievements just for having played WoW and The Burning Crusade previously.

“We retroactively track any quest Achievements or any Achievement for an item which is either on your character or in your bank,” World of Warcraft designer Jeff Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer. “There are a lot of Achievements based on stuff like honorable kills or reputations. We have all that tracked.”

Kaplan explained that there are, however, certain Achievements that won’t be instantly unlocked even if you’ve fulfilled the criteria previously. “There’s a quest associated with killing Onyxia, like the turn-in-her-head quest,” Kaplan gave as an example. “We know if you’ve done that, but the problem is, not everybody who’s killed Onyxia has necessarily gotten the head and turned it in. So there’s a fairness issue. It’s like, ‘Well, I raided with these guys but Bob got the head and then he turned it in.’ And then when the Achievement goes live, his Achievement will be filled out but mine won’t. So there might be understandability issues there like, ‘Well, how come he got it but I didn’t?’ So that’s something we’re actually feeling out in the beta. I’m torn on that right now.”

Adding Achievements to a game like World of Warcraft is a surefire way to add to the ranks of perpetually pale-skinned addicts that the game already has already created. At the very least, this will make things easier on the Achievement whores.

image via MTV Multiplayer

For the past few years, achievements have been all the rage on Xbox 360. The recent PS3 v2.4 firmware update added in support for trophies, Sony’s answer to achievements, and PlayStation Home has promised to make trophies a big deal.

So imagine the possibility of achievements in World of Warcraft; a scenario we learned would become reality with the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. As it turns out, there’s more to Blizzard’s plans for achievements than just tacking on some goals to their insanely popular MMO — Diablo III and Starcraft II will be getting in on the achievement love, too.

“Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system,” WoW lead designer Jeff Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer.

With these new Blizzard Accounts, you’ll be able to earn points to add to your “Blizzard Level,” which Kaplan admitted is “basically a gamerscore” when the subject of Xbox Live’s system came up.

“For now the points are just a WoW character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level.”

He added, “Your WoW score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW.’ That sort of thing.”

Sounds great, but wouldn’t it be better if this were plugged into Live where you could track achievements and points across a larger spectrum than just the latest Blizzard titles?