Most avid World of Warcraft players don’t wonder too much about what it would be like to truly run as often and as far as their avatars, because a.) that sounds hard and b.) they’re too busy wondering would it would be like to run at all. Nonetheless, some crafty young WoWers managed to hook up a couple of treadmills and joysticks to their computers in such a way as to simulate actually running across Azeroth. Even when some handicaps were programmed into the system, the (sort of) reality was clear: WoW characters are FAST.
The hacking and account stealing has gotten so bad on World of Warcraft that Blizzard has decided to release a hardware authenticator to make sure when you log in, you’re actually not some dude in China who looks like me. (Unless you are.) The authenticator costs US$6.50, and will spit out a six-digit code–much like the Paypal security key–that you enter into your account when you log in. You can use that one authenticator to any number of accounts, so if your whole family plays, you’ll only have to pay once. [Blizzard via Wow Insider - Photo of Consumerist's Popken]
The Germans who hacked a Wii Balance Board from Wii Fit to surf Google Earth have found a much more fun use for the peripheral – running around World of Warcraft. In this follow up video, Simon and Mattieu control a low level gnome exploring Ironforge, avoiding wolves and slamming into tree trunks. Now all they need to do is hack the Wiimote and Nunchuck to understand macros and I will be the fittest WoW player EVER. [Technabob]
When I was talking with the SteelSeries guys about their gear, one thing they were serious about was that gaming is a sport. I scoffed. But, we’ve shown you how to work out with nothing but gaming gear and now PC Mag catalogs eight ways to hurt yourself gaming—like any other athletic activity. Besides sore limbs via Wiitis, there’s Rock Band Hand from too much drumming/strumming, WASD wrist for hardcore PC gamers (and bloggers), Burning Bladder for WoWites, and um, something that vaguely resembles epilepsy for puzzle gamers. Not featured, however, is the most notorious of Wiinjuries:
When you guys filled out our reader survey last year, we learnt a lot about you. Like how some of you are practically dying to spend some of the millions of gold coins you use to swim through every morning to help wash away the feeling of not making more money while you slept. And yes, I am jealous.
The only reason I bring up the absurd wealth of some of you (you know who you are), is because I may have found a way for you to spend some of that cash. eBay user jpaulhenderson5a4e is selling his music collection, which includes more than three million records and over 300,000 CDs for a whopping total of more than six million songs.
If the maths there seems a little bit off to you, it’s because the collection does include many duplicate copies. But still – six million songs! All from the 20th Century, all meticulously catalogued and organised, and currently housed in a climate controlled warehouse.
Taking into account that WoW has over 100.4 gazillion subscribers at last count, we surmise that a drink based on mana potions in the game should sell incredibly well. It’s hard to tell how this thing will taste without actually drinking and subsequently puking it up, but it’s supposed to give you 5-8 hours of uninterrupted “jitter-free energy”.
Torrent sharing group The Pirate Bay has asserted itself as “World’s Largest Tracker,” now claiming over 10 million peers sharing 1 million files. Not only is 10 million more than the population of New York City, it’s just about equal to the user numbers of the most successful MMO on the planet, World of Warcraft, which not so long ago announced the same user milestone…and may have a thing or two to say about The Pirate Bay’s title.
