World of Warcraft''s Wrath of the Lich King expansion is sure to usher in an epic new era in the virtual world forged by Blizzard. One of the new things in this expansion is the implementation of Achievements that will give players bragging rights. Lead game designer Jeffrey Kaplan tells us a little something about it in the full article up ahead.

After weeks of anticipation, hints and hype, Blizzard has finally released the notes for World of Warcraft's Patch 2.4! One of the bigger updates is that the PTR will now be available to all US, European and Korean players without any regional restrictions. Check out the patch notes for 2.4 in the full article!

It's a growing pain that some classes just seem to be laid out for a single gender, but they still remain that way anyhow. Blizzard's World of Warcraft may be a newcomer to the MMORPG scene - and a successful one at that - but it isn't immune to the MMO issues regarding sexism, no matter how light it may be ("over-generalization" if you would like to put it softly) be.

 

Irelance of Moonrunner may consider himself/herself as a sexist for assuming healers to be female gamers and warriors to be male gamers, but then so do millions of other people in numerous other MMOs in the world to date. Is it so impossible to accept that maybe women can handle well as a brawny melee fighter and some men feel more helpful as a supporter of a great party of players?

Some games such as Wizet's MapleStory and Aeonsoft's Flyff (Fly for Fun) managed to effectively blur that line, with many male gamers coming out as clerics or supportive classes - and effective ones at that. So skillful the female gamers became in melee and tanking, that rogues and the favorite warrior classes appear equally populated with women.

Yes, some games may be more openly sexist than they should be, though they don't attempt to be purposely. Games such as Gravity's ROSE Online Evolution may be a tough one to crack, especially if you've had nightmares after watching a man clad in the controversial Mana Steam gear pass you by.

 

It may not seem right that a male, or even a male character for the most part, can't become part of a particular class without passing off as a woman at their highest level, but it goes for ROSE and it may not stop there. Should healers be generalized as a female class and warriors accepted as a male-only class? That dear readers is left for you to discuss.

Keep this up and the PC Gaming section here at QJ might have to drop the Windows tag. Well, might. CodeWeavers' CrossOver Linux application allows Linux users to enjoy Windows-exclusive programs on their OS. Sort of like PlayStation gamers being able to enjoy Xbox-exclusive titles (and from here we say no more, lest we brew up someone's wrath by the mere suggestion).

Their latest version of CrossOver Linux, v6.0, is also the first to offer official support for Steam-powered Windows-based games. Yes, this includes Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Valve's Half-Life, among others. Steam-downloaded demos of these two, along with Heroes of Annihilated Empires and Medieval II: Total War have been tested and found working.

Quite the interesting find. CrossOver Linux 6.0 comes in Standard for US$ 60.00, and Professional for US$ 70.00. Version 6.0 has "moderate hardware requirements, and most Linux distributions should satisfy its software requirements". Aside: wonder if this will work in PS3 Linux? If the thought of WoW working on Wii would cause Blizzard's Jonathan LeCraft to toss his cookies, the potential thought of having it run on a PS3 via CrossOver Linux might just give him a heart attack.

Scammers are downright despicable, people who hoodwink others to get whatever they want. Apparently, they're perfecting their phishing methods now. Nope, they won't need fishing poles for that. What they need is bait.

Phishing or spoofing is one method scammers use to con players into giving their account information like account names and passwords. How? They send spam emails that look like official email. They also mimic official websites that forward players to a different site. Phishing is one of the top security problems encountered by gamers and internet users alike.

It seems that scammers have taken Valve Corporation's Steam and World of Warcraft as a good phishing spot. Fraudulent emails were reported by Gamespot and were compared with the real thing. Blizzard says that it's one of their biggest security problems, along with Trojans disguising as add-ons and hacks.

Blizzard reminds players of suspicious emails and websites asking for account info. According to a Blizzard rep, "People should be suspicious of anything that doesn't come from a Blizzard.com email address, or attempts to forward you to a site that isn't Blizzard.com or worldofwarcraft.com." Players are advised to check questionable mail and forward it to - billing@blizzard.com - and wait for a message confirming it's legitimacy before doing anything.

While action is being taken to prevent these scams from happening, players should still be wary and should take good care of protecting their account information.