Ever been as curious as to how Blizzard's The Warcraft Armory database uses "Relevance"? You may have, since there are times when searching for a World of Warcraft character sometimes yields different search rankings when you decided to search for it again. What changed significantly wasn't the information within the document (although over time, it does); it was the percentage followed by the field "Relevance".

Yahoo! Search has it and so does Google Search. So you can be sure that The Warcraft Armory for World of Warcraft would have it, too. "Relevance" is commonly used as a way to rank potential matches based on your search parameters, such as the exact spelling and arrangement of words in a search phrase for instance.

Then why does an exact character search phrase yield a search list ranking the intended page on number eight - even if it came up as item number one earlier? Because much like Yahoo! or Google, the Armory's Relevance ranking changes over time. This has much to do with other factors that affect the Armory's relevance values.

And going through the Armory's FAQ, you can find that these factors would also affect relevance: the level of the character and the last login time of the character. So expect that two characters of the similar name - yet different realms - would result in one character ranking higher than the other, because the higher ranker logged in two hours ago while the lower ranked character logged in three days ago.

 

Okay, this may cause some alarmists to scream "Big Brother!" so before all the speculation, here are the known details - just so all you privacy advocates can relax a bit.

Google has filed a patent that reveals that they plan to compile psychological profiles of millions of gamers by covertly monitoring the way they play online games. Now you may think that this only concerns folks who play MMOs on their PCs, however, the patent apparently says that Google can also monitor people playing on any game console that hooks up to the internet, including the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft Xbox 360.

What's even more hair-raising is that it says that information could be retrieved from previous game details saved on memory cards. To quote: "Such saved information may be thought of state information, and offers a valuable source of information to the advertisers." Yes, if you've played 350 hours of Oblivion, they'll know. Yep, the patent is that creepy; it even says:

In a car racing game, after a user crashes his Honda Civic, an announcer could be used to advertise by saying 'if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the better of that altercation', etc... If the user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display ads for Pizza Hut, Coke, coffee.

Now here's why we're asking all those privacy advocates to calm down and not cry foul. Google has said that they do not plan to roll out the technology in the near future. They say that it was just one of the patents that they wanted to file. The Guardian reports that a Google spokesman had this to say: "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them."

So no, Big Brother, er, I mean, Google isn't watching you. Not yet. *insert cheesy B-movie sci-fi music* It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

At Daily Gaming News, we found something thoroughly amusing - and what's more amusing? Some people actually believed it to be true. Well, the premise is pretty real and the subject absolutely hilarious.

Poster Andrew tells about a World of Warcraft gamer named John Harrison who was devastated when he discovered that his long time WoW girlfriend (Chelxai) was actually a dude. The relationship apparently blossomed at Elwynn Forest and spanned over a long period of time. (This writer found it really funny, though we discussed this kind of thing as irksome when you happen to be a real girl gamer.) Anyway, as the story goes, the guild officers knew about the Chelxai's gender and kept that amazing piece of info to themselves.

The masquerader even got the poor Harrison pay for his subscriptions and send a video cam and microphone. Well, good thing it's fake (we couldn't help checking Google and the Armory, even when the writer said that it was fake) or the poor John Harrison would be the laughing stock of eight million or so other Blizzard subscribers. Anyway, let this serve as a lesson to all online players around - there are girl gamers around but please know how to distinguish them before you go into a relationship.

PC World, a global computer magazine, has recently named some of the most influential people on the internet. Net heads, here's the top five of a list of those persons who move and shake the internet; we've arranged them from the fifth to the first for emphasis.

5. Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia - Admit it:  whatever piece of information that you get/cite, trivial or otherwise, often  comes from Wikipedia. It's even been cited in more than 100 US court decisions since
2004.

 4. Mike Morhaime, President of Blizzard Entertainment - Some say that there are only two MMO's: WoW, and everything else. Eight million people (and still counting) plus a chance to obtain the Blade of Eternal Justice put this guy at number 4.

3. Bram Cohen, Co founder of BitTorrent - This math and programming whiz kid put up BitTorrent, a way to download large files (like movies) by sharing the burden across hardware and bandwidth.

2. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple -  DRM-free music and internet browsing through iPhone puts him on top - again.

1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, Executives of Google - The most trafficked site on the internet is bound to influence internet users the most.

Voice changing software are fun to use sometimes, especially since the person you're talking doesn't see you. If the person you're talking to is also using a voice changer is beside the point.

Screaming Bee LLC has announced that its free voice changing software, MorphVOX Junior works with Microsoft Vista. It's a free Windows tool that morphs voices into a setting of choice. MorphVOX Junior features three fixed voices (man, woman, tiny people), four sound effects, easy to use controls, "enabled to broadcast" sound effects, and works well with Vista. There's also a built in Voice Doctor that analyzes the input speech and adjusts the output.

Gamers would find the push to talk function and key mapping very useful as it is relatively easy to use. Additional sound effects, voices, and after effects can be added by upgrading to MorphVOX Classic (US .95) or Pro (US .95). The latest version of Junior also has improved sound quality and allows for easy control over a microphone and recording source.

This software can be used both for chat programs like Xfire, TeamSpeak, Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Messenger, Roger Wilco and Ventrilo, and online games like World of Warcraft, EVE Online, EverQuest 2, Guild Wars, and Counter Strike.

So how about changing your foxy female Blood Elf voice into a guy's?

Here's a new twist for the old online voice chat system of your choice. A company called Audio4fun has just announced the release of AV VoizGame, their new voice changer software.

AV VoizGame is a voice changer software which morphs game players' voice to various voice outputs. It has preset nickvoices: five for male input voice (prudent girl, pleasant girl, balance girl, dear granny, school mistress) and five for female input voice (boy, child, young man, amorous man, cool man).

I know, the input and output voices don't match (a school mistress preset for a male input voice?!?), but that's how it was presented in the press release. According to the press release, users can "modify their real voices to match their characters or create some humorous voices to funnily flirt people." Or stalk someone (using a "dear granny" voice preset, no less!).

Currently, AV VoizGame is compatible with most chat applications such as Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Ventrillo, TeamSpeak, etc. and Online Role Playing Games like Counter-Strike, World of Warcraft and many more. The software can be used when chatting alone or playing an online game with a voice chat forum.

You can buy AV VoizGame at the Audio4fun website for US$ 23.96 (the original price is US$ 29.95, but apparently they're offering 20% off the list price). Check it out.

This latest development could be the last straw between reality and virtual reality: Imagine a virtual world - Elona, Plane of Knowledge, Azeroth... Ah! That last one sounds rather familiar. And we're telling you, it's about to get more familiar not only among MMO players but among non-players as well.

The fictional continent of Azeroth in the World of Warcraft now has an area that uses Google Maps API. The map, if we may add, is amazingly accurate. Accordingly, there are over 15,000 data points covering 69 resources with their exact map location in the WoW database.

Aside from that, players can also display herbs, ore, treasure, zone names, and city names. Speaking of herbs, some of the more known ones that could actually be mapped include Arthas' Tears, Black Lotus, Blindweed, Briarthorn and Bruiseweed among others.

The said development is quite important at this point because of the opening of the Outlands for the expansion The Burning Crusade. As all WoW hardcore gamers know, the mysterious Outlands has been mentioned a lot of times before but it is only until now that players are allowed to venture in it.

Ever get an annoyingly catchy song stuck in your head - that one that kept replaying in your mind again and again and again, and wouldn't stop until you found an even catchier tune once-again soldered unto your cranium? Repeat, rinse process. Okay, we like Weird Al, and we're definitely fans of "White and Nerdy", but it looks like somebody's decided to grab another one of his funky songs, and adapted it for other uses.

We found this vid over at Google video, and it's a music vid of Wired Al's "Hardware Store" rendered into Blizzard's World of Warcraft. The whole thing's "filmed" in the Stormrage server (EU), and was shot by Phoenix guild's Slegg, Maere, and several other buddies who "stood in" for the video prod. The vid's a bit old (posted June 26, 2006), but like all catchy tunes, we're sure it'll stick to your head in no time...along with images of dancing Orcs and trolls...

Make sure you got Google video player set up before you download.

Download [Weird Al's Hardware Store song for WoW]

Remember all those light bulb joke we've been hearing? There's all sorts of variations, like how many lawyers, nuns, or philosophers, or Republicans (It's election season) it'll take to change that glowing yellow filament.

With every new cultural trend that pops up, there's always gonna be new material to come in to keep this gag going, as lame, corny, or goofy as some of them can be.

Well, from the looks of it, WoW's getting into the act, as we found this long post by Eyonix of the WoW official boards. This list is his take on this age-old joke (take your time - 'tis a monstrously long list):

How many World of Warcraft posters does it take to change a light bulb?

• 1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed .
• 6 to share that they were the first to read and respond to the light bulb being changed.
• 5 to convey dissatisfaction for failing to be the first to read and respond to the light bulb being changed.
• 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.
• 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
• 7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.
• 5 to flame the spell checkers.

More light bulb jib-jabs after the jump!

Before the advent of internet or computer for that matter, have you ever imagined how it is for our grandparents? We reckon research and studying were a lot harder. With no Google, Yahoo or Wikipedia to rely on, our grandparents had to made friends with good old Collier and Britannica. We're not saying it was sad or anything. We are just saying it was a lot harder.

Fate sometimes has a weird way of circling back on us. Take for example the superstar MMO World of Warcraft. It started out as a game. Then it was followed by three more full titles and three expansions. Today more than anything, it is more of a lore or universe in itself. It accepts new realities, follows different rules. Developer Blizzard is wise to compile and put down everything before it slips out of their hand or something is forgotten.

Warcraft Encyclopedia. An online collection that contains information about Factions, Immortals, Mortal Races, Languages, Vocations and the whole of Warcraft universe in general. It will be updated as needed probably quite a number of times in a year. Also, there would be a featured article every now and then. This development is indeed good news for fans of this massive, massive game. Veteran players may get sentimental reading about things they'd grown to love while newcomers will be briefed accordingly.