If you're into graphics and are distracted by the bugs found in Blizzard's World of Warcraft, you can wage war against it (like the guys on the left) or you could simply heed the words of blue poster Tigerclaw.

in the forums, he listed down the guidelines that you guys can use when reporting on the bugs found in the game's graphics. Head on over to full article to know more.

It looks like Blizzard is working overtime churning up patches for its bestselling MMORPG, the World of Warcraft. Patch 2.2.2 has just gone up on the live realms and now patch 2.2.3 has gone live on the Public Test Realm (PTR).

Blizzard posters Hortus (on US Realms) and Salthem (on Europe Realms) made the announcement earlier, together with the patch notes:

Bug Fixes

• Clients utilizing OpenGL video modes will no longer experience graphical anomalies and missing textures after minimizing/maximizing the window.
• Fixed an issue that caused Fel Eye Stalks during the Legion Ring event to not despawn when the event is completed.
• Fixed an issue where zoning after mounting and summoning a pet was disconnecting players.
• Fixed an issue where the Shift key would get stuck in game.
• Using a /equip macro while affected by certain crowd control spells will no longer cause the items in the macro to be stuck in your inventory.
• Using very low values for SetScale() will no longer cause Mac users to disconnect from the game.
• Default sound channels have been changed from 12 to 32.
• Microphone resources will no longer be claimed by World of Warcraft when Voice Chat is disabled.
• Sounds will no longer stutter and pause if large amounts of creatures are being hit with AoE attacks from multiple sources.
• Sounds caused by spells cast on or by the player will now play more consistently.

Just bug fixes for this patch, and according to another stickied thread by Hortus, there will be no premades for patch 2.2.3. The blue poster made another thing clear - "There will be no authentication server update for 2.2.3". Here's what that means:

• If you have changed your password since July you may not be able to log into the test realms.
• If your account was inactive or banned in July you may not be able to log into the test realms.
• If you use pre-paid cards to fund your account you may not be able to log into the test realms.
• We expect the next Authentication update to be immediately prior to 2.3

Got all that? Go on over to the World of Warcraft PTR and do your part. In the meantime, we'll be checking out more WoW news so stay tuned.

PLAYXPERT announced in an official press release that their new line of in-game "widgets," uncannily named PLAYXPERT (oh the horror!), for the avid PC LAN and MMO gamer. These little management tools sit inside your game, offering a semi-transparent feature so that they don't obscure your field of view, but still allow you to view content streamed right through.

 

The universal instant messaging and chat system (with VoIP support) is compatible with Xfire, Yahoo!, AOL, ICQ, and MSN engines for IMing or chatting. But the PLAYXPERT platform is especially helpful for World of Warcraft players, since the initial release will come with special features for the successful Blizzard MMORPG. Future support for other popular games will soon be supported through add-on releases to the platform.

Other widgets include the Armory widget, Thottbot Widget, WoWWiki widget, and a WoWhead widget. A Google widget will also be provided so that any game can find key information online without having to ALT-TAB out of the game and launch a browser. Utilizing an in-game overlay technology, the widgets actually are rendered through DirectX (with OpenGL support coming soon) and not through the Windows GUI.

Aimed specifically for the techie, geeky and even hardware enthusiast gamers, other future widgets will include real-time hardware diagnostics. Game stat tracking, clan and team management, in-game music access along with other additional community features are also slated to come soon.

And of course, budding coders can even add their own widgets to the platform without having to tackle the difficulties in coding overlay engines. PLAYXPERT has already published a full application programming interface (API) for the platform so widget coders can get started on their own custom additions to their gameplay experiences.

The latest patch notes aren't up yet on the World of Warcraft website (they still show the ones for PTR Patch 2.0.10, by the way), so here's Drysc to the rescue. He's just posted the current live notes for PTR Patch 2.0.12 on the official WoW forums and, well, here they are:

Mac

• Improved memory usage and stability under Mac OS X 10.4.9 using multi-threaded OpenGL

Bug Fixes

• Attempting to turn in a guild charter with a signature from a player that formed his own guild will no longer result in an inappropriate error message.
• Using the customer support "Auto-Unstuck" will now trigger the one-hour cooldown on the player's hearthstone.

Arenas

• Players will no longer be able to see their opponents in the Combat Log of an Arena match-up before the game starts.

Battlegrounds

• Eye of the Storm: Players should no longer be able to exit the bubble before the match starts.

Mechanar

• The gate at the top of the elevator in Mechanar will now remain open while attempting the gauntlet and after Pathaleon the Calculator is killed.

Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad

• The Escape from Durnholde event will no longer break during the church part of the encounter.
• Various localization fixes have been applied.

These patch notes will be on the official website soon.

 

The Public Test Realms for patch 2.0.7 are now up and running, and those who wish to participate in testing the changes can do so by copying characters and downloading the PTR client. You can do both through the Account Management page at worldofwarcraft.com. The Test Realm Forums are also ready to receive any bug reports and issues that you stumble upon in the patch.

The patch notes for patch 2.0.7 have also been released over at the official WoW website. One of the key changes is that the amount of haste granted by a point of haste rating has now been increased by about 50%. Mac users also get a little something, with new stability improvements in Multi-Threaded OpenGL support on future OS X releases.

The whole Argent Dawn scam issue has also been addressed in this patch. With 2.0.7, players can no longer send gift-wrapped packages via COD. This should fill a lot of people with heaps upon heaps of dashdwhsd.

For the full patch notes, click on the read link below.