Is there a possibility that World of Warcraft's much-anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion will be exclusive to PCs running on Windows Vista? According to a recent tidbit of speculation over at the WoW Forums, this might be the case. The exact details regarding this matter are in the full article.

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.

Having trouble trying to get your World of Warcraft Addons to work? While these player tools are a handy way to maximize the way you handle your character, admittedly, they're fiddly to install.

And when you do fail to install the Addons properly, the side-effects can range from it not appearing on your character screen, or worse, mess up your game graphics.

Now, in case you're one of the guys who's been having installation problems (or an error message), Blizzard spokesman Mikepl over at the WoW forums dropped off an Addon installation guide you may want to read. Here's the basic installation instructions:

1. Navigate to your World of Warcraft directory.
2. Remove or rename the WTF, CACHE, and INTERFACE folders.
3. (Note: After this step Windows Vista users will need to restart their system)
4. Next log in to the game with any character. This will recreate the three folders.
5. Now please exit the game.
6. Install the UI mods you wish to use. By default, all UI mods should be installed in the Interface folder. If you are not sure how to install your UI mods please contact the publisher of your mods. Technical Support does not offer assistance with UI mods.
7. Log back in to the game and pull up the Character Selection Screen.
   

If you pulled off the installation properly, you should be able to see the Addons button on your Character Selection screen (Step 6). We imagine that this short guide should help clear up some of the more common problems the players encounter. Of course, it pays to keep your Addons updated.

One of the more important things to keep in mind while playing World of Warcraft is to keep your chat boxes open. Needless to say, this option allows you to communicate with other WoW players for raids, general conversations, and whatnot. However, player Forma from the official WoW community forum claims that he's having some problems with the said feature since patch 2.1.

The problem actually concerns chat boxes' opacity. According to Forma, the opacity setting doesn't apply to the chat box when more than one is opened. Blizzard's Nickjs suggested that the problem might be caused by add-ons or temporary corrupted files in the WTF, CACHE, and INTERFACE folders from the World of Warcraft game directory.

If the latter is indeed causing the problem, what you should do is remove these folders entirely and recreate the Chat Windows. Nickjs also added that third party programs like custom UIs sometimes create these issues as well. The forum moderator also reminded Forma that Windows Vista has known issues with WoW.

Accordingly, when you installed the game in the C:Program Files or C:Program Files (x86) folder, the settings applied might not always turn out okay. A more detailed explanation is as follows:

• Resetting settings or settings that does not apply properly - Vista may deny you write access from the World of Warcraft folder if it is installed in the Program Files folder. You can remedy this by either right-clicking the game and selecting "Run as administrator" or to move it outside of the Program Files folder.
• Settings and mods that won't stay deleted - If you installed the game in the Program Files folder, Vista may redirect the game to look in another set of folders: c:UsersAppDataLocalVirtualStoreProgram FilesWorld of Warcraft. It will save all of your custom configurations there instead of the C:Program FilesWorld of Warcraft folder. You can delete your settings by going to the folder above or moving the game outside of the World of Warcraft folder.

 

Some players have complained about a problem with regards to the handshaking process in World of Warcraft. Those who have been affected by it shouldn't despair though as Bloodshot from the Death and Taxes guild and Triselly posted a fix on this for users who use XP, Macs, and Windows Vista. Sorry Linux people, if you're being plagued by the handshaking problem, just flush your DNS cache and hope for the best. Anyway here's the fix:

For Windows XP:

1. Close the game.
2. In Windows click Start, run..., in the window type cmd and press enter.
3. In the new window type: ipconfig /flushdns

Alternate Fix: Go to "My Computer" -> "Control Panel" -> "Network Connections" -> right click your LAN or Wireless Connection -> Select Disable, then re-enable it.

If you are still unsuccessful, reset your modem/router, then perform the instructions again. As explained below in the thread, some ISP's hold the cached DNS data for longer periods of time; therefore, this will not work for you, YET. There isn't much you can do apart from trying again later.

Mac version (Triselley)

1. Close WoW.
2. Open Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities
3. Type: lookupd -flushcache

For Windows Vista:

1. Click the Microsoft Vista Start logo in the bottom left corner of the screen
2. Click All Programs
3. Click Accessories
4. RIGHT-click on Command Prompt
5. Select Run As Administrator
6. In the command window type the following and then hit enter: ipconfig /flushdns

That said go forth and play your problems should be solved. If not, then you'll have to contact Blizzard on this one. Keep checking back here for more news on World of Warcraft.

Following an official announcement by Big Blue Blizzard, World of Warcraft's Technical Support and Billing & Account Services now run for five days in a week for 12 hours straight.

So from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific Time (PST), you'll be able to be put on hold for 12 hours straight following an account reactivation that is already days late - or something like that.

Sarcastic humor aside, at least now people will have a larger time slot to get hold of some aid if they're account gets jacked by a keylogger author, if their spanking brand new 8800 GTX doesn't seem to break 30 FPS on Windows Vista, or if they're just lonely and need someone to talk to.

After all, just like what Kiyo of Smolderthorn said, "More support hours is always good." We couldn't agree more. And just in case you haven't pegged these notes to your walls, we're jotting them down here for a dded reference:

Contacting Technical Support
Phone Support: 949-955-1382
Email Support: support@blizzard.com
World of Warcraft Email Support: wowtech@blizzard.com

Contacting Billing & Account Services
Phone Support: 800-592-5499
Email Support: billing@blizzard.com

And yes, they've got spam mail protection, so don't even think about it. Thanks to Ceasar S. for the tip! Whoa, wait, I am Ceasar S. Boo yeah!

Every single World of Warcraft addict player is either a member of the Alliance or of the Horde. But regardless of allegiances, every player wants to get the best possible gameplay experience by having the best hardware system possible. In this case, AlienWare PC units are probably one of the most suitable systems out there today.

No, we're not selling AlienWare items, and no, they're not paying us for this. It's just that the company has teamed up with Blizzard on various occasions now whenever the latter comes up with contests and competitions. Anyway, AlienWare recently announced that these units have been customized for players depending on the side they're playing for.

 Here now are the specs of an AlienWare WoW PC:

• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700
• Dual 640MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
• Exclusive AlienFX lighting control
• 2GB DDR2 PC-6400 SDRAM at 800MHz
• 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM
• Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
• Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse

Also, these systems come in either blue or red. Just imagine being with the Horde and playing with a blue unit. It just feels weird. Anyway, try your luck in those contests and you might win one of these. If you aren't so lucky, you can still get them for £ 2,499.22 or US$ 4,870. These AlienWare PCs will be shipped starting March 5.

We will  be featuring another batch of World of Warcraft mods in a minute, so keep yourselves perked  as we introduce today's three choice cuts for your gaming pleasure.

First up is Aquendyn' SuperMacro mod, which should be a handy upgrade for the more writing-intensive adventurers among us. Features included are its ability to show all 18 global and 18 character macros, and its ability to exceed the game's 256 macro limit.

Second, we have something for the more-health conscious players by way of  StrifeCUK's HealBot mod, all readied up for your next Burning Crusade Outland adventure. This allows characters to automatically activate a sequence of buff and heal spells of their choosing, leaving your hands relatively free to do something else (like killing the attacker).

And lastly, for the Mod-savvy gamers, we announce the introduction Amthea's UI Central 3.0, a mod manager app that informs you of any new version of whatever mod you're carrying, and auto-installs them for you. Just make sure have .NET Framework 2.0 from Microsoft installed - the app also auto-installs that in case you don't have it. Amthea says the mod should work fine with Windows Vista, so you shouldn't have to worry about compatibility issues. As always, we strongly advise the players to click on the README and related texts you may find in the bundles - the devs have a lot of extra notes to explain what these mods can do. Enjoy the download!

Download:[SuperMacro 4.02]
Download:[HealBot]
Download:[UI Central 3.0]

The changelogs await after the jump!

Grabbing from Vista's tag line since launch, we decided to give it a little twist of sorts. Why you ask? Well, you'd think that the geeks at Redmond were thinking of World of Warcraft when they spruced up this one-liner, but WoW Insider thinks otherwise. So WoW Insider checked into whether a compatibility issue arises from a WoW fan's shift from Windows XP to Windows Vista. After all, keeping up to date is quickly becoming the only way to go. It seems they found enough varied answers to rest the issue as a resounding yes.

So how is WoW's performance? Results conclude that...it depends. There are some who've found performance improved, others say it really sagged. Some think it really doesn't affect WoW at all. Seems the only way to find out is to grab a copy of Vista and try your luck in the WoW and hardware performance lottery. Remember to check on the requirements first before installing.