After months of grueling competition in the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (TCG) tournament, Team MOGS made it to the two-day Darkmoon Faire event in Indianapolis. This is a great acheivement by both Larney and Jon (both in-house Customer Support Agents) and we urge you all to get on to Live Chat to congratulate them!

For the full story, including pics of Larney sporting his MOGS t-shirt at the event, visit the Upperdeck website here.

Mythic have recently started opening up the Warhammer Online Beta to the masses and many anxious gamers, including some of our own staff, have finally got a place! However, a problem we and many other prospective Beta Testers have been experiencing is the amazing slow download option provided by Mythic. The 10Gb file available via Bit Torrent is currently being targetted by thousands and thousands of gamers, with no accessible alternatives available.

Needless to say, many gamers have given up on getting the Beta installed within the next 3 weeks… until now! We are proud to present you a method of downloading the Beta files 10x faster than with the torrent file provided. Here’s how it works…

Three of the first files torrent will bring down (all of which are small files under 2MB) are:

warpatch.exe
patch.myp
patch.cfg

Instruct the torrent to download just these three files.

Create a Warhammer Online folder and drop these three files in there. Double click the warpatch.exe and *fanfare* the client will download directly from Mythic.

We hope this gets you into Warhammer Online much quicker and hopefully EA wont mind too much!

Live Support is our primary method of communicating with existing and prospective customers on the web. Customers get in touch to make enquiries, arrange orders or sometimes just drop in to tell us how great we are!

But on some days something very special happens. When the moon is perfectly aligned with Saturn and the Live Support Agent on-shift wishes really really hard, an un-witting scammer comes to chat, filled with hope and ambition of illegitimately extracting Gold from us. That’s when we like to have some fun…

 

You are now speaking with Dan of Sales

Derek jenson: Greetings, let me introduce myself. I am Derek Jenson, a Blizzard representative, and lawyer specializing in virtual property and virtual contracting. Sites like these are detrimental to our company and we can and will file claims against gold selling sites that do not cease operations. I am here today in order to clarify certain legalities, and hopefully come to an informal negotiation, in order to avoid long, expensive formalities.

Dan: Hi Derek

Derek jenson: Do you understand?

Dan: I…think so

Dan: I mostly just tend to the farm here

Derek jenson: You website breaks section 8 of rules and agreements

Dan: This is my first time away from the sheep, and working customer service.

Dan: What is section 8? I thought that was my housing plan?

Derek jenson: section 8 is in world of warcraft witch you had to agree to

Dan: I am a druid in WOW

Derek jenson: ok

Dan: I like flying my epic mount

Derek jenson: umm…

Dan: Can you tell me if it is true that they will have flying rhinos in the expansion?

Derek jenson: you do know this is a serious crime

Dan: Flying rhinos?

Derek jenson: no

Derek jenson: selling gold

Dan: My epic mount?

Derek jenson: and my son asked the same thing

Dan: Oh selling gold?

Derek jenson: yes

Dan: About the flying rhinos?

Dan: Does he buy gold?

Derek jenson: yes

Dan: Oh really?

Dan: cool

Dan: He can have an epic flying rhino then

Dan: So now what is section 8?

Derek jenson: i

Dan: I know my landlord takes it

Derek jenson: wait typo

Dan: Its okay my fingers get a little happy too

Dan: What is section 8?

Derek jenson: “You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void. Blizzard owns, has licensed, or otherwise has rights to all of the content that appears in the Program. You agree that you have no right or title in or to any such content, including the virtual goods or currency appearing or originating in the Game, or any other attributes associated with the Account or stored on the Service. Blizzard does not recognize any virtual property transfers executed outside of the Game or the purported sale, gift or trade in the “real world” of anything related to the Game. Accordingly, you may not sell items for “real” money or otherwise exchange items for value outside of the Game.”

Dan: Are you a creditor looking for me?

Derek jenson: no we decided not to sue

Derek jenson: though i think i should speak to your boss

Dan: I’ll pay the debt! I just need to harvest the wool from my sheep.

Derek jenson: ok

Dan: My shears are broken and my brother cut his thumb off

Dan: the medical bills are awful and now all he has is a stub

Derek jenson: um we dont want money

Dan: What do you want? My apartment?

Dan: My sheep?

Derek jenson: no

Dan: The Milk Bucket?

Derek jenson: no

Dan: I don’t have much else.

Derek jenson: we want to stable our enconmy in wow

Derek jenson: we want gold becase of contest transfers

Dan: Well, I suppose I could Sell my epic snail

Dan: He’s not fast, but a rare in the game

Dan: We could ride around together if you’d like

Dan: ?

Dan: What can I do to help?

Derek jenson: we will never bother your company again

Dan: I am very interested in a stable

Dan: My horse is sad

Dan: he needs a stable

Dan: Never again?

Derek jenson: nope

Dan: Is this because of the epic snail or my brothers thumb?

Derek jenson: i will tell you how and how much

Derek jenson: the wow gold

Dan: For my snail or my brother’s thumb?

Dan: OH

Dan: I’m sorry I bumped my head earlier

Derek jenson: The surplus has come to 15, 456 gold

Dan: Popped the trunk of my pick - up truck and it knocked me silly

Dan: Can’t pronounce many of the PH sounds

Dan: Or J’s

Dan: I am having serious J issues.

Derek jenson: yeara(us)alliance-side is suffering

Derek jenson: that amount will save the sever

Dan: They come out in series of JJJJJJJJ

Dan: Which server is suffering?

Derek jenson: yesra

Dan: Oh

Dan: I did hear about that

Derek jenson: our currnecy holder Gravex wishes to be sent the money so he can put it in the market place

Derek jenson: this is a once in a life time deal

Dan: The economy is broken, the people are taking to the streets with pitch forks, clubs, and torches.

Dan: Did they hang any wayward merchants.

Derek jenson: this is very serious

Dan: Wrong time wrong place

Dan: Derek I am very serious

Dan: I am concerned about the merchants.

Dan: I heard there were executions in the streets?

Dan: Mobs of druids and

Dan: Orks

Dan: Very sad times

Derek jenson: look are you going to send the gold or not?

Derek jenson: becase the clam is $278,000

Dan: We could start a morning breakfast program for the children

Derek jenson: in court

Dan: Soup kitchen might help

Dan: I will personally donate the milk I gather from the cows.

Derek jenson: yes or no sir?

Dan: Look do you want my milk?

Dan: I am trying to help

Dan: I have a depressed cow to tend to. I could churn butter

Dan: I make some good butter

Dan: Is this really Derek or a creditor?

Dan: Derek my head hurts

Derek jenson: yes this is derek

Dan: I think my eye is starting to discharge a greenish fluid.

Dan: is that unhealthy?

Dan: Do you have a medical background?

Derek jenson: that is personal

Derek jenson: i tryed to help

Dan: seriously the fluid is pouring out now onto my bagel

Dan: my eye?

Dan: I can’t hardly see

Dan: What is it you want me to do?

Derek jenson: are you going to pay the cash or the gold sir?

Dan: What ?

Dan: What gold?

Dan: What Cash?

Dan: I thought we agreed on milk and butter?

Dan: I could toss in my epic flying cow

Dan: he does gnaw on things a lot.

Dan: Just prop up a salt lick and he will be fine

Dan: Derek, seriously my eye is leaking

Derek jenson: read what i say ok

Derek jenson: 15,456 gold or $278,000

Derek jenson: witcch one sir?

Derek jenson: we will see you in court

Derek jenson: becase im trying to help you

Derek jenson: are you still there dan?

Dan: I am

Dan: I’m wiping the goo off my bagel

Dan: Perhaps we can meet in person and I can give you the goods

Dan: where do you live?

Dan: Oh wait I have the info coming in from our security system.

Dan: Great

Dan: IP is detailed

Derek jenson: and?

Dan: this new protection is great

Dan: Will you accept 278,000 in milk and butter?

Derek jenson: are you going to send the gold or the money

Derek jenson: we do not accept milk and butter

Dan: One sec I have to see a bout the cash

Derek jenson: fine

Derek jenson: You also agreed to “You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void. Blizzard owns, has licensed, or otherwise has rights to all of the content that appears in the Program.”

Dan: What program?

Derek jenson: world of warcraft

Dan: Are you still talking about WOW?

Dan: Oh

Dan: I thought we were working on a deal

Dan: Okay so can you meet me in person

Derek jenson: for wow

Dan: I’ll wear a yellow hat and there will be a monkey with me.

Derek jenson: are you going to give the WoW gold to our yesra(us)alliance-side currency holder Gravex?

Dan: Gravex

Dan: is he a blizzard agent?

Derek jenson: yes a gm

Dan: whats a gm

Derek jenson: Gamemaster

Dan: is that a species of gnome?

Dan: OF

Dan: Oh

Dan: He’s good at the game

Derek jenson: they work for blizzard

Dan: For such a large transaction I would rather just give cash

Derek jenson: he just started

Dan: Can we meet

Dan: Is he in game now?

Derek jenson: no but i can get him to

Dan: Okay

Dan: in front of the mailbox?

Derek jenson: where would you like to meet him?

Derek jenson: stormwind?

Dan: I don’t want to get in trouble…who will feed the monkey?

Dan: Is that where you would like to meet?

Dan: Is that the server that is in trouble?

Derek jenson: i will get him to meet you in front of the mail box in stormwind

Derek jenson: yes

Derek jenson: the gold will save the alliance side sever

Dan: I want to save horde too

Derek jenson: and your site will have immunty from any ban,prison,payment.etc

Dan: PRISON!

Derek jenson: horde is doing fine

Dan: that would be no fun

Derek jenson: i know

Dan: Of course with my farming skills I’m sure I could make a mean cheese wheel

Dan: and everyone would be happy

Dan: Can you imagine all those frowns?

Dan: in glee over the cheese

Derek jenson: he is going to meet you now

Dan: we could write a musical and sing and dance around the wheels of cheese

Dan: I would be Mr. popular in no time

Derek jenson: no

Dan: I lok good in stripes too.

Derek jenson: just give him the gold please

Dan: Okay what character server and side

Derek jenson: Gravex ysera alliance

Dan: Okay it will be about an hour

Dan: and you won’t send me to prison right?

Derek jenson: no

Dan: Can you help me get a flying rhino?

Dan: With 3 horns and boots?

Derek jenson: i will talk to tech guy

Dan: excellent!

Derek jenson: i dont even know if it is real

Dan: Okay Derek and you are sure you would rather not have butter and milk?

Derek jenson: no we are sure

Derek jenson: take care

Dan: Okay I will see you soon

Dan: Our character is sadshoehorn

Dan: let me fix my eye and eat this bagel get my yellow hat and monkey and i’ll be on the way.

Dan: Is there anything else I can do for you?

Dan: Okay

Dan: I’ll be there ASAP

Dan: Thank you for visiting MOGS.com

We thought it would be fun to mirror the current presidential campaign in World of Warcraft, so we had master artist and friend of the company Zeeksie create this digital painting.

Feel free to link to this thread or re-publish the image on your own blog or website; all we ask is that you link back to this post as the source.

I have been playing video games since the days of the Atari 2600 and Com64. Years later with the release of PC games like Wolfentstien & Doom I attended my first Lan party. We all got together and rocked out on our 386’s! My friends and I eventually ended up having a standing Lan every other Saturday. About 10 of us would get together for a day of killing each other, talking trash, checking out new games and sharing “files”. We did this for years until it kind of tapered off and eventually our Lan’s ceased to exist.

Then our friend “fatty” from Counter Strike had a brilliant idea. Throw a Lan and invite everyone we know online and in RL to come join us. The event was to be called Fragfest Ohio and is now in its sixth year. It has really evolved into an event that everyone talks about year round. Although there are many more attending the events these days then in the beginning it still has a homey feel as everyone is there because they know a veteran of the event.

I just got back from the annual “Fragfest Ohio” and it was a blast. The event took up all of the Ballrooms at a huge Hotel in Hudson Ohio. Attendees set their systems up in the main ballroom, there is also a ballroom dedicated to playing console games on enormous screens, one is just filled with poker tables, and another for sponsors swag and food. It was the best time I have had in so long. To be able to meet up with old friends, hang out with so many hardcore gamers and then blow everyone’s heads off with my auto-shotty in Counter Strike … good times. Of course I had to run around and shamelessly spray-painting my MOGS tag all over ingame.

You can find out more about Fragfest @ fragfestohio.com

Joe
MOGS Customer Support Manager

This past week has seen an unveiling of new information regarding the latest World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

Larney, one of the MOGS Delivery Team and our resident WoW Expert, has put together this handy archive of new Class Talent Calculators and Skills that will go live with WotLK.

Death Knight

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Druid

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Hunter

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

*Also a huge change to the hunter class will be the introduction of Pet Talents.

Mage

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Paladin

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Priest

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Rogue

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Shaman

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Warlock

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

Warrior

Skills
Talents
Talent Calculator

—

We hope this helps you guys who’ve been craving new info - have fun planning your new specs!

In 2006, Vivendi (the parent company of Blizzard) initiated a lawsuit against Michael Donnelly, the creator of the then popular gaming software WoW Glider. The software allowed players of World of Warcraft to automate their gameplay using a series of either custom or pre-defined profiles. The software was adopted by many WoW gamers but largely demonized by both Blizzard and the World of Warcraft populous for tainting the spirit of the game and lending itself to Gold Farmers. There was certainly some substance behind these concerns; Glider was utilized for Gold farming by everyone from the individual gamer looking to gain more Gold for him/herself to the large scale company making big money from virtual currency. The software was also useful for leveling characters and aiding other characters in the leveling process, the purpose it was arguably use for by most.

On July 26th 2008, an Arizona district court ruled in favour of Vivendi on the basis of copyright infringement, but not to the extent hoped for by Blizzard. The case will continue and a ruling will follow later in the year. The case has been widely reported in the USA and overseas, capturing the attention of news organizations as large as the BBC. However, this is not our focus.

An issue that has been seldom addressed in the press, on the gaming forums or by Blizzard is the impact of MMO Glider (as it is now known) on World of Warcraft gamers with disabilities. One of the earliest uses for Glider was to aid gamers with diminished motor skills and those who did not have full functioning limbs (such as amputees and those with prosthetic limbs). This allowed, and still allows, disabled gamers of these types to compete within Azeroth on a more even basis with their able-bodied counterparts. By automating certain processes, for examples combining several keystrokes into just one, Glider is aiding disabled gamers without giving them a competitive advantage over other gamers.

This simply grants the ability to play the game, after all hitting keys quickly is not part of the intended “skill” in MMORPGs, rather than automating time-consuming or tedious sections of the game (which is what seems to be frowned upon). Blizzard has been criticized in some circles for not considering their disabled populous in the Glider lawsuit.

It can be argued, however, that whilst Glider does provide this functionality, it provides many more things that do not help gamers overcome disabilities and only serve to automate parts of the game that are either boring or profitable. With a little knowledge, which is easily accessible via Google, gamers can setup macros within the game to assist them. Hardware such as Logitech’s G15 keyboard (which allows the integration of macros and functions specifically for World of Warcraft) provides similar assistance. Even though this latter option requires purchase, so does the full version of Glider.

Blizzard has also done its part to assist disabled gamers through the design of World of Warcraft’s interface. Allowing full control of the game’s functions through the mouse, making windowed mode available and providing a clickable, on-screen keyboard make the game playable for a wider audience of gamers. Implementing these aspects of accessibility, whilst not negatively affecting playability for other gamers, is an admirable move from Blizzard, not to mention making good business sense.

Has Blizzard charged into what they see as part of their war on Botters and Gold Farmers without considering “legitimate” Glider users, or is the debate on disability assistance simply a means to justify unsavoury practice?

What do you think?

In 2007, hundreds-of-thousands of World of Warcraft players purchased Gold in exchange for real money. The “Real-Money Trading” industry (RMT as it is known) has reacted to this new phenomenon and now hundreds of new RMT companies have been set up.

If you’ve heard the term “RMT” or “Gold Seller” before, it was most likely in a negative context. Many players will tell you of their negative experience with buying Gold, either having Gold deleted from their account (by Blizzard), never having their Gold delivered or, in the worst case, having their account stolen. The increase in rogue companies (due to the industry’s increased success) has lead to the current climate of mistrust between players and the RMT industry.

Like any other marketplace, there are several steps customers can take to protect themselves from illegitimate companies. We have summarized our 5 main rules to follow to ensure you have happy experience when buying Gold:

1. Experts Know What They’re Talking About

You can quickly tell whether or not a company is credible and able to deliver by talking to their Live Support/Chat. Good companies will have their customer service department populated with professional staff who are knowledgeable about MMORPGs; bad companies will have their customer service shipped out to China or India.

If the people you speak to are unwilling to answer general gaming questions (the type you would use to test someone’s knowledge) and become hostile because of it, it’s more than likely because they don’t know what they’re talking about. If they engage you in conversation and know their stuff, you’re good to go!

2. Where Is Your Gold Coming From?

Blizzard attempt to delete all Gold they believe to have been bought from RMT companies. They use a number of different systems and metrics to be able to track Gold and RMT companies must be extremely careful to avoid the Blizzard ban-stick.

The location of the trading character (i.e. the IP address of the account) is the most commonly used factor to ban an account. Put bluntly, if you have Gold traded to you from an account in China, the Gold will likely be deleted within 6 hours. All too often players complain about having Gold deleted from their mailbox or directly from their character soon after it is traded to them.

We strongly advise you find a North American, European and Australasian company to deal with, as this will severely cut your chances of losing Gold post-trade. You can usually tell where a company delivers from by talking to their Live Support; if they sound Chinese, they probably are.

3. The Truth About Delivery Times

The biggest black spot on the RMT industry is the term “Instant Delivery”. As players demand that Gold be delivered quicker and quicker, many leading RMT companies have started advertising “Instant Delivery” of Gold on all servers. This usually means delivery within 30 minutes (stated in the small print) but reports from customers would suggest otherwise.

When buying Gold you should expect to wait anywhere from 1 to 12 hours, and in some cases up to 48 hours. This is due to the stockpiling issue within World of Warcraft – if a company stores too much Gold on a single account, Blizzard will ban it. Therefore, stock levels need to be kept relatively low to avoid massive losses when accounts are banned. Companies such as WoWMine built a large following of new customers in 2007 due to their instant delivery claims, but their inability to deliver on this promise has left their reputation in pieces and with very few loyal customers.

We suggest that you ask the company directly how long Gold will take to deliver. If they give you an estimate between 1 and 12 hours, they are likely a reputable company. If they claim to deliver in less than 5 minutes, move on to the next company.

4. The 3Cs – Customers Confirm Credibility

A method often taught in Sales School is to include customer testimonials in order to display the credibility of a company. The problem customers often face is whether or not this endorsement is truthful. Thankfully most major RMT companies participate with BizRate; an independent ranking system that allows users to rate and review companies. Before you buy Gold from any company we suggest visiting www.BizRate.com and search for the company profile (you can see our profile here). This will give you a good indication of the company’s legitimacy and ability to deliver on their promises.

5. What Can You Do If All Goes Wrong?

Sometimes you follow all the rules, do everything right but still things go wrong. In this case you need to be able to get your money back or make the company deliver as promised. Unfortunately the laws of your country are not universal, so if you buy from a company on the other side of the World, you will find it extremely difficult to demand a refund or threaten them with legal action.

If you follow these guidelines you are much more likely to have a positive buying experience and be able to enjoy spending your piles of Gold. Never leave it up to the chance that everything will go alright – you should always take steps to protect yourself from all situations.

What About MOGS?

The reason we have taken the time to produce this article is two-fold. Firstly, we want all gamers to be fully educated about RMT purchases. There are too many people put off purchasing MMORPG services because of rogue companies who don’t comply to these standards. Secondly, we want to show the World the standards that we live by. We have carved a niche as the only major American RMT company (with ALL our major competitors based in China) by following these guidelines and continuing to delight our customers - check out our BizRate ranking here to see for yourself.

Since release, World of Warcraft has dominated the MMORPG genre, overshadowing its competitors and creating a new era of success for the industry as a whole. Many have speculated as to which game may come close to rivalling WoW’s dominance, but no strong contenders have come to light until now.

Warhammer Online could be that title. The developers at EA Mythic have (though they wouldn’t admitted) closely emulated aspects of World of Warcraft and attempted to make improvements where Blizzard have refused. They have also taken additional steps with PvP (or RvR as it is known in Warhammer Online) to make it an integral aspect of gameplay throughout the leveling progression.

Beta tests have received significant response, both good and bad, but significant none-the-less. But what could bury Warhammer Online before it emerges is simply time. Originally schedule for Quarter 4 2007, EA Mythic have delayed the game three times to set a new released date of Quarter 3 2008 - though even this seems questionable. Observers are also concerned with the number of major re-works implemented in the Beta stages, with entirely new system replacing existing ones and rumors of content being completely removed from the game (regardless of the positive feedback).

Blizzard have also recognized the potential threat posed by WAR, scheduling and re-scheduling the launch of their latest WoW expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, to compete with the release of the rival title. Warhammer Online is ideally targeted at disillusioned WoW gamers, but the expansion will surely renew the interest of the majority of those, in the same way The Burning Crusade did in 2007.

Warhammer Online has the IP, the developer strength and the concept to be one of the best MMORPGs in the business, but recent events would indicate that Blizzard will remain as MMO kings for many years to come.