World Of Warcraft: Top 5 Most Controversial Moments

World of Warcraft has been immensely successful. It's easy enough that a newbie to MMORPGs can jump right in, but so in-depth that it keeps players busy for years. The game has attracted upwards of 8 million players, so it's not surprising it has had a fair share of controversial moments. Most of these issues are not unique to Warcraft, but the did receive a lot of press coverage because they happened in Warcraft. Nevertheless, here are the top 5 most controversial moments in World Of Warcraft:


5. Gold Farmers Invade

People in developing countries are often payed measly sums to kill monsters over and over to generate gold. This gold is then sold by the company to players who are willing to spend cash instead of earning the gold within the game. Gold farming is not exclusive to Warcraft, but it was brought to the attention of many because of the game's popularity. For it's part, Blizzard forbids the practice, and bans any accounts caught farming. However, with the ease in creating a new account, it's really up to the players to stop buying gold in order to end the abusive practice.


4. The Warcraft Funeral Crash

A Warcraft gamer died in real life, and a bunch of friends decided to host a mock funeral for the gamer's avatar. They staged a event where everyone lined up and "viewed" the body. Unfortunately, they did this right in the middle of a a PVP zone where anything goes. Another guild (ironically named Serenity Now) crashed the funeral and blindsided the mourners. Some say the attackers have no respect for the dead and mourning, while others say it it's just a game. I say it makes for good video drama and a great video.




3. The Corrupted Blood Pandemic

When Warcraft introduced the Zul'Gurub instance, it came with a nasty boss that inflicted the Corrupted Blood debuff, which dealt hundreds of points of damage to characters every few seconds, while spreading to anyone nearby. Through a bug, this plague escaped from the dungeon, and suddenly everyone was catching the "disease". Low level characters died in seconds, and skeletons lined the floors of any area where a lot of people congregated (ie. cities). The bug was fixed, but experts have since used the incident to study just how people would react should a large scale epidemic occur.


2. Warcraft's Gay Rights Issue

Back in 2006, Sara Andrews was recruiting for her gay friendly guild Oz on the main chat channels. A blizzard employee issued her a warning to stop advertising sexual orientation or she would be banned. This one little incident soon exploded and was being covered by mainstream media like CNN and the BBC. Critics accusing Warcraft of being anti-gay. Blizzard defended its actions at first, but then eventually issued an apology to Ms. Andrews and provided sensitivity training to all its employees.


1. Death by Warcraft

Warcraft certainly isn't the first game to directly or indirectly be involved in a death, but it does receive a lot of attention when someone dies. Most deaths are a result of sheer exhaustion as people play for days in a row with no break or sleep. An especially tragic story was that of a 4-month old South Korean infant that died while her parents were away at an internet cafe playing the game. Warcraft can be addicting just like so many other vices in life, so it's important for players to exercise moderation and self-control.

5 TV DVD Box-Sets Every Geek Should Own

What geek doesn't have a healthy collection of DVD box-sets? Whether you want to rewatch your favorite shows in HD or listen to them in surround sound glory, it's great to get to see episodes back to back and commercial free. The next time you've got some cash to spare, here are 5 box-sets that won't disappoint a geek:


5. Firefly

Firefly was a unique space opera, that blended traditional science fiction with elements of a western. It takes it's title from the Firefly-Class ship Serenity, which actually looks like a very big insect. If the show is starting to sound weird, it is, but it's also great. Firefly was only on the air one season, but since cancellation it has developed a huge cult following and even a spinoff movie appropriately titled Serenity. When it was cancelled, only 11 of the 14 episodes produced had aired. By buying the DVD set you get to see all 14 episodes. At around $20, you can't go wrong with this box-set.


4. Arrested Development

Another victim of unjust cancellation, Arrested Development was probably one of the smartest, funniest comedies on television. It followed Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and his attempts to keep his formerly rich, highly dysfunctional family from self-imploding. This show pioneered the no-laugh track documentary-ish style found in other shows like The Office and 30 Rock. The show is best seen in chronological order starting from episode #1 to really appreciate the arcing storylines and continuing jokes. If you haven't seen the show, now's the time to get the backstory before the recently announced movie is launched.


3. Lost

A plane flight goes down on a remote tropical island in the pacific. Many people mysteriously walk away from the crash with no injuries and find they're on an island with polar bears, smoke monsters and a giant 4 toed foot statue. Lost's style of giving more questions than answers every episode can be hard even for the most devoted of fans to keep straight. Being able to watch multiple episodes back to back helps things out considerably. This might be one box-set to buy when the entire series is done though, because it's probably not going to be until the very last episode that were going to have all the answers. Pick this one up in Blu-Ray for the absolute best experience.


2. The Office UK

Ok, you don't have to be a geek to enjoy the NBC version of The Office, but you can definitely be a little geekier by having watched the entire original British Series. The first episode alone is almost scene by scene identical to the US version, so it's neat way to see the British versions of Pam, Dwight, Micheal and the rest of the gang. Rest assured, as the series goes on, it's quite a bit different (in a good way) than the domestic version. It's a great way to introduce yourself into the world of British sitcoms. The BBC takes a quality over quantity approach so even though the entire series ran for 2 seasons, only 14 episodes (of various lengths) were produced, It's a great way to spend a rainy weekend.


1. Every Star Trek Ever

This one isn't going to be cheap, but you really can't call yourself a geek without picking up every star trek boxed set there is. Relive Captain Picard's constant violations of the prime directive. Watch Janeway's captain skills increase as her hair gets better. Find out what really was so troublesome about those Tribbles. Put on Deep Space 9 and then change the channel to watch something better. One top of the classics there's also the original animated series, Enterprise all the movies, and the documentaries Trekkies 1 and 2 to get. Note: This website is not responsible for your failure to pay rent as a result of acquiring all episodes of star trek ever made.

5 Reasons Not To Buy The Macbook Air

Now, just for the record, I’m not an Apple (or PC) hater. I think Apple is an innovative company that makes some cool products. I’m even writing this up on a Macbook. I do, however, think that Apple can make some pretty dumb products sometimes and the Macbook Air is a good example. The Macbook Air has the same dimensions as a normal Macbook, but is one third of an inch thinner (at its thickest point) and 2 pounds lighter. In order to shave off this space, a lot had to be given up. Too much. Below is a list of the top 5 reasons to avoid the Macbook Air:


5. No Removable Battery

What is it with Apple’s continued insistence that we are never allowed to remove the battery from its devices? It’s one thing on an ipod, but being able to swap out a drained out battery on the fly seems to be a really important feature for a lot of laptop users. Imagine a long flight or bus ride with only a single battery charge. Or the dread felt in 6 months when your battery dies early and the only way to get a new one is to ship off your whole notebook. This just seems like it’s a sly way to force users to pay to have official OEM battery replacement, or even worse, to buy a whole new laptop once the battery finally quits.


4. No Optical Drive

Apple shipped the original iMac without a floppy drive in 1998, and it annoyed the hell out of a lot of people. It’s 10 years later and they’re still making the same mistakes. Apple says its no big deal since you can use their new remote disk software to stream a disk’s contents from your desktop wirelessly to the Macbook Air. Isn’t breaking away from your desktop the point of having a laptop? Apple suggests if that doesn’t work you can always buy their USB superdrive which of course means more money spent, and more to lug around.


3. Weak Specs

The maximum sized hard-drive is 80 gigabytes. The fastest processor available is 1.8ghz. The graphics card is integrated. There is only 1 usb port and no ethernet port! This is not a powerhouse by any means, and it feels like a laptop from one or two years ago and not a brand new prestige model. The argument could be made that the configuration is similar to other "sub-notebooks", but the Macbook Air, is thin but not small. The specs wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for…


2. No Upgradeability

Ok, so laptops aren’t known for their amazing abilities to upgrade components, but almost every laptop allows at least minimal upgrade. Not the Macbook Air. There’s no adding a higher capacity battery, or a larger hard-drive or even adding a few more megabytes of ram (There are initial reports you can replace the hard-drive, but this requires opening the case and will void your warranty). What you buy is what you get… forever.


1. The $1800 price tag

At a price as high as the Macbook Pro, this laptop seems targeted towards business users. Yet, as we’ve seen, the Macbook Air is missing some really critical features that businesses need. Smart consumers with the cash to spend would probably opt for another laptop with much more bang for the buck. Apple might be more successful if put the same configuration in a normal sized case and sold it as a cheap entry level “disposable” laptop. For now, the Macbook Air might be a fun toy to show off, but in the long run it just isn’t functional.