Project Lore



Fresh on the heels of my post about cool things to explore in the old world, I thought I would take a moment to highlight one of the more interesting ones: Stratholme. I will say this now, I am extremely lucky. I received the Baron mount on my 4th attempt. For those of you who don’t know what that means (I was surprised to learn how many are unfamiliar), let me explain what I am talking about. The Baron mount, or The Deathcharger's Reins, is an epic ground mount that drops from the final boss of Stratholme’s dead side: Baron Rivendare. It has a 1 in 100 drop rate. This has been greatly increase recently as it used to be 1 in 1,000 and 1 in 5,000 before that. Now that it exists in the world of attainability, lots of people spend time farming for this unique mount. Doing the “Baron Run” is not only a great way to get Argent Dawn rep for those of you going for Argent Champion (be sure you have your Argent Dawn Commission equipped!), but there is that great carrot of a mount at the end to keep you grinding away. Stratholme is a level 60 instance, and can be easily soloed by level 80 characters, and with a little more work if you are 70+. If done correctly the Baron run can be completed very quickly, with some able to do it in under 10 minutes. The easiest place to start is at the service entrance, far to the east of the main entrance in Eastern Plaguelands. To do this you must have The Key to the City. If you do not have the key, simply go in the front. You can also have somebody else open the gate for you, or even pick the lock if you have the ability. Once inside, make sure you kill Magistrate Barthilas as this will make future runs much simpler! Trash is packed tight in Stratholme, so you best policy is to kill things as soon as you aggro them so they don’t pull other mobs. That being said, a vast majority of the trash is completely skippable due to a very small aggro radius, especially for level 80s. In order to get access to Baron Rivendare, there are 3 bosses that must first be killed: Baroness Anastari, Maleki the Pallid, and Nerub'enkan. None of these bosses should present a challenge at high level, just make sure you enter their temples after the boss dies and kill all of the acolytes. You can find a great map of where to find these guys at Wowhead. Once the acolytes are dead you will gain access to a new area full of abominations. These must all be killed in order for the door to Rivendare’s room to be opened. It is good practice to save one for last, and kill him in front of the door to the Baron's chamber. That way, you can run in before the door shuts. Once this happens you have one more boss to kill: Ramstein The Gorger. Get him down and go kill the Baron! The run is quick, and I wish you luck on the drop! If you aren't lucky enough to get the mount, be sure and pick up all the loot, as it can be sold for a suprising amount of gold.

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Money, Money, Money, Money, MONEEEEY - Via GameCyte

Last week it came out that MDY Industries would likely have to stop selling their product, known as Glider.  MDY would be able to continue sales while the appeals court heard the case, if the company was able to present arguments to the judge defending their position.  In a post on the Glider forums, MDY Industries CEO Michael Donnelly stated that the company did not expect to make a successful case for the botting program, essentially handing the victory to Blizzard Entertainment.  Blizzard, by way of blue Poster Nethaera, responded to the recent changes in Blizzard v. Glider lawsuit.  In laymen's terms, MDY was charged with breaking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Let's back up a minute, though.  While the case is essentially over, many players out there may not have any idea what the 2006 case is all about, or how it got to this point.  For starters, MMOGlider is a botting program that was originally designed for use with World of Warcraft.  Originally called WoW Glider, the name was quickly changed to avoid any possible confusion that Blizzard may endorse the program Glider is not a teleport hack, map hack or any kind of hack.  It is simply an automated farmer. It controls an in-game character given some preset instructions, and it is capable of doing all the routine grinding you normally do but at a way lower price.   It is against Blizzard's Terms of Service and End User License Agreement and has often led to accounts being banned.  Not to mention, most players - this one included - see it as cheating...while prospering! Blizzard vs Glider has been going on since the early days of World of Warcraft, so there is a lot to cover.   Rather than reinvent the wheel, here are links to various sites that have covered the case with a quick synopsis.

• MDY Industries sues Blizzard (November 2006) - That is correct, the case started off with MDY suing the developer for allegedly attempting to block the sale of the botting software.
• Blizzard tossed MDY a counter-suit (March 2007) - A few months later Blizzard turns around and sues MDY for damages.
• MDY receives a small victory (March 2008) - The first judgment comes out.  MDY's licensing partner Lavish Software will not be forced to give up information about Lavish and MDY's dealings to Blizzard.
• Public interest group stands up for MDY (May 2008) - Public Knowledge submits a "friend of the court" brief stating that Blizzard is claiming more power than copyright protection offers them.  The group, while not trying not to take sides, states that if Blizzard wins the suit, the lawsuit will become a landmark case that gives copyright holders immense power.  More thoughts on the far-reaching topic by Terra Nova, Ars Technica and then Blizzard's response to Public Knowledge's filing.
• MDY is found guilty (July 2008) - Blizzard wins the case due to MDY's program copying proprietary code into the system's RAM.  That is illegal under the DMCA.
• Blizzard seeks to bury MDY's program (August 2008) - Blizzard attempts to stop Glider from resurfacing by handcuffing MDY in every way possible.  Company looks to stop possible open-sourcing of the code or MDY helping others develop such software.
• Blizzard gets paid (October 2008) - Judgement awards Blizzard $6 million for the hassle.
• MDY's soul is crushed - Bot maker doesn't feel they will convince the judge to allow them to keep selling MMOGlider during the appeals process with Blizzard.

As you can see, legal wranglings took awhile to come to fruition. As it stands now, the case isn't truly over, but things certainly look bad for MDY.  Should the company be unable to make its case to continue selling the software, it will like go under.  They have until February 13 to come up with something. As noted by numerous software advocacy groups, gurus and copyright lawyers, the case affects far more than just WoW's millions of players.  In actuality, it can have an impact on all third-party apps that run alongside software for anything, including every other MMOG and even this spiffy machinima tool.

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I’m not sure if it’s the recent holiday events, the new achievements system, or something that has been here all along, but it seems the whole world is going crazy about mounts. People want them, want to show them off, and are going to extremely lengths to get them. The most obvious example is the holiday mounts. Groups of dedicated people are spending hours everyday farming the latest seasonal boss and hoping they will drop the latest mount. First it was the Kodo/Ram now it’s the Horseman mount. I’ll admit, I am one of them, and because I don’t have luck like Juggy, I imagine I will be in SM everyday for the rest of the event. It doesn’t stop there however! It’s just the tip of the iceberg. With the new achievement system in place lots of folk in my guild have spent tons of gold and farmed tons of rep  to buy every mount they can get their hands on. The goal is the 50 mount achievement, and yet another mount. (A very cool one, given). While we are on the topic of achievements, the other reason the whole world is farming away inside SM this week is to make sure they get the squashling and the Hallowed title. Not a mount, I know, but guess what you get if you finish all the seasonal event achievements? You guessed it: another mount. The problem actually predates the newest batch of content. People have been mount obsessed long before this. Rare mounts are certainly nothing new. On the extreme end, there is a friend of mine in my guild that has soloed Stratholme several times every day for the last few months. The reason is the Baron Mount. Rumor is that it is the lowest drop rate in the game, and from the stories I’ve heard I believe it. This is one for the truly dedicated, or truly insane (sorry, Feralface). Then of course there is the Huntsman Mount, The White Hawkstrider, The Anzu Mount, The Ashes of Alar, The ZG Raptor and Tiger, and the now inaccessible Bear Mount. While given mounts are really really cool, is it really worth all this time we put into farming them? The are (usually) cosmetic, they don’t improve our ability to down a boss. The are vanity items, but then again, perhaps that is their appeal. What about you? What lengths have you gone to to get a mount? Or are you just happy riding around on your boring faction mount?

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The annual celebration of Oktoberfest began over the weekend.  Brewfest, as it is known in Azeroth, is another fun filled seasonal celebration like the earlier Harvest Festival.  Those of you that may have been disappointed by the lack of stuff to do at this year's Harvest Festival definitely need to check out Brewfest. The Brewfest offers much more than paying your respect.  The latest seasonal even even gives players a reason to venture back to Black Rock Depths.  Those of you who participated in the Brewfest last year likely have the old 2007 tickets.  Fear not, for those tickets can be turned into the 2008 tokens via one of two NPCs, Belbi Quikswitch for the Alliance or Crest Blix Fixwidget for the Horde.  Be aware though, this year's tokens are not savable for the 2009 Brewfest so use them all.  For all of those out their who fancy Achievements, you should purchase the "Brew of the Month" Club Membership Form.  By the time the form runs its course, you will unlock an achievement for the 2009 Brewfest. Probably the biggest change to the Brewfest this year is the removal of a purchasable item. Previously, players who saved up 600 tickets could purchase the Brewfest-exclusive mount, but that ability has been removed for the 2008 celebration.  Players who wish to score the mounts will now have to return to Black Rock Depths with a daily quest called [Insult Coren Direbrew].  The drop percentage has been reported to be as low as 2-3% and as high as 15%, so good luck.  Regardless, Direbrew has some pretty good loot – especially his trinkets - for characters that don't regularly run Karazhan or own Season 2 PvP gear or better. Direbrew has proven to be a fairly easy boss and very farmable.  For starters, you need to complete [Welcome to Brewfest!] and then [Save Brewfest!] before you can get the daily.  Once everyone has the daily quest, your group can summon him five times without having to switch up the line-up.  Then, have someone switch to an alt with the quest or look around for a new player entirely.  Naturally, having a Warlock around would make the whole process go faster.  You only need to be level 65 to start the quest, although tanks and melee should be 70. Brewfest 2008 will end October 4.  See you in BRD!

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