HONG KONG — The operators of ""World of Warcraft"" in China have replaced skeletons with healthy human bodies in the local version of the popular monster-killing online game, a spokesman said Friday, amid a recent government campaign to clean up Internet content. The official Xinhua News Agency said the changes had sparked a backlash among Chinese players, and that 500 players signed a petition saying they would boycott the game. James Zhao, spokesman at the Shanghai-based online gaming company The9 Ltd. , which is licensed to run ""World of Warcraft"" in China, said the changes were made to match designs due to be unveiled in an updated version of the game called ""The Burning Crusade. "" ""These are just small operational changes,"" Zhao said in a phone interview, denying that they were motivated by government policy. Asked why the skeletons will be replaced by human bodies in the updated version of the game, Zhao said he wouldn't comment on details of the update. New York-listed The9 launched the new designs amid stricter government scrutiny of Internet content. President Hu Jintao ordered regulators in January to promote a ""healthy online culture"" to protect the government's stability, according to state media. In April, Hu was quoted in state media as urging Communist Party leaders to ""curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online. "" Though China's communist government supports Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material it considers obscene or politically subversive. The government has banned local authorities from approving new Internet cafes this year. Xinhua also reported earlier this week that the Chinese update to ""World of Warcraft,"" ""The Burning Crusade,"" is still awaiting government approval. Zhao declined comment. The report identified a second change to the current game — bones symbolizing dead characters in the game were replaced by graves. Spokesman Zhao said he wasn't aware of any changes other than the bodies for skeletons swap. Launched by Irvine, Calif. -based Blizzard Entertainment Inc. , ""World of Warcraft"" is the world's most popular online game. In China, it has more than 3. 5 million subscribers. Blizzard is a unit of French media company Vivendi SA. " """Sony Online is aware that it happens, and we do not condone it,"" said Courtney Simmons, head of public relations for EverQuest II publisher Sony Online Entertainment. ""It is against our terms of service. ...

Think of the AH as a mini game within WoW with gold as the scorecard. To many players, that game would be boring but to a few of us it is worth playing. The benefits are that your character will have the very best enchantments available at all times. You can use pots and oils to enhance your effectiveness. You can help your guild and your guildees with donations. You and your alts will be sporting epics and enchantments and using pots and oils and be wicked solo and very popular in groups. What does it cost to win the AH game. You need a starting fund of about 200 gold and about 30 minutes a day of time spent in the AH. You have to be willing to take some risks. By spreading your risks around you lower your total risk. Over a few months you will see a solid return on your investment. The skills you need to sharpen in the AH are knowing what the fair price at the moment for a particular item is and predicting where the price is headed. Once you reach that point you can easily spot the bargains and know when to buy and when to sell. It may take a week or a month of watching the pricing before you have the confidence to invest your hard earned gold. That is not time wasted. The timing cycles discussed earlier are still applicable but now you have some larger timing cycles to track. You have to watch out for major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, March break etc as they break up the raiding schedule. Less raiding means fewer consumables used but the farming continues steadily. School summer holidays means more farming. These all influence pricing as it is based on supply and demand at the AH. The Darkmoon Faire also can affect pricing of certain items when it is active. Other larger changes in your server are also important. On a server that is just reaching Molten Core raiding, you can expect the prices on fire resist gear and pots to rise along with the mats to make them. A mature server with many high level players may have a strong market for items that appeal to alts. ...

Introduction This guide was written to help players enjoy the time they spend at the Auction House (AH). Every player of WoW will visit the AH many, many times during their gaming career. Why not get the most out of it. Spend a little less gold for the items that you need and get a little more gold for the items that you are selling. Do that often enough and those expensive materials for that high level enchantment will now be affordable. The advanced section is for those gamers that want to become traders on the AH and make some serious gold. The basics of selling on the AH In this guide I will be using examples of AH prices. A notation of 12/20 (17) means opening price of 12g, a buyout of 20g and an expected selling price of 17g. The expected selling price is your own personal opinion of what you think that item will sell for on that day. That number will become easier to predict as your experience grows. If you find yourself in a situation where you don’t know what something is worth then talk to a trusted group mate or guildee. If your friend from school plays on a different server his/her advice may be wrong as prices can vary considerably from server to server. Never create an auction like 1/50 (40). Nobody will buy it out at 50, they will bid 1g and hope for a windfall. It takes many, many bids to move a 1g starting price up to around a fair price of 40g. You will likely end up selling that 40g item for 5g. You would be much better off listing it as 35/50 (40) particularly if the initial fee is high. The 35g initial price should attract some bids and then you can hope for either continued bidding or a buyout by some player with more gold than brains. Even an auction like 1/30 (40) can backfire on you. Buying a 40g item for 30g is attractive to players but a lot of them will try to bid the 1g and hope for the big score. Try to bracket the estimated selling price when you set the initial and buyout prices. The example of 35/50 (40) is smart. The initial bid price is a little below what you think the item will sell for. The buyout is about 25% higher than the expected sell price. ...

Since its launch in the fall of 2004, Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft has shattered expectations at every turn. Prior to its release, no American massively multiplayer online game (MMO) had ever reached what was then seen as the magical million subscribers level--even major hits like EverQuest and Ultima Online. Yet almost before anyone could blink, WoW, as it's known, had surpassed 4 million paying users and now has more than 10 million worldwide, and at $15 a month for most users, it may well be bringing in more than $1 billion a year. Then, prior to the January 2007 release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, no one had ever heard of the kind of nationwide midnight madness lines associated with iPhone and Xbox launches for a game expansion. Sure enough, however, people lined up at game stores everywhere for hours for the right to be among the very first to buy Burning Crusade, and the update went on to sell millions of copies. And now, with the second major WoW expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King, in beta testing, Blizzard is getting ready to prove yet again that when it comes to American MMOs, it is the undisputed gold standard. ""It's just beautiful,"" said longtime WoW player and Lich King beta player Katrina Glerum. ""The game really feels epic in a way that The Burning Crusade didn't. Burning Crusade felt like an extension of the (original) game. This really feels epic, and that you're part of something grand. "" All Lich King players will have to upgrade from Burning Crusade, in particular because the new expansion extends the top level players can reach to 80 from 70 in Burning Crusade, and 60 in the original game. Right now, the Lich King beta has only recently opened up to those lucky enough to get invitations--or those they have passed their access codes onto. Indeed, the codes are selling on eBay for $150 or more, a testament to the passion or many hardcore WoW players, especially given that the game is still months away from its public launch and riddled with the kinds of bugs common to early beta releases. There's no way to be sure, of course, that the new expansion--for which an official launch date has not been announced--will be a success, but there does seem to be a lot of enthusiasm being expressed for it, both among players like Glerum and on various WoW blogs and forums. ""I think it'll be just as big, if not bigger"" than the Burning Crusade expansion,"" said Mike Schramm, the editor of WoW Insider. ""BC was the biggest-selling PC game sequel ever, I think. Wrath might be a little lower than that, but there'll certainly be lines for it. "" Much of the early adoption of the expansion will almost certainly come from the most accomplished Burning Crusade players who want to continue to take the game as far as is possible. One of the most important new feature of Lich King, according to J. Allen Brack, the production director for WoW, is that it introduces death knights, which are a hero class of character and the first new class to be brought into the game since the original version. ""There will be a lot of pressure to buy it, and anyone who has a character at the highest level will pretty much consider it a necessity,"" said Schramm. ...

This has been up a few days on the main World of Warcraft community site but nonetheless it’s very cool and gives even more insight on what the expansion continent of Outland will be like. Outland is split up into 7 different areas…. yes, I said 7. This is huge and just this continent will add about 30% more content to the game! (I hear all the bored lvl 60s screaming with excitement in the background. ) The names of the seven areas are: Netherstorm Blade’s Edge Mountains Zangarmarsh Hellfire Peninsula Nagrand Terokkar Forest Shadowmoon Valley The actual interactive map on the main WoW site also shows the locations of new dungeons, Horde towns, Alliance towns, and the different faction towns available! Just a reminder to everyone also…. you will have to go through the Dark Portal to enter in the Burning Crusade content. What that means is everyone who doesn’t want to buy the expansion can still play. They just won’t have access to the new content obviously. The way I see it though is if you call yourself a real World of Warcraft player you will buy the expansion! You can see more of the interactive map on the main WoW community site. Here is what Blizzard says about it on the main site: “Beyond the Dark Portal lies Outland, the broken remains of the Orcs’ homeworld, Draenor. Amid the ruins of this world, the survivors of the cataclysm are trying to rebuild, and in other parts of Outland, life continues to thrive. Those brave enough to make the journey through the Dark Portal will find new allies and enemies, as well as limitless adventure beyond an untamed horizon. We’ve just released an interactive map showing all of Outland’s dungeons, Alliance and Horde settlements, faction bases and neutral cities as well as new screenshots of each region. Check out the interactive Outland map now! “ -quote from the main WoW site. Don’t know about you but that makes my mouth water more and more! " "If you are like me, then you are more than prepared to start playing the new World of Warcraft expansion called the Burning Crusade. There has been tons of information released about it from Blizzard and it seems to make it from one end of the net to the other in what seems like 2. 5 seconds! The only information that ALWAYS seems to be missing is the most important information about it…. the release date! In the past Blizzard has seemed to have problems with pushing back the street date on new games starting with I believe…Warcraft 2. (If i’m wrong please let me know!) Games have been pushed back sometimes up to 6 months, which for gamers like me can be very frustrating. From Blizzard’s standpoint I can see that they don’t want to release an unfinished product which has been the case for many different software companies in the past…. errrr…. Microsoft! Luckily, the waiting part for the games to be released has always seemed to pay off in the end as Blizzard games are some of the best games I have ever played, with World of Warcraft being at the top! Blizzard has yet to give a solid release date (they keep saying Winter) and various online and offline stores that sell pre-orders to Burning Crusade as taken it upon themselves to create their own best “guesstimate” to when it will be released. A set release date would be fantastic and right now that’s all I will want for Christmas! Either way…I know the day of the release I will be standing in line with a few hundred other WoW players in order to try to be one of the first people to have purchased it at 12:01 am on the release date! I did it when World of Warcraft came out and I will be doing it again! Some Leveling, Some WoW Gold, and a Site Review… I have been taking somewhat of a different week. Yes, I actually have more time to play this week and I really have! Finally got my Alliance Night Elf Hunter to level 54! Only 6 more levels to go!Anyway, I have been doing a whole lot of searches on the internet for some World of Warcraft sites. ...