168 – The Instance: Three Stacks Of Chilton

Talking Pet Store With Tom Chilton
On Wednesday, Blizzard added a new dimension to their online store and the game itself with the release of two new premium in-game pets. At a cost of $10 or 10-Euro each, you can have one of these two new companions following every character you’ve got in game. This marks the first time that Blizzard has done direct pay-for-content microtransactions in World Of Warcraft, and it got a lot of people talking. So much so that we found the only fitting way to get to the bottom of the worry to be – An exclusive interview with Blizzard’s Tom Chilton! Have a listen, and look to this blog for a full transcript coming soon!

What’s Going On In China
It could almost be a World of Warcraft game session — two competing titans, plotting against each other, swapping blows, embarked on a quest for a single prize that only the stronger of them will claim. But this is not virtual reality. The titans are two agencies of the Chinese government. And their quest, during which they have traded a few blows in the past week, is for a potentially rich prize: the power to regulate the real World of Warcraft, among the most popular online games in China. The background: On Monday, the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication ordered the Shanghai-based operator of World of Warcraft, NetEase, to shut down its servers for World of Warcraft. The agency said that it had rejected the company’s application to become the new host of the game’s four million Chinese players. But by Wednesday, the Ministry of Culture had struck back. “In regards to the World of Warcraft incident, the General Administration of Press and Publication has clearly overstepped its authority,” a ministry official, Li Xiong, was quoted as saying in the Economic Information Daily, a newspaper in Beijing. “They do not have the authority to penalize online gaming.” The ministry said it had that authority. And it said NetEase was perfectly free to offer the game on computers in China. The matter now appears destined for settlement by the State Council, the Chinese government’s cabinet. So begins an article by Michael Wines in the New York Times this week.

Blizzard Is Now Showing Off What The Tier 10 Priest And Paladin Sets May Look Like

Town Cryer
It’s an all-calls Town Cryer this week!

Our New Favorite WoW Blogger
OK – he’s not new at all, and most hardcore WoW-market enthusiasts have been reading his blog for at least a year, but we somehow missed The Greedy Goblin until just this past week, and if you’ve not yet read his writings at Blogspot, well, you’ve got a *lot* of catching up to do. Greedy Goblin writes a J.K. Rowling novel worth of updates every week, and focuses on both in-game and real world economics, in-game politics, and most humorously, making fun of his adversaries by posting screenshots of their reactions to his auction house tactics.