HELLO KITTY - Serious Threat or Seriously Silly?

Sanrio has come up with its own MMORPG based on the highly beloved (and commercial) HELLO KITTY characters. They're hoping to parlay their worldwide popularity into an online gaming system that can take on World of Warcraft as the predominant MMORPG across the globe. (Always good to dream big if you're going to dream at all, eh?)

I don't know about you, but people who want to sling spells, dream of dragons, outwit wizards, topple trolls and eviscerate evil-doers generally aren't the same ones who want to see a penguin named Badtz-Maru wander the streets of the Flower Kingdom happily playing his guitar. (Or maybe they are???)

I have the feeling both systems have their places and will each fill a niche rather than directly compete for the same audience. (Personally, while WoW is supposedly 'family friendly' with everyone being able to play, I'd much rather have young children learn to play 'nicely' with each other in an RPG world like HELLO KITTY before they learn how to fight evil - and each other - in WoW. Just my opinion...)

Since HK is currently in Beta testing (with over 30,000 people already running the characters and imaginary locations through their paces), we'll see what, if anything, Blizzard decides to come up with in the meantime to combat Sanrio's efforts to grab a chunk of their MMORPG market. (A cute little side kingdom of friendly elves or fairies? LOL)

World of Warcraft Hits 10 Million

Congrats to Blizzard on hitting its newest gaming milestone: 10 million players worldwide. According to their website, approx 2.5 million of those players are from North America with the bulk of the remainder in Asia. That's a LOT of internet traffic!

Guess this means they're here to stay for a little while, eh? Wonder who pushed them over the big 1-0? William Shatner? Verne Troyer? or someone else who hasn't done a commercial for them yet... LOL

Great Site for Online Gaming Guides

Do you like to play a variety of online RPG games and want a little extra help getting ahead in each? Don't want to wait for days or weeks for the guides to come in the mail?

Then you should check out KillerGuides.com

They're the world's leading marketplace for professional MMORPG strategy guides and they come in instantly downloadable and usable eBook format. Killer Guides are unauthorized guides and they publish uncensored and unbiased information, including the little secrets and tricks you are not supposed to know about!

They have a large - and steadily growing - portfolio of MMORPG strategy guides that will considerably enhance your gaming experience. But what makes Killer Guides really special, is their rating system:

Customers can rate any guide they have purchased and even leave comments. This way, feedback to the authors is standardized, and customers' critiques and recommendations can be quickly incorporated in the free updates included in any guide purchase. Also, the guides' ratings are shown to visitors on the site and give them a good idea of what to expect when purchasing a guide.

They have great guides for the following MMORPG games:

* City of Heroes
* Dark Age of Camelot
* EVE Online
* EverQuest
* EverQuest 2
* Final Fantasy XI
* Guild Wars
* Lineage 2
* Lord of the Rings Online
* Pirates of the Burning Sea
* Runescape
* Second Life
* Star Wars Galaxies
* Tabula Rasa
* The Matrix Online
* World of Warcraft

The Dark Portal Opens Jan 16th!

The Burning Legion's renewed assault on Azeroth begins Midnight, January 16th and the Blizzard development team will be on hand to celebrate the event while signing copies of the game at four California area retailers. For Orange County residents, the Fountain Valley Fry's will open up at midnight for signings, with a second location available in Anaheim. If you are in Los Angeles, you can check out a midnight opening at the Hollywood Citywalk Gamestop/EB Games retail store. Finally, for those in the San Francisco area, the Sunnyvale Fry's will open its doors to those interested in meeting the developers.

Here are the details for each event:

Retailer	Address	Signed Copies Available	Time Line- Up Begins
Fry's Fountain Valley	10800 Kalama River Ave Fountain Valley, CA 92708	4500	January 15th
Fry's Anaheim	3370 E. La Palma Ave Anaheim, CA 92806	4500	January 15th
Fry's Sunnyvale	1077 E. Arques Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94085	4500	January 15th
Universal Citywalk Gamestop/EB Games	1000 Universal Studios Blvd (Cross Street: Buddy Holly Drive) Universal City, CA 91608	1500	January 15th

At each location, line-up begins at 6:00 AM PCT on January 15th. There are limited quantities available on a first-come, first-served basis. Wristbands will be issued at each event to guarantee signed copies, so make sure you are there in time to receive one.

If you don't live in California or can't make it to one of these four events, don't worry...There are a legion of retail locations across the country opening early to sell copies of The Burning Crusade. Best Buy and Gamestop/EB Games will have select locations open at Midnight, January 16th. For a full list of participating retail stores, check out the Web sites listed below:

• http://www.bestbuy.com
• http://www.ebgames.com
• http://www.gamestop.com

(Info from the Blizzard.com World of Warcraft Newsletter)

World of Warcraft Fan Art

It's amazing just how many people out there are such great artists and illustrators, and World of Warcraft fans/users are some of the most fantastic (in more ways than one!)

Here are just a few of the pics that have been recently submitted to the World of Warcraft Fan Pic pages:

To see all the wonderful work that WoW fans have submitted so far, go to the World of Warcraft Fan Art Pages

Now I've Seen Everything....

William Shatner - shaman? on World of Warcraft?? WHEN does he find TIME!?! (I mean, between BOSTON LEGAL & the never-ending Priceline Negotiator Commercials, how does he manage to fit in hurling lightning bolts online?...)

These World of Warcraft ads remind me vaguely of the recent GEICO commercials - using B-level (or sometimes even C- and D-level!) actors/celebs that seem to belong more in a "Where are They Now" show than on an advertisement for an already hot product. (Wonder if the actors are paying to be in them instead of the other way around to boost flagging careers? Hmmmm.) I mean, Mr T as a Night Elf Warrior (with a Mohawk) or Verne Troyer as a WoW 'master of the arcane'? Does knowing that make you want to run out and join the other 9 million players or just go back and watch old reruns of A-Team or the Austin Powers movies?

Now, if someone like Michael T Weiss, Russell Crowe, Gerard Butler, Angelina Jolie, or Johnny Depp said on a commercial that they were playing the game, I'd probably be on World of Warcraft 24/7! LOL

But for now, I guess we'll just have to be satisfied trying to whip Captain Kirk's, I mean, the shaman's butt, online for now.