World of Warcraft creator Blizzard looks set to get $6 million from the makers of a software “bot. read more

Technorati Tags: 6, blizzard, bot, creator, makers, million, warcraft news

The National Science Foundation has given informatics prof Bonnie Nardi $100,000 to study why Americans go crazy modding World of Warcraft, while Chinese players don’t. They talked more about color schemes, animations, architecture, and so on more than American players. On the order of 20 percent here and 10 percent there. But in China people donât have brothers and sisters for the most part, so friend relationships are very important. read more

Technorati Tags: brothers, order, people, percent, players, sisters, warcraft news

That's $200 million for the total cost of upkeep since the game's November, 2004 release (presumably not including the initial cost to develop the game). This includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and — apparently the biggest infrastructure cost — customer service. That leaves 9 million paying subscribers who, at the $15 fee, are generating $135 million every month . Hell, even if you adjust that to, say, $120 million (since many subscribers may be paying for slightly discounted 3- or 6-month subscriptions), that still means Blizzard more than recouped their entire upkeep costs over a four-year period in just two months. read more

Technorati Tags: , million, cost, davis, subscribers, ziff, warcraft news