WoW Is Old Enough To Ride A Bike

Actually, I'm not quite sure what age kids really start riding bicycles, at least without stabilisers and/or a worried parent holding onto the back of the saddle. I think I was at least around seven when I first managed a brief, unassisted pedal down a country lane (and, more excitingly, was rewarded with a second-hand Superion for my efforts. I still have that somewhere) so I'm going to go ahead and say that Blizzard's MMO should be capable of such a feat.

Yes, World of Warcraft, the main man of the MMO industry, has been around for seven years this week, which is an alarming prospect. How did it get so old? (By which I mean 'how did I get so old?) And it's remarkable it's only seen three expansions in that time, given what a cash-cow it's been for Blizzard, Vivendi and Activision. There are gentle celebrations in honour of this birthday, primarily in the form of a 'feat of strength' item dropped into the inventories of any players who sign in between now-ish and December 3.

What this really means is a brief fireworks display, a bonus tabard and a 7% bonus to experience and reputation gains "while active." So, hooray for age. And for people being able to level up an alt a little bit quicker. More details here.

I fired up WoW for the first time in a couple of years lately, cos some goldfarmer had somehow nicked my account and it got it first suspended and then banned for trying to sell stuff. Bit of a pain, but to Blizzard's credit their scary automated support system got it all sorted for me, including restoring items, characters and whatnot the rotter had wiped. Which'll be handy in the event I ever go back to Azeroth. Maybe to be a panda? (That still seems like the silliest decision on their part, but maybe it'll drag people in from outside their current audience. By people I mean 'pandas'). Anyone else had account hacking fun/horrortimes?