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world of warcraft

UK Gets its First Gamer Rehab Clinic – 12 Steps in Somerset

by Jay Garrett on November 4, 2009

online-gamerAfter reporting about the internet addiction clinic opening in the States in August it’s the turn of the Brits.

Yup – we are now the proud owners of our first rehab clinic targeting addicted gamers.

The Broadway Lodge, a residential rehabilitation unit in Weston-super-Mare, treats around 400 addicts a year for a range of issues and will adapt the Minnesota Method Twelve-Step programme, normally used to treat people addicted to drugs, drink and gambling, in order to treat gamers that exhibit similar behaviour.

Patients at the clinic will take part in group therapy, video sessions and therapeutic tasks including vacuuming and washing up – surely that’s more shock therapy for most hard-core gamers!!??!!

The Chief Exec of the centre, Brian Dudley, says that between 5-10% of the nation knows someone addicted to an online game.

Dudley believes that the rise and rise of online games such as World of Warcraft, which requires players to invest large amounts of time to progress, has triggered this new addiction.

The Telegraph reports: “Sufferers spend days at a time glued to their computer screens – going without food, sleep, or any social interaction. As a result they suffer malnutrition, relationship-breakdown and postural problems.”

With the recent release of Championship Manager, there are sure to be bleary-eyed, pale-skinned addicts across the country that don’t know what day it is. If this sounds like you, contact the centre now.

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MMORPGamers Targetted by Worms – World of Warcraft Virus

by Jay Garrett on November 3, 2009

lan-party-764022There’s been plenty of press regarding the health issues of gamers that spend most their waking lives playing these Massively Multiplayer Online games but here’s a new health scare.

The health of your secure details held on USB’s, external hard-drives and the like.

Microsoft has published a report pointing out that virus writers are getting hip to the fact that, with so many people hooked up to games such as WoW and Legend of Mir, this is an ideal way of transmitting virii.

The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report discovered that there has been a 156% increase in cases of the Taterf worm, which scans USB-sticks, external hard-drives and shared folders of infected PCs.

MMORPGamers are more at risk as the Taterf worm will slink around their computer looking for login details to subscription-based online games, this then opens a can-of-worms (sorry) as it can then grab personal details like the bank accounts used to pay for the game – these can then be sold on by basta….hackers to third-party mother-fu…. criminals.

The report says that this is a warning to gamers and those who operate gaming services: “Taterf’s impressive growth underscores the need for organisations to develop guidelines for removable drives and evaluate how connections are made to outside machines.”

So, like any group activity where you connect and share everything – stay protected out there! ;)

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Free World of Warcraft For iPhone 3G

August 2, 2008 Click to read more →

That’s right.
WoW on the iPhone for free – how cool is that???!!
Granted, it’s not be the full version, but Warcraft Characters is pretty neat and you can sate your WoW addiction a little whilst on your break at work or on the bus.
The application allows you to view details of WoW characters, including stats, [...]

April Fools Japes

April 1, 2008 Click to read more →

There’s been some good ones on T3’s site ranging from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs being the same person to the fact that Blu-ray was finished and the new PS3 will be shipped with VHS as standard.
So far my favourite April Fools funny comes from Blizzard and their WoW – The Molten Core.  Be amazed [...]

WoW Models

December 13, 2007 Click to read more →

The Former Microsoft Game Studios VP, Ed Fries, has partnered up with World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment to create 3D statues of individual characters played in the game.  Yeah, the character that you’ve designed can actually sit on your shelf and watch you play!
This service is called FigurePrints and will cost you around £50 for the priviledge [...]

Online Gaming Can Kill

December 12, 2007 Click to read more →

FoxNews is ramming the fact that online gaming can lead to death and other nastiness. 
The report picks out a few extreme cases where people who met via online worlds ended up doing something bad so therefore games such as World of Warcraft should be banned. 
There’s a very halfhearted attempt to give ‘the otherside’ of the ‘debate’ but [...]