nVidia released a new driver today that fixed the problem with the Apple 30″ LCD.  So now that Vista is running 2560×1600 I can actually use it.  I’ve installed Office 2007 and will start experimenting with that soon.

The key thing:  World of Warcraft seems to be running great.  LOL. 

Anyway, so far I’ve just been configuring things to my liking so I don’t have much to report.  My biggest issues now are finding my old iTunes playlists and stupid crap like that.  I did a fresh install but I guess that still saves a copy of all your crap, which is kind of convenient. 

Anyway the UI is nice and things seem to be running smoothly now, another update will soon follow.

A quick warning.  On Kil’Jaeden (where I play) there is a new scan going on and I expect it is probably happening on other servers as well.

You get an ingame mail from the Argent Dawn saying something like:

Thank you for all your hard work killing demons for the Argent Dawn, please accept this gift as a small token of our appreciation.

The mail will claim to be from some Argent Dawn figure and will have an attached package – typically one of the various gift wrapped items (like the reward from those grudge-covered objects in Gnomeragon). 

The scam is that it is COD and it’s easy to fall for because it looks like you are getting a present and 100g/300g (whatever they send).  But really you are getting a present for 100g/300g COD gold.  So when you click you lose the gold.  Boom!

I got one of these for 300g and fortunately didn’t fall for it.  I’ve seen several people sending warnings about the scam in general chat.  So be careful, it would suck to have some random scam yank hundreds of gold from you.

/Alert

Article from News.com:  eBay bans auctions of virtual goods

Well this makes my weekly tracking report on account sales in World of Warcrat difficult to continue.  I was waiting to restart it once things stablizied, since the release of The Burning Crusade (the expansion) it has been unclear what the right metrics were.  There have been a few level 70 characters up on eBay, but not many.  So given this announcement I’ll delay the report.  I’ll start tracking gold again this week. 

This is unfortunate.  I, for one, think that being able to sell your account is a good thing.  It you put thousands of hours (like most level 70s) into this, you should be able to sell what you’ve accomplished.  It’s a shame a few purists think you should just have to throw all that away. 

Games are a big hobby for many people, most hobbies involve collection/building and generate some value (although are not often wildly profitable).  MMORPGs are no different – as you play you collect stuff for your characted and you build it up.  This has some value – no where near the time you put into it – and you should be able to extract that value if you leave.  It is unfortunate that some game companies do not take this broader view.

Please also read The Prince, The Pauper, and The Purist, if you are interested in this topic.

OK, so my last post was perhaps a little to vitriolic, but I was pretty pissed.   I kept getting an empty blackscreen after the first reboot.  Anyway, I will say that Microsoft’s tech support was helpful, I only wish I hadn’t needed to call them.  It turns out I had to unplug all my USB devices to install Vista.  Wow, never would have thought of that.  I’m pretty computer saavy and I’m beginning to wonder how normal people ever get this crap to work.

Oh, even better, I had to download a driver from Dell (for my hard drive, which admittedly is Raid) to get it to do a clean install.  What fun.  I had to guess which driver.

Anyway, I finally got it working.  Although I’m still languishing in the world of 1280×800 which really pisses me off.  But I finally got to the bottom of it.  Apparently this is nVidia’s fault.  The nVidia 8800 GTX (top end video card) is stuck in 1280×800 because of a driver problem.  So if you are considering Vista, an nVidia 8800 card, and/or an Apple 30″ LCD… they do not currently work together.  Supposedly the Dell 30″ works.  Here is the quote:

Well after two hours I have Vista working.  It looks AWESOME in 1280×800 on my 30″ LCD.  WTF.  I’m not sure if it is Microsoft or NVidia who is at fault, but when you buy Vista Ultimate it should WORK.  I mean it is $259 for the upgrade and it is targetted at enthusiasts and gamers.  I have an NVidia 8800 GTX card in my PC.  Right now this is the best card out there.  It ran awesome on Windows XP SP2…. in 2560×1600.  Now the highest available resolution is 1280×800. 

This operating system has been in development for years and they still released it too soon. 

I guess I’m going to have to reinstall XP on this computer.  What fun.  Like I wanted to waste five hours on this crap. 

So maybe I’m part of the problem, because I like to buy the newest stuff which encourages the release of crappy products.  But when I have to think about downgrading a $600 video card because Vista won’t work with it, that is just retarded.  Microsoft and NVidia should be ashamed of themselves.

This is an interesting article on Crapware from Ars Machina.

I’d probably pay $40-$50 to keep all the crap of a new computer I buy.  Frankly if I wasn’t worried about breaking something with the drivers I’d do a fresh install as soon as I got the computer.  I wonder if the OS CDs come with the crapware on them, never tried that.  Anyway, it’s a waste of an hour or two deleting all the crap that comes pre-installed – even just getting it out of the start menu. 

This is definitely entertaining:  Get a First Life!

Previously by the same guy:  Apple Dei

This guy is clever and funny.  Definitely geek entertainment.

So far so good.  I braved the Texas Blizzard of 2007 (lol) to get my copy at midnight Monday (or Tuesday depending).  BTW, a Texas Blizzard basically means freezing rain or the possibility of freezing rain.  In this case there was some freezing and it even snowed a little on Tuesday.  OMG! 

So anyway, during the freezing craziness of this last week I got some time to play.  I am now level 63.  Exciting!  I like the new expansion.  Advancing again is fun.  Exploring new areas again is fun.  Lots of cool new monsters and landscapes. 

More to come.

The Burning Crusade is out!  (Hence the delay, more on that in another post.)

Accounts for Sale:  287 (down 631!)

High Price: $1,300 (7/9 T3 Paladin with KT Loot) – down $200, although I no longer consider this a good indicator since people are posting stuff at delusional price points

Highest Price w/Bid:  $810 (14 bids, 8/9 T3 Warrior with Thunderfury – Based on the formating and e-mail contact I think this is a fraud though – see my previous post on this type of fraud).  There are a fer  bids in the $500-$700 range, but not many.

Accounts with Kel’Thuzad weapons:  1 (down 3) 

Accounts with Legendary items:  12 (sown 26)  (This number is somewhat inflated because it counts splinters of Atiesh and a lot of people have those – not too useful though unless you’re in a guild that can kill KT.) 

Gold: 

• 1000g on Tichondrius (Alliance): $228.78-$336.99 (trending up about $30)
• 1000g on Frostmane (Alliance): $228.78-$278.83 (range closed, but low price up $100)

Sources:  EZgaming, IGE, MOGs

COMMENTARY

Gold continues to remain roughly flat, with a lot of variance in prices between vendors.  Shop around.  I expect gold to fall dramatically in the next few weeks as gold is much easier to obtain in TBC.  However, since epic flying mount training costs 5000g I expect there will be a big jump in demand for large gold purchases.

Account sales are down dramatically.  If you are thinking of buying in for TBC, go for a good T1 character and forgo the T3 premium prices.  You will gear up fast in TBC and T3 will be obsolete at level 70 anyway.

Good luck in the Burning Crusade! 

From Time:  Confessions of a 30-Year-Old Gamer

This is a very good article about MMOGs (Massively Multi-player Online Games) and, in particular, World of Warcraft.  I think the author does a good job of explaining why it’s addictive and powerful.  I think anyone who has friends, significant others, family members, etc. that play MMOGs should read this – it might help you understand.