Bomyne’s Blog

So, I’ve been checking out all the information avaliable on Wrath of the Lich King, and I’d venture a guess that, despite it’s late release, this is probably going to be the biggest/top selling PC game released this year.

I’m not going to reproduce content thats already out there, espcially considering,I don’t have a beta invite… but if you are reading this blog, for whatever reason, then be sure to check out this short review: GameArena WotLK review

Two things I would like to say through…

1) If you don’t like World of Warcraft, thats fine… thats your bussiness and your problem… but please don’t comment on people’s blogs about how much you think World of Warcraft sucks. It’s true, some people get bored with the game once they reach 70, others don’t like the cartoon graphics (Hey, if you think this is bad… look at Everquest…), for some, it’s the simple gameplay style… I understand all this… but trying to force your opinions onto us that “World of Warcraft sucks” or “You need help if you play this game”… Please, don’t… It only angers us.

2) Blizzard and Money… I’ve seen a lot of posts (on the offical forums too) about how Blizzard is motivated by money. Blizzard is a company, ONE of their goals is to turn a profit… and with 11 million subscribers, Blizzard turns one hell of a profit. But motivation? If Blizzard was motivated by money, they would not ban people for cheating in their game. This is a company that cares more for the quality of it’s game, then it’s money.

Some people say they have a problem with Blizzard and the way they do things… I don’t really get it through… I mean…

Once apon a time, I bought SWG credits… I bought over 200 Million credits over a period of a month… Yes, a month… and my account is still accessable (not active). Wherein, with World of Warcraft, if you buy gold, you usually get a ban… or at least suspension. Sometime,Blizzard will delete the incoming gold without notice and leave your account alone… but not very often does bought gold make it to your account. (I admit, I tried once. Blizzard deleted the 150g from my mailbox before I could get it and left it at that).

All in all, if you have a problem with this game, okay… we get that… But please, do not try to force your opinions onto other gamers… We are, after all, gamers… Gaming is what we do… Most of us don’t even care about the out of game politics between the games we love.

I just created this sweet little application called Realm Status Monitor.

What does it do?
Basicly, Realm Status Monitor (RSM) sits in the system tray and every minute it will query to see if the server you specified is up or down, and change the colour of it’s system tray icon to match.

How does it do this?
What RSM does is it queries the offical Blizzard servers (via my own server - acting as translator) to check the realm status page to see if your server is up.

What realm set does it work with?
RSM works with the North American version of the game. That means the US, Oceania and Latin America servers.

I think it’s cool. How can I leave feedback?
Comment on this post.

What does it look like?

Where can I download it?
You can download it here
NOTE: Realm names are case sensitive. You need to type “Thaurissan”. Not “THAURISSAN”. Not “thaurissan”… It’s how it appears inthe realm browser in game. If you encounter any problems, post below to let me know.

Is it safe?
Yes.  Xares.Net will never distribute anything that may damage your computer or risk your account. Xares.Net also encourages safe computing. Always ensure your virus scanner is up to date.

What do I need to run it?
.Net framework 2.0. Thats all.

I just spent the last hour, hour and a half, searching for a way to properly control iTunes from my keyboard controls (While I’m in game for example). As any iTunes user knows, this is not a feature that comes with iTunes by default. I downloaded the first program I found, iRemote, which was full of errors. I uninstalled it and kept looking then I found this gem: iTunesKeys.

It’s a program that runs in the background and assigns global hotkeys to iTunes functions. Best of all, it’s customizable AND you can set the Win key (that little one on your keyboard that looks like the windows logo).

So I’m using Win+] to go to the next track and Win+[ for the last track. It’s sweet.