The good folks over at Blizzard's official World of Warcraft forums have provided a very useful checklist of how to avoid keyloggers who are even sneaky enough to hack Blizzard posters. Check out the tips enumerated by WoW forum poster Lythria, and you better take heed - WoW player or no - since the following preventive measures can be used for securing your most personal information online.

Being careful with the links before you click on them is very important, as many people fall prey into clicking links that activate keylogging scripts. One of the things you can do is to make sure the link will lead to a well-known site (such as Photobucket) by hovering on the link and checking out the status bar at the bottom of your browser.

Another thing to do is installing some browser add-ons that help prevent the running of scripts, such as Mozilla Firefox's "NoScript".

Lythria will update her post from time to time as more ways of detecting/avoiding keyloggers are found, so its better to check the Via link to catch the updates yourself.

The World of Warcraft Public Test Realms (PTR) is reportedly experiencing problems with its character copy page. Going into further details about this matter, Lilianara over at the WoW forums reported that Firefox 2.0.0.3 was unable to access the PTR character copy page, with users being greeted with a "Server Busy" error every time they attempt to enter. The bug problem was picked up by the Blizzard dev team and have sent this reply via blue-poster Nickjs:

Hello Lilianara,

The account management page is currently experiencing some issues and the appropriate teams are working to resolve it as soon as possible. In the meantime, please continue to try and successfully copy the character. We do apologize for any inconvenience.

With regards to Nikjs' advise for users to try to find ways to work around this problem, Lilianara provided this work-around:

1. use IE to go to the char copy page (i didnt get the error 1 over several hours of testing)
2. Use the Firefox mod, IE tab or IE View to render the page in IE inside Firefox. (didnt get the server busy error using this method over my testing.)   

That's all to report for the moment - the workaround should help until Blizzard can properly fix the reported page issue.

Members of the World of Warcraft boards have detected what appears to be a keylogger over at the Icecrown boards. According to Madhava's explanation over at the posted thread, here was how the detected trojan worked:

Its not meant to fool the interceptor, Its meant to fool people. It disguises what website you are actually going to by using those escape functions. Firefox refuses to follow those links (for good reason), but I'm not sure about IE. My computer is pretty secure but I don't want to risk running that site on Internet explorer.

The hijacked site has an embedded link to malicious javascript hosted on a Chinese server. That javascript attempts to exploit the ANI exploit and the Iframe exploit to load a trojan named 'test.exe'.
'Test.exe' is detected by most antivirus as a trojan:
Trojan-PSW.Win32.Agent.im or Trojan.Agent.im
Basically a password stealer for WoW and maybe a backdoor.

Just a quick heads-up for any passing WoW gamers, all the more as keylogging incidents are becoming more rampant. Now, in case the guys here are wondering as to how to protect themselves (and their prized characters) from getting hoodwinked, make sure to check out the various security measures being circulated for your benefit. Play safely.

Flukes submitted this JPEG screencap to Digg which could be funny, freaky, or downright furiously worrisome, depending on where you stand in the online privacy debate. Here's what Flukes has to say:

The linked screenshot provides proof that WoW developer Blizzard is actively scanning players' browsing history and cookies. Early speculation is that this is a countermeasure against cheaters, but players are arguing that Blizzard has no right to access this highly private data.

(You will note with great trepidation that the next thing the program checks after the temp files is the Cookies folder)

Not knowing what Blizzard's reasons are for checking your computer's internet history, all everyone at Digg and here can do is speculate. Beyond jokes of (and we quote) "Worried about Blizz finding out about your (just use the sickest imagination you've got) pr0n collection?", there are some very serious repercussions from this.

One theory being strung out at Digg is that the game's actively looking for the computer having visited sites Blizzard frowns on for one reason or another. A more benign reason is that WoW could simply be saving cache files from the news ticker, or from the program's launcher, which is why it's accessing the temp folder. Could be an anti-scam thing, too. Of course, those are the benign reasons - who wants to speculate on the more overtly provocative ones?

But again, no one knows why, and Blizzard didn't say anything about this before. And a lot of people in Digg are seriously miffed and are, not to mention, switching to Firefox - unless WoW's designed to look in there, too.

Time is almost up, my friends! The Hero Online closed beta is coming to an end and you've only got a few more hours to be able to get a sneak peek at this revolutionary blend of MMO action and martial arts mayhem!

1. Email QJ.NET for a Beta Activation Key
2. Register at Netgame for your free account*
3. After registering, Activate your Digital Key
4. Download the Hero Online Beta Client
   
5. Discuss the Hero Online beta in the QJ.NET Forums!

*Note: Some browsers such as FireFox may not be supported, Internet Explorer is recommended

June 26th: The closed beta testing period is now over.

The publishers at mGame have just released six new screenshots for their upcoming MMORPG Hero Online. In it, players will experience an Asian twist on the Arthurian legend in a martial arts environment. It's still not too late for you to get your shot at the Hero Online closed beta program, so just follow these simple instructions and download the Hero Online Beta Client to get a taste of this martial arts based MMO.

1. Email QJ.NET for a Beta Activation Key
2. Register at Netgame for your free account*
3. After registering, Activate your Digital Key
4. Stay tuned to QJ.NET and NetGame for news on when the Client will be available for download!
5. Discuss the Hero Online beta in the QJ.NET Forums!

*Note: Some browsers such as FireFox may not be supported, Internet Explorer is recommended

Download: [Hero Online Beta Client]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

My personal favorite web-based MMORPG is called Kingdom of Loathing. It's a great web-browser-based MMORPG, filled full or satire, and spoofs on pop culture. The game was is created by Asymmetric Publications. Your main objective is to slay the Naughty Sorceress and free King Ralph XI. Doing this will then allow you to "ascend" and let you play the game again with more features, and with a stronger character.

Kingdom of Loathing, or KoL as it's sometimes known, has had a few major updates recently.  It seems skills are really being worked over. Now is a skill becomes uncastable, they will be greyed out instead of completely disappearing from your list (in Firefox only).  No more wondering why your pastamastery skill disappeared!

Transcendental Noodlecraft and The Way of Sauce now are allowed to be used 5 times instead of 3, as long as you also have the Pastamastery or Advanced Saucecrafting skill that is.  This has been a change that has been meant to be implemented for a long time now.  Thankfully they got around to it.

For the select few of you that actually own the Astral Badger familiar, to gain access to the astral mushroom zones, the cerebral items now form a complete outfit named the Encephalic Ensamble.

Another change within the last week is that there is a new item in the Grimoire.  One of the biggest changes is that level 15 crafting skills for Seal Clubbers, Saucerors, and Pastamancers have been completely re-done.  Especially Saucecrafting, as a few item effects have been changed.  If you are a Pastamancer, and used to cooking chow mein, you may not be able to again, until you get the level 15 skill anyway.  No more low level characters cooking chow mein.

Those are all of the main changes this week.  There are also a few trivial updates that you can read at the KoL website.

Hero Online and QJ.NET have partnered to bring the martial-arts based MMO to your screens. If you've been busy for the past  couple of days, chances are you haven't joined the Hero Online closed beta program yet. No cause for panic as the program is still open to those who wish to participate and the Beta Client is available for download. All you have to do is follow the steps below and you're on your way to martial arts heaven.

   1. Email QJ.NET for a Beta Activation Key
   2. Register at Netgame for your free account*
   3. After registering, Activate your Digital Key
   4. Discuss the Hero Online beta in the QJ.NET Forums!

*Note: Some browsers such as FireFox may not be supported, Internet Explorer is recommended

Download: [Hero Online Beta Client]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

With the start of the new week comes a whole host of new media and information from Netgame about Hero Online. For those of you who have missed recent news stories about this martial arts-based MMO, Hero Online and QJ.NET have been partnering to allow you, our readers, participate in the upcoming closed beta program. The client will be available for download beginning June 14th, just in time for the grand opening of the beta which start June 15th at 11:00am EST. If you still haven't signed up for the program, you're not too late! Just follow these steps:

1. Email QJ.NET for a Beta Activation Key
2. Register at Netgame for your free account*
3. After registering, Activate your Digital Key
4. Stay tuned to QJ.NET and NetGame for news on when the Client will be available for download!
5. Discuss the Hero Online beta in the QJ.NET Forums!

*Note: Some browsers such as FireFox may not be supported, Internet Explorer is recommended

And now, for a taste of what you're in for, feast your eyes on a few of these fresh screenshots and a brand new trailer from Hero Online, and don't forget to see what makes this MMO different from the rest by checking out QJ's exclusive Interview with the creators of Hero Online!

  
  

Download: [Hero Online Preview Trailer 2]

Anticipation is starting build over Netgame's newest foray into the world of MMO's - Hero Online. This new title brings together the work of several renowned Eastern Asian Martial Art novelists, infusing Hero Online with a level of martial arts skills and style not yet before seen in a MMO. Fantastic feats have become the staple of cinematic martial arts films, and Hero Online embraces it all giving players the ability to fly over buildings, move objects using their inner chi, and many other skills that allow gamers to fulfill their wildest martial arts dreams.

Be sure to check out this first video glimpse of Hero Online as well as QJ's exclusive interview with the creators of Hero Online. If it strikes your fancy, take advantage of  their closed beta program, while you still can, by requesting your own beta verification key from QJ.NET by following the steps below:

1. Email QJ.NET for a Beta Activation Key
2. Register at Netgame for your free account*
3. After registering, Activate your Digital Key
4. Stay tuned to QJ.NET and NetGame for news on when the Client will be available for download!
5. Discuss the Hero Online beta in the QJ.NET Forums!

*Note: Some browsers such as FireFox may not be supported, Internet Explorer is recommended

Download: [Hero Online Preview Video 1]