We came across a thread in the World of Warcraft Forums about the upcoming patch 2.2 and one of its features, VoIP. Well, Proudpaw from Shadow Council was concerned about the other bug fixes that are supposed to come with the next patch.

The player's concern was more about whether the patch will not go live until VoIP is good and ready. And Proudpaw seems keen on the bug fixes that are included in the patch. Blizzard poster Tigerclaw provided an explanation for the delay:

Intent here is: Ship v 2.2.0 with Voice Chat enabled.

Prerequisite for that to happen: successful testing for a substantial period on PTR.

Plans can sometimes change when things happen, but that is our plan at this time of writing. As you know the voice chat feature is not enabled on PTR yet, there is still a level of internal testing and debugging going on that we really need to complete before activating it on PTR.

There you have it kids. You may have to wait a couple of weeks more with small-ish shoulder armor. As with most game developments, we'll wait happily so long as the release works properly and is as promised. You never know, we might see the World of Warcraft patch 2.2 sooner than expected.

With World of Warcraft's patch 2.2.0 recently going live over at the Public Test Realms, one update that's been drawing plenty of attention is Blizzard's upcoming in-game voice chat support for groups and raids.

And even as the developers are already asking the player to assist in helping them spot any possible VoIP-related bugs, the community is also quizzing the devs for details for this new feature.

Such is the case of Artillicus, who dropped by the WoW official forums to make a couple of inquiries into how Blizzard planned to moderate VoIP:

1. Will party/raid leaders have the ability to mute somebody?
2. Will individual players have the ability to mute another player within party/raid?
3. Blizzard, with the design and implementation of in-game VoIP, has recognized voice chat as an almost undeniable prerequisite for raiding. This brings up a few additional questions:

• Does Blizzard plan on recording every session of voice chat for use in verbal harassment investigations?
• If not how does Blizzard intend to investigate verbal harassment made over in-game voice chat with no record of that voice chat?
• Will the in-game voice chat be subject to the same TOS Agreement provisions regarding verbal harassment as in-game text chat is?
  

What makes this discussion sensitive is that that while Blizzard can moderate the sort of messages being transmitted in VoIP, recording the actual conversations poses legal issues in certain states. There isn't any official word yet from Blizzard on how they plan to police VoIP, though Nethaera dropped by the thread to blue-post that details should be available soon. Keep an eye out on the WoW site and forums in case this update materializes.

   

For the World of Warcraft players who read our recent report on the guild banks and VoIP chat to be added after Patch 2.1 goes live, here's an update. We have some scans of the article in question, reports, and some players' reactions to the additions.

According to Blizzard's Shane Dabiri, the said additions will occur after patch 2.1 goes live. The Guild Bank addition will probably prove to be very useful for players who need the extra space for items and gold. On the other hand, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) chat is getting some attention from the players.

Over at the WoW Forums, Schoolgirl of Blackwing Lair started a thread entitled "VOIP: The End of Girls in WoW". He/she (you never know) was concerned that the existence of men pretending to be girls would be in trouble.

Speaking as a girl gamer, it's pretty hard to function properly when you're being bombarded by questions like "Are you really a girl? Or some bald guy in your mother's basement?" Trying to convince guys can prove to be something very futile indeed.

So what do you think? Are you concerned about VoIP chat? While you're turning that over in your mind, check out the scans of Games for Windows Magazine featuring the Guild Banks, VoIP chat, and the new arena called the Ruins of Lordaeron.

A moment of silence for PC gamers: the world's second oldest dedicated PC gaming magazine and it's MMO offshoot magazine has been shut down by their publisher, TheGlobe.com. This information seeped into Gamasutra from two independent sources. Could it be because on the flurry of online game coverage? Not exactly.

Computer Games Magazine, once competitor to PC gaming-renowned Computer Gaming World (now known as Gaming for Windows), now ends its 19 year coverage of the latest and hottest in the PC gaming industry. MMO magazine counterpart MASSIVE shares the same fate, after comprehensive coverage of popular MMOs World of Warcraft and PlanetSide since it's first issue.

There has been no reply or word from TheGlobe.com on the matter, probably denoting the sheer gravity of the shake up. It also gives us reason to wonder about TheGlobe.com's other assets, such as classic and modern PC games warehouse Chips & Bits, VoIP solutions provider Voiceglo, and marketing wing SendTec.

Rumors persist that the recent lawsuit against TheGlobe.com was the sole reason for the shutdown of the two publications. TheGlobe.com could owe from US$ 40 million to US$ 120 million in damages, for 100,000 unsolicited and unauthorized commercial e-mail messages to MySpace members through MySpace user accounts created by the company.

'Tis a sad day for the PC gaming generation if this turns out to be true.

In an article that appeared in PC Advisor, it's been said that the future of the internet exists in living online. Basically, the writer pays tribute to the success of online worlds enjoyed in such online games as World of Warcraft, EVE Online and Second Life, among others.

The writer, who goes by the name Walker Spaight in EVE and Second Life (in case you may bump on him there), was quoted to have said, "It may sound a bit sci-fi, but the advances of the past 15 years suggest that we'll continue to integrate our physical selves more and more tightly with the informational processes going on around us."

We see his point. Spaight suggested exploring the possibilities of constructing 3D worlds for even the most basic online applictions, such as email, instant messaging, chat, VoIP (voice over IP) and video-conferencing. Imagine experiencing - not just watching -  a news update online, by walking through locations and talking to witnesses themselves, through 3D representations of real people, real buildings and real locations.

There's more to be read in the whole article, but someday, we may not just have to read these writings - we may even be able to experience them, through our avatars.