www.hordereview.com

derfel · 05-24-10, 07:16 PM

Hello all!

My name is Derfel, both as my user name here, on several other sites, and for my Level 80 DK in game. I've really been getting into various WoW websites lately, but i started writing for Horde Review back in Janurary. Slowly, I have watched the writer's of the Horde Review community come together, especially recently, and really began turning out great content, ranging from class news, patch notes, to WoW Machnima, Addons, Website plug-ins and development.

Not long ago i was made editor, and I have been trying very hard to publicize the website. Our Facebook group has recently gotten over 2500 followers, and we are slowly branching out to include more content, soon to launch fully operational forums, and looking for great writers and contributers.

If you'd like to take a look, follow the above link. Feel free to Like us on facebook. We do read all the comments, and respond in a fairly timely manner.

Thank you for your time, and as always, happy hunting in the World of Warcraft!

Sepioth · 05-24-10, 08:19 PM

Nice site. Will have to check it out in more detail later. Good luck with getting more viewers/followers.

On a side note you have an Ad for a site called WTFast.

They offer Proxy service which is not supported by Blizzard and can get your account suspended or terminated. Having adverts on your site that can cause players to get in trouble is probably not a good idea.

Reference to WTFast on WoW Europe forums with a e-mail from Blizzard and a blue response HERE

They also allow (or will allow) the usage of Private Servers with their service. All in all it may be a nice way to lower latency (even if it costs you some $$ to use their services) it is not a WoW friendly site.

xandora · 05-24-10, 09:08 PM

Nowhere does it say that using a Proxy server is not allowed. All it says is that they do not support it and cannot help with any problems that may arise from you using those services.

Petrah · 05-24-10, 09:09 PM

Blizzard will neither confirm or deny weather or not they condone those proxy services.

However, if they see your account continually logging in from a different IP address, there is the possibility that Warden will think your account is being hacked and they will temp suspend your account until it's investigated further.

derfel · 05-24-10, 10:34 PM

i don't have any control over what goes on with the advertising, but i will mention to the site owner the concern shown here.

As i said above, most of the actual content posted deals with playing classes, general experiences with WoW, and i do some tech stuff from time to time. It is by no means official or super great, but we feel it's the amount of work and effort we put into it that makes it better than it appears to be.

As far as nice ping goes, i use Leatrix Latency fix found here in the addons section. Solves similar problems that a proxy server alieviates. (i prolly spelled that horribly wrong) I tried a proxy and found zero difference so long as i was using that latency fix.

Thank you for any expressed interest. these comments made my day

Hordereview · 05-27-10, 02:54 AM

Hey guys im bless the Admin at www.hordereview.com Derel asked me about the WTFast banner and how I felt about it. Here is my response to his question. Blizzard will not ban you for using WTFast as SSHTunneling in no way alters the game nor its files.

Their statement is that they don't support it meaning that if you for some reason come across a service claiming to give you results, and then turns out to be malicious, you are on your own.

The only negative impact the Blizz may take against you is if you start connecting from different servers multiple times in one day. They will lock your account as a security feature because your IP address will change every time you switch servers. This isnt because you are using an SSH tunneling service it is simply a precaution to protect you in case someone has hacked your account. The trick is to find the server that works for you and stick with it. Its not a big concern mostly becaucse you would have to log in several times from different servers.

I have personally used WTFast and Smoothping elite both for quite sometime. Never have I once encountered a problem, and personally find there services to be of good value especially since I live and play abroad. My guild is a US guild so I play on a US server which causes me to have higher than usual ping times.

I wouldnt promote anything malicious or that I dont support or use myself. This is a service that I personally use, and I support it now as I will continue to support it in the future. It has helped me and I will promote it in efforts and hopes that it will help other people.

If you want to see a layout of a post I created for WTFast that explains their service in a little better detail you can check it out here.

http://www.hordereview.com/2010/03/t...g-with-wtfast/

I will say that we have a google adsense banner which is controlled by Google and not by us placed into the footer. I am considering removing it because every week I have to refresh my page over and over again trying to filter out the gold ads. WE DO NOT SUPPORT. HACKS CHEATS, POWERLEVELING, OR GOLD SERVICES OF ANY KIND.

Nor will we ever in the future. We support fair use of the game and comply entirely with the Blizzard TOS and EULA agreements just like WOW Head, and Thottbot who also promote WTFast along with several other official wow fan sites.

I hope this explains why we choose to support WTFast a little more.

Petrah · 05-27-10, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by Sepioth

They also allow (or will allow) the usage of Private Servers with their service.

Can you please show me where that info is at? I can't find it anywhere on their site.

Edit: Ohhhhh.. http://wtfast.com/faq.aspx "If you are playing a custom game with no realms/servers listed, we recommend trying the available regions to see which region gets you the best results.".

Well that certainly doesn't look good.

Hordereview, do you really want to climb into bed with a company that supports the use of private servers? That doesn't look good for you either I'm afraid.

Sepioth · 05-27-10, 03:19 PM

First ... Thanks Hordereview for coming here to explain in better details what WTFast is. It show some class that you care and are willing to talk to people. Not to many site owners/moderators do that. So again it is appreciated.

Second ... I have to side on Petrah with this one. It is also another point I brought up in my first post. I don't support anyone who allows the use of private servers or anyone who supports others that allow it.

WTFast can restrict the use of private servers. It was just recently added to the program so it is not some side effect or loop hole in their program. It is by design.

But it is your website and you have the right to advertise whatever you want too. You just won't see me around your site while ads like that are there. Sorry.

Private server use source HERE

xandora · 05-27-10, 07:07 PM

Just as a heads up, most WoW Tunneling services can support the use of private servers. Whether is it 'by design' or simply because their service tunnels you to whatever IP address your WoW client wants.

WoW Tunnels mention.

The only services I couldn't find any actual mention of Private support was Lowerping and Smoothping.

*shrug* Doesn't seem that big of a deal.

derfel · 05-28-10, 08:48 AM

I'm not trying to play sides here, but i think i might be able to better explain Bless's like of private servers and WTFast.

Bless is a huge WoW Machinima fan.

For anyone whom might be scratching thier heads like i did the first 5 or so times i read that, Machinima is World of Warcraft Fan based videos that are shot in game, and done so in a purely cinematic way.

Now, normally, getting an abomination to walk through the middle of Dalaran is impossbile.

However, some WoW Machinima creator's either own, share, or work on a private server and utilize services similar to WTFast purely to make thier creative pieces of work the best that it can be. On a private server, every user that logs in has GM-eque abilities, such as removing all NPC's from Daliran and plopping in a bunch of undead to run rampant through the streets.

So while this might seem like defending Bless, all i am saying is that he enjoys WoW in a much different way than just playing. And here, i think he is trying to meniton these items not only for gameplay sake (WTFast) but also for being creative and showing your appreciation of the game.

Also, hopefully this doesn't change the fact that the website itself only show the ad, and we don't force it down anyone's throat. The articles are real pieces done by real players whom are just trying to share thier informaiton.

**Seerah** · 05-28-10, 08:54 AM

I would just like to mention that Private Servers (in any shape or form, no matter the reason why they are used) are against Blizzard's TOS/EULA. As we are an official Blizzard fan site, we would appreciate it if private servers were not defended on our forums. As long as discussion of them remains theoretical, those comments may remain (though they are off-topic to the purpose of this thread).

/edit: also, let's not delve into a flame-fest here.

WTFastPWNer · 05-31-10, 01:58 PM

Originally Posted by Petrah

Private servers are illegal, and they are against the TOU/EULA of Blizzard Entertainment. It's theft. Period. That's it and that's all.

I thought I should put my 2 bits in.

We do not support private servers with WTFast. I completely agree that people should be playing on the live servers and that is it.

The reason we added the custom game functionality to WTFast is so we could relatively easily support virtually any TCP based game. Now, we can do this. It requires a bit of tweaking by the user, but it is possible. We decided that it would be far too cumbersome/complicated to support every little game out there, so we gave WTFast users a bit more freedom. This means with a single membership, you can use WTFast for virtually any game you want to play.

A side effect of this is that WTFast can potentially be used for private servers, but really what sense does that make? If they don't want to pay for WoW, why would they want to pay for WTFast? Should you boycott your Internet provider because they allow people to connect to private servers?

We are just here to provide a great service, that's all!

Marthisdil · 05-31-10, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Petrah

Can you please show me where that info is at? I can't find it anywhere on their site.

Edit: Ohhhhh.. http://wtfast.com/faq.aspx "If you are playing a custom game with no realms/servers listed, we recommend trying the available regions to see which region gets you the best results.".

Well that certainly doesn't look good.

Hordereview, do you really want to climb into bed with a company that supports the use of private servers? That doesn't look good for you either I'm afraid.

Doesn't any internet connection provider also give "access" to private servers?

From what I can tell, their private servers comment can apply to plenty of other games, where private servers are usable - CoD, Quake, etc, etc, etc.

So if we're all now going to fight against WTFast, let's fight against Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc, etc, since they can provide the same access to those things.

<shakes head>

And no, I don't use their service, but I don't see how someone providing a service, that can be used for other things, should be held liable for what a user uses it for.

***Cairenn*** · 05-31-10, 02:39 PM

You guys were told once to knock it off. You didn't listen. Locking the thread.