Blizzard’s Unified System – Battle.net Account

The new Battle.net Account is online and if you haven’t created an account or merged your World of Warcraft account, now is the time to do so.

The Battle.net Account system is actually an upgraded version of the Blizzard Account system, so if you already have one just use that account for Battle.net - and if you have a WoW account, today is the time for you to merge it with Battle.net.

The new Battle.net system will be used in the future to give rewards to loyal Blizzard fans. For example, if you have all StarCraft II, Diablo III, and World of Warcraft releases attached to your account, you may receive a special reward in-game for WoW, or maybe a special status for SC2, or a special item in D3.

Q: What are the benefits of creating and using a Battle.net Account?
A: The new Battle.net Account allows you to log in to World of Warcraft, manage purchases at the online Blizzard Store, keep track of CD keys for your Blizzard Entertainment games, access our websites (such as the World of Warcraft Armory), opt in to upcoming beta tests, and more using a single login - just your email address and a password. In the future, we plan to add more features, including tools to make it easier for friends to communicate between games and to help bring our community of players closer together.

(* my emphasis)

The possibilities are only limited by Blizzard’s balancing team and Marketing department. They can give a special customized SC2 unit (or a boost) for the first 10 players to finish D3, or give a special non-combat pet in WoW for the first 100 players to unlock a secret stage in SC2 and solve the mystery of the Xel’Naga. Or bring a unique-heirloom item from WoW to your D3 character!

Other benefits of having a unified account system is the convenience of maintaining your Blizzard games under one account. Gone are the days when you have to remember your WoW Account, Blizzard Account, and Battle.net account. Of course, the only catch is that you have to be 100x more vigilant in protecting your account details, especially your email and password. Get hacked, all your Blizzard products will get comprised - including those precious CD-Keys.

If you are a WoW player you’ll probably think of not using this new unified system. Well, for now you have a choice not to, but in the near future all WoW players will be required to migrate to the new Battle.net Account. Either you do it today or later, you are still going to use Battle.net.

So do it today, get your Battle.net Account now. It will only take a few minutes to sign-up, enter your existing Blizzard CD-Keys, and merge your WoW Account. You can add up to 8 World of Warcraft accounts and still be able to log-in all 8 simultaneously.

Just click the image below to get your own Battle.net Account!

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Star Trek Online: Year 2385 – the Year of Intergalactic Peace?

The latest story of Star Trek leading up to the MMO’s ‘Present’ time has been posted. The highlights are:

  • Starfleet Command completed its re-evaluation of all of its post-Dominion War assets and resources; will now refocus back to defense, diplomacy, exploration, and scientific discovery.
  • The ship U.S.S. Enterprise-E will be back to its original purpose, “The flagship of Starfleet is not a warship", says Commander Marie Durant.
  • On Stardate 62230.13, the Klingon Empire started expelling all non-Klingon residents of Khitomer as a “safety measure".
  • The Enterprise-E is assisting in the relocation of the expelled Khitomer residents, its final mission before returning to Planet Earth
  • Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s Khitomar assistance mission was his final as well. He takes up the post as the Federation Ambassador to Vulcan.
  • Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher accepts the position of Captain of the U.S.S. Pasteur, an Olympic-class ship. Her first mission is to assist in rebuilding medical facilities on Cardassia Prime.
  • Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge is on a long-term leave of absence from Starfleet, to work on personal projects like building and testing his own starship designs.
  • Chief Engineer La Forge’s first project is to assist the Soong Foundation in studying the Soong-type android B-4.
  • The Soong Foundation and Chief Engineer La Forge unlocked the “Data matrix", accessing the personality, knowledge, and memories of Data.
  • The Data persona asserts itself over B-4’s programming and assisted the Foundation in upgrading the android’s brain and recreate the emotion chip invented by Dr. Noonien Soong.
  • Worf, son of Mogh, left Starfleet. He returns to Qo’noS and is now the Lead Ambassador.
  • The Enterprise-E docked at the shipyards of Utopia Planitia for an extensive refit. The refit will take at least a year because the Corps of Engineers are going to use the ship as a testing ground for new technology.
  • Starfleet Command decided to dismantle its Borg task force after years of silence from the Borg. “We can’t keep waiting for something that may never happen", says Durant. “And most of our analysts now agree that Voyager dealth them a bigger blow in the Delta Quadrant than we initially believed.”
  • Annika Hansen, formerly known as Seven of Nine, disagrees and left Starfleet in protest. The former Borg says that “The Borg will return. If the Federation is not prepared, it will be their end.”
  • The worlds of the Imperial Romulan State are folded back into the Romulan Star Empire after all three parties in the Romulan internal conflict found a peaceful solution.
  • Senator Chulan is the new Praetor of the Romulan Star Empire. Federation analysts predict that without the backing of a coalition of factions, Chulan will be a weak leader.

All of these occurred on the year 2385, twenty-four years ago from the present time - Year 2409.

Read it here: Road to 2409: 2385.

Star Trek Online: Year 2385 – the Year of Intergalactic Peace?

The latest story of Star Trek leading up to the MMO’s ‘Present’ time has been posted. The highlights are:

  • Starfleet Command completed its re-evaluation of all of its post-Dominion War assets and resources; will now refocus back to defense, diplomacy, exploration, and scientific discovery.
  • The ship U.S.S. Enterprise-E will be back to its original purpose, “The flagship of Starfleet is not a warship", says Commander Marie Durant.
  • On Stardate 62230.13, the Klingon Empire started expelling all non-Klingon residents of Khitomer as a “safety measure".
  • The Enterprise-E is assisting in the relocation of the expelled Khitomer residents, its final mission before returning to Planet Earth
  • Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s Khitomar assistance mission was his final as well. He takes up the post as the Federation Ambassador to Vulcan.
  • Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher accepts the position of Captain of the U.S.S. Pasteur, an Olympic-class ship. Her first mission is to assist in rebuilding medical facilities on Cardassia Prime.
  • Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge is on a long-term leave of absence from Starfleet, to work on personal projects like building and testing his own starship designs.
  • Chief Engineer La Forge’s first project is to assist the Soong Foundation in studying the Soong-type android B-4.
  • The Soong Foundation and Chief Engineer La Forge unlocked the “Data matrix", accessing the personality, knowledge, and memories of Data.
  • The Data persona asserts itself over B-4’s programming and assisted the Foundation in upgrading the android’s brain and recreate the emotion chip invented by Dr. Noonien Soong.
  • Worf, son of Mogh, left Starfleet. He returns to Qo’noS and is now the Lead Ambassador.
  • The Enterprise-E docked at the shipyards of Utopia Planitia for an extensive refit. The refit will take at least a year because the Corps of Engineers are going to use the ship as a testing ground for new technology.
  • Starfleet Command decided to dismantle its Borg task force after years of silence from the Borg. “We can’t keep waiting for something that may never happen", says Durant. “And most of our analysts now agree that Voyager dealth them a bigger blow in the Delta Quadrant than we initially believed.”
  • Annika Hansen, formerly known as Seven of Nine, disagrees and left Starfleet in protest. The former Borg says that “The Borg will return. If the Federation is not prepared, it will be their end.”
  • The worlds of the Imperial Romulan State are folded back into the Romulan Star Empire after all three parties in the Romulan internal conflict found a peaceful solution.
  • Senator Chulan is the new Praetor of the Romulan Star Empire. Federation analysts predict that without the backing of a coalition of factions, Chulan will be a weak leader.

All of these occurred on the year 2385, twenty-four years ago from the present time - Year 2409.

Read it here: Road to 2409: 2385.

Game Consoles Can Cause Skin Sores

If you play games for long hours frequently, you may want to re-think and re-plan your gaming sessions or you risk getting skin sores. According to the recent dermatologist discovery.

The condition is known as idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis, and one of the symptom is ‘acute tendonitis’ dubbed as Wiitis and now added PlayStation palmar hidradenitis.

This was found when a 12-year old girl experienced intensely painful sores on the palms of her hands. After 10 days of video gaming abstinence, she fully recovered.

For the disorder to only affect the hands is very unusual.

The doctors suspect that the problem was caused by tight and continous grasping of the console’s hand-grips, and repeated pushing of the buttons, alongside sweating caused by the tension of the game.

Hey, fellow gamers (and parents), please be responsible. If you want to continue playing games, be sure that you take care of your health (as well as study hard so you can get a job to pay for your gaming lifestyle).

For example, the case above “is thought to be linked to intense sweating". Personally, if your hands are sweating already, take a break. In fact, it is a common healthy practice for hands that sweat, whether you are playing video games, typing, ironing, writing, playing sports, to mention a few.

Now if your hands normally do not sweat and it starts to sweat, for example, when holding the mouse, then the more reason that you should take a break. It happens to me sometimes and I either take a break or stop using the computer and just continue the next day.

If you prioritize your gaming more than your health, you are irresponsible. Maybe it is fine to prioritize your work or school over your health and family, but prioritizing gaming?

This report is probably just the beginning, and it does sound weird because surely at least a hundred gamers can attest not having a similar case even though their hands sweat intensely and play games for long hours (some probably even non-stop). What happened to this girl requires a deeper and thorough study, but it isn’t reason enough not to be extra careful.

Also, it currently appears to be limited to console gamers, but personally I think even those who play video games using other platforms are at risk as well.

Anyway, good thing the girl fully recovered, and I hope she learned her lesson as well as her parents. As the Doctors said:

“As with any leisure pursuit there are possible consequences of not following common sense, health advice and guidelines, as can be found within our instruction manuals.” (note: my emphasis)

Source: Game consoles ‘cause skin sores’

Creative Commons License: Attribution, Share-AlikeExcept where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.


Game Consoles Can Cause Skin Sores

If you play games for long hours frequently, you may want to re-think and re-plan your gaming sessions or you risk getting skin sores. According to the recent dermatologist discovery.

The condition is known as idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis, and one of the symptom is ‘acute tendonitis’ dubbed as Wiitis and now added PlayStation palmar hidradenitis.

This was found when a 12-year old girl experienced intensely painful sores on the palms of her hands. After 10 days of video gaming abstinence, she fully recovered.

For the disorder to only affect the hands is very unusual.

The doctors suspect that the problem was caused by tight and continous grasping of the console’s hand-grips, and repeated pushing of the buttons, alongside sweating caused by the tension of the game.

Hey, fellow gamers (and parents), please be responsible. If you want to continue playing games, be sure that you take care of your health (as well as study hard so you can get a job to pay for your gaming lifestyle).

For example, the case above “is thought to be linked to intense sweating". Personally, if your hands are sweating already, take a break. In fact, it is a common healthy practice for hands that sweat, whether you are playing video games, typing, ironing, writing, playing sports, to mention a few.

Now if your hands normally do not sweat and it starts to sweat, for example, when holding the mouse, then the more reason that you should take a break. It happens to me sometimes and I either take a break or stop using the computer and just continue the next day.

If you prioritize your gaming more than your health, you are irresponsible. Maybe it is fine to prioritize your work or school over your health and family, but prioritizing gaming?

This report is probably just the beginning, and it does sound weird because surely at least a hundred gamers can attest not having a similar case even though their hands sweat intensely and play games for long hours (some probably even non-stop). What happened to this girl requires a deeper and thorough study, but it isn’t reason enough not to be extra careful.

Also, it currently appears to be limited to console gamers, but personally I think even those who play video games using other platforms are at risk as well.

Anyway, good thing the girl fully recovered, and I hope she learned her lesson as well as her parents. As the Doctors said:

“As with any leisure pursuit there are possible consequences of not following common sense, health advice and guidelines, as can be found within our instruction manuals.” (note: my emphasis)

Source: Game consoles ‘cause skin sores’

Creative Commons License: Attribution, Share-AlikeExcept where otherwise noted, this content is
licensed under a Creative Commons License.