Warcraft-3 posts

In one of its occasional purges, Blizzard has announced that it has banned over 320,000 player accounts for its action-RPG title Diablo II and its fantasy RTS game Warcraft III. According to a message board post, Blizzard said the people behind the banned accounts "were found to be violating the Battle.net Terms of Use"

It's likely that most of the bans were due to players using third party hacks and programs for those games. Blizzard states, "These types of activities can severely impact the stability of our servers, and we'll continue to aggressively monitor Battle.net in order to protect the service and its players from the harmful effects of cheating." First time bans will have their account suspended for 30 days but repeat offenders have had their accounts banned permanently.

This patch for Warcraft III fixes a crash issue that occurs when too many invalid build commands are queued up. Patch is available for US English version in both PC and Mac format. Users who already upgraded to v1.24c can use the upgrade while other versions can use the full patch. Mac users upgrading Reign of Chaos are advised to use the full patch.

Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24c-v1.24d Upgrade Patch (632 KB)
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24d Full Patch (18 MB)
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24d Mac Full Patch (26 MB)

Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c-v1.24d Upgrade Patch (654 KB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24d Full Patch (56 MB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c-v1.24d Mac Upgrade Patch (1 MB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24d Mac Full Patch (63 MB)

This minor patch for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne expansion fixes a number of gamplay issues. Upgrade patches are available for players that have already updated to v1.24b. Those installing the game fresh can use the full patch. Continue after the jump for patch notes and links to international patches.


Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c Upgrade Patch (737 KB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c Full Patch (56 MB)

Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c Upgrade Mac Patch (3 MB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c Full Mac Patch (63 MB)

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Patches

Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24c Upgrade Patch (737 KB)
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24c Full Patch (56 MB)

Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24c Upgrade Mac Patch (2.54 MB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24c Full Mac Patch (63 MB)

This minor patch updates the US version Warcaft III: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne expansion to v1.24b, and is available as both a full patch or incremental update from v1.24a. It is also available to download for both PC and Mac. This patch addresses changes to the World Editor for custom map and mod development and includes minor bug fixes. A list of changes can be seen after the jump.

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24b Full Patch (18 MB)
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24b Mac Full Patch (4 MB)
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24a-1.24b Patch (630 KB)
Download Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos v1.24a-1.24b Mac Patch (4 MB)

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24b Full Patch (4 MB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24b Mac Full Patch (4 MB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24a-1.24b Patch (772 KB)
Download Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne v1.24a-1.24b Mac Patch (4 MB)

Independent Minds aims to take various aspects of indie gaming and present them to you each week. From game round-ups to design elements to interviews with prominent members of the scene, it's an exploration of what makes indie gaming great as well as what makes someone an indie.

For the game developer, nothing is more important than the longevity of a game. Will people be playing your opus a year after release? Ten years after release? The answer should be yes, but the ways to extend the life of a game are often overlooked. There are many different methods to add replayability, including multiple story paths, procedurally generated content, and non-linear gameplay. However, the best way, and the one that has ensured the survival of games like Unreal Tournament or Half-Life, is allowing players to fiddle with the content themselves. The more your players can tweak the game, the more they will play it, and that's a lesson all developers should take to heart.

We've all been told that Blizzard wasn't -- and continues to not be -- affected by Activision. But is that really the truth? I hadn't questioned the claim until recently, when changes began to trickle out of BlizzCon 08.

At first, there was an announcement of a new StarCraft II singleplayer addition each year, for the next three years. Blizzard says: We wanted to make so much StarCraft II, that we needed to split it into three separate games that each need around a full year of development -- huzzah! I was ecstatic, it was Blizzard-nerd nirvana. Then these pesky questions began creeping into the forefront of my mind, buzzing about like infuriating flies that refuse to leave your room on a particularly hot summer day.

New game announcements are a dime a dozen but a new Los Angeles game development company called Riot Games hopes to make a mark in the industry with their first title, a fantasy online multiplayer action-RPG-strategy titled League of Legends. Yes, this mix of genres is making this title hard to categorize.

League of Legends involves the player (or as the game terms the Summoner) invoking one of dozens of different "Champions" as they battle online with other Champions in team matches. Champions can gain experience to get new abilities, items and such as they battle and even Summoners can gain rank to access new abilities.

As you can see from the screenshots, this title has a definite Warcraft influence in terms of its cartoony art style (Indeed the game's development team has members who worked on the popular Warcraft 3 mod DotA-Allstars). Riot Games promises that League of Legends will have a ton of multiplayer features including "matchmaking, stat tracking, clan support, anti-cheat systems, dedicated in-game ladders and Leaverbuster technology". There will also be a single player training mode with AI bots. League of Legends does not have a release date nor has pricing for the game been revealed. However a beta test of the game is expected to launch in 2009.

Earlier today Blizzard Entertainment announced plans to bring Starcraft II and various back catalog titles, including Warcraft III, to mainland of China. In the three-year licensing deal with NetEase.com, Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology Limited will bring the Battle.net Platform and various Blizzard titles to the Chinese gaming market.

"This partnership is a sign of our continued commitment to our players in China and to the local industry," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment.

In the terms of the agreement Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology Limited will bring the classic titles; Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the Battle.net platform and StarCraft II -- when it is made available -- to mainland China.

Talk about a boatload of patches. Blizzard just patches both the original Warcraft III and The Frozen Throne recently. You can either obtain the patch by logging on to battle.net, or by download it from us. There's a massive amount of patches, though, and in this case the Mac users have the advantage, as PC users must patch up to 1.21b before they can apply the new patch.

Download the 1.21b PC patch for Warcraft III on Big Download today!
Download the 1.22a PC patch for Warcraft III on Big Download today!
Download the 1.21b PC patch for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on Big Download today!
Download the 1.22a PC patch for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on Big Download today!
Download the 1.21b Mac patch for Warcraft III on Big Download today!
Download the 1.22a Mac patch for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne on Big Download today!