I think the biggest change in the game has been Blizzard’s attempt to make the game more fun. They have overhauled how most of the characters are played in an attempt to make each character more fun. If you enjoyed playing Warcraft before but quit for some reason, this might be the time to pick it back up.

While writing this short post, I logged out of the game. When I attempted to log back in, I found the servers were at capacity. It seems to be affecting more servers than just mine and that Blizzard has lowered the capacity of each game server. Unfortunately, with the wait to get into the game, I have to say that Blizzard has made a major mistake. Server queues are like giving someone a new electronic toy for Christmas but leaving out the batteries.

• Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer
• Minimum: PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo processor. Recommended: Intel 1.8GHz processor or better.
• Minimum: 1 GB RAM Recommended: 2 GB RAM
• Minimum: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 64 MB VRAM Such as an ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce Ti 4600 class card or better. Recommended: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM Such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA 7600 class card or better

Unfortunately, support for all G4 machines has been dropped. I am not sure there are many people playing Warcraft on a G4 anyway. I have been playing the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King beta for a couple of months and I have to say that the game does play pretty speedy on my two year old Macbook and Macbook Pro. If you are a WoW fan and don’t know if it is worth upgrading to the new expansion, just let me say it looks brilliant. The dungeons all seemed new and different than what has been offered in the last game. So if you have an older, inactive WoW account you might want to think about reactivating it on November 13 when Wrath of the Lich King is released.

There are some important things to note about Spore’s DRM. First, the DRM does not affect Apple users. Second, Electronic Arts claims they are using a modified version of SecureROM that is less intrusive. Here are some of their talking points:

• We authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.
• We’ll re-authenticate when a player uses online features, downloads new content or a patch for their game.
• The new system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. And if you are like me, always losing discs, this will be a huge benefit.
• You’ll still be able to install and play on multiple computers.
• You can play offline.

While these are nice changes, it still doesn’t address the main issue. Using this DRM scheme treats honest paying customers as criminals. The people who end up fighting with the DRM are the people who payed for the game. The game SecureROM was hacked a week before the game had been released to the public by crackers. Clearly SecureROM was ineffective at stopping the game from getting stolen.

Software creators should learn from Apple’s example. Apple releases most of their consumer products without so much as a serial number. When I went to my local Apple store to purchase Leopard I was surprised how many people in front of me were buying family packs. Even though they could have saved money and bought a single user license. Most people were honest and paid Apple the money they deserved.

With my background in computers, I find cracking most software to be a trivial matter. However, even with my ability to crack software, I still purchase the software I use. And I think most people are this way. This became clear with the launch of the Apple iTunes store. Before iTunes many people were pirating music. Now that iTunes is around most people find it is not worth the trouble to save $0.99 for a song they want.

I hope Electronic Arts releases a patch to Spore to remove the DRM scheme. Even though I am a Mac user, I myself have decided not to buy the game until the DRM issue is fixed.

Last week I made my first video purchase from the iTunes store. I bought Doctor Who Series 1, if you are wondering. I owned a Mac Mini and thought it would make a great choice for my new media center. I read many articles talking about all the great features I could have with the Mac Mini over the Apple TV. Quickly I was sold on the idea that with the Mac Mini I could replace my DVR and even watch DIVX encoded movies. It seemed like a no-brainer. I ran down to the Apple store to get the three cables I would need to hook up my new media center powerhouse. While I was there I thought it was only fair to actually look at the Apple TV. Not many people look at the positives of it over the Mini.

The first difference I noticed was ease of setup. The Apple TV has an HDMI output so I only needed one cable to plug it into the back of my TV. The second advantage over the Mini is the ability to rent movies from the iTunes store. I like many other people rent movies but forget to return the to the store until late fees have piled up. And even better the iTunes store doesn’t close early like my local video store. I could decide to rent a movie at three in the morning without even getting dressed.

Those were all great but not enough to convince me to buy the Apple TV. The deciding factor was much simpler than that. The feature that made me buy the Apple TV was how easy it is to use. It is another excellent Apple design that is functional but easy to use. The Apple TV was easy enough my grandmother could use it. If you remember this is what made the iPod corner the market on MP3 players. On the other hand if I chose the Mac Mini I would need to set it up every time someone in my house wanted to watch a movie. Clearly the correct choice for me was the Apple TV. I have owned the Apple TV for about a week now and I simply think it is one of the greatest Apple purchases I have ever made.

Am I telling you to ditch your Mac Mini and run out and buy an Apple TV? No, not at all. I simply think if you are about to purchase one of these solutions for a home media center that you consider who is going to be using the technology. When you look at the issue from the point of view of your end users sometimes you find the most powerful solution is not the best. It wasn’t in my case

Do you think I made the right choice, or should I have stuck with the Mac Mini?