Curse

Win an Alienware M17x With the Alienware/Intel "All Powerful" Sweepstakes!

DoranM — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:27:18 GMT

There's only about two weeks left on our Alienware/Intel "All Powerful" where you can win the most powerful 17-inch laptop in the universe! The laptop is the Alienware M17x and it's an incredible piece of hardware and right now you can win one here at Curse.com!

Here's a look at the specs on this behemoth:

› Find more info on Alienware™ M17x
› Learn more about Intel® Core™2 Extreme Mobile Processor

Grand Prize: One Alienware™ M17x (value: $2849)

Processor: Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad QX9300 2.53GHz
OS: Windows Vista® Home Premium (64-bit Edition) with Service Pack 1
Graphics: Single NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 260M
Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
Hard drive: 250GB 7,200RPM w/ Free Fall Protection
Optical drive: Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
LCD Panel: 17-inch Wide UXGA 1920x1200
Wireless: Internal 300Mbps Dual-Band a/g/n Wireless with MIMO Technology

To enter for your chance to win visit the Alienware/Intel "All Powerful" sweepstakes page!

Regarding Recent Password Reset Emails

Kody — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:50:28 GMT

Hi all,

Overnight our email provider saw issues that caused password reset emails to go out to many of our users. This email contains a message saying that your password has been reset, but does not display the new password.

Please rest assured, your passwords have not changed, and there's no concern for needing to change them due to this. The issue is on our email provider's end, which has no immediate access to the Curse.com database or user account information.

We apologize for the spam; we're just as surprised as you are. :)

Curse.com Going To E3 Checkout Our Meeting Schedule!

DoranM — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:30:15 GMT

As you may know E3 is this week and companies around the world will be in attendance to give you the latest and greatest on their most recent projects. We'll be there with a strong force this year and we wanted to give you a heads up on the specific meetings and games we'll be talking to! We've also got a big enough team going this year that we'll be able to wander around and see anything we might have missed - so if there's something you want to see or hear more about definitely let us know!

Here's a look at our meeting schedule:

Allods - We're expecting this game to do very well, amazing graphics, great gameplay, a massive storyline, and different enough from currently leading MMORPGs to draw a strong crowd.

SWTOR - Star Wars and Bioware are coming together to produce this MMORPG. Early trailers and videos have been incredibly exciting and we're really looking forward to seeing more!

All Points Bulletin - APB hasn't had an official media release in some time. At E3 they're expected to show us how the game's progressed in the past year or so and we look forward to updating you on the information for this new game.

Crime Craft - Crime Craft was recently announced has been turning heads all winter. Now that spring is here they're getting out and debuting some exclusive content at E3! We'll get the latest from the game and update you on everything we find.

Fallen Earth - Fallen Earth is a new MMORPG set in the world post-apocalypse. The game offers a fresh understanding of survival in an MMORPG and stunning graphics/landscapes - we'll get getting the 411 on everything they have to say!

Dragonica Online - The latest online endevour from THQ Ice we expect Dragonica to be an incredibly fun title; we're currently offering Dragonica Online Beta Keys on Curse.com and have enjoyed several unique features about this game. It's free-to-play, it's side-scrolling, and it's very entertaining. We're going to see what's in store for the future of the game and get you the updates as soon as we get them.

Huxley - After falling off the radar for YEARS this massively multiplayer online FPS is back and we're wanting to see everything they've done to the game. We'll find out what we can about a release date, status of the game, and some of the newer features they've been working on!

Jumpgate - Jumpgate Evolution is the combat space MMO with amazing graphics, gameplay, handling, and online leaderboards for the best space pilots in the world. They're supposed to be shelling out some good information at E3 and we'll be there.

Heroes of Telara - Epic new MMO with some incredibly advanced features and a unique mix of server tools and design that promises an experience unlike any MMO to date. We're itching to get a first hand look at the game and we'll be reporting everything we find!

Curse Network Contests: Lots of Blizzcon Tickets For Our Community!

DoranM — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:03:20 GMT

Curse has been given 3 Blizzcon tickets to giveaway to our community! Since authors make up a good portion of our community and give us so many great Addons we wanted to do something special this year for them! We've developed a contest that will test your abilities as an author and upon review possibly win you a ticket to Blizzcon 2009! There are also several other Curse Network contests available; listed at the end of this post!

Here's the official Curse Blizzcon Contest Announcement:

Hey beautiful people, ckknight here.

We at Curse.com are holding three contests for addon authors within the Curse Network (i.e. WowAce and CurseForge). The grand prize for each contest is a BlizzCon ticket. You'll be able to compete in all three contests, but you can only win one BlizzCon ticket total. We're also going to be providing Author Reward Points for runners-up.

Note: for the BlizzCon tickets, we won't be providing travel costs. You'll have to get to California on your own. Also, you need to be at least 18 years old.

The contests will run from now until June 15th, you can submit any time from here until then, and you can also revise your entries up until that point.

You can find the contests at http://beta.wowace.com/contests/. Yes, this is the beta site for WowAce, but it still should work fine, the contests system was easier to make with the new system than having to backport it. CurseForge authors shouldn't have a problem logging in or submitting entries.

We're hoping that by having these coding challenges, it'll be a bit more fun and interesting than giving out tickets to the top 3 authors or holding a simple raffle.

Other Curse Network Blizzcon Ticket Contests

WorldofRaids.com - Design a WoW License Plate Contest!

DiabloFans.com - Class Art, Lore, Skills Contests!

ArenaJunkies.com - Design an Arena Map Contest!

Rawrcast Set To Interview Curse Rep & Addon Developer Ckknight!

DoranM — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:34:24 GMT

Rawrcast has invited our very own ckknight to participate in an interview live on their Rawrcast this Saturday May 16th! We'll be discussing what's in store for Curse in the upcoming months, talking about our decision to offer a pay-based premium subscription, and more about addons and their development process! If you've spent time in our WoW Addons section you've probably seen some of knight's addon projects and if you're a developer you've definitely spent some time on CurseForge.com or WoWAce.com - This is a great chance to hear from the man himself and learn more about the Curse Network in general!

Here's the official notice from Rawrcast about the Curse Network Interview:

Curse Network on Rawrcast!

Our line-up of scheduled guests keeps growing!

In addition to having TotalBiscuit scheduled for May 30th, along with the gracious winner of the Child's Play Charity Auction... Another guest is being announced today!

Join us
Saturday, May 16th - Episode 19
as we welcome..

ckknight
Software Developer and Community Manager
Curse Network

Developer of hugely popular add-ons like:

FuBar

Cartographer

PitBull

Parrot

CowTip

Chinchilla

and many more

Learn what you can expect from Curse in the coming months.
Find out why Curse now offers a Premium pay-based Subscription
Are you interested in developing add-ons? Learn what you need to know!

In the meantime...
Catch this week's show
LIVE on Ustream
Saturday, May 9th @ 4 PM, CST
with charitable philanthropist
Brigwyn from The Hunting Lodge!

[Participate in this week's show, even if you can't make it LIVE
leave us a message , send an e-mail or leave your mark
on our discussion forums . Either way, let's hear your RAWR !]

Now Get Addon Update Email Notifications From Curse!

DoranM — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:57:43 GMT

Addon Email Notifications

Introducing the Addon Favorites Notifications System!

You can now get an email when a new version of your favorite addon is available on Curse.com. E-mails are sent on a daily basis, at 11:00 AM EST / 4:00 PM GMT.

On each addon page you'll see an "Add to faves" link. Once you click it, the addon will be automatically added to your favorites, which are accessible via the top right profile box near your avatar:

Once an Addon is added to your favorites you'll notice the Addons tab populate under your favorites with the information for the addon and the last updated date:

Keep in mind this will only work if under your Profile -> Site Options you've got "Send notifications" turned ON as shown:

Every time the Addon is updated you'll get an email notice from us notifying you of the update and including the latest link to the Addon page so you can download whatever update just came out!

Addon Donation links on Curse.com

Kody — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:38:11 GMT

As just about everyone knows, recently Blizzard released a new policy that covers standards addon developers must adhere to in order to ensure their addons will not be blocked from running in the game. Part of this policy said that you cannot solicit donations from within the game as it is considered to be a form of advertising.

Yesterday, we pushed an update to Curse.com that displays donation info on the addon details page and download pages to support authors who have spent their free time enriching the gaming experience for everyone.

For Users
Not everyone is able to donate, and even if you can doesn't mean you have to by any means. However, for those of you who can afford and are inclined to donate I'd recommend asking yourself a simple question:

When you setup a new copy of WoW or clear all your addons. What addons must you have before you're willing to play?

Those are the addons I'd personally consider donating to.

For Authors

To setup donation info just follow the steps below.

Go to your project's page on CurseForge or WowAce
From the actions select "Edit donation info"
Complete the form and hit the "Edit donation info" button

From all of us at Curse.com, I'd like to thank all the addon authors out there who spend so much time developing addons that makes all of our gaming experiances that much better.

Happy Coding!

Game Developers Conference 2009 - Tell Us Who To Talk To!

DoranM — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:51:41 GMT

GDC 2009

The Game Developers Conference for 2009 officially began yesterday and we've got all the information you're going to need from it! There's always big news and big names at GDC, and this year is no exception. Later this week we're going to have hands-on playtime for several new MMO titles releasing in the near future, special sit-downs and interviews with some of the biggest names in the industry, and as much of the industry news as you can possibly handle! So be ready for it!

While we've got a list of our personal favorites; we're sure you do too! We've started this forum thread for a discussion about the event and lots of room for your input. Please tell us what you'd like to see, who you'd like to hear updates from, and anything else you feel like posting.

Curse.com Looking For Forum Volunteer Moderators!

DoranM — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:14:50 GMT

Curse.com is looking for a few good moderators!

That's right! You've spoken and we have listened; we're looking for a few good volunteer moderators to help manage our ever growing forums! If you're cool enough to be one of our forum frequenters then you know the importance of the Curse Community and the benefits it holds to everyone who would use it. We're working on new strict software measures to help insure the absolute best experience possible when browsing our forums, but we need your help.

A forum is only as good as the people who help moderate it, and we need some good people. If you think you'd be a good candidate for helping us expand and moderate our forums please send me a message.

Please include the following:

A list of games you currently play
Any past moderation experience
Your favorite thing about Curse
If you're an Addon Author: What Addons have you written or helped to write?

Curse Client 3.0 Release & New Mac Beta

Kaelten — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:51:37 GMT

Curse Client 3.0 Release

I just wanted to take out a few moments and let everyone know that friday we released the 3.0 client to our entire userbase. It's been a long time coming, but I feel it fixes the majority of issues people have raised.

Some of the highlights:

Redesigned User Interface
More accurate addon identification
Revaluated Defaults settings
More features (including whether or not to use embedded libraries)
Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements

Not only that but....

Mac Client 3.0 Beta Release!

We managed to get you a mac client beta out on Friday as well! This was a personal victory for me as I'm now actively working on the code for the mac client. In addition to the above changes we are happy to announce that updates are now done through Sparkle (same update mechanism used by Adium, Textmate and many other mac apps).

We are still in beta here as wxWidgets' implementations can drastically differ on mac vs pc, as a result we're working hard to iron out issues, and will be putting out updates all this week until we're at a more stable point.

However, there are a few...

Known Issues

Upload mistakes

Over the last week we've had a few authors mistakenly upload either the wrong file or files with invalid layouts that have caused the client's fingerprinting to mistake people's folders for the wrong addon.

Two known examples of this are Ace3 and Auctioneer getting flagged as Tournament Realm Spy and epgp. We've fixed it server side however the client won't just 'forget'. You'll need to remove the false match and in some cases reinstall the new correct match.

Mac Issues

A crash that can happen on load in the sort routine
A soft crash where the client stops displaying data and buttons fail to do anything
Menu options being decidedly 'unmacish'

Reporting Issues & Discussion

Windows

Mac

General

WowAce.com's Updater's Forums

Win A Reactor Brand Computer Contest Extended Until March 22nd!

DoranM — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 02:55:05 GMT

Curse and Hardcore Computer are extending the "Win a Reactor Brand Computer" contest until the 22nd of March! This extension period will allow users of our Curse Newsletter one more chance to get in on the action before this amazing contest comes to an end!

Here's the original post with all the juicy contest details:

Every so often we spotlight one of our contests, and boy do we have something special this month! We're currently running a contest with Hardcore Computer. They have agreed to give Curse.com one of their AMAZING! Reactor Brand computers. These desktops retail starting at $3000, and the one they've given us for this contest is base priced at over $6000. We'd like to thank Hardcore Computer for the hardware for this contest and hope our users enjoy trying to win such an advanced piece of hardware.

To signup to win the Reactor PC checkout our Contest Page.

Here's an exclusive look at the computer and the spec sheet for it:

Win A Reactor

Going faster requires more power, which creates more heat. Up until now, going too fast meant overheating your system. With total liquid submersion cooling, the full potential of computer components can be realized. Hardcore gives you more performance for your dollar.

Grand Prize: Hardcore Computer Reactor Desktop

Intel Core2 Extreme QX9770
2 X 2GB (4GB) DDR3 memory modules
2 X nVidia GeForce GTX 280s in SLI
2 X 650W power supplies
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive
Samsung DVD burner
64-bit Vista Ultimate
1-year standard warranty

Curse Network Downtime Thursday 3AM EST 12AM PST

DoranM — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:46:16 GMT

The Curse Network will experience downtime Thursday morning at 3AM EST. Our colocation facility is upgrading our routers. The downtime should last no longer than thirty minutes and then it's back to your regularly scheduled programming. Here's a list of your favorite sites that will be affected:

WarhammerAlliance.com
WoWAce.com
CurseForge.com
WoWDB.com
WARDB.com
AionSource.com
Diablofans.com

Thank you for your understanding and patience in ignoring our e-dust while we upgrade our hardware!

Authentication Downtime Tonight

CraigB — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:52:58 GMT

Starting at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT, users will temporarily not be able to log in to Curse.com or create accounts while we move our authentication server. We expect the transition to take about 15 minutes. We will post an update if we expect this take longer.

During this time, Curse will still be up and running. You can continue to browse the site and download addons without interruption.

Curse Client Update - September 3rd

Kody — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:33:12 GMT

Today we're releasing the latest build of the Curse Client - the small utility that manages your game addons and submits data to WOWDB and WARDB. With the Curse Client installed, your game addons will be kept up-to-date, as they are delivered directly from authors hosting their projects at CurseForge!

This latest version is the most polished yet, correcting all known issues that the community has reported and adding filters to the Find an Addon tool.

You can download the Curse Client directly from http://media5.curse.com/dl2/CurseSetup-2.0.0.1.exe... or from WARDB.

Please report any issues you find at http://testclient.curse.com/

Note: This is a beta version of the new Curse Client, so please feel free to provide any feedback or suggestions you have, as well as bug reports!

New Curse Client Available to Test

CraigB — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:10:05 GMT

A new version of our Curse Client is available to testing. The next version of our client is a significant upgrade. The new version will have an all-new GUI that is much more intuitive than before. It also includes many new features. The first is an addon search within the client to assist you in quickly finding new addons. The second is a new function to share your interface with other people. This feature will tie in closely with the website, much like the screenshot tool. The rest of the new features will be disclosed as we come closer to launch.

We’ve also gone back and looked at the code to fix several bugs. A lot of issues that we were never previously able to reproduce have been identified and eliminated. Addon identification has also been improved. If you manually install addons, the client will detect them and attempt to match them against known addons. If there are many options, the client will then prompt you to pick the correct match. Lastly, it should be much more apparent when an addon needs updating.

The first test version has all the features except the addon management and news disabled. However, both are fully functional and can be used going forward. We will be enabling the screenshot and other features in the next couple of weeks. Whenever a new version is released, it will automatically update.

For those of you who want to test it out, you can download it with the link below. As with any beta software, it may be unstable. Please report any issues with the Report a Bug link at the top of the client.

http://static.curseforge.net/uploads/.../CurseSetup-1.0.0.16-Beta.exe

Note: It will overwrite your old client. Even if you choose to install it elsewhere, you will not be able to use the old client to update addons. If you wish to revert to the old client, you will need to reinstall it.

Known issues/upcoming changes

• Layouts are not final, and will change

• There will be a more visual indication when addons needs to be updated

• The client will detect addons in your directory, and attempt to find a match. We are tweaking the match algorithm, but the results should be very good. Let us know if you find something funny with the results