Jun/100
Cataclysm Closed Beta Test Begins!
Direct from the source!
IRVINE, Calif. – June 30, 2010 – Blizzard Entertainment announced today that the closed beta test for Cataclysm™, its highly anticipated new expansion for World of Warcraft®, has begun. The company has started issuing invitations to participate in the testing process to a wide range of players from around the world who signed up via their Battle.net® accounts. While enjoying an early look at the game, beta testers will provide valuable feedback to help Blizzard Entertainment find bugs, address balance issues, and polish the new content.
“Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we’ve gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year.”
Cataclysm is the third expansion for World of Warcraft, the most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the world. The first two expansions, The Burning Crusade® and Wrath of the Lich King®, each shattered PC game sales records upon their release. In Cataclysm, the face of Azeroth will be forever altered by the return of the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing. Players will explore once-familiar areas of the world that have now been reshaped by the devastation and filled with new adventures. In an effort to survive the planet-shattering cataclysm, two new playable races — worgen and goblins — will join the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. As players journey to the new level cap of 85, they’ll discover newly revealed locations, acquire new levels of power, and come face to face with Deathwing in a battle to determine the fate of the world.
For more information on World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, please visit the official website at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm. To set up a Battle.net account and sign up for a chance to participate in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta test, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net.
Dec/090
TeamSpeak 3 Available for Order!
DarkStar is proud to announce that our TeamSpeak 3 servers are now available to order. Pricing starts at $1.99 per 10 users. Enjoy!
Dec/090
TeamSpeak 3 Beta Release!
TeamSpeak 3 has officially arrived. DarkStar has official TeamSpeak 3 servers up and running and are prepared to take your order for your very own TeamSpeak 3 server. Our official control panel to control your individual instances will be launched in the upcoming days.
For more information regarding TeamSpeak 3, including change log and new features, please see TeamSpeak’s official web site. We encourage you to sign up at DarkStar and test the new version. We will gladly also convert any TeamSpeak 2 server into TeamSpeak 3 server upon request.
Nov/090
Black Friday Ventrilo Sale
To kick off Black Friday, DarkStar is offering some insane Ventrilo specials that are literally half the price of the competition! These specials are limited to 1 order only, and for new customers only. Take advantage of the offer through Sunday, November 29th, 2009.
- Ventrilo Server — 35 Users supported, only $79/yr.
- Ventrilo Server — 50 Users supported, only $109/yr.
These deals won’t last, and are first come first serve. We will only be offering 200 of these deals per day, so make sure you order before the late afternoon or they’ll probably be gone!
To order, please visit http://www.darkstarllc.com/order. Enter the coupon code “Black Friday.” Happy Thanksgiving!
Oct/090
Get Redundant with DarkStar Ventrilo
DarkStar offers fully redundant Ventrilo servers — at only an additional $1.49 per month no matter how many slots you have. Furthermore, unlike our competition, we automatically give you the ability to spawn a backup server complete with your settings at any time if your server experiences an outage. By default, Ventrilo is a very stable product. However, in the rare occasion, things can happen that are out of your (or our) control, and we want to ensure that the necessary steps are taken on our part to ensure you’re able to access Ventrilo at any time, always! It’s a piece of mind from DarkStar, and it’s only a buck 49.
Hallow’s eve is coming — keep an eye out for upcoming sales here at DarkStar on the products you know and love, from the best provider in the industry!
Aug/090
World of Warcraft Cataclysm Expansion
Lots of speculation — but it looks like we could be seeing another World of Warcraft expansion in the near future. MMO Champion has speculated that it will be titled “Cataclysm” (or something along those lines), and provide a whole slew of changes to Azeroth, including new races. A list of speculated items are as follows:
- Level Cap increase to 85 (not 90).
- New Class/Race combination options.
- New Races (Goblins, Worgen).
- New Content (classic Azeroth revamp).
Everything looks pretty interesting, but I cannot see Tauren Paladins running around Azeroth. Some of the other combinations are a total stretch as well.
Jul/090
Streaming Music on Ventrilo
Ventrilo allows users to stream music very easily to all other listeners in the Ventrilo server. Ventrilo also allows you to display in your comment — the songs that you are listening to in iTunes, Windows Media Player, and Winamp. Doing so is very easy, simply follow the instructions below.
Streaming Music
- The best way to do this is to run multiple copies of Ventrilo.
- See screen shots on how to perform this. Essentially you need to run ventrilo with -m onto the command line. You can alter your Ventrilo shortcut to do this.
- On your Ventrilo Client that’s set to stream — Go to Setup.
- Under the Voice Tab, ensure Push-to-Talk is not checked.
- Input Device -> Your Sound Card (important!)
- You can also adjust the hardware input mixer. This can be utilized for line-in devices especially.
- Adjust Inbound Amplifiers to -10, and ensure everyone is muted.
- Use your other copy of Ventrilo that is running to talk to users. This copy will need to run on different settings (of course) to ensure you can talk/hear people while streaming music from the other copy.
Display Playlist
- Right Click on the server name.
- Select Integration -> [Itunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player]
Jul/090
Hiding your Ventrilo Server Status
We get a lot of questions about this one, so I decided I would post a blog entry about it since we don’t have a wiki article up yet (but will shortly). For those of you wanting to hide certain parts of your server to others, and from showing up on Ventrilo.com’s status page (as well as from people querying your users), you can easily do it from the Ventrilo client interface.
- Login to your Ventrilo Server as a Server Admin (right-click the server name, choose Server Admin -> Login, and enter your admin password).
- Right-click the Server Name, and choose Server Admin -> Server Properties.
- In the window that pops up, just un-check the boxes of the settings you want to hide, such as names, and channels.
- When finished making changes, hit the “Send” button. Your changes will take effect immediately.
Jul/090
2009 Blizzcon Brackets Released
The tournament brackets for Blizzcon’s Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft Arena, and Starcraft tournaments are now live. Check them out below:
Jul/090
Ventrilo Supercharges QuakeCon 2009
QuakeCon 2009 Gets Supercharged with the
Ventrilo Ultimate Power Up Sweepstakes
Winner Takes Off in New Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 Coupe
MESQUITE, TX – July 22, 2009 – Ventrilo, the premier group voice communications program used in tournaments and multiplayer games, is ready to blow the doors off of QuakeCon 2009 with the sponsorship of its second annual “QuakeCon Ultimate Power Up” Sweepstakes. One extremely lucky attendee will rocket away from QuakeCon 2009 in a brand new supercharged 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe, valued at approximately $52,000. The 14th annual QuakeCon will be held at the Gaylord Texan in Dallas from August 13 – 16 2009 and is open to the public and free to all attendees.
“One look under the hood of this 2010 Shelby and you’ll start strategizing on how to get your hands on this powerhouse street machine,” said Brian Knapp, president, Flagship Industries. “Ford and Shelby are both iconic American names that represent a long history of street legal horsepower, and it’s a thrill to be giving one away to the lucky winner of the Ventrilo Ultimate Power Up competition. As always it’s an honor to be working with our friends at id Software and giving back to the gaming community.”
“This is the most powerful production Mustang ever made and thanks to Ventrilo, someone from QuakeCon will walk away with the keys to this beast of a machine,” said Todd Hollenshead, president, id Software. “QuakeCon 2009 will be a can’t miss event for LAN fiends, game fans or id Software devotees; and Ventrilo giving away this bad ass muscle car is an example of why everyone needs to make sure that they have August 13 to 16 on their calendar for the world’s best video game party.”
The 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 Coupe to be given away will be Kona blue and comes with a six speed transmission mated to a supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 pumping out a brutal 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of pavement destroying torque. The car will be on display throughout QuakeCon in the main exhibition area.
A total of 100 tickets for the Shelby Mustang GT500 drawing will be awarded to QuakeCon attendees for everything from performance in the QuakeCon Pro, Open and Quick Draw Tournaments, to participation in other QuakeCon contests, events and random drawings. The winner will be randomly selected at 9 p.m. (Central Standard Time) on Saturday, August 15, as part of the tournament finals event on the QuakeCon Main Stage.
QuakeCon Power Up Rules:
QuakeCon 2009 registered attendees who are 18 years of age and older AND are legal residents of the United States, its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia are eligible to participate. No purchase necessary. A total of 100 raffle tickets will be distributed throughout the QuakeCon event. Additional information about contest rules, eligibility, restrictions and requirements will be available at www.quakecon.org.
About QuakeCon:
Often described as the “Woodstock of Gaming,” QuakeCon is a four-day, non-stop celebration of games and the people who play them. Free to all and open to the public, QuakeCon 2009 will feature North America’s largest Bring-Your-Own-Computer (BYOC) LAN party for nearly 3,000 people, drawings and contests for over $75,000 in cash and prizes, the $50,000 QUAKE LIVE Duel and Capture the Flag Championship tournaments, exhibits with the latest games and hardware, and non-stop entertainment, parties and events. First created in 1996 by a group of friends on IRC and now going into its fourteenth year, QuakeCon remains true to its original mission as an event created by gamers, for gamers. Sponsored by id Software and other industry-leading software and hardware manufacturers, QuakeCon continues to be run by a dedicated group of volunteers, including an executive team with more than 75 years of combined experience producing the event. 6,000 people attended QuakeCon 2008.
About Flagship Industries:
Flagship Industries Inc, located in Maryville, Illinois, was founded in 2003 to pursue the development and marketing of the Ventrilo product line which was originally started in the spring of 1999. Due to its superior sound quality, reliability, scalability, user interface and ever evolving feature set, Ventrilo has become the preferred group communications tool. More information can be found at www.ventrilo.com
About id Software:
id Software, part of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, has provided technical, design and artistic leadership as a world-renowned game developer and technology innovator since its founding in 1991. id Software’s iconic brands such as Wolfenstein, DOOM, QUAKE and Enemy Territory have become staples of popular culture for generations of gamers. More information on id Software can be found at www.idsoftware.com.
id, Wolfenstein, DOOM, QUAKE, RAGE, Enemy Territory, and QuakeCon and related logos are registered trademarks or trademarks owned by ZeniMax Media Inc.
All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.
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