Curse

Announcing Curse Client v4 Open Beta

Adamar — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:50:24 GMT

Installation Instructions: First Uninstall Curse Client 3.0, then download and run the Curse Client v4 installer.

A New Client is Born

The Next Generation Curse Client

After the launch of Curse Client 3.0, we began taking notes on the most frequent user requests, complaints, and general feedback. The result of this feedback is Curse Client v4. In development since May, Curse Client v4 has been redesigned from the ground up to offer a more user-friendly Curse experience.

Curse Client v4 includes a variety of new features and enhanced security to ensure you're protected from malicious attacks. Here are just some of the key features we've added.

Please Note: The Mac version of Curse Client v4 is in an earlier phase of development. Not all features listed below are available.

AddonSync

Automatically Synchronize Addons on Multiple PCs

If you’ve ever had to setup your addons on multiple PCs, you know what a timesink it can be. Our solution to this problem is AddonSync.

Just install Curse Client v4 on any PC that you use, setup a Sync Group, and watch your addons automatically sync and stay updated on all your PCs.

Find New Addons, Fast

Find and Install New Addons with v4 Faster Than Ever

With Curse Client v4, we’ve reinvented the way addons are found and installed.

Find addons instantly by Name, Category, Author and even the Community Rating. Sort by Popularity or Date Updated, then install with a single click.

Curse Client v4 even includes an integrated download manager, for a real time view of all current downloads.

Addon Settings Backup

Automatically Backup Addon Settings for Easy UI Recovery

Have you ever had to reinstall Windows or experienced a hardware failure? The days of spending hours reconfiguring your addons are over.

Curse Client v4 adds fully automated, serverside addon settings backups and integrated recovery.

With AddonSync and Addon Settigs Backup, recovering your addons and all of your settings has never been easier.

Enhanced Security

Stay Safe from Viruses, Malware and Password Theft

Curse Client v4 is designed with built-in technology that protects you against malicious software and security threats.

Curse Client v4 application updates are now digitally signed by VeriSign with a Microsoft Authenticode certificate.

All communication between Curse Client v4 and Curse servers is signed and protected using industry standard 256-bit encryption.

When you use Curse Client v4, you can be confident that your addons are secure.

Magic: The Gathering Creators To Help Create New Online Strategy Game

Browncoat — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 02:54:08 GMT

If you're any kind of older geek, you may be familiar with a certain little card game called Magic: The Gathering, created in the 90's to great fanfare and popularity for its granular strategy and "gotta catch 'em all" collectability. MTG launched a variety of imitators and still persists today, and now, its creators are embarking on a new project.

A press release sent to Curse announces a new partnership between MTG creators Richard Garfield/Skaff Elias, and studio Mind Control Software, to create a new online strategy game. Check the details below:

RICHARD GARFIELD AND SKAFF ELIAS JOIN FORCES WITH MIND CONTROL SOFTWARE ON

GROUND-BREAKING ONLINE STRATEGY GAME

The Geniuses Behind the Magic: The Gathering Tabletop Phenomenon Now Focus Online and Introduce: “Mind Twist”

San Rafael, Calif., July 21, 2009 – Award-winning video game developer Mind Control Software announced today that it has joined forces with Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias—creators of Magic: The Gathering and its Pro Tour—to develop a revolutionary online strategy game, code-named Mind Twist (www.themindtwist.com).

Since Garfield invented his genre-creating product, Magic: The Gathering, the market for tabletop strategy games has consistently passed the billion dollar mark each year. In his work with Mind Control Software, Garfield plans to bring the elements of tabletop gaming to the digital realm, using the same gaming expertise and creative genius that devised one of the biggest tabletop franchises in history.

“We couldn’t be more excited about our partnership with Richard and Skaff, and the genuine rock star talent they bring to our team,” said Andrew Leker, CEO, Founder, and Chief Designer of Mind Control Software. “These guys have been delivering compelling social entertainment experiences in the tabletop realm for years, and it’s only now in this new era of social media that the same experiences are possible online.”

“The potential of digital games fascinates me and I left Wizards of the Coast to pursue them,” said Richard Garfield. “Mind Control has the expertise to bring my designs to a new generation of gamers, and the platform technology to build the right ‘meta-game’ around them.”

Both Garfield and Elias have also joined Mind Control Software’s advisory board and will be involved with several other projects at Mind Control, in addition to the development of Mind Twist.

Mind Twist is a free-to-play game with a microtransaction-based business model built on Mind Control Software’s state-of-the-art Orbital Game Platform. Orbital is a soup-to-nuts game engine at the heart of dozens of shipped games, and now, in addition, it supports play across different gaming devices. Mind Twist will launch on Facebook and iPhone, with other platforms added over time. Players can currently follow the game on Twitter (@TheMindTwist) and Facebook.

“We are proud that our technology will be bringing Richard’s vision to life,” Leker continued. “We are confident that the man who rebuilt tabletop games into a billion dollar industry will be instrumental in leading a new age of online gaming.”

###

About Mind Control Software

For over a decade Mind Control Software (www.mind-control.com) has developed games and online game technologies for the industry's leading game publishers. During this time Mind Control Software won multiple prestigious awards for its unique and compelling designs, including Best Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year award from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Magazine and Independent Game of the Year awards from the Independent Games Festival (IGF). Chief designers, Andrew Leker and Marc LeBlanc, have over 30 years of game design and development experience between them, and are frequently featured as speakers at developer workshops and conferences. In addition to its work on the Mind Twist Initiative, Mind Control Software is currently engaged in a variety of design and development projects for top tier publishers.

About Richard Garfield

Richard revolutionized the hobby gaming industry and launched an entirely new category when he designed the world's first trading card game - Magic: The Gathering. Magic has continued to thrive for 15+ years while Richard has also published a steady stream of other award-winning card games and board games.

About Skaff Elias

Skaff has been responsible for the design of many games (both at Wizards of the Coast and elsewhere), including Magic, but his biggest contribution came from his invention of the revolutionary system of "organized play" which included a Pro Tour, allowed Magic to transition from fad into evergreen brand, and later fueled the Pokemon CCG phenomenon.

"The Guild" Season 3 Coming Soon, Music Video Released

Browncoat — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:22:25 GMT

If you aren't aware of what "The Guild" is, and you're an MMO player, you'll definitely want to play a little bit of catchup. The MMO parody web series, starring Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Amy Okuda, Robin thorsen, and Vincent Caso, has received many accolades. Tons of watchers have tuned in for the first two seasons to watch their favorite MMO player caricatures at work, and season three promises to be no different.

The folks over at "The Guild" released an MMO parody video entitled "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar", and it's certainly worth a watch. Be sure to catch them at this year's Blizzcon as well!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Curse Client 4.0 Sneak Peak (updated July 24)

Kaelten — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:57:18 GMT

The development team here at Curse has been hard at work on the Curse Client 4.0.

Crunch Gear was given a sneak peak at the newest alpha client, 4.0. It's been entirely rewritten to optimize performance, speed, and usability. Of course it's going to pack in some new features as well. It's only in Alpha so we can only share this screen shot of the updated UI.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to post a screenshot of our upcoming mac client. Our mac users are important to us, and as a result most of my time has been monopolized by working on the new v4 Mac client. It's a completely native Cocoa app targeting 10.4 and will run on both intel and PPC macs. It's not as far along feature wise as the windows client, but again, I did want to make sure people know that it is actively being worked on.

Mac Update 7/24

I just updated with an extra screenshot from today's alpha release. So please check it out. I hope you guys agree it's starting to come together. :)

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