I’ve decided against doing video updates. There are two reasons why.

1. Since I don’t have top-of-the-line video editing software, I can’t blank out people’s names. This would mean that innocent people are being named, something which goes against IoW’s Privacy Policy.
2. Uploading videos to YouTube takes far too long.

I might do video updates for stories with numerous screenshots. But recording the event as it happened? Not gonna happen.

I hope you understand.

In the time I’ve been doing IoW, I have only received two emails. One was a hate mail (which I’ve lost), and the other is a fanmail (which is on the Mailbag page).

Whatever your opinion is about IoW, I want to read about it. Simply punt us an email, and I will reply to it. No matter what it says.

You’re probably reading this thinking ‘Geo is begging for emails, how sad’. Well, I’m not. I’m simply reminding people that I will gladly read whatever they send me. If you want to cuss me out because of what I’m doing here, be my quest. Everyone has an opinion, and they’re entitled to it.

Bear in mind that all hate/fan mail received will be posted on the site. So if you want to remain anonymous, then please tell me in your email. I respect people’s privacy. So come on, everyone. Tell me what’s on your mind.

I’ve been reading some guides on being prepared for the next expansion, and it got me thinking. Is IoW prepared for MoP?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long Answer: I intend to get the next expansion, and I will continue to share my experiences with idiots. Given all the new content we’re getting, I’m pretty sure I will have many stories to share with you all. I’m sure I will meet some idiots in the revamped Scarlet Monastery and Scholomance. There’s bound to be bufoons in the new zones. And there will still be plenty of drama in the Trade Channel.

So you’d better believe that IoW is ready for MoP. The real question, then, would be … is MoP ready for IoW?

All of the images within this post are too big to display normally. Click the thumbnail to open the full-size image in a new window/tab.

Idiots of Warcraft isn’t all about the epic fails, you know. Every now and again, I might try and get some information out which could help people.

With the Mists of Pandaria beta test under way, scam emails are landing in peoples inboxes, claiming they’re now a participant in said beta. These emails will direct you a site in order for you to ‘claim your place’.

You get to the page, enter your username and password and then BAM! Your account has been stolen.

This is something I’d like to make people aware of, so here is how you spot a scam email. I actually received one myself today (which is why I am posting this), so I’ll be using that to help you spot a fake.

Let’s look at the email itself.

Now you have to admit that this looks pretty good, doesn’t it? So, let’s click that button which says ‘PLAY FREE NOW’.

Whoa! Wait just a minute! That’s not the official WoW website! It should only be worldofwarcraft.com or wow-europe.com, not this jumble of letters and symbols.

I’m suspicious. Lets take a look at the email header. The header, for those of you who don’t know, contains information about the email, such as who sent it, when it was received, and so forth. It can be turned on by looking at the Options for your email client.

Hmmm. That’s definitely not right. It should end in battle.net or blizzard.com, not yahoo.com. This is another way of telling if the email is a fake. However, some smart scammers can change this so that it looks even more promising.

But what if you’ve checked the URL of the site you’re directed to, looked at the headers, and they’ve both looked right? Well, the definite way of knowing if you’ve received a scam email is to log into your Battle.net account.

That’s what I did, and sure enough, there wasn’t an MoP Beta account listed. So my email was indeed a scam, and was promptly deleted (after I took some screenshots of it).

So, what have we learned? Check the headers, hover your mouse over links (don’t click!) and check the URL and make sure they’re OK.

However, if you are still in doubt, simply log into your account and see for yourself if you’ve received an invite. If not, then delete that email! If so, then get playing, and tell the rest of us all about it!

I hope you’ve learned something today, and I also hope you see that IoW can in fact be helpful.