Blizzard has done a few interesting things to the gametype that has made League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth so popular. But the most interesting may just be how the company plans to release it. Blizzard is going to make sure everyone has a chance to check it out, even if they don’t own StarCraft 2. “We haven’t figured out the details,” says Didier. “But there will be a free-to-play Blizzard DOTA on our Blizzard Arcade. We don’t know how many heroes there will be, or how many maps, but we definitely want to make sure that everyone knows it will be free-to-play.”

Blizzard is looking to make its Defense of the Ancients All-Stars-inspired custom map for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty less intimidating for new players. What’s more, with Valve using the DotA name for its upcoming title Dota 2, Blizzard is steering well clear using the name for its own release.
Blizzard has been wrestling with “getting it right and just meeting the Blizzard quality bar, and questioning a lot of the assumptions behind the genre,” senior game designer Jonny Ebbert told Eurogamer, adding that “is what [they] do at Blizzard”.

“DotA’s a very addictive game that chases the vast majority of people off because their team mates are screaming at them. We’ve always felt DotA has a very accessible, easy to approach fun game deep down inside that’s just waiting to come out,” he explained. “We’ve just been basically carving around that and trying to knock off all the rough edges and really make it more user friendly.”

Related articles

• Blizzard attempting to block Valve’s DOTA trademark(gamesradar.com)

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• Blizzard opposes Valve Dota name registration(gamasutra.com)

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Here’s the round up.

Domain Registrations by Several Fortune 500 companies and others.

Ubisoft registers avengersbattleforearth. com domain name, Ubisoft working an Avengers game

.FR internationalized domain names registrations started today. Did you register some ?

Xerox registers the domain name xeroxlayoffs. com , defensive registration or ?

Burning hot, directcremation. com domain name sells for 20,000 USD

Speed dial and themes… zone checks and .FR domain names.

Some domain names for sale.

Yes not much news lately. This is due to the fact  i been rather busy. Preperations for India later this month (WHD) and in June we got ICANN 44 wich i willbe attending.  So yeah real life is kicking my ass all over

And i have been working on several project and i hope to launch my Telnic project somewhere in July or maybe August.

Other domain name related news is that ICANN has now 2,305 New gTLD Applications. So i think we are looking at atleast 3000 new Generic TLD’s. And i guess a whole bunch will fail. Though with around 50k registrations a Registry can make proffit and continue to operate.

The TLD Application System, or TAS, held 2091 applications – either submitted or in progress – when it was taken offline on 12 April 2012.

In addition, there are 214 potential applications that were registered prior to the 29 March cut-off date, but whose payments have not yet been received or reconciled.

ICANN has received approximately USD $350 million in fees for applications for new gTLDs.

As we have reported, we are in the process of notifying applicants whether they were affected by the software glitch, and plan to complete this process on or before Tuesday, 8 May. Shortly after that process is complete, we will announce the schedule for reopening TAS and completing the application period. Once the system is reopened, we will keep it open for at least five business days.

We appreciate your understanding as we work to bring the TLD application system back online.

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• ICANN says they got 1,268 new gTLD applications(undisputed.be)

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Interested parties can now apply to own run their own web domains such as .nyc or .gay versus having to use the .com or .org domains. In February, ICANN said that 100 website holders have registered for a new program to expand net domains.

However, ICANN found what it calls a “software glitch” that could enable some of the applicants to see the user or file names of other would-be holders of the new domains.

Ever since ICANN opened up the new domain name application process, companies have not revealed the names for which they were applying out of concern that others could increase the price of a generic domain such as .food, for example.

“Clearly, we’re going to take every step that we can to make sure that no one takes advantage of any information they may have obtained,” Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO, told Reuters.

The software bug is not the only issue ICANN has faced with the new domain expansion program.

Various trademark owners argue they will have spend a lot of capital to protect their online brands, while other critics believe that a number of current and former ICANN board members could make a lot of money from the program.

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Owners of .uk web domains will now be able to register or renew their addresses in annual blocks of ten years.

Nominet, the .uk registry manager, has changed its policy to also allow businesses to register domains for a 12-month period.

This is a change from the previous rules which meant that firms could only sign up for an initial period of two years.

Owners of extensions such as .uk, co.uk and .org.uk will benefit from the policy, which could prevent cyber squatters from poaching recently expired websites.

The move could also boost a business’ Google search ranking as they will be investing in their domain name over a period of a decade.

In March this year, Nominet announced that the ten millionth domain name was registered, with Steven John Northam signing up with Swarvemagazine.co.uk.

“.uk is a prestigious address that people admire, respect and trust all over the world, and individuals and organisations of all shapes and sizes have recognised this,” said Lesley Cowley OBE, CEO of Nominet.

Having previously been available for only a 2 year duration, this decision will be implemented in the wake of .uk having reached its 10 millionth registered domain earlier in the year. This shows the huge demand that surrounds the world’s second largest country code domain registry and allows .uk extensions such as .co.uk, .me.uk and .org.uk to benefit.

Thanks to the ability to now protect your domain for an extended period of time, businesses and consumers can benefit from the security of locking in and owning their domain names for up to a decade.

While this clearly benefits those with long term plans within the market, new businesses are also given more room to save as the minimum domain name registration has been brought down to 1 year.

Commenting on the groundbreaking event, Sally Tomkotowicz, Customer Acquisition Marketing Manager, Names.co.uk said; “The decision for the new longer term registration is a great improvement to customers who have felt they lacked choice under the old rules. At Names.co.uk we applaud the decision as we have always understood that our customers want flexibility to control the registration period of their domain name. While the option of renewing your domain for the 10 year period will be a popular one, the added choice of 1 year registration has given more freedom to shorter term opportunities such as one-off events.”

By keeping a domain name for the longer 10 year period, it has been argued that owners can improve their search engine rankings, reaping the rewards of longevity. Along with the potential search engine benefits, there is also the advantage of lower per year prices with longer term registrations.

These new rules may also potentially rein in “cybersquatting”, where not renewing a domain can open it up for a third party to acquire and then ransom it back to the original owner. Nominet has stated that 15% of non-renewed domain names are re-registered by someone else within one day and 7.5% are re-registered within 10 seconds.

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Members of the executive board of NiRA, including members of its board of trustees, said there was need for more awareness creation to enable Nigerians embrace dot ng domain name, which is Nigeria’s identity in the cyberspace. 

Chief Operating Officer of NiRA, Mr. Ope Odusan, said NiRA had already mapped out its strategies in the area of capacity building, business goals and business strategies to boost domain name registration in the country.

dot ng domain name is Nigeria’s identity in cyberspace, which identifies Nigerians to an Internet Protocol (IP) address, when carrying out online transactions. The identity ends with the suffix .gov.ng for government agencies; .org.ng for registered organisation; and .name.ng for individuals.

According to Odusan, NiRA is building capacity in the areas of technical skills, registry operations, policy development, marketing and communications, legal services and audit, all geared towards making NiRA less dependent on government for its funding.

“NiRA will review and update relevant policies such as registry/registrant/registrars policies, domain sales policies, and strengthen industry engagement and as well support industry events. We will improve on dispute resolution and develop memorandum of understanding (MoU) and framework for registering operators,” Odusan said.

One of the registrars, who is the President of the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), Mr. Lanre Ajayi, differed in his views to expand the size of NiRA and its board members, advising that NiRA executives should concentrate on the role of NiRA as a registry and policy formulation and regulatory agency, and allow registrars to do more of marketing and awareness creation of domain name registration.

In her welcome address, President of NiRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma, explained a major change in the NiRA calendar, explaining that the calendar year had been altered to begin from January 1 and end in December 31, as against the June 1 to May 31 calendar year.

On the financial strength of NiRA for the year ending December 2011, Uduma said “the audited accounts show that NiRA is not in trouble.”
She reported that some changes were made in the registration and management of .gov.ng domain names for Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, nominated Galaxy Backbone to handle the registrations henceforth, having convinced the Federal Executive Council to direct all Federal MDAs to migrate to .gov.ng in its transformation agenda and e-government programme.

Report of the financial statement of NiRA as presented by Derogba Ola Co, the auditor for NiRA, was generally applauded and accepted by the general members, before issues were raised and discussed at the AGM that was not tied to election.

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• SIDN .NL Registry may change to monthly billing for domain names.(cctld.dk)

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The DotGreen Community, Inc. has applied to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the domain name industry’s governing authority. ICANN will review this and applications for other TLDs over the coming months, with the first of the newly granted extensions projected for availability early 2013.

The .green TLD, conceived in 2007, was the first environmental new TLD initiative proposed to international environmental groups and the Internet community. DotGreen’s founders have made philanthropy an essential component of the organization’s mission.

“We developed the .green Top-Level Domain to advance the green movement,” said Annalisa Roger, Founder and CEO of The DotGreen Community. “EarthShare is a respected leader in environmental giving, and with its 23 years of experience, is the perfect partner to help us give to important green initiatives and organizations globally, effectively and efficiently.”

EarthShare is a longstanding supporter of DotGreen’s project and has communicated to ICANN its support for the organization’s application. EarthShare has raised more than $260 million for environmental causes, and applauds the potential contributions of the new TLD.

“We’re thrilled to be working with DotGreen,” said EarthShare CEO Kal Stein. “Our members and partners are always looking for ways to expand their reach in environmental and social programs. A TLD that focuses on sustainability and environmentalism will be an outstanding opportunity to do so.”

DotGreen seeks to foster common ground for the green movement, allowing the .green namespace to become the unifying online space for sustainability efforts. DotGreen also embeds routine green philanthropy into the existing domain name and other industries relying on the Internet, allowing a portion of proceeds from every .green web address to contribute to environmental good via the Non-profit Public Benefit Charity organization, The DotGreen Foundation. EarthShare will manage the distribution of these grants to environmental charities.

“The already flourishing green movement will benefit by having a dedicated namespace where information can be easily found and identified,” Roger said. “We intend to use registration revenue to fund efforts to establish sustainable action in everyday life. Our organizations share an approach that focuses on accessibility and inclusivity. We recognize the necessity and importance of collaboration between all global citizens.”

Roger projects registrations in .green—and the resulting funding of environmental projects—will be available in 2013.

About the New .green TLD: Initiated in 2007 by the DotGreen Foundation as a Non-profit for Public Benefit Charity Organization. ICANN’s delegation of the .green TLD for management to The DotGreen Community, Inc. will allow an online green namespace, launching .green in 2013 as a tool for people and businesses making green choices. Registrants of .green domain names will be supporting The DotGreen Foundation, spreading awareness, boosting the green movement, and growing the green economy online. A .green Internet will invite Internet users all over the world to do their part, one step at a time, until collectively, we make the timely shift to greener lifestyle and business practices on a global scale. http://www.dotgreen.org // http://www.facebook.com/dotgreencommunity

About EarthShare: EarthShare helps strengthen corporations and organizations by connecting hundreds of thousands of individuals, companies and public agencies with environmental and conservation groups through employee engagement and giving campaigns at workplaces across the United States. In the past 20 years EarthShare has raised $300 million for more than 500 national and local member charities.    Connect – Contribute – Volunteer // earthshare.org // info(at)earthshare(dot)org

About ICANN: The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. Formed in 1998, ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. Through its role coordinating the Internet’s naming system, it has an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/

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On April 12, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will stop accepting applications for a new round of generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, the part of a web address that appears to the right of the period (“com” and “org” are among 22 current top-level domains). The application process is expected to result in hundreds, if not thousands, of new gTLDs, which will likely start going live sometime next year.

But of the major marketers contacted by Ad Age, only a few said they’re planning to apply for new gTLDs. A few said they weren’t planning on it. The majority refused to comment, mostly likely not wanting to tip off competitors to their intentions while the application window is still open.

A Google spokesperson said the company will indeed apply for several top-level domains.

“We plan to apply for Google’s trademarked TLDs, as well as a handful of new ones,” the spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “We want to help make this a smooth experience for web users — one that promotes innovation and competition on the internet.”

Google refused to provide more details, but it’s likely that “.Google” and “.YouTube” will be among the trademark TLDs the company applies for. Google also wouldn’t comment on how it would use its new TLDs, but one could see using “.YouTube” as a way to mark a brand’s YouTube channel destination — for example, www.AdAge.YouTube.

Deloitte and Canon were also expected to submit applications for TLDs. Canon provided the following reasoning in a 2010 announcement: “Canon hopes to globally integrate open-communication policies that are intuitive and easier to remember, compared with existing domain names such as canon.com.”

Facebook, who some expected to make a run at the “.Facebook” TLD, has not applied for it, spokesman Brandon McCormick said in an email. Pepsi’s will also remain on the sidelines of the TLD game, according to Shiv Singh, global head of digital at Pepsi. Mr. Singh cited the costs of acquiring and operating a TLD, which carries an initial application fee of $185,000, as well as his belief that consumers’ browsing habits will take years to alter.

“Consumers are always going to think about first going to MountainDew.com or Pepsi.com before they think about Drink.Pepsi,” Mr. Singh said. “And that’s not going to change anytime soon, and maybe not for a few years.”

Marketers with strong established brand names need not rush into the process. While an external entity could theoretically apply for “.Pepsi,” the application would almost certainly be rejected because of Pepsi’s legal rights to the name. However, brands whose names are also commonly used nouns, such as Apple, could run into competition. And brands that own rights for a specific industry (say, Delta Air Lines vs. Delta Faucet) could also lose out on their “.brand” TLD.

ICANN’s process for the rollout of new internet infrastructure has been vigorously attacked by marketing trade associations, including the Association of National Advertisers.

In January, the ANA proposed that ICANN create a “Do Not Sell” list on which companies could register their brands for no cost to keep them out of the TLD process.

An ICANN spokesperson declined to comment on the ANA’s recommendation.

“Right from the beginning ICANN has failed to identify why we are doing this to begin with,” ANA CEO Bob Liodice said in a recent interview. “The rationale is still not clear.”

The ICANN spokesperson said that ICANN will publish a list of applicants and the TLDs for which they applied on April 30. Brands can lodge objections to applied-for TLDs afterward.

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Slapping TLD news

• Ubisoft planning “Might and Magic: Duel of Champions” according to domains. Addon or new sequel. We’ll just have to see. Doesn’t like like Aprils fool though.
• Microsoft entering the ultra notebook market with the Gana 3 Ultrabook ? That’s the thing with Microsoft, you never know what they are up to.
• Microsoft registers spammersaid. com domain name. Which side are these guys on anyways ? Depends on your point of view
• Motorola acquires a weird mix of domain names. And weird they are !
• Volkswagen is going tobe an accident specialist according to domain name registrations. Naa nooo naa noooo
• LG setting up a mall and calls it Coca Cola mall ? A weird domain name registration for sure cocacolamall.com, domain name still not resolving.
• Amazon going social. Reminds me of that song from Anthrax called Anti Social.
• LG with the E Plus domain names. Real odd those registrations for sure.
• Afnic and the IDN perparations, check it out here.
• ES NIC hit 1.5 million domain name registrations, Caramba !
• DNS BE to got the contract to operate .Brussels and .Vlaanderen. 

Pretty funny

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TEAC. Domain name theft willbe a little harder soon. TEAC. Transfer Emergency Action Contact.

Wonder why domain name transfers take like forever ? Soon this will no longer be the case and transfers willbe instant. Domain Name Transfers.

DOT .РФ domain name renewals down with 18%, still awesome growth though ! ccTLD.dk

I got hit by a new variation of a Domain Name Scam.

The domain oi.com sold for 1k ? Hell no.

For branding you need a good domain name. Mozilla gets it : Mozilla acquires persona. org domain name, rebrands BrowserID into Persona.

Bangladesh ccTLD Registry website infected by Virus. And still they haven’t fixed it !

Afnic releases more info regarding IDN domain name registrations for .FR, with some luck i can apply for the IDN version of Prefab. Just registered Prefab.fr.

Sony Pictures registers breakoutbrasil.com and breakoutbrazil. com new movie ? Sounds more like the old videogame imo.

Microsoft registers boredtodeathgame.com , sounds boring for sure.

Coca Cola likes mixing shizzle. When you mix Sprite with Tea you get spritea.com

Good morning Vie…. Google acquires Goodmorning domain names. Clicky here.

Ubisoft registers Silent Hunter Online domain names. MMO in the works ? If so it won’t be a fast paced MMO haha.

Other shizzle on Rogue.su :

Warner Bros registers titansattack.com domain name and redirects it to Warth of the Titans free browser game.
So why exactly did Microsoft acquire menssuits.org ?
League of Legends Supremacy expansion pack ? Domain name registrations suggest so.

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The issue with the trojan that it is located in the recovery image file. Tobe more precise it is in located in the Plants vs Zombies game.

I have the feeling that the trojan has been dorment since i bought the laptop since alot of times it was very sluggish. 

Since 18-01-2012 Microsoft Security Essentials released a new viri definition and with a full scan the Win32 Anomaly.gen! trojan shows up.

Since the HP recovery image file is over 19 gigabytes every viri scanner that i tried will choke on it.

So getting ridd of the Win32 Anomaly.gen! trojan was a no go till i figured i should format the D partition that contained the Win32 Anomaly.gen! trojan.

If you have not made these disks i suggest you do so. Goto start, programs, HP and create the recovery DVD’s (you need 5 blank DVD’s).

Once i created them i formatted the D partition and ran a full scan and behold it worked.

For a second opinion try Hitmanpro.

Since i now had 19 GB of free space i decided to install Linux Unbuntu. When i bought the HP DV6 it failed but the latest version of Unbuntu works like a charm. If you never messed with Unbuntu then i recommend installing Unbuntu with the Wubi installer.

This is a smal program that you install using windows. It’s almost fully automated and if it doesn’t workout then you just uninstall it under windows !

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/windows-installer

This is the easiest way ever to install Linux Unbuntu. So i am now running Win 7 and Linux on my HP laptop and it feels faster then ever

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