Global Online Game ‘World of Warcraft’ Heads for Big Screen

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‘World of Warcraft,” the multiplayer online game with 6 million users worldwide, will soon come to a theater near you.


The game, produced by Vivendi Universal Games’ Blizzard studio in Irvine, will be made into a feature film by Legendary Pictures, the production company based at Warner Bros., which will likely co-produce and distribute the film. Legendary put up half the money for Warner’s “Batman Begins” and the upcoming “Superman Returns.”


Terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Daily Variety, in the only other video game film deal of comparable value, Universal and Fox paid Microsoft Corp. $5 million or 10 percent of the gross, whichever is greater, for the rights to “Halo.”


“World of Warcraft” belongs to the family of online games called “massively multiplayer online role-playing games” or MMORPGs as players know them. They involve elaborate parallel universes, where players assume an alternate identity and interact with hundreds of other players. The most popular game of its kind, “World of Warcraft” surpassed 6 million subscribers in March, each of whom pays a monthly fee to stay a part of the game. The game brought in more than $750 million in revenues last year.


As if that weren’t enough, one of the creators of “Warcraft” was dubbed one of the 100 “People Who Shape Our World” by Time magazine this month. Rob Pardo, vice president of game design for Blizzard, made it into the Artists & Entertainers section of the most-influential people listing. The magazine suggested that Pardo’s creation could be “the future of electronic entertainment.”



Wi-Fi Protection


State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nu & #324;ez, a Los Angeles Democrat, is pushing for a bill to protect Wi-Fi users from identity theft or “piggybacking” the term used to describe covertly benefiting from a neighbor’s powerful wireless signal. The Legislature has been trying to criminalize unauthorized wi-fi usage on the grounds that it could lead to identity theft and related fraud. In densely populated areas, his legislation explains, there is no gauge or measuring device to show how many people are using a particular access point.


The last time a comprehensive study was done, in 2004, a tech entrepreneur flew single-engine aircrafts low over the city, equipped with laptops, to detect wireless signals. Of the more than 4,500 Wi-Fi networks detected, fewer than 30 percent of them were encrypted. Nu & #324;ez’s bill would put the onus on the manufacturer and seller of wireless routers to include a warning label advising users on how to protect personal files, or protections that require the consumer to take protective action before installing the device.



Pomona Project


The City of Pomona just went wireless. The pilot project provides wi-fi Internet access to downtown businesses and residents of the 150,000-person city.


The high-speed network will initially serve City Hall, the Police Department, Cal Poly Pomona, and the downtown Pomona business district, among others. The wireless mesh canopy means that a series of transmission devices are affixed to such structures as light poles throughout the downtown area.


The wireless network was set up by Cheetah Wireless Technologies Inc., a Las Vegas provider of wireless network equipment; Sunnyvale-based Tropos Networks Inc., which set up the wi-fi mesh network, and Newbury Park-based Nomadix.


“This wireless access is only the tip of the iceberg in Pomona’s digital advancement goals,” said Mayor Norma Torres.



Staff reporter Hilary Potkewitz can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226, or by e-mail at

[email protected]

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