World of Warcraft on your Cellphone

[ShenMolo]

Soon we can grind from anywhere! 

[Venkman]

I'll believe that when we finally see Eve mobile, which makes a lot of sense given the nature of the game. Even SOE had to make an offline single-player game outta their EQ mobile.

I'd love to see this, some experience that is relevant to your character in an MMO without requiring you to try and Raid on a handset. But this is one of those brass rings that seem to be out of reach for a lot. Mobile games are difficult to make unto themselves (so many handsets new and old, hard even with porting tools), and the carriers themselves, at least in the U.S., makes it harder even still. One reason I'm excited to see more proliferation of smart phones: more channels to get more stuff directly to consumers.

[JoeTF]

Just be sure you have an unlimited data plan from your cell provider

Uh-huh.
Where in the world you can get unlimited 3G data plans*? (it streams video and sound directly to your PC, so don't even think about using WAP/GPRS)

[Nerf]

There are 3g data plans that aren't unlimited? From who?

I pay $45 (or is it $55?) for unlimited 3g through AT&T, and was paying about $20 for the same thing through sprint.

My internet went out for awhile and I was gaming while tethered for 3 weeks, never got anything but my standard bill.

[JoeTF]

Weird, only think AT&T mentions on their site is 60$, 5GB limited EDGE-speed DataConnect plan (thinking out fancy names seems to be the only thing they're good at).

[Trippy]

That's if you want "tethering" (e.g. connecting your laptop to the Internet through your phone). The non-tethered version is $30 unlimited.



They used to have a $20 plan (those of you with iPhones will be familiar with that one since they make you take it) but I'm not sure where that wandered off to.

[Endie]

Just be sure you have an unlimited data plan from your cell provider

Uh-huh.
Where in the world you can get unlimited 3G data plans*? (it streams video and sound directly to your PC, so don't even think about using WAP/GPRS)

The UK - I pay 20 pounds a month and have an unlimited data plan.  I'd just have to hope for a blackberry cilent XD

[JoeTF]

Welp.

Trippy:
Yes, with 4 MB of monthly transfer limit included. And if that wasn't enough, they explicitly forbid using service as a replacement for landline-broadband in their ToS, as well as using it for streaming video from your desktop (pretty much exactly what WOW on cellphones would do) :D

Endie:
Which service provider offers unlimited 3G? As in unlimited monthly bandwidth allowance ofc. I check three major/only 3G providers in UK and non of them provides unlimited data plan.

[Endie]

Endie:
Which service provider offers unlimited 3G? As in unlimited monthly bandwidth allowance ofc. I check three major/only 3G providers in UK and non of them provides unlimited data plan.

No, you're right: it's unlimited monthly GPRS bandwidth.  My mistake.  I also notice that my tarrif is no longer available, and that people starting today will pay more.  Arf.

[JoeTF]

After some research it seems that only country with unlimited 3G is Japan and even there it comes with a catch - when you exceed their hefty limit the effective monthly fee will double, but at least they won't bill you by the Mb or throttle you down.

[cevik]

After some research it seems that only country with unlimited 3G is Japan and even there it comes with a catch - when you exceed their hefty limit the effective monthly fee will double, but at least they won't bill you by the Mb or throttle you down.

No details but:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/09/iphone-3g-is-finally-official/

3G Unlimited for $30 on the new iphone, or so the above blog post states.

[Nerf]

I think I've got that PDA personal bundle, but I never had them run shit at me for tethering, maybe it's because I hacked my phone to do it.

The blackjacks have an "internet connection" executable hidden from the factory, you have to rename a couple files on the phone and bam, it pops up and you can tether (via cable OR bluetooth!)

Theres really no way for them to tell if its tethered or I'm just surfing a shitload on it anyways.

[Mrbloodworth]

Do not want.

[Soukyan]

After some research it seems that only country with unlimited 3G is Japan and even there it comes with a catch - when you exceed their hefty limit the effective monthly fee will double, but at least they won't bill you by the Mb or throttle you down.

No details but:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/09/iphone-3g-is-finally-official/

3G Unlimited for $30 on the new iphone, or so the above blog post states.

$30 is just for the data plan and tacked on to your normal bill of course. I suppose you knew that, but there you are.

Unlimited minutes/unlimited data/200 SMS plan is still going to cost you $120 on the iPhone with more SMS costing additional. Bleh.

On the upside though, iPhone 3G 8GB version is now selling for only $199 USD. The 16GB version is $299. They added full enterprise support for Exchange, and then the MobileMe service to give push e-mail, calendar, contacts for those not using Exchange. Still offer full support for GMail, Yahoo, .Mac (now MobileMe), etc. as well. For the feature set that they now have, and the application development platform, the iPhone 3G is a killer device at a very competitive price point now.

And they could probably easily port WoW to play on it faster than any other mobile platform.

[Trippy]

They used to have a $20 plan (those of you with iPhones will be familiar with that one since they make you take it) but I'm not sure where that wandered off to.

The $20 plan disappeared because AT&T needs to recoup the cost of "subsidizing" the new iPhones, which after the 2 year contract means they actual make $40 so it's not really a subsidy. I.e. $399 phone - $200 subsidy = $199 phone + $10 extra/month for more expensive data plan * 24 months = $439.

[Alkiera]

Would much rather see a specialized app; something that lets you check mail, browse auction house, maybe access guildchat.  A character is never going to be controllable for combat via relay like that; and the normal UI would be shrunk so much as to be unreadable.

And yeah, the new iPhone is probably going to do some interesting things for mobile gaming, as it's got an apparently decent OpenGL implementation, and a fairly functional desktop-like OS.