Thottbot

Thottbot is an unofficial "World of Warcraft" plug-in and database website. [cite news|title=Gamers will take pause: Firm tests easier way to kill orcs and answer e-mail at the same time. |author=Parker Howell |date=2007-05-30 |work=The Spokesman-Review] The plug-in, which is programmed in Lua [cite web|url=http://thottbot.com/?p=about |title=Thottbot World of Warcraft: About This Site |accessdate=2008-03-09 |publisher=thottbot.com] , collects information while a person is playing the game — such as the drop rates of items, locations of specific mobs, and quest information — and users then upload the information to the website's database. The information on the website only comes from players using the plug-in and who take the time to upload the data. Simon Carless of Gamasutra described Thottbot as a "major item listing site." [cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1837/ige_inside_the_mmo_trading_machine.php |title=IGE: Inside The MMO Trading Machine |accessdate=2008-03-09 |author=Simon Carless |date=2006-08-25 |publisher=Gamasutra |pages=4] As of March 9, 2008, web traffic company Alexa reported that Thottbot.com was the 250th most visited site on the internet. [cite web|url=http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/thottbot.com |title=thottbot.com - Traffic Details from Alexa |accessdate=2008-03-09 |publisher=Alexa]

Information contained on Thottbot includes descriptions of items, weapons and armor pieces. Web users can browse by categories or search by item names. Players may also create a profile of their current status, so that others may search and view different players. This also entails the user running a plug-in, and since it is a volunteer type of system, not every player is represented, nor is it guaranteed to be wholly up to date.

During the Austin Game Conference in 2006, "World of Warcraft" lead designer Rob Pardo spoke of the hardcore market and casual market for "World of Warcraft", saying "The people that don't go to ThottBot are the casual players, and they're the ones you need to hold the hand of." [cite web|url=http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3757&Itemid=2 |title=Austin: Secrets of WoW Design |accessdate=2008-03-09 |author=N. Evan Van Zelfden |date=2006-09-06 |work=Next Generation] A January 2007 article in the "Detroit Free Press" named the site as a good place to find jewelcrafting designs discovered during the beta test of "". [cite news |first=Heather |last=Newman |title=A guide to jewelcrafting |work=Detroit Free Press |date=2007-01-15]

The original Thottbot was a news aggregator created by Aftathott, founder of the "Everquest" guild "Afterlife." Its purpose was to comb various video game websites for news and information on a number of MMORPGs with a focus on "Everquest". Though the primary site is now used for the "World of Warcraft" database, the news aggregator still exists as a sister site. Thottbot is also affiliated with Cosmos, a popular collection of user-interface modifications.

Thottbot owner Zam Network acquired the "World of Warcraft" database Wowhead in June 2007 according to "Next Generation" magazine. [cite web|url=http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6135&Itemid=2 |title=Thottbot Owner Acquires Wowhead |accessdate=2008-03-09 |author=Kris Graft |date=2007-06-25 |work=Next Generation] "The Inquirer" noted that Affinity Media, parent company of Thottbot and Allakhazam, bought Wowhead for $1 million, giving them ownership of all three major "World of Warcraft" databases. [cite web|url=http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/06/25/wow-fansite-sold-to-ad-outfit |title=WOW fansite sold to ad outfit |accessdate=2008-03-09 |author=Nick Farrell |date=2007-06-25 |work=The Inquirer] Affinity Media was the previous parent company of IGE, which generated revenue from selling "World of Warcraft" gold, but Affinity Media later severed ties with IGE. [cite web|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14235 |title=Q&A: Affinity's Maffei Talks IGE Sale, MMO Media Future |accessdate=2008-03-10 |author=N. Evan Van Zelfden |date=2007-06-07 |publisher=Gamasutra]

References

External Iinks

* [http://www.thottbot.com Thottbot]
* [http://www.cosmosui.org Cosmos]
* [http://news.thottbot.com The Thottbot news aggregator]
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* [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com World of Warcraft Home Page]
* [http://wow.allakhazam.com Allakhazam's WoW Portal] , another World of Warcraft database
* [http://www.wow-lista.com Wow-lista] , Spanish World of Warcraft database