'World of Warcraft' opens its Armory

World of Warcraft creator Blizzard has recently added a section to its official European site that lets you examine every character on every server in the continent. It's called the Armory, and the only bad thing about it is the hideous spelling.

You can search for individual characters, guilds and arena teams, and there's also an arena league table. As a low-level n00b, I like seeing how many other people have used my characters' names (I've got the only Dedwina and Fresiana -- w00t!) and enviously checking out my friends' high-level characters' kit. You don't get a pic of the character -- just a generic racial representation -- but it does show gear durability and current buffs.

My pal Phil at GameSpot, who's been playing WoW since it was in beta, says it has a much more useful function for high-level raiders, though. Apparently arguments would break out over which function characters should adopt while planning strategy and people would claim their character specialised in something they didn't. Now, Phil says, you can just tab out of the game, search for the character's name on the Armory and see exactly which talent trees they've specialised in and what gear they have. Problem solved.

The only problem is that the site runs really rather slowly -- it's still in beta -- and I had trouble loading a few of my characters. Also it can only display recently accessed game information, so if your character has been idle for a few weeks you can't see their stats. This won't be a problem for many Warcrack addicts. Check out the Armory here.