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BlizzCon 2013 Impressions: CCed in the BlizzCon experience
The woman who approached our lunch table seemed friendly but slightly uncomfortable. "Excuse me, but do you work for Blizzard?" she asked with a tentative smile. Her brother, she went on to explain, had once known somebody who supposedly went on to the work there, but she didn't know the first thing about the game and had no idea if that was true or what he did there. We exchanged a quick glance -– incoming story about someone who once tested a Blizzard game, am I right? -– and continued to munch on our salads while nodding and making polite noises. "So what's your friend's name?" inquired the ever-personable Michael Gray. "Chris Metzen," she replied almost apologetically. "Is he ... somebody?" Our friendly local storyteller (who preferred to remain anonymous –- but my report here on the BlizzCon experience wouldn't be complete if I didn't share her story with you) went on to share a tale of growing up across the street from the Metzen family here in Southern California, where her brother played T-ball with the pint-sized future rock star of Blizzard. The thing she remembered most about "little Chris," as she called him, was the game in which he executed his task as catcher so enthusiastically that he found himself caught in the netting behind the plate -– CCed so completely, in fact, that the team's parents had to come cut him out with scissors. Everybody all together now: Awwww ... (/grin) All these years later, we find ourselves happily CCed in the net cast by Little Chris himself, the World of Warcraft of his imagination. And back at BlizzCon, our lunchtime encounter with a friendly SoCal native encapsulates the spirit of the BlizzCon weekend -- people brought together by Blizzard's games. You won't find any reveals about the expansion in this BlizzCon roundup, but if you're interested in some of the faces and places seen around the convention all weekend, read on!
The ongoing mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
Earlier in patch 5.3's PTR cycle, developer Cory "Mumper" Stockton revealed the Unborn Val'kyr, a new wild pet coming to Northrend. That very night, players began scouring the PTR for any trace of it -- to no avail. A few days later, Stockton asked users on Twitter whether or not they'd found it yet. They hadn't, but as it turns out, at the time of those tweets, the pet had not yet been activated on the PTR at all. Whoops! However, it has been active for quite some time now, and the community at large is still not entirely sure how it works. According to the information we've been given, the Unborn Val'kyr is not a pet that is randomly spawned, but rather only spawns under specific, unique conditions. The pet has now been found and caught, but the conditions under which it spawns to begin with are still unknown.
The OverAchiever: 5 of the best lore-related achievements
Let's be honest; the best lore-related achievement is without question Loremaster, which requires you to do the vast majority of the game's quests. But that's pretty self-evident -- "To get the best lore experience in-game, do the quests, which contain virtually all of the actual lore!" -- and thus kind of a cop-out from my perspective. So what I'm going to do with this edition of OverAchiever is pointedly ignore the fact that Loremaster is the most important thing you should do as a dedicated lore junkie, and turn to some other options that tend to be overlooked. As with our article on Twenty-Five Tabards, this is not an exhaustive guide on how to do each achievement, but simply a starting point if you're either interested in Azeroth's history, or interested in your character becoming more deeply involved in the developing story. As an early warning, 1 of the following 5 achievements is no longer doable, but I've decided to include it as I think the inability to do it at this point in time could be considered part of Azerothian history.
Phat Loot Phriday: Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw)
I'm kind of surprised we've never done this one on PLP (in fact, I think we may have, though I couldn't find it in the archives at all, and it just changed recently anyway). But just in case you don't want to spend $10 of real money on an epic in-game pet, you can try to get this one anyway. Name: Parrot Cage (Hyacinth Macaw) (Wowhead, Thottbot, WarcraftPets) Type: Epic (yes, Epic) Noncombat Pet Damage/Speed: N/A Attributes: Allows you to summon the Hyacinth Macaw companion pet, one of the most beautiful "parrot style" pets in the game. %Gallery-33600%
Warcraft Mounts helps you keep track of your corral
As a Pet collector, I'm very much appreciative of WarcraftPets.com's Collector's checklist. As a Mount collector, I've always wanted a similar list to keep track of my climb to the Dragonhawk. Today, that want is fulfilled. Mania's Warcraft Mounts now has a collection feature, just in time for all the new mounts and mount rule changes in Patch 3.2.Once you sign up for an account, you can list up to 3 characters per a screen name and start keeping track of which mounts you have and which mounts you want to have. You can also ignore the mounts you don't want or can't get. Once you have it all sorted out, you can share your collection with others if you wish (For example, here's Mania's collection).The site has always been a pretty handy tool for mount collectors or people who just want a refresher about what forms of locomotion are out there, and the collection tool only makes it better. Kudos to Mania, who's once again come through with a nice little tool for the WoW community.
Breanni of WarcraftPets.com closes store, posts apology to Blizzard
The amazing Breanni of WarcraftPets.com, once loved so much by Blizzard that he got immortalized in the game, has apparently gotten another of Blizzard's C&Ds. First, we saw iPhone apps pulled off of the App Store with what seemed like legal action, and then we heard that webcomic Shakes and Fidget was contacted by Blizzard legal, and now Breanni has pulled down his merchandise store, as well as posted a "formal apology" to Blizzard. Breanni doesn't say exactly what happened, but he says that he "became aware" that what he was selling was violating Blizzard's trademark policy, and calls the store a "lapse in judgment," and says that he hopes to "continue to recieve Blizzard's blessing." It's almost like hearing one side of the conversation -- we don't know what Blizzard said to him (if anything), but he definitely sounds spooked.This is a slightly different issue from the other C&Ds we've seen -- Breanni was making money from selling what we presume were actual images of Blizzard's copyrights and trademarks, so a store like that is pretty plainly in violation of copyright law (Mania's Pets calendar, for example, uses fan art rather than actual screenshots). But what's interesting here is, if they did contact him, why Blizzard has decided to do this now, and why they've only moved against Breanni. There are certainly lots of other places to find Blizzard art printed on products for sale. We're not suggesting that Blizzard should just let it all go, obviously, but why now?We've had requests for comment out to Blizzard ever since the first few iPhone apps were pulled off of the App Store about all of this recent C&D action, and we've added this one to the stack. If we hear anything back from them, we'll let you know.[Thanks, John E!]
Tips on completing Higher Learning
Higher Learning is one of the most peaceful achievements in the game (all you have to do are read a few books that spawn around Dalaran), but it's no less desirable for that -- the achievement grants a miniature Arcane Elemental pet that looks awesome. Teniblue over on WoW Ladies has a few good tips if you're trying to get all edumacated in Dalaran -- she's got links to two addons (including the perfectly-named Dalaran University) to use to help you track spawn times, and she's got a link to Breanni's great guide over on WarcraftPets.com (which our own Allison R. touched on briefly in a recent OverAchiever post).What's fun about this achievement is that reading the books won't delete them, so it can be very social -- people have created #bookclub channels on many servers to keep track of when and where books are appearing in the city. That makes it a lot more fun than the, say, cooking daily quest that sends you after mushrooms in the sewers. It actually makes this social game, well, social.So next time you see a book sitting around the city, be sure to give a shout to the chat channel -- here's one in-game situation where everybody can benefit from a little extra chatting.
"Stinker," now with 50% more win
If you're a serious noncombat pet collector, by now you probably have the Shop Smart, Shop Pet...Smart achievement, which rewards a Reeking Pet Carrier containing a very cute little skunk called Stinker. That was reason enough for me to get to 50 pets, but the owner of WarcraftPets.com (and the namesake of the Dalaran NPC who sells pet supplies, Breanni) had been told at BlizzCon that there was something unusual planned for the wee skunk in a future patch.I didn't realize it at the time because the savages in my guild are still blowing up Crashin' Thrashin' Racers in raids instead of pulling out their usual pets, but it looks like 3.0.8 was the patch in question. Letters from Birdfall actually got video of Stinker's new behavior: when anyone nearby pulls out a Bombay Cat or a Black Tabby, he falls in love and starts chasing them, only to return to his owner with a broken heart. I'm off to go try this ingame, and suffice it to say that my own version of Pepé Le Pew is going to be out even more than he already is.
Make your pet shine!
Tipster Wietkop informed us that the pet supplies NPC in Dalaran, Breanni, was selling something new in the Wrath Beta. So I headed on over to the pet store in Dalaran and found a lot of players fiddling around with the new toy, a Pet Grooming Kit that you can use on your pet to -- make it shine, just like it says on the tooltip. The Pet Grooming Kit is a single use BoP item that allows players to buff their non-combat pets with sparkles and a nice, clean glow. Using it has a splashing sound and makes an animation similar to water elementals getting squished. It's pretty cool, and it's simple little touches like these that make the game fun. Breanni also sells Fetch Balls and a Rope Pet Leash, although that one didn't exactly go over well with my Mini-Tyrael. Hopefully before the Beta is over, we'll see Breanni sell a few more items that spice up our favorite little companions. Papa Hummel's Old-Fashioned Pet Biscuits, anyone?
15 Minutes of Fame: A man and his (80+) pets
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.A couple of months ago, WoW Insider reported on the immortalization of WarcraftPets.com founder/owner Breanni with an NPC in Wrath of the Lich King. In the expansion, Breanni of US Scarlet Crusade-A appears as a NPC selling pet supplies in Dalaran. Curious about the growing public enthusiasm ("Obsession"? We think Breanni might agree ...) with non-combat pets, we contacted Breanni for more perspectives into the vanity pet craze -- as well as what it's like to run into yourself in the game as an NPC. 15 Minutes of Fame: Vanity pets – who knew? How many vanity pets are out there now, and how can players get them?Breanni: Vanity pets (also known as companions, small pets, non-combat pets and mini-pets) are those adorable little critters that follow your character around the game world, catching the eye and imagination of others. Currently, there are 98 vanity pets, and new ones are added to the game nearly every major content patch. However, not all of these pets are available in the United States - a few are region-specific.There are six ways to obtain vanity pets. Vendors, drops and quests offer players some of the most familiar pets. Additionally, there are a handful of pets crafted by engineers. Some of the rarest pets are obtained through real-world promotions, such as loot cards from the WoW trading card game and trade show giveaways. Finally, a new source has emerged for collecting certain pets: they can be earned through various feats, such as battleground victories or collecting a certain number of pets with a single character.
Fansite awarded NPC honor
If you're a vanity pet collector you've probably visited WarcraftPets. Breanni of Scarlet Crusade, the master of this has clearly put a considerable amount of effort into researching non-combat pets. The site lists news and information on all minipets found in the World of Warcraft. The site features a small-pet FAQ, a calendar of events featuring vanity pets, a guide to collecting non-combat pets, and more. Breanni is getting special recognition for her efforts in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King Expansion. Breanni posted in the general forums that she will be getting an NPC Avatar in Dalaran. Care for all your pet needs with Breanni's Pet supplies. This is not the first honorable mention that the site has won. Breanni has also been placed on the World of Warcraft map, as created by Tim Howego.
