burning crusade
Latest
5 reasons you should love Wrath of the Lich King
The Burning Crusade was just the first expansion in WoW's history, and though it brought many things to love, as always, there were tweaks to be made. So how do you follow up a well-put-together expansion featuring a host of memorable villains from Warcraft III? Oh, that's easy enough. To top Illidan's appearance, you bring in the villain he couldn't defeat -- you bring in the Lich King. Ever since the final scene of The Frozen Throne, Warcraft fans wondered just what happened to Arthas after he placed the Lich King's helm on his head and took an icy seat. In Wrath of the Lich King, they were about to find out. Featuring an all-new continent with new zones to play through, Wrath also introduced the first new hero class to the game, the death knight. In the wake of The Burning Crusade, Wrath had a lot to live up to. It did that and more, paving the way for more accessibility to raids, more endgame content and new lore, to boot. Many of the players in Cataclysm today got their start in Wrath of the Lich King, and there's plenty of things to love about it -- far too many points to list. But we'll give you five of them!
WoW Archivist: How each WoW expansion set the tone, part 2
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold. Previously on WoW Archivist, I discussed how the tone of Warcraft and its associated world changed drastically as time went on and the first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, was released. Each time World of Warcraft changes its setting, the tone of the game (from the way the environments make the player feel to the actual mechanical development of the product) changes significantly. The tonal change makes WoW a unique specimen in the MMO sphere, allowing it to grow, adapt, and target a vast array of audiences opposed to growing stagnant over time. Incorporating each new tone and focus with each new expansion lets World of Warcraft move forward despite its age. For a long time, we jokingly referred to Wrath of the Lich King as "The Frozen Crusade" because Blizzard took the best parts of The Burning Crusade and began to build the next expansion. It was hard to understand the tone of the newest expansion before you actually played it. In the beginning all we saw was two new ores, 75 more profession skill points, and greens that were going to replace our purples again. For me, the tone looked like it was going to be "here we go again" -- that is, until I first stepped into Northrend.
5 reasons you should love The Burning Crusade
The Burning Crusade marked WoW's first foray into expansions, and it took a while to arrive -- a little over two years, actually, but Blizzard made sure the expansion was well worth waiting for. Offering two new races, more talent choices, and an entirely new world to explore, The Burning Crusade gave players plenty of reasons to eagerly anticipate its release. But it wasn't just the world that was different. The Burning Crusade took the game we'd been playing for a little over two years and tweaked it with small improvements that affect the way we play the game even today. It pioneered the definition of what an expansion was, in the WoW universe, and paved the way for the expansions to follow. The Burning Crusade still ranks high on many players' favorite expansion lists, including my own. Finding five reasons to love it? That's a complete walk in the park. Picking just five to show you ... that's a little harder!
WoW Archivist: How each WoW expansion set the tone, part one
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Before we learned about Mists of Pandaria and where we stalwart adventurers would be exploring in the coming months, I wrote a post discussing how an expansion about Pandaria, specifically its title, would change the tone of World of Warcraft. Mists of Pandaria would be the first expansion that does not directly reference or reveal the main villain of the expansion's storyline. Blizzard and the WoW development team has been incredible stewards of tone, from the early days of Warcraft to Cataclysm's world-breaking motif. Tone is one of the most important aspects of the MMO because your game world needs to be compelling enough to call back players at any point. Good MMOs set good tone. Tone has evolved in WoW after each expansion pack, changing considerably each time we swap settings and install the latest content. Alex asked me to write an article that spanned the history of World of Warcraft, and I could think of nothing more dynamic than the tone of the story and how masterfully Blizzard has handled it.
5 reasons you should love Mists of Pandaria
BlizzCon's over, so let's recap. We get playable Pandaren, neutral characters that can choose either Alliance or Horde at the end of the starting experience. On top of that, we get the monk class that plenty of people have been excited about seeing implemented in game. And then we get entirely revamped talent trees that aren't trees at all -- they are a completely gutted and entirely new system for people to play with. Plus, we get something to do with all those pets we've collected over the last several years. Yet a lot of what I've been reading here and there has been a general reaction of "That's it?" rather than excitement, and it seems a little odd to me. After trying to puzzle out why exactly it was odd to me that people would feel this way, I decided it really didn't have anything to do with them; it had plenty to do with me. Out of all the posts I write, you guys seem to love the tinfoil hat theories the best -- and the way I create those posts is due to the way that I look at stories and situations. That said, there is a reason you guys should be excited about this expansion. Actually, there are several of them, but I'm only going to hit five of them. And I'm going to blow your mind with what is the biggest reason you should absolutely love what's coming up in World of Warcraft.
WoW Archivist: Patch 2.0.1, Before the Storm
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Patch 2.0.1 was, according to a large chunk of players, quite possibly one of the best patches to come out of vanilla WoW. It had nothing to do with the introduction of the new talent trees in preparation for The Burning Crusade's looming launch. It had nothing to do with the new, bulky, and rarely used first iteration of the looking for group tool. There were no launch events with this patch, just a heck of a lot of data that needed to be implemented in preparation for the launch of the first expansion. But what had players either cheering fervently or cursing forever had nothing to do with the imminent approach of The Burning Crusade. It had everything to do with PVP and the removal of the honor system as we knew it in vanilla. What's so special about that, you ask? Let's take a journey back in time and look at the good and bad of the old honor system. If you think today's Arena grinds are difficult, well ... you're in for one heck of an eye-opener.
Know Your Lore: NPC evolution from TBC to Wrath of the Lich King
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Last week, we talked about the evolution of NPCs from classic WoW to The Burning Crusade. It was a quiet beginning to the evolution, starting with just a few NPCs in classic WoW that spawned world-altering events like The Great Masquerade. But in The Burning Crusade, we not only saw major movements from major-name players like Thrall, who actually got off the throne in Orgrimmar and traveled all the way to Nagrand to visit his long-lost relatives, but also minor players. These seemingly minor players gradually won the hearts of the playerbase through storylines that progressed with each patch in the expansion. Characters like Cro, Jadaar, Asric and even the shifty Griftah weren't just NPCs. They were subtle reminders that those characters we barely interacted with had lives of their own, and it breathed a new energy into the game. Suddenly, the world wasn't just about you and whatever quest you happened to be on. It was also about Griftah's "unfair" persecution, or Cro's struggle to get that blasted fruit cart out of the way -- mundane, ordinary, everyday events, the sort of events we witness on a daily basis in the real world. Bringing the mundane to the game made Outland feel just a little more real, too.
World of Warcraft coming to Brazil
A fully localized World of Warcraft is on its way to Brazil, complete with a Portuguese client and customer service platform. This marks Blizzard's ninth officially supported language according to a press blurb on the company's website, and the third supported language in Latin America (following the English and Spanish versions). Blizzard is providing a full suite of payment options for Brazilian customers, with the base game (plus the Burning Crusade expansion) available for BRL 29.90, while Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm will retail for BRL 99.90 each. If retail boxes aren't your thing, the Brazilian version of WoW will also be available through Battle.net. Finally, subscription plans come in 30-day, 90-day, and 180-day flavors, and 60-day time cards will be available in retail stores. North American players who wish to play on the dedicated Brazilian realms may install a language pack or purchase the Portuguese client, and Blizzard says that "additional pricing details and an official release date [...] will be announced closer to launch."
WoW and Burning Crusade on sale at EU store for 4.99€ each
World of Warcraft Classic and The Burning Crusade are currently on sale at the Blizzard Europe store for 4.99€ (£4.99) each. This sale will last until June 20, 2011. Now is a great time to buy the game as a gift or start up that second account for some sweet recruit-a-friend rocket mount action. We do not have any information yet if the sale will be extended to the US store, but in the past these sales have been paralleled in both regions. For now, check these links for the EU store downloads and retail version links: WoW Classic at the EU store. The Burning Crusade at the EU store. REMINDER -- These copies of WoW are for the European realms ONLY. If you are a US realm customer, wait until we have confirmation about a US-specific sale on these games.
The Perfect Ten: The evolution of /dance
I recall when I was a wee... teenager and C+C Music Factory would blast through our Walkmans to demand that everybody (1) dance and (2) dance now. It was commanding, enthralling and extremely dorky, but the dance could not be denied. Dancing is in the soles of our souls as humans; we simply must boogie to a good beat. I'm not quite sure when or where dancing in MMOs became all the craze, but these days it seems as though every game (except the dour ones with bears, bears, bears) prides itself on a good set of /dance emotes. For some players, it's the perfect way to unwind after a long raid or chew up a bit of time while one waits for SgtCuddlyMonkey to return from his refreshing bio break. For others, it's a legitimate career path with a long and distinguished history of gyrating on top of mailboxes while annoyed postal recipients long for a day when a pelvis will not be gesturing at eye level. So this week, let's loosen up, let our hair down, and samba across the ballroom floor as we count down (up?) 10 incredible MMO dances.
The Perfect Ten: Best non-traditional MMO fantasy races
Elves. Dwarves. Humans. Halflings. Gnomes. Hobbits. Dark elves. High elves. Half-elves. Wood elves. Keebler elves. Elvish impersonators. Are you as tired as I am of the endless regurgitation of stock fantasy races in our MMOs? It seems inconceivable (I do not think that means what you think it means) for a new fantasy title to come out without most of the above races infesting the character creation screen with moldy unoriginality, putrescent stank, and dusty boredom. That's why today I'm standing up to praise 10 MMOs that dare to go above and beyond the stale by offering mostly unique and different races than the rest of the market. Hopefully future games will learn from their example and throw off the yokes of generic oppression to give us something bold and refreshing!
The Daily Grind: When has an MMO made you feel least like a hero?
For me, it was the early days of World of Warcraft's first expansion, The Burning Crusade. After years in Azeroth, honing my uber-skills and collecting my uber-armor (everything was uber back then), I gave a battle cry and leaped through the portal to Outland with adventure in my heart. "Oh hey, you're here," the unsurprised NPC said. "Here's a bag. Go collect boar droppings." "Boar droppings? Shouldn't the janitor take care of that?" I replied, fingering my sword. "They're, um, hellboars. So this poop can only be handled by a level 60 character. You have 0/6, by the way. Get cracking!" A little part of me died that day. But I still did the quest. Whether it's picking up poo, collecting flowers or escorting little children on their quest to find a flute, all MMOs have those moments when we have to do things that are decidedly unheroic. What were the times when an MMO made you feel least like a hero? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Pre-Black Friday: Amazon offers The Burning Crusade free with WoW purchase
As part of its Prelude to Black Friday Deals Week, Amazon.com is offering The Burning Crusade for free to people who purchase World of Warcraft through the website. Right now, The Burning Crusade is retailing for $29.82 at Amazon, so if you're looking to get that for free, pick up a $19.75 copy of WoW. That's a pretty damn good deal, especially for people getting into the new Cataclysm leveling experience that will be free for all vanilla WoW players. Check out Amazon's Prelude to Black Friday deal here.
Cataclysm Beta: Select guild raid achievement requirements reduced
I admit it. I'm an achievement-holic. I'll repeat the most idiotic, mind-numbing task for hours on end just to earn a handful of achievement points. It doesn't matter that I can't do anything with those points. I want them. I need them. And I know I'm not alone in my obsession -- some people play World of Warcraft just for the achievements. (You know who you are.) Once Cataclysm launches, there will be a whole new set of achievements just for guilds, only compounding my poor, crippling obsession. A metric ton of them are for completing old instances and raids as a guild, and grabbing those points requires 80 percent guild participation. Under the guidelines laid out earlier in September, that meant you'd need to take along at least 20 guildies to conquer Serpentshrine Cavern (a BC 25-man), even if you could easily complete it with fewer. Well, for those of us who are obsessed with collecting achievement points, there's good news -- Blizzard just cut the required participation rate for all the old school Burning Crusade raids. On the official forums, blue poster Mumper confirmed that they're treating all old 25-man raids as 10-mans -- instead of needing 20 guildies to take on Lady Vashj and Kil'jaeden, you will now only need 8. The full blue post is after the break.
Cataclysm Beta: New loading screen gallery
A new build of the Cataclysm beta just dropped, and with the update came a makeover for the loading screens for all four continents. They now feature the faction leaders for Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, Maiev and Akama for Outland, and the most recent Lich King in Northrend. Check out the gallery below. %Gallery-99394%
Anti-Aliased: Modding your way out of a paper bag
If there's been a theme to this week, it's been interfaces and modding. Both EverQuest II and Lord of the Rings Online have had announcements related to their interfaces, be it re-skinning or new Lua functionality being installed. However, it was these two articles that set off the Rube Goldberg device in my head. They reminded me just what I thought about mods. My relationship with mods has always been iffy. While I certainly appreciate what they do for us in our many MMOs, they also irk me to no end. While I understand (and totally support) some mods, there are others that I'd rather offer to Zuul. Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate the mods because they're not useful. It's quite the opposite, in fact. Sometimes, I think mods are too useful. When you start skipping social interactions in favor of an e-peen number, that's the point where mods are going over the line.
Breakfast Topic: Speculation on the Cataclysm cinematic
Everyone seems to be pretty excited about Cataclysm -- whether it's playing one of the two new races, exploring all the new zones or just being able to finally fly around in Azeroth. But one of the things I'm most looking forward to is getting to see what Blizzard has put together for the Cataclysm cinematic. I have to admit that while I enjoyed the Wrath cinematic and thought it was wholly appropriate for an expansion surrounding the Lich King, I found myself missing the flavor of the first two cinematics. You know what I'm talking about -- the orc and night elf duking it out, the warlock with the gigantic infernal, the dwarf hunter and his bear; the characters that were simply unnamed players like us. The first cinematic gave us a small introduction to these guys; the Burning Crusade cinematic fleshed them out even further, but they disappeared entirely with the Wrath cinematic. Don't get me wrong, there was nothing bad about Blizzard's choice with the cinematic for the second expansion, I just found myself wistfully wondering what happened to the tauren after the mage sheeped it. Where did the draenei go after smashing in the heads of his enemies? And most importantly -- we got the teeniest glimpse of a troll in the Burning Crusade cinematic; how about we see more of him? Or how about a gnome or two for a change? What would you guys like to see in the Cataclysm cinematic? Deathwing bursting out of the ground and setting Azeroth ablaze? Sweeping landscapes? Goblins and worgen, of course, but what other races or classes would you like to see?
Purchase World of Warcraft at Best Buy, get Burning Crusade free
Hey, if you've made the important life-altering decision to sell your soul (and all your free time) over to World of Warcraft, you might as well go whole hog, you know? Best Buy's got a pretty scintillating deal for the 40-or-so people left on the planet who've yet to play Blizzard's super successful MMO: For a limited time, if you purchase the core game for $20, you'll get the Burning Crusade expansion (which retails for $30) at no additional charge. It's like getting twice as addicted at half the cost! What a steal! [Via Blast]
Vivendi considered digital distribution for WoW expansions
Amidst all the talk of digital distribution versus retail sales at the LA Games Conference today, one big reason arose for game publishers to keep the retail channels open: the midnight launch. While a lot of gamers might tell you that it's a pain for them to schlep out into the cold to pick up the latest game or expansion, publishers actually prefer it. Pascal Brochier was the president of Global Retail at Vivendi Universal Games when it released World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade expansion (one of the biggest retail launches ever), and he says that while Blizzard had the option to digitally distribute that game, it chose not to. "We were patching all the time," he told Joystiq. "It was always in the discussions internally; 'Should we go direct digital or should we go both with retail?'" In the end, the company wanted the extra exposure that a big retail launch provides. "When you're at the store with all of the events, you actually have people who've dropped [their subscriptions] come back." And being in the stores doesn't just drive return players, it drives new players as well. "The midnight events and all of the functions help people come back who've stopped playing, but also guys who've wanted to try it will be attracted to the event and become new-found players." A few weeks after launch, says Brochier, Vivendi did enable digital distribution quietly. But even for a game so tied to the online experience, he adds that "retail is a very important critical part. There's also a significant percentage of players who just play through pre-paid cards, and that's retail, that's a retail model. So you've got to find the balance."
The expansion life cycle
Burning Crusade launched in January 2007, and from that point until November 2008, level 70 was the endgame of World of Warcraft. For roughly 23 months (with staggered content releases, with the Black Temple launching later, then Zul'Aman and then Sunwell/Magister's) we all leveled to 70, ran heroic instances and Karazhan to gear up, and then some of us began making our way through Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep before moving on to Mount Hyjal and the Black Temple. Zul'Aman came out to offer scaled challenges (the prototype of the hard mode) with a timed run to get the Amani War Bear, and of course no one can forget the final big content patch, Fury of the Sunwell, which gave some content for just about any level of gameplay from casual daily quest grinding to hardcore raiding. Gameplay was still very stratified in Burning Crusade -- there were a handful of guilds progressing through the endgame content (which was still tiered into a couple of 10-man raids, with the majority being 25-man) but most people did dailies, ran some BGs or played Arenas (which debuted with Burning Crusade as well). With Cataclysm previews coming out and Wrath in its last major content phase (Icecrown Citadel and the upcoming Chamber of Aspects raid being pretty much the end of Wrath's end game) we can start to look back at how the last expansion unfolded and the life cycle of an expansion in World of Warcraft.
