childrens-week
Latest
The Daily Grind: Who's your favorite child NPC?
This might be a difficult topic because in truth we have not seen an over-abundance of children NPCs in MMOs, nevermind ones that speak or are part of missions. I'm mostly reminded of the tag-along I had in World of Warcraft's Children Week when I think of young characters. However, I'm most impressed with the handling of Taimi in Guild Wars 2's storyline. She's easily the best character of the group, and somewhat unique in being very young and also partially disabled. I love that those two characteristics don't define who she is, but instead her vivacious and sometimes reckless genius does. So who is your favorite child NPC in an MMO? 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!
Guide to Children's Week 2014
In the aggregate, Children's Week is one of the most entertaining annual holidays. Dragging a small child with you around Azeroth's grand vistas and dangerous places is surprisingly fun ("I want to go to the Dark Portal." "Sure, why not?"), and it's a fairly immersive reminder that the planet's constant wars have almost certainly left a large population of orphans for each faction to rear. Also, getting a pet or the aptly-named Curmudgeon's Payoff is pretty cool too. But. (You knew the "but" was coming.) Unfortunately for all of you poor sods who still don't have School of Hard Knocks, that achievement still exists. I hated it so much that it was the sole remaining achievement between me and What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been for a year. With account-wide achievements, you no longer have to do it on multiple characters (and the whole system was worth it if for no other reason than that), but you'll still need it on one. Sorry, folks. Anyway, Children's Week 2014 runs from April 28 to May 4, and, as always, the achievements and the meta For The Children are part of the year-long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
It came from the Blog: Running of the Orphans 2013 snapshots
Last week, the It came from the Blog family of guilds held its annual Running of the Orphans. As the name suggests, we ran our orphans around, completing the Orgrimmar Children's Week quests. After we picked up our orphans from the matron, we took the zeppelin from Orgrimmar to Tirisfal Glades. We ran (no mounts, no ports, no summons) to have an audience with Lady Sylvanas in the Undercity. Then we ran back to the zeppelin, making the return trip to Org. Next, since some players did not have the flightpath to Thunder Bluff, we took the zeppelin there (AKA the Love Zeppelin) and ran out to Red Rocks to honor the fallen chieftain. We ran back to town and then took the flightpath right back to Orgrimmar.
Breakfast Topic: Did you meet your Children's Week goals?
Today is the last day of Children's Week. After today, thousands of non-pvpers will stay out of battlegrounds for a year and most of us will have another pet or 3 in our stable. Since the pets are tradeable, my guess is that this holiday is getting more attention due to pet battles. Is that true? My goal was to finally get the meta as School of Hard Knocks is the only thing standing between me and a Violet Proto-drake. As of this writing, I still haven't, but I have time. And so do you, if you're reading this early enough. According to the in-game calendar, the event ends at 11 a.m. PDT. Though I'm not sure how that works. Does the Matron just vanish? Regardless, what about you? %Poll-82358%
Reminder: It came from the Blog's Running of the Orphans is tonight
Tonight we are at the beck and call of cheeky orphans. Tonight we will run around Azeroth with them. Tonight we will be rewarded with a tradeable, account-wide pet. Tonight is It came from the Blog's Running of the Orphans 2013. When: Tonight, May 3 at 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. PDT, 8:30 p.m. server time) Where: Meet at the pond near the engineering trainer that's next to the orphanage in Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) Who: Any Horde character level 10 or over How: Ask any member of It came from the Blog for an invite to the guild if you are not already a member of our family of guilds. Tonight we will celebrate Children's Week. Tonight you will join us, yes? Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
It came from the Blog: Join us for the Running of the Orphans 2013
It's Children's Week, so it must mean it's time for It came from the Blog's annual Running of the Orphans. As the event name says, we get orphans and we run around with them while completing our orphan quests. When: Friday, May 3 at 10:30 p.m. EDT (7:30 p.m. PDT, 8:30 p.m. server time) Where: Meet at the pond near the engineering trainer that's next to the orphanage in Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) Who: Any Horde character level 10 or over How: Ask any member of It came from the Blog for an invite to the guild if you are not already a member of our family of guilds. You have to be at least level 10, because you can't get an orphan otherwise. We also will not be forming a raid since we need to complete quests. We will have an event chat set up as usual, however. The pet you get for completing the quest is bind on account and tradeable, so don't let your not being Horde or Zangarmarsh not being your main server stop you from joining us. Hope to see you there! Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
The OverAchiever: Guide to Children's Week 2013
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the children are our future, and oh, how we hate them. In the aggregate, Children's Week is one of the most entertaining annual holidays. Dragging a small child with you around Azeroth's grand vistas and dangerous places is surprisingly fun ("I want to go to the Dark Portal." "Sure, why not?"), and it's a fairly immersive reminder that the planet's constant wars have almost certainly left a large population of orphans for each faction to rear. Also, getting a pet or the aptly-named Curmudgeon's Payoff is pretty cool too. But. (You knew the "but" was coming.) Unfortunately for all of you poor sods who still don't have School of Hard Knocks, that achievement still exists. I hated it so much that it was the sole remaining achievement between me and What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been for a year. With account-wide achievements, you no longer have to do it on multiple characters (and the whole system was worth it if for no other reason than that), but you'll still need it on one. Sorry, folks. Anyway, Children's Week 2013 runs from April 29 to May 6, and, as always, the achievements and the meta For The Children are part of the year-long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
WoW Archivist: Patch 2.1, The Black Temple
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? Blizzard ruined my intro. I was going to talk about how appropriate it was that patch 5.1 included a scenario for warlocks that took them to the Black Temple. Then they pushed it to 5.2. So fine. I'll just fall back to something generic. In terms of sheer content and changes, patch 2.1 was truly massive -- one of WoW's biggest patches of all time. It arrived in May 2007, five months into The Burning Crusade. Let's dive in! Illidan shouts at us in person We were ready, if not perhaps entirely prepared. After an ad campaign and a trailer that prominently featured Illidan, many players expressed disappointment that WoW's first expansion didn't launch with the Black Temple raid. In retrospect, those concerns seem silly today. If anything, the Black Temple released too early in the expansion, forcing Blizzard to add the ultradifficult Sunwell Plateau raid to fill the gap between expansions. The Black Temple was an enormous raid, and one of the game's most beloved. No matter where you went, everything was big and scary. In some areas, even clearing the trash felt epic. Nine bosses populated a vast indoor/outdoor instance. Many of them are still remembered fondly. Supremus and Reliquary of Souls were highly memorable encounters, the latter partly due its unforgiving awareness checks. Teron Gorefiend and Illidan were major lore figures able to be vanquished in WoW for the first time. BT wasn't the only raid that 2.1 introduced, however.
It came from the Blog: Running of the Orphans 2012 snapshots
Last month, It came from the Blog hosted the Running of the Orphans. We met outside of the orphanage in The Drag of Orgrimmar and grabbed our orphans. We then proceeded to complete all of the quests together to get the pet and achievement. First, we traveled to Thunder Bluff via the Love Zeppelin and paid our respects to Cairne. We then took our orphans on a joy ride, which wasn't so much joyful as it was irresponsibly dangerous. We then paid a visit to Laday Sylvanas and debated whether she threatened our orphans or not. Upon our return to Orgrimmar, we spoiled the orphans with sweets and toys and then returned them to the poor matron. We've held this event before, but there was one disappointing change this year: No orphans were left behind when we got on a zeppelin. Perhaps it is a cruel thing to miss, but we did. After all, they order us around all day; a little revenge seemed appropriate. We will be holding another event this month. Look for an announcement Soon™. %Gallery-155653% Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Roblinator or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
How to get all the Children's Week pets in one year
User CJGibson over on Reddit's /r/wow community made an excellent point earlier today concerning the Children's Week pets that are only available while the holiday is running. Ordinarily, it's only possible for one character to get three pets each year: one from the classic Azeroth quests (Piglet's Collar, the Rat Cage, the Turtle Box, or the Snail Shell), one from the Outland quests (Elekk Training Collar, Egbert's Egg, Sleepy Willy, or Legs), and one from the Northrend quests (the Curious Wolvar Pup or the Curious Oracle Hatchling). But you know how in Mists of Pandaria all of the non-combat pets on your account will be shared amongst your characters? If you run a series of alts through the quests and pick different pets on each one, you'll have all the pets on all your characters once the Mists of Pandaria content patch hits (or, at the latest, once Mists itself does). The tip was so brilliant that I slapped myself for not thinking of it, so I wanted to draw some attention to it here as quickly as possible. Pet hunters? Save yourselves four years' worth of waiting, and get cracking. If this is your first year with the holiday and you need any help with the achievements, you can find our guide to Children's Week here.
The OverAchiever: Guide to Children's Week 2012
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, children are the future, damn them. Being the dedicated achievement hunter that I was and am (why else would I be writing this column?), I worked tirelessly on all the requirements for What A Long Strange Trip It's Been when the achievement system debuted in patch 3.0.2. This even extended to planning months in advance for the Brewmaster title before achievements even hit the game. My efforts were coming along quite nicely until Children's Week, when an unstoppable force (me) hit an immovable object (School of Hard Knocks) -- and physics being less predictable than our teachers led us to believe, it turns out that bodies in motion do not always remain so. For an entire year, the only thing that stood between me and that purple proto-drake was that one damn achievement. And every year, I return to this guide and flinch at having to think of it again. So let's do this, folks, and then we shall speak no more of it for another year. This is actually a great and fantastically fun holiday, with the exception of that one thing. The Children's Week achievements and the meta For The Children are part of the year-long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so you will want to get these done if you're working toward a Violet Proto-Drake. This year the holiday runs from Sunday, April 29 to Saturday, May 5.
It came from the Blog: Join us for the Running of the Orphans
Children's Week starts this Sunday, so that must mean that it's time for It came from the Blog's annual Running of the Orphans. As the event name says, we get orphans and we run around with them while completing our orphan quests. When: Sunday, April 29 at 12:30 p.m. EDT (9:30 a.m. PDT, 10:30 a.m. server time) Where: Meet at the pond near the engineering trainer that's next to the orphanage in Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) Who: Any Horde character level 10 or over How: Ask any member of It came from the Blog for an invite to the guild if you are not already a member of our family of guilds already. We will have a fishing party while we wait for everyone to arrive and get their orphans. Then we will be orphan minions, taking them wherever they want to go -- the Running of the Orphan Caregivers may be a more accurate title, but it doesn't have the same ring to it. Time permitting, we may even try for some achievements. You have to be at least level 10, because you can't get an orphan otherwise. We also will not be forming a raid since we need to complete quests. We will have an event chat set up as usual, however. Hope to see you there! Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PVE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Roblinator or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
The Daily Grind: Do children have a place in MMOs?
Today's discussion topic needs a smidge of clarification. I'm not asking you whether or not real-life kids should be playing MMOs, as plenty already do and it's great to be raising a future crop of gold farmers and extreme fashion designers. What I am asking is whether child NPCs have a place in MMOs. When you think about it, most of our virtual worlds are nearly devoid of anyone under the age of 18 (except if you're in certain Asian titles where it seems like nobody, including yourself, has hit puberty yet). Whole cities are bustling with merchants and kings, yet not a single child is to be seen. If there are kids, they tend to be in place for a one-time unique quest or a special event, such as World of Warcraft's Children's Week. But with all of the war, slaughter, and volatile situations, is it a good thing that someone has whisked these kids off to safety? Would MMOs be more questionable with their content if a kid was to come stumbling along while you were skinning a boar or decapitating an Orc leader? Or would these worlds be more believable and immersive if the whole range of ages was represented? 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!
The OverAchiever: The worst (maybe) holiday achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, some holidays are easier to survive than others. I've been getting a lot of comments and feedback from players recently over troublesome elder placement during the Lunar Festival (the one next to the Razor Hill flightmaster seems to be a particular issue -- more on this in a future article), and it spurred me to start thinking about problematic holiday achievements as a whole. Thing is, Blizzard's really put a lot of effort into its holidays over the past few years, and most of them are much less time-consuming and frustrating then they used to be. So how many really troublesome holiday achievements are there these days, anyhow? Most of them didn't figure prominently in our evil achievements series (with one sterling exception), but I'll grant that not all of them are sunshine and roses. But then of course, there's that one. Yes, that one -- the achievement shat into existence by Satan himself onto a bed of Ed Hardy clothing with bad Japanese pop music playing in the background. You know the one I'm talking about.
New Children's Week pets and quests
Wowhead News has unearthed some interesting additions to the Children's Week holiday, which starts this Sunday shortly after Noblegarden 2011 ends. For anyone worried about the meta-achievement For the Children, the achievements associated with the holiday haven't changed (more's the pity re: School of Hard Knocks), but the quest lines in classic Azeroth have. If you're Alliance, the brand-new quest series starts with Children's Week, offered by Orphan Matron Nightingale in Stormwind; if you're Horde, it starts with Children's Week, offered by Orphan Matron Battlewail in Orgrimmar. Both new quest lines will see you surveying the changes to the local landscape in Cataclysm, in addition to meeting important lore figures and paying your respects to the dead. Afterwards, you'll go out for the traditional ice cream treat and then visit a local vendor to get kites to fly. Wowhead News has more details on the individual quests if you don't mind spoiling yourself. The quest lines end with the offer of a new noncombat pet in addition to the usual Piglet's Collar, Rat Cage, and Turtle Box -- a new Snail's Shell! It looks like the Outland quest series will also offer a new pet called Legs, though there don't appear to be any new quests there. Experienced orphan herders thus have a reason to pick up a tyke again this year, and with any luck, the Wrath of the Lich King variant will be available even if you've done it before.
The OverAchiever: Guide to Children's Week 2011
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we resign ourselves to another year of School of Hard Knocks. Yep, folks, we've got back-to-back WoW holidays this year with Noblegarden and Children's Week! Noblegarden will end right around the time that Children's Week begins, and you've got from Sunday, May 1, until Sunday, May 8, to get everything you need. Check your in-game calendar to see your realm's exact start and end times. The Children's Week achievements and the meta For The Children are part of the year-long What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so you will want to get these done if you're working toward a Violet Proto-Drake. Fortunately for you, there are only six achievements associated with the meta and seven with the holiday itself. Unfortunately for you, one of them is an almighty pain in the ass that made #2 on our series of WoW's 25 most evil achievements.
It came from the Blog: Running of the orphans snapshots
On the first day of Children's Week, we at <It came from the Blog> adopted orphans for the day and ran them around to wherever they wanted to go. We ended the day by letting them gorge on ice cream, like the irresponsible guardians we are. More than 80 people joined us, including Thrahk, our candidate for warchief -- should that position become available. We began the event by meeting and greeting at the waterfall in Orgrimmar. Note: It's hard to fish when you can't tell which bobber is yours. Then we completed all of the Orgrimmar orphan quests. We have snapshots that I took as well as those sent in by guildies. Midsummer Fire Festival is next month, so expect our next event to be on either June 26 or 27. We'll pick a continent and hit all the fires on it. And of course, Choose My Adventure continues. %Gallery-92548% Please join us on US Zangarmarsh-H in <It came from the Blog>. Ask Robiness, Robinemia or any member online for an invite. Guild ranks of Lurker or above have the ability to invite. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, which can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
Official: Dalaran Children's Week quests not repeatable this year
Blizzard has officially stated that the issue with not being able to complete the Dalaran Children's Week quests this year, if you did them last year, will not be resolved before the holiday is over. They are not saying this is how it is supposed to work, but that they cannot fix it in time. Bornakk -- Dalaran Children's Week Quest Line Issue We are aware of the issue that is currently affecting the Children's Week quest line in Dalaran which does not allow players who have completed the quest line last year to take part in it again this year. We do not currently have a fix planned to address this issue at this point in time. source Bashlok -- Dalaran Children's Week Quest Line Issue To clarify, this issue won't be able to be resolved for Children's Week this year. If you completed the quest previously you won't be able to complete it again for the other pet this year. source
The Daily Quest: Children's Week
Here at WoW.com we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW related sites. It's holiday time again in World of Warcraft and this week it's all about orphans. We are introducing them to dragons, taking them into battlegrounds and abandoning them on zeppelin platforms in droves. The blogging community has a few things to say about them too. Cynwise's Battlefield Manual has a comprehensive guide to the School of Hard Knocks. Cynwise also suggests A Modest Proposal, which I highly recommend. A Healadin's Tear has some tips for the much maligned battleground achievement as well in For the Children! Big Bear Butt chronicles his time with his orphans in Limping into Children's Week. Gauss ponders The Orphan's Future in Gauss' Adventures in World of Warcraft.
Breakfast Topic: A sucker for orphans
It's hardly a secret that I, WoW.com's resident curmudgeon, hate all things that bring joy to others. Well, okay, that's not true, but in general I'm not a big fan of the in-game celebrations and holidays. Much like a Greench, I seem to find no real reason to celebrate Winter's Veil or participate when Love is in the Air or what have you. But when it comes to dragging a small child around to the most ridiculously dangerous places in Azeroth and Outland? I am there. You want me to take a blood elf orphan to the Dark Portal, then take her to Utgarde Pinnacle and kill King Ymiron in front of her? It's on like Donkey Kong, my friends. I am ridiculously eager to take this kid to visit her little mushroom friends and get her jumped by dragonkin in the Caverns of Time. It's not the pets (although I do enjoy my elekk) so much as this is something I can actually believe a battle-hardened old warrior would actually do. And it amuses me to imagine the smile on the Orphan Matron's face slowly turn to a horrified rictus as Salandria (that's the blood elf tyke in the picture above) relates how I took her to the site of a battle with demons, killed enemy combatants in front of her and dragged her to Silvermoon to stare at musicians. I bet the musicians are what horrifies her the most. I don't know why, but for some reason I find the idea of my tauren or draenei going, "You want me to take you to a place where time doesn't work, right? Okay. Sounds fine," to be absolutely hilarious and yet totally in character. I mean, these guys routinely fight dragons and old gods and so on; they probably think everyone should get a chance to see a vrykul king die. So how do you feel about Children's Week?
