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WoW Moviewatch: The Story of The Murlocs & Their Relatives
Murlocs may not be your favorite characters in World of Warcraft, especially when you're just having a pleasant walk down the beach only to find yourself swarmed by them. However, beyond just being annoyances, there's some interesting lore behind these creatures, though you have to cobble together lore from a number of different sources -- or watch this video by BellularGaming, who's already done the research for us. So will we be seeing more of these many-finned creatures in a future expansion? As with most Blizzard projects, we'll only find out when it's done. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
WoW Archivist: WoW's most terrifying monsters
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? Hallow's End is once more upon us. Last year, the Archivist uncovered WoW's most terrifying secrets. But much of what's terrifying in WoW is right in your face, trying to eat you, or stomp you, or shatter your mind with madness. Let's take a look at the scariest bad guys from every era. Mrrglrlrlrmgrrr: Monsters of classic WoW Murlocs To some, they're adorable, misunderstood frog people. To others, they are the amphibious stuff of nightmares. In vanilla WoW, it was nearly impossible to fight a lone murloc. Their tight-knit societies and tendency to flee meant fighting one murloc often evolved into fighting two -- or twenty. A good many early players found themselves torn to pieces by slobbering murloc hordes. Some still shudder when they hear that distinctive battle-cry. Sons of Arugal I'm not sure how Arugal managed to father so many sons while tucked away in the tower of Shadowfang Keep, but the guy certainly got around. Horde players questing in Silverpine Forest lived in dread of these elite worgen, who always seemed to aggro at the worst possible time. That damn Lurker in the water leading up to the Wailing Caverns entrance For me, this one is personal. In vanilla, fighting your way to the Wailing Caverns entrance was like a mini dungeon run all by itself. One of the caves had a small but deceptively deep pool of water. During my first trip there, I decided the water was a safe place to fire from while our tank scooped up the locals. (It was a habit I picked up.) Then something large and unknown rose up from the darkness and bit me. I've never gone for a swim there since.
Breakfast Topic: Mobile users, what are your favorite WoW ringtones and sounds?
I can't tell you how tickled I am to get text messages these days, ever since I made the familiar murloc gurgle my text message notification sound. Text messages evoke the same feelings in me that murlocs do -- man, I get annoyed when I have to stop and deal with one, but they're actually irresistible little creatures, aren't they? Also popular at our house is my regular morning alarm. You read that right: My family actually wants to hear my alarm go off. I use that drippingly gorgeous theme from Elwynn Forest, and it eases us into consciousness with the gentle caress of dawn. Sometimes my husband whispers in the dark, "Just let it play." My other favorite notification sounds include The Lament of the Highborne as my alarm notification for after-school pickups (I need something gentle to nudge me from my writing and editing fugue at that point in the day) and the friendly, energetic classic Alliance tavern theme as my normal ringtone. (What, you thought I could handle the pandaren inn version?!) What WoW ringtones and sounds do you enjoy on your own mobile devices?
WoW Archivist: WoW's zaniest merchandise
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? With only five shopping days left until the Feast of Winter Veil, it is officially holiday crunch time. To inspire you in your shopping goals or maybe point out the perfect gift for that special raider in your life, WoW Archivist presents the zaniest WoW-themed real-world merchandise of all time. Strange swag Every BlizzCon has its swag bag, but 2008's edition, celebrating the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, has to be the zaniest ever. In addition to Diablo III "sinamints," a can of "zerg creep" goop, and a pandaren beer cozy, the bag included an inflatable Frostmourne or an inflatable "Bubble Hearth Beach Ball." The latter is a Divinely Shielded dwarf using an uninterruptable hearthstone -- in beach ball form. The bag also included a package of tissues labeled "QQ noob," masks of Azeroth's races (reminiscent of the Hallow's End in-game versions), and a Frostmourne keychain. The keychain is notable for its several outward-facing spikes. It takes falling on your keys to a whole new level of pain. The full-size Frostmourne replica is more dangerous, but you're also not carrying it around in your pocket mere centimeters from your genitals. Or are you?
Is height a requirement for a serious character?
I'm 5 feet 3 inches tall. When I wear heels, I call them my tall shoes because they make me tall. Not taller, because that would indicate that there were some degree of tallness to begin with. Trying on platform shoes is an exercise in seeing the world through the eyes of someone tall enough to see all the things without standing on their tiptoes. My kitchen is organized by "things I need", "things I don't use often," and "things I put on the top shelf because I'll never use them anyway." There is an upper third of my closet that is nothing but stuff I should save but will never pull out and look at in at least five years. That said, it's not bad being short, either. I never hit my head on door frames or overhead lights. Low ceilings don't particularly bother me, aside from design aesthetic. I can fit into literally any car on the market; there's never a problem having to squish my legs under a steering wheel. Plane seats have plenty of room for my legs, which is great on long flights. I have smaller hands, so my dad constantly asks me to pull things out of tight spaces, thread needles, or mess around with teeny-tiny wires and screws. That said, it's continually kind of weird to look at all the short races in video games and see characters that aren't taken particularly seriously.
Breakfast Topic: What's your WoW grudge?
I started off on the Alliance side, and it's still where my mains are. My first character, my paladin, was leveled tentatively and badly, with only minimal skill and understanding. We all have to learn somewhere! One of my main memories from that period was dying. Dying a lot. I don't know now whether I'd have the skill to do the Ironman Challenge, but I sure didn't then, and things killed me constantly. I didn't understand about aggro linking, where if you taunt one mob, any mob near to it will be taunted too, and I wasn't great at using my abilities. I was holy, to improve the healing, and I didn't have the early damaging skills pallies get now. This made me angry. So whenever I see Hogger, who must have killed me 20 or 30 times, I take my revenge. It's harder now that he's down in the Stockades, but when I went down there to take the screenshot in the header and killed him, I still thought "Ha!" And murlocs -- they're high on my grudge list. My God, they killed me a lot. If I encounter a gang of murlocs while I'm out herbing, I'm sorry. They're going down. I mentioned monsters from the Alliance side, as I really don't know what the Horde equivalent of Hogger and murlocs would be. Do let me know! I'll go and kill them for you. Should I seek professional help? Do you hold irrational grudges against mobs or bosses that killed you over and over again? And if you do, who or what are they?
World of WarCrafts: Making a custom RPG, Warcraft-style
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on our Arts and Crafts in WoW page. Longtime readers may remember Murloc RPG, a game we featured way back in 2006. The game received an update earlier this year with the release of Murloc: Stranglethorn Fever. Hot on its heels is the latest release, Murloc RPG 2, all by Unmediocre. The game looks just like the World of Warcraft we know and love, with one small exception: Instead of playing a mighty Tauren or a Dwarven hero of the Alliance, you play ... a murloc. That's right -- this Flash-based game lets you play as one of those fishy pests we've been killing off in WoW for years. Complete with quests, dialogue, combat, and the occasional chest to loot, Murloc RPG 2 isn't just an idle day's worth of messing about in Flash; it's a full-fledged gaming experience. So how did this all come about? Follow after the break where we have a quick chat with the maker of this incredibly detailed Flash homage to WoW.
Breakfast Topic: Which in-game art would you update?
There have been a lot of new models and textures datamined out of the current Cataclysm beta. Cities are getting face-lifts, bridges are being finished, and entire zones are getting made-over. Even the water in the game is getting overhauled. The problem is sometimes things appear to get missed. Let's take the druid forms as an example. The old druid cat and bear forms were around long past their prime before finally being updated. The aquatic and regular flight forms for both night elves and tauren have the long, elvish ears instead of each race getting something more unique like the art above. The land travel form itself is nothing more than the cheetah monster model without any tweaks for either current druid race. Another example is our old enemies, the murlocs. In Wrath we got cousins to the murlocs know as the gorlocs which have a newer and shinier model than their non-arctic brethren. We've even seen a few glimpses of deep-sea murlocs coming in the expansion which are also up to the modern modeling standards which put the old murlocs to shame. Hopefully, all of the old art will be brought up to what we're come to expect for new content. It would be a shame for something to get left behind. Which things do you hope they'll update the art for?
Murloc stein available for pre-order
I have bad memories of elementary school art class. My art teacher used to scare us into behaving by warning us that if we got a single drip of ceramic paint on our skin, we'd die from blood poisoning. That said, it seems appropriate that I am now telling you that there is a new ceramic stein in Taverncraft's World of Warcraft Epic Collection steins series, featuring Azeroth's deadliest aquatic antagonists: murlocs. The mug is endearingly titled RAWGRLRLRLRRLGLRL!!! and features a Winterfin Oracle, Bluefin Murloc, and a Murloc Tidehunter. There is also a wonderfully creepy, open-mouthed murloc head protruding from the stein's pewter lid. Unlike ceramics class, this stein won't kill you ... Well, it shouldn't kill you. The mug will ship in September, and is currently available for a pre-order price of $89.99 USD until Sunday, June 13th, 2010. After that, the normal price of $99.99 USD will apply. Taverncraft is responsible for various other licensed World of Warcraft steins, which you can find on their website. %Gallery-94890%
Mrghlllghh! Real-life murlocs?
It seems that Azeroth and Earth have more in common than pop culture references and noise pollution. Meet the handfish, an Earth-dwelling fish found in the waters of southeastern Australia that is oddly reminiscent our favorite aquatic Azerothians, the murlocs. As their name implies, handfish have hand-shaped fins which they use to walk on the ocean floor instead of swimming. (Check out this video if you want to see one ambling about.) According to National Geographic, the handfish are no new discovery on Earth, but a recent scientific review evaluating the known populations of the fish have identified nine new species. The new species were determined on a number of traits, such as the number of vertebrae and fin rays, coloration and more. Like murlocs, handfish are a scientific mystery in terms of behavior and biology, but unlike murlocs, this is due to their low population and small geographic occurrence. They are considered critically endangered, something Azeroth's adventurers only wish they could say about murlocs. As many of our tipsters have pointed out, the handfish certainly do resemble WoW murlocs in a way, especially when you look at all the color varieties. I wonder what kind of sounds they make or if they can hold anything with those little hands? You know, like little sharpened spears? Perhaps Ghostcrawler, marine expert that he is, has some thoughts on how capable these little guys are or at least some insight on any connections that might exist between them and the murlocs of Azeroth. Check out our murloc gallery and let us know what you think! %Gallery-93799%
The long wait for a Green Proto-drake
The WoW CMs continue their polling of rare and hard-to-find items: first, we got queried on Mr. Pinchy, and now the forums have a poll about that more recent bounty, the Reins of the Green Proto-drake. As you probably already know, you have to first get revered with the Murloc faction of the Oracles, and then you have to buy a "Mysterious Egg" once every seven days from their quartermaster... that probably hasn't yet given you the mount you want. Personally, I've gotten plenty of Aged Yolks and quite a few noncombat pets, but not my Proto-drake.And my experience is hardly singular -- according to the poll, a full 55% of respondents have not yet opened up their Cracked Eggs to find the mount. 4% found it on their first try (bastards -- that number seems incredibly high), and almost 14% went for the joke "Oracles?" answer, or maybe just have no idea what the question is about. Obviously this is hardly a scientific poll, so we can't calculate drop rates or anything like that (most database sites put the drop at around 2%, which means on average 50 eggs to a drake, or almost a year of farming), but it's pretty clear that the Proto-drake is a supremely rare commodity.
The Maelstrom: Lore behind the possible next WoW expansion
Many of you have likely heard the theory floating around that the Emerald Dream might be the next expansion pack, but you may not have heard about the other popular theory: The Maelstrom. How would you feel about an expansion where the naga are the villains, the murlocs do their bidding, a powerful queen emerges, and dormant gods awaken? We've braved alien lands and the cold, harsh climate of Northrend, so how would you fancy going out to sea, discovering new islands and diving down to sunken cities?I have to admit, my first reaction to the concept was an inner groan of disappointment, but when I read into it further over at Lorecrafted, I became intrigued. After all, who hasn't dreamed of drifting off to explore the Great Sea? I've wanted to see a sunken city ever since my first character, a female Troll Shaman, discovered that she had no home city. Deep down, she was sure that there simply had to be some lost troll city, perhaps beneath the sea, or at the very least, a place to rebuild, reconnect and start anew. What do you think, folks? If this were to be our next adventure, do you think you could get excited, or are you itching for the Emerald Dream or something else entirely?
Finally an answer on Gnomes in the cinematics
We've very closely covered the lack of Gnomes in any of Blizzard's major cinematic pieces so far. We had hoped to see them in the Wrath cinematic, but of course Blizzard went a completely new direction with that one (retelling the story of Arthas rather than showing players fighting), and so they weren't there either. In fact, the problem has gotten so bad that at least one person has remade the Burning Crusade cinematic, filling it with Gnomes just to see what it would be like. And while we've gotten some snide comments from the Blues before ("they're there, they're just too short to fit in frame"), Bornakk has finally given us an honest answer as to why the Gnomes haven't been show in cinematic form: they're just not awesome enough?Wait, that's not what he really said? Well that's what we heard -- he says that the cinematic folks go for what seems most awesome, and Gnomes have just never been a part of that combination. He says Trolls have gotten nearly the same treatment, and while that's true, you can see a Troll for a split second in the Burning Crusade cinematic -- they haven't had the complete shutout that the shorter denizens of Azeroth have had so far.In fact, Murlocs have gotten more screen time than Gnomes have. But the good news is that the more Blizzard leaves Gnomes out, the more awesome it'll be when they finally appear. The cinematic team can't leave them out of the game forever, right?
The OverAchiever: Completing Nothing Boring about Borean
Every week The Overachiever gives advice, walkthroughs and guides on completing your latest Achievement obsession.Last week, I kicked off this new column covering the "I've Toured the Fjord" Quest Achievement for the Wrath starting zone Howling Fjord. Today, as promised, I'm going to cover the Quest Achievement for the other starting zone in Northrend, Borean Tundra with "Nothing Boring about Borean" (A/H)But first, I want to highlight some excellent resources brought to my attention in the comments of last week's column. I stated that there was no way to track which quests you have completed and which you haven't. Turns out you can with an AddOn called Everyquest. It can only track quests you've done after it's been installed, but you can manually mark off quests you've done previously. An alternative is QuestGuru.Another good tip is to turn on your low level quest tracker if you are going back to older zones to finish off quests. You'll find it by right-clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the edge of your mini-map.Now, on to the good stuff!
WoW Moviewatch: Hoodoo Teleshopping - The Deadmurloc
Seen commercials for the ShamWow? Well, today Kilh Machinima brings you its Azerothian equivalent in Hoodoo Teleshopping - The Deadmurloc(tm), his entry for the BlizzCon movie contest. Be warned: you must reconcile yourself with the idea that, although this version of Azeroth has television, it doesn't have a better way to clean your house than with a rehydrated dead murloc. Hoodoo Teleshopping is a Troll-run version of Home Shopping Network which demos the Deadmurloc product (don't forget the trademark) right before your eyes and shows you how the murlocs are harvested in cartoony, gory detail. I found the background music to be too distracting, competing with the already-variable levels on the voice acting, so sometimes it was hard to follow the sales pitch especially from the gravelly-voiced Troll salesman. The visuals are well done, though, and the effect of putting the HSN-style border around the image is slick. Kilh says it only took him 4.5 days to finish the production in order to meet the contest deadline. But hey, you can't argue with getting a Big Flat Rock for FREE. Now what would you pay?If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Ask a Beta Tester: Murlocs, mounts, and minimaps
You want mounts? We got mounts. Just waltz on through the intimidating portal above flanked by deadly drakonids, and they're giving em out like candy! Actually, no, I'm lying. Kind of. Locke asked... Any word on new flying mounts or anything like that?A little, but not a lot. We're not seeing a cornucopia of mounts yet. The ones we have seen are pretty cool, though. As I mentioned yesterday in my post on the Obsidian Sanctum, they're running with the design of Zul'Aman and offering mounts as special rewards from completing 'extra challenges' in raid zones.The Obsidian Sanctum offers up a Black Drake Mount for completing the special challenge in the 10 man version, and it seems you get a Twilight Drake from the 25 man version, but I haven't seen that personally. Either way, these drakes are pretty hard to get, at least at first. They're not quite giving them out for nothing. Other colors of drake mounts have been datamined, but we haven't seen them drop yet.For more answers to your beta questions, read on!
Forum Post of the Day: Guide for 8 Mages
Jazle of Barthilas finally gives level 8 mages the guide they need to down those very tough beach murlocs (they are fishmen) in Westfall. According to this rising young star in the Mage community (he's 7 in real life), you need to start at max range, lay in a frostshot and a few fireballs, and 1 more fireball for the killer blow! After that, since he's 4 years above you, you will be bound to get something good soon.This is probably the clearest and easiest guide we've ever read, and as many players say, rare is the Mage who can actually drop a mob 4 levels higher (even at 8). We can't thank Jazle enough for this advice -- we agree he is "bound to get something good soon," and his optimism and earnestness, on the Mage forums, a place normally full of QQ and tears, is totally refreshing.Oh, and he's right: don't use sheep. It makes their health come back.Thanks, Dan!
Made in Azeroth: Arts and crafts inspired by WoW
How can we amuse ourselves while we wait for Wrath of the Lich King to come out? One word: geekcrafts. Sure, you could go to Jinx or CafePress and buy some stickers or T-shirts, but then again there's all that waiting, what with the shipping and everything. Plus, although somebody made it, they didn't make it. By which I mean, it wasn't crafted. So, you know, it's like a BoE item instead of an engineers-only item. Am I making any sense yet? No? Hm. Okay. Let me try again. Idle hands are the devil's workshop, so pick up some art supplies and start learning a new hobby. By way of inspiration, take a look at some of these cool things other people have crafted from their love of WoW.
Sunday Morning Funnies: Fighting naked
This week we have a fair amount of humorous adventures, including an ill-timed leak, success in disguise, a handy brick, a clever wolf, and even some snakes.Humorous Plot Dark Legacy Comics has seen an end to the NPC tyranny, as "Whitemane" exposes The Horace Hypocrisy. Shakes and Fidget discover The Altar. In LFG, an alliance is sought. It isn't going well. The Road to BlizzCon continues, with Now you're just being silly and The Dead Mimes, Part 1. Kissybear's friends are giving up; or are they? Teh Gladiators has alchemists for murlocs, and a statement is made on Yolanda. Humor NoObz has some insight on patch days, from the mobs' points of view. This week's installment of The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf almost didn't happen, and the announcement of the delay is worth reading itself. Fortunately, Episode 23: WoW TV arrived in time for Sunday Morning!
Sunday Morning Funnies: A new day
This week we are going to approach the Sunday Morning Funnies in a new format. Hopefully this will improve reader understanding of the purpose of posting the artwork. Voting will be removed. Please let me know what you think, as well as other changes you'd like to see!For laughs: Sympathy for the Reaver almost makes you feel bad for using a fel reaver's corpse. Almost. GU Comics. Laughs and plot: Pinky built the gnomes some lodging in LFG. Sacrificial Lamb from Dark Legacy Comics involves a plot, some lambs, some scissors and a sandwich. Along Came the Murlocs opens up a mystery about the two murlocs on Teh Gladiators. When all is revealed on And Then They Were..., hilarity ensues. Well, maybe not for Vallant. Differently structured humor: We hated that boat neway from Road to BlizzCon, sees the lovable characters thwarted by their own shedding. Strangely, there is no fatigue produces an invisible man. On the latest Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf, we encounter March of the Dwarf. If you've ever wanted to see these adventures done like they'd do it on the Discovery channel, look no further.
