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Blizzard releases official concept art gallery
For the last few years, I've been using the Sons of the Storm website and various Blizzard artists' DeviantArt galleries to get my Blizzard concept art fix. As of this evening, it seems Blizzard is taking a step toward consolidating all of this artwork into one public place. Blizzard.com We're pleased to announce the grand opening of our new Concept Art gallery, highlighting the myriad characters, environments, and other artwork we create during the development of our games. We plan to update this page regularly with a wide variety of never-before-seen pieces of art reaching all the way back to Blizzard's early days, so be sure to check back often! source Early days is right! There's artwork in the gallery that predates StarCraft and the early Warcraft games. Go check out Blizzard's concept art gallery, it will be time well spent.
The Queue: My, what big teeth you have
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Why yes, that is the most disgusting whale you've ever seen. Unless, of course, you've witnessed local authorities taking dynamite to a beached whale to get it out of the way since they couldn't move it just by pushing the thing. That is disgusting. Whale guts landing on cars a mile away? No thanks. I'll take the guy pictured above over that. Moonkinmaniac asked... "On the WoW calendar there's an undead whale picture. What the heck is it? Is it a rejected project for the current expansion or possibly one for Cataclysm?"
WoW Magazine site now live, hints at Doomhammer
Coming from left field, much to the surprise of everyone here at Team WoW.com, was the announcement of World of Warcraft: The Magazine which will be published by Future later this year. As promised, the website for the subscription-only quarterly went live in the wee small hours of this morning (GMT).You're probably scratching your heads and wondering why we're mentioning this when there's all the BlizzCon fun and games to talk about. Well, amonght other things, there's a really nice piece of artwork of the Lich King by Wei Wang, who we believe is going to be named the Eighth Son of the Storm at BlizzCon. On top of that are the first hints at what the first issue will contain: a piece on the game's fifth anniversary (which suggests we may well see it around November time), articles focusing on new content (which I'm assuming is either code for Cataclysm or a peek at patch 3.3), and the lore behind the legendary weapon Doomhammer.This is probably the entry which is going to have theorists asking intriguing questions. The Doomhammer is currently held by Thrall, and it's one of those uber weapons which most players want to get their hands on but can't get (because it's not actually implemented). It turns out this weapon will be the next 'Frostmourne', a replica weapon that if you have the cash you will be able to purchase and hang on your wall to confirm your hardcoreness.Either way, check out the website and hit the link to subscribe if you like what you see. Alternatively, if you're at BlizzCon this weekend, you can visit the Future booth and do it there. BlizzCon 2009 is here! WoW.com has continuing coverage, bringing you the latest in Cataclysm news, live blogs, galleries, and reports right from the convention floor. Check out WoW.com's Guide to BlizzCon for the latest!
SteelSeries giving away autographed Starcraft II mouse pads
A few weeks ago we posted about SteelSeries giving away Wrath mouse pads signed by pro-gamers, and while that was all fine and dandy, there were quite a few people looking for more, such as autographs from Blizzard employees, perhaps. Good news, everyone! SteelSeries has made good on that, and all this week they're giving away more mouse pads on their Facebook page, though this time they're Starcraft II gaming surfaces, not World of Warcraft.Who's donating their autograph this time around? Wei Wang, the artist behind the now-iconic image of Arthas and Frostmourne, which is plastered all over Wrath of the Lich King products. Wei Wang is also rumored to be the new Son of the Storm, the artists that basically fuel and control Blizzard's aesthetics. So while this might just be a mouse pad that he's signing, it might as well be a part of Blizzard history if you're into that sort of thing.Head over to their Facebook page and follow the supplied instructions. Good luck!
Sons of the Storm to appear at BlizzCon, unveil another member
The Sons of the Storm is a kind of artists' collective connected with Blizzard -- they're responsible for the majority of the concept and game art coming out of Blizzard, from the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series. They count Samwise Didier and Chris Metzen in their ranks, along with many of Blizzard's most popular artists. And apparently their ranks are growing -- on their latest website update, they have posted a new group picture, along with a mysterious "eighth son" that they say they will introduce sometime later, possibly months after BlizzCon. From left on the picture above, you can see Samwise Dider, Chris Metzen, René Koiter, Travis Thammer, Glenn Rane, Peter Lee, Mark Gibbons, and the Eighth Son, who a commenter over at Blizzplanet speculates may be Wei Wang.Speaking of BlizzCon, the Sons site also says that all of the seven current sons will be signing at the convention, so be sure to bring your TCG cards, Warcraft novels, art books and anything else these guys may have worked on. We're sure there'll be a line, but if you're willing to brave the wait, you might get to meet some of the most creative minds behind Blizzard's beloved universes.
One Shots: A Barrens memorial
Today we'd like to share with you a memorial that not all that many new World of Warcraft players may have ever seen -- or if they've seen it, they may not know the story behind it. This One Shot comes from Litamay from the Lightbringer server, who popped by to see the Shrine of the Fallen Warrior, which features the only named resurrection angel in-game -- and one that is visible while your character is alive. She writes: [This is an image] of the shrine in the Barrens dedicated to the dev who passed away during development. We've often thought that this was a nice touch to memorialize Michel Koiter's contributions to WoW. We certainly thank him and the rest of the team for bringing such a great game to the rest of us. Do you know of an out-of-the-way place in your favorite game? Perhaps you just know of a great view? Whatever your reasons, grab some screenshots and send them to us here at oneshots@massively.com! Yours could be next!%Gallery-9798%
