winters-veil
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Bringing holiday cheer, Blizzard-style
We know that Blizzard celebrates the holiday season in-game with plenty of decorations and tacky sweaters, and as it turns out their real-world celebrations aren't that different. For this holiday season, the famed orc statue in front of Blizzard HQ has gotten its own special holiday makeover -- and, yes, it now sports its very own tacky sweater. On the plus side, the orc and his wolf mount both look like they're better suited to brave the cold months of (California) winter... and they've managed to be festive while still supporting their faction with horde-logo holiday gear. Of course, this begs the question: what can we do to get our own tasteful winter gear? (And does it involve learning to crochet?)
WoW Moviewatch: The Spirit of Winter's Veil
Nixxiom and Moocluck challenged one another to a season-off, with each machinimator creating a special holiday video. In this one, Nixxiom tries to educate Moocluck about the true meaning of Winter's Veil. And while Moocluck struggles with understanding The Spirit of Winter's Veil, we do get the opportunity to see Grandather Winter cruise along in the finest sleigh imaginable. We now know why you shouldn't leave brandy out for Santa, but the image of that sleigh will stick in my head for the rest of my life. 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 Moviewatch: The Madness of Winters Veil
For a very special holiday gift, Nixxiom and Moocluck challenged one another to a machinima-off to create the best seasonal video. In Nixxiom's creation, two bad guys try to take advantage of The Madness of Winters Veil to get what they really want under the tree. Of course, things don't turn out for the pair, and they're forced to burst into song. This is probably the best use of "suffering" I've ever heard in lyrics! 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.
WRUP: 'tis the season
The season of gift giving is here. It's always an odd one for us Azerothian gamers. We'd love to give WoW related gifts, but there's only so many stuffed animals and game cards one wife or husband should receive. So while asking our intrepid staff of WoW journalists what they're playing this weekend, we also asked what WoW gift would bring a smile to their faces. Hope springs eternal, right? Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) I picked up Zelda: A Link Between Worlds and I'll likely be playing that. I loved A Link to the Past, it was one of my favorite SNES titles when I was younger, and this one is just hitting all the right nostalgia buttons for me, plus it's got a new gameplay twist that makes the puzzles even more entertaining to figure out. I might play a bit of WoW while I'm at it, just to finish capping out my valor for the week, or possibly poke around in The Secret World, which is actually a pretty entertaining MMO, although it hasn't captured me in quite the same way that WoW did. Bonus answer: I found a really cool coffee mug on etsy that has the hearthstone symbol engraved in it, and I'm still debating whether or not I want to get it.
Patch 4.3 PTR: Changes in store for Winter's Veil vanity pets
The patch 4.3 PTR brings an unexpected change to the vanity pets received during the Winter's Veil celebration. These pets were unique in that players had to have a Snowball in order to summon their wintry companion. It seems that the Snowballs are no longer necessary as of Patch 4.3, but there's a catch -- Winter's Veil pets are only able to be summoned during the Winter's Veil event. The tooltip for the pets has been changed to reflect this as follows: Father Winter's Helper: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Father Winter's Helper. Requires a Snowball to summon. Helpers are very busy year-round, and only have leisure time during the Feast of Winter Veil. Tiny Snowman: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Tiny Snowman. Requires a Snowball to summon. Build or destroy a tiny snowman. The snowman is larger and lasts longer during Winter Veil. Winter Reindeer: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Winter Reindeer. Requires a Snowball to summon. reindeer. The Winter Reindeer only dresses up for Winter Veil. Winter's Little Helper: Right Click to summon and dismiss your Winter's Little Helper. Requires a Snowball to summon. Helpers are very busy year-round, and only have leisure time during the Feast of Winter Veil. A minor change, but it does mean that the pets, once able to be summoned year-round, are now limited to the few short weeks that Winter's Veil is available -- and it also means that the Snowmaster 9000 suddenly got a lot less handy to have around. While it's nice that the pets no longer require a reagent to summon, it seems like the trade-off for this is pretty restrictive. Along with the changes to existing pets, there are a ton of new pets to snap up. Follow after the break for the full list.
The Night Before Winter Veil
'Twas the night before Winter Veil and all through the house Not a creature was stirring, sans a click of the mouse The presents were stored by the tree with great care, In hopes that Grand' Winter would soon be there; The orphans were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of Pandaren Brew danced in their heads; And my guildie in her 'kerchief, and I in my helm, Had just settled down for a long battle-ground, When out of the mine there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my mammoth to see what was the matter.
WoW Moviewatch: GreatFather Winter
'Tis the season to start revelling in the glory of Winter's Veil. To help create some classic music for us all to enjoy during the holiday, Cranius wrote and produced GreatFather Winter. While this video was originally created a year ago, it remains fresh and vibrant even today. I think that Cranius nailed his goal perfectly. Cranius has a nice story about the final creation of this film. There were fierce snow storms where Cranius lives. He obviously wanted to get his Winter's Veil classic complete by Christmas, but was very concerned about losing power due to the snow. He was rightly concerned, as his electricity went out just as he was near finished. But, thankfully, it turned out to be a very short outage -- he was without power just long enough to get a few more inspirations for some final tweaks. Let the holiday season begin! 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 e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Breakfast Topic: Dear Greatfather Winter
Surprise! It's December already, which means the winter holidays are just around the corner. According to Blizzard's calendar, Winter's Veil will be upon us in just two short weeks, and if patch 3.3 does drop next week as expected, it'll seem even shorter than that (I'm sure that the new Dungeon Finder system will make the time fly by for most of us). So before Greatfather Winter actually appears in Ironforge and Orgrimmar, the Godmother has the right idea: it's time to ask GFW what you want for Winter's Veil. He's delievered some nice ingame presents before, and this year should be no exception. Personally, 3.3 will grant most of my Warcraft-related wishes, so I'll just wish for world peace. Oh, and 5000g for my newly 80 paladin's epic flying. Actually, I need a chopper, too, so world peace, 5000g for the epic flying, and another few thousand for the chopper mats. Oh, and I need gear to run heroics, so the peace thing, lots of money, and good gear. Wait -- I'll need a good flying mount, too. So let's say Rusted Proto-drake, epic gear, and lots and lots of money. Actually, it's Warcraft, so just forget the peace thing -- I'll just take the money and purples, thanks. But that's just me and Steve Martin. What would you like to get from Greatfather Winter this year?
Darkmoon Faire France cancelled
Upper Deck has posted on their site that they have canceled the upcoming Darkmoon Faire event in France for the TCG. They've been having events all over the world of this kind, featuring tournaments, exhibitions, and interaction with the game's officials and designers (I checked out one such event when it was in Chicago last year). And while they had planned to hold a Faire in Paris in 2009, apparently it's not going to happen -- they say there was "complications" with the "venue," and the event has been shut down. They are still trying to come to France, however: they're hoping to hold an event called the Tournois du Voile d'Hiver ("Tournament of Winter's Veil" in English) in Toulouse in November.And this really does just look like a schedule conflict, as they are still holding events in Amsterdam, Austin, and Vegas later on in 2009, and from what we've seen at various conventions this year, Upper Deck's WoW-related TCG and minis games are bigger than ever (in fact, given what I saw at Gen Con and have heard from various UD employees, it's possible that the WoW games are the company's biggest-selling non-sports product). They're planning to bring the Darkmoon Faire back to Paris next year, and that's probably exactly what they'll do.
Scouting around with the Crashin' Thrashin' Racer
Cabinetsanchez over on LJ has documented something that I saw in action yesterday while running a few instances -- while it's a ton of fun to run my Crashin' Thrashin Racer around (I'm undefeated since I picked up the achievement the first day I got the toy, by the way), players have found a few extra ways to make the Racers work for them. Yesterday, I saw one of my group members using the Racer a few times to scout the instance ahead and see what pulled with what, and as CS says, it worked great: while the Racer will aggro enemies, they won't tag on to the rest of the group -- they'll just reset after they destroy the little car.CS also says that the Racer takes no falling damage, so you can send it exploring off of cliffs and platforms, and he says that though the car is considered level 60, its aggro range is pretty small (I can attest to this, as we were driving it pretty close to enemies yesterday without it registering on their radar). And he's got an even more devious use (some might say this is an exploit): bosses aggroed by the racer will sometimes despawn after they conquer it for up to 30 seconds or so. That seems like a hotfix waiting to happen, but I haven't personally tried it, so it may not be as useful as it sounds.The downside of this is that the Racer was meant to be a fun item, and if it really does lead to behavior that Blizzard considers exploiting, they might have to think twice about including great items like this in the future. We'll have to see what their ruling on this is, but hopefully no matter what happens (I'm guessing a quick hotfix, maybe even shrinking the range of the Racer's controller), this won't prevent Blizzard from giving us more fun toys later on.
Winter Veil ending tomorrow morning
If you're trying to finish up some of your Winter Veil achievements (which are all mandatory if you want to get the Violet Proto-Drake one day), remember that you don't have much time left. Today is the last full day of the holiday. It ends tomorrow (the 2nd) at 6 AM according to the in-game calendar. You have less than 24 hours to get your fill of fruitcake and stock up on Holiday Spices.If you're trying to finish up your work toward the Merrymaker title, don't forget to check out Amanda Miller's guide to the Winter Veil achievements. The quickest piece of advice, though? If you still need Let It Snow or Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho's, start hitting the revelers every hour on the hour, because your achievements are now in the hands of fate, not your own. Good luck.
One Shots: Bad santa
Oh the weather outside is frightful... and for that matter, so is the above gnome Santa. We're not sure what kind of mayhem he's got planned, but we're really glad we're just getting a screenshot of this scary-looking gnome. Johanis, ever the brave World of Warcraft contributor, sent in this spooky first-hand view of a Santa-gnome seemingly bent on destruction. He writes in: While wandering around Stormwind I came across what I can only describe as "Bad Santa." He sure doesn't look like that happy guy who visited everyone only a week ago. Needless to say I didn't stick around long enough to find out who was naughty or nice. Yikes!!!Have you captured a frightening holiday shot (and no, we don't mean of your creepy Aunt wearing her favorite reindeer sweater) that you'd like to share with the world? We've got a spot just for those - here on One Shots! Just email them to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and what game it's from. We'll post them up and give you the credit for scaring the rest of us. %Gallery-9798%
One Shots: Got milk?
Ah, the joy of the holidays with treats and goodies to eat just about every time you look around. But what good are holiday cookies without some tasty milk to go with it? Not much! Of course, if you're an enterprising World of Warcraft player, you can get just the right gift to go along with those holiday cookies, as our regular One Shots contributor, Johanis shows off. He writes in: Here is Johanis (in Christmas disguise) entering Stormwind. Santa mentioned he liked milk with his cookies...but this is the best he could find. Might be a farmer upset but at least Santa will be happy with me.If you've given a great in-game gift, or just done something silly, we want to see! Any and all screenshots from MMOs welcome. Just email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the name of the game it's from. (Descriptions are welcome but entirely optional.) We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy, and let them know you sent it in. %Gallery-9798%
She said yes, and I thank the Tuskarr
It's Christmas morning. Winter's Veil sprinkles snow over the idyllic mountains near Ironforge while gnomes frolic across the battlegrounds. Everyone is working to get With A Little Helper from my Friends. Most of us have the good sense to sleep in late. Some of us, however, have big plans. With the aid of a homemade Christmas card, featuring my own gnomified dwarf Warrior and a Tuskarr fishermen, I popped The Question to my dearly beloved Draenei Priest (and sometimes Nelf Druid). She said yes, which was precisely the result I was hoping to get. Here's how it went down. Sitting by the tree, I asked her to wear a blindfold for a moment. Working quickly, inspired by a Tuskarr quest, I sprinkled Swedish Fish down the hallway. Then, I removed the blinder, handing her the home-made Christmas card. On the front was a screenshot (above) of my dwarf completing the quest The Way to His Heart... and on the inside it said "Follow your heart ... and the fish." She followed the trail of gummy fish to where I'd hung a necklace strung with the proxy ring. (Since this is the second time at bat for both of us, she wanted to help pick out the ring.) And voila, I had the best Christmas ever.
WoW Moviewatch: Kippos X-Mas
Hopefully, everyone's having fun with the presents brought by Grandfather Winter this morning. Today's Moviewatch is X-Cross's submission to the Wegame.com Christmas contest, called Kippos X-Mas. A gnome named Tinkle invites friends to visit to celebrate Christmas morning. But, like all good Christmas stories, there's a problem to be overcome.The first half of the movie is filled with great Christmas cheer. The last half is filled with great Christmas adventure. These are the kind of cute hijinks I can't wait to show my nephews and nieces, much to the consternation of my brothers. It's a good movie to revel in the Christmas season, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. This will be a fun add to festive movies to haul out on Christmas day each year.If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
Merry Christmas from WoW Insider!
It's Christmas Day today, so from all of us here at WoW Insider to you and yours, have a great and safe holiday, no matter where you are. Hopefully whatever you find under your tree, be it virtual or real, is exactly what you were hoping for.And don't forget that Winter's Veil presents go up ingame today as well -- the rumor going around is that it's a racecar (and who doesn't want a racecar, seriously), but the only way to find out is to head on into the capital cities and go look for Greatfather Winter's presents.As always, thanks for all you do for us -- your support throughout the year helps us deliver all the WoW news and views that we post every day. Posting will likely be a little light over the next few days, as our bloggers spend the holiday with their own families, but of course we'll be back soon with a brand new set of posts for you to come and unwrap every day.
WoW Moviewatch: Northrend Wonderland
Some of the (many) great things about the holidays are the wonderful movies created by machinimists. Some are serious, some are heart-tugging, some are just plain hilarious. Northrend Wonderland by Firebolt Productions falls into that last category. It's such a strong holiday comedy piece (for WoW players) that I'm sure I'm going to be playing it repeatedly tomorrow. The premise is simple. It's Winter's Veil in Northrend, and Arthas has the blues. One of his loyal minions offers the Lich King a stroll through the torture chamber to help perk up. Song and comedy ensue. The production values are good. I enjoyed the scenes, models, and camera work. But the soundtrack is really where Northrend Wonderland takes the cake. The music is awesome and hilarious. I guess the only criticism would be that the Darth-sounding voices of Arthas and minions can be tough to understand without subtitles, but that's why the subtitles are there. Click here to see it for yourself! If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
WoW, Casually: A casual guide to the Feast of Winter Veil
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Nothing says Winter Veil like a skanky santa outfit. Ho ho ho, indeed. The winter holidays in Azeroth have enough sex and violence (mostly violence) to counteract all of the feel-good, family-friendly holiday cheer going on in the real world. It's exactly what you need after going anywhere near a mall parking lot at this time of year. In-game holidays are always good for those of us with limited playtime because the quests give good experience, fun loot and there are often entertaining stories and activities to go along with it. The Feast of Winter Veil is no exception. While it doesn't have the ridiculous xp of the Midsummer Fire Festival or Hallows End, it does have some great Achievements, virtual toys and enough xp to make it worth your while. Following is a casual player's guide to the festivities.
Deeprun Pest Control rocks Kharanos this holiday season
Fresh from the forums, a note of a nice holiday event planned by the players of Deeprun Pest Control on the European Aggramar server. They're planning a costume party, a gift giveaway (for the whole server!) and even invite the Horde to come join the festivities on level 1 alts. Now, I'm an infamous Scrooge... ask anyone who knows me, or even people who don't... and even I think this sounds like fun, so kudos to the folks at DPC for putting it together.Remember, Kharanos, Aggramar EU server, 21:00 hours server time (thats 9 pm for those of us like me who have to stop and count backwards when presented with a logical time system) the festivities begin. I don't know about you, but I'm inspired to blatantly steal this idea and am feverishly working on a plan to convince people on my server to go along with it.
WoW Moviewatch: WuaG: The Winter's Veil Whiners
Mushanga created a new Wish Upon a Gnome episode for his entry into the WeGame.com Christmas contest -- WuaG: The Winter's Veil Whiners. For those of you new to "Wish Upon a Gnome," the protagonist of the story happened across a genie (the Dranei), who'll help the gnome out in his various hijinks. This one is obviously themed for Christmas. Grandfather Winter has been kidnapped by a cadre of Frost Mages, who will hold him hostage until they recieve further buffs and damage. Hijinks ensue, including a cameo by everyone's favor Midsummer's dancers. It all turns out all right in the end, of course, and has a nice little ending for our hero. You don't need to have seen the other WuaG episode to understand what's going on. I especially liked the climatic fight scene, set to Christmas music. The character models are all well chosen, and Mushanga did a great job of using convincing scenery without letting that background take over the action. So far, this has been one of my favorite seasonal videos this year. [Via WeGame.com] If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.Previously on Moviewatch ...
