World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor launch-day roundup

World of Warcraft commercials are raiding your TV
Blizzard is ramping up its Warlords of Draenor hype with a new series of World of Warcraft commercials aimed squarely at television viewers. The brief clips evoke more Lord of the Rings than the WoW we all know.

Watch the unboxing of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor's CE
Do you already have your collector's edition pre-ordered and ready to go and can't wait to open it up and see what's inside?

WoW's Iron Horde declares war on Times Square
Why promote a World of Warcraft expansion with a pat press release and gory trailer when you can beat up an actual taxi in Times Square with a 15-foot replica of the epic Gorehowl axe?

World of Warcraft drops spoiler-filled cinematics
Some World of Warcraft players want to know the whole story of an expansion before they've even started playing. Some others would prefer to know nothing about the game until it's time to play, experiencing everything completely fresh.

Watch the full World of Warcraft: Looking for Group documentary
You might have missed the "other" Warcraft movie reveal at BlizzCon this past week, but we're here to make sure that you don't let it slip by completely.

Get the full story of Warcraft in 40 minutes
If you feel overwhelmed by the decades of lore that Blizzard's built up around the game, then we have a way to help you get a handle on it all.

Blizzard announces new charity pet for ebola relief efforts
For every Argi purchased between December 3 and December 31, 100% of the proceeds will go to the American Red Cross to support ebola relief efforts.

World of Warcraft bounces back to 7.4 million subscribers
The launch of Warlords of Draenor is still a month away, but just the approach is enough to bump the numbers for World of Warcraft. Blizzard Entertainment announced that the game is at 7.

World of Warcraft to relocate Oceanic servers to Aussie data center
Blizzard has just announced a new Australian server infrastructure for World of Warcraft, deploying ahead of the release of Warlords of Draenor in November.

Blizzard's Tom Chilton on World of Warcraft's slow content pace
Blizzard's Tom Chilton has been making the rounds this week in one candid interview after another. Icy Veins recently asked him directly why recent content releases haven't been meeting the originally planned six-month cadence.

World of Warcraft bumps up graphical settings
While they're not big bullet point features for Warlords of Draenor, technical improvements will benefit those who want to keep their game looking the best.

How Blizzard is improving World of Warcraft's e-sports appeal
During the Hearthstone qualifiers at last weekend's DreamHack Stockholm, Blizzard Senior Manager of eSports Kim Phan spoke to PCGamesN about the challenges faced by World of Warcraft in the e-sports subgenre.

Blizzard is already working on World of Warcraft's sixth expansion
Warlords of Draenor? That's yesterday's news, my friend. The progressive World of Warcraft player should already be looking forward to expansion number six, which Blizzard says is in full production.

Blizzard's Morhaime responds to player concern for diversity in WoW
Diversity is certainly a hot topic everywhere in the world today, and MMO communities are no exception. In particular, World of Warcraft has been under the microscope several times in the last few years for an imbalance of gender representation.

Warlords of Draenor: Garrison Followers and you
One of the largest and most highly-discussed features of Warlords of Draenor is the garrison -- a stronghold on Draenor that you get to construct and customize to your heart's content.

Blizzard updates WoW's garrison game guide
Blizzard has updated its game guide to World of Warcraft's garrisons. In case you missed it, garrisons serve as your Draenor ops center and allow you to collect resources, send followers on missions, and "create wondrous items to aid you in your journey."

Warlords of Draenor: Getting resources for your Garrison
​The player's Garrison is one of the central features of Warlords of Draenor, coming with its own special Hearthstone, and in many ways taking the place of a faction hub.

How professions are changing in Warlords of Draenor
Like every expansion before it, Warlords of Draenor will be shaking things up. Professions will get their skill caps increased to 700 and you'll find new recipes (and new epic gear) waiting for you in Draenor.

BlizzCon World of Warcraft - Items, Class Changes, and More liveblog
The BlizzCon 2014 World of Warcraft panel covering items, class changes, garrisons and more was liveblogged in detail by the WoW Insider crew.

BlizzCon 2014: World of Warcraft Q&A liveblog
Get ready to talk Warcraft! The last World of Warcraft panel of BlizzCon is the Q&A, where BlizzCon attendees can pose any questions they like to the development team.

World of Warcraft releases new class primer videos
So you've bought your World of Warcraft expansion and you boosted a character to the level cap. That's good. You also have no idea how to play that class at level 90, which is bad.

World of Warcraft shows off the dungeons of Warlords of Draenor
As the release of Warlords of Draenor inches ever closer, it's no surprise that players might want to know what dungeons they'll be running religiously for the next several months.

World of Warcraft cleans up UI for Warlords of Draenor
Blizzard vows to clean up the user interface in Draenor. "We're making a number of changes to the WoW user interface -- changes that are designed to eliminate clutter, free up more of your inventory space, help you find your stuff more easily, and improve your quality of life in-game."

WoW level designers discuss Draenor's callbacks and vignettes
Blizzard's final Artcraft blog for World of Warcraft has arrived today in the form of an interview conducted by Community Manager Bashiok. Once again, the topic is the design of Nagrand, a zone made iconic in The Burning Crusade expansion and returning in Warlords of Draenor next month.

World of Warcraft chronicles the challenges of Draenor zone design
The third installment of WoW's Artcraft blog series is now live, and in it, Blizzard discusses the visual style of zone design and how the artists and level designers team up to sculpt the look of zones and sub-zones within the limitations of the game engine.

World of Warcraft examines the art of designing proto-Nagrand
If you're playing World of Warcraft and running through Nagrand in Outland, you might be vaguely curious about how the zone is going to translate into its original form in Warlords of Draenor.

WoW devs discuss environment and zone design
Oover the coming days you'll be hearing from additional quest and systems designers and even historians who "craft and create not only the zones we adventure in, but the visual story about these locations and the creatures and races that inhabit them.

World of Warcraft previews the creatures of Gorgrond
Draenor is not the same as Azeroth. Sure, the release of Warlords of Draenor will bring the heroes of Azeroth into a lush and vibrant version of Draenor, but World of Warcraft players will have to deal with creatures that most decidedly do not exist on Azeroth.

Build an inn or trading post in World of Warcraft's Spires of Arak zone
Are you a fan of the arakkoa, World of Warcraft's avian humanoids? Blizzard is betting you are, which is why they've brought back the sqwawking Burning Crusade beasties in Warlords of Draenor, complete with a "fancy new model.

PAX Prime 2014: Hands-on with Warlords of Draenor
If you've played World of Warcraft once, have you played it for all time? I was wondering this as I slipped back into Azeroth for a look at the upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion at PAX Prime.

WoW's Warlords of Draenor beta: A disappointing start
My time with the Draenor beta has been an overwhelming disappointment.Warlords of Draenor is to World of Warcraft as Man of Steel is to the Superman mythos.

WoW's Warlords of Draenor beta: The disappointment of garrisons
Once a player finishes the introductory quests for Warlords of Draenor, the Horde and Alliance gangs go in separate directions, and I had slightly higher hopes for the rest of my beta experience.

WoW's Warlords of Draenor beta: Questing, mechanics, and concerns
Tell me if this sounds familiar if you've played World of Warcraft: Your faction's forces are unexpectedly trapped in a strange new world with some familiar elements but a large number of unfamiliar ones.

PAX East 2014: First impressions of Warlords of Draenor
The biggest problem that Warlords of Draenor is facing right now is one of first impressions.This isn't a mark against World of Warcraft so much as it's the nature of the beast.

PAX East 2014: Can World of Warcraft's garrisons live up to the hype?
At this year's PAX East, I sat down with Blizzard Entertainment to discuss garrisons, and the studio reps explained garrisons as a way for Blizzard to bring a bit of Warcraft into the WoW universe.

Perfect Ten: My World of Warcraft launch memories
I'm really not a big fan of those constant reminders from the media as to how much time has gone by using pop culture as reference points. I'm really not.