NobleGarden
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Disappointment with the patch 3.1 game world
The last few days I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out why I'm not particularly enjoying Patch 3.1 when I'm doing something besides raiding Ulduar. I should be enjoying it! When I first checked it out on the PTR, I was extremely excited about it. The Argent Tournament especially. The whole jousting deal, the Arthurian themes, the potential for story progression, the whole thing. It looked great! Unfortunately... I'm finding it pretty boring.The Argent Tournament feels lifeless. Completely and utterly lifeless. I say it all of the time, but patch 2.4 was my favorite patch of World of Warcraft thus far, no contest. Patch 2.4 brought me more joy than even the Wrath launch. Not only did it have content for absolutely every aspect of the game, but it also actually changed the world. Storylines progressed in an in-your-face way. Sure, patch 3.1 moved the Ulduar and Yogg-Saron story forward, but would you know it if you didn't read fansites or watch the patch 3.1 cinematic? What's different? What indicator is there that something new is happening in the Storm Peaks?
The best of WoW Insider: April 28 - May 5, 2009
Finding yourself lost in the World of Warcraft? Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider has everything you need to know about the biggest game around, whether you're a grizzled level 80 veteran, a newbie in the Ghostlands, or a former Molten Core raider finding yourself curious about rejoining the game. Here's our most popular posts about what's been going on in Azeroth lately. News Player receives developer item in the mail, one-shots UlduarThe Game Masters accidentally send a killer shirt to a player, who then uses it to drop progression content. The Martin Fury scandal: Karatechop reveals allWe talk with the player who got banned for using a GM item in Ulduar. WoW reference found in Wolverine gameThe creators of the new Wolverine videogame sneak in a WoW reference just for us. Ulduar nerfs and Blizzard's new raid philosophyBlizzard tweaks the newest raid instance, and shows their design cards a little bit. World of Warcraft patch 3.1.2 PTR notesThere's a new patch on the Public Test Realm -- here's what's new. Features The Queue: MercenariesYou ask, we answer. It's that easy. Guildwatch: It wasn't me, manDrama, downed, and recruiting news from guilds around the realms. Val'anyr explainedWhat exactly does the game's newest legendary do for you? We'll tell you right here. Noblegarden: Sexy or sexist?The new Easter ingame holiday has you throwing bunny ears on females level 18 and up. Hot or not? Scattered Shots: Pets for raidingHunters, if you need a pet to take along with you to Ulduar, look no further.
Breakfast Topic: Are achievements putting too much pressure on players?
I'm not in a WoW place right now. I tend to move through phases of being a casual or a hardcore player. It depends on the content available (such as a new patch) and my workload. I did most of the Noblegarden achievements but now Children's Week is here I suddenly feel burnt out. Except for a quick romp through Gun'drak with my guildies last night and a pit stop to pick up my orphans, I've been strangely distant from Azeroth.The thing is, I know precisely why. It's the pressure of achievements and festivals. Let me be clear, no one is making me do these things but me. Last year I enjoyed Children's Week because it was my first time doing the Outland version, I got rep, money and the smug feeling you get from taking a cute Draenei orphan around to see her heritage. Now all my guildies and most of the other people on my sever are frantically going for the achievements and, in some ways, it feels like the holiday has been cheapened a little. Being so close to Noblegarden probably hasn't helped either.But it makes me wonder if I'm the only one? Right now I'm a casual player, but do you think the point of these holidays has been lost by the desire to get a Violet Proto-Drake?
WoW Insider Show Episode 88: Child's play
Here's our podcast from last week -- Lesley Smith joined Turpster, Patrick Beja of How I WoW and I to chat about the Martin Fury controversy, how Children's Week and Noblegarden are going on the live realms, and what we've been up to lately in the World of Warcraft. And as usual we answered your email, including sharing ideas for our upcoming video show (we're planning on doing it on May 23rd, so stay tuned for that), how to transfer away from a guild if you happen to be a guildleader, and both why Blizzard canceled WWI, and when BlizzCon tickets might go on sale.We also talked about the ongoing Children's Week Charity Auction -- bidding has slowed down a bit over the weekend, so if you're interested in helping out kids in hospitals by donating some money to buy them videogames, go on over to the auction page and find something to bid on. All the money raised goes directly to Child's Play, so get your bids in now while you can.And as we mentioned on the show, here's the schedule for the next few weeks: we'll have a show as usual next Saturday the 9th, and then we'll have a special midweek show on the 13th of May. And then on the 23rd, we'll be live on camera for the video show. Should be really interesting -- we'll see you then!Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Sunday Morning Funnies: They did it with a shirt
This week's set of comics is actually quite topical, from a recent scandal, to world news to proper feline nutrition. There also aren't as many Noblegarden-themed comics as I expected. Cru the Dwarf is making fire. Nifty things are afoot! Experience Points examines the latest content patch. Flintlocke vs the Horde: War Party part 11. GU Comics: It Figures. This is related to a recent story that we covered involving hacked accounts, a GM item, and some very naughty players. Read all about the Martin Fury Scandal, and then tell us what you thought in our polls. GU Comics also hosted a guest strip by Stormhaven, called Inconsistent Know-How. Don't forget to read the explanation underneath! Before I did, I thought it was about the fact that Mustard Dogs seems to never come up. I have stacks and stacks of the Rhino Dogs, but no dice. GU Comics also posted a comic about last week's Noblegarden festivities, Rabbits Everywhere. This is the second-latest LFG comic, but I thought that it stood better on its own than #248. NoObz: Useless. NPC: For the Taurine! I love this one. If you don't know what Taurine is, you don't love your cats enough. Yep, I said it. Check out the latest from Teh Gladiators. The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf has updated, and I have to agree, I Love the Smell of Bacon in the Morning. Here is another from It's a 2v2 Life. Here's a newbie: KUO, with Eyebeam Irony. I couldn't decide which one to list, so check out a few of them, and I'll go with the latest next week.
Breakfast Topic: Did you get what you wanted out of Noblegarden?
Noblegarden has passed for another year and everyone is now running with little orphans in tow. There were lots of changes this year - the biggest being a whole seven days of egg hunting madness rather than just twenty-four hours.My Noblegarden was spent camping Azure Watch, being chased by purple bunnies and looking for eggs until I went more blind than usual. When I eventually managed to find enough eggs to get me my bunny wabbit (the tuxedo pants, shirt and dress dropped along with the bunch of flowers), I started looking for females in order to do the Shake Your Bunny-Maker achievement. Now my server isn't one of the largest and I found all the females quite easily -- even a Tauren and a Troll -- but I'll be damned if I could find a single Orc female. There are some on Daggerspine, as many of my guildies had already completed the achievement, but I eventually switched to my Horde account only to experience the mind-numbing chatter from prepubescent players. In the end, I couldn't get the title and now have to wait another year. Hopefully then it won't be as chaotic.I'm curious to hear your thoughts and experiences post-Noblegarden. Did you achieve everything you wanted?
WoW Insider Show live on the air today at 3:30pm Eastern
It's a European invasion on the WoW Insider Show today -- somehow we've wrangled me and three folks from the EU. Turpster will be on as usual, Lesley Smith will be joining us again, and the one and only Patrick Beja will be on the air as well live from France. Don't worry, Americans, I'll patriotically represent us as best I can. On the menu, we'll have discussion about the Martin Fury controversy, both Children's Week and Noblegarden (and if Children's Week really is ruining the battlegrounds), and the changes in patch 3.1.2, out on the PTR right now.And of course we'll answer your emails (you can email us at theshow@wow.com) and generally have as good a time as we always do. The show starts up at May 2, 2009 3:30 PM EDT var date_span = document.getElementById("date"); var date = new Date(date_span.innerHTML); var monthname=new Array("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug", "Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"); var weekday=new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday", "Friday","Saturday"); var year = date.getFullYear(); var day_of_month = date.getDate(); var month = monthname[date.getMonth()]; var day = weekday[date.getDay()]; var hour = date.getHours(); if (hour > 11) { if (hour > 12) {hour -= 12} am_pm = "PM"; } else { am_pm = "AM"; } var minute = date.getMinutes(); if (minute < 10) { minute = "0"+minute; } date_string = day + ", " + month + " " + day_of_month; date_string += " at " + hour + ":" + minute + " " + am_pm; offset = -date.getTimezoneOffset()/60; if (offset >= 0) { offset = "+"+offset; } date_string += " in your time zone (GMT"+offset+")"; date_span.innerHTML = (date_string); over on our Ustream page, or you can just click below to find the embedded Ustream feed in the second half of this post.And two more things: one, our auction over in Brigwyn's charity drive is heating up already, but if it's worth that much to you to come on the show with us (and oh yeah, help some sick kids, too), get your bid in now! Or just find something over there you like to bid on, it all goes to the same place. And if you have a full afternoon that you want to fill with podcasting, stay tuned after our show today, as I'll be on the Rawrcast. Should be fun -- see you this afternoon!
WRUP: Orphan tours edition
Ah, it's the weekend again. We find ourselves in a unique position this week as Friday sees the close of one yearly event and the beginning of another thanks to Blizzard pushing Noblegarden back a bit. This weekend, Azeroth is going to be overrun by pesky little kids asking to be taken around town, begging for junk food, and even endangering themselves as their respective guardians show them the war part of Warcraft. On the other hand, the PTR is also up for those who want to escape prepubescent peskiness. In order of how quickly they responded, let's see what the WoW Insider team is up to this weekend: Dan O'Halloran - Hitting the PTR to play with premade-80s. Always wanted to noodle around with a level capped Mage and Warlock, but never had the time to level one all the way. Daniel Whitcomb - Being excited for Children's Week, mostly. Not only is it two extra pets for my collection, but it gives me a good excuse to get in some PvP. I do wish School of Hard Knocks didn't require you to be the actual person holding/returning/capturing the flag/node/whatever though Matthew Rossi - Today, I'm playing with rabbits: my bunny Herne and his bunny wife Grimalkin will be getting some out time to celebrate his being over whatever was putting him off his food. (Not eating is very serious forrabbits, they can die in a matter of days once they go into GI Stasis.) I may do a Naxx pug on my shaman and there's Ulduar 10 this weekend. Robin Torres - Orphans and alts. It's all about orphans and alts. Chase Christian - Ulduar 10, which will be even easier with the latest round of nerfs. I'm glad we're killing these bosses pre-nerf, because it makes the guild feel better about itself. Matt Low - Ulduar 10 for Matt also! Eliah Hecht - Naxx on my lock, Ulduar on the priest. Maybe starting to level my Mage, if I have time. Alex Ziebart - Thorim, Freya and Mimiron are on notice on Ulduar 25. I might try to finish leveling my Resto Shaman as well, but that probably won't happen. Adam Holisky - Working on some multiboxing. Jennie Lees - Getting my flatmate and his entire workplace infected with the WoW bug. >:) Michael Sacco - Yogg-Saron on Ulduar 10; Mimiron, Vezax, and Yogg on 25. Zach Yonzon - Arenas even though Blizzard borked the system again, Battlegrounds even though it will be overrun by children and their clueless guardians, and Ulduar even though my guild doesn't need another plate DPS. Enough about us (cheers for those who actually read through that), what about you guys? What are you playing this weekend?
Noblegarden: Sexy or Sexist?
We are nearing the end of Noblegarden, but haven't discussed here at WoW Insider the most controversial part of the event: Shake your Bunny-Maker. For this achievement, you have to put bunny ears on one female of each race that is over Level 18.Before we go any farther in this discussion, I would like to state that I am female. Not that I am speaking for all females (no one can), but I think that it is important that you know where I am coming from. I also have a young daughter and would like the world to be a better place for her, as all parents do. It is also worth noting that the title for this post was inspired by one of my favorite movies: This is Spinal Tap. The band wants to release an album called Smell the Glove with a cover of a naked woman who is leashed and is forced to smell a glove. The lead singer mistakes the word "sexist" for "sexy". Hilarity ensues.
Breakfast Topic: For the children!
We hope you've gotten the all the necessary Achievements for Noblegarden because a new world event kicks off today. Yep, it's Children's Week once again, and just like all the yearly events this one has a bunch of Achievements you'll need to plow through in order to get the meta, and consequently the Violet Proto-Drake? Did it catch you by surprise? We hope not. The in-game calendar tells you exactly when these things start, anyway, and barring that you've got your friends over here at WoW Insider to remind you.While some players are polarized over the School of Hard Knocks Achievement, which requires players to venture into the Battlegrounds, I'm not looking forward to a token dungeon run to kill King Ymiron or doing five daily quests for five consecutive days. If you're unable to log in mid-week, you're toast. Ugh. That said, it's an extremely easy meta Achievement to obtain. Are you looking forward to the event? Are you rushing Noblegarden so can't be bothered to chaperone some kids all over Azeroth (like you do every year)? What's the first thing you've got planned for Children's Week?
The best of WoW Insider: April 21-28, 2009
What a week in the World of Warcraft -- we've explored even further into the mysteries of Ulduar, we saw Peggle in WoW and WoW on the iPhone, and the Easter holiday of Noblegarden has arrived (even though it is a little late thanks to Blizzard's long testing periods) in Azeroth. But even though all of this is happening at once, there's no need to fear -- Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider is here every single day with news and views about what's going on in Azeroth. Whether you're a complete noob, you left the game at level 60 (boy howdy things have changed since then), or you're currently rolling through the 80 endgame, we've got news for you. News Val'anyr stats discoveredA new legendary mace has been discovered in the game's new Ulduar instance. WoW Insider exclusive: PopCap releases Peggle for WoWInsert joke here about one addictive substance inside another. Video teases iPhone WoW clientBlizzard will likely never let it happen, but a third party says they've gotten WoW running on the iPhone. Today's in-game fixesTwo weeks later, Blizzard is still fixing a few issues from patch 3.1. The OverAchiever: Guide to Noblegarden AchievementsAlbeit a little late, Blizzard is finally celebrating their version of Easter on the live realms. Features Varian Wrynn is rightThe Alliance's latest leader really, really hates the Horde. And here's why he should. The Queue: Raid goes up, boss goes downA little Queue and A about... whatever you want to know. Loot, rationality and The Sunwell EffectA great essay about what drives us to do what we do in-game, and how Blizzard can use that. Lichborne: A Patch 3.1 talent build cookie platter for Death KnightsSo you're a DK and you have no idea what talent build to choose after 3.1. If you're OK with a cookie cutter build, boy do we have a batch for you. Eggsellent Guidance: 30 Noblegarden eggs in 15 minutesThe easiest and quickest way to collect some yolks for the latest holiday achievement.
One Shots: Nooblegarden
There's something to be said for new characters. Sometimes it's a friend who came to game with us, sometimes it's a new alt, and once in a rare while, it's just a character rolled to relay one very silly image. No, we really don't think that's the only reason Johanis sent in a World of Warcraft screenshot of this shiny new Priestess, but we did get a good chuckle out of it when we read the brief note that came along with it. So, along with Noblegarden frippery, what gave us a smile? Check it out: Here is Faylana, a newly created Priest in World of Warcraft. She is fully enjoying her Spring Festival Dress and Bunny Ears. Next stop... Playboy Mansion!If you're enjoying a holiday event of some type, why not send in some screenshots of the merriment? We love to see what's going on in different MMOs throughout the year. Just email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game it's from, and a brief description. We'll post them here on One Shots and give you the credit.%Gallery-9798%
Breakfast Topic: If you could add game mechanic to WoW what would it be
Last night I was flying down to Un'Goro to do the Hard Boiled Noblegarden achievement. Long flights get me thinking, at least they did until I installed the Bejeweled addon. World of Warcraft has changed so much since I started playing and 3.1 has brought some of the most interesting changes: dual specs, the hearthstone timer nerf.Now as I was flying, my guild whispered me asking for my aid in Naxx 10. Fortunately they could summon me but it reminded me of one of the biggest problems with flying in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, you can't get off a bird. Yes I know you can log out and then log back in to be deposited at the next flight point but it's hardly ideal if you need to get off right now. Since I first started playing, I've wondered why Blizzard don't implement a handy eject button that you could use when on long flights. You could be thrown from the back of your gryphon or wind rider and gently parachute to the ground. Alternatively they could just allow you to hearthstone while flying. But I digress. Readers, I want to know if you could add one mechanic to the game what would it be?
The Daily Quest: There is nothing Nobel about Noblegarden
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere.Everyone has something to say about this lovely little world event going on, and we've selected some of the best blog entries from around the net for you to enjoy today: Mend Pet has some good egg spots for Horde. BlizzPlanet has a nice Noblegarden guide. Be sure to check out ours too. Wobin writes over at WoW LJ about a great add-on to get your attention when finding an egg. Biker Bunny. And for the non-noblegarden related post today, Matticus knows why you're Frustrated by Ulduar. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Eggcellent Guidance: 30 Noblegarden eggs in 15 minutes
Noblegarden - Love it or hate it, either way it's here to stay for the rest of the week. And if you want that 310% mount then you're going to have to put up with it. But hopefully I've got a tip for you all that'll make things a little easier. There is a spot, the perfect spot if you will, where you can get upwards of 30 eggs in 15 minutes. More if you're not bothered by others attempting to rain on your egg parade.The spot exists in Azure Watch outside of Exodar, and I've gotten a few pictures you can see after the break to make it easy for you to sit there and farm away for a bit. While this trick won't necessarily work in the early evening when everyone and their mother's uncle is on farming eggs, it works great during off hours.
Breakfast Topic: How's Noblegarden going so far?
The title seems self-explanatory; are you enjoying Noblegarden? How many people are participating on your server? Do you already have the achievements done, or are they a work-in-progress?I have to admit I'm writing this expecting a lot of comments to come back noting that it's pretty hard to get this holiday done when spawn points on the eggs are camped 24/7. For my part, I vastly underestimated how much of a nuisance that was going to be on the live realms. That aside, Noblegarden does seem to be one of the more efficient holidays, particularly if you get lucky with item drops, and I think this is also the first time Blizzard's made it possible to get all the achievement items you need as purchases in the event that Lady Luck spends the week being an indifferent mistress. The ability to buy achievement items certainly settles what was by far the biggest complaint concerning Love Is In the Air. For that holiday, your ability to complete the meta-achievement was ultimately determined by the RNG, to the point where Blizzard hotfixed the drop rate on a key achievement item after the forums went kaboom. This time around, you don't need to worry about that as long as you can get enough Noblegarden Chocolate. Time to knuckle down, plunk a frosty beverage at your side, and tell that jerk who's camping your spawn to go find his own friggin' eggs. Ahhhh, the holiday spirit!
Throw your own egg hunt with Noblegarden Eggs
I've been looking at the Noblegarden items for awhile now, since they first showed up on the PTR. For some reason, it never hit me until I saw it on live realms how cool one item in particular actually is. For five chocolates you can buy your own Noblegarden Egg, which allows you to lay a Brightly Colored Egg. Yes, that's five eggs for one egg of your own, which is a pretty horrible exchange rate.What's so cool about it? They're the exact same eggs you've been picking up that whole time, except that you can set them out. You can loot them right away for an added chance of whatever loot may be in them, but I'm not sure why you'd do that, except for possibly completing Dressed for the Occasion/Sunday's Finest. What makes it better is that other people can loot them.What makes that so great? If you can get an organized crew (and their alts) together, you can set up your own Noblegarden Hunt for your guild or your friends and family. Laying an egg has a 1 hour cooldown, so each of you will only be able to set out one egg each, but with a sizable group that might not be too terrible. A brief hunt, but you can make it exciting! Feralas, perhaps? Icecrown? The interior of a cleared Ulduar? Just take it far, far away from busy cities or hubs. You don't want to lay an egg out in the Stormwind Trade District. Joe McMullet will loot that thing in a flash, and that's no good.
Breakfast Topic: Which part of Noblegarden are you most excited about?
Noblegarden is finally here and, boy, is it addictive! Knowing how everyone would be swarming all over Kharanos and Goldshire, I headed for the most isolated, least visited starter town I could think of: Azure Watch. On my low-population server, there were only about another five people after eggs and once you start spotting them hunting becomes insanely addictive. There are already people with their Spring Rabbit's Foot and the rest have just been turned into purple bunnies. I'm not sure if the latter is cute or just weird. Personally, I'm just ambling along and doing what achievements I can, there's no hope of me getting the Violet Proto-Drake this year. But, I want to know which part of Noblegarden are you folks are most looking forward to?%Poll-29523%
Noblegarden has begun!
It's 12:01 AM Pacific, which means that Noblegarden should now be live on all North American realms. Despite the fact that it's the middle of the night, people are absolutely packed into the starting zones on my home realm, so don't expect things will be easy just because it's late!Keep an eye on WoW Insider throughout the day, because we're going to be covering the holiday as much as we can. Our own Allison Robert started that already yesterday evening with a special edition of The Overachiever, covering the achievements of Noblegarden. She also has a basic FAQ of the holiday up, should you need it.A note to all of you bloggers out there, I plan to do a Noblegarden-themed special edition of The Daily Quest today as well. If you've written about the holiday and think our readers may be interested in what you have to say, send your link our way and we'll take a look!%Gallery-19015%
Noblegarden FAQ
UPDATE: This guide has been revised for Noblegarden 2010. Noblegarden 2009 should be going live on the European realms in a few hours and then start popping up on realms elsewhere over the next day. Because so much of the holiday has changed and we've fielded a lot of questions from players about what's going on, we decided to write up a quick FAQ to the new (and vastly improved!) holiday. Help! Where do I go to get started? If you're Alliance, head to Azure Watch, Dolanaar, Goldshire, or Kharanos. If you're Horde, head to Bloodhoof Village, Brill, Falconwing Square, or Razor Hill. What am I supposed to do when I get there? There will be questgivers in all of these towns who will give you a new daily, The Great Egg Hunt, and A Tisket, a Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket. The former will reward you with an item that will come in handy for an achievement (more on this in a little bit), but for both you're going to want to get started hunting down eggs in and around these level-5 towns. Once you've finished these quests, in order to get Noblegarden achievements done, you're going to need to be a dedicated egg hunter for a little while. What do the Brightly Colored Eggs look like? See the egg in the article's picture above? They're all variations on these colors and patterns and not generally tough to spot (although they are considerably smaller than the perspective in the picture makes them appear).
