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The legends of non-Legendary items
by01.12.2008
Blizzard has a torrid history with the Legendary items in World of Warcraft. The first such item to raise a stink was probably Ashbringer, the sword of Highlord Mograine of the Scarlet Crusade. Though stats have been found in the game (and a Corrupted version is available), the item itself isn't obtainable by players at all (though it still may be in the future). And reader Scott recently brought another one of these not-quite-Legendary items to my attention: the Skull of Gul'dan. This is probably one of the most powerful items in all of Azeroth-- it's been used to close and open the Dark Portal, it's responsible for tearing apart Felwood, and it turned Illidan from just an emo elf into a superpowerful demonic badass. And yet, it's no more than a rare trinket in the game.Shouldn't an item with that much legend behind it be called Legendary? Illidan's twin blades are labeled legendary, but they're hardly the stuff of modern legend-- Illidan took them from a doom guard commander 10,000 years ago, and they've done nothing but sit in his whirling hands since then (heck, they couldn't even take down Arthas). I agree with Scott-- there's no reason those blades should be Legendary when the skull isn't. Sure, the skull might not be as powerful as it used to be, but it's still got a load of legend behind it.And the Legendary debate isn't over yet, because there is one more big item looming on the horizon: when we head to Northrend, we'll all, Horde and Alliance alike, be looking to find the item that kicked off this Arthas trouble in the first place: Frostmourne. Will that be wieldable by players, or labeled Legendary? If Blizzard's previous experience with Legendary items is any indication, the answer may not be what you expect.
CVG interviews Jeff Kaplan on Wrath of the Lich King
by01.07.2008If you're itching to hear any kind of information on Wraith of the Lich King, then here's a great fix for you. CVG asks Jeff Kaplan what we can expect of the forthcoming expansion from Blizzard, including everyone's favorite fallen hero Arthas. Addressing the fear that everything in the expansion is going to be covered in ice and snow, Kaplan assures that Blizzard has plenty of variety in locales. One example he gives is the Howling Fjord, which is modeled after the Redwood Forest in the Pacific north-west.
Killing off our heroes left and right
by12.22.2007This conversation seems to come up whenever a new raid instance is announced, and it looks like the Sunwell will be no exception. Vulpe from Venture Co. sends a shout out to Blizzard.. for killing all of our heroes. In Burning Crusade alone, Illidan, Kael'thas, and now Zul'jin have fallen to our raids, and in the coming future, we're going to see Kil'jaeden and maybe even Arthas bite the dust. And later in the thread, Melynda comes up with an even longer list of people deep in the lore whom we've seen fit to off.Sure, as Bornakk says, everyone who's gotten some has pretty much deserved it (and even though we don't know what's happening with Arthas yet, let's not forget that he murdered, y'know, all those people, including his father). And Blizzard has told us before that they feel that they have more than enough lore to go around-- even if they kill off the Warcraft stars, they've got other folks on deck to rise up into the storylines.But the most interesting thing to come from this iteration is that we have to kill these people-- if we didn't, we wouldn't be the heroes of Azeroth that we're supposed to be. Back when WoW first came out, the devs told us that it would take a raid of level 80s (this was back when level 60 was the max) to take down Arthas, and guess what-- when we see Arthas in a combat situation, we will actually be level 80. We may be killing off all of the heroes of Warcraft III, but it's only to make room for the new heroes of World of Warcraft-- namely us.
Free character moves for the US
by12.21.2007We've had some moves recently for Oceanic and European realms, but these are the first North American free character transfers I've seen in a while. As of noon PST today, and until 12:01 PM PST a week from today, December 28th, players can make the following transfers free of charge: From: Arthas, Illidan, Mal'Ganis, Warsong To: Azshara As always, players are urged to make the transfer as soon as possible if they intend to, since the transfers do sometimes close early if desired population levels are reached. Drysc promises that the realms they choose for transfers are based on exact population statistics, which seems to imply that, out of the North American reals, the source realms are the most overpopulated and Azshara is the most underpopulated. Those of you on these realms, does that ring true? Do you plan on taking advantage of the transfers? Azshara folks, do you welcome the newcomers?
World events and how to run them
by12.10.2007There's a discussion going down on the forums about what many consider to be the most exciting part of MMO games, including World of Warcraft-- world events. As many drawbacks as there were to the AQ events, no one can argue that they didn't affect everyone in the World-- everyone was able to step up and help the war effort, and even though everyone didn't fit in Silithus, everyone came across some of the invaders that spread across the world. While the Naxx event was that way as well, we haven't really seen anything else on that scale even in this, the largest MMO ever. And let's not forget that since Burning Crusade was released, we're dealing with a lot more people-- there are huge amounts of the population who have never seen a world event yet.Which makes it all the more likely that we will see a big one for Wrath of the Lich King. Bornakk says that while Blizzard realizes that a lot needs to go into creating a big world event, they've also learned a lot from Brewfest and the Hallow's End events about how to both tune the scale and get players involved. But Blizzard still wants to do a big one, and from what we heard at BlizzCon, they're going to come up with a reason for Alliance and Horde to head up to Northrend after Arthas.My guess? Arthas is going to become a threat again-- he'll invade Undercity, or bomb Darnassus, or somehow attack our world. And for the first time that I can think of since the game has started, we're going to actually lose something-- an NPC, a city (at the very least, Dalaran) or something else. For all of the fighting going on in the world of Warcraft, it hasn't yet changed that much. And I think that with the next expansion, Blizzard is looking to have Arthas shake things up a bit.
Our leaders (and the tough task of replacing them)
by11.30.2007So what's the deal-- do we elect our leaders or what? Obviously, I can't think of a single leader in WoW that's actually elected, by the players or anyone else. Thrall is a Warchief, so you'd assume he has to be overthrown, and that seems to be the case with most of the faction leaders-- King Bronzebeard isn't leaving anytime soon, and though the boy king of Stormwind sits pretty precariously on his throne, there's probably a few legal strings (and big black dragons) holding him in place. I can't think of any seats that might change hands anytime soon.Save one: you have to think that if anyone's days are numbered, it's Sylvanas'. We already know she's got a bone to pick with Arthas, and if anyone isn't coming back from Northrend ali-- err... undead, it's probably her. Who would take over Undercity then-- Varimathas? If something did happen to Sylvanas in Northrend, the whole Horde might be upset, and considering Jaina may end up in on the action as well, no one's probably safe.Still, even if our leaders get toppled anytime soon, I doubt elections are just around the corner. I don't think we really live in a democracy here-- more like a military dictatorship.
All the World's a Stage: Raiding and RP don't mix, or do they? -- A question of continuity.
by11.18.2007All the World's a Stage is brought to you by David Bowers every Sunday evening, investigating the mysterious art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.The Warcraft storyline is part of a great tradition of fantasy literature, and, as with any form of storytelling, the entire span of WoW lore involves a series of events and changes. Arthas wasn't always the Lich King, Illidan used to be able to wear shoes, and your character was once a little child, with no spells or epic weapons at all. All these things fit together in a single story universe, in which the progressive changes taking place in the story made the world what it is today.But what is it today? Is Illidan now dead or alive? Is VanCleef dead or alive, for that matter? As a gaming environment, any boss you kill today has to be there for me to kill tomorrow. The WoW game world needs to remain basically unchangeable -- but over time this can stifle a roleplayer's sense of immersion in its narrative. To illustrate the impact this sort of immutability has on storytelling, let us take a page from a certain fantasy story you might have read, and see how it might work as a WoW raid instance.Welcome to Mines of Moria! This raid instance will reset in 6 days, 10 hours and 41 minutes.[Raidleader] [Gandalf]: Beware! There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world. Follow my glowing staff! [Raidleader] [Gandalf]: ... and um... get ready to pull that first group of orcs. Kill order is skull, x, circle... Gimli, can you offtank that cave troll?
World of Warcraft hits 9.3 million subscribers
by11.15.2007Like a burning crusade marching across the planet, World of Warcraft continues to expand with a population of 9.3 million subscribers. In late July, Blizzard announced that WoW reached the 9 million subscriber mark. All this player retention is fantastic for the game, but World of Warcraft is still an anomaly in the commercial MMORPG genre. If Lord of the Rings Online is in the number two spot like Turbine claims, they have yet to announce even hitting one million subscribers (they cover it smoothly by saying they have four million characters). Although, in all fairness, LotRO hasn't expanded into Asia yet -- that's where the real MMO money is. Blizzard's parent company Vivendi continues to reap the financial rewards of WoW's success as their sales continue to rise. With such massive retention rates on an MMO, we can only imagine what happens when Wrath of the Lich King, the next expansion for WoW, releases sometime next year. [Via Massively]
Forum Post of the Day: What will Arthas' catchphrase be?
by10.10.2007I think we were all impressed by The Burning Crusade trailer and Illidan's ominous "You are not prepared!" speech. However, since it has become quite obvious that some players were prepared for Illidan, Tweadle on the European forums is speculating on what Arthas' catchphrase will be in Wrath of the Lich King. "No, you definately aren't prepared this time!" perhaps? My personal favorite, however, is Aeus' suggestion, "Penguins took my epics"But what do you think we'll be hearing from Arthas when we see him in Wrath of the Lich King?
The Missing Diplomat might be found in Northrend
by10.08.2007We've talked quite a bit about Sylvanas and her history with Arthas in the past, but let's not forget that there is another woman Arthas has a nice long history with on the opposite faction: Jaina Proudmoore. Jaina's biggest moment in WoW is probably the Missing Diplomat quest-- after a long goose chase to find out where the lost King of Stormwind is, all you do is end up finding the man who betrayed him, and then Jaina thanks you and wishes you farewell. Wha? Players have always though the quest ended a little too quick, and Blizzard has admitted that they plan to continue the storyline at a later day.As in, during the next expansion. When a player asks what happened to Jaina and the Missing Diplomat, Drysc mysteriously says "Northrend holds many secrets, and many answers." So it's a good guess that we'll find out at least another piece of the puzzle to where the Lost King of Stormwind has gone.And it's also a pretty good guess that Jaina will be there, somehow. Despite the fact that she's pretty much the strongest leader the Alliance has, she's also pretty buddy-buddy with Thrall, and she's got that history with Arthas-- they were friends (and possibly romantically linked) before he went all power-crazy and possessed. There's no question that some of the answers we uncover in Northrend, whatever they may be, will involve Jaina Proudmoore.
WoW Moviewatch: World of Warcraft Raid Bosses
by10.05.2007"World of Warcraft Raid Bosses" dramatizes life on the other side of the screen for Arthas, Lady Vashj and Sylvanas Windrunner. Performed live at San Diego Comic Con last August, this WoW skit won the Judge's Choice award. Unfortunately, the video posted on YouTube was shot by someone in the audience and very little of the actors can be heard. I found a clean MP3 of the dialogue, replaced much of the bad audio of the original and reposted the video. My apologies to the original posters, but this play was far too entertaining to be ignored due to audio problems.If you'd like to see more Costume Plays, head to American CosPlay Paradise. For a transcript of the play, click over to this Livejournal entry.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
What will happen to the Scourge when Arthas dies?
by10.01.2007We've talked before about the question of what exactly will happen to Arthas, but it's looking pretty likely that we are going to be able to actually kill him in Wrath of the Lich King. This raises another interesting question however: Sincast asked over on the forums, "When Arthas is killed in-game does that mean that undead will be no more?..." Nethaera popped in right away to answer him... sorta:Interesting concept to think about isn't it? But does killing Arthas really mean the undead cease to exist? They existed when he was just a paladin didn't they? There are things to ponder here but most importantly... Does the Lich King cease to be when the vessel is destroyed?Although we have seen that Arthas and the Lich King are now "one," it remains to be seen what "one" really means for them. Are they two souls in one body? Is Arthas the flesh and the Lich King his armor? What kind of state would the Lich King exist in after Arthas was killed? What sort of threat would the Scourge pose at that point -- just fodder for new characters leveling up in future expansions perhaps?
Metzen on BC: "There was nothing really personal about it."
by09.29.2007The folks at World of Raids linked to this fascinating and disturbing interview with the folks at Blizzard about the upcoming expansion. Disturbing in a good way, to my mind, in that they talk about making the journey from 70 to 80 one of tough moral choices and twisted encounters with the Lich King himself, and fascinating because it talks about what the design team for the expansion learned from The Burning Crusade.Blizzard vice president of creative development Chris Metzen seems to be apologizing for it. "It had a lot of high-concept ideas, high-concept environments," he says, calling to mind the psychedelic mushrooms of Zangarmarsh, the tragic majesty of Tempest Keep, "but other than some really nice moments, there was nothing really personal about it."There's a lot more substance in the interview, although some of it is stuff we've seen before - Lake Wintergrasp PvP, flying mounts not working right away, Death Knights - but the insight into what they've learned and how they're approaching the mood and feel of the new expansion is, I think, worth a read in of itself. The way they intend to weave Arthas' journey into each player's experience, if it works, will be one of the most interesting things any MMO has ever done.
Azeroth's bad guys aren't always that bad
by09.25.2007Malygos is a new kind of antagonist for the Warcraft universe in that he's probably the enemy with the least actual evil we've seen so far, in sharp contrast to the Burning Legion, the Scourge, the Old Gods, and a host of others. As we've already noted, some players think he may actually be right: he wants to protect Azerothians from the magic they're dabbling in, for fear that they might end up bringing the Burning Legion back with it, except that he goes about "protecting" the people by waging war on them, which somehow eerily familiar.... Anyway, Malygos is just the latest example of an antagonist in WoW that we can almost sympathize with, a bad guy that isn't all that bad. Malygos' particular place at the other end of our attack buttons can be attributed mainly to his conflicting point of view rather than an evil and corrupted soul. His ultimate aim is still the greater good of all life -- he just believes (wrongfully, we hope) that he needs to destroy the minority of magic users in order to save the remaining majority of all other life on the world.
Should Death Knights get one runeblade for life?
by09.24.2007Drustai over on the European WoW forums has a good observation: death knights have always had a special relationship with their runeblades, using the same weapon for their whole life. Arthas is the classic example, since he and his sword, Frostmourne, are forever associated with one another. Could you imagine Arthas starting out as a level 55 death knight and then gradually replacing his low-level Frostmourne with something better? How then, could it work out with our player character death knights? Shouldn't they have their own sword for life too? Obviously though, working this out with the game's character progression would be difficult. You can't give an epic sword to a new character, nor can you keep an experienced character stuck with a non-upgradable, outdated weapon. There are many suggestions as to how to keep one blade throughout the character's life. Have a look at the original poster's favorite suggestion after the jump:
WoW Moviewatch: Rise of Illidan Stormrage
by09.13.2007Yesterday we saw the story of Arthas as he rose (or sank, some would say), from the holy paladin prince of Lordaeron to the most powerful evil person in Azeroth, lord of vast armies of mindless undead -- all recorded from the original Warcraft 3 cut-scenes. Today we bring you an similar piece that Sylvictus put together for The Burning Crusade, about Illidan's journey from down-in-the-dumps reject brother to the most powerful evil person in Outland, lord of mish-mashed groups of villians and misfits who really aren't as loyal to him as they seem. It doesn't actually begin from the real beginning of Illidan story -- you'll have to go to the Warcraft prequel novels to get that, but as far as the official in-game lore is concerned, this is real deal. Also keep in mind that the end isn't really the end for Illidan here. Illidan, too, is capable of doing a corpse run, and has acquired plenty of prime real estate in Outland to come home to. For those who are interested, the trailer for Blizzard's "Black Temple" patch also touched on Illidan's story, this time from the draenei Akama's point of view. It doesn't include Illidan's conflict with Arthas, but it sets the stage for the progression of the story within WoW.So if you've been playing The Burning Crusade all this time and wondering what the deal was with the big blind guy with horns and wings, here's the story of Illidan Stormrage straight from Warcraft 3.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
WoW Moviewatch: Rise of the Lich King
by09.12.2007We know that the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, will take us to Northrend to fight Arthas. But if you haven't played Warcraft 3 and The Frozen Throne and seen the story of how Arthas became the Lich King, you may well wonder what all the fuss is about. Blizzard released a three part series of short stories about the Rise of the Lich King, (and we have our own summary here at WoW Insider) but now there is a movie version as well. This is a compilation of machinima before machinima was an art form for the masses -- Blizzard used their own animated sprites within the game to tell the story, with good actors providing their voices in between (and sometimes during) battles. Sylvictus has recorded these scenes from Warcraft 3 and presented them here for us over at Warcraft Movies. Even though it clocks in at a whopping 52 minutes, Sylvictus said that he had to cut a lot of things out in order to keep the story even that short: Fall of Sylvanas and her freedom which lead to the founding of the Forsaken. Sylvanas betrayal and failed murder attempt on Arthas. The 3 dreadlords that takes control over Lordaeron as well as their war with Sylvanas. The perils Arthas and Anub'Arak faces in Azjol-nerub. The scenes with Sapphiron, most Muradin clips etc. Although I agree it's probably better to keep the movie to a manageable size, I would have personally liked to see this extra footage too. Perhaps one day Sylvictus will do an expanded version, or a movie all about Sylvanas. Keep in mind that you'll want to skip this if you intend on playing through Warcraft 3 and enjoying the story experience first hand. If you don't have the time or interest, however, you may enjoy this taste of what it's like.Previously on WoW Moviewatch...
Shattering the Frozen Throne
by08.30.2007Blizzard has posted the third (and supposedly final) chapter of the Rise of the Lich King story, called "Shattering the Frozen Throne." It covers Arthas' betrayal of his father, and his subsequent journey (through Illidan) to Northrend to the Frozen Throne of the Lich King.Call me a lore noob (I've been called worse), but for some reason I never connected Arthas' charge into Silvermoon with everything going down in the Ghostlands. I've played through the Blood Elf starter area a few times now, and while it's obvious the Scourge is there, I never actually realized it was Arthas who brought them through there. Interesting.And of course the story ends with Arthas "sealing his union" with the Lich King. We're still not sure (and maybe Blizzard isn't either) what exactly happened there-- did the Lich King completely possess Arthas, or did Arthas consume the Lich King? Are they still separate, and is there a chance we might still break Arthas free of the Lich King's influence? Blizzard has bolded, enlarged, and highlighted the "Now, we are one" quote, so it seems that a redemption for Arthas is unlikely, but Metzen hinted that we might be able to do exactly that at BlizzCon.At any rate, it seems we won't know the end of the story until we actually step up to the Frozen Throne ourselves.
More WotLK and future content info from Leipzig
by08.29.2007Monde Persistants, a French Warcraft site, has released their full interview with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan and Art Director Chris Robinson from last week's Leipzig Games Convention. Some of this information we already know, but there's quite a bit that was new to us. You can read the entire interview (in English!) and see the video at MP. Here's the summary of the new items: Part of the lore behind the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has Arthas trying to seduce players to the dark side, both Alliance and Horde. Part of the Death Knight lore will have them "break away" from the Lich King influence to be free agents, the way the Forsaken have broken away from being mindless undead. Death Knights will "probably" be able to inscribe any weapon with their Runes that give them power. Ulduar is going to be a new raid instance. It's controlled by storm giants and is a fortress of the Titans like Uldaman and Maruadon according to WoW lore. The Nerubians (spider guys) will host a few instances at the underground Azjol'Nerub. The Nexus will have a L70 5-man instance. The main boss in the CoT: Stratholme instance will be Mal'ganis. Possibly new daily quests introduced with the Sunwell Plateau patch (2.4?) Previous information gathered from Leipzig can be found here.Via World of Raids
Slaughtering? No, it's just burning down houses (with people inside?)
by08.29.2007When I first heard about the new Caverns of Time instance coming up in Wrath of the Lich King, where we go about helping the pre-lich king Arthas as he tries to "purify" the city of Stratholme, I heard other people jumping for joy, while I was feeling a bit of dread. When I played through that stage of Warcraft III, I remember that Arthas was already going down the proverbial moral hill, being ruthlessly indiscriminate as to whether the citizens had actually become undead or not. He didn't have much interest in helping them -- even if help was impossible, he didn't have any sympathy or hesitation in his slaughter.I understood that part in the game to show how he was already beginning to fall even before he went to Northrend and picked up Frostmourne. I was pressing the buttons that killed those digital Stratholmians, but I also knew that I was just advancing the plot of a story, even if I didn't approve of the action. If the same scene appears in the Caverns of Time however, then this is not, in my mind, merely advancing the plot. This is my character taking part in activities that I myself would never condone. Slaughtering almost-but-not-yet-undead families feels a little too close to home to me. "They're doomed anyway so might as well slash them to ribbons?" That inhuman attitude is sometimes used in real life to do horrible things, and it's quite chilling.Well, Blizzard CM Bornakk would disagree with me: "Slaughtering is a strong word," he says, "maybe it would be better to say that you are aiding the pround Prince Arthas in Straholme [sic] as he uses his divine Paladin powers to purify the streets of vile evil undead creatures ... and burns down houses." Well, I'm glad not to be hacking defenseless mothers, fathers and children apart myself, but burning down their homes is a serious thing, particularly if the houses to be burned are supposed to have these not-yet-undead families inside of them. For Arthas to do that in the story of his corruption is one thing, but for my character to help him is totally different.Now, admittedly you could argue that one of the existing CoT instances has us helping Medivh open a portal for orcs to come and rampage lots and lots of people, and yes technically that's an evil thing to do. But there's a big step between opening fantasy portals and burning down houses that are supposed to have families inside them. Does anyone else see a problem here? [Also, as a side note, the thread in which Bornakk tells us that slaughtering is a strong word actually begins with a really funny idea for another CoT instance, "Back to the Future," which is worth checking out.]