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Wowhead offers another chance to win Tyrael
Do you still need a Wrath of the Lich King beta key? Or perhaps you covet your very own mini-Tyrael (which you can now bestow on all your characters)? If so, you may want to check out Wowhead's latest contest, which is once again giving away cards from the Worldwide Invitational with codes for the LK beta and for Tyraels. Happily, this one is open to both EU and US. It's happening today, starting at 4:00 EST (1:00 PST), which is just under two hours from now. It's a similar format to their previous contest (which unfortunately had to be cancelled), but with a twist: The goal is to identify five screenshots, figuring out which exact Wowhead pages those screenshots are displayed on. When you get all five answers, put the URLs of the Wowhead pages corresponding to the screenshots in an email to contest@wowhead.com. Make sure your answers are in order. At 4:00, a heavily altered version of the screenshots are posted (seems to be run through a random Photoshop filter). This is phase one, and if anyone could recognize a phase one screenshot, I'd be amazed (see above for an example). At 4:20 (phase two), the images are posted in a slightly less altered form, though they're still pretty hard to recognize. At 4:40, for phase three, the images are brought even closer to their original form. In yesterday's round, the winning entries were sent within two minutes after phase three started. At 5:00, the original images are posted. The first five people to email in a correct set of answers will receive a WWI card. To see yesterday's pictures, including the answer to what the heck the screenshot above is (no, I'm not going to give it away here), check out the contest thread on the Wowhead forums. That's also where today's screenshots are going to be posted, starting at 4:00 EST (1:00 PST). Get ready!
WoWlympics closing ceremonies today
Well, sort of. Our favorite wiki celebrates the recently concluded Olympics in Beijing by hosting a Worldwide Invitational card giveaway (which has a Beta key and Tyrael pet) called the WoWlympics which ends today at 11:00pm UTC. The contest is fairly simple -- visit their site and look for clues that jump from one page to the other. It's a fun, informative scavenger hunt that won't take ten minutes (alright, I'm lying, it took me about an hour or two because I got completely stumped with No. 2). Have fun with it and try not to cheat and look for the answers all over the web, although lore nerds might find it a real breeze. This is one of your last chances to get into the Wrath of the Lich King Beta, as well as one of the very few chances you'll get to own a dancing miniature angel, so shoot the guys over at WoWWiki an e-mail before 11:00pm UTC. Tell 'em we sent ya.
Wowhead Beta key contest cancelled
Wowhead has put up an announcement this afternoon that the beta key contest they were running has been cancelled. The announcement tells us that the distribution of the keys were exploited. Though there is no official word on what exactly the exploitation was, there is some unconfirmed talk about the beta keys being ebayed.This is most unfortunate for those wishing to participate. Malgayne, the "Voice of Wowhead," does go on to say however that the remaining prizes will be given away using a different method soon. We'll get any more news up on this as soon as it becomes available.
Win beta keys and Tyraels from Wowhead
It's just one contest after another for the good people at Wowhead. They just wrapped up their Olympics contest for some Wrath beta keys. Not to be outdone by themselves, their newest contest is giving away WWI goodie bag cards, which means a Wrath beta invite and a Tyrael pet for each of 20 winners. And the grand prize is a FigurePrint for one lucky competitor. So what do you have to do for these fabulous prizes? For today and the next three days after (that's August 21, 22, 23, and 24), at 10 AM pacific time (1 PM Eastern), Wowhead is going to post five screenshots in the contest thread, without telling you what they are screenshots of. Your task is to identify them all; the first five people to correctly identify all the pictures each day will get a WWI card. Send your responses to contest@wowhead.com, with the Wowhead URLs, in order, of the things in the screenshots. You must list all five URLs, and no extras. On the fifth day of the contest (August 25), the FigurePrint competition will be revealed. And European readers will be pleased to note that these prizes work for both US and EU accounts. The first round of screenshots should be up in about fifteen minutes; keep an eye on the forum thread.
WoWWiki Olympics is underway
With about a week left to go in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, our favorite wiki WoWwiki gets with the Olympic spirit and holds the WoWlympics, a scavenger hunt-type contest over at their site. With the help of Blizzard, WoWWiki is giving away five Wrath of the Lich King US Beta keys and twenty Worldwide Invitational cards which contain the codes for EU Beta keys and the Tyrael vanity pet. Both US and EU Beta keys can be converted for use between regions as necessary.The WoWlympics kick off with Clopper Wizbang asking players to search the site for five missing items, each located on a WoWwiki page, providing clues along the way. Each item or wiki page is worth one entry to the WoWlympics sweepstakes, with a bonus three entries for finding all five -- a total of eight entries eligible for the grand draw. You've got until the 25th of August to find all five rings -- and if you're stumped, you might just need the help of a lore nerd. If you're a sucker for scavenger hunts, eager to get into Beta, or want a mini-avenging angel, head on over to WoWwiki's WoWlympics page and get started!
Win beta keys in Wowhead olympics
The Olympics are on both in Azeroth and in real life right now. And Wowhead has gotten into the spirit of the games: they're offering users the chance to win one of five lovely Wrath of the Lich King beta keys! What do you have to do for a chance to get your hands on one? Simply go to the contest thread in the Wowhead forums, and post your idea for an Olympics-themed achievement. An example given is "High Dive: Fall 65 yards or more into water, without suffering any fall damage." Winners will be chosen randomly from the thread, one per day for the next five days (starting tomorrow). A few caveats: You have to have a US WoW account to use the beta key (sorry, European readers). Only one entry per person – you can put in multiple ideas if you want, but just put them in one post. This will not raise your chances of winning. Achievements must have an Olympic theme. Only entries go in the contest thread. Don't post on multiple Wowhead accounts, or the folks at Wowhead will feed you to Magmadar. Be nice – don't steal other posters' ideas. Be creative; spammy entries will be deleted. That said, go forth and compete! Good luck.
WoW Radio Pass the Torch contest on August 8
If you're not completely holed up in a cave somewhere, you're probably aware that some big sports event called the Olympics is happening in August. Of course, August also marks the start of a new season for our friends over at WoW Radio, who are holding a contest to celebrate their onslaught of shows. In keeping with the Olympics, WoW Radio is calling their August contest "Pass the Torch", and are giving away twenty (!) Worldwide Invitational cards as prizes. Just in case you didn't know, those cards contain the codes for a key to the Wrath Beta and a mini-Tyrael pet. How do you join? Simple. Listen to their radio shows! Starting August 8 (or what the Chinese consider to be the lucky 08/08/08), five of their radio shows will be their torch-bearers. During each show, there'll be an 'Olympic ring' -- you'll know them when you hear them, according to WoW Radio -- containing a secret word. The five secret words will form a phrase, which you should then send to their e-mail address to be entered in their grand prize draw. Winners will be announced on the 15th of August on Blue Plz! Head on over to WoW Radio now and keep an ear out for those secret words!
Pick-up your beta key
For a while, co-lead Schramm was searching for good WoW jokes. We seemed to come up short on things that were both clever and funny. Pick up lines, on the other hand, are more common. The in-game /flirt function ranges from corny to crass. Do you think you could do better? Varanis of Silvermoon (NSFW) said in the Wrath forums that he's willing to pony up his beta key to the best WoW pick-up line. Whether or not there's truly a beta key involved many have joined in the sport. Some of the lines are pretty crass and others miss the WoW component, but there are some real gems in there. Some of my favorites are:
WoW Insider Show Episode 48: We just can't wait for Lich King
Our latest podcast is now up for your listening enjoyment, but beware: there's an aural bomb hidden inside it -- as we suggested last week, if you listen to the show, you just may hear not only Turpster's famous singing voice, but mine and John Patricelli's as well. Please note: WoW Insider can not be held responsible for any trauma caused by hearing our "Just Can't Wait for Lich King" song. It is scary. We also chatted about achievements and why I can't wait for them. And I forgot to mention: the best thing about achievements? Blizzard is giving us another ding graphic for them, this time white! I love that graphic! We talked about the Authenticator, and how it's not quite as secure as everything thought. We all agreed that the mounts and small pets getting out of our bags was a great change. Turpster told us about his experience playing the Wrath beta so far and what he thinks of Death Knights and the new zones. And we answered a lot of emails: we talked about /played time and why it shouldn't be completely embarrassing, and why raiding isn't quite yet done before the next expansion. Oh, and we did give away a beta key, direct from Turpster's goodie bag at WWI. We've selected a winner in our contest already, so if you didn't enter, time is up (that's why we said to listen to the show last week!), and if you did enter, check your email.And finally, Turpster has not yet posted the mp3 of our song (though I'm not sure why you'd want to listen to it any more than you have to), but dotOrion on the WoW Radio forums has cut it directly out of the podcast recording, so if you really want an MP3 of the tune (for blackmail purposes or anything else you need it for), there you go.
Blizzard confirms Beta invites to opt-ins on their way
Blizzard poster Belfaire has confirmed over at the forums that the first wave of Beta keys for subscribers who have opted in have been sent out. If you opted in, you might want to check your inbox for a Beta key as Blizzard has said that the invites are random. If you're one of the lucky few, you just might be roaming the new (but not necessarily improved -- we hear there are lots of bugs, and not the Silithus kind) build of the Beta. If you didn't get a Beta key, fret not as Belfaire also mentioned succeeding waves but did not give an ETA. You can check out WoW Insider's extensive beta coverage while you wait.
Forum post of the day: Beta buying blues
Now that Blizzard has confirmed that beta keys from Blizzcon 07 and Worldwide Invitation 08 will be used to get into the Wrath of the Lich King test, they've become a pretty hot commodity. Sure they're for sale on eBay ranging from about $200 to $600, but what are they worth. I kind of wish I'd been able to go to one of those events to guarantee a spot in the beta. This same thing happened during the beta release of the Burning Crusade. Cheesytacos of Dragonblight thinks it's unfair to folks who win the beta lottery that folks are selling their beta keys for profit. For those willing to part with their keys, the sale price is at least worth the price of admission. I have to admit, it's well, annoying that folks who went to Blizzard's little soirées are granted passes into the new content. We come across the issue of property ownership many times in WoW. In general the assumption is that all things WoW are not actually the property of the players but of Blizzard. Are beta keys the property of the key holders to do with what they please until activation?
How to constantly check your email for a Beta invite
If you're like me, you're constantly refreshing your email box right now waiting for a beta invite. Also if you're like me, you'll probably get bored eventually and go find some Horde to kill in a Batteground. After all, taking out your aggression on Orcs is what it's all about. But after that PvP session, you'll probably go right back to checking.There's a few key things you can do to constantly check your email and make sure you know when the beta key comes. Let's take a look at them.Press F5That's the magic refresh key. It works on all browsers, and is a throwback to the old days of computers.Press Control-R or Apple-RDoes the same thing as F5.Auto check your email every minuteMost email programs allow you to "grab" email off the server as often as every minute. This is how I have my clients setup, and it will more or less let you know as soon as you get an email.
Jumpgate Evolution dev chat to commence June 9th
At 5:00 PM EST on Monday, June 9th, Stratics will host a live chat with several members of the Jumpgate Evolution team -- including producer Hermann Peterscheck, concept artist Kirk Lunsford, community manager Nicole Hamlett, and UI programmer Josh Stefanski. Stratics will also be giving away a beta key and a limited edition print to two lucky participants.The chat will take place in the #straticshoc channel on Stratics IRC. You can use your own IRC client or the Java one provided by the site. A list of servers and ports is included along with further instructions in the announcement, in case you're not a regular.
Draw Frostmourne, win fabulous prizes
You know, I've always wanted a bit more drawing talent, but never more so than right now, as Blizzard has just announced a new fanart contest. They're looking for the best European fanart of Arthas wielding Frostmourne. The entries will be judged by a panel of developers, and if you win, you'll not only receive one of Epic Weapons' Frostmourne Replicas, but a guaranteed slot in the upcoming beta for WoTLK. 2nd and 3rd place runners up will also receive a slot in the beta. It should be noted that the contest is currently being announced on the European site, and the rules state that the contest is open only to residents of France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, or Ireland. There doesn't appear to be any word yet on whether we'll get an American version of the contest, but here's hoping we see that soon. It seems likely that Blizzard had to create two seperate contests because of legal requirements, and is still working on getting the US version up. Check out Blizzard's official announcement here and the official rules here. EDIT: The American version of this contest can be found here. [Thanks to all our tipsters for sending this in!]
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational gets a goody bag
Preparations for the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational are in full swing. Tickets are on sale for the event, which will take place on June 28th and 29th in Paris, France. Of course, your ticket gives you access to both days, but what Blizzard event ticket wouldn't be complete without a good old fashioned goody bag? Blizzard goody bags usually contains some pretty awesome swag (check out the contents of the Blizzcon '07 goody bag if you need a refresher), and it looks like this bag won't be any different. So far, Blizzard has revealed that you can expect to find a beta key for an upcoming Blizzard game and an exclusive in-game pet for the World of Warcraft in your bag. There's no word on which game the beta will be, which makes me wonder if it might even be an as yet unannounced title. After all, They've told us that Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King will be playable at the event, so it might be a bit late to hand out beta keys for those games. Then again, perhaps I'm just really, really wishing for a new Diablo game. They're keeping mum on the identity of the in-game pet so far as well. We've already had 2 Murloc-related rewards from the Blizzcons, so with Wrath of the Lich King coming out, perhaps we'll see a pet Gorloc. Then again, Murlocs might be a little played out, so I'm going to root for a penguin, I think. Blizzard's promised to reveal more about the contents of the goody bag as the date of the Invitational draws nearer, so hopefully we'll have more news for you on that front soon. Of course, if the goody bag alone isn't quite enough, Blizzard's promised that there will be exclusive commemorative swag to win in contests or buy at the event as well, just like at last year's Blizzcon. Be sure to keep your browser tuned right here to WoW Insider, we'll let you in on all future loot announcements and all the Worldwide Invitational news as it happens.
Promotion code grants 20% off ticket price for Connect '08
Codemasters' brand new European gaming event Connect 2008 is a little over a month away, and if you've been on the fence about whether to make it out to the Omega Sektor indoor gaming center, LotroLife.com has a deal that might just make your mind up for you. Visit their Connect '08 promotion page, click a magic button, and voila! A promotional code that grants 20% off your ticket purchase is all yours.Certainly one of the best reasons to attend the convention will be the chance to get your hands on Jumpgate Evolution, with the game being featured on all the computers at the Omega Sektor, and NetDevil will have developers on hand to answer questions -- not to mention, all attendees walk out the door with a JGE beta key. This, on top of all the other games and developers/producers that will be there (which now includes specia guests Jeffrey Steefel of Lord of the Rings Online and Kate Paiz of Dungeons and Dragons Online), leads us to believe that Connect '08 is going to have a stellar debut.
WoW Radio announces WoW Idol 2008
WoW Radio (home of our increasingly popular podcast) sends along a note that they've announced another round of WoW Idol, a contest to find the best WoW-related song their listeners can come up with. They're looking for both original work, and WoW parodies of popular songs, and the deadline is Friday the 18th of January. After that, the songs will be posted on their site (and played on air), and the finalists will be narrowed down to five winners, including three critics' choices, one popular choice, and a worst/most embarrassing winner. Sounds like a lot of fun (get it? "sounds"? ha!).And the prizes have notably improved from the last go-around-- you could win a signed poster, t-shirts, and everyone (including the worst winner) gets a BlizzCon beta key/murloc suit card. Hot! They're looking for songs 3-5 minutes long and related to World of Warcraft in some way-- send your submission to "wowidol AT wcradio dot com".Can't wait to hear the entries-- if any of them happen to be related to WoW Insider, we'll have to ask WoW Radio to let us play them on our podcast as well. If you plan to enter, good luck!
Is the Beta Key for Starcraft II or WotLK?
BlizzCon 2007 attendees received a card when they got their goody bags. This card was separate from the bag and we were all told not to lose it because we weren't getting another one. The card contains the code for the Murloc Suit and a Beta Key for "Future Blizzard Title".No indication was given during the con as to what the Beta Key was for. And now Morgal has asked for an answer on the forums. Nethaera responds:Undetermined as of yet.Assumptions were made before the leaks about the expansion that the key would definitely be for Starcraft II, but now with parts of Wrath of the Lich King already playable, perhaps the Beta Key is for the expansion?There's a small hope in my heart for the unannounced Diablo 3, but that's just silly. Do you think that Blizzard has actually not decided which game the key is for? Which game would you like to beta test?
Starcraft 2 beta keys for all Blizzcon visitors?
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Starcraft_2_beta_keys_for_all_BlizzCon_visitors'; Details are surfacing about the fun and games that is Blizzcon 2007. Today, Blizzard announced some of the swag that you can expect when you attend this August.First up, is the revelation that every attendee will receive a beta key to "an upcoming Blizzard game." Hmm, I wonder what that game could be. Now, I'm not saying for certain that it is Starcraft 2, it may be the next WoW expansion. But I think it's a safe bet that you'll be zipping up a spacesuit and picking up a blaster bigger than your grandmother's station wagon after this convention is over.Next up is a unique item no one expected to see. Every Blizzcon attendee will receive a special passcode. Once in-game, the passcode can be redeemed for, drumroll please, a murloc suit for one of you characters. Good for the spirited RP event or for spicing up the dragging-on-until-you-want-to-/gquit guild meeting. Maybe even handy for that next machinima piece you were brainstorming. More swag to be announced in the future. So, what do you guys think? Is a Starcraft 2 beta key in your future?
What are the chances of getting a Burning Crusade beta key?
Well, according to Drysc on the WoW.com forums, not very good. They have no plans to offer any more keys at this time, although they possibly will offer more beta passes in the future. If they do, it will likely be via contests or drawings on their own site, or possibly fan sites.Not shocking news. From my own personal viewpoint, I am not that disappointed. Sure, I'd like to take the new car out for a spin before anyone else, but at the same time, I am looking forward to hitting the new content unspoiled with my guild. Although don't take it the wrong way. I'd be MORE than happy to take a beta key off of Blizzard's hands.
