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BlizzCast cometh
Podcast, vidcast, streamed content, or just the show: whatever you want to call the "new media" uprising. I welcome any of our overlords that enter the leet infoz arena. Blizzard has finally acknowledged the need to get with the times by launching a video podcast. BlizzCast is set to kick off the first week in January and will be produced by Blizzard. Viewers can expect hullabaloo from various Starcraft 2 and WoW developers with some Q&A rounds thrown into the mix and will top it off with glorious prizes. We do prizes too. We know you love them. I guess Blizzard is testing the waters, and will be keeping a close eye on how the show is received. If it doesn't take off the show might fizzle into obscurity. The first episode will see two developers yakking it up: Interview with Sam Didier (Art Director SCII): Concept Art for the StarCraft and Warcraft Franchises Interview with Jeff Kaplan (Lead Designer WoW): Highlights of Sunwell Plateau and Patch 2.4
World of Warcraft comic #1 gets a second printing
People sure do love their World of Warcraft, in whatever form they can get their hands on it. The first WoW comic sold out incredibly fast, and now DC comics has arranged for a second printing of "World of Warcraft #1" that will feature a new black and white version of Jim Lee's cover illustration.You can expect this second printing to be in stores on January the 4th, and you'll probably want to plan ahead or get in quick if you ever want to see one of these in the flesh. As vice president of creative development at Blizzard Entertainment Chris Metzen puts it, "From how quickly the first printing sold out, it's clear that comics fans and World of Warcraft players are also liking what they're seeing."[Via WoW Insider]
World of Warcraft to invade Russia
World of Warcraft is literally taking over the world one country at a time. It turns out Blizzard Entertainment, the Vivendi money-maker see great potential in the Russian market and will be translating and localizing World of Warcraft there next. This will be the sixth official World of Warcraft port to another language that supports official localization. Other localizations include: English, Spanish, French, German, and Korean. I think the next localization should be Barrens chat. Blizzard could build their own country out of money and call it the Barrens, and all the players that don't read quests and like Chuck Norris jokes can live and play WoW there. Translating and localizing the behemoth that is World of Warcraft is no easy undertaking, and Blizzard Europe is looking for new employees based out of their France and Ireland offices. Take your pick of in-game support, offline technical and customer support, localization and quality assurance, community relations and website development. Players will benefit from the same quality of 24/7 native-language support like the other localizations. For further information please see the Blizzard UK employment page. For those in Russia already playing WoW, Blizzard will release language packs to make the transition much more smoothly when the time comes. Which country has the best official World of Warcraft site? If I could actually read and completely load the WoW Korean website I could give you my input. What I can see does look flashy. [via, WoW Insider]
WoW commercials: Jean-Claude Van Damme and Willy Toledo editions
I have no shame reblogging the new WoW commercials. Van Damme apparently plays a well... He needs to reroll, what a noob."My name is Jean-Claude Van Damme... and I am a mage. Hand-to-hand combat for me: it's over! Now I can cast powerful spells! Just try messing with me... I'll turn you into a sheep. A sheep! Because we all are a bit like sheep, you know... I am Jean-Claude Van Damme, I am a mage. And you? What's your game?"Mages are nothing but vending machines and sheepish freaks. I was expecting some high roundhouse kicks in there -- at least he picked a Troll. Donjohn, commented at WoW Insider, providing some additional notes that pertain to the inside-jokes for zi'French. Van Damme frequently uses English words in his oft-butchered French sentences The line on everyone being like sheep might tie into numerous interviews with JCVD's rhapsodic views about the world [Willy Toledo and further comments after the break]
The Daily Grind: Not there and repeatedly back again
"I think I'll cancel for awhile, why the heck not?" We've all shared that brooding thought at one time or another when it comes to our favorite MMOGs. Take your pick from the reason tree: the game cleaves your brain matter with boredom; various lovers to herd, or the one significant other to placate; the expansion or patch won't be out until the end-of-days; real-life aggro's and it slays your played time; thousands of others. Eventually, you're back trundling about in that same MMOG again. It can be a brutal, and yet, hilarious cycle. I think my break and return record is probably around a dozen times with EverQuest. I was finally able to drop it for good when a shiny alpha invite popped up in the mail one day inviting me to a new magical enchanted land called WoW. Admittedly, not to make this post a debate between which MMOG is the best, I suffered a huge case of burnout -- raiding tastes like burning after you eat it for a few years no matter what MMOG you play.How many times have you taken a break from a MMOG only to return again later? What were your reasons? Did you actually quit for good only to return later for a specific reason? "They fixed my class! Count me back." 10 months later a flurry of nerfs strike. "I'm out!" Good times.
The Daily Grind: Will you ditch work or school to play WoW on 2.3 patch day?
Do we have any World of Warcraft players reading Massively? I see a few hands, alright a few thousand, put em down already. If you haven't marked your calendars yet, I'm sending you another memo that states patch 2.3 is set to go live in North America on November 13th, next Tuesday -- print that out, instant-memo. I was sifting through the 2.3 patch notes, and it turns out they are over 9,000 words in length. It's humongous, there's so much added content that's being crowbarred into this patch they might as well call it World of Warcraft II, maybe that's the next-gen MMOG Blizzard is working on. hah. So, with the patch day officially set-in-stone, what about that sick-leave you got built-up, how about cashing it in for some WoW time and skipping out on work or school -- what creative excuse will you try and slip on your boss? I broke my X backbone won't work, I already tried it. Then there's always the risk your vacation won't happen as planned because the patch flopped and the servers are flat-lining along with your character, and before you know it, emergency maintenance is extended for the rest of the day. I tend to only take a work day off for an expansion and never a patch, but Blizzard takes so long with these patches that they are like mini-expansions. Patch days are like holidays, heck, better than some holidays. So, what will it be: Are you taking the day off, or no way, you are "ready to work" as the peons say? As for you students, are you going to be cool and stay in school?
World of Warcraft Online Atlas - for the directionally challenged
Can't find your way back to Stormwind after a long starry trek across Azeorth? Are you still swimming circles in Booty Bay trying to find the Outlands? Looking for a new instance to hunt in because you are too lazy to read your quest log? If you answered yes to all three questions, then you need the World of Warcraft Online Atlas! Blizzard has decided to make World of Warcraft easier than ever before, (is that even possible? -- surely I jest), with this online flash-based interactive map atlas that shows various points of interests: towns, cities, dungeons and further details on level ranges and town accommodations. The map is well done, but a bit basic for my taste, I'm more of an old-school dead-tree atlas kind-of-guy myself. The music is a tad redundant, but you can shut it off. To be critical, one thing I'd love to see with an interactive map like this is the ability to calculate distance between points, the actual measurement from point a to point b. Normally the only way to gauge the actual size of a Virtual World is through a wacky formula and some serious trial and error, even then the results are never 100% correct. Something on that scale done by Blizzard would be quite magnific for armchair cartographers everywhere. It'd also be neat if the map showed spawn area densities and percentages on item drops per region including different tradeskill spawns, because I'm a data nerd, and well, I want that information official and it'd look all nice and snazzy on their interactive map. To give Blizzard some credit when it comes to in-game statistics, they already track a bunch of interesting data and share it on their Game Statistics page. Haha. The Voidwalker still takes the most dangerous creature crown! Eat it Felguard.
GameStop starts WoW: Wrath of Lich King pre-orders
There may not be an official Blizzard date for Wrath of the Lich King, or even technically a price, but there is a name ... and where there's a name, there's a pre-order! GameStop has opened up pre-orders for the next expansion in the World or Warcraft that'll bring it back to the old skool Warcraft III plot line and have adventurers heading to Northrend to kill (or maybe bring redemption to) Prince Arthas. The price for the expansion is currently listed at $39.99, which is a safe bet considering that was the cost of The Burning Crusade. Although who are we to fight if Blizzard decided to drop that price by a measly $10. It's not like they need the money.
BlizzCon: What we know about the new Death Knight class
With the now announced and confirmed World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion comes a new Hero Class character, the Death Knight. But what do we know about it? The short answer is "not very much." The longer answer is, "a few things, but still not very much." The most asked question seems to be, "Can he summon minions to fight with him?" because in the video, they show him reviving corpses or something to that effect. The answer is yes, you'll be able to summon minions, a la Overlord, to help you fight. However, according to Tom Chilton, one of the lead designers for World of Warcraft, "We don't want the Death Knight to be a sort of minion-based fighter. He's focused towards bladed weapons and smashing your head in." They did at least let us know that they plan on bringing the Death Knight to all character classes, which caused someone to shout out "GNOME DEATH KNIGHTS FOR THE WIN!" Check out the official Death Knight FAQ from Blizzard by follwing that Read link. There's no release date yet, so you'll have plenty of time to dissect, complain, and drool in the intervening months. %Gallery-5511%
World of Warcraft: The Wrath of the Lich King trailer & first screens
Unveiled at the BlizzCon opening ceremony (though leaked earlier this morning via a conference pamphlet), Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft expansion The Wrath of the Lich King is poised to feed your MMO addiction further. Check out the trailer yourself and enjoy this teaser. %Gallery-5511%
Picture proof: 'Wrath of the Lich King' is new WoW expansion
[Update: WoW Insider's crack team of bloggers has further picture proof, a snap of a Wrath of the Lich King shirt on the back of a Blizzard employee ... that certainly sounds definitive to us (take that IGN!). We'll be liveblogging the Opening Ceremony, scheduled to start at 2pm EDT, so check back.] World of Raids has snagged a convincing slice of evidence that details the assumed World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. The pamphlet, allegedly on display at BlizzCon, includes this tell-all features list: The dark, necromatic Death Knight, the first new character class added to World of Warcraft since its launch Northrend, the harsh, icy continent where the Lich King holds rule, complete with new zones, quests, items and monsters New level cap of 80 providing access to mighty new powers and talents New battlegrounds featuring siege engine warfare and destructible buildings Expanding character customization options including new hairstyles & dances, the ability to change the hairstyles of existing characters, and new skin color variants Watch this space for further developments at BlizzCon. [Via Evil Avatar]
Germans rate 'WoW: Wrath of the Lich King'
The German (we truly do love using this word) Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) ratings board, their equivalent of the ESRB, has rated a game called "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (GC-Demo)" for ages 12 and up. The rating was given on July 30, 2007 and the title of the game pretty much gives away that it's the name of the next WoW expansion. The demo was probably given to the German ratings board in preparation for Leipzig's Games Convention in three weeks -- so those who couldn't get their tickets for BlizzCon, there's always Leipzig. This bit of information alluding that the next WoW expansion will have players going to Northrend goes with mounting evidence gathered by WoW Insider and the rumor that the Video Games Live orchestra will be playing pieces titled "Northrend" at a BlizzCon concert. Considering the fallen Prince Arthas from Warcraft III is the Lich King who sits on the Frozen Throne in Northrend, we're going to take a leap and say that WoW players will be exploring the lands to the north once this expansion hits ... you know, whenever that is, 'cause it's Blizzard and any guesstimate of a date would be pointless.
World of Warcraft player activity in decline
Whereas some console are only being predicted to have a downfall, the real estate market for Blizzard megaton World of Warcraft is down as players appear to be deserting the MMO. A concurrent player activity census compiled by a Warcraft Realms site admin reveals a steady decline in the US and European market since peaking in February 2007. Before anyone starts championing these statistics as the end of WoW's reign, let's take a logical approach to the data. Player activity spiked in January 2007, when The Burning Crusade came out with inordinate publicity for the game. No doubt many gamers with little interest in MMO tried out the title then based on its hype and then slowly moved onto something else. The census does not take into account other markets such as China, Korea and Japan. Current activity is still higher than pre-Burning Crusade levels by a decent margin and, if the trend continues at a somewhat linear pace, we suspect World of Warcraft player activity won't be at those levels again for another six to eight months. Now, if the MMO continues to decline, or reaches a level where it might actually have sizable competition, then perhaps Blizzard should consider another expansion to keep the hype going. [Via WoW Insider]
Upcoming Blizzard announcement to be a new Starcraft?
With the countdown continuing on Blizzard's homepage, there's plenty of speculation on what Blizzard is cooking up. Warcraft 4? Starcraft 2? Diablo 3? I'm staying out of the speculation game, myself -- as much as we might guess and hope for a specific product, Blizzard is good at throwing us surprises. However, the Starcraft 2 rumors are growing in volume, fueled by the recent discovery of a Starcraft2.com page owned by Blizzard Entertainment which redirects viewers to Blizzard's main site. Gamespot went live with the story on Tuesday, and since then I've heard it just about everywhere. Reports of it are crowding my inbox. Barrens chat can't stop talking about it. And Blizzard rumors even seem to dominate OOC chat in Lord of the Rings Online. But is this really a sign that we're going to be hearing all about Starcraft 2 this weekend?My magic 8-ball has informed me signs point to no. Or even if Starcraft 2 is what we're going to hear -- this isn't really a sign of it. The domain record from Network Solutions tells us that Blizzard has owned Starcraft2.com since 1999 and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows the page redirecting to Blizzard's main home page since at least 2002. Starcraft2.com is neither new nor has it recently changed. No, Blizzard doesn't own Diablo3.com (it's a Diablo 3 news site), Warcraft4.com (an advertisement site), WorldofStarcraft.com (a German WoW site), or WorldofDiablo.com (a German Diablo site). But does the fact that they've owned Starcraft2.com for eight years now mean anything relevant to the coming announcement? I think not.[Thanks to numerous tipsters]
Blizzard planning a new MMO -- but which one?
Hot on the heels of rumors that Blizzard might be announcing a Starcraft 2 in the near future, job postings are springing up on Blizzard's web site seeking people for a "Next-Gen MMO" project. World of Starcraft, maybe?World of Warcraft 2? (Though it seems early for a sequel, with Blizzard's development cycle you never know.) World of Diablo? There's no details of yet, which just leaves plenty of room for uninformed speculation. But f you think you have what it takes to work for Blizzard as a Lead Engine Programmer, Lead Tools Programmer, or Lead Technical Artist, it's time to polish up your resume.
Blizzard opening customer support center in Austin, TX
For those of you hoping to score an exciting job in customer service for Blizzard, but not really wanting to move all the way out to Irvine, CA, you now have another option. The Austin Business Journal is reporting that Blizzard is opening a facility in Austin, TX that could eventually house around 500 employees, consisting of gaming support, quality control, and internal support staff. If you happen to be in the area, they're currently accepting resumes for customer service representatives. I'm in the area, but if the amount of angry forum posts I see on a daily basis are any indication, I'm not sure I could take the sort of abuse Blizzard's CSRs probably deal with. At least not for 40 hours every week!
WoW's Burning Crusade sells 3.5 million
Released in Europe, Canada, and the United States on January 16, World of Warcraft expansion pack The Burning Crusade has topped the 3.5 million sales mark. That's one copy for every man, woman, and child in Casablanca and is half a million more than the population of Armenia. Over 2.4 million of those sales took place on release day alone. Nearly 8.5 million people in the world (and it's safe to assume the galaxy) are subscribed to the MMORPG, and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Blizzard officials were unavailable for comment, but were spotted sunning on their private yachts, Speedos stuffed with cash.
Blizzard just says no to consoles (or do they?)
Our friends at Joystiq have pointed out an interview with Blizzard's VP of business development, Itzik Ben Bassat, at GameIndustry.biz. In it, he again confirms yearly expansions -- though he didn't let slip any details on what we might see in the next one. However, he has some interesting things to say about gaming consoles, summed up in this quote:Consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room... We'll have to see how all this develops. Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.No plans to bring World of Warcraft to the console market, then? Bassat says there are no plans to bring the game to consoles, though Blizzard is keeping a close eye on the next gen machines, especially their online services. And he has nothing but good to say about Xbox Live Arcade:I'm very impressed, I'm impressed by the people who do it, and the service is very easy, very intuitive. I love it.Is anyone else getting mixed signals here?
WoW: 2.4 million Burning Crusade copies sold in 24 hours
According to Blizzard, and based on reports from select distributors, 2.4 million copies of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade were sold worldwide in the expansion set's first 24 hours at retail. With an estimated combined total of 2.3 million copies sold in North America and Europe, Burning Crusade has become the fastest-selling PC "game" (it's technically an expansion) ever in the two regions. Despite lines forming, overcrowding, and server instability, 1.7 million North American and European players managed to log in and upgrade to Burning Crusade status by the end of the first day (just hours before Gullerbone reached level 70). The worldwide release, which also included Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, followed by Australia and New Zealand, was not without its distribution blunders. Romania, home to more than 10,000 WoW account holders, was sent a mere 1,600 copies of the expansion (even though Blizzard supplied roughly 4 million copies worldwide). Still, the launch marks a great, albeit anticipated success for Blizzard, and will no doubt drive WoW's dominance for months to come.
Join the Burning Crusade from within the Ergopod
Though it's intended to meet the needs of overworked graphic designers or computers users with physical constraints, the Ergopod seems like the ultimate tool for those World of Warcraft players who simply must reach level 70 in one sitting. In fact, there's no need for sitting at all. Lying down in bed with your equipment eerily hovering above you will do just fine. The Ergopod (likely named for its ergonomic qualities and not its ability to logically present arguments) supports several other, less horizontal positions, but the effort required to make use of them just seems so daunting now. [Via Boing Boing]
