blizzard-worldwide-invitational
Latest
Join WoW Insider on Xfire, 1800 CEST
If you're a speedy reader, you've got a few minutes to get yourselves down to Xfire. We'll be taking part in a live chat with them starting at 1800 CEST/12:00pm ET (that's in a few minutes!). To sign up for the event and join in, add Chatteox to your Xfire friends and you'll get an invite to the chat room. You'll be able to ask us anything about the invitational you like, so fire away! The chat ends at 1830 CEST/12:30pm ET.
WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel part 3
1:55: Time to talk Arenas. Design ideals for these are: Keep it simple Still leave room to innovate (keep it simple, but add some new twists) Dynamic points of interest (read: moving objects) Unique starting areas/events. Might put starting teams close to each other. Room to grow: we need to be able to make quest adjustments during beta 1:57: Stockton takes center stage again to talk about the two new arenas in Wrath: Dalaran and Orgrimmar.Dalaran Arena: Located in the sewers of Dalaran city. When Dalaran came over to Northrend, it took a large chunk of rock out of the ground with it, including the sewers.This environment seemed like a great fit for the arena. Dynamic line of sight: we can move objects in arenas and have the line of sight move with them. Think about the pillar in the Nagrand... and think if that pillar could move. We could make these move randomly or based on a specific timer. This can mix up the gameplay. Simple layout Mounts will not be usable. It's a small arena and wanted to let people get right into gameplay. There's a pipe in the center of the arena that water will occasionally pour out of. While the water is falling, it will block line of sight. It's a simple layout, but a few dynamic elements that will mix it up. There's a pipe on either side of the arena where each team will start, and a blast of water will push people out of the pipe early on.It's currently in playtesting.Orgrimmar Arena: There's been an arena in Orgrimmar for a long time in the Valley of Heroes, but Blizz has never done anything with it. Elevating pillars will create line of sight (on set timers -- there will be little wheels and gears on the side of the arena that will spin before the pillars move) Triggered objects that damage players (thinking as the pillars go down, a wall of spikes may come up -- you can get across them but you'll take some damage) Extremely close starting areas: players start on elevators that rise out of the ground ten yards apart from each other. The elevators will be surrounded by spikes that will drop a couple of seconds after the elevator reaches the top -- so you'll have a couple of seconds. Mounts will be allowed inside -- this arena is a bit larger than Dalaran. Thought this was the perfect place to get NPC spectators who cheer, etc. These dynamic elements will make each arena feel different. Not testing yet. NEXT: Northrend Battleground and Q&A ===>
WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel part 4
2:09: Chilton comes up to talk about Northrend's new battleground Tital isle located off the southern coast of Dragonblight Attack/Defend gameplay, but a bit different since it's instanced. You play half the game on defense and half the game on offense, switching mid-fight. This battleground will have siege vehicles and destructible buildings Based on the Titan lore. A lot of Northrend circulates around Titan lore. 2:11: Stockton explains the layout. Attackers will come in on boats and assault the city. Siege vehicles will need to be used to break through the city's walls and break in. The further you get, you'll capture points allowing access to more siege weapons. They're currently planning it to be 10v10 or 15v15. They BG is currently being play-tested. Q&A2:17: Q: Now we have one source of honor, Alterac Valley, and everything else is a source of marks. Some people lose on purpose to get marks quicker. Is there anything being done to solve this problem?Chilton: It's a very very difficult problem to solve. We find that if we give no rewards for losing a battleground, it's very punishing. That's why we have systems to report players for not participating and we've lowered the number of players who need to report someone. (There is a certain point where the system can't determine how hard you're trying.2:19: Q: Do you have plans to implement a spectator mode?Chilton: Definitely on our list of things we want to do. To add to that, we also have the idea of using that spectator mode to extend to other things, in raids for exampleQ: Unique (racial) combat moves?Chilton: We don't plan to add any more racials.2:24: Q: My girlfriend and I love PvP, but since the Burning Crusade, we feel like we're forced into arenasChilton: We do plan to keep a pretty similar sort of reward items.Q: For the frost mage, some crowd control talents seem to be PvP-oriented, don't you think this could cause unbalance?Chilton: It's always going to feel that way because bosses tend to be immune to crowd control, but we're trying to open it up.Q: What do you plan to fix Warlock pet scaling?A: Right now we're pretty happy with pet scaling. It should be a viable tactic to spend some time attacking the pets. A player has to make a choice. We feel like if that scales very well, it's going to be a viable tactic to just focus on one.2:34: That's all she wrote, folks! The Invitational's final World of Warcraft panel has come to a close.%Gallery-26320% WoW Insider is on the ground in Paris at the Blizzard Invitational bringing you the big announcements and latest Wrath news as it happens. Check out our latest coverage!
WWI '08 Notes from the PvP panel part 2
1:46: Siege vehicles! Chilton covers five different types, all usable for both factions: The Demolisher: baseline vehicle. Has both short and long-range attacks and a ram attack. Can carry a driver and three passengers. (The passengers are exposed, can be targeted and attacked -- but it also means you can fight back!) Drive-by shootings. The driver is also the gunner. Forsaken Catapult: much quicker than The Demolisher (says Chilton: more agile). Not as long range as The Demolisher, doesn't do quite as much damage, doesn't carry any passengers, has a flame attack. Lowest cost vehicle. The Siege Engine: hardest-hitting and longest range vehicle. Carries a driver, gunner, and passengers (but not exposed -- which means they can't attack). Flying Machine: a flying vehicle that's very quick but fragile. Vulnerable to anti-air weaponry. Carries a pilot and a gunner. Goblin Shredder: an anti-air vehicle that fires rockets and can rocket boost yourself into the air to reach air vehicles (or jump over walls!). Essentially a personal armor suit -- if the suit is destroyed, you can jump out and keep fighting. Close-range melee attack. Vulnerable to siege vehicles. They're still considering how to obtain the vehicles, but they want the process to be fast-paced and fun. NEXT: Arena Design in Wrath ===>
WWI '08 Notes from the Dungeons & Raids Panel
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Wrath_revelations_from_WWI_08_Dungeons_and_Raids_panel'; At the Worldwide Invitational, the Dungeons and Raids panel is about to begin. We'll be bringing you updates on the anatomy of dungeons and raids straight from Blizzard's mouths, and of course any tidbits of information about dungeons and raids to come, all after the jump. Stay tuned!
Splash Screen changes: Worldwide Invitational edition
With mere hours to go before the Worldwide Invitational, the splash screen has changed. This time the file, named Ice5andahalf.jpg, shows the 5 runes even brighter, and adds a 6th rune - a winking smiley face. You think Blizzard's having fun with this yet? It's also worth noting that the lines around the glowing eyes are much more pronounced now - as are the eyes themselves, which now look a lot like twin stars. But are we seeing the lines of Arthas' helmet, the lines on Diablo's face, or the lines on a Protoss Templar's face? I'm not sure we'll know for sure until WWI's big announcement now, although I'm rooting for Diablo. Then again, is that the spire of Icecrown Glacier I see down there in the lower right of the night sky? It's likely that we're hours away from a big announcement at the Worldwide Invitational, and ice6.jpg will appear then, and we'll know exactly what is up with all this wacky stuff. With any luck, we'll also hear about just how much thought Blizzard put into this whole splash screen deal. Were they really expecting all this hubub? %Gallery-25975%
Turpster at the Worldwide Invitational - Day 0
Mark "Turpster" Turpin is in Paris for the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational and has logged the first video of his misadventures. Join him as he takes a bus ride with Blizzard reps, gets his first look at the Convention hall and explores the oddities of Parisian hotel bathrooms. Cover your eyes, children, it's Turpster at his best. WoW Insider is on the ground in Paris at the Blizzard Invitational bringing you the big announcements and latest Wrath news as it happens. Check out our latest coverage!
Blizzard.com teases everyone with new splash page
What does it mean when Blizzard teases us so? Well, it could mean many things. This very type of teaser has been used for several other announcements in the past, so your guess is as good as ours. If we had to wager an educated guess, we would say that a closed beta start date and release date is about to be announced for Wrath of the Lich King coinciding with the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. Although we'd also love to think that Blizzard was close to announcing their next MMO, but that probably won't happen for a very long time.Then again, as far as we know Blizzard has never teased us about a release date. So if you want to start making your wild guesses now, that piece of information is a good place to start. If it's not WotLK-related, our second guess would be an announcement that Diablo 3 is being "thawed out" for everyone in the near future. Yeah, we know it's a (lame) stretch -- but that's half the fun of it!Update: After some poking around, we've discovered something interesting. Out of all the Blizzard websites, diablo.com is the only one that points our browsers to this splash page. Simple coincidence or subtle hint? We'll let you guys be the judge.Update 2: Apparently diablo.com has pointed to blizzard.com for a while now. It looks like simple coincidence is much more likely in this scenario.
Extra Worldwide Invitational tickets to go on sale Thursday, May 29th
As we noted last week, Blizzard is planning to sell more tickets to the World Wide Invitational 2008 in Paris, France. We now know the exact date: Thursday, May 29th. If you're planning to be in the area on June 28th-29th, here's your chance to catch all the contests and dev panels that are sure to showcase some great creativity and reveal some juicy WoTLK and Starcraft 2 information. If you're not planning to be in the area, but have always wanted a European vacation, here's a great excuse. The last half of June is looking like a great time to be in Paris for a game developer groupie as well, since the European Game Developer's Conference will also be going on, complete with Blizzard Senior VP Rob Pardo as a keynote speaker. Be sure to grab your tickets to the World Wide Invitational, and we'll see you there.
Worldwide Invitational 2008 to offer more tickets
If you wanted to head to the City of Lights this summer to check out the World Wide Invitational this year, but missed the first round of tickets, you're in luck. Blizzard has announced that they will be selling another round on the official WWI website some time next week. If you're still interested, keep an eye out for it! The World Wide Invitational will take place in Paris, France on June 28th and 29th, and will include developer panels and multiple contests, including fanart and machinima contests, as well as a playable version of WoTLK -- essentially, it's a European Blizzcon. Be sure to check out all of our previous coverage on the event, and stay tuned for all the latest news as we get closer to the date.
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 announces machinima contest
Not to be out done by the recent flurry of convention announcements, The Blizzard World Wide Invitational 2008 is throwing out an announcement or two of its own. Today, they are officially announcing a Machinma contest. There will be two categories, one for movies, and one for TV Commercials for WoW items. Online submission is open from June 9th to June 16th. You can check out the contest details (Including the prizes, of course) here. If Machinima isn't your thing, but you're still creative in other arenas, the announcement also mentions that they will reveal more contests in the near future. At the moment, the official terms suggest that the contest is open only to Europeans, but if that pans out, I'm certain American Machinimists will get a crack at things at Blizzcon 2008.
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Now featuring live Q&A panels with the developers
Yeah, it's called the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, but the more we learn about this Blizzard-hosted gathering, the more it starts looking a bit more like Blizzcon '08. Sure, there's all the tournaments you'd expect, but there's a lot more too. We've already talked about the goody bag, but there's one thing that jumps right off the events page for anyone who's starved for WoTLK news: live discussion panels with Blizzard developers! Says the site, "developers will be discussing such topics as gameplay, lore and art and giving the audience a chance to pose questions and give comments." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It also sounds very promising. We got a lot of pretty juicy WoTLK information from the last round of developer panels at Blizzcon, so we can probably expect more of the same at these panels, only moreso, since we'll be that much closer to the release of the expansion. It looks like June 28th and 29th are going to be very good days to be a Blizzard fan. Even if you can't make it to France, be sure keep an eye on WoW Insider. We're sure to have the all the great WoW Information that's sure to come from these panels.
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 tickets on sale today
Tickets for the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, being held this year in Paris, France, are now on sale according to the official website. The event, taking place on June 28th and 29th, promises to be a big one. Not only will there be invitational tournaments, but you can expect developer panels, auctions, loot galore, and the thing we're most looking forward, playable versions of Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft 2. If you have any chance of being able to make it out to the City of Lights this summer, we'd strongly recommend buying a ticket, it sounds like it's going to be a blast for Blizzard fans, whether competitive tournament play is your thing or not. We'd also recommend staying tuned to WoW Insider for all the latest information on this event and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion!
Blizzard Invitational tickets on sale this week!
For all 10 million of you who just can't get enough of the lands of Azeroth (and the untold millions who are breathlessly waiting for the release of Starcraft 2 -- or Diablo 3!) Blizzard has announced that the tickets for their 2008 Invitational event are going on sale this week for 70 € / £55 for the two-day event. (Approximately $110 USD at current conversion rates.) Between seeing all the cool things that are in store for this event, knowing what the previous Blizzcons have been like, and partying down in Paris, who can resist? Now if you'll pardon me, I need to go see about a plane ticket. (Or at least, figuring out how many months of eating noodles in a cup I'd have to live through to get a plane ticket, anyway.)[via WoW Insider]
