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BlizzCon 2011 World of Warcraft Art Panel
I know that the World of Warcraft preview and question-and-answer sessions always tend to attract the most commentary at any given BlizzCon, but for my money, the most interesting ones in the long run tend to be those concerned with the game's artistic and technical sides. Seeing how developers got the game to look the way it does, and the reasoning behind the design of different races, zones, and items gives you a much better appreciation of the game while you're in it. The gorgeous Uldum sky didn't get there by accident. As you'd expect, the art panel contained a number of previews of the characters, locations, dungeons, and props we'll be seeing in Mists of Pandaria. If you're only interested in a peek at the male pandaren's model and animations, well, you can get that here, but there were a number of interesting observations made. Two of the things that really jumped out at me: They're experimenting with tier and item set models. Rather than pasting a design onto the standard-issue flat chest and leg pieces, for example, we may see swinging chains, ribbons, and other three-dimensional objects on more gear in the future. Technical advances in very recent months have made it easier and faster to add more detail to the environment. New texture tools have made it possible to add snow or lava between cracks in a road, or pooled in the nook of a hill, much more quickly than they could earlier. We'll have a full gallery of the panel up later! The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard DOTA teasers evoke some emotion
Our hearts beat with a combination of blood, Big Macs and Dr. Pepper. StarCraft 2's heart beats with millions of ruthless, juicy aliens, and as the above BlizzCon teaser shows, Sarah Kerrigan's heart doesn't beat at all. We're not saying she's heartless, but to be a strong female lead these days, not giving a crap about anything except revenge is sometimes necessary. Being a cyborg and making that distinction truly literal is just a bonus for game journos everywhere. A teaser for the Blizzard DOTA mod for StarCraft 2 channels a markedly different emotion than vengeance -- watch the video and decide for yourself what emotion that may be, but for now we're going to call it "Valvey scorn."
BlizzCon 2011: The floor, the people, the shows
You can't go 10 feet in BlizzCon without seeing a vendor or a costume. While the panels are incredibly informative and awesome, there's a lot more going on at the convention than just news releases. Check out our gallery of the BlizzCon 2011 floor show. You can see vendors, games, sales, and even some fresh costumes. If you're not able to come by BlizzCon 2011 yourself, this might be the next best thing. %Gallery-137311% The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Faces of BlizzCon: Convention floor tips from the first aid fix-it lady
Can't make it to Anaheim for the convention? WoW Insider takes you behind the scenes at BlizzCon 2011. What's the #1 physical ailment at BlizzCon 2011? Sore, blistered feet. WoW Insider visited with Sue, an R.N. who works at the Anaheim Convention Center's first aid station, for advice on what con-goers should do to make their time at BlizzCon healthy and comfortable. "Don't wear new shoes!" exclaimed everyone at the first aid station in unison. "Most of what we're doing here today is Band-Aids," Sue adds, noting that the front hall of the convention center is one-quarter of a mile long. Don't try to get away with sandals or shoes with no socks, she advises. To make it through BlizzCon, you need the real deal.
WoW Insider's BlizzCon 2011 coverage schedule: Day two
Welcome to day two of BlizzCon 2011! We'll have more of the same liveblogg-y and gallery goodness for you today, and Saturday's panels feature the ever-popular open Q&A sessions, where people who traveled thousands of miles to reach Anaheim use precious moments at the microphone to complain about their class. Oh, well. At any rate, we'll be liveblogging all four WoW-related panels again. Later, we'll also have galleries with pictures of the more important moments. If you don't have time to follow the liveblogs, don't worry! Any important news will get its own post. Check back on the site for the four panels we'll be liveblogging for you below: World of Warcraft Classes, Items, and Professions Q&A 4:00 p.m. EST / 1:00 p.m. PST World of Warcraft Open Q&A 5:30 p.m. EST / 2:30 p.m. PST World of Warcraft Lore and Story Q&A 7:15 p.m. EST / 4:15 p.m. PST EDIT: Ack! Sorry, folks -- I made a mistake. The World of Warcraft Art panel will be covered with a gallery and article, but we're not liveblogging it. I promise you'll see all the pretty pictures, though. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Blizzard discusses Gold Selling and the Guardian Cub
It wont come as any surprise that the Guardian Cub has been somewhat controversial since it was announced. Now, Blizzard gives a remarkably pragmatic response discussing exactly why this move is being undertaken. As our own Mat McCurley pointed out, this is the first step in an experiment aimed at learning exactly how to curb gold selling. It's not intended to do away with the problem overnight, but rather to help them figure out how. The complete text of the Blizzard post which you can find here will be posted behind the cut. It's an interesting way to approach the lost time and stress of account hacking.
The Queue: Name that companion pet.
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Josh Myers will be your host today. As one of the youngest writers on the WoW Insider staff, I was of an acceptable age for Pokémon playing when Pikachu first sailed the ocean blue and Pokémon Red landed in my Game Boy Pocket. It was Christmas Day, 1998. I hadn't quite learned that electronics required battery power to operate at that point, and losing my Charizard because I didn't save once in an eight hour pocket monster marathon would be my most crushing video game defeat until our first 20k HP wipe on Professor Putricide 12 years later. As you might expect from someone whose first video game glory days involved beating the Elite Four with a Mewtwo and thinking he was the best Pokémon master in the world, I'm a little psyched for companion battling. And by a little excited, I almost forgot to be excited about the rest of the awesome stuff coming in the freshly announced Mists of Pandaria, including the Pandaren themselves. While I'm now allowing myself to be excited for monks, PVE scenarios, and the entire talent tree overhaul, I can't help alt-tabbing out of our blogging platform to decide which of my companion pets I'm going to level up first. Will it be my shiny new Murkablo, my staple Fossilized Hatchling, or am I going to go Black Kingsnake, just because no one else will? Maybe I'll even name him Onyx.
G4's cosplay women of BlizzCon
There are many great costumes to see on the attendees at every BlizzCon. From the intricate to the homemade, the creativity and passion on display is always stunning to behold. In fact, we've already snapped pictures from the first day of the con spotlighting this year's show stoppers. However this time, G4 didn't wait for the hordes of BlizzCon attendees to descend on Anaheim to get their cosplay gallery together. Instead, they assembled some of most well-known costumed fans in advance of the big convention and shot a gallery showing off their amazing outfits. Women profiled this year include last year's Diablo III monk winner in the costume contest, Christina Sims, Jo-Jo Chen who runs an agency for costumed models and many more. Check out the full shoot over at G4. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Blizzard Publishing announces two new Pandaren stories and more
New expansions require new lore, especially if it's something we've never before seen. At the Blizzard Publishing: So What's the Story? panel earlier today, it was announced that there would be two new lore releases. The first, Pearl of Pandaria, is a graphic novel written by Micky Neilson. Neilson should be a familiar name, not only is he Senior Writer and Voice Director of Blizzard Entertainment, he also penned the World of Warcraft: Ashbringer comic, and the short story Unbroken. Pearl of Pandaria is a "before" look at the Pandaren – it takes place before the Shattering that raised the mists that cloaked Pandaria from the rest of the world. The second story is called Quest for Pandaria, a four part novella by author Sarah Pine. It will be released on Blizzard's website much like the leader short stories, and it takes up the story after the Shattering and brings it up to speed. Sarah Pine was the winner of the first Blizzard creating writing contest with her story In the Shadow of the Sun, about Lor'themar Theron, and she's also penned the leader short story Garrosh Hellscream: Heart of War. Other interesting tidbits from the panel include a heads up on the Curse of the Worgen graphic novel by Mickey Neilson and James Waugh, which includes five extra pages of story. Those five pages? They're really important, if you like keeping track of the lore -- they tell the story of Velinde Starsong and the Scythe of Elune, which players experienced in World of Warcraft itself. On top of that, Christie Golden is still diligently working on Tides of War, the Jaina Proudmoore novel which will presumably tie into the Pandaria expansion. It's nice to see that the upcoming expansion will see as much attention to story detail as Cataclysm – and that the precedent set by the leader short stories will continue on with more lore on the official Blizzard website as time goes on. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Mists of Pandaria dungeon preview videos
Blizzard showed previews of three Mists of Pandaria dungeons at BlizzCon 2011 during the Dungeons and Raids panel. Stormstout Brewery is shown above. Videos for Temple of the Jade Serpent and Shado-pan Monastery are after the break. These are three of the nine dungeons available at launch.
BlizzCon 2011: Day one round-up
BlizzCon 2011 has begun! And it turns out that that trademark Blizzard registered back in August really was a sign of things to come. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you're just joining our BlizzCon coverage, or you may have missed something, you'll find a round-up of our articles and galleries below. The WoW Insider/Wowhead reader meetup The now-famous annual party, co-hosted with Wowhead, Members of ZAM Network, TankSpot and WoW Interface, smashed previous attendance records (and, we're told, the Annabella Hotel's liquor supply). We were a little the worse for wear the day after, but not so much so that we couldn't bring you a gallery of the night's debauchery. Liveblogs If you aren't at BlizzCon and don't have the livestream, fear not: We've got you covered. The Opening Ceremonies, the Mists of Pandaria Preview panel, the Class Talent System panel, and the Dungeons and Raids panel are here in all their liveblogged glory. World of Warcraft: Those Crazy Bastards Did It Technically the next expansion's name is World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, featuring -- what else? -- a new race, the Pandaren, and a new class, the monk. So who gets Pandaren, Alliance or Horde? Turns out it'll be both. Not only do we have the first trailer for you, but we also got an early peek at their racials, and Joe Perez played through the Pandaren starting area for a bit. By the way, it turns out the Pandaren started with a picture that Samwise Didier drew for his daughter. What to expect in the next expansion Quite a lot, as it turns out. Of interest to all players will be the WoW annual pass (giving a free digital copy of Diablo 3 and a new mount, Tyrael's Charger), an overhaul of the talent system (with pictures of all the new talents for each class), new PvE scenarios, an adios to melee weapons for hunters and the ranged slot for everyone else, dungeon and raid changes, and -- let's not forget -- WoW's version of Pokemon. On which I believe our commenters Cyanea and Arcanum have had the final and best words on. Fun, games, and random news We've already got one slot knocked off our BlizzCon bingo cards. Check out the last batch of readers' predictions in the few hours before the convention started here. We got some great shots of the cosplayers running around the convention. In a pleasant surprise for everyone, Murkablo (the special pet awarded to BlizzCon attendees and purchasers of the livestream) is available early. And don't forget Blizzard's auction of server blades to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. %Gallery-137291% %Gallery-137254% The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
Breakfast Topic: Which part of "Mists of Pandaria" has you most excited?
When we saw that Blizzard had registered the Mists of Pandaria trademark back in August, no one was sure what to think. Was it a sign of the next expansion, a WoW Trading Card Game pack, or simply Chris Metzen playing an elaborate prank on us all? It turns out that the first option was the correct one, but big fat pandas are not the only things we have to look forward to next year. Huge talent changes, the WoW version of Pokemon, scenarios and challenge modes, a new class (the monk), and even a free copy of Diablo 3 (with the new WoW annual pass) are all bundled into the next expansion. Which one of these interests you the most? %Poll-70088% The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Samwise on Mists of Pandaria
Our sister site Joystiq nabbed an interview with Samwise Didier who is, in a way, the spiritual father of Mists of Pandaria. As art director, he's had an influence on every Blizzard game for years, but this one's special: he originally created the Pandaren. "It was one of the last things that I really wanted to see in World of Warcraft, which is Warcraft in general ... Now I can almost say, well, I think I've done good with Warcraft -- they're finally in." Check out the full article. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Cosplay image gallery
Pandas? Pfft. None of you care about pandas. Nerds in costume? That's where it's at, ladies and gentlemen, and I mean that with all sincerity. The costumes are routinely one of the most fascinating aspects of any convention, and ... uh, I'm sorry, sitting here in front of that costume up above is freaking me right the hell out. Enjoy the pictures. %Gallery-137291% Turn to WoW Insider for all your BlizzCon 2011 news and information. Get ready to kick off the weekend with the WoW Insider Reader Meetup, cohosted by Wowhead and Gamebreaker.tv, and look for our liveblogs of the convention panels, interviews with WoW celebrities -- and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Reader meetup recap
This year's reader meetup was our best yet. We hit venue capacity of 2,200 attendees within the first hour of the event, blowing away last year's attendance record by a wide margin. A little over two hours into the six hour event, over 3,000 attendees walked through the doors. After that, we lost count. We only brought 3,000 wrist bands to hand out at the door. Every single one of us at WoW Insider, Wowhead, and Gamebreaker.tv had an absolutely wonderful time meeting and greeting our fans. We gave away countless prizes, drank endless drinks (as you can tell from our attendees' Twitter accounts), and had a generally great time. As we do every year, the moment BlizzCon comes to a close, we're going to buckle down and get to work on next year's event. Your feedback is absolutely welcome. If you didn't get to attend and our livestream last night simply wasn't enough for you, below is our gallery of the reader meetup. %Gallery-137254% The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes
If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways. Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches. Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging. There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.
BlizzCon 2011: Goodbye, ranged slot
If you didn't see this coming, you haven't been paying attention: as of Mists of Pandaria and patch 5.0, the ranged slot is being dismantled. Relics are going extinct, hunter ranged weapons will become their only weapons, and wands? Those are main-hand weapons now, too. To be extra clear: Relics are going away Wands become main hand weapons (and will function as wands do now) Hunters can only equip ranged weapons (and hunter minimum range is going away) This is something we've expected for a long time here at WoW Insider, as it's a topic Ghostcrawler discussed at BlizzCon '10. It's a removal of superfluous stat sticks and that's a good thing. None of us will miss our librams with +10 to Character Sheet Clutter and absolutely no visual, no real effect, and no purpose. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
BlizzCon 2011: Overview of PVE Scenarios
Mists of Pandaria will introduce Scenarios to give us instances similar to PVE Battlegrounds as well as staged, instanced group quests to revisit older content. These quests are designed for a few players and are intended to be short instances. In order to enter a Scenario, players will queue in something similar to the Dungeon Finder, but will not have to choose a role -- hopefully making the queues very short. Scenarios are designed so that players won't have to designate a tank or healer and still be successful, much like when questing as a group normally. Remember the days of Alterac Valley when the PVE elements were actually used and it wasn't just a PVP zerg? (I miss those days.) The Scenarios like PVE battlegrounds will be very much like Alterac Valley but without the PVP. The group of players will have staged objectives to complete in order to beat the scenario such as killing a number of enemies and capturing towers. This was designed for players who want to experience Battlegrounds but don't like PVP. There will also be staged quests set in familiar locations, such as the Battle of Goldshire. Players and their groupmates will complete the objective of each stage until coming to the final boss. The example given was that the first stage might be to kill 25 kobolds, then you would rescue 4 children in the second stage and finally killing Goldtooth in the third. These will most likely be the replacement for group quests. The rewards for completing Scenarios would include Valor points, much like the new daily quests. This continues Blizzard's goal of most gear being accessible to all players, regardless of playstyle. Remember, all of this may change before launch. The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!
World of Warcraft's Samwise Didier talks about finally bringing his Pandaren to life
The newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion for Blizzard's World of Warcraft finally brings the long-awaited Pandaren race to the fantasy world of Azeroth, and while many players have been waiting to see pandas officially implemented into the game, no one, perhaps, has been waiting longer than Samwise Didier. Blizzard's longtime art director originally created the race in his own art, and up until this release, they existed only in bits and pieces of legends inside the games, as little in-jokes or secrets. "It's very personal to me," Didier tells us at BlizzCon this week. "It all started with a picture done for Christmas after the birth of my daughter." Since that first piece of concept art, the Pandaren have always been a fan favorite race (combining a heady mix of panda humanoids, Eastern-style religions and mythology, and even beer brewing monks), and while Didier is quick to point out that lots of people are working on Mists of Pandaria, he's thrilled to see his personal creation come to virtual life. "I'm not trying to take away" credit for the expansion, he says, quickly acknowledging all of the creative folks at Blizzard, "however many it takes to make a game. But it's nice to know that some goofy thought in my head, done for that reason, for my kid, turned into this." Does the portrayal live up to what Didier envisioned? "Yeah, and then some," he says. "There was only a few Pandaren pictures, and most of them were of Chen [Stormstout], a big fat sweaty heavy, beer-drinking Pandaren. Well that's not the entire society. He's sort of the anomaly. He likes to go to the outside world. So what do the normal Pandarens do, what is their normal culture like? A lot of sweat went into designing that." But Didier does say that whenever the expansion finally arrives, and the race long hidden in Warcraft's shadows finally gets their time in the spotlight, he'll be proud they're there. "It was one of the last things that I really wanted to see in World of Warcraft, which is Warcraft in general," he says, after having worked on some of the most iconic designs in Blizzard's legendary game franchises. "Now I can almost say, well, I think I've done good with Warcraft -- they're finally in."
BlizzCon 2011 Dungeons and Raids Panel Liveblog
And we're back! The WoW dungeons and raids panel will start in about 10 minutes, so I hope you're back with a frosty drink. We're anticipating some information on both the patch 4.3's new instances and final raid, in addition to some Mists of Pandaria tidbits. Pacific Timezone: 3:30 p.m. Mountain Timezone: 4:30 p.m. Central Timezone: 5:30 p.m. Eastern Timezone: 6:30 p.m.
