echoes-of-war
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Breakfast topic: Quest detritus
Anne talked recently about all the bits and pieces that tend to accumulate in a packrat's bank vault, and I'm one of the guilty parties. I'm a hardcore collector of feral staves, tier sets, tabards, and assorted items that I just can't bring myself to delete (Seal of Ascension -- seriously, why do I still have this?). Unfortunately, the tendency carries over into quests as well. Over the course of doing Loremaster, I knocked off most of the older quests littering my log, and now I'm left with two. One's a nightmare to finish -- The Good News and The Bad News, which is part of the Scepter of the Shifting Sands line and an enormous pain in the ass due to the 10 Elementium Ores required. I've resigned myself to the quite-likely possibility that it'll be there for months to come. The other one, much like the stuff clogging my bank, is something I can't force myself to drop. Echoes of War sent people to the original version of Naxxramas, and was required for the tier 3 questline. Incredibly enough, it was even shareable when Wrath came out, and our early Naxx raids at 80 had a good laugh over it. But I'm afraid to turn it in -- not just because the follow-up quest probably isn't there anymore, but also for some reason I don't think I can articulate very well. If I turned it in, I guess I'd feel like another little piece of old Azeroth was gone forever. Do you have any quests like this sitting around in your log, and what keeps you from turning them in?
The Queue: Wherein Alex renames himself Nostradamus
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.After a year of writing this thing, I've run out of quirky ways to introduce this thing that don't reek of veiled desperation. So screw the veil. Along with your question in today's edition of The Queue, I want you to write an introduction for the next edition of this column that I write, which will be the day after tomorrow. I will pick the best of the bunch to use. Keep it clean!crusherkid asked..."I've read reports that because of the servers going down in China that World of Warcraft has dropped down to only 5 million subscribers. Is that correct?"
Echoes of War standard edition sees re-release, new artwork
Who remembers Echoes of War? A musical extravaganza originally released last year in legendary and standard editions from Eminence. Well both the official site and Worldofwar.net are reporting that the standard edition is being re-released on June 16th with new artwork.The two-disc version is essentially the less shiny version of the limited Legendary Edition. It features music from all three of Blizzard's franchises: Diablo, Warcraft and, of course, Starcraft, as played by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra and special guests including Kow Otani (best known for his score from PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus).Even better, if you've not picked up the set yet then there's a special $5 discount for orders made before the relaunch date next month, dropping the price from $24.95 to $19.95. Just head here to order. Copies begin shipping today and will also be made available through stores next month.
The Daily Quest: Of class quests, Warcraft music and Big Black Kitties
Patch 3.1 is still burning up the PTR and sending most classes into a tail spin trying to figure out what their new talent builds will be when the patch goes live. Forget the madness of the ever-changing class mechanics for a few minutes to peruse today's WoW-related posts from around the blogosphere. Big Red Kitty shows off what could be the latest Hunter pet models or what could be a texture glitch seen running amok on the Test realm (see pic above.) More on his site. To PTR or not PTR, that is the question explored at Shields Up. They look at both sides of the controversial topic. Tier 8 gear have you interested in raiding for the first time? Check out The Virtues of the Effective Raider, a good primer for people first dipping their toe into WoW raiding. And for those more experienced in raiding, check out our weekly raiding columns, Ready Check and Raid Rx. Though the Echoes of War music was released months ago, Blizzard made an official announcement this week. Next week, they'll be announcing the launch of The Burning Crusade... Hoping for more class-specific quests? You'll have to wait a little longer according to European CM Vaneras. They take time to create and implement. He doesn't specifically say they are making more, but does go into the process involved.
Blizzard theme park? Make it so.
If the thought of a Blizzard theme park makes you squeal with girlish excitement -- something I'd, um, never, ever do, of course -- then here's your chance to help make it a reality. Maybe. Nethaera announced the Blizzard Theme Park Contest on the forums, asking players to submit their ideas for a theme park based on Blizzard's properties. Players can submit illustrations that look like theme park maps, or make them look like screenshots from the games. The best entries will be displayed in BlizzCon 2009.While this doesn't necessarily mean that Blizzard will actually make a theme park based on the StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo universes, the idea does make me squeal girlishly giddy with excitement. Those interested are challenged to illustrate every fantastic thing they can imagine -- from water rides, roller coasters, and even food courts and shopping arcades. Aspiring park designers have until March 30 to submit their entries, with a chance to win a Wacom Cintiq 12WX Digitizing Tablet, Echoes of War, and StarCraft II beta keys. So hop to it! Now where'd I put my stylus...
Echoes of War hits iTunes
Awhile ago, we announced that the Echoes of War music set, the CD set by the Eminence Symphony Orchestra highlighting the music of Blizzard's most popular games, had finally been released for purchase. For those of you that prefer to get your music digitally (what's a CD?), good news! The official World of Warcraft site announced earlier today that you can now purchase Echoes of War on iTunes, either whole hog or individual tracks.If you're on the fence about picking up this album (or some of its tracks), remember that the Echoes of War site has some sample music that you can check out. Personally? I'm a fan. I adore how Blizzard uses music in their games. Still, there are a few tracks I don't care for since Diablo III will be the first one I'll have ever played (shameful, I know), and I have no emotional attachment or memories tied to those tracks at all. They're pretty music but not something I'd listen to every day. The Starcraft and Warcraft tracks are definitely cool to have, though.
