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Blizzard properties now on Facebook
Acknowledging the power of social media and networking, Blizzard has created fan pages for their three big franchises on Facebook. Following the trend of other products and companies who have created Facebook pages in order to deliver updates, promotions, and other fan extras, Blizzard has set up pages for Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft. Interested fans need to have a Facebook account in order to "become a fan" of the pages, which Blizzard says they have big plans for. Through these fan pages, Blizzard will be able to give a constant feed of news updates and media such as video, galleries, or links. Fan pages are also a common conduit for promos and contests as frequently used by Blizzard partners such as Razer and Figureprints. There are also forums for discussion and a "wall" that allows fans to write on for questions, comments, or anything related to the franchises. Interestingly, and perhaps owing to its massive player base, the Warcraft fan page has already gained three times as many followers as the other two properties in the short time it has been active. This reflects a similar trend on Twitter, another social networking tool that Blizzard has utilized lately, where @Warcraft has over twice the number of followers of either @Diablo or @Starcraft.
BlizzCon 2009: 15 Minutes on the Street
There are all kinds of people at BlizzCon, and the vast majority of them aren't developers or exhibitors -- they're players and Blizzard fans just like you who come out to see what Blizzard's got to show them. We spent a large amount of time this weekend talking to devs and exhibitors and gathering information, but we definitely also wanted to speak with players as well -- see what they thought of the show and how their experience went.Of course we talked with more players than we could ever fit here -- we ended up having over 1200 people stop by our meetup on Thursday night (and I did my best to shake hands with as many of them as I could), and all weekend long, players came up to us and said hi, telling us their classes and spec and what they liked and didn't like about the show and our site. Here's four small interviews that we had with players at the show, done by Robin Torres and I. It's just one tiny look at a few people walking around the 'Con, but it should give you a little insight into what the mood was like last weekend.
BlizzCon 2009: The Costumes
With the jam-packed costume contest taking place at BlizzCon in the evening, people spent all of yesterday parading around in their ginormous costumes in preparation. That's some dedication right there! Check out our massive gallery just below, and be sure to watch a video of the contest winners right after the break. The rogue above was one of the finalists, but she was ultimately robbed (robbed, we say!) of the top prize.Stay tuned for more images -- BlizzCon ain't over yet!%Gallery-70721%
Gen Con 2009: MMOs in the E-gaming area
Massively was at Gen Con 2009 yesterday in Indianapolis, Indiana, and while most of the (gigantic) convention was involved with more traditional types of gaming, from dice and board games to collectible card games and RPGs, MMOs made their own splash in the "e-gaming" area. Sony Online Entertainment probably had the biggest presence -- in among huge posters of Free Realms and Star Wars Galaxies, they had demos running of all of their current games (though we didn't see any previews of DCUO or The Agency running). A costumed model posed for pictures in front of a large Legends of Norrath poster, while over in the CCG area, SOE held tournaments of the game for players.%Gallery-70176%
What's your best BlizzCon memory?
Did you manage to get your tickets? I'm sure there will be plenty of folks who are returning to BlizzCon. I wasn't able to go but I followed WoW Insider's coverage of the event from the opening ceremonies to the final concert. It was an awesome time for fans to get insight on some of the behind the scenes aspects of WoW, including an art gallery, a sound panel, and an introduction to Ghostcrawler.I have to admit that even with the massive amount of information on classes and mechanics, my favorite part was the goofy fan stuff. I love how some people really get into their costumes and dances. I think I missed out most by missing the WoW Insider meet up. It's amazing that real people get so into our favorite game franchises.For those of you who went last year, or even were following along with me, what's the best BlizzCon memory that you carry with you?BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there's some great looking costumes.
Two more WoW-related iPhone apps off the App Store
Blizzard has laid the legal smackdown on two more WoW-related iPhone apps. As Double Bubble reports, both Warcraft Chest and WoW Realm Status have bit the dust, most likely after Blizzard's legal department sent them a cease-and-desist (that's what recently happened to the popular Warcraft Characters app). We don't know for sure that Blizzard went after them, but considering that Warcraft Chest was completely free, there can't be that many other reasons why it's not on the App Store any more.It's still not clear yet either why Blizzard is doing this -- originally, since they started off going after only paid applications, it was plausible that they just didn't want other people profiting off of their game (similar to the new addon policy). But they've taken down both free and paid apps here so far, and Double Bubble also has a list of both free and paid addons still up. At this point, we have to wonder what Blizzard's real intentions are here -- they're squashing valuable resources that fans have made and are giving away for free. If they were planning an Armory or realm status app of their own, that's one thing, but the only reason we can see so far is that their legal department has decided to act against the company's own loyal fans for their own interests. Not a great strategy for encouraging customer loyalty.And what about sites like Wowhead or the Firefox realm status addon? Why is Blizzard only targeting helpful applications on the iPhone? We can only guess that Blizzard will eventually go after the rest of the apps on the App Store, so if you're working on one or planning to release one soon, guess you might want to think again about how that time might be better spent.
BRK fans post a goodbye video
A little while after BigRedKitty closed shop on his blog last week, there was another post from TJ on there asking for help with a "secret project" (that lots of you let us know about -- thanks!). And now, the secret has been revealed: a few of BRK's fans have put together a goodbye video for the knowledgeable Hunter with the big red cat, and you can watch the whole thing above.Very touching, and very cool to see a community come together to thank someone who's done a lot for them. BRK also reported on his blog this week that he hasn't left Warcraft for good, but it does sound like the choice to focus on his real life and family rather than what happens in Azeroth was an excellent one. We've also heard, through the grapevine, that Blizzard may be honoring BRK in their own way in the future, much like they did with Phaelia of Resto4Life. We'll keep an eye out for nay Big Red items we may come across.
Relic beats Activision-Blizzard in developer showdown
Here's an update, albeit slightly unexpected, from The Escapist's big "March Mayhem" tournament that we reported on a little while ago. They were pitting Relic Entertainment up against Activision-Blizzard in a developer vote-down, and apparently, after a tie and a little ballot box stuffing, Relic, not Blizzard, has emerged out on top. Quite an upset in a number of ways -- Relic was seeded #12 in the bracket, and Activision-Blizzard was seeded as number one (the bracket also included Harmonix, Infinity Ward, and another big MMO developer, Mythic). In fact, Relic also went on to beat Harmonix, and is now facing Bioware for a spot in the final matchup.Is it fair to say, then, that the mighty have fallen? Blizzard was (and still is, for the most part) held in high esteem as a developer -- most of the games they've released in their vast history aren't just hits, they're classics. But even commenters here on our site felt that the "Activision" on the front of the dev's name was distasteful: Blizzard's new owners don't demand as much respect as the studio itself does. And Blizzard has definitely changed lately. Some might say that the developer that allowed Diablo 2 players to play for free on Battle.net (which, to be fair, has had its own issues) isn't the same company that's planning to sell Starcraft II three different times. And let's not forget that, ballot-stuffing or not, Relic has moved on to beat Harmonix, and still has a chance to win it all, so it could just be that they have a much bigger fan following than anyone expected. But does a loss like this mean Blizzard has fallen from their fans' grace?%Poll-28751%
WoW Insider Show Episode 83 with Alex Albrecht
We had a great time on the podcast last Saturday, and it was a full house: Turpster, our friend Patrick Beja, Michael "Belfaire" Sacco were all on board, and we welcomed a special guest, Alex Albrecht of Project Lore. And despite the fact that we had so many people on, not only did we answer your email questions (apparently I'm the only one who believes in guild loyalty, even when progression isn't happening), but we talked some World of Warcraft as well: why Arena players have left the Arenas, what might be in that brand new battleground, and why a free iPhone Authenticator program is so great. (And thanks by the way, Blizzard, for that one.)The recording of the show is now out on the feed and at the links below, so download away. Huge thanks yet again to Alex Albrecht for stopping by the show, and congrats go out to him on his Streamys win on Saturday. We'll be back as usual next week, kicking off the show as always just a little bit before 3:30pm Eastern.And don't forget: we met our Facebook goal of 4,000 fans, and the song that came out of that turned out pretty darn epic, if we say so ourselves. But we've got another goal: we're aiming for over 9,000 followers on Twitter, and if we can pull that off, we'll do a live video version of the podcast. And who knows what kind of hilarity will ensue from that one. If you're on Twitter (or even if you're not) and haven't started following us, please do! And hey, we tweet all kinds of things that never show up on the site, so it's even more WoW Insider for your efforts. See you next week.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
More WoW license plates from our readers
Last week we posted an epic license plate and asked for more, and you guys responded in force. We've added four new plates to our gallery, which you can browse below. My favorite is seen above -- Jeff N. actually took a picture of it at BlizzCon. It's not his car, but it is a pretty awesome plate.The Hawaiians plate comes from Leialoha B., who gave the plate as a Christmas gift to her guildies in Hawaiians on Thaurissian, and the "MPG FTW" (which isn't really WoW-related, unless there's an "MPG" acronym we're not thinking of in the game ("Mana per gallon"?) comes from Angelo. More MPG for the win, indeed. And finally, the ZOMG LOL (also not necessarily WoW-related, but we'll accept it) plate comes from Joejohn, who saw it as he was driving around the other day in Washington, DC.All awesome. If you've got another plate for us to add in, drop us a note with a picture and we'll get it included.%Gallery-20183%
WoW Insider Show Episode 75: The Meat of the Show
Wacky times on the podcast this past week -- along with BRK and Turpster, we were able to welcome our good friends Shawn Coons and Patrick Beja of the How I WoW podcast. They talked with us about themselves, including Shawn's recent move, and Patrick's ongoing campaign to get his parents to play videogames, and we talked a whole lot of World of Warcraft, too. We answered emails about the correct pronounciation of "Fah-jord", how Blizzard can get more players on the PTR, and what to do to get into a good guild, and during the show we broke down the latest bugfix patch, talked about the Lunar Festival (and why we weren't interested in it), a little bit about group management and how best to do it, and we ran down exactly how we WoW, too.Also, we've got some great fan audio in the show as well -- an excellent intro, and perhaps the best thing we've ever played on the song ever: a "Meat of the Show" intro by listener Sammy T. Seriously, give this thing a listen -- we played part of it during the show, but you can hear the whole thing afterwards, and it's great. If you'd like to send us an intro or just a note about something you've heard on the show or want us to answer, the email address is theshow@wow.com -- just drop an mp3 attachment in there or speak your mind, and you might hear it on next week's show.Remember, we do this live every Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern over on the Ustream page, so if you're around next Saturday, be sure to stop by and say hi. We'll see you next week -- enjoy the show.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show Episode 71: In da (guild) house
Quite a podcast last Saturday -- Turpster came back and BigRedKitty joined us as well, so it was a rip-roaring time. We talked about our predictions for 2009, talked once again about which reps to work towards, where WoW might get more players from, answered lots and lots of emails from listeners, and we even made plans to give away an authenticator. More about your chance to win the authenticator, how to get a brand new song from Turpster, and how to get your voice on the podcast after the break below.We do this every Saturday on Ustream at 3:30pm Eastern, and then post the results here every Monday morning, so you can listen to the show any way you'd like. It's always a great time -- as Turpster said this week, it's just like reading WoW Insider, except we do the reading for you.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
The scourge of the Scourge
Last Saturday on the WoW Insider Show (which you can hear right here, with an embedded mp3 post coming in just a bit), we voiced an opinion about the Scourge Invasion world event that's getting a little lost in the mix: not everyone is having lots of fun with zombies. While I personally love zombies in all their forms (and am thrilled by all the content the event is bringing us, even if it is moving really fast), lots of players out there are logging in to play World of Warcraft, and finding themselves in the middle of World War Z.As we said on the show, Blizzard is making sure that this is an event that everyone feels -- in the past, you could avoid most of the world events just by staying out of certain areas or certain zones. But at the same time, that made some players feel it wasn't immersive enough -- why have a world event if it doesn't affect the whole world? And so this one does -- no matter what level you are or where you play, whether you got eaten by a zombie or downed Tenris Mirkblood, you know that the Lich King is coming. And some folks, who play the game casually or at a low level, just don't care.Update: Well that's timely. In between the time this post was written and planned to go live, Blizzard has decided to cure the plague. Considering that things moved so fast this weekend, that seems premature, but we'll have to see how the event plays out -- Blizzard is of course saying that it's not because of the vocal minority speaking out against the zombie gameplay, but we'll have to see what happens next.
BlizzCon 2008: The first day of mayhem
The crowds have been let in to the main convention center floor, and it is an absolute mad house of Blizzard fun here. BlizzCon 2008 has started in earnest, with a full day of panels and gaming ahead. Knowing Blizzard, it should be truly epic. If you weren't able to join us here at the Anaheim Convention Center, have no fear. As the day progresses, we'll share many of the sights of BlizzCon 2008, straight from the front lines. So if you're hungry for more of what's going on here, be sure to check back, as we'll be updating the gallery throughout the day! %Gallery-34201%
BlizzCon 2008: Fun in the badge pickup line
We've all got our badges for BlizzCon now -- badge pickup was a little less chaotic than last year, if memory serves us correctly (though they really need to split up the "S" names -- our line was longer by three times as much as any of the others). There were lots of people waiting outside right before they opened the convention center at 4pm, but once they opened up the doors, things moved quickly. We didn't notice any recognizable Blizzard staff around, but we've heard rumblings from vendors that they're setting up inside, and there's certainly plenty of activity going on back there.None of the rest of the center is open until tomorrow, obviously, but we also grabbed some pictures of the art we could see posted inside. No, there aren't any big exclusive reveals, but there is a particularly nice piece of the Diablo III Witchdoctor that we hadn't seen before. Enjoy.%Gallery-34144%
BlizzCon '08: The Game updated
You may remember BlizzCon '08: The Game, the fanmade Flash game by Toneslice that came out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week. Toneslice originally promised that if he got a certain number of views, he'd update it to be a better game, and he got more than that, so he completely revamped it. Now, you play as the Fail SCV, and you have to shoot Blizzard fans coming in all directions (who are strangely shooting back at you). The game's a fun little distraction, and just another example of something cool coming out of the problems last week.Unfortunately, unlike Blizzard's games, it's still only for PC, but a Mac version may be on the way soon. Fanmade games about a game company -- what will they think of next?
Tauren needs ticket to BlizzCon
One good thing that's come out of the BlizzCon ticket chaos last week is that the WoW community is showing all kinds of creativity in dealing with Blizzard's mistakes. Last week on the podcast, we talked about "DizzCon," an event being organized by players who couldn't find tickets, but still want to go to Anaheim that weekend, and now here's the story of AreEss. He wasn't able to get tickets either, but is now offering a deal to anyone who has an extra -- he'll pick you up on his drive to Anaheim from Cleveland (or "The Cleve"). And as if that wasn't a great enough deal, he's also buying food on the road, and he's going to be wearing a handmade Tauren costume the whole time (which, apparently, you may have to help with -- that might be a dealbreaker right there).He's now moved over to a blog (and adapted the great name "BlizzCon Cow"), and starting posting how it's going, complete with pictures of the costume and some how-to info on making it. If I had a free ticket, I'd totally hook the guy up, because clearly he really, really wants to be at BlizzCon. Hopefully he'll keep us updated on how it's all going, and especially if he's able to find a ticket -- it'd be great to see him at the WoW Insider meetup.Creativity like this just shows how committed Blizzard's fan community is -- even when things go bad, the community steps up to make events like BlizzCon something even bigger than Blizzard ever planned them to be.
Why do people blog about WoW?
Why do we feel compelled to spill out our guts all over the intertubes for the entire world to read? The answer, of course, is a subset of the larger question, why do people blog about anything? It's probably a variation of the same question that medieval bards asked the operators of the first printing press: "Dude, why do you want to put yourself so, I don't know, out there?"The "serious" answers get all sociological and some junk. We want to be heard popping off about our opinions on talent trees, bragging about one-shots, or feeling part of the larger WoW community outside our own servers.However, as a WoW blogger myself, I know that the truth about us isn't nearly that pretty. We blog to brag about Kara exploits or show off our expertise on the Hunter class, a frame addon, or prime Oily Blackmouth fishing spots . We dream of demi-celebrity status in the WoW community. We try to provoke people into replying, sometimes with generous link love. We like to have the first scoop on expansion news (essentially, more showing off). We gossip about guild drama, sometimes wrapped up snuggly in the ignorance of our fellow guildies that we even have a blog. (There is a sweet freedom in finding the comfort of internet strangers.) We blog for artistic expression and to make others laugh.And the main reason we blog? The same reason we feel itchy when we haven't called Mom in a few weeks: guilt.
Zero Punctuation reviews fanboys
Were you one of the easily offended, outraged souls who took umbrage with Zero Punctuation's more-than-scathing review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl? If so, then Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has some feedback to your feedback. That's right: rather than dedicating this week's Zero Punctuation to the usual misanthropic, ranting reviews that we love so much, Yahtzee has answered the numerous critics of his Brawl review, which attracted over a thousand comments on the Escapist's site (and quite a few on here).Hit the break for the full, NSFW version, and prepare yourself for a chilling insight into the minds of the most irrational fanboys.
WoW theme for Blackberry
Not to be outdone by the WoW iPhone theme, Xtina over on WoW LJ took it upon herself to use those WoW icons to create a theme for the Blackberry. This one's even a little more in-depth -- she even skinned the calling screen (which is actually easy enough to do on the iPhone as well, but we just hadn't seen it before). Plus, the best part is that this one is completely legit -- you just download the file from Xtina's page there, and you can install it using Desktop Manager.Of course, we haven't actually heard from Blizzard about any of this stuff yet -- odds are that as great as their icons are, they're not real thrilled with seeing them used in other places (a friend of mine who just recently saw me playing World of Warcraft shouted out in surprise, "Hey! Those are the icons from that game on Facebook!" I didn't bother telling her about the real DotA or Warcraft III). Then again, both of these are completely fanmade and free to download -- surely themes like this, that let Blizzard fans show off their loyalties, can be let through the loopholes.
