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Changes to old Azeroth coming in the next expansion
In the last expansion, all we did was walk through a portal and find a new world -- the old one was left pretty much unchanged overall. But in this coming expansion, Blizzard has made it pretty clear that almost nothing is off limits -- Northrend is getting added to Azeroth, and we're not traveling across space to get there. And considering that Arthas' story echoes throughout almost all of the old world (and that the whole thing is named after him), things are definitely going to change once Northrend appears on the world map.So we've put together a gallery of just what will be different about the old world after the Wrath of the Lich King comes upon us. To be fair, some are set in stone (we know for sure that Naxxaramas is exiting stage left for a bigger part later), and some are little more than speculation (Uther played a huge part in Arthas' life, so his tomb seems like a good stage for an event at some point), but odds are that by the time we've all reached level 80, all of these places in Old Azeroth will look very different.%Gallery-25018%
Poll: Are you looking forward to WoTLK more than you looked forward to Burning Crusade?
So recently, Tobold was saying that excitement around Wrath of the Lich King is visibly much less than the excitement that led up to the release of Burning Crusade. People are tired out by the 2 year wait, WoW isn't innovating, WoW isn't adding the content fast enough: there's just so many reasons that the Wrath of the Lich King is being greeted with ennui instead of excitement. My first thought upon reading that: Wait, people aren't excited over WoTLK?
Know Your Lore: The Scarlet Crusade
Welcome to Know Your Lore, where each week Elizabeth Wachowski and Alex Ziebart bring you a tasty little morsel of lore to wrap your mind around. Sweet, sweet lore. Mmmm.This week on Know Your Lore, we're going to talk about the faction that manages to be one of the most beloved organizations in the game while also being one of the most hated. Whether you love them or hate them, the Scarlet Crusade remains one of the most interesting factions in WoW, and they're attached to the Ashbringer that the WoW community is so fascinated with. Better yet, they return in Wrath of the Lich King.The Scarlet Crusade was founded during the fall of Lordaeron, shortly after the Knights of the Silver Hand had been decimated by the Scourge and largely disbanded. Though its founders did not necessarily have the most sane or noble intentions, many of the men and women who joined their ranks did have only one primary goal in mind. They wished to free Lordaeron of the Scourge in the name of the Light, and crush the undead utterly. Considering those undead brought their homeland (one of the most powerful kingdoms in the world at the time) to its knees and blighted it beyond belief, that was a pretty noble cause.
Barrens Chat: First posts make me hungry
Greetings fellow travelers of time and space! Welcome to the first official posting of Barrens Chat, a soon to be weekly implement of random craziness. Although I know I'm not the first comic strip, and likely I wont be the last to grace these glorious virtual pages, I invite you to take a romp with me, Megan, as I drag forth those silly comments people make that they hope no one noticed, and glorify them with fancy colors, and ever-changing art.I will point out that although all of this is will all be incredibly funny to everyone who reads it, including me; it may end up being a "you had to be there" moment. In that case, come back next week! I'm sure it'll be funnier then. No really, it will. %Gallery-22361%
Blizzard wins the prank wars
Well, what else would you expect from the company that brought you murlocs? April Fool's day is in full effect in Blizzardlandia, and World of Warcraft isn't the only game to get the treatment, but it's a good place to start!Molten Core: for consolesHeavily trading on fond gamer memories of Atari's Adventure, Blizzard brings us the console version of its popular 40-player raid dungeon Molten Core. The game's site features screenshots alongside concept art, and a trailer, even, with an 8-bit, pixelated version of the company's logo. We won't spoil the show for you, but the best bullet point for the game has to be 'Has sound'. Check it out and wait for your chance to pre-order!
Best starting race
I've been leveling a few Draenei alts off and on and finally figured out just why it is that I keep rolling the damn things in addition to my beloved Tauren; their starting quests rock. You wake from stasis, meet the locals, save a princess, make early ties to the Alliance and find out why there's a good reason the some of 'em won't trust you right off the bat, discover nefarious deeds afoot, fight a dragon, and then save your people and get a cool tabard. "Find your way back to the Outland, Hero of Argus," Exarch Admetius tells you, in a nice preview of things to come, and Velen has a good lore moment with you shortly afterwards.Having leveled a toon out of every starting area to at least 20, it's hard not to notice that some areas make it a lot easier than others. I don't mean the general ease of leveling per se, but just how fast the time seems to fly by. For all that a certain percentage of the playerbase frowns on RP on non-RP servers, most peoples' favorite quests do have an element of RP to them, or at least the RP sense of being fully engaged with the world. And in that respect the Draenei starting zones are, in my opinion, unparalleled. If I had to rank them --
Cinemassively: Here Without You
One of the best machinimas created in World of Warcraft was actually made almost three years ago, and still lives on in machinimators today. With over 20,000 videos uploaded to Warcraftmovies, Here Without You, by Dimoroc, was one of the first 1200. Many filmmakers have since tried to replicate the raw emotion evoked in this video, but few have succeeded.Here Without You centers around the origin of a Forsaken, from how he came to be, to how he's haunted by his past. Using only music and interactions, instead of dialogue, Dimoroc was able to create a moving display of love. After posting this video, he disappeared, which is a real shame, because he helped pave the way for so many talented machinimators after him.[Via Warcraftmovies.com]
WoW Moviewatch: Here Without You
This machinima is almost three years old, yet it still holds up today. Here Without You, by Dimoroc, doesn't have special effects, a flashy intro, or even any dialogue. It tells the story of a Forsaken and how they became that way. Using music and powerful scenes, he is able to convey emotion that I did not think possible of World of Warcraft.The story of Dimoroc himself is a mystery. He showed up at Warcraftmovies, uploaded this one video, and then disappeared shortly after. Almost two years later, he popped up under a different account to thank everyone for their comments, then disappeared again. However, present or not, he has left a lasting impression on the WoW machinima community. If you're out there, Dimoroc, thank you for creating one of the few machinimas that made me cry!Previously on Moviewatch ...
Exalted by 40: My little undead pony
When I originally started playing World of Warcraft, there was absolutely no way to get a cross-faction mount. That didn't stop the text on the tool-tip from taunting me though, saying that the Forsaken mounts were available to Orcs and Trolls and not just Forsaken. Of course, as anyone who started the game at the very beginning can tell you, exalted with any of the basic factions was a vague future idea that they said would eventually be implemented. When the cross-faction cloth trade-ins came into the game, I started slowly but surely forking over every scrap of Runecloth I had to the Orc cloth NPC. I eventually managed to hit Exalted with Orgrimmar, and was able to buy a riding Wolf for my Troll Rogue. But between 40 and 60, I spent quite a long time bouncing around on a Green Raptor, wishing I'd been able to get either a Skeletal Horse or Wolf. (As they took the Ivory raptor I had really wanted out of the game altogether, I certainly wasn't buying an epic raptor!)Flash forward to Zangarmarsh, and my baby Blood Elf Rogue. Coming up through the ranks, I thought it would be fun to see if it was actually possible to get a cross-faction mount by no later than level 40 -- and if so, just precisely what it would entail.
Cool WoW ink!
While floating through the blogosphere looking for WoW tidbits the other day, I stumbled across a blurb featuring the picture on the above right. It didn't say too much about it, beyond that the girl who had the tattoo played a Tauren Warrior, and that she and her other half had matching tribal Horde symbols done. Now, I should preface this with the fact that I'm no stranger to body art either, having 7 tattoos myself. (all of which are easily hidden -- hooray corporate America) It simply got me wondering just how much WoW ink was out there and what kind of designs people were getting.Armed with Google, search terms, and rampant curiosity, I set off in the search of World of Warcraft ink and the people behind it.
