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WoW-Playing Actress Michele Morrow: Less Sylvanas, more chaotically awesome
When we first met actress Michele Morrow in 2010, she was inching her way across the shallow field comprising the Hollywood crowd that plays World of Warcraft. It appeared to be a successful combination for Michele; in fact, for a while it seemed the horror flick star might actually be becoming best known as "that actress who wants to play Lady Sylvanas in a WoW movie," courtesy of a vocal Facebook page created by an enthusiastic fan. While Sylvanas doesn't now appear to be spawning in the upcoming WoW movie, Michele's been popping up not only in Azeroth itself (with a commemorative NPC on Wandering Isle) but on gamer and nerd websites across the internet and in gaming-related film projects slated to begin hitting in 2014. Reconnecting with Michele at BlizzCon 2013 unspooled a reel of geekery worth investigating anew, as well as relatable tales of the sort of down-to-earth, casual raiding and in-game friendships that so many players enjoy as the WoW experience today.
Community Blog Topic: Who is your favorite faction leader?
For this week's Community Blog Topic, we ask, "Who is your favorite leader from a playable faction?" Anyone who knows me won't be surprised at my answer: Lady Sylvanas. Her history is tragic. Being ripped from her former existence by Arthas and turning into the Banshee Queen is just delicious. And she's the only faction leader who breaks into song as a quest reward. I also completely support her methods of increasing her people's numbers. I love that instead of waking up as a not-mindless undead has been replaced by being called up by a Val'kyr if you decide to roll Forsaken. And her little exchange with Garrosh in Silverpine Forest is priceless. Yes, she's going on with the plague behind everyone's back, and that's a bad thing. But she has the Forsaken's best interests at heart, as desiccated as that heart may be. I wouldn't want her to become leader of the Horde though. She's much more fun where she is. Who is your favorite faction leader from a playable faction? Why did you choose him or her? Blog about it and post your link in the comments below. Or if you don't have a WoW-related blog, just respond by commenting.
Know Your Lore: Top 10 magnificent bastards of Warcraft, part 2
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. Last week, we talked about some magnificent bastards. At least one of those choices (Garithos) is, for me, kind of a controversial one, and I'm going to suggest a replacement for him in this post, because I think many readers made a valid point regarding him. Garithos is absolutely the second part of the equation, but there's no magnificence to him. He's a bumbler, a cretin, and his great impact on the world was entirely due to his utter inability to succeed at anything. MBs are more like Doctor Doom or David Xanatos; they have a kind of epic quality to them and a real feeling of threat. So there you go, readers -- you've already convinced me that one of my choices from last week was not the right choice. Therefore, this post will begin at #6 and count down to #1. Just take Garithos off of last week's list, and let Wrathion sit at #10. This moves Nathanos down to #7 and makes room for this week. You convinced me, guys. Garithos is out. Can you pull it off again this week? This week, we look at my top Magnificent Bastards in World of Warcraft. I will tell you right now, certain characters will not be appearing on this list because they're either not magnificent enough or not bastards enough. I'm looking at both the King of Stormwind and the current Warchief of the Horde here.
The Queue: Ancient memes for ancient connections
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Mike Sacco will be your host today. Yes, that's right. I moved to California, land of actual broadband internet, leaving my dial-up and horrible mobile broadband far behind. Are you excited? I'm excited. I'm downloading games from Steam at 2MB/s. Do you know how long it took me to download stuff like that before? And how much I had to pay for it? Don't get me started, people. Josh asked: Did curse.com and MMO-Champion.com get hacked like the other gaming sites? They've reported that they're working through a hardware failure, not a security issue, so it doesn't appear that they've been hacked. We like Curse and we hope everything is back up and running soon!
Breakfast Topic: Transformed by the blood
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Spoiler alert: This post contains fairly heavy lore spoilers for the Cataclysm expansion. If that's not your thing, you should stop reading now. In Cataclysm, during the quests in Silverpine Forest, Horde players learn that human refugees from Hillsbrad have fled to Fenris Keep, and our glorious Banshee Queen Sylvanas sends us with a loyal val'kyr to kill and raise the poor humans as Forsaken, to bolster their forces in Silverpine. Using the new on-the-go questing feature, Sylvanas informs players to find and convert the human leaders inside their keep. This is when things get a little hairy, as the keep is guarded by elite worgen guards. Battling through, the players find themselves arriving at the middle of a meeting between the big names of Southshore and Lord Darius Crowley.
The Queue: Simple things
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Today is a day of, apparently, quick questions and quick answers. Most of the questions asked were fairly straightforward and not particularly involved. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is really up to you, but it is what it is: simple. I planned to embed a cartoon at the top of this video, but the aspect ratio made it gigantic if I used our standard width, so there's a link instead.whalt asked... "Any idea if prior season PvP weapons will ever be available from honor/arena points and not require an arena rating like the old Glad weapons were back in BC?"
Model changes for Varimathras and Alexstrasza
We certainly enjoyed the model changes to Varian Wrynn and Sylvanas Windrunner, and now Blizzard's finished the unique models for Alexstrasza (human form, that is; you can see her dragon model update here) and Varimathras, as befits their key roles in the storyline for Wrath. I'm a tiny bit disappointed with Alexstrasza's model; her armor is mostly a red copy of Sylvanas' new threads, which are admittedly all sorts of awesome but makes me wonder if there's some kind of Armor Barn in Azeroth for hipster bosses. Alexstrasza does, however, show even more skin than Sylvanas does, so from some peoples' perspectives this might be a feature rather than a bug.Varimathras is a nice update although he retains his old animations and emotes (you can't really see it from the perspective of the screenshot above, but I think his legs and hooves are a significant improvement on the shaky anatomy of the current dreadlord model). Both he and Alexstrasza's changes are somewhat less shocking than the complete overhaul to Wrynn and Sylvanas, but we're still pleased to see Blizzard taking an interest in the visual badassery of major faction leaders and NPC's. I would tend to agree with Zach Yonzon's contention that it would be amazing to see an update to all the faction leaders if Blizzard could swing it at some point, although I have the sneaking suspicion, judging from what CM's have said about the difficulty of programming in new Druid forms, that this is a fairly lengthy process. However, after seeing the model changes in the beta, I don't think anyone's going to argue it's not worth it, and a number of people have argued for player model changes as well. The extraordinary design work in Northrend will probably add fuel to that fire.%Gallery-33165%
Boss models updated in Wrath Beta
A nice surprise awaited the citizens of Stormwind and the Undercity when the new Beta build went live earlier. New, unique models for King Varian Wrynn and Lady Sylvanas Windrunner debuted in their respective cities, looking every bit as awesome as faction leaders should be. Although Lady Sylvanas received a makeover over a month ago -- changed from the erroneous Night Elf model into the proper High or Blood Elf model -- this newest iteration is more regal, more intimidating, and just more badass. Taking a screenshot proved difficult as throngs of admirers threw all sorts of emotes at the new Dark Lady from /cowers to /kisses. King Varian Wrynn in Stormwind also received a graphic overhaul, upgrading from pre-TBC PvP Honor gear to a unique armor set with an eagle and lion motif. He also no longer dual-wields Jade Serpentblades but more appropriately what looks like Quel'serrar. So Wrynn has apparently taken care of the Onyxia problem. Twice. Alex Ziebart points out that he also seems to be wearing Anduin Lothar's belt (always thank your lore nerds!). It's a cool model except that he always seems to be scowling and occasionally yawns. But the details matter -- Varian's face is also battle-scarred -- and I want to seriously give props to the Blizzard artists behind these new models. They're just completely fantastic.[EDIT: I probably should have mentioned this, too, since I'd already checked it out but reader RogueJedi86 called me on it -- they also updated the dragon model for Alexstraza, and can be viewed on World of Raids. She really likes her trinkets and baubles like the sophisticated lady that she is...]In other news, this Beta build also saw the traitorious Varimathras converted into a duotone Rubik's Cube. Maybe a placeholder for better graphics or punishment for being such an arrogant lackey? If anything, however, with all these unique models coming out, perhaps it's a good time to update the other boss models in the game. Thrall, the baddest of all badasses, still looks like he's in Level 40 greens [NOTE: Reader Skeeran correctly reminds me that Thrall's armor is Orgrim Doomhammer's armor as seen in Warcraft III... but it still looks like Level 40 greens.]. Even worse off is Cairne Bloodhoof, who looks like he got all his gear from the Wailing Caverns. Since these bosses are soon going receive a lot of visitors, it's probably a good time to dress them up properly to receive them. I mean, Tyrande Whisperwind is still wearing a nightdress...
Lady Sylvanas' model updated
In one of the more unexpected moves in World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King, Lady Sylvanas, leader of the Forsaken, has finally gotten a new look. Lore purists have argued about why she was modeled on the Night Elf model when Sylvanas was originally one of the High Elves. (Thus her look should have more closely resembled Blood Elves from the Burning Crusade expansion) There's now an equally loud contingent who are complaining that Sylvanas' new look is perhaps a little too... valley elf. To see things for ourselves, we jumped into the Wrath of the Lich King beta and went through the Lady's Necklace quest arc that triggers off her singing Lament of the Highborne. We were curious as to just how the new model would play out in this player favorite arc. If you've never seen the event, are curious about how it looks with the new model, or just like to listen to the song -- join us after the break for an updated look at Sylvanas' Lament!
Cinemassively: "Worth Dying For" released
I recently wrote about a World of Warcraft trailer that promised an epic movie would be following shortly. True to his word, Manuel Sequeira released a 40 minute movie yesterday! "Worth Dying For" offers an entertaining storyline and develops fairly well. This is a love story with deep history. A forsaken mage has plotted his revenge on the Lady Sylvanas for taking him so early, dooming him to the afterlife. If he is to become human again, he must seek out the current archmage and draw him to him. Only after battle can he return to his true form and kill her. What follows is a sad story with a surprising twist. I think you'll enjoy it!However, I do have some criticism. Despite having the amazing Phil Rice, aka Overman, voicing some of the characters, the rest of the cast doesn't fit. The editing of the sound has some part in it, but the voiceovers just feel wrong. I was also disappointed with the lack of range of movement in scenes with dialogue. In addition, I'm not sure what resolution he shot it in, but there are some scenes where he is zoomed in that are very pixelated. My last concern with this Machinima is that one of the voices is credited to Alan Smithee. What happened there?[Via Zarathustra Studios]
WoW Moviewatch: Singing Sylvanas
I wouldn't have expected it either, but apparently a quest in the Ghostlands leads to this interesting scene involving Sylvanas. When you turn in the quest, you receive the following text, and the above drama begins:Lady Sylvanas Windrunner looks down at the discarded necklace. In her sadness, the lady incants a glamour, which beckons forth Highborne spirits. The chamber resonates with their ancient song about the Sin'dorei...
