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Ask a Lore Nerd: Demons rule, naga drool
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, where each week blogger and columnist Alex Ziebart answers your questions about the lore and history of the World of Warcraft. Ask your questions in the comments section below, and we'll try to answer it in a future edition.Just as a warning, today's Ask a Lore Nerd has a couple of spoilers for Wrath content. At this point, I assume that light Northrend spoilers isn't going to scare people off, but I figure I should mention it anyway. It's nothing major, so you won't ruin your experience by reading it anyway. Let's dig in!Tarean asked...Blizzard's said that there's enough material for plenty of more expansions after Wrath of the Lich King, and there's plenty of possibilities, but what expansion should come next lore-wise?
WoW Insider's predictions for 2009
Another year has come and gone, and we're on the verge of WoW's fifth year of existence. So it's time once again to look into the crystal ball, and pull out some predictions. Some of these are surefire (we're definitely going to hear more about the content patches for Wrath this year), some are tossups depending on who you ask (will we see another expansion in the works?), and some are just random guesses. But we're guaranteed one thing: 2009 is going to be a wild year, so if you want our very first insight on what might happen, here you go.These are compiled from the WoW Insider staff -- we differed in a few places, and where we did, I've pointed out who thought what. Keep in mind that no one can predict the future, of course, so these are predictions, and that's all. By now we should all know that Blizzard will do all they can to keep us guessing. And feel free to put your own predictions (or just respond to ours in the comments below. Happy New Year -- here's to a great 2009!Update: Also be sure to check out Big Download's PC predictions for 2009 -- they've got something to say about Blizzard's next expansion, too.
Horde plans attack for Northrend on a map without Northrend
Reader Dale from Grim Batol-EU (I don't think that's his character name) sent in a screenshot of the war map the leaders of the Horde stand around while debating their assault on Northrend in the latest (and probably final) stage of the Scourge Invasion. He sent it to us wondering if it holds any hints of future expansions, because the map includes a number of land masses we haven't seen in-game and have only appeared on a few maps of the world we've seen. I think there is something much more dire in the image.There is no next expansion. Why? Because Northrend isn't even on that map. The Horde is using a map that lacks Northrend to discuss an assault on Northrend. I think I have some idea of how their conversation really went down at their war council. Check it out behind the cut below.
Mystery continent spotted
Sharp-eyed tipster Fontane sent us this very interesting screenshot today. This is a picture of a book open on the table by the Argent Dawn emmisaries currently set up in Shattrath. What does that look like in the circled area? To me, it looks like a map of Azeroth: Northrend at the top, Kalimdor at left, Eastern Kingdoms at right, and the Maelstrom in the middle. But what's that at the bottom? Could it be a new continent? Sure, it might be a bit early to speculate about the third expansion, given that the second isn't even out yet (five days!). But I'm going to do it anyway; we do know they've got more planned.
Beyond the Lich: looking forward to future patches
Patch 3.0.2 is out today, and so goes the ways of old. Buffs have undergone the largest change since release, Protection Warriors can now AoE tank like a pro, Retribution Paladins are all screaming "Don't nerf me, bro!" and casters around the world are getting their heads around spellpower.All this change begs the question, what's in store for the future? Could this be the last great patch we see? Is this the beginning of the end of the World of Warcraft? Highly unlikely, and we already know that there is a bit in store for us in a few 3.x.x patches.Read on after the break for what we know is coming, as well as for what my predictions of the future hold.
Could there be such a thing as life without the Lich King?
In response to one player's question, "After Arthas, what's left to kill?" Bornakk has revealed a surprising tidbit about the future of World of Warcraft. The answer is: Murlocs! That's right. After we kill Arthas, "instead of adding new creatures or new continents it will be just one area of endlessly spawning murlocs." Amazing fun! This is what I've been wishing for ever since I saw my first murlocs on the shores of Darkshore. Perhaps we'll be able to collect endless varieties of Murky pets, too! They could go by all sorts of cute names like Lurky, Quirky and Turky.Ah... to dream. Anyways, later in the same thread, Nethaera stops by too and adds her own meditation on the possible death of Arthas, reminding us of a most ancient question regarding trees falling in the woods without anyone to hear them: "If Arthas dies, does the Lich King also die?" This seems to be a pretty clear indication that the death of Arthas will not mean the death of the Lich King, and that the story of the Living versus the Dead will go even after the big bad prince bites the dust.Arthas and the Lich King has been a pretty huge part of the Warcraft story ever since before most of us were even familiar with it, and for some of us it feels strange that he might one day no longer be a part of it. In our interview with WoW's lead producer, he noted that both the Maelstrom and the Emerald Dream were once considered as possibilities for WoW's second expansion, but they chose Northrend and Arthas to come before them because it seemed like the strongest idea. But how strong is Arthas really? Could he ever compare to murlocs?No, but seriously, do you think the Lich King is just way too cool not to perpetuate indefinitely as the ultimate villain? Would you like to see Arthas get killed in one patch, while the Lich King returned in another, kind of like Kael'thas showed up twice in The Burning Crusade? Or do you think we're going to get our fill of Lich Kinginess -- so much so that once Arthas is dead, the Lich King and all the Scourge should just die for good along with him?
Blast from the Past: Lunatic Fringe
If you're a long-time Mac user, the words "After Dark" conjure memories of flying toasters, Star Trek, city lights, and -- my favorite -- Lunatic Fringe. Lunatic Fringe was a Maelstrom-like game built-in to After Dark, a screen saver utility for Mac and Windows popular in the early- to mid-90s. Fringe Player, from Sealie Software, is a app that brings Lunatic Fringe back to your new, Intel-based Mac. It supports Leopard, and there is a version for PowerPC processors as well. You have to obtain the original screensaver module separately, however. You can get the module from your original After Dark disks (or online, if you're clever with the Google.) Now if you'll excuse me, my Friday afternoon is suddenly spoken for.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be a night elf
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the seventh in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class well, without embarrassing yourself.The night elves are probably the most difficult race to roleplay well in all the World of Warcraft, which is particularly ironic considering how very popular they are. Many a roleplayer has been disappointed by seeing player character night elves who are 21 years old, who were born in Darnassus or Teldrassil, or whose mother or father is human -- all of which would be next to impossible according to the actual lore of the game. The only way to make things like this is to change the lore to suit your own preferences, or to rely on cliche devices such as time travel and special magics which really go too far into the realm of the abominably self-centered Mary Sue.Night elves can also be difficult to understand, and full of contradictions: they can be over 10,000 years old, and yet they often do not possess the vast wisdom that would seem to come with such an age; they are deeply connected to nature, and yet they sometimes act without the blessings of nature; their women are supposed to be very fierce warriors, and yet their animation in the game has them bouncing up and down like teenage girls at their favorite boy-band concert.And yet much of this is just the sort of thing that draws people to the night elves. There's a youthful passion combined with ancient grace and sadness that many roleplayers just love to get into. Also, for those who love to develop long and complex background stories for their characters, there is a great deal of history about the night elves' ancient past which can serve as good inspiration for many of your own character's life events. We won't go into every detail of ancient history today, however; instead we'll cover the basics that you'll need to know in order to start out with a night elf that fits in the Warcraft story, and direct you to some more resources if you'd like to make one with a really deep and complicated background.
Ask a Lore Nerd: You're how old?
Welcome to Ask a Lore Nerd, WoW Insider's newest weekly feature column. Have a question about the story and lore of the Warcraft universe? Click the Comments link below, ask your question, and blogger/columnist Alex Ziebart will answer you in a future installment!We have no reason to delay, so let's get right into the meat of things!Jere asks: I might be wrong on location, but why is there a member of the Argent Dawn stationed in Dun Morogh just southeast of IF?Answer: Unfortunately, we have no idea. Father Gavin might just be an emissary or representative from the Argent Dawn to Dun Morogh, but he has no quests or dialogue attached to him. It's possible he'll be used for something in the future, but it seems unlikely. He simply exists. Nothing more.
Restarts and maintenance for Tuesday, May 20th
It's a relatively painless Tuesday Morning this time around for those who play in what are the early morning hours at Blizzard HQ. This time, most US servers will just recieve a quick rolling restart at 5 AM PDT, about half an hour from now, which should result in no more than 15 minutes of downtime. However, there are some servers that will get 2 hours of downtime: Agamaggan, Azshara, Baelgun, Dark Iron, Detheroc, Emerald Dream, Greymane, Kalecgos, Lightninghoof, Maelstrom, Malfurion, Moonrunner, Nazjatar, Sargeras, Staghelm, Twisting Nether, Ursin, and Wildhammer. Also, here's something that should please a lot of Australian players: Their realms won't get the rolling restarts until 5AM AEST -- which translates to noon PDT. That should translate to lots of time for night owls to finish their raids before the restarts kick them off. So in that 15 minutes to 2 hours of down time you'll have to go through, or if you're stuck at school or work, here's a few WoW Insider articles from the last week that are worth checking out. First, last week's major news and views: The WoTLK Friends and Family Alpha is underway, and we have the leaked patch notes. A Vivendi earnings statement gave us the first real official word on WoTLK's expected release date. The Hunter Growl and Scare Beast changes from patch 2.4.2 didn't turn out so great after all. Raiders rejoice: M'uru got a little easier, and those nasty Archimonde and Eredar Twin bugs got a hotfix. Death and Taxes, the premiere US WoW raiding guild, disbanded. That set a few of us to pontificating on the problems of raid guild drama here and here. We covered a few more tidbits of WoTLK info, such as Death Knight "reruning." Check out sister site BigDownload's interview with Blizzard on that whole eSport thing. In Hybrid Theory, Alex soothes your fears about Death Knights taking your jobs. If these aren't enough for you, there's more after the break.
What will we find at BlizzCon?
BlizzCon was announced on Monday, and ever since, there's been a question bouncing around the back of my mind: just what is it for? Blizzard doesn't just host an event because they love us or because they feel like it -- they host events to release news. WWI last year was where Starcraft II was announced, and Wrath of the Lich King got announced at the previous BlizzCon.We do know that we're expecting Wrath in "the second half" of the year, and whatever we see at BlizzCon could depend on when that releases. If Wrath appears in August (before BlizzCon in October), we might be seeing the announcement of the next expansion (probably the Maelstrom or the Emerald Dream, or both) in Anaheim: Blizzard has said that they want to release them faster, and there'd be no time like BlizzCon to get an announcement out. If Wrath doesn't show up until November or December, though, Blizzard could use their convention to announce brand new features we haven't heard about yet -- maybe another Hero class?Of course, we could be grinding the wrong quest mobs entirely -- remember that BlizzCon is about Blizzard, not just World of Warcraft, so anything they announce might have nothing at all to do with their MMO. Diablo 3, anyone? Or maybe they do just want to hang out with their fans and get some good press before the big release. We won't know for sure until they open the doors at the convention center in October.
Return of the Revenge of the Community Policing and Naming Policy Argument: The Addon
You might recall, if you've followed WoW Insider in the past few months, that I've been a relatively strong advocate of the making sure naming and RP server policies are enforced and have felt that if the community's going to be made to it, we should get better tools for the job. While I even got in a very productive conversation with Belfaire about it, I'm not holding my breath on a lot of my proposed tools and reforms seeing the light of day. After all, I work for WoW Insider, not Blizzard itself, and hey, not everyone agrees with me on how this stuff should work. Which is cool. Variety is the spice of life and all. That said, for policy reporting curmudgeons like myself, Wachunga of the Maelstrom server has created a pretty good tool: the NameViolation addon.
Know Your Lore: The Sunwell
The upcoming patch, patch 2.4, now known as The Fury of the Sunwell, revolves around... well, the Sunwell! I guess there's something in there about a huge demon by the name of Kil'jaeden, but I'm sure he's not important. Like my previous installments of Know Your Lore, I'll give a little bit of background information on our subject, so you understand the foundation of it. This bit isn't quite as exciting as my last installment or two, but this took a lot more research, and a lot more piecing together half-told bits of story from multiple authors. It's a bit like playing Connect the Dots, but instead of getting a flower or a sailboat, I get Richard Knaak flipping me off. Sorry it's so dry, but on with the show!A little over 10,000 years ago, the Night Elves lived under the rule of Queen Azshara and the upper class of society, the Highborne. Their culture was rich in magic and the arcane, very different from the down to earth, nature-centric society of the Night Elves today. Queen Azshara and her Highborne were extremely hedonistic, using the nearby Well of Eternity for personal power and gain. At some point during all of this, Azshara heard a dark whisper, promising power beyond her imagination.Does this sound familiar? Yes, Sargeras was up to his old tricks again. Like he lured Kil'jaeden and Archimonde to the Legion's cause, he did the same with Queen Azshara. Whereas Kil'jaeden and Archimonde seemed to have needed a little trickery from the Destroyer, Azshara was far more welcoming. She was pretty okay with hanging out with demons, and rather enjoyed the whole fire and brimstone thing.
WoW Moviewatch: Horde, Episode 1
Pinkhair dug deep into the archives of WoW machinima to recommend this gem. Horde - Episode 1: "That's how we role!" is parody of popular movies from yesteryear. When a group of strangers are jailed for not roleplaying on Maelstrom, they are assigned an essay to identify themselves. What role will each of them fulfill?I have to say that I didn't pick up on the cues as to what movie they were mainly referring to until the very end. If you are a fan of 80s movies, I think that you'll find this movie pretty amusing. Due to this being a guild-based movie, Slurvin was unable to create a sequel, as the group broke up afterwards. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing another comedy like this, commercials and all, in the future.[Thanks, Pinkhair!]Previously on Moviewatch ...
Darkmoon Faire Decks: An overview
As I've mentioned before, The Darkmoon Faire is currently in Terrokar Forest, just outside Shattrath City, so if you have decks to turn in or need to refill your private stock of Darkmoon Special Reserve, now's the time to get on it. But if you're still a little bit taken aback by the prospect of gathering all those cards, or wondering if the trinket at the end will really be worth it, we'd like to help you out. In this post, we'll be looking at both the old and new decks and listing some pros and cons of each deck so you can figure out if you want to spend the next month tracking down cards before the Faire shows up in Elwynn Forest in March, or even if you just want to blow your epic flying mount fund on getting a deck before it leaves for the month. We'll start in on everything after the jump.
MMOG Podcast Roundup: Dec. 18th - Dec. 28th
Every week, hardworking Massive gaming fans put their voices on the line to bring us news, opinions, and 'critiques' of their favorite games. Podcasts are a staple of many hobbies nowadays, and fans of online worlds are especially fortunate in this regard ... there are a ton out there. As such, every so often we'll try to update you on the podcasting world. Keep your eyes on this space for links to your favorite MMO-commentary celebs. Good and bad, straight-man or blue-mouthed, they all have something to offer about this amazing style of gameplay.This week I want to highlight two 'historic' podcasts: one historic from the standpoint of an 'event' and the other historic because it's easily one of the most respected 'casts out there.The Maelstrom podcast is quickly becoming sort of an insane 'newshour-style' roundtable discussion. I had the pleasure of participating in Episode 19, and this latest is just huge; a full nine people sat in for a discussion about MMOGs that lasted for an epic amount of time. Beware - there be blue-mouthed people here.VirginWorlds, on the other hand, is a stiff-upper lip look at the news. Hosted by Brent, the mastermind behind the VirginWorlds Collective, it's a reliable and (mostly) dispassionate weekly dip into the latest Massive gaming information. Of course, we like you coming here too.If you're not already listening to VW ... you should be. This is, of course, the last roundup of the year. I've only done three other roundups, and less frequently than I wanted ... but consider this the first weekly podcast roundup. Meteor storms and inclement weather allowing, I'll be back next week (year) with another update to the MMO podcasting world. Until then, enjoy the list.
Anonymous source says: Next expansion = "Into the Maelstrom"
You know we have one anonymous source, who told us that there'll be "Northrend" music played at Blizzcon, and then there's Boubouille at MMO-Champion who says that the next expansion will be called "Wrath of the Lich King" in which we'll go to Northrend and raid Arthas' little snow castle. Apparently IGN has an anonymous source of their own, though, and his info is quite different.According to their contact, named "Blizz guy," we're going to have an "Into the Maelstrom" expansion, in which we go... into... the Maelstrom! and the Light only knows who we're going to fight there. Also, in lieu of new talents, Blizz guy says we're finally going to get our long-awaited Hero Classes that we can level up in, all the way to 80.Now personally, I see all the hints pointing to Northrend, and absolutely nothing pointing to the Maelstrom, so I'm a lot more inclined to trust our own sources -- but we'll put this out there for all you who just love rumors and speculation! MMO-Champion and IGN can't both be right on this one, though I suppose they could both be wrong.Which one do you think seems more likely? Or do you have an anonymous source of your own?
Adding to the Azeroth map
Currently our map of Azeroth has two continents, but anyone who's played the original RTS games knows more is out there. Blizzplanet has some interesting information that leads me to hazard a guess that we may be seeing more added to the cartography of Azeroth in the future. They start with the information, lore and such that were added to the World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery tabletop rulebook. Should you own a copy (I, alas, do not) you will find it contains new info on Northrend and the South Seas. The maps that we saw on the WoW Collector's Edition behind the scenes DVD of Azeroth show that they have been planning such an expansion since 2004. On the map, it shows Northrend at the top of the world, with the Maelstrom and Nazajatar in the middle and the Isle of Kezen/Undermine at the bottom.
Doctor Who writer joins Maelstrom team
Screenwriter James Swallow has been signed by Codemasters to work on their upcoming science-fiction title Maelstrom. With his previous work encompassing Doctor Who and Star Trek: Voyager, this is an interesting move; good science fiction depends on a good story, and hiring someone who can deliver that story bodes well for the game.We've not heard much about Maelstrom since it was announced, but Codemasters also released some of the game's backstory today to whet your appetite for post-apocalyptic action strategy.
