Mountain Dew
Latest
Breakfast Topic: Have you turned to the Dark Side (of Battle.Net)?
I'd been holding off on merging my World of Warcraft account with Battle.Net account for a while now. I really didn't see the point, even though I'm certain to buy Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 when they come out... soon®. I also haven't been hearing too many good things about the service, although to be fair, log-in problems happen to all World of Warcraft accounts whether they've been merged or not. I didn't really think about it much until yesterday, when Battle-Bots became available over at the Mountain Dew Game Fuel site.It's a trap. I mean, this is Blizzard's not-so-subtle ploy to get everyone to merge their accounts into Battle.Net. And boy it's a really good one. The thing is, even scammers seem to think that Battle.Net is a good idea -- hacked accounts are immediately converted to Battle.Net to make it harder to recover -- so it might be better to beat them to the punch. I'm not too worried about account security since I've got an Authenticator, but Battle.Net has now become much more attractive to me now that there's a Battle-Bot bribe thrown into the mix. What do you think? Do you guys have Battle.Net accounts? Is the Battle-Bot worth it? Or is Battle.Net the spawn of the devil? %Poll-30983%
Mountain Dew Battle Bots now live
Mountain Dew Game Fuel, WoW-themed flavors of the popular beverage in red and blue (for the Horde and Alliance, respectively), is out in the wild, and at least one of our writers is already a big fan. To show how much they love you (or rather, to try to get you to buy their soda), Mountain Dew will give you a free in-game Battle Bot pet, just for clicking a button on their web site! The button is towards the lower-right, and it'll redirect you to log in to your Battle.net account. Don't worry, it's safe - you can tell by the Battle.net URL. He's a cute little guy. You can see a few screenshots I took in the gallery below. Apparently you get in-game fuel for your pet, again in red or blue, and when you fuel them up, they will fight opposite colors. If you give your pet blue fuel and the guy next to you gives it red, expect some robot-on-robot fighting action. I'm not sure if you have to get the appropriate fuel for your faction, since it seems you can only get one in-game item per day, and I already got my battle bot. I'll try it tomorrow and see how it goes. Edit: It looks like we've killed the Mountain Dew website. Keep trying though, it's bound to come back up sometime... Edit 2: The pet is mailed to all of your characters, so you don't have to decide which one gets it. %Gallery-65571%
Massively refreshing: WoW Mountain Dew now available, with bonus in-game pet
Pepsico announced that its World of WarCraft-branded Game Fuel beverages are available this month, and will be in stores "through the summer." So if you're in the US and want to drink things that are packaged in a bottle with the logo of a game you like on them, head to your local grocery store.To celebrate the launch of WoW Game Fuel, Blizzard will open a site at www.warcraft.com/dew, where downloadable 14-day trials of the game can be found for new players, and a free downloadable in-game pet called a "Battle Bot" can be found for existing players. The Battle Bot has a speaker on the top of its head that constantly blasts guitar solos and the phrase "DO THE DEW!!!" (It doesn't.)Mountain Dew will also give away items like laptops, various peripherals, and Game Fuel-branded merchandise every 15 minutes.
The Queue: I can't help it if it's true
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider'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.Just gonna let this one speak for itself. Oh, and if you want to know what today's obligatory Reading-The-Queue-Music is, it's of Montreal.lgnorman420 asked... "So I've been wondering as my guild has been running through Ulduar about the various machine names one might encounter throughout the game. Mimiron's creation, the V0-L7R-0N combat system or the XT-002 Deconstructor are two examples. Also the mechanical chicken quests back from mid-40s to 50s leveling also come to mind. Do these number/letter codes have any significance or are they just random sequences to give them a machine sounding kind of name?" I don't think there's any naming scheme across the board for robotic things in WoW. How they got their names differs from one to the next. For example, V0-L7R-0N is just a Voltron joke. I don't think XT-002 has any significance except that maybe (maybe) the 2 signifies that he's the second creation of Mimiron that you fight in Ulduar. The second line of defense or what have you. Someone smarter than I am should figure out what XT stands for. The robochickens are named after the zone you find them in.
Nourish, a WoW recipe blog
Blogger and WoW.com friend Pixelated Executioner has introduced a brand new blog project -- he's working with a few other folks in the community on a new blog called Nourish, dedicated to providing some fun and relatively easy WoW-related recipes for real food. It all originally started over on Twitter, where a few of them decided to come up with some WoW-themed dish names, but eventually it escalated into the idea of an actual set of recipes, with the added bonus of getting some WoW players some real homemade food to eat as well (you can only go so far on Doritos and Mountain Dew, after all).There's only two recipes so far (both submitted by another friend of ours, Cadistra of WoW, Eh?), but that spice bread does look pretty tasty. If you're a foodie or just have been looking for a way to use something other than the microwave in your kitchen, it seems like a great place to start. And if you need more than the few they've got up so far, don't forget our old Well Fed Buff column -- it's retired now, but we've still got plenty of great WoW-related recipes to try making there as well.
World of Warcraft and Mountain Dew contest prizes include BlizzCon trips and laptops
Are you desperate for a BlizzCon 2009 ticket? Desperate enough to jump through marketing hoops to get one? Well read on. Massively took a lighthearted jab at the World of Warcraft and Mountain Dew partnership with "WoW in Liquid Form", all in good fun. But the "Choose Your Side" contest they're running this summer has prizes some of our readers may be interested in, given how quickly BlizzCon tickets tend to sell out: all-expense-paid trips to BlizzCon 2009, each valued at $3000. They're giving away one per week through June 19th. It's a trip for two with round trip air and accommodation plus some spending cash thrown in. If you're despondent over being #7585 in line for a BlizzCon 2009 ticket, head on over to the Game Fuel site where you can register and start racking up tokens which are essentially contest entries. Additional prizes they're giving away daily include Razer gaming gear (7 each day, not including the speakers), but there are also Alienware laptops (1 each day) waiting to be snagged. More info can be found in the official rules. One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
BlizzPlanet is giving away some BlizzCon tix
Our good friends at BlizzPlanet have obtained a ticket to the happiest place on Earth (BlizzCon, of course -- right next to some dump called Disneyland), and they're giving it away over on their site. There are a few hoops to jump through, but then again, how much do you want to go to BlizzCon? They will have you hunting around their archives for a few things, running over to the Mountain Dew website to earn some points and take a screenshot, and even checking out some comic books over at DC (their contest is probably part of the official fansite program, which would explain why you'll be visiting lots of Blizzard's licensing partners). Do all that stuff by June 9th, and be one of the lucky winners, and you'll pick yourself up one of three shiny tickets to Blizzard's big event in Anaheim. It looks like airfare and hotel might be on your own, but no worries -- you can eBay the goodie bag stuff and use that money to put yourself up in Anaheim for both nights. Everybody wins! Good luck -- if you end up being chosen as the winner, be sure to come say hi to us while you're there.
The best of WoW Insider: May 12-19, 2009
The image above is by a WoW Insider reader named Raymond Liang -- he just won our fan art contest recently, and you can see his work and all of the other winners' over on our site right now. Just like the intrepid Troll and Blood Elf in the picture above, we're dedicated to bringing you the latest news from the World of Warcraft, even with a giant robot coming up behind us. Here are our most popular stories of the past week. News BlizzCon ticket statusBlizzCon ticket sales took place last Saturday, and things sold out in about 30 minutes. Here's the breakdown. Project 62*80: 62 level 80s by ChristmasA World of Warcraft player wants to create 62, yes 62, level 80s by December 25th. Boom goes the serversServer issues bring the game down on a Friday night. Game Fuel pets for all. Sort of.Mountain Dew meets World of Warcraft in the form of a noncombat pet. Ensidia gets 10-man Algathon world firstAnd yet again, the game has been beaten. Features The Queue: Going to the moviesYou have questions, and we endeavor to answer them for you. From our readers: Is my Ulduar-clearing guild holding me back?Is it possible to be in a guild that's too good? WoW Rookie: Filter out the @#*(!How to make sure you only see what you want. Ready Check: Casual meets hardcoreWhat's the real difference between casual and hardcore players? Forum Post of the Day: Be disciplined about healing metersHealing meters definitely aren't everything when it comes to raiding performance.
Game Fuel pets for all. Sort of.
Worried about your chances of winning one of the battlebot pets from the Game Fuel promotion? Worry no more! Over the weekend, a Mountain Dew representative stated on their forums that everyone who registers and participates in the promotion will get one. The pet is not one of the items you need to win from the tokens we've been grinding RL dailies for. If you don't care about winning the Razer or AlienWare products, you can stop grinding your Badges of Dew.Pets codes have not been distributed yet, so don't panic if you haven't gotten one. Remember that these pets are only going into the game itself as of today, so even if they sent out the codes as soon as you registered, you wouldn't have been able to use it yet. Remember, this is unfortunately a US-only promotion. I can't condone people from other parts of the world trying to work around that, but... you're not going to see me trying to stop you, either. Enjoy your robot, (not really) everyone!
Mountain Dew Game Fuel site launches for reals
Update: This promotion seems to be US only. Sorry, rest of the world. Hopefully you guys will get something like this soon as well. China had a Coke promo, so maybe the EU/Oceania will get a turn sooner or later.The Mountain Dew Game Fuel site is officially live, and we're all free to earn lots and lots of tokens. You'll need to register first, so be prepared to hand over a fair amount of personal information. They want the usual things, like your name and birthdate and home address. If I had to guess, I would say they need all of that for contest reasons. You always need to ask those things so you don't run into any regional legal issues.Now, tokens. How do you get tokens? There's a full list of ways to earn them on the official site (that you need to be logged in to see,) but I can tell you this: Almost all of them involve clicking on some random links scattered around the internet. Watching videos on their site, clicking banners on Facebook, going to their Twitter page, all of that sort of thing. Time to start setting up a Mountain Dew bookmarks folder, folks.There's also an FAQ that confirms one of our suspicions: Yes, a WoW vanity pet is one of the potential prizes you can win. It doesn't state what it is, but we can all safely assume it's the battlebots we posted about previously. Among the potential prizes is a trip to BlizzCon as well, so if you can't afford the trip yourself, you ought to start hoarding tokens.
Mountain Dew Game Fuel website revealed, counting down
We announced Mountain Dew Game Fuel quite awhile ago now, but it wasn't until recently that we've seen the official Game Fuel website. As you can see in the picture above, when you visit the site you're greeted with a countdown. The countdown says you can 'start earning tokens' when the countdown hits 0, which I assume means we'll be able to get our grubby nerd hands on the soda itself in just under 9 days. Unless they have some odd, magical way of gaining tokens beyond buying and drinking Game Fuel.Players with any interest in PC gaming or WoW swag at all will be pretty impressed with who they have on board for the prizes they'll supposedly be giving away every 15 minutes. J!NX handles most of the official WoW clothing, and Alienware... well, I've never actually used an Alienware product, but at least their stuff looks cool. That's a good thing, right?So far there's no evidence of those battle bots we saw being attached to the Game Fuel at all on that website, but there's that whole convoluted saying that's become so cliche over the years. The absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence. We don't see it yet, but we may yet see it.[Thanks, Jeztur!]
New in-game battle bots connected to Mountain Dew?
Yesterday MMO-Champion posted a few new finds in the patch files. Namely a series of "Battle-bots" which act as a mini-pet. There's not many details as to what exactly they are or what they do, but it does look like there are several abilities we'll be able to control.Here's where it gets interesting. One bot state is blue, and one bot state is red. These blue and red colors match up pretty darn close to the Mountain Dew product that's on the horizon. Take a look after the break for side-by-side comparisons.But wait, there's more.
The Daily Grind: Doing the (WoW) dew?
Let's face it; it's Mountain Dew. Even if it weren't all tied up in Summoner Geeks pop-culture nerditry, we'd probably drink it anyway. So the idea of mixing Mountain Dew with World of Warcraft is essentially mating money to money and waiting patiently for more money to come out of it. The question is - how many of us will buy in on this? I already know most of the Massively team - and the WoW Insider team, of course - will pick some up if just for display. We figured we'd ask this morning, how likely are you to try World of Warcraft Mtn Dew? If WoW isn't your game, would you drink it if they made a variety for your favorite MMO - like low-sec EVE Black Mtn Dew as an example? Or will you just buy it because you'll be buying Mountain Dew anyway?
The best of WoW Insider: March 17-24, 2009
The World of Warcraft is a strange and beautiful one. It can be hard to understand sometimes, but that's where Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider comes in: whether you want to know how to start playing a certain class, how to make money while leveling, or how to beat the toughest raids in the game, we've got news, analysis, and insight on everything Azeroth. News WoW Insider's Guide to Patch 3.1Everything you need to know about the upcoming content patch, and then some. Tier 8 set bonuses hit the PTRsTime once again to drool over gear you'll probably never wear. New addon policy makes selling addons against the rulesBlizzard says no to in-game donation buttons and outright selling third-party addons. World of Warcraft Mountain Dew coming soonGame fuel is returning, in a few Azeroth-inspired flavors. Confirmed: New battleground on the wayBlizzard is still planning on beefing up the in-game battleground situation. Features The Queue: Item level, attunement, and moreWe answer your questions... with answers. Spiritual Guidance: The Undying experience of a PriestHow to get 10 people through Naxxramas without losing a life. Encrypted Text: Why patch 3.1 won't transform RoguesHoping 3.1 will make your stabby dreams come true? Better not hold your breath. Arcane Brilliance: I still don't like spiritMore Mage updates in preparation for the new patch. Ready Check: Nearly Immortal10 people living through Naxx too easy for you? Try 25.
WoW Insider Show Episode 82: Knock it off? Get it on!
Hoo boy, what a show at our podcast on Saturday. After one of the craziest starts our show has ever had (BRK's house decided to go a little nuts right before we started), we got as professional as we could and got down to business. After answering emails (including more on why you should listen to your mother), we talked about the addon changes and how they'll affect players and developers, Blizzard's plans for a mobile authenticator, and more of the latest news out of patch 3.1. We also brainstormed new flavors for Mountain Dew, and finally, we played what everyone was waiting to hear: Turpster's new WoW Insider song.Yes, because our fans were kind enough to get 4,000 people to join in on our Facebook page, we recorded that abomination of hilarity. You can download it as an mp3 right here, for use in remixes or machinima or whatever you want to do with it, and I've posted the lyrics and liner notes after the break. Enjoy.And don't forget we're currently in a campaign for OVER 9000 Twitter followers. Join up to Twitter and follow us, and please tell your guilds and friends to do the same -- if we can meet our goal there, we'll do a live video version of the podcast that you'll be able to see right here on the site. Enjoy the show as always, and we'll 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:
The Queue: Meow now
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. The above picture took me all of five minutes to put together. Super Troopers is a great movie, and I encourage you all to go watch it today. But finish reading WoW Insider first, and in particular finish reading The Queue to understand the reference. How many times can Alex say Mountain Dew? The answer is a lot. Update: Go and read Massively's take on the coming Mountain Dew. It's quite good.037 asked..."Now that you can queue for battlegrounds from anywhere, are we looking at the new ghetto hearth?"
World of Warcraft in liquid form
Frigid night breeze sweeps through the Blizzard Overlord's grand chamber atop the highest tower of his headquarters, but he remains unaffected by the cold -- or anything else -- since his recent ascension to MMO godhood. The dark castle spans miles in every direction, built with the dedication and gold of millions of the Overlord's followers, tastefully decorated with the finest objects the world has to offer. He sits upon his throne, admiring the new gauntlets of his black, impossibly dense armor, forged from the souls of the faithful and the unbelievers alike -- the very image the Lich King was patterned after. A homage to his greatness. Pondering said greatness, he barely notices a panting, scraping sound as his Minion enters the grand chamber, taking a good three minutes to cross the vast room and reach the base of the Overlord's throne. The Minions dares not look his master in the face, genuflects and awaits the inevitable orders. Blizzard Overlord: Minion! Report! What is the state of my World?Minion: The MMO world is yours, my lord. World of Warcraft remains unassailable, and we claim more souls with every passing second... *hesitates a moment* Although there is the probl--Blizzard Overlord: Massively! Is it Massively again?! Are they still harping on the impediment to my Wrath in China? *telekinetically hurls a ridiculously valuable 19th century ottoman across the room, which splinters against the wall* I can suffer their existence no longer. Execute them -- burn their faces first -- and melt the servers down into tombstones. Monuments to their heresy. And don't even think of mentioning Germany!Minion: It shall be done my lord. I do, however, have a suggestion for how World of Warcraft can transcend all borders and appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. If I may?Blizzard Overlord: You may proceed. Minion: You could co-opt the power of a multinational beverage conglomerate and tie World of Warcraft into that basic human need: thirst. No one will be able to resist the thirst for WoW. In time, the need to satisfy both intrinsic human needs will be intertwined.Blizzard Overlord: An excellent suggestion, Minion. However, I do not want my legacy tied in with any simple (scoffs) cola. I will force Mountain Dew to carry my banner to the non-MMO masses, under the guise of "game fuel."
Mountain Dew forms an Alliance with World of WarCraft
Do you miss Mountain Dew Game Fuel? Or are you a WoW player jealous of the attention Pepsico lavished upon Halo players? Perhaps you plan to be really thirsty at some unspecified point in the near future. If any of these conditions describe you, you'll be very happy about this news! This summer, Mountain Dew (which we refuse to call "MTN DEW") is launching two limited-edition World of WarCraft Game Fuel beverages: "Wild Fruit" flavored Alliance Blue, and "Citrus Cherry" flavored Horde Red, which, WoW Insider notes, is the original Halo 3 Game Fuel! The exact release date has yet to be revealed -- we'll have to distract ourselves with regular Mountain Dew, and the thrilling, extreme-sports-filled lifestyle that comes naturally to Dew drinkers, until then.[Via WoW Insider]
World of Warcraft Mountain Dew coming soon
Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to bring you the single greatest news WoW Insider has ever covered in the history of Warcraft. Behold! World of Warcraft Mountain Dew!Okay, okay, so it's not that amazing, but it's still pretty awesome. Soda (pop, whatever) is one of my few vices, and I have this strange fascination with trying out all of the new and exciting flavors that soda companies put out over the summer months. Do you remember 7Upside Down that 7UP tried a few years ago? dnL? No? I do. It was delicious. This? World of Warcraft Game Fuel? It, too, will be delicious, just like the Halo Game Fuel that came before it.Release dates or availability hasn't been shared yet, the official World of Warcraft website states they'll announce that sort of thing at a later date, but they do have the flavors listed! There will be two of them, one for the Horde and one for the Alliance. The Horde's Game Fuel will come in Citrus Cherry, and the Alliance's Fuel will be Wild Fruit flavored. The Horde's version sounds a little too Code Red to me, so I think I'll give the Wild Fruit a whirl first.Truly, we live in a great age.Edit: I am a fool. A foolish fool. The foolishest! I just looked it up, and the Citrus Cherry flavor isn't Code Red at all. It's the same flavor as the Halo Game Fuel. For the Horde!
Dewmocracy: from Mountain Dew marketing to MMO?
When it comes to MMOs, we here at Massively see it as our charge to explore every type of game out there, whether it be multi-million dollar blockbuster title in the making like Warhammer Online or a simplistic browser-based game like Dofus. We don't discriminate. Except, as in the course of my warm-up lap around the internet this morning, when I see the term MMO co-opted as a corporate buzzword for "anything online that appeals to the 18-35 male demographic." When I found a story claiming that Mountain Dew's new "Dewmocracy" campaign was part MMO, and a successful one at that, I was skeptical, as you can well imagine. Part of the spirit of the campaign is a story (penned by Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker no less) set in a sort of dystopian future where a man's soda options are enforced at the business end of a policeman's baton. Players are tasked with coming up with the newest flavor of Mountain Dew, which will be put to a national taste test later this year, and presumably free mankind from the long arm of tyranny.Instead of factions in the tradition sense, you align yourself with whatever new flavor of Mountain Dew you like best. At this stage of the game, most of the preliminary flavor choices have already been made, so it's largely about branding. Using a flash-based interface that is strangely reminiscent of the MUDs of yore, you're tasked with making logos and other branding pieces to be voted on by other players of your faction. This is linked with a number of little mini-games that are derivative even by Webkinz standards. The only really "massive" aspect of the game is the fact that players get to vote on their favorite flavors and advertising materials.What's perhaps most startling is that, even though this Dewmocracy thing hardly qualifies as an MMO in even the loosest sense of the term, their VP of Marketing has expressed an interest, and here I assure you I am not joking, in "expanding it into a long-term MMO." Pirates of the Unquenchable Thirst? Tabula Cola? World of Dewcraft? The mind reels in horror.
