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WAR Europe's Orcaniser teaches players to talk the talk
One of the most difficult aspects of covering the media build-up to Warhammer Online's release is the need to rewrite any post involving Greenskins to include the infamous Orc-speak that fans of the fluff are so fond of. To the casual observer, it might appear like a simple matter of changing verb tense and throwing in a few zeds here and there. Not true! It's an extensive scholarly process that takes years to learn, and decades to master. To put it frankly, it's not as easy as it looks.Well imagine our delight then to find that WAR Europe guys have gone to the trouble of putting together the Orcaniser! It operates like an Orcy version of babelfish, giving fans the ability to translate normal human speech into authentic Orc dialect. And it works in five languages! Obviously, there's always a little bit lost in translation, and it doesn't automatically account for the Orcy need to talk about smashing heads once every couple sentences, but it's good as we're liable to do. See for yourself:To be or not to be, dat is da question;Whetha 'tis nobla in da mind to suffaDa slingz an' arrowz of outrageouz fortune,Or to take armz against a sea of troublez,An' by opposin', end dem.[Via WHA]
Around Azeroth: Orcish ingenuity
Reader FrostLapin of the Ursin Server snapped this shot of the Orcs latest ammunition strategy in World PvP. I can't wait to see how they are going to attack destructible buildings in Wrath's Lake Wintergrasp. Taurens perhaps? Flaming Warlock imps? The mind boggles.Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!%Gallery-1816%
WHA tellz you grots bout da' WAAAGH!
One of the aspects about Warhammer Online's Greenskins that seems to endear them to players so much is that they present the opportunity to write in a hackneyed and entirely ungrammatically stunted form of english. Wut iz dees humies lookin' at dem shiny bits for? See, I slipped into character there. I bet you thought I was an Orc for a second. It's OK, you don't have to feel bad, I'm a pretty good actor.For those not already well steeped in the Warhammer lore via the tabletop game and pen and paper RPG, the folks over at Warhammer Alliance have been going faction by faction putting up guides to the various races. By some strange fortune, we somehow missed the fact that they had posted a "Guide to the Waaagh" last week, replete with biological information, sociological observations, and of course a gracious dose of Orc-speak. It's a short run-down, but well worth soaking up for anybody at all interested in fielding a Black Orc or Shaman into battle in Q2 of this year.Of course, if you really want to get serious about things, you should probably pick up the Orcs & Goblins Army book or bookmark the Warhammer Wiki for perusal at work.
All the World's a Stage: Something to remember me by
All the World's a Stage is a column for creative minds, playing with roles every Sunday evening.The best characters in novels and movies often leap into your mind from the moment you first see them -- something they say or do sets them apart and captures your interest, and from that time on, you're hooked. Likewise, when we roleplay, our characters should always have some memorable trait which can hook other people's interest. Too often, I see roleplayers focusing too much on dark secrets that they only reveal to their closest friends, and neglecting those mannerisms which could give everyone they meet an instant and profound impression of their character. Of course, if some people prefer to roleplay this way, that's fine. But to my mind, roleplaying is best when it avoids cliquishness, and the best roleplayers are those whose characters stay with you, even if you never see them again. When I'm creating my own characters, I think of such memorable traits as "gimmicks," but that word usually has a negative connotation that doesn't apply in this case. For now, the best word I can think of is "quirk." It's an instantly recognizable pattern of behavior or speech that can let others know who your character is right away. Below you will find some of my favorite quirks I have seen people use in their roleplaying in WoW, each of them entertaining and inspiring it its own way.
Gallery: Fun with Brewfest goggles
These images just keep making me laugh. Over the weekend, we posted pictures of people having fun with the Beerfest goggles around famous Azerothian NPCs, and although my original request of Illidan never panned out (he's not a humanoid, apparently, and thus not susceptible to the effects of beer goggles), you readers responded with tons of funny pictures featuring our fearless leaders as Gnomes and female Orcs.So here they are all collected into a gallery, and if you have any more, feel free to drop us a note with links to them, and I'll add them in. Thanks to all the commenters who posted links for these pics: Nate S., myrlin, Haaken, erin, and s02.%Gallery-8945%
No dressing up allowed in PS3's Home
In an effort to keep Home "accessible to everyone," Peter Edwards told Bit-tech.net that there would be limitations on costumes for your avatar. "The idea is to keep it as accessible, mainstream and friendly as possible," says Edwards, the executive producer for Home. "If everyone's walking around dressed as orcs or stormtroopers or whatever, then you lose that welcoming, accessible element that means Mum, Dad and your sister might get involved as well." Really? The largest MMO in the world may not have stormtroopers, but they certainly have orcs and other strangely dressed characters and yet, they don't seem to have any problem pulling in over 8 million subscribers. Maybe it's not a fair comparison to Home, but it's a bit of a stretch to think that costumes on avatars would assuredly prevent Home's accessibility for all audiences. If the game was extremely buggy or just plain "not fun," well that would be more of a root cause against its widespread accessibility. At any rate, what do you think? Would Home be more or less accessible with fully customizable avatars?
Blood Furnace boss event now with ExtraHardSauce(tm)
Patch 2.1 had a few hidden surprises for players. Among them is the increase in difficulty of the Broggok event in Blood Furnace.For those of you not familiar with this boss fight, here's a quick overview. Big floating-eye poison-dropping tentacle-waving boss guy can't be touched until you take out four waves of Fel Orcs first. With a mix of elites and non-elites in each wave, these orcs were hard, but not crazy hard. After the last one dies, you can face off against Broggok who isn't as difficult as the orcs before him.The problem with this event is that your group's casters were usually out of mana at the end of the Fel Orc part of the event. Though Broggok isn't crazy tough, he isn't a pushover with zero healing mana available for the fight either. A typical strategy was using some form of crowd control on the last orc in the last wave to allow you group to regen mana before triggering the boss.But with the last patch, the game has a new twist.
WoW Moviewatch: Orcs In Space!
Today on MovieWatch we have the newest project from Oxhorn, Orcs In Space! It made me laugh thinking about the Orcish peons from the original Warcraft RTS games, because I could totally see them acting silly like that if they weren't kept busy mining for gold, chopping more wood, or building something. It also reminds me of the old Muppets skit Pigs In Space with the silly bits that just made you go "wha?"Also, be certain that you listen for the last blurb during the credits. While not specifically World of Warcraft related, it is still extremely funny!Previously on Moviewatch...
Orcs & Elves to take arms on the DS
During an interview, id's John Carmack drops a bomb on us all, revealing that the company's game Orcs & Elves is headed to the DS. For those unaware, Orcs & Elves is one of the company's recent projects in the cell phone gaming community. John hopes that the game can be improved on Nintendo's handheld and is hoping "to do a DS game version of Orcs and Elves, moving over and enhancing the cell phone game on there, which would be our first real direct entry back into the Nintendo world."Many of Nintendo's loyal had bad things to say about the guy and his company, and for good reason. However, the prospect of getting a Doom game on the DS is something we can get behind. What about you guys? Think that Orcs & Elves on the DS is something that noone will care about or enjoy?
