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Blizzard releases Cenarion Hatchling pet for Japan earthquake relief
Blizzard has just released a new pet at the pet store called the Cenarion Hatchling, a baby version of the hippogryph that once was only available as part of the old WoW TCG. A full 100% of the proceeds generated by this pet purchase will go to help the American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts, compared to the 50% from previous pets like the Pandaren Monk. The donation process will be ongoing through July 31.
New Children's Week pets and quests
Wowhead News has unearthed some interesting additions to the Children's Week holiday, which starts this Sunday shortly after Noblegarden 2011 ends. For anyone worried about the meta-achievement For the Children, the achievements associated with the holiday haven't changed (more's the pity re: School of Hard Knocks), but the quest lines in classic Azeroth have. If you're Alliance, the brand-new quest series starts with Children's Week, offered by Orphan Matron Nightingale in Stormwind; if you're Horde, it starts with Children's Week, offered by Orphan Matron Battlewail in Orgrimmar. Both new quest lines will see you surveying the changes to the local landscape in Cataclysm, in addition to meeting important lore figures and paying your respects to the dead. Afterwards, you'll go out for the traditional ice cream treat and then visit a local vendor to get kites to fly. Wowhead News has more details on the individual quests if you don't mind spoiling yourself. The quest lines end with the offer of a new noncombat pet in addition to the usual Piglet's Collar, Rat Cage, and Turtle Box -- a new Snail's Shell! It looks like the Outland quest series will also offer a new pet called Legs, though there don't appear to be any new quests there. Experienced orphan herders thus have a reason to pick up a tyke again this year, and with any luck, the Wrath of the Lich King variant will be available even if you've done it before.
The Lawbringer: Fighting the gold fight -- how the strategy must change
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Last week on The Lawbringer, I introduced you to the world as it is, a battlefield littered with the corpses of stolen accounts, inconvenienced players, and a priceless reputation on the line. This week, we look at concrete solutions to actually helping the gold selling system wind down and remove many of the hurdles that instant gratification with purchasing gold sets up for Blizzard. You might have mixed and angry reactions to what I'm going to talk about, but do give me the benefit of the doubt. I think being open-minded might win this fight. So what can Blizzard do besides selling its own currency? Here are my suggestions for the first steps that Blizzard needs to take in the new war against gold selling.
Enter at Your Own Rift: Zero-sum game
Ever since I started following RIFT, I've been entranced by the wide-open -- but not limitless -- class system. After all, the virtual world and everything populating it is only half the game; the other half resides in the avatar that sticks with you while you explore it all. Many MMOs have interesting ways of letting you build and grow your character, but sooner or later they come to a point where there's little more to be done other than incrementally increasing your stats by gaining better gear. Not so with RIFT, as even a level 50 can drop a few coins to shape a completely new build from scratch. No longer are we bound to a rigidly defined creation; we are free to experiment, tinker, and try out these roles to our hearts' content. With RIFT's soul system, there are a few ground rules that everyone learns early in the game. You can have up to three souls in your archetype active at any one time; you can only spend as many points in a build as you have in levels (such as 10 points at level 10); and you'll end up with 66 points at level 50, which means that you'll at least dabble in a second soul tree with every build. And while you can certainly spread soul points across all three trees, today I wanted to look at the benefits of a zero-point soul, the "third wheel," if you will, of builds.
Wings Over Atreia: Anticipation, part deux
A bonding experience. Love ya man, really. Last week's article seems to have struck a nerve. I feel like I know more of you now on a more personal level. And that's not just because I skulk around Atreia spying! The thoughts and comments you have shared have reaffirmed how universal our experiences are; what we think is a slightly unique situation is really just like so many others (OK, maybe not the legionmate who walks around in a duck suit, but others). You know the saying "You are unique dear, just like everyone else." Whether we have Black wings or white, whether we're a PvPer or even a carebear, many of our hopes for Aion are really quite similar. But I digress. As promised, this week I continue with my happy rave (it's better than a rant, yes?) about some of the treats promised us in the upcoming 2.5 patch. And just like I would with a proper dessert, I saved the best for last. Or at least my favorite! This week, we look more in-depth at additional pets, additional instances, and additions to legions. Relive that yearning experienced when anticipating Christmas mornings of yore and join me past the cut to sneak a peek at our hopefully-soon-to-be unwrapped update goodies for Aion.
The Lawbringer: Fighting the gold fight -- the world as it is
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? The Lawbringer has in the past been used as a personal launching pad for some of the more out-there or esoteric ideas that I have in regards to the World of Warcraft and virtual currency in general. You guys seem to love it, and there's always plenty of great discussion about these ideas. For the next two weeks, I want to introduce you to my thoughts on how Blizzard should be attacking gold sellers and, at the same time, working to remove some of the content gates that gold has erected in the MMO we all love. This week, we will set up the story and the history of it all, and next week, we will talk about hard conclusions. Gold selling isn't going away as long as fungible and liquid currency exists in MMOs. Gold is "fungible" because it can be exchanged for something exactly like it, at a 1:1 ratio -- gold is gold. Gold is also liquid, as it can be used and exchanged for other goods or services. Short of Blizzard's getting rid of this type of currency altogether or selling its own currency for a cheaper price than gold sellers can furnish it, people will sell gold and items that can be traded. Blizzard has shown that it has the guts to go after gold selling as an industry but has so far failed in scope to bring down the snake that slowly poisons everything it has worked to build. As sellers become hackers, and as hacking chips away at the good will, reputation, and stability of the game we love to play and the company we love to patronize, there has never been a more urgent time to fight the gold fight. The strategy needs to change from focusing on the people who sell gold to a combination of those that sell and the gold itself.
Patch 4.1 PTR: Wintersaber mount grind goes daily
For a long time now, the Wintersaber Trainer grind (for the Reins of the Winterspring Frostsaber) has been one of the last holdouts of the old world's long, slogging reputation grinds, featuring repeatable quests that give relatively small chunks of reputation and require slogging all over a zone. Admittedly, the grind is a lot easier these days thanks to tweaked drop rates, slightly higher reputation gains, and old world flight, but it still stands as a symbol of a different time. In patch 4.1, this will stand no longer. The Wowhead blog is reporting the Wintersaber grind is being turned into a series of daily quests that put you in charge of the care and feeding of a Winterspring Cub on the PTR. After 20 days worth of dailies which earn you Winterspring Cub Whiskers, you'll be able to turn in the They Grow Up So Fast quest for your very own set of reins. In addition, you can buy a Winterspring Cub permapet from a vendor in Everlook. It's Bind on Equip and sold by a neutral vendor, so even Horde and Bloodsail Admirals can get thier hands on it.
Exclusive pet available with RIFT purchases at Walmart
Trion Worlds' upcoming fantasy MMO RIFT is gearing up for a huge launch, with ongoing beta events and regular lore reveals raising significant interest in the upcoming title. Last week, Trion's marketing campaign took an interesting turn when the company teamed up with Valve to bring exclusive RIFT items into Team Fortress 2. This unusual marketing strategy could potentially give RIFT pre-orders on Steam a big push. This week, Trion has announced a much more orthodox marketing promotion. On RIFT's March 1st launch date, boxed copies of the game will be sold at Walmart stores in the US and online at Walmart.com. Anyone buying the standard edition of RIFT at these locations will receive an exclusive Shambler Hatchling pet. Prices for the standard edition are expected to be $49.99, with the collector's edition selling for $79.99. Players who have pre-ordered the collector's edition and will be participating in the game's headstart period on February 24th will now also be able to get early access to their collector's items. If you're one of these players, head over to the Trion forums where Senior Community Manager Cindy Bowens has given some helpful instructions on getting your collectables on the 24th.
EverQuest II's Destiny of Velious offers a trio of pre-orders
Which way would you like your EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious expansion pack? Sunny-side up? With fries? Medium-rare? If you like options, then SOE's assortment of pre-orders will have you pouring over the menu quite carefully. Destiny of Velious became available for pre-orders yesterday, and EverQuest II's website lists three versions of the game available for purchase. The standard digital version is $39.99 and offers a loyal snow hound pet and four in-game paintings for your house as special rewards. If you want to kick it up a notch and shell out for the digital collector's edition, you'll get the snow hound, paintings, Tserrina's Wedding Present housing item, cosmetic ice armor, a prestige house and the ability to transform your griffon into a Stormfeather Brood Guardian. The collector's edition is temporarily priced at $59.99 for the next few weeks, and will go up to $89.99 on February 22nd. There's also a retail version through Amazon and GameStop for those who prefer a physical copy of the game. The retail version contains the four paintings and an animated cloak as fun rewards. All versions of Destiny of Velious come with the core game and all of the expansions to date, and will include a full month of free gametime for new accounts. You can read all of the nitty-gritty details over at EverQuest II. Update: Fixed the date of the CE price increase.
Breakfast Topic: Do your in-game pets resemble your real-life pets?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. It's another raid night, and I need another mini-pet out. But there are so many options, however shall I choose? The adorable Hippogryph Hatchling? The nigh impossible-to-obtain Hyacinth Macaw? A flashy collector's edition pet? Nope, not tonight. All I want is my Orange Tabby Cat. Why such a commonplace, easily accessible, inexpensive, almost downright boring pet, you ask? Well, because he's a mirror image of my IRL cat. When I first started playing the game, my Orange Tabby Cat and I traversed many mountains, open plains and snowy hills together. It seems fitting to bring him out on raid nights; as he was there from the beginning, so will he be with me in my final triumphs. Are there any in-game animals that remind you of your RL furry friends? A hunter pet you bring out on special occasions? A mount you seek out on all your characters? Maybe there's one you find particularly lucky? Or perhaps you have a small, ordinary mini-pet to walk beside you in Azeroth, as your RL pet purrs on the back of your chair?
Pleo RB cuddles up to CES, we go hands-on and talk to Innvo about future Pleos
The folks behind the Pleo robot dinosaur didn't have much but promises and a giant, not-for-sale version of the bot at last year's CES, but Innvo Labs has come through this year. They have a number of their new Pleo RB dinos on hand, and we got a chance to both check them out and talk to Innvo COO Derek Dotson about what the future might hold for the robot dinosaur that refused to die. As for the current Pleo RB, while it may look relatively unchanged from before, it does boast some fairly impressive improvements, including voice recognition (with any language), more touch sensors, the ability to sense temperatures, RFID-based "learning stone technology" for feeding and other advanced commands, and time of day awareness. As you might be able to surmise, the combination of those latter two means that the Pleo will get slow and lethargic if you don't take care of it, but Innvo assures us that it won't actually die (just make you incredibly sad). It sounds like we could be seeing some even bigger changes in future generations of Pleo, though. Innvo tells us that they've basically pushed the current design to the limit, and they seem to be keeping all options on the table for future models. We asked about different versions, internet-connectedness, and even a Roomba-like ability to recharge itself, and Dotson said that Innvo considering all of those, but that it doesn't want to rush and do anything that would dilute the Pleo brand. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look at the Pleo RB, and head on past the break for a video. %Gallery-113464%
Lil' Ragnaros and Moonkin Hatchlings now available at the pet store
Blizzard had previously promised new pets Lil' Ragnaros and the Moonkin Hatchling before the end of November and it has delivered, just barely. Right now, you can purchase both pets in the pet store. Lil' Ragnaros will ignite nearby critters, do his famous submerge, and even counts as a cooking fire! The Moonkin Hatchling comes in Horde and Alliance versions, depending on your faction, and will plant flowers around your feet and even /dance with your friends. Check out the pet store here.
Angels Online takes flight on the wings of Gryphons
The Sorting Hat has spoken, and Angels Online has joined Gryffindor House (sorry, we watched Harry Potter this past weekend)! The dev team is happy to announce the addition of Gryphon pets to the game -- pets that appear to do double duty as mounts. The Gryphon is the guardian and main symbol of the Aurora Faction in the game, and represents speed and power. However, over time, the Gryphon has become a myth to the people, unseen and unbelieved. This changed as the Gryphon appeared during the pirate siege of Aurora City to save the day. A few "nom noms" later, and the pirate threat was history. Characters will now have access to this powerful beast, who will offer them a huge boost to movement speed and player attributes when used. To check out Angels Online's new Gryphon, head on over to the site and explore the game for free.
Cataclysm Beta: Chromaggus tameable by hunters
Here's some pretty awesome news from the maven of all things hunter pet-related, Mania: Chromaggus is tameable on the beta servers. Chromaggus is a boss in Blackwing Lair known for keeping healers on their toes with a variety of debilitating debuffs, for making magic users curse his name thanks to a shifting resistance shield, and for dropping the coolest-looking shoulder armor in the entire game. You need be a beastmastery hunter to tame him, as he is a member of the exotic Core Hound family. Not only is he a great pet for a nostalgic, old-world raider, he also has a very nice-looking, unique skin, and he'll be in high demand for certain raiding groups, as Core Hounds now provide Ancestral Hysteria, a Heroism replacement. For my own part, if he remains tameable when Cataclysm goes live, I know I'll eventually be pulling my old hunter out of the mothballs and calling in a few favors. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.
Razzashi Hatchling to remain as an in-game drop in Cataclysm
For obsessive pet collectors, the final days of Wrath of the Lich King constitute a nervous race against time. Few people are sure which pets are staying and which pets are disappearing forever. For a long time, the Razzashi Hatchling remained a major question mark -- currently, it's only available in the soon-to-be-disappearing Zul'Gurub raid. Well, for those lamenting the low drop rate, Community Manager Lylirra brings some good news: Is the Razzashi Hatchling item to be removed? If you currently have the Razzashi Hatchling item in your inventory, you'll still be able to learn the pet spell at a later point in time. It's not like the pet is disappearing completely; it's just no longer dropping from its usual home in Zul'Gurub. In fact, I can confirm that the Razzashi Hatchling, being a clever and resilient little reptile, has already found a new home, and will be migrating there shortly after the shattering. ;) source Note that the comment above applies only to the adorably collectible Razzashi pet and not the savagely awesome Razzashi mount. As far as we all know, the Swift Razzashi Raptor will still be going extinct with the impending Cataclysm.
Sony ships EyePet for PSP, complete with camera
Looking for a pinch of adorable, a taste of augmented reality and a shiny new peripheral for your PSP? Look no further, mate. Sony's EyePet title is now shipping in the US of A, and a required camera will come bundled in with each UMD. Amazon and friends have it listed for $39.99, and if you're hoping to avoid the otherwise unavoidable "sold out forever" sign during the final week of December, we'd recommend getting that order in now. Oh, and PSPgo owners need not apply -- this one's too cute for NAND.
BlizzCon 2010 exclusive pet Deathy still has no custom emotes and sounds
Deathy the murloc, BlizzCon 2010's exclusive companion pet, is currently without his own animation set. At this point in time, Deathy occasionally will make the rifle sounds that Grunty, his space-faring murloc counterpart, usually makes. In addition, his sound emotes are the same as Grunty, and some of his animations include those of the murloc suit. At the World of Warcraft art panel during BlizzCon, however, we were treated to a sneak peak of Deathy's custom animations, including jumping up into the air and scorching the ground in a torrent of fire breath. Suffice to say, it was really awesome. Hopefully we will get an update soon or, potentially, with 4.0.3. BlizzCon 2010 is over! WoW Insider has all the latest news and information. You'll find our liveblogs of the WoW panels, interviews with WoW celebrities and attendees and of course, lots of pictures of people in costumes. It's all here at WoW Insider!
One Shots: Sinister moves
Deathwing lies ready to tear the World of Warcraft apart. Meanwhile, thousands of Blizzard fans are getting their party on at BlizzCon this weekend. For those who weren't able to make the annual trek to Anaheim, or aren't glued to the livestreams going on, there's still quite a bit to do in Azeroth as today's One Shots contributor, Kimmara, points out. The note attached read: "Here is my Death Knight dancing with a jack-o-lantern on my head with my new Halloween pet. This was taken after killing the Headless Horseman in the Scarlet Monastery. Happy Halloween!" If you haven't snapped up your Sinister Squashling, now would be an excellent time -- the Scarlet Monastery may not be there next year! Are you enjoying a holiday event in your favorite MMO? If so, why not send us a screenshot! We're always curious as to what's going on out there. Email those in to us here at oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-85937%
Behind the Mask: I'm not bored of pets yet
I'm sort of surprised that I'm not talking about Demonflame this week, but unfortunately, DF hit the Test Server after this article went to print. However, Champions Online's pet update has made it back with a vengeance (on PTS), threatening to change the world as we know it! Pets have been a recurring problem with CO; they were pretty horrible at launch, aside from a select few. Many of the decent pets were still underused due to the trouble with ritual circles. But pets have come back, and now they're coming to get you! I've refrained from talking too much about the current pet update, waiting for the update to reach a more or less solidified state. This time, the update was pretty solid from day one, but a lot of tweaks have gone into it, and I'm pretty excited about the results overall.
Cataclysm collector's edition revealed
Blizzard has officially announced the content and pricing for its hotly anticipated World of Warcraft expansion collector's edition. While the developers continue to be coy with the release date, speculation has it that the big day will happen within the current calendar year. Interestingly, the Cataclysm collector's edition will only be available at retail, a curious move considering the mad rush by most gaming companies to do away with box costs and restrict customers to a more profitable digital-download model. In addition to the Cataclysm game content, collector's edition buyers will be treated to a 176-page art book, a miniature Deathwing in-game pet, a Deathwing mouse pad, World of Warcraft TCG cards, and a Cataclysm soundtrack.
