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Countdown to Burning Crusade: Machinima contest runner-up
We've made it to the last of our grand prize contests in the Countdown to Burning Crusade, and it's high time to announce the prize winners. The runner-up, who will take home a JINX World of Warcraft hoodie for her efforts, is Myssiing on Stonemaul, aka photochik02, who sent in the following video pitting night elf versus blood elf in an Annie Get Your Gun-style sing-off to the death (no, to the pain!). Grats to Myssiing, and stay tuned for our first place machinima winner!
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Fan art contest winners
We have our winners in the penultimate Countdown to Burning Crusade Fan art contest. Matthew Renner is going to receive the Sennheiser PC 160 noise-cancelling headset and a More Dots! t-shirt for his entry above (right-click for a high-res version) of his main character Sheltem who, "having specced 40 arcane 11 fire, procs enough ignites to know the true meaning of 'more dots.'" Our fan art runner-up, who will be rewarded with a More Dots! t-shirt, is Simon Sørensen for his rendition of a blood elf. Check out Simon's artwork after the jump, grats to both of our winners, and thanks to everyone who participated in the fan art contest. Stay tuned for our machinima contest winners!
Forum Post of the Day: Randomly funny things in Outland
Have you seen anything in Outland that's just made you stop and laugh? Commenters in this thread are sharing the humorous things they've found in Outland, starting with this random chatter you'll find if you idle in Honor Hold for very long:Magus Filinthus says: A mailbox? Well is that not the salt on the wounds! Twenty years cut-off from the world and now a mailbox! WONDERFUL!Ah, so many funny moments, so little time.
Breakfast Topic: Your first weekend in the Burning Crusade
As we wind into our first weekend since the much anticipated release of the Burning Crusade, I wonder what everyone's up to. Some people around the world are already hitting level 70 -- a feat, which, with my leveling speed, astounds me -- and I've even seen the first level 70 on my home realm. Of my immediate circle of friends I have a few people of lower level who haven't bothered to buy the expansion yet, several pushing their mains as far as they can, others starting anew with Blood Elves or Draenei, and yet others who can't decide which alts to play. With a priest at 62, a rogue at 61, and a new paladin at 14, I think I fall into that last category. So what have you been up to since the release, and what does the weekend have in store for you -- in Azeroth or Outland?
Ask WoW Insider: Best ways to make money in Burning Crusade?
It's time for this week's installment of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we pick a question you've sent and publish it for your fellow readers to answer. This week's question comes to us from Jacob H, who asks Where's the first aid trainer? Just kidding! Jacob, being a sensible and pragmatic fellow, wants to know your tips and tricks for earning the dough for that flying mount: "What are some good ways of making money for levels 60-70 in Burning Crusade? Are there people making money from jewelcrafting yet, should I pick that up? What about good mobs to grind or drops that sell well to vendors or on the AH? Thanks in advance for any advice." Do you have any money-making tips to share with Jacob? Don't forget to send us your questions at ask AT wowinsider DOT com -- what do you want to know? Your peers can help!
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Day 11 winner
It was a heated battle, many flags capped on all sides, but we finally have a winner in the day 11 best PvP screenshot contest. Paul Kruyt sent the above Alterac Valley panorama made of 5 screenshots (you should definitely click the image for a high-res version), taken "back in the days when you could still walk over the mountains in the center of the map along 2 alternative paths." Paul is going to receive the Burning Crusade Official Strategy Guide for his effort. Thanks to everyone who sent in their PvP shots -- check after the break for screenshots from the runners-up!
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Tale of Two Cities, Orgrimmar winner
We have the winning Orgrimmar screenshot from the Tale of Two Cities contest -- Nick Slabaugh sent the above shot of the moon over the city. Grats to Nick, who wins a Horde crest t-shirt in his choice of size. Check out the Ironforge winner, and click on for the Orgrimmar runner-up. Thanks to everyone who sent in your shots!
BC figurines coming in fall
ToyFare reports that DC Direct is producing some lovely Burning Crusade figurines, schedule to debut this fall. All we have so far are pictures of unpainted prototypes (like "you are not prepared" Illidan, pictured at right). They look pretty nifty to me, although I know very little about figurines.Two things about this story strike me as odd. As they point out over at ToyFare, DC Direct usually makes stuff based on DC comics for the direct market, as you might expect. These are of course not based on DC work, and furthermore seem to be headed for the mass market. Second, "release date: fall?" That's over six months from now; it seems like they would have done better to get them out a bit sooner. But maybe the manufacturing process doesn't allow for that or something.Anyway, click on over to ToyFare to see the prototypes for a Draenei Paladin, an Orc Shaman, a Dwarf Warrior, and Illidan. (Is it just me, or is the paladin wielding a one-handed weapon with no shield nor offhand?)
Breakfast topic: How long til you hit 70?
By now many of you who already had level 60s have had a chance to gauge how fast your leveling process might go on the road to 70. So, let's hear it -- what are your predictions for how long it will take you to get to the new level cap? Or, if you've just rolled a new alt or character and plan to take it all the way to 70 -- how long do you expect to spend leveling up? Do you have any personal leveling goals you want to achieve? Having been a member of a relatively hardcore raiding guild (almost every night towards the bitter end, when we disbanded "until the expansion") and knowing all too well how quickly "fun" can turn into "burnout," I plan to take my time leveling both my current 60 and my new blood elf alt (or alts... totally tempted to roll a draenei now, too). After taking a couple of months' worth of break from the game, I'm just happy to be back and enjoying the new content, and am avoiding setting any goals at the moment -- although I totally applaud those of you out there vying to be the first on your server to 70, or first in your guild, or what have you. So let us know -- how long will it take you to get to 70?[Update: for some of you... not long!]
Blizzard vs. Pessimism: Blizzard wins 4:2
Tobold had a nice scoring system going for the Burning Crusade install, in which Blizzard was pitted against the inevitable Pessimism inherent in combining major content upgrade + massive rush to sign in, which typically and notoriously causes major technical problems, server crashes, glitches, downtime, etc. He ended up awarding the victory to Blizzard, 4:2. Most of us here at WoW Insider didn't have any serious problems getting up and running with the expansion (so far so good!*), but we're sure there are tales of woe out there. How would you rate Blizzard's handling of the Burning Crusade launch? Did you have any problems getting going, or was it pretty much smooth sailing? Let us know who won the Blizzard vs. Pessimism battle on your scorecard.[*Update: except Mike! Also reporting that Bronzebeard went down a couple of times around 10pm EST before I gave up and rolled a draenei shaman (along with about 2.1 million of my new best general chat enemies) on Shadowmoon.]
Burning Crusade: your first impressions?
The results from our launch night poll earlier today indicated that a lot of you wise individuals opted not to traipse out into the cold and snow (or the enviable heat, as it were) in the middle of the night and are either camped out by your own door waiting for UPS or perhaps had a chance to swing by your local retailer to pick up a copy sometime today. In any case, a sizeable chunk of you may be in the process of installing or about to get home from work and settle into some play time. For those of us who weren't in the beta, it's been our first chance to see first-hand some of the new Burning Crusade content -- what are your impressions so far? I'll share some of mine, briefly -- the install and upgrade process was pretty painless, and honestly I expected more technical issues involved in a global upgrade this massive. I was up and playing in relatively short order and for that I give Blizzard props. As for the BC content itself: Outland: red, dry, hot, and terrifying. Hope I never meet a fel reaver in a dark portal alley, since I'd like to keep my face intact. The joy of seeing that XP bar nudge forward again: priceless. The thrill of being mercilessly ganked again (PvP server FTW!): not so much. Eversong Woods, aka home to 3 million new Blood Elves: the world is lush and gorgeous. The blood elves are beautiful and aloof. The music totally reminds me of LotR and, since I'm a huge fan, that is a Good Thing. I'm really looking forward to exploring the rest of the new areas. Worst part about Burning Crusade: I dance like Britney Spears. The horror! And I'll be doomed to ride a chicken all over again! Nooooo! Oh well, extra incentive to work for that flying mount. Or grow to appreciate the Chocobo reference. Maybe. Your turn -- what are your first impressions of Burning Crusade?
Countdown to Burning Crusade day 10 winner: best Caverns of Time screenshot
Your votes are in and we have a winner for the best screenshot of Caverns of Time contest: Asteroids by Michal Lisowyj is your vote for best CoT screen with 27% of the vote. Grats to Michal, who snags a 60-day game card for his efforts, and thanks to everyone for the great shots. Click on for a rundown of the votes and the runners up!
Midnight launch event: your launches edition
Several of you sent in your midnight launch photos, and we managed to get a tiny cross-section of this event from around the world (any players from Europe or Asia care to send your photos? we'll add them in!) -- the US, Canada, and Australia. Click on for some photos from your launch events.[Above photo courtesy of Alec Paden]
Midnight Launch Event: Gainesville edition
I pre-ordered months ago, and finally the night had come. A few days ago GameStop robo-called my phone to tell me to come down at 11:00, so they could pre-process the transaction and make the whole thing that much smoother. Anticipating lines and general hilarity, I got to the mall around 10:30. It took me a while to find the part of the mall where the line was; here's what I saw when I stepped out of my car.
Breakfast Topic: What did you do once you got your hands on the expansion?
Yesterday, we asked you what you were going to do after you installed BC. Since many of you have gotten a chance to buy and install BC by now, I'd like to see if you lived up to your predictions. What's the first think you did do when you installed BC? Personally, I did what I thought I would: rolled a male Draenei warrior named Giles. So let's have it -- new toon or Outland adventures? Feel free to come back and post here whenever you get the expansion.
Midnight launch event: Burning Crusade, Southern style
(Picture left on a table at the mall by an unknown, presumably disgruntled Alliance rogue at the North Raleigh BC midnight sale event.) At about 11:30 p.m., I headed out to EB Games at my local mall in Raleigh, North Carolina, with an understanding and tolerant warlock friend, to pick up my Burning Crusade preorder. It was 75 degrees out today, so I took a quiet moment to gloat over people like Mike and Barb who had to brave the ice and snow to get their copies. Since I live in a fairly suburban part of town, we figured that there wouldn't be a lot of geeky folk out getting their preorders in the middle of the night. How wrong we were.
GameDaily gets a copy of the Collector's Edition
I won't be buying the Collector's Edition, because it's just not my sort of thing. However, the people at GameDaily have gotten ahold of one a bit early, and have posted a lovely series of pictures with the full contents, so cheap people like me can lust over the glory that is Blizzard ephemera. I do rather fancy the Outland map mouse pad, even though I usually play on my laptop's trackpad (I know, I know). And for those of you who will be getting a CE, here's what's in store.[via Joystiq]
Send us your launch event photos
Are you heading out to brave the thronging masses at your nearby midnight launch event tonight? So are we -- so tune in late night tonight and tomorrow for some tales from our launch event experiences. If you snag any great pics from your own local launch, send them to us and we'll publish a compendium of the best Burning Crusade launch event photos. If we use your photo(s) we'll credit you and link to your site or blog, your guild's site, your Myspace page -- whatever you want us to link to, just send it along with your photos. Send your images in JPG format to countdowntobc AT wowinsider DOT com -- you can send multiple images per email, but no single email may be over 10MB in size. Please put "launch event" in the title of your email or emails, thanks!
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Vote for best Caverns of Time pic
Put your adjudication hats on and submit your vote for the best Caverns of Time screenshot -- one lucky winner will take home a 60-day game card. Walk this way to submit your vote -- polls will be open until 3pm EST tomorrow January 16, so either get your vote in now or take a break while the expansion is installing... check after the break for a quick rundown of the seven finalists.
Some people have all the luck...
When Ramanan tipped us off that he'd managed to snag a copy of the Burning Crusade on January the 12th -- four entire days before the official release -- the very first thing I did was to scout all possible stores near my house to see if I could find anyone else making a similar mistake. No such luck! However, despite Wal-Mart's careful planning, it seems that at least some stores have stocked shelves with the expansion a bit early. Ramanan made off with a copy from his local Wal-Mart and was able to install and upgrade his account -- though it still sounds as though expansion content is blocked. At least for a while longer.
