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Blizzard giving away gaming headsets
To celebrate the arrival of WoW's new integrated Voice Chat in Patch 2.2, Blizzard is giving away 40 Logitech Digital Precision PC gaming headsets a week for the next 5 weeks. The winners each week will be randomly selected according to how long they have had an active account. Those who have only been playing for 3 months can only win the first week. The final week is for players who have been active for 15 months or more.How do I enter? Just keep your account active.Who is eligible? US Citizens who don't live in states like New York and Florida where it is prohibited. There are other people who are ineligible, so please check the sweepstakes rules page.How do I know if I've won? They'll choose your character with the most played time and list the character's name and server on the WoW main site. Then they will notify you by email within the next 5 days -- so make sure the email that you have listed in your account info is current.Will Voice Chat be enabled and working on my server by the time I'm eligible to win a headset? The first week ends October 6, so we all should have had Voice Chat enabled on our servers by that time. Theoretically.
Strange patch note choices (or, my last Orc shoulders post ever, I swear)
I can confirm for you that yes, patch 2.2 has finally fixed our Orc male shoulders. Finally, my Orc Shaman can hold his shoulders up proudly (ok, well, a little hunched down under all the weight, but still). I know lots of you readers are tired of hearing about it, but the saga is over: our Orc shoulders have grown back. Now I'll never mention it again.Strangely enough, however, this change didn't make the patch notes, and when players ask why, Neth sounds a little tired of talking about it herself. She says that while the change did not appear in the official 2.2 notes, "one graphical item of which has been stated as being fixed many times now, does not make it less accurate." I've wondered before who exactly writes the patch notes, and yet again I find myself wondering what the method is behind their madness. Some patch changes, including some boss tweaks, are clearly not included on purpose. Some huge changes (like the DOTs affected by resilience change) get the smallest of mentions. And some small changes very much awaited by players, like the anti-AFK measures, get quite a bit of ink.Now, I doubt that Blizzard purposely left the Orc shoulders change off the patch notes-- they probably just didn't think it important enough to include. But surely there are things that they do leave off of the notes on purpose, and some things that the devs might not think are big, but that whoever writes the patch notes chooses to emphasize. Whatever their method behind the madness, I can't see what it is at all.
Last-minute 2.2 tweaks
As Mike noted earlier today in Twitter, today/tonight/tomorrow is an exciting geek convergence. Heroes, Halo 3, and WoW 2.2. And now we have a new set of patch notes, so we might actually know the final list of what's going down tomorrow. However, these are technically termed PTR notes, so be sure and check back tomorrow for the official notes that will come with the patch itself. As always, the full patch notes are after the cut, and here are what I see as the most important things that seem to be new in this iteration of patch notes (Edit: there seems to be some dispute over which of these things are actually new. I'm sure some of them are, but my memory is a bit overtaxed right now.): Blessing of Kings, Light, Might, Salvation, Sanctuary and Wisdom increased to 10 minutes. Greater Blessing of Kings, Light, Might, Salvation, Sanctuary and Wisdom increased to 30 minutes. Lightwell: The heals from this ability are now increased by the bonus healing effects on the Priest. Many enchanting formulae are now available from various faction quartermasters: Dodge, Stealth, and Subtlety to cloak; Superior Agility and Threat to gloves; and Greater Agility to weapons. Monstrous Kaliri: This creature now has loot. That's in addition to Voice Chat and the boatload of fixes we knew about already. But looking over these patch notes, I have one question: can this really be called a content patch? Is voice chat actually content? Where's the new zones, dungeons, class overhauls, or whatever? This just reads like an unusually big bug-fix patch to me, with the exception of voice chat. Finally, there is a pleasingly colored breakdown of everything new in 2.2 over at MMO-Champion, and as promised, patch notes after the cut.
The night before voice chat
Tomorrow, if all the prophecies come true, Patch 2.2.0 will finally arrive to a server near you. A subset of the server population will experience the new voice chat to test out as the service is slowly phased to the rest of the population. Many of us who have the privilege of being in "good" guilds have been yakking away happily on Ventrilo or Teamspeak (or even Google Talk or Skype in smaller groups) for quite some time. But to the "small guild" community, tomorrow and the days that follow may represent one of the biggest milestones in game development since the launch. To those who are uninitiated to the world of voice, let me offer you a few tips to get you through your introduction to this wonderful new vehicle of gameplay.
New patch coming to the PTRs and it's not what you think
Patch 2.2.2 is coming to the Public Test Realm later today according to Hortus. Instead of Zul'Aman or more Voice Chat testing, Blizzard is putting their October Holiday content up. The first event, Brewfest, is a new holiday for Azeroth. Early reports hint at attack kegs, signalling Dark Iron dwarves, racing rams, and even sausage eating. Sounds suspiciously like the annual German event, Oktoberfest.After Brewfest, Blizzard will test the Hallows End festivities. Considering this long held event is on the Test server hints that Blizzard may have some new tricks or treats in store for us. Mountable flying brooms have already been spotted in the Test files. Hallows End is scheduled to start October 18th on the Live servers.
Polling players on new content
There's an interesting discussion going on over on the forums about whether or not Blizzard should conduct player polls. Antiquity from Lightning's Blade can't see why they don't-- it's an easy way for them to get quick feedback about different aspects of gameplay. But Nethaera disagrees. She says (and I can see her point as well) that polls are commonly inaccurate, which is definitely true, and while she doesn't exactly come out and say it, she seems to be implying that Blizzard would rather hear player feedback in terms of discussion rather than in numbers. Just hearing that 70% of players will use voice chat doesn't tell the whole story-- more important to know would be the reasons players would use voice chat, and in what situations they would use it.So it's not really likely that Blizzard will implement in-game polling anytime soon-- for now, they're content to get their player feedback from the forums (and, I suspect, from sites just like this one).However. We here at WoW Insider have no such compunctions, and we love to hear your feedback in terms of numbers just as much as in the comments. And I especially like Antiquity's poll suggestion, so here it is. Yes, this isn't really a solution to what he wants-- he wants to hear in-game voices, not forum voices or WoW Insider reader voices. But it is an interesting question, and I would like to see what you all think.%Poll-3190%(I did leave off the "All of the above" choice-- if that was on there, I don't see why everyone wouldn't choose it. This way, you're forced to choose your preference.)
How soon is now?
Restless for the 2.2 patch to go live, players have been flooding the official forums for updates on long requested features: surnames, player housing, engineering revamp, to name a few. The response to all these requests was the same: we'd like to implement these ideas, but don't know when.The only glimmer of hope the Community Managers could give was about class reviews. Word is Ret Paladins and Enhancement Shamans are receiving "changes" sooner rather than later and for Priests, the Holy tree and Discipline tree will receive some dev lovin'. For those classes not listed and feeling the need for review, there's always the next expansion. TBC did wonders for the druid Balance and Feral trees. Now we must wait for the Voice Chat patch to go live and then Blizzard can be more specific about what game changes are coming next and which stay on the back burner.
Only selected servers get Voice Chat on patch day
Blizzard CM Drysc announced that the Voice Chat feature will be implemented onto the live realms in stages and that only a select few will have integrated Voice Chat enabled when Patch 2.2 is released. All realms will be getting all other features of Patch 2.2, but some of the realms will have to wait until the following week for Voice Chat to be enabled.Drysc goes on to say that Voice Chat will be on separate servers from the actual game realms:Voice chat doesn't run through the game servers. This test is of the voice chat servers themselves, not the game realms. If there's an issue voice chat won't be available, the realms themselves shouldn't be affected. In any case, that's what this initial set of realms is to test, how voice chat handles and interacts with the realms on a wider scale.I don't know if this means we are getting Patch 2.2 on Tuesday 9/18 or not, but I do know that I won't have Voice Chat to play with on my main realm until the week after its release.Check out our hands on look at Voice Chat and look for the list of realms getting Voice Chat first after the jump.
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Beyond Patch 2.2: Schwick's compilation of verified info
Patch 2.2, currently in testing on the PTR, has some great improvements like voice chat and reporting AFK'ers in Battlegrounds. What it doesn't have is any new, big, sexy chunk of playable content. So when are we going to see the post-Karazhan 10-main raid zone, Zul'Aman? New Heroic Badge rewards? Guild banks? Oh, we already know that last one.Forum MVP Schwick on the WoW European forums has compiled a list of known updates in Patch 2.3 and beyond. He often provide reference links to his sources form many of his future patch notes, which makes him an information god in my book.He also goes on to list all the verified information about the WotLK expansion. I thought I had read all the info that was out already, but on Schwick's list I found items I didn't know, like the fact that Blizzard has a plan to deal with the fact that the Horde doesn't have a fear ward. Or that Naxxramas, the last raid zone introduced before TBC launched, will be repurposed in the new expansion. Or that new shaders will be introduced for shinier graphics. Mmm, sparkles.Check out Schwick's post if you want to get a look ahead about what's known for future patches.Screenshot of Zul'Aman boss models courtesy of MMO-Champion.com.
PTR Update: Hortus confirms and denies
Hortus has posted a sticky about the current PTR issues which addresses a lot of problems in and questions about 2.2. Most notably, he has confirmed that Zul'Aman and Guild Banks will not be in patch 2.2. He also has confirmed that Voice Chat will still be in 2.2, but it is not yet available for testing on the test server.In addition, Hortus addressed some of the problems people are having with premade character copies. Hortus says that if you get an error when trying to copy a premade, the queue is full and to try again later. He does not address why the error message doesn't just say that...Also, it seems that even though some premade characters are missing abilities or have abilities they are not supposed to have, they do not intend to fix them at this time.Side note not mentioned by Horus: Copying characters that are not premade to the test realms is also on a several day wait.Hortus denies that the Orc Shoulders are now bigger than before the bug: Orc shoulders are now the correct size, they are not any larger than they were before, it's your imagination. He also addresses Athlon errors, authentication issues and how not to get your post deleted.It seems that with all of these issues and Voice Chat not even being tested yet, Patch 2.2 is a long way off. What are you most looking forward to or dreading in 2.2? Have you successfully copied a premade? If so, any problems and how long did it take?
Zul'Aman sneak preview at E3
We're here at E3 and, although not blown away by any major announcements from Blizzard, did get a chance to check out a preview of the new 10-man Zul'Aman outdoor instance in Ghostlands. It's going to be a more casual dungeon than Karazhan, ideally doable in a few hours' time investment, with six bosses and no attunement required. There will be quests included as part of the story line, with at least one rescue mission per avatar boss that will have a time-dependent element similar to the Baron Run mechanic in Stratholme, with better rewards offered for quicker completion. The six bosses include bear, dragonhawk and lynx avatars, a "god of evil," a witch doctor, and the final troll boss Zul'jin. Like Hakkar in Zul'Gurub, Zul'jin has a spiritual connection with the other boss avatars and is able to draw upon their ghostly spirits in order to change his shape and assume some of their powers and abilities. All the bosses and the trash mobs (which will be primarily forest trolls) will be social and able to call for help from additional mobs -- surely good for a few wipes whilst learning the encounters. Blizzard offered a few other small bits of news: voice chat and guild banks will be coming in minor patches before the big Zul'Aman patch is released. Voice chat will include a feature that automagically lowers the game volume when players are talking, and onscreen interface indicators to help keep track of who is talking at any given time. Guild banks will be endowed with some sort of permission system enabling guild masters to give access to specific items to some guild members and not others. Unfortunately, Starcraft 2 was not yet playable, but we'll be looking forward to that and far more megaton news to be forthcoming at Blizzcon -- it's clear this press conference was merely a teaser.
Hearing voices in the World of Warcraft
Clive Thompson (who I've enjoyed reading for a while now) posted a piece on Wired the other day about how voice changed the way he saw fellow players in World of Warcraft. It's a really interesting read, not least of all because of the two academic studies mentioned: one study found that women were "treated differently" when using voice chat, and another found that gamers made more solid and trusting relationships with friends they knew by voice rather than those that knew by text.I don't know if Thompson has heard yet that voice is going to be builtin to WoW very soon now, but it's true: voice is about to play a much bigger part in our game. And it's also true that voice changes things a lot-- in my regular guild, I will often jump on our Teamspeak server just to chat with my fellow guildies and friends, even if I'm not in a group. In It came from the Blog (the official WoW Insider guild in which I occasionally can be seen saying crazy things), we haven't set up a Vent server (although it's coming, guys), and so I had the strange experience the other day of running an instance with only text chat to keep me company. Don't get me wrong, I like all the guys in IcftB, but I don't know if the reason I don't know them better is just because I haven't been with the guild as long, or if I just haven't actually heard their voices.In the end, Thompson marks it down to a generational thing-- some people are willing to share their voices and hear others, he says, and some just aren't. I'm not sure if that's true necessarily (I am pretty conservative on, say, my Myspace page, and pretty free with my Ventrilo joining), but either way, the use of voice chat in videogames has only just started to make itself known.
Paid subscription a possibility for the future of PlayStation Network
Paying for a subscription would certainly seem to be a possibility, especially as the long-rumored feature upgrades come filing into the PlayStation Network. When speaking with Geoff Keighley on the latest edition of Gametrailers' Bonus Round, Eric Lempel spoke about the PlayStation Network's current free service and that, "in time, anything can change." Comparing the PlayStation Network to Microsoft's Xbox Live service, Lempel, Sony's director of Network Operations reconfirmed "we're working on an achievements system," describing its inclusion as "an important feature." Voice-chat across all games is also something (thankfully) that Mr. Lempel touched base on, saying "talking across games ... definitely builds momentum for games and actually migrate(s) users to other games and keeps you in touch with your gaming community." We couldn't agree more. Exactly when these implementations will make it to a PS3 near you, via firmware upgrade, is uncertain. "It's not in the next firmware update but it's something we're working on," says Mr. Lempel. We certainly hope so, though we are catching wind of the potential trade-off here. What do you think? Would you pay a subscription fee (similar to Xbox Live) for a plan that allows cross-game invites, built-in voice chat for all multiplayer games and a similar achievement points implementation? Or would you rather say the heck with all that, and voice to keep the PlayStation Network free for all, setting it apart from Microsoft's Xbox Live service? [Via Next-Gen]
Make VOIP calls with your PS3
Voice communication is coming to the PS3 in a big way. A VOIP service provider by the name of Jajah, has tailored an interface with the PS3 in mind. Users can head to the Jajah website via the PS3 web browser to setup the number they wish to initiate a call with. Jajah already provides VOIP supports extensions for Firefox, Outlook and even PDAs. Gamers already have voice chat while in game over the PlayStation Network, if games decide to include and support it. However, Jajah's VOIP service could allow one solution for gamers, regardless of voice support, on all PS3 titles. While the process isn't quite as streamlined as another network we heard about, it's still a welcome step in the right direction. Solidifying the good news is word that Intel has invested $15 million in the company, via its Intel Capital arm. Perhaps this is the beginning of a more unified voice chat solution on the PlayStation Network?
Gizmo Project 3
Gizmo Project, the internet telephony software for PC, Mac, and Linux, just hit 3.0. New in this release are: the ability to talk to folks on Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live, and Google Talk custom avatars file transfers history of your text chats group chats Gizmo Project is free, and requires 10.3.9.
WoW Moviewatch: Joi Ito talks WoW
This is probably the longest movie we've ever posted, at over 43 minutes. Entrepreneur, internet celebrity and generally hoopy frood Joi Ito (of We Know/We No on Eitrigg-US) gave this lecture on WoW at the latest Chaos Communication Conference (23C3). The talk doesn't assume any WoW knowledge, but also doesn't bore those of us who do play (at least not me). It seems to broadly concern itself with WoW as a social space/social experiment, including guild organization, voice chat, real-world/WoW bleed-through, and the implications of having such a huge subscriber base. I found the video quite interesting. I wish it included the Q&A afterwards; maybe we can have our own discussion in the comments here.Previously on Moviewatch
Ubisoft to doctor Rainbow Six Vegas
Ubisoft has released a list of some 36 gameplay issues that will be addressed in an upcoming Rainbow Six Vegas patch, including the now infamous voice chat bug. This latest development adds to the growing concern that console titles, particularly their online modes, are being governed by a 'ship now, fix later' mentality.Who will protect us from such lax development standards?[Via 1UP]
Third-party X360 Bluetooth headset beats MS to the punch
Datel's 3rd-party Xbox 360 Bluetooth headset has popped up on Amazon UK with a shipping date of the 30th of June and with a price tag of £59.99/$109. Originally the headset was said to ship on the 17th of March, but there's still no mention of it on the company's website, so it's possible that Amazon jumped the gun by placing it on their site. If it does ship when they say, it'll have the market for wireless Xbox 360 headsets to itself for quite a while; Microsoft hasn't said anything more about when their official headset will be released.The device itself is a bundle of what appears to be a relatively generic Bluetooth headset--it looks strikingly similar to Motorola's HS820 headset--coupled with a dongle that attaches to the controller's standard headset port, packaged together in a standard Xbox-green and white box. [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
