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Warlords of Draenor encourages the return of free-form world PvP in Ashran
World of Warcraft players who pine for the "good old days" of open world PvP may get to sup from that cup again come Warlords of Draenor. The devs are whipping up a new island, Ashran, that pulls upon lessons from past PvP zone designs to create something that encourages as close to the real open world PvP experience as one can get (and still have it designed). Ashran is for level 100 players who want to pop in and engage in up to 100v100 battles. Unlike past PvP zones, players won't have to join a raid group to partake in the fun and can choose between world and objective-based PvP. "We want players to get caught up in the moment and become emotionally invested in the outcome of each new encounter, whether it's just getting the drop on a member of the opposite faction player or getting revenge for a stolen kill," Blizzard wrote. The team also previewed another one of Warlords of Draenor's zones with Gorgrond. Gorgrond is an area split between the themes of creation and destruction and the biomes of heavy flora and barren wasteland.
WoW's Warlords of Draenor beta: A disappointing start
My time with the Draenor beta has been an overwhelming disappointment. Warlords of Draenor is to World of Warcraft as Man of Steel is to the Superman mythos. It's an effort to collect classic elements with no regard for the setting in which they make sense, throwing them together like line items. It's aware of the history of the franchise only as a resource to mine, and it's just giving us all of the old familiar pieces without the parts that made those pieces memorable. Imagine watching Harrison Ford pretending to be Indiana Jones despite being far too old for the role now, locked in a script with no sense of momentum or energy, going through the motions in a way that's not just lackluster but actively kind of shameful. Imagine Frank Miller writing Batman as a parody of what people thought his original versions of Batman were anyway without the slightest sense of irony. That should give you some idea of where I am when it comes to Warlords of Draenor. It's loads of classic ideas, stuff that I desperately want to like, but it's ultimately just not very good, and it certainly doesn't come together.
Warlords of Draenor's Talador is at the heart of the Draenei civilization
World of Warcraft continues its exploration of the new zones of Warlords of Draenor, this time with the gorgeous land of Talador. Talador is the predecessor to what eventually becomes Outland's Terokkar Forest, and while players will see familiar sights like Shattrath, it won't be quite as they remember. The area is a warzone as the Iron Horde has besieged it, and players must do all they can to push back the wave of invaders. "Talador is home to the heart of Draenei civilization," Blizzard writes. "It is stunningly beautiful, and the zone has a palette of oranges, golds, and greens that make it incredibly vibrant. The zone really showcases the breadth of Draenei life: the sprawling trade hub of Shattrath, the massive mausoleum that is Auchindoun, the iconic city of Tuurem, the mythical Telmor (it does exist!), and so many others."
WoW Archivist: Beta surprises from World of Warcraft's history
WoW Archivist is a biweekly column by WoW Insider's Scott Andrews, who explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? It first appeared on our sister site on July 2nd and is included here by permission. Last week, we launched into the newest beta in WoW's history -- its sixth! -- for Warlords of Draenor. It's an exciting time for the game. Every beta has its surprises, good and bad. New things that were never announced. Prior announcements that changed unexpectedly. We've already had a number of surprises in the Warlords beta: the faction hub shift to Ashran, cross-faction auctions, and the removal of guild leveling. Beta is just ramping up. We are sure to encounter more than one surprise over the next few months as we test the Draenor experience and gear up for the expansion's launch. Let's take a look back at the previous five betas and examine some of the twists that greeted testers -- and often shocked the WoW community. Caveat: I'm excluding storyline surprises.
Blizzard dispatches Warlords of Draenor closed beta invites
Blizzard has begun sending out the first wave of closed beta invitations for World of Warcraft's upcoming Warlords of Draenor expansion. Overnight, WoW Community Manager Bashiok tweeted, First #Warlords beta invite wave on its way! Check your account for flagging. Targeting first wave toward WoW veterans. (Realms up tomorrow) Players can check their Battle.net accounts to see whether their accounts have been flagged prior to the arrival of the emails. Bashiok further reminded followers that additional waves of invites are coming; this first round targeted "accounts that have been playing recently, with a long history of active subscription." The closed beta itself begins today at 5 p.m. EDT.
World of Warcraft previews the Tanaan Jungle
The first two zone previews for World of Warcraft's next expansion focused on the areas that will lie at the heart of each faction, but Warlords of Draenor doesn't start in either of those areas. No, players will begin by setting foot (or hoof) into the Tanaan Jungle, a lush land filled with warriors of the Iron Horde as well as no shortage of vicious beasts. Yes, it's dangerous even without the orcs, that's kind of a running theme here. Players using characters boosted to level 90 will be learning their classes for the first time in the jungle, meeting orc luminaries such as Grom Hellscream and Khadgar Bladefist. (They're with the Iron Horde; they won't be happy to see you.) Players are also teased that they might need to make a deal with the warlock Gul'dan to get out in one piece, which is an activity that has never worked out well for anyone. Check out the full preview and all the lore it implies on the official site.
World of Warcraft previews Warlords of Draenor's Shadowmoon Valley
Blizzard's official World of Warcraft blog updated this week with a preview of Shadowmoon Valley. No, not Outland's Shadowmoon Valley from The Burning Crusade; this is the version of Shadowmoon Valley you'll be time-traveling to in Warlords of Draenor, or rather, you will if you're playing Alliance, since it's that faction's entry point for the expansion lands. Senior Designer Helen Cheng explains the zone's setting as "one of the most beautiful places on Draenor." She writes, "The valley is tranquil and serene. Rolling green hills give way to lush, violet forests. Draenei temples stand proudly beneath a star-studded sky. Here, the draenei have built wonders of their civilization-the town of Elodor with its majestic Altar of Sha'tar serves as the proud home of the great Exarchs, while the shining Temple of Karabor acts as the font of all holy learning. Under Prophet Velen and Exarch Akama's watch, all is well." Read more about the zone's backstory on the official site.
World of Darkness apparently reached alpha three different times
Former CCP employees have revealed to The Guardian that the studio's World of Darkness MMO reached an alpha state on three separate occasions before it was cancelled earlier this year. "I tested it myself on two different occasions out of those three," said former dev Nick Blood (yes, really). "With the first playtest, I was amazed at how little of the core game was there -- at this point the game had been in development for over half a decade. I mean, there was just nothing, literally nothing, for someone like me, a complete outsider to the WOD IP, to appreciate." Blood goes on to reveal that the game had some sort of Assassin's Creed-style movement system, though he calls it "very basic in comparison."
World of Warcraft starts previewing Garrisons
Garrisons are one of the big defining features for World of Warcraft's next expansion, but we haven't heard a whole lot about them. That's all changing with the start of a new four-part series explaining how the system works and how players can unlock and improve their Garrison, starting with the absolute basics. The first part is available now, outlining the overall scope of the fortifications and what players will be able to do with them. The short version is that Garrisons will be centrally located for both the Horde and Alliance, but you'll have access to satellite locations in each of the various zones through the expansion. You'll also have choices about which buildings to construct as you move through Draenor, which will affect both the central location and the satellite region -- building a Lumber Mill, for instance, will mean unlocking one back at your main Garrison as well as offering unique buffs while in the zone with the Mill. Check out all the details in the official posting.
World of Warcraft releases new class primer videos
So you've bought your World of Warcraft expansion and you boosted a character to the level cap. That's good. You also have no idea how to play that class at level 90, which is bad. A new series of videos from Blizzard is designed to address that problem, however, offering a quick two-minute guide to how to play each of the classes at level 90 as a selected DPS spec and walking you through the basic play patterns. Yes, all of these guides are for DPS; you'll find no detailed tanking walkthroughs here. And each guide just picks a particular spec, so if you were hoping for insight into playing an Enhancement Shaman, you're out of luck. But if you've boosted a character and totally can't figure out what you're supposed to be doing now, it's a good crash course on playing well enough to fake it in LFR.
Warlords of Draenor: New mount
Yesterday evening the Warcraft twitter feed posted a sneak-peak of what appears to be a new mount in Warlords of Draenor. It looks an awful lot like the old ravagers from The Burning Crusade, so that's my bet -- it's a ravager mount from the homeland of the ravagers themselves, just spruced up a bit. However, for the moment Blizzard seems devoid of any comment on the mount beside this particular image, so the question of how it will be obtained remains a mystery. Is it available to both factions? Is it a PvE reward? PvP reward? It looks like a ground mount from the picture, perhaps it's some kind of reward for being unable to fly in early Warlords? I guess we'll just have to wait and find out!
World of Warcraft finally integrates Night Elf ears
Lest you forget, with World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, the older character models in the game will receive a huge visual update. Today Blizzard posted a preview of what the Night Elf female will look like come this fall, and it appears that she's due for more than her first change of underwear since 2004. "Overall, we've made her new model a little more defined, made some of her proportions a bit more realistic, and added a bit more muscle tone," the studio wrote. "We wanted to visually communicate that she is a fully capable warrior huntress, and small details like muscle definition help highlight that." One interesting fact about this makeover is that the Night Elf ears will finally be "fully integrated" into the model itself instead of being separate pieces that were tacked on to the head.
EVE Evolved: Eleven years of EVE Online
It seems that every year another few MMOs have closed their doors or convert to free-to-play business models to stay afloat. EVE Online has always enjoyed a level of insulation from these market trends elsewhere in the genre, and just last week on May 6th it celebrated its 11th year of year-on-year subscription growth. Following on from my previous column celebrating the EVE Evolved column's sixth year of operation, this week I'll be summarising all the major EVE news stories throughout the year. It's been a big year for EVE fans, one that many of us can be proud to have been a part of. The EVE community turned its financial wizardry toward the real world and raised over $190,000 US in relief aid following a typhoon hitting the Philippines, and CCP even built a monument dedicated to the community. Several massive player battles once again put EVE on the global media's radars, and the Odyssey and Rubicon expansions revitalised the game for explorers and PvPers alike. But not everyone can hold his heads up high this year, with details of more cyberbullying within EVE coming to light and several players being banned for defacing the EVE monument in Reykjavik. In this anniversary retrospective, I summarise all the major EVE news from the year in one place and take a look at what the future may hold for the EVE universe.
World of Warcraft drops to 7.6 million subscribers
To the surprise of no one still anxiously tapping his foot for the release of Warlords of Draenor, Activision Blizzard noted during its quarterly investor call today that World of Warcraft's subscriber levels have dropped to 7.6 million. Back in February, the game reportedly jumped to 7.8 million (up 200,000 since November 2013) on the heels of BlizzCon's WoD reveals. Activision Blizzard's net revenue is down slightly year on year: $1.11 billion compared to $1.32 billion this quarter last year.
World of Warcraft wraps up its raiding retrospective
What does the future of raiding in World of Warcraft look like? It looks like Warlords of Draenor, obviously, but what does that entail? That's the focus of the final installment of a feature that's examined the past of raiding and now looks to the future. While the changes in raid sizes and raid modes have been known since the expansion was first announced, there are more alterations incoming that should shake up the way that players currently move through the game's raiding content. The article explains that having a static group hitting the same content for quite some time stays engaging, while hitting a raid finder group is more or less the same each time. As a result, raid finder loots will be altered to lack set bonuses and have different art from the normal raids while also dropping more loot than other modes. Each raid difficulty will also have a separate lockout, while changes to Valor and the caps on same will diminish the importance of re-running old content that no one needs. Take a look at all of the changes in the new article.
Here's what CCP's World of Darkness looked like
CCP may have cancelled World of Darkness, but thanks to a leaker on Reddit you can get a look at some screenshots from the game as well as the lengthy manual from a March 2014 alpha playtest. Eurogamer reports that WoD featured safe zones such as your haven and various Elysium areas near churches, but otherwise the game allowed for open PvP. CCP's take on the beloved White Wolf property also featured four clans: the Tremere, Brujah, Toreador, and Ventrue, each with different skills, abilities, and aspect buffs. See the links below for the original Reddit post as well as the screenshot gallery and manual.
World of Warcraft continues its raid retrospective
The launch of Warlords of Draenor is going to shake up the raiding experience in World of Warcraft, and if raiding is what you like to do in the game, that's pretty important. But rather than just explain how raiding will be in the new expansion, Blizzard has opted to look past through the previous expansions and examine how revisions have affected the game over the years. Yesterday's blog covered launch through Wrath of the Lich King, while this entry focuses on Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. Cataclysm removed the difficulty gap between 10-person and 25-person raids, but the side effect was a pressure to produce smaller raid groups rather than grow to bigger groups. It also introduced the raid finder as a mechanic, encouraging more people to experience the content. Mists of Pandaria, on the other hand, suffered from bottlenecks that prevented non-raiding groups from making any progress, although flex raiding was deemed a better way to get groups in and playing. Take a look at the full article for more details on the ups and downs, with part 3 set to address the future of raiding in Warlords of Draenor.
WoW Source vid on WoD's PvP, class updates
WoW Source's latest episode features World of Warcraft lead designer Ion Hazzikostas, lead class designer Kris Zierhut, and senior game designer Brian Holinka. The trio discuss everything from Warlords of Draenor's class changes to PvP to skirmishes. There's also a sneak peek at the new Ashran PvP zone. Click past the cut for the full video!
CCP is 'reviewing the status' of the World of Darkness IP
In the aftermath of World of Darkness' cancellation and the layoffs at its Atlanta studio, CCP said that it is taking time to "review" the White Wolf IP. "We believe that the World of Darkness IP is very valuable and will be reviewing the status of it in the coming weeks and months, but we have no specific plans under consideration at this time," a CCP spokesperson said to CVG. In the search to understand why World of Darkness got shuttered, players might turn to last December's financials for CCP. In these, the studio lodged a loss of $21 million for the year despite increasing revenue year-over-year. This was mostly due to a "massively increased R&D budget" that was feeding into projects such as WoD.
CCP shuttering World of Darkness
After a weekend full of Reddit rumors, CCP has formally announced that it is ceasing development on World of Darkness. The company laid off 56 employees from its Atlanta-based studio and will now focus exclusively on games set in its EVE Online universe. "To our current and former employees and fans of World of Darkness, I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make," CEO Hilmar Petursson said in a statement. "We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short. One day I hope we will make it up to you."
