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Blizzard considers running classic 'World of Warcraft' servers
Do you miss the early, headier days of World of Warcraft, before endless changes turned it into a different beast? You're far from alone -- hundreds of thousands of people were playing on Nostalrius, a fan-run server that went back to basics, until Blizzard shut it down early in April over intellectual property jitters. However, the game studio isn't deaf to your cries. It's telling WoW fans that it has been mulling the idea of running its own "pristine" servers, without the boosts and tweaks that have slipped into the online role-playing title over the years.
'World of Warcraft' keeps growing with 'Legion' in August
Blizzard will launch World of Warcraft's sixth expansion, Legion, on August 30th, unleashing hordes of hellish beasts and fresh quests into the game world. Legion adds the Demon Hunter hero class, customizable artifact weapons and a new continent called the Broken Isles, among other updates. Pre-orders are live now in two flavors: the $50 Standard Edition or the $70 Digital Deluxe Edition, which includes an adorable demon dog as a pet, the Illidari Felstalker mount, and in-game goodies for Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 (all of which are Blizzard properties as well).
'World of Warcraft' to get a book series aimed at kids
World of Warcraft has been around for more than a decade, fleshing out the world of Azeroth with new lands, stories and characters. Its subscriber base is slowly shrinking, but the Warcraft brand continues to evolve through games like Hearthstone and an upcoming feature-length movie. Now, developer Blizzard is teaming up with Scholastic for a new book series aimed at 8 to 12-year-olds. It's called World of Warcraft: Traveler and the first novel will be launching in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand this November. The second instalment is due in 2017.
The After Math: Pop culture phenoms
Quentin Tarantino is taking some serious flack this week for his comments on the #BlackLivesMatter debate. As such, we're taking a look at some other franchises that are sure to get your geek blood pumping harder than the first time you listened to Gangnam Style. Here are the numbers you deserve, not the numbers you need right now.
The first full 'Warcraft' movie trailer is, in a word, epic
Whether you're a veteran World of Warcraft player, a Hearthstone newbie or someone who loves a great fantasy story, the trailer for Legendary Pictures' Warcraft is captivating. Warcraft is due in theaters on June 10th. It's Activision Blizzard's first foray into movie-making -- but it's definitely not the last. The company today announced its own, in-house film and TV business, Activision Blizzard Studios. It's already working on a Skylanders cartoon series and films based on the Call of Duty franchise. Warcraft doesn't fall under this new studio's umbrella.
Here's a sneak peek at the new 'Warcraft' movie trailer
Legendary Pictures today released a 16-second clip of the trailer for Duncan Jones' upcoming World of Warcraft movie. The trailer itself will debut this Friday at Blizzard's BlizzCon event while fans will have to wait until June 10th to see the movie in all of its CGI-dominated glory.
Blizzard's huge 'World of Warcraft: Legion' expansion hits beta this year
Blizzard ended 2014 with a promise to release bigger, better expansions faster -- and today at Gamescom it finally showed off the goods. The next World of Warcraft expansion is called Legion, and like its name, its additions to the game world are many. Legion will bump the max player level up to 110 (from 100) and introduce a new continent: the Broken Isles. Here players will search for the Tomb of Sargeras, and prepare for the invasion of an all-powerful demon army. How do you fight demons, you ask? With an all-new Demon Hunter Hero Class, of course.
Gaming hall of fame inducts 'Pong,' 'Tetris' and other classics
The results are in. After a selection process that lasted nearly four months, the newly created World Video Game Hall of Fame has announced its first class inductees. Doom, Pac-Man, Pong, Super Mario Bros., Tetris and World of Warcraft were chosen by The National Museum of Play for 2015, narrowing down the choices from a list of 15 finalists. So which games, which you helped vote for, were left out? That includes other classics like Space Invaders, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda and The Sims -- although the museum did say these will likely be part of next year's nominee class.
'Heroes of the Storm' pits 'StarCraft against 'Warcraft' in June
More than three years after Blizzard announced it would be making a competitor to League of Legends and Dota 2, that game finally has an official release date. Heroes of the Storm comes out June 2nd, brining with it seven maps for players to face off on using over 30 characters culled from the studio's famous Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft series. As with other multiplayer online battle arena games, or MOBAs as they're commonly known, like the aforementioned League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm is free to download and start playing. Blizzard makes money on the game by charging for new characters as well as customization options.
Blizzard blocks 'World of Warcraft' and 'Diablo 3' in Crimea
Players in Crimea can no longer access Battle.net, the service that houses Blizzard games World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Hearthstone and others, The Moscow Times reports. Blizzard blocked its games in response to US sanctions against Crimea -- Google, Apple, PayPal and Valve have also suspended service to the region, the site says. The Moscow Times pulled its Blizzard report from Russian site Geektimes.ru, which published an email sent to Crimean Battle.net users. "In accordance with current trade regulations relating to the region of Crimea, we are legally required to suspend access to your Battle.net account," a translation reads.
'World of Warcraft' is getting a selfie camera -- don't tell Leeroy Jenkins
Okay, so at last count World of Warcraft had a Pokémon clone built into it, an in-game web browser of sorts and even a tribute to the late Robin Williams. Now it has another way to distract you as the epic battle between the Horde and Alliance rages on in the background: selfies. Naturally. As our sister site WoW Insider reports, the camera is part of a rare late-game quest in the forthcoming update (6.1 if you're keeping track at home), and there's a follow-up mission that rewards virtual narcissists with a trio of camera filters for the self-aggrandizing new feature. Your toon'll even mug for the camera with duckface or perhaps something a little more charming and less 2009 as you show off that sweet new bit of armor.
Robin Williams gets the World of Warcraft tribute gamers asked for
Blizzard promised gamers a tribute to the late, great Robin Williams in one of his favorite titles, World of Warcraft, and it looks like the studio has been quick to act on its word. Just days after Wowhead found hidden character code paying homage to the actor, that persona is live in the game. If you're in the Warlords of Draenor expansion's beta, you can visit an island with a familiar-looking lamp; rub it and a genie pops out flaunting his "infinite cosmic power," directly referencing Williams' beloved role in Aladdin.
Robin Williams tribute characters found in World of Warcraft data
The passing of actor Robin Williams affected fans from all walks of life, but gamers made a special claim to his legacy. Williams was a game enthusiast and a known fan of games like Portal, The Legend of Zelda and World of Warcraft. Now, the creators of the latter title seem to be working on an in-game memorial for the actor: a NPC named "Robin <The Entertainer>." Wowhead, a site that scours the game code for new additions, picked up three instances of the tribute in a recent update for the Warlords of Draenor beta build -- a male human, a female human and, of course, a blue genie.
NSA reportedly infiltrated Xbox Live and World of Warcraft in hunt for terrorists
According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden and brought to light today by The Guardian, the NSA has been monitoring online gaming communities since 2008 and has even been sending real-life agents into online RPGs posing as players. Xbox Live was apparently one of the biggest services to be targeted, while World of Warcraft and Second Life also came under some degree of scrutiny. It's not totally clear why the NSA, along with its UK equivalent the GCHQ, thought such operations were necessary, but there seems to have been a general sense that online games could be used as communication hubs by evil-doers, as well as some evidence that Hezbollah had developed its own game for the purpose of recruitment. None of the leaked files suggest that the agent-avatars caught any terrorists, even though undercover operations were apparently so numerous that, at one point, an NSA analyst called for a "deconfliction group" to be set up to prevent the agency's personnel from inadvertently spying on each other. Meanwhile, Microsoft and Linden Labs have refused to comment, but Blizzard Entertainment has said it was unaware of any surveillance taking place in World of Warcraft and certainly has never granted any permission for its players to be observed. The Guardian says it'll publish the relevant files later today, in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica. Update: We asked Microsoft how this happened, and a spokesperson told us that Redmond wasn't aware of any surveillance activity. "If it occurred as has been reported, it certainly wasn't done with our consent."
Blizzard's 'Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft' coming to iOS in 2014
On Friday, Blizzard announced at its annual Blizzcon conference that the iOS version of its freemium battle card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft will be released during the second half of 2014, reports TouchArcade. The strategy card game is based on the World of Warcraft universe and will allow players to battle it out in turn-based card play. Designed to be deceptively simple and epically engaging for players of all backgrounds, Hearthstone features quick and lively duels that evoke the spirit of a friendly match played beside a crackling tavern fire. Each player's card deck centers around a hero representing one of nine iconic Warcraft classes, customized with a set of minions, spells, and/or weapons based on individual strategy and available cards. Players will be able to hone their skills in practice matches against the computer, and when they're ready for the challenge, they can take on their Battle.net friends and other players in friendly duels. To further develop their decks, players will be able to acquire cards by crafting them and by winning or purchasing new card packs. With hundreds of unique cards to choose from, the potential card combinations and possible strategies are endless! Fans of the World of Warcraft universe will know the game was originally set to be released in 2013 for Mac, PC and iPad, so they may be a bit disappointed that the iOS version has been pushed back until the second half of 2014. However, Blizzard has announced that now the game will also be hitting the iPhone at the same time, which is sure to placate any angry ogres wielding magical spells.
Breakfast Topic: What will the next WoW expansion be?
What will the next WoW expansion be? With only one major content patch left in Mists of Pandaria, and BlizzCon 2013 around the corner, it won't be long before we know what's next. But what do you think is coming? Will we be venturing into the Emerald Dream alongside Malfurion, or was Anne Stickney onto something when she speculated that the Mists of Pandaria might be our Emerald Dream expansion? What about the ongoing legendary questline with Wrathion? Wrathion has been referencing the return of the Burning Legion in much of his quest text. Does that mean demons will be descending upon Azeroth in the next expansion? Will we finally get to see Sargeras? Also, you wouldn't want to forget Queen Azshara. You would think we'd have seen her and the city Nazjatar in the Cataclysm expansion, but so far she's only made minor or indirect appearances. Azshara is the perfect accompaniment to some recent fan speculation about the naga being the next possible playable race. Unfortunately, Ghostcrawler pretty much shot that down by pointing out the naga's lack of legs would make it difficult to design armor for them. And, of course, there's always ... Trolls? Wait, really? More trolls? You wouldn't think it, but in the same interview where Ghostcrawler killed our naga dreams, he said that trolls were an option the game lore could still explore in future content. Huh ... Go figure. So, what do you think the next WoW expansion will be?
Caturday: Me-WoW!
We don't have a name for this week's Caturday model, but owner Baz Francis of Adelaide, South Australia says that "he's a two month old ginger kitten who loves watching my partner play World of Warcraft on my 15" MacBook Pro. When he's not intently staring at the screen with his head tilted or clawing at the weird characters, he's lying on his back dreaming that he's a Mac superman." This looks like just the cat for our very own gamer extraordinaire, Mike Schramm! If you've got a Caturday nominee to share, let us know via our feedback page. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Thanks, Baz!
The Queue: Is Fox leaving forever?
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen) will be your host today. Hey everyone! Gather the kids, because it's one of those "special event" things. Fox Van Allen is doing The Queue today and that's pretty darn exciting. OK, sure, it's not "hit the jackpot" exciting. It's a more gentle kind of exciting. Like the kind where if for a day Pat Sajak hosted Jeopardy! and Alex Trebek hosted Wheel of Fortune. Anyway. Because I'm an egotistical jerk who has only been made even more insufferable by the blazing Los Angeles sun, I'm going to start this Queue off by answering a question about myself. @thebmatt asked: I just saw on @WoWInsider you [Fox] won't be writing the Shadow priest column anymore. True?
Mists of Pandaria: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
The latest build for the Mists of Pandaria beta has brought new spells, huge nerfs, and Flippable Tables. Yes, that's right, a Flippable Table. Michael Gray speculated about the table last week in Phat Loot Phriday, but at the time, the item hadn't yet been implemented on test servers. Well folks, there is now no more need for speculation. For your viewing pleasure, I give you the Flippable Table. And I only had to kill 400 birds and get spawn-camped by an embarrassingly low-level warlock (I do not PvP as shadow) to bring it to you. You're welcome. Currently, the Flippable Table is purchased from Nam Ironpaw in Valley of the Four Winds using Ironpaw Tokens, a currency you get from completing Mists of Pandaria cooking dailies. The same currency is used to purchase other novelty items such as Apron and Frying Pan. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
SteelSeries shows off new WoW wireless mouse, cache of corded rodents and a headset at E3
This time last year, SteelSeries showed us a headset and mouse meant for Diablo III, but at E3 2012, the company showed us a bunch of goodies. The highlight is the inaugural SteelSeries cordless offering, aptly named the World of Warcraft wireless mouse, which sports a themed skin and glowing white runes and logo on the palmrest (at least that's the plan, the prototype unit we saw didn't light up). Similarly, the charging base is studded in true Azeroth style and ringed in blue runes to let you know when it's powered up, plus it can be connected to your computer via microUSB if you want to play and charge simultaneously. It's PC and Mac compatible, comes with 11 programmable buttons, and once you've given it 60 minutes to fill its tank, you'll get up to 16 hours of continuous, intensive game play. It's set for a release in the latter half of this year and will cost $129. Along with the WoW model, we also got to see the gunmetal grey MLG edition Sensei and a pair of special-edition Kana mice -- for Dota 2 and CounterStrike: Global Offensive -- each uniquely skinned in the style of their namesake games. To go along with the CS:GO rodent, there's an accompanying headset (a Siberia v2 with a camo paint job) as well. Rounding things out is a GuildWars 2 branded headset and Sensei mouse. The stereo headset is the on-ear variety, and its flexible white frame can be folded down during travel. A 3.5mm input resides at the base of each earcup, and the open jack can be used to connect another set of headphones to share your audio with a friend. The headset's priced at $100, while the mouse will retail for $70 and will land on store shelves when Guildwars 2 is released.%Gallery-157403%
