wow-europe
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Character service pricing going up for those paying in pounds
Though character service pricing has always seemed high, if you're paying for WoW in pounds sterling then soon you're going to have to pay a bit more. Presumably, this is to bridge the difference in value between the pound and the euro, but Blizzard's description of the price change as an adjustment to ensure they're offering the "best entertainment value" doesn't really sell it -- as pages of unhappy commenters can attest to. If you're in the market for character services, here's the new pricing, in effect April 30th: Takralus Name Change .................................................... Current Price: £6 | New Price: £7 Pets ....................................................... Current Price: £9 | New Price: No change Helms ................................................... Current Price: £10 | New Price: No change Appearance Change ...................................... Current Price: £12 | New Price: £13 Guild Name Change ....................................... Current Price: £15 | New Price: £17 Character Transfer ........................................ Current Price: £15 | New Price: £17 Race Change ................................................. Current Price: £15 | New Price: £17 Mounts ................................................ Current Price: £17 | New Price: No change Faction Change ............................................. Current Price: £20 | New Price: £22 Guild Transfer ..................................... Current Price: £25 | New Price: No change Guild Faction Change ......................... Current Price: £30 | New Price: No change Level 90 Character Boost .................... Current Price: £40 | New Price: No change Guild Transfer and Faction Change .... Current Price: £50 | New Price: No change source
Free Character Migrations available for EU players
If you're a European player looking for a new home, the search may just have gotten easier -- or at the very least, far less expensive. Blizzard is now offering free Character Migrations for players on certain EU realms. This process has been opened based on realm population tracking and analysis, and isn't available for every EU realm on the list. However, if you're on one of the lower population realms that has been listed, you can find yourself a sunny, higher-populated new home for free. Keep in mind that this offer is for European realms only -- US realms are not open for free transfers at this time, although that might change in the future. Also note that this is a Character Migration only -- Guild Master Realm Transfers are still available, but they remain a paid service. The full list of eligible realms, as well as the full post by Community Manager Takralus, is available after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: From Romania to Korea via World of Warcraft
From Hollywood celebrities to the guy next door, millions of people have made World of Warcraft a part of their lives. How do you play WoW? We're giving each approach its own 15 Minutes of Fame. This is the story of Apathius, a Romanian student of languages who's made World of Warcraft her entree to the Korean language and culture. "A year ago, I used to be a slightly hardcore raider on the EU realms," she writes. "Being a big fan of anime and all that stuff, I opted for a chance to study abroad in Korea. (Japan was out of the question, sadly, but Korea was pretty close, culture-wise.) So at the start of 2010, I hopped on a plane and came here to start a 'new life,' so to speak. But still, there are huge cultural differences between the Asian world and the west, and for fear that I might not adapt to this new environment, I decided to make WoW one of my mediums for permeating Korean society." "I thought I knew WoW well enough to get the hang of things quickly, but I ended up having to re-learn a lot of things, especially PVE-wise," she continues. "'Korean Style!' my guildies told me when I first asked them why almost no one raids as a guild here. I was surprised when I heard they PUG heroic raids like Alone in the Dark and Lich King 25-man. But that doesn't mean they're hardcore, as even the casuals do very well. For example, people who had never seen Putricide before went from a 80% wipe to a 5% wipe after three tries. Also, if you're a top-end raider, you can earn about 5,000ish gold per week from raids, because the DKP here is gold, and only gold. The weirdest part about it though, I really get the feeling they take the PVE side of WoW as fun, not as competition, not as something to be taken seriously, just as a means of getting imba gear and seeing new fights." Join us for one player's quixotic journey through an American game on a European realm from her Romanian homeland to a new home and new realm in Korea.
Cataclysm launches in Europe, servers currently down [Updated]
In what may be the least surprising event of the year, Europe's World of Warcraft servers have gone down almost immediately after the expansion's launch in that region. Even Europe's Battle.net web resources appear to be down for maintenance (or are merely offline due to overwhelming load). How long will this downtime last? We're not sure, but we will do our very best to keep you updated on European server status. European players, if you have any tips or updates on your server's status, don't be afraid to contact us via our tip line. We love to hear from you! Update: It appears the culprit is the login/authentication server. Once you beat the login boss, the game realms themselves seem to be running just fine.
The Lawbringer: Euro-ver my head, contract law edition
Welcome to the Lawbringer, your weekly stop at the intersection of law and Warcraft. I am your crossing guard, trying desperately to not get run over myself. First, I want to apologize for being a day late, but my week was spent preparing for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. Unfortunately, the test was channeling Illidian. If I get a letter in a few weeks saying that I'm not yet responsible enough to be a lawyer, I will not be surprised. Anyway, on to this week's promised topic: European Contract Law. We'll be approaching the same topics we covered on my side of the pond: contract formation, contract termination, and unfairness. These concepts form the basis of players' relationship with Blizzard, just like they do in the US. Whether Blizzard has the right to publish information about your avatars, ban you from the game, delete your achievements, or force you to resolve disputes in a mediation are all affected by the laws of the country in which a player resides. The first challenge in this column is that there traditionally has been no "European" contract law; these issues were decided at a national level through the home country's common or civil law system. Trans-nationalism being all the rage, however, the politicos of the European Union have formed the Commision on European Contract Law which has drafted Principles of European Contract Law. A Common Frame of Reference "toolbox" to help various European legislatures standardize the various laws of contract across the continent to match these Principles. What this means, though, is that this law is in a state of flux -- and I am not a barrister, abogada, rechtsanwalt, advokat, or avocat. Take everything in this column with a big grain of salt. And possibly a margarita to wash it down.
WoW's 5th anniversary celebrations have begun
The celebrations have started in Europe and Oceania, anyway! Players in these regions have started to receive their Onyxian Whelps in the mail, along with a letter welcoming them to a new year in Azeroth and a feat of strength upon logging in. This probably means that those of us in the United States (and Canada and whatever other magical lands are in the region) will be getting ours tomorrow. Considering Pilgrim's Bounty also starts tomorrow, it's kind of exciting! It really is a holiday in Azeroth. The screenshot above comes from Enduser of Ghostlands EU. Since most of us here at WoW.com are US players, we're in dire need of screenshots! If you have any, please send them our way along with your character name (if you want credit for it) so we can add them to a gallery! %Gallery-78670%
European weekly maintenance: 17th June 2009
Happy Wednesday everybody! After the annoying events of last week when the Battle Bots were ripped from the fingers of European players, things have settled down and are back to normal. With that in mind, it's maintenance time. All the realms are going down from 3:00am to 11:00am CEST. As always, there's plenty to do and read during this maintenance. There's a nice round up of news for you to read if you are up. Hint: if you are reading this at 3:00am, go back to bed! Those aren't birds singing but owls. Go. Back. To. Bed.Edit: Our beloved Overlady and Editor in Chief has decreed I also link you to our tattoo, license plate and cake galleries. I don't particularly care for the first two but the cakes are awesome and so delicious. The cake is so not a lie.
European weekly maintenance: 10th June 2009
Welcome to Wednesday in Europe. While the Americans are still sleeping and dreaming of that next boss kill, it's a brand new day and, with it, a bunch of rolling restarts to boot. Yes, rolling restarts: it's a different kind of maintenance this week. We'll be getting fifteen minute warnings before the restarts take place between 5:00am and 7:00am CEST so do bear that in mind when you start that wee-small-hours-of-the-morning raid in Ulduar. The rest of the downtime is forum and website-side with both going offline between 3:00am and 5:00am CEST. So it's a relatively painless bout of maintenance this week, one I fully intend to sleep through. If you're looking for something to read on the bus to school or the commuter train to work, then Daniel W. has plenty for your to browse through. Personally I think it's just an excuse to post that Sailor Moon kitty form although I freely admit the anime fan in me is currently screaming loudly for my own senshi makeover.
Update: Is Blizzard prepping Polish and Italian versions of WoW?
Blizzard Europe recently updated their jobs site with a host of new positions which strongly suggest more EU expansion, this time in Italy and Poland. The last major EU release was a localised Russian version of the game which came out last year.According to the site, Blizzard Europe is looking for Customer Support Representatives in Italian and Polish, along with Customer and Billing Support and Customer and Technical Support. Under their Web Team, they are looking to fill Web Editor positions in both languages, while under Community they are looking for Online Community Representatives. All these positions are based in either Paris, France or Cork, Ireland.Update: We asked Blizzard about these positions and have been told simply: "no comment".
Blizzard EU & NA comic and lore contest
I enjoy lore, and I enjoy comics. And if you're reading this, you're also probably like me and enjoy the World of Warcraft. So why not combine all those into a nice little contest?Blizzard EU is running a lore contest for their European customers, with the winners receiving a signed action figure. And sorry North American folks, right now this contest appears to be EU only.The quiz is a series of 10 questions, and while I won't give away the answers, the answer to number ten, "Who slays Onyxia?" is clearly "You and 39 friends, or just you." Because my solo warrior skills are just that leet.Head over to check out the rules and enter the contest, after all, you've got nothing to lose!Update: I wrote this article late yesterday evening, and at the time there was no North American version of the contest. However since then, Blizzard has posted a similar contest for North American residents. Enjoy!
EU forums get separate Horde and Alliance guild recruitment areas
Now while the US forums have had this feature for a while, EU Blue Wryxian has posted that the EU forums have a little more order this afternoon. Rather than clumping the Horde and Alliance guild recruitment threads together, they now have separate areas to, as he puts it, 'increase the usefulness and accessibility of the Guild Recruitment forums'. Despite his entreaties to the contrary, we're sure it's more to do with furthering the mutual dislike between factions. However that said, it will certainly save a lot of time and hassle.So if you're Alliance and looking for a guild, take a look here while Hordies can go here.
Official World of Warcraft websites feature Spring Festival gallery
Earlier this week, the World of Warcraft community sites (multi-regional) updated with a gallery from WoW China. Chinese WoW players participated in an event called, "I Love World of Warcraft, I Love Spring Festival" that combined a passion for WoW with the Lunar New Year celebrations. Chinese players submitted pictures of themselves that incorporated both of these things and the community picked their favorites. This is, by far, one of my favorite galleries that any of the official community teams has ever done. As a blogger here on WoW Insider, I see every day just how much community has been built up around this game, and I know very well that there are faces behind the characters. I've met many of my guildmates in person, and I hear similar stories every single day through WoW Insider's tipline. I love seeing the faces behind the characters, and that is exactly what this gallery does. Sure, they posed for these things and they're not exactly candid, but it still shows that the game is very personal.We're all players, but we're also people. I much prefer galleries that display that, rather than yet another mount gallery. Mount galleries are cool and all, I just like this better. Go on, check it out!
The Queue: I love London
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.One of our questions today comes from a reader who's moving to London for a couple of months, and I just wanted to take a moment to say that I've always wanted to go there. Consider yourself very, very lucky! London has all kinds of great things I've always wanted to see, like Big Ben, Stonehenge, the Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, and Papah?naumoku?kea. One day, hopefully, I'll get to go myself!Let's get started, hm?SithVicious asked a pair of questions..."Will Blizzard ever allow cross server chat?"
EU battlegroups experiencing language problems after mergers
Tipster Nimm writes in to let us know that several EU battlegroups have been having serious issues after mergers that occurred post-patch 3.02. The mergers have seen a number of battlegroups acquiring servers with other language-dominant populations, which has resulted in a number of French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian-dominant servers (among others) all in the same battlegroups. While this is probably necessary to a certain degree to guarantee equal Alliance/Horde populations for quick queue times, it's become something of a communication nightmare in battleground matches, particularly those with lots of players using Cyrillic characters. As the player Thoughtless from the Karazhan realm asks, "Can you imagine how hard it is to organise any sort of teamplay in AB with player ???????? from <????????> guild cha(t)ting "?????? ??? ??????? ??????? ?????" in BG chat?" Nimm also notes that differentiating between ??????? enemy players is a nightmare.We knew that Blizzard was closing four EU realms (Stonemaul, Molten Core, Shadowmoon, and Warsong) and transferring remaining players to other realms in response to Russian player migration to Russian realms opened late summer 2008, and the problem's partially the result of that (which has already resulted in the inevitable "In Soviet Russia, battlegroups merge you" joke). A few amused people are rising to the occasion by translating such phrases as inc 5 schmiede (inc 5 blacksmith in German) or proposing a revival of Esperanto, but the Russian language pack would be the only possible solution for the ???? problem. There's been mention made that this is only a temporary fix on Blizzard's part to faction imbalances on battlegroups, but if you're on an EU realm that's seen a recent battlegroup merge, just be aware that Babelfish might be a useful tool in the near future.
Olympic battleground rewards appear on European and Chinese servers
Despite the extensive problems and human violations rights perpetuated by the Chinese government, some in service of the Olympic games themselves, most of the world seems to content to settle in and watch the Beijing Olympics one way or another. Apparently, that attitude has spread to Blizzard itself. Currently on the European and Chinese servers, there are NPCs at each major Battlemaster area in the capital cities who proclaim that Battlegrounds are hosting some type of "Spirit of Competition." For simply participating in a battleground, you are sent a Competitor's Tabard, which features 4 multi-colored rings on a white background, a clear reference to the Olympics itself. If you win a battleground during this time period, you may also have a chance at receiving a gold medal which summons a spirit of competition, which looks like a small Chinese dragon according to tipster Ichthallus. This competition does not appear to be live on the US Servers, nor has anyone from Blizzard spoken up to reveal if it ever will be as of this writing. We'll have to watch and see what happens. As Blizzard does not appear to be an official Olympic partner, there is some concern from some quarters that this could simply be a copyright issue. It's also possible that this was meant to be a Chinese servers only event, and it only accidentally got onto the EU servers. Thanks to everyone who sent us tips on this! EDIT: Belfaire has confirmed that this event will be coming to US and Oceanic servers starting at Midnight server time. Thanks to those who let us know in the comments!
Russian WoW to debut August 6th
Here's a heads up for all our Russian speaking readers: Starting on August 6th, WoW Europe will begin selling the fully localized Russian version of World of Warcraft and Burning Crusade, complete with a Russian-speaking support team. The game will be sold in DVD and CD versions and will include 1 month and 14 days of free play time respectively. There will also be a special Russian pricing plan starting at 399 rubles per a month for a 1-month subscription. In addition, current European account holders will have the option of playing on the new Russian servers after downloading the localization pack. There will also be free transfers to the Russian servers for a limited time, and the opportunity to convert a European account to a Russian account. For more information, you can check out the official Russian site.
New European server, Blade's Edge, opens today [Updated]
The Ruin Battlegroup of the European servers will be getting a new English language PvE server named Blade's Edge, Thundgot has announced. It will be a completely new realm, which means no transfers allowed for the first few months. In addition, the Ahn'Qiraj gates will be closed -- which means this is your chance to get a group over there and start powerleveling toward the Qiraji battle tank and the Scarab Lord title. Apparently, some people have been complaining about queue times in the Ruin battlegroup for some time, so hopefully this should ease those problems once people get on and start leveling. The server will open today at 17:00 Paris time. Good luck to everyone who decides to reroll there! Update: Strike that, it looks like they decided to let the it go live right after maintenance. Thanks for the heads up, Roelof.
Russian WoW in Alpha testing
Blizzard has announced alpha testing for the new Russian version of World of Warcraft. The post on the WoW-Europe forums invitesRussian-speaking layers to join in a technical test connection and latency issues within the new version of the game. This will be followed by a localization beta that coincide with the release of patch 2.4.3. The announcement is posted in . Dedicated forums are slated to be released next week for Russian WoW. Many questions remain unanswered. Hopefully in the coming weeks more information will be released. Currently a number of realms exist on EU servers that are inhabited by Russian-speaking players. Will there be free migrations for players on existing "Russian realms?" Visit the Russian WoW teaser page for more information. (I think) Also keep an eye out for more news on Latin American WoW, which is currently under development.
Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 announces machinima contest
Not to be out done by the recent flurry of convention announcements, The Blizzard World Wide Invitational 2008 is throwing out an announcement or two of its own. Today, they are officially announcing a Machinma contest. There will be two categories, one for movies, and one for TV Commercials for WoW items. Online submission is open from June 9th to June 16th. You can check out the contest details (Including the prizes, of course) here. If Machinima isn't your thing, but you're still creative in other arenas, the announcement also mentions that they will reveal more contests in the near future. At the moment, the official terms suggest that the contest is open only to Europeans, but if that pans out, I'm certain American Machinimists will get a crack at things at Blizzcon 2008.
Draw Frostmourne, win fabulous prizes
You know, I've always wanted a bit more drawing talent, but never more so than right now, as Blizzard has just announced a new fanart contest. They're looking for the best European fanart of Arthas wielding Frostmourne. The entries will be judged by a panel of developers, and if you win, you'll not only receive one of Epic Weapons' Frostmourne Replicas, but a guaranteed slot in the upcoming beta for WoTLK. 2nd and 3rd place runners up will also receive a slot in the beta. It should be noted that the contest is currently being announced on the European site, and the rules state that the contest is open only to residents of France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, or Ireland. There doesn't appear to be any word yet on whether we'll get an American version of the contest, but here's hoping we see that soon. It seems likely that Blizzard had to create two seperate contests because of legal requirements, and is still working on getting the US version up. Check out Blizzard's official announcement here and the official rules here. EDIT: The American version of this contest can be found here. [Thanks to all our tipsters for sending this in!]
