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Blizzard challenges you to put Garrosh on trial
Blizzard Community Manager Nethaera has thrown down a gauntlet to writers everywhere. As she rightly says, we probably knew it was coming when the fan-fiction forums were first set up, but already, there's impetus to share your imagination with others. As Nethaera informs us, Christy Golden's War Crimes is not yet out, so we do not know how Garrosh's fate will unfurl, but we can certainly put our imaginations to work. You can hit the break for Neth's full post, but the rules are pretty interesting. You can't exonerate Garrosh. He has to be made to pay for what he did, at least to some extent, even if the upcoming expansion implies pretty strongly that he doesn't really serve any time meted out to him. You also can't place too much of your story outside the courtroom, save a few flashbacks and memories. And you've got to keep it to one post. Before you complain, the word limits and specific criteria are a writer's bread and butter. You can read all about our very own Sarah Pine's experience doing just that for Blizzard. So hit the break, check the rules, and let your creativity flow! Given the comment threads we see here, we're expecting WoW Insider community greatness!
New WoW forum: Seat of Knowledge: Fanfiction
Yes, you read that title right, folks. A day many WoW fans and roleplayers have doubtless longed for has arrived: Blizzard has launched an official forum for posting fanfiction. I can honestly say that this is a day I never thought I'd see, yet here we are, and there are already some stories posted! Nethaera has opened the forum with two introductory posts, one with what seems to be the typical forum behavior guidelines and rules, and one specifically tailored for the new forum. Interestingly enough, there don't yet seem to be any rules regarding story content. Now, if you're at all familiar with the world of fanfiction, you've probably at least had a few run-ins with content that's sketchy at best, and I don't necessarily mean quality of writing, if you get my drift. So I sincerely hope that the lack of stated guidelines for what constitutes an appropriate story for the fanfiction forum is just because Blizzard hasn't gotten around to typing them up yet, but I suppose that remains to be seen. Still, use discretion when choosing which of your stories to post. I think it's safe to say that graphic sex, violence, and excessive swearing will be frowned upon. Rated T for teen, after all! Anyway, concerns aside, this new forum will certainly be a wonderful resource for WoW story enthusiasts and writers everywhere. Head on over if you like to read fan stories, and check out what's already been posted!
Some forum advice for the next Ghostcrawler
With Ghostcrawler's departure from Blizzard Entertainment on the horizon, one of the burning questions in everyone's minds is "who will be his replacement?" Well, I personally have no idea, but no matter who it may be, player Lubricious has taken it upon himself to offer some advice for that fortunate (or unfortunate) soul, endorsed by the man himself. How to Ghostcrawler, by Lubricious. Pretty much spot on. http://t.co/Qho6x8qoZ2 - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 5, 2013 The titles of the six helpful hints are as follows: Everything is your fault. Performance expectations are 100%. Sometimes, the players are right. Sometimes. Anything you ever say is a promise You can't make everyone happy. Don't try to force fun. Click on over to Lubricious's original post and check out the complete context for yourself--I think the entertaining and thoughtful advice will strike a chord with anyone who has worked in a broadly customer-facing position. We wish Ghostcrawler himself the best of luck with his future endeavors (Liz Harper's and my guess is on an Oceanography-themed MMO featuring playable giant isopods), and to whoever does step in to fill those large, crustacean shoes, we wish them luck too!
Blizzard wants your questions
WoW players are full of questions about the game. Why are we going to raid X? Why is this character behaving this way? Why did you guys nerf my favorite spell? Where will we be going next expansion? When do I get my pony?* Over on the official WoW forums, Bashiok has announced that Blizzard is looking into new ways to communicate with their fans, and in particular, new ways to answer questions. This testing phase has begun with an open thread calling for any and all questions you may have relating to WoW. They expect a great deal of topics relating to 5.4, considering its newness, but don't feel obligated to limit yourself to 5.4, any topics are welcomed. So head on over to the thread and vent your curiosity, it's for the greater good! *There is no pony, only mage tears.
Official WoW website housecleaning coming our way
Friday afternoon Community Manager Zarhym took to the official WoW forums to let us all know that Blizzard will be removing some of the lesser-used features they track on the official website. The reasoning behind the decision is that these particular features are laborious to maintain, their pages are not well-trafficked, and you can either look up the same information in-game, or there exist fansites that track the same things just as well as the official site. The following pages have been put on the chopping block: Pets & Mounts Gallery Factions Professions Guild Perks and Rewards sections Character Pets & Mounts Character Hunter Pets Character Professions Character Reputation The full blue post is after the break.
How to post a good thread on the WoW forums
The WoW official forums are known as many things among fans and players, and some of those things are not-so-nice. However, they can also be an invaluable resource for both players and developers alike. I personally will forever be grateful to the very useful thread several years ago that taught me how to level my priest without dying every two minutes, and the community managers do consistently remind us that they use the forums as a way of consolidating player feedback, especially for the PTR. Sometimes, though, things get ugly. People get emotional, and in a fit of anger or frustration they post something they either wish they hadn't, or which turns out sounding less like an eloquent criticism and more like an incoherent rant. Over on the EU forums, Pondato is tired of seeing their posts get locked or ignored, and wants some advice on how to avoid that fate. The thing that's really great about this post is that it immediately has useful answers. Especially good is how MVP Shammoz quickly breaks down the difference between "discuss" and "vent," two things that are often mutually exclusive. The advice to write your post out in advance, in another window (or word processor), give it some time, and then go back to it is also a good thing to keep in mind, and something I do regularly for all types of writing. If you've found your posts on the wrong end of a banhammer recently, or know someone who has, this might be a nice resource to keep in mind.
Nethaera wants to know your most coveted and unusual items
Over at the official forums Community Manager Nethaera has a bit of an unusual question for everyone: do you dream of electric sheep? Well, okay, it's not exactly that question. She wants to know what unusual or unique items you hoard, keep, or carry and the reason why. Do you hang onto Pamela Redpath's tea for courage when you face the undead? Do you keep Archmage Vargoth's Staff for some company on those long, Netherstorm nights? Or is it a practical item that you prefer - a repair bot or the Direbrew Remote for when you simply must have some of that Dark Iron brew? This question is actually a tough one for me to answer. Not because I don't have an answer but because I have entirely too many answers. My bags and bank are stuffed full of random items that I refuse to get rid of, even now-useless stuff like Shard of the Fallen Star. I guess if I had to choose, I'd say it'd be a tie for two: my Orb of Deception and Orb of the Sin'dorei. I love turning my night elf into an undead or blood elf, respectively, though unfortunately the Orb of Deception requires being equipped in a trinket slot to work, so it's not very practical for raiding. The Orb of the Sin'dorei you can just click to use. True story: once upon a time back in Wrath I was hanging out, transformed into a blood elf, at the Ulduar summoning stone helping bring my guildmates to the raid. Another Alliance player walked up and /spit on me. When I whispered him with a frowny face emote, he freaked out and thought I was a hacker. Helpful tip, my friend: a blood elf in full tier 7 druid gear is not actually a blood elf! Also, you shouldn't /spit on people, it's really rude!
Ghostcrawler tells 8 year old how to be a game designer
Rarely are the forums heartwarming, but this forum thread not only delivers on the heartwarming aspect but it also gives us a reasonably detailed peek at what companies like Blizzard are looking at when they look for new designers. When forum poster Aaiya made a thread on behalf of his or her eight year old son who is interested in becoming a game designer someday, we first got a solid response from Peratryn and then Daxxari comes in with a response from Ghostcrawler. Not only is it cool that the people who work at Blizzard would take the time to answer the thread in the first place, but upon reading Daxxari's post with Ghostcrawler's response, I know I felt like I'd learned something new, and I figured a lot of us would be interested in reading it over. Rather than pick it apart, we'll reproduce Daxxari's entire post after the cut.
Bring another game's items into WoW
Gnome warlock Shadowcog posted a fun thread on the World of Warcraft official community forums asking players to bring iconic items from other games into Azeroth. Shadowcog opened the discussion by citing the Magic Mirror from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of my favorite games of all time. It got me nostalgic in all sorts of ways. Even Daxxarri got into the mix, looking to bring in the Snarks from the Half-Life series and draenei-crewed Battlecruisers appearing over the skies of Kalimdor. Oddly fitting, really. Personally, I would have gone with some of the ork creations from the Warhammer series, since I could see orcish and goblin technology coming together to create such monstrosities. Which items would you bring in from other games? What magical artifact or ancient relic from some distance universe would you want your WoW character to possess? (Thanks again to Shadowcog for an awesome post!)
Blizzard improves the WoW community site (again)
Blizzard debuted the new World of Warcraft community site a while back, and it's definitely a huge improvement over the old one, which was really outdated and rarely helpful. The new site has a built-in Armory, better forums, a fairly robust Game Guide, and even regular dev blogs to give some insight on the development process. Apparently the improvements don't stop there, though, as Blizzard recently announced a laundry list of updates for the site, including: Rotatable 3-D models for gear in the item database Boss info pages, loot tables, and ability information Improved, easier-to-read search results And more! Check out the full list of changes and updates after the break.
On the subject of blues and their forum communication, with love from Zarhym
The lack of direct interaction from Blizzard with the WoW community has been talked about a bit in the forums, comments, and blog posts around the 'net lately, and we're now seeing that it's been a nagging issue for Blizzard as well. Community Manager Zarhym posted last night, from home, a rather lengthy letter to the WoW world. It summed up nicely the different jobs of the community team at Blizzard and what their goals are. Zarhym also went a step further and said that they (the blues) haven't been posting on the forums as much as they would like to and that they're going to continue to improve their communication with the community. It's an interesting read and should be taken as welcome insight from someone at Blizzard who honestly cares about the community he services. The entire post, after the break.
Nethaera addresses questions about CM process
Blue poster Nethaera took some time earlier today to answer a few questions posted on the official forums regarding the chain of command between community managers (CMs), developers, and of course, everyone's favorite crustacean, Ghostcrawler (Greg Street, lead systems designer). While Nethaera couldn't answer every question posed, she was able to give a few insights into the interplay between the various departments running the scenes, as well as a few tips about giving constructive feedback. Nethaera What examples are best to use to give GC and the Devs an accurate depiction of what has/has been happening? Information about your class, your playstyle, the types of issues you're running into such as whether you're using a certain spec or certain spells and abilities when you're running into issues. The more specific you can be, the better really. Numbers are good on one level, but sometimes the numbers don't say whether you're having "fun" or not. source Follow us after the break for more insights.
Gank like a pro with the Ganker's Kit 2.0
WoW forums user Tantojutsu put together the great Ganker's Kit of Ganking 2.0, based off of an older and hilarious thread, detailing the wonderful items and abilities available to make stalking and killing player prey in game that much more fun. Rogues are already deadly and frightening, and when I hear that stealth sound, I immediately spin my head around looking for a sign of a shadowy attacker. Some of my favorite points on the list include a list of banners you can plant on your dead foes, the use of focusing lenses to quickly point toward a target, and using the 2010 Winter Veil MiniZep pet as air recon. Tantojutsu put together a great list, and all of you would-be gank artists should definitely check it out.
Shifting Perspectives: The unbearable suckhood of pugging
Every week (usually), WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This Tuesday, we soothe everyone's ego by telling them it's not their fault (while secretly thinking it's everyone's fault). I apologize for the recent absence, guys. While I would like to say it had something to do with battling hordes of evil minions from some morally questionable wizard with an abundant set of apostrophes in his name, the truth of the matter is that I've just been crushed by work. It didn't help that I started a Shifting edition on gearing a restoration druid at level 85 and thought, "Hey! Wouldn't it be nice to include all the gear available to druids from Cataclysm quests on up, à la Emmerald's old gear list, so that people know exactly where they stand in relation to upgrades?" Some 1,600 words later, I am pleased to report that I am almost to the end of the shoulder slot. Yeah. You're gonna have to give me another week or two on that ... unless you're planning to go naked from the shoulders down. If you do, send pics. Anyway, it hasn't escaped my attention that the forums more or less exploded once people started getting into heroics. One contingent claims that Cataclysm heroics are too difficult and need to be nerfed. Another insists that everyone claiming that heroics are too difficult is a bad player with bad gear and bad talent choices and bad glyphs and they should feel bad. Personally, I've seen enough of both the dungeon finder and guild groups as a tank and healer to arrive at my own conclusion: People on both sides of this argument are equally correct. Or, if you're in a judgmental sort of mood today, they're equally full of it.
Official WoW forums going read-only on Wednesday, new community site and forums ready
Last month, Blizzard announced that it would be launching a new World of Warcraft community site, with new and improved forums. At the time, Blizzard said that the existing official forums would be phased out after testing of the community site was complete. The community site went live earlier this month. Now, a wave of identical blue posts has hit every section of the WoW forums with the following message: Bashiok -- Forums Going Read-Only This Wednesday, November 17 these forums will be put into a read-only state. At that time we'll be inviting all posters to fully migrate to the new World of Warcraft community site and forums. http://www.battle.net/wow These forums will remain read-only until the end of the month, after which they and all of their posts will be removed ... forever! If you have any posts, information, stickies, etc. that you'd like to keep you'll want to have finished saving it before then. We've all enjoyed the past few years on these forums, and look forward to creating many more with you on the new community site. See you there! source So that's it! We won't be able to post in the official forums anymore after Wednesday, Nov. 17, and we have until the end of November to save anything on the official forums we want to keep or remember!
New Blizzard community website, forums begin testing in November
The announcement came out this morning on the EU forums that Blizzard is getting ready to roll out its new community website and forums for World of Warcraft some time in early November. Anyone who has been to the community site for StarCraft 2 will already be aware of some of the new features including a more advanced forum system than what we have now. Features will include the ability to report a post for trolling or spam without changing pages, being able to see a quick summary of the thread by mousing over and letting players up- and down-rate responses. The current forums will be set as locked during the beginning of the transition and then will be completely removed toward the end. This means that if there are any old guides, posts or fun things from days of old that you want to see moved to the new forums, you should copy them to your own computer now. One thing that is curiously missing from the announcement is what alternative Blizzard has developed to its original Real ID forums concept since it was thrown out. StarCraft 2 has a centralized handle that is associated with your Battle.net login, and it is the same handle/avatar that's used for multiplayer games. Hopefully, they'll provide more details on issues like this as things start to lead up to the changeover. The full blue post is after the break.
Mike Morhaime: Real names will not be required on official Blizzard forums
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Blizzard_Retracts_Real_Names_NOT_Required_On_Official_Forum'; In a move that is sure to generate just as much discussion as the initial decision itself, Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, has released a statement that says "real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums." Morhaime says that Blizzard has been "constantly monitoring the feedback" given by the community and that they are "driven 100% by the desire to find ways to make our community areas more welcoming for players and encourage more constructive conversations about our games." The other upgrades to the forums will still apply, such as rating posts up or down and conversation threading. This will, no doubt, make many members of the community quite happy. The full statement (updated) after the break.
Rumor: Blizzard employees' real life names will not appear on the Real ID forums [Updated]
Recently a few forum goers have posted that they've been in touch with Blizzard phone representatives and have heard from them that Blizzard employee's real-life names will actually not be appearing on the new Real ID forums. So here's what we know: Bashiok / Drysc posted his real life name yesterday and had his privacy violated by people posting maps to his house, his parents' names and (potentially incorrect) cell phone numbers. We have seen multiple reports of WoW players who have called up Blizzard's support line and spoken with representatives who've told them blues will no longer be using their real names in the new forums. Josh, a Blizzard phone rep, said that Blizzard employees "cannot risk having their personal lives compromised by in-game issues." Blizzard blue representative Rygarius locked, but did not delete nor deny, a thread on this. WoW.com has emailed PR contacts within Blizzard for comment, and has not heard anything back. So there you have it. It's a pretty solid rumor at this point. The known facts speak for themselves. Update: Wryxian is referring people back to the original blue post language about the change. However, we're still hearing from phone bank representatives that Blizzard has changed its mind about blue posters. Update #2: According to Nethaera, they're going to stick with their original plan and have blue posters use their real names. As to why other parts of Blizzard are saying something different (WoW.com has verified what other parts of Blizzard has said), it appears they're having some internal communication issues.
The cynic's guide to World of Warcraft
We tend to be very careful while composing articles here at WoW Insider. We're always mindful that not everyone plays the game in the same way, or has the same experience on different servers or factions, but every so often a certain madness seizes us and we feel the urge to ... tell the truth. In that vein, I am pleased (sort of) to present The Cynic's Guide to World of Warcraft. This article owes a heavy debt to Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary. If you want to see a real master at work, read that.
Blizzard opens up official TCG forums
With all the news regarding the WoW Trading Card Game, avid players have been wondering exactly what's going on, where the license is going, and who's going to be producing new cards, if any. While there aren't any answers to these questions specifically, it's heartening to note that Blizzard just added a new Trading Card Game section to the official forums, solely for discussion about the TCG. The card game hasn't been forgotten, and neither have its players. The question of what the future of the TCG will bring has already been addressed on the forums by Eyonix, who restated Blizzard's earlier announcement that Blizzard and UDE would be parting ways. He also reassured players that Blizzard is committed to supporting the TCG and will be releasing new content in the near future, although there are still no new details as to who is picking up the license. While this also doesn't really answer any questions, it's good to know that Blizzard is still thinking about the TCG community -- and this gives an ideal place for Blizzard to post any updates regarding the game's production. Hopefully we'll see more news on the future of the TCG soon.
