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Zarhym on why Blizzard didn't do an April Fools joke
The observant among the WoW community will have noticed that, on the Warcraft side at least, Blizzard didn't put out an April Fool's joke this year. There was a little confusion surrounding this, as Crabby made a reappearance on the official forums, back for another year, and a really excellent piece of fan-created art depicting a Dark Ranger was doing the rounds. The Starcraft team documented the apparent return of the Warhound, and even implemented it in-game, re-skinning all your workers as Warhounds. And while some of the WoW community were happy to amuse themselves with ElvUI's Harlem Shake, or Wowhead's PTR patch notes, others grew increasingly angry that the WoW team hadn't put together a prank for this most foolish of days. Blizzard Senior Community Rep Jonathan "Zarhym" Brown took to Twitter, and to the official forums, to attempt to explain the absence of any seasonal folly. All his posts are after the break, but the long and short of it is that, firstly, while some ideas had been bandied about, nothing had really stuck, and secondly, the team who usually work on the April Fool's jokes had been rather busy with other things. What other things could possibly have taken priority? Maybe Hearthstone itself, the Hearthstone website, or the recent revamp of the shop page, given how Zarhym explains the teams' roles. It seems like Blizzard can't win: last year there were complaints that they wasted Developer time on April foolishness, this year, complaints that they didn't. What's your take on it? Did you wish they had done something? Or would you rather they spent time designing real content? Hit the break for Zarhym's posts.
Pet and Mount pane searchable in patch 5.1
The new mount panel is fantastic, and avoids many a noob moment like I had back when my paladin was brand new and had just learned to summon the class mount -- I couldn't find it, not realising that there was a "Mounts" tab in my spellbook. However, it has its downsides. I don't suffer from this that much, as I'm not a huge collector of mounts, pets, or anything for that matter. I only have about 70 mounts, and that's a very ambitious estimate indeed! For those of us who are serious collectors, pet and mount panes new and old suffered from a serious problem: a lack of searchability! Last night, in a Twitter conversation with Community Manager Zarhym, Lead Encounter Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton said that a search function for mounts is "en-route for 5.1". Even with my measly 70 mounts and even fewer pets, I'm rejoicing. And, of course, glaring at the Abyssal Seahorse that mocks me from the top of my mount list. What else could Blizzard do to improve the basic UI? I'd love to see a similar search added to the spellbook. My shaman was very confused indeed at the loss of Earth Shield, and eventually discovered that it had been taken away from her until level 26. A search could have made it far easier to find that! And I'd love to see a favorites section in the mount and pet journals. Mostly to get rid of that pesky seahorse. [Edit: Thanks to all readers who pointed out that the pet pane is searchable already! I must write pieces immediately after titles so I don't forget key details!]
Zarhym wins Community Manager of the Year at Dragon*Con 2012
Jonathan Brown, a.k.a. Zarhym, a.k.a. that lovable floating skull at Blizzard HQ, won Community Manager of the Year at the Dragon Slayer Awards at Dragon*Con 2012. This was the inaugural edition of the awards, presented by Guild Launch, and had over 250,000 votes cast. Zarhym was unable to accept the award himself, since he was on the other side of the country at PAX, but Game Designer Jonathan LeCraft was able to accept on his behalf. You can read what Zarhym had to say about winning the award over at his Tumblr, and The Daily Blink weights in on the award as well. We here at WoW Insider extend our congrats to Zarhym, and hope you'll join us in doing so. He's been a great part of the community for a long time, and is wonderful to work with. Cheers!
