World of Warcraft : 2007

TBC Nominated for Best Multiplayer (X-Play)

Indelible — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:11:32 GMT

X-Play have released their nominees for the X-Play Best of 2007 Awards.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the expansion to Blizzard Entertainments hit MMORPG, World of Warcraft, has been nominated for Best Multiplayer Game of 2007 and comes up against (oddly) none-MMO titles like Halo 3, Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Halo 3 and Rock Band.

Just for the hell of it, here's the full list of nominees, in case you are wondering:

Game of the Year

Mass Effect
Assassin's Creed
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Super Mario Galaxy

Most Original Game

Assassin's Creed
Portal
Overlord
Crackdown
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure

Best Gameplay Innovation

Assassin's Creed (free-running/climbing)
Mass Effect (conversation system)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (online level-up system)
Halo 3 (Forge/Replays/Screenshots)
Crackdown (Advanced Co-op features)

Best Multiplayer Game

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Team Fortress 2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Rock Band

Best Action/Adventure Game

Super Mario Galaxy
Assassin's Creed
Crackdown
God of War II
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Sports Game

MLB PowerPros
NCAA Football 2K8
Forza Motorsport 2
DiRT
Winning Eleven Pro Evolution Soccer 2007

Best Shooter

BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Halo 3
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Team Fortress 2

Best Role Playing Game

Mass Effect
Final Fantasy VI Advance
The Witcher
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne

Best New Character

Weighted Companion Cube (Portal)
Saren (Mass Effect)
Andrew Ryan (BioShock)
GLaDOS (Portal)
King Bohan (Heavenly Sword)

Best Art Direction

BioShock
Assassin's Creed
Super Mario Galaxy
Mass Effect
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Best Animation

Assassin's Creed
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Heavenly Sword
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best Writing/Story

BioShock
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
The Simpsons Game
Mass Effect
Portal

Best Original Soundtrack

Mass Effect
Portal
BioShock
Super Mario Galaxy
Halo 3

Best Sound Design

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Assassin's Creed
Halo 3
BioShock
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Best Downloadable Content

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles (XBL)
Pac-Man Championship Edition (XBLA)
Super Stardust HD (PSN)
Carcassonne (XBLA)
Crackdown Download Packs (XBL)

Best Strategy Game

World In Conflict
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Supreme Commander
Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

Winners will be announced on December 17th 2007. Keep your fingers crossed!

Whorecraft Starlet Suspended from WoW

Kody — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:36:34 GMT

Kotaku is reporting about a Whorecraft star being suspended due to someone else's actions in-game. Now, I'm not entirely interested in the whole real life porn meets video games idea, but to suspend someone over something that wasn't even their fault is ludicrous.

Kotaku wrote:

Mia Rose, hardcore gamer and pornstar, who appeared in several episodes of World of Whorecraft, told Kotaku that she was banned from the World of Warcraft over the weekend after a fan recognized her and mentioned her webiste in a public chat channel.

This leads me to something interesting that happened while we were at BlizzCon interviewing some of the costume contest entrants. It turns out that two of the "night elf druids" were actually women from World of Whorecraft. This of course led to some obvious video edits, since they advertised their new website in the interview as well - which we can't really show on Curse - but it was a good interview none the less.

We interviewed quite a few of the entrants and even some exhibitors who play WoW, so we'll try to get those interviews done soon.

Whorecraft Girls @ Blizzcon

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Nimloth took time today to write a recap in his blog about the interview as well.

Just to note, I don't believe the person suspended was at BlizzCon; the two females there commented that their characters were fairly low level.

Now on to my question; why did World of Warcraft become so accessible to porn? You've had modifications to client files in games in the past, but how many games can truly be credited with having live-action pornography created, centered around the game? I surmise that it's simply the sheer number of people playing the game; you're bound to find someone from every walk of life playing.

That said, I really hope Miarose gets her account status fixed, because it's incredibly silly to suspend someone like she was.

BlizzCon 2007 PvP Panel Video

Kody — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 22:50:48 GMT

To go along with our BlizzCon 2007 PvP panel articles - BlizzCon PvP Panel: Battlegrounds and BlizzCon PvP Panel: World PvP and Arenas - we have a full video of the PvP panel in which Tom Chilton and Jeff Kaplan went over the history of PvP in World of Warcraft and what we can expect in the future - both in patches in the coming months and in Wrath of the Lich King.

PvP Panel @ Blizzcon 2007 w/ Tom Chilton

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You can of course check out all of the BlizzCon 2007 coverage on our BlizzCon Portal.

BizzCon Video: Warcraft - The Movie Panel

Kody — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:32:51 GMT

We have a video up now of the entire panel for the upcoming motion picture by Legendary Pictures - Warcraft: The Movie.

The panel included Chris Metzen and Paul Sams from Blizzard, as well as CEO Thomas Tull and Chief Creative Officer John Jashni from Legendary Pictures.

Warcraft the Movie Panel @ Blizzcon 2007

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BlizzCon PvP Panel: World PvP and Arenas

Kody — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:54:38 GMT

World PvP

After some great news about upcoming changes to the battlegrounds, Tom Chilton was back in the spotlight to go over world PvP and its place in World of Warcraft.

World PvP's focus should be for spontaneous PvP where fights can break out on a whim between two, three, or even sixty players. It also needs to be objective based much like its counterpart, battlegrounds. Most importantly though, is that it needs to reward participation in the form of tokens and the like, as well as having an impact on the game world. A great example was the Bone Wastes objectives giving access to Spirit Shards.

Lessons learned from World PvP thus far:

Silithus ("sandlol") - this is what the screen display said, so you get the idea that Blizzard realized pretty fast the Silithus PvP model wasn't a very popular one.
Eastern Plaguelands proved that rewards need meaning. You can't just plop down towers in the zone and have them there for no reason.
Hellfire Peninsula tought them that pacing is important in PvP. These locations change hands far too often and give players the feel of something that doesn't persist.
Zangarmarsh offered a realization that clarity is important. Its objectives were fairly confusing to some players and was probably the primary cause for the low activity in taking the graveyard outside of Coilfang Reservoir.
Bone Wastes was great for Blizzard - its objective design showed that persistence is very important in World PvP, even if only for a couple hours at a time it's a far better mechanic than one that can change hands instantly.
Nagrand shoed that map integration offers amazing gameplay potential in World PvP and will no doubt be used in the future - especially in Wrath of the Lich King.

Future of World PvP

Lake Wintergrasp is being added with Wrath of the Lich King. This is a non-instanced area entirely devoted to World PvP. Not only is it an outdoor area in the game world, but it's also contested territory on PvE servers - meaning that if you enter Lake Wintergrasp, you better be ready for a fight no matter what server ruleset you're on. Controlling the area will have an impact on the entirety of Northrend, so players will no doubt vie for control continually.

Arenas

Arenas are built primarily for competition and are designed to reward skill versus time spent playing them. With that in mind a rating system is used to separate teams from one another. The rating system offers steady progress toward your goals by converting the rating directly into points.

Another crucial element of Arena gameplay is to keep the maps small and simple. You won't see any sprawling complexes for vast mountain ranges plopped down in Arena maps.

Random map selection - something Blizzard learned was important due to watching battlegrounds - also helps to improve the experience in Arenas, as does the fact that there's no discrimination between Horde and Alliance.

Lessons learned from Arenas:

Balance across the formats is very difficult, especially when some classes are stronger in certain formats while not so much in the rest. Warlocks and Rogues both came to mind as classes that could use changes but the wrong thing done will affect them in the brackets they excell at too.
Avoid map gimmicks for the future. Blizzard realized that map gimmicks aren't needed - PvP in Arenas is enough just with players, there's no need to put in extra annoyances.
Point saving and buying weapons is a major issue. This is going to be addressed in the future.

Things to come

Chilton told the crowd that for Arena Season 3, weapons will require a certain rating to purchase them. He hinted at a rating of around 1900, but it's not entirely set in stone as of yet.
Chilton wants to improve Rogue utility in 5v5 Arenas and mobility in general - especially against Warriors and Hamstring.
Blizzard is looking at addressing Warlock power in 2v2 and 3v3 because they realize it's a major issue, but won't do something that damages their 5v5 desirability.
There may be a special 2h weapon added specifically for Hunters so that they don't have to spend so many points gearing up in the Arena system.
Season 3 Paladin Retribution gear will have Resilience added. Chilton stated he doesn't want to add it to current gear because Paladins that purchased it went into it knowing it lacked it, and adding it means detracting from other areas of the items.
Season 1 Arena gear is going to become available through the Honor system when Season 3 starts.
PvP Daily Quests are coming soon.

BlizzCon PvP Panel: Battlegrounds

Kody — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:16:08 GMT

The PvP panel saw both Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton provide insight into the history of PvP design in World of Warcraft, as well as some things we can expect to see in the future - both on new and old battlegrounds.

It started off with Tom Chilton giving a brief overview of battlegrounds and their place in the World of Warcraft.

Battlegrounds

Should be the destination for rewarding, objective-based team PvP.
Should always reinforce the Horde vs Alliance theme.
BG's must compliment the existing gameworld.
BG's are natural extensions of the game.

From there he handed it off to Jeff Kaplan so he could go more in-depth with the design behind each battleground and what they've learned over the course of developing and seeing it played.

Alterac Valley

Alterac Valley - AV for short - was originally going to be a non-instanced, persistent zone with quests and NPC's there for content to suppliment off-peak PvP hours. While the idea was great, Blizzard quickly realized that at the time the demand was far too high to support this style of AV and turned it into an instanced battleground.

Lessons Blizzard has learned from AV:

Map differences in terrain and base design can be very cool, but at the same time can be a nightmare for balancing.
Players will go AFK to farm honor. This is something Blizzard is adamant about fixing.
Honor liberally awarded for simply being there doesn't always work out. Blizzard wants to shift the focus on winning AV, as right now even losing can be more rewarding honor than winning another battleground.
NPC's intermixed into PvP can be interesting, but also quirky. There are flaws obvious to Blizzard that they want to fix so that AV can be an enjoyable experience for everyone.

Warsong Gulch

WSG for short, Warsong was the second battleground developed by Blizzard. WSG spent a lot more time in the prototype stages than Alterac Valley did, which allowed Blizzard to really hammer out the gameplay and make it as solid as possible, even when they were playing on a completely flat surface due to the terrain not being finished yet.

The Capture The Flag(CTF) format was chosen early on in the prototyping and using previous game design experience - the designer who created the bases for WSG made sure they were symmetrical and had a very FPS CTF feel to them.

The Birth of Arenas: Gurubashi Catacombs

Not often talked about, this was going to be a 5v5, single elimination deathmatch battleground. Sounds familiar, right? Exactly - it's what Arenas are today; this battleground was actually the third worked on by Blizzard, but during its prototype development, they realized the Arena deathmatch idea and battleground gameplay didn't mix, so they scrapped it.

Lessons learned during the Gurubashi design:

Objectives are key to the core gameplay of battlegrounds.
Arena idea was cool, but battlegrounds play differently.
Arena maps need to be small which Gurubashi was not.

Warcraft III meets Battlefield 1942: Arathi Basin

The inspiration behind Arathi Basin was due in part to the popular games in the office at the time: Warcraft III and Battlefield 1942 - played rabidly by many of the WoW developers. So the idea was simple, design a battleground for their game that meshed some things from both titles. A few of the key things AB brings to the table is that it's still very accessible, even though it's designed for a large number of players. Its simple design allows for players to understand what needs to be done at a glimpse.

The design was also intended to spread people out - taking control of multiple points would be challenging for players, and really gave a great BF1942 feel to capturing points on the map. Points of interest also followed in the footsteps of simple design; everything had simple names - "go to the farm" really meant, go to the farm. There was no need for special names for locations as they all had basic names.

One of the most important learning experiences from AB was that you don't just reward the winners. No one enjoys sitting around in a battleground for 30 minutes for no reward. They continued with this concept in the next battleground they designed, and will no doubt continue it into the future.

Making of Eye of the Storm

Originally Eye of the Storm was going to be a battleground set in Hellfire Peninsula, but while designing the prototype for it, Blizzard was also creating Netherstorm and felt that its concepts fit in a lot more there. The goal of EotS was to put a spin on tried and true battleground gameplay, by merging several core aspects of previous battlegrounds and shaking them up ever so slightly.

An early design of the objectives in the battleground saw a floating island that moved around the map the entire fight; this island is what contained the flag, and while Blizzard liked the idea of it, it didn't play well once they actually started testing the zone. Eventually they settled on the flag being on a strip of land in the middle of the map with a chokepoint on each side.

What the Future Holds

Alterac Valley will be seeing some major changes to its gameplay:

Players will only respawn in their safe tunnels if there are no other respawn points in the zone. Otherwise players will respawn at the graveyard nearest to their death.
Anti-afk measures are being put in.
- Players will be able to report someone that is AFK by right clicking on their name on the map.
- If enough players report someone, the reported player receives a countdown debuff.
- If the player doesn't enter combat before the countdown debuff fades, another debuff is applied.
- While the second debuff is active, honor gain for that player is halted completely. The only way to remove this debuff is by entering combat.
Honor distribution and balance improvements will be made. A bulk of the honor is going to be shifted to the later portions of the battleground to encourage players to win the battleground.
Queueing as a group is going to return to AV.

General battleground improvements:

The queue system is going to be improved upon to help hopefully alleviate any possible delays in queue times.
Guild battleground queueing is coming. This will allow guilds to queue for a battleground as their guild. A rating system will be used similar to the Arena rating system, and there will be unique rewards offered to those who participate.
Chilton wants to change the way the queue system matches you with a battleground because right now Blizzard is limited in the number of battlegrounds that can be added, as it will spread players too thin.
- You'll queue up for a battleground size - say 15 players, or 10 players - and then be placed into a random battleground of that size with other players in the queue.
Siege weapons and destroyable buildings are being added with the expansion. Chilton would also like to explore the possibility of adding them to existing battlegrounds, like Alterac Valley.

BlizzCon Professions & Items Panel Information

Kody — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:48:59 GMT

The Professions and Items panel provided an incredible amount of information both on the philosophies behind creating them and what we can expect in the future.

A quick consumable introduction showed us that there are now more than 1900 recipes, 945 pieces of armor, 289 consumables and 137 weapons in the game that can be made by players.

The creation of a recipe is a 4 step process that includes questions like "What do we make?", the materials the recipe uses, the skills it requires, and how the recipe will be obtained.

Things that the professions team wants to do more of in the future:

More "Best In Slot" gear like Blacksmithing weapons, Engineering helms, etc.
- Alchemist-only potions will be added.
Create great leveling gear that is competitive with quest rewards, similar to the TBC crafted armor.
Provide what's missing which fills in itemization gaps whether intentional or not.

Things they want to improve:

Transmutes
- Blizzard is looking at making the cooldown a daily reset similar to raid and heroic instance resets where it occurs at a set time, so you can log on at any time of the day and do your transmute.
Discoveries will be looked at to be improved, as Blizzard feels this is a great mechanic to introduce cool recipes.
Vendor Recipes
- It's not fun at all to have to camp a vendor for a recipe and Blizzard knows this. They're going to do away with rare spawn and limited quantity recipes as best they can.
- Vendors in the future will have large lists of rare and epic items so that finding something on a vendor can be as cool as finding it in the rest of the game world.

Inscription

Inscription is not like Alchemy or Enchanting. Players will create a tradeable scroll that other players can then use to enhance their spells or abilities.
Inscription's main purpose is to inscribe spells and abilities with additional power. Some examples given were:
- Backstab could be enhanced to crit more often.
- Shadowbolt could be enhanced to do additional damage.
- Fireball could be enhanced to also cause a knockback effect. (This was a player idea that they felt was cool but probably not likely to happen.)
Inscription will also allow the player to create completely new items, but this part of the profession isn't fleshed out enough for Blizzard to talk about just yet.

Coming soon:

Profession Daily Quests for Cooking initially in 2.3 and others will follow suit.
- Players will receive a crate that has a chance to drop rare food recipes, including:
  - +Melee hit food, +Spell crit food and Storm Chops. Storm Chops will cause you to do additional nature damage to your target as well as doing damage to your attackers.
New crafter-only gear including Alchemist-only potions and Jewelcrafter-only gems as well as upgrades to current crafter-only gear.
Smoothing out the progression from 275-300 for all professions. The progression was intended to be challenging when 300 was the cap, but since this isn't the case anymore it's being changed.
Enchant: Executioner will be added with the Zul'Aman patch. This enchant is an Armor Penetration proc, and is promised to have a glow at least as cool as Mongoose. Its proc allows your attacks to ignore 840 of your target's armor.
Steady Talasite recipe is being added to Halaa in 2.2 for a cost of 4 Research Tokens.

After that we had a chance to listen to the design philosophy behind item creation and itemization, as well as being given some details on upcoming items and changes.

TBC doubled the number of uncommon, rare, and epic items in the game.
PvP shouldn't require raiding, and raiding shouldn't require PvP. Players should be able to focus on what they like, with both choices offering equal but different progression.
Resilience was added with the purpose of introducing a new defensive mod that worked against everyone and everything, primarily because crit strings and being insta gibbed aren't fun.
The token system will continue on in Wrath of the Lich King, and some improvements to it will be made.
- The system made them realize, Hybrid does not mean healer, which then allowed them to introduce different armor sets without penalizing other classes.
- Tokens allow them to create set bonuses not possible before, including talent-specific bonuses.

Things to come:

Free spell damage for healers.
Legendary ranged weapon in the next 25-person raid dungeon.
Zul'Aman
- Each class is going to have a full compliment of epics available in the dungeon, some especially tailored for off-spec talent choices.

Q&A Session

Blizzard answered a number of questions about professions and items:

They're talking about going to an item-based enchanting system with all but the most powerful enchants, allowing enchanters to create an item that is then useable by other players.
There are no plans to add armor dyes.
There are no plans to upgrade older Legendary items through quests or any other means.
They're looking into reworking Spirit for the expansion, possibly by adding in a secondary effect to make it desirable by all classes, not just Priests.
More Engineering recipes are coming that allow engineers to make items for other players.

BlizzCon Class Panel Information

Kody — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 00:09:28 GMT

The class panel started with Rob Pardo giving a brief history of the World of Warcraft classes, stating that they were designed with both traditional RPG roots and Warcraft III Heroes in mind. There were some classes that didn't make the final cut of the game either like the Necromancer and Blademaster.

The team's design philosophy is one of 'concentrated coolness' - a small number of classes - each as unique as possible with their own unique spells and abilities.

Their balance goals when designing a class must meet several criteria - the class must be able to solo to max level, have a role in groups and an importance in raids, be competitive in PvP, and most importantly be fun.

The class philosophy for Blizzard is one where a player can raid, solo, group, or PvP to their liking, and do it successfully. That doesn't mean that all talent specs will be strong in every aspect of the game, but the goal is to make each spec at least viable.

Blizzard has taken a stance of being very cautious when making class changes to avoid a "shock to the system" as Chilton put it; damaging a players' experience is not something they want to do. That said, balance in the game is ever-changing, and will continue to be so as long as the game is updated with live patches and expansions.

We were then given a brief overview of the talent system's design from start to finish. Initially the system was simply a stat-enhancing system in which you allocated points into statistics to improve them. From there it was moved into a hybrid statistic-passive talent system, and finally into what we have today.

The system was inspired by the Diablo II system, and was created with a limited number of points to select talents with, so that characters could become differentiated based on the talent spec they chose. Talents as they're designed are focused on mostly passive talents, with a handful of activated or "gold medal" talents - as Tom Chilton described.

Alternate talent and gear specs have been focused on more of late to make them viable in all aspects of the game. This was achieved though better itemization support for off-spec talent choices.

In the future, especially with Wrath of the Lich King, you can expect the Death Knight class to be added - further shaking up the balance of classes in all aspects of the game - as well as new spells and abilities for all classes and extended talent trees. Even the Death Knight will have unique talent trees available to them.

The Hero class vision is one where Warcraft III Heroes are made playable and have an epic feel. Blizzard had lots of ideas for implementing the Hero class into the game including a forking class or additional talent trees, multi-classing, and class morphing where the players' class would change completely from current to Hero class. This obviously presented problems in each aspect, so Blizzard decided to go the route they're taking with WotLK.

Quick overview of the classes discussed:

Druids have been moved toward a true hybrid role.
Hunters received in-combat traps so Feign Death could be used for its intended use - an aggro wipe.
Mages are the AoE DPS kings.
Paladins have some Retribution itemization fixes incoming, as well as some Ret raid DPS love in 2.3.
Rogues are the single-target DPS kings, and there continues to be an ongoing balance between swords and daggers.
Priests are going to be looked at to make both Holy and Discipline useful in raids, and Blizzard also wants to find a true focus for the Discipline tree.
Shaman are going to see scaling problems addressed; the team realizes Shaman lose a lot of their "oomph" at higher levels.
Warlocks are the best dueling class, and this really presents a challenge in 2v2 and 3v3 arenas. That said, the reliance on fear is a never-ending balance struggle.
Warriors are the "best at what they do" class, but it comes with quite a cost(mostly in terms of respec costs). Blizzard realizes both the "rogue in plate" and rage mechanic problems and will continue to tweak.

Next 25-man instace: The Sunwell

Guillotine — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:21:45 GMT

During the Dungeons & Raids panel, Tigole mistakenly reveals the next 25-man instance (and the last to appear before the nex expansion. It supposedly connects the lore between Outlands and Northrend. It consists of 6 bosses and contains loot better than the Black Temple or Mount Hyjal. It is unknown as of now whether a tier 7 will appear or if the loot should simply be individual pieces.

Wrath of the Lich King FAQ

Kody — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 02:07:53 GMT

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Features

Q: What are the features of the new expansion?
A: Wrath of the Lich King builds on the rich foundation established in World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade, providing a wealth of new content for players to explore. The harsh, forbidding continent of Northrend, home of the Lich King and his undead minions, will be uncovered on the world map, and to contend with the new challenges found there, players will be able to advance to level 80, acquiring potent new abilities and talents along the way.

In addition, Wrath of the Lich King will introduce the death knight hero class to World of Warcraft. Once certain criteria are met, players will be able to create a new death knight character, which will start at a high level. Furthermore, player-vs.-player battles will reach a new level of intensity with the addition of siege weapons and destructible buildings, not to mention a new battleground. There will also be an abundance of new quests, dungeons, monsters, items, and recipes -- as well as a new profession, inscription -- for players to try out. The expansion will include some additional character-customization options for players as well. We’ll be going into more detail on all of these features in the months ahead.

Q: How will the death knight class fit into the game?
A: The death knight combines martial prowess with dark, necromantic energies. Players might be familiar with the death knight from previously released Warcraft games -- most recently, in the campaigns for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Frozen Throne expansion, the former paladin Arthas became a death knight and wreaked havoc across Azeroth and Northrend before fusing with the spirit of Ner’zhul to become the Lich King. The death knight is the first hero class in World of Warcraft; once certain criteria are met, players will unlock the ability to create a new death knight character, which will begin play at a high experience level. We’re currently exploring various options for how the death knight will play and the types of abilities at its disposal, and we’ll be revealing more information about this new class as we get further along in development.

Q: Will the death knight have any abilities from previously released Warcraft games?
A: The way we portrayed death knights in past Warcraft games is certainly a source of inspiration, but we are still determining how best to capture that feel within the mechanics of World of Warcraft, and haven’t made any final determinations on specific abilities.

Q: What role will the death knight play in groups and raids?
A: In general terms, the death knight can be considered a type of class that combines damage dealing and tanking, but naturally it will have an array of unique abilities as well.

Q: What races will be allowed to play death knights?
A: We haven’t yet made a final determination about which races can be death knights. However, the class will be available to both the Alliance and the Horde.

Q: Will there be additional hero classes in the future?
A: Yes, we do intend to add more hero classes in the future, but right now our focus is on the current expansion.

Q: What is the story background of the expansion?
A: Players last visited Northrend in the Warcraft III expansion, when Arthas Menethil fused with the spirit of Ner’zhul to become the Lich King, one of the most powerful entities in the Warcraft universe. He now broods atop the Frozen Throne deep in Icecrown Citadel, clutching the rune blade Frostmourne and marshaling the undead armies of the Scourge. In Wrath of the Lich King, the greatest champions of the Alliance and the Horde will do battle with the Scourge amid Northrend’s howling winds and fields of jagged ice, and ultimately face the Lich King himself.

Q: Will players actually get to encounter Arthas himself?
A: Players will be skirmishing with the minions of Arthas from the moment they set foot on Northrend. He will be a constant presence as players progress through the expansion content -- which will culminate in a showdown with the dread Lich King himself.

Q: Can you discuss some of the new talents and abilities that will be available from level 70 to level 80?
A: As with character advancement up to level 70, players will gain access to an array of potent and exciting new abilities and talents as they make their way from level 70 to level 80. However, it’s still too early to get into specifics on these.

Q: How long will it take to advance from level 70 to level 80?
A: We were pleased with the pacing from level 60 to level 70 in The Burning Crusade, and we intend to take a similar approach to pacing character advancement in Wrath of the Lich King. However, the specific amount of time that it will take players to reach level 80 will vary widely based on play style.

Q: What can you reveal about Northrend?
A: The first area of Northrend we’re showcasing is the Howling Fjord, a region of grasslands overlooking massive cliffs at the southeastern edge of the continent. This, along with the Borean Tundra, is the front line of the war against Arthas, and players will come face to face with his minions as soon as they set foot on Northrend. Eventually, as players progress further, they will explore the Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight, and more. We’ll be showing off some of these new areas in the months ahead.

Q: What’s the level requirement to enter Northrend?
A: Players of any level who have purchased the expansion can visit Northrend. However, all of the content is designed for players level 68 and up.

Q: How many new dungeons will be in the expansion?
A: The first dungeon players will enter is Utgarde Keep, which is intended for five players around level 70. Utgarde is inhabited by the Vrykul, a Viking-like race bent on proving their strength to the Lich King, who will raise the most worthy of their warriors to serve him beyond the grave. We intend to provide a variety of dungeons comparable to that in The Burning Crusade and will be revealing more details about some of these in the months ahead.

Q: Do you plan to continue with the 25-player model for raids?
A: Yes. We’ve been pleased with the tactics, intensity, and variety of the 25-player raid model, and plan to continue with it.

Q: Will the new dungeons have heroic versions?
A: Yes. We feel that the heroic versions of dungeons are a great way to add another level of challenge and reward for experienced players, and we intend to continue creating these variants.

Q: In what ways will players be able to further customize their characters in the expansion?
A: In addition to the numerous new character-customization options that will be available with all of the new weapons and armor added by the expansion, we’ll be offering some fun ways to alter both existing and new characters with regard to dances and hairstyles, but we’re not ready to go into more detail just yet.

Q: What can you reveal about the new profession coming with the expansion?
A: The Inscription profession will allow players to permanently enhance their own spells and abilities and those of other players. We’ll provide more specific details on the mechanics of this new profession in the months ahead.

Q: What can players expect with regard to player-vs.-player combat in the expansion?
A: Players will be able to take control of siege weapons and use them to destroy opposing buildings, adding a new layer of complexity to PvP battles. Naturally, we’ll be providing some fun places to put these new tools to good use, and we’ll be revealing more information about them in the months ahead, in addition to the new battleground content being added.

Q: Can you give a sneak peek at the new recipes and items in the expansion?
A: There will be hundreds of new recipes and thousands of new items available, but we’re not ready to discuss specific examples just yet.

Q: Will there be any graphical enhancements?
A: Yes. We’re currently working on some technical enhancements to the game’s graphics, and we’ll be discussing these further in the months ahead.

Q: How many zones will be in the expansion?
A: Northrend will be roughly equivalent to Outland in terms of size and scope.

Q: Will there be any new cinematic scenes?
A: Yes, our cinematics department is hard at work preparing a new intro movie for the expansion.

Release/Availability

Q: Do you need to own the expansion to play with friends who have it?
A: There will be many aspects of the expansion that will be available to all players. However, in order to experience certain content, such as Northrend, or be able to play as a death knight, players must purchase the expansion.

Q: Will there be an open beta test of the expansion?
A: We have not yet determined whether the expansion will require an open beta test. If we do decide to conduct a beta test, details will be posted on the official World of Warcraft website once we’ve gotten further along in the development process.

Q: When will the expansion be released? How much will it cost?
A: We have not yet announced a release date for the expansion set. However, we expect to announce further details, including the release date and price, on our community website in the months ahead. Please stay tuned to www.WorldofWarcraft.com for more information.

Q: Will there be a collector’s edition?
A: We have not yet made any determination about whether there will be a collector’s edition of Wrath of the Lich King. We’ll be announcing details such as this closer to release.

Q: Will a Mac version be available simultaneously with the PC version?
A: Yes. As with all of our games, Wrath of the Lich King will be compatible with and optimized for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Q: What are the system requirements?
A: We’ll continue to ensure that the game is playable on a wide range of hardware. However, we have not made a final determination on the system requirements as yet.

Q: Will the expansion be released globally at the same time?
A: We recognize that players throughout the world will be eager to experience all of the new content being added with Wrath of the Lich King, and we will make every effort to release the expansion simultaneously worldwide. However, there’s always the possibility that unforeseen circumstances could delay the launch in any given region. We’ll share the launch timing with players in each region as soon as the plans have been finalized.

Q: What is the ESRB rating for the expansion?
A: The expansion has not yet been rated by the ESRB. However, we anticipate that it will receive the same rating that the original World of Warcraft received -- “Teen.”

WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: WRATH OF THE LICH KING™ UNVEILED

Kody — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:54:42 GMT

During the opening ceremony, Mike Morhaime invited Frank Pierce out to talk about World of Warcraft. He first talked about some upcoming live updates, and then gave us the news we've all been waiting for.

Blizzard today announced the second expansion for their award winning and record breaking game, World of Warcraft - titled World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. This new expansion offers a number of new features, including the first ever Hero Class in World of Warcraft: the Death Knight.

Features:

Continent of Northrend added.
Arthas - the new Lich King - commands his armies in a plot that threatens all life on Azeroth.
Level cap raised to 80.
Brand new abilities and talents for all classes.
New Arenas and Battlegrounds introduced for PvP.
Siege Weapons and Destructable Buildings added to the PvP landscape.
New Profession: Inscriptions - allows players to permenantly enhance spells and abilities.
All new character customization: Changeable hairstyles and new dances.
New instances for all playstyles: 5-person, 10-person, 25-person and Heroics all return.

Press Release wrote:

WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: WRATH OF THE LICH KING™ UNVEILED

Blizzard Entertainment® reveals new expansion for its popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game at BlizzCon™ gaming festival

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- August 3, 2007 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for the second expansion to World of Warcraft®, its award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Unveiled at the company’s BlizzCon™ gaming festival before an audience of more than 8,000 gamers, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King™ will open the forbidding wasteland of Northrend to exploration by the hardiest adventurers. New levels of power, challenging new dungeons and encounters, an exciting new character profession, and the game’s first hero class are just some of the new features awaiting players in Wrath of the Lich King.

“This expansion will add some of the most infamous characters and settings from the Warcraft® universe to World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. “In addition to new story content, Wrath of the Lich King will introduce a number of features specifically requested by players over the past couple of years. We’re looking forward to sharing further details with everyone as development progresses.”

Players last visited Northrend in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne™, when Arthas Menethil fused with the spirit of Ner’zhul to become the Lich King, one of the most powerful beings in the Warcraft universe. He now broods atop the Frozen Throne deep in Icecrown Citadel, clutching the rune blade Frostmourne and marshaling the undead armies of the Scourge. In Wrath of the Lich King, the forces of the Alliance and the Horde will venture into battle against the Scourge amid Northrend’s howling winds and fields of jagged ice.

(more)

Building on the foundation established in World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King will add a rich variety of content to an already massive game. New features coming with the game’s second expansion include:

• Death Knight Hero Class: Create a high-level Death Knight character -- the game’s first hero class -- once certain challenges have been met.

• Increased Level Cap: Advance to level 80 and gain potent new talents and abilities along the way. • Northrend: Explore the harsh new continent of Northrend, packed with new zones, quests, dungeons, monsters, and items -- and do battle with the undead armies of the Lich King. • “Inscription” Profession: Learn this exciting new profession and gain unique ways to permanently enhance spells and abilities in the game. • Siege Weapons and Destructible Buildings: Take the battle to another level with new player-vs.-player game mechanics and new battlefields to wage war on. • New Character Customization: Change how characters look and express themselves, with different hairstyles and dance animations.

Since launching in November 2004, World of Warcraft has become the world’s most popular MMORPG, with a subscriber base of more than 9 million players. The game’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, broke PC-game sales records in North America and Europe by selling nearly 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability and approximately 3.5 million copies in its first month. World of Warcraft is available in seven different languages and, in addition to North America and Europe, is played in mainland China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

For more information on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, please visit Blizzard’s official website at www.WorldofWarcraft.com. To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions -- more information on available career opportunities at Blizzard can be found at http://jobs.blizzard.com.

(more)

World of Warcraft’s Subscriber Definition

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.

About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft and the Warcraft, StarCraft®, and Diablo® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Vivendi Games, is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard’s track record includes ten #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Auction Reports - June 8th, 2007

Kody — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 06:44:46 GMT

Auction Reports - June 8th, 2007

This is a weekly update on *global auction prices to help you, the World of Warcraft player, find the best-selling items across multiple categories. It's important to note that when listing your items, you should always research your server's prices, due to fluctuation of prices on a per-server basis. The current sell price for the items listed below could be lower or higher or your server, so doing a simple search for the item you're planning to auction prior to listing it, is advised.

There is also a color-coding to the prices; green values mean the item has increased in price from the previous week, red values means the item has decreased in price, and normal black values are those that had no price fluctuation.

The list can be found below. Additionally, there is a [[wow:auction reports|wiki page]] set up with the list, so that you can use the table of contents to jump directly to a specific category if you so choose. There are also [[wow:auction reports archives|archives]] kept on the wiki so that you can view historical data at your leisure.

High Selling Consumables

Flasks

Flask of Relentless Assault - Global Value: 75G each
Flask of Fortification - Global Value: 71G 6S 56C each
Flask of Mighty Restoration - Global Value: 59G each

Elixirs

Elixir of Major Firepower - Global Value: 168G per 20(8G 40S each)
Elixir of Major Mageblood - Global Value: 109G 80S per 20(5G 49S each)
Elixir of Major Defense - Global Value: 84G per 20(4G 20S each)

Potions

Major Arcane Protection Potion - Global Value: 30G per 5(6G each)
Destruction Potion - Global Value: 30G per 5(6G each)
Haste Potion - Global Value: 20G per 5(4G each)

Food

Spicy Crawdad - Global Value: 40G per 20(2G each)
Golden Fish Sticks - Global Value: 21G per 20(1G 5S each)
Grilled Mudfish - Global Value: 17G 14S 80C per 20(85S 74C each)

Miscellaneous

Nethercobra Leg Armor - Global Value: 300G each
Cobrahide Leg Armor - Global Value: 170G each
Nethercleft Leg Armor - Global Value: 274G 49S 50C each
Clefthide Leg Armor - Global Value: 71G each
Runic Spellthread - Global Value: 459G 25S each
Golden Spellthread - Global Value: 272G 50S each
Mystic Spellthread - Global Value: 114G 50S each
Silver Spellthread - Global Value: 54G 42S 50C each
Fel Armament - Global Value: 15G each
Arcane Tome - Global Value: 13G 33S 33C each

High Selling Trade Goods

Enchanting Supplies

Void Crystal - Global Value: 993G 89S 80C per 20(49G 69S 49C each)
Large Prismatic Shard - Global Value: 294 99S 60C per 20(14G 74S 98C each)
Large Brilliant Shard - Global Value: 167G per 20(8G 35S each)
Greater Eternal Essence - Global Value: 90G per 10(9G each)
Greater Planar Essence - Global Value: 50G per 10(5G each)
Arcane Dust - Global Value: 36G 50S per 20(1G 82S 50C each)
Illusion Dust - Global Value: 35G per 20(1G 75S each)

Smelted Bars

Hardened Adamantite Bar - Global Value: 300G per 20(15G each)
Felsteel Bar - Global Value: 274G 17S 80C per 20(13G 70S 89C each)
Khorium Bar - Global Value: 98G per 20(4G 90S each)
Eternium Bar - Global Value: 80G per 20(4G each)
Adamantite Bar - Global Value: 25G 5S per 20(1G 25S 25C each)

Raw Ores

Khorium Ore - Global Value: 39G 99S 40C per 20(1G 99S 97C each)
Eternium Ore - Global Value: 35G per 20(1G 75S each)
Adamantite Ore - Global Value: 20G per 20(1G each)
Fel Iron Ore - Global Value: 8G 57S per 20(42S 85C each)

Leathers

Cobra Scales - Global Value: 360G per 20(18G each)
Heavy Knothide Leather - Global Value: 90G per 20(4G 50S each)
Thick Clefthoof Leather - Global Value: 54G 15S per 20(2G 70S 75C each)

Cut Jewelcrafting Gems

Runed Living Ruby - Global Value: 60G each
Bright Living Ruby - Global Value: 60G each
Glowing Nightseye - Global Value: 58G each

Uncut Jewelcrafting Gems

Living Ruby - Global Value: 49G each
Nightseye - Global Value: 41G 99S 25C each
Star of Elune - Global Value: 40G each

Tailoring Supplies

Spellcloth - Global Value: 65G each
Shadowcloth - Global Value: 51G each
Primal Mooncloth - Global Value: 50G each
Bolt of Imbued Netherweave - Global Value: 10G each
Netherweave Cloth - Global Value: 4G 75S per 20(23S 75C each)

Herbs

Black Lotus - Global Value: 273G 60S per 20(13G 68S each)
Fel Lotus - Global Value: 100G per 20(5G each)
Mana Thistle - Global Value: 40G per 20(2G each)
Nightmare Vine - Global Value: 33G 52S 80C per 20(1G 67S 64C each)
Netherbloom - Global Value: 32G 50S per 20(1G 62S 50C each)
Terocone - Global Value: 28G 40S per 20(1G 42S each)

High Selling Recipes

Books

Tome of Conjure Water IX - Global Value: 65G
Tome of Arcane Brilliance 2 - Global Value: 44G 88S 19C
Tome of Conjure Food VIII - Global Value: 40G
Codex: Prayer of Fortitude III - Global Value: 25G 12S 50C
Book: Gift of the Wild III - Global Value: 20G

Leatherworking Recipes

Pattern: Thick Netherscale Breastplate - Global Value: 744G
Pattern: Windslayer Wraps - Global Value: 575G
Pattern: Gloves of the Living Touch - Global Value: 550G
Pattern: Netherdrake Gloves - Global Value: 500G
Pattern: Living Dragonscale Helm - Global Value: 450G

Tailoring

Pattern: Girdle of Ruination - Global Value: 564G
Pattern: Vengeance Wrap - Global Value: 500G
Pattern: Resolute Cape - Global Value: 244G 50S
Pattern: Black Belt of Knowledge - Global Value: 225G
Pattern: Cloak of the Black Void - Global Value: 150G

Engineering

Schematic: Healing Potion Injector - Global Value: 82G 86S 66C
Schematic: Mana Potion Injector - Global Value: 67G 50S
Schematic: Ornate Khorium Rifle - Global Value: 62G 50S
Schematic: Crashin' Thrashin' Robot - Global Value: 60G
Schematic: Power Amplification Goggles - Global Value: 40G

Blacksmithing

Plans: Hand of Eternity - Global Value: 1500G
Plans: Felsteel Longblade - Global Value: 900G
Plans: Khorium Champion - Global Value: 875G
Plans: Black Felsteel Bracers - Global Value: 740G 5S 26C
Plans: Blessed Bracers - Global Value: 555G

Alchemy

Recipe: Elixir of Major Mageblood - Global Value: 222G 50S
Recipe: Destruction Potion - Global Value: 195G
Recipe: Haste Potion - Global Value: 125G
Recipe: Insane Strength Potion - Global Value: 100G
Recipe: Heroic Potion - Global Value: 92G 82S 50C

Enchanting

Formula: Enchant Weapon - Spellsurge - Global Value: 600G
Formula: Enchant Boots - Cat's Swiftness - Global Value: 350G
Formula: Enchant Boots - Boar's Speed - Global Value: 450G
Formula: Enchant Bracer - Restore Mana Prime - Global Value: 175G
Formula: Enchant Chest - Major Resilience - Global Value: 125G

Jewelcrafting

Design: Tenacious Earthstorm Diamond - Global Value: 400G
Design: Destructive Skyfire Diamond - Global Value: 400G
Design: Solid Star of Elune - Global Value: 350G
Design: Mystical Skyfire Diamond - Global Value: 280G 47S 58C
Design: Glowing Nightseye - Global Value: 275G
Design: Teardrop Living Ruby - Global Value: 275G
Design: Royal Nightseye - Global Value: 250G

High Selling Reagents

Primal Might - Global Value: 99G 99S 99C
Primal Air - Global Value: 25G 75S
Primal Fire - Global Value: 25G
Primal Water - Global Value: 20G
Primal Mana - Global Value: 18G 99S 98C
Primal Life - Global Value: 9G 11S
Primal Earth - Global Value: 4G 20S
Primal Shadow - Global Value: 1G

- Global Auction prices are a median sale value, based on wowecon AddOn data.

World of Warcraft : 2007

TBC Nominated for Best Multiplayer (X-Play)

Whorecraft Starlet Suspended from WoW

BlizzCon 2007 PvP Panel Video

BizzCon Video: Warcraft - The Movie Panel

BlizzCon PvP Panel: World PvP and Arenas

BlizzCon PvP Panel: Battlegrounds

BlizzCon Professions & Items Panel Information

BlizzCon Class Panel Information

Next 25-man instace: The Sunwell

Wrath of the Lich King FAQ

WORLD OF WARCRAFT®: WRATH OF THE LICH KING™ UNVEILED

Auction Reports - June 8th, 2007

Table of Contents

Auction Reports - June 8th, 2007

High Selling Consumables

Flasks

Elixirs

Potions

Food

Miscellaneous

High Selling Trade Goods

Enchanting Supplies

Smelted Bars

Raw Ores

Leathers

Cut Jewelcrafting Gems

Uncut Jewelcrafting Gems

Tailoring Supplies

Herbs

High Selling Recipes

Books

Leatherworking Recipes

Tailoring

Engineering

Blacksmithing

Alchemy

Enchanting

Jewelcrafting

High Selling Reagents