World of Warcraft - Cataclysm

MMO Champion publishes leaked information about the next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. With the presumed the defeat of Arthas coming at the end of the Wratch of the Lich King expansion, Blizzard has played out most of the plot threads left over from Warcraft III. Cataclysm will let them move on to newer storylines that (more or less) started in WoW.

Onyxia raid in 3.2

My World of Warcraft account is inactive, but this news makes me want back in!

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

Really cool. Onyxia is a great looking dragon. I’m assuming the 310% speed mount will be from an achievement.

Time to bone up on strategy.

Update: A Q&A MMO Champion reprints says the mount will be a rare drop. They also have photos of the new stuff.

The Art of Warbringer - Warriors - TankingTips.com

The Art of Warbringer

Useful Charge/Intercept/Intervene advice.

Charlie's Diary: Unpacking the Zeitgeist

Charlie’s Diary: Unpacking the Zeitgeist

Great stuff. How would you explain gold farming spamming in World of Warcraft to someone thirty years ago? Really does sound like a lame science fiction novel.

GameSpy: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Preview

GameSpy: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Preview

Major changes to the raid game in the expansion revealed, including the announcement that all new raids will be 25-mans.

Innovation

Despite lots of rhetoric, the next-generation video game landscape is lining up basically like the last one did: one system comes in early (this time Microsoft instead of Sony), two go for power (Sony and Microsoft), one tries to be different (Nintendo both times). The current generation will take all of that to the next level: the graphics will be sharper, and Nintendo will be even more different.

What I worry about is that basically Nintendo’s banking on innovation, and I’m not sure that’s something you can count on. Certainly a game can be visually stunning without having the most polygons. World of Warcraft was never the most graphically intense, but the art direction is so through the roof that it doesn’t matter. Not evenyone liked The Windwaker’s cell shading, but it was effective. Still, can you count on all your developers to hire great visionary artists that can overcome the temptation to just push for photo-realism in lieu of real art? Probably not. Likewise for game design. A generic shooter or brawler can always be fun, but the Wii seems to be begging for something different on each title, and different might not always work. What’s going to happen is that some developers will take chances with the new controller, and it won’t quite work. Hopefully others will find the sweet spot and succeed. Needless to say, the first few waves of games will see a lot of cool stuff, and there will be some amusing changes as the platform matures.

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade → Draenei

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade → Draenei

New Alliance race confirmed, and not as lame as expected.

Interview: Jeff Kaplan on World of Warcraft Expansion - New York Times

Interview: Jeff Kaplan on World of Warcraft Expansion - New York Times

Pop culture references in Warcraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pop culture references in Warcraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Game Developers Unleash A Storm On 'World Of Warcraft' Players

Game Developers Unleash A Storm On ‘World Of Warcraft’ Players

A look into the new weather in WoW, and what considerations went into it.

MapWoW.com World of Warcraft Maps

MapWoW.com World of Warcraft Maps

Uses the Google Maps API. Very clever.

GameSpy: World of Warcraft Level 60 Quest Guide

GameSpy: World of Warcraft Level 60 Quest Guide

Excellent guide to quests and instances.

Ahn'Qiraj War Supplies Server Rankings: Whisperwind

Ahn’Qiraj War Supplies Server Rankings: Whisperwind

This is only a daily temporarily, but you can see my WoW server’s progress on the AQ war effort. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes. Also I think the way the community came up with this is really cool.

WoW LotR gag

WoW LotR gag

You had me at “lfg”.

INTERVIEW: WOW: THE BURNING CRUSADE

INTERVIEW: WOW: THE BURNING CRUSADE

Interview with WoW developer Shane Dabiri about the expansion, due out some time in 2076 I think.

The Plague

So apparently in World of Warcraft there’s a plague spell that Hakkar, the boss of the new dungeon Zul’Gurub, casts on players. It does a reasonable amount of damage every 2 seconds, and spreads to nearby allies. Though it was obviously intended to just be a part to make the fight against Hakkar more challenging, a player managed to get our of the dungeon and inside a city while infected, and now the entire city is has the plague! NPCs are getting it and dying, but not before passing it to other NPCs. Low-level players who can’t survive it can’t even entire the town. Of course, Blizzard didn’t see it coming, so now they’re I’m guessing laughing really hard instead of trying to figure out a way to fix it.

[This, sadly, is not my screenshot. If it hits my server I will try to snap one.]

Update: they tried to fix it over the weekend but couldn’t:

It appears that the hotfix remedy concocted to combat the recent Azerothian outbreak has not yielded desired results. At this time, our medical staff is continuing to develop an effective cure. We look forward to ensuring the health and vitality of the citizens of Azeroth in the near future.

Ragnaros Down

Accomplishments come in all sorts of forms. Tonight Wanderers were the first on our server to kill the new Ragnaros. Wee!

Chinese Coke/World of Warcraft Commercial

Chinese Coke/World of Warcraft Commercial

Great stuff.

The Best Guilds Names You've Seen

The Best Guilds Names You’ve Seen

Long discussion thread on the World of Warcraft boards about amusing guild names.

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Sons of the Storm

Sons of the Storm

An artist who worked on World of Warcraft died while they were developing the game. If you go to a mountain in northern Barrens you can see an in-game memorial to him.