Tag Archive

Blizzard’s Next MMO: Not WoW 2

Written by Alec Meer on October 20, 2008.

I can’t find the source for this on Wired’s own site, so presumably it’s only in the print mag for now. Original source found (thanks, Zuffox). Mike Morhaime dropped the following uber-hint whilst chatting to the US tech mag:

“Let’s just say it’s going to be different and it’s not going to be a sequel to World of Warcraft. It will be different. We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.”

Hmm. I’m still banking on it being something Eve-y or Planetside-y, possibly in the Starcraft universe. It seems hugely unlikely Blizz will move to a new IP - but it would be nice. Do spill your own theory-o-thoughts below.

Blizzcon: Pay-for-Customisation in WoW confirmed

Written by Kieron Gillen on October 13, 2008.

Man, I’m totally stealing this story from videogaming247. Hell, I’ve even stole the image from videogaming247. But at least I’ve given a working link back Warcry, who covered the press conference where the following was revealed…

When asked to expand upon a button found by sifting through the Lich King beta’s data files named “Paid Character Customization,” Brack initially hesitated to give any answer at all. Several questions later, he went back to the matter, saying that he could, in fact, confirm that World of Warcraft would eventually have some form of paid character customization, though they themselves hadn’t yet worked out any details.

C’mon Pat! It’s Monday morning, but us parasitisic linkbloggers must have standards, goddammit.

Wrath Of The Lich King: He’s Angry Alright

Written by Jim Rossignol on August 21, 2008.

Blimey.

WoW: When Eleven Million Players Aren’t Enough

Written by John Walker on August 6, 2008.

Blizzard have launched a new drive for their rapidly ailing World Of Warcraft player base, in a last-ditch desperate attempt to drum up interest in the game, before it has to switch off its servers. Called Recruit A Friend, they’re hoping that by giving incentives to the smattering of players they currently have, they’ll be able to encourage new blood and rejuvenate the MMO.

Ha de ha. Honestly, there can’t be bank vaults big enough for storing all of Blizzards dosh, but they can’t stop. Recruit A Friend has players email their non-WoW-playing chums (is that possible?) to give them a trial activiation key. The motive? A zebra.

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Thesis Of Warcraft

Written by John Walker on July 30, 2008.

Reader Huon Longman got in touch with us, asking if we could help out with his thesis study examining the levels of social support derived by players of MMOs based on the resulting social networking, as well as what effects this has on symptoms of anxiety and depression, stress levels, and overall life satisfaction.

Which seems like an interesting study to us, so why not. If you think you’re a WoW player, and interested, there’s an FAQ all about the project below, along with details of where to get involved.

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Azeroth: “The Size of Newcastle”

Written by Jim Rossignol on July 2, 2008.

The excellent James Wallis has been doing some clever maths on his blog, and has used the raw power of infinite science to tell us some geographic and astrological facts about the World Of Warcraft.

Taken together, the two main continents have a combined area of approximately 113 square kilometres. In terrestrial terms that’s about the same size as the city of Newcastle, or the London Borough of Hillingdon. And if we assume that the world-maps produced by Blizzard Entertainment show approximately the entire surface area of Azeroth then we can wrap it around an imaginary sphere and calculate the diameter of the hypothetical ‘planetoid’ of Azeroth at 12 kilometres.

Of course, as Wallis explains, Azeroth is actually flat. More incredible revelations about the extreme density of things in Azeroth can be found here.

The Blizzard Show: Fear & Longing in Paris

Written by Alec Meer on June 30, 2008.

I’ve recently got back from Blizzard’s 2008 Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and, well, it was an odd affair. A travel-addled brain-fart on the show in general follows.

There’s an inherent sense of disassociation in being a journalist at a fan event. On the one hand, it’s all-too-easy to be disparaging about the hordes of long-haired men in black t-shirts, uttering spoken OMGs and LOLs without irony. On the other, I had a constant sense of being an interloper. These people were here from love, or something like it. For them this event was about celebration of Blizzard games, pure and simple. For me, it was about information. Well, and maybe a little swag.

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The WoW Changes, Death Knight

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 29, 2008.

Sadly I’m not man enough to really figure out what all the proposed WoW changes mean, so I’ll just have to point you in the direction of the analysis at WoW Insider. There’s a in-depth look at the Death Knight here. It seems to me that it’s looking like some kind of cop-out Jack-of-all-roles class, but maybe I’m misunderstanding this:

In terms of what role the Death Knights will play in battle, the developers said they didn’t want to punish the player based on what spec they choose. Even though it’s problematic for designers, they are sensitive to WoW’s tank shortage problem. They want to avoid forcing DKs to choose between tank spec or DPS spec.

Anyway, there’s also a breakdown of all the class changes here.

The Onion: World of World of Warcraft

Written by Kieron Gillen on June 12, 2008.

‘Warcraft’ Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing ‘Warcraft’

Being fans of circular sentence construction jokes, RPS approves of the circular sentence construction of The Onion’s sentences. Though “the adorable attack” throw-away gag is my fave bit.

Ramble On Rambling: Exploration Games

Written by Jim Rossignol on June 3, 2008.

Certain game experiences seem to suggest other, older games, and leave me longing for them. Age Of Conan, which I’ve been playing a great deal for the PC Gamer review, somehow left me longing for Oblivion. There was something about the way that Age Of Conan tantalises you with elements of single player gaming that left me quite hungry for a proper RPG romp, and so I reinstalled the last Elder Scrolls game and plunged in.

To tell the truth, I’d been meaning to go back and play Oblivion a some point this year after being reminded of it in PC Gamer UK’s Top 100 meeting. Tom Francis had talked about the moment he’d be most fond of in replaying the game: coming out of the underground tutorial into the bright, beautiful gameworld. “You get this incredible feeling of freedom,” he said. “It’s wide open and it feels like anything is possible.” It’s a feeling that, in some ways, is only possible in a game of Oblivion’s calibre. That kind of feeling could be an antidote to the pressures of real life, and definitely an antidote to too many hours in a traditional MMO. I wanted to recapture that, although I had wondered whether Francis’ was simply being hyperbolic. Was Oblivion better than I remembered?
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