BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft & StarCraft II In-Game Items

BlizzCon 2010 World of Warcraft & StarCraft II In-Game Items “Death will rise from the tide!” Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain once warned — and at BlizzCon 2010, the band’s dire musical prophecy will finally come to pass. Everyone who attends this year’s BlizzCon or purchases the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will receive an exclusive set of murlocalyptic in-game items for World of Warcraft and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. World of Warcraft players will be joined by Deathy, a murloc companion decked out as Deathwing and doing his best to strike fear into the hearts of Azeroth’s crustacean population. You’ll also be able to display your tidal pride in StarCraft II with a Murloc Marine character portrait and a pair of deep-sea decals to emblazon on your units, each with a different terran, protoss, and zerg design. BlizzCon 2010 takes place on October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center. For further details or to order the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, visit www.BlizzCon.com. source Oh, Deathy. You complete me. I think I will have no other choice but to order the PPV of BlizzCon this yeah, because I can’t make the flight to

In World of Warcraft Cataclysm Beta: Guild advancement Q&A

In World of Warcraft Cataclysm Beta: Guild advancement Q&A Polegara asked: What exactly contributes to guild XP at the moment? Mumper Guild experience can be earned in any of four ways: 1. Completing quests / daily quests that reward experience 2. Killing any dungeon / raid boss with a guild group/raid 3. Winning a rated battleground with a guild group/raid 4. Earning a guild achievement (these are nice, fat chunks of experience so they feel great when you get em) A guild group/raid is 4/5, 8/10, 12/15 or 20/25 members of the group/raid being guild members. source Jarek asked: 1.) No matter how hard you work at your own guild rep, even if you farm it like a psycho, can a GM just “deny” you of the guild rep rewards? 2.) Are all the standard guild control functions staying the same (GBank control, inv and remove settings, etc.)? 3.) I understand there is going to be an XP cap per day, but as per reward and ability, will this at least be the determining factor that 10- and 25-man guilds are not equals? Mumper 1. GM’s have no control over the guild rewards. As long as your guild has unlocked the item via the achievement and you have the required guild rep, you

Buff(ing) for BlizzCon: Dog days In world of warcraft

Buff(ing) for BlizzCon: Dog days Buff(ing) for BlizzCon is a bi-weekly fitness series written by ShrinkGeek authors Rafe Brox and Michael McGreevy. Join the WoW.com team in getting in shape for the ultimate WoW geek event: BlizzCon 2010. No, it’s not another worgen post. I’d roll a goblin, anyway, and not merely because of factional preference. I spent too many hours as a n00b getting repeatedly pwnt in Silverpine Forest, which has made me as bitter as powdered aspirin towards those furry bastards; I’d gank myself. No, this is the midsummer swoon, when folks tend to go through the motions in the long, hot stretch (at least in the Northern hemisphere), twiddling their thumbs between increasingly monotonous dungeon runs, idly considering rolling yet another alt or take a hiatus altogether to go hit some conventions and interact in the big blue room. In our case, it’s also just past the midpoint of our six-month journey towards BlizzCon, when motivation may flag and adhering to healthier eating and exercise habits can begin to wane. Maybe you’ve hit a plateau. Maybe you’re bored with your program. This point in time is, to quote everyone’s

Last week on Massively about MMO Roundup

Last week on Massively about MMO Roundup Star Wars: The Old Republic’s space combat detailed in PC Gamer The Old Republic hopefuls were given a little scare when it was rumored that the game’s space combat would be a completely on-rails experience. PC Gamer has published details since then assuring gamers that it will be a bit more robust than that, though still not a sandbox experience. Personality in Guild Wars 2: NPCs will give you pie Do you like pie? Do you want game NPCs to give you free pie? How about a free jar of bees? (Don’t look so surprised; it’s an excellent weapon.) It may sound funny, but free goodies from NPCs are all part of the personality system in Guild Wars 2. Build your reputation and win the love of the commonfolk or laugh as they cower in fear. Ask Massively: Free-to-play edition Another week, another edition of Ask Massively! This time around, the Massively team tackles a question about the latest trend in MMO gaming: free-to-play games and pay-to-play games making the switch. What do they think? Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? The Old Republic announces four new playable species To the elation of fans of Star Wars: The Old

World of Warcraft Druid:Getting started and leveling 1-9

World of Warcraft Druid:Getting started and leveling 1-9 Greetings, Druids. I took the liberty of rolling a few new Druids to test out the improved leveling process, and if possible I’m going to level a brand-new one all the way to 80 to make sure everything in the guide’s been personally tested and accurate as of the 3.1/3.2 game world. Today we’ll start off with a baby Tauren Druid on the PTR who’s now level 9; later I’ll be switching between a Night Elf and a Tauren. Level Feral. This is the single best thing you can do for yourself, at least for leveling in classic content. As we’ve previously discussed, the Druid is still hobbled by its initial design as an endgame secondary healer, but you can skip a certain portion of this early weakness by leveling feral. Piggybacking off all of the DPS leather that went into the game to support the billions of people who rolled Rogues is a nice advantage, but the real attraction of leveling Feral lies in the ability to DPS in forms that don’t require mana. Being able to save your mana bar for healing and buffing decreases downtime enormously (more so as you gain levels, as our mana efficiency

World of Warcraft Moviewatch: What has two thumbs but can’t heal?

What has two thumbs but can’t heal? was the final project for the class “Governance of Virtual Worlds” at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The team created this machinima as a tie-in to their paper, which was a complaint filed in court alleging civil rights violations against gnomes. In a world where people still punt gnomes, I look to this video for guidance in how to stop the travesties. Gnomes are people, too. Thanks to John for the tip — this video brings a little light into the dark world of gnome abuse. While the video was meant to be funny and kind of absurd, it definitely exemplifies a valid legal argument. It’s awesome to see how WoW machinima can help teaching strategies; What has two thumbs but can’t heal? is a total win in that regard.

World of Warcarft Magic Introduce

As I was a kid,I like magic very much.The game world of warcarf offer the skill magic,here,you will find the interesting thing,thought the game,you will known about lot’s of magic. The next is the introduce the magic: With a simple gesture of their hands, a wizard can summon forth magic from both nature and places of darker origins. Magic-Users weave magic the way an artist draws a portrait. Muttering a few words and pointing at their foes can hit enemies with the force of a thousand blows or rend the very existence of the planes asunder. Through magic, a person can gain respect, friendship, or money. The key to being a Wizard, Shaman, or Farseer, (among other things) is of course, magic. Magic is the user’s last defense against the evil forces that threaten Azeroth. All other skills fall secondary to a true magic-user of Azeroth, no sacrifice is to great to enhance their magical talents. There are no universal magic’s within the land of Azeroth, various forms of magic are weaved from many sources. Shaman and Farseers derive their powers from the Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Nature itself. Mages and their kin however believe that magic is a tool, not a request.

Four years of World of Warcraft

We at WoW Insider would like to congratulate Blizzard on four years of World of Warcraft — it’s been an amazing ride so far, and it’s not over yet. After the break, some of our writers have posted their own thoughts and memories on the game’s anniversary, and please add your own in the comments below. It could seem silly to celebrate the anniversary of a videogame, especially one that, if you’ve been playing since day one, you’ve spent over $800 and countless hours on. But then again, look at what this game has given back: groups and guilds full of friends (and some spouses), weeknights full of gear upgrades and XP gains, Saturday afternoons spent slaying dragons and Sunday evenings spent picking herbs in the Swamp of Sorrows or admiring the sunsets in Hinterlands. We’ve played this game for four years, and for most of us, it’s been worth every quest. Here’s to many, many more. Alex Ziebart: My guild and the people in it are the memories that are will last the longest, long after WoW is gone. If I had to stick to gameplay though, my first time summoning Ragnaros was one of the most epic moments I’ve ever had in gaming.

Arena points being reimbursed… for now

Players will be seeing the arena points they had left after season 7 ended be reimbursed in the near (if not immediate) future. Yesterday players logged on after maintenance to discover their points had been wiped, and that season 8 had not yet begun. Arena points are only wiped at the beginning of a season, not before and not during the transition between seasons. Crygil’s full statement on the reimbursement is as follows: Arena points were wiped during the recent maintenance following the end of the arena season on January 19th. We initially intended to launch the next arena season this week, but it was delayed due to the minor content patch that needs to coincide with the beginning of the season having some last minute issues to resolve. Due to the delay in the arena season we are in the process of reimbursing arena points to all eligible participants. Characters will be returned to the amount they had on Tuesday, January 26th. All arena points will then be wiped when season 8 begins. We apologize for the confusion this caused and appreciate your understanding Rumors place season 8 beginning next week, although there has been no official announcement. Arena season 8

The Queue: I am 25 minutes older than Alex

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com’s daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. On January 24th, 2008 at 9:27 p.m. central I was officially welcomed into the WoW Insider family. At 9:52 p.m. central that same evening Alex Ziebart was brought on board. Between the 25 minutes that I was on staff and Alex wasn’t, I had already leaked three Blizzard secrets, pissed off Blizzard PR four times, got an angry email from Ghostcrawler about calling warriors the redheaded step children of WoW, and was fired and rehired at least five separate times by Liz Harper. Alex, my friend, you have a lot of catching up to do. Get crackin’ you whipper snapper! In all seriousness, between my first post and this one, the two years I’ve spent writing here have been awesome. It’s a job that I never thought I’d have, and definitely one that I never thought I’d stay in this long. And out of all the columns I write, penning The Queue twice a week for you all is some of the most fun I have. So let’s get to it! Justin asked… “What’s Frostmourne doing in