Next expansion "Wrath of the Lich King?"

It's four days to Blizzcon, and Boubouille, long-time source of quality information, thinks he knows what the next expansion is going to be called: Wrath of the Lich King. Obviously this supports previous information pointing to a Northrend-themed expansion, as Northrend is home to Arthas, the Lich King himself. The original post on the MMO-Champion forums claiming this to be the expansion name also asserts that there will be a new class: Death Knight! This seems to be less substantiated, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true. Rumors aside, we'll almost certainly know for sure in just a few days. Are you excited? I am.

As far as the Death Knight rumor goes, the WoWWiki page lends a bit of support: apparently, Death Knight (as well as Necromancer) were originally planned to be classes in WoW, but didn't make it to release. Furthermore, there exists a green called Triumphant Shield of Shadow Wrath, which is confusing as no shield-using classes (Warrior, Paladin, Shaman) can use Shadow magic. This could just be an oversight in the random-enchant-generating code, but it could also be a hint at a Shadow-wielding, shield-using class...

Update: Over at MMO-Champion, they suggest that this is accurate because the link www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/ leads to a "forbidden" error, whereas accessing any other non-existent page on the site will give you a "not found" error. Continue to enjoy your rumormongering, everyone!

Update 2: Again from MMO-Champion, the title World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was found on the web site of Usk.de, which is apparently the German equivalent of our ESRB (i.e. the agency that assigns content ratings to games). It seems to have a "12" rating; although I don't speak German, I assume that means "suitable for 12 and up."

(by:wowinsider)
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Yet another massive social problem somehow blamed on WoW

What does the Australian media have against World of Warcraft? First, they profile two people who have "had their lives ruined" by WoW. Now we have this wonderful article on terrorism by Natalie O'Brien in the Australian, which includes this paragraph: "Kevin Zuccato, head of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre in Canberra, says terrorists can gain training in games such as World of Warcraft in a simulated environment, using weapons that are identical to real-world armaments. Zuccato told an Australian Security Industry Association conference in Sydney that people intent on evil no longer had to travel to the target they wanted to attack to carry out reconnaissance. He said they could use virtual worlds to create an exact replica and rehearse an entire attack online, including monitoring the response and ramifications."

Uh ... okay. I have no idea how that would come close to happening with WoW. I can see how something like that would work with Halo or America's Army. But WoW doesn't allow you to generate your own content like Oblivion or such, so you couldn't create a functional model of a city or other terrorist target. We don't have weaponry that is "identical to real-world armaments", unless you count the bombs you can drop on Halaa.

The fine people of the WoW General Forum have picked this one up, suggesting that you wait for five sunders before assassinating a political leader and make sure to take the portal to Washington, DC. What do you think of this article?

(by:wowinsider)
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Grats to the winner of our Spectral Tiger Mount

We have to give a big shout out of "Grats!" to Keane, commenter #2329 and random winner of our ginormous Spectral Tiger Mount contest. We sincerely thank all 5920 of you who entered (!), but we only had one mount to give away, and Keane (above) got it. He says he can't run through Ironforge now without getting bombarded by "OMG WHERE U GET THAT" whispers. I have to say: even I'm jealous. Looks awesome.

Thanks again to all the folks at Upper Deck for helping us out with the mount-- don't forget that the actual STM card is a loot card in the new Fires of Outland booster packs, which release on August 22nd, but which you'll be able to get your hands on at the sneak preview tourneys, held all over the country August 11-12th. And of course we'll have more contests coming soon, so keep watching.

Grats to Keane, you lucky, lucky, Spectral Tiger-riding commenter, you.

(by:wowinsider)
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Xfire and WoW Insider, live from the BlizzCon floor

Our BlizzCon coverage continues all this week-- we're sending our staff out to Anaheim (I'll be out there on Tuesday laying all the groundwork), culminating in the second BlizzCon event on Friday and Saturday. So whether you're going or not, stay tuned to WoW Insider all week for breaking news, liveblogging events, and pictures, video, and tons of coverage from Blizzard's big get-together.

And don't forget that all of our coverage is being co-presented with Xfire. In addition to their BlizzCon info page, they've also set up a special "blizzcon2007" account, and both Xfire and WoW Insider staff members will be blogging there during the event. Also, if you have an Xfire account, be sure to add "blizzcon2007" to your Friends-- that way, you'll be able to get invites to Xfire chats later this week coming directly from the BlizzCon exhibit hall. And if you don't have an Xfire account, then get one for free!

So this is it. It's time to hear about Zul'Aman and the next expansion. It's time to see Starcraft II playable and in action. And maybe it's time to hear about that third game Blizzard is working on? At BlizzCon, you never know. Stay tuned to both WoW Insider and Xfire to find out.

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Around Azeroth: How do you drive this thing?

Reader Scroto of Illidan sends in this amusing image. I imagine the Gryphon Masters in the major Alliance cities don't look kindly upon Furbolg seeking transportation -- thus this screenshot shows an attempt at do-it-yourself Gryphon riding (or perhaps Gryphon-jacking). Do these things come with an instruction manual?

Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth.

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Gamers on the street: Patch 2.2 & VOIP

In Gamers on the Street, Krystalle Voecks will be creating characters and joining random US servers in an attempt to find out what the everyday Gamer thinks about different things going on in and around the World of Warcraft. With research in hand, she'll report back here on Thursdays, to share the word from the front lines.

With all the excitement about the PTRs and pre-made characters, I thought it would be interesting to ask people what they thought about some of the upcoming changes that Blizzard is adding into WoW in patch 2.2. Interestingly enough, the majority of people that I asked admitted that they didn't even bother reading the patch notes until they were released as live. Many said this was because of changes happening so fast that it wasn't worth tracking until it was finished. Others had only heard about the frenzy to get on the PTRs, and maybe of a couple of things in the works. But after a bit of searching, I managed to get two people who were willing to take time out of their busy schedules and give me their thoughts on their "best and worst" in the upcoming patch, as well as their thoughts on Voice Over IP (VOIP) that Blizzard is building into the game and hopes to make available soon.

In pursuit of the word from the everyday gamer, I signed into one of the oldest servers in the game: Lothar. It was originally brought online when the game was released, and has seen open transfers off the realm due to over-population. According to Warcraft Realms' Census information, Lothar houses a good-sized population of roughly 23 thousand players. The server heavily favors the Alliance, with an average of 2.8 Alliance players for every Horde player.

I managed to get a few words with Angelsil, Level 70 Human Mage of the guild . When asked, Angelsil told me that she was one of the continuing Frost Mage devotees, unable to part with her beloved Ice Block in the new fiery game. When she's not blowing through Kara with her guildmates, she says she enjoys putting Ice Lances in Gruul for fun and profit. She also has a Warlock and a Priest at endgame, although those are Horde side.

WoW Insider: So what is it that you are really looking forward to in patch 2.2?

Angelsil: There is supposed to be more loot for the Violet Eye faction, which is good. It seems that right now there are kinda crappy rewards for farming Karazhan rep-wise.

WI: I love my ring, but I'd love to see more too. What's the absolute worst thing in patch 2.2 that you've seen as yet?

Angelsil: I still think that resilience is a complete waste on PvE characters [compared to other stats], as clothies shouldn't be getting hit in raids. But it seems we're going to be forced to take it on some gear. Blizzard seems to be giving it up to PvP again at the cost of PvE raiding.

WI: What do you think of the upcoming in-game Voice Over IP (VOIP) that Blizzard has planned?

Angelsil: I think it's a brilliant idea! PUGs have long suffered from a lack of easy communication. Admittedly, I don't think it will replace private VOIP, but I do think it will become commonplace in PUGs and BGs where previously we only had typed chat.


The next person I caught up with was the L70 Orc Rogue, Biata from the guild . Biata is a combat dagger specced Rogue, who says she's in a medium sized guild. Her guild has cleared Kara, and is currently working on Gruul's Lair. When she's not raiding, she says she can be found killing Ogres in Outland as revenge against the ones in Dire Maul that killed her many, many times.

WoW Insider: So what are you really looking forward to in patch 2.2?

Biata: The thing I'm looking forward to most in the patch is the AQ 40 enchants that are being added to Outland factions for purchase since my guild doesn't do the instance anymore. (she is an enchanter)

WI: What's the absolute worst thing in patch 2.2 that you've seen as yet?

Biata: The only thing that I'm not looking forward to in the patch is the reputation grind to exalted for the enchanting patterns. I just get bored with the grind sometimes.

WI: I can relate to you there. And finally, what do you think of the upcoming in-game VOIP that is planned?

Biata: I'm still up in the air about the proposed VOIP. It could either be a positive or negative change depending on exactly how it works. If there is a way to make it guild, group, or raid specific then I feel the implementation could be wonderful. If not, then things have the potential for going in a less enjoyable direction. As to guilds not having their own Team Server/Ventrillo servers... Again I think it will depend on what the options are for its use.

While resilience on cloth doesn't affect me, I can totally agree with some of the rest. As I'm also an enchanter, making the old enchants available is nice. The only real problem I see is that now there's pretty well very little to no reason to ever go back and even bother with that content. (Not that there are queues of people waiting to get into AQ) What are some of your best and worst of the upcoming patch 2.2? How about VOIP?

Also, if you're interested in potentially being interviewed for Gamers on the Street, send a mail to gamersonthestreet@gmail.com, with your character name and server. You might just get a visit from a low-level character asking if you'd like to give your thoughts on what's going on in World of Warcraft!

(by:wowinsider)
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Fishing and fun (or the lack thereof)

Fishing is probably the strangest implementation of activity in WoW-- there's really nothing like it (well, except everything-- it's basically clicking in a certain place at a certain time, and when aren't you doing that in this game?). But for all its boring qualities, players are still fascinated with it. Blizzard has hit on that weird balance of positive reinforcement-- it's boring, but gives just enough reward to keep you doing it.

And so it's not surprising that, once again, players are asking for fishing to be made "more fun." What that means, no one is really sure-- they could add better rewards, or make it a less boring minigame, or just make it require less attention (all other professions don't require any attention to be paid).

Lo and behold, Drysc actually acknowledges that there's something wrong with fishing-- something that has to do with the unquantifiable quantity known as "fun." But what it is, even Blizzard doesn't seem to know-- they added nodes to fishing to join a bit of exploration with it, but once you've found a node, it's just back to that same old clicking. Drysc suggests that real fishing is just as boring for some people, and that's why not everyone likes fishing in WoW, either.

My personal preference would be to put more into the fishing minigame-- catch different fish at different times of the day, or use different lures to attract various catches. Either that or make the skill involved something other than "waiting"-- maybe a meter where you have to click when the bar reaches a certain point. There's lots of reasons to fish, and that's why people still do it. But there's no question that sitting there waiting for the bobber to bounce needs more cowbell fun.

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