BLIZZCON 2008 HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED PEOPLE! That's right, double the excitement, double the fun ... a Diablo game must likely be announced this year. My money is on WWI. Crosses fingers. Blizzard better do! Read more
Back by popular demand, and now with 50% more hall space for your convention-going enjoyment, BlizzCon officially returns to the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, on October 10–11. Join us for another epic celebration -- meet your guildmates and fellow gamers from around the world; spend some quality time with current and upcoming Blizzard games; and partake in the contests, tournaments, and developer discussion panels that make up BlizzCon. Check out the press release to learn more, and stay tuned for further updates.
BLIZZCON™ 2008 ANNOUNCED
Blizzard Entertainment® gaming convention returns to Anaheim Convention Center October 10–11
IRVINE, Calif. – May 12, 2008 – – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its third BlizzCon™ gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®'s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises. In response to the demand to accommodate more attendees, this year's event has expanded from two convention halls to three.
"Whenever we've been able to meet and interact with Blizzard gamers from around the world, it's been a great experience for us," stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're looking forward to seeing even more of our players at this year's BlizzCon and delivering another entertaining and informative event for them."
BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities to help all attendees get the most out of the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:
Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment releases
Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
Areas and activities devoted to licensed products such as the World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game
Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes
Commemorative merchandise based on the Blizzard Entertainment franchises
A silent auction
More exciting activities to be announced
Tickets for BlizzCon will go on sale in the next few weeks at a price of $100 USD per person. As the event draws closer, further details will be announced on the official BlizzCon website: www.blizzcon.com.
Newsarama interviewed Walter Simonson at the New York Comic Con. Watch the video interview
Simonson chats about his current work on DC/Wildstorm's World of Warcraft, including how his 15 year-old grandson helps granddad with the series, as well as the work of Simonson's better half - writer Louise "Weezie" Simonson - on the upcoming Gotham Knights animated DVD.
MMOGamer has a 3-pages interview with Jeffrey “Tigole” Kaplan to discuss Wrath of the Lich King. Tigole answered questions concerning inflation, itemization, dual raiding system (10 and 25-players raid), Deathknight in PvP, and resilience.
Ten Ton Hammer and Curse were there along with MMOGamer to pitch questions at Tigole at the Blizzard Headquarters in Irvine. This interview is available as a transcript and as a streaming audio you can listen to.
Ten Ton Hammer: How are you guys handling Death Knight PvP? It seems like a pretty—I wouldn’t say overpowered class—but, you’re introducing a whole new system in there with the runes and that sort of thing. How are you guys blending Death Knight into the current classes, as far as PvP goes?
Jeffrey Kaplan: I was thinking of that when we were watching Tom and Lee do the demo, “Man, this is going to freak everybody out when he shows them the pull towards ability, or the Chains of Ice, or Death and Decay with the fear going off…” If you can’t see the arena implications behind some of that…
But, even if we hadn’t introduced the Death Knight in Wrath of the Lich King—we have the talent panes disabled on the machines in there, but, if we were to show you the talent panes right now for the remaining classes, and the new abilities that they’re getting, the class balance, as you know it today, is going to change pretty drastically without the introduction of the new class.
We’re adding ten new talent points, new tiers across all three of the trees across every class, adding new core abilities, and retuning old abilities. Take a look at Warrior rend, or Thunder Clap, there are ones in there that are old abilities for classes where they didn’t use them, or they felt ineffective…
We’re going to have to rebalance PvP in this expansion, anyway. So it’s kind of, if anything, the perfect time to introduce the Death Knight, and make sure it works within that balance.
Our fellow fansite WorldofWar.net has a 6-pages Wrath of the Lich King Hands-On Preview. Maticus was among the press representatives who visited Blizzard Headquarters recently to witness a private meeting with Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton, and to play the game.
In this preview, they explain step by step their video. This is pretty much the same video from Gamespy -- who edited it into 6 mini-videos. Worldofwar shows them as a single bigger video. While you are at it, their WoWTV seems to be like a Wow-version of YouTube. Make sure to register an account.
Gamespy has various videos of important places in Wrath of the Lich King that have not been shown before such as the Sholazar Basin and Zul'Drak. There are videos of Borean Tundra, Grizzly Hills, Dragonblight, Howling Fjord and a Vehicle Combat. You can watch the videos here.
Gamespy also opened a Wrath of the Lich King portal with various links to content such as interviews, previews, screenshots, etc.
Brief Description
FLYING COMBAT
The Vehicle Combat video is short but it let's you grasp the idea of how certain quests in Northrend will be. The bombing quest in Ogri'la (Blade's Edge Mountains) was just practice. This time around air combat is introduced in full swing by using your Wyvern (Horde) or Gyrocopter (Alliance) to shoot at flying enemies such as Gargoyles. You can jump down with a parachute if things go bad. Are we looking here at the future of PvP? Drools!
THE BOREAN TUNDRA
The Borean Tundra video is beautiful. The environment is so colorful, different and alien to anything we have seen before in World of Warcraft. On the sea you see orcas swimming around and not quietly friendly. We see a Tuskarr village briefly, an Alliance Fortress on an Isle by the coast with a lighthouse not far away. A farm with robotic scarecrows that resemble Westfall with more vivid colors and textures. The camera shifts to see the exterior of an orc fortress. The interior of the orc fortress has giant orc statue different to the one in Shattered Halls. Anyone would say the orcs are preparing for war ... the interior looks like a forge with goblins roaming around, or working on machinery and robots. A tauren hammering on an anvil and various orc NPCs working. In the frozen wastelands we see blue dragons, blue dragonkin and blue drakonids ... but wait, is that a human warlock running among the camp? Did the Scourge manage to bend the blue dragonflight to their will? The interior of what looks like a dungeon looks pretty with variants of blue shades on iced walls and runed grounds. Another scene shows living iced Treants and Ancient Tree Protectors among crystal-like trees with intense colors. This is definitely a dungeon. Probably the Nexus. You can see human warlocks with two felhunters patroling inside a cave tunnel among blue dragonkin, drakonids and drakes. There is another area in this video that looks like a mix of Shimmering Flats and Silithus with some extra features. Geysers (Hot Springs) everywhere and many water ponds with what looks like Gnomish buildings and excavation gear. The gear and pipes seem to be syphoning the water from these ponds. This place makes no sense. The only thing that comes to mind is a dried out portion of the sea. Or what was once frozen wastelands has been melted down. You can see coral-like formations near the geysers. The video ends showing a huge Undead Scourge city with abominations guarding the entrances, and warlocks casting on a Crypt Lord.
THE DRAGONBLIGHT
The Dragonblight video shows different locations that contrast among each other: green areas with vegetation, frozen wastelands, Undead Scourge inhabited locations with blight and toxic mists, and alien landscapes. First we see a Undead Scourge inhabited area: A building made of wood and bones sitting on the border of a waterfall. Warlocks casting redish spells into what looks like flying gargoyles. The ambient hues are suffocating with a dirty mist. The camera shifts to show for first time a Nerubian with a long crested head. The camera shifts to what looks like a Temple with ruins all across the landscape fallen into a deep crater. From the view you can see Cult of the Damned Human Warlocks casting purplish spells at the building. The landscape is a deep dark purple, with snow. The mist is purple too. The camera shifts again to show more temple scenery and far more Human Warlocks casting -- but now we see an interesting creature ... it looks exactly like Vexallus from the Halls of Theory of the Magister's Terrace in the Sunwell Isle. There is another cave area that reminds me of Onyxia's Lair, at least the entrance has that unique look with the fang-like gate opening -- but no dragon is shown. Lot of lava stuff. Another scene shows a paradise-like ambient contrasting with the other icy-locations. This scene shows a giant dragon skeleton half-buried in the ground and ponds, with a huge greenish statue. If you have seen the Emerald Dream videos -- that you shouldn't have seen ya'know -- this statue is the same seen in the Emerald Dream which is from Titans origin. Another scene shows a frozen cave with Frost Mountain giants. In an outdoors area, you see a human cathedral at the top of a cliff. Then a Undead Scourge village with a floating Necropolis, Frost Wyrms flying above, and some new Scourge construct-monsters.
GRIZZLY HILLS
Grizzly Hills look like a huge forest similar to what Silverpine Forest would have looked like. Giant and thick trees, dark redish brown ground. The Human settlements show logging activity. The port has many naval fleet boats -- unlike the transport boats, these are the Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness typical Battleship, and one in particular looks like a South Seas boat with the red and black stripes on the sail. The camera shifts to another scene that is quietly interesting ... and hard to describe. You have seen images before of a huge fallen tree, but you haven't seen the trunk. There is a huge tree trunk, inside it is a big village of huts, and at the center of the trunk a small pond. The ambient looks eerie. Who lives in this village ... umm ... trunk? Hmm. On another Grizzly Hills scene we finally see the Dwarves fortress Thor Modan. These were Dwarves who came with Arthas to Northrend. They created their own fortress after Arthas abandoned his Alliance crew at the Howling Fjord and dedicated to seek more clues about their ancestry and the Titans. There is gonna be some juicy Explorer's League quests I suppose. Thor Modan looks really neat and detailed with gray iron walls and columns. I will really want to level up my Draenei Paladin alt to explore this place.
SHOLAZAR BASIN
When the video started, I thought for a brief second I was back at my home: Puerto Rico. I was born in New York, but grew up there almost half my life. You are welcomed in the video to a verdant paradise with coconut trees and what resemble a plantain tree. Those are the smaller trees, dwarfed by taller trees. Rivers and waterfalls, a few hotsprings here and there. Explorer League tents in the jungle. And on another area, there is a full swing excavation site with yellow crystals, more tents and gear.
ZUL'DRAK
Zul'Drak is breath-taking. The capital city of the Drakkari Troll tribe: Gun'Drak, is immense. It is not as simple looking as Zul'Aman or Zul'Gurub. This is an advanced civilization. This is the Creme of the Troll cities. According to the World of Warcraft RPG: Lands of Mystery book, this city is ruled by Frost King Malakk (male Drakkari troll witch doctor). A sight that makes me ponder ... in one of the terraces there is a flying serpent skeleton very alive and moving ... could it be Hakkar the Soulflayer? There are many troll temples in different areas it seems. The video shows the same kind of buildings in different climates. One is on ice land, the other one on warmer land. One of these buildings at the beginning of the video seems to be Drak'Tharon Keep -- there you may see abominations, a Lich and the buffed up Hulk-like Trolls. Drak'Tharon used to be a troll city, but the Undead Scourge took possession of the place. Where did I find the names of all these places and people? You are behind in lore ... get the WoW RPG: Lands of Mystery. It was released on 2006.
IGN has an interview with Lead Producer J. Allen Brack about Wrath of the Lich King.
IGN: We heard about a lot of the content in Wrath of the Lich King in your presentation, but what we didn't see was anything about the new profession features. Could you fill us in on what's been going on there?
J. Allen Brack: Inscription is the new profession; it's actually one of my favorite parts of the new expansion. Right now what we're working on is creating the system for how you actually create and inscribe scrolls. The way it's going to work is you'll have a series of mats that you need to do and then you'll create a scroll that will actually do the buff of the spell in question. Each scroll will have a specific use, so you won't create a generic scroll, it'll be a special scroll that will upgrade this fireball to do this type of thing. Right now we're still trying to make sure we've got that kind of mechanic down. That's actually most of the work. Most of the work is figuring out how that all works, what the materials are, how that comes together, and once we have that, then figuring out what the individual spells are and what the individual spells are and what the effects are going to be is going to be relatively easy.
A second interview with Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) may be read here. Here we have very nice spoilers about Naxxaramas, the Nexus in Coldarra (Malygos' Lair), and the Deathknight.
IGN: Can you talk a bit about the Death Knight's abilities.
Jeffrey Kaplan: Yeah so he has three presences which are similar to Paladin auras in that it's an activated ability that is always up on him. The difference between a Death Knight presence and a Paladin aura is a presence only affects the Death Knight. Some of them are tailored more towards DPS, like the blood presence and the unholy presence, whereas the frost presence is really tailored around the Death Knight tanking. The Death Knight gets some super-cool abilities; I think army of the dead is my favorite, where it's an area of effect, moderate cooldown, rain down ghouls on everything around you. They really overwhelm the scene. I love the raise dead ability. And that one he can cast on a number of different targets, so if I'm out there fighting in Northrend and kill something, I can cast raise dead and bring a summoned ghoul out of the corpse to fight alongside with me. But if I'm out there adventuring with you I can cast raise dead on your corpse and then you don't get to come back as you but you do get to come back as this very fun ghoul who has a whole action bar of abilities.
IGN: What about the rune resource system the Death Knight uses?
Jeffrey Kaplan: So you have six runes total and you'll always have six runes. You'll get to pick, and there's actually a forging process where you put those in your blade, you'll get to pick how many of those you have within six. So if you wanted four blood runes, one unholy, and one frost and that's the six you're going to run with, you can totally do that. We want there to be some customization in how a Death Knight manages his resources and let him choose. The runes have their own separate, independent cooldown as you consume them. Right now it's feeling good at about 10 seconds per [rune]. And then there are also abilities and talents that can trigger an instant refresh or conversion that consumes your blood but puts it into frost. You get a lot of run resource gameplay that way.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King new info and screenshots are showing up all around. Below are some of the hands-on previews:
G4TV X-PLAY confirmed to Blizzplanet they will have a World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Preview this Monday, May 12th at 8PM ET (-5GMT). Make sure to visit them. I will post a heads up, and embed the video if available.
Various Press Networks were invited by Blizzard to visit their new headquarters in Irvine, including Felicia Day. G4TV was among the invitees having the opportunity to see and play Wrath of the Lich King hands-on. Spread the word.
Blizzard has launched a new contest where you have the opportunity to get a Wrath of the Lich King Beta Key. According to contest rules on USA the following may participate:
THIS CONTEST IS OPEN ONLY TO RESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, AND NEW ZEALAND, WHICH ARE: (i) THIRTEEN YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER ON THE DATE REFERENCED BELOW AS THE START DATE FOR THE CONTEST; AND (ii) WHO ARE NOT RESIDENTS OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC, CANADA OR RESIDENTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN STATES OF VICTORIA, QUEENSLAND OR THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY ("ENTRANTS").
EUROPE
"The competition is opened to anyone aged 18 or more residing in France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Luxemburg, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Spain, or in Ireland, except Blizzard's personnel and their family, affiliates or business partners."
You've seen the icy, menacing eyes, and gleaming metal and heard the ominous names of Arthas holding Frostmourne. Now we are calling all artists to bring these images to life with their vision of Arthas with Frostmourne!
Starting May 7, 2008, Epic Weapons and Blizzard Entertainment will be looking for the best original pieces of artwork that show the Lich King Arthas Menethil wielding his trusted runeblade Frostmourne and the Grand Prize Winner will receive a full sized 47" long replica of the Frostmourne sword courtesy of Epic Weapons and a guaranteed entry into the beta test of Wrath of the Lich King! Two runner up winners will also be selected for entry into the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King beta test.
We'd like to extend our thanks to Epic Weapons for the generous donation of the Frostmourne replica for this event, and for more information about Frostmourne, you can head over to www.epicweapons.com.
J!NX informed Blizzplanet of the House Clearance of the remaining World of Warcraft T-Shirts at only $5.00 each. This is your opportunity to get ahold of one of these ... (Disc scratching noise) whoa? That's four T-Shirts for the price of one? Get ahold of them to keep them as a collectible on a frame; or to wear them proudly at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals or to show off at college or among co-workers.
The J!NX World of Warcraft T-Shirts Sale will close on May 14th, 2008 -- so hurry up and grab yours!
Registration for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament's first qualification round is now closed and Phase 3 of the tournament has begun. Participants have been battling it out on the tournament realms for the past two weeks while fine-tuning their team composition and strategies. Phase 3 of the tournament includes a lockdown of the teams that will be jockeying for position to compete in the regional finals. To track the progress of your team and the competition as a whole, please visit the World of Warcraft Armory. For more information on the tournament, please visit our Arena Tournament information page. Good luck to all competitors!
I am preparing for the next World of Warcraft Comic Book Q&A. This time around Jim Lee from Wildstorm is the next artist to interview. Is there anything you would love to ask this illustrous artist legend? Feel free to submit your questions for the Q&A here
Trays and The Guild Cast Crew were invited to visit the new Blizzard Headquarters in Irvine. Read their blog entry
This Wednesday The Guild was invited to tour Blizzard! Guided by our intrepid tour guides Kenny and Kasey, The Guild had a fantastic, geek extravaganza and thoroughly outstayed their welcome. Yay!
Jeff Lewis (Vork) volunteered to write the blog entry of our experience there. We hope you enjoy reading about it after the jump, and again, thank you Blizzard!!!
Hey, I had to post about this because it is a great achievement of the guild I play with for over a year since Burning Crusade started. Last week we defeated Mother Shahraz.
After some weeks of trials, tonight finally got our first Archimonde kill with a 24-man raid. Only two Shamans. It was an exhausting night with two Flask of Restoration spent and 4-5 Super Mana oils. I didn't get the T6 Helm, but killing Archimonde was more rewarding in my opinion. I already have T6 Gloves and Shoulders. More importantly, three T6 dropped from Archimonde which means three stronger players to fuel upcoming Archimonde fights and Illidari Council at the Black Temple. Once we get the Illidari down, it will be Illidan's time to be prepared for us. GG Prelude @ Zul'jin.
The 2008 Arena Tournament is on Phase 2 and players can still experiment different classes and respec free to test their talent tree. The final date for registration ends on May 6, and the real competition will start thereafter. I hopped into the Arena Tournament Server invited by Blizzard to offer Blizzplanet's audience a view and taste. I wrote a brief Arena Tournament Beginner's Guide. It tells you what you need to know and where to find certain items and gear.
First thing you should know is that you get unlimited gold and free respecs. Everyone has more or less the same gear, and enchantments are provided by Arena vendors as inscriptions for all your gear. Are you among the players who haven't registered to the Arena Tournament? Take a look at the Beginner's Guide and find out if it is worth giving it a shot. Blizzard has put a lot of work to balance the gear, gems and enchantments for this tournament, and cheer skills is what will decide who the winner is.
The MI6 (Gaming Marketing) Conference chose Blizzard Entertainment among the Gold Winners in a couple of categories. The event took place from April 8-9 at the Hyatt Hotel, San Francisco.
MI6 is the world’s largest video game marketing conference, bringing together
leading industry executives for two days of dialogue, discussion and debate about the international business of video game marketing.
From in-game advertising to micro transaction strategies to innovative multi-platform campaigns that drive retail and online sales, MI6 provides context and continuity in the evolving world of monetizing video game IP.
Now in its third year, MI6 has emerged as the most important must-attend event for creative and strategic marketing executives dedicated to serving existing markets and identifying new ones. (List of Winners)
Congratulations, Blizzard:
Best Wrapping - Product Packaging
World of Warcraft Expansion: The Burning Crusade Collector's Edition Packaging
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Sharpest Pen Award - Best Copywriting/TV or Theatrical
World of Warcraft Television Ad: Mr. T 'Night Elf Mohawk'
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
The latest test realm patch notes can always be found here.
Hunter
Dire Ravens in Blade’s Edge Mountains now tameable.
Tamed Drywallow Snappers now will know Bite 5 (instead of Claw 5.)
Mages
Talent: Improved Blink (Arcane) now reduces chance to be hit by 13/25% and the duration of Rank 1 has been increased to 4 seconds.
Completing the quest “Arcane Refreshment” will now properly teach the spell Conjure Water (Rank 7).
PvP
Arenas
If a character’s personal rating is more than 150 points below the team rating, they will earn points based on their personal rating instead of the team rating.
If the average personal rating of the players queuing for a game is more than 150 points below the team’s rating, the team will be queued against an opponent matching or similar to the average personal rating.
Blizzard Entertainment has announced Phase 2 of the 2008 WoW Arena Tournament has kicked in. Participate and proof your worth as the best.
Blizzard: "Phase 2 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament's first qualification round has begun. Tournament participants have had ample time during the practice phase to hone their strategies, try various team compositions, and gain experience playing with their team. It's now time for the real games to begin! To track the progress of your team and competition, please visit the World of Warcraft Armory and select the Coliseum 1 battlegroup. For more information on the tournament please visit our Arena Tournament information page. Good luck to all competitors!"
Vollee has just released a video demonstrating their application in action running Second Life on an actual 3G Mobile Phone. The video demonstration shows a character exploring the virtual world, and the player is able to join a guild chat to read, type and interact with friends.
The awesomeness of this application technology by Vollee is that 3D data is not rendered by the 3G mobile phone's built-in graphic components. The Second Life game is being streamed straight from Vollee's servers as mediator between your PC computer at home and your 3G mobile phone.
Personally, I do not have a 3G Cell phone, but I am sure this will be very appealing to fans who do have one. I was informed the service will be made available for free to anyone with a 3G phone who signs up for the Beta trial by visiting http://www.vollee.com/secondlife.
Blizzard Entertainment, Vivendi and Activision Blizzard have not made any official announcement concerning World of Warcraft Mobile, BattleChat or any plans with Vollee. However, Vollee has announced relationships with Linden Lab, Activision, Codemasters and Encore in past months.
Please share your feedback over at the following forum thread. I want to read your feedback after you have tested this, and my question for you is:
1. Would you like this feature for World of Warcraft?
2. What other World of Warcraft features would you like to have access to from a 3G Mobile Phone?
3. How could this benefit eSports if Starcraft 2 and Battle.net 2.0 goes mobile?
4. Would you like to watch live eSport broadcasts or replays on your mobile?
Not long ago, I reported sighting of a new trademark registered by Blizzard Entertainment ... BattleChat. Seems like Blizzard Mobile Division is cooking a few surprises for one or more games.
UPPER DECK ENTERAINMENT SELLS OUT ANOTHER WORLD OF WARCRAFT® TRADING CARD GAME EXPANSION SET IN THE U.S
‘Servants of the Betrayer™’ Expansion Becomes Third World of Warcraft TCG Set to Sell-Out in the U.S.
Continuing to remain one of the top trading card games (TCG) in the industry, Upper Deck Entertainment (UDE) is pleased to announce today that the U.S. version of the World of Warcraft® TCG’s expansion set, Servants of the Betrayer™, is sold-out! Servants of the Betrayer is the third English-language set in the TCG series to be sold out since the game’s debut in 2006, joining Fires of Outland™ and Feast of Winter Veil™ in a line of sold-out sets.
Featuring brand-new, highly sought-after Loot™ card items (which provides unique cosmetic upgrades to online characters), it’s no wonder Servants of the Betrayer has sold out quantities in the U.S. The set’s Loot card items include: an epic X-51 Nether-Rocket flying mount, which allows players to fly through the skies of Outland; a Personalized Weather Maker, which gives players their very own weather system ranging from sunshine and rain, to snow; and the first-ever Super Common Loot card, Papa Hummel’s Old Fashion Biscuits, which allows lucky players to double the size of their cosmetic pet!
In addition to the uniquely coded Loot cards, Servants of the Betrayer also features Traitor Heroes, Aldor and Scryer quests, and unreleased abilities for players’ decks. Each pack includes 19 game play cards and 1 UDE Point card. The set becomes the fifth booster set in the World of Warcraft TCG series.
Players can look forward to the next expansion set in the TCG series, The Hunt of Illidan™ (July 2008) and the new Black Temple™ Raid Decks (September 2008),which will feature a new 12-card new Treasure Pack, and for the first time ever, expanded tournament-legal content in the Raid Deck.
For more information on Servants of the Betrayer, the World of Warcraft TCG and its Organized Play Programs, please log onto www.wowtcg.com or www.upperdeckstore.com.
DC Comics released many photos of their team and products at the New York Comic Con in the Javits Center. I gathered some of the photos for you below. If you wish to see the whole coverage go to the DC Comics press Page. I was able to see Jim Lee, but couldn't get to talk to him. There was an immense line up of fans waiting to get their comic books signed by this famous artist. I was standing within handshake distance. Hopefully, next year. There may be a chance I will be interviewing him in a few months. I have exchanged around three emails with him since weeks before the World of Warcraft comic book was announced officially by DC Comics. Blizzplanet alerted the Blizzard community, Newsarama and Kotaku of the making of the comic book ... ten days before the official announcement.
I walked to the DC Comic huge area at New York Comic Con. It was packed with people. I went there to take a look at the DC Unlimited World of Warcraft Action Figures to bare witness of how they look like "on-your-face". I was left in awe. They look far much better than in any high-quality photo. Metalic colors, complex textures and details. Even the figures that look less appealing in photos, simply looked superb in close range. The king of the hill among the figures, my opinion, was the upcoming December 2008 massive Tauren. That thing was huge and bulky in comparison with any of the other action figures. I am very sure it will be sold out before release date if they set pre-orders. Below are some photos from the DC media shown at the official website. Walter Simonson, who I interviewed a few months ago, was at New York Comic Con.
The World of Warcraft Tacoma Truck Summoner TV Commercial by Saatchi & Saatchi LA Agency has been nominated for the 2008 Webby Awards among other four nominees under the ONLINE COMMERCIALS category. You can cast your vote to choose and support this TV Commercial as the winner. Register an account and vote for the best here.
Were you one of the attendees at NY Comic Con and recorded sound or video of the Warcraft/Starcraft panel? Please contact me here.
Update: Susan Hale from Tokyopop replied today. I saw one of the Tokyopop ladies record the Fantasy Worlds and Manga panel with a digicam at the New York Comic Con. Susan says the Tokyopop webmaster will have that video up soon at the Tokyopop website.
I will keep you updated with a direct link once it has been uploaded to their website. Hopefully, they also have the Warcraft/Starcraft panel video. If any fan who attended the event got to record audio or video you are still welcome to contact me with a link. I was hoping to take video myself, but an arrangement with two companies fell through, and the backup plan too.
Richard A. Knaak brought me to the Upper Deck booth at New York Comic Con and introduced me to Anna Maria Mannino (Upper Deck Public Relations Coordinator, Publicist). Anna Maria was very polite and helpful. I got a lot of documentation and high quality photos of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game expansion booster and starter packs, promo artwork, and display artwork. (89.5MB)
The most important thing in the media kit - for some fans who have been awaiting word for weeks - is the World of Warcraft Miniature Game by Upper Deck. The Core Set will include 66 premium collectible, pre-painted miniatures featuring iconic WoW® heroes and monsters, including the mighty Warchief Thrall! And Three factions. Suggested Retail Price is Starters $24.99, Boosters $14.99 and Deluxe Starters $39.99. Release date: October 2008.
We have high-quality images of these figures. Below you can download one of both zip files: either the whole folder (146MB) which includes Call of Duty, Yu-Gi-Oh, WoW TCG, and Marvel media; or download the Wow Only zip file which only includes the Wow TCG, and WoW Miniature Game media.
If you find any problem decompressing the files, you may contact me here. The high resolution images vary in resolutions of 200-300dpi so that you may scroll and view textures and details of each figure in more real life terms. I encourage you to download the zip file. At the bottom of this article you may find lower resolution images, but the detail won't be so crispy.
The Official World of Warcraft Miniatures Game website launched today April 20th. You can read the introduction page here. Make sure to bookmark the official site WoWMinis.com for upcoming updates. Below is the press release attached to the New York Comic Con media kit.
Don’t Miss the North American Debut of the World of Warcraft® Miniature Game at the GAMA Trade Show. Exclusive Promo Mini! Premiere of the Dragon Onyxia!
This year at the GAMA Trade Show, retailers will get their first look at production quality World of Warcraft Miniatures – and can even take one home! At the event, held in Las Vegas from April 20th through 23rd, and open only to hobby industry professionals, Upper Deck will be giving out one GAMA-exclusive promotional figure per hobby store location. Attendees should be sure to come to the Upper Deck Brand Presentation at 4 pm on Monday, April 21st to pick up a promo figure redemption badge. Visit the all-new WoWMinis.com site for more information about the product.
There are also two great reasons to be at the Upper Deck booth at noon on Tuesday, the 22nd. First, redemptions for the GAMA promo figure will begin. Be sure to bring the redemption badge from the Brand Presentation! Additionally, at that time Upper Deck will also unveil – for the first time anywhere – the Dragon Onyxia for World of Warcraft Minis!
Background
The World of Warcraft Miniatures Game will feature intricate 3-D renditions of iconic characters from Blizzard Entertainment®’s hugely popular World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). World of Warcraft Miniatures will showcase superior artistry and industry-leading material quality, continuing Upper Deck’s tradition of setting new market standards of excellence. To ensure its first collectible pre-painted plastic miniatures embody exceptional quality, Upper Deck has recruited some of the industry’s most talented sculptors from all over the world, including Jacques-Alexandre Gillois (France), Juan Navarro Perez (Spain), Stefan Niehues (Germany) and Steve Saunders (USA).
Each deluxe pre-painted miniature will showcase a detailed version of an iconic World of Warcraft® character and be mounted on a uniquely engineered removable base, allowing each figure to serve as both game piece and collectible. In the spirit of the action and adventure of Blizzard Entertainment’s MMORPG, the World of Warcraft® Miniatures Game will offer standalone raid and dungeon scenarios, letting players battle either individually or cooperatively against other teams of players or the game itself.
UPPER DECK will also launch a robust Organized Play structure for the new World of Warcraft® Miniatures Game, including everything from hobby and in-store tournament programs to Darkmoon Faire events and National and World Championship tournaments.
Uwe Boll was short of shown the door by Paul Sams, Blizzard VP of Business Operations. Some fans will go "happy happy joy joy!" after knowing that he won't be the World of Warcraft film director. (Source: MTV)
But if you’re not going to make a faithful adaptation, why make an adaptation at all? Apparently, the folks over at Blizzard wonder the same thing, since they practically laughed Boll out of their offices when he approached them about making a World of Warcraft adaptation, the director confessed.
“I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, ‘We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you,’” Boll revealed. “Because it’s such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it.”
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