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.”
The 12th Annual Webby Award nominees have been announced, and the Toyota Tacoma commercial featuring World of Warcraft has been nominated for an award in the Online Commercials category. Titled Tacoma Truck Summoner, the commercial shows a brave adventurer charging into combat against a dragon on "four wheels of fury," while defiantly ignoring his comrade’s plea that there are no trucks in World of Warcraft. The online spot, along with the other nominees, can be viewed on the Webby Awards website
To participate, you can sign up and vote for your favorite nominees on the Webby People's Voice site.
We invite you to participate in the Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain Music Video Contest brought to you by Comcast. Simply create a music video using footage from World of Warcraft and the original song, "Rogue's Do it From Behind" and submit it to us, via our submission page. Videos can be no bigger than 50 megabytes in size and must be recorded in .WMV, .MOV, or .AVI formats. The winning videos will be featured on our official website and the following prizes awarded:
Three (3) Grand Prize winners will each receive one (1) Ipod Touch 8GB version.
Five (5) First Place winners will each receive one (1) Logitech G15 keyboard, and one (1) World of Warcraft Battlechest signed by the members of L70ETC.
Complete contest rules, including requirements and eligibility can be found here.
The Tauren weapon size has been reverted in the latest internal build and is scheduled to go live next minor patch according to Nethaera.
The original intention of the Tauren weapon size change was to reduce weapon clipping with the ground when sheathed, but it was decided that the end result went beyond what was originally desired. After further review of the change and with feedback from the community as well as the development team, we will be reverting the change to the size of the Tauren weapons when sheathed. We will be making this change in the next upcoming patch and would like to thank the community for all of their constructive discussion on this matter.
Blizzard Europe has released a Spanish-Language Beta kit. What's this? If you are a spanish speaker and wish to play World of Warcraft's quests in spanish, simply download the kit and install it. Remember it is in beta stage, so it may require you to check out later a full version.
Blizzard Europa ha lanzado un paquete beta de lenguage espanol. Que es esto? Si hablas espanol y deseas jugar las misiones y dialogos de World of Warcraft en espanol, simplemente bajate este paquete e instalalo en tu computadora. Recuerda que este paquete de lenguage espanol esta en experimentacion beta, de modo que no te olvides de chequear de vez en cuando si la version final esta disponible. Bajalo muchacho!
In preparation for the upcoming Latin American-Spanish version of World of Warcraft, we are excited to invite our players to try out the beta version of the Latin American-Spanish language pack.
To participate, please download the language pack. For additional information, please refer to the FAQ below.
You can discuss any feedback regarding the Latin American-Spanish language pack on our official forums, where our quality assurance representatives will be on hand to read and respond to inquiries and reports.
ESPANOL
Como parte del proceso del lanzamiento de la versión de World of Warcraft para América Latina en español, nos entusiasma poder invitar a nuestros jugadores a probar la versión beta del paquete de idiomas para América Latina en español.
Para participar, por favor descarga el paquete de idiomas. Para mayor información, no olvides revisar el FAQ.
Puedes compartir cualquier tema relacionado con el paquete de idiomas en nuestros foros oficiales, donde nuestros representantes estarán disponibles para leer y responder a tus comentarios y dudas.
The new insider at the WoW Europe site reveals a lot behind the current status of Northrend, specially concerning transportation to Northrend. As well as PvP and PvE factors. This insider interview features the following WoW Developers: J. Allen Brack and Chris Robinson.
J. Allen Brack: That reminds me of another example: the turtle boat. If you look at Northrend, the continent is shaped a little bit like a crescent, with the two starting zones, Howling Fjord and Borean Tundra, at the ends. There’s a port located in the middle of the coast between these zones, and we wanted to have an easy method for traveling between the zones. The method of transportation we settled on is a giant turtle with a deck mounted on top of its shell, very much like the turtles from Warcraft II. It’s simple, effective, grounded in Warcraft lore, but it’s also one of those light moments that are so important to create the iconic Warcraft feel.
Gamespy scored a 7-pages interview with Tom Chilton concerning the 2008 Arena Tournament.
GameSpy: Arenas definitely turn WoW into more of a competitive game, but the Arena Tournament realm has a wildly different approach from the live realms. You can avoid the leveling and PvE game entirely, and start off with a full set of competitive PvP gear. Do you feel that players will want to have this kind of approach available at all times?
Tom Chilton: We don't really intend for the Arena Tournament realm to replace WoW. We do feel like the arena games are a game within the game, a meta-game of WoW. We don't necessarily want people to feel like WoW is no longer a game to them. Also, within that, it kind of makes sense to structure the tournaments in a way we're doing. They're not something we can run all the time, so we've broken them into this seasonal concept, allowing us to pace how often we have them, and to make sure that they're as well-supported as we can support them.
With the first round of qualification for the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament underway, we wanted to provide a schedule for the remainder of this qualifier and details on what each of the phases entails.
Phase 1 - The Practice Phase – Currently active and completes on April 22, 2008
There is no penalty for changing your team and you are free to move teams around.
At the end of this phase all arena team ratings will be reset to 1500 during maintenance.
Phase 2 - The Competition Phase - Active from April 22, 2008 to May 6, 2008
Every team will be reset to a 1500 rating and official rankings begin.
There will be a 150 team rating penalty for any player added to an arena team.
At the end of this phase all arena teams will be locked down and players will not be able to switch characters from arena teams.
Registration will also close at the end of this phase.
Phase 3 – The Final Phase – Active from May 6, 2008 to May 20, 2008
Registration is closed for this phase of qualification.
Players are no longer allowed to switch arena teams during this phase.
At the end of the phase, the top 4 rated teams from the Battlegroup will be invited to the regional qualifier if they meet all eligibility requirements.
Eligible teams must have played a minimum of 200 games during Phases 2 and 3 to be able to qualify to advance to the regional qualifier.
Each team member must have participated in 30% of their team’s games to be eligible to qualify.
First Qualification Round Schedule for North America:
Phase 1 ends and Phase 2 begins: April 22, 2008
Phase 2 ends and Phase 3 begins: May 6, 2008
Phase 3 and the first Qualifier ends: May 20, 2008
All teams are supposed to be locked down so I believe the ability to create teams is also disabled. If a character on a team has played less than 30% of the games, that character will not qualify, but the team will.
Today we reveal the new front cover of World of Warcraft# 6 by Samwise Didier, and a 5-pages sneak preview. Issue# 6 will be at newsstands and comic shops on April 16th. The revelation of Lo'gosh's true identity will happen at issue# 6 when Lo'gosh meets Jaina Proudmoore in Theramore. The old woman warlock in the cover is probably Aegwynn ... Medivh's mother.
As you may recall, during our Q&A with Walter Simonson in November, I asked if the human hero would meet Aegwynn in Theramore -- those who haven't read World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Jaina found Aegwynn in Kalimdor and worked together to banish a powerful demon back to the Twisting Nether. Aegwynn has remained beside Jaina ever since in Theramore as Jaina's personal advisor. Aegwynn's true form remains disguised. Some fans think Aegwynn is the night elf named Pained in the World of Warcraft MMO. Others that it is the male archmage at Jaina's side. We will probably find out that mystery in this issue.
You can view the front cover of issue# 6 and the 5-pages sneak preview at our World of Warcraft Comic Book section here.
Additionally, solicitations for issue# 9 are available below. Issue# 9 is scheduled for July 16th.
World of Warcraft Vol. 1 DC Comics (Wildstorm) Issues# 1-7
WORLD OF WARCRAFT VOL. 1
Again, if you have missed previous issues of World of Warcraft comic book, don't sweat. DC Comics is releasing a trade paperback collecting in a single tome issues# 1-7 (First story arc) under the title: World of Warcraft Vol. 1 -- you can pre-order it at our Store section
This is a very nice option to fans who wish to start collecting the WoW Comic book from scratch; those who recently started and missed the first issues, or simply to have them all in a single book. This Volume 1 contains 160 pages and will be available at bookstores and comic shops on July 29, 2008.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT - DELUXE COLLECTOR FIGURE: Series 3
TAUREN HUNTER: BRAVE HIGHMOUNTAIN
Exquisitely sculpted and intricately painted, fans of Warcraft will be thrilled to see the final in-game playable race, the Tauren, join DC Unlimited’s stunning figure line-up at last!
Advance-solicited; on sale December 3, 2008 (Action Figures)
MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT
You will find out the identity of the amnesic human by issue# 6 (April 16th). However, if you don't wish to know the amnesic human's identity in this spoiler solicitation for issue# 9 (July 2008) stop reading past this line because it is implied.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT #9
Lo’Gosh, Valeera, Broll, and Thargas make their way to Ironforge via a circuitous route through the Wetlands. And back in Stormwind, Prince Anduin suspects all is not as it seems with his father, King Varian.
On sale July 16 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Written by Walter Simonson. Covers by Samwise Didier and Ludo Lullabi
Art by Jon Landry & Jerome K. Moore
Blizzard just announced to have reached an agreement with The9 to publish Wrath of the Lich King in Asia:
Blizzard: "We're pleased to announce that our agreements with The9, our World of Warcraft partner in mainland China, and Soft-World, our World of Warcraft partner in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, have been updated to include the localization, operation, and support of Wrath of the Lich King for players in their respective regions. Further news, including release plans for each region, will be announced closer to launch." (Source)
I have something nice for you on Monday. It seems the samwise cover for issue# 6 may have been changed, or it may be an alternate cover. This cover shows Lo'gosh and Jaina Proudmoore facing each other. And in the background stands a powerful long-lost wizard hinted on Blizzplanet's Q&A with Walter Simonson some time ago. Yes, your mind is right. Ohh! Sweet!
What else? Solicitations for World of Warcraft# 9 including its front cover by Ludo Lulabi and one more thing for Horde fans coming from DC Direct. Stay tuned for the front cover# 6 and 5-pages preview tomorrow Monday at 6pm EST.
In the meantime, check out both interviews with Walter Simonson(Writer) and Ludo Lullabi (Artist), and our Wow Comic Section.
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