If you were lucky enough to get to Blizzcon this year, you were also lucky enough to get the exclusive non-combat pet, Grunty – the Murloc Marine!
Now if that weren’t adorable enough, if you were also lucky enough (or know someone who was, rather) to get the collector’s edition of the original World of Warcraft game, you have the option with each new character to get a mini-diablo non-combat pet, a panda non-combat pet, or a zergling non-combat pet, in all of his spiky glory.
Now since there are two non-combat pets from Starcraft in World of Warcraft, someone decided to see what would happen if you had them both out at the same time (or discovered it by chance) – they fight! The video above shows that whoever is out first is the winner, but it’s so perfect that the two of them would go at it like this. Now I’m going to have to keep my zergling out all the time.
The folks over at WoW.com posted this (along with a ton of other excellent on-site live coverage of Blizzcon 2009), and if there’s anything I particularly love, it’s cosplay and costume contests. I know, I know, a lot of you probably completely despise cosplay and costumes and think it’s only the kind of thing geeky nerds would do and I’m sure you’re absolutely sure you’re better than anyone who would ever express their fandom this way, and if that’s the case skip this post and move on.
That being said, for those folks who can appreciate the time and effort and passion that anyone who puts together a costume for their favorite fandom, whether it’s because they’re headed to an anime convention, ComicCon, or in this case, Blizzcon, take a look at the video of the finalists in this year’s Blizzcon costume contest!
There’s an absolutely stunning Valeera Sanguinar, an incredibly detailed shaman, a pally named Guido, a shivarra complete with six arms, a really REALLY elaborate Mistress of Pain, and of course, the legend himelf, Kel’Thuzad. Who wins? You’ll have to check out the video to find out!
So all of the rumors, all the leaks, they all turned out to be true.
This morning, Metzen got on stage at Blizzcon and made official what Warcraft fans on the Web have been arguing about for the past week or so. The next expansion to World of Warcraft will be called Cataclysm.
The Maelstrom roars and rips Azeroth apart: all starting zones are being reworked, and as a result of the chaos and world-changing events, zones that were previously off-limits and closed to us will now be open. The Greymane wall has been shattered, and the Night Elves step up to bring the Worgen into the Alliance. The Goblins of Kazzan (one faction of Goblins, not all of them) who lives on islands out to sea have fled their homelands because of the trauma, only to become refugees in a strange land they’d never seen, fighting enemies they don’t know (like the Kul’Tiras) – and when all seems lost for them, the Orcs step up to offer a hand of friendship and bring them into the Horde.
The Cataclysm is truly cataclysmic: Darkshore is re-made, Auberdine is destroyed. Ashenvale falls and Astranaar is firebombed by the horde. Lava runs where the Barrens used to be. Desolace is now a vibrant, lush place, and ruin exists where cities once stood and vice versa. As a result, the Horde and Alliance battle even more to secure scarce resources as the world is turned upside down. Races adapt new classes to keep up the fight (also as leaked), and finally you can fly in Azeroth.
And above it all? Deathwing has returned.
From the site:
An ancient evil lies dormant within Deepholm, the domain of earth in the Elemental Plane.
Hidden away in a secluded sanctuary, the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing has waited, recovering from the wounds of his last battle against Azeroth and biding his time until he can reforge the world in molten fire.
Soon, Deathwing the Destroyer will return to Azeroth, and his eruption from Deepholm will sunder the world, leaving a festering wound across the continents. As the Horde and Alliance race to the epicenter of the cataclysm, the kingdoms of Azeroth will witness seismic shifts in power, the kindling of a war of the elements, and the emergence of unlikely heroes who will rise up to protect their scarred and broken world from utter devastation.
update: The WoW Class, Items, and Professional Panel just with the man, the myth, the legend, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, just ended, and there were HUGE announcements. Just a teaser? Armor penetration? Gone. Mana per 5-seconds? Gone. Defense? Gone. Block Value? Gone. Hunters use focus now instead of mana. Everyone gets a stamina boost. Itemization is going to change. Want more info? WoW.com was liveblogging the entire panel – read all of the announcements here!
Yes, Felicia Day, we do want to date your avatar. Boy do we want to date your avatar. And we’re apparently not alone, either – the hashtag #datemyavatar is huge on Twitter right now, and the stars of The Guild are well worth the commotion.
If you’re not watching The Guild, you really realy need to be – considering it’s available on the Web, on XBox Live, on YouTube, and just about everywhere else easy to get, there’s no excuse for you not watching this hilarious show about a group of real-life friends and very human characters who all get together in their favorite MMO to escape from their real-world troubles, raid some dungeons, and gear up their characters. The show isn’t built around any particular MMO, but the inspiration from games like World of Warcraft is completely unmistakable, so WoW fans will be more than rewarded for watching.
Seriously, the video is a combination of hilarious and sexy – perfect for a gamer’s sensibilities, don’t you think? Head over here to see The Guild – Do You Wanna Date My Avatar in all of it’s HD, full-scren glory!
update: love the song? Want to support the cast of The Guild? Head over and download the mp3 and/or the video at AmazonMP3 and at iTunes!
I came in on this series a bit late, and wound up downloading the entire thing in all of its 20 minute glory from Warcraft Movies, and I’d suggest you do the same if you’re a fan of this type of machinima. Complete with Arthas dancing, naked blood elf ladies (definitely NSFW), multi-lingual glory, gnome armies, and Draenei rushing out to buy vibrating gnomes, Never Stay Tuned 4 has probably some of the funniest skits I’ve seen in a WoW video, including a House spoof that’s right on the money.
It’s linked below, but you’ve really got to blow it up to full screen to see it in all of it’s glory. Just a final warning – this is probably not work safe. Okay, it’s definitely not work safe, but it’s oh so hilarious. To watch in HD, see it here at Vimeo.
Okay, this killed me. Literally had me struggling to keep from laughing at my desk at work so loud everyone in the office could hear. It doesn’t help that the video is made by the MyndFlame crew: the same folks who brought you the legendary Illegal Danish videos. Click play, or head over to YouTube to see the whole thing in all it’s widescreen glory!
I stumbled on this a couple of weeks ago and immediately thought it was hilarious. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a preference in faction really – my first world of warcraft character ever was a Tauren Druid, and my second was a Night Elf Hunter. Granted, I’ve come to play mostly Alliance characters these days, but that’s just because that’s where my friends have been. (If you play horde and know some nice people on a good server, let me know! I’d love to meet you!)
But that being said, there’s no debate that there are simply more Alliance players in the game overall than horde players, and the old stereotype that horde players are a little elitist doesn’t come for no reason. A lot of it’s been diluted since Burning Crusade, but old habits are hard to beat.
Speaking of stereotypes, it looks like there’s some validity to the whole “Alliance players are all kids” one, as proved by the first episode of Alliance v. Horde:
The venerable WoW.com tipped us off a while back that a one brave World of Warcraft fan had a dream: a dream that the game were full of richer, more lively, more intense audio for everything from looting corpses to the battle sounds of swords clashing and dying demons. So what did Ashram (Darksorrow-EU) do?
He head into his home studio, grabbed some free sounds and clips from the Web, and created his own audio track to match up with his run through Stratholme, that’s what he did. And it sounds fabulous! WoW.com interviewed Ashram about the process, the equipment he used, and how he feels about video game music and why it needs to be immersive.
This is just the first project from Ashram, here’s hoping we see more in the future and that Blizzard takes notice; there’s a lot of work that can be done with the game sounds and while they’ve done great work with the game and the sounds are fabulous as is, they’re so often underrated and there’s always room to improve.
The folks over at WoW.com (formerly WoW Insider) thought this was incredibly corny, and yeah, they’re right – it’s terrible. But that doesn’t make it any less awesome!
Seriously, this is terrible, but I mean, how cool is it that even in the real world, even in a grocery store, and even when there are very pretty women involved, the Alliance and the Horde just can’t get along? Man, if this is how bad that whole factional divide is, Arthas has us proper screwed.
In other news though, the commercial is pretty damned funny. One question though: why didn’t the Horde woman turn into oh…a female Orc? I mean, I know the answer to that – they’re recreating the battle from the original WoW opening cinematic using the original box characters everyone would recognize, but still. Not only is she Horde, an Orc, but she’s also transgendered?
That’s okay though – we love both lovely ladies anyway. Who wants to bet on whether either of them actually play WoW?
If you play a hunter and you never took the time or opportunity to read the venerable Big Red Kitty, especially if you were a Beast Master at any point, you have no idea what you missed. BRK was not just a number cruncher, but perhaps had some of the most entertaining but educational personality I’ve ever seen in a blogger of any stripe, not just among World of Warcraft bloggers.
BRK’s all but given up World of Warcraft and blogging in order to spend more time with his family, who he loves very much. Now I love WoW, and I love BRK and will miss him and his advice incredibly, but I think it’s pretty easy to say that he’s made the right decision – when a game becomes more than a game and becomes such a huge part of your life that it’s distracting you from other, more important parts of your life like your family, it’s time to put it down, at least for a while.
BRK mentions that he may be back at some point, but for the time being he’s devoting his time to his family, and we can all find him at his personal blog, where he’s sharing some pretty awesome steak tips!
All of BRK’s fans got together and submitted images and video for a fantastic farewell video compiled by his co-blogger Temerity Jane, that you can see here, or here:
Take care, BRK – you taught me everything I know about being a hunter, and then some.
