The NDA around the Wrath of the Lich King alpha has finally been lifted, and screenshots, loot, and other information about the alpha has been flooding out. Add to that the fact that beta invitations have finally started to flow, and you”ve got a virtual tsunami of information around the upcoming expansion, which of course, is all good.

Full talent trees have been published in a number of places, as I previously mentioned, and talent trees for Hunters and Mages have been updated and included as well. The end-talents planning for WoTLK are pretty impressive, I have to say, but they’re all subject to change at any time.

The fine folks over at MMO Champion have been collecting tons and tons of information about the beta, including screenshots of the new Dalaran – which is essentially a hole in the ground where it used to be and now hovering over a new zone in Northrend called The Dragonblight, and will serve as the expansion’s new multi-faction capital city, much like Shattrath is to Burning Crusade.

You can check out the new talent calculators, set up your own test builds, view screenshots of most of the new zones as they stand now, look into some of the new dungeons, and even check out some of the confirmed loot that’s dropped in the beta. Enjoy!

If you’ve been around the internet this week, you know that someone has cracked the DRM for the HD-DVD format and posted in online.

This has caused quiet a kerfuffle, especially on DIGG (which I realize is somewhat verboten here), but the responses – both pro and con – are interesting.

So, apropos of Paul’s WoW Drama post, I thought I would highlight one WoW player, Gateux, doing his part to spread the 16-bit meme.

Is this a violation of the WoW TOS? Is this kind of dissent useful? Is this a virtual protest akin to some of the Second Life nastiness?

What’s your take?

I logged on yesterday evening to check my mailbox and toss a few shards up on the auction house and was greeted with panic and screaming. I ran outside Orgrimmar to see what was going on and ran smack in to the ass of Highlord Kruul, a lieutenant of Kazzak. This is the second part of the Burning Crusade openeing event.

He shows up at a capital city and walks in and kills everything in his path. He heads through to the leader and is merciless and efficient. It takes a dedicated raid to pull him down and there has to be no outside interference at all, as every death that Kruul causes returns him to full health. When I was in Orgrimmar everyone was hearthing back and flying in to see him and the bodies and bones covered every surface.

A few seconds after he walked past me I was two-shotted and saw this charming message.

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The first real guild I joined Twisting Nether was “The Crimson Watch.” They were a role-playing/endgame guild when I joined with nightly scheduled runs or RP events. By far the most popular event was our guild induction ceremony held every Saturday afternoon on Dreadmist Peak in the Barrens. This is the mountain whose top is covered in black fog and cultists and contains a jewel that lowbie players must shatter.

We would meet in this cave, with the jewel, and dress in our ceremonial crimson robes. Everyone would be walking, not running. Everyone would be in character. Our guild leader, Morghul, would stand atop the plateau in the cave and the officers of the guild would kneel beside and behind him. The entire guild was expected to come to these ceremonies. The screenshot above is one that I took during one of our inductions.

Inductees would be given a speech about our motivations and about the goals of The Crimson Watch. Then they would be called forward one by one and asked to perform three tasks: donate one gold to the guild, prove they had spilled Alliance blood, and then spill their blood before the guild. This was done using the /emote command, of course. If they satisfied these requirements and also spoke once over Ventrillo, then they were given crafted crimson robes and were official guild members.

Every week after the ceremony the officers would dream up new challenges for the recruits. They would have to duel the strongest warrior. They would have to hold themselves underwater until they died. They would have to sneak into Teldrassil and leap from the tallest branch into the sea. They would form a raid and attack Ashenvale. They would be summoned to the starting area for Dwarves and Gnomes and would have to occupy the buildings there. Every week it was different, and every week it was fun.

The role-playing built guild loyalty in a way I haven’t seen elsewhere.

Remember that day? Compared to the changes from then to today, TBC is small change. Those were the days when we’d disassemble MPQ files to learn more about how Blizzard worked internally, and GMs and Blizz devs cheered us on and helped. Before the day that was a bannable offense.

Last week it was three floating children, and this week it’s two naked chicks. You know, just floating around by the mailbox in Ironforge. Naked. For all the world to see. (Ok, maybe just on Bonechewer, but STILL!)

I feel like this is some kind of weird mafia hit: “If you don’t donate to the poor orphaned children of Stormwind, this unfortunate accident may happen to you.” Either that, or it’s just a bizarre glitch.

Eerily, they appear to be dead and naked. Gross.

I think one of the most awesome things about WoW is that you always find something new. I’ve got a bunch of toons, so I’ve seen the low level areas a zillion times over. I’ve recently started levelling a priest (which by the way, is my favorite so far out of every class that I’ve played) and spent a lot of time questing and grinding this weekend. I found some new places, some new stuff, and some interesting things along the way…
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There were fireworks galore tonight in Azeroth, 6PM PST. The show signals the end of the Midsummer Festival. I took some shots sitting on the dock in Rut’theran Village. We all drank out of festive mugs, and toasted repeatedly… we got a little lightheaded, but what can I say? I hope everyone in the U.S. has a safe and happy 4th of July!