Patch 5.3 interview with Ghostcrawler
Mystery of the Unborn Val'kyr
The latest patch 5.3 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWelcome to WoW.com!
by Elizabeth Harper 
May 20th 2009 at 12:12AM
Ladies! Gentlemen! Children of all ages! We, the writers, editors, and innocent bystanders at WoW Insider would like to welcome you all to our new home: WoW.com.
Our new domain serves a broader purpose than saving your typing fingers a few characters, though. You've probably already noticed our new, more streamlined design -- all the better for providing you with more content and less clutter. But in addition to the content you all know and (hopefully) love, we'd like to introduce you to the beta launch of WoW.com Profiles. By creating a profile on WoW.com you can:
- show off your characters
- make blog posts & galleries to share with others
- communicate with your guild & your friends
- let everyone know what you're up to in the game we all love
- by downloading the WoW.com addon (for PC or Mac), you can also keep all of your friends up to date on what you're doing in game -- and make blog posts and upload screenshots directly from your game client.
Please remember, WoW.com Profiles are still in beta -- while we already have lots of ideas for the future, we want to hear from you about what we're doing wrong (or right!) to help us improve it. And before you even start protesting, we're aware that Profiles currently only work with characters in the US armory. (Though, to readers not on US servers, you can certainly create an account and participate on WoW.com Profiles -- you just aren't able to add characters. We're starting small with this beta run, but hope to have the ability for everyone to join us soon!)
Thank you to all of our readers for your support and unbridled enthusiasm over the years! Though the site may have changed, the WoW Insider content you're all familiar with isn't going anywhere. As WoW.com we plan on continuing to provide you with the latest news and community from the World of Warcraft.
- the WoW.com team
Filed under: WoW Insider Business
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 18)
Tainnym May 20th 2009 12:29AM
Whoa... this changes a lot of things. Looks more... streamlined.
Dex May 20th 2009 12:25AM
Lovin' the new look, and enjoyed the chat!
EnaressNRS May 20th 2009 12:26AM
Looks great
lilfoot May 20th 2009 12:27AM
I hate this new layout. Bring back the old one!
FeverRay May 20th 2009 12:27AM
uhhh... can't read any comments here? the redesign is very nice though, will take my time around to see what's new or changed :D
Auriell May 20th 2009 12:28AM
Nice one guys. The new layout is fresh and clean but still retains enough of the old site feel to give it that fuzzy feel of familiarity. :) Can't wait to try out the profiles and add-on when I get home tonight.
PAC-3 May 20th 2009 12:29AM
How much money did you guys pay for the domain name?
danawhitaker May 20th 2009 12:31AM
Um...I'm maybe missing something really crucial, but I'm not seeing a good way to link my current account that I post comments with to a WoW profile using an AIM name. I can log in with my AIM screen name, but I cannot log in with the account I'm posting with currently. I'm not really keen on the idea that I'll lose all my posting history.
Here's a novel idea though guys. When you're changing the site format, try not to dump it on your users so suddenly. In the span of the few hours I was away to make dinner and watch Dancing with the Stars, the entire site changed. I've been reading Wowinsider regularly for months and never saw word about this. A bit of warning about the changes might have been nice. I remember one day going over to TV Tome and it had magically morphed into TV.com. A lot of people are *still* bitter about that one.
Elathil May 20th 2009 12:46AM
I actually agree with this completely.
Granted, WoW Insider is a website that isn't fail/doesn't need all the help you can get, but making a big change with no warning is a really good way to anger a bunch of your users or even loose some.
Now, I don't mind the change, just the few things that don't seem to quite work yet. Like the accounts being seperate, and I can't seem to get the addon to completely work the way it seems it should be, and putting a .exe into my WoW folder just rubs me the wrong way.
Mike Schramm May 20th 2009 1:21AM
Good news: nothing has changed for you. The blog is still here, the same people are doing the same things, and everything you enjoyed about the old site is the same (except for the design, but this new one is nicer).
All of the background features are just icing on the cake. If you don't want to use them you don't have to. But if you give them a chance, you might find a lot of fun to be had.
AyaJulia May 20th 2009 1:23AM
This annoys me as well.
Think I'm going to end up posting with my hotmail e-mail address and doing the rest of the activity here with my old screenname....
I'd have much rather seen the ability to create a new account instead of needing to log in with AIM, but you can't have an AOL service without them getting their freaking hands in the account processes. -.-
danawhitaker May 20th 2009 1:46AM
Mike, the problem is, in fact, that I'd very much like to use them. Hence my desire to be able to link my posting history to an AIM account and "merge", if you will. If there *is* a way to do this, maybe I'm missing something completely obvious. I had several friends who have accounts here too and posted the same way I always did (using an e-mail account and a password) try to figure out if there's some way to merge, and it just doesn't appear to be so. When I log in with my AIM, I can't even find a way to attach it to an e-mail address at all. Maybe that lack of functionality is part of the beta process. Or maybe it isn't. I don't know.
I'm just unwilling to have to give up months of posting history to a blank-slate AIM linked account on the site. I didn't think I'd be in the minority on that, but perhaps I am. I think you'll find the average readers probably enjoy the new layout. But you'll also probably find that the people who commented quite frequently are spinning their wheels trying to figure out what to do with the account setup as it stands.
For what it's worth, I love the new color scheme and I find the general layout better suits my preferences. I'm just looking forward to being able to partake in the new features too, but I can't find a way to do that without driving myself batty.
Riley May 20th 2009 2:35AM
it seems to me that the new "profile" section is not connected to the blog section, so it may not even matter
Keyra May 20th 2009 7:50AM
@ Riley - I've noticed this as well.
Dana, it looks like the new profile/blog/photo/community thing is a separate section entirely and isn't connected to the forum here at all. I don't know if this will ever change to where you can post using that profile, but right now it just appears to be sort of a pseudo "Blogspot"-type feature for those who want to use it.
artifex May 20th 2009 11:17PM
Just testing to make sure my old account still works.
BTW, adding a preview option before posting would have been a really cool thing to do when rolling out the new site :)
Urza May 20th 2009 12:32AM
WoW! Congrats on the new site. Best of luck on the relaunch.
Matazuma May 20th 2009 12:33AM
I love the community thing-a-mabobers I just started fiddling around
But WoW.com............................CnD Inc?
Majromax May 20th 2009 12:35AM
This might be well-trodden ground. I can't see the rest of the comments to verify.
The new style is, simply put, *painful*. Aside from rendering bugs on Firefox 3.0.9, the juxtaposition of deep black for the page background and blinding-nuclear-wasteland-white for inner boxes makes me reach for my sunglasses.
If the final style stays like this, I for one will be reading a lot less often. My wife in an even worse position. She gets migraines and can't even look at this style.
Magicwing May 20th 2009 12:44AM
Well that's unfortunate but I for one find this new style much easier on the eyes then the other style. But tha'ts just me.
Summer May 20th 2009 8:33AM
I hated the last new layout - the content area was waaayyy to cramped for me with the double sidebars, so I used the Firefox addon Stylish to get rid of the sidebars and expand the content area. A color scheme change would be pretty easy using this addon.