World of Warcraft community site preview now live
by Robin Torres 
Nov 5th 2010 at 2:00PM
A preview of the new World of Warcraft community site is now live. It has several tabs that lead you to a blog, the forums (complete with the latest blue posts), services, and a preview of what the armory will look like when fully implemented, among other things. This is the testing phase and also the prelude to a shutdown of the current forums in favor of the ones on the new community site. The full transfer of forum functionality is scheduled to occur sometime this month.
This seems to be a step in the right direction for Blizzard. I really like what I've seen so far. Try putting your character's name in the search field to bring up the armory preview. The search results are in a new format that is easier to search through, in my opinion, as well as a better way to critique yourself at a glance. And the community managers seem to be having a good time with it as well.
Note: The Off Topic forums have not been transferred to the community site and there are no plans to do so.
Update: Forum bans are also not being transferred to the updated forums.
The full text of Blizzard's announcement is after the break.
This seems to be a step in the right direction for Blizzard. I really like what I've seen so far. Try putting your character's name in the search field to bring up the armory preview. The search results are in a new format that is easier to search through, in my opinion, as well as a better way to critique yourself at a glance. And the community managers seem to be having a good time with it as well.
Note: The Off Topic forums have not been transferred to the community site and there are no plans to do so.
Update: Forum bans are also not being transferred to the updated forums.
The full text of Blizzard's announcement is after the break.
ZarhymMany exciting changes are coming to World of Warcraft with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, both in-game and out. We're excited to offer you an early look at the new World of Warcraft community site, which will soon become the prime gathering spot and source of information for players on the web. You can read more about the transition from our existing website to the new one in our original announcement: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27387366608&sid=1
As you're exploring your future home, keep in mind that this is a live preview, and not all of the new features are ready quite yet. We want your feedback about the look and feel of the new site, so while you're browsing, we encourage you to submit bug reports and make feature requests -- let your voice be heard. Go ahead. Check it out!
New World of Warcraft Community Site: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/
Website Bug Reports: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/1025938/
Website Feature Requests: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/1025939/
As you're exploring your future home, keep in mind that this is a live preview, and not all of the new features are ready quite yet. We want your feedback about the look and feel of the new site, so while you're browsing, we encourage you to submit bug reports and make feature requests -- let your voice be heard. Go ahead. Check it out!
New World of Warcraft Community Site: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/
Website Bug Reports: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/1025938/
Website Feature Requests: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/1025939/
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Zalvi24 Nov 5th 2010 2:03PM
the new site looks bitchin'
Zalvi24 Nov 5th 2010 2:04PM
i meant that in a good way :)
tabardsrock Nov 5th 2010 2:04PM
no OT forum is kinda lame... i like hanging out there :(
carebear Nov 5th 2010 2:40PM
the OT forum is dangerous imo. i was perma banned by an overzealous mod for "trolling" even though i wasnt trolling at all. i guess some people cant handle certain discussions so that's probably why Blizz decided it would be much less of a hassle to just not include OT discussion in the new forum
Cowy Nov 5th 2010 6:45PM
I also don't see a suggestion forum. Looks like you know where to stick your ideas...
(Somewhere Blizzard can't see them, apparently.)
Rai Nov 5th 2010 2:08PM
Any word on a EU version?
Knob Nov 5th 2010 2:10PM
It's already up. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/
Muse Nov 5th 2010 2:12PM
Alive and kicking: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/
Muse Nov 5th 2010 2:15PM
Oi, soy "Elfa de la Noche Druida". I'd say the EU version has some language bleeds in it. ^-^
kymali Nov 5th 2010 2:49PM
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/
and how hard would it be for WowInsider to link to both sites/
Grovinofdarkhour Nov 5th 2010 5:38PM
@ kymali
FFS, I thought we'd put this one to bed long ago. OK, here goes...
It's an American blog, by American writers, about an American game, by an American company.
And surprisingly, at no point in that chain did anyone or anything "choose" to be American for the sole purpose of offending or excluding you.
If you expect every single one of these people with real lives and families to always take the time to go the extra mile and find out whether there's a European equivalent and detail that for you in every single article they post, I can tell you that it wouldn't often occur to me, it's not going to often occur to them, and such expectations will leave you horribly (and consistently) disappointed.
Rai asked a simple question. No harm in that. But the tone of your "how hard would it be", and the implication that they're somehow slacking by not accommodating you, is obnoxious. And if we the readers are sick of it, I'd guess the writers probably are to.
Muse Nov 6th 2010 4:19AM
@Grovinofdarkhour: An american blog, with a very sizeable amount of european readers that generate a lot of advertising money. If you were to target WoWinsider to only American players on US realms playing from America, you'd target about 20% of the total WoW playerbase. Even counting that the other regions with their own languages (la, tw, ko, sp, fr, ge, ru) have their own newssites and don't come here, that still leaves a fairly large portion that DO play World of Warcraft in English and DO read WoW news in English and thus come to WoWinsider, which claims to be a site for World of Warcraft news. Sometimes, the news even comes from the EU official WoW site. So considering all that, would it really hurt to take the extra ten seconds to add one more link?
QQinsider Nov 6th 2010 10:51AM
"It's an American blog, by American writers, about an American game, by an American company."
Totally ignorant comment. There are far more non-Americans playing this game than Americans. And in case you hadn't noticed, this blog (with locally targetted advertisments that they make money from), is available outside of America too.
CrossEyed Nov 5th 2010 2:13PM
And you gotta love the error message:
Oops
Something is Broken
You can blame Deathwing for this little mishap.
Rai Nov 5th 2010 2:13PM
Swanky. :)
Heather Nov 5th 2010 2:25PM
For me, everything is working -except- the forums. They won't load at all. lol.
Brett Porter Nov 5th 2010 2:22PM
Oh holy crap Armory is awesome. The advanced version shows you how many enchants you are missing, sockets unfilled and if you're missing an eternal belt buckle.
Wow. Just wow.
Kurtis Nov 5th 2010 2:43PM
It's not 100%, however - it claims I have a shield enchant on my cloak.
vanillabean Nov 5th 2010 2:28PM
Any word on the Suggestion forum? I don't see it.
Also, I will be sure to never EVER mention a past ban EVER AGAIN to be sure I don't get wrongfully banned again.
snowleopard233 Nov 5th 2010 2:30PM
I always thought it was a great place to move all the off topic threads that ended up in general forum.
CM: "Oh, so you want to start talking about how Michael Jackson died? Into the pit!"
(trap door releases. Thread falls down, dusts itself off, and locks eyes with a hungry Rancor)
Rancor: "Prez Obama like abortions? DISCUSS!"