Today in WoW: Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011

by Adam Holisky Aug 3rd 2011 at 11:00PM

Join us every weeekday evening as we run down all the different WoW news that you could possibly want. Everything from the blues' comments, to the latest datamining; we've got you covered.

Don't forget to check out The Daily Quest and our Weekly Podcast Roundup to find out what else is going on in the WoW community. And if you have a news tip, feel free to drop us a line and let us know.

Blue posts

Blizzard Fan Art Update

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of fan artwork set within the Warcraft universe.

source

Diablo III Beta Profile Update

The beta test approaches! We've just updated our System Check program and would like everyone to update their Battle.net Beta Profile information by running the new one. You should do this regardless of whether there have been hardware changes made to your system.

You can run the new System Check by visiting the Beta Profile settings of your Battle.net account:

https://www.battle.net/account/management/beta-profile.html

I don't have a Beta Profile

If you haven't yet created a Beta Profile on your Battle.net account you'll be presented with two download options, PC and Mac, for our System Check program. Running the program will present you with the Beta Test Opt-In Agreement, and once you agree to that it will immediately query basic computer specification information such as your type of video card, processor, and RAM. Clicking the Send button will then upload the shown information to your account.

On your Beta Profile page, you'll want to ensure you at least have "Diablo Universe" checked for future testing, if not StarCraft and Warcraft as well. That's it! You're now eligible for future beta test opportunities.

I have a Beta Profile

If you've previously uploaded your system info you should use the links to download the new System Check program for PC or Mac and update your system info. Run the program, read through the Beta Test Opt-In Agreement that appears, and once you agree to that the program will immediately query your basic computer specification information. Click Send and the program will automatically update your profile with your system specifications. You'll remain opted in for whichever beta tests you've previously selected, and you can change these selections on your Beta Profile page at any time.

Having current system specifications and checking the franchise boxes to express interest in beta testing our future products does not guarantee your entry into the beta test. We will grant a very limited number of people entry from the entire pool of those interested, based on their system specifications and other factors. While having an official Battle.net Beta Profile is one way to potentially get in, we'll have information on other ways to increase your chances as we draw closer to the beta test.

source

Auction House API Is Live

We're very pleased to announce that the first version of the Auction House API is now live - we have been hard at work on this for the last few weeks, and are looking forward to seeing what new and exciting applications spawn out of it!

As of right now, US and Europe are live and populating, and Korea will be following in a couple of days.

Please refer to the documentation at http://blizzard.github.com/api-wow-docs/#id3683980 for further information, and don't hesitate to post any thoughts on this thread.

Thank you for your patience!

source

WoW news from other sites

Wowhead News News Roundup: World of Warcraft Loses Another 300k Subscribers and More

News and features from WoW Insider

From around the web

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Filed under: Today in WoW

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Randomize Aug 3rd 2011 11:31PM

With the Q1 losses WoW suffered earlier this year, another significant drop isn't going to look good to shareholders. While people should be coming back with the release of 4.2, this certainly does not bode well for the game. At this point, Blizzard really needs to start putting out content faster. The patch 4.1 release experiment did not succeed as planned, and certainly Blizzard will be aiming to put out info on another content patch soon enough.

VioletArrows Aug 4th 2011 2:11AM

I... honestly don't know if I want content *faster*, as that usually means that quality dips. If they can pull off both, then by all means, more content.

My subscription runs out in a week, and I'll probably wait for at least Brewfest to renew again (I don't know why my nostalgia goggles get so thick for that holiday). And likely another long break after that. I've finished the Molten Front, and again, no 'ending' to speak of, just me asking if it's worth it to keep playing for a

VioletArrows Aug 4th 2011 2:14AM

*sigh* forgot about the angle bracket thing.

...less than 2% drop on a pet I only barely care about.

The other thing I raged about was the fact that they've also lost the ability to close out a story. This is the fourth time in Cata that I've been burnt by OOPS NO ENDING. And yet they expect folks to just keep on playing anyway. :/

bdew Aug 4th 2011 2:46AM

When you start saving money by reusing old content, dungeons and bosses over and over and over again, when you cater too the elitist douchebag forum crowd, when you release the most casual unfriendly expansion in the history of the game where 90% of your players are casuals.... well yeah you should expect a drop in subs.

I really hope Blizzard can wake up fast enough and fix their crap before SW:TOR murders them, but chances are slim.

VioletArrows Aug 4th 2011 4:14AM

@bdew Except they're trying to remedy those things. And depending on how you look at it, it kinda worked, they're not losing as many people. The thing is, is that number people came back, weren't impressed or did what they needed to do and then left again, or is that on top of the previous loss? How many did come back for 4.2?

I feel like they changed too much too quickly this expansion. People are overloading and going in every direction (This is cool. I hate this. What are you doing? That doesn't make any sense. This is too easy. That is too hard. Who the hell is this? Why did you kill him? Oh lord she's still around? Where's x? Why the hell is y still in? You broke z and didn't even bother to deliver n. Hallelujah, it's q!) And now they can't change anything back, so they must press on and do their best to distract everyone.

Ice Aug 4th 2011 5:07AM

Problem is and has always been lack of end-game content variety. Wow would need to get revamped or blizzard think of something quite fast to at least band-aid fix it. Most people have played this game for so long doing same type of end-game content for 4 years is just not enough.

In general gaming publishers use "5 quick and cheap casual games to make 1 hardcore title".
"Casuals" are majority of gamers. There just are more people who play couple days a week for few hours total than some who play lets say "5 days week for 17 hours total".

Now the "problem" comes that majority of subbers are casual. Its not because they are casual its that they have nothing to do at end-game which then causes vicious cycle.
Lets see, end-game? What is end-game in current state?

-Raids.
Majority dont usually raid enough or at all to call it their thing. Sure, most of them do pugs or are in "laid-back guild that raids if people want" but on major scale, not so much. Pugging 1-2 bosses at T12 and normal T11 is hardly reason to keep you intrested for 5-6 months that tiers usually last, now is it?

-Dungeons.
Again, most don't do dungeons. And its more the case when you got zul'agains at "top tier dungeons". Some people dont have time (zul'gurrub pugs can take up to 2 hours. I've been there and done that...pain..). Besides whats the reward? Do zuls for months to get T12 to.. do zuls still? Really? ;s

-Dailies.
This is what most players end up with as their end-game. Grind of dailies. For 7 months (Release - T12) or until they come up with new daily hub.

-PvP in BGs
Depends on person really..

-Leveling alt!
Not end-game. Besides leveling alt to 85 would just end up in same circle "not much to do, guess I should do dailies with 2 chars now?"

I play my alt very very casually. I log on it time to time to chat in Gchat and maybe do one dungeon week because its lottery for what you get as zul group. Maybe to couple dailies if I got time.
If I were to forget EVERYTHING ELSE I had (mains, other alts) and that was my main and I would play that way (majority of players do) thats simply not enough.

The thing is. Majority of players maybe started during end of wrath or end of TBC where you had so much to do because it was so new and cool! Dailies for easy money!
But after 2+ years of doing that..comes new expansion and you get..dailies and dungeons, again!? Its just the case that its same type of content in different shell. WG is now TB, Molten front is Argent tournament..VoA is now BH. There should be way more variety.

So its interesting to see what they are coming up with in this expansion as test then maybe adding it to next expansion?

matt Aug 4th 2011 8:39AM

If you have a good raid group and time to dedicate to it, Cata is a fantastic expansion, I had a ton of fun raiding T11. At the moment I am too busy with RL to make my guilds raid schedule so I had to bow out for a while. Here is what I have found, if you don't raid, Cata is really boring, probably the worst video game I have ever played.

LFD pug heroics and Z-roics are still not reliable enough to count on for a good time, to many zone-in deaths and too much healer QQ. no matter how much I out-gear this stuff it still is not possible for me to carry the fools I get grouped with. 4/5 attempts this week have been a total junk show, I am giving up on LFD pugs.

Does anybody like multi month daily quest grinds? I keep logging in to do this MF stuff but I am starting to hate myself for it.

The only reason I have not bailed on all of this is that I need to keep my gear somewhat up to date so that I can get back into raiding in tier 13, if it weren't for that, I would NEVER log in.

Cata - Raiding = BAD GAME

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