Posts with tag E3 2006

Everyone has been buzzing about the announcement last week of a live-action Warcraft film, and now Gamespot has an interview with Blizzard exec Paul Sams, where he discusses some of the goals in bringing WoW to the big screen.

" We're not trying to take what we've done and...try to make a literal translation to the big screen. What we want to do is to make a great movie that happens to be set in a video game universe. That's a differentiator, and a key differentiator."

It sounds to me like they have the right attitude about the project, as no direct adaptation, if one is even possible, is going to please everyone. The best idea is for them to craft a solid, compelling story that happens to be set in the gameworld we all know & love, and just try to make a good film first & foremost. From this interview, it seems that's exactly what they're trying to do, so lets just hope the suits don't stick too many fingers in the pie between script & screen...

It looks like some enterprising soul managed to snap a couple of pics at E3 of some maps that are supposedly of the new Blood Elf & Draenei starting areas. MapWoW.com has posted the images on their site for the interested to check out; you can see them right here.

The Draenei area is called Azuremist Isle, in Amman Vale. The Blood Elf area does not identify itself on the given image, so the name is still a mystery as of now. I vote for Bloodelphia...

Well, we knew someone would do it sooner or later. Now with added soundtrack music & jealous spectators, the new & improved Blood Elf dance!

In the continuing saga of our nation's youth being taken over by evil computer overlords, the San Fransisco Chronicle has jumped into the scene with an article about technology use among teens, and what the consequences might be.

According to research by the Kaiser Foundation (apparently they study more than just rolls), young people spend over 6 hours per day engrossed in some form of media or the other, which is up an hour from five years ago. And yes, of course WoW gets to share a little bit of the blame.

It's hard for me to even imagine growing up today as a kid, with the internet & all the other technology we have available. There's a pretty good chance that if I'd had a modern PC when I was 13 or so, I would have never left the house...especially if my parents were as lax about monitoring it as they were about cable TV.

With over six million subscribers to WoW, and with no end in sight, it might be understandable if Blizzard focused all of their rescources on support for World of Warcraft. According to this Gamespot article, however, WoW is only one iron in Blizzard's fire, as they plan to actively develop a wide range of new games, for both PC's and consoles.

Of course, there's no mention of what these new games might be, or exactly which platform they will appear on...but they're working on it, apparently. Which is fine with me, as long as they don't spead themselves too thin & allow WoW to suffer as a result. You know what I mean by suffer; long queue times, server outages, lag.....oh, wait a minute...

Tentonhammer has an exclusive piece from E3, featuring interviews with WoW developer Tyven, where he discusses much of the news we've already heard from E3; the main subjects being Draenei, flying mounts, and the rest of the announced content. Nothing shockingly new, but for all you E3 news completists, there's some good info there.

Also included are a few tidbits of information from Blizzard's Mac team member Rob Barris, discussing Bootcamp on the Imac & other platform news. The full article can be found here.

I'm not sure if this counts as racial profiling or not, but the official Blizzard forums have an interesting thread on ways to spot a bot farmer. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a bot farmer is a program, running without direct human control, used by lowdown, cheating gold farmers to collect money in the game without even having to actually play it.

The thread lists several different, highly debatable (all alliance bots are Night Elf females?), criteria for spotting a bot , and even gives some screenshots & video examples to back them up. I don't know how close to the truth it actually is, but it's an interesting read. I've never knowingly come across a bot myself (although I probably have & didn't realize it), but I'll be keeping a curious eye out after reading this...

The news from E3 keeps pouring in, and the folks over at WorldofWar.net have secured an entertaining video interview with Tom Chilton, one of the producers of WoW. The interview is rather lengthy, and split into two parts, but it's well worth watching, as Mr. Chilton discusses the Burning Crusade, changes in upcoming patches, and more.

The interview can be seen via streaming video right here.

This video, Shadow of the Necropolis, gives us our first glimpse of action in the upcoming Naxxramas instance, included in the 1.11 patch, from the Blizzard previews at E3. Those are some seriously gnarly spiders...

Again, from an anonymous, on-the-spot cameraman, some hazy, blurry, brief, yet extremely cool glimpses of flying mounts at E3. Take off, eh?

The official World of Warcraft site has been updated with a new feature, detailing the lore & history behind the mysterious Blood Elves, soon to be gracing Azeroth in the Burning Crusade expansion.

The story follows the legacy of the outcast elf Dath'Remar Sunstrider, and how he led his people to their new home in Azeroth, millennia before the first war. From reading this, it looks like Blizzard has done another excellent job in setting up the backstory of the new Horde race & incorporating their history into the World of Warcraft; you can check out the story right here.

Today's New York Times has an interview with Blizzard designer Jeff Kaplan, where he speaks out for the first time since E3 & the announcement of the new Draenei playable race. The piece is a very informative Q&A where Kaplan fields questions regarding the selection of the Draenei and the dev's motivations behind this & other upcoming changes that will accompany the release of the new expansion.

For all those following the latest expansion news from E3 & elsewhere, there are some great tidbits of information here, concerning a wealth of subjects related to the Burning Crusade. Kudos to the Times, also, for such an unapologetically gamer-centric article, with no pretense of trying to explain what the hell they're talking about to the non-gaming reader. Click here to read.

We reported yesterday about the news of a new WoW motion picture in development, and now it looks like the boys in blue have indeed confirmed that report. An official press release went out today, announcing the joint development of the film, with producers Legendary Pictures at the reigns.

The release quotes both the Blizzard creative team and the filmmakers, and shines some light on what we can expect to see from the upcoming epic. No talent or crew have been signed as of yet, but I'm sure that the rumors will start flying anytime now, and the fans will have plenty to chew upon as the project comes to fruition.

Aside from my wary words yesterday, I do indeed hope for the best with this adaptation; aside from being a fantasy fan in general, I would enjoy a property I'm familiar with being given the proper screen treatment. I'm sure every WoW fan under the sun has their own idea of what the ideal Warcraft movie would be, and I'm sure the filmmakers are going to be listening to those ideas as the project moves forth, so start your dream casting now, folks!

Well, we knew it had to be on the drawing board somewhere. It seems that Legendary Pictures, producers of both the latest Superman & Batman films, are interested in bringing World of Warcraft to the big screen, according to this IGN article. The film would likely hit screens via Warner Bros., as they have handled most of the distribution for Legendary's releases so far.

This could be exciting news for all Warcraft fans, but we all know just how well video games usually survive translation into the film medium. Alone in the Dark, Doom, Silent Hill....Super Mario Brothers, anyone? Still, just by the law of averages, they have to get one right sometime...here's hoping the best for WoW's big-screen maiden voyage.