Posts with tag blizzard

As Blizzard charges into 2012 with three big releases (Mists of Pandaria, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and Diablo III) coming soon, rumors begin to swirl as a new job posting became available on the Blizzard career site for a franchise development producer. The interesting facts in the job listing are that the position is for the next-gen MMO, focused on working with consumer brands and creating brand-extending merchandise.

What does this mean for the next-gen MMO currently roasting slowly at Blizzard's complex? We don't really know. If we look at other games that have had advertising, it's usually in the form of billboards or sponsorships, featuring products that you and I know of. The possibilities for where ads could go within the game world of an MMO are endless, but it does preclude some settings and time periods. Intriguing, no? Something to freak out about? Definitely not.

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One of the hallmarks of the MMO genre is the fluidity at which these games can change. New pieces are added on and entire game systems are revamped in ways that would utterly decimate closed games that ship on the disc and then that's the end of it. With the impending release of The Old Republic, I wanted to give a rundown of some of the features and game systems that I personally feel would be at home in World of Warcraft along with cool ways Blizzard could grow its own world. (Also, check out my previous article about other MMO concepts WoW could borrow from.)

AoE looting, redux

AoE corpse looting is the new hotness, and it's here to stay. The fact that Blizzard has not found a way to even make AoE looting an option in WoW yet goes beyond my capacity to understand. Rift made the concept part of the mainstream, and The Old Republic is solidifying the feature as a Day One expectation.

In both of these games, players can choose to loot all corpses in an area around them at once instead of having to click on each corpse individually. Not only is this a great quality-of-life change for players, since less clicking is usually a good thing, but it also helps many players with disabilities who have trouble finding that one corpse under a hundred.

Blizzard's A Day in the Life series just published A Day in the Life of Bashiok, one of Blizzard's community managers. CMs can have the dubious distinction of being the third most oft-cursed names by World of Warcraft players, next to Ghostcrawler and possibly Mike Morhaime. They're the players' links to the world-spanning organization that is Blizzard Entertainment and thus the easy target of a lot of hunter angst.

Blizzard has just released its official talent calculators for Mists of Pandaria, in which the talent system is getting a major overhaul. Instead of talents being point placement decisions, this new system engages the player in one very important and specific choice every 15 levels. Skills from talents are now learned automatically as a player progresses through his chosen spec. The currently displayed talents are not set in stone and can (and will) change during Mists' development. If you click on a class' spec, you can also see its skill progression through the life of the character to see what skills you will be gaining. This new system is really, really slick.

Check out Blizzard's official Mists of Pandaria talent calculators on the WoW community blog.

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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the next expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a brand new talent system, and bringing forth the long-lost pandaren race to both Horde and Alliance. Check out the trailer and follow us for all the latest MoP news!

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Readers, do you have what it takes to intern at Blizzard Entertainment, the fortress of crazy talent that has brought you such video game titles as World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, and the Diablo III beta? Blizzard is looking for a few good interns for the 2012 summer. There are internships available in many departments at Blizzard ranging from development and publishing to QA and e-sports. That e-sports internship sounds like a huge opportunity for the right enterprising young Blizzard fan.

You're going to have to be a current U.S. college student or returning to college after summer 2012. You're going to be interning at the Blizzard campus in Irvine, California, so having some proximity to Irvine would probably be a good thing to have. Don't forget to apply by Jan. 31 for this awesome opportunity.

Oh, Cataclysm. You've gotten such a bad rap. Despite popular opinion, what we got from the Cataclysm expansion was nothing short of a miracle -- one that was desperately needed after the prior two expansions' worth of content. But it's undeniably difficult to look at the current expansion with anything other than an overly critical eye, considering the fact that we're playing through all that content right now.

In hindsight, it's likely the current expansion will grow on us, and some time in the distant future we'll be looking back on it with rose-colored glasses just like we do the others before it. Don't get me wrong -- while classic, The Burning Crusade, and Wrath all had absolutely fantastic reasons to love them, things didn't seem so rosy and wonderful when we were all playing through that content, and there was just as much grumbling in each of those expansions as there is about Cataclysm now. But hey -- there's still plenty of reasons to love Cataclysm.

The Burning Crusade was just the first expansion in WoW's history, and though it brought many things to love, as always, there were tweaks to be made. So how do you follow up a well-put-together expansion featuring a host of memorable villains from Warcraft III? Oh, that's easy enough. To top Illidan's appearance, you bring in the villain he couldn't defeat -- you bring in the Lich King.

Ever since the final scene of The Frozen Throne, Warcraft fans wondered just what happened to Arthas after he placed the Lich King's helm on his head and took an icy seat. In Wrath of the Lich King, they were about to find out. Featuring an all-new continent with new zones to play through, Wrath also introduced the first new hero class to the game, the death knight. In the wake of The Burning Crusade, Wrath had a lot to live up to. It did that and more, paving the way for more accessibility to raids, more endgame content and new lore, to boot. Many of the players in Cataclysm today got their start in Wrath of the Lich King, and there's plenty of things to love about it -- far too many points to list. But we'll give you five of them!

Yesterday, a handful of gaming news sites reported that a senior designer working on the new Titan MMO had gotten laid off by Blizzard Entertainment. In the hours that followed, the internet began conducting an "investigation" via Facebook that revealed tens, if not hundreds of Blizzard employees were just laid off.

There's only one problem with the information said investigation dredged up: It's not true. There are no massive layoffs at Blizzard. So says Blizzard itself, via Community Manager Bashiok:

mass layoffs at blizz

Hey guys, out of respect for their privacy, we don't discuss individual employees, but the speculation circulating about 'massive layoffs at Blizzard' is just a rumor.

source

Fellow Community Manager Zarhym confirmed the lack of layoffs on his own personal Twitter account, saying that there's "tons of speculation based on false evidence." He went on to explain that the vast majority of people rumored to have been laid off showed up to work today.

So rest assured: The sky is not falling. Blizzard employees still have their jobs. Project Titan has not been cancelled. Ghostcrawler is still in the building. And despite what you may have heard from Mr. Feeney's grocer, Cory and Topanga are not adopting a 14-year-old Chinese boy.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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The Burning Crusade marked WoW's first foray into expansions, and it took a while to arrive -- a little over two years, actually, but Blizzard made sure the expansion was well worth waiting for. Offering two new races, more talent choices, and an entirely new world to explore, The Burning Crusade gave players plenty of reasons to eagerly anticipate its release.

But it wasn't just the world that was different. The Burning Crusade took the game we'd been playing for a little over two years and tweaked it with small improvements that affect the way we play the game even today. It pioneered the definition of what an expansion was, in the WoW universe, and paved the way for the expansions to follow. The Burning Crusade still ranks high on many players' favorite expansion lists, including my own. Finding five reasons to love it? That's a complete walk in the park. Picking just five to show you ... that's a little harder!

I have a lot of love for World of Warcraft in each of its iterations. When I wrote 5 reasons you should love Mists of Pandaria, it really made me start to look back at the history of the game -- not necessarily the lore and story that I usually write about, but the various expansions from classic all the way to the upcoming Mists. Though the expansions themselves were vastly different in terms of story and progression, there are still things to love about every single one -- yes, including Cataclysm.

Maybe it's just human nature to be cynical. Maybe it's just human nature to be caught in the dissatisfaction of now. But I can't help but think that perhaps we've lost sight of the reasons we love this game. It's not just internet dragons, after all. There's plenty out there to look at and remember fondly and keep in mind as we move on into the future. So read these, think back and remember -- once upon a time, we were all in love with this game. I don't think that the game has altered from its basic tenets in so dramatic a fashion as to warrant outright hatred or derision.

Want to own a real piece of Warcraft history? Ever wanted to own your entire server? Starting Oct. 17, Blizzard will be auctioning off the actual server blades of yesteryear to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. WoW has gone through a lot of technical changes over the years, and the old server blades are just that -- old. What better way than to celebrate the early years of the game than to give the proceeds to such an important cause?

The auctions will last from Oct. 17 through Nov. 14, with each realm's original server blade going on sale. What's a server blade, you ask? Each server, with its own processing power and all that jazz, lives in a rack with other servers at the big server enclosure. Each auctioned server will have a little plaque attached with the server's name, its dates of operation, and signatures from the team. This is really, really cool. If I had the cash to pony up for Frostwolf, my original server, I would. That thing broke so many times in the early days that I'd want to pop it open and see all the horrible, nightmarish things lurking inside.

Check out the auction information page for which servers will be auctioned off on which days.

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BlizzCon's merchandise preview sale has been going on for BlizzCon ticket holders for the past week, with lots of fun items. Mysteriously, the official BlizzCon T-shirts have absent artwork, signaling big announcements at the main keynote for the event. Virtual ticket holders will be granted access to the BlizzCon merchandise preview sale Friday, Sept. 23, at 10 a.m. Pacific. All you have to do is log into the Battle.net account that you purchased your virtual ticket under, hit the Blizzard store, and you have early access to all of the BlizzCon official merchandise for the 2011 convention.

Probably the biggest surprise is the lack of T-shirt artwork for the official BlizzCon T-shirt, signaling a big, secret announcement that is important enough to revolve the entire convention around. New WoW expansion? Most likely. Cool new artwork to add to a shirt? That's a pretty big deal. Virtual ticket holders will want to get in on the sale quickly, as many items sell out quickly. The store will see you virtual ticket holders tomorrow.

Check out our gallery of some of the items available this year at the preview sale.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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Tier 13 continues to be one of the most intriguing raid tiers in terms of aesthetic armor sets that Blizzard has ever put out. Every set this tier has been a labor of love based either on some cool story character or a cool idea kicking around inside of the designers' heads. Rogues will be sporting the new Blackfang Battleweave in the upcoming patch 4.3, fusing together concepts of an Azerothian-styled Batman complete with bat shoulders, a cowl, and a nice patterned outfit.

I think this is going to be the most controversial armor set this tier among players, and I do not understand why. Personally, the rogue set just looks cool, no matter what it is based on. Tier 13 is the fantasy tier, as has been mentioned by Blizzard over and over in each of the tier 13 reveals. At this point in the expansion, the designers and artists are having fun making their versions of cool armor and fun ideas that they've been kicking around. From Time Wizards and tentacle faces to Deathwing look-a-likes and Azerothian bat men, I think this is one of the most unique tiers yet.

And really, who epitomizes rogues better than the Dark Knight himself?

As part of its continued fight against account hacking and account compromise, Blizzard's customer support department has started a YouTube channel dedicated to hosting how-to videos on security, what to do if your account is hacked, general security tips, and how to use the Battle.net authenticator. Not only are the videos educational and helpful, they are also adorably fun, making security as enjoyable as it possibly can be.

Not only is this an awesome service for Blizzard to put out, the videos offer excellent ideas for online security in general. The tips in the general account security video are great tips to follow, even if you aren't a gamer. Everyone on the internet should be following these security tips. Good on you, Blizzard, for this awesome community service. I don't think we can give the customer support guys enough shout-outs.

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Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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