Posts with tag book

World of Warcraft Tribute by UDON now available

by Anne Stickney Oct 14th 2013 at 6:00PM

World of Warcraft Tribute, a 224-page monster of an art book by Blizzard Entertainment and UDON is now available for purchase. The book showcases Warcraft art by both Blizzard artists and Warcraft fans alike, featuring pieces by Samwise Didier and Arnold Tsang as well as a ton of other notable fan artists -- you may recall Blizzard's call for fan submissions earlier this year. Over 200 illustrations are featured in the deluxe softcover edition, all paying homage to World of Warcraft through gorgeous illustrations depicting some of the most notable characters and places in Azeroth.

You can order your copy of this gorgeous book on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble for $32.30 USD -- it would also make a great holiday gift for Warcraft fans as well. In addition, Blizzard has made new desktop wallpapers from several of the illustrations available for free on the website -- don't forget to check those out as well!

Filed under: Blizzard, News items, Arts and Crafts

World of Warcraft Tribute Art Book available for preorder

by Robin Torres Jun 26th 2013 at 7:00PM

UDON Entertainment is publishing an art book made up of community-created artwork called World of Warcraft Tribute and it is now available for preorder. A year and a half ago, Blizzard asked for professional and fan artists to submit art inspired by Azeroth and this is the result. The book has 200 illustrations from international artists. Also included are commemorative pieces from Blizzard artists Arnold Tsang and Samwise Didier.

There is a nine page preview over at UDON's website. If you wish to preorder, the preview includes links for preordering from both Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retail sites.

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

Art of Blizzard Entertainment gallery opening snapshot tour

by Robin Torres Jan 24th 2013 at 2:00PM

On Saturday, Jan. 12, I was fortunate enough to attend a party Blizzard threw for its book, The Art of Blizzard Entertainment, and the gallery showcasing it. While the book will not be released until Feb. 12, attendees were able to purchase it and have it signed by many Blizzard artists, including Chris Metzen (senior vice president of story and franchise development) and Nick Carpenter (vice president of art and cinematic development).

Gallery Nucleus, located in Alhambra, CA, hosted the party and will be showing the gallery of prints -- all from the book -- until Feb 3. The party included live demonstrations of artists, a raffle, a scavenger hunt, as well as the signings of the books and a selection of prints that could also be purchased. Libations were provided in the forms of a health potion (nonalcoholic fruit punch), a mana potion (vodka and some tasty blue stuff), as well as some beer and other drinks. Darkmoon Donuts -- small and chocolate covered -- were the food items available.

Filed under: Events, Blizzard

Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War excerpt

by Robin Torres Jul 2nd 2012 at 4:00PM

Simon and Schuster has posted an excerpt from Christie Golden's upcoming World of Warcraft novel: Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War. Like The Shattering did for Cataclysm, Tides of War is expected to be the story that sets the foundation for the Mists of Pandaria lore.

As we've reported before, Blizzard announced the book will be released at the end of August, which coincides with Simon and Schuster's release date of "on or around August 28th." You can preorder Tides of War now.

We've reprinted the entire excerpt and description after the break.

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Sociologists using Warcraft to predict the future of human civilization; sell books

by Fox Van Allen Mar 25th 2010 at 7:00PM

When I was younger, I was in a perpetual war with my parents over video gaming. I suppose I still am in a way -- they still ask me when I'm going to "grow" out of them.

Because of this, I'm always on the lookout for ways to justify spending so much of my free time on my electronic hobby. Back in the days of the Super Nintendo, I insisted that I was building hand-eye coordination. Thankfully, I now have new ammunition: I am a participant in a "virtual prototype of tomorrow, of a real human future in which tribe-like groups will engage in combat over declining natural resources." One that scientists are actively studying and using to learn about our real-world society.

Those are the words of MIT Press, the publisher of a new book by sociologist Williams Sims Bainbridge, The Warcraft Civilization. The book is a product of over 2300 hours worth of game play by the author. New Scientist's Culture Lab has a fascinating interview with Bainbridge, giving insight into Warcraft and religion, Warcraft as the next afterlife, and Warcraft as a predictor of the future of Western civilization.

Filed under: News items

Cataclysm novel slated for August, 2010

by Zach Yonzon Nov 6th 2009 at 2:30PM

While it may or may not hint to the release date of the next expansion, a listing on Amazon has pegged the release of a hardcover novel by award-winning author Christie Golden entitled World of Warcraft: The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm. While that might seem like one colon too many (insert snickering here), the self-explanatory title actually sounds pretty cool. What sounds uncool, however, is that it's a prelude. Meaning before.

If you're reading into this as much as I am (generally not a good idea), that could mean that the Cataclysm expansion will ship after August 31. After all, you'd think that Blizzard's marketing team would want a book that reveals what happens before the Cataclysm to actually launch before the expansion hits, right?

Well, not really. The Arthas book, which focuses on the Lich King, was released long after Wrath broke out. In short, the novels follow a completely different schedule from the game even though they all share the same lore. So I made you fret over absolutely nothing! You didn't fall for it? Ok, so I made myself fret over absolutely nothing. The book is available for pre-order at $26 on Amazon and should be chock-full of lore and hopefully explain a lot of what will change during the expansion.

Considering how a lot of people (well, okay, at least Alex and Daniel) geeked out over Golden's Arthas novel, this book promises to be a good read. At any rate, we can probably expect it to be free of super-powerful, hackneyed, Mary Sue-ish, self-projected characters like time-traveling dudes who shack up with the hottest girl or multi-racial scions who can wield all kinds of magic. I mean, it's a freaking black dragon, man. It's kind of hard to mess up something innately awesome as that.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Lore, Cataclysm

World of Warcraft and Philosophy now on sale

by Michael Sacco Nov 3rd 2009 at 9:00AM

Is your raid leader Machiavellian? Is it a categorical imperative to torture that Beryl Sorceror? What would Nietzsche have thought of Leeroy Jenkins?

Good questions! And now we can find out. Following in the footsteps of books dealing with philosophies in other popular game titles like Legend of Zelda, Luke Cuddy and John Nordlinger recently released World of Warcraft and Philosophy. The book deals with topics like ethics, economics, gender identity, metaphysics, and more, written by philosophers and gamers alike from around the globe. Heck, even role-playing and cybering are the subject of discussion, along with the Infected Blood plague and lots of other well-known WoW topics.

The reviews seem to indicate that the book's a brisk, fun read, but who knows what the game's twelve-million-strong audience will actually like or appreciate. After all, to paraphrase Yeats, Azerothians are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labor of its unfamiliar thought.

Those who do want to stack their Int, though, can pick up the book at Amazon or other bookstores now.

Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, News items

The Guild, episode 7 of season 3

by Mike Schramm Oct 13th 2009 at 5:00PM

We're more than halfway through this latest season of The Guild, and the series is in full swing: the Axis of Anarchy is starting trouble, Wiggly is quickly learning the game, and Codex is stepping right up into her guild leadership role. But even as things are coming together, they're starting to fall apart: this episode might have the weirdest ending of the series so far. You can watch the episode in the usual places, including right here after the break.

Two other things from The Guild's website recently. Apparently that book that Codex was reading last episode is a real one, all about leading a guild and lessons you can take into real life (and our own Scott Andrews didn't write it? Unbelievable!). And if you happen to be in Los Angeles in the next few weeks, The Guild will be screening parts of season 2 at theaters around the city along with showings of Dr. Horrible, that other web series that stars Felicia Day. At one of them, the cast will be live doing a Q&A, so that should be fun to see.

Like The Guild? We do, too! We chatted with all of the folks at BlizzCon, including Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, and Jeff Lewis and Michele Boyd. We also saw their panel, and the guys were nice enough to stop by our meetup as well. Stay tuned here every Tuesday for a brand new episode of season 3!

Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Guilds, Humor, Fan art

Golden's Arthas delivers the lore goodness

by Daniel Whitcomb Apr 5th 2009 at 2:00PM

A note from Alex Ziebart: When Simon and Schuster sent Daniel and I a pair of free, early review copies of Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, we immediately went about planning how we were going to handle a 2-man review. We've been good friends for years, and one of our favorite past times is debating things like this back and forth. We rarely agree on books, and we can argue our sides until we're blue in the face. We were going to write an Alex vs Daniel knock down, drag out argument about Arthas and it was going to rule. Unfortunately, things didn't go our way.

When we finished reading the book, we got together to talk about it. It was... unsettling. We completely agreed with each other on almost every point that was raised. The high points and the low points, we were completely on the same spectrum. That's just not right. We decided that, rather than write two reviews parroting each other, we would just go with the one. Daniel's review says everything I want to say better than I could have said it, so once you read what he says, just pretend you can hear me say "Ditto" at the end. Take it away, Danny!

As WoW Insider's self-proclaimed junior lieutenant Lore Nerd, when Simon & Schuster so generously offered to send us a couple of free advanced copies of Arthas, the new World of Warcraft book by Christie Golden, I was all over that. As soon as the book showed up on my doorstep, I turned on the answering machine, grabbed a soda, popped some popcorn, curled up in my favorite chair, and pretty much read the whole thing straight through. The only breaks I took were to discuss various scenes and their ramifications for lore with Alex. And by discuss, I mean "fanboy out."

But I am being completely serious when I say, of all the Warcraft manga, comic books, and novels I have read, Arthas has the most solid, balanced writing and best realized characters. It's not a perfect book, but it's a very worthwhile read for anyone who has even the slightest interest in the why and how of that big armored dude up on the Frozen Throne.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King

BlizzPlanet reviews upcoming Arthas novel

by Alex Ziebart Feb 22nd 2009 at 3:00PM

One of the Warcraft novels I've actively been looking forward to is Arthas, Rise of the Lich King. It's set to be released to the world on April 21, 2009 but BlizzPlanet.com has gotten its hands on a few bound galleys of the book early. Some of them are being given away, but he's also reading one on his own and has gifted us with a quick review.

The review makes the book sound incredible, though perhaps a bit too cluttered. The novel is roughly 300 pages in length (I believe) and the first 100 pages covers his childhood from the arrival of the Stormwind refugees in Lordaeron to the beginning of Warcraft III. That covers about fourteen years, and that's potentially a lot of territory to cover!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King

Blizzard unveils Wrath of the Lich King Cinematic Artbook

by Michael Sacco Jan 10th 2009 at 5:30PM

So hey, this is pretty cool. I like to consider myself a connoisseur of video game art, owning a good number of hardcover, glossy-paged artbooks that help me out when a) I need some inspiration, or b) I need to feel really inferior about my art. The artbook released with the Collector's Edition of Wrath was very well put-together (and certainly an improvement over the original WoW artbook with its half-pages of pre-rendered art for every race but orcs and humans) and had everything I like in an artbook--but oh, what's this, Blizzard? An entire book that shows and discusses the process of making the Wrath cinematic? Yes, this will do.

Published by Insight Editions and titled The Cinematic Art of Wrath of the Lich King, it features 200 pieces of high-res concept art and CG renders, two 8x10 art cards with concept art of Arthas and Sindragosa the Frost Queen, lots of lore bits about major players in Wrath's storyline, and (I think this is the coolest) a 12-page illustrated storybook that tells the tale of Sindragosa. And even beyond all that, there's behind-the-scenes commentary about the cinematic every step of the way. It's valuable insight if you're interested in storyboarding, production, or just the Blizzard creative process.

I think we can all agree that it sounds pretty awesome, whether you're into art or WoW itself. You can pick it up, if you're so inclined, at Amazon.com for the very reasonable sale price of $19.77 USD. If you're as-yet-unconvinced, you can check out a preview of the book at Blizzard's Wrath site.

Forum post of the day: Best LOL moment in "Wrath"

by Allison Robert Nov 23rd 2008 at 4:00PM

Wrath is an odd mix. It's unquestionably darker in tone than both classic WoW and Burning Crusade, but it's not hard to find funny bits and pieces scattered around. Därkseid of Deathwing, after having a disgusted murloc refuse to be rescued by him ("Ewwww, orc!") during a quest in the Borean Tundra, started a thread dedicated to peoples' favorite humorous moments so far in Wrath. All the normal world PvP events can be found here (aggroing a Storm Giant while being attacked and Feigning Death onto your enemy? Check!) but you'll also find a growing catalogue of memorable quest text and great NPC dialogue, like Akini's entry on this page.

For my money it's tough to exceed the tongue-in-cheek commentary you'll find in the books scattered around Acherus as you start a career as a Death Knight, including the one pictured above. Some of them are actually serious and give accounts of the Scourge's spying into the preparations made by the Horde and the Alliance for an assault on Northrend. Some of them, like The Death Knights of Acherus, are just hilarious, namely the entry concerning one "Harmony" whose period of service turned out to be extremely brief: "The name of this death knight was found in violation of common Scourge decency. Struck down by the Lich King." Well, Arthas, in such matters I defer to your excellent judgment.

Filed under: Humor, Wrath of the Lich King, Forum Post of the Day

WoW Insider Show's Turpster on How I Wow

by Mike Schramm Aug 15th 2008 at 3:30PM

Somehow, our good friend Turpster ~~has scammed his way~~ was invited on to another podcast, Patrick and Shawn from How I WoW -- a podcast that interviews "interesting people from all walks of life" -- wrangled him into their virtual studio for a long chat about what he's working lately, including our little show, his work with Turpstervision, his musical makings, and his upcoming movie and book, Why I Are teh Best (strangely, they didn't touch on his new fashion line, but that's not coming out 'till the fall anyway). It's a long podcast, and they hit on all kinds of things (from the issues over the leaked Wrath alpha to what kinds of games Turpster's girlfriend beats him at), so definitely give it a listen.

How I WoW (both Patrick and Shawn are regulars on The Instance, another popular WoW podcast) has been doing a lot of good stuff so far -- they chatted with our friend Veronica Belmont a little while ago, as well as Felicia Day from The Guild, and they sat down with Curt Schilling a while back to talk Warcraft (and a little bit about the WoW Insider Show, I understand, even if not by name). They've offered a lot of fun indepth looks at people around the WoW community, and not surprisingly, Turpster turns out to be no exception. It's definitely cool to get a look at the man behind the T.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Fan stuff, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Humor, Interviews

PTR Mystery: No more first aid quest?

by John Himes Nov 3rd 2007 at 7:30PM

Wowhead updated its database earlier today. While most of the new items were to be expected, (such as the new leatherworking bags, the new ammo and the quest items for the new daily heroic quests,) there was one that came as a surprise. Apparently, a new first aid book has been discovered in patch 2.3: Artisan First Aid - Heal Thyself.

The appearance of this item creates a lot of questions. Does this mean that characters will no longer have to do a quest to earn artisan level first aid? Or will this book merely be a reward for the current quests? Will this book be sold, and if so, where?

Filed under: First Aid, Patches, Items, Quests

Warcraft comic book free to read online

by Dan O'Halloran May 28th 2007 at 3:00PM

The Warcraft universe is constantly expanding. Trading card games, sound tracks and board games abound. It seems we can't get enough of Azeroth online or off. Blizzard has tried to meet this growing demand is by creating a series of fiction novels and comic books. One of those endeavors is a Korean manga title, Dragon Hunt, the first novel in the Sunwell Trilogy that was published last year.

Now, our friends over at the WoW Europe official site have made Dragon Hunt available to read online for free! Every week they are putting up a new chapter. So far there are three chapters to read and I already can't get enough. Head on over, check it out and tell us what you think.

Filed under: Odds and ends, Blizzard, News items

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