Posts with tag wow

BlizzPlanet goes to Toy Fair 2012 in New York

by Mathew McCurley Feb 14th 2012 at 8:00PM

Toy Fair 2012 started up on Sunday, Feb. 12, at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, where many companies announced awesome new licensed Blizzard products that we're definitely excited about. The event ends tomorrow on Wednesday, Feb. 15. BlizzPlanet has been on the scene to report back on all of the new products coming stamped with the Blizzard seal of approval.

MEGA Bloks showed up with new prototypes for the World of Warcraft MEGA Bloks sets coming soon, with cool catapults and orcish scenary. Giant MEGA Blok Thrall was on hand to pose with fans. Insight Editions showed off its Diablo III: Book of Cain, and USAopoly made one of the biggest announcements with World of Warcraft Monopoly and RISK: StarCraft.

DC Unlimited continued to show off its figures for the World of Warcraft series, many of which were delayed for a long time for unknown reasons. However, these figures are coming, and they look great.

Check out BlizzPlanet for coverage of all of the licensed Blizzard products showing up at the convention.

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

World of Warcraft subscriber numbers dip 100,000 to 10.2 million

by Adam Holisky Feb 9th 2012 at 4:33PM

During this afternoon's Activision Blizzard investor call, it was announced that WoW's subscribers numbers dropped another 100,000 players from September 2011 to 10.2 million at the end of December 2011.

World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers peaked around 12 million back in late 2010 and early 2011 and have been in decline since. The game slipped to 11.4 million subscribers in May 2011, then down to 10.3 million in September of 2011. While subscriber numbers continue to fall, the rate of lost subscriptions has slowed significantly.

In further clarification of the game's subscriber numbers, Blizzard President and Cofounder Mike Morhaime said that Blizzard has seen no significant change and that "December was a good month for us." This past quarter was, according to Morhaime, the "most competitive quarter ever." World of Warcraft's competition primarily came from Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Blizzard believes that the success of patch 4.3, community engagement, and the Annual Pass contributed to the subscriber retention it's seen.

Filed under: Blizzard, News items

A vision of Mists of Pandaria's Pet Battles

by Mathew McCurley Feb 6th 2012 at 9:00AM

Mists of Pandaria can't come soon enough as far as I'm concerned, and that anticipation is palpable. Hopefully we'll learn more about Pet Battles soon, especially with all of that hinted Pandaria information coming in the near future. Enterprising players have begun to create their own visions of the future of Pet Battles, including the above video that features an all-too-familiar scenario occurring in an all-too-unnatural place.

Have you seen any other fan mockups of the upcoming Pet Battle system, whether humorous or realistic? Show off your favorites in the comments below.

Filed under: Mists of Pandaria

Blizzard celebrates 7 years in Europe with 50% off for a limited time

by Mathew McCurley Feb 3rd 2012 at 1:00PM

EU players will be happy to know that for the seventh anniversary of World of Warcraft in Europe, Blizzard has slashed the price of World of Warcraft yet again, bringing the cost of WoW down even lower for a limited time. Remember, United States and assorted North American nations, these are EU copies and versions of the game.

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- lowering the cost of the barrier to entry to WoW is not a choice but rather a grave necessity. When 90 levels starts looking like a lot of content and too big of an endeavor for a new player, it doesn't matter how good the 85-to-90 content is, because people will never see it. The last thing you want is for price to be an issue when there are so many other factors to consider about the relative uniqueness of the MMO industry.

Here are the EU seventh anniversary sale prices:

World of Warcraft Battle Chest EUR 7,49 £4.99
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King EUR 9,99 £7.49
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm EUR 14,99 £12.49
World of Warcraft mount: Celestial Steed mount EUR 10,00 £8.50
World of Warcraft pet: Lil'K.T. EUR 5,00 £4.50

Hit up the EU Blizzard store to get these deals while they last.

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!

Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm

Massively's guide to The Old Republic for WoW players

by Mathew McCurley Jan 20th 2012 at 7:00PM

Our sister site Massively, which deals in the immense universe of massively multiplayer games that do not take place in Azeroth, has put together an informative guide for WoW players playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. With the number of comparisons being made between The Old Republic and World of Warcraft, one would think that there would be a sizable amount of overlap in terms of necessary skills and familiarity. As it turns out, there are a lot more differences in the minutiae than predicted.

If you're a WoW player heading to a galaxy far, far away while your raid takes some time off (or you just like seeing what's out there), you'll find some great tips over at Massively.

Filed under: News items

Is choosing a server becoming obsolete?

by Anne Stickney Jan 13th 2012 at 5:00PM

Let's hop in the wayback machine for a minute, because I enjoy doing that. Once upon a time in the days of vanilla WoW, players who had just purchased the game were faced with a choice upon logging in for the first time: What server would they call home? There were three different server types, each with their own flavor: PvP, for those that wanted to log in and have the opportunity to whale on the opposing faction at any given opportunity; PvE for those who would rather avoid fighting with other players and simply enjoy the content; and RP, for those who wanted to create character stories and roleplay with other characters. Later, the RP-PvP realm was introduced for roleplayers who really wanted to whale on the opposing faction as well as roleplay.

But the choice went beyond a simple matter of what type of game you wanted to play. Each server had its own cast of characters, and as the years went by, these players turned into friends and foes alike. Servers weren't just about how you wanted to play; they were a collection of people you interacted with on a daily basis. Guilds were composed of people with the same ideas in mind, but those guilds weren't the be all and end- all of your interaction with people in the game. Every server had that one guy who was always cracking jokes in trade chat. Every server always had a ninja or two. And of course, there was always the guy who didn't seem to get what social interaction was all about.

These days, we have cross-realm grouping via Real ID, the Raid Finder for those who don't want to bother with joining a raid guild, and now we've got the up-and-coming feature that will allow us to group with players cross-realm for raiding old content as well as the new stuff. So the big question is this: Do servers even have a purpose anymore?

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Bring another game's items into WoW

by Mathew McCurley Jan 12th 2012 at 7:00PM

Gnome warlock Shadowcog posted a fun thread on the World of Warcraft official community forums asking players to bring iconic items from other games into Azeroth. Shadowcog opened the discussion by citing the Magic Mirror from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, one of my favorite games of all time. It got me nostalgic in all sorts of ways.

Even Daxxarri got into the mix, looking to bring in the Snarks from the Half-Life series and draenei-crewed Battlecruisers appearing over the skies of Kalimdor. Oddly fitting, really. Personally, I would have gone with some of the ork creations from the Warhammer series, since I could see orcish and goblin technology coming together to create such monstrosities.

Which items would you bring in from other games? What magical artifact or ancient relic from some distance universe would you want your WoW character to possess? (Thanks again to Shadowcog for an awesome post!)

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Breakfast Topic: What keeps you playing?

by Chris Clow Nov 30th 2011 at 8:00AM

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

I've known people who played this game for many reasons. Some were in it just to kill time, some wanted to get the best gear, and many wanted to beat the game in the manner of their choice. Ultimately, for those of us who have stuck around for more than a content cycle, there's something that keeps us here rather than moving on to the next flavor of the month game.

The reason I play this game isn't really for the raiding or the prestige, and it sure isn't for the gear. In the end, I'm playing this game because I've got a good group of friends who play with me. There are about 22 of us, and while there are only 15 or so playing at any given time, it's made raiding a ton of fun and recruiting this expansion a breeze. When someone needs some time away from the game, another friend is coming back and looking to raid. While it took me about a year to cultivate all these friendships, it's paid off well in Cataclysm. I don't think I'd still be playing if it weren't for them. Thank you, guys and gals.

So what keeps you logging on? What drives you in this game?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

Blood Sport: How will patch 4.3 impact PvP?

by Olivia Grace Nov 23rd 2011 at 6:00PM

WoW Insider covers the world of player vs. player action in Blood Sport for fans of battleground, world PvP and Arena play. Steering you to victory is Olivia Grace, who spends most of her time in Azeroth as a restoration shaman turning people into frogs.

With patch 4.3 imminent and Arena season 10 due to end Nov. 29, it seems reasonable to assume the patch will appear in early December. While you're racing to get your team into title range, get that last piece of gear, or just running laps of your capital city, you might be thinking forward to the arrival of the patch and wondering what your fate will be in PvP as the nerf bat winds up for another swing. Firstly, let's deal with some housekeeping.

Conquest points, the PvP equivalent of valor points, will now be far, far easier to earn from ordinary Battlegrounds. The first daily Battleground win will now award 100 conquest points, up from 25, and wins after that will award 50 conquest point, up from, well, none! The conquest cap will remain, so while it will still be far quicker to reach it through Arena, it will also be attainable via Battlegrounds of the non-rated variety. This makes it far easier for solo players to build up the resilience numbers people often demand (fairly or otherwise) for access to Arena and Rated Battleground teams or just to gear for Battlegrounds.

Filed under: PvP, Blood Sport (Arena PvP)

5 reasons you should love Cataclysm

by Anne Stickney Nov 21st 2011 at 8:00PM

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.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

New WoW ad airing during Sunday football

by Mathew McCurley Nov 16th 2011 at 5:00PM

The official Warcraft Twitter account has teased a new World of Warcraft advertisement that will be airing during the Bears vs. Chargers game on Sunday. While we do not know the content of the advertisement yet, we know that it will potentially involve a foot, a hunter, someone's face, and a new Warcraft master. In the past, WoW commercials have featured celebrities attesting to their in-game personas, spelling out the awesomeness of their abilities. Who will be the newest WoW spokesperson?

Not to be disrespectful to our European audiences, I've translated the post above for you below:

Europeans, you'll be able to watch a new WoW commercial that aired during an American Gridiron game on YouTube this Sunday.

We'll have a video of the commercial as soon as it is available.

Filed under: Cataclysm

5 reasons you should love Wrath of the Lich King

by Anne Stickney Nov 15th 2011 at 4:00PM

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!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Breakfast Topic: What do you want from 5-man content?

by Chris Clow Nov 14th 2011 at 8:00AM

This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages.

A good amount of the WoW population spends the majority of its endgame time in 5-man dungeons. Blizzard is acutely aware of this, and it's striven to make new and engaging 5-mans. The 5-mans were more or less left alone in The Burning Crusade, with only one new dungeon during the entire tier, and the only major innovation was the wave system used in Opening the Dark Portal, which was later mimicked in Violet Hold and The Culling of Stratholme. In Wrath, Blizzard released four new dungeons over the course of the expansion and added in vehicle-based encounters in Trial of the Champion and the Oculus (which thankfully haven't been reproduced anywhere else yet). During Cataclysm, Blizzard has already released two new instances and announced plans for three more in the upcoming 4.3 patch. It's added interactive environments, randomized bosses, and some of the most complex 5-man encounters to date.

So what is Blizzard going to add next? Since Wrath, new raid tiers are accompanied by new raid meta-achievement mounts. While raid encounters are unquestionably more difficult, it'd be a nice nod to the players who can't raid for some reason or another to have a new mount to aspire to in 5-man content. A new Glory of the Hero mount for each tier of 5-mans that come out would be a good touch and a way to make 5-man content feel a little bit more connected to the storyline. Blizzard already implemented nine achievements tied to Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub, so tying them into a meta wouldn't be much of an issue.

What would you like to see in the future of 5 man content?

Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts

5 reasons you should love The Burning Crusade

by Anne Stickney Nov 8th 2011 at 2:00PM

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!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

WoW TCG: Fall 2011 Class Starter Decks available Dec. 6

by Chase Hasbrouck Nov 3rd 2011 at 8:00PM

Cryptozoic has announced the release date for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game Fall 2011 Starter Decks. These decks will feature 10 unique heroes (five Horde and five Alliance) for players to collect and will be specially designed so that a new player can purchase a single deck and be ready to play.

Each deck will also contain a World of Warcraft in-game item (such as the Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E., the Spectral Kitten/Spectral Tiger Cub, or the Dragon Kite), a War of the Elements booster pack, and a reprint of a previous fan favorite card.

The decks are are projected to be available on Dec. 6, 2011, and will retail for around $10.99. For more information, visit Cryptozoic's website.

Filed under: WoW TCG

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