Flying Disabled Until First Warlords of Draenor Patch


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Here at MMO Fallout, we stand by our belief that flying mounts are among the worst mechanics ever brought to the genre, and apparently we have friends at Blizzard who agree with us. From a consumer standpoint, it sounds pretty cool. For the developers creating the content in a zone, it messes with the normal flow and can make some areas entirely pointless. Instead of allowing players to trivialize the combat in Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard has announced that they intend to disable flying during the leveling process from 90-100 and have flying available again once the first major patch goes live. Why? I’ll let Bashiok explain:

Flying trivializes combat. A lot of people like to say we’re trying to force world PvP, or that we just really want people to look at the pretty trees we made, but those really aren’t the reasons that drive this same decision we’ve made every expansion. Flying allows you to escape or enter combat at-will. There’s a reason why flying isn’t allowed in dungeons and raids, or battlegrounds and arenas, and that’s because it would trivialize the core mechanic of the game in those areas – combat. For much the same reason it trivializes how content is approached in the outdoor world based on the simple fact that you can lift off and set down wherever you like.

As Bashiok points out, World of Warcraft is meant to be a guided experience and flying mounts render much of that moot, but this is the bed that Blizzard made and now they must lie in it.

(Source: World of Warcraft)

World of Warcraft's Foray Into Player Housing


draenor

 

Player housing has been a long time coming in World of Warcraft, after all the concept was in place going all the way back to the game’s internal alpha. Blizzard has referred to housing as “on the horizon” going all the way back to the game’s launch in 2004, with a few comments here and there of no particular detail other than to say that the idea was not in active development. One fear conveyed by Blizzard was that the world that had already become rather empty due to the Looking For Dungeon tool, would become even less populated if players had no reason to leave their house. On the other hand, Blizzard did not want to take the massive effort of creating a housing system only to have it underused out of lack of functionality.

With garrisons, Blizzard seems to once again be picking a “learn from the competition” approach to development. For those of you who didn’t catch the Blizzcon information, Garrisons are phased housing areas coming with Warlords of Draenor which allow players to create buildings and recruit followers. Followers add an element of offline progression as players can send them to gather resources, complete crafting tasks, and are able to gain character and item levels to find resources with which to build better buildings and obtain even more resources. Garrisons will also be a case with which to show off one’s trophies and achievements, and presumably will be updated with further features over time.

From what we’ve seen so far, garrisons feel like a slightly more jazzed up version of The Old Republic’s resource gathering, minus the ability to manage your crew portably through a menu. Unless you can, in which case ignore that previous sentence. I’m looking forward to seeing more about garrisons in the future.

World of Warcraft’s Foray Into Player Housing


draenor

 

Player housing has been a long time coming in World of Warcraft, after all the concept was in place going all the way back to the game’s internal alpha. Blizzard has referred to housing as “on the horizon” going all the way back to the game’s launch in 2004, with a few comments here and there of no particular detail other than to say that the idea was not in active development. One fear conveyed by Blizzard was that the world that had already become rather empty due to the Looking For Dungeon tool, would become even less populated if players had no reason to leave their house. On the other hand, Blizzard did not want to take the massive effort of creating a housing system only to have it underused out of lack of functionality.

With garrisons, Blizzard seems to once again be picking a “learn from the competition” approach to development. For those of you who didn’t catch the Blizzcon information, Garrisons are phased housing areas coming with Warlords of Draenor which allow players to create buildings and recruit followers. Followers add an element of offline progression as players can send them to gather resources, complete crafting tasks, and are able to gain character and item levels to find resources with which to build better buildings and obtain even more resources. Garrisons will also be a case with which to show off one’s trophies and achievements, and presumably will be updated with further features over time.

From what we’ve seen so far, garrisons feel like a slightly more jazzed up version of The Old Republic’s resource gathering, minus the ability to manage your crew portably through a menu. Unless you can, in which case ignore that previous sentence. I’m looking forward to seeing more about garrisons in the future.

Free To Play Is Not Coming To World of Warcraft


draenor

 

With Blizzard’s latest quarterly report showing another drop in subscribers for World of Warcraft, the internet is once again asking the age old question: Will the game go free to play? If you have to ask, the answer is no. Blizzard’s Production Director J Allen Brack stated to Eurogamer:

“We would have to rework the game pretty significantly in order to make it free-to-play. It’s not something we’re currently considering.”

That sounds familiar for some reason. Blizzard opened its convention with the announcement of the next expansion pack, Warlords of Draenor, where players will travel back in time to the Warcraft RTS era.

(Source: Eurogamer)

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor Announced


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Blizzard has kicked off Blizzcon with the announcement of the next expansion to World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor. The expansion will introduce the world of Draenor, as well as increase the level cap to 100 and allow players to instantly boost one character to 90. According to the trailer, players will also have to defend and upgrade their garrison, and characters are set to receive a dramatic graphical overhaul. According to a Q&A, Draenor will see the introduction of new stats to gear, as well as the removal of others (hit, expertise). You can read the entire FAQ at the link below.

(Source: Warords of Draenor FAQ)

MMOrning Shots: Welcome to the World of Warcraft


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Today’s MMOrning Shot is so old, it remembers when the Dead Sea was dying. This screenshot of World of Warcraft has been plucked from Blizzard’s press archives dating back to 2001, showcasing the game’s equipment interface and bag.

Blizzard Wins $7 Million Judgement Against Bots


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Blizzard has fired another shot across the nose of the bot community with a successful judgement against Ceiling Fan Software. The developer was embroiled in a lawsuit against the creator of Shadow Bot and Pocket Gnome for the past two years, until a judge awarded a judgement of seven million. As a result of the judgement, Ceiling Fan Software is required to cease the sale or distribution of any bot, hack, or cheat software for any of Blizzard’s games. They are not allowed to develop, patch, modify, update, or test said software, nor are they allowed to possess it at all. They may not invest, associate, or assist in the creation or updating of software that violates Blizzard’s ToS either, and this applies to any company that the defendants operate at any point in the future.

Ceiling Fan Software posted a notice of shutdown on their website.

After more than 2 years of legal battles with Blizzard Entertainment to both pursue our right to operate and our customer’s right to play WoW as they choose, we did not prevail in the suit and have been ordered by the United States District Court in California to cease our operations.

The judge ruled in favor of Blizzard under a law which prohibits “unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business practices.”

(Source: Court Ruling)

Diablo III's Auction House Shutting Down


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Ding dong, the witch is dead. Ever since the idea was first revealed by Blizzard, the auction house in Diablo III has been readily panned by players for undermining the core gameplay of killing a load of things to amass a load of stuff. In a surprise announcement, Blizzard has announced that the auction houses, both real money and the fake kind, will be shut down on March 18th, 2014.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we’ve mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot. With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we’ve decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.

The update will go hand in hand with the Loot 2.0 system coming with the first Diablo III expansion.

(Source: Diablo III)

Diablo III’s Auction House Shutting Down


Best-Soloing-Classes-Diablo-III

Ding dong, the witch is dead. Ever since the idea was first revealed by Blizzard, the auction house in Diablo III has been readily panned by players for undermining the core gameplay of killing a load of things to amass a load of stuff. In a surprise announcement, Blizzard has announced that the auction houses, both real money and the fake kind, will be shut down on March 18th, 2014.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we’ve mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo’s core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot. With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we’ve decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.

The update will go hand in hand with the Loot 2.0 system coming with the first Diablo III expansion.

(Source: Diablo III)

Blizzard Trademarks Likely World of Warcraft Addition


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MMO Champion is reporting that Blizzard has put a trademark down on “The Down Below,” speculating that it may be an expansion to either World of Warcraft or Diablo III. Although nothing is known other than the name of the trademark, and the fact that it refers to computer game software, players have already begun to speculate. One user on the Massively.com comments section speculated that the name might have something to do with Dark Below, which is the area in World of Warcraft where demons come from.

This very well may be World of Warcraft’s next expansion. After all, we know that Blizzard is working on getting expansions out faster, and the past couple of expansions have been leaked in similar fashion.

(Source: MMO Champion)