World of Warcraft – Page 6

Support Ebola Relief With World of Warcraft

It’s charity time, folks. Between December 3rd and the 31st, Blizzard will donate 100% of the proceeds from sales of the Argi pet in World of Warcraft. Donations are in support of the Red Cross and go towards Ebola relief efforts in Africa. Argi can also be purchased in a $30 bundle with the Grinning Reaver mount, with $10 of that bundle donated.

*For every Argi pet and Grinning Reaver mount bundle purchased between December 3 and December 31, Blizzard will donate $10 ($10 in the US; pricing varies by region) in support of the American Red Cross to assist in Ebola relief efforts in Africa.

(Source: Blizzard)

World of Warcraft is Dying: Subscriptions Increase

As World of Warcraft continues its descent to an early death, Blizzard has revealed that World of Warcraft has seen a bump in subscribers. The MMO behemoth is currently sitting at 7.4 million, six hundred thousand more subscribers, as of October 14th. The imminent release of Warlords of Draenor expansion is no doubt bringing players back, as the game receives a bump with each expansion’s release.

Warlords of Draenor launches in November.

(Source: WoW Insider)

MMOrning Shots: Listen Close, Children

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from World of Warcraft. The guy with the purple staff is giving a history lesson on the days before WoW had a streamlined auto-patching tool, and the process of installing the game from start to finish was often a ten hour job.

Laboriously install MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Blizzard Announces Warlords of Draenor Launch Date Announcement Date

You are too kind, Blizzard. World of Warcraft’s next expansion Warlords of Draenor is ready to bust through your door and kick your productivity to the curb. In an announcement put out, Blizzard has revealed that on August 15th we will…find out when Warlord of Draenor will be released. Yes, the hype train goes so deep that we now have announcements to tell us when something will be announced.

Next up on MMO Fallout: Trion Worlds announces upcoming press event to discuss the details of a viral marketing campaign that will hint towards when we can expect a full announcement on the release date of ArcheAge. Maybe.

World of Warcraft Discontinues Resurrection Scrolls

The Scroll of Resurrection is being discontinued in World of Warcraft. Previously, scrolls of resurrection could be used to bring a player whose subscription had lapsed back into the game, not to mention gifting a spectral rider to the person offering the invitation. Players on the receiving end of the scroll could insta-boost one of their characters to level 80, in addition to the 7 days of free game time. The last day to send an invitation will be February 18th, with a 30 day time limit for recipients to accept.

Warcraft’s upcoming expansion, Warlords of Draenor, includes an insta-boost to 90 with the possibility that level boosts may become available on the in-game cash shop.

(Source: Blizzard)

Blizzard Gives Parents More Control

Blizzard has announced that accounts with parental controls turned on will soon have the ability to make in-game purchases turned off by default. The decision likely comes from last year’s list of companies dealing with children racking up massive bills on their parent’s card using cash shops and mobile app stores, including Apple paying out $100 million for unauthorized purchases. With the threat of class action lawsuits and suggestions of litigation to deal with a lack of self-regulation, Blizzard is joining a group of companies implementing their own policies.

(Source: Blizzard)

World of Warcraft's Cash Shop Launches

World of Warcraft’s in-game store has arrived in the form of the Battle.net shop. Right now the cash shop is rather limited, offering access to the standard fluff players have come to know and either love or hate from Blizzard’s web client. Vanity pets run about $10, with mounts at $25, although most items from both sets are 50% off for the time being to celebrate the launch. Grab them before they go back to regular price on January 1st.

(Source: Joystiq)

NSA Infiltrates World of Warcraft

Terrorist hunting or just looking for a reason to play World of Warcraft at the taxpayer’s expense? According to documents leaked to The Guardian by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the US National Security Agency and British Government Communications Headquarters deployed spies into multiple MMOs including World of Warcraft. The practice, dating back to 2008, monitors game communities on the grounds that terrorists may be using chat channels to plot activities. Terrorist activities of a terroristic nature, no doubt.

In addition to World of Warcraft, the agencies have also targeted Second Life and Xbox Live services. The documents don’t provide much evidence that the services are actually being used for terrorist activity.

(Source: The Guardian)

Flying Disabled Until First Warlords of Draenor Patch

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

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.

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