Burning Crusade: January 16th, 2007 - 10.24.2006

Well, it’s true. The Burning Crusade is being “delayed” until the first month of the new year. Eyonix addressed the issue this morning via forum post.

Stated by Eyonix, “IRVINE, Calif. – Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

Blizzard began the closed-beta phase of testing on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade earlier this month. The January 2007 release window will allow extra time for current beta testers to participate in the final stages of development and continue providing valuable feedback.

Further information on specific worldwide release dates, pricing, and other details will be announced in the near future.”

In my opinion, this is both good and bad. Obviously, I am disappointed because I was looking forward to playing the expansion during the long holiday break in December. But, on the other hand we now have a stable release date (January 16th, 2007), and I doubt we will have to worry about the expansion “not being ready”.

So, what will be happening to WoW from now until January? A new patch of course!! Some confusion floated around the forums earlier, but it is now all cleared up. There WILL be a new content patch before the expansion, but it WILL NOT be 1.13. On the forums, Tseric claimed it would most likely be named 2.0. This patch will include changes to the honor system, new talents, and new abilities. So, this patch is most likely coming in for the people that won’t be getting the expansion, but it’s also there so that people will be able to get acclimated to the new changes before the expansion airs. Wow. That was a lot of typing. =P

-Attm

Burning Crusade Postponed? - 10.23.2006

Hello all!! Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days, I’ve been gone and it’s been a slow week.

I come back with some sad news. Sources say that The Burning Crusade will most likely be postponed until January 2007. Well, you can’t really call it a delay. I mean, Blizzard Entertainment never stated that it would be released around the holiday season. That was just the assumption by the community.

But, anyways… Vivendi’s Danish department stated the following, “no comment, a press release is due for tomorrow”. So, I guess we will be finding everything out tomorrow. Who knows? We might even get a strong hint, if not the actual date as to when the Burning Crusade is being released.

-Attm

65 Million Boars - 10.20.2006

65 Million Boars is a World of Warcraft comedy blog that was started by “Derek” on October 15th, 2006. It’s a great site to go to after a long day at school/work and just have a laugh about your favorite game, WoW. I totally reccomend that you guys check it out. I got a good amount of laughs, and I’m sure you will too.

Link To 65 Million Boars

-Attm

Hallow's End Is Here!! - 10.18.2006

It’s finally here!! I am so excited!!

So, the first thing I did was log in at Ironforge, and then I flew to Southshore right away. I picked up the two quests available. I didn’t have much time, so I just did the Wickerman quest. I flew to Chillwind Camp and scouted out the Wickerman. Then, I went through Silverpine to get back to Southshore. The first thing that I did when I got back was make Southshore my hearth spot (lol, I love Southshore during Hallow’s End so much), then I turned in the quest, got my 15 candies, and started to play around. I’ve only used two candies so far, but I’ve already had fun. The first one gave me an orange glow and made me as tall as a Human (I’m a Gnome), and the second one turned me into one of those skeleton-looking things with armor. So, comment this post on your Hallow’s End adventures so far!!

-Attm

The New "Looking For Group" - 10.16.2006

Blizzard has officially announced the new “looking for group” interface coming with the release of the Burning Crusade. The new system will be accessible by a new button on the action bar next to the “social” button. After choosing “looking for group” or “looking for more”, a new interface comes up with a dropdown menu that includes:

1. Selecting Dungeon
2. Selecting Raid
3. Selecting Quest
4. Selecting Zone
5. Selecting Battleground

To find more information regarding the new interface, check out Blizzards actual description at this link.

-Attm

Hallow's End - 10.15.2006

Hey everyone!! This is my first post for this blog, so be nice. :p

So, I thought I’d point out that Hallow’s End is beginning really soon. October 18th, to be exact. Personally, I can’t wait because not only is Halloween my favorite holiday in real life, but Hallow’s End is my favorite holiday in WoW. I just love the “spooky” atmosphere and the cool “treats”. The following is directly from the WoW site…

“When the decorations of Hallow’s End light up Azeroth’s cities, you know there’s mischief afoot! Seek special vendors in Orgrimmar or Ironforge and get your hands on treats! Aid a sick orphan in a little trick-or-treating! Deathcaller Yanka, attending the Forsaken’s Wickerman Festival, and Sergeant Hartman of Southshore are seeking your aid in keeping the enemy out of their holiday affairs — are you up to the challenge?”

Reading that makes me SO excited! Only 3 days until the event begins! wOOt!!

P.S. - To get you even more excited, check out some screenshots from Hallow’s End here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/imageviewer.html?/community/,images/ingameevents/ongoing/hallowsend/,1,9,http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/ingameevents.html

-Attm

Just Who Plays WoW? - 10.15.2006

An interesting post was brought up today on the WoW forums by Sekhmett from Spirestone.

Sekhmett writes,
“Today I started thinking… who plays Warcraft? Do doctor’s play wow? Do teachers? What’s the age range? I’ve seen kids in like junior high to people who are old enough to be my mother. I’ve heard people say that it is mostly men… and yet there are so many (supposedly) female players.I’m a 25 year old mom who works as a security coordinator for a biotech firm.”

This really got me thinking. So, I jumped a bit around the thread. It was very interesting. Check it out at this link . Also, you can comment this post with “who you are”!!

-Punchline

The Burning Crusade Beta - 10.14.2006

Well, with the Burning Crusade most likely right around the corner (rumors state November 28th), it is obviously currently in the beta phase. Unfortunately, I didn’t get an invite to participate in the beta, but I know many people that did. So, did you? Please comment this post saying you did (along with some fun encounters you’ve had), or you can rant with me about not getting an invite!!

-Punchline

Pros and Cons of the Burning Crusade - 10.13.2006

So, I was trolling the forums as usual, and I found a very interesting thread by Carcass from the Garithos realm. Carcass was invited to the Burning Crusade BETA (unlike me), and since the NDA was lifted, he would like to share a few points about the expansion. He wrote out a nice list of some “pros and cons” of the Burning Crusade.

Carcass writes,
“Pros:
- The Dark Portal is as cool as you thought it would be!!- The Outland is huge, plenty of area to explore.- There is plenty of content, lots of quests.- The story is robust(you will see massive corpses of ‘famous’ lore)- The mobs are very challenging.- Each zone in the Outlands has some type of world PvP objective.- Each new race has many subtle little things that make it cool. (Blood Elves have self sweeping brooms that just wander around cleaning the floors)- Blood Elf racials a mana drain and a silence(well explore this more later)- Loot is plentiful, sockets provide vast flexiblity- Arena has massive potential(need more people in beta since there wasn’t much going on right now)

Cons:
- The flying mounts that are 150% speed are 5000g.- The mob models are basically the same as the rest of WoW’s models with new ’skin textures’.- Lvl 60 basic mobs are difficult, feels like there needs to be balance here.- Sockets are overwhelming. To some that like it simple, these sockets become to much.- Loot is unbalanced. GREENs are better then some of today’s instance EPICS. Example - Lvl 57 GREEN boots that had +19 spell damage AND healing, +19 int, AND + 14 Crit rating(no more Crit %) and the loot dropped off of a basic mob. There were blues linked in our beta guild that were better then Tier 2 Epic loot.- The Mage Water Elemental talent is a big disappointment. It looks basic and doesn’t lat long enough to be of any real help(45 sec)- Mage Invisibility is to short to be really useful- I have this ‘fear’ that once I’ve explored all of the Outland, which will be by the end of this weekend, I’ll be saying ‘that is not enough for me to continue on’. Which leads me into…- It feels like the same grind, better gear, more sockets, more ‘i’m better then you’. Now for some that just want content and care less about better then you, it will last for 2 months and you’ll be done. For those that are gear crazy, it will be endless because of sockets.”

Now, I personally think this list is awesome. It gives a lot of information out to those many unfortunate people who weren’t invited to participate in the Burning Crusade BETA. Thanks Carcass!!

-Punchline

An [Epic] Beginning - 10.13.2006

World of Blogcraft. It was just one of my many ideas, but one of the few ideas of mine to become something. World of Blogcraft will be bringing you breaking news from the world of Azeroth - Fast! When I say fast, I mean it. The minute any news, big or small, is released (or leaked, knowing Blizzard), we’ll be right on top of it. So bookmark this blog and stay tuned because you’ll be getting the first bit of WoW news really soon!!

P.S. - I just noticed that it’s Friday the 13th. Hehe…

P.P.S. - Please send all comments, questions, or feedback to worldofblogcraft@gmail.com . Thanks!!

-Punchline