Rumor: A Fifth Blizzard Game In the Works

According to tumeroks.com, the 5th Blizzard game is in their early development stage. 5th you say - What was the fourth? If you’re still not clued in yet:
1. Starcraft II2. Diablo III3. New World of Warcraft expansion4. Next-Gen MMO5. A new unannounced game (New IP?)
The rumor surfaced last week when Blizzard posted 2 new job opportunities under the “unannounced” category for two software engineers. According to a blue post from Blizzard regarding the new positions:

The first time a new IP was hinted was as far back as 2006, when Paul Sams said the following to Gamespot:

Two years down the line, Paul Sams announces the Next-Gen MMO is in production but also mentioned interest in a new IP. So far, Paul Sams has been living up to his words. Although the title still remains a secret, it is official they are working on the Next-Gen MMO.
A few months ago you offered a job on the official Blizzard webpage, Considering a next gen MMO… A community manager added that its about a game that hasn’t been announced yet. Is there any new information on that or is Diablo the mentioned next gen MMO?
Rob Pardo: No, its obviously not, since it is not an MMO! We have another development team, that is…
So there is still one project?
Rob Pardo: Yea, there is still one “unknown” project…(source: OnlineWelten)Blizzard has very strong IP, but it also seems like all of it was created in the last century.
PS: First of all, that’s true that we’ve not introduced any new franchises this century. I think what it really comes down to is, we ask the teams what they want to make next.
I think the folks at our company are concerned, if they’re going to do a new franchise, that it be worthy -and that it be something that is equivalent or better than what we’ve done before, because they don’t want to do a franchise that’s not.
These are three of the best-selling franchises of all time, and very well-loved. So you’ve got a pretty high bar of trying to figure out what those franchises might be.
What I will say, though, is that the idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company. Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don’t know when that day will be quite yet. (source: Gamasutra)When the man says they’re bringing out a new game or whatever, I believe him. He has lived up to his word so far and I do feel they have the budget and are in need of banging out a new IP. Also consider the fact that they’ve yet to release any new franchise for this century.
Paul Sams: What I will say, though, is that the idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company. Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don’t know when that day will be quite yet.
So far, Blizzard has pretty much covered almost every genre of games out but a shooter. I wonder if that’s within the line of what they’re looking to develop. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinion.

Wolrd of Warcraft: Sex text teacher facing jail

A primary teacher was facing jail today after she admitted sending sexually explicit text messages to a 14-year-old schoolboy.

Lynn Walls, 42, used the interactive computer game Warcraft to befriend the teenager and get his mobile phone number while playing online.

She sent the boy, from London, a series of graphic texts in November last year which outlined what she intended to do with him if they met.

Walls was caught out when his father read the messages. The primary school teacher, who works in Gateshead, was warned the offence of inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity was so serious that jail was a possibility.

Judge Guy Whitburn, at Newcastle Crown Court, said: “This is very, very disturbing.”

Walls, of Rose Street East, Penshaw, Sunderland, will be placed on the sex offenders register for a period yet to be determined. She was granted bail and will be sentenced in January.

The judge said: “I warn you, this offence is so serious a custodial sentence cannot be ruled out.”

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Review

For over four years now, World of Warcraft has unquestionably reigned king of the MMORPG scene, with now eleven million players playing world wide, and one add-on which further expanded the already massive world and brought us Outland. Now with the release of WoW’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard have not only further polished their hugely successful MMO, but have added enough new content to the game that it could easily last at least another 2 years.

But to be fair, Wrath is not a game that will draw new players into the scene, as ultimately, it is targeted at the players that have already reached the previous level cap of 70, and are ready to progress further into the new end game content. It is a game built with the fans in mind, not the newcomers, and so this review is targeted at experienced WoW players and outlines why Wrath is a must-buy to the veterans of the vastly popular MMO.

Probably the most talked about and anticipated addition to the MMO is the new hero class, the Death Knight. Only available to those who have reached level 55 and over, the Death Knight begins in the Eastern Plaguelands at level 55 under the control of the Lich King, and is primarily a melee class able to take on tanking and damage roles in PvE, and have the potential to be a devastating ally in PvP. The feel perceived from a Death Knight is that of a mixture between a Warlock and Paladin, with disease debuffs doing damage over time, like a Warlock’s curse, and also aiding in buffing certain other abilities the Death Knight has, much like that of a Paladin’s Judgements. The Death Knight’s runic power system also feels much like a Warriors rage system, where one must learn to manage it properly by using abilities and dealing damage to sustain it, then unleashing its power through abilities that require runic power. But in another twist, Death Knights also have runes they use to activate certain abilities, the runes being Frost, Unholy and Blood. The Death Knight has 2 of each specialisation to use, and as an example if they were to use their Area of Effect spell Death and Decay, they would require two of their Unholy runes, and the only time they can cast it again is when those Runes go off cool down. Though sounding fairly complex, the system once learned is highly effective, and mastering the system can lead to devastating damage outputs or huge threat gains from the Death Knight. And with the talent trees that Death Knight’s have, the new class is very versatile and it is an unlikely encounter to spot two Death Knights with the same play styles.

The biggest addition to WoW though is the new continent Northrend, where level 70 players go to level up to the new level cap of 80. One of the most striking things about Northrend is its design, which is vastly different from the warped and twisted landscapes of Outland. Northrend is much more gothic in design, and holds a much darker tone to previous areas in WoW, which fits in the context of what WoW players face, which is the Lich King himself, the former Paladin, Arthas Menethil.

Questing in Northrend is also vastly improved to the quests from Outland and the older Azeroth continents, with more involvement in each quest, especially through a new system called Phasing. Phasing happens when you’ve completed a certain chain of quests, which then lead to an event that changes the actual world around you. It may, for example, open a new flight path that previously wasn’t there, and it’s unique to every player, so if someone has not done that chain of quests, they will not be able to see what you see. Of course it can be a bit of a nuisance when there is a group quest you receive from the phase, and none of your friends are up to that point and are unable to help, but nonetheless it gives a strong reason why quests should be completed, even after you’ve reached level 80, and even then the questing is now quite fun. Fetch quests are now quite uncommon, with new quests such as taking control of a tank and wiping hundreds of Scourge being more prevalent, which makes levelling up far more enjoyable than previous efforts. Blizzard have clearly put more thought into the grinding part of Wrath, and it’s turned out to be quite fun and very rewarding.

And if you’re not a big fan of the questing either way, you can grind your way to 80 through the new instances of Northrend, and pick up gear on the way. Ranging from foreboding keeps littered with Vikings known as the Vrykul, or dark caverns littered with the Lich Kings spider minions, there’s a huge variety in dungeons to play through and all are not only challenging, but very enjoyable. One instance in particular known as Azjol’Nerub has you running through a dark cavern filled with undead spiders, and for the WarCraft lore fans, has you facing off against Anub’arak as a boss at the end. The instance is extremely fast paced and never lets up, and will have your blood pumping by the end of the run. It’s only one example of an instance run in Northrend, but most are extremely well designed and very smooth, and many players will be happy to play them over and over again, if not for the enjoyment of it or for farming gear they want.

And for the players that have hit 80, they have the end game content to look forward to, such as Heroic 5 mans (instances attuned and tweaked for level 80 players), and Naxxramas, an older 40 man raid in the original WoW, re-released in both a 10 man and 25 man version. Many guilds will most likely seek to conquer the newly redesigned raid, whether it be in the lighter 10 man version or the more hardcore 25 man. After Naxxramas, there are even more raids to do, such as Malygos and Sartharion, so raiders have much to look forward to come end game.

But for the people who aren’t big fans of raiding and PvE, there’s plenty of PvP to go around too, particularly with the new Battleground, Strand of the Ancients, and a PvP focused area in Northrend named Wintergrasp.

Strand of the Ancients is a new Battleground which works much like Unreal Tournament’s assault mode, where each faction plays offence and defence per round. The offensive side come by boat and must break down the doors of the fort the defenders are protecting, and capture the city. They’re given siege tanks to aid in breaking down the doors, and defenders are given turrets placed around the fort. It’s a fairly intense and very enjoyable Battleground that is very different to the older Battlegrounds and is sure to be popular among PvP fans.

Wintergrasp works similarly to Strand of the Ancients, where whoever has control of the area at the time is to defend the fortress from being taken over, while the opposing faction must break it down and capture it with various vehicles made by siege workshops around the map. The only difference though is that once the Wintergrasp battle is over, the winning faction opens up a new raid and several other things such as quests for their faction to use for the next few hours, giving more incentive to hold Wintergrasp for your faction. It’s an interesting new addition into the game that will certainly please PvP fans.

On a visual note, Wrath has received a fair few upgrades, notably in shadows, where everything casts its own real time shadow now. Though technically nowhere near the quality of many MMO’s that have been released, the art design of Wrath is second to none, with absolutely outstanding attention to detail in almost every area. Areas are incredibly well designed, and encourage exploration as there’s so much to see and learn about the area. It’s all very diverse too, from dense jungles to icy landscapes, and will never bore you. The monsters are just as well designed as the areas as well, with each monster having distinct features from others, and you’ll never get mixed between them. It’s all so fresh and full of imagination, and will suck any player into the world for hours on end and won’t let go.

The sound is also well done, particularly the soundtrack, which is Blizzard’s best yet. From the epic and heart pounding beats of Icecrown to the soft and soulful melodies of Scholazar Basin, Wrath will have your hairs sticking up from the beauty of its music. Sound effects also play a big part in immersion, with the clashes of swords echoing through battlegrounds and battle cries of enemies as you face the final boss of a raid. It’s all very coherent and wholly appropriate, and will please the ears of any player.

Wrath of the Lich King is, on one hand, an absolutely outstanding game. The journey to level 80 is an experience many gamers will not forget, with much of the history of Northrend to discover and many places to explore. On the other hand, Wrath is a game only for the players dedicated enough to reach level 70, and level 55 if you want to play a Death Knight. So for newcomers, they are somewhat alienated, as they need to put in the time to get to level 70 first, then head onto Northrend.

That being said though, for those willing to get past the first two games and head on into Northrend, they are in for a big treat, as Wrath of the Lich King is not only a solid expansion, but Blizzard’s finest achievement and one which no gamer should miss out on.

source: palgn

WoW news:Teen arrested for making suicide threat to a GM

After a 17-year-old in Fairfield, Ohio told a GM “he was suicidal and the game was the only thing he had to live for,” the Blizzard rep called 911, and the kid was apparently arrested, style="COLOR: #993002">according to the Middletown Journal. style="COLOR: #993002">We’ve seen this before — Blizzard won’t put up with suicide threats — but as far as I know, this is the first we’ve heard of an arrest coming about because of it. Apparently the charge is a first degree style="COLOR: #993002">misdemeanor, and though the kid was released to his father, he’s got a court date to face next week.

The dumbest part? The kid wasn’t even suicidal — he told officers when questioned that it was a joke “to try and get what he wanted for the game.” We doubt this will lead to anything big (we’d put the kid in community service and give him a slap on the wrist — he’s probably scared enough after being handcuffed and put in a patrol car), but Blizzard’s policy is exactly right on this one, if you ask us. If the threat is real, this could prevent a tragedy, and if it’s just some kid messing around to try and get his banned account back, he might learn a little lesson in the process.

WOW: WoW, Casually: Top 5 casual improvements in 2008

WOWinsider posted the top 5 casual improvements of 2008 at their site.

Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime.

2007 truly was the year of the casual, but 2008 continued the trend of Blizzard developers to make more content accessible for those of us with limited playtime. The biggest patches for us (and everyone else) were 2.4 and 3.0.2. And there was that little expansion that happened. Overall, there is more for us to do in less time. Here is my list of the top 5 WoW improvements for us this past year.

Exciting Changes In WoW 3.1

Exciting changes in WoW 3.1

I’m not going to list them, but WoWInsider has pages and pages of announced changes for all classes coming in World of Warcraft patch 3.1. And I’m not talking about minor changes that change some bonus from 3.78% to 3.83% of something. But major changes with huge impacts on how classes work and what their role is in various environments. Of course I’m most excited about the priest changes, where for example the spirit buff will be made available to all priests, not just the discipline spec ones. Discipline priest will get a group shield, and will be able to cast Penance on themselves. Holy priests will enjoy improvements to various AoE healing spells. And as some commenters remarked, mana regeneration will be reworked for all classes, and a priest talent that previously gave you some mana back for overhealing will now shorten the casting time of slower spells after casting faster ones. That means a complete reevaluation of what stats are necessary for priests, and a big change to our spell rotation. wow powerleveling

My warrior will also have some fundamental changes to how his class works, because switching stances will be made significantly easier, and stance penalties might be changed too. The Arms tree will get increased damage. And I don’t have to shout at the priest any more when he casts Power Word: Shield on me, because in future that won’t inhibit rage generation any more.

Other classes also get some big changes: Mages and warlocks gain abilities that provide mana replenishment to their group. Hunters don’t need ammo any more. Death knights get their blood and frost trees buffed. Paladins all get blessing of kings as base ability. And the list goes on and on, including several points where big changes were announced, but not specified, e.g. improving holy priests viability in PvP.

A lot of good stuff, and it looks as if Blizzard is improving some underpowered classes like warlocks. Which causes less protests than nerfing the overpowered classes, but ultimately does the same thing for relative class balance. Nevertheless I find the timing a bit odd. Some classes, like paladins, have undergone massive changes with every patch since 3.0, often going up and down like a yoyo. Other classes have been rather neglected. Wouldn’t it have been better if all those changes to all classes would have come with either patch 3.0.2 or with Wrath of the Lich King? Well, at least it appears as if patch 3.1 pretty much covers all classes, so we might achieve some stability to class roles and class balance until WoW 4.0.

I’ve heard cynics saying that those class changes in each patch are Blizzard’s way of keeping us occupied when new content isn’t forthcoming. But patch 3.1 of course will have new content in the form of at least one new raid dungeon, and who knows what else. So what is your opinion on the frequent changes to various classes? Is balancing just very, very hard to get right? Or is patch 3.1 just adding stuff that should have been in the game long ago?

Man arrested for assaulting girl he met in World of Warcraft

Here’s an unfortunate World of Warcraft mention in the news: a man has been arrested and charged with all sorts of terrible things for having a relationship with a 14-year-old girl that he originally met in Azeroth. Daniel Joseph Czelusniak is 23 and from North Royalton, Ohio, and is being held by Pennsylvania State Police after having a relationship with the girl last year, meeting at a hotel and her house. He originally met her four years ago (when she was 10 but apparently claimed she was 14) while they were both playing World of Warcraft.

Of course, this is hardly the game’s fault: parents of young children need to closely supervise their activity online while they’re doing anything, be it browsing the Internet or fighting dragons in Northrend. WoW itself is rated T by the ESRB, which means no children under the age of 13 should really be playing it without parental supervision anyway, and the added online component of the game should be even more of a red flag for anyone overseeing younger children. This is a great game (and you couldn’t find a nicer community of people who play it), but there are the same dangers in this environment as anywhere else your child might go online.

No Lich King for China?

Chinese WoW official website, still The Burning Crusade

According to multiple sources, it seems The9, official publisher of World of Warcraft in China, has not been given the ok to release WoW’s latest expansion “Wrath of the Lich King”. Even with multiple changes including the removal of the well known Death Knight, the governing body which was in charge of assessing WLK still rejected the newest proposal. This latest denial was possibly due to additional content which was not removed, as quoted here,

“The applications were rejected due to content that didn’t meet requirements, including a city raid and skeleton characters;”

Rumors detailing problems between The9 and Blizzard regarding contractual issues and a possible meeting between The9’s President Chen Xiaowei and top executives at Electronic Arts to discuss Warhammer now seem to have greater validity; as with this latest delay and the supposed removal of a link which connected WoW’s simplified Chinese website with the North American one it seems as there may indeed be a fracture in these two companies relations.

If The9 continues to bring forth proposals on Blizzards behalf, it will be interesting to see what other things Blizzard must delete from the official version to get approval, and how much of their IP they are willing to butcher to comply.

What do you think is acceptable for a company to do when appeasing the government of a country in which they desire to do business?

I Don't Think So

The most played MMORPG of all time.

Wow, I tried it didn't like it and quit. Now you're probably there thinking oh my goodness you just dumped the game I always wanted, but I'm here to tell you it's not what you always wanted. The game play is boring, just walking around doing quests and the combat system should be changed.

I'd agree that it has a pretty good storyline and graphics, I love the fact that you can jump and move with the arrow keys but I got bored of it in half an hour. I'd rather turn to Runescape MEMBERSHIP. I think that Runescape offers you more fun for your money than Wow does. I don't understand how people become addicted to Wow it's just unbelievable to me.

Making Money the Easy Way in World of Warcraft

This is the most time-efficient way of making in-game currency for the popular MMO World of Warcraft.

Over 10 million people log into World of Warcraft (WoW) almost every day, playing in their virtual fantasy world in attempts to build up their virtual characters to their max and enjoy a (hopefully healthy) online lifestyle in addition to their everyday lives. How many times do you come up short though? You have the time to quest and level, but it seems like so many people have more time to work on their trade skills and make large amounts of money for their epic mount they have been trying to get for the past month. When it comes down to it, you just don't have enough in-game currency! You could buy that rare recipe or that epic item off the auction house if only you had a little bit more gold! You don't have the time, or the patients to sit around all day and grind endlessly in hopes of selling some vendor trash and maybe one or two greens you found in the auction house. There is a better way to make money in WoW, and it doesn't require spending your real life money on gold sellers that could hack you or wind up getting you banned.

I believe I first heard it from Scrooge McDuck years ago on the cartoon ducktails, but it changed how I look at making money. "Work smarter, not harder." Was his saying, and the same thing applies to real life and to Warcraft if you just put a little brainpower into the equation. Enough with the babble, this is how you do it:

Add-ons are created by WoW-players to solve and make easier many of Wow's features; the one I'm going to focus on is Auctioneer. Head on over to the Auctioneer Google it, just download it somehow, unzip it, add it to your wow directory (if your running vista it is C:UsersPublicGamesWorld of WarcraftInterfaceAddOns) and copy it into there. Now open up WoW and log yourself in.

Great! The only bit of technical know-how has been downed, now it is all in-game from here. First, we are going to run to your nearest auction house (preferably of your faction, the neutral auction houses run by the goblins has less accurate pricing information.) and from there you are going to notice that when you run and talk to the teller, the interface box that pops up looks a lot more complex! It's not, don't worry, it just has more features that give you the edge over anyone without the add-on.

The most important thing to do right now is scan the auction house, it will take a while (usually about 15 minutes, depending on the day) and once that's over, Auctioneer has literally scanned every item, its buyout/bid price and done loads of calculations for you to help you get the best price when you sell your items. That would have been a lot of manual work! I recommend you scan every day for a full week if you can, especially the weekends when the most WoW users are on to sell things. The more you scan (once a day is plenty) the more accurate your prices will be and the better your chances of selling things.

Now that you're ready to sell, click on the "Post" tab and fill out all the required info. Auctioneer will give you the value it thinks the item is worth, and if for some reason you have an item that has yet to be scanned, it will give you 300% of the vendor markup price. So you still make 3x as much as you would if you had just sold it to a vendor.

This is where the "get rich easy" part comes in. I started with a mere 40 gold to my name. When I looked at the auction house I thought "Everyone's willing to buy things" and immediately I started thinking of the best items to buy from the auction house (didn't matter if I needed it or not) and then turning around and putting it back into the auction house right away at a higher price! Now you may think that nobody will buy your items because there more expensive, that's where auctioneer is a champion. It knows that servers have an average price for items, and it will look for and find you the best prices for the item you look for.

The real money here is in the items people will always need and use. Trade skill items, ore, potions, items that help you gain reputation with a certain faction, recipes for any trade. Armor and weapons can be nice if you find a really good deal but can be harder to get rid of, so stick to the more reliable things at first. Make sure you have enough money to re-post everything in the auction house that you buy (they do have deposits).

I've been doing this for a mere few months and have made (although I've spent a lot as well) thousands of gold, literally in a few minutes of my time. The best part about it is you can create a separate character that just runs back and forth from the auction house to the mailbox buying and selling. Profits anywhere from 3 to 40 gold are frequent when looking at the lower prices and selling them as the normal price or even a bit marked up! This is literally passive income in Warcraft that takes you about 20 minutes for profits that can range in the hundreds of gold per hour. All without ever needing to grind your life away like everyone else! While your items are selling in the auction house and the "Successful Auction" mail is being sent to your mailbox, you can focus on leveling your character fast, and being able to join a guild and raid without ever worrying about having the money for potions, repairs. People pay real money to hear this, I'm giving it away for free, enjoy! I even made my auctioning character look suave to show off my prowess.

World of Warcraft Noob Tip

If you are new to the World of Warcraft game, then this will help you to prosper and make money.

The first thing you need when joining the World of Warcraft is a great guild. The guild that you are in is key to your success and character development. The higher leveled members of your guild can power level you and get you tons of experience through quests and instances in a relatively short amount of time. The loot from the quests and raids can be sold for a decent profit as your guild should provide you with even better equipment.

They will most likely carry you straight to level 80 so that you can participate in high level guild runs and raids. The guild is everything. They will determine the difference between a week or three to get to level 20 and a couple of days or even hours to accomplish the same feat. I have seen firsthand how easy it is to excell when you have a good guild behind you. Trust me the benifits of having a good guild or a group of friends around your level will improve your game play and gaming experience dramatically.

Earn lots of gold by mining in Sholazar Basin

This is a guide to making lots of gold by mining saronite ore in Sholazar Basin.

Before i start, here are the requirements:

• Level 77.
  
• 400 mining (425 for rich saronite deposits).
  
• A flying mount. If you do not have an epic flying mount you will go three times as slow.
  
• A pickax.
  
• Bags with 16 or more slots. (recommended)
  
  

Make your way over to The Avalanche in Sholazar Basin.

Here is the route that you should follow once you are there:

Go around the edge and when you are about to pass a pillar, circle around it before going back to the edge of Sholazar Basin.

Once you've filled up your bags go to the auction house and sell all your ore, eternals and gems.

Saronite ore on my server is around 24 gold a stack and earth and shadow eternals are around 9 gold. Green gems are 3-10 gold and blues are around 30 gold.

Enjoy making lots of money!