Blizzard released some interesting information about the inner workings of World of Warcraft recently at GDC Austin. During their keynote speech, they talked about the history of the Warcraft games, and what exactly made their game so successful where others have failed. It’s an interesting read overall, however what we found amazing is the actual hardware required to run the game. → Read More
Tomorrow, Saturday, September 19, is Pirates’ Day in World of Warcraft. “Commoners wearing pirate garb have appeared in all the world’s cities with the news that the Dread Captain DeMeza and her crew have landed in Booty Bay and declared it Pirates’ Day!” Great, yes, but I say we take it one step further: let’s bring Pirates’ Day to the Real World. → Read More
In case you missed it, Blizzard made some big announcements the other day. Yep, an MMO is releasing another expansion set. However, this one is going to completely reshape the entire World (of Warcraft), and that’s really the best possible thing that they can do. → Read More
Good news, everyone. It looks like Blizzard has finally defeated the Door Boss. That is, you should no longer, or not as frequently, run into the “additional instances cannot be launched” glitch. It truly is a time for celebration. → Read More
The World of Warcraft faction change went down yesterday. That is, for $30 Blizzard will take your Human Warrior and turn him into an Orc Warrior. It’s handy, yes. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Blizzard is prepping a service that’ll change your intra-faction race. That means you’ll be able to go from a Blood Elf Warlock to an Undead Warlock. → Read More
The World of Warcraft faction change service is now up and running. It costs $30, and will take your Alliance Priest and turn him or her into a Horde Priest. You can go from any race to any race: Human to Orc, Human to Blood Elf, Human to Troll, you get the idea. → Read More
The Door Boss is a new phenomenon in World of Warcraft. You face him when you try to enter an Instance, only to find the error message, “Additional instances cannot be launched, please try again later.” It’s quite annoying when all you want to do is run through, say, BFD once before you go to bed. → Read More
It was only a few days ago that I gently chided Apple fans, telling them to “hold their horses” with respect to Snow Leopard’s release date. One Blizzcon later, not only have I re-rolled another character (a Warlock), I’m now trolling message boards, comment pages, and the like looking for more and more information about Cataclysm, the upcoming expansion pack. The most important bit of… → Read More
This could be the most important week in the history of Creation. Blizzcon starts on Friday—once again Blizzard reminded me in an e-mail that I can purchase the Web stream or DirecTV pay-per-view for $40—and we’re sure to be hanging on the company’s every word re: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Today’s hot news is that Creative will release a World of Warcraft-branded headset in… → Read More
While I haven’t logged into World of WarCraft since, I don’t know, February (for the Valentines Day things), a new expansion should bring me back into the fold. Most fans know that Blizzard trademarked the name “Cataclysm,” and that’s what we expect the name of the next expansion to be. But now! Now, friends, wow.com’s sources have pretty much confirmed two new races for the expansion. Say… → Read More
Bad news, guys: Blizzard just “delayed” StarCraft II. (Did it ever have an official release date to begin with?) I just received the devastating electronic mail. → Read More
Nope, not health care. Nope, not the recession. My white whale is the status of World of Warcraft in China. No, the game isn’t banned, per se, but Blizzard is having a hell of a time getting it back online. After switching to a new local operator, NetEase, Blizzard had to re-submit the game to the Powers That Be. Apparently you need government approval to run online games over there. And the… → Read More
This is the only World of Warcraft iPhone App you’ll ever need. Blizzard has just released World of Warcraft Mobile Armory, which gives players of the game full access to the Armory. (The Armory tracks player and item stats and the like. It’s essential for “real” players of the game.) So add this App with a few trips to WoW Wiki and Thottbot, and you’re a mobile WoW warrior (but not… → Read More
By now I’m sure you know that Blizzard doesn’t plan to support LAN in StarCraft II. There’s a petition going around that politely asks Blizzard to reconsider. Said petition has some 65,000 signatures on it. You should sign it, too. → Read More
Courtesy of Giant Bomb… the first pictures of the StarCraft II Tech Tree. → Read More
There’s currently a 144-page thread on the official World of Warcraft message board discussing this latest earth-shattering news: you’ll soon be able to take your Horde character and transform him to the closet Alliance equivalent, and vice-versa. So, for example, taking your Orc Warrior and changing him into a Human Warrior. And then cats and dogs will break bread with each other. → Read More
When will that StarCraft II beta come out? We don’t know, but that won’t stop us from speculating! → Read More
This totally slipped my mind at the weekend, but Blizzard is already laying the groundwork for a Starcraft II beta, if the e-mail it sent me (and thousands of other writers, I’m sure) is any indication. Get excited, people! → Read More
At PAX last year, we were among the first in the world to test out StarCraft II, and we found it very StarCrafty. And now is your chance to try the next blockbuster from Blizzard, which will be entering Beta over the next couple months.
Check out the instructions from Blizzard inside. → Read More
It’s time for Blizzcon again. Yes, Blizzard’s annual pilgrimage-for-so-so-many returns this August, but tickets for the show itself go on sale on May 16. And this year there’s an Internet stream you can watch! That’s good news for those of you who cannot (or do not want) to travel to Anaheim and dole out the $125 per ticket. → Read More
You’re Blizzard. You develop a little game called Word of Warcraft. You move into a new office building—a sign of your importance—and want to commemorate said action. You hire the dudes responsible for the Lord of the Rings special effects, and tell them, “Make us a big statue of an Orc on his mount, looking sinister.” And they do. → Read More
Blizzard released one of its infrequent podcasts (or, “blizzcasts”) at the weekend wherein several people involved with the creation of Wrath of the Lich King discussed the game, its development, the reception to it, etc. The podcast is only about 40 minutes long, so it’s not like it’s a huge time commitment. → Read More
As if there was any doubt, Blizzard sold an awful lot of copies of Wrath of the Lich King last week. In fact, it sold more than 2.8 million copies of the game within the first 24 hours of its release. That’s what told us, at least. The previous expansion, The Burning Crusade sold 2.4 million in its first 24 hours. Ever since then, people have been playing the game non-stop, sometimes to the… → Read More
Blizzard named yesterday’s gigantic World of Warcraft patch “Echoes of Doom.” How prescient. Right, so Blizzard “dropped” patch 3.0.2 yesterday. Servers were done for a good 24 hours while the company’s elves did their magic. The full patch notes, as always, are available online. Among other things, Stormwind now has a harbor and my Hunter, Fredfresno, has a new hair cut; hints… → Read More
Despite being some four years old, the userbase of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft continues to grow, if only at a so-so rate. One of the game’s lead designers said as much at the Games Convention, allaying fears (well, message board banter) that maybe, just maybe, interest in the game had peaked. The game had some 10 million subscribers as of last January. Now, that may not be completely… → Read More
Some players do not mess around, from Wow Insider Really good news for serious World of Warcraft players. It looks like Blizzard, starting with Wrath of the Lich King will store all your customized UI odds and ends—dungeon maps, coordinates, threat meters, etc.—server-side. That means if you’re away from your main WoW machine, you’ll still have the same interface… → Read More
I think it’s actually more accurate to say that I failed to Zerg my opponent correctly. The game looks great, it controls just like the original to be honest, and the graphics are smooth and very detailed. I have this feeling that my old Protoss tactics are going to be of little use in this updated game. Although you’ll be happy to learn that many of your favorite units and buildings… → Read More
Blizzard has announced the panels for this year’s sold out Blizzcon, which takes place October 10-11 in Anaheim, Calif. Hope you’re cool with lots of Diablo III and World of Warcraft talk. Ones that stood out to me include Diablo III Lore and Art (hopefully someone will interrupt the panel and demand a darker, more Diablo Diablo III), World of Warcraft Class Design, and Blizzard Sound… → Read More
Blizzard just announced this new World of Warcraft program called Recruit a Friend. Whenever you convince a friend of yours to throw away his or her life for 30 days (and they’re paying for those 30 days), you get a free 30 days credit to your account. If you convince him or her to pay for 60 days, you get a mount, the Zherva. It looks like a zebra! Perhaps even better, when you and your… → Read More
Blizzard, the do-no-wrong developer of World of Warcraft and Diablo would like you to know that it’s already “heavily” into the development of Diablo III. The game is still without a release date, mind you. In related news, Blizzard is also fully committed to the new art style found in Diablo III, which has been derided by 53,335 people (so far) for being too WoW-like. They went Diablo… → Read More
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
