◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 6

Blizzard has released details regarding another new zone coming to World of Warcraft with the upcoming release of the Cataclysm expansion, the Twilight Highlands. It is important to note that this area is not in any way related to the Twilight film or book series. There are, as far as I can tell, no vampires involved. Rather, the name stems from the control of the area by the Twilight’s Hammer cultists. WoW players will know these as the nutters who are usually hanging around locations relevant to the Old Gods, and this is the reason that they have moved into the highlands. Apparently, the twisted and broken landscape and constant warfare suffusing the zone appeals to them, and they want to make the rest of Azeroth the same way. As ever, I’m sure it will be up to you heroes to foil their evil schemes.

Speaking of constant warfare, the other denizens of the Twilight Highlands include the Wildhammer dwarves, who will be aligned with the Alliance, and the Dragonmaw orcs, who will be aligned with the Horde. Undoubtedly, most of the quests each faction gives will be based on working against the opposing group, and that suggests there might even be some opportunities for contextual PvP.

Take a look at the intriguing screenshots of the area above, or visit the official site for more information.

Your real name is safe from WoW — for now.

According to a post made this morning by Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, “we’ve decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.” Morhaime went on to say, “[O]ur connection with our community has always been and will always be extremely important to us.”

Earlier this week Blizzard announced their intention to change all their official game forums to supporting true full names only — not character names or pseudonyms. The response was sudden and severe, with over 50,000 (mostly negative) posts showing up in the Blizzard feedback topic, not to mention stories and complaints all across mainstream media.

This was a hugely divisive topic to WoW players, and personally I am extremely relieved to see that Blizzard has come to their senses and responded to the torrent of negative response from their players.

While a number of players and media alike are focused on their divisive new RealID policy, Blizzard Entertainment has been keeping busy with further expansion development. Today the company revealed that all 30 class talent trees are being given dramatic overhauls in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion.

The new, smaller trees will have most of the passive talents removed, leaving only the more dynamic options. Players at the future maximum level of 85 will have 41 points to spend on their talents instead of the current 71 points at level 80. Additionally, players will have to spend 31 points in a single tree (or subclass) to unlock the other two path options.

Zarhym, a World of Warcraft Community Manager, said about the change, “One of the basic tenets of Blizzard game design is that of ‘concentrated coolness.’ We’d rather have a simpler design with a lot of depth, than a complicated but shallow design.” Zarhym also implied that development on the new talent trees was further along than players might expect, and that they would likely show up soon in the Cataclysm closed beta testing.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is expected to hit the shelves this Fall.

With the launch of World of Warcraft 3.3.5 patch players were let into the world of Real ID. Real ID offers the ability to put in more personal information that is available to all Battle.net users which includes anyone who plays Blizzard games online. Players can chat across different servers/games, create a friends list, message players and other social networking type add-ons.

Real ID has raised some concerns as of late. Based on the fact that you must input your personal information to use Real-ID, you can’t remain anonymous such on other gaming/social communication tools like Steam’s universal chat. Due to this, people are far more at risk for cyberstalking and other information leaks and scams.

Considering a good portion of Blizzard’s gaming public may be young and influential, the ability to post your personal and private information including email and name can be used as an in for such frauds as identify theft, sexual misappropriations and other terrible actions from the bowels of the internet.

Continued…

Do you hear that clicking sound? That’s what it sounds like when 11 million MMO subscribers repeatedly hit their “Check Email” button in the hopes of being one of the first players in the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Closed Beta.

In an announcement released just hours ago Blizzard Entertainment confirmed that they have begun inviting players to the closed beta. Players have been signing up for an early preview of Cataclysm over the last several months through their Battle.net accounts.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment, said about the testing, “Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we’ve gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date. Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year.”

Cataclysm beta testers will get an early peek at the new expansion, help find bugs, and give suggestions on  balance issues and content. Cataclysm will be the third expansion for the incredibly popular World of Warcraft, and is expected to break sales records much like the previous two releases.

Are you one of the lucky first folks in the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Beta? Let MMOCrunch know what you think about the overhauled Azeroth!

A few weeks ago staff on the World of Warcraft official Story Forum asked players to post questions for the game’s Creative Development team. Today those questions finally received a response!

Bornakk and the community staff at Blizzard Entertainment posted as many answers as they felt they could, relying on well-known company lore masters Chris Metzen and Alex Afrasiabi for guidance. The questions ranged from “Do incubi exist?” to “What’s the story with goblin shamans?”, and the answers are a must-read for any WoW lore fan.

Most of the details are about previous events in Azeroth’s history, such as the death of Queen of Stormwind Tiffin Wrynn, but a few items give some hints about future content. Bornakk reveals, for example, that there is a nod to the addition of troll druids in Cataclysm during the upcoming “Zalazane’s Fall” event, and confirms that after the death of the Lich King Frostmourne was shattered and lost. (No return from the grave for Arthas!)

Bornakk said that many of the player-generated questions would be answered by upcoming patches and the Cataclysm expansion, as well as published novels. Blizzard Entertainment has been praised for its detailed and consistent storytelling and world-building over the fifteen years of the Warcraft franchise, and it’s nice to see the organization give some time to the lore-hungry fans of their work.

Blizzard has announced the World of Warcraft Tap Chat, a foot pedal designed to be used as a push-to-talk device in conjunction with the Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Headset. Developed by Creative, creators of Sound Blaster, it is exclusively available at the Blizzard and Creative online stores. There do not appear to be product pages for it in either location as of yet, though there is one on the UK Creative store website. Based on its £25 price tag there, a direct conversion to USD would put it at around $38, but it may well be cheaper in the US. Also included are a pair of interchangeable lenses for the aforementioned Sound Blaster Headset, pictured above.

While I admit to being vaguely intrigued by this concept, I’m not sure exactly how big the market really is for this product. A number of WoW players probably do have problems with push-to-talk systems for voice chat in the midst of a tense raid, but honestly my first thought if I wanted to buy something to solve that issue would be to get a mouse with more buttons or something to that effect. I can also definitely envision a lot of accidental stamping on this pedal during the heat of combat. If you try this product yourself, please let me know in the comments and give me your impressions.

The 2010 Blizzard Global Writing Contest has begun, allowing fans of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo game series to submit their stories set in those universes for the chance to win a trip to Blizzard Entertainment’s HQ in California. The rules are that the submission must be a short story set in one (or perhaps more – not specified) of the aforementioned worlds, it must be between 2500 and 7500 words, it must be written in English and it must be submitted by August 23, 2010. The grand prize winner will also receive their choice of either a Diablo III “OVERTHROWN” barbarian diorama or a Frostmourne sword.

Blizzard has also announced that Real ID for Battle.net has officially rolled out with World of Warcraft’s 3.3.5 patch. This feature will eventually apply to all Battle.net games, allowing players to give out their Real ID to those other players who they want to be able to see their characters and status in every Battle.net game. Real ID will also allow cross-game chat, for example if one of your Real ID friends is playing Starcraft II while you play World of Warcraft, you will be able to speak to them from within WoW.

For more information on the Writing Contest, visit the Blizzard Entertainment site, and for more information on Real ID, visit the Battle.net site.

World of Warcraft’s patch 3.3.5 is in the process of rolling out worldwide, and it brings with it the latest endgame content; the Ruby Sanctum raid. This bastion of the red dragonflight, allies of heroes of both of Azeroth’s factions, has been assaulted by vengeful members of the black and twilight dragonflights, and the heroes must now protect the red dragons from their jealous kin.

Anyone who has participated in WoW’s earlier Obsidian Sanctum raid will know what to expect here, several dragon mini-bosses before a main boss, this time Halion, the Twilight Destroyer (pictured above). Unlike the Obsidian Sanctum, however, none of the Ruby Sanctum mini-bosses can be optionally ignored to make the final battle more difficult.

For more information on the story behind the new raid dungeon, located beneath the Wyrmrest Temple in Northrend, visit the official site.

Blizzard Insider brings us this interview with WoW’s production director, in which he explains how the development team has changed since the game’s release, and what lessons he and Blizzard have learned since. J. Allen Brack joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2006 as a senior producer for the Burning Crusade expansion pack for World of Warcraft. He eventually became the lead producer on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and now that the latest expansion, Cataclysm, is in the works, he is the production director.

Continued…