World of Warcraft Message Board older than one year ago

#blizzard The annual celebration of all things Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft returns to sunny Anaheim, California this October, as Blizzard reveals the dates for the fifth installment of BlizzCon. More »

#blizzard World of Warcraft patch 3.3.3 is now live, giving players an all-new, all-random way to queue up for the game's popular player-versus-player battlegrounds. More »

NPD has released its monthly list of the top 20 PC games, and while Star Trek Online made a valiant showing in the month of its debut, landing at number two for the main game and number four for the collector's edition, it was beaten in the end by the Sims 3: High End Loft Stuff (yes, "Stuff") content pack. The Sims juggernaut of a brand continued to rock the top 20, claiming six spots total, and perennial favorite World of Warcraft continued to place almost all of its current editions on the list in three different spots.

Other big titles in February were Bioshock 2, the Everquest II: Sentinel's Fate expansion, and Mass Effect 2. Aliens vs. Predator appeared at a miserable number 19, below something called the Mumbo Jumbo Assortment. Full list after the break. We'll say this about PC game players: They know what they like, and they stick with it.

[via Big Download]

#gdc The Blizzard keynote at this year's Game Developers Conference just kicked off. More »

Massively multiplayer online game players in the States allegedly spent $3.8 billion last year, according to the Today's Gamers MMO Focus Report by Gamesindustry.com and TNS. The report claims that the MMO market in the US has reached 46 million users, with 21 million paying for online games. The rest play without spending a dime (think "freemium").

In a shocking upset victory dripping in sarcasm, World of Warcraft was the most popular MMO with the US, besting NeoPets, Club Penguin, Disney ToonTown and Runescape. Ah freemium, where even the traditional MMO companies can make money.

[Via Massively, Gamasutra]

#secretmessages The Matrix Punchograph in World of Warcraft's Gnomeregan has been spitting out pro-WoW propaganda for years, right under our noses! Master of Warcraft translates the binary cards, revealing the advertisements, secret love affairs, and a strange fascination with Natalie Portman. More »

#feelgood A Chilean woman coping with the devastation wrought by last week's earthquake has looked to games to provide some comfort and normalcy, and a fragile World of Warcraft collectible that somehow managed to survive is her symbol of hope. More »

#wow DC Unlimited is back with two more series of World of Warcraft figures, featuring Orcs, Trolls, Worgens and even a human. More »

If there's anything that all the chaos between Activision and Infinity Ward in the past 24 hours has taught us, it's that no one is safe and dry under Bobby Kotick's umbrella. And while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was one of Activision's biggest earners, that hasn't stopped the company from revamping the brand however it sees fit. So what about Activision's other big game, Blizzard's World of Warcraft? The same annual report released to the SEC yesterday that kicked off the Infinity Ward shakeup also mentions that Activision is worried about WoW becoming "obsolete," and that the regulatory issues in China could affect the entire company's bottom line.

So will we hear about Mike Morhaime being frogmarched off of the Blizzard campus? Not likely -- the fears about WoW are all in a section of the report labeled "Risk Factors," in which a company must disclose anything that could possibly go wrong with its financials in the future, just in case. In there, Activision worries about everything from credit card fraud to its ESRB ratings -- WoW is mentioned a lot because it makes up most of the revenue (in fact, one of the worries is that Activision depends on WoW too much), but these are all worst case scenario guesses. The report admits that Blizzard did decrease its net revenues last year, but then credits that to no new releases in 2009 and interrupted licensing fees from China. Assuming Blizzard releases both Starcraft II and Cataclysm as planned in 2010, the odds are low that Activision will raise the axe in that direction.

#industry Activision is a giant company with a small problem: Most of their revenue comes from three video games. More »

#china The company licensed to operate World of Warcraft in China - home to 4 million of the MMO's global installation base - still can't find smooth sailing after being cleared to operate the game's first expansion pack two weeks ago. More »

Blizzard's in-game pet store will soon be breaking the fourth wall and invading your living room with the World of Webkinz, er ... Warcraft plush animals. You'll be able to spend your real-life gold ($24.99 each) on a real-world plush doll, which will come with a code for an in-game pet that looks identical to your furry little friend. For starters, a Gryphon Hatchling and a Wind Rider Cub will be available, but more will be added later, and they'll have an Alliance or a Horde shield (depending on your faction) embroidered around their necks like an adorable little bib.

With the amount of money Blizzard is raking in each month, don't be surprised if there's some sort of Jurassic Park-like genetic engineering going on inside their walls so they can offer up real-life Murloc sea-pets next time around. Sea Monkeys have needed a comeback vehicle, and this just might be it. We'll be giving some of these away soon on the site, so keep your eyes peeled for furries.

Is it ... possible? Can it be? Has the seemingly endless struggle to get World of Warcraft back online in China finally ended? Digital East Asia reports that China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has approved NetEase's request for a license to operate the game and its expansion pack, The Burning Crusade. The government body issued a statement saying NetEase "has taken necessary corrective measures" to address GAPP's issues with the game. (We're assuming a few more monsters got deskeleton-ized.)

Though Chinese WoW players should be able to get back to their regularly scheduled grinding soon, it's unlikely that they'll ever gain access to any of the game's future expansions. But ... that's okay. They don't really add anything cool to the game. Death Knights? Pssh. Werewolves? More like Snorewolves, right?

[Via Massively]

Okay, avid World of Warcraft players. We take back all the mean things we said about your habit of purchasing in-game vanity pets with real-world money, even though the in-game pets do nothing while the real-world money does everything. See, we didn't know that you were actually just donating money to charities in a sort of roundabout fashion. You're like money launderers, but with Tier 9 armor sets.

Blizzard recently donated half of the proceeds from players' purchases of a special pet, the "Pandaren Monk," to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, for a grand total of $1.1 million. The O.C. Register reports that Blizzard made a few more wishes come true at its HQ during the check-signing event -- WoW art director Sam "Samwise" Didier sketched kids' characters for them, and even hooked up 17-year-old Jordan Cofinco with a shiny new level 80 character. In short, Blizzard -- and anyone walking around WoW with a tiny Kung Fu Panda following close behind -- just gained some major karma points.

Though the legal and political struggle between China's General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) and Ministry of Culture over whether World of Warcraft should be allowed in the country rages on, the game's operator, NetEase, is taking matters into its own hands. According to Reuters, the operator is suspending new user registrations for one week, starting today. During this time, NetEase execs will be waiting on pins and needles -- they recently re-submitted an application to operate WoW and The Burning Crusade directly to the GAPP.

In other words, you can probably expect another installment in the seemingly endless Chinese World of Warcraft saga within the next seven days. We can't wait!

We, as members of the video game blogging community, would like to take a moment to thank Blizzard for creating World of Warcraft. Not for making the world's most popular MMO, as you may imagine; rather, for making possible bizarre stories like this one, which could only exist in a post-WoW world: When a 16-year-old boy, of Ontario, Canada, asked his parents to drive him to a hotel to meet the 42-year-old mother of four he'd developed a relationship with inside WoW, they understandably balked. The kid nevertheless absconded in the middle of the night, prompting his parents to discover a wealth of chat logs that detailed the nature of the relationship. "He said she was his soulmate," his mother told The Globe and Mail. Now, before you worry about the outcome of the young lad's safety, know that he was found two days later in a Future Shop with Ms. Price -- the cougar in this sordid tale -- who "will not face criminal charges," thanks to Canada's age of consent: 16. "Neither the teen or Ms. Price expressed any remorse," said a local police sergeant. Unsurprisingly, the boy has had problems with computer addiction (specifically WoW), while Price's Facebook page "reveals a middle-aged woman with a large collection of friends -- many made online," the Globe and Mail notes. And while this situation ended safely (albeit, not happily ever after for the soulmates), we'll take this opportunity to remind everyone to be cautious when talking with strangers online. Especially if they graduated college before you were born. Update: Well, scratch that whole "not face criminal charges" thing. The CBC reports that Price was arrested upon her return to Texas, where the age of consent is 17. She's being charged with "two counts of online solicitation of a minor and one count of child enticement." Bail is set at $310,000. [Via WoW.com]

You can run, but you can't hide.

All achievements completed, Social life questioned.

[Image source: Scott Bowling] Erik Estavillo has been given a handful of nicknames by the press recently - he listed "Professional/PSN Plaintiff," "The Serial Suer" and a few others when he spoke with Joystiq this morning. He assured us though, time and time again, "That WoW lawsuit, that's my final lawsuit. So people know, I'm not suing any more companies." In case you missed it, Estavillo is currently engaged in four separate lawsuits - one with Microsoft, one with Nintendo, one with Sony (in both Federal and State court), and one with Activision Blizzard. "One lawsuit for each major console maker and one for the PC, so four total," he clarified to us. Aside from seeking money (anywhere from as low as $180 to $1 million, depending on the case), we asked Estavillo what his intentions were behind launching the multiple lawsuits. "What I wanted to do was exploit the weakness of each console and show that they're not impervious to flaws ... each console has a flaw and they should fix it," he said. During the interview as well as in some of his court filings, Estavillo claimed to be suffering from a variety of psychological maladies, and has repeatedly stated that he uses online gaming as his primary form of communication. "I told this other interviewer and it's true - I actually have no friends. I rely on online gameplay for socialization." Though he's yet to win a case, his first (by default) could come as soon as December 3 - the end of Sony's 30 days to respond to a summons. If he does, that would mean $180,000 and a "no contest" ruling against Sony. Though he said he'll keep some of the money he may win, he noted that, "Half the money I get is gonna go to God. I'm giving half the money I get to CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network], local churches, charities, or poor people on the street." We talked to Estavillo about a variety of other topics - from what games he plays to why he's subpoenaing celebrities instead of experts - but due to sheer length we've broken the rest of the interview out after the break. Update: Erik Estavillo emailed us this evening to say that Sony has responded to his summons, thus closing out the possibility of a default settlement. The first hearing will be in early 2010.

[Image source: Scott Bowling] Erik Estavillo has been given a handful of nicknames by the press recently - he listed "Professional/PSN Plaintiff," "The Serial Suer" and a few others when he spoke with Joystiq this morning. He assured us though, time and time again, "That WoW lawsuit, that's my final lawsuit. So people know, I'm not suing any more companies." In case you missed it, Estavillo is currently engaged in four separate lawsuits - one with Microsoft, one with Nintendo, one with Sony (in both Federal and State court), and one with Activision Blizzard. "One lawsuit for each major console maker and one for the PC, so four total," he clarified to us. Aside from seeking money (anywhere from as low as $180 to $1 million, depending on the case), we asked Estavillo what his intentions were behind launching the multiple lawsuits. "What I wanted to do was exploit the weakness of each console and show that they're not impervious to flaws ... each console has a flaw and they should fix it," he said. During the interview as well as in some of his court filings, Estavillo claimed to be suffering from a variety of psychological maladies, and has repeatedly stated that he uses online gaming as his primary form of communication. "I told this other interviewer and it's true - I actually have no friends. I rely on online gameplay for socialization." Though he's yet to win a case, his first (by default) could come as soon as December 3 - the end of Sony's 30 days to respond to a summons. If he does, that would mean $180,000 and a "no contest" ruling against Sony. Though he said he'll keep some of the money he may win, he noted that, "Half the money I get is gonna go to God. I'm giving half the money I get to CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network], local churches, charities, or poor people on the street." We talked to Estavillo about a variety of other topics - from what games he plays to why he's subpoenaing celebrities instead of experts - but due to sheer length we've broken the rest of the interview out after the break.

Azeroth is finally invaded by pets.

The switch is coming, are you prepared?