World of Warcraft Message Board older than one year ago

#halloween With fewer and fewer children donning costumes and hitting the streets every year to celebrate all things sweet and spooky, the Halloween tradition is alive and well in the virtual worlds of today's massively multiplayer online games. More »

#blizzcon World of Warcraft developers Blizzard upset a few people with their decision to screen an expletive-filled rant from Cannibal Corpse frontman George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher as Blizzcon 2011 came to a close. And for that, the company has apologised. More »

#eligiumthechosenone This past weekend Blizzard revealed Mists of Pandaria, the new Expansion pack for World of Warcraft that introduces a Monk character class and a panda race. This is a story about the other game with Panda Monks. More »

#blizzcon Blizzard's annual Blizzcon is, for the most part, a friendly get-together for like-minded fans, a place where people can hang out and revel in the fact they all love the same games. More »

#worldofwarcraft The next World of Warcraft expansion is called Mists of Pandaria, an expansion pack that includes a new race, level cap, class and talents. More »

#worldofwarcraft Have you or someone you know spent years cultivating an Alliance-side guild in World of Warcraft, only to realize late in the game that Blizzard only loves the Horde? Now's your chance to feel the company's approving warmth as new services debut that allow guild leaders to change realm and faction. More »

#worldofwarcraft I'm a fan of buddy crime-solving comedy Psych. The silly nature of the show and its constant references to obscure and 80s and obscure 80s pop culture suits my downtime perfectly. More »

#worldofwarcraft With Pandaren players able to choose either Horde or Alliance in the Mists of Pandaria expansion pack, World of Warcraft's arenas and battlegrounds will soon see an outbreak of panda-on-panda violence. I asked the game's senior game producer Ray Cobo how players will tell Pandaren apart once the fur starts flying. More »

#blizzcon2011 Lording over the Mega Bloks booth at BlizzCon 2011, Doomhammer held high, World of Warcraft's Thrall would have been much more impressive in block form if it wasn't for the long line of people waiting to get their picture taken with him. He's the savoir of two worlds, people! More »

Blizzard announced so many deals, expansions and Pokemon things yesterday that there was bound to be some confusion. Today at a Q&A panel, Diablo 3 developers clarified the meta-deal it has with World of Warcraft's annual pass -- purchasing the Diablo 3 collector's edition adds four free months to the World of Warcraft annual pass timeframe. We knew buying the annual pass gets existing WoW players Diablo 3 for free, but it turns out the feeling is mutual.

To be completely clear, to get Diablo 3 for free, you must:

• Have a WoW account existing on or before Oct. 18, 2011
• Purchase the WoW annual pass
• Enjoy your free standard version of Diablo 3, available at launch on your Battle.net account

To get four months of WoW for free, you must:

• Purchase the Diablo 3 collector's edition
• Have a WoW account existing on or before Oct. 18, 2011
• Purchase the WoW annual pass
• Enter the Diablo 3 collector's edition license key into your associated Battle.net account
• Enjoy a grapefruit

Maybe not that last one, but you should check the annual pass FAQs just to be sure. Besides, you look as if you could use some Vitamin A.

#worldofwarcraft Join me as I go on a mystical journey on the back of a giant turtle, learning the ways of the new Monk class, the ways of the Pandaren race, and how strange it is to play a melee character in World of Warcraft without an auto attack. More »

#blizzcon2011 Nothing starts the day like a heaping helping of the Angel of Justice, the latest extravagant character statue to grace to floor of Blizzard's annual celebration of itself. It's part of this complete breakfast! More »

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that WoW’s pandas look quite good in motion, but, well, they do. You can see them frolicking in their Asia-themed themepark world below in the Mists of Pandaria trailer. Cute hot air balloons, too.

These Panda types will apparently be a neutral race, with players deciding between alliance and horde once they get past the starting stuff. The pandaren starting area is, also, on the back of a giant turtle. Hmm.(more…)

#blizzcon Today was a good day to be a Blizzard fan. Blizzcon kicked off with a bang in California, revealing a batch of new trailers, more details about the pending release of Diablo III and news of a Panda-themed World of Warcraft expansion pack. More »

#blizzcon2011 When I first heard Mega Bloks was doing toys based on the World of Warcraft brand, I imagined a couple battlefield sets, maybe a fort or two. What they're bringing to store shelves next summer turned out to be far more ambitious. More »

#blizzcon2011 After collecting non-combat in-game pets for nearly seven years, Mists of Pandaria will finally give players the ability to collect, level, battle, and trade these monsters in their pockets. Who will be the very best like no one on Azeroth ever was? More »

The newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion for Blizzard's World of Warcraft finally brings the long-awaited Pandaren race to the fantasy world of Azeroth, and while many players have been waiting to see pandas officially implemented into the game, no one, perhaps, has been waiting longer than Samwise Didier. Blizzard's longtime art director originally created the race in his own art, and up until this release, they existed only in bits and pieces of legends inside the games, as little in-jokes or secrets.

"It's very personal to me," Didier tells us at BlizzCon this week. "It all started with a picture done for Christmas after the birth of my daughter." Since that first piece of concept art, the Pandaren have always been a fan favorite race (combining a heady mix of panda humanoids, Eastern-style religions and mythology, and even beer brewing monks), and while Didier is quick to point out that lots of people are working on Mists of Pandaria, he's thrilled to see his personal creation come to virtual life. "I'm not trying to take away" credit for the expansion, he says, quickly acknowledging all of the creative folks at Blizzard, "however many it takes to make a game. But it's nice to know that some goofy thought in my head, done for that reason, for my kid, turned into this."

Does the portrayal live up to what Didier envisioned? "Yeah, and then some," he says. "There was only a few Pandaren pictures, and most of them were of Chen [Stormstout], a big fat sweaty heavy, beer-drinking Pandaren. Well that's not the entire society. He's sort of the anomaly. He likes to go to the outside world. So what do the normal Pandarens do, what is their normal culture like? A lot of sweat went into designing that."

But Didier does say that whenever the expansion finally arrives, and the race long hidden in Warcraft's shadows finally gets their time in the spotlight, he'll be proud they're there. "It was one of the last things that I really wanted to see in World of Warcraft, which is Warcraft in general," he says, after having worked on some of the most iconic designs in Blizzard's legendary game franchises. "Now I can almost say, well, I think I've done good with Warcraft -- they're finally in."

The Blizzard Entertainment developers are walking through the biggest features of the newly announced Mists of Pandaria expansion, and while you can head on over to our sister site at WoW Insider for all of the details, there was one big new feature that we couldn't ignore. Players have been able to collect pets in the World of Warcraft for quite a while now, but a new Pet Battle System will come with the next expansion that allows players to both customize their pets with new names and other items, and even battle each other.

And if you think that sounds a little bit like Pokemon, you're not wrong at all. The battle system, which Blizzard's lead designer Cory Stockton walked through, will have players choosing three pets to fight with at a time, turn-based battles using three abilities per battle (out of six), and even "Master Trainers" which can be beaten around the world of Azeroth to unlock new abilities.

Pets can be obtained in all kinds of different ways, and there will be new "wild pets" that can only be found out in the world (in Goldshire, the devs suggested, while it's raining, during the Spring, only at night). Blizzard has given away special pets during holidays, at events like BlizzCon, and even sold pets for real money on the store. As if World of Warcraft needed to be any more addictive, Blizzard has somehow figured out a way to include their own version of Pokemon inside of it.

#blizzcon2011 Now that we know what the next expansion pack for World of Warcraft is, let's get some details about what's going on beyond the Mists of Pandaria. More »

#blizzcon2011 I honestly was not expecting Mists of Pandaria to really be the next expansion pack for World of Warcraft, but here we are, showing off the first official screenshots. Where the female pandas at? More »

(Seriously? Panderia?) Ok: A new race, the Panderan, a new class, the monk. All that within a new Chinese-styled continent, Panderia. There will also be a new level cap of 90, new PVE scenarios, a new pet system, and a new talent system. That’s a lot of new! They’re also going to renew the Horde Vs Alliance war somehow, and that will take place on this new continent.

That’s it for now.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be the fourth expansion to the game. It was announced today at the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon 2011 in front 26,000 cheering fans. The expansion promises to deliver the next phase in WoW's development, ushering in a new era of quests, raids, PvP, professions, and instances.

The major details:

• New talent system
• Pandaren class
• Pannaria region
• Monk class
• 90 level cap
• Dungeon challenge mode
• PVE Scenarios
• Pet Battle System

Follow us all day for the next few days as we cover BlizzCon from top to bottom!

At Blizzcon's Opening Ceremony today, Blizzard's President and CEO Mike Morhaime unveiled Blizzard's newest grand idea: free Diablo 3 access to current World of Warcraft players. All we, the players, have to do is sign up for the new World of Warcraft annual pass, a 12-month subscription that can be billed monthly.

In addition to getting full access Diablo 3 to download and play for free the same day it's released, Blizzard is throwing in a few goodies for anyone who signs up for the annual pass. For one, you'll get the in-game World of Warcraft mount, Tyrael's Charger. You will also gain access to the beta of the next World of Warcraft expansion as soon as it goes live. For more information, check out the official Annual Pass Promotion Page.

Stay tuned throughout the day for more information coming from the BlizzCon floor!

Hey, remember that amazing StarCraft 2 special edition? You know, the huge one, with the full sized art book, and the USB drive with Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War? And the WoW pet? Man, that was sweet.

Well we hope you like Diablo 3, because, like, that's pretty much exactly what they're doing for the Diablo 3 Limited Edition. Announced at today's Blizzcon press conference, the Limited edition will also come with a behind-the-scenes DVD. Diablo 2 will be included in the box on a special USB drive (in a holder shaped like freaking Diablo's skull), and, for users who register their LE, an in-game mount for WoW, Tyrael's Charger. And don't forget that giant art book.

So. Awesome.

Diablo 3 will be free for all subscribers to the new WoW annual pass, which allows players to pay up front for a year of World of WarCraft.

However, if you still want to pay directly for Diablo 3, you can buy the new limited edition, which was just announced at Blizzcon.

The LE, reminiscent of the amazing StarCraft 2 special edition, includes a behind-the-scenes DVD. Diablo 2 will be included in the box on a special USB drive (in a holder shaped like freaking Diablo's skull), and users who register their LE will also receive an in-game mount for WOW, Tyrael's Charger. And don't forget that giant art book.

So. Awesome.

#blizzcon2011 The next chapter in the World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and StarCraft II saga starts here, at the BlizzCon 2011 opening ceremonies, and Kotaku is there, watching, waiting...liveblogging. More »

#blizzcon2011 Half the joy of attending Blizzard's yearly celebration of all things Blizzard is opening up the sack of goodies they give you at registration and splaying them over your hotel room desk like a kid at Christmas. This year we might have to keep the jubilation to a dull roar; the mini Archangel of Justice is watching. More »

#review I've been rolling and scrolling with a SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse on and off since 2008, scoffing at the baby hands of visitors that complained my pointing device was just too big. Turns out they might have been onto something. More »

#blizzcon2011 In celebration of their upcoming World of Warcraft and StarCraft II lines, Mega Bloks is hitting BlizzCon 2011 big time, with a tiny Thrall for every convention attendee, a limited edition StarCraft II Battlecruiser, and much, much more. More »

#worldofwarcraft Own a piece of World of Warcraft history and help a good cause, as Blizzard prepares to auction off more than 2,000 original server blades for St. Jude's Childrens' Research Hospital. More »