World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Message Board older than one year ago

#worldofwarcraft Backsliders in the church of Warcraft are being coaxed back to the flock with an offer of seven free days of gameplay, to whet their appetite for the Cataclysm expansion due in December. More »

#blizzard East Coast World of Warcraft players fondly remember previous expansion pack launches when they could start playing three hours ahead of the West Coast. Blizzard evens the playing field when the Cataclysm expansion launches on December 7 at 12:01AM Pacific. More »

#blizzard As promised, Blizzard has opened up pre-orders for its next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, on Battle.net. Buy World of Warcraft: Cataclysm now, download it before launch date, then play one minute after the add-on officially launches. More »

If you're eager to hasten the world's demise -- and you've seen the internet, so why wouldn't you be? -- you can now log in to your Battle.net account and pre-order World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. The expansion, which promises to wreck and rearrange the realm of Azeroth, will become available for download at 12:01 a.m. PST on December 7 (and 12:01 a.m. CST in Europe and Russia). Online pre-orders will be granted automatic access to the expansion's content as soon as Blizzard's servers go live.

As with director Roland Emmerich's take on armageddon, there are few caveats you should be aware of before going in. You'll be charged as soon as you place your pre-order, and you will have to log in to World of Warcraft at least once before launch date in order to begin a background download. Cataclysm's Collector's Edition bonuses, like the in-game pet, will only be available with retail copies. Maybe Blizzard is trying to tell you something.

#blizzard As promised, Blizzard has opened up pre-orders for its next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, on Battle.net. Buy World of Warcraft: Cataclysm now, download it before launch date, then play one minute after the add-on officially launches. More »

And avoid the midnight nerd-swarm,

We heard a while back that Blizzard and its parent company have been considering digital distribution for World of Warcraft expansions ever since the first one, but it wasn't until this past weekend at BlizzCon that it was finally announced that the latest expansion, Cataclysm, will be available to buy on Blizzard's website, and playable right as the servers are turned on. Blizzard's Rob Pardo says the company's been moving in that direction for a while, and that "the day's coming" when Blizzard will release all of its PC games day-and-date with their retail versions. "Once we get a little closer to Diablo 3 we'll make a determination," he promised.

Meanwhile, the WoW community, as a group of people who already play MMOs online, is ready for the transition, says Pardo. "They are already able to handle very large pieces of data," he says, "so we felt that this is the best thing for the community, the opportunity to download and pre-order the game before we launch." It will be nice to have the game installed and ready to play as the servers go up -- even if they do drop right back down from all the players trying to use them.

#blizzcon On December 7 the world of Azeroth changes forever, but fans waiting for the Cataclysm expansion to hop back into World of Warcraft before the big day, when lead world designer Alex Afrasiabi says things will be insane. More »

#wellplayed Exactly a year after rolling out Windows 7 with much fanfare, Microsoft seems to be finally remembering the gamers who help make their platform so popular. More »

Blizzard keeps it classy.

The wolfman cometh.

From Wailing Caverns to Sunken Temple, instances across Azeroth are getting an overhaul.

When the world is being torn asunder, isn't it best to remain inside? During a presentation at the ongoing BlizzCon 2010 in Anaheim, California, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, would be offered in downloadable format right on time and on launch day. When the game's December 7 release date was first announced, it wasn't clear if the digitally distributed version would lag behind retail copies.

It doesn't get clearer than this: You'll be able to purchase and download World of Warcraft: Cataclysm from Blizzard's site (which will accomodate pre-orders soon) at midnight, Pacific Standard Time, on December 7th. That means you can safely start questing, never having left the comforting confines of your home and risked contact with those crude human beings.

#blizzcon Join us as we join Blizzard in kicking off BlizzCon 2010! What Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft news will spring forth from the festivities? More »

Want World of Warcraft: Cataclysm as fast as possible? At Blizzcon today, company boss Mike Morhaime revealed that Blizzard will soon be offering digital pre-orders through their online store. Gamers can pre-order it, pre-load it and have it ready to go Dec. 7, midnight Pacific. More »

BlizzCon 2010 is upon us and, as is customary, Blizzard will use its Opening Ceremony keynote to kick off the event - of course, WoW Insider already kicked things off last night at its annual meetup, but let's not stray too far from the purpose of this post.

Things get underway, right here, at 11AM PT (we've posted handy alternative time zones for you below). Check back then for all the latest from Blizzard: from the latest WoW expansion, Cataclysm, to future StarCraft 2 installments, to the much-anticipated Diablo 3. Maybe something about that long-in-development unnamed MMO? Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

08:00AM - Hawaii
11:00AM - Pacific
12:00PM - Mountain
01:00PM - Central
02:00PM - Eastern
07:00PM - London
08:00PM - Paris
10:00PM - Moscow
03:00AM - Tokyo (June 8th)

Sure, Deathwing might pose a huge threat to the World of Warcraft, but we don't see much harm in all the little Dethlings BlizzCon 2010 attendees will receive and evetually take home. What's the worst that could happen -- they crack the plumbing? As part of this year's goody bag, con questers will receive a miniature Deathwing (pictured), an in-game Murloc pet with Deathwing mask, an account-hack preventing Blizzard authenticator and other various trinkets.

The in-game murloc pet for WoW appears to have become a goody bag standard for BlizzCon, with last year's attendees receiving the little gurgler wearing a StarCraft 2 marine uniform.

For all this weekend's BlizzCon 2010 coverage, keep it locked on WoW Insider.

If you've been keeping up on your World of Warcraft lore, you may know this infuriated beast as Neltharion The Earth-Warder. But once you've seen Blizzard's introductory cinematic to the WoW: Cataclysm expansion (just after the break), you'll see why his second name -- Deathwing the Destroyer -- is the only one on his business card.

#clips Warcraft's official YouTube account just put this up moments ago; it's the cinematic introduction to the Cataclysm expansion pack, due Dec. 7, and it features one pissed-off, tormented dragon. More »

#ads MMOs and the NFL aren't exactly peanut butter and chocolate, but tomorrow they combine tomorrow afternoon to give you the first look at cinematic footage from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. More »

#steelseries The Cataclysm set to change the face of Azeroth this December is also changing the SteelSeries World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse, and the differences go way beyond the cosmetic. More »

#blizzard World of Warcraft: Cataclysm preparation patch 4.0.1 is bringing significant changes to the way many of the game's classes function. From the end of Soul Shards to making Death Knights viable tanks, Blizzard outlines some of Cataclysm's biggest shake-ups. More »

Blizzard has made the official announcement that it's releasing patch 4.0.1 for World of Warcraft during the game's maintenance tomorrow morning. This is basically the expansion patch for the biggest MMO in the world -- even though World of Warcraft: Cataclysm doesn't arrive in stores until December 7, this patch will bring many of the mechanics and system changes to the game that players have been awaiting, including a huge amount of class changes and updates, a revamp to the glyph system and a new system of reforging items to change their stats. This patch will also include the recently announced guild changes and lots of other updates and tweaks to ready the world for the game's third expansion.

You may not actually be one of World of Warcraft's 12 million players any more, but even if you're not, we thought we'd give you a heads up. Patch 4.0.1 is the reason all your friends will be back playing the game later on this week.

Before Blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm would go on sale in December, retailer Amazon was informing customers that they would get the game in January. Have no fear. The retail giant tells Kotaku "we will be releasing World of Warcraft: Cataclysm on the official release date of December 7, 2010." More »

#blizzcon You can now stare at the Blizzcon 2010 schedule and dream. What will they reveal at the keynote if we got Cataclysm revealed last year? What's with the Diablo III panels? Where is StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm? More »

#blizzardentertainment Forget 2011. Blizzard said today that the next expansion to World of Warcraft will be released on December 7. That's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for PC and Mac, in an otherwise barren video game December. More »

Treasure these last few months of tranquility, Azerothians. Blizzard just announced it'll all come crashing down on December 7, when World of Warcraft: Cataclysm destroys the world you've loved, leaving only destruction and a bevy of brand new adventures to be had.

You'll be able to get the new content digitally or in stores, if you like, for $40. But because you're you and Blizzard is Blizzard, there will also be a "Collector's Edition" of the expansion pack at retail for $80.

Forget 2011. Blizzard said today that the next expansion to World of Warcraft will be released on December 7. That's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for PC and Mac, in an otherwise barren video game December. More »

Latest World of Warcraft expansion arriving just in time for Christmas.

#rumor While the public still does not know what the official release date will be for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, online retailer Amazon indicated over night that the anticipated game expansion will be released in January. More »