"World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King" by GFW Sean Molloy

[Raziel]

We're still playing far too much of The Burning Crusade--but, for some reason, Blizzard vice president of creative development Chris Metzen seems to be apologizing for it. "It had a lot of high-concept ideas, high-concept environments," he says, calling to mind the psychedelic mushrooms of Zangarmarsh, the tragic majesty of Tempest Keep, "but other than some really nice moments, there was nothing really personal about it." Nevermind that MMOs are inherently aloof. Try as you might, you can't really personalize "killing" Illidan for the 17th time with 24 Ventrilo voices arguing over Family Guy reruns and whether the Crystal Spire of Karabor is meant for "shammies" or "pallies."

Or can you? Wrath of the Lich King, the second World of WarCraft expansion opens up the icy continent of Northrend in Azeroth and--if Metzen meets his new narrative goals--a moral can of worms for players. The story picks up the loose ends left by the WarCraft III expansion The Frozen Throne ("It's an indirect sequal," says Metzen), as the Alliance and the Horde set sail to deal with a menace they've left unchecked far too long: Arthas Menethil, once the noble crown prince of Lordaeron and Paladin of the Silver Hand -- now the all-powerful Lich King, bent on turning the entire world into an army of zombie slaves. And he could, if he so chose--push the figurative button, and every man, woman, and child in the world would be part of his army of the damned. So what's stopping him, really?

"Arthas thinks it'd be funny if we all did it for him," says Metzen, hinting at the quest chains, the dungeon crawls, and the narrative hooks of Wrath may all just be part of Arthas' master plan. "He fought the good fight, fought as hard as he could, and ultimately he went nuts up in the far north. And the bad guy used him as the hammer. The bad guy sent him home to kill his dad and kill his people.. and loose the Plague on everything he ever cought to protect. And all these crusading heroes, with all their epic gear and all their good intentions and all their nobility and all that horseshit, flood into the far north.. and he's pretty much there to reel 'em in."

The idea's certain an enticing one. And as quick as Metzen is to point out that "this ain't Shakespeare," there's definitely somehting literate here: A narrative nod to the fact that in MMOs, the designers really are pulling the strings. "We want to add some layers of psychology that put you in strange moral situations of how you fight the good fight that mimic some of Arthas' own experiences... by the time you reach level 80 (the expansion's new level cap), by the time you stand toe-to-toe with this bastard, do you still have your pretty principles and highfalutin' morality, or is it a mirror reflection? Arthas is after that as much as global domination. It's a hook that makes it personal that the Burning Crusade didn't have."

And it's not just quest text and WoWWiki entries that support the notion. A new Caverns of Time instance based on Arthas' infamous culling of Stratholme lets you literally follow in his footsteps, and WoW's first Hero Class--The Death knight--lets you play as the anti-Paladin archetype that Arthas made infamous.

[Ninorra]

Yeeee... deathknight.

[Raziel]

Unlike Outland, no great Dark Portal opens up to grant you entry into Northrend--The day the expansion come sout, players level 68 and higher will simply be able to hop on a boat and sail north to the harsh new frontier.

And while we're used to Outland's surreal alien landscape and Netherstorms, the thought of grinding from 70 to 80 on glaciers and permafrost leave us--and Blizzard--more than a bit cold.

"We wanted to make it really clear to players right off the bat that just because we're doing Northrend you're not going to play through all ice and snow zones," says lead level designer Cory Stockton. "when you go from zone to zone, they don't all need to look like Winterspring...they all need to have a different look and feel. Obviously, snow is a huge part of Northrend, but there are still ways to break that up for players without just doing a whole bunch of icy zones." so while gray and white will certainly be among Wrath of the Lich King's primary colors, you can expect some variety--burning forests, magical points of ancient power, and urins of civilizations long thought lost. "It doesn't feel alien like Outland," says lead game designer Tom Chilton, "but it has its own character visually. The way we do these cliff is different form the way we do cliffs in the Old World...throughout Northrend you'll see visual elements that are unique and different."

the new continent will be slightly larger than Outland, though the landmass is divided into more zones. "One of the things we're not doing this time is adding a playable race," says senior producer J. Allen Brack, levaing more bandwidth for a larger endgame area. For transportation, a series of seaports connect points along the lower shore of Northrend, with boats leaving regularly to take you from one end of the continent to the other. The usual flight points will shuttle you between friendly cities you've already visited, but how flying mounts earned in Outland fit into Northrend is still up in the air.

"We're still discussing how that's going to work< says Chilton. "We're not sure if you'll actually be able to use your flying mount right away. You might have to earn your 'Northrend flying badge' at a later level.. learn how to defrost the wings, ya know? and whaddya know, you can only do that at, oh, level 78." While denying a priviledge (even for a little while) that took some folks--especially for those who dropped a small fortune on epic flyers--months to earn will undoubtedly outrage some players, for the designers, it's a necessary evil.

"It's fairly important to us when we introduce a new area that we're able to use level design to flow you from one place to another," says Chilton. "There are gameplay reasons to restrict your methods of travel. But it's not like your flying mount became useless...you're not going to have to pay 5,000 gold again to ride it."

And when you can't go overland? Go under, through the underground cavern of Azjol-Nerub, home of the spiderlike Nerubian race that was one of the first to succumb en masse ot Arthas' Scourge (old-school WarCraft players will know them as Crypt Fiends and Crypt Lords). "It's going to be exterior terrain, but underground," says Stockton of World of WarCraft's first subterranean zone. "It'll feel like you're in a cave, but it'll be gigantic. Buildings, temples--a look and feel very similiar to Naxxramas, since the Nerubians are where the Scourge stole that architecture from." (RAZNOTE: Nerubians fell to Ner'zhul pre-Arthas)

"There are still pockets of Nerubians down there literally fighting for their lives," adds Metzen, spilling that not every nerubian heeds the call of the Lich King. "And we have any number of plans about how they play into things. What are they about? Are they principled, or even worse in some ways than the Scourge itself?" (RAZNOTE: Since they're Silithid, I'd guess about the same)

Northrend will also play how to WOW's first-ever outdoor PvP zone, Lake Wintergrasp, a (completely optional) center of Horde-versus-Alliance combat in the middle of the continent, which Chilton describes as a sort of noninstanced Battleground with destructible buildings--and siege weapons for destroying them, "We're building different siege weapons for different races," says Chilton. "Meat Wagons, Siege Tanks, all that sort of stuff--and we intent for them to have slightly different game mechanics."

"The siege weapons don't move at a really high velocity," he continues, meaning a Steam Tank will be not substitute for a mount when trying to traverse the zone. "We want to encourage people to fight still," says Stockton. "We don't want them in the siege weapons the entire time." Cooperative driver/gunner mechanics were dsiscussed but then quickly dismissed as a likely bore for either party. (RAZNOTE: Or 16 people will wait at the siege weapon respawn point INSTEAD of fighting...like on Battlefield, Battlefront, HALO, Tribes, &c.)

"The two outdoor PVP concepts we felt really worked in The Burning Crusade were the Auchindoun spirit tower mechanic and the Halaa Negrand PVP," says CHilton. PVP objectives completed in Lake Wintergrasp will have far-reaching world effects: Captuire a Specific Point, for example, and your faction will receive a long-lasting buff that provides a worthwhile, but not necessarily essential, benefit> (Think Auchindoun's PVP Spirit Towers, which, when captured, allowed players in dungeons to collect special spirit shards from downed bosses.) "One of the things we liked about Auchindoun PVP was it lasted a significant amount of time," adds Stockton. "Six hours, so when you put in the commitment, it was there."

[Raziel]

ZONES

For the moment, Northrend is still split into 10 Zones (boundries and level ranges are subject to change). enter through Howling Fjord (RAZNOTE: If you pine for them) or Borean Tundra in the eastern bay or on the western point, and fight your way to Icecrown Glacier, where Arthas' Frozen Throne waits. Wrath of the Lich King also introduces a couple new zone concepts: Lake Wintergrasp in WOW's first outdoor PvP Zones (RAZNOTE: For pussy Blue servers) and Azjol-Nerub, home of the Spiderlike Nerubian race, is the first "Outdoor underground" zone--a cave under the heart of Northrend, vast enough to house massive structures and cities (RAZNOTE: Except Ironforge being underground in a mountain, and Undercity being underground also..). The full, (but tenative) list:

Howling Fjord (level 68-72)
Borean Tundra (level 68-72)
The Dragonblight (level 71-75)
Zul'Drak (level 73-76) (RAZNOTE: The Drakkar'i are the Ice Trolls, obviously)
Grizzly Hills (level 74-76)
Azjol-Nerub (level 74-78)
Sholazar Basin (level 75-78)
The Storm Peaks (level 77-80)
Icecrown Glacier (level 77-80)
Lake Wintergrasp (Outdoor PvP)

-----------------------------------------------------

ON UPGRADES AND LEVEL CURVES

"The Guiding Principle is that it should never feel like you're grinding" says lead game designer Tom Chilton of Wrath's ascent to level 80. "You should never run out of quest content. We don't expect it to be drastically different from what 60 to 70 was like." And despite complaints from the early days of Burning Crusade, even the most epically geared players should be getting new gear from almost the start."

"The hardcore resent that at first," says Chilton "but it's only a matter of time before they start getting into the endgame agian."

--------------------------------------------------------

DALARAN

One of WOWs great mysteries will soon be solved: Just what the hell have those wizards been doing inside the sealed-off purple dome of Dalaran? Turns out they were prepping azeroth's de facto capital of arcanum for a move to Northrend--or, more accurately, to the skies above it--where it will serve as the Shattrath of Wrath of the Lich King, the major hub city for Horde and Alliance alike.

The reborn Dalaran will contain an instanced dungeon or two, similiar to Ragefire Chasm in Orgrimmar or the Strockade in Stormwind, and players will likely be able to use portals to reach any of the Old World's main cities (stormwind, Thunder Bluff, and so on)-- and possible even Shattrath. However, don't expect to see any aunction houses or class trainers hiding in Dalaran's Halls.

"That's one of those important circulation techniques," says lead game designer tOm Chilton. "We want players to have reasons to go back to the Old World. We don't want places like Stormwind to feel like a ghost town--they're supposed to be bustling cities."

[Raziel]

World of Warcraft's first new class is also it's first ever Hero Class-though the implementation may not be exactly what you were expecting.

"One of the ideas we had for the Death Knight was that you'd convert your character into a Death Knight," says lead game designer Tom Chilton. "That you would stop being a level 80 mage or whatever and become a Death Knight. But when we were running that around the team, it was too common a sentiment to feel like, well, I don't want to lose my existing character. What I'm going to actually do is create a level 1 hunter that I intend to turn into a Death Knight, and power him to level 80...and this would become a weird hoop you were going to have to jump through."

So instead, you unlock the ability to create a Death Knight by finishing a quest chain compatible in difficulty to the Warlock's epic mount quest (RAZNOTE: EL PULLO NEGRO GRANDE DEL LOS MUERTES! OH DIOS MIO! PORQUE?!?!)--with any of your existing level 80 characters, at which point you can make an entirely new, wholly separate Hero Class character starting somewhere close to level 60 (the exact number hasn't been decided). "Some ideas that are still under consideration are that you'd start in Stratholme and have to break your way out of there," says Chilton. "Maybe you've come to your senses and said, 'Wait, I don't want to serve the Lich King.'" (RAZNOTE: Teron Gorefiend is counted as being a Death Knight with absolutely no loyalty to the Shadow Council or the Burning Legion; but only out for himself for him to rule)

Mechanically, the plate-wearing Death Knight fills a hybrid DPS (damage per second)/tanking role ("People are always looking for tanks and healers," says Chilton), though they have no mana, rage, or energy bar. Instead, Death Knights have a "rune Sword" interface element beneath their health that displays six different runes of three different types--Blood, Frost, and Unholy--that you can mix and match whenever you're not in combat. Different Death Knight spells and abilities require different numbers of runes, and using a spell darkens the required runes for a set cooldown time. An ability called Army of Dead, for example, summons a small army of undead to pull aggro--and that might require one UNholy Rune, Death and Decay, an area spell Blizzard is planning, may require one Unholy and one Blood.

"The Current idea we're playing with it you have a fixed time, say 10 seconds, for a rune to fade back in and become usable again," says Chilton. "And there are potentially things you can do to speed that up or immediately light up runes. We have this one idea for an ability called Blood Boil--it's a damage-over-time ability, and after the end of the duration, it lights up two of your Blood Runes."

In general, Blood abilities are damage-oriented, Frost is control-oriented, and unholy contains utility and damage-over-time mechanics,but that's not a hard and fast rule. "We don't want to pidgeonhole it to the point where you're tanking you use all frost runes, or when you're DPSing you use all blood runes... There are inherently good reasons to use a mix, and even if you have one rune type on the bar, you'll have access to all your abilities should it become necessary."

What we still don't know: What talents they'll have; what races you can be; or whether you'll be able to make Multiple death Knights across multiple servers by completing the quest just once. But the Death Knight--and likely any other Hero Class Blizzard introduces later--won't be more powerful than the existing classes... just different. An advanced alt, sans low-level grinding.

[Raziel]

Before folks can even get on a boat to Northrend, Blizzard has a couple Burning Crusade-related loose ends to tie up. They come in the form of two raid dungeons. the 10-man Zul'Aman and the 25-man Sunwell Plateau, both coming in separate content patches some time in the near future.

-----------------ZUL'AMAN-----------------

Designed to be the next step for 1--man raid teams after Karazhan, Zul'aman is an outdoor instance in the Ghostlands, on the outskirts of Blood Elf terirotry. It's home to the Forest Trolls, and, like the 20-man raid instance Zul'Gurub, contains a number of half-troll/half-animal Hybrid bosses for your raid to battle. After taking down the first four, you can make your way to Forest Troll leader Zul'jin, who's been exploiting animal spirits for his own twisted pruposes. (RAZNOTE: WTF?!)

Zul'Aman ditches the usual reputation-reward system in favor of a timed challenge not unlike the infmaous 45-minute Baron run of Stratholme. Bosses drop their usual-loot, but if you manage to clear the first four within a set (and extremely taxing) time limit, you'll gain access to a special cache of extra good gear.

---------------SUNWELL PLATEAU-----------

"There's a hook of The Burning Crusade that we never got to," says Metzen. "We never really had that final 'yeah, we kicked their ass; we ended the Burning Crusade; we saved the Universe.' You kick Illidan's ass--but he's not a fan of the Burning Crusade either. I don't know that we said everything we set out to say. Sunwell Plateau lets us end the sentence, at least."

On an Island North of Silvermoon City, the Blood Elves toll away trying to reignite the source of their ancient power--The Sunwell--with Creates of energy ported in from Netherstorm by Prince Kael-thas (turns out that's what the mana forges were for). Unfortunately, rebuilding the Sunwell is just an elaborate excuse to bring Legion lieutenant Kil'jaeden--right-hand man of big baddie Sargeras and creator of the Lich King--into the Old World from Outland. In game terms, this amounts to one last 25-man raid--the Naxxramas of the Burning Crusade--for players before Arthas is let loose.

"This is something Jeff Kaplan (Lead game designer) and I wanted to do ever since Silvermoon," says lead level designer Cory Stockton. "Because Silvermoon's art assets are so insanely gorgeous." Inside the shining red-and-hold walls of the Sunwell structure, expect tweeker Blood Elves, High on Maghic, and anywhere from six to eight bosses. At the end, you'll take on Kil'jaeden himself (RAZNOTE: WTF!? x2)--something that, in the grand scheme of World of WarCraft lore, 25 level 70 characters shouldn't really be able to do.

"You have to rationalize a lot of things," says Metzen (RAZNOTE: Like the hole in his coinpurse) Sunwell Plateau's requisite disbelief suspension: The whole thing only works because Kil'jaeden's just a half-formed abomination, stuck in the middle of some twisted birthing canal. (RAZNOTE: Yet his brother-in-arms was still able to destroy Dalaran within seconds of appearing)

[Nomeni]

I.....I need some new pants....

[Evanthe]

Mmmm... love.

I'm very excited.

[Malorii]

I like that idea of having to brake out of stratholme. ... omg .. i might not cancel my account after all o_o..

[Kaldore]

Fuuuuuck... I really hope I get to the point where I can go toe to toe with Kil'jaeden. :(

[Raziel]

New Profession: INSCRIPTION

Burning Crusade introduced Jewelcrafting, which allowed players to customize their gear; Wrath's new profession, Inscription, lets you customize the abilities and skills in your spellbook. "You're permanenetly changing your spell kit," says lead game designer Tom Chilton. "You might find a couple different recipes to inscripe your fireball with increased crit chance or increased damage, or faster cast time, or lower mana cost--so it's almost like a talent system within the profession system. Only it's more based around the choices you make for an individual spell rather than affecting your character as a whole." Unlike enchanters, Inscribers will be able to sell physical product (creating tradable "scrolls," for example, from ink, paper, and other reagents). Only a handful of core spells will be customizable in this fashion. Don't expect to extend the range of your Priest's mind vision; do expect to extend the duration of your hunter's freezing trap.

[Raziel]

Hmm.. I suppose I should make a new topic for all the StarCraft II information I have then, eh?

Suffice to say it looks more like they took WH40K: Dawn of War and reskinned it with some flying units added. The Protoss look like a bunch of Eldar using Tau architecture more than ever and they're no longer even trying to hide the fact that the Terrans are the Imperium of Man, now adding Assault Marine units (Reapers), and letting the Ghost s(Assassin) have a Deep Strike ability to send Space Marines (Uhh..Space Marines) to forward deploy. They have a unit called THOR which looks so much like a Hellfire Destroyer I gagged. I think I'll stick to playing Dark Crusade.. at least I can still be DA ORKZ in that one whenever I get tired owning ass in Kaunyon Defense positions with Shas'O Kais Sa'cea Mont'ka.

WC3's Hero Unit system will not be making a presence in SC2.

And let's not get into the whole Zerg-Tyranid thing. The Zerg haven't even been put in yet and I'm already fearin'.

[Qabian]

Fuuuuuck... I really hope I get to the point where I can go toe to toe with Kil'jaeden. :(

I dunno, baby mangled fetus Kil'jaeden just doesn't sound as impressive as Deceiver of Illidan and Ner'zhul Kil'jaeden.

[Sanrin]

SC2 Will be a disappointment beyond my wildest dreams...but as far as WotLK its difficult to say. My biggest fear? The fact that zones are split into two level increments. They said leveling was hard when this game first came out and i still made it to 60 in about a month and a half, second character took me a month...and 60-70 took me a week and I felt i fully explored every zone and did almost every quest...if each zone is now only taking up two-three level spaces I cant really picture spending a lot of time in them unless theres very few quests... (therefore forcing me to go to other appropriate leveled zones).

Still to early to say, but thusfar it sounds like the same ol blizz stuff. Unimpressed until delivery, but thanks for the info either way Raz!

[Raziel]

They're pushing this expansion too fast in my opinion, but if you think about it, with WarHammer: Age of Reckoning on it's way, it's almost like their clock is ticking a little too loud and if they don't get this 2nd Expansion out by the time of WAR's release, they're going to lose a lot of subscribers because their monopoly over the MMO market will be down the drain.

The content is coming too high too fast. In 3 years you've gone from Pig-Farmer to the destroyer of the creators and devourers of Planets worth of content. It took Everquest 7 years to go from scraping by killing spiders in a newbie zoo to taking down the God of Valor in the Planes of Power. What's next for WarCraft besides going into the Void itself to take on Sargeras, and then what? You're fucking out of content and the players start to leave to go on other adventures in other games.

Maybe it is because it took fucking forever to level in EQ alone and you actually level faster solo in WarCraft? I dunno.. but Jesus..

Tomorrow I'll write about four of the Zones, including something every single character with a Mana Bar needs to be aware of, because they're all going to be instantly targetted and hunted while in Northrend. Minor Hint: The Big Blue Guy has Gone fucking insane, and I'm not talking about a Draenei. Deathwing's Legacy lives on!

[Kaldore]

Getting 9 Million (or however many Active "player accounts") to turn simultaneously from WoW to WAR is going to be a little more difficult that you expect.

WE look at WAR as a good thing... We realize it's hyped to be a great PVP game, but we're from a PVP server.
There are a LOT of people on those PVE servers who might not like their PVP from right off the bat without a choice.

I think some people will leave WoW to go to WAR, but I'm not convinced that there is such a thing as a "WoW-Killer."

Other than Blizzard of course...

[Sanrin]

WoW will definitely take a huge punch though, I dont think enough to hurt the company but enough that WAR will hit a LOT of press up as the 'Anti-WoW'. Considering how much warcraft has done to highlight the money that MMOs can bring in..its pretty considerable.

[Aquizit]

Minor Hint: The Big Blue Guy has Gone fucking insane, and I'm not talking about a Draenei. Deathwing's Legacy lives on!


This is actually something I went.. "Wait wait wait... no.. I don't like that.." with..

MALYGOS? .. A raid dungeon for MALYGOS?!

No, uh-uh.. don't like it. Malygos is an ASPECT... to kill him would be to kill all the rules controlling magic, just like killing Nozdormu would be to have the timeline splinter and rip apart.


No thanks.

[Ryoku]

They're pushing this expansion too fast in my opinion, but if you think about it, with WarHammer: Age of Reckoning on it's way, it's almost like their clock is ticking a little too loud and if they don't get this 2nd Expansion out by the time of WAR's release, they're going to lose a lot of subscribers because their monopoly over the MMO market will be down the drain.

Call me crazy, but I'm just not seeing what makes the new Warhammer MMO so great. Somebody care to fill me in?

[Grev]

Call me crazy, but I'm just not seeing what makes the new Warhammer MMO so great. Somebody care to fill me in?
It's PvP driven, but what people don't take into account is that PvP content won't survive on its own. There's only so many times you can kill each other before you get the itch to tackle some PvE progression.

I think Warhammer will be a nice novelty game that attracts a lot of attention for a limited amount of time, but I don't see the WoW killer that it's hyped up to be.

[Ryoku]

Ah, yes. Thank you, Grey. I just checked the Warhammer site, and from looking at it, it definately doesn't look like the great game that people are making it out to be, and it definately doesn't look like it's going to out-play WoW.

When you think about it, Blizzard has remained on top with almost every game they've made. Starcraft is still considered one of the best RTS games of all time, Diablo 2 is still popular, Warcraft 3 has maintained itself thanks to DotA..

Also note, a lot of companies bought out by EA end up producing poor products from then on.

OSI, Westwood, and Maxis are examples of this.

Wow.. I really went off on a tangeant there.

[Sanrin]

Starcraft IS NOT considered the best RTS of all time. Please see Command and Conquer, Starcraft just has a large asian following.

DoTA has done well, and Diablo is still played though, ill definitely give ya that. But look at Warcraft pre Dota, remember how they patched that game? Every month a random team was nurfed into oblivion, and another team was buffed into godliness. Balance ftw, DoTA was just a nice way to make a game without worrying about huge imbalances. Diablo 2 would of lasted longer if they actually managed the hacking...but they didnt so everyone quit or made a private server. Wouldnt exactly call that a success.

Also, for pvp games that have survived forever and a day go check out Dark Age of Camalot. In all honesty its the PvP only aspect of the game that makes it so excellent in my opinion. there will be some pve content, but not much. What exactly is PvE? Killing the exact same thing over and over again...except this time you know EVERYTHING down to the last hp about them. WoW pvp just sucks because you can outgear near anyone and win with a couple hard punches to the keyboard...other games are far from that, and skill is a huge portion of it all. Blizzard will lose their endgame and hardcore pvp crowd in my opinion, and thats a huge chunk of their sales. Part of the reason ill be leaving is beacuse Blizz treats their consumers like shit, and while EA isnt at the pinnacle of customer service (you didnt go off tangent nate, thats a valid point!) i do know that DAOC has had such deticated customers for a reason: they treat em good.

Want not crappy straight-from-the-website info on Warhammer?

http://warhammerinfo.com/classes.shtml

Thats how awesome the classes are looking to be.

http://warhammerinfo.com/quests.shtml

Thats how mediocre questing will be.

http://warhammerinfo.com/morale.shtml
http://warhammerinfo.com/tactics.shtml

A bit of how combat will work.

http://warhammerinfo.com/rant03-03-2007.shtml

Something we should all agree with. The absense of Collision Detection ruins my apprication of ANY game. PvPRP will be 100&#37; better when a siege cant be fucking walked through.

[Karkarov]

Warhammer has been described as "the new guild wars" to me by people who claim to have some access to the beta. In other words it is like playing diablo with forced pvp, it is sorta fun to pick up but hardly revolutionary or all that. Personally I am not looking foward to it at all, they already scewed the lore way worse than they did with wow and I see no point in playing if I cant play what I want to.

[Thaena]

Warhammer is just the new kid on the block right now. Admittedly I think it looks like it'll be a lot of fun. I like the original IP quite a bit, and it's got the best take on dwarfs I've seen yet. And I love me some dwarfs you know.

But yeah, anyone touting it as a "WoW killer" just ends up sounding like an idiot. It will probably be a fun game that a portion of the MMO market will enjoy and that's that. I mean hell's bells people, EQ is still kickin' what, three, four (?) years after the "double doom" of EQ2 and WoW. Nothing is going to kill WoW unless it's WoW itself.

Last year it was Vanguard, this year it's Warhammer. Next year it'll be something else. It's the cirrrcle of liiiife.....

[Grev]

Starcraft IS NOT considered the best RTS of all time. Please see Command and Conquer, Starcraft just has a large asian following.
Of course it's all subjective, but it's hailed as the king of RTS by nearly every gaming publication I've read, most notably IGN. It tops every list and it's one of the only PC games from the 90s off the top of my head that still has a regular player base. Command & Conquer gets its credit for popularizing the genre, but it's a no contest compared to StarCraft. StarCraft 2 will be another phenomenon in itself.

And I sincerely hope Warhammer does well because Blizzard needs some competition, but I just can't see an MMORPG that relies on PvP content to hold up next to WoW. Guild Wars was supposed to do the same damage and everyone saw how that worked out.

[Ryoku]

Command and Conquer was originally westwood, and it did so much better before EA got its hands on it.

But off of that, the new Warhammer looks fun, yes, and Greenskins and Chaos actually do look appear to be for the win. But it's still not > WoW.

With this new information, Warhammer would be fun to try, but I'll probably never get to that with this crappy computer. =\

[Kaldore]

I see Player collision as a BAD thing...

Imagine if you're a Greenskin... And you can't kill other Greenskins, right?
Well you want to get to the dungeon, but My Guild <Red Sector Echelon> just LOVES making people go emo.

So we line five people up at the entrance and block your way.

What do you do?

Well if you weren't the same faction we could square off, but fuck you... We're Greenskins.


Player Collision is cool for Defending a position, trust me as a Tank I LOVE the idea, but I think it's going to cause problems unless there's no collision for the same Faction.

[Ryoku]

The article states that there is no friendly player collision. Only hostile.

They're a step ahead of ya, buddy.

[Kaldore]

Thats awesome then, that would fucking suck if you needed to go somewhere and you'd have a bunch of assholes blocking it and going "L2COLLISHUN LOL!"

[Ryoku]

Yeah, it is kinda Awesome.

Next thing you know, Blizzard will be trying it too.

After all, they got flying mounts idea from games like Flyff. Why not take this idea too?

[Raziel]

THE AUCTION HOUSE IS CLOSED DUE TO AIDS

[Raziel]

And yes Aquizit. It is Malygos.

[Aquizit]

Argh.. insane.. I hope when you beat him the whole world gets a 2hr debuff that causes your spells to backfire on you 50&#37; of the time..

/rage

[Farewell]

Yeah, it is kinda Awesome.

Next thing you know, Blizzard will be trying it too.

After all, they got flying mounts idea from games like Flyff. Why not take this idea too?

Because Flyff (and games like it!) invented the concept of flying, and Warhammer invented the concept of collision detection, right?

[Abric]

There's some bottled up feelings, that's for sure!

Blizzard always puts out better stuff, and fixes many bitches we go... but of course in Blizzard fashion it is after the fact and beyond us truly caring - because like a noisy neighbor; we learn to live with it.

Wrath of the Lich King will be interesting. It will add in more stuff, it will bring a depth to the game that we will enjoy... then we'll wait for more. They will provide it to us, and eventually we will all quit playing after five or six years when they are forced to come out with a better World of Warcraft, they fire the wrong people, or Metzen goes fucking bat shit and makes Gilneas cat people.

Warhammer is going to take a number of people, just because people WANT something better... or at least are lying to themselves. Then again, maybe it's not a better game... but just a better play experience.

The biggest complaint is PvP, and I believe they are adding a lot more to WoW to make this more enjoyable. A whole zone is going to be PvP-enabled, so there's actually going to be a legitimate reason for guilds to go out and have a bit of fun. A whole lot of fun? Who knows, but we'll see.

PvE? Well... you can't cater to the hardcore. They tried that pre-expansion, and look where they got'em. They will no doubt try something to feed the top 10&#37; of the entire game, but it looks like they want to get the 50% who actually play to win. I like that, because I invest enough time into this game as is - and I don't want it all to be raiding and consumable farming. They are improving this aspect and making it more enjoyable. Will you kill the same thing 50 times? Yeah... that's the same like EVERY other game in existence; except for those old Indiana Jones games. And Myst. And maybe Lemmings.

Customer Service? Well, they still blow hard. But I think we feel it the most because we as RPers think we are special. I think we are, because we're the population that sticks with a game until the bitter end. Raiders and PvPers come and go... but the creepy guy in the corner wearing his mothers dress and lipstick are forever.

BLUE lipstick. Like Arthas. Oh what a hollow, unfilfilling world. Where's my Smashing Pumpkin cd?

[Sanrin]

Player Collision was around before Mythic was, they're just making a bigger deal about it (as they should!)

[Keraph]

Thanks for posting that, Raz! I had a nice long read, and got some good ideas about what's to come next.

As for the WAR thing, it seems like for every person saying "WAR is gonna be the top shit!" there's someone saying "WAR is gonna suck and people are dumb for hyping it". WAR will draw fans of the warhammer universe like WoW drew fans of Warcraft. I like WH, played it for many years, and I've played the WAR beta enough to know that it'll be a good, solid MMO. WoW killer? Doubt it. Hell, even EQ is still kicking around (and yes, I still play X.x) so it's not like WAR is gonna suddenly leave every WoW server a tumbleweed-filled ghost town. Let those who are excited for it be excited without trying to convince them they're wasting their effort; whether the game lives up to their expectations is for them to decide.

god damnit, I talked more about WAR than WoW. Umm...hmm. Oh! The DKs starting in Strat and breaking out? Fucking sweet. I'm gonna go back to playing through War3 AGAIN, just to remenisce

[Grev]

After all, they got flying mounts idea from games like Flyff. Why not take this idea too?
Did you play the old Warcraft games? Flying mounts have always been there.

[Sanrin]

I believe he meant flying mounts in an MMO world. Otherwise a lot of games invented 'flying mounts' first >>

[Grev]

I believe he meant flying mounts in an MMO world. Otherwise a lot of games invented 'flying mounts' first >>
I'm just saying if the original games had flying mounts it'd be crazy to think they wouldn't stick it in the MMORPG.

[Ryoku]

I believe he meant flying mounts in an MMO world. Otherwise a lot of games invented 'flying mounts' first >>

Yeah, I meant flying in an MMO.

EDIT: Oh, and I'm not saying Flyff was the first, or only MMO to have flying (it's just the one on top of my head). There are a ton of Spaceship Pilot-Type MMO's who have been using the concept of flying in an MMO, and have been out for several years.

[TerokNor]

I'm pretty sure there were dwarven gryphon-riders in WC2 for the alliance. WC1 I don't recall any flying mounts... but my brain gets fuzzy that far back in time.

God damn, I've been playing WC for some 15 years!?

[Raziel]

They didn't need any.

The Dragonmaw Clan had enslaved Alexztraza the Life-Binder through the capture of her by Rend and Maim. They bred the Red Dragonflight to work for them. As such, Dragons themselves fought for the Horde.

They even had Neltharion, Black Aspect, joining them as well, and keeping a private roost in Draenor.

[Raziel]

"We kind of learned with Hellfire Peninsula in Burning Crusade that we didn't want to bring everyone into one zone," says lead level designer Cory Stockton, memories of day-one Outland horrors still fresh. "So with Northrend you're going to have a choice when you start to come in on either of the two sides of the continent--and have two completely different starting experiences for the same level range." In the west: Borean Tundra. In the east: Howling Fjord.

----------------------WESTERN ZONE------------------

=================BOREAN TUNDRA=============

This flat, sprawling zone would be filled with snow from seashore to its most inland borders--if it wasn't for those dang Naga.

"They're always draining water," laughs lead game designer Tom Chilton, referring to the latest Naga scheme to melt all of the snow and ice in Borean and use it for some nefarious purpose. Half of the zone is iced over, while the other half consists of semicircular pools of meltwater. "It's sort of like with Terokkar Forest, where you have the Bone wastes to break it up."

The main inhabitants are a race of walruslike people called the Tuskarr--nomadic, tribal folk whose homes and structures (which often resemble fish or whales) are attached to giant tusklike sliders so they can move their villages wherever they need to. Whether or not that means darkmoon Faire-style migration (here one day, gone another), Blizzard won't say.

Borean Tundra will also house a giant Horde citadel, the largest in Northrend (current name: "Awesome Horde Bade," says Chilton. "Chris Metzen probably has a list 300 items long of things we need names for," laughs Stockton)--as well as one of the most magical spots in all of Azeroth: The Nexus.

==============WESTERN INSTANCE: THE NEXUS=============

Both of Northrend's starter zones will contain a winged instance similiar to Hellfire Citadel, with one "beginner" dungeon wing, a higher-end dungeon wing, and a raid wing. Near Borean Tundra lies The Nexus, an instance hub and ancient home of the Blue Dragonflight, keepers of the world's magic.

"After all these years Malygoes (long-slumbering leader of the Blue Dragonflight] sees magic out of control across the globe," says Metzen. "'Whoa, societies of wizards--are they crazy? Don't they know that demon armies invade places when you do this?' So Malygoes and the Blue Dragonflight are going to declare war on magic--if you practice magic, you've gotta go."

Acolytes of Malygos prepare for their arcane inquisition on the floating rings of the Necus--summoned into place piece-by-piece by Malygos--where instance-goers will place out their adventure. The final raid wing will likely culminate in a flight with half-mad Malygos himself. "I wouldn't call him evil--but he's definitely gone off the deep end," says Metzen. "We'll have to dispense some indiscriminate Justice." (RAZNOTE: Starcraft Siege Tank anyone?)

-------------------EASTERN ZONE-------------

===============HOWLING FJORD============

IF you're averse to seeing snow the second you set foot in Northrend, you might want to set sail to Valgarde, one of the starting settlements in Howling Fjord, Wrath of the Lich King'
s easternmost zone.

Norse themes dominate: Metal-wrought structures shaped like Viking warships loom on the high, sharp cliff tops, overlooking the newly build Alliance settlements (expect to see new building models for old standbys like inns, a nice change after seeing Old World Alliance structures popping up everywhere in Alien Outland)--and 5-foot-tall, protodragon-riding barbarians called the Vrykul bear more than a passing resemblence to Erik the Red and his ilk.

Despite the fact that the other indigenous people of Northrend are just now starting to see the Vrykul appear, these newcomers are actually some of Northrend's oldest residents. "They're ill-tempered to the extreme," says Metzen. "No one knows what to make of these guys, but they're megapowerful."

With Wrath, Blizzard plans on incorporating more of what they call "micros"--dungeonlike underground (or otherwise internal) areas that aren't instance, but play out more like a traditional dungeon crawl. One such micro called Gjalerbron finds the Vrykul working side-by-side with Liches--meaning the Vrykul are probably not going to be easily swayed to your side. "They weren't necessarily always this evil," says Stockton. "But they've been hearing the call of the Lich King--and you can only fight against that for so long."

==============EASTERN INSTANCE: UTGARDE=================
(RAZNOTE: Waittaminnit, that sounds like the Forgotten Realms Barbarian Tribes of Icewind Dale)

The eastern equivalent of the Nexus, Utgarde is a Citadel owned and operated by Northrend's native Vrykul--and it serves as a hub for Howling Fjord's instanced dungeons and raids. The first dingeon, the three-boss Utgarde Keep, is comparable to Hellfire Ramparts in both look and length.

With Wrath of the Lich King's dungeons, Blizzard plans on adding more "memorable moments"--to continue to break up the pull-rest-pull-boss structure in original 5-mans such as Scholomance adopted. One point of interest in Utgarde Keep: A giant flame-spewing skull forge. Step in the flames, and you'll die--but kill the VBrykul workers operating the bellows, and the flames die down, allowing you and your party to pass. Later in the dungeons, Blizzard plans a frantic "Gauyntlet run" similiar to the one in Hellfire Ramparts' shattered Halls.

While the Vrykul-allied Lich King hordes don't play a huge part in Utgarde Keep's trash pulls, they're pervasive in the boss fights: One boss is a Lich; another is a Vrykul who summons Scourge slaves to do some dirty ditch-digging for him.

[Xaraphyne]

And despite complaints from the early days of Burning Crusade, even the most epically geared players should be getting new gear from almost the start."

"The hardcore resent that at first," says Chilton "but it's only a matter of time before they start getting into the endgame agian."

I WISH I KNEW HOW TO QUIT YOU!