With the Wrath Beta Opt-in available, we're one step closer to the expansion.We're all anxiously awaiting the time when the expansion is ready.I'm still having fun with the existing World of Warcraft, but I'm a bit antsy.There is a lot of frustration over existing conditions, especially when it comes to PvP.
Chloroform of EU-Magtheridon isn't interested in waiting.He listed his grievances in the EU-PVP Forum, "Balance issues, queue times, destroying premades, AFK problems, uneven teams, world pvp screwed by 9000yd aggro range ultra guards."Like many others, Jasse of EU-Bronzebeard blames the arena for the death of PvP.
Every time a new game comes out, we have a decision to make. Do we try the new game while still playing World of Warcraftmost of the time? Do we take a break from WoW to give the new game all of our attention? Or do we continue to play our favorite MMO? My guild had an attendance problem when GTA IV was released and I know a few people have given Age of Conan a good try. With Warhammer Online probably coming out in the fall, we will have to make another choice then.
Now, I think that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion will probably come out in the Winter, hopefully this year. I think that Starcraft 2 will be released approximately a year after that and my guess is that Diablo III won't come out for another 2 to 3 years, unfortunately. But what if Blizzard were to do the unthinkable and release WotLK at the same time as the sequels to Starcraft and Diablo?
For me, I think Diablo III would take up most of my time for a month or two. Happily (or not), I won't have to make that choice. What would you do?
It's just in the nature of game developers to talk a little trash -- whenever you work on something for so long, you'll pretty much say whatever you can when someone asks you to compare your game to someone else's. So we'll forgive Funcom's Gaute Godager (game director of Age of Conan) for what he says about World of Warcraft in this Eurogamer interview.
WoW comes up first at the beginning of the interview, and Godager gracefully accepts props for AoC having the biggest launch since World of Warcraft. Which is true -- AoChas shipped over a million copies since launch (though Warcraft has gone on to sell nine million more, and AoC hasn't quite gotten there yet). But at the end of the interview, Godager really brings out the big guns -- he says that playing WoW is fun and all, but "if you've been to McDonald's for four or five years, and had your burger and your coke, sometimes it's great to just have a great steak and a glass of good wine."
Apparently Age of Conan is supposed to be that steak, and our little critically acclaimed and history-making game is supposed to be the culinary equivalent of McDonald's. Which isn't a bad comparison -- we can definitely see Age of Conan being called "steak." Especially sinceit wasserved so undercooked.
It seems a complaint I've heard a lot about Blizzard lately is that 2 years between expansions is just far too long. We'll languish too much without new content, and people will leave for Age of Conan and Warhammer Online and other games, they say.
Myself, I think the length between expansions is acceptable, provided that Blizzard is working on improving and adding new content. To some extent, they are doing this. 2.4 was a tour de force that granted us a whole new area to grind and quest in, and if Blizzard can be out patches like 2.4 on a regular basis, I can forgive them for a few delays in the expansions.
That said, I do feel like they could stand to pick up the pace.
"Who Moved My Cheese," as he says, is one of those corporate management books that's a little trite for anyone but executives to actually read seriously -- it's got a fable about two mice who find a chunk of cheese, and then have to deal with what happens when change hits them and that cheese runs out. And BBB then takes that into the act of playing WoW: right now, this game is giving us plenty of cheese, and when the expansion drops, things will be even better. But at the same time, there's no reason to stick with the game if it isn't giving you what you want, and as we've said before, if you're not interested in the game, feel free to go find something else.
BBB's post is a great read, and it's refreshing to hear an honest take on what it might mean to finally end a career in WoW (not that BBB is doing that yet). There's a lot of stuff left to do in Azeroth (and there'll be more to do in Northrend). But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with making your own path and going off to find yourself some fresh cheese.
The latest episode of the WoW Insider Show is now online for your listening enjoyment over at WoW Radio, and it was an interesting show. The Internet's Veronica Belmont was kind enough to grace us with her presence, so we spoke with her about what she's been up to in the past with Mahalo Daily and more recently with Tekzilla, including her interviews with Leeroy Jenkins and The Guild, and we talked about all the most popular stories in the last week of Warcraft, including but not limited to:
The infamous Wrath alpha leaks -- we didn't talk about specifics, but we did discuss with Veronica what this means for Blizzard, and what effect, if any, the leak might have on the expansion's release
Additionally, we answered some reader email (including trying to decide what Turpster will do to ding 70 on his Shadow Priest) -- if you'd like to send us some of that, just drop a note to theshow@wowinsider.com and maybe you'll hear your email on the next show. A huge thank-you to Veronica for coming by this past week -- don't forget to check her out on Revision3's Tekzilla every week, and if she does any more WoW-related broadcasts, you'll hear about them here for sure.
And don't forget, we run the WoW Insider Show live every week right over on WoW Radio -- stop by around 3:30pm EST every Saturday (and drop into the #wowradio channel on irc.mmoirc.com if you'd like to chat with us live) to hear everything you already enjoy about the WoW Insider site right there in audio form. Enjoy the show, we'll see you next week.
Our weekly podcast goes back on the virtual airwaves tomorrow over on WoW Radio, and it's going to be a good one. I'm back from my vacation last week (thanks to John "BBB" Patricelli for hosting last week), and we've got a special guest on: Veronica Belmont, uber hip tech blogger, podcaster, and generally all around cool chick (you may remember her from her interviews with Leeroy Jenkins and The Guild) will be on to chat about the biggest stories in the past week of WoW with us. Of course, we'll be talking about the Wrath leaks, and since Veronica has been dealing with gadgets and tech journalism for quite a while, hopefully she'll help us provide some insight on that.
Turpster will be on as well, and we'll probably have one or two other familiar voices on from this site, too. Also, we'll chat about exactly who Karazhan is for, all those Glider bans that Blizzard laid down, Death & Taxes meeting its death, and what effect, if any, the Age of Conan launch had on our favorite game. And of course we'll be answering emails -- send yours to theshow@wowinsider.com -- and we'll be on IRC at irc.mmoirc.com in the #wowradio channel.
Should be a great time. See (or hear, as the case may be) us tomorrow afternoon live over on WoW Radio starting at 3:30pm EST!
Gnomechewer is back with a brand new movie, Under Contract: The Explorer's League, but for all we know, it could be his last WoW machinima. According to his video page, he's rather attached to Age of Conan now. Come back to us, Gnomechewer! You don't need AoC!
Under Contract is about two dwarves and their friends that are contracted by the Explorer's League to carry out missions. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that Gnomechewer properly conveyed the story that he had in mind this time. He mentioned that he rushed through a lot of it, and he seems to have mixed a jumble of things together so that it makes no sense. Well, at least it looks good visually.
If you have any suggestions for WoW Moviewatch, you can mail them to us at machinima AT wowinsider DOT com.
A lot of things are the same between the two games -- talents are very similar, and there are a lot of comparable mechanics and spells (DoTs, healing, and aggro, of course, all play a role in AoC as well as in Azeroth). But there are a lot of differences, too: Age of Conan's combat is based on real-time, which means you actually press a button to strike, rather than just setting a target and going to town. Instances play a different role, too -- you start out in a private instance, and can level in a world by yourself for a much longer time than in World of Warcraft. And Funcom has put in quite a few things designed to pull us away from WoW also: mounted combat, a deeper guild system, player cities, and some more PvP mini games.
Of course, even if you do go to play some AoC, Wrath of the Lich King will probably bring you back to WoW anyway -- as fun as killing stuff in the Hyborian Age is, it doesn't hold a candle to meeting Arthas Menethil, in our humble opinion. But if you've heard about Age of Conan and are wondering what the difference is, Massively's guide has you covered.
Funcom's Age of Conan opened yesterday to those who pre-ordered. Considered one of the two MMO's this year that has a chance to take a chunk out of WoW (Warhammer Online being the other), this newest entry into the overcrowded fantasy genre officially goes live on Thursday, but Early Access was granted to those willing to lay out the cash.
This morning we ask you not if you are leaving WoW for AoC, but if you are indulging in a little weekend sideline fun in the lands of Hyboria. Or have your stalwart guildmates suddenly disappeared yesterday?
World of Warcraft is doing terrific lately, but if you believe the hype, there's trouble on the horizon, and it's coming in the form of two big MMOs: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. Greg Howson of Britain's Guardian newspaper has a column online in which he examines WoW's grip on MMO gamers and the two big games it'll face this year.
We'll leave the cross-MMO predictions to our great sister site Massively, but for their part, Blizzard says they're looking forward to a little competition in the MMO pool. Howson has J. Allen Brack, WoW's lead producer, saying that they're looking forward to playing the new games as well. And it's true -- real competition in this space might actually be a welcome thing to fans of all MMO games. Blizzard is working hard now, but they might actually be working harder if they had a competitor breathing down their necks.
Unfortunately for those who want to see that happen, it's going to be super hard for anyone to get near Blizzard's neck, much less near their game. As Lord of the Rings Online producer Ed Relf says to Howson, WoW is pretty much the iPod of the MMO space. It could just be that what Blizzard has done here -- bring an MMO to the forefront of gaming culture for an extended period of time -- is a deed that just can't be replicated, no matter how much money you put into making a game.
Two bits of news about soon to-be-Blizzard's-overlords Activision: first, a group of investors are apparently planning to sue Activision about the whole merger thing, apparently saying that Activision didn't do enough to cash in on the deal. They're complaining that in the deal with Vivendi (Blizzard's owners), Activision settled for an "unfavorable minority poisition." The company hasn't responded yet, but if this lawsuit goes forward, we could find out a whole lot more about the exact terms of the deal between the two companies.
And for their own part, Activision is thrilled to be in the business of Warcraft: Activision CEO Bobby Kotick sees MMOs as an "insurmountable product category," and says that if they were competing with WoW, they'd have to toss at least half a billion to a billion dollars into the deal, and even then they wouldn't be guaranteed success. Which means that at this time, in this market, Kotick says that companies entering into the MMO market are basically throwing money away.
Can't say we're surprised that the CEO of the company that now owns WoW says it's unbeatable, but as you know by now, EA and Funcom (Warhammer Online and Age of Conan's publishers, respectively) surely disagree. We should see who's right by the end of the year.
With the Wrath Beta Opt-in available, we're one step closer to the expansion. We're all anxiously awaiting the time when the expansion is ready. I'm still having fun with the existing World of Warcraft, but I'm a bit antsy. There is a lot of frustration over existing conditions, especially when it comes to PvP.
It's just in the nature of game developers to talk a little trash -- whenever you work on something for so long, you'll pretty much say whatever you can when someone asks you to compare your game to someone else's. So we'll forgive Funcom's Gaute Godager (game director of 
It seems a complaint I've heard a lot about Blizzard lately is that 2 years between expansions is just far too long. We'll languish too much without new content, and people 
John "BigBearButt" Patricelli is one of the writers on this fine blog, gracing us with 
The latest episode of the WoW Insider Show is 
Our weekly podcast goes back on the virtual airwaves tomorrow over on 
Funcom's new MMO 
Funcom's 
Two bits of news about 
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