Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.
What do you do for WoW Insider?
I'm just your everyday regular normal blogger. I post on whatever looks cool in the World of Warcraft, and I try to keep on top of breaking news as much as I can. I tend to be biased a bit toward Hunter and Druid issues, I think, since I play both classes pretty religiously. I'm also a pretty hardcore Roleplayer, so I make sure RP issues get some play on the site when I can too.
What's your main right now?
Funny you should mention that, since I pontificated on that just this morning. Right now I'd say I still consider my Feral Druid my main, although I probably play my Hunter more, and either she or my new Death Knight will probably end up being my main come WoTLK. I play on the Cenarion Circle server, by the by.
This was the scene this morning on Proudmoore, as they were the first server around to open up the Heroic Badge vendor on the Isle of Quel'danas. So for this week's Gamers on the Street interviews, I decided to go there and see the sights myself. Unfortunately, just as on the PTR, it's not quite that easy to get a level one Blood Elf to the Isle -- I figured I could just fly from Silvermoon like normal, but no -- apparently I had to run all the way to Tranquilien to even get the Silvermoon flight point. So I did.
Fortunately, when I got there, the flight master gave me the flight point to Silvermoon, which would then take me to the Sunwell Plateau. Unfortunately, I was completely and totally broke -- I didn't even have enough cash to fly. I sold everything I had, but it wasn't nearly enough, and instead of begging for gold, I did the next less annoying thing on the list -- I spammed the Trade channel. And I was able to find two nice residents of Proudmoore to tell me about opening up the world event content on Sunwell Plateau.
Happy Saturday afternoon! Time once again for a weekly wrapup of our all weekly content. Here's what WoW Insider's columnists have put together for you this week, all linked up in one big post.
After a quick announcement last week, the FigurePrints site opened yesterday, offering Warcraft players an easy (if not necessarily cheap-- each figure runs about $115) way to recreate their ingame characters in real-life figurine form.
But we still had lots of questions. How did these figures get made? What kind of material were they made of, and where did FigurePrints get the models and information to turn ingame characters into real sculptures? For the answers, we went straight to the source. Ed Fries has been in and around gaming for a long time, and after playing WoW for years (and creating games for years before that), he had the idea to create a way to bring Warcraft characters to life with a 3D printer. WoW Insider got a chance to talk to Ed on the day that his company's site went live, and all the answers to your questions about FigurePrints are right after the jump.
Christie Golden, author ofthe Warcraft novels Rise of the Horde and Lord of the Clans, sat down to answer questions with The Shadow Council Strider. For several weeks readers submitted questions via email, and Christie was kind enough to respond to them in an article published today. We learn that Christie will be writing more novels in the Warcraft universe, having just signed a contract for a trilogy.
The discussion I found most fascinating in this first part of the article series had to do with Christie's access to The Burning Crusade. Basically the reader wanted to know if she had influence over the game design of Outland, or if her stories were wrapped around the content that was already put into the game. As it turns out, while most of the world was already in place when Christie was hired on, she did get to flush out some concepts in Outland, particularly having to do with Oshu-gun and that Ata'amal crystals. Because she had already finished her first draft, several of the creatures she created in the novel were put into the game, for instance the majestic Talbuk.
The last two questions had to do with Christie's life as a writer. Christie talked about her "Trunk novel," that first book she wasn't able to sell, and the subsequent novels she did publish that were set in the same universe. Because of her non-fiction writing and editing experience with USA Today she wasn't new to dealing with selling the written word. It's interesting to note that Christie never wrote fan fiction for WoW, which is certain surprising considering how well she writes about the world of Azeroth. When asked about suggestions for those new to writing, her advice to new writers was to write as often as you can, and also spend some time outlining to better plan out your work.
The next section of the Q & A is due out soon, and I'm definitely eager to find what else she has to say. If you had a question for Christie Golden, what would it be?
In Gamers on the Street, Krystalle Voecks will be creating characters and joining random US servers in an attempt to find out what the everyday Gamer thinks about different things going on in and around the World of Warcraft. With research in hand, she'll report back here on Thursdays, to share the word from the front lines.
With all the excitement about the PTRs and pre-made characters, I thought it would be interesting to ask people what they thought about some of the upcoming changes that Blizzard is adding into WoW in patch 2.2. Interestingly enough, the majority of people that I asked admitted that they didn't even bother reading the patch notes until they were released as live. Many said this was because of changes happening so fast that it wasn't worth tracking until it was finished. Others had only heard about the frenzy to get on the PTRs, and maybe of a couple of things in the works. But after a bit of searching, I managed to get two people who were willing to take time out of their busy schedules and give me their thoughts on their "best and worst" in the upcoming patch, as well as their thoughts on Voice Over IP (VOIP) that Blizzard is building into the game and hopes to make available soon.
You may not have realized this yet (I didn't until just now), but we are only a week and a half away from Blizzcon. On August 3 and 4 in Anaheim, CA, Blizzard will host its second huge convention, and WoW Insider will be there covering every second of it. From top to bottom, from start to end, from sign-in to close, we've got you covered. Whether you're going or not, we'll have exclusive interviews, tons of pictures and videos, and everything you need to know about Blizzard's premiere event.
And to make our coverage even better, we're teaming up with Xfire-- they're also going to be at Blizzcon, and they'll be hosting live online chats all weekend long, as well as posting their own Blizzcon coverage as well. Various WoW Insider staffers will show up on their service as well (for a few exclusive chats), and they're even planning to do a live chat directly with the Blizzard team.
Things are going to get crazy in the next week, and even crazier as the world of Azeroth heads to Anaheim. If you're coming to Blizzcon, we'll see you there, and even if not, stay tuned for the best Blizzcon coverage on the 'net. Blizzcon is almost upon us-- ready check!
WarCry has a quick interview with Jeff Kaplan, a.k.a. Tigole, lead designer in charge of world design for WoW, mostly on BC instances. Head over to WarCry to see the full interview. Here's the question that caught my eye:
WarCry: In many ways, Karazhan mirrors instances like Zul'Gurub or the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj in terms of raid size compared to the 40-person raids. How did the development of Karazhan compare to the development of these previous raids? Are there any plans for future 10-person raid dungeons?
Jeffrey Kaplan: While there are definitely philosophical tuning differences between 5-, 10-, 20-, 25-, and 40-person instances, we don't have a vastly different approach in our dungeon-creation process. The same basic elements that make a 5-person instance great -- pacing, story, varied creatures, varied abilities, punctuating boss fights, good itemization, accessibility, and understandability -- will also make for a great 25-person experience.
Karazhan was a lot of fun to work on, and we really took our time developing and polishing it. Karazhan, more so than Zul'Gurub or the Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, had a very storied history in existing Warcraft lore, and we wanted to deliver on the high expectations. There are definitely plans for more 10-person content.
It's interesting to see that they think of a raid as fundamentally the same design problem as a 5-man. And more ten-man content, which we suspect Zul'Aman is going to be, is good news in my book. However, I think the approach of treating dungeons as similar to one another, regardless of size, is somewhat flawed. For instance, I'd say in a 5-man, trash mobs are almost more important to make interesting than bosses; in a raid, on the other hand, trash is an obstacle, and bosses are really what you come for.
Recently Blizzard's Rob Pardo sat down with Businessweek.He mostly talked about the future of the game, the success of The Burning Crusade, and the creative process.Since reading his interview, I have spent a lot of time mulling over what he said.The first thing that stuck out in my mind was his likening the MMO to a television series."We're developing episodes just like Lost or Seinfeld," he commented, "We're always trying to come up with something that's true to the theory; that's true to the content that people love; but that is new."
I never had the chance to look at the development cycle like this.In some ways it explains the company's drive to constantly bring us new content rather than connecting old dots (Uldum anyone?).The designers are looking forward, and as they mentioned at Blizzcon in 2005, more portals will be opening, new worlds for us to explore.And we as gamers are ravenous for this new content.Our expectations are high, and the company is there to try and satiate our ever growing appetite.What this also means is that there is a story arch with which they are working.I know Lost is working on a seven-year story arch.Does this mean that we can expect a grander plotline connecting the expansions together?I for one am eager to find out.
I haven't really thought about the game in these terms.My previous experience with MMOs (*cough* Anarchy Online *cough*) has taught me that games are fairly linear.Yes, there might be a new world connected to the old one, but the story pretty much stays the same.Since playing World of Warcraft I have had to reinvent my view of the MMO, and now I, too am one of those ravenous players dying for new stories and new characters to love or hate.This interview has made me wonder where we are going with the next expansions.So I'd love to hear what you think.Beyond the proposed Northrend and Emerald Dream expansions, where would you like to go as the World of Warcraft universe expands into new worlds?
Even if you don't know the name, you're familiar with Rob Pardo's work. He is, after all, the Vice President of Design over at Blizzard, and he's responsible for the game design decisions you see whenever you venture into the World of Warcraft. Next Generation sat down with Rob Pardo to ask some of of everyone's burning questions on the future of World of Warcraft. First up, what exactly does a VP of Design do? Pardo explains: With the teams as big as they are I don't get as much time to write design documents myself. There's a lot more meetings, a lot more collaborative stuff that happens. Let's take one small component of WoW, let's say quests. We have a team of quest designers and we all sit in a room everyday and jam up ideas. I'll follow up with each individual quest designer. I'll play their quests and iterate through it. But there's some stuff I get to design too. I also try to fill gaps that need filling. I'm trying to provide the big picture vision and philosophy and also helping out where it's needed.
Pardo is happy with the way the Burning Crusade has turned out. But what about the future? Are regular expansions a matter of survival for Blizzard's hit MMO? Calling it a matter of survival makes it sound grim. It's more a matter of entertainment. Of course we want our gamers to stay in the world for as long as we can. But I look at this from the positive angle of us trying to entertain them. We're trying to give them new experiences. One of my favorite analogies is how much an MMO is like a TV series. We're developing episodes just like Lost or Seinfeld. We're always trying to come up with something that's true to the theory; that's true to the content that people love; but that is new. From the moment that the series starts re-treading the same ground over and over again... well, that's what we're trying to avoid.
Never heard of Oxhorn? Then I'm not sure where you've been hiding for the past couple of years! Oxhorn, known out in the real world as Brandon M. Dennis, is a machinima-maker who's won prizes in both of Xfire's Summer Movie Contests. If you want to catch up on what we're talking about, I recommend checking out WoW Insider's featured Oxhorn videos and Oxhorn's own YouTube page, which features even more entertaining machinima. He also maintains a homepage with information on all his projects (updated every Monday); a myspace page focusing on his videos and music; is co-hosting (with Eriyanna) "Tails from Thunder Bluff," a weekly radio show from WoW Radio (you can snag a copy of the first episode from File Front); and has been hired to produce a short machinima movie that promotes "awareness" on college campuses.
This makes Oxhorn a very busy guy -- especially considering he attends college in his off-time. WoW Insider was lucky to catch up with the famous tauren and get him to answer a few questions. So if you're interested in the life and times of this talented machinima-maker, read on!
Empire, a UK film magazine, has an interview up with Blizzard VP of Development Itzik Ben Bassat, covering mostly topics of "why is WoW so popular." Basically, Bassat replies that it's accessible, big, and fantasy-based; not very interesting there. He also claims that "online gaming is the future," and that "in the near future you won't see games that don't have an online component." Let me be the first to say that I doubt this. A lot. You will always have games like Tetris, Zelda, and Katamari Damacy that don't have, need, or want multi-player capabilities of any sort. (OK, Tetris multi-player is fun. But hardly necessary.) Then again, though, I'm not a VP of the world's greatest gaming firm, so maybe that shows what I know. He's also excited about the forthcoming WoW movie; I can't say I have high hopes for that.
The most interesting point, to me, in the interview is this:
How do you imagine you'll be able to top Warcraft in the future? When we announce our next MMORPG it's not going to be another WoW - we're not a company that tends to tread the same ground. It'll be something innovative and new that really brings entertainment to another level.
Blizzard representatives have hinted before that the next MMO will be from a different one of their franchises, and this tends to put more weight in that direction. "Really brings entertainment to another level" is obviously marketing gibberish, but he does seem to be genuinely saying that Blizzard is going to announce something fairly different from WoW. I guess they'd have to; if they wanted to make more WoW, they'd be better off just working on the next expansion. Which I'm sure they are already doing.
So, speculate away! What's Blizzard's next MMO? In my last post on this issue, I called for a Diablo MMO, but I have been convinced by commentors that WoW is basically that. Now I want a StarCraft one, since I do love sci-fi much more than fantasy. On the other hand, Zerg are icky...
I guess since the expansion is finally done, all the Blizzard devs have time to talk. While reviews on the Burning Crusade are still forthcoming for the most part, there's been a couple dev interviews pop up post-launch.
There's not much you won't hear on the Collector's Edition DVD, but over on Firing Squad they have a short one-on-one with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan. Most interesting is probably how the dev team is justifying adding the sci-fi stuff to Warcraft, via the Draenei and their spaceships-- Tigole suggests there's been an "otherworldly leaning" from the beginning, with the Titans and their worldmaking, and the alien origins of the Orcs. Also, he talks about his favorite creatures in Outland, and while I've only seen Fel Reavers so far, I was definitely impressed.
And at Gamespot UK's site, they catch Blizzard's Jon LeCraft. He says that the expansion's delay turned out to be time well spent and that the devs had a lot of fun making starter areas again (since their philosophies have changed so much-- that means we need more midgame content now, guys!). Finally, he acknowledges that the new 25-man cap on instances will mean breakups for some guilds, but that making everyone in the raid necessary was more important to Blizzard than simply allowing 15 people to stand around waiting for loot while the other 25 actually did the work.
Nothing super new, and unfortunately, no news about what's next, either in terms of an expansion or a patch direction. But we're definitely glad the devs are getting a chance to catch their breath, and learn some lessons from this week's release.
Did you know the episode was actually shot on the Burning Crusade alpha server? (Blizzard simply made it so that anyone who got in the way of filming mysteriously vanished...) Or that filming didn't stop until 3AM on the day the show was to air? These, and many other interesting tidbits about the making of South Park's very own World of Warcraft machinima can be found in Machinima.com's interview with Frank Agnone (Producer), J. J. Franzen (Technology Supervisor), and Eric Stough (Director of Animation). So if you're a big fan of South Park and wanting a look behind the making of the show or a machinima maker curious as to how television got involved in the art it's worth a read!
Xfire has posted a video of their E3 interviews. It's not really focusing on news (which we've probably all seen by this point already), but commentary (some interesting and some just for comic value) from Jeff Kaplan (Tigole), Caydiem, Ordinn, and Eyonix. It's an entertaining watch with a few interesting tidbits, though I must admit that I had to laugh when Tigole commented, "We know the honor system is a bit of a grind."
Twice a week, our writers will tell you more about themselves, and let you get to know them and the characters they play a little better. Click here to read more About the Bloggers.
Happy Saturday afternoon! Time once again for a weekly wrapup of our all weekly content. Here's what WoW Insider's columnists have put together for you this week, all linked up in one big post..jpg)
I guess since the expansion is finally done, all the Blizzard devs have time to talk. While 
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