Sunday Morning Funnies has quite the line-up this week, with even more on the horizon for next week. As always, don't forget to leave a tip about a WoW-themed comic you know!
A new WoW-themed comic from Action Trip. I would explain but I think I'll just let you click through and see for yourselves.
After having the chance to actually get out there and start my Egg Hunting, I can confirm that no, there really isn't anything new for the Noblegarden event this year. That's alright though, it entertained me for awhile, and I know for a fact that the Midsummer Fire Festival has a lot more in store.
On the bright side, I did get my Elegant Dress this year! An entire day dedicated to finding this dress last year got me nothing but cruddy candy. Within twenty minutes this year, I got my dress! Of course, it doesn't look very good so I'll probably never put it on my character again, but I have it. That's good enough for me.
If you're not able to participate in the event, or you're reading this after it has ended, do not fear! You didn't miss out on any leet items, and I did my best to capture the fun of the event in the gallery below. Go on, take a look! You know you want to.
"The great feast of Noblegarden has long been celebrated by the races of the Alliance and recently adopted by those of the Horde. On this joyous day, it is customary for the nobles and lords from each race to hide coins, candy, and the occasional treasures within special eggs painted to look like wildflowers. These eggs are then scattered around the major cities for the citizenry to find. From heroes to commoners, and everyone in between - the feast of Noblegarden is meant to bring communities together to share the joy of life and friendship."
Good morning readers and Happy Noblegarden! If you didn't know yet, today is a pretty neat(if mundane) holiday in the World of Warcraft, which coincides with the real life holiday of Easter. And just like Easter, you're in for a lot of eggs. Most of the actual rewards are just toss away items like candy, but you can also get your hands on neat fashion items like an Elegant Dress or a Tuxedo.
This'll be my third year plucking eggs now, and I haven't gotten a dress for my priest yet. Wish me luck, and I hope your luck is better than mine has been!
Gamers on the Street logs onto U.S. servers to get the word from the front on what's going on in and around the World of Warcraft. Lisa is absent this week, so instead Mike Schramm went to Cenarius to talk directly to ingame players.
When I headed into the game this week to do this column, both Krystalle and Lisa (who usually does GotS) warned me that it was rough out there, and that players weren't really into chatting with random people about what they thought about the past week in Warcraft. But I have to say -- the denizens of Cenarius treated me as well as can be expected. I logged in on my level 30 mage Erban, sent out a tell in /Trade (sorry for spamming, Cenarius-ians), and pretty soon I got two nice players to chat with me. We talked mostly about what they'd been up to in game, what they're looking ahead to with patch 2.4, whether Noblegarden sucks (spoiler: it does), and just how much they'd pay (or their guild would charge) for that Zul'aman bear mount.
So it's time for WoW Insider to do you all a favor. It seems like whenever we attempt to predict the timing of a certain patch, Blizzard ignores whatever we say, and drops it right away. With patch 2.2, we predicted in early September that it would take "weeks" longer, maybe even last November, and instead they had it out within the month. And with patch 2.3, we guessed that Blizzard wouldn't drop it before Thanksgiving, and just hours later they proved us wrong, and released it before the holiday.
So here you go: with everything we've seen on the forums lately, including the CMs a little giddy with excitement, and all of the news that dropped last week, we're going to officially predict that patch 2.4 will drop on the PTRs this coming Tuesday, and that it will hit the live realms sometime in early March (probably before Noblegarden, which starts on March 23rd).
There. Now, Blizzard has plenty of chances to prove us wrong by releasing the PTR sometime this week, and getting the patch out to live realms before March 1st. That's our favor to you-- if Blizzard follows their past pattern, they'll make us completely wrong again, and get you on the PTR and in the patch even sooner than we thought.
Not that there's anything really wrong with that-- Omen is still out there to be taken down, and for a lot of people, Omen was the first raid boss they'd seen (in fact, he was the Horseman before there was a Horseman-- a seasonal boss, except that Omen didn't drop epic loot). And lots of people are still having fun running the old Lunar Festival quests and turning those in.
But it is too bad there's nothing new yet. Guess we'll have to wait for Love is in the Air and Noblegarden to see if Blizzard's done any more seasonal updating.
Some of the best times i've had in World of Warcraft have been participating in Blizzard's entertaining holiday events. Large portions of the world are revamped with decorations, new quests, and of course, prizes! And, while the prizes may not be that important (food, Halloween costumes, etc), participating in the holiday events is always a fun change of pace from the norm. However, I have to say Noblegarden -- Blizzard's Easter event -- pales in comparison to their other holidays. Why?
No decorations or changes in any of the cities... not even a lone NPC to inform players that they can hunt for eggs.
A one-day holiday as opposed to the week(s) of festivities for Halloween, Winter's Veil, etc.
Noblegarden eggs are quite rare... and the prizes are sub-par at best.
No holiday quests. Not a single one!
If you didn't participate in Noblegarden this year, I'll give you the rundown. In the secondary newbie zones (not the starting zones, but the zones after that), eggs were hidden. You could loot the eggs to get a few copper coins, assorted candy (61 health over 18 seconds), and a chance at an Easter dress or pieces of a tuxedo. Yesterday I spent four hours (can you tell that I really wanted an Easter dress?) scouring Elwynn Forest for eggs. During this time, I managed to locate 26 eggs (which comes out to about one egg every 9 minutes). While I got plenty of candy and perhaps a whole silver worth of coin, I didn't get any of the holiday clothes that were the only appeal of the event -- but after spending 4 hours at the hunt, I couldn't bring myself to keep going. (And I imagine most sane people would have stopped sooner than that.)
So what could Blizzard do to make this event fun and worthwhile for its players? Read on for speculation!
Don't forget, tomorrow, April 8th, is Noblegarden in the land of Azeroth. What does that mean to adventerous players like us? That there are colorful eggs to collect -- and some of them might contain unique prizes. (I'm still hunting for that Noblegarden dress!) For those interested in egg hunting this year, they're found in the lowbie zones around major cities. So hunt in Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, and Durotar Eversong Woods, and Azuremyst Isles -- at least presuming they've updated the event to include these new zones. The screenshot above (Blizzard's official Noblegarden shot) is deceptive -- last year, at least, the eggs were half that size at best.
Happy hunting, everyone!
Update: Fixed two errors in my initial post, adding Teldrassil and Tirisfal Glades as locations, and removing Silverpine Forest. Also, according to reports, there seem to be no eggs spawning in the new Burning Crusade zones, Eversong Woods and Azuremyst Isles. Thanks to commenters Auriea and Rob!
Blizzard Europe has announced the winners of their Noblegarden egg-painting contest. The results include a lot of clever art I wouldn't have expected to find on an egg. There aren't any other contests going on in the EU right now, but if you're artistically inclined, US players can always submit to the comic contest.
The quality of the various ingame events seems to vary a lot. Some cause a lot of excitement and make their presence
well known by infiltrating the capital cities -- Greatfather Winter and the Lunar festivities (a well known Azerothian
rock band) are examples. However, some tend to just quietly happen, without barkers or much fanfare at all.
I went egg hunting for a couple of hours yesterday; I missed Noblegarden last year, so I had little idea what to
expect. After a few false starts looking in the capital cities (as the official website implied) I ended up running
around Elwynn and Teldrassil on a couple of characters. In all my searching I found about ten eggs, and ended up with a
bagful of lollipops and chocolate squares giving 61 health; I managed to find a pair of Black Tuxedo Pants, identical to a craftable item, though I was angling for
the formal attire.
I didn't run into any other egg hunters, and most of my guild didn't know the event was
running, despite the EU launcher promoting it. Although I'm reasonably pleased I had the trousers drop, meaning I got
something for all my effort, I spent a lot of time looking for eggs and finding none at all. Perhaps my time would have
been better spent at the regular
ingame events taking place yesterday, getting a pet
chicken or painting an egg; how was your
Easter Sunday?
Well, the latest holiday event from Blizzard proved to be considerably less...eventful than the rest. In fact, aside
from a few scattered eggs about Ellwyn Forest, I didn't even really notice an even going on at all.
Then
again, I wasn't lucky enough to find one of these little guys...a real live Easter Bunny! Ok, it's not real or live,
but it's still pretty cool. But still, my question stands...why aren't they called Noblegarden Bunnies?
Have you
noticed the way holidays in Azeroth seem to strangely coincide with holidays in the real world? Noblegarden shows up on Easter,
Hallow's End on Halloween, the Feast of Winter Veil on Christmas, and the Lunar Festival on the Chinese New Year.
Sure, CM Caydiem would always come up with fascinating reasons why each of these holidays fit properly in to Azeroth's
lore, but doesn't it break down the immersiveness of an alternate reality when you see someone who looks suspiciously
like Santa Claus sitting in the middle of Ironforge? I enjoy the change of pace provided by Azeroth's holidays as
much as anyone else, but I do wonder whether Azeroth has any of its own holidays. So what's your take on Azeroth's
holiday schedule - love it or hate it?
If real-life chocolate eggs
aren't enough for you, you'll be able to find some in Azeroth on Sunday thanks to the feast of Noblegarden. Themed as
"bringing communities together", there will be an egg hunt across the major cities with festival attire and
goodies to find.
Of course, the regular world events are still going on: the
Darkmoon Faire is in Elwynn until Sunday (if you haven't been lately, mini tank races are a fun minigame), the
Gurubashi Arena Booty Run goes on daily and there should also be the weekly Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza this
Sunday. It's also an Alterac Valley "Call to Arms" weekend; more reasons to log in this Easter!
Sunday Morning Funnies has quite the line-up this week, with even more on the horizon for next week. As always, don't forget to leave a tip about a WoW-themed comic you know!
Blizzard has previously told us that 
The quality of the various ingame events seems to vary a lot. Some cause a lot of excitement and make their presence
well known by infiltrating the capital cities -- Greatfather Winter and the Lunar festivities (a well known Azerothian
rock band) are examples. However, some tend to just quietly happen, without barkers or much fanfare at all.
Well, the latest holiday event from Blizzard proved to be considerably less...eventful than the rest. In fact, aside
from a few scattered eggs about Ellwyn Forest, I didn't even really notice an even going on at all.
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