Blizzard has posted that the commercial for the Toyota truck that used WoW as a setting has won a People's Choice Webby award for online commercial. It was beaten out for the actual award by those Mac vs. PC online ads that spanned across some of the most popular websites online, but in the voting, the people decided that "I am the lawgivaaa!" was a little more exciting and creative. And as big a fan as I am of John Hodgman (and I am a big fan), I have to agree.
So rack up another award for using Blizzard's game in television media. Personally, I'm waiting until the networks figure out that they need to set a sitcom in Azeroth -- can't wait to see "The Thunderhorns," coming to NBC this fall.
It looks like everything went okay with the server hamsters this morning as the servers are back up and running smoothly. In fact, it appears that all the servers are up right now. This is an oddity since usually there are at least one or two battlegroups that are down longer than the rest.
Usually Blizzard is pretty definitive when they take something down. However today they've decided to take down the PTR (Public Test Realm) in the morning, and then put it back up early tonight. I'm reminded of a recent Simpsons episode I watched where Homer is sitting in his hospital bed awaiting a heart bypass surgery and goes "Bed goes up, bed goes down. Bed goes up, bed goes down." PTR goes down, PTR goes up.
All of these announcements come from the same person, Hortus, so it's not an issue of him being confused or anything (unless the whirly jig in his head has gotten to him). Hortus does tell us that they've put it up for "some additional testing," which really isn't a surprise given it's a test realm.
This probably means that patch 2.4.2 won't go live tomorrow if there is maintenance. Once we know more we'll post and keep you updated.
The realms are starting to trickle online now. Eldre'Thalas is up, and I'm sitting online enjoying a long ride up to Ghostlands to get to the Sunwell Plateau. You'll find a long list of other realms online if you log into the game now. Hopefully one of them will be yours. But if not, don't worry. Blizzard has said they'll be finishing things up by 12:30 p.m. PDT, and it looks like they're set to make that target.
Expect things to be bumpy for the next few hours, and then hopefully smooth sailing tonight. If a large amount of realms do go offline, or if everything has to be taken down for additional fixes, we'll have it covered here on WoW Insider.
The Houston Chronicle has a short piece up about what they call WoW's two competitors: Lord of the Rings Online and Guild Wars. Interesting choices -- LotRO is, obviously, an MMO based on Tolkien's famous books, and Guild Wars is actually not an MMO in the traditional sense at all -- there's no monthly fee, and the whole thing works a lot more like Battle.net does, where you can play a hero both in a solo game and in an online environment (not surprising, considering the developers used to work for Blizzard).
While bothgames are reviewed well, neither of them quite matches up to our favorite game. But as I'm sure lots of you know (I'm guessing that most of you have played either one or both-- I've only played Guild Wars), each game does have some elements that could give WoW a run for its money. Most interesting, LotRO is planning to put player housing in a future patch, and Guild Wars, on its latest product page, advertises "no loot stealing, spawn camping, and endless travel."
So while these aren't really "competitors" in the grander sense of player numbers (I'd say WoW's biggest competitor this holiday season might actually be Halo 3), they are definitely biting at WoW's heels in terms of features, and specifically targeting WoW's players with promises of what we've wanted for a long time. Other game companies are clearly getting better at figuring out how to attract the audience that World of Warcraft did, so it seems Blizzard's biggest challenge, from patch 2.2 to Wrath of the Lich King, will be to try and stay ahead of the curve of newer games and their new features.
Oh Illidan and Kael'thas, you two are so silly. The folks behind Azerothian Supervillians put together a fun little trailer for Xfire featuring two of Azeroth's most heinous masterminds.
But what they're planning is what we're doing-- covering every single second of BlizzCon. WoW Insider has teamed up with Xfire (yes, the use of "teamed up" was intentional there) to cover Blizzard's big event like it's never been covered before. If you haven't checked out Xfire's main BlizzCon page yet, here it is. And if you haven't gotten an Xfire account yet, do that too (it's easy and free), because on Thursday (tomorrow) at 4pm Pacific, WoW Insider bloggers (including myself) will be chatting live on Xfire. You'll have the chance to ask us about our official predictions for the show, check in with what we think of Anaheim so far, and tell us exactly, in chat-room person, what you think should be covered at BlizzCon.
Get on Xfire and get online (put the account "blizzcon2007" on your friends list) tomorrow, Thursday August 2nd at 4pm Pacific to chat live with WoW Insider from Anaheim. And of course, stay tuned all weekend for great BlizzCon open-to-close coverage, courtesty of Xfire and WoW Insider.
Playing with friends is probably the most fun you can have in WoW-- while it's fun to solo, a good group is where it's at, and there's no better group then playing with people you know. Unfortunately, because even people who have a lot in common hardly ever level at the same rate, level differences grow quicker than expected, and pretty soon it's just not possible to play with friends without someone wasting their time.
Until friendship shows up anyway. Lev over at WoW Ladies writes about an interesting duo she made with another player-- after joining up for a quest in Winterspring, they've rolled 10 levels together, and even played on their alts. And the weirdest thing is, she's 22 and he's 14, so you don't think they'd have a lot in common, but she says they play together great (she has a younger brother, and she compares their relationship to that). In the comments, someone about her age confesses to being grouping buddies with an 80-year-old person, and someone else tells a story of leveling up 40 levels with someone they met in game.
Makes me kind of jealous, actually-- I've played a long time with the same people at 60 (and now 70), but leveling, I was never at the right rhythm to really grow with anyone else, either in common or otherwise. On my very first character, I played a night elf hunter (duh), and got some help from a night elf priest on how to start playing the game. I still have that guy on my friends list on that realm, and still see him play online, but he outstripped me in terms of levels a long, long time ago (he's 70, and my hunter is stuck in the late 50s). Now, it'd be nice to somehow technically be always able to play with friends (you could have instances that averaged your levels, or just play with premades, which is what I think Guild Wars does), but I think that's just one of the drawbacks of having a leveling system-- unless you only play those characters together, someone will always fall ahead or drop back.
Rejoice! Now we North American types can also upgrade and download the Burning Crusade! I was heading over to www.worldofwarcraft.com just now and was hit with the following message:
You can now buy account upgrade keys and download the game client for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade directly through the account management section of www.worldofwarcraft.com. With this new direct online upgrade method, you don't even need to leave your desk if you decide to upgrade to The Burning Crusade and join more than two million players who are already adventuring beyond the Dark Portal.
I was chatting with Elizabeth Harper about why they might choose to offer direct download now, and not at launch. Here's what I came up with:
Offering direct download at launch might irritate retailers.
Offering it now might get a few people to buy who weren't motivated enough to go out to the store.
It probably costs them relatively little to do this.
What do you guys think? Was it a sensible business move to wait until now for this? And how many of you are going to buy, now that you can do it without moving more than five or six muscles?
The official Blizzard World of Warcraft site has a new look today, as they have finally switched over to their new template, as they announced earlier. The new design looks to be a huge improvement over the old one, but that's less a testimony to the designer's skills than to the fact that their previous website was simply one of the worst professional video game websites I've ever seen...
I guess it wasn't the design of it really, as much as the fact that the darn thing just never seemed to work. It seems (on my end, anyway) like every time the game servers have any trouble, the website goes down as well...which is the first place most people are going to go if the game servers are down. Oh well, let's hope the new website is more reliable.
Because I just can't get enough of this subject, the Dallas Morning News has an article online today about the by-now-familiar subject of online gaming addiction. Remember the article we linked to a few weeks back about the Amsterdam Clinic that had opened a program for gaming addicts? Well, they're not the only mental health professionals who are addressing the problem. This article contains quotes from several other workers in the field who claim that the number of instances of 'technology addiction' (the catch-all umbrella that gaming addiction apparently falls under) is on the rise, with no end in sight. Dr. John O'Neil of Houston sums things up with a telling quote:
"In a way, the Internet is like Las Vegas," he said. It offers anything you want; it seems like the perfect place to cut loose for anonymous fun; and it's open 24 hours a day."
My opinion on the subject is the same as it's always been: anything can be harmful if one becomes too deeply involved in it, and there are many other factets of the internet that can be just as all-consuming to the easily-addicted: chat rooms, online gambling, and, of course our old friend pornography are all things that can cause disruption in one's life if they are indulged in to excess. Of course, people have been addicted to sex & gambling for centuries; this whole video game thing is still pretty much uncharted territory. Maybe that's why I find this stuff so fascinating...or maybe I just like to read about people who make me look less addicted...
No...not me; I know why I'm addicted...'cus it's a flippin' sweet game. And because I've been an avid RPG'er all my life, and WoW is simply the logical progression of that. No, the person asking that question is in fact the author of this article over at flickrgaming, a relative WoW 'noob' (sorry for using the 'n' word) who has found themselves hopelessly addicted to the game we all know & love.
The atricle gives some insight into just what the appeal of WoW is to a casual gamer, comparing the learning curve & playing experience to the much more demanding world of online RTS's (real-time strategy games) to illustrate just how impressive a job Blizzard has done in making it's flagship product accessible to not only the 40+ hour per week raiding guild member, but the relative newcomer to the genre as well. It's an interesting & well-thought out read; check it out at this link, and let us know just what it is that keeps YOU addicted to WoW....
For those of you who, like me, are still waiting patiently for your realm to come back online after today's patch, you might want to take a gander at the things that have changed with version 1.11.
IGN has posted the patch notes on their site, and it looks like, as usual, every class recieved at least a little bit of tweaking. The biggest news for me, though, might just be the fact that the stacking numbers of certain items have been increased, so I can now carry stacks of 20 leather (among other things) around instead of 10! That's huge news for the slot-impaired, like myself.
Anything in the notes you weren't expecting? Anything you found shocking? Chime in....
With over six million gamers playing World of Warcraft, you wouldn't think there would be too awful many gamers left over to play anything else....and the gaming industry apparently thinks so, too.
As reported over on Gamespot today, at a recent breakfast event for investors, game developer THQ's president & CEO Brian Farrell was asked why none of the major publishers are trying to crack the stranglehold Blizzard has on the online gaming market. Farrell's response was, basically, that there simply may not be enough room on the block for another contender. In his words:
"I think what you will not [Farrell's emphasis] see THQ do is come out with another fantasy-type game. The other thing we're thinking is these things tend to have a window. Right now that product is World of Warcraft, so the idea would be to time something for when that product is going to be on its downward slope. To come out with something competitive now I think would be misguided for anyone, including THQ."
So, basically, the big strategy now is for the other game companies to just take their ball & go home? Wait until Blizzard is laying bloody on the battlefield? I can see what they're thinking from a numbers standpoint, but have a little faith in your own industry, people. There are untold scores of great online game ideas, just ripe for the developing (do I even have to mention my lifelong dream of a western MMO again?). Fantasy has been done; stop looking to the past & sideways at the competition and innovate, dammit! The next big MMO idea is out there somewhere....
As Elizabeth reported earlier, the rumor about Spielberg directing the new Warcraft film flew across my desk yesterday, but I hesitated to report it, as I was convinced that it couldn't possibly be true. And after seeing this article today on Gamespot, it appears that, for the 134th time this week, I was right.
Since the news first hit, debate has raged as to the plausibity of such a rumor, with some fans claiming Spielberg to be an avid fantasy fan who would be a perfect match for the project, and others claiming that he wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Well, as of this morning, it looks like no pole will be needed, as nothing in today's Variety (the reputed source of the news) mentions the WoW film or makes any mention of Spielberg's involvement, and if it was happening, it would very likely be in there. So, it's looks like this one is more kindling for the rumor pile. Personally, I'm still crossing my fingers for John (Conan) Milius's Warcraft: The Motion Picture, but that may be too much to hope for.
White Wolf Games, makers of the WoW pen & paper RPG, have made a new adventure module available for download from their website. 'Bones of Ironforge' is said to serve as an introductory adventure into the WoW RPG world, although I assume players already familiar with the game could still enjoy it.
If you're interested in diving deeper into the WoW RPG, White Wolf is also holding a Week of Warcraft special event beginning on June 14 through June 21st; you can read more details at the official White Wolf WoW page.
It looks like everything went okay with the 
Usually 
Playing with friends is probably the most fun you can have in WoW-- while 
Rejoice! Now we North American types can also upgrade and download the Burning Crusade! I was heading over to 
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