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Posts with tag tribute

Breakfast Topic: Real Azrothean Heroes

Alex Ziebart and Elizabeth Wachowski do an excellent job of filling us in on the stories behind our World of Warcraft adventures in the regular Know Your Lore columns. I had very little experience with the real time strategy games that led to our beloved MMORPG. I find that learning the lore gives a bit more meaning to my level grinding.

As I've leveled up I've come across some really interesting NPCs, some more famous than others. I'd like to take some time to look at some of the lesser known heroes of Azeroth. Caregiver Inaara has to be the hardest working character in the game. Stationed as the Innkeper of Sun's Reach Harbor on the Isle of Quel'Danas. Reportedly an excellent companion, Inaara serves up cold brews to thousands of thirsty characters, tired from endless daily quests. Even as a newcomer to Azeroth, we know little about this blue beauty, except that she is a surviver and serves her patrons with an unflinching smile.

Sure there are famous folks like Jaina Proudmoore and Rexxar, but let's take some time to salute the little people. Who's you're hero?

Dungeon depth in the past, present and future

The other day, Kromzul of Burning Blade posted a thread in the official Wrath of the Lich King forum about dungeon design. He asks if instances will be deeper than those in the Burning Crusade, and I agree with most of what he says. Essentially, the epic, sprawling dungeon crawls of old have gone extinct with BC.

Bornakk
chimes in to say that The Burning Crusade dungeon design was heavily influenced by player feedback, wishing for more Scarlet Monastery-esque dungeons. I can see that, and to an extent, I agree with that, too. Scarlet Monastery, while shorter and more linear, was also pretty cool.

Personally, I don't think that it really comes down to one or the other. Take Dire Maul, for instance. Each wing could be tackled in a straightforward, linear fashion. However, each of them also had alternative routes, and some of them even had alternative ways of defeating them. For example, Tribute Runs in Dire Maul: North. Plus, they were even connected via the library. If you really want to, you could go from one wing to the other without any loading screen.

Continue reading Dungeon depth in the past, present and future

Blizzplanet corners Walter Simonson on the comic

Blizzplanet has posted an interview with Walter Simonson, and is it me, or is it time to stop poking around for information on the new comic? Just let the nice people write and draw the thing already!

Simonson doesn't actually confirm the non-secret secret that Varian Wrynn is the amnesiac starring in the comic, but that doesn't keep Blizzplanet from prodding and poking everything they possibly can out of him. He says the comic will be set in the present, but when they nerd it up with some more lore, he admits it'll actually take place before the Burning Crusade. Simonson tries to drop a hint that the hero will end up in Orgrimmar, but then he's eventually exasperated enough to reveal that Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff and the Pools of Vision, Ashenvale, Darnassus, and the Eastern Kingdom will all make appearances inside the comic. And while Blizzplant has heard rumors that Dire Maul will be featured in the comic, they eventually get Simonson to tell them that "we're going to witness an event involving ogres (and others) that occurs regularly in a hitherto underutilized part of Dire Maul." And that sounds, of course, like a Tribute Run.

I can see how, if you're a big fan of the comic already, learning stuff like this might be fun and interesting. But at some point, you've just got to leave Simonson alone and read the comic for yourself. Enough interviews, enough hinting, enough speculation. Just let him write it so we can read it already!


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