Christmas WoW Videos

One last Christmas video, short and sweet.

Crafting Worlds: 1:01


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Christmas Videos: Musicals

Baby It's Cold Outside by Windspire 2:30:


Hark! Hear the Wails by Oxhorn: 2:20


It Looks like Christmas: 3:58

Christmas Videos: 12 Days

12 Days of Winterveil by Oxhorn: 5:12


Bob & Doug's 12 Days of Christmas: 3:22


12 Pains of Christmas: 3:40

Christmas Videos: Ode to TV

Heat Miser: 2:53 (1:55 plus 1 minute of Credits)


Snow Miser: 1:31


Grinch: 3:43 (Murlocs killed at 2:40 - cause that's what's really important)


Kidnap Sandy Claws: 3:55

Christmas Videos: Ode to the Chipmunks

Podsafe Christmas Songs by Spiffworld:


Cute & Simple version of the Chipmunk's Christmas Song: 2:42

Christmas Videos: Chiron Beta Prime

In celebration of the Christmas Season, I'd like to kick off a series of posts of World of Warcraft videos with Christmas, Winterveil or Holiday themes.

I'm glad I waited until December 1st to do it because Spiffworld was kind enough to post a new video today with music from Jonathan Coulton.

Chiron Beta Prime
By Spiffworld: 3:33


By zeedoos: 4:00


And if you're in the mood for one more - here's a Chiron Beta Prime video that's unrelated to WoW.

WoW Commercial Videos v2

Bravo to Blizzplanet. They found the William Shatner World of Warcraft Commercial I was looking for as well as a Mr. T Commercial I hadn't seen.

Here's the link: Blizzplanet...

... and here are the commercials:

William Shatner: 0:33


Mr. T: 0:33


Updated 11/27/07 with new youtube links.

WoW Commercial Videos v1

I just had the craziest dream ... there was a new World of Warcraft commercial. And, get this, William Shatner was in it. Heheh, ... how crazy is that?

Anyway, why don't we take a look at a few of the WoW commercials and commercial parodies out there. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

Office Space: 0:32


WoW Coke #1: 0:43


WoW Coke #2: 0:47 (because apparently the Coke in the first commercial wasn't Soulbound):

More about the iCoke Event in China

Valentine's Day Commercial: 0:52

iWoW Chicky: 0:39


It's Good enough for Spidey: 0:39


X-Play's World of Warcraft Libido Commercial: 1:20


Ironforge Bank Identity Theft: 0:52 (30 seconds then credits)
#1:


#2:


Toyota Tacoma: 0:29


Converse: 2:07

World of Warcraft Television Appearances

I've been seeing World of Warcraft popping up as a "guest star" in several television series lately. (Perhaps it needs an "episode list" on imdb.)

WoW Insider recently posted about a reference on Judge Judy. And we all remember the "Make Love not Warcraft" episode of South Park.

Now this Fall's television season has added two more shows to the growing cache of WoW television exposure. Perhaps a long writer's strike won't just send viewers to their PCs to play WoW, but the writers as well. When they come back we may see this list grow.

How I Met Your Mother (Season 3, Episode 5):


Big Bang Theory:
#1 - (at 0:31)


#2 - 1:41

(Updated 11/20/07 to fix sound alignment.)


Older Appearances:

Stargate Atlantis:
#1 - 1:26


#2 - 0:48


Jeopardy: 0:14

3 Years and No Veteran Rewards in WoW

Happy 3rd Anniversary World of Warcraft!

World of Warcraft was first launched on 11/23/2004. As we approach this third anniversary, I find it curious WoW hasn't implemented a Veteran's Reward Program yet.


What is a Veteran Reward?
It's a unique item or privilege that a game gives its players after paying ("actively subscribing") for x number of months (3, 7, 12, 24, 36, etc..) of game time. Not to be confused with:

• Items with "veteran" in the name
• Rewards associated with Honor Points and Battleground Tokens or
• Reputation rewards

... because a "Veteran Reward" is simply a thank you to players without regard to level, xp, reputation, accomplishments, etc...

All players have their own ticking clock based on when they started. Although obviously large groups of people will hit milestones (and gifts) at the same time (e.g. a group who started when the game launched in their country).

Veteran Rewards in World of Warcraft
For some reason World of Warcraft hasn't embraced this concept, even though it might add to the consideration of some players who have left WoW but are thinking of coming back. (ahem)

Although to be fair, during holiday events WoW offers one or more free and fun items with at least something for every level. I haven't seen that in many other MMOs, and to the extent that another MMO may have free items at a holiday event, I would venture that they were inspired by World of Warcraft.

Now if only World of Warcraft would be similarly inspired regarding Veterans Rewards.

Blizzard's comments so far (that I've found):

• In November of 2006 someone on the EU forums suggested veterans rewards. There was no Blizzard response until another poster suggested a pet cat that got fatter with each year's subscription. A blizzard poster responded with: Hehe, a fat cat would be cute ;). This was telling only in that it was a complete waste of blue ink.
  
• Then In September 2007 Drysc commented that:

  It's something we've talked about, to be sure, but we have no plans at the current time to implement any such [Veteran] rewards.

Examples of Veteran Reward Gifts in other MMOS:

• Tabula Rasa's 1-Month Emotes (They're getting started early.)
• City of Heroes Wings (See more in video below)
• Star Wars Galaxies Deeds (and the plethora of other items) Also includes sample "Anniversary Awards" for anyone who is playing at the time of an anniversary.
• Ultima Online
• EQ2 Potions, etc.

This City of Heroes video highlights some of the first gifts available in their Veteran Rewards Program:


And if you find yourself laughing ... "Bah! World of Warcraft players wouldn't care about stupid kilts, even if they're free." - then I have just this to say to you...

... Turtle Mount...

...hundreds of dollars on eBay.

Subscriber Growth 2007

I just updated my old table of Subscriber Press Releases to reflect the changes since I posted it in 2006. But I wanted to see it graphically, so here's the result:

It has its faults but it provides a rough idea of the growth. The Press Releases are timed based on other events so the mention of the number of subscribers is likely rounded down and several months old at the time of the release.

Is it too soon to say that this product is in its maturity phase?

For more charts showing subscriber levels - check out the continuously updated charts at mmogdata.voig.com. In particular you might want to see their chart that tracks all MMOs with over 300,000 subscribers.

Mouselook and World of Warcraft

Are you considering playing World of Warcraft but aren't sure if it uses mouselook? The good news is that it doesn't. There is a button you can hold to turn mouselook on and there are third party mods to improve on it (aka lock it), but the default is a nice third person perspective.

As a side note, the camera is so flexible I've been able to take every picture in this blog myself. Including pictures:

From Behind:	From the Front:
Even From the Side:

My Mouselook-in-Hellgate-London Experience:
I'm one of those unfortunate people who gets sick after playing games with Mouselook. I would blame a bad habit of whipping my mouse around too fast but even when I reign that in, it's still a problem. Too bad for me, First Person Shooters (FPS) thrive on it. I might still be dabbling with the likes of Star Wars Battlefront if it weren't for that problem.

Being in the market for a new MMO, I decided to give Hellgate London a try. Many of the Diablo group founded the company so that was promising. My research showed that they wanted to mix FPS and MMO into one game and they offered both first and third person perspectives. So I placed my pre-order on Amazon and signed up for Hellgate's Beta.

Long story short - I canceled my order. Unfortunately you can't get around the mouselook (there's no option to turn it off) and the third person perspective was simply the ability to zoom out and see your character from behind.

The cynic in me mused that they thought adding "vanity cam" (a button that allowed you to see yourself from the front) was what they thought MMO players wanted. That was the only thing besides WASD that felt familiar. I also notice they don't advertise the third person perspective as a choice anymore.

Lest I speak too poorly of the game, I should say how thankful I am for the opportunity to have tried it in Beta before having to commit to the purchase. That worked out well. For those considering it now, you can buy the game and play it without a a monthly fee, then later decide whether or not to participate in the subscription-based content (read more in this Hellgate London Q&A).

Appreciating WoW More:
Also, trying one more MMO made me appreciate yet again how easy WoW is to learn from scratch (apart from say someone who is unfamiliar with a mouse). And those cartoony looking avatars that almost stopped us from switching to World of Warcraft three years ago are now my "norm." I have to really look past that when I am so smartly picking up a game to judge it by its cover (or youtube gameplay footage).

Future Game Purchases:
Lucky for me, Tobold experiences the same mouselook issues and has even found a little background to explain it in his post: Mouselook and video game motion sickness.

He also mentions this type of interface in his reviews so that should be helpful to those of us who must now be wary of it in MMO games. In his early Tabula Rasa Review, for example, he mentions the forced mouselook interface. Interestingly, since then the Tabula Rasa folks have added a patch to allow for a more traditional MMO perspective. I hope that trend develops.

Now if I could just find an MMORPG comparison table like this that also shows the mouselook-perspective (and the Economy) I'd be set.

Ghosts of the Lordaeron Video

Happy Halloween!

For some spooky fun check out these previous posts:

The Ruins of Lordaeron video or

The Haunted Children of Goldshire post.

Today, here's some more information about the Lordaeron video.


You may notice:

• On the way IN - there are (apparently) no ghosts in the courtyard
• But on the way OUT - the ghosts show up

What's with the ghosts?

• Who are they? - They're Citizens of Lordaeron.
• Why are they there? - Check out this Warcraft III Footage in which Arthas must kill the Citizens of Lordaeron. They had contracted a plague that would turn them into servants of Mal'Ganis. Arthas killed them before Mal'Ganis could to prevent this.
• How can you see them? - Find a friendly neighborhood Warlock to cast "Detect Invisibility" on you. Voila. They they are.

I didn't have a Horde Warlock of a level high enough to "Detect Invisibility" so I had to ask around for one. It took a while to get someone to do it.

The discussion in General Chat was pretty much like this:

"Is there a Warlock in Undercity who could cast Detect Invisibility on me?"
... silence ...
Then I waited few minutes to ensure I wasn't becoming a spammer...
"Are there any Warlocks in Undercity willing to cast Detect Invisibility on me?"
... silence ...

It took a while.

Every once in a while someone would tell me to do a /who warlock, but I hate when people do that to me. As a priest I would get cold "tells" all the time and I hated them.

Eventually I got a response:

"Why?"

I explained it was to see the Ghosts in the Lordaeron courtyard and I was summarily laughed at.

After an amount of time I'm not willing to admit to trying my requests in "General" chat, I finally remembered my Cialdini (people will more likely respond when asked individually rather than when asked as a part of a group). So I walked around Undercity until I found a Warlock that looked like I wasn't bothering. Sure enough, he was happy to give me the buff I needed.

Brewfest Resources

The new Brewfest holiday runs from October 2-16.

Blizzard's Video: 1:12 (Also: find the same Brewfest video here)


Find Info at:

• Mortal Ken
• WoWWiki
• Official Page
• Girl Meets WoW
• WoWInsider

A video of the Beer Goggles (Alliance): 0:24

Harvest Festival - 2007

If you're looking for Harvest Festival resources you may want to check out these links (listed in order of relative usefulness):

Mortal Ken's Harvest Festival Page

The Harvest Festival data we posted last year (The "preliminary" data turned out to be accurate.)

WoWWiki's Harvest Festival Page

WoW's Official Harvest Festival page

I thought they smelled bad on the outside...

Whatever with your Murloc Suits and your beta keys...

I can make a murloc suit:

Slightly slimey. Definitely smelly. Took a lot of looting.
Major difference from the official Blizzcon suit is no flag. And no dance:

Murloc Suit - Blutentzug: 0:44


But I like mine because I found a "Murloc Larynx" while looting and decided to use it for the zipper. Now whenever I zip up the suit, it makes the Murloc call.

I try not to do that too much around the Murlocs though. Apparently it's like "aloha" with the multiple meanings...

On the occasion of 9/11

See /Salute Post

Make Love Not Warcraft - The DVD

You remember Make Love, Not Warcraft, right? Well now you can own it on DVD via the South Park Season 10 DVD, which includes a 14 day World of Warcraft Trial.

Target's Special Version:
I was at Target and noticed they have two versions:

Their special version has Lenticular packaging and a free episode of the Sarah Silverman show. You are also eligible for a $5 gift card at check out.

This pic shows the alternate image on the special packaging:


For more coverage of the South Park and WoW - WoW Insider has a good collection of posts tagged "South Park."

From Amazon:

Burning Crusade Flash Mini Site

Bored? Feel like a game of "memory," WoW style?

In the category of old news, I'd like to mention The Burning Crusade Flash Mini-Site. I was trolling around for information on the next expansion and saw this link from the last one, but somehow had never visited it.

Once you're past the intro video, you can navigate to different areas of the site (there's 5) using the orbs in the lower right hand corner. Each section gives you an overview of what the Burning Crusade Expansion offered ... but the interesting thing is that there are tiny little quest givers in each section:



For a quick diversion, click on each NPC you find and complete the puzzles (a simple game, different for each section, each one takes less than a minute).

Your reward for completing all five? A few wallpapers and the ability to play the theme music from Silvermoon. Not a big deal, but a fun way to spend five minutes if you're ever waiting for maintenance time to run out.

The Lich King and the Alpha Map

Last week I posted pictures of each of the world maps showing the changes with each expansion. (By the way, the source for the Wrath of the Lich King Map is the Artwork on the Official Expansion Website.)

Then keen eyes at WoWInsider noticed changes to the continents. (Check out their post to see the outlined comparison.) Next, a few other sites around the world picked up the link and little ol' CasualWoW was visited by thousands of readers who wanted to see the map comparison.

But some astute responses to those links recognized that the differences resembled the old Alpha Map of WoW. (Examples in the Insider comments.)

So, let's see how those maps compare (please ignore the color change in the Burning Crusade iteration, that's due to my system):

The Eastern Kingdoms:

Kalimdor:

The end result indicates that those readers were right. The Wrath of the Lich King map is a modification of the Alpha map and not the Burning Crusade map. (I would particularly note the penciled in mountain ridges.)

So is it just the result of sloppy map making... the old copy/paste mistake? Or could it actually be insight into future content? I think it's a both. Here's why:

It's a mistake:

I haven't read a single Wrath of the Lich King Preview that mentions any new areas except within Northrend.

If it's related to new content, all the edits should be adds. However, there are two Kalimdor bumps that are missing (~Silithus & ~Stonetalon areas).

One commenter on the WoW Insider post identified the two islands by Stranglethorn Vale as joke islands - one named "Gillijim's Isle."

Blizzard does not give a lot of attention to keeping maps up to date.
Examples:
Even today if you visit the official World of Warcraft website to see map information you'll see the old map.

And I mean the old old map. It's the Alpha Map the commenters pointed out in the WoW Insider post comments.... still on the official website. Take a look:

Similarly, 7 months after the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, the official worldofwarcraft.com flash map site still says, "This map hasn't been updated for the Burning Crusade. We hope to update it soon."
So I feel confident in saying that keeping-up-to-date-maps has not been a Blizzard priority.

"Hey, intern-in-charge-of-map-making..."
"Yes, sir, Mr. senior Blizzard employee?"
"After you make the Lich King map just go ahead and load that baby onto the website."
"Don't you want to check it first? I mean it's the same map they're going to use at Blizzcon?"
"No, no, young intern, I'm sure it's fine as long as it has the new areas from the Burning Crusade and the Lich King expansions. No quality checking needed. If anybody has a problem, we'll just call it an 'artist's rendition.'"

Copy/Paste issue aside, it may still relate to unreleased content:
... just much later than Lich King.

If this were Lich King content the conversation would have gone like this:

"Hey intern-in-charge-of-map-making..."
"Yes, sir, Mr. senior Blizzard employee?"
"When you make the Lich King map, save yourself some time by updating the Alpha map instead of the Burning Crusade map. Then you won't have to add back in all those pesky new islands and shorelines, which we totally intend on releasing on or before the Lich King expansion."

Unlikely, but some of those Alpha Map features do look like they're part of the lore, particularly the islands.

Blizzplanet discusses the Islands on the map using information they learned from Warcraft Role Playing books like Warcraft Lands Of Mystery.

Another BlizzPlanet post has a screencaptured map from the behind the scenes DVD:

The World of Warcraft Collector's Edition Behind the Scenes DVD shows within the Art and Design section, a series of slideshows while the Developers talked about their work.

And in one screen shot?.... a map. Check out their post to see it. Note - There are significant areas in their map (aka Undermine) that will likely show up in much later expansions. However, you do see some less significant areas, such as the small islands off of Stranglethorn Vale that might show up in future content, as Northrend apparently will.

For a map that shows these smaller islands in more detail check out wowwiki's South Seas map; just make sure you compare it to the the map of the joke islands.

Machinima Guides

I've been visiting the home websites of some of my favorite World of Warcraft movie makers and found a surprising number of hints, tips and guides. I've collected a few here:

By Oxhorn:

• The Basics of Making WoW Machinima
• Tips on Making a Good Movie
• Oxhorn's Blog - Chewing the Cud

From Spiffworld:

• How I Make My Videos and Tips For Video Makers
• Spiffworld's Brand New Blog

From Myndflame:

• Sound & Video Editing Forum
• Myndflame Interview on Machinima.com
• The Myndflame Homepage

Stone Falcon Productions:

• Tips and Tutorials Forum
• Stone Falcon Productions' Blog

More:

• IGN Beginner's Guide
• South Park Episode Making-of Interview (link via Crafting Worlds)

Some Epic Inspiration:


And for Ambiance:


Update 9/8/2007:

WoWInsider's Machinima 101: The basics

Blizzard's Letter to the Machinimators of the World of Warcraft
Source: machinimafordummies.com (the blog for the book of the same name) via wowinsider

Update 9/1/2008:

WoWInsider's WoW Machinima: The basics

I'll Give You Every Reason to Quit World of Warcraft

If/when you decide to cancel your World of Warcraft subscription you'll be given the opportunity to tell Blizzard why.

First - You'll be asked the general category:



Then, based on your answer at the first level - they'll ask you to be more specific. These were the options given when I cancelled my subscription last month. They are listed here in the same order they appeared then.

General Category - Content:

• PVP - Not enough content
• Players level too slow
• Difficulty - Too easy
• Tired of game/game is boring
• Not enough single player content
• Difficulty - Too hard
• Economy - Broken or not handled correctly
• Game is too crowded/too many people
• Not enough high end content
• The Alliance is not developed
• Not enough role-playing content
• Not enough item diversity
• It takes too long to travel
• Not enough group content
• Not enough creatures to kill
• Players level too quickly
• Not enough raid content
• Not enough quests
• The Horde is not developed
• Professions - Unhappy with implementation
• PVP - Insufficient rewards
• Not enough character customization
• Not enough spells/class
• Unexpected Genre

General Category - Expansion:

• Class Change - Warlock
• Class Change - Warrior
• Shaman/Paladin faction update
• Class Change - Druid
• Unable to access content without purchase
• Class Change - Hunter
• PVP - Diminished item value
• PVP - Ranking changes
• Class Change - Priest
• Class Change - Mage
• Class Change - Shaman
• Class Change - Paladin
• PVP - Arena system
• 25 Player raid cap

General Category - Harassment:

• Botters
• Unsolicited Gold Selling Messages
• Verbal harassment
• Creature Training/Kiting
• Creature Stealing/Killing
• Conflict with player/guild
• Corpse Camping

General Category - Other Game: (A truncated list is shown here)

• Ultima Online
• Guild Wars
• Vanguard
• Everquest
• Warhammer Online
• Other game not listed
• Lineage2
• Dungeons & Dragons Online
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
• Star Wars Galaxies
• Neverwinter Nights 2

General Category - Patch:

• Patch 2.1.0 - Engineering Changes
• Patch 2.1.0 - Alchemy Changes
• Patch 2.0.10 - Druid Changes

General Category - Payment:

• Too expensive
• Unable to access account
• I want to use game cards
• I no longer need a 2nd account
• Subscription plan unavailable
• Payment method unavailable
• Pay as you go plan unavailable

General Category - Poor Support:

• Issues with Community Team
• Lost experience, item(s), money, quest(s) progression
• Disagree with Terms of Use/License Agreement
• Issues with Technical Support
• Issues with Game Master Department
• Issues with Billing Department
• Issues with Account Administration
• Support method unavailable

General Category - Technical:

• Frequent disconnects
• Slow or Choppy game play
• Weekly Maintenance unacceptable
• Constant Patching Errors
• Blizzard Downloader
• Installation Problems
• No Computer
• No Internet Access/Dialup Internet Access
• Connection Problems (cannot connect at all)
• Server issues make the game unplayable
• Constant Game Crashes and other errors
• My Computer does not meet the minimum requirements

General Category - Transfer:

• Unable to circumvent cooldown
• Realm transfer unavailable due to realm restrictions
• Service is too expensive
• Missed free transfer window
• Account transfer unavailable due to differing names
• Unsatisfied with destination realm
• Transfer was unsuccessful

General Category - Other:

• Moving
• Personal Reasons
• Offline play not available
• Military Deployment
• Language version unavailable
• I don't have enough time to play anymore
• School
• I play too much
• Vacation
• All of my friends quit playing
• Parental Control

Now, I know Blizzard provides Statistics of Items and Beasts, but frankly, if I could see any set of data, it would be an aggregate of the Exit stats.

Either way, perhaps knowledge that we all get an opportunity to voice our opinion on the way out the door (however too-late that might be) will minimize all those "good bye cruel world" posts that I hear litter the forums.

Although there's something to be said for a little catharsis:

I Quit (28 seconds)

Video found via WoW Insider.

The WoW Human Test

So how does a Dranei pass "the human test?"

Typical:
You know the Human test - you're posting a comment to a blog ... maybe even this blog... but you're faced with a captcha which looks something like this:

The purpose of the captcha is to make sure that when you comment on a blog you're not a spam-bot program but instead a living, breathing humanoid (or in the case of the Undead - previously living and breathing). You have to type in whatever letters and/or numbers are skewed in the little picture or else it determines you're a program devoid of eyes with which to see the swirly word maelstrom.

By the way, according to these programs I've been identified as an electronic bot only slightly less often then Google has determined I should cut back on the caffeine to improve my typing:



Moving on...

WoW-Perfect:
Mystic Chicanery, however, has de-biased the "human" test in their blog.

Now, every WoW Race from Booty Bay to the Undercity has a shot at passing the test without having to worry about the need to keep up on "human" culture.

Some examples: (You would just have to do one, the others are for example only.)

There remains, however, the need for those pesky eyes... although a number of Elves seem to be making do with just some glowy sockets...

Anyway, bravo to Mystic Chicanery.
I hope you don't mind I was in your blog, screen-shotting your security words.

Looking for Group

I've been going through the ol' blogroll recently, cleaning up a little, and looking for new blogs to add...

In doing so, I found a great video highlighted in a post at Mystic Chicanery.


Please note, that the video below is NSFKids who might be sensitive to playful decapitation, face melting and puppy kicking. I'm not really kidding.

Seriously, I don't have kids, but I see them on TV. Parents should preview this before they share with the wee ones.

Looking For Group: Slaughter Your World: 4:09


For more about Looking for Group, consider these links:

• LFGComic.com - the Home page
• Their Post about the Video
• The LFG Store where you can order the comics
• Browse the comics online here

I'd love to see a greater selection of t-shirts in their store. The Wallpapers and Avatars are great, and I would so buy something like that on a (women's) t-shirt.

p.s. If you can't remember where you've heard that song from the video before... it's a parody of this.

The River of Slurm

We can tell ourselves all we want that the canals in the Undercity are filled with Ectoplasm or some such... but deep in our hearts we know what it really is...

It's Slurm...


You think I'm kidding, but go check out the Apothecarium to see the Slurm Queen yourself, hanging out around Ganoosh:


The Untold Story: Fry and the Slurm Factory

Video: New from Spiffworld and Coulton: Engineering

Brand new vid, with a hint of Engineering:
Future Soon: 4:17


And I don't think I posted this one before:
I Feel Fantastic: 3:28


Links::

• www.jonathancoulton.com/ (with more great music)
• www.spiffworld.com/ (with how-tos, tips and background info)
• All the Spiffworld videos via YouTube

Proposed Vendor Changes from Blizzcon

I do not like it, Sam I am,
I do not like this new Vendor Plan...

The Proposed Change:
In a quote at IGN:

Another will be made to items available from vendors, helping add to the overall game. Blizzard doesn't really enjoy the current system in place, where players can buy a batch of items and wait for the respawn to occur at a predetermined time and buy some more. What they're aiming to do is tweak things to where blue and purple recipes show up with a given vendor to add a surprise when the given item pops up. This is system is shooting to be totally random, so players cant really hang around the vendor or show up at a given time to buy a recipe, making it that much more difficult to camp and be the first to buy the item, but it's sounding like that there's a lot of potential for players to turn these rare items into a monopoly on the auction house, so we'll have to wait and see how Blizzard pulls this initiative off.

From WoW Insider's Professions and Items Live Blog:

Vendors: camping vendors for limited quantity items isn't fun. We're not going to really do that anymore.
Vendors are going to have this new awesome list of loot: blue loot, purple loot -- it will show up rarely but it is shared across all of them. So when you go to a vendor, there could just be some awesome item on there, just waiting to be bought.
It will be random enough so that you won't be able to guess. (applause)

The Vendor Game:
So why don't I like this change? For reasons such as these Commercial Breaks:

(* That joke still cracks me up.)

You see, I enjoyed conquering this part of the game through a different kind of skill: research. I would find special NPCs through something like Thottbot like this:

Select a Zone then click to find the "Vendors:"

Then one by one, check out each vendor to see if he/she had a "limited supply" of a good recipe and then, if it was a vendor I could get to safely (Frost Oil was always a pain), buy it for self or for resale:



There was already a certain degree of randomness to it because of the respawn time. (i.e. Once something with a limited supply ran out, you had to wait for it to respawn which could be hours or days, I never knew. The comments on Thottbot are filled with players who felt cheated when they got to the vendor and found he's out of stock.)

This Player's Experience:
I had a good time with this mini-game. Yes, I sold either the recipe or its progeny for a reasonable profit - that was the fun. I never really ran into players' camping a vendor, but then I wasn't really after much of the really hard to get stuff. So perhaps my experience wasn't representative. But I will still mourn a bit for this fond little part of the game if/when it goes.

Note to self - Next MMO - find a game where I can participate more in the economy.

Related Posts:

• The Mod that tells you what vendor sells a recipe just by hovering over it in the Auction House


• What happened to Bernard the Mixer, Vendor extraordinaire?


• My biggest sale ever - the Elixir of Brute Force obtained from hours of collecting sprouts in Un'goro.


• The Recipes I used to jump start my gold reserves

Inscription Quote Compilation

Note - For the more recent October 2008 Inscription post click here. Otherwise - the rest of this post will tell you what we knew about Inscription BEFORE it was released.

The following are a collection of quotes I've been able to collect regarding the new World of Warcraft Inscription Profession:

From the Expansion Press Release:

"Inscription" Profession: Learn this exciting new profession and gain unique ways to permanently enhance spells and abilities in the game.

From the Expansion FAQ:

What can you reveal about the new profession coming with the expansion?
The Inscription profession will allow players to permanently enhance their own spells and abilities and those of other players. You can think of it as enchanting for your spells and abilities. We'll provide more specific details on the mechanics of this new profession in the months ahead.

From the WoW Insider Liveblogging Post on Professions and Items:

Q: Will Inscriptions be like enchanting or have items for Ah? same with dying armor?
A: No plans to dying armor. Inscriptions will be items.

Q. Inscription system -- will switching to it mean having to do noob things to level up?
A: Inscription - haven't determined how it will work out. Been brainstorming how to make all professions easier to switch to for higher levels.

Examples:

From the WoW Insider Liveblogging Post on The Wrath of the Lich King Demo:

Inscription example: modify existing spells and abilities. Fireball, for instance, can inscribe it to perhaps have knockback or further damage.

From Kotaku's "More Details" Article:

Wrath of the Lich King will introduce a new profession called Inscription that will let players customize individual spells and abilities in their spell book -- to change the cooldown timer on a Fireball, for example, or alter the crit rate of a healing spell.

Update 8/7/07:
From: IGN.com:

With the announcement of the Inscription profession, there's still a lot of information left to be conveyed, so Blizzard shared a few tidbits with the audience. This new profession will allow for people to imbue a characters spells and abilities with an extra zing, almost acting as a single talent point for each of your abilities. Whether it's sinister strike, multishot or a frostbolt, you'll be able to tweak every last ability. Inscribers will also have a new ability that hasn't really been talked about before, allowing them to create completely new items. Though the panelists couldn't talk about it just yet, there will be a whole other side to inscription rather than just altering your spells and abilities. When it comes to inscribing abilities for other people, the inscriptions themselves will be scroll based, so players can put up an inscription scroll on the auction house, allowing others to buy and upgrade their arsenal at their leisure.

Update 9/28/07:
From: Page 3 of Games for Windows Wrath of the Lich King Article

New Profession: Inscription
Burning Crusade introduced Jewelcrafting, which allowed players to customize their gear; Wrath's new profession, Inscription, lets you customize the abilities and skills in your spellbook. "You're permanently changing your spell kit," says lead game designer Tom Chilton. "You might find a couple different recipes to inscribe your Fireball with increased crit chance, or increased damage, or faster cast time, or lower mana cost -- so it's almost like a talent system within the profession system. Only it's more based around choices you make for an individual spell rather than affecting your character as a whole." Unlike Enchanters, Inscribers will be able to sell physical product (creating tradeable "scrolls," for example, from ink, paper, and other reagents). Only a handful of core spells will be customizable in this fashion. Don't expect to extend the range of your Priest's Mind Vision; do expect to extend the duration of your Hunter's Freezing Trap.

Update 12/25/2007:
From WoWBlues - A response like many when forum posters ask for more information on inscription:

I know a lot of people are looking forward to hearing about this new profession, but we have no details to share right now. Building a whole profession from the group up takes a lot of work, especially so since this affects players' spells. A lot of changes and updates would need to occur for us to get it where we want it so until we have reached a point like that, we don't have anything else beyond the small amount of information we've shared so far.

Please continue to be patient and we will discuss information on this when they are ready.

Update 2/8/2008:
From computerandvideogames.com(via WoWInsider):

"The idea behind it is to give players even more specialisation options beyond the talent trees," explains Kaplan in a manner that would bamboozle the WOW-phobic to death." As a possible example, a mage could have their Frost Nova enhanced for either greater range or longer snare duration - our intention is to provide viable options rather than one 'best' Inscription for each modifiable spell or ability."

Keep these links in mind for future updated information:

WoWInsider's Posts labeled "Inscription"

The Official Wrath of the Lich King Home Page

Check out what Blue Posts in the forum use the word "inscription" at WoWBlues

Northrend "Easter" Egg

Personally I think Blizzard wanted us to find this little homage because the Artwork Page led me right to it.

Given the artwork of the Walrus creature and the Moai-like Statues they really led us to this mental image:

Then all it took was one jump to the Wikipedia Page on the Moai Statues to see this resemblance in the shape of the new continent in the Wrath of the Lich King Map to The Island of Rapa Nui, aka "Easter Island."

How Could I Not

Given the Lich King artwork included This Snowy Landscape...
... and quotes like:

Our goal is to not have an entire expansion that takes place in the snow.
Source: WoWInsider

... how could I not do this kind of Photoshopping:



'Cause darnit, I would play on Hoth!

Wrath of the Lich King Resources

Today at Blizzcon, Blizzard announced the Next World of Warcraft Expansion: "The Wrath of the Lich King."

The 10 second lowdown is as follows:

• No Release Date or Pricing Set
• No New Races
• Level Cap will be 80
• New Death Knight Hero Class
• New "Inscription" Profession
• New Northrend Continent

A little more info via an excerpt from Blizzard's Press Release:

• Death Knight Hero Class: Create a high-level Death Knight character -- the game's first hero class -- once certain challenges have been met.
• Increased Level Cap: Advance to level 80 and gain potent new talents and abilities along the way.
• Northrend: Explore the harsh new continent of Northrend, packed with new zones, quests, dungeons, monsters, and items -- and do battle with the undead armies of the Lich King.
• "Inscription" Profession: Learn this exciting new profession and gain unique ways to permanently enhance spells and abilities in the game.
• Siege Weapons and Destructible Buildings: Take the battle to another level with new player-vs.-player game mechanics and new battlefields to wage war on.
• New Character Customization: Change how characters look and express themselves, with different hairstyles and dance animations.

For more information you may want to visit the following links:

Official Wrath of the Lich King Website including the FAQ (some parts under construction)

WoWInsider's Wrath of the Lich King Posts (continuously being updated)

Very Nice Bulleted Summary from MMO-Champion

WoWWiki's Expansion Page

World of Warcraft Maps

The Original World of Warcraft Map:

The World of Warcraft Map after the Burning Crusade Expansion:


The World of Warcraft Map after the Wrath of the Lich King Expansion: