Hallow's End - Wickerman Festival

Outside of the Undercity (to the west side) is the Wickerman Festival. An NPC, Darkcaller Yanka, let's anyone who stops by know that the festival happens every night at 8:00 pm (according to your server).

At 8pm the Banshee Queen shows up (actually apparently Banshee-time is 2 minutes earlier than Server-time):


And she reminds everyone about the purpose of the Wickerman Festival: (She's met with many cheers of course.)


Here's more of the speech:

Children of the Night, heed your Queen's call!

I join you in celebration of this most revered of nights - the night we Forsaken broke the Scourge's yoke of oppression ! It is this night that our enemies fear us the most. It is THIS night that we show our enemies what it means to stand against the Forsaken!

Now is the time to shake the world to its foundations! NOW is the time to remind those who would enslave us that we shall never yield!

NOW is the time of the Forsaken! Power to the Forsaken - NOW AND FOREVER!!!

And then the effigy lights on fire. As he burns, piles of embers show up on the ground. If you open one you can "smear them on your face like warpaint" (nope, it doesn't show up on your character) and get a wicked Wickerman Buff. I caught the granting of the buff on screen here:



Your body does a really cool quickening kind of pose for a second there when you're zapped. The buff is called the Invocation of the Wickerman and it provides for Increased Health and Mana regeneration by 25% and Stamina by 25% for 2 hours.

The related alliance quest is to Crash the Wickerman Festival. (Beware thar 3 be Wickerman Guardians there.)

Hallow's End - Orphan Quest

One of the Hallow's End quests is an Orphan Quest.

Here's my cheat sheet:
(You'll need 2 open quest slots)

	Alliance	Horde
Phase 1 Get Starter Quest	Go to the Human Orphanage - Located in one of the free standing buildings in Cathedral Square in Stormwind.	Go to the Orc Orphanage - Located in the Valley of Honor in Orgrimmar. It's a building to the left of the mining trainer. (71,22)
	Starter Quest Link on Thottbot	Starter Quest Link on Thottbot
Phase 2 Pick up the Candy (No xp.)	Visit 3 different Inns. Get the quest from the Innkeeper and do the requested emote to get the candy.
	Stormwind (/flex for Nougat) Ironforge (/chicken for Mint) Darnassus (/dance for Marzipan)	Orgrimmar (/flex for Nougat) Undercity (/chicken for Mint) Thunderbluff (/dance for Marzipan)
	Find Talvash del Kissel (Mystic Ward of Ironforge 36,3) Get quest then do the /train emote for a gumdrop.	Find Kali Remik (Sen'jin Village Durotar 56,74) Get quest then do the /train emote for a gumdrop.
Phase 3 Take Candy to Orphan (1,650 xp+ 100 Faction and 30 Treats)	Return all 4 pieces of candy to the Orphan at the Orphanage

And here's me willing to look like an idiot for a piece of candy:

Hallow's End - Bob for Apples

Throughout the holiday Innkeepers also have a barrel of Apples to bob. You can hold five (one dunking's worth) of Apples at a time but no more. In some cases the barrel is not exactly next to the Innkeeper. In Ironforge, for example, it's upstairs.

Here's the Apple Barrel in the Undercity:


And here's the Apple Barrel in Stormwind:


What is that they say about the Horde players generally being more mature?

Hallow's End - Candy Shops

During Hallow's End two vendor's show up and sell some unique treats:

Katrina Shimmerstar in Iron Forge

Rachelle Gathena in Orgrimmar

You can even buy those fun Hallow's End Pumpkin Treats (that are quest rewards for a number of other Hallow's End quests) from them.

Hallow's End - Decorations

Hallow's End doesn't pull any punches when it comes to decorations. The pumpkins, candles, hats, skeletons, skull lights, ghosts, witches hats, etc.). appear everywhere. I collected some pictures from around Azeroth:

Undercity:(Which gets my vote for best Hallow's End decorations)


Gadgetzan:


Stormwind Fountain:


Ghost in Thunderbluff:


Table in Goldshire: (I don't remember the paper Skeleton and the Witches Hat from last year.)


Pumpkra in Undercity: Now that's a big pumpkin. Seriously you have to see this thing.


Skull Closeup: (I saw these orange lights hanging around and wanted a closeup to see what it was - turns out they're skulls.)

Burning Crusade Release Estimate Changes to January 2007

I have to mention this. I first saw it on WoW Insider this morning. Burning Crusade release date was previously Q4 2006. Now it's January 2007.

The link they provided is this post from Eyonix (emphasis is mine):

IRVINE, Calif. -- Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, the highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, will be in January 2007. By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.

“We appreciate the enthusiasm surrounding World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, and we’re excited about putting the finishing touches on all of the new content,” said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We feel confident that the extra time spent polishing the game will result in the high-quality experience that our players expect and deserve.”

Blizzard began the closed-beta phase of testing on World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade earlier this month. The January 2007 release window will allow extra time for current beta testers to participate in the final stages of development and continue providing valuable feedback.

Further information on specific worldwide release dates, pricing, and other details will be announced in the near future.

Amazon
I was surprised Amazon responded so quickly - here's their message as of today:

Note on release date: Blizzard has officially announced that The Burning Crusade expansion has been delayed until January 2007, and no other information is available at this time. Our listed release date of January 30 is an estimate and not official information. Please check this page later for updated information.

Earnings
I wonder how this decision impacts Blizzard's earnings. Is it better to have the influx of cash in 2007 vs. 2006? Does it squeeze out another few months of same ol' content from people who have time off at the holidays? Or does this risk players' giving up altogether for something unpredictable and too far away? And do they lose income from students who might have played it during their holiday but now can't?

Was the lack of a Non-Disclosure agreement on the beta intentional to keep the excitement up?

What will be on everyone's Christmas list now?

/shrug

No Quest For You

Slot Machine

While I was in Lag Vegas I saw a Star Wars Slot Machine. (Video) The film mini clips/moving icons embedded into it were awesome to say the least. I've never been so excited to get a losing payout... but look it's Han Solo! (It was "New Hope" centric - we won't get into the whole first trilogy whips the butt of the second trilogy deal - but I'll just say I was very happy.)

I of course immediately thought that there should be a WoW Slot Machine. Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever see one. Of the 7 million players I doubt half (a third?) of them would have legal access to a casino (age, proximity, laws, etc..). Plus I found these quotes in my research:

Article about Themed machines:

Generally, slot makers seek a theme that will cut them a wide slice of the market pie. "We use a recognized brand or mark or show ... that has some established familiarity, that can add an additional level of entertainment to a game," Rogich explains. "It brings instant recognizability and a fan base."

but...

"There is no dead-on template, such as 'only recognized stars' " make a viable slot theme, Bone says. He notes that his company's "target market is basically a 55-year-old woman with a certain level of disposable income." For that reason, he says, WMS has not done many games themed to male-oriented interests such as sports. Competitors have, however. One maker, Aristocrat, has a game based on Brazilian soccer superstar Pele.

/sigh. Darn. Ok, so absent a real one, here's my imagination of what the main panel might look like:

Aggro the White Tigers

This picture I did not alter at all (except to crop it). Strangely it is a tribute to Siegfried and Roy.



What is that there beside the heads? Is... is that supposed to be a mithril deposit? Were Siegfried and Roy miners (in addition to being hunters)? Perhaps one would hold aggro while the other did the mining. Hm. I had no idea their conservation efforts included minerals.

S & R were a big deal at the Mirage for many years until the whole "tiger bites Roy" incident. Now if you go to the Mirage, there's no show but there's still a Dolphin and white tiger habitat (20 second video).



By the way, I was sure to use a silver dragon border around the icon above which signifies a "rare spawn" for the white tiger rather than a gold dragon border which signifies "elite." (I only just learned that recently, I have to admit.)

Fountains

For a city in the middle of a desert, there were fountains EVERYWHERE in Las Vegas. My friend told me one night to "meet me by the fountain" but inside Caesar's alone there were about 8 fountains. This one was outside of Caesar's:


But strangely, it just didn't look right. Not until I made it feel more like home:



(For my Horde friends, roll an Alliance alt and put them in Stormwind for about 5 seconds, any time, any day. You'll quickly see what I mean.)