If you had planned to spend the summer mowing lawns and scraping together enough dough to attend BlizzCon this fall, you’re already too late. After going on sale this past Wednesday, all 20,000 tickets to the event were snatched up quickly. ZAM reports that the first batch of tickets on Wednesday were sold out in 23 minutes, and the second batch on Saturday in 28 minutes. The official Blizzard Store page simply notes now that “BlizzCon 2010 Tickets Currently Unavailable.”
This is certainly no surprise considering that past BlizzCons proved to be one of the most popular conventions of the year, with ticket scalping at a premium. Currently, some desperate Blizzard fans are combing through eBay for scalped tickets, although high prices and Blizzard asking eBay to crack down on such sales make this a difficult alternative. Blizzard is also requiring photo ID this year to match tickets as a way to limit these transactions.
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Every Wednesday, Fox Van Allen locks the well-meaning but misguided Dawn Moore in his basement so he can once again take control of Spiritual Guidance. It’s hard work undoing all the “good” that Dawn inflicted on his poor readers the weekend before, but he sure does his best. Hugs and sunshine are out. Plague and pestilence are in.
Let’s face it: We’ve all got Cataclysm fever. We’ve seen the images from the alpha. We’ve Googled it. We’ve YouTubed it. We already have the name of our worgen picked out. We want to live it.
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New around here? See all our collected tips, tricks and how-to’s for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide.
It ain’t over ’til it’s over — and in World of Warcraft, it ain’t over ’til every player has used the last resurrection cooldown and trick. Death is far from permanent in Azeroth, and over time, the available methods of resurrection (“rezzing”) have multiplied. Some classes can resurrect only outside of combat; one class can rez even in the heat of battle. Some classes have rezzes that work only on themselves. Now that the dungeon finder makes running instance groups so easy for a leveling player, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with all the alternatives for coming back to life. There’s a specific etiquette that’s risen up around rezzes, as well, so take note and don’t get caught looking like a chump.
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Blizzard poster Turrit announced yesterday that free realm transfers are being made available to address faction imbalance and overpopulation issues on the following PvE realms:
Aggramar (Alliance only)
Area 52 (Horde only)
Blackhand
Hellscream
Stormrage (Alliance only)
Thrall (Horde only)
Undermine
Destination realm:
Drak’thul
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Final Fantasy XI’s Chains of Promathia was a bit polarizing for the players — you either love it or hate it. No one can argue that it raised the bar considerably on the game’s cutscenes and storytelling, but it was also restrictive in many ways and limited player access to new zones (which were the only non-storyline elements added). It’s a sign of its nature that there are still many players who want to finish the storyline, even though the option has been there for several years. Lucky for players, the June version update is addressing that.
Although the removal of level caps was mentioned in passing at VanaFest 2010, the most recent news gives a specific list of what areas will be affected — all four Promyvion areas, Pso’Xja, Riverne Site #A01 and #B01, the Phomiuna Aqueducts, and the Sacrarium. The announcement goes on to confirm that mission battlefields will also be uncapped, and the monster layout and strength will be adjusted in some of the areas to facilitate characters at 75 and above. It promises to spark new interest in Final Fantasy XI’s most unique expansion and the corresponding zones, which is good news for anyone in the game.
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It’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything new about Final Fantasy XIV, although all signs point to the game continuing to do well for itself in testing. But we might be due for another gush of information, considering that the most recent leaked issue of Famitsu contains a few bits that we’ve not seen before… including a nice map of the world of Eorzea. Unfortunately, the translation team over at FFXIVcore hasn’t yet gone wild on the pages, but there’s still plenty to be discovered, from what we can see.
Eorzea’s map vaguely resembles a mirror image of Africa, with a large island off the coast. It doesn’t appear to have an obvious focal point a la Final Fantasy XI’s world with Jeuno at the continental intersection. There’s also a groundswell of information on the guilds and people within the city of Limsa Lominsa, While there’s not a bulk of new information on the game’s mechanics, it’s certainly a fair dose of lore that we haven’t gotten before, and we can only hope it signals the start of another round of big news on Final Fantasy XIV.
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BlizzCon 2010 tickets will be on sale Wednesday June 2nd at 7:00 p.m. PDT and Saturday June 5th at 10:00 a.m. PDT according to a Blizzard Press release. BlizzCon 2010 will be taking place October 22nd and 23rd in Anaheim, California.
Tickets are $150 each, and will be purchased through the same Blizzard Store system used last year.
The internet stream and the DirecTV package will be back this year for $39.95. There will be an in-game item this year associated with the the internet stream, the ticket, and the DirecTV package — just like in previous years. However, details of what the item exactly is have not been announced yet.
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There are ways that the current Champions Online Executive Producer, Shannon Posniewki, doesn’t follower in the footsteps of predecessor Bill Roper. But much like Roper, Posniewki loves talking about the game, and almost always has something interesting to say as a result. In a recent interview, he talked about some of the issues of the game’s present and future that are doubtlessly on the minds of many players, not the least of which is the level cap.
Unfortunately for players who just can’t get enough leveling, the cap is staying put for now — the team likes it right where it is. However, they also recognize how popular it is to move a new character to max level and then start rolling up alts, and are looking into ways to make doing so more rewarding. They also want to buff out mid-range content a bit, with possibilities of something in the 20-30 range.
Adventure packs, the first of which is due out in June, will help expand the content by being repeatable and runnable by any hero above Level 11. Champions Online players might not be hitting Level 70 any time soon, but it looks like they’ll have plenty to make up for it.
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MMO-Champion has just updated with a host of new Cataclysm information datamined from the alpha client. Needless to say there are numerous spoilers for the Cataclysm expansion contained in these files; readers avoiding spoiler material — this falls firmly under that category. More details and links under the break.
The information pulled from the alpha client includes maps of several of the new zones, including a peek at the newly-terraformed Azshara, Blasted Lands, Gilneas and Hyjal. Also included are various NPC models including the Deathwing model featured the other day; and a host of various critters and items that will be found in Cataclysm. Boubouille has noted that the post containing all of this information is still currently being updated, however there are plenty of screenshots to look at already.
The most interesting information has nothing to do with screenshots or images: the new talent calculators are available as well. While these do not appear to reflect all of the changes coming in Cataclysm (hunters still appear to have mana-based talents and skills), there are new talents in the trees that were not mentioned in the Cataclysm class previews from last month. All in all, a wealth of new information to be pored over and analyzed — but keep in mind, these are from the alpha build of the expansion, and will likely receive several revisions between now and release.
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In a follow-up to the lengthy Badge and PvP point preview for Cataclysm, Bornakk posts that weapons for PvP will be tiered much as normal and heroic drops are in current raiding.
Bornakk – Cataclysm Badge and PvP Point ChangesThe lower tier weapons will correspond in quality to items found in the latest raid tier on normal difficulty and cost only Conquest Points. The higher tier weapons will correspond in quality to items found in the latest raid tier on Heroic difficulty and will have a minimum personal rating requirement in addition to costing Conquest Points. All of the highest-stat PvP armor, including shoulder and head pieces, will cost only Conquest Points and have no rating requirements. We have updated our original announcement text to reflect this clarification.
source
This basically means that while the best weapons will require success in Arenas and Ranked BG’s, PvP players will be able to get weapons upgrades via running PvP out of the gate rather than having to hope for an instance/raid drop. It also means an end to armor pieces, trinkets and other items requiring a rating to purchase, making gearing up for PvP easier. It seems likely that this change is aimed at making PvP easier to start in and taking some of the perceived need to PvE away from the PvP game.
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Do you hear that? That faint yet alluring noise drifting over the MMO plains? ‘Tis the siren song of the free gametime, my child. It twists and turns with the wind, seeking out every nook and cranny where a potential player may be hidden. Few can escape its call, but then again, why would they want to?
Over on the Darkfall forums comes the announcement of a Return to Darkfall campaign aimed at previous players. If you were a Darkfall player before April 2010, Adventurine wants to invite you back for a two-week free play session. North American players also have the option to transfer to the NA server for free during this period. Adventurine is directing NA players to sign back up here, and EU players to head over there.
The 14-day free play offer will end on May 31st, so if you tasted of the fruits of Darkfall in the past and want to see if it’s sweeter today, now is the time to hop back on board!
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If you’ve been waiting for more information or a first look into Funcom’s upcoming Age of Conan expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, then you’re in luck! This Thursday, April 29th at 12:00pm Pacific (3:00pm Eastern / 9:00PM CET), they’re planning on holding a special preview streaming event in conjunction with Xfire to give everyone an early look into the exotic new lands of Khitai.
“Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer is now very close to launch and we are very excited to share our view of the expansion with the world through Xfire,” says Game Director and Executive Producer Craig Morrison.
All you’ll have to do to catch the preview is to point your browser at the main Xfire site at the time mentioned above, sit back, and enjoy the tour. The game’s developers will be taking players along as they adventure through some of the new content, offering a chance to see lands and sights as yet unexperienced. There is also a plan to do a question and answer session after the preview as well. If you’ve been waffling on picking up the expansion, it sounds like a great way to figure out if it belongs on your “must pick up” list — or to ask any questions about Age of Conan that you may have.
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Blizzard just released a lengthy statement on Cataclysm badges and PvP point changes. Badges are going away in Cataclysm. Instead, everything will be point based for both PvE and PvP gear. There will be four types of points earned (two PvE and two PvP):
Hero Points, Low tier PvE gear Valor Points, High tier PvE gear Honor Points, Low tier PvP gear Conquest Points, High tier PvP gear Hero points are like the current Emblems of Triumph. Valor Points are like Emblems of Frost, and have a cap on how many you can get each week. Honor Points are like the current Honor Points, and Conquest Points are like the current Arena Points. There will be maximum caps on each sets of points.
Personal ratings will be removed from almost all items, including weapons.
Blizzard’s full statement after the break.
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For the last few years, I’ve been using the Sons of the Storm website and various Blizzard artists’ DeviantArt galleries to get my Blizzard concept art fix. As of this evening, it seems Blizzard is taking a step toward consolidating all of this artwork into one public place.
Blizzard.comWe’re pleased to announce the grand opening of our new Concept Art gallery, highlighting the myriad characters, environments, and other artwork we create during the development of our games. We plan to update this page regularly with a wide variety of never-before-seen pieces of art reaching all the way back to Blizzard’s early days, so be sure to check back often!
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This was actually an offhand remark of Ghostcrawler’s a few days ago, but it didn’t seem to get much attention. In a thread devoted to the possibility of extending buffs like Blessing of Kings to additional classes in Cataclysm, Ghostcrawler mentioned the following:
GhostcrawlerObviously things like Rebirth can’t just be handed to out to more classes unless we did something like a second exhaustion mechanic for battle rez or whatever. For now we’re going to try the cooldown at 30 min again. In Icecrown’s world of limited attempts, a 30 min cooldown likely meant you just cooled your heels until the cooldown was available again. In Cataclysm the hope is sometimes you’ll have the benefit available but not every time, which scales back on how much of a game-changer it is.
An alternative to a longer cooldown for Rebirth is something where one druid using it would trip everyone’s cooldown for a few minutes. That it’s a bit gamey, but might solve the problem.
Also keep in mind that Rebirth is much more useful in today’s game where people tend to die from massive damage. In a world where people sometimes die because the healers have run out of mana, then Rebirth doesn’t buy you quite as much.
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