'World of Warcraft' Christmas update

One of the longest-running massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), "World of Warcraft" (WoW), has had many real-life events affecting both the atmosphere and gameplay. With the holiday season starting, fans of the franchise will be glad to note that "WoW"'s Christmas update is already here.
                                           

The biggest highlight of the patch is the "Feast of Winter Veil," which is basically their own reason for all the Christmas decorations that can be seen almost everywhere in the game. The whole of Azeroth will be turned into the snowy environment that might be familiar to players who have seen past iterations of the game's Christmas celebrations.

The event is set to last from Dec. 16 until Jan. 3 of next year, and there will be giant snowballs that players can see in Ironforge, Ogrimmar, and Dalaran. To also celebrate the coming of the new year, there will be in-game fireworks for everyone, meaning in every race in each of their capitals. Since "WoW" has players from all over the globe, the fireworks will happen every hour for the whole night.

Of course, as with most of the previous Christmas updates the game has had, the Abominable Greench will be coming back. For those who are not familiar with it, players will get to earn rewards from him as long as you get to defeat him, which is not much of a hard task.

A new loot, the "Finely-Tailored Red Holiday Hat" can also be obtained through Legion dungeons and raids. There are also a lot of other side quests that players can take part in. Players can rescue a stolen reindeer and even bake gingerbread cookies.

For this event, there are a total of 11 achievements. When all of them are achieved, players gain a new title "Merrymaker. How's that for decking the halls?"

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth

It’s been 2 years since the announcement of World of Warcraft’s 6th expansion Legion, so it is about time they announce the next one. Battle of Azeroth, their 7th expansion, extends the story further, adding new features, a higher level cap of 120, and of course more areas to play in Azeroth.
                                             

The staple of every expansion is an increased level cap, new continents to explore and either new races to play or new classes to try out, well, every expansion except Warlords of Draenor that is. But, thankfully, Blizzard is keeping to its tried and tested formula with Battle of Azeroth, with the Horde returning to the forgotten continent of Zandalar, and the Alliance retaking their place on Kul Tiras, two continents which are mere spitting distances away from each other on the Azerothian map. Often as the game moves into new areas, new races are added to the roster, and with the move into the Battle of Azeroth, there will be not just one race addition, but a total of 3 new races will added to each faction. However, unlike previous race additions, which were available to play as soon as you logged in, these races will have to be unlocked, or rather won over, through quest lines, which will unlock them account wide when complete. Once unlocked, you’ll be able to create a new level 20 character in that race. This system seems quite intuitive for the story it’s trying to tell, as it makes sense that you must win over your allies before you can play as one.

Along with usual additions of new dungeons and raids, to progress some of the larger story elements of World of Warcraft, there’s also a new endgame addition from the previous Warcraft trilogy. Warfronts, another PvE feature, will incorporate some of the real time strategy modes of Warcraft, and allow up to 20 players to work together; to build their resources and stage an offensive against an army of enemy NPCs at a warfront location. A location such as Stromgarde, which is the main port of Arathi Highlands, and a hub into the Eastern Kingdom. Supported by one of many commanders, you’ll have to create many different strategies for each of the warfronts, which will feature as part of the actual battle for Azeroth.

Primordian’s weird and alien world was created by a World of Warcraft art lead

Jason Morris had been working at Blizzard for 10 years as an art lead on games like World of Warcraft and Titan before the sci-fi MMO was cancelled. But the moment he got his hands on a VR headset he knew that was what he had to work on, even if it meant starting from scratch and doing everything slowly by founding his own company, Stonepunk Studios.
                                               

Primordian is the result of that; a VR FPS set on an alien world at the center of the universe. It’s very much a world of two halves, as one side is constantly shrouded in darkness, while the other enjoys infinite daylight. This has given rise to two distinct cultures who typically keep to their own half of the planet, but a solar eclipse is coming, inspiring those stuck on the dark side to launch an invasion. Players will be one of those invaders.

Aside from the music, Morris is doing everything himself. “I love every aspect of the process of putting games together,” he says enthusiastically. His experiences, working with engineers, designers, and producers at Blizzard have given him some insights, but there’s also been a lot of trial and error, and a great many YouTube tutorials.

The key to creating that immersive, intuitive feel is the world itself. Everything trickles down from there. “I was trying to think about the world as a whole, and one of the great things I learned from working at Blizzard was thinking about the world as a character, the biggest character.” Weapons — the main way players will interact with the game — are the most obvious example of how the world impacts the rest of the experience.

World of Warcraft: Fel-spotted Egg

In patch 7.3, there was a Fel-spotted Egg released on Argus where you have a chance at one of four mounts, one of two pets and an aged yolk. Mount and pet collectors are in awe as they work to obtain this beautiful egg.
                                                 

There are rares that have a chance at dropping the egg, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We should first start at the beginning of how to obtain this wondrous egg. Keep in mind, the egg is not at a 100% drop rate, and there is no guarantee as to what will be in it when it cracks. The first thing you will need to do if you have not done it already is the Argus Campaign quests so you can get to Argus. Keep in mind, that you must complete the Broken Shore Assault in order to get to even the Argus Campaign, so if you are like me and have not worried much about it, be prepared for a task at hand.

There are four rares that you can kill in order to obtain this egg: Kaara the Pale, Sabuul, Varga, and Narou. Though these beasts will not be up every time you head there, it is still worth a trip to see if they are. You can kill each of the rares once a day for a potential shot at getting this Fel-spotted egg. The rares can be solo-ed, and once again depending on your gear may or may not prove to be a challenge for you. Each one is spread out on four different areas in Argus. Narou is on Krokuun, making her the first that you can access, as this is where the Argus campaign takes place.

The egg does have a 40 percent change to drop off all the rares. Sabuul can be found on Mac’aree, coordinates are around 44.8, 50.6. She will be around this area. It is important to note that there is a world quest to kill these mounts that drop the egg, but you do not need to have the world quest in order to have a chance at getting the egg.

Tournament Of Ages Draws Thousands To 'World of Warcraft' Role-Playing

Today wraps up one of the largest community events in World of Warcraft, a gathering that has drawn thousands of people together over the past four years and will raise more than a thousand dollars for charity this year.
                                             

The Tournament of Ages runs on Warcraft’s Moon Guard role-playing server, providing gamers there with a week of events ranging from booth sales to arena battles to fireworks and performances.

During the closing ceremony today, players will pack the stands of the Tournament grounds in such numbers that no seats will be available, forcing some to hover or to perch on the roof. They will watch the fireworks before gathering for the Wonderlight Ball.

The dance gives participants the chance to show off their characters’ best collected finery and virtually dance the night away, ending the weeklong series of dozens of events.

Earlier happenings included a dueling tournament for different in-game classes, sparring, Hearthstone digital card game play, racing, stage performances, rhyme battles, date auctions, mechanical pet battles, drinking contests, jousting, marmotball and pet battles.

“Sometimes the best parts are the simplest,” said Judith Pedersen of Ontario, one of the Tournament participants. “Just people gathering en masse to have fun for a week, to forget any stress their characters may have or they might have in real life.”

The Tournament is popular; so much so that at one point this week, three of the top four threads in the World of Warcraft subreddit related to it.

Moon Guard is widely known for its R-rated role-playing areas. To be fair, once that reputation was established, it has frequently been perpetuated by other players coming in from off-server to make new characters in those areas and see what the fuss is about.

Elsewhere in the game world, the role-playing is of the more traditional variety, with players creating back stories for their characters and interacting with other players individually and in groups.

New World of Warcraft fan server recreates The Burning Crusade

Did you play The Burning Crusade when the World fo Warcraft expansion launched back in January 2007? I did. I remember the queues, the slow grind to level 70 and the soul-destroying progression. But I also remember the first time I walked through the Dark Portal to Outland. It was a wondrous moment and it looked a bit like this.
                                                 

Development has gone on for some time as the people behind the project worked to get their private server up to Blizzard's retail standards. The video, below, from developer "Gummy", goes into great detail on the work done to make Felmyst as accurate a representation of The Burning Crusade as possible. This involved everything from painstakingly recreating environments to tweaking AI behaviour and boss battles.

Development took immense amounts of work, as Dev “Gummy” details in the video how accurately the Felmyst server plans to recreate the Vanilla and TBC WoW experience. Tending to the environment, AI behavior as well as boss fights, the people behind this project have worked  diligently to make their private server up to “retail standards”

Surely vanilla players remember logging in and going through the Dark Portal and seeing this–then on to that slow grind to level 70 back in January 2007 when TBC launched.

There is a high demand for WoW to be played as it was a decade ago, but sadly, Blizzard has refused to add Legacy servers, for reasons unknown. Blizzards lawyers will most likely be on this too as they shut down Nostalrius in 2016 so let’s hope this one stays for Vanilla fans!

Gul’dan and Helya Achievements Will Be Removed

Working towards the Ahead of the Curve achievements? You better do it fast.
                                           

With the release of The Tomb of Sargeras, two achievements (Ahead of the Curve: Helya and Ahead of the Curve: Gul’dan) will be removed from the game forever on June 20 (U.S.) and June 21 (EU).

The Ahead of the Curve: Helya achievement requires you to defeat Helya in Trial of Valor on Heroic difficulty or higher. Located in Helheim, she is found only after defeating the previous two bosses: Odyn and Guarm. Odyn is located in the Hall of Glory. He is a three-stage boss which requires a good balance of damage and communication to effectively take him down.

The Ahead of the Curve: Gul’dan achievement requires you to defeat Gul’dan in The Nighthold on Heroic difficulty or higher. With there being ten bosses in this raid, we won’t go too in depth on each one, though we’ll quickly explain them. Skorpyron has a constant Skorpid spawn-rate, Chronomatic Anomaly changes the speed of time,Trilliax changes his abilities constantly. Spellblade Aluriel cycles between three enchantments and Star Argur Etraeus collects energy to power his abilities. High Botanist Telarn splits up to use multiple magic types. Krosus breaks the ground you fight on, Tichondrius captures you in an illusion, and Elisande rewinds time to gain health. Finally, Gul’dan increases damage output over health loss.

Video games can be fun and grand adventures, or enlightening things that make you smarter, or something that you do just to get moving in some cases, just depends on the game and the intent. But one thing every video game has is commitment. Every game requires that time be put into it for enjoyment, and that can add up. For genres like MMORPGs, a lot of time has to be put into it for full enjoyment to be reached. That can weigh on some players. And for some World of Warcraft players, it’s getting to be too much.

Details About A Supposed Expansion Have Emerged Online

"World of Warcraft" was changed significantly last year, as the "Legion" expansion brought numerous additions and adjustments to the game. And now, a new rumor is hinting at the next expansion that may be released for this MMORPG.
                                               

The latest lore article on the World of Warcraft community site has been published, this time centered around the new king of Stormwind, Anduin Wrynn. It does contain a number of spoilers, most especially for Alliance characters, but also features some developer commentary about the creation of the story line as well as some profiles of notable Alliance leaders.

According to the post, the Horde and the Alliance will need to join forces in order to fend off the attacks of the surging Naga Empire. The post adds that Azshara and N'zoth will be the main villains featured in this expansion.

Notable additions that may come from this supposed expansion include a new race known as the Naga as well as the Tinker class. Boats are also apparently set to be introduced as mounts, according to the post, and a new neutral city known as Undermine may be included.

As interesting as the contents of this rumored "Rise of the Naga Empire" expansion may be, there are some "World of Warcraft" players that are casting doubt on the legitimacy of the post, while others are hoping that it is detailing a real thing.

While players wait to see if the "Rise of the Naga Empire" will turn out to be real, they can still take part in the many events that are going on right now and that are still set to happen later this month.

For instance, players can still participate in the Pet Battle Bonus event and the "Deepwind Dunk" PvP brawl that are expected to remain live until May 22. The Cataclysm Timewalking Dungeon event will then begin on May 23, while the "Glowcap Festival" is set for May 27. The last event of May is the Arena Skirmish that will start on the 30th.

Is World Of Warcraft Not A “Game” Anymore?

One of the hardest things to do in an MMORPG like World of Warcraft is to keep the player base happy. It’s not enough to just release new content, new expansions, and new events, the developers have to keep the quality of the game up. If the quality doesn’t match the content, then why should people play it? This is a growing question that fans are asking themselves because although World of Warcraft Legion has been good (certainly better than the last major expansion, Warlords of Draenor), some people are noticing continually bad things happening.

One of the hardest things to do in an MMORPG like World of Warcraft is to keep the player base happy. It’s not enough to just release new content, new expansions, and new events, the developers have to keep the quality of the game up. If the quality doesn’t match the content, then why should people play it? This is a growing question that fans are asking themselves because although World of Warcraft Legion has been good (certainly better than the last major expansion, Warlords of Draenor), some people are noticing continually bad things happening.

For them, the last straw was patch 7.2, which has been getting a lot of flak from fans since release. In their opinion, there’s nothing significant in the patch, mainly because a lot of it is time-gated. “There is nothing.  Alts are locked inside of Dalaran, otherwise you want to use hours of the same storyline you have already completed.”

Watchmeheal went on to note about how the main PVP content just isn’t appealing in any facet and PVE isn’t doing much better. Thus, they’re unsubscribing and again, hate doing it as they love World of Warcraft but hate what it’s become. They feel they might come back, but it’s not going to be right now, and they fear where the game could be headed in the future.

Blizzard eSports team are “very interested” in WoW PvE as a competitive environment

This will be good news for Method, Serenity and Exorsus as they continue to fight for the top spot, but may come a little late. Several guilds have announced their intention to stop raiding in Legion, citing the grind, which doesn’t look to be getting much better come 7.2. Even Danish Terrace, one of the guilds hitting targets and building a fanbase in Legion, have hung up the damage meters.

As for how Blizzard might implement it, no announcements yet. “We've been doing the live raid races for a long time, just to see which team can do it better - that's still competitive. It's not your traditional eSports where it's two teams head to head, the dungeon races is another one. Even though you're not going head to head with another player, I think that's exciting to see.

“We have experimented last year and we're going to continue to experiment this year. Now, whether or not we make it a big program with prize money and all of that stuff - I don't think that's the only thing that defines eSports anymore. For me, eSports is just being able to watch to see who the best is at something.”

Phan and Blizzard are well aware of the challenges surrounding it too, with new raid content being the most interesting but also the most competitive when it comes to strategies and secrecy. “I think it is important to make sure, at the end of the day, there is integrity in the competitive landscape,” she continues, pointing out that ‘tournament servers’ are becoming much more popular for having a consistent environment for players to compete in. Something like that may work for WoW PvE too.

If and when it happens, it’ll take some time to get it right. “I think in order to support it more widely, especially if it's going to be big and successful, we always start off with a test, see how it goes, do some broadcasts on it, get the feedback from everyone - do they enjoy watching it, is it fun to watch? Do we have the tools in place in able to support it?

How a guild of deaf players conquered World of Warcraft's toughest raids

Joseph Antle has raided World of Warcraft for a long time. His first guild was called Blackguard in vanilla, and he carved his way through Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, and Ahn’Qiraj with his trusty Tauren hunter. “I can’t recall if I was any good back then, but I have a memory of accidentally pulling Hakkar and wiping the entire group,” he says. “The team wasn’t too pleased with me, but I got over it.”
                 

You can’t understate the coordination demanded by high-tier Warcraft raids. You and 24 friends are the only things standing in front of a boss deemed too difficult for the vast majority of the player base. Each encounter cycles through four or five central mechanics that need to be handled perfectly. If you do something dumb, like forget you’re the living bomb, or stumble through the Flame Wreath, or accidentally aggro the Blood God Hakkar, you’re looking at a long walk back from the graveyard.

Most serious raiding guilds use voice chat to bark orders or refine strategy between wipes. In an age of Discord, built-in microphones, and automatic audio channels, connecting with your fellow players outside the chat box is easier than ever. But Antle is deaf, and wasn’t afforded the luxury of coordinating over voice comms. He still plucked ultra-rare loot off of Warcraft’s fiercest horrors, but his experience was far more isolated—the only guy in the group left out of all the jokes.

A small community of deaf players who knew each other outside WoW formed the Undaunted guild (known until recently as Durus Veritas) in the spring of 2011. All of them had experience raiding, and wanted to use their skills to clear high-end Warcraft encounters without voice chat. And they were successful, progressing through the stringent demands of Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, and Warlords of Draenor. On January 15, 2017, they cleared the Emerald Nightmare on the highest difficulty—the first major raid of the Legion cycle.

Antle was recruited into Undaunted in 2013 by a close friend who needed a DPS for their alternative 10-man team. Today he’s guild master, playing a Blood Elf protection paladin.

World of Warcraft to be the only game featured in Californian exhibit on world-changing tech

The Computer History Museum in California, USA, will be featuring Blizzard's long-running MMO, World of Warcraft, in an exhibit based around software that's changed the world. It will be the only game featured.
             

The 'Make Software: Change the World' exhibition "explores the impact of software on the lives of people everywhere, through seven game-changing applications", says the official site.

Visitors will be taught about the creators of the tech, as well as learn about the users whose lives have been impacted by their release.

As well as World of Warcraft, the exhibit features interactive displays and multimedia information blasts on technology such as car crash simulations, Photoshop, MRI, MP3s, Wikipedia and texting.

"Gaming has been a major part of computing and has pushed many of its technical developments forward," says the official overview from 2012, via Gamasutra. "MMORPGs are a major commercial venture, of which [World of Warcraft] is the most successful, and take up massive amounts of time for a large number of people."

Make Software: Change the World is due to open on January 28, 2017, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.