WotLK

We're five days into Wrath and it's our first Tuesday maintenance, so it's a good time to reflect a little on what's been going on.

The release went off rather well in my opinion. I actually went to the midnight release at my local Gamestop.  I arrived shortly after 11:45 PM and was on my way home with my Collector's Edition less than an hour later.   I had heard that the line had started assembling at about 9:00 PM and there were probably about 100-120 people in line by the time I arrived and more people were arriving as midnight approached.  The Gamestop people kept the pace of distribution deliberately slow and besides that, the whole ordeal went quite smoothly.   I got home and had enough time to install Wrath, upgrade my account, and get Ziv to the Howling Fjord before going to sleep.

The short time I was able to play after installation, I was thoroughly impressed.  I took a quick look around the Borean Tundra, but started questing in the Howling Fjord. Northrend is beautiful and the quests that I was able to work on were very well done.  I could tell that Blizzard put a lot of effort into making the new content more engaging, interesting, and fun.  The visuals are stunning and the subtle details make it that much more impressive. There's a definite reason why WoW is enjoyed by so many people worldwide, and this new expansion is no different. I  believe this expansion will be more popular than the Burning Crusade. Great job Blizzard!

The release wasn't without it's problems however.  There are a few bugged quests in Howling Fjord and I've heard of a few in Borean Tundra as well.   Since I haven't quested outside of Howling Fjord yet, I don't know if there are other bugged quests in other zones, but I have a feeling there are.   Another big, but expected, issues was that of the login server queues.  I had a feeling by the time the weekend rolled around that we'd see the login queues at prime time, but I didn't think it would be as bad as I've seen:

I've almost completed all the quests in the Howling Fjord and Ziv dinged 72 last night and got the achievement, I've Toured the Fjord.  This is the achievement for completing 130 quests in the Howling Fjord, so there are at least that many in this zone alone.  I still have a few remaining quests to finish, and I still haven't been into Utgarde Keep.   I'm being directed by the NPCs to make it over to, Dragonblight, but I'll finish up the zone first then head over there.

Looking back now, starting in the Howling Fjord probably wasn't the best zone to level quickly because there's a lot of cliffs, bluffs, and other obstacles that means a lot more running around to get to quest objectives.  However I told myself I'd slow it down a bit and really take in the new content, so it didn't matter to me that I probably picked the slower starting area of the two.  So if you're looking to level as quickly as possible, Borean Tundra is probably the place to start, and save the Howling Fjord for after you get your flying mount defrosted.

Death Knight?  I haven't created one just yet.  I hear the Death Knight's starting area and storyline are fantastic so I know I'll make one at some point.  I know there are a lot of Death Knights running around already and if they are as cool and fun as people are saying, then I'm sure we'll see our fair share of them throughout the expansion.  I'm going to wait a little longer before starting one, and take leveling him to 80 as the opportunity to see the other starting zone, Borean Tundra.  Maybe I'll start one up sooner rather than later?

I've been so busy with soloing through WotLK with Ziv that I haven't had any time to dual box at all.  I'll get back to it eventually, but it looks like leveling the Twins will be on hold for a while.  I may actually mix the teams up again and make one with a Death Knight as one of the pairs once I get one to 60.  Since I don't plan on dual boxing any time soon, I haven't upgraded the second account yet, but now that Blizzard has announced direct digital upgrades and downloads, doing so will be easy. 

A few more hours still before the realms come back online.  Let's hope there aren't any new problems like what happened last week.

"So come then you heroes! Come in all your power and glory! For the final hour, all must serve the one true King."

Things seem to have quieted down all around Azeroth and Outland, and with the realms down for their weekly maintenance, it's a good time to reflect what the hell just happened.

Two weeks ago we where hit with the Patch of Doom, I mean Echoes of Doom, which not only brought a lot changes to the game, but also a lot of problems.  Most of the glaring problems were resolved quickly, and people were able to experience and enjoy the new content and updates.  Four days later Hallow's End started up and brought some fun holiday activities and candy treats.  But another four days and some strange things started happening.  Zombies started appearing and infecting people, waves of Scourge invaders appeared throughout the land, and the zombie epidemic reached epic and deadly proportions:

Then as fast as it appeared, the zombie plague quickly ended. It was a blast, and I hope everyone that got to experience it had a blast as well. It was one major world event that not only changed the way people played and interacted, but was so disruptive that it brought uncertainty and anxiety about the game. It was not only a major annoyance, but it actually made people angry and running to the forums to complain. Isn't that awesome! I think this world event was so masterfully executed and did as they were intended, . . . to bring a sense of urgency on the inevitable coming of the Lich King and his army.

I will not go into a rant about those that complained about the zombie invasion because it's my opinion that those people completely missed the point.  Well, whether you liked it or not, it was truly a memorable event. Blizzard Poster, Tigole, had this to say about it on the official forums:

0. Regarding the Zombie Plague… 10/27/2008 09:27:02 AM PDT

We'd like to thank players for participating so zealously (and valiantly!) during the Great Zombie Plague of '08. Our intention with this event was to create something memorable and to literally change the face of Azeroth for a few days. This event is just one of many leading up to Wrath of the Lich King. As you know, the Scourge Invasion is now live as well and there is some other cool stuff coming up before all is said and done. Also, Hallow's End continues on!

While we recognize that the event could prove to be disruptive at times, we hope you made the most out of it while it lasted. Part of playing in a "living and breathing world" means that things are going to change from time to time. We meant no harm but only wanted to create a lasting impression on players as they head to Northrend to defeat the Lich King. The Lich King's goals (as you will soon learn) are to turn the Horde and Alliance not only on one another, but on their own kind as well. I think the plague truly demonstrated this firsthand.

So it looks like a cure has finally been found… for now.

Thank you for participating in our most memorable event to date… for better or for… brrrrrrraaaaaains…

While we await for the maintenance to end, what are your thoughts on what just happened?

The Lich King has delivered a few Conspicuous Crates to Stranglethorn Vale. Inspecting will get you infected with some vile zombie disease and you have 10 minutes to get cured! What do you do?!?

Head to Stormwind? There are now Argent Healers there, but can they help?

There are two outcomes. You get help from the Argent Healers and the disease is purged from your body, or the disease consumes you and you become a zombie able to infect other innocent souls around you! You become another minion of the Lich King.

The World Event for the Wrath of the Lich King is now underway, and becoming a zombie is actually a lot of fun. Nothing like being a zombie searching out brains to devour and attacking and infecting your fellow citizens. Maybe being a minion of the Lich King isn't so bad after all?

Blizzard has officially announced that Wrath of the Lich King will be in stores on:

• November 13, 2008: North America, Europe, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Russia
• November 14, 2008: Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia
• November 18, 2008: Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau

Release in China will be announced at a later date.

Retailers are now taking pre-orders. Those that are interested, there will also be a Collector's Edition of the expansion.

The Wrath of the Lich King beta has been available by invitation only for short while, but long enough to get some exciting sneak peeks at things to come. The frequency of new things being reported was somewhat overwhelming and to me at least, WotLK beta news overload.

I do like knowing what's coming in the new expansion, but not enough to try to consume every single piece of beta news that comes out. I'm mainly interested in the major changes coming to the game and issues that Blizzard is trying to address. I'm not particularly interested in all the minute details because I know as the game develops, a lot of the things in the early beta may either be changed or removed completely.

So to keep informed without being overloaded I've been taking in some of the news via a few podcasts that I listen to. Podcasts are great because it's a form of news distillation in an easy to consume format, audio. Listen to them at home, office, car, or mobile music device. Not only do I get the key focus points of the news, but also some fun and engaging commentary.

Since podcasts have to be recorded and produced, there is a time delay in the breaking news and what's reported on a particular podcast. But for me that's okay because I'm looking for the distilled news anyway, so a few days to a week delay is fine with me. Naturally there will be an overlap of news, but what makes these podcasts so fun to listen to are the people behind the podcasts and the personality each brings to the news.

Maybe it's just that I like distilled things, but honestly, podcasts are a good way to at least keep informed on the biggest news coming out of the beta. Here are a few that I'm currently listening to (in no particular order):

• The Instance
• World of Warcast
• Epic Dolls
• WoW Things Considered
• Warcraft Anonymous
• Twisted Nether
• Legendary Thread
• Elune's Grace

So if you want to know what's happening with the WotLK beta but don't want to go through all the raw news yourself, try a distilled form and give the above podcasts a listen. You may enjoy it as I do.

[Update: October 7, 2008] There's a relatively new podcast (up to five episodes as of last week) out there that I truly enjoy listening to and would like to add it to this list. As a hunter, his site BigRedKitty (aka BRK) has been a great site for all things hunters in WoW. His podcast is no different and he's been hard at work in the WotLK beta providing us with hunter news. So go check it out:

• BigRedKitty [iTunes link]

  
  

Wowhead showed hunters some love by releasing a few new features on their site specifically for hunters. There's the Pet Comparison Table, the Pet Gallery which has a nice 3D model viewer, and the Pet Training Calculator.

Since my main is a hunter, I'm always on the lookout for hunter related news. It's always nice to have a suite of hunter resources for us to utilize. Though this set of features is pet-centric, it's still awesome because we are afterall hunters, and we all love our pets.

Still no new alpha talent calculators for hunters (or paladins) yet, but I'm sure they're coming. I'm also looking forward to see the proposed pet talent trees.

I'm sure most of you have already heard the news, but Blizzard has opened a opt-in page on the World of Warcraft main site to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. They provide a link on their homepage , but basically you just have to log into you account and you could opt-in from there.

Below are some screenshots along with the actual opt-in disclaimer.

"Today we opened the Wrath of the Lich King Beta Opt-In program, which gives players a chance to win an invitation to the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King beta. For The Burning Crusade beta, we randomly invited players from the entire World of Warcraft community. With the Opt-In, our goal is to strengthen the beta-testing process by inviting only those players who have expressed active interest in participating.

Keep in mind that opting in doesn't guarantee you'll be selected for the beta. And players who've previously been promised beta access through a promotion or contest (such as by purchasing the Dell XPS M1730 World of Warcraft Edition notebook) don't need to worry -- you'll still be entered into the beta automatically when the time comes.

To opt in to the Wrath of the Lich King beta, visit the Beta Opt-In page."

"By your clicking the "Accept" button below, Blizzard Entertainment agrees to add this World of Warcraft account to the pool of accounts from which participants in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test will be chosen. If this account is chosen, an email will be sent to the email address registered for this account with further instructions. Not all accounts will be chosen to participate in the beta test, and Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to determine how accounts will be chosen for the beta test in its sole discretion.

Note that if this account is chosen to participate in the beta test, your participation will be subject to your acceptance of, and compliance with, the terms of a beta test agreement. Please do not contact Blizzard Entertainment's billing, technical support, or in-game customer service departments regarding whether this account is chosen for the beta test."

"You have successfully opted in for a chance to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. In the event that your account is selected, you will be sent an email with further instructions. Good luck!"

So basically it just means you are opting-in to participate in the beta program when they finally do open the beta on the Public Test Realms. So good luck! Since I have two accounts, that's two chances for me.

There is a FAQ post on the WoW Forums