Taiwanese gamer “beats” World of Warcraft

It’s impossible to beat the open-world, never-ending MMO World of Warcraft, but one Taiwanese enthusiast today got closer than anyone ever has.

小灰, who pledges his allegiance to the TW-Wrathbringer guild, has the most impressive WoW stats this world has ever seen.

The player has collected every single Achievement in the game and is the first man, woman, or beast to obtain 986/986 achievements completed on the armory.

If your jaw isn’t on the floor yet, maybe these next statistics will help.

Listed on his WoW Armory page are the following mindblowing figures.

He’s killed killed 390,895 creatures, died 8,543 times for a kill to death ratio of 45.75, somehow amazingly accrued 7,255,538,878 points of damage and has completed 5,906 quests for an average of 14.6 quests per day.

Jeebus!

On the lighter side of things, GamePro points out that the player has only handed out 11 hugs and “LOL’d” just once.

I wonder what kind of life this man, woman, or child has. You know, to be able to commit the ungodly amount of hours this feat must have taken.

New dungeon system for World of Warcraft revealed

First details on new dungeon system for World of Warcraft revealed



Between those long bouts of collecting X amount of items or slaughtering Y of a certain enemy, you're bound to hit a roadblock in World of Warcraft when a quest suddenly calls for going through an instance that requires a whole party.

You can ask for help in the game's "Looking For Group" channel but all that comes down to is hoping that someone will see your chat entry, they're what you're looking for, and a whole mess of other factors. Or you would camp out by the instance while eating a sandwich and reading the Steamy Romance Novel you found and hope for passers-by. Blizzard will finally have a remedy for this issue since the game's release to help find groups and reward you too.

Blizzard has posted new details on an upcoming patch that will include various updates and new features for World of Warcraft dungeon runners. The new features were designed for players to have a more enjoyable and smoother experience when resorting to PUG play, or "pick up groups" when friends aren't around. There are also extra rewards to earn when playing in PUG groups and changes to the looting system. Here's the list of all the features that are coming soon:

* Join as Group or Solo - Flag yourself or a group you've made up to that point and add in the details as the role of a tank, DPS, or healer for each individual player. You can now choose as many dungeons as you wish instead of just three dungeons at a time and the matchmaking system will seek out to create balanced groups.

* Cross Realm Instances - Players from other realms can join you for your dungeon run but only through the matchmaker system. You cannot manually select a player from another realm.

* Instance Teleporting - Using the tool will instantly teleport you to the dungeon you want to attempt and you'll be given the added convenience of being placed right back where you initially were when you used the tool. You are also given the freedom to temporarily leave the dungeon to do an errand such as repairing your gear or selling trash items. Only groups seeking members or premade groups of five can use this.

* Smarter Group Matching - The system will do its best to mix in more experienced players with less experienced ones, match party members' character levels as close as possible, and balance out the classes in the party.

* Daily Random Dungeons - Take a chance! Choose a random dungeon at either normal or Heroic difficulty and earn two emblems based on the difficulty you've chosen to gather and trade toward rewards. This also applies to dungeons that were already present before Wrath of the Lich King content was added.

* PUG Benefits - Play in more groups through the matchmaking system and earn extra rewards. A new Perky Pug non-combat pet can be yours through PUG runs.

* Vote Kick - Is someone being troublesome? Get four votes from other members and they're out. Use it when necessary but don't abuse it at the same time.

* Updated Need Before Greed - If you're in a PUG group, take notice: looting only be restricted to Need Before Greed. The Need Before Greed system has also been updated to better grant items to the appropriate classes and also making sure they can even equip the item in the first place. This goes for armor as well.

* Group Disenchanting - Any items not claimed from looting with any kind of group will be available to be disenchanted by any enchanters in the group right from the looting window.

* Looking for Raid - Help yourself to look for raid groups by seeking for them manually. There will also be weekly raid quests available in this update.

No word on a release date, but new content posted on the World of Warcraft website usually means it's coming real soon.

Warcraft movie chronicling Rise of the Lich King in 2011?

Source: The ever-popular Internet Movie Database.

What we heard: Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft universe is nothing if not sprawling, thanks to some 15 years of storyline development across games and novels. The developer's expansive narrative tradition offers a plethora of options for the upcoming movie set in the Warcraft universe. However, as of August's BlizzCon 2009, director Sam Raimi had not announced any details about what parts of Blizzard lore would be the foundation for his film's script.

Now, though, it appears as if details on the Legendary Pictures-backed production have slipped out, courtesy of popular online movie database IMDB. According to the silver-screen depository, the upcoming Warcraft film now bears the subtitle "The Rise of the Lich King," indicating it will draw from the same source material as 2008's best-selling World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

The Lich King has proven to be fertile source material for Blizzard. Aside from the WOW expansion, the story of the Lich King was handled in Christie Golden's novel Arthas: Rise of the Lich King, which was named to the New York Times' Best-seller list within a week of going on sale earlier this year.

As its title implies, the novel tells an expanded version of the human storyline seen in Blizzard's 2002 real-time strategy game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and the Wrath of the Lich King WOW expansion. It sees the benevolent paladin prince Arthas Menethil corrupted by the runeblade Frostmourne and turned into an undead lord of unspeakable evil.

One other point of interest from the IMDB listing, Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King now bears an expected release date of 2011. As part of BlizzCon 2007, Legendary CEO Thomas Tull said that the film would be live-action with a $100 million budget and would be out by 2009--a release date it obviously missed.

The official story: Blizzard Entertainment had not returned requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: While often trusted by industry professionals, IMDB is far from a reliable source, given that information can easily be added to the database without a thorough vetting of the material. As such, bogus that anything is official, though the Lich King storyline does seem to be working out pretty well for Blizzard. The critically hailed expansion sold over 2.8 million copies worldwide in less than 24 hours when it launched last November. As of the end of August, it had sold nearly 2 million units in the US alone.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/blogs/rumor-control/909119209/27063427/warcraft-movie-chronicling-rise-of-the-lich-king-in-2011.html

new World Of Warcraft expansion: Cataclysm announced

Vice President of creative at Blizzard, Chris Metzen says that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will change the face of Blizzard's massive online multi-player game. No release date has been set for Cataclysm.

The new expansion pack boasts a host of new features including a character level cap increased to 85, two new playable races for both the Alliance (Worgen) and the Horde (Goblins) factions, seven new playing zones, new character classes, new monsters and literally hundreds of new quests.

Perhaps the biggest new feature is that the WoW environments have been partially revamped as the expansion pack's dramatic storyline has impacted on the game physically.

Attendees at BlizzCon 2009 were treated to a stunning trailer which showed the WoW environment partially in ruins, torn apart by tsunamis, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions caused by a dragon rising from beneath the earth.

Another major announcement was the news that Blizzard's science fiction real-time strategy game (RTS), Starcraft II will finally see the light of day.

Nearly 10 years after the release date of the last Starcraft expansion pack, Starcraft II is scheduled to hit stores in 2010. BlizzCon attendees were also treated to a trailer and in-game footage of the new 'monk' character class in Blizzard's forthcoming sword and sorcery adventure, Diablo III.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6070522/BlizzCon-2009-World-Of-Warcraft-Cataclysm-announced.html

Scroll of Recall malfunctions, teleports you to Auberdine instead of Shattrath City

Scroll of Recall, an item created from Inscription profession.
A "lost" debuff on the hunter after the scroll malfunctions.

World of Warcraft Awaits Chinese government's approval to relaunch

The relaunch of the popular online game World of Warcraft in China, where it has already been offline for six weeks, still faces an indefinite delay as it awaits government approval for its content.

Problems for Blizzard Entertainment, the game's creator, started when it switched to a new local operator for World of Warcraft in China, online gaming company NetEase. New operators of foreign games have to submit the games for government approval, and China has objected to some of the content it found in its latest review of World of Warcraft.

The state agency vetting the game will soon complete the first round of the process, but the game will have to be resubmitted with some content changes to receive approval, an employee at the official General Administration of Press and Publication said by phone Monday. The game did not pass the first round of review because its content has changed since The9, Blizzard's former Chinese partner, last gained clearance to operate the game, the employee said.

The employee declined to say what changes must be made or when the game could receive final approval.

A statement on World of Warcraft's official Chinese Web site said the game had not changed from before the hand-over, suggesting that any content changes since its last official approval occurred under its former operator.

A Blizzard spokeswoman declined to comment.

World of Warcraft and other online games are extremely popular in China, where young males congregate in Internet bars to play them for hours or nights at a time. Local media put the number of World of Warcraft players in China at 5 million. The game has 11.5 million subscribers worldwide, according to Blizzard.

The game has been modified to meet the Chinese government's demands before. Skeletons added to the game in an update overseas appeared with flesh in China.

Government objections have also prevented the China release of Wrath of the Lich King, the game's latest expansion. The expansion twice failed to gain government approval despite content revisions, possibly due to elements like the "death knight" character class, according to local media.

World of Warcraft's Chinese servers have been offline since June 7, when The9's operating license expired.

Netease could not immediately be reached for comment.

China bans online gold farming

I wonder how this will impact the economy in World of Warcraft

China bans online gold farming



China has unveiled the first official rule on the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services to limit possible impact on the real financial system. The Chinese government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, which includes prepaid cards of cybergames, according to a joint announcement from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce Friday. It said:

The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services.

The ban is primarily aimed at "gold farming," an Internet-age phenomenon in which players in less developed countries collect and sell virtual gold (common to games like World of Warcraft) to wealthier gamers in the developed world. This enables gamers who have the means to buy virtual gold to get ahead in the games without actually having to accomplish the grunt work.

The trading of virtual currency for real cash generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually, according to a 2008 survey conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester.

The average user will only partially care about this ban. They might be disappointed that they can't buy their way to higher status, but I assume that Tencent and other popular sites will figure out a way to do in-game trades and that eventually the farmers will figure out how to bypass the restrictions.

The ban may scare off smaller shops, but the sophisticated organizations will continue on the same path. It reminds me of Japanese pachinko parlors where you can only win tokens (wink, wink) that you take next door for actual cash.

While I'm not convinced that gold farming is good or bad, there is a very persuasive argument that it's driving economic development in China, and that anything that perpetuates economic stimulus is a good thing.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10275180-62.html

Running through the Nexus instance with Cob the warlock

Cob is an affliction speced warlock, this is a guild run.
Nexus instance contains 4 bosses.
This run took a little over 1 hour, since we have two level 80 toons.

First boss, nothing special, just stand right below the boss.


A new wand for Cob from the second boss, I don't think a warlock benefits much from haste rating.


Third boss looks similar to the elemental boss in Magisters' Terrace, deals tons of arcane damage,
and summons adds from portals


Final boss, a red dragon, an easy kill.

Rare spawn Tukemuth, and other screenshots

I was questing on Calnar in Dragonblight, saw this rare spawn Tukemuth. Level 73 elite, no problem with Calnar Level 78 druid. Two blue loots.

Hunting down Tukemuth is an acheivement.

Calnar with Ryan's rogue stealthed through Heroic Slave Pen to return a quest.

A nice tanking cloak from regular Violet Hold

Running through Drak'Tharon Keep, learning druid's new skills

Tonight, I ran through Drak'Tharon Keep in Zul'Drak on druid Calnar.
An interesting instance, I also discovered druid's new skills added in the expansion.

Now, all weapons have a weapon attack rating for druid, even for weapons such as a sword, which druid cannot use.

One of the bosses in Drak'Tharon Keep, looks similar to the boss in Scholomance.

Druid's in cat form can use swipe to attack multiple targets, a nice AOE ability.

Druid's in cat form can do feral charge also, and cat automatically is behind the target after the charge.

Seems druid is a capable dps class in the expansion.

No Lich King for China?

According to multiple sources, it seems The9, official publisher of World of Warcraft in China, has not been given the ok to release WoW's latest expansion "Wrath of the Lich King". Even with multiple changes including the removal of the well known Death Knight, the governing body which was in charge of assessing WLK still rejected the newest proposal. This latest denial was possibly due to additional content which was not removed, as quoted here,

"The applications were rejected due to content that didn't meet requirements, including a city raid and skeleton characters;"

Rumors detailing problems between The9 and Blizzard regarding contractual issues and a possible meeting between The9's President Chen Xiaowei and top executives at Electronic Arts to discuss Warhammer now seem to have greater validity; as with this latest delay and the supposed removal of a link which connected WoW's simplified Chinese website with the North American one it seems as there may indeed be a fracture in these two companies relations.

If The9 continues to bring forth proposals on Blizzards behalf, it will be interesting to see what other things Blizzard must delete from the official version to get approval, and how much of their IP they are willing to butcher to comply.

What do you think is acceptable for a company to do when appeasing the government of a country in which they desire to do business?

http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-03-11/20090311185015572.shtml

Latest patch messed up the arena system

Apparently, the arena system is messed up after the latest patch 3.0.8.
As shown on the picture, both teams received negative PVP rating increment after an arena match.