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