Day: March 4, 2010

Опубликовано интервью с директором игры


В Blizzard Entertainment четвертый месяц продолжается празднование 5-й годовщины c момента выхода MMORPG World Of Warcraft 23 ноября 2004 года. В связи с этим ранее было объявлено, что компания планирует взять серию интервью у игроков и разработчиков WoW, в которых Blizzard «беседует с ветеранами и новичками World Of Warcraft о том, как они повлияли на игру и как игра повлияла на них».

Сегодня в рамках непрекращающегося празднования было опубликовано интервью с директором игры Томом Чилтоном (Tom Chilton), в котором он рассказывает о том, «какая взбудораженная атмосфера царила в компании в последние месяцы работы над World of Warcraft; о преодолении извечного противостояния между заядлыми игроками MMO и теми, кто играет изредка; о том, как совершенствуется World of Warcraft с каждым обновлением».

Чилтон также поведал публике о том, что раньше в онлайновых играх никто даже не слышал о таком понятии как «казуал», а дизайн игры создавался в расчете на игроков, предпочитающих «повайпаться всласть, но одержать долгожданную победу»; а также назвал факторы, приведшие игру к успеху – «аккуратное развитие от задания к заданию», отсутствие штрафов за смерть, удобное управление, быстрая смена кадров и «заманчивые ландшафты, которые так и хочется исследовать».

Published
Categorized as wow news

Мозаика Боевой Крик завершена

Завершилась акция «Боевой Крик» от компании Blizzard Entertainment, в которой пользователям MMORPG World Of Warcraft предлагалось присылать свои фотографии, снабженные гербом Орды или Альянса. Об этом сообщил сотрудник по работе с игровым сообществом Zarhym на американских официальных форумах игры:

«Спасибо всем игрокам WoW, приложившим свои усилия к акции. Мы получили 20 000 фотографий и, наконец, раскрыли финальную часть мозаики. Проследуйте на юбилейный сайт World of Warcraft и посмотрите на завершенную мозаику, которую можно описать одним словом – эпическая. Вы можете просмотреть ее посредством программы просмотра на сайте, скачать оригинальные обои, а также просмотреть контент, разблокированный перед этим.


Спасибо тем, кто прислал нам свои фотографии и помог нам создать небольшую часть истории Warcraft. Lok’tar!»

Published
Categorized as wow news

3.3.3 Mounts, Battlecry Mosaic, Blue posts

Patch 3.3.3 Mounts
Patch 3.3.3 introduced a couple of new mounts and I think it's time for a recap!

Celestial Steed
The Celestial Steed is probably the most impressive mount of his patch, it looks like a mix of Invincible and Algalon. I'm not really sure where this mount will drop for the moment but considering how cool it looks, I wouldn't expect it to be widely available.

Blazing Hippogryph and Wooly White Rhino
Both mounts are supposed to be TCG Rewards but as you probably know, Blizzard and Upper Deck Entertainment won't be working together anymore in 2010 and the future of the WoW TCG game is unclear. The Blazing Hippogryph was supposed to be a reward of the Wrathgate TCG expansion (UDI stated that Wrathgate Booster won't go into production) and the Wooly White Rhino is currently a reward of the "Icecrown" TCG expansion.

Even if we can't know what will happen with the TCG, it's pretty obvious that Blizzard has a plan and developers aren't adding more TCG rewards to the game just for fun. Just sit tight and wait for the official announcement.

Crimson Deathcharger / Azure Deathcharger
I'm starting to hate these mounts. A couple of days ago I pointed out that they were most likely a reward of the new Icecrown Citadel Quests but I slightly changed my mind since then. If you go through the list of new mounts in the database you will notice that the Crimson Deathcharger is actually a "summon", this property only applies to class mounts and it could be the sign that Blizzard just decided to be nice to Death Knights and wants to give them faction-specific mounts like Paladins. Once again, we will probably have to wait until the patch is live to figure it out.

Frosty Flying Carpet (Tailoring Only)
The Pattern: Frosty Flying Carpet is sold by Frozo the Renowned in Dalaran for Frozen Orbs x 6. (The DB will be updated when we can actually log in Dalaran on the PTRs)

Tom Chilton, Game Director- 5 Year Interview

Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
In this interview, World of Warcraft Game Director Tom Chilton talks about the hectic final months leading up to the game’s launch, crafting an MMORPG for a wide range of play styles, and the ongoing effort to improve the game through expansions and content updates.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wowanniversary/interview/tomchilton.xml

World of Warcraft BattleCry Mosaic Complete

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)
Thanks to the combined effort of Warcraft players from around the world, we have reached twenty thousand submissions, and the final piece of the World of Warcraft BattleCry Mosaic has been revealed. Head over to the World of Warcraft anniversary site now and check out the complete mosaic, which can only be described by one word: epic.

You can now look at the complete mosaic using the site's mosaic viewer, download the original artwork wallpaper, and of course view the legendary-sized mosaic wallpaper. And while you’re there, make sure to also check out all the previously unlocked content.

Thank you to everyone who sent in their pictures to help us create a little piece of Warcraft history, and thank you to all our players around the world for your continued support. Lok'tar!

Check out the BattleCry page now, as well as our our updated special Battlecry Gallery (11 new):

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wowanniversary/battlecry/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/battlecry-gallery.html

The wallpaper is probably one of the best ever released by Blizzard, it includes 4:3, widescreen, and even dual-screen versions!

Blue posts

Quote from Blizzard staff
Blizzard Voice Chat
The Blizzard Voice chat is actually pretty cool, and has improved greatly since it was released. We do see it as a success. We're completely fine with players using third party voice chat programs. It was simply important to us that an option was available for those who didn't want to rely on a 3rd party voice chat program — no matter their reasons.

Additionally, there are a great deal more players who use it than you probably realize. (Source)

Dual-Wield DPS itemization in Cataclysm
 We will be making one-handed weapons with Strength on them. (Source)

Hit in Cataclysm
As I've said, it doesn't really work that way though. Say you need 300 hit (using arbitrary numbers here) and your tier set provides 250 hit and you get the rest from gems and jewelry. Everything's cool. Now a new patch comes out and your tier set has 230 hit. No problem. You get rid of some of the gems and jewelry. Now a new patch comes out and your tier set has 240 hit. Now you curse Blizzard every time an item drops with hit on it.

In short, later gear has more of the same stat on it. When the stats are easily capped, the larger pools become hard to work around. I compared it today to playing Tetris with really large pieces. It's hard to make the puzzle work. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Unstable Affliction "nerf" in the latest PTR Build
Tooltip clarification. Move along. […]  I will say that Unstable Affliction backlash being unaffected by resilience really feels like a bug. I don't see how it's a necessary warlock perk. (Source)