Update - Clarified a few misquotes apparently, thankfully everything can be blamed on chaud.

Interviews: Warcraft After Cataclysm
Tom Chilton and Greg Street have been making the rounds again with interviews on IGN and Gamasutra.

Patch 4.3
  • If you add up all of the Deathwing encounter stages, it will be the longest fight in the game.
  • Each stage of the fight will take place in a different location and offer some loot.
  • The encounter starts at Wyrmrest Temple, progressing toward the players being on Deathwing's back while he is flying toward The Maelstrom.
  • The new five man encounters will build up to the Deathwing fight, similar to how the Icecrown five man instances built up to the Lich King.
  • To combat the complaints of armor always looking the same, there is a sub-lead who is in charge of guiding the art team to produce new styles not found in the game yet.

After Cataclysm
  • More armor customization could be coming in the future; Transmogrification was a solution that could be finished in time for Patch 4.3.
  • After Patch 4.3, and the world event, the team is going to focus on keeping players entertained and enjoying the game as well as new and potentially returning players.
  • On Mists of Pandaria: "Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that."
  • There are more people that played World of Warcraft but no longer play World of Warcraft than currently play World of Warcraft
  • They believe that each spec plays like a separate class, making the game feel as if there are 30 classes.
  • Player created content is still in the back of their minds because of how well it worked in Starcraft II. Developing tools for players would take a lot of work, but the reward would be great as well.


Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Worgen Mounts
These mounts are mainly being added to even up the number of mounts Alliance players can get, compared to Horde players. Mount collectors and those of you interested in going for the mount achievement have been asking for this for a while, and the additional horses will address that issue.

The Worgen's unique racial mount equivalent is the Running Wild skill. That's not going anywhere. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Transmogrification: Incomplete tier sets
This is going to be half the fun for a lot of people looking forward to Transmogrification; finding matching sets and combinations that look awesome together

While it's too early to say for sure, it's possible that after this feature launches, there will be a number of items that people request become available to Transmogrify. We're going to monitor this feedback and hopefully be able to build on the feature based on that, however, that's not to say every item people ask for will suddenly appear in the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Three Talent Specs
Indeed, as Xarthat said, we're still really keen for players to put a lot of thought and decision into their character's chosen talent specs.

Sure, it would be handy to have more specs lined up to swap in or out when faced with a different situation, but right now we feel that your talent spec(s) should be something you choose, maybe refine over time, and hopefully pwn with. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Diablo III Beta Opt In
It is almost time for Diablo III Beta, Blizzard posted another beta opt in reminder on the official blog and DiabloFans has some additional leaked gameplay to go with the screenshots below.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
Interested in signing up for an advance look at Diablo’s coming invasion of Sanctuary? To be eligible to participate in the Diablo III beta test, you need an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game title attached to it. If you don’t already have an account, it’s easy to create one. Once you’ve set up a Battle.net account, or if you’ve already got one, you can access it by visiting http://us.battle.net/en/ and clicking the Account button on the upper right. Then, to opt into the beta, just click the Games & Codes section of your Account Management page, and then select the Beta Profile Settings option from the drop-down menu. You’ll be prompted to download the System Check beta opt-in application; running it will opt you in to the Diablo III beta. If your system specifications change, you can run the System Check application again to update your information.

While running the System Check application doesn’t guarantee you a place in the Diablo III beta, we wish you luck and hope to see you in Sanctuary.

FAQ:
How are beta test participants selected from the opt-in pool?
Beta testers are chosen according to their system specifications and other factors, including an element of luck. Our goal is to have a good variety of system types to best test compatibility.

Will there be any other ways to get into the beta besides the opt-in?
We’ll very likely be providing beta entry giveaways through various promotions on our sites, as well as through our official fansites. We’ll have information available on these promotions as they approach.

How many players do you plan to invite to the beta test?
The number of players we invite will be based on our testing needs. If during the course of testing we determine we need more players to participate, we’ll invite more.

What game content will be available in the beta?
You’ll be able to try out all five character classes and experience the early stages of Diablo III from the start of the game through the Skeleton King encounter. You’ll be able to interact with new and returning characters in New Tristram and fight the reawakened evils emanating from the cursed Tristram Cathedral.

Will the PvP arenas be available in the beta?
We don’t plan to include the PvP arenas in the beta test.

How long will the beta test last?
We have not determined an exact date for the end of the beta test. We will notify participants when the beta test is nearing completion.

Will the Diablo III Auction House be available in the beta?
We currently plan to test the functionality of the Diablo III gold-based auction house sometime after the initial beta launch.

Will Mac users be able to participate in the beta?
Yes, Mac users will be able to participate in the beta at the same time as Windows users.




Burning Crusade Art Gallery Updated
The Burning Crusade game art gallery has been updated with four new pieces.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 4.3 Interviews, Blue Posts, Diablo III Beta, Art Gallery Update started by chaud View original post
Comments 308 Comments
  1. chrisisvacant's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by lilbuddhaman View Post
    Excellent post and I'm adding some formatting in hopes people will read it. I disagree about certain parts, but his ideology is sound. (at least how I read it, I could have interpreted it wrong?)

    To add onto the last part, I feel like the "hubs" that players congregate at could be a means of separating "hardcore" and "casual" players. In EQ, you would find "low-end" players gathering at one town, while the "hardcore" would commonly gather at another. There were still main towns where they all intermixed, but the majority of their time was spent apart. Separating the two player bases would help give the illusion that the casual who does well in those "easy" raids is actually at the "top" of his game, as he will be sporting the best gear among the people of the town he spends the majority of his time in.
    Yeah, sorry about the formatting. Not sure how that happened as it was formatted when I was typing it, lol.

    I agree with your suggestion about the separate hubs. Though I really did enjoy the epic feel of getting to your raid in Blackrock Mountain in Vanilla, the game has changed too much for that to be of any fun now as people will turn portals into BGs.
  1. Sammonoske's Avatar
    To combat the complaints of armor always looking the same, there is a sub-lead who is in charge of guiding the art team to produce new styles not found in the game yet.
    Other than PvP gear looking like crap with small changes every season, there is not a whole lot to complain about. I guess they might not be copy pasting off set armors in raids as much. The shoulders and helm from Rag was like a wrench in the machine.
  1. Rigrot's Avatar
    The encounter starts at Wyrmrest Temple, progressing toward the players being on Deathwing's back while he is flying toward The Maelstrom
    This sounds pretty epic not gonna lie. Hope they will also have a end cinematic like with LK.
  1. Himitsu's Avatar
    MMO-CHAMP, is there any news about the Brazilian servers and language pack? Blizzard threw a "press and guest party" here and just left us in the dark... The only infos we have come from non-official sources and players....
  1. slackjawsix's Avatar
    did anyone else notice he said MOST OF THE TIME when talking about the mists of pandaria
  1. Vehemence's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azuri View Post
    Acceptance is important. To the people say nothing is wrong with current wow, there's some proof.
    Indeed. I for one am absolutely fed up with Blizzard, right now , unless they get rid of their main marketing demograph for the entitled casual social gamers and change their attitude, there is no way I'm reactivating my account again.
  1. Consigliari's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Cakka View Post
    That was some news bad reporting. Some of the stuff you credited to Chilton and Street are actually from the Gamasutra acticle writer, and his non-Blizz "experts", NOT from Chilton or Street.

    Eg.

    •They realize some people quit because they made the content more accessible to everyone and it no longer felt elite.

    •Raids are significantly harder than they were in WotLK, but the rewards are not much better than heroic five man rewards. This causes a lack of motivation to raid.

    Are direct quotes of this guy: Thomas Debeauvais, of UC Irvine's Department of Informatics, who has nothing to do with Blizz.
    ^^ This! absolutely.^^ Once I read the original articles, I finally figured out some "points" were totally meaningless. I could care less what the non-Blizz so-called-experts have to say. Their opinion(s) rates no higher with me than any other player. I agree, totally bad reporting.
  1. Gavan's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Consigliari View Post
    ^^ This! absolutely.^^ Once I read the original articles, I finally figured out some "points" were totally meaningless. I could care less what the non-Blizz so-called-experts have to say. Their opinion(s) rates no higher with me than any other player. I agree, totally bad reporting.
    Yes, thank you for taking out the elitist BS editorial garbage. People like that are one of the core reasons the industry is constantly struggling to break into the 100% main-stream...
  1. Koeevu's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Rolly View Post
    The progressive dificulty curve was so far out of whack it makes you wonder what the hell Blizzard was doing in alpha,beta and on the ptr.
    Balancing the future of the game by taking the input from the Vodkas of this world. You know, the top 500 players out of the 12 million active back then.
  1. dabros's Avatar
    There are more people that played World of Warcraft, but no longer play World of Warcraft, than the number of people that currently play World of Warcraft. They want to lower the barrier to entry and find some way to bring back players that no longer play.
    the only way I would ever play this game again is if they dropped the subscription. Blizz doesn't do enough to warrant $15 a month, IMO.
  1. huldu's Avatar
    Vanilla was the best because WoW was new and fresh. PvP wasn't half-bad and there was plenty of world PvP going on. Then bg's came along and messed that up. You thought that was as low they could go... of course not, bring on the arena. That was Blizz taking a big dump on WoW. E-sport... /sigh. A game like WoW in it's current state would do far better as a regular 32-64 multiplayer. Nothing massive about WoW. It's just a big chat room.

    It's so sad to see some of you actually take this game serious. You probably spend a third of your day just playing it. Beat a raid and know that what you have will be obsolete the next patch. It's all about some sort of bragging right about the loot you got. Quite pathetic. When WoW finally dies or you leave it, all that time you spent playing the shit, hope it was worth it.
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    "To combat the complaints of armor always looking the same, there is a sub-lead who is in charge of guiding the art team to produce new styles not found in the game yet."
    I'll believe it when I see it.
  1. Tokurei's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by huldu View Post
    Vanilla was the best because WoW was new and fresh. PvP wasn't half-bad and there was plenty of world PvP going on. Then bg's came along and messed that up. You thought that was as low they could go... of course not, bring on the arena. That was Blizz taking a big dump on WoW. E-sport... /sigh. A game like WoW in it's current state would do far better as a regular 32-64 multiplayer. Nothing massive about WoW. It's just a big chat room.

    It's so sad to see some of you actually take this game serious. You probably spend a third of your day just playing it. Beat a raid and know that what you have will be obsolete the next patch. It's all about some sort of bragging right about the loot you got. Quite pathetic. When WoW finally dies or you leave it, all that time you spent playing the shit, hope it was worth it.
    tldr; "I played it when it was cool. You all suck."
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    There are more people that played World of Warcraft, but no longer play World of Warcraft, than the number of people that currently play World of Warcraft. They want to lower the barrier to entry and find some way to bring back players that no longer play.
    They'll never get the veterans back, there's a reason they left, and that's the path the game went down. So unless they revert, which they won't, those millions of vets that left are gone for good.
  1. isendims's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by huldu View Post
    It's so sad to see some of you actually take this game serious. You probably spend a third of your day just playing it. Beat a raid and know that what you have will be obsolete the next patch. It's all about some sort of bragging right about the loot you got. Quite pathetic. When WoW finally dies or you leave it, all that time you spent playing the shit, hope it was worth it.
    Why get a job and make alot of money, when the death patch comes out it will all be worthless
  1. palladiamors's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiro View Post
    They'll never get the veterans back, there's a reason they left, and that's the path the game went down. So unless they revert, which they won't, those millions of vets that left are gone for good.
    Bingo. I am one such vet, and I don't know how many times I've said "The only way I'll come back is if they revert a ton of what they did in Cataclysm." They won't, so I won't be coming back. I log in when they give me a free week to see the state of things, do some randoms, and log out. I keep HOPING that Blizzard turns WoW around and makes it back into the game that I loved and stayed with for six years, but I very seriously doubt it at this point.
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by palladiamors View Post
    Bingo. I am one such vet, and I don't know how many times I've said "The only way I'll come back is if they revert a ton of what they did in Cataclysm." They won't, so I won't be coming back. I log in when they give me a free week to see the state of things, do some randoms, and log out. I keep HOPING that Blizzard turns WoW around and makes it back into the game that I loved and stayed with for six years, but I very seriously doubt it at this point.
    Yep, it's gone, gone for good. There's no way it's going back to the golden days. I played the game for around 5-6 years, which is only 2nd to counterstrike, and I'm actually very sad that they ruined my favorite game in chase of the almighty dollar. Blizzard themselves are a shadow, an empty vessel of what they once were. The encounters are watered down, content is recycled like crazy, art is recycled and the new art is Grade C at best. PVP has become an utter mess. Classes have zero identity now, which is the biggest strike against the game. It's gone, Blizzard's gone. I still like to follow to see if somehow, some way they get back their wits, but it hasn't happened and likely won't. SC2 was a let down, and a cash in, I'm worried that Diablo 3 is going to be the same or even worse. And I have zero faith in "Titan". It just sucks. At least I still can remember the old times with all my friends. We still talk about it.
  1. Plutarch78's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiro View Post
    Yep, it's gone, gone for good. There's no way it's going back to the golden days. I played the game for around 5-6 years, which is only 2nd to counterstrike, and I'm actually very sad that they ruined my favorite game in chase of the almighty dollar. Blizzard themselves are a shadow, an empty vessel of what they once were. The encounters are watered down, content is recycled like crazy, art is recycled and the new art is Grade C at best. PVP has become an utter mess. Classes have zero identity now, which is the biggest strike against the game. It's gone, Blizzard's gone. I still like to follow to see if somehow, some way they get back their wits, but it hasn't happened and likely won't. SC2 was a let down, and a cash in, I'm worried that Diablo 3 is going to be the same or even worse. And I have zero faith in "Titan". It just sucks. At least I still can remember the old times with all my friends. We still talk about it.
    Wow this is so much fail. Titan already sucks? You don't even know what the game is or what its about? Forget to take your Ritalin this morning?
  1. palladiamors's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Doomthulsa View Post
    Wow this is so much fail. Titan already sucks? You don't even know what the game is or what its about? Forget to take your Ritalin this morning?
    Sooo him saying that he has no faith in Blizzards ability with this "Titan" and that it suck to him means he is on Ritalin? I'm not...making the connection here. Good job at ignoring everything else he said, though!
  1. Plutarch78's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vehemence View Post
    Indeed. I for one am absolutely fed up with Blizzard, right now , unless they get rid of their main marketing demograph for the entitled casual social gamers and change their attitude, there is no way I'm reactivating my account again.

    This post just reeks of 40 year old virginity.

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