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. Kiro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegos View Post
    I can't believe the amount of nonsense here. Let me outline a few points. 1) WoW is not "dying". It's aging, yes. It's losing its control of the MMO market, yes. But to me, "dying" means that something ends up completely "dead", you know, taken offline, not a single player playing it. Besides, considering most other MMO's are simply WoW with a hat, or WoW....IN SPACE! so until something that's actually "different" and not just WoW wearing a different outfit, the game is still going to go strong. Even afterwards, WoW will not die. It might only keep ~1 million people who will keep playing it and have most of the servers merged, but that's not a "dead" game. So think again. Saying "WoW is dying" doesn't make you look cool, pro or smart. It makes you look stupid. 2) About a graphic overhaul. Another reason so many people still play WoW is that it's not demanding on the hardware, and are playing it on old computers that would simply commit suicide if you tried to run something like DA2 on them. A graphic upgrade would of course set the hardware requirement bar higher, causing a lot of people to no longer be able to play. And in the current economic situation around the world, computers do not exactly grow on trees, and things like mortgages, gas and water bills and food will kind of always take priority over new gaming hardware. A monthly sub is one thing, it's a lot of small payments over time. But one big payment at once, that's what many people could not afford. 3) About all that elitism nonsense: If you want to be elite and have bragging rights, turn on "Real Life" and accomplish something. Something that will be your legacy for the years to come and even after you're done with your life. In 10 years, hardly anyone will care that you had three FL heroic BiS clad WoW characters. To say nothing how retarded it is to say that developing the game for the average gamer is making the game crash. I mean...usually it's bad policy to forget about the majority who voted for you in order to appease the vocal minority who's displeased with you.
    1. WoW IS dying, if you like it or not. Take the blinders off. People are fed up with blizzard watering down the game, putting forth a sub-par effort in content, and ignoring what the fans want, not listening to them. Players are leaving the game in droves, and it's partly because of blizzard taking advantage of their fans and trying to milk them for all the money they can while putting for the least effort as possible. And it's partly because of the sheeple such as yourself, who pats blizzard on the back, "better luck next time blizz", or "yes blizzard, please may i have another real money pet/mount, and recycled content". Blizzard themselves know it's coming to an end, and you can detect a sense of urgency in their interviews. If that's to try and keep people playing, or trying to cash in on the sheeple, time will tell.

    They're vulnerable. Rift was the first "quality" MMO to hit in a while and look at the impact it had on WoW's fanbase. Even blizzard admitted it hurt them far more than expected. Star Wars (just the name alone) will pull a large number away, and then GW2 will be the killing blow as that game looks incredible and reports of play testing are nothing short of amazing.

    2. Blizzard's art and graphical teams are low rate, and the "we cater to more players pcs" is a veiled statement. They could mean it, or they're using it as an excuse to not put a legit "ultra" mode into the game. They tried to make a big deal out of those "sun shafts" so they care about graphics, but they're just outclassed.

    3. "You want elitism go to Real Life", this is just another trolling statement by the sheeple, and usually the "fail" section of them, the one's that suck and never get end-game finished. I couldn't care less tbh, so why not make it rewarding to the hardcore, the casuals, and the sheeple? Oh, that's right, it'd take poor-poor blizzard to put some additional effort into the game.

    And LOL, of course less people played it back in vanilla, it's word of mouth from players, and more people adopting PC's into their social lives that increased the number of players, not because they went "casual". Some sheeple are in such denial, but it must hurt because they're in defensive overdrive right now. They know the only thing they have in life is coming to an end. Finally you'll get to experience other games, and see there are developers out there just as good, if not better than Blizzard.
  1. mmoc8eb592856e's Avatar
    modern warfare 3 cant be released soon enough!!!
  1. Andromedas's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kittenboots View Post
    not gonna lie, those D3 graphics look pretty terrible. :/
    Agreed. Diablo III looks really ugly from those screenshots...
  1. djnastya's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by PotatoCoffee View Post
    Multiple fights in multiple locations? U gotta be kidding me? And deathwing desides to drop loot for lulz when we tickle him uhu makes sense.
    What do you expect from the team that expects you to believe mindless undead are more dangerous WITHOUT a superbeing controlling them? This is typical Blizzard storyline.
  1. Vegos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiro View Post
    I couldn't care less tbh
    Then why that wall of text?

    You're not impressing anyone, kiddo. "I couldn't care less tbh" followed with a bunch of socially inept raving isn't exactly something unique. How dare people play the game differently and with different motivation than you, eh?

    And I don't care if you're 35 and have two doctor's degrees, kiddo. I don't know what I've done to you but it must have been pretty harsh considering the retribution from your side? Or are you just allergic to different points of view? That seems to be a common ailment around here.
  1. Jurio's Avatar
    you guys that think the game got too easy scare me. you like live in the game or something, live with parents, play game all day long? In this world people need to make money to pay for computers and internet and wow subscripts. people cant do that playing wow all day. the majority of people dont have time to complete the raids as they are now. they are too time consuming to difficult and basically not fun at all. yet somehow you people think its ok??? aparantly blizzard did too and thats why everyone is leaving their game. it was being managed and run buy a bunch of idiots who didnt understand what their customers wanted
  1. denominator's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Andromedas View Post
    Agreed. Diablo III looks really ugly from those screenshots...
    Given that the players game is running at reduced FPS in every in game screenshot I'm going to assume it isn't at max settings.. or anywhere close.
  1. Menegroth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by djnastya View Post
    What do you expect from the team that expects you to believe mindless undead are more dangerous WITHOUT a superbeing controlling them? This is typical Blizzard storyline.
    Lol?

    Yes they are more dangerous when that superbeing is keeping them from attacking.

    A wild rabid dog on the loose, or a rabid wild dog in a cage with a muzzle.

    You choose.
  1. lilbuddhaman's Avatar
    I can't help but visit these comments on a daily basis to the "sheeple", that swear up and down that the quality of the content hasn't suffered. I mean really, where do you get your drugs, cuz I'd like some.
  1. Andromedas's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by lilbuddhaman View Post
    I can't help but visit these comments on a daily basis to the "sheeple", that swear up and down that the quality of the content hasn't suffered. I mean really, where do you get your drugs, cuz I'd like some.
    There's this river in Egypt... I forgot the name of it. Can you help me out?
  1. Arlor's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Andromedas View Post
    There's this river in Egypt... I forgot the name of it. Can you help me out?
    Where are these people who swear up and down that nothing's ever gotten worse in WoW? I think they're a strawman made up by people who swear up and down that the game has gotten horrible and has no redeeming qualities. Or maybe those are strawmen, too.

    According to that recent poll, about 60% of MMO-Champion members still play WoW, and about 40% don't.

    Why do they have to war with each other?

    Can't the people who still enjoy the game be left in peace?

    Can't the people who quit be left alone, too?

    Has anybody EVER been convinced to switch from one camp to the other by a forum post?

    WHY CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
  1. Graviteh's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Andromedas View Post
    There's this river in Egypt... I forgot the name of it. Can you help me out?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_Egypt
  1. bainies's Avatar
    I stopped playing because it stopped being fun...

    Our guild lost a lot of good players with this new expansion and this seems to be the general thing on our realm, guilds folding, combining or scaling down to 10 man only.

    For all the people that say raiding is too easy, it's only easy when you have 9 / 24 other good people with you. One bad player in a 10 man raid can wipe you over and over (LK defile was a good test for bads)

    I think the main problem with raiding/ dungeons WOW is that there are only so many ways you can make an encounter, only so many mechanics especially when you need to cater for a number of different tank/heal/dps clesses and specs.

    Grinding rep etc like the new molten front becomes tedious very quickly and once you get enough tokens there is nothing (apart from a small chance of a non-combat pet) to make you keep coming back. Tol Barad was exactly the same. The game throws gold at you with nothing to really spend it on, etc, etc, etc.

    It is still the king of MMOs, but the crown is looking more and more tarnished.
  1. Wildcopper's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Celarent View Post
    While I probably agree with that claim, it was made by someone at Gamasutra named Greg McClanahan, not Chilton or Street. I don't think it belongs among the bullet points.
    It's sad that a majority people raid only for epics, and not for the challenge of beating the hardest content of the game.
  1. Osmeric's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Wildcopper View Post
    It's sad that a majority people raid only for epics, and not for the challenge of beating the hardest content of the game.
    I think most players raid for the same reason: to feel good about themselves. The epics are ephemeral and unsatisfying after a short time. They're a means to an end, not an end in themselves, even for lower capability players.
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegos View Post
    Then why that wall of text?

    You're not impressing anyone, kiddo. "I couldn't care less tbh" followed with a bunch of socially inept raving isn't exactly something unique. How dare people play the game differently and with different motivation than you, eh?

    And I don't care if you're 35 and have two doctor's degrees, kiddo. I don't know what I've done to you but it must have been pretty harsh considering the retribution from your side? Or are you just allergic to different points of view? That seems to be a common ailment around here.
    Ouch, you said kiddo not once, but twice, you really put me down there. You really asserted your internet dominance with that one, well played. I replied to you because I was bored and you called basically my opinion and others "non-sense", where the opinions were backed, and they're just as valid as your own. "People are allergic to different points of views, they give their non-sense opinion (which is a different PoV lol) that doesn't agree with mine, so I try to belittle them" is basically what you said. I'd say I couldn't care less if you had any degrees but what you've wrote makes me question if next year is your senior year, of highschool, kiddo.
  1. Nefastus's Avatar
    Tom Chilton, aka kalgan, is the guy that killed the first MMO, ultima online.He is about to break a new record, kiling the most sucessful MMO ever. Since he took over as leader developer of wow the game lost 1 million subs... He seems to be in the right path for his new record. I wonder after buring wow what will be his new challenges! Lets hope blizzard will keep him away, REALLY away from their new project. Also lets pray Bioware never hires this cancer.
  1. Vegos's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Kiro View Post
    Ouch, you said kiddo not once, but twice, you really put me down there. You really asserted your internet dominance with that one, well played. I replied to you because I was bored and you called basically my opinion and others "non-sense", where the opinions were backed, and they're just as valid as your own. "People are allergic to different points of views, they give their non-sense opinion (which is a different PoV lol) that doesn't agree with mine, so I try to belittle them" is basically what you said. I'd say I couldn't care less if you had any degrees but what you've wrote makes me question if next year is your senior year, of highschool, kiddo.
    Oh how cute. Wounded sarcasm.

    *checks off another thing on the list*
  1. Kiro's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Vegos View Post
    Oh how cute. Wounded sarcasm.

    *checks off another thing on the list*
    Don't flatter yourself. If you're unable to take criticism back when you try to deploy it, the internet is not the place for you.
  1. papaz's Avatar
    I miss WoW. God I loved this game. I am one of those vets.The PvP just stopped being fun all together. I just had it with all the bots in the battlegrounds. How come they just don't implement a captcha system or anything similiar to just say gtfo to all the bots.

    I really hope they at least somewhere along the line implement a "rated battlegroup finder". They have one for dungeons and one for raids. Give for rated bgs as well.

    I can see it working like this: I want to create a rated bg group so I open the UI and check how many tanks/healers and dps I want (no, u can't choose more than that because the balance QQ will flood the boards if you could chosse what class/range or melee etc you could choose. That is up for Blizzard to balance). And those that wants to participate only hits a button "find a rbg gruop" and the system will find one for you that matches your skill level. Something like that would make me resub.

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