"We absolutely don’t think players are stupid." Ben Brode Talks About Fiery War Axe

Patch 7.3 - World-Defiler Armor Set
Patch 7.3 added the World-Defiler plate armor set. It drops from the Patch 7.3 rare spawns and the various chests around Argus.



Level Type Slot Name Model Viewer
880PlateHead World-Defiler's Casque
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880PlateShoulders World-Defiler's Shoulderplates
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880PlateChest World-Defiler's Cuirass
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880PlateWaist World-Defiler's Girdle
 Modelviewer
880PlateLegs World-Defiler's Tuille
 Modelviewer
880PlateFeet World-Defiler's Sabatons
 Modelviewer
880PlateWrists World-Defiler's Wristguards
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880PlateHands World-Defiler's Gauntlets
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Blizzard Arena Los Angeles
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
World-class esports have a new home in the entertainment capital of the world. Blizzard Entertainment today unveiled Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, a cutting-edge live-event destination for pro players, esports fans, and everyone else who loves premier competition. Situated in the legendary Burbank Studios, once home to groundbreaking television shows, the studio at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles has been custom-tailored to support an exciting live-event experience for local attendees and broadcast audiences around the world. When the Arena opens for business on October 7, top competitors from across Blizzard esports will be the newest stars to shine on one of the most celebrated stages in television history.

“We’re at a tipping point for esports and we look forward to helping usher in a new era of competition-based entertainment,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “As we open the doors of Blizzard Arena Los Angeles and welcome fans from around the world, we’re honored to bring the best in Blizzard esports to the same stage that some of the biggest names in entertainment have called home.”

With multiple sound stages, control rooms, and practice facilities, Blizzard Arena Los Angeles was built to support a full slate of competitive events year-round. In addition, the Burbank, California arena will house a Blizzard retail store that rotates stock for event attendees based on the competitions taking place at the time.

Blizzard Arena Los Angeles will open its doors to the public for the first time on the weekend of October 7–8 with the Overwatch Contenders Season One Playoffs taking center stage. The culmination of a summer of formidable European and North American competition, the Overwatch Contenders Playoffs will crown the top Contenders teams in each region.

Beginning October 13, the Hearthstone® Championship Tour’s Summer Championship will bring top-notch Hearthstone pros to the Arena for a full weekend of competition, with $250,000 on the line. The global tournament will conclude the third act of the HCT and set the table for the Hearthstone World Championship, taking place in early 2018.

The early battles of both the Heroes of the Storm® Global Championship (HGC) Finals and World of Warcraft® Arena Championship will be held at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles in late October, with top Heroes of the Storm and WoW® Arena players looking to fight their way onto the championship stages at BlizzCon®, Blizzard’s annual community celebration in Anaheim, California, taking place November 3–4.

Then, later this year, some of the top Overwatch® players in the world will take their first steps toward stardom at the Arena when the Overwatch League opens a new era in professional esports. With the players leading the way, the city-based franchises of the Overwatch League have their sights set on establishing a new standard for esports excellence.

Tickets are available now for the Overwatch Contenders Playoffs and the HCT Summer Championship.

Ghostcrawler Tweets
Ghostcrawler still occasionally talks about WoW. Remember that he no longer works for or speaks for Blizzard.
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Back when you were working on WoW, how much did the concept of “theme park” vs “sandbox” influence the drawing board? Did you guys identify with one side more than another on a scale, or did you consider WoW to be it’s own entity, and introduce features to fit the current trend of gameplay?
WoW followed the theme park philosophy pretty strongly. Before WoW, MMOs were much more about creating an “interesting” (quotes intentional) world in which players could go find “fun” things to do. But often that fun devolved into grinding mobs. WoW was explicit about constantly providing directed gameplay, largely through quests. Rather than the quests petering out and reaching the point where you have to grind, in WoW the quests just never ran out. There are even way more quests than you need in order to reach max level, and increasingly there are even quests at max level. Quests aren’t even the only system that provides stuff for players to do.

Beyond just WoW, I’ll be a little controversial here and say that I worry that the importance of sandboxes to successful game design gets overstated. I’ve also noticed that it is game reviewers who get really excited about open-ended gameplay, and I’m sure part of that reason is because they have to play through so many games at a frenetic pace that something where they get to set the rules is appealing.

And I do get the appeal of sandboxes. It’s just that so often the game can’t often deliver on the massive expectations of what a sandbox really is. I get really bored of games where I have to go find the fun or invent my own fun, usually because games can’t ever really deliver on “Anything that you can conceive, you can do.” Instead I always find myself bumping into the limitations of the system. I can’t really be a thief who just survives stealing from other players. I can’t really be a merchant or a politician or a prophet because the game systems aren’t robust enough to support that. Minecraft lets you make ridiculously elaborate architecture. GTA is funny when the cop AI collides with semi-realistic car physics. But both are still pretty limited in terms of sandboxes.

(My favorite game is D&D, where a human dungeon master does allow you to do almost anything you can dream up. Computers are far behind.)


I could talk a lot about Breath of the Wild. It is a fantastic game. But I also do get bored sometimes when I climb a mountain just to find nothing interesting up on top. Yes, it’s great that the game lets me climb any mountain. That freedom is amazing. But I’m going to stop doing it if I keep finding boring mountaintops. Watching the different systems interact in ways that you would expect (”Lightning is attracted to metal!” “Bombs can move things when they explode!” is fun to witness and maybe entertaining from a creative expression standpoint. But that doesn’t automatically make it fun. I still want something engaging. If it can be an engaging open world game, great. But if it’s just an open world game, I’m going to move on to another game quickly.

I completely realize this is personal preference, but I’d rather designers give me an experience that they think would be fun for me, rather than giving me a tool set and letting me invent the fun. But I’m a guy who loves Lego, but never builds anything other than the model the boxed sets are designed to make. YMMV. (Source)



MMO-Champion Forums Moderator Recruitment
Good news everyone! We're recruiting moderators for the forums again! Please be sure to read the entire post before applying!



HeroStorm Ep 28 - Horsing Around
Another episode of HeroStorm has been released.

This article was originally published in forum thread: World-Defiler Armor Set, Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, Moderator Recruitment, HeroStorm started by chaud View original post
Comments 35 Comments
  1. Colmadero's Avatar
    Good luck to all the future applicants!
  1. Servasus's Avatar
    There is a cloth version of this, too. My mage has three pieces, the helm, gloves and boots.
  1. vilememory's Avatar
    That armor... is this... is this male slut mog?
  1. skitzin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by vilememory View Post
    That armor... is this... is this male slut mog?
    Yes. Yes it is.

    And whilst I do not dislike the idea I kind of wish they did a proper Fel armor set because it would look just as amazing.
  1. chaud's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Servasus View Post
    There is a cloth version of this, too. My mage has three pieces, the helm, gloves and boots.
    Yeah, lots of new sets in the patch. I'm probably just going to highlight one or two at a time. Cloth one below in case someone is interested!


  1. Anelya's Avatar
    Anyone know if there's a leather version of the armor?
  1. amythist's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Anelya View Post
    Anyone know if there's a leather version of the armor?
    I would assume so, or at least there will be, since people are saying they have a cloth version, may not be in yet though if the plate version was just added/found
  1. thilicen's Avatar
    Can at least confirm there's a cloth version and a leather one, got the helmet on my druid.
  1. Lutharr the Dead n Damned's Avatar
    I got the plate shoulders from one of the large elites, not a rare or chest.
  1. Anelya's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by amythist View Post
    I would assume so, or at least there will be, since people are saying they have a cloth version, may not be in yet though if the plate version was just added/found
    Yea, would be silly if they didn't I guess^^
  1. Benomatic's Avatar
    Male slut mog makes me flex my buttocks in a sexy sexy way! Oh so cheeky! so very cheeky! cheeky! oh so cheeky! tee hee
  1. ls-'s Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Anelya View Post
    Yea, would be silly if they didn't I guess^^
    IIRC, there's no leather and mail Legion-themed sets.

    -- edit #1

    Yeah, leather and mail have only generic lightforged sets, but cloth and plate have draenei-themed, legion-themed and lightforged sets.

    -- edit #2

    Draenei-themed sets:

    The reason why only cloth and plate got "new" drene-themed is because they're reused sets from WoD, Mac'Aree NPCs wear them, Legion-themed sets are used by various NPCs too, looks like there's no leather- or mail-wearers among them
  1. Draenox's Avatar
    Hasnt this Ghostcrawler response been posted here before? I could have sworn I already read his thoughts on sandbox vs. themepark games
  1. Korru's Avatar
    the best looking slutmog
  1. mmocda7fd343cd's Avatar
    I could talk a lot about Breath of the Wild. It is a fantastic game. But I also do get bored sometimes when I climb a mountain just to find nothing interesting up on top. Yes, it’s great that the game lets me climb any mountain. That freedom is amazing. But I’m going to stop doing it if I keep finding boring mountaintops. Watching the different systems interact in ways that you would expect (”Lightning is attracted to metal!” “Bombs can move things when they explode!” is fun to witness and maybe entertaining from a creative expression standpoint. But that doesn’t automatically make it fun. I still want something engaging. If it can be an engaging open world game, great. But if it’s just an open world game, I’m going to move on to another game quickly.
    This is one of the big problems I have with Blizzard's heavy-handed approach to directed gameplay, and something that a shed load of ex-Blizzard developers seem to push for in whatever game they move onto. And frankly, I think this is the approach that accounts for pretty much all of the problem's that Blizzard games have had and continue to have.

    I agree with the general thrust of the statement; pure sandboxes are, largely, boring affairs with only niche appeal. If your aim is to make a game that the most people possible will enjoy, pure sandbox is not the way to go about it. However, I think GC and co swing too far in the opposite direction; I don't climb mountains in Breath of the Wild, or Skyrim, or any other game, because I EXPECT to find something new and interesting at the top of the mountain. I do it because I MIGHT find something new and interesting. In the same way I complete World Quests now primarily because I MIGHT get a legendary drop.

    The issue with the latter is that, as an explicit game system, I am compelled by the game to complete World Quests every day. If I don't, I minimise my chance of getting a legendary drop. The game is setup in such a way where BiS Legendaries have a large impact on game play. It's part of the monotomy and tedium of the game, or... at least... it quickly become monotonous and tedious. It quickly become a case of the game screaming in my face; "HAVE FUN DOING THIS, OR ELSE YOU'LL SUFFER." With climbing mountains, it is an aside, a self-created experience that acts to break up the tedium of the explicit game systems with something I am doing purely for my own gratification, perfectly aware that the mountain I'm climbing probably doesn't have anything at the top of it.

    The way GC talks about it, it's almost as if he's saying "hey, we should make climbing mountains a game system". But then climbing mountains quickly stops being fun, because you're forced into doing it to progress. The psychology involved is quite potent, and it speaks volumes about Blizzard that GC seems blissfully unaware of it. Certainly, there's a middle ground that should be reached, but everything I know about GC as a developer tells me that he's somewhat of a closed-minded ideologue. He isn't offering balance or insight here; he's offering Blizzard's corporate and creative dogma.
  1. Krom's Avatar
    That poll needs a "used to play D&D but not anymore" option.
  1. Muadiib's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Draenox View Post
    Hasnt this Ghostcrawler response been posted here before? I could have sworn I already read his thoughts on sandbox vs. themepark games
    Yes it's been posted before, not sure if the poll was there last time though. Btw I personally thought BotW was great at first, but quickly became boring and felt souless, so his point is valid.
  1. Nairesha's Avatar
    The D&D needs one more option:

    "Did you use to play D&D for a longer time, but had to stop?" > me (RL took over)
  1. mmoc8cdc016ca1's Avatar
    Looks a bit like Batman imo.
  1. Aliven's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Aftercare View Post
    This is one of the big problems I have with Blizzard's heavy-handed approach to directed gameplay, and something that a shed load of ex-Blizzard developers seem to push for in whatever game they move onto. And frankly, I think this is the approach that accounts for pretty much all of the problem's that Blizzard games have had and continue to have.

    I agree with the general thrust of the statement; pure sandboxes are, largely, boring affairs with only niche appeal. If your aim is to make a game that the most people possible will enjoy, pure sandbox is not the way to go about it. However, I think GC and co swing too far in the opposite direction; I don't climb mountains in Breath of the Wild, or Skyrim, or any other game, because I EXPECT to find something new and interesting at the top of the mountain. I do it because I MIGHT find something new and interesting. In the same way I complete World Quests now primarily because I MIGHT get a legendary drop.

    The issue with the latter is that, as an explicit game system, I am compelled by the game to complete World Quests every day. If I don't, I minimise my chance of getting a legendary drop. The game is setup in such a way where BiS Legendaries have a large impact on game play. It's part of the monotomy and tedium of the game, or... at least... it quickly become monotonous and tedious. It quickly become a case of the game screaming in my face; "HAVE FUN DOING THIS, OR ELSE YOU'LL SUFFER." With climbing mountains, it is an aside, a self-created experience that acts to break up the tedium of the explicit game systems with something I am doing purely for my own gratification, perfectly aware that the mountain I'm climbing probably doesn't have anything at the top of it.

    The way GC talks about it, it's almost as if he's saying "hey, we should make climbing mountains a game system". But then climbing mountains quickly stops being fun, because you're forced into doing it to progress. The psychology involved is quite potent, and it speaks volumes about Blizzard that GC seems blissfully unaware of it. Certainly, there's a middle ground that should be reached, but everything I know about GC as a developer tells me that he's somewhat of a closed-minded ideologue. He isn't offering balance or insight here; he's offering Blizzard's corporate and creative dogma.
    Its called negative possibility space. Basically, when player go off from a path and want to explore it should be rewarded. It doesnt need to be something great. In example, mountaintop could have giant smile face made of rocks.

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