Thats right -- were in the process of sending 250,000 additional beta-test invites to Annual Pass holders. Keep an eye on your email and Battle.net account for an invitation to come test Mists of Pandaria with us.
As with previous waves, its going to take a while for the invites to process, so we recommend checking your games list in Battle.net Account Management to see whether yours has arrived yet. Once it does, youll see the Mists of Pandaria beta client available for download from there. We expect this entire wave to take a day or so to complete.
We appreciate the enthusiasm of everyone who signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, and were working hard to get you into the beta. We know youre excited to explore Pandaria and test the new content, and well keep you posted here in the forums when were ready to send out another wave.
Yesterdays 100,000 Annual Pass-holder beta-test invites ran through the night, and were still in the process of notifying the invitees by email. Those selected for yesterdays wave of invites should all have the Mists of Pandaria beta client available for download through Battle.net account management, and they should all receive the email notification by end of day today. If the beta client shows up for you in Battle.net account management, you dont need to wait for the email in order to download the client and begin testing.
Were off to a solid start with the beta test, and things are looking good in terms of realm stability, so were ready to invite another wave of Annual Pass holders. A second wave of invites is going out to 100,000 more Annual Pass holders today, starting right now.
If youre added in this or any subsequent wave, access to the beta client will show up in Battle.net account management as discussed above. Please check there today and tomorrow, as todays wave of invites will be processing throughout the day and likely into early tomorrow morning. Notification emails will also be going out, but again, no need to wait for the email if the beta client is available to you through Battle.net account management.
Hey, how about that landslide of Mists of Pandaria information? It has taken a few days, and will probably take a few more, for the nuance of everything to really sink in. One of the topics we've been getting lots of questions about is the crazy new loot model we're introducing in Mists. Weve answered several related questions in the forums, but thought it might be prudent to just put all the information in one place.
I should clarify that the systems were introducing are actually pretty simple in practice. Im only going into a fair amount of detail because those are the kinds of questions we are getting. You dont have to understand all the particulars to participate, and were certain that it will just all make sense once you are experiencing it in-game instead of hearing it described (that whole show, dont tell thing). Lets begin:
Personal Loot
Here is how looting works in todays Raid Finder groups:
The boss dies.
The game randomly decides which items off of the bosss loot table drop.
The group rolls Need, Greed, or Pass on each item.
If you were raiding with a group of friends, you might discuss who should get each item. Even if you ultimately lost, hopefully you are happy that a friend got an upgrade and that your group as a whole is now a little bit stronger.
But if youre in Raid Finder, you are quite possibly alone with a bunch of strangers.
So, if you can Need, you probably do, because theres no time for discussion, some of the rollers may be AFK, and even if you piss someone off, you arent likely to have to pay the social cost of doing so since youll never see them again.
The highest roll wins.
Drama ensues.
Heres how the new Raid Finder system will work in Mists of Pandaria:
The boss dies.
The game automatically decides who won some loot, and gives those players a spec-appropriate item.
Some players may still get mad, but hopefully they are mad at the laws of probability and not at the rest of the raid.
So, realistically, thats really all you need to know to understand how it'll play out in-game. For those looking for more detail, here's what's happening behind the scenes:
The boss dies.
Each player has a chance to win loot, independent of the other players.
For each player who wins loot, the game randomly assigns them a spec-appropriate item from that bosss loot table. This subset contains only items that the game (meaning the designers in this case) thinks are appropriate for your class and current spec.
Notice that you arent rolling Need or Greed. You dont have an option to Pass. The game just says Take this.
You cant trade this item, or that would defeat the purpose of removing the social pressure on groups of strangers. If you dont want the item, you are free to vendor, delete, or disenchant it.
The big difference here is that instead of kill -> loot -> roll, the new system uses kill -> roll -> loot. The loot is not determined until the winners are determined. Its all automatic, and youre under no obligation to pass or roll -- these choices no longer exist. The game decides who gets loot, not the players. The end. Nobody is going to be a callous jerk and take the item that you rightfully deserve. Nobody is going to try to talk you into trading an item to them because they are down on their luck and cant ever win a weapon. No DPS dude is going to ninja the tanking shield that you need for your guild to progress.
We understand some players are interested in off-spec or transmogrification loot, and we will consider future changes to the system to accommodate those desires. However, were not sure fundamentally that Raid Finder is the best avenue for acquiring that loot. You would either need to take it from another player who actually desires it for their main spec, or a conversation would have to take place to make sure nobody else needed it more than you do. In other words, you would have to stop people from just rolling Need whenever they could. Ive seen some suggestions that we allow an option for essentially Im happy to get loot beyond just what my main spec can use, and maybe thats the kind of approach we could take, but lets make sure the basic design works first. For now, there are other avenues, such as dungeons, faction gear, normal raids or older content to provide off-spec or cosmetic gear.
Here is a model Ive seen some people say they want:
The boss dies.
I get the exact item or items I want.
I never have to come back and kill this boss again.
I politely ask Blizzard when there will be new content for me to run.
I added that, somewhat tongue in cheek, to point out that the intent of the new system is not to make killing bosses or getting loot more efficient, or to let you choose buffet-style which items you get. We like random loot being random, as long as it isnt so frustratingly random that you stop enjoying the experience. The intent of the new loot system is really to relieve social pressure on a group of random and anonymous strangers. We think it is reasonable for groups of friends, such as the typical raiding guild, to have a discussion about how to divvy up loot. That discussion is a tried and true RPG tradition going back to D&D; or earlier. We dont think that is a reasonable expectation for Raid Finder, though.
The personal loot system will initially be used for Raid Finder and for world bosses. We want to use it for world bosses because we want it to be fairly easy to form PUGs to take down these bosses when they're up. If my raiding guild is about to take on a world boss, and some lonely hunter is asking to join the group (its always a lonely hunter, isnt it?), it would be nice to be able to bring him on without worrying about that jerk taking loot away from me or my friends. We want to foster a the more the merrier attitude with world bosses.
This is why its so important to us that the size of the group shouldnt matter. We dont want guilds to try to kill a world boss with the smallest number of players necessary in order to maximize loot per player. When everyone has their own chance at loot, why not make the group as large as you can? Note that you still have to be a member of the group that taps and kills the boss. We want to have a little bit of competition for world boss kills, especially between the Horde and the Alliance. We think that is part of the fun of world bosses; otherwise, why not just stick the gronn in a cave? (That sounds dirtier than I intended.) We dont want everyone in the zone to get credit just by lurking around. We want you to cooperate with other players, and were trying to remove barriers to cooperation by eliminating loot drama.
Bonus Roll
We have one other new system that will use part of the personal loot model. This is what we're calling the bonus roll.
Once upon a time, raiders had to invest a lot of time and effort every week preparing for a raid. This felt kind of cool in the abstract because it built anticipation, rewarded players who prepared for raid night, and otherwise just added a little more ceremony to the act of entering the dragons lair to seek glory and treasure. The reality is that you spent your time killing mobs to farm flask materials or gathering Whipper Root Tubers. The reality didnt match the fantasy and we eventually greatly minimized the need to farm consumables altogether. Of course, that led to another problem, as raiders would log on for raid nights, finish, and then have nothing to do the rest of the week. The bonus roll is intended to give those players something to do that is hopefully more enjoyable than grinding elementals or Blasted Lands boars. We want to see players out in the world doing stuff, and we want that stuff to be a little more interesting (if not downright fun) than farming mats.
The way it works is like this: We have two major Pandaren factions, the Elders and the Craftsmen. Completing daily quests and scenarios for each group earns you one of two currencies. The Craftsmen tokens are spent mostly on cosmetic items. The Elder tokens are spent mostly on power items. The intent here is to let players who want some optional content to be able to devote time to both Craftsmen and Elders, while more min-max focused players or players who dont want such a time commitment can stick to Elders. The Elder tokens can be used to purchase head enchants, some nice purple items, and the kind of gear youve come to expect from factions. However, they also sell an item called a Charm of Good Fortune. Imagine you can complete a quest once a week to buy one Charm for 25 Elder Tokens. You also might be able to save up a few charms, but you wont be able to hoard them until the next tier of content.
If you have one or more Charms of Good Fortune, then whenever you kill a raid boss (in Raid Finder, normal or heroic) then a new UI window will pop up asking if you want to spend your Charm on a bonus roll. If you click yes, then youll instantly get another shot at that bosss loot table! You will always win something from the bonus roll, such as a pile of gold, gems, or flasks. However, you also have a small (but not miniscule) chance of receiving a piece of epic loot. As with the personal loot system, the item will always be something designed for your current spec. Also, just as with personal loot, the game doesnt analyze if you already have the item, if the item would be an upgrade for you, or if you prefer axes to swords or anything like that.
Most importantly, winning a bonus roll has no effect on what other players win on their bonus rolls or what the boss drops normally. If you have saved up several Charms (this will probably happen when you play but dont raid every week) then you can use one per boss, but you cant cash in multiples on a single boss kill. If you want to save up all of your Charms for the final boss because he (or she in the case of the mantid raid) drops weapons or whatever, that is your prerogative, but youll only be able to spend one per kill. If you want to save up your Charms for heroic bosses, go for it.
Here is an example of per-person loot and the bonus roll in action:
Stan is a death knight.
Jim Bob is a warrior.
Naomi is a hunter.
The three friends run Raid Finder together and tackle Mogushan Vaults. They get matched with a bunch of random folks from across their region. On the fourth boss, the Council of Kings, the game decides that Jim Bob wins an item. Jim Bob is a Fury warrior, so the game is either going to give him a two-handed Strength axe or a Strength bracer, because those are the two Fury-appropriate items on the Council of Kings loot table (in this theoretical example). Regardless of what Jim Bob wins, Stan might also win the same items. Naomi wont ever be offered those items, because they arent appropriate hunter loot. If she had gotten lucky and earned loot for the kill, it would have been hunter appropriate.
Lets say Naomi is frustrated because Bob and Stan both won loot and because the trinket she wants wont ever drop. So, she decides to use a Charm of Good Fortune. Lets say she gets lucky and the game decides that she won an item instead of gold, flasks, etc. (Thanks, game!) She might get the trinket she wants, or she might get an Agility neckpiece that is also on the Council of Kings loot table. Her winning an item doesnt affect Stan or Jim Bob or anyone else, even if they use their Charms as well.
Okay, were almost done here, but I did want to mention two other relevant changes.
Area of Effect Looting
Yes, we are doing area looting. After killing a group of enemies, you may have a bunch of corpses lying around (perhaps because you went all Bladestorm on a bunch of hozen). If you loot one of the corpses, the loot window will include items from all of the nearby corpses for which you have loot rights. Some recent games have incorporated a similar feature, and its one of those things that players just want in their MMO these days. Its already in and it works fine.
The Future of Valor
The second change I want to mention is that we plan to adjust the role of Valor points. Valor (or the various other names that the currency has had over the years) was originally added to WoW for two reasons: it helped to mitigate really bad luck, for those times when the boss just refused to drop the item you wanted, and it helped encourage players to stay with the group even if they didnt need anything off the next boss.
Over time, we have felt like Valor has taken on too prominent a role, to the point that it risks becoming more important than actual boss loot. This is particularly the case when the tier sets are available on the Valor vendors. We think killing dragons and ransacking their hoard is more epic than shopping at the magic armor store, so we want to shift back toward boss kills being the primary source of epic PvE gear.
In Mists of Pandaria, Valor will be used to power a new feature that allows you to increase the item level of your existing epic items. This means that each week, you can become a little more powerful, hopefully allowing you to kill that boss that has eluded you thus far. There will be a bit of a game in trying to decide when to upgrade your gear versus hoping for a new piece to drop from a raid boss, but our plan is that even heroic gear can be upgraded slightly in this way.
We wont allow you to upgrade Raid Finder gear so much that it becomes better than normal gear, but imagine if you can increase your item level by around eight points. At this time, we're thinking there wont be gear on the Valor vendors at all, but well see how that shakes out. Valor will come primarily from dungeons (including challenge modes) and scenarios. You might earn a little from daily quests and raiding as well, but that wont be as efficient.
Final Thoughts
Thats a lot of information to absorb all at once I know, and Im sure it will lead to dozens of questions. It'd be more helpful to us if you were to focus your discussion on how things will feel, and the basic rules of the system, instead of immediately leaping to the conclusion that youve figured out some exploit and ergo the whole thing is doomed to failure. Weve stitched up a lot of the egregious loopholes already and the system is a little more complicated behind the scenes than I figured was worth getting into here.
Check it out in beta if you get the chance. Let us know how it feels. We have time to iterate and refine this stuff. Good luck on getting the loot you want, too. . .but not too quickly.
Greg Ghostcrawler Street is the lead systems designer of World of Warcraft. The first epic item he can recall getting was the Drillborer Disk.
Comments in this blog have been disabled to focus the conversation and feedback. Please use this forum thread if you'd like to discuss this article. Thank you.
Well ok, I'm a few weeks late, since it has started already. Mog Madness is a transmogging event that is being sponsored by Amateur Azerothian, Tome of the Ancients, and Effraetis RP. They'll be doing a total of five rounds for different sets of transmog, each round having it's own specific rules. The first round focused on original cloth outfits.
The results for Round One have been posted as well as the rules for Round Two. You can't enter at this point but you can see some fantastic transmogging. So follow the next few rounds and cheer on your favorite XMogger!
The winners for Round Two will be announced April 1st. Judges, are you suuure that's a good idea?
Well the beta is at least. You know, that one for the new expansion that will be coming out later this year? Mists of Panderia? Blizzard announced last week that the beta was now live and that email invites had been sent out.
So we're getting down to the nitty gritty. Beta is the start of the end. It's been months since the concept for the new expansion was announced and now we get to see some of those concepts put into action.
Don't have beta? Want to check out MoP? Well year subscribers will be recieving invites at some point during the beta. You can also opt-in to beta for a chance to be selected. Good luck and enjoy test driving that Panda! Err.... Panderan.
Aftering being disabled for a time the Scroll of Resurrection has been turned on once again, this time with some fabulous new perks! What do you get? A faction specific flying mount. What does your friend get? Free play time, free experience, free character transfer and free Cataclysm!
As a part of our post mortem series on Cataclysm, we sat down with World of Warcraft Lead Encounter Designer Scott Daelo Mercer to hear his thoughts on Cataclysm dungeons and raids.
Q. What were your main goals going into Cataclysm?
We really wanted to make sure we were creating new challenges, strong mechanics, and cool creatures while staying true to the expansion and the themes we wanted to carry out. The three raid dungeons came out well and we had a lot of fun bringing the story of Nefarian and the Twilights Hammer to life. We were also able to add some dynamic mechanics in Throne of the Four Winds, which featured players moving across multiple platforms.
Q. How did this evolve over the various content patches?
ZulGurub and ZulAman were entertaining raids with diverse mechanics, and they translated well when we converted them into Heroic dungeons for patch 4.1. Interesting mechanics and features that once were restricted to raids are now finding their way into our five-player dungeons.
Adding the Dungeon Journal in patch 4.2 was also a major step forward. We wanted to be able to share more information in the game so that players wouldnt feel the need to go look everything up on external websites. While those sites are great at what they do, we felt like we needed to try to alleviate the need to go out of the game to find the information players wanted to see.
The addition of Raid Finder in patch 4.3 also opened up more opportunities for players to be able to experience our raid content. The feature has proven to be extremely popular, and not just with people who had given up on raiding. Many players use Raid Finder to gear up their secondary characters, gain Valor for the week, or just because its fun.
Q. What do you think worked best?
Weve been reasonably successful with our tuning across all four raid difficulty modes. There were a few warts here and there, but we delivered on the idea that 10-player and 25-player raids could exist at a similar difficulty. We also had some memorable dungeons and cinematic moments in Cataclysm. Im particularly fond of the interactive bombing run in Grim Batol involving the red drakes. Players really got a sense of the epic scale of Grim Batol, and how well they performed in the event could make clearing the rest of the dungeon much easier.
With our improved tools and the experience weve gained over the years, weve become better at finding ways to explain the mechanics of our encounters. Our bosses do a better job of warning players of incoming threats. In Dragon Soul we also began to better inform players of mechanics that caused them to die. Providing a better understanding of the encounters to players is an important goal. We feel that losing to a boss and not understanding why is frustrating, just as beating a boss and not understanding why you won is not as satisfying.
Q. What didnt work out as planned or expected?
Initially, we started off the Heroic dungeons at too high of a difficulty. The difficulty level rather abruptly changed when compared to the Heroics players experienced at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. This major change caught many players off guard, and frustrated some of them. The difficulty also increased the effective amount of time required to complete a dungeon to a longer experience than we wanted. With the release of patch 4.3 were now in a much better place. Weve always talked about being able to complete a dungeon over lunch, and the Hour of Twilight dungeons get us back to that goal. End Time, Well of Eternity, and Hour of Twilight all provide epic play experiences to our players, but at the real sweet spot of difficulty, complexity, and time commitment.
Q. Was there anything that surprised you about how players reacted to a particular encounter?
Not particularly. Something weve learned over the years is to expect the unexpected. The community is very creative and intelligent. The most important thing for us is that players are having fun. They often find interesting ways of approaching things that maybe we didnt expect, but as long the creative solution is still fun for everyone, we usually dont have a problem with it.
Q. What have you learned from Cataclysm and what are some of your top goals for Mists of Pandaria?
We learned we could create a crazy encounter like the Spine of Deathwing. It took a lot of hard work from the whole team and it was a difficult design challenge to tackle. How do you orchestrate a fight on the back of a gigantic flying dragon without inducing nausea? How do we make sure you feel like youre on Deathwing? Delivering that experience was really important and everyone wanted the opportunity to work on it. What was really great was that we launched the story of Cataclysm with the cinematic that showed Deathwing having his elementium plates being put on, then we end the expansion with those very same plates being torn off. It gives some real closure to storyline.
For Mists of Pandaria, we will continue to provide new dungeons and raids while also presenting interesting new types of content in the form of challenge modes and scenarios. Players will also be introduced to new enemies in the Sha, Mogu, and Mantids. Making those creatures come to life will be a lot of fun.
Q. Do you have a favorite dungeon or encounter from Cataclysm?
There are so many. The Conclave of Wind was a great one. Working out interesting mechanics that allowed players to go from platform to platform was a lot of fun and the environment felt really epic. A fight like that was a goal of the encounter team for a very long time.
Blackwing Descent was another favorite and working out the mechanics for the Atramedes fight gave us a lot to think about. How do you create an encounter with a blind dragon that fights? So we gave him sonar and showed the interaction with a sound meter on the players UI.
In Bastion of Twilight, we really got to sell the corruption angle on Chogall which made for another really interesting fight.
Q. Is there a certain mechanic that you always wanted to do but couldnt do prior to Cataclysm?
Not really. There are so many cool ideas to work with that I never feel held back. Its easy to be creatively inspired by the people around you and their energy. Its never a problem of coming up with ideas. Its usually deciding which ones we want to go with next, but the possibilities are endless.
Q. Do you have a dream dungeon or encounter that youd like to create if you had the opportunity?
Ive never felt that I havent been able to do the things I want to do. Everyone on the team is completely dedicated to giving us unlimited opportunities to make epic and awesome experiences. But, if I have to mention something, it would be huge giant death robots. We had Mimiron in Ulduar, but you just cant have too many death robots.
World of Warcraft" isn't just for nerds and Mr. T -- it's also great for older folks.
TG Daily and other outlets have discovered a study in the journal Computers in Human Behavior that found older adults who played the online game saw their cognitive skills improve.
Researchers split 39 men and women between the ages of 60 and 77 into two groups. One group played "World of Warcraft" and the other didn't. Compared to the control group, some who played the game showed improved focus and spatial orientation.
The difference was especially clear amongst those who scored poorly before playing the game.
"We chose World of Warcraft because it has attributes we felt may produce benefits - it is a cognitively challenging game in a socially interactive environment that presents users with novel situations," Dr. Anne McLaughlin, an assistant professor of psychology at North Carolina State and co-author of a paper on the study told TG Daily.
Unfortunately, Health News Daily notes that playing "World of Warcraft" didn't seem to help participants' memory.
This isn't the first time gaming has seemed to help older people. According to a survey by Saga, one in 25 people over the age of 50 play Nintendo's Wii Fit game, which could provide some fitness benefits (though the researchers from Michigan State University point out that the benefits are not as great as a traditional workout.)
Take to the skies with the luminous dragon known as the Heart of the Aspects. Born of the radiant energies of the Dragon Soul artifact, this mount flies as fast as your riding skill will take you and, once purchased, applies to all present and future characters on a single World of Warcraft license.
Visit the Pet Store today and fly home with the Heart of the Aspects.
http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=c:5,c:33
Were pleased to announce a partnership with USAopoly to release fresh takes on two classic board games. Monopoly®: World of Warcraft® and RISK®: StarCraft® combine tried-and-true foundations with new designs and gameplay elements inspired by our popular gaming universes. Those who dare to engage will discover a new chance to claim supremacy, both over their friends and over the battle-torn lands of Azeroth and the Koprulu Sector.
These games will formally debut at the 109th annual Toy Fair this Sunday, February 12 in New York City.
Were holding a poll on Facebook right now where you can vote on which player pieces will make it into the final Monopoly: World of Warcraft board game! Ten options, including Murky, Chens Keg, Mechagnome, and a Spellbook are present, and the six most popular pieces will be represented in the game when it launches this May.
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/4452529
http://pc.gamespy.com posted:I'm paraphrasing here, but Blizzard's response when it learned Valve trademarked "DOTA" in August 2010 was, "Not cool." A year-and-a-half later, Blizzard has evidently realized that politely expressing mild disappointment wasn't enough to dissuade Gabe Newell and company. Hence, this news: Blizzard has filed a Notice of Opposition against Valve's DOTA trademark and is seeking full control of all things Defense of the Ancients -- but Valve isn't giving up without a fight.
Rock Paper Shotgun directs us to Blizzard's DOTA legal filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which was submitted on November 16, 2011. In presenting its case, Blizzard outlines how the original Warcraft III mod first came about and argues that all things made in the game's World Editor are property of Blizzard as per its EULA.
"At all times, the DotA Mods have been marketed, advertised, and promoted as Warcraft III scenarios that require purchase and installation of Warcraft III and knowledge of Warcraft III's gameplay mechanics, user interface, and on-screen display," Blizzard states. "The fact that the DotA Mods are 'mods' of Warcraft III and that to be played the user must first purchase Warcraft III is well-known and well-publicized throughout the United States and the world."
And while Blizzard previously whimpered that Valve's DOTA trademark "just doesn't seem the right thing to do," it is using a bit more stern language in its legal filing.
"Valve [trademarked DOTA] for the purpose of appropriating Blizzard's goodwill in the DOTA Marks and in order to confuse consumers as to Blizzard's sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of Valve's products... Valve has no rights in or to the DOTA mark."
According to the USPTO, Valve filed its response to Blizzard's Notice of Opposition on December 22nd. In its filing, which is actually a slightly humorous read, Valve repeatedly admits that yes, Blizzard made Warcraft III, and yes, DOTA sprang from a Warcraft III mod, and yes Valve is a videogame developer and publisher... Valve then states that none of it means Blizzard has exclusive rights to the DOTA brand.
"Valve denies the use of DOTA marks by Valve and its predecessors in interest is under license from or for the benefit of Blizzard." That's legalese for "tough cookies."
What's next? As outlined by the USPTO, the lengthy discovery and disclosure process begins on the 24th, and runs through July 23. If the case continues past that point, the full process is scheduled to run through February 3, 2013.
And how about Valve's in-beta DOTA 2 and Blizzard's in-development Blizzard DOTA? At this point, it appears it will be one or the other. And if injunctions start flying around, things could get more contentious than a five-on-five multiplayer online battle arena fight.
Players across Azeroth have recently embraced a new, very personal achievement: leveling a character "Iron Man" style. What started out as only a small movement, this bare bones, no-frills style of play has now transformed into a community-wide call-to-arms known as the Iron Man WoW Challenge, inviting World of Warcraft enthusiasts to see how close they can get to level cap with only the barest of necessities.
The goal of the Iron Man WoW challenge is simple: reach level 85. The catch, however, is that you must accomplish this task without the assistance of talents, class specialization, stat-improved gear, professions, buffs, item enhancements, or other players. And if you die? Well, then its back to square one.
Here are some of the latest rules, courtesy of Selenagnomez Kil'jaeden:
THE BIG ONE: If you die, EVER, that character is removed from the challenge.
Gear Rules:
1) No heirlooms.
2) No items equipped other than White or Gray items (except bags)
3) No item enhancements -- enchants/spellthread/weapon chains/etc.
Consumable Rules:
4) No food buffs. Only white vendor-quality food & drink may be used.
5) No item buffs. No scrolls, elixirs, flasks, etc. (except Quest items).
6) No potions (except Quest items).
Spells & Abilities Rules:
7) You may train and use class abilities learned from trainers (including Rogue poisons).
8) No talent points/pet talent points.
9) No specialization. No glyphs.
Gameplay Rules:
10) No guild perks. If you are guilded, it must be a level 1 guild.
11) No questing groups. All combat must be soloed -- parties to trade/portal/etc. are permitted.
12) No battlegrounds/arenas.
13) No dungeons/raids that reward experience. All leveling must be done out in the world.
14) No combat-enhancing addons (QuestHelper/Auctioneer/etc. are fine, use your own judgment).
15) No professions, primary or secondary, other than First Aid.
16) No sending gold/items from other characters*.
*You must earn your own gold/items via questing, looting, or trading/AHing.
Interested? Awesome! To sign-up for the Iron Man WoW Challenge and discuss your progress with fellow participants (once you get started), head on over to the official forums. Additional rules and details can also be found on the unofficial Iron Man WoW website, hosted and moderated by players like you.
A monsoon is coming. We will soon inundate you with Mists of Pandaria information, starting with the upcoming media event and everything that follows. Its going to be a very exciting time for World of Warcraft, and we are all super impatient for it to happen.
But were not quite there yet. I want to make that clear upfront, because this blog isnt directly Mists of Pandaria related. You wont find any announcements here, just a philosophical discussion that you may or may not find interesting. If youre looking for thrilling announcements, you know what Im going to say: Soon.
Multiple DPS Roles I said this blog isnt directly relevant though, because I want to discuss a topic that we did struggle with a lot during Mists development, and indeed through most of World of Warcraft. We have classes with multiple DPS specs, and for mage, warlock, hunter, rogue, warrior and death knight, there isnt even a melee vs. ranged distinction between those DPS specs. The question comes up all the time: what is the role of these roles? I dont think there is a right answer here, and weve even changed the design a few times over the last several years. Again, Im not couching this in terms of an imminent announcement or anything. This is fundamentally one of those designs that could go in a lot of different directions. Its something we discuss a lot, and we figured given the strong opinions of our forum-posting community, many of you probably do as well.
A paladin can choose from among specs that let her be a tank, melee DPS or healer, and can shift around which role she fills in a raid or BG team from week to week. Through the Dual Spec feature, she can even do so within a single evening. If her group doesnt need another healer, or if she needs a break from tanking, she can become a DPS spec fairly easily without having to swap to a different character. A warlock doesnt have that luxury. Yet, the warlock still has three specs. Is the idea, then, that you are supposed to swap from Destruction to Demonology and back depending on the situation? Is the idea that you play Affliction if you like dots and Destruction if you like nukes? Or do you just switch to whatever theoretically does 1% more DPS for the next fight?
Players are sometimes cavalier about throwing around the claim that theres a lack of design direction when they want their character buffed. Of course, classes always have a design direction; players just sometimes disagree with it. My point is that just because we debate whether the current design is the best possible one doesnt mean there isnt a design at all. That distinction is important. And of course, we do have a directive for which DPS spec you should play: whichever one you enjoy the most. But that doesnt mean that is the best model or that it cant ever change. There are other models we could try.
Model One Everyone is equal all the time
If your DPS and utility are the same across specs, then you just play whichever one you prefer. Maybe you like the kit of the Frost mage, or maybe you like the rotation of the Fury warrior, so you play them. As I said above, this has been the model we have used for a while now, with mixed success. The challenge is that all the time caveat. We can get all of the DPS specs pretty close together on target dummies, and indeed they actually are very close on target dummies today. Our encounters arent target dummies though. Having some adds increases the damage of dot-specs. Having lots of adds increases the damage of strong AE specs. Having to move on a fight, and how often and far you have to move, can cause DPS to go up or down differently. Even if DPS is only off by a few percentage points, many players will respec to the one with the highest DPS (even if its theoretical, even if for them they will do lower personal DPS than if they had stuck with a more familiar spec). A mage who just loves Fire might be frustrated if he ever has to go Arcane, while another player might be happy that he gets to try different specs for different fights.
The class stacking weve seen on the Spine of Deathwing encounter relates to the need for massive burst damage in a specific window, such that the difference between a one minute DPS cooldown and a two minute DPS cooldown matters. Even if we could make sure every spec had the same AE vs. single target damage, do we now need to also ensure every spec can do the same DPS in burst windows of various lengths? Is that even mathematically possible? Or do we just test every spec for every raid encounter of the current tier and tweak class mechanics around for whatever is the current status quo? That implies a high rate of change, and I wonder if wed lose a little bit of the fun of experimentation and theorycrafting if it was basically accepted that you could take any spec to any fight and do about the same damage. Its more balanced, yes, but does it lack depth or flavor? Is it fun?
Model Two Everyone has specialties and you match the spec to the situation Under this model, we would establish spec specialties. For example, Arcane could be good for single-target fights while Fire is great at AE fights. Some of that design already exists in the game, but we try not to overdo it. If you really like playing one mage spec, or really detest constant spec swapping, then this model isnt going to be to your liking. Furthermore, we dont want to overstrain our boss design by having to meet a certain quota of AE vs. single target fights and movement vs. stationary fights and burn phase vs. longevity fights or whatever. It is also really hard to engineer these situations in Arenas or Battlegrounds (for example, both mobility and burst are extremely desirable in PvP), so in those scenarios there still may just be one acceptable spec.
Model Three You swap specs to gain specific utility If we used this model, then you might switch out to a different spec to gain a specific spell. Again, we have some of this today. A DK might want Unholys Anti-Magic Zone for a certain fight. Hunters might go Beastmaster to pick up a missing raid buff. Mages might go Fire for situations where Combustion shines. Druids might go Balance when they need the knockback from Typhoon. A little of this sort of thing goes a long way though. As in Model One, not every player wants to have to swap specs. If you just like Survival, you might resent having to go BM just to buff someone. If knockbacks are too potent, then it really constrains your raid composition and makes even casual guilds feel like they need to keep a stable of alts or benched players for every fight. If, for example, there wasnt a boss in the current raid tier for which warrior abilities really shine, then warriors start to feel like a third wheel, yet trying to make sure every boss in a tier has a moment for every spec to shine is a pretty daunting task.
The extreme case of this is the utility spec who does middling DPS, but brings a lot of synergy and utility that improves all of the other specs. This was the Burning Crusade model, where classes like shaman and Shadow priests were brought to raids just to make the pure classes (and warriors, who were always treated as pure classes back then for some reason) do better DPS. In Lich King, we changed the design to make different raid buffs and abilities more widespread and give groups much more flexibility in their raid (and to some extent dungeon) comps. We heard from Shadow priests that they wanted to do competitive damage, not just be there to make everyone else more awesome. But even today we get a lot of requests to improve the utility of someones spec so that they are more likely to get invited to a group.
Model Four There is just a best spec for PvP and PvE This was the model of vanilla World of Warcraft, and we understand some players wouldnt mind it returning. In this model Arms and Frost and Subtlety (and other specs) were designed to be good for PvP, while others, Fury and Fire and Combat perhaps, were designed to be good for PvE. The PvP specs might have better mobility or survivability or burst damage, while the PvE specs have better sustained damage over the course of a 6-10 minute boss fight. A lot has changed since vanilla. We dont make many raid or dungeon encounters these days where DPS specs can just stand in one place and burn down a boss. Mobility, survivability, and burst damage can all be really useful on particular encounters, sometimes trumping the higher DPS offered by a competing spec. (Theres that old adage that dead do zero DPS.) In addition, if there is a PvP spec and a PvE spec, then for pure classes that implies that your third spec lacks much of a role. (The good leveling spec? Is that exciting?) Furthermore, our Mists of Pandaria talent tree design explicitly takes away some of the tools from the traditional PvP specs and makes them available to other specs in the class. If this works out, then you can take your Frost mage raiding, or have an Arcane mage for PvP who uses some of what traditionally were Frosts control and escape tools. Thats great if you PvP and love Arcane, or PvE and love Frost. Its less cool if you were the kind of player who was totally comfortable with the simpler (and possibly easier to balance) design of having dedicated PvP vs. PvE specs.
Model Five Dont have multiple DPS roles This is the most controversial model and the one that would require the most change, meaning we are almost certainly never going to do it. For sake of completeness though, you can argue that classes never should have been designed with multiple specs that fill the same role. In this model, either Arms or Fury goes away and gets replaced with something. (Archery? Healing?) Warlocks and other pure classes would need a massive redo to end up with say a melee and tanking warlock. Everyone becomes a hybrid. The hardest decisions becomes whether you want to be the ranged or melee DPS version of your class (like druids or shaman). This idea is elegant from a design perspective because it un-asks all of those questions about how much more damage pure classes should do than hybrids to justify their narrower utility. But, perhaps counter-intuitively, elegant designs often arent the strongest ones (I could write a whole blog on that topic alone). Model Five is the kind of rhetorical question you could go back in time and ask before WoW launched, but not the kind of thing we could change today without taking an enormous amount of effort, to say nothing of the irate players who would feel bamboozled that we were so dramatically changing their character out from under them. I try to never say never, but this model isnt the kind of change you make in a mature game. Its here only for completeness and because I suspect some of you will bring it up.
But Which is the Best Model? Hell if I know! I fundamentally believe that none of these models is, without question, the obvious right one. All of them have advantages and disadvantages, and there are probably other models you could come up with that are variants on these five, or perhaps even something new. Like I said, were not announcing a philosophy change yet. If we get enough feedback for one model or another, we might eventually change our minds. Also for this blog were going to lock the comments and ask that you post your replies in this forum thread. Just remember that even we dont believe that there is one correct answer, so please keep that in mind when youre composing your feedback.
Greg Ghostcrawler Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft and holds the world record Wild Strike crit at least until beta starts.
After the instance is cleared, Crimson Lifebinder now resurrects the non-player characters at Wyrmrest Temple, and they are fully functional.
Ultraxion
The event leading to Ultraxion now requires 15 Drakes killed, down from 24.
Events
Love is in the Air
Players are now able to receive Lovely Charms while on the quest "Test Your Strength", when the player's inventory has both the Darkmoon Adventurer's Guide and Lovely Charm Collector's Kit.
Players now have the chance to receive both the Lovely Charm and Grisly Trophy from a single kill.
Lunar Festival
Elder Dawnstrider now spawns farther away from nearby Flame Crest mobs.
Items
Maw of the Dragonlord should now have its effect triggered by healing from Holy Word: Sanctuary.
Windward Heart should now have its effect triggered properly by Healing Rain.
February 2
General
Mass Dispel should once again dispel up to 10 friendly or enemy targets.
Resilience should now properly reduce the damage over time effects for targets affected by Mind Control.
Dungeons and Raids
Dragon Soul
Lord Afrasastrasz no longer offers the option to disable the Power of the Aspects buff in Raid Finder mode.
The Spine of Deathwing
Corrupted Bloods should no longer maintain threat after reconstituting themselves from residue.
Events
Darkmoon Faire
Soothsayer's Runes and A Treatise on Strategy should now drop from all appropriate Heroic and raid bosses.
Murozond's Temporal Cache now has a chance to contain Monstrous Egg and A Treatise on Strategy.
Quests and Creatures
Players who inadvertently disconnect during Tailgunner! should now find themselves able to complete the quest.
Baby Crocolisks have been given tiny teething rings, and Tiny Teeth! should no longer transfer to other players.
Players should no longer encounter any invisible Young Crocolisks during the quest The Pit of Scales.
Items
Cunning of the Cruel will now trigger its Shadowbolt Volley approximately three times as often, but will deal approximately one third as much damage. This results in the tooltip for the item being incorrect, but should moderate its burst damage in PvP.
Battle.net Balance is now live! As we announced previously, Battle.net Balance is a new feature that gives players an alternate way to purchase Blizzard digital products and services directly through their Battle.net accounts. Players are now able add to their Battle.net Balance using a variety of payment methods, and then use that balance toward select Blizzard Entertainment digital products and services, such as World of Warcraft realm transfers, character name changes, and other paid services; as well as digital versions of select Blizzard games, including Diablo II and StarCraft II. In the future, players will be also able to use Battle.net Balance for the digital World of Warcraft Battle Chest and WoW digital upgrades and to purchase digital products through the online Blizzard Store, including World of Warcraft game-time codes and Pet Store pets and mounts. In addition, with the upcoming launch of Diablo III, players will have the option to use Battle.net Balance to buy and sell items in the games currency-based auction house.
Love is in the Air and it smells like achievements! Don't forget to check out Rill's Fool for Love guide for an walkthrough of this holiday's achievements!
So I finally managed to dodge the angry barrage of 2k+ rated rogues running vial and hit 2.2k. The problem is I am currently too scared to que because of the shear amount of vial trinkets out there and the possibility of running into legendary daggers.
I have never been this scared in my life, I haven't played arena in over 2 weeks. I am currently having nightmares of rogues opening on me and killing me. It's not only rogues who keep me away from arena, Hunter/Melee cleaves are almost equally as scary. I like arena, I just dislike dying in openers. I dislike dying in openers so much that I can't even arena anymore. In WOTLK I never had this problem because it was actually balanced around that burst meaning people couldn't just rush in and spam CC and get a kill without risk of getting counter globalled. Cata burst is not intended therefore not prepared for meaning it's just plain stupid and gives unfair advantages to one side who can rush in and spend 30 second on CC people while being immune to damage and CC.
I don't really know what to do with myself. I have just been telling my partners I don't feel like arenaing but I think they might kick me off the team soon. I tried raiding I've just cleared 8/8 and it's getting a little boring. There are no real changes to fix anything in 4.3.2 except the vial nerf, but rogues still do crazy damage without vial.
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Vaeflare replies:
As you already mentioned, in the upcoming patch there is a change to Vial of Shadows that should reduce some of the burst damage you are experiencing in PvP.
Dying in openers certainly isn't fun, and can be incredibly frustrating if you're the one on the receiving end of such a coordinated attack, but don't give up! In addition to perhaps taking some time to focus on other activities such as Rated and unrated Battlegrounds where you have more people to watch your back, you might also consider browsing some PvP videos from other members of the community to not only help inspire you, but to also arm you with a further arsenal of tactics that you can use to your own advantage against opposing teams.
Also, from my own experience, when I was having a lot of trouble against a certain class or spec that I felt countered my usual tactics, I found it helpful to sometimes grab a friend that played that class and spent some time dueling them so that they could critique me on areas where I could improve my skills, including my timing on using certain abilities, and how I could counter some of their own tactics. That way when I stepped back into arenas, I was more confident in my own skills and felt better-prepared for how to expose the weaknesses of my enemies.
Keep at it, and remember there are players out there equally as scared to see you step out onto the Arena floor. :)
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One of our upcoming goals in Mists of Pandaria is to make the gap between the overall DPS/healing of both PvE and PvP items smaller. In fact, we have design plans for new PvP combat mechanics that will make PvP gear and weapons markedly better in PvP than equivalent level PvE gear and weapons.
The overall goal is to reduce the barrier for crossing between PvE and PvP (and vice versa), as well as to also ensure that PvP gear is the best in PvP, and PvE gear is the best in PvE.
More details on these upcoming changes will be posted as they become available.
Regardless of anyones rankings past or present, the process of learning and striving to improve never stops: it helps even the most battle-hardened gladiator remain able to go toe-to-toe with their fiercest opponents.
In team-based combat such as Arenas, pressuring an enemy in order to go for a kill or striving to protect your comrade from being the brunt of a focused assault are part of the experience, no matter what classes are driving to get the job done. Most matches are an incredibly complicated dance between combatants: a push and pull of offensive and defensive tactics, of coordinating switches, interrupts, dispels, crowd control, and of learning when to use your particular cooldowns or abilities, and when to change your tactics on the fly. Depending on who you ask, what class they are, what brackets they are in, and what team compositions they run, you are likely to get a totally different answer as to what particular class gives them the most trouble at any given time.
As far as the current balance of various classes: its something we are, as always, keeping a close watch on. We welcome you to post constructively about your observations in the appropriate threads, and the more focused and on-topic you can keep it, the better.
While it's not possible to address every individual thread or concern of the community, rest assured we are listening, regardless if you see us post within a particular thread or not.
Yeah it's a bit disappointing because we all really do enjoy being able to 'open the doors' so to speak. But, it is an enormous effort by all employees, including our game designers and artists, not to mention customer support and quality assurance, PR, our business departments, and *hot breath on fingernails & shirt rub* Community & eSports to make a BlizzCon happen. In a year when we're working to release multiple titles (knock on wood) it makes sense to focus our efforts. Also with multiple game releases we just wonder if we'd be at a point with any of them where we'd have anything really big or new or cool to talk about.
We didn't have a BlizzCon in 2006 either, and at that time we were really strong on the idea that BlizzCon isn't really supposed to be and doesn't have to be an annual event. Of course then we have it for five straight years in a row... which obviously built some expectation.
Personally I always enjoy seeing the excitement, the rushing crowds, hearing the clicking of mice on the demo stations, and waiting in agony as the seconds countdown to an announcement and then the waves of emotion from the crowd that follow it. But thinking about our year and what we're trying to get done already without a BlizzCon, and having to think pretty hard about what we'd have to announce or demo, it just makes sense to me not to have one.
Here's to the Battle.net World Championship, it's going to be awesome, and to a bigger and better BlizzCon in 2013.
No less than four malevolent entities will adorn a special set of collectable drinking cups, available soon at ampm convenience stores. Beginning February 7, raiders of the Horde and Alliance can recount their victories over Azeroths most infamous villains as they sip their favorite fountain beverage from new new limited edition cups featuring Kiljaeden, Illidan, the Lich King, and Deathwing.
These are true collectors pieces, made only out of the best types of material from which polymer-based cups are typically forged. These four masters of evil may not have survived your sweet hand of justice, but they may just survive your dishwasher. For only $1.99 these cups will hold just about anything, from water or soda, to sand, rocks, or even other smaller cups!
Get a first look at the designs here.
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/form/ampm-cup/
You don't get much more charming than the Knitting Grandma, the surprise hit guest at last fall's BlizzCon 2011 WoW Insider Reader Meetup. Remember her? She charmed our staff and meetup guests alike with her dry wit and talk of Thunder Bluff-themed socks.
Today, we press forward from the warm, fuzzy territory covered by the Knitting Grandma with two window-rattling volleys in the battle against gamer stereotypes:
You don't have to be a granny to knit and play World of Warcraft. Even the author of Clique, the preeminent click-casting addon, gets his knit on.
Whether they knit or not, even grannies can be GMs. Of raiding guilds. Who've raided since original Molten Core. And top the DPS meters. Wielding Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest. (So yes, that does indeed qualify her to tell you kids to "GET OFF MY LAWN!")
Meet Marthazon, the 70-year-old GM of Spartans on Dalaran (US-A).
MarthazonMain character Marthazon
Guild Spartans
Realm Dalaran (US)
WoW Insider: Level 70 in real life -- and of course, GM of a raiding guild in game ... That's not a usual mix! Take us back to how you got started in this crazy WoW endeavor we all love.
Marthazon: I started playing the game on the Alliance side as Marthazon in January of 2005. I had played for about a month earlier as Horde in order to play with my daughter. She had an undead warlock. My daughter, who is 33, knew that I enjoyed the genre of swords and sorcery in literature and movies. I had read Lord of the Rings to my three children as a nightly ritual when they were young. She had bought World of Warcraft when it came out and kept nudging me to give the game a try because she "knew" I'd love it.
And obviously, you did! Coming into the game via grown children who play is a pretty common method of entry for older players, although most folks your age seem to stay on the casual side of things. How did you make the jump into raiding?
I joined Spartans at level 15, and I think that our GM at the time was at level 40 and the highest level in the guild at the time. We did every dungeon in the game as a guild, but our first venture in Molten Core hooked me on raiding. I really loved learning the fights, learning to figure out the most efficient and safest way to down each boss. At the time, the guild was using signups to fill the 40-man raids, and many raid nights we struggled and watched the time tick away before either filling our raid or cancelling the raid.
I turned to PvP when raiding slowed down or stopped. The fact that I managed to reach the PvP rank of Marshal prior to the first expansion says a great deal about the difficulties of filling a 40-man raid.
Marthazon in action
Old school! And now you're the GM ...
During The Burning Crusade, our GM found that he had too much going on in his real life to continue playing, and he passed GM to me in December of 2007. Suddenly I was responsible for enabling every player in the guild to meet their own raiding goals. An in-depth discussion between all officers led to the same conclusion: Move the guild to a set team format and maintain a roster of raiders able to commit to three nights a week. Acknowledge that real life is the more important factor for all players, and do not penalize players when real life prevents participation in the game.
Topping the meters That sounds like a pretty typical raiding guild, then -- nothing granny-style about that!
We raid three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday, and we end the raid week with the Monday raid. As I said, we raid with a set team slightly more than 25 players to hopefully cover players that need to post out. We try to hold to a 25-man raiding format but when we can't field 25 players, we are able to quickly form 10-man raids -- two 10-man raids, usually. We are recruiting and hope our future holds a third 10-man -- and give the 25-man raid a better chance at filling spots.
Our members all have my phone and text number, and they are good about keeping me informed about being able to play as I've scheduled them. I set the entire schedule up every month and adjust it as players call when they can't play. Working the schedule every day is the first thing I do in the morning. In addition to the Dragon Soul raids, we also play two ad hoc Fireland raids on the weekends, helping several other guild casters get their own Dragonwrath staffs.
What is the guild currently working on?
25-man Ultraxion; Spine of Deathwing and The Maelstrom in 10-man. The holidays cut into our raiding quite a bit, along with demands for overtime at many workplaces. With the economy so slow, many players relish the extra pay.
Oops
And on top of all that, we spy a Dragonwrath in your inventory -- congratulations! Tell us a little bit about the long road to achieving your legendary.
Dragonwrath was quite simply a gift from my guild. I only had to run around a pick up the various items while they killed or after they killed the bosses. The process of collecting the various items takes so long that it requires dedicated raiders willing to show up week after week to make those collections possible. The one solo part of the quest line -- the Nexus dungeon -- was amazingly fun to do, but nothing compared to the work the guild put in.
Now, your husband doesn't raid, so when do you get to play with him -- or do you?
We do dailies together, and we farm for those ever-needed mats that raids require. It is very rare that we miss a day of playing together. We play together mostly in the morning, logging off around noon. I might return in the afternoon for some randoms and those ever-needed valor points, but I also work at our family genealogy. Afternoons often have me playing, as their ads say, family detective at Ancestry.com.
When it comes to raiding, I like fielding dedicated, knowledgeable people that have that singular desire to figure out what the developers are throwing against us and how to most efficiently down the fight. My husband enjoys the storylines and leveling, but says he has no patience for raiding and the seemingly endless wipes.
Getting ready to raid
Sounds like a perfect blend. So has Marthazon always been your main? Do you play any significant alts?
Marthazon has always been my main. I do have alts -- I leveled most races and classes to enjoy their storylines and zones. I have a priest that I can raid at need for the guild when we are short healers. She's fun ... but she's not my mage. The others are only farming alts and taken down for a spin when I need some mats for something.
What's the average age of your guildmates, without considering you and your husband?
Average age is around 28 to 33. We have a number of husband/wife players and many with young children and several with children almost ready for college.
Do you find much of a generation gap in social interactions with your guildmates?
Not really. Now and then, someone will say something (especially in trade channel) that I don't quite understand ... I just ask in guild and someone will (usually with much laughter) tell me.
Probably the biggest generation gap I experienced was back when I was around level 40. I should paint in a bit of background first. When I first joined this guild, I was thrilled that so many of the other guildies -- the toons -- were women. I remember thinking that that held great promise for women being involved in technology. The day came when the guild was running Zul Farrak and one of the players, a female night elf, typed something out in chat that made me say in chat, "That sounds like something a man would say." The run came to a standstill as the other players took great pains to explain to me (with much leet laughter) that I was the only woman in the guild at that time and why they played female avatars.
Daily quests
Were you comfortable with computers before you started playing World of Warcraft, or has playing been an introduction to that world as well?
Computers have long been a part of my life. My father worked with early computers for the GSA as a data programmer after he retired from the Army in the '50s, and I've always been fascinated by the technology. My last job before retiring was computer tracking a large fleet of commercial trucks and their deliveries. I helped design the in-house program to track the data we needed to maintain, and I acted as the office IT.
When my children were toddlers, we bought a VIC-20 and a handful of text games -- you know, the kind where you get a clue like "The bear is sleeping in the clearing. What do you do?" The kids would offer suggestions, and I'd type each suggestion in until we got the right one and the game responded. Two of my children went into computer technology fields.
So you've been at this a good, long while! Is there anything in World of Warcraft you feel you're slowing down at or getting less efficient or effective at as you get older? Would you say that your age is affecting your game?
World of Warcraft is sort of like the French Foreign Legion of games when it comes to age. As long as you can do your part, it's rare for someone to ask "How old are you?" As long as I can maintain the same focus and the awareness that I want from other players, I feel that I can hold my own.
I'm not the oldest, by the way, in my guild. That honor goes to my husband, who is 72. He doesn't like to raid, however. He is our AH king, keeping our raiders in repair gold. WoW is an excellent and inexpensive recreational outlet for us old codgers. A lot less expensive than golf.
Marthazon at work
Fair enough! That said, what's the continued draw of World of Warcraft for you? What keeps you playing?
Living on a fixed income, World of Warcraft provides a lot of entertainment that is fun and affordable. At the same time the game doesn't require using the car, fighting traffic, crowds, or weather, buying tickets or paying fees. I have to think about what I am doing in game. I'm not a couch potato just watching a cartoon on the TV. Blizzard's work at keeping the game open-ended and providing new content keeps me coming back.
"I never thought of playing WoW like that!" -- and neither did we, until we talked with these players, from Game of Thrones' Hodor (Kristian Nairn), to a blind ex-serviceman and the guildmates who keep him raiding as a regular, to a man who plays as part of his battle against Alzheimer's disease. Know someone else we should feature? Email lisa@wowinsider.com.
Well ok, I'm a few weeks late, since it has started already. 
Love is in the Air and it smells like achievements! Don't forget to check out Rill's 
