Project Lore

It is with heavy hearts that we have come to the decision to close Project Lore.

Looking back at when Project Lore first started, we knew it was an ambitious plan. Creating the site, the videos, the blog, and everything Project Lore was an amazing adventure. When we launched the site, we received great feedback. The passion you all showed as fans kept us going and helped grow Project Lore to be a place for World of Warcraft players to enjoy the camaraderie of each other outside of the game. 

We've gone through a lot of changes in our time working on Project Lore. From the first crazy run through Hellfire Ramparts to our adventure through Naxxramas, from iZ3D to Squarespace, we've had a blast on this journey together.

All of us want to thank every fan out there for your support over the years. We'll see you in game!

Some of our bloggers wanted to let you know where you could find them in the future

Heartbourne: twitter.com/heartbourne

iTZKooPA: itzkoopa.com or twitter.com/itzkoopa

pixiestixy: twitter.com/pixiestixy

All this turtle wants to do, all day every day, is catch that stupid carrot on a stick.

One thing that constantly fascinates me about WoW is how everyone gets something different out of the game. Some of us really love raiding or running dungeons, others have fun hunting for achievements, some have a grand time playing the auction house, and for some players, questing and learning the lore is the optimal gameplay.

And depending on what we like to do, we tend to prioritize our limited gameplay time to fit in as many of our favorite aspects as possible. And because of the way that Blizzard has smartly created a focus on doing certain things once a day, whether that be for daily quests, your first random heroic, or trying for an achievement in a particular heroic. And because there are so many things that we can do once per day (per toon), that leads many of us to developing daily routines.

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I know a lot of other ladies, besides myself, who play WoW. I'm pretty good friends with many IRL, and I've also met a ton of talented ladies through my guild. But I don't often hear many stories about the women of WoW and how they're making an impact on the world we live in. That's why I perked up recently at hearing two fine examples of women who play WoW, and why they're shattering stereotypes on gamer girls and, more importantly, on the gaming industry as a whole.

The first story I came across on game designer Jane McGonigal doesn't deal directly with Warcraft (although she mentions WoW as one of her favorite games), but more on innovation in gaming and promoting the positive aspects that games can have on culture. Last week, McGonigal spoke on this topic at the TED 2010 conference (TED, a nonprofit organization, stands for "technology, entertainment and design"). The conference featured big-name speakers including Bill Gates, Jamie Oliver and Sarah Silverman. But it was McGonigal who drew my eye. Here's a brief interview CNN did with her:

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The titles that we choose to have emblazoned over our toons (or lack thereof) can say a lot about what kind of players we are. And it also can say a lot about who we are in terms of what captures our attention in-game.

Personally, I choose a title based simply on what I think sounds cool. I'm partial to Champion of the Frozen Wastes, Merrymaker, the Hallowed and, now that I've got it, the Love Fool. None of these were particularly difficult or time consuming, I just like the way they sound.

But that would be different if I had any of the five badass titles that we've previously written about (the previous list included The previous list included Salty, Loremaster, of the Nightfall, the Immortal and any arena title), or any of the other extremely rare and difficult titles out there (I'm looking at you, Kingslayer). Add to that list a plethora of other titles such as the Exalted and the Insane along with some now-unobtainable titles. Now any of those, I would wear proudly.

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My second career choice.

 I'll admit it, I did not level my priest from level 70 to 80 as holy.  The dual spec talent, while nearly pointless on my rogue, was too enticing for my priest.  So Solidsagart went to the dark side, literally, while making her way to the end game.  Since reaching level 80 she's done a complete 180, focusing solely on healing.  I've paid my dues (being blamed for everything), learned the ropes (let hunters/rogues die), and found out which responsibilities I like and don't like.

Being the critical person that I am I've realized how poorly designed the healing mechanics are right now.  The developers know there's an issue and plan to rectify the sitution in Cataclysm, a topic I've discussed, but meter epeen blinds many players.  Ghostcrawler summed the problem up nicely in a blue post from yesterday. 

"Now in general I wish there was a little more coordination among healers, but the current damage model we have just doesn't really allow it. I remember when tanking Molten Core, that the priest would say over vent "Big heal coming on the OT!" as he powered up a Greater Heal. You don't have that luxury these days. One of our designers was watching an old Illidan video recently and remarked how everyone was at 50% for so much of the fight. Now days someone is at 100%, will hit 100% in the next couple of GCDs, or will be dead. In that environment, you'd get "Big --" out of your mouth before it would be too late. Players need more health and heals have to be a little more expensive."

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After a roughly two-and-a-half month wait, BlizzCast 13 has finally been released. This episode (running time 52:09) is split up into two major parts, covering a little bit of everything:  

• Starcraft II Beta Special featuring: Rob Simpson (eSports), Dustin Browder (game director – StarCraft II), Chris Sigaty (production director -- StarCraft II)
• World of Warcraft and Diablo III Q & A featuring: Zarhym (World of Warcraft Community Manager), Bashiok (Diablo Community Manager)

Where Starcraft II is concerned, the team covers everything from how the beta helps them tune and balance the different races to Battle.net features and when we might first get our hands on the Galaxy Map Editor (hint: not until near the end of the testing phase).

Needless to say, the second half is of slightly more interest to regular Project Lore readers, as Zarhym and Bashiok cover a number of different questions culled from the community.

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Gosh. It feels like I've been talking a heckuva lot about Blues today, what with two special events planned for tomorrow and the Community Team mugging for a photo op with a pair of giant plushies.

Ryuzaaki clearly hadn't had his fill, calling an impromptu Q & A session on the official forums so that we could all learn a little bit more about our favorite Blizzard posters. His original post follows, with responses from several CMs after the break:

As a community many of us are familiar with those oh so elusive Community Managers who patrol these forums posting whenever they feel the urge. However, for many people not many know much more about them other than the blue name. The idea of this thread is to allow CM's to talk about themselves or allow the community to ask specific questions. 

So to get this started I'll ask a few of my own questions here: 

1. To many of us its known that Bornakk and Zarhym are actually close friends *and that they work right next to each other*. So to continue on that, when did you both first meet, and what were your first impressions that caused you to become such good friends? 

2. Where has Neth been? We miss you = (. 

The next few are in general towards any CM's. 

3. Many kids have the desire of working in a gaming field as they age, but did any of you truly expect to actually achieve such a career? If not what was your dream job as a child. 

4. As CM's you all maintain your own characters in game that you have played as fairly as everyone else. What has been your most humorous situation to happen in game? In regards to the fact that people may be rude to you and be completely oblivious that you are in fact the CM's on the forums? 

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Ever held a grudge against a Blizzard employee? Resented a class change? Sick and tired of lag? Been spurned by a Blue on the forums? 

Well, now you finally have a chance to enact revenge! If you can beat them at their own game, that is...

Sign up for the PTR, transfer a character or two, and download the latest build of Patch 3.3.3 for your chance to lock swords with members of the development team. The primary purpose of this special outing (available only on U.S. realms at the moment) seems to be testing out the new Random Battleground function. 

You may recall that the Blues conducted several similar sessions when testing the Dungeon Finder function for 3.3, which means that if you can't make it tomorrow (Friday, the 26th), there may be others in the near future. At the same time, this patch isn't nearly as large and will likely not have as long of a testing phase.

Either way, hit the jump for scheduling and the rest of the deets.

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I bet you read that expecting naked photos of Blizzard employees, didn't you? While I won't judge anybody out there who might actually have a fetish for that sort of thing (Ghostcrawler is sooooooooo dreamy!), I promise you that there is no scandal afoot. 

The U.S. Community Team just thought it would be a good idea to take a group photo at their home base (presumably somewhere in the dark halls of Blizzard HQ) and post it on the internet, under the pretense that they actually love us and adore dealing with all the crap we fans give them on the official forums on a daily basis.

Normally, this is where I'd post a complimentary photo to go along with the article, but since it's the main attraction here, I'm going to toss it in after the break, with some National Enquirer-quality analysis to boot (nothing too harsh I promise)!

Update: Several more photos of the Community Team playing around with the giant stuffed animals can be found on Warcraft's Facebook page.

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Boy, these things have been a bit of a crapshoot, haven't they? The first was plagued by terrible questions and neither has provided a wellspring of significant new information for us to chew on. This one appears to be no different, reported to focus on Icecrown Citadel and "other Fall of the Lich King content" (which is code for no Cataclysm, but maybe the upcoming minor content patches).

Instead, they tend to play out like an extended-form Q & A session with the absolute dregs of the official forum providing the inqueries (and considering all answers are posted there, as opposed to Twitter, it makes you wonder why they even bother in the first place).

And yet, they've proven sufficiently popular and it does provide an easy and convenient way for those members of the development team that don't spend their every waking moment dealing with trolls to get in touch with the community. Well, at least Cory Stockton. I'm pretty sure Ghostcrawler, who's slated to make an appearance, lives and breaths off the class forums like it was a symbiotic leech.

As usual, these things tend to be announced only a day or two before they actually happen, which makes tomorrow (Friday, the 26th, at 5:00 PM PST) the date to mark on your calendar.

For further details on how you can get in on the action, as well as a link to the previous Twitter developer chat, hit the jump. 

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