Project Lore

Ever since Blizzard went about the process of remaking Battle.net the company has kindly asked players to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with Battle.net.  As many of you may know, Battle.net is being completely revamped as the catch all account service for all of Blizzard's online-enabled products (WoW, Warcraft RTS,Diablos, StarCraft).  Version 2.0 of the system is supposed to launch alongside StarCraft II, a title that is now expected in the first half of 2010. To date, Blizzard has been enticing players to merge their accounts.  Claiming it'll make logging in easier, give you faster access for spamming for BlizzCon 2009 tickets, win Warcraft III games on its own and even make one immune to H1N1.  Yesterday the company stopped asking politely.  Now it's outright bribery. Or is it? The information that Heartbourne revealed yesterday has since been modified, the mentions of a penguin pet and the firm date since removed.  It's unlikely that Blizzard will back down.  After all, if the company did, it would have a mob of vanity pet lovers charging the building.  With Heartbourne and I at the helm. It's not like Blizzard to hand out a specific date to something.  Let alone do so and then take it back, but that's exactly what has happened.  We'll likely hear more about the pending merger requirement in the near future. I merged my WoW account long ago and haven't had a single issue.  There's been problems on and off, mostly login issues, but they have never affected me (/me knocks on skull).  How many of you have merged and joined the Big Brother system powered by Blizzard?  For those of you that haven't, is it out of laziness, or are you actually scared of bad things happening? Actually, Tobold just pointed something out to me.  By forcing us to use an e-mail account instead of an original login name, there's a good chance that your friends/family will now know your login name.  Worse yet, it'll be easier for nefarious beings to find it as well.  He explains his worries about the lower security via BNet merger here. *Note* I logged in during lunchtime and the launcher confirmed that all accounts must be merged to Battle.net by November 12, as previously reported.  Penguin will indeed be the reward for complying (to continue to pay Blizzard money).

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I have been obsessed with collecting non-combat pets recently. I've got quite a collection, and I'm hoping to round it out with more pets soon. Well, it sounds like we are going to have a new penguin friend very soon! Players who merge their WoW accounts with a Battle.net account will receive Oswald the penguin as a reward! This will come with the requirement to have a Battle.net account merged with your WoW account to play WoW, effective November 11. Note that these details are from the European WoW site and will almost certainly be applicable to US accounts as well. Battle.net is scheduled for a major revamp, and Blizzard seems to be preparing for that by getting their huge WoW player base onto the network. Soon, features like being able to friend accounts instead of just characters, account-wide achievements, and a single account for all Blizzard games will be reality. The ability to get the pet will likely be removed shorty after the mandatory merge date, as it seems to be an incentive to merge early to relieve stress on their servers on the cutoff date. Oswald used to be known as Mr. Chilly, which was a reward for Wrath beta players who merged their accounts to Battle.net accounts. He has not yet been obtainable on live servers, and it is unclear why he is now going by his first name. In addition, the existing penguin pet, Pengu, will have a slightly updated model that changes his red eyes to nice blue ones.

As well as Oswald, players will soon be mailed their Onyxia Whelplings for logging in on or around WoW's 5th anniversary on November 23. The EU WoW site's FAQ answers some questions on the details:

Q: What happens if I don’t merge my World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account? A: After November 12, 2009, you won’t be able to log in to the game unless you merge your account with a Battle.net account. You will need to log in using your Battle.net account username (your email address) and password. Q: How can I obtain the penguin pet? A: Once you’ve successfully merged a World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account, the penguin pet will be sent via in-game mail to all existing characters on the merged World of Warcraft account, along with all future characters on that World of Warcraft account. Players who merged previously will also receive the pet this way. Q: Do I need to merge by a certain date in order to receive the penguin? A: We plan to remove the ability to get the penguin pet at some point in the future, we haven’t determined exactly when just yet. Q: If I create a new World of Warcraft account, will I receive the pet? A: Only existing World of Warcraft accounts that merge with a Battle.net account are eligible to receive the penguin pet. If you create a new Battle.net account after November 11 and merge an existing World of Warcraft account with it you will still be able to receive the pet. However, please note that we plan to remove the ability to get the penguin pet at some point in the future.

Are you as pumped up as I am?

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Blue Stew is a new daily column bringing you a delicious concoction of developer news, thoughts, and opinions straight from the boiling pot that is the official World of Warcraft forums. The highlights of each day include additional commentary by Project Lore staff. What a long, long weekend, folks. I decided to take a little breather from WoW, myself, spending a little "quality" time with NCSoft's Aion, instead. I also gorged myself on snacks, caught up on True Blood Season 2, and felt sorry for myself because I couldn't attend PAX this year (but at least I didn't catch the swine flu!). What were you guys and gals up to? As for Blue Stew, I sincerely apologize about the lack of updates, but there was simply nothing to talk about. Labor Day, as it turns out, has nothing to do with going to work, so I imagine that a lot of Blizzard employees were off hanging with their families and friends instead of answering questions on the forums. Today seems no different, with a marked decrease in overall Blue activity. But I think we can find at least a couple of things to talk about from the WoW Europe community. The Availability Of AddOns? Vanera is either an extremely bored CM or he's not very good at veiling his questions. It didn't take more than three replies for someone to call him out on the poll he posted earlier in the day. Ceriulun posed the following:

"Would the question be: 'Would you like an official AddOn browser feature in the new Battle.net?' my answer would be 'Yes.'"

It was the first thing that came to my mind, as well. Blizzard's been sticking their paws in all sorts of honey jars lately, and though it's not quite the same thing, I can't help but think about the company's reactions to Warcraft-theme iPhone apps. Specifically, the way in which they systematically shut them down before releasing their own, comprehensive Mobile Armory software. Will an AddOn Browser join Cross-Game Chat as one of the new Battle.net features in WoW? Now, Blizzard has a pretty open policy towards AddOns. Occasionally, they've even seen fit to incorporate the functionality of popular ones into the basic UI (see: the failure of in-game voice chat and the recently-added Equipment Manager), so I don't think they're about to outlaw anything like that. Rather, a poll like this seems to target modding community sites like WoWUI or Curse Gaming. Some of the sites have even started releasing independent AddOn update clients, which may be verging on the edge of what's kosher with Blizzard and what's not (and they sound an awful lot like those iPhone apps in terms of out-of-game functionality). But, if you use these clients, I wouldn't start fretting just yet. Perhaps, like Ceriulun proposes, Blizz just wants to incorporate their own AddOn browser into the game. If they follow a model similar to what they plan to use for the StarCraft 2 community, that means that you can download and install add-ons from the in-game interface, they can be ranked for popularity and monitored for safety, and the ones that rise to the top could even begin to earn revenue for their creators. It certainly seems to fit with Battle.net's modus operandi of having everything you need in one place. As convenient as something like this might be, what do you think about Blizzard exercising that much control over AddOns? Open Letter To Blizzard: Thank You Illea's made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside with the following post:

I know I'm just one man in a sea of millions, and I may not be able to express myself fully, but I felt this need to share my love of the game. Hopefully it might serve as a reminder to some. =) I want to thank the people who work at Blizzard Entertainment and all the people who have made World of Warcraft what it is. Because it is truly an amazing game. I can't think of any higher praise than saying that, after several years, I still get excited thinking about it. Once I stop bringing my problems to the game and really *feel*. Listening to the soundtrack. The sheer magic. Makes me want to create a piece of art. But since I can't do that right now, I write! Anyway, I think many people have forgotten that. Most of all, playing it remains *fun*, beyond any doubt. You really nailed the basic elements that make the experience fun, and I'm very grateful that you paid attention to that process. Most of all, I trust you. I believe in your ability to make the choices that serve the game and its players best. To continue improving this game. Even in the face of criticism, I believe you have made and will make the right choices, and I respect your ability to make the unpopular ones. At the same time you manage to be down-to-earth with your players, you can really sense the life and love behind the game, websites, events, posters... Somehow you all seem like buddies. I know that there are many others who feel like me. Who think this is a game that keeps on giving. Heck, just the other day I decided to really take a walk in the Temple of the Moon, noticing myriad things I never noticed before - the music and imagining the space, and it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to really rediscovering content both new and old. It's a great feeling, giving yourself to the experience. Of course there will be problems and challenges as the game goes on, but if I were to trust a group of people to deal with it intelligently, it would be you guys. I know the future of the game rests safe in your hands. Thanks for being an inspiration.

D'awwwwwww... it's good to see some nice words used on the forums once in awhile. Next time you want to bitch or cry about something in the game that you think is unfair, just stop and remember why you still continue to play the game. Somewhere along the line, you had fun, and hopefully you still do. If there is one company that cares about its fans more than any other, it's got to be Blizzard. They just happen to have one of the most continually popular titles on the market right now, and it's nigh impossible to make all 11.5+ million players happy at once. Couldn't you give 'em a break? Today really is a bit of a bum day for news, but as usual, comments are appreciated. I'm especially interested to know what you think about a potential in-game AddOn browser!

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While focused primarily on its integration with StarCraft 2, the Battle.net panel revealed a number of service-based features that will also impact how we interact with our friends inside and outside of World of Warcraft. One of the key concepts of the new Battle.net is a universal account (called the Battle.net Real ID). If you've already merged your WoW account with the service, then you already have one of these, but you might be asking yourself what sort of advantages are offered by doing so. Currently, you can expect increased account security, as well as the ability to register your Blizzard games and download them at will from the internet, but the panel today revealed new aspects of Battle.net that will no doubt make the concept even more appealing. Having a Real ID (something that will likely become mandatory very soon) will allow you to chat with your friends cross- realm and cross-game. That's right, if your friends play on a different server or are even playing a completely different game, you will still be able to talk to them no matter what they are doing. Due to this new feature, you'll have to accept and send friend invites (a la Facebook) so that completely random people aren't sending you nasty messages. But it shows just how far ahead Blizzard is thinking. They know that when StarCraft 2 or Diablo III comes out, a lot of your WoW friends  might stop logging on for awhile. But through the cross-game chat system and "broadcast" feature, you can still ask them to fill in raid spots or ask who on your list might want to run some heroics. As WoW chat functions somewhat differently from those in other Blizzard games, it's not yet clear how certain restrictions will be handled, such as those relating to faction choice. Sadly, you likely won't be able to engage in Guild Chat just anywhere, although there are reports that there might be an iPhone app in the works allowing you to do just that. It also seems as though the achievement system will be consolidated under the new account structure. When you earn an achievement on one character, you've essentially earned it for all of your characters. No longer do you have to worry about trudging around Azeroth when you create an alt just to earn those pesky exploration achievements again. Once again, as the panel was focused primarily on StarCraft 2, it's unclear whether or not every new Battle.net feature will find its way into WarCraft, nor was a release date for the new service given. Launching with StarCraft, we may see its implementation before Cataclysm hits store shelves.

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The biggest news in recent memory is WoW.com's hat eating guarantee over the next expansion's details.  According to sources for the lucky domain squatters, the third expansion is indeed called WoW: Cataclysm, and the previously rumored Goblins and the Worgen are the upcoming playable classes.  The news, that was likely going to be one of BlizzCon's big reveals, has overshadowed all else the past few days, but I am here to put an end to that. Below you will find stories that were lost in the shuffle, abandoned to the fates, and pushed down the stairs.  Some are gems, others are mix-ups, but they were all passed over thanks to the assertions of Cataclysm and our excitement around it.

• Ozzy Ozzborne at BlizzCon - The Ozzy @ BlizzCon 2009 rumor has been around the block.  It first appeared in early July, and I didn't really take it that seriously then.  Sure, he was in a (damn fine) commercial for WoW, but that doesn't mean he's going to perform.  Well, with VideoGamesLive out of the picture this year it does!  Blizzard has confirmed that the junior "Prince of  F&*^ing Darkness" (since 1979) will be rocking out Anaheim in just over a week.  The concert will also be viewable as part of the DirecTV package.  What are the odds that Ozzy actually plays?
• Icecrown to have 31 bosses - "Promising" 31 bosses in a raid for a PvE content junky like myself is more than a pony, Ghostcrawler.  Everyone knows the ratio of boss fights to ponies is 10:1, and here you promise 31:0.  How dare you sir!  And how dare you quip later on that you were joking...maybe.  Damn your brain teasers!  Who do you think you are J.J. Abrams?  /shakesfist
• Battle.net v2.0 news - StarCraft II was "delayed" to 2010 earlier this month, and you can at least partially blame Blizzard's matchmaking, login and purchasing platform known as Battle.net for that.  According to the bigwigs at Activision Blizzard the service is still in the infant stages of re-development with "social networking features, cross-game communication, unified account management" and more being added to the service.  Bobby Kotick stated that the service would be "similar to Xbox Live".  Hopefully the term was used for that service's perceived quality, and not the monetary fee associated with it.  Either way, it appears that BNet 2.0 will be just another gaming service to keep track of.  Sigh.
• Collegehumor WoW video - My friend turned me on to this World of Warcraft-based video last night, and it is absolutely hilarious.  He claims that "that's what it will be like in five years" and although I wish it were true, I just don't believe it.  Thankfully, the laughs it gets are on purpose.  The video is safe for work.

Nothing earth shattering, but interesting nonetheless.  Hope you enjoyed the little recap of the last week or so.  If I missed anything major feel free to leave a comment with the details and the source.

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It's been more than a week since Blizzard's deadline to personalize your Blizzcon 2009 tickets has passed, yet there's still a whole bunch of ticket holders trying to sell off their spares on eBay. Earlier this month was the last date for ticket holders to make changes to the names for Blizzcon tickets. Here's the process they required, as detailed on the official events FAQ:

You will have up until Saturday, June 13 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time to make any changes to attendee badge information in Battle.net Account Management. After this point, no further changes can be made. If you have not entered any information by this time, all attendee names will default to the full name of the Battle.net account holder. If you do not know the names of the guests you are bringing to BlizzCon and will not know by June 13, put all of the badges under your own name. Bring *all* of the printed bar-code emails, along with your photo ID, to BlizzCon, and you will be able to pick those up all of the badges yourself and distribute them to your guests. Photo ID will only be checked at the time of badge pick-up... In order to receive a badge, the name on the bar-code e-mail *must* match the name on your photo ID.

So how, exactly, are the ticket scalpers getting away with it if they can no longer update the names of the ticket holders? Some say they will show up at the convention center to pick up the tickets, then distribute them to auction winners. And I'm sure there will be some who will honor that promise (as long as you show up on time and in the pre-arranged location). I'm betting a handful won't. Other sellers say the tickets will remain under the auction seller's name, but say something shady like "Your badges will show my husband's name (or if you're a female, my name) but you will be able to get in and out without a problem." I'd rather not take chances with hundreds of dollars with that guarantee. And some sellers make no mention whatsoever that the June 13 deadline has passed. Now I'm sure that not everyone has evil intentions when they sell their tickets, but I do question the nature of sellers who want to sell their tickets for a crazy profit. Even a whole bunch of official fansite contests I've seen this month have all ended (as far as I can find out of the ones listed in the official forums). However, if you want some WoW-related entertainment, take a look at some of the WoW limericks submitted for WoWWiki's contest. Some are good, plenty are bad. But you'll definitely find some hilarity in there. But back on topic - there's not too many options left for those of us still without tickets. That only furthers my over all recommendation: Buyer beware! What's one to do? Well, first off, don't freak out. You, of course, should check back regularly here at Project Lore for news from the convention. If you want to live through Blizzcon without attending, check out the Directv offer to watch the event from home - murloc included. So, we have a little more than 8 weeks to go before the big event. I know there were a lot of you who didn't have luck with getting a ticket on the official sale dates. Did anyone try their hands at a contest, and perhaps even win some tickets? Anyone taking your chances with a ticket auction? How many of you are opting to watch from home?

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Ever since Mountain Dew's Game Fuel promotion started back in May (the drink itself is just now starting to show up on store shelves), people have been wondering when exactly they'd be able to get their hands on the associated Battle-Bot vanity pets. Well, good news everyone! They're finally here! Here my puny pugilist is trying to convince me that Game Fuel is part of a balanced diet.If you've already signed up for the promotion, then you're halfway there. Simply go to the website, log in, and click the button in the lower-right hand corner. Be warned: you will need to have a Battle.net-linked Warcraft account in order to receive the pet (it's a good thing to do anyway, for added security and the option to digitally download all your favorite Blizzard games once you've authenticated them through the site -- not to mention beta opt-ins!). Once you've gone through all that, simply log out of your WoW account in-game and then log back in. The key to your new mechanical bruiser should be in your mailbox. I have to say that these little guys (invented by famed Gnomish toymaker and proprietor of Wonderworks in Dalaran Jepetto Joybuzz) are actually really cool. Click on them, and they babble in some obscure techno-language (no doubt subliminal messages telling you to buy more Mountain Dew). You can also fuel them up with either a red or blue mixture, and when your Battle Bot encounters another one with the opposite color, they'll get into a fist-fight. Sadly, it seems that the only way to obtain the fuel right now is to visit the Mountain Dew page every day and click through the same image as before. Hopefully, there will be some sort of in-game method for claiming the juice once the promotion period is over. On that note, I have actually found individual bottles of Game Fuel at the local Wally World, but only the Horde-themed red (perhaps this town ain't so bad after all!). The bottle says "Citrus Cherry," two flavors that I generally like, but ends up tasting something like carbonated bubble gum. Not entirely unpleasant, but it probably won't appeal to everyone's palette. Never tried the Halo 3 stuff, so I'm not sure if it's any different, though the Alliance version is some sort of berry (and I use that term very loosely).

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Less than 30 minutes after tickets went on sale for BlizzCon 2009 Saturday, they already were sold out. I was one of the lucky ones able to snag a pair for my husband and I. But thousands of people still were left in the ticket queue by the time they sold out. Thankfully this year, Blizzard is giving us another chance. A second batch of tickets goes up for sale in two weeks. And now we know exactly how the buying process goes.  Here's how I landed my tickets:

• About an hour before tickets went on sale at 10 a.m. PST, my husband and I both logged onto our individual Battle.net accounts and updated our payment options. The site seemed to be functioning fine as of that time. We went ahead to the Blizzard store page, which redirected us to the ticket sales page. We wanted to have the site loaded up well before the ticket sales began.
• Five minutes before the tickets went on sale, we started refreshing the  page every few seconds. My computer said 12:58 (since I'm on the east coast) when the site refreshed and went from saying "Tickets Unavailable" to "Select Quantity." You can only buy 5 tickets per mailing address.
• It took my computer about five seconds to refresh the page. By then, my husband already was in the queue at position 351. He entered the sales page almost immediately. I, on the other hand, got in the queue only seconds later and was at position 1,708, with an estimated 17-minute wait time. So those few seconds made a big difference.
• I did end up making it to the sales page around 1:15, but it didn't matter. By then, we already had our tickets.

But my time in the queue was interesting. Blizzard put a graphic on the page showing the percentage of tickets still remaining, so we could watch it drop several percentage points every minute. At 1:28 tickets for this round sold out. But by then, tens of thousands of people were waiting in the queue. So, what can we take away from this? If you're hoping to try again for tickets in the next round, get to the page early, and refresh starting a few minutes before the sale. If you get in the queue RIGHT away, you'll have a much better chance of scoring tickets. Both my husband and myself were able to get to the sales page since we entered the queue within seconds of it going up. And don't forget there's another way, too. If you want Grunty the murloc marine but can't attend, you still can watch parts of BlizzCon through pay per view. And, of course, we'll be bringing you the best of the convention here at Project Lore, too! So who else had luck with getting tickets so far? I'm curious how many others had a relatively smooth buying experience like I did. Any of you going to try for tickets on the 30th?

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Edit: Direct Link to Battle.net Mobile Authenticator on iTunes App Store WoWInsider is reporting that the rumored iPhone Authenticator App is now available for free download on the App Store. I quickly grabbed my iPhone and did a quick search for "Blizzard" on the App store and a scrolled towards the bottom, revealing that it was indeed available for no charge! iPhone users will have to convert their WoW accounts to Battle.net in order to take advantage, but the App is a great alternative for those who haven't been able to find the $6.50 Authenticators due to the constant Sold Out status on the Blizzard store. This should also help relieve some of those supply issues as most users who have the ability will likely choose to use the iPhone over an extra device to carry. The description of the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator on the iPhone App Store is:

Do you play World of Warcraft using a Battle.net account? Protect the account with the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for you iPhone, an optional tool that offers an additional layer of security to help prevent unauthorized account access. The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator gives you the security of two-factor authentication. Each time you log in to a Battle.net account, you'll use the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator to generate a unique one-time use password to use in addition to your regular password. Log in with both and you can rest easy knowing that the account is more secure against unauthorized access.

Now, since installing the program, I haven't been able to find it again on the App Store. Also, many users seem to be having problems finding it in other regions like the UK and Canada. Anyone out there able to get the App installed on your iPhone or iPod Touch? For now, I'll hang on to my key fob, but I may soon be able to get rid of it since I'll always have my phone on me. Of course, that also means I'll have to keep the iPhone charged.

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