Project Lore

I'd like to take a moment on the one year anniversary of Project Lore to address the fans in order to let you all know what's up with the us and what you can expect in the future from Project Lore. We're going through some changes here, which you may have already noticed. Over the next few months, you'll see the site and video content evolve, and in the end we will be an even better resource for you to find your favorite WoW content. We've heard your concerns about Project Lore and understand that you love the show for the same reasons we love it - embracing WoW culture and the interactions between players that make the game what it is.  Over the summer you can tell we've taken a little break from the bigger scale videos but rest assured that we want to give you a Project Lore Ulduar run just as soon as we can. In the mean time, be sure to check out the live streams of Ulduar runs that will be happening during the week and will start being featured here on Project Lore. They're going to be improving and becoming more interactive as time moves on, so watch our Twitter feed and check the site to see when they'll be happening. On one final note, we want to thank you all for your support over the last year. Without the fans, there would be no Project Lore, and we would never have made it for one year. Here's to the second year being even better!

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Edit: Forums are Back Up! Just a quick note to those of you who love posting on our forums - They'll be undergoing a little bit of maintenance over the next few hours. They should be back up and running later this evening. Meanwhile, check out this awesome YouTube video:

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Marvel announced this week plans to develop at least two new MMOs, joining a growing list of possible competitors to WoW. A few months ago, iTZkooPA posted on whether Blizzard should be worried about other MMORPGs that already have been released. It looked like, at that time, they weren’t too concerned. Maybe they had no reason to be. Since then, WotLK became the fastest-selling PC game of all time (beating out the Burning Crusade expansion, which previously held that title), and propelled WoW to a base of 11.5 million subscribers. But there’s a long list of upcoming MMOs that are still a ways from hitting the market. Do these pose a challenge for Blizzard’s dominant stance in the market? It seems to me that several of the upcoming MMO titles depend on an already-existing fan base. Let’s take a look at the Marvel announcement for an example:

“Gazillion's new licensing agreement with Marvel calls for the development and publishing of MMO games featuring Marvel's iconic universe super heroes. The first game in development is a casual MMO for younger audiences based on Marvel's Super Hero Squad property. Super Hero Squad features an exciting, super-stylized look for the greatest Super Heroes, including Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine, Thor, Fantastic Four, Captain America and many others.”

Undoubtedly, Marvel has a built-in fan base already salivating over the possibilities. And some of those fans also may play WoW. So would a Super Hero Squad MMO pull WoW players away? Perhaps some, if they don’t want to pay two monthly fees for games. (Marvel hasn’t yet stated whether the new games will have a monthly fee. I’m guessing they will.) But WoW’s fan base also might not be excited about a game proposed for “younger audiences.” This is just the first of what Marvel has announced, though, and subsequent games such as the “major new Marvel Universe PC and Console MMO” may pursue the franchise’s not-so-young audiences, as well. With team members from Blizzard, Pixar and Apple, I’m sure they’re well aware that an MMO done well can reach a much wider audience. A lot has changed since my first introduction to MMORPGs through Ragnarok Online many years ago. It looks like MMOs are becoming the popular thing to do. Or perhaps I should say the profitable thing to do (especially when superheroes are in the mix). Several other companies with pre-made audiences also have jumped onto the MMO bandwagon prior to Marvel’s announcement. Sony Online Entertainment is developing a DC Universe Online, Lucasarts and Bioware are working on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and let’s not forget about the LEGO Group’s upcoming MMOG, LEGO Universe (which has revealed its own interpretation of /chicken). With as-of-yet limited details on what any of these games will entail, it’s difficult to say where their place will be in the market. Perhaps that will be determined not only by the new games’ strengths, but also by what Blizzard continues to bring to keep WoW audiences enthralled. So what do you all think? Will these games’ pre-made audiences be enough to propel them into the mainstream? And do any of them sound intriguing enough to pull you or your buddies away from WoW?

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Thanks to you guys, Project Lore has been nominated for the Streamy Awards. We asked for your nominations and you guys responded like champions! The official nominees have been announced, and not only are we in the running for Best Hosted Web Series and Best Host (Alex Albrecht), we're also in the mix for the Audience Choice Award. That means whoever gets the most votes at http://vote.streamys.org/ from now until March 28th wins the Streamy. You can vote once a day so tell everyone you know to vote for Project Lore!

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If you've been following Project Lore for a while, you probably saw Allakhazam's interviews of Alex, Brandon, Zand, and Joshua. Finally, the newest member of the Project Lore had a chance to sit down with Tamat, Editor in Chief of ZAM, and they chatted about all kinds of things. Check out Jeff Cannata's interview at the fresh new ZAM site and let us know what you think!

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Welcome to the new Project Lore! The first thing you may notice is that our entire site got a little face lift, starting with the home page. It should now be much easier to see what videos are coming up throughout the week. In addition to the fresh new look, we've added Project Lore Forums! This is something a lot of people have been asking for, and we're happy to announce that they are now live. Check them out by clicking the link at the top of every page. There you can post tips, tricks, questions, or anything about Project Lore and WoW that your heart desires. Last, but certainly not least, you may have noticed that we've got a lot more activity on our blog lately. In addition to the bloggers who you have seen new posts from, we're proud to announce that the one and only BigRedKitty will be joining the Project Lore team starting this week. He'll of course be blogging on Project Lore, and he'll be adding some top notch WoW videos, too. He's also got some exciting things in store for Project Lore, so stay tuned in to see what we're working on! All in all, we hope you enjoy the improvements that we've made. Let us know what you think of them!

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So far, Project Lore has mainly been about PvE content in the World of Warcraft. Now, we want to expand into showing much more PvP content, but we need your help to do so. What we are looking for are people with the following:

• 2000+ rated arena team. Any comp, any bracket, horde or alliance.
• Ability to record a verbal postmortem analysis of arena matches.
• A computer with fast, reliable internet access.
• Software and ability to record in-game video, record voice chat, record external audio, and compile them together into a coherent video.
• Eligibility to work, wherever you're from

To apply, send an email to editor@projectlore.com including the following

• A subject line including "Project Lore Arena Team" and your full name
• Your city and state
• Contact info including email address, instant message, and phone number.
• Link to your armory and your team member's armory pages.
• Written description of your team's comp along with its strengths and weaknesses. Also, include what comps are most difficult for your team to deal with and why, and how you deal with them.

We look forward to hearing from all of you out there!

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In this interview with Nethaera, Ghostcrawler has revealed a lot of the specifics about the upcoming dual spec system. Up to this point we've been given hints about how the system will work and what will be included, but this time GC has unveiled much more specific information. Some of the key points from the interview:

• Only level 80 characters will be able to purchase a second spec. This may be changed based on feedback.
• The Lexicons of Power located in major towns are required to switch specs. Additionally, scribes can create an item that allows a group of players to summon a temporary lexicon of power. The only other restriction (so far) is that specs cannot be swapped in combat or in arenas.
• Paying for a respec will only clear talents from a character's active spec.
• A Gear Manager is going to be added into World of Warcraft. This will not automatically change the character's equipment after a spec change, but will be configurable to quickly change weapons, trinkets, or entire outfits. Sounds like an integrated Outfitter or Itemrack.
• Hunters will no longer have to pay a trainer to respec their pets. Blizzard didn't want an extraneous step for hunters to have to go through to change their pets' talents. Hunters will also be given a new spell (on a long cooldown) that will allow remote access to the stables.
• As we've heard before, glyphs and action bars will both be tied to the talent spec, changing along with the talent switch.
• Talent points will be configurable before the get saved. This allows players who are respeccing to allocate talents with the ability to double check and avoid having to respec again just to move a couple of points.
• It is indeed Dual Spec, not Tri or Quad spec, for now. In the future, they may allow for more than two specs to be used in the system.

All of this is pretty exciting news. With a lot more of the details hammered out, it seems like this may be coming even sooner than I had thought. We'll still have to see how the whole dual spec system has shaped up when it comes up on the PTR, but I am very enthused about the idea of having more than one talent build available.

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Everyone's favorite class designer hit the official forums during maintenance day to inform us that class changes for Patch 3.1 would be announced soon.  For those who don't already know it, Patch v3.1 will be Wrath's first content patch, with the main feature being the addition of an all-new raid known as Ulduar.  Popular speculation has Yogg-Saron - the second known "Old God" - or parts of him as the final boss.  Piggy-backing on the big content patch are numerous other tweaks, such as the classes changes discussed below. Making good on Ghostcrawler's promise, Eyonix threw up Part 1 of the upcoming changes.  However, only Rogues (yahoo), Priests and Shamans currently have a short-list of changes, every other class is "coming soon."  I am no Shaman, nor am I an expert Priest, but it seems pretty obvious that both classes have been buffed overall in the listed changes.  As for what my lovable little gnome thinks about his upcoming changes?  Awesome. PvP, that is the big change for Priests.  The notes specifically state that Shadow PvPers will see increased survivability thanks to a buff to Shadow Form which reduces magic damage along with physical damage.  Although no specific modifications were detailed, Eyonix notes that the developers are looking into making Holy have "additional PvP utility."  All the Discipline Priests shouldn't feel left out though, they get an entirely new ability, Power Word: Barrier, which is essentially a PW:S for their group.  Blizzard even through in some love for the whole class, adding Divine Spirit as a core ability. Shamans of the Elemental and Enhancement varieties also scored some additional, although undefined, PvP utility.  Following that, Dalaran's lag should be slightly lower come v3.1 thanks to the streamlining of Totems.  Mana Spring / Healing Stream Totems and Disease Cleansing / Poison Cleansing Totems have been combined. They are now two totems rather than four separate lag-inducing pillars of doom.  The nature-friendly class has received one modification that might be viewed as a nerf, Chain Lightning will jump to four targets, but do less damage.  The less damage could mean for the fourth jump or that the overall DPS output by CL will be lowered The number one change I was looking forward to for Rogues was how Blizzard planned to tackle the annoyance of keeping Hunger for Blood active.  For the none rogues out there, the spell had to be spammed three times, wasting two extra global cooldowns and 60 energy, to max it out.  Then it had to be refreshed every 30 seconds to keep it up.  While refreshing didn't break stealth - you could refresh while creeping to the next mob - it was incredibly annoying to worry about an ability with such a short duration that was so desperately needed.  The new HfB is a self-buff that can only be used when a bleed effect (anyone's bleed) is active.  While the need for a bleed is indeed a nerf, the 6% damage increase - from 9% with three stacks to 15% with no need for stacking - should help soothe that irritated skin. Like the other classes, rogues have also seen a selection of buffs beyond the HfB change.  Added haste, lower cooldowns and additional damage to various talents and abilities should make every rogue happy.  However, we do not know the exact amount these favorable changes will impact us, due to the numbers on a few of tweaks not being unveiled. The rest of the classes will be revealed in the upcoming parts of Eyonix's post.  Please hold off on the complaints until you see your own buffs.  Remember, these notes are not comprehensive and therefore do not list all the changes.  On the flip side, they can also be thrown out the window at a moment's notice. All of the changes do seem to be buffs, so perhaps Blizzard is saving all the nerfs for one giant post to get all the QQ out at once...Sly devils. In other news, numerous bugs have been found in WoW recently, but the developers are already hard at work on hotfixes. Update: Eyonix has posted more class changes.  Warriors, Warlocks and Druids should check out the post covering Part 2 of the changes.

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Reading through the comments, it seems like a few of you got what I like to call the perfect gift: cash. The possibilities are endless when you get a gift like cash. Of course you can use it on whatever you like, be it video games, movies, comics, or silly things like food and rent. The choice is really yours, but my suggestion to anyone who has put any significant amount of time into WoW should spend just a few dollars to keep that investment safe. Most of you have met someone who's account has been compromised. A few months back I was without internet and needed to get my WoW fix, so I logged in at a public WiFi hotspot. Turns out that was a pretty bad decision, since the next day I woke up with emails concerning a character transfer that I didn't initiate. After I called Blizzard to get my password reset and got most of my equipment restored (I had most of my gear back within an hour), the first thing I did was purchase a Blizzard Authenticator for the low low price of $6.50. A couple of days later, I got a small manila envelope with the device, then learned that there were authenticators included in the BlizzCon swag bags. Well, now I have an extra that I'll be giving to a friend who recently had his account compromised. I hate to sound like an advertisement, but this is just some advice from me to you. Besides, demand is so high that authenticators aren't even in stock right now. There are other ways to keep your account safe while Blizzard gets authenticators back in stock, like following Blizzard's Account Security tips, but many people I know who have lost control of their accounts have said that they follow all of those. Of course, I made a critical mistake with my own account, but using the Authenticator gives another level of security, and to me the peace of mind is worth the $6.50. Now if only we could get other online services like banks to use Two-Factor Authentication

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