Project Lore

Allakhazam continues its interview series with with the Project Lore crew this week by conducting an interview with Lylelovett, Project Lore's protection warrior tank, AKA Joshua Brentano. When he isn't busy tanking for Project Lore, Joshua is also the Executive Producer of the hit G4 show, Attack of the Show. Joshua talked with Allakhazam about such topics as tanking, WotLK, and the future of WoW. Check out the interview with Joshua and let us know what you think! Also, don't forget to check out the other interviews with Dorkins, Juggynaut, and DrDark!

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2008 has been the best year ever for Project Lore, mostly because it was the year that Project Lore made its debut to the world. All of us here would like to take a moment today to wish everyone happy and safe holidays. Without you the fans, Project Lore would not be able to exist, and we hope that you continue to join us in the coming year. So keep on sending emails and leaving comments, because we love reading them (most of the time ;). We have a lot of exciting endeavors that we are working hard on for 2009, so keep watching into the new year. We also wanted to let you know what was coming up on the site over the busy next couple of weeks. Our normally scheduled programming will continue through Saturday, and after that we'll be showing you guys the Best of Project Lore. We hand picked our favorite episodes of Project Lore - the ones we had the most fun taping, the ones we with the best fan reactions, the ones we hope you show to your friends to get them hooked on Project Lore too. So tune in, and thank you for being a part of Project Lore. Happy Holidays! -The Project Lore Crew

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Earlier I discussed some of the hidden gems in the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition Artbook. That article focused solely on the idea that a few artistic scribbles could be Tier loot that will be added to World of Warcraft in the near future. This post will have a much larger scope, peeling back the shrink wrap on all aspects of $69.99 Collector's Edition. A price that a few of us balked at.

Behind-the-scenes DVD

The DVD featured a widely varying collection of World of Warcraft related content. Naturally, we have some developer comments on things like The Burning Crusade versus Northrend, Northrend's art direction and environments and the in your face lore that so many people love about Wrath. The DVD includes trailers from TBC's content patches, v2.1, v2.3 and v2.4 and a collection of funny machinima. It is a pretty standard fare DVD pack-in, with no shocking revelations or insights we weren't already aware of. Content discussions aside, the sheer passion that Blizzard's employees emanate, especially their Lore Historian, is what makes them, and WoW, so great. Worth a watch when your internet is down.

Official Soundtrack

There is actually a section in the Behind-the-scenes DVD that perfectly expresses my feelings for the OST of WotLK. As I have been walking around Northrend, I have never been hit in the face by the ambient music kicking in. Instead it weaves in and out of the background, adding some stimulation to my auditory senses, while not being too disrupting. The OST simply gives us a continuous stream of this music, and while it doesn't flow as well as in the game, I do not expect it to. Nonetheless, I have added it to my playlist of game music which includes The Witcher: Enhanced Edition's OST and everything from The Advantage. Way more utility than the DVD.

Feelies

Feelies are a lost art in video games. The young whippersnappers out there - who won't stay off my lawn – missed out on the golden age of feelies. Back in the day of walking to school, up-hill, both ways, purchasers of PC games would be meet with trinkets galore in their ridiculously oversized boxes. Especially if you had just purchased an adventure game.

Nowadays, the only place to find anything remotely close to that is by paying extra for the “collector's edition” (Actually the aforementioned re-release of The Witcher had feelies included for only $39.99. Also, I like The Witcher: EE). Blizzard's best feelie, is not a physical item at all, but the mini Frost Wyrm pet that becomes account bound when you upgrade to Wrath. The initial oohs and ahhs of guildmates and friends have worn off though, so back to Egbert. The mousepad is cool, but not replacing my dirty Pokemon pad ('m' doesn't bring up a list of the badass Pokemans now does it?!) and I didn't score any godly cards from the two packs of WoW TCG. Not being a TCG player, they are now worthless, although some users will enjoy the free cards.

Wrath of the Lich King Artbook

I suck at art, but wow do I appreciate this book. The book, rather tome, is chock full of Northrend goodies and broken up by sections. Often with an introduction that was lifted from the official website. The book is probably the only thing in the CE that would interest anyone outside of the game. My casual gamer friend looked at it for about 20minutes yesterday after we watched the Behind-the-scenes DVD. Not counting the actually game, the art book is what defines the Collector's Edition and made the purchase worth it, even if there were a lot of prints straight from the cinematic.

While I don't feel that buying the CE was a waste of $30, I do wish there was a bit more to it. I mentioned that I would have loved a cloth map, well, I guess I can hang-up the mousepad since I won't be using it. Still, pre-loading the title would easily make the CE's hefty mark-up worth it to many users, while not upsetting the casual base as much as in-game items.

Blizzard, are you listening? We want more bang for our buck next time.

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Those of you keeping up with Project Lore may remember that a little while back, Allakhazam started an interview series with Project Lore. Last time they interviewed Alex Albrecht, AKA DrDark, and they had an interesting little chat. This time, they caught up with the man, the myth, the legend, Brandon Sato, AKA Juggynaut. They discussed MMOs, the expansion, death knights, and more. If you want to find out more info on the voice inside of that box, check out the interview here and let us know what you think!

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I'm sure most of you have heard of one of the largest MMO news and information sites out there, Allakhazam. They cover just about every MMO out there, with a great community to boot! They recently asked to do an interview series about Project Lore over the next few weeks, and we couldn't be happier to chat with them. This week, Alex Albrecht, AKA DrDark, sat down and talked with Allakhazam about the origin of Project Lore, his characters, opinions, life, and of course, World of Warcraft. Check out the interview here and let us know what you think!

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We've had great responses from the Project Lore fan base, and we really want to get the fans involved even more. If you've got a Project Lore shirt, take a picture with you in it doing what you do and send it to editor@projectlore.com. You can be out and about, playing WoW, waiting for WotLK to launch, or even just posing for a pic.  We'd love to see all of you in your Project Lore shirts, and who knows, you might just be featured on Project Lore! If you haven't picked up a shirt yet, you can head over to the Lore Store on J!NX, where you'll find both the Classic Logo design and the personal favorite around here, the Wings of Victory design, featuring silhouettes of all the World of Warcraft classes. Now, get out there and take some pics!

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A long, long time ago, I can still remember when I got that quest to get those vials, And I knew if I had my chance, I'd get to watch a warrior stance dance and maybe I'd do some DPS for awhile. But guild drama made me shiver, with every chat that was delivered. Bad news at the bank steps - no more group trips to Burning Steppes. I can't remember if I tried, when I was told which guildie lied, but something told me just get on my mount and ride, the day my guild died. So bye, bye free homemade cherry pie. No more guildies to group with to raid The Eye, and other guilds were killing mobs with the help of an old Draenei, sayin no need to kill that Keal’thas guy, or that Vashj, she's just to hard to try. Did you know I had a lot to think of, a quest to complete and then get rid of? I just had to fight Vashj below. It’s a fight that I believe I know. I have the best hot-keyed macro and know how to kite the strider real slow. Well I know that guilds hate Illidan, even more than that crazy Zul’jin. Zul drops really good clothie shoes, but fighting him gives me the blues. I was lonely, guildless, out-of-luck, with quest to complete in the deep muck. I knew that I had gotten stuck the day my guild died. I remember thinking... Bye, bye free homemade cherry pie, No more guildies to group with to raid The Eye, and other guilds were killing mobs with the help of an old Draenei, sayin no need to kill that Keal’thas guy, or that Vashj, she's just to hard to try. Now for ten months or so I’ve been my own, picking grave moss off of old grave stones, but that’s not how it used to be. I used to stand before the dragon queen, turning in quests few had ever seen and then a voice inside reminded me. Oh, and then the chips were looking down I surfed the net with a solemn frown. Then the new patch notes were learned, and my desire quickly burned. And while others turned in their AV marks, I logged in near Stormwind park. Those patch notes were the spark. They said the hardcore raids died I was happy... Bye, bye super hard raid boss guy. The patch nerf raids including SSC and The Eye. Maybe I’ll get a pug raid, who needs an old Draenei? Those bosses are going to fry... compliments of this fire mage guy. Helter skelter in the LFG melter. Raid bosses will need a fallout shelter. Eight bosses in Kara now fall so fast. Many pugs formed and tried to kick ass, but only a rare few had the right class, most barely sending Prince home in a cast. Now Shatt was filled with happy toons, while raid leaders barked at the maroons. Some pulled Moroes with /dance, Oh those raids didn’t have a chance! ‘Cause real raiders are buffed and get healed, bad raiders use others as their shield. Do you recall what was revealed that day more raid bosses died? And raid leaders were screaming... “Bye, bye Looking For Group guy, Your skills are weak, No you can’t come to The Eye! You should roll a priest or a shammi Draenei. A nerfed raid isn’t for every guy. Go give Warhammer a try.” Oh there I was, in that place, many toons fighting for a pug raid place with little time before Lich King. So come on, get buffs and let’s raid quick, I got a quest to kill a mean snake chick and fire is this mage’s happy friend. Oh, and as I watched in fits of rage, pugs jumped to early onto Kara’s stage. No pug born in hell could break Bad Wolf’s spell. And as my flames lit up Netherspite, I realized they didn’t do the beams right. That was a really long night, the day bad raid pugs died. And I was cryin... Bye, bye vial quest - I won’t try. Without a guild how will I ever get into The Eye? Maybe at 80 I’ll visit the soul of that old Draenei. At least I gave it a try. I’m gonna go home and cry. Then I met a guy who gave me clues of a good guild with some happy news. I smiled and got started right away. I went down to SSC’s little shore where I tried to kill Vashj before, but this time, she was the one who had to pay. And in The Eye, Ventrilo screamed. The tank danced and the boomkins beamed. Then not a word was spoken. The stained glass all was broken. And the two villains I hated the most, now were dead, Vashj was toast, and Keal’thas moved to the coast. The day the quest objectives died. And I was singing... Bye, bye, it’s time to fly, Going to Caverns of Time after clearing The Eye. Turn in that old quest, get a ring with crit really high. Suprise! Hand of A'dal - oh my! Hand of A'dal - oh my!!! And I was singing... Bye, bye quest, It’s time to fly, Got my gold and ring after pugging The Eye Maybe next I’ll go fight with that old Draenei I think I’ll give it a try. ----- Sometimes when you finish what you started, you get an extra bonus, in WoW and RL. Thanks and have fun SaintGermain

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A little while back, you saw the interview that Nihilum did with Project Lore on their website. Recently, we had the chance to chat with one of Nihilum’s earliest members, Marilyn, who has been in Nihilum since the guild was formed on Burning Legion. He’s been around since it all began and has held both officer and class leader positions in the guild. Currently, he’s a “regular” hardcore progression raiding member, so he knows all about Nihilum and how they have risen to become one of the top gaming organizations in the world. We chatted about a few different topics, like what it takes to be a top progression raider, the upcoming expansion, and PvP. Now, here is the full interview: Nihilum is one of the most well known and fastest progressing guilds in the world. What drives you to become part of one of the top guilds in the world? I am extremely competitive in everything I do. It all started really early, playing soccer, hockey or just playing chess back in my childhood, I just had to be the best and I'm definitely a sore loser. If someone beats me I will play him/her until I win. And the fact that so many people are playing this game and watching our progress, when we kill a boss world first the attention we get is pretty insane, and fun :D Your guild has a number of world first kills, not to mention server firsts. Which one was the most satisfying? Hm, Kel'thuzad, by far, for me. The amount of hours and energy we all put into that fight is something we haven't done again after that. What happened was we had two 1% wipes on Tuesday night. The server would reset for Europeans later that night, so in order to win against the Americans who had their reset 1 day earlier we knew that we had to beat him on that day to claim the world first. But since we failed to kill him that day, we thought the race was lost. But we woke up early the day after and I skipped school, we started raiding at 01:00 pm and we kept going til 05:00 am. By then the whole instance was cleared except Kel'thuzad. On Thursday we started at 02:00 pm, we buffed up and killed him. After so many hours on a boss and so much effort it felt unbelievable to claim him world first and become "the champions". Best World of Warcraft moment for sure :) Your raid team has seen every boss currently in the game. So far, what is your favorite boss encounter in the game? Hm... hard to pick, I've got many favorite bosses. But I have to say Heigan from Naxx 40. You could beat him with 10 people, and usually everyone just died and you had 10 good players standing :) What does your raid schedule look like during progression? It's a lot of hours. Lately it's been a lot more than it usually was. The reason for that is the competition. More guilds want to be the best and therefore more hours are required to succeed. I'd say from 12:00 to 02:00 is expected of us if they release new content. Of course, this is only something that lasts during one week or a few days. We all have real lives that need our attention :) How many times do you wipe before you kill a boss for the first time? Do you have any interesting ways to alleviate some of the frustration that must come with learning a boss with no input from anyone other than your guild? It all depends on the structure of the fight. Generally speaking, I would say at least 2-3 hours before you have the strategy nailed down, then another few hours to make it perfect. That makes it a total of 8-10 hours to know how a boss fight works. Twin Emperors in Sunwell took several days to figure out, so it varies a lot. To answer your second question I must say that keeping people calm is the only way. Take breaks of 10-15 minutes to let people breathe some air and get their mind on something else. Doing something for XX hours straight without a break is never good, no matter what you do. Many guilds have broken up due to drama between members over a variety of issues. How does Nihilum handle these things when they come up? Drama has always been around, it is almost impossible to get up to 40 people to get along. There are different ways to handle it. The reason we are still here is that we've been among the top (if not THE top) guilds out there, always. People in the guild are more serious in their gaming than most others, and with that thought in mind you can expect that people will act professionally. If people get upset or mad about something we just tell everyone to take a breather and we come back rejuvenated and calm, then discuss the matter. But, of course, I can't deny that drama has almost caused collapses within the guild, even for Nihilum. With Wrath of the Lich King right around the corner, how are you as a guild planning to level up? Questing, instancing, grinding mobs? Well, we haven't played much beta, any of us. Some have played it a lot and some haven't. What we did for TBC was just pure instance grinding. It was the fastest and best way to get to lvl 70. With blizzard stating that they don't want people to level that way, I think we will focus more on doing quests and doing random instances for fun! As long as it goes fast :) How will you become the first to clear the new Naxx? Do you play on the beta to get a feel for the encounters or simply hone your skills on the current content and get ready for anything? Nihilum have played Naxx on Beta, and by the looks of it, it will be easy. Also doing Sunwell every Wednesday keeps us in top shape :) Naxx will be cleared by the US guilds before any of the Europeans. Everything is cleared on beta and I predict that we will see a fully cleared Naxxramas 25 man instance within 8-9 days of the release of WotLK, including leveling. The reason for this is, even though they have changed some of the fights, it will still be the same. People know what to do and what to bring. Switching gears to PvP, congratulations to the Nihilum Plasma team that won Blizzard's 3v3 tournament at BlizzCon 2008. SK Gaming recently split their PvE and PvP teams. How much interaction does your raid team have with the arena teams? Is there any cross over between members? Is it difficult for players to be the best in the world at both PvE and PvP content or do both take similar skills? I reckon that most of the people of Nihilum PvE could be the best in the world at PvP if they chose that path. And same goes for PvP players if they decided to go PvE. This game is all about dedication, if you have the right conditions and the will, you will become the best. I'm not in any way trying to undermine our dear PvP players' achievement, they are awesome. But what I'm saying is that everything about Nihilum is professional. We are striving to be the best in the world, both at PvE and PvP. But being the best at PvP and PvE at the same time, I think is not possible. Both areas take a whole lot of time. And time is something that is limited for us all :) To answer the question if the PvP team and PvE team are connected in any way, I have to say that daily chats over mIRC client is all we do atm. They are doing their thing on another server and we on ours. But yes, we all know each other. Do you have any advice for players hoping start an elite guild like Nihilum? To start a guild like Nihilum at this point is hard. What you need is a group of people, 5-10 on the same server with incredible dedication and desire to be the best. You need to be willing to put a lot of time and effort into the matter. When I think about how much time I've spent on this game and the guild Nihilum, it's insane. Never give up on what you want, even when times are rough you have to think back to what you had as the original goal. And strive for it. And try to have a good base of hardcore people, those who do not stop for anything! Finally, what are your impressions of Project Lore? Great looking website, absolutely smashing :) We need more of these types of websites and communities. They all help to grow the game to another level :)

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As you may or may not know, a few of your favorite people from Project Lore were in Anaheim this past weekend for BlizzCon 2008. While we were there, we managed to snag pictures of a bunch of the fans who dressed up for the convention, including the Costume Contest winner and her amazing turtle mount. She was even kind enough to allow Zand, of Ten Days of Knight fame, to ride it. We also have pictures of some of the other attractions from BlizzCon, including the Video Games Live concert from the closing ceremony. All of the pics from BlizzCon are right here! If you want some more picture action, head over to our Flickr page and check them out!

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This weekend, we had a blast at BlizzCon. We got to meet a bunch of great fans and saw a ton of amazing stuff. We saw the finals of the 3v3 tournament (Grats Nihilum Plasma!), met up with the people from The Guild, played some awesome new games, and even heard some great music. However, the last two days have left us completely exhausted. BlizzCon, along with the fact that we had to upgrade our servers to help accommodate how fast we are growing, has interrupted our work flow such that we won't be able to complete our Karazhan series this week, as originally planned. Rest assured, though, that we are still going to bring you videos every day this week while we work feverishly to catch up. Now, here is this week's modified schedule: Monday at Noon PDT- Project Lore Episode 11.1: Karazhan Tuesday at Noon PDT- Project Lore's First Day of Knight Wednesday at Noon PDT- Project Lore Episode 11.2: Karazhan Thursday at Noon PDT - Project Lore's Second Day of Knight Friday at Noon PDT - Project Lore Episode 11.3: Karazhan Take a look at our subscribe page to find us all over the web, and use the Episodes RSS feed or follow our Twitter to find out when new episodes are out! Project Lore is also on MySpace and Facebook, so please be our friend!

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