Project Lore

BlizzCon! Rumors incoming! With BlizzCon less than two weeks away there is no surprise that we are starting to see leaks and rumors. MMO-Champion had reported on the races first with their data mining showing new Halloween masks that featured Goblin and Worgen races (of both sexes) and then pixiestixy brought us news today that WoW.com confirmed this information with sources close to the company, and specifically that Goblin will be Horde and Worgen will be Alliance. To be quite honest, this news is a little underwhelming. This doesn't specifically add content outside of the starting zones and is quite a bit of work (all items have to be remodeled/skinned for these new races) for something that really doesn't ADD to the gameplay (argue all you want but it's merely a cosmetic upgrade). With the races apparently set in stone (we will know for sure at BlizzCon) I find that to be disappointing. The announcement of Blood Elves and Draenei had a much stronger impact because of the classes that you could use with those races, which were previously exclusive to the Horde (Shaman) and Alliance (Paladin). Blizzard really should make these races start out neutral (can't interact with any Alliance/Horde player characters) and either the actions you take through your questing will decide your faction at, say level 20, or you just flat out get to choose. With faction transfers incoming, this would seem to be a logical extension of that model and where Blizzard wants to make the game as accessible and varied as possible. This alongside the lore implications that both these races are (generally) faction nuetral. Based on past experience though I am inclined to believe that the new races are in the next expansion. We knew about Burning Crusade days before BlizzCon 2005 and BlizzCon 2007's announcement of Wrath of the Lich King was known a few days before as well. Funny though was that when I picked up my press badge that year they gave me a program guide with all the details about WotLK (which hadn't been officially announced) so that kind of killed the suspense of the opening ceremony but it was nice to see that the rumors were true. With BlizzCon so close I expect to see a lot more "rumors" pop up, at this point be skeptical of nearly everything from this point on and we will all know August 21st (and we hope to see you there!)! Let us know what you'd like to see related to the new races, do you think picking your faction in game (rather than associated race) would be a good idea? What kind of ideas do you have if they continue down this path of alternating race/class additions every other expansion?

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[caption id="attachment_5290" align="alignright" width="300" caption="I Love Clutter, But Not At $5 Per Ball"][/caption] Don't worry if you weren't lucky enough to score BlizzCon tickets, or you were lucky enough to trick someone into giving your Press Passes, because the store isn't all that impressive.  Actually, in my opinion it's a bit of a disappointment.  The BlizzCon 2009 section contains just five pages, forty products, to chose from. I, like pixiestixy, was incredibly excited when I heard that Blizzard would be offering attendees a chance to purchase the company's branded goodies outside the show.  Not only does it allow us to avoid lengthy lines and enjoy the festivities to the utmost, but, and this was the clincher for me, there's no need to worry about becoming a pack mule the rest of the day.  Or needing to bring an extra suitcase for all the stuff your friends make you buy.  Nope, we just buy our goods via the intertubes and forget about needing the extra cash at the show.  Look at that, Blizzard is even helping us budget our disposable (to them) income!  Too bad the items aren't exactly show stopping. Blizzard's attempt at smoothing the purchases process is not lost upon me.  It is appreciated, but I'm a bit upset as to what is offered in the "exclusive" store.  It's "exclusive" because a large portion of the goodies are actually available to the general consumer, Arthas: Rise of the Lich King for instance, already (or have been) on the Blizzard store or are leftover treats from last year.  Bubble Hearth Beach Balls, Inflatable Frostmournes, and gaming mice can make fine purchases, but the store was touted as a bonus for attendees, not a 2008 flea market or eBay replacement. As I mentioned, the idea was not lost upon me, and it is by no means all bad.  After all, the items that are new (I have no idea exactly how many are new) don't encompass everything that will be on sale at the show proper.  The offerings are just a "selection".  But in terms of serving customers, it's a pretty poor storefront.  Short, useless descriptions (what does the StarCraft 2 puzzle look like finished?) and the inability to filter the goods in a reasonable fashion caused me to close my wallet sooner than I expected. Of course that was after I purchased the stupid puzzle (need more wall ornaments), a plushie, magnet and two posters anyways.  Now I have to think about how much more I'll drop on the non-selected goods.  God I am such a sucker.  At least the lines should be shorter. What did you pick up, and how was your shopping experience?  Where you underwhelmed by the selection of goods as well, or did you expect numerous repeats?

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Blizzard's got excitement coming at us from all angles this week. First, we got Patch 3.2 much sooner than many expected (although Heartborne let us all know his suspicions before the fact). And starting today, we get a short preview of sorts of BlizzCon through a special pre-sale of convention goodies. Blizz sent out this message to ticket holders Monday:

Heading to BlizzCon 2009? Planning to purchase some souvenirs at the show? We wanted to send you one last reminder that for the first time ever, you'll be able to shop for items from the BlizzCon 2009 store BEFORE the event during our limited-time-only, online BlizzCon 48-Hour Sale!

Starting today at 10:01 a.m. Pacific Time (which equates to 1:01 p.m. for me on the east coast), BlizzCon ticket buyers will be able to shop online for select convention merchandise. This will be my first time attending BlizzCon, but I've heard nightmarish stories of store lines at the show in years past (though I bet the crazyness doesn't quite compete with the trouble we go through just to score tickets). Hopefully, buying goodies online will be a bit less stressful, and I'm hopeful that it might even cut down the lines at the actual event since many will have already bought their souvenirs. But I'm not holding my breath. I know that I, for one, will still want to visit the actual store at the event. But that doesn't simmer my excitement for the upcoming 48-hour sale. I don't have a ton of WoW-related merchandise. A couple books and manga here, a figurine there, but that's about it. So I am eager to mark the occasion of my first BlizzCon with plenty of loot. Now if they just have any of those plushy murlocs in stock, I will be a happy (ecstatic) camper. If not, I may settle for a nice poster, calendar or something along those lines. Hmm, on second thought, maybe a T-shirt or some buttons would be nice. Or hair accessories? Oh, the possibilities (If only, right ladies?)! For those of you who were lucky enough to score tickets, here's Blizz's instructions for how to participate:

• Between 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time on August 5 and 10:00 a.m. on August 7, log in to the online Blizzard Store (www.blizzard.com/store) using the Battle.net account you used to purchase your BlizzCon 2009 tickets.
• Click the special "BlizzCon Sale" button in the lower-right corner of your screen.
• Browse new BlizzCon 2009 items created especially for attendees, add them to your cart, and then proceed to check out.
• Items will be shipped directly to your home.
• Enjoy the show!

Take note that you have to be an original ticket buyer to participate (which likely means we'll soon see more BlizzCon goodies on eBay from those who bought tickets to resell them). Regardless... what goodies are you hoping to score?

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Look Kids, It's Greg Street! I love Ghostcrawler (again). Not only does he have one of the coolest jobs around (one which likely made him grow a thick skin and an endless supply of ponies) at one of my favorite developers, but he gets to help design, create and then announce some of the craziest stuff to grace World of Warcraft. It isn't one of those crazy, eye-popping, jaw-dropping announcements that has me firmly cheering for him, but a declaration of renewed support for the Battlegrounds.  Sir Pinch-a-lot had this to say about the neglected instanced PvP scenarios: "I will agree that we need to focus more on BGs. And to be fair we are in this very next patch, and there will be more announcements at Blizzcon." Of course we know that the second statement is true, thanks to the Isle of Conquest.  The second clause of the second statement only makes me more excited for BlizzCon 2009.  That being said, I don't think I'll be sitting through a whole PvP panel just to (hopefully) see an upcoming BG or just hear a quip about the possibility of one "soon."  The real interesting part to me is the first sentence, the admission that BGs have fallen by the wayside.  It's plainly obvious that Arenas have been the focus of PvP since their inception as part of TBC, due largely to the drive for a WoW eSport (my words not GC's). Senor Cangrejo points out later in the post that Arenas receive extra attention due to class balancing issues.  According to GC the 2v2, 3v3 and 5v5 battles are far more useful in class balancing than BGs thanks to the very nature of BGs.  Meaning in BGs your goal, to capture the often spread out objectives, isn't very good at providing useful information.  After all, killing is a common occurrence, but not actually required.  On the other hand the whole point to an Arena is to dominate the other team.  The fast, localized and furious battles end up giving Blizzard more information on class issues than any other PvP mechanic, and that's why Arenas  receive additional attention. I'm a much bigger fan of BGs than I am of Arenas, so I am glad that the developer will attempt to rebalance their attention in my favor.  If only we could get a Tarren Mill vs Southshore style world PvP experience back into the game. Are you ready for a new BG, or are you more of an Arena fan?

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Even Hoover (And His Library) Is Worried Saying there has been a bit of speculation surrounding the next World of Warcraft expansion would be an understatement.  For months now players have been looking ahead even though we aren't even on the second content patch (of four).  Blizzard added fuel to the speculation fire when it was noticed that the company is trying to trademark the term "Cataclysm" for use in games and products.  The early July news sealed the deal for many players; BlizzCon 2009 will usher in the MMORPG's third expansion. What if that doesn't happen?  What if Blizzard jut sits on the company's figurative hands in 2009 instead of following up the Diablo III announcement?  Why bust in on Arthas' reign?  After all, he is the most popular villain in all of Warcraft.  What if the announcement turns out to be the in-the-works, hush-hush, this-isn't-the-MMORPG-you're-looking-for title we know they are working on?  What if, heaven forbid, no game is announced?  After all, they are already working on four games (and the expansion), two of which should be out "soon," Diablo III & StarCraft II.  Shouldn't they focus the marketing on those titles that are first in the schedule? Let's assume that Cataclysm isn't announced, or that it doesn't pertain to WoW.  What would that mean for our favorite MMORPG? Should things go down that way, I believe it could upset the disenfranchised players.  Judging by conversations with friends, guildmates and the comments here at PL, there appears to be many players at different stages of quitting.  Many are just enjoying the Summer, others are taking a break between patches, and some see Call of the Crusade as a lore-less filler patch with nothing for them.  If BlizzCon disappoints then these members may be "taking a break" a bit longer than the developers would like.  Should things go down that way we may see the subscription numbers drop for the first time.  Perhaps even below 5 million (China's 6 million are barred from WoW still)!  Unlikely, but scary. That's just one possible scenario.  To all the speculators out there I pose you this, what if...?

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There is only a month and a week to go before a swarm of nerds infest Anaheim, and likely Disneyland.  Initially I planned on putting this post up next week, for the nice round month figure, but some BlizzCon news was broke early morning.  That makes today's maintenance hours a far more fitting time.  According to an Internet sleuth named SeanbaJuice, comedian Jay Mohr will be MCing BlizzCon for the second year in a row.  Blizzard's PR, which is likely still sleeping as of this writing, has yet to answer calls for confirmation.  Rob Pardo should have never given me his cell number. I've been to numerous game conventions before, E3, NYCC, VGXPO, but never one dedicated to a single company.  Oh, I've tried.  When id Software was still the king of FPS (not to mention independent) I almost ventured out to Texas for the free QuakeCon.  Those aspirations were dashed, twice.  I wasn't about to let that happen to BlizzCon this year.  Since the quasi-annual conference was announced for 2009 I have been plotting my attendance.  I ferreted away large wads of Washingtons for the plane ride, located multiple forms of identification, squirreled away some Lincolns for the tickets, and turned in my change for spend money.  Finances in order, I awaited that faithful day.  By the grace of the greater Internet I scored a pair of tickets and officially marked my calendar. Even if I wasn't a fan of Jay Mohr there is still plenty to get excited about.  I won't be partaking in any of the contests, original song, fan art, costume, movie, sound-alike, dance or otherwise, but I will take a gander at them, time permitting.  Instead I will be focusing my attention on the as-yet-detailed panels for all things Blizzard Entertainment.  Being a fan of all of the company's franchises it will be hard to play favorites. Who am I kidding, the reveal of WoW's third expansion will have be backflipping over turtle mounts and prancing around cosplay nutjobs.  But we all know the real reasons I am attending, Grunty and the rest of the goody bag. The silent auction may be of interest.  Perhaps we should start a donation page to put whatever-it-may-be in PL's studio?  Is anyone else getting pumped yet?  Tickets ready, bags packed and Game Fuel acquired?  Could Cataclysm really be the next expansion?  Is this going to be anyone else's first BlizzCon.  Anyone been to them all so far? BlizzCon 2009 will be held in the Anaheim Convention Center on August 21 and 22.  Tickets are sold out, and beware of scalpers! What's this I hear, Ozzy Osbourne at BlizzCon?!  Interesting...

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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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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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The Folks over at MMO-Champion have once again dug through the latest game files and found new stuff for everyone to drool over. Grunty the Murloc Marine is just that, and if they're following their trend from the past few events (a murloc pet, murloc costume, and mount with a murloc doll), the murloc space marine might just be the in-game item from 2009's BlizzCon. Considering Starcraft 2's public beta is on the verge of coming out, it fits quite perfectly. The pet itself has an awesome gun and an animation of shooting the gun, which you can see above. Check it out or head to MMO-Champion for high res screenshots!

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Blizzard just put out a press release detailing the ticket sales for this year's BlizzCon. Tickets will be more expensive than 2008, at $125 instead of the $100 they were last year, and they will go on sale in two seperate blocks on the Blizzard Store. The first sale will start on Saturday, May 16. The second will start two weeks later, on May 30. Those who can't afford or who are unable to get their tickets due to say, technical difficulties, will be able to catch the event both on DIRECTV and via an internet stream. Both will be priced at $39.95 and will include the exclusive in-game item that comes in the swag bag. Last year it was the Blizzard Bear with a murloc on top. What murloc themed item might it be this year? Nobody knows. The press release also cites improvements to the Blizzard Store with a queuing system, but only time will tell how much those improvements will help with the high demand on the check-out servers. BlizzCon 2009 will be held, once again, in the Anaheim Convention Center and will take place on August 21 and 22. One other thing of note is that the press release states that signing up for a Battle.net account will help streamline the ordering process, so you may want to do that before tickets go on sale to make it as easy as possible to get those tickets. We hope to see you guys there once again this year!

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