Project Lore

The following post contains information on World of Warcraft's third expansion, Cataclysm.  If you don't want to hear about upcoming lore, features or races, then move on to the next informative post at ProjectLore.com.

We may have known a bit about WoW: Cataclysm before BlizzCon 2009 thanks to Internet sleuths, but Blizzard still shook the very foundations of Azeroth with a few of the reveals.  The company confirmed most of the rumors, didn't confirm or deny others, and added a range of things that weren't expected.  But the community's hunger for more information hasn't slowed since the doors closed in Anaheim.  The latest edition of PC Gamer UK should quench some of that thirst, as the company has the first major announcements on Cataclysm outside of BlizzCon in the latest edition of PC Gamer UK. We noted in the Goblin and Worgen previews that our characters started off at level 5 instead of the usual level 1.  Blizzard did this on purpose to shield our virgin brains from experiencing "some very cool stuff."  We weren't able to experience it, but the crew at PC Gamer UK did, and they filled us in on the details. The worgen story is told via a flashback to the good ole days of no curse, the Scourge first encroaching on the lands, and the initial whispers of some sort of plague.  It's at this time that we come across, and join up with, Crowley, a man who believes Gilneas' isolationism will be the fall of the kingdom.  Upon realizing that the worgen you are defending the city's cathedral against are your feral friends, you succumb to the curse yourself.  It's a this point that the story merges with our hands-on experience. The goblin experience continues to intrigue me.  Starting at level 1, we are placed in the role of a well-off entrepreneur that spends his life savings trying to escape the morally corrupt Kezan, the goblin home city.  Following that bit of moral depravity is the fact that our life savings only manages to buy us a one way ticket into slavery.  Thank god the Alliance blew up the ship before we were delivered!  It's here that we pickup in the Lost Isles. It's mentioned in the podcast that the goblins will redesign Azshara severely.  To the point that the goblin city is designed to look like the symbol of the Horde when viewed from the sky.  Those crazy goblins. Some smaller story elements that come to light in the article is include confirmation that Garrosh will become the new Warchief.  His first act, to remove all but the orc and tauren defenders from the center of Orgrimmar.  According to Hellscream, only those races are capable of defending the center of the city.  We're also tipped off to an expanding Undercity, and a change to the fate of Southshore.  According to the piece, the Horde will no longer be responsible for the loss of Southshore, apparently a tidal wave will be the culprit. I've covered the big reveals for you, but PC Gamer UK has some additional details that are of interest.  You can pickup a copy of the magazine for the full scoop, or check out the most recent PC Gamer UK (accents!) podcast for a select discussion.  The WoW stuff is in the early section of the podcast, but is broken up by tangent discussions and comparisons - you got Champions Online in my World of Warcraft!

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Gamasutra's Chris Remo recently sat down with Alex Afrasiabi to chat about some of the design philosophy behind the upcoming expansion. Though Afrasiabi might not be the household name that a Samwise Didier, Tom Chilton, or Mike Morhaime is, you might start to hear it more often. Why? Because he occupies a very important position on the development team: Lead World Designer for Cataclysm. And with the world about to undergo some significant changes, he's got his work cut out for him. Afrasiabi remains tight-lipped in the interview, typical for a Blizzard employee, but he does paint an exciting (if destructive) future for Azeroth and hints about what we might expect are dropped like bread crumbs for those who can read between the lines. For instance, he cites that "the cataclysm starts out with rumbles, and what those rumbles are are the stirrings of Deathwing beneath the world." Perhaps, then, we'll start to feel earthquakes as part of the events leading up to the release of the expansion. Zones like the Barrens are in need of a major overhaul, while those like Loch Modan still meet Blizzard's standards. He also spends some time talking about how they prioritized zone restructuring in Cataclysm. Though certainly some attention needs to be paid to those that are important to the progression of the story (meaning areas like Azshara were going to be turned upside-down regardless), others will be changed merely based on an internal ranking system. Essentially, those zones that Blizzard decided they were most unhappy with will undergo drastic modifications, while those that were deemed acceptable will be remodeled less. According to Afrasiabi, Loch Modan is one part of the world that will be transformed "lightly" (though he hesitates to say any given zone will be affected as little as that term might imply). Much of the article focuses on the use of phasing and its role in quest design from here on out. Apparently, Blizzard wants to focus more on "showing, instead of telling," which seems to mean less reliance on quest text to relay the story. Providing players with visual information, or scenes that are acted out in the course of completing a mission, seems to be the way of the future. One of the exercises that Blizzard's quest designers reportedly utilize is to see if someone can figure out what they're supposed to be doing with being given any textual information. They better they can manage without it, the better the quest's design is. One big surprise to come out of the interview is that the invention of phasing was sort of an "a-ha!" moment, a serendipitous accident like Newton watching the apple fall from the tree. Afrasiabi says that it the mechanics, now used to create a more progressive game world, was born out of a bug in the Blade's Edge Mountains. Phasing was implemented by a programmer as a quick fix for the problem, but ended up becoming key to the future of World of Warcraft. Of course, this is only a taste. I encourage everybody to head on over to Gamasutra and check out the rest of the interview. There's plenty more to read, and some really intriguing stuff in there worth speculating about!

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One of the features of World of Warcraft that really pulled me into the game was the seamless transition between zones. I had just stopped playing Final Fantasy XI, which had a dismal loading time between zones and really made the world feel disconnected. There was no way all of those zones would fit together on a world map. WoW's seamless transition between zones offered a great level of immersion. The few loading screens were either from crossing continents, which felt justified with a picture of a world map, or for instanced dungeons. Going through a portal and getting instanced really felt like I was being removed from the world and placed elsewhere; if I looked out onto Silverpine from Shadowfang Keep, I couldn't see other players or even monsters wandering the world like I would if I was outside. It made instances where you observe the outside world, like Scholomance (or recently Oculus or Utgarde Keep), a little confusing at times until I reminded myself I was still in Azeroth. Fast forward to the release of Burning Crusade. I was ecstatic to play a Blood Elf, but one thing that took me out of the game was zoning between Quel'thalas and the rest of the world. The transporter to Undercity and portals into Silvermoon weren't a big deal since they took some time to load anyway, but simply walking into Eastern Plaguelands requiring a loading screen to go from the new "Burning Crusade instance" to the Eastern Kingdoms seemed unacceptable. Additionally, for players in the Draenei and Blood Elf cities and starting zones, player arrows on the minimap showed up when players were in other Burning Crusade lands, like Outland, but not nearby in Eastern Plaguelands! I was convinced it was one of the reasons by beloved Silvermoon city wasn't more popular and why I spent so little time there, even compared to the Undercity. This got me thinking forward to Cataclysm. With flying mounts now allowed in Azeroth, unless Wintergrasp-like flying restrictions are put in place, most of the world is going to have to be one big chunk of an instance. Blizzard will have to make sure that the Ghostlands border with Eastern Kingdoms is ironed out and remove the instancing restriction. Acherus will probably now be accessible to non-Death Knight players. The Draenei areas will likely be brought into the fold as well. Some areas like the Echo Isles and other distant zones may not have to be accessible by flying mount to the main continents. The implications of this are interesting. The Burning Crusade starting zones were instanced because they wanted the new starting quests to be exclusive to people who bought the expansion to sell more games. In addition, Jewelcrafting, the new profession at the time, only had starting trainers in Silvermoon and the Exodar, so players had to have Burning Crusade to train for it. The question that now arises is: what will happen to this Burning Crusade exclusive content? Will owners of only original WoW now be able to train in Jewelcrafting and do the Blood Elf and Draenei quests, and even maybe make Blood Elf and Draenei characters? Perhaps Burning Crusade, and maybe even Wrath or Cataclysm, will be rolled into the original WoW. The start-up cost to get into WoW is getting price prohibitive for getting new players, and players starting anew will already be experiencing the new post-cataclysm world. These new players would be "free riders" on the Cataclysm content, so why not include all the expansions, at least through Wrath, to new players? If they are getting the content anyway and it entices them to stay longer, they will make more money on subscriptions from enticing players to stay anyway. What do you think? Is it time to roll all of the old games together?

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BlizzCon 2009 is certainly gone, but it is by no means forgotten.  The latest, and greatest, convention to celebrate Blizzard's universes has given World of Warcraft players plenty of fodder for questions and concerns.  Not to mention increasing the general hunger we reserve for all things Azeroth (or things in another dimension that happen to impact Azeroth).  Even though the third expansion is a ways away, Blizzard has begun trickling out additional information and screenshots for Deathwing's return via the official Cataclysm website. The Abyssal Maw, the elemental plane of water, was chosen as the first zone to be detailed.  In sticking with tradition, the new page details the background of the zone as told through small snippets of lore.  We learn, or are reminded, that the elemental planes are creations of the Titans to protect their creations from the elemental minions of the Old Gods (ie Ragnaros) and the natural destructive forces of the elements.  However, Deathwing's escape into Azeroth rips open a hole between the planes of existence, allowing noble and nefarious factions to enter the formerly closed areas. Blizzard manages to tease a new Legendary item during the description of Abyssal Maw.  By way of describing the likely end boss of the zone, Neptulon the Tidehunter, Blizzard states that he "possesses a potent weapon that allows its owner to control the very seas of Azeroth."  And it appears that players will be able to get their hands on the powerful weapon, "the artifact has remained secure inside the water elementals' domain... but that will soon change." It's nice to see Blizzard following up BlizzCon with new information in such a timely manner.  Hopefully the company can keep the flow of information coming, instead of peaks and valleys.  In case you are wondering, the Cataclysm site is not bare outside of Abyssal Maw.  It also contains the introduction to the Worgen with Gilneas and the Lost Isles for the Goblins.

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I've had a ton to keep my busy in WoW since dinging level 80 a couple of weeks ago. There's rep to grind, daily heroics to run and farming of the ToC to be had (building up my purple collection FTW). But on the side when I have a few moments (or hours) to spare, I've taken up exploring Azeroth. Perhaps it's not something that most players would have at the top of their priority list after hitting 80, but so far for me it's been a bit of a nostalgic way to re-visit the old world, run through parts I've never seen before, and earn some achievements in the process. Plus, now we have an even more compelling reason. With the imminent destruction of Azeroth in the Cataclysm, this could be the last time I see some of these zones before they are changed forever. Sure, I'll likely visit Orgrimmar and UC, but the surrounding areas? Probably not. And we still don't know what the expansion will mean for exploration achievements - if a zone is completely altered to the point of being split in two (I'm thinking Barrens), will the old exploration achievements be locked? The same could be said for questing in the Old World, but that's for a later conquest. Maybe there will be some middle ground on the issues, but I'd rather not take my chances. Anyhow, back on point. I started out in Kalimdor, from good ol' Durotar, where I had neglected to uncover Kolkar Crag. Then it was west to the grasslands of the Barrens, where my Zhevra visited her long-lost cousin. I worked my way west and then to the north, finishing off a couple of uncovered areas in each zone of Thousand Needles, Feralas, Mulgore, Desolace, Azshara, Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Felwood and Winterspring (and /love-ing every critter I see along the way). One of the high points: running into a pack of Worgen hiding out in Ashenvale and beating up on a few of them (good practice for future PvP fun). There also was Moonglade and Dark Shore, neither of which I had stepped foot in before. So far, I've finished up 14 of the 20 zones in Kalimdor, but I've still got a long ways to go before hitting that coveted Explorer title. It's easy to forget, when hidden away in the deep corners of Northrend, how vast and diverse Azeroth is. My secret pleasure - I've really enjoyed running into some of those humanoid tribes that you don't see too much of anymore: The Centaurs, Ogres, Furbolgs, Harpies and Wildkin of the world. I suppose Murlocs still are a pretty common sight, but I also made a point to run over top of every single murloc I came across, just to hear their gurgling battle cry while I galloped away. And more fun is yet to be had. I still have more nostalgia to come as I finish up Kalimdor, then head to the Eastern Kingdoms. Has anyone else taken to exploring lately? What about any other achievements that you want to get before the expansion? Don't worry if not - it seems that we'll still have quite a while before it comes out.

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And I thought the possible announcement of in-game prizes was an exciting enough reason to start following Warcraft on Twitter! Not but a few minutes ago was a new, tantalizing hook posted to the game's page, and it says the following:

The mysteries of the Abyssal Maw are starting to take shape… #WoW

What we currently know of the Abyssal Maw. Just when you thought it was over, they reel you back in! But what could this really mean? For the uninitiated, the Abyssal Maw is the Plane of the Water Elementals, which we recently learned we'd be visiting in the next expansion. As yet, we only know of one portal to the alternate dimension, a swirling whirlpool in the center of the new zone, Vashj'ir. We also know that it will contain at least two leveling dungeons for 80-85 level players. So, does that mean we might be learning more about this unexplored area in the very near future? The Abyssal Maw was highlighted heavily in various panels at Blizzcon, perhaps indicating that it is one of the pieces of fresh, high-level content that's the furthest along in development. And that means it may also be the first that we get an extensive preview of. It hasn't even been a month since the expansion's reveal, and yet the time seems ripe for Blizzard to start peeling back the veil on Cataclysm little by little. Very little else can be gleaned from this brief tease, and there's no way that we can confirm at the moment if anything is true. After all, there's always the possibility that this might pertain to the comic series or the TCG,  but we'll keep our eyes glued to Twitter for any further information, which we will no doubt bring to the rest of you! Speculation is always fun, though. Readers, what do you think this strange message might mean?

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All right, it's time to get down to business. We've seen a little gameplay footage of the Goblin and Worgen. We've read first-hand accounts on how each new race plays. We know that Goblins like to blow stuff up and Worgens are still shrouded in mystery. But what real crux of the conversation are we all missing? It must be that we don't know what either new Cataclysm race will do for their /dance. After all, I think we learn a little bit more about what makes each race burn with passion inside by the way they shake it. Plus, with us recently learning that The Old Republic MMO also will have a /dance, Blizz has to step up to the plate again to proclaim its /dance supremacy. On the new Cataclysm forums, there have been a few threads speculating on what dance possibilities lie ahead for WoW. We've also had a few of dance suggestions here on our own forums and on previous Project Lore blog posts. I've taken some of the best suggestions I've seen, added a few of my own wild ideas, and put it all together for us to laugh, and perhaps, cry over. Let the show begin. Worgen male I had to start here, because I've seen so, so many people begging for the Worgen male to dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Now no matter what you think of the man, I think its undeniable that MJ was a dancing genius. But some may question whether "Thriller" is right for the Worgen. After all, the dancers in the videos are more like zombies, and the only wolf-like creature from the video doesn't actually do the dance. Plus, Blizzard could not secure the rights to Micael Jackson's "Billie Jean" for the BlizzCon dance contest, so I wonder if that might inhibit them from any sort of rights required to borrow another of his dances. Regardless, "Thriller" has been performed by inmates and movie stars alike. Perhaps male Worgen are destined to be next up. Another idea from the forums that I had to include, although I'm not so sure it would work. Perhaps for those of us who like to think of the Worgen as no more than cute puppy dogs. Here's the Snoopy dance: Worgen female Next up, the female Worgen, with another obvious but perhaps fitting suggestion. We still only have a loose guess of what the female version of the Worgen will even look like. But many forum posters are betting that she'd look good performing a dance inspired by Shakira's "She Wolf." While I like this option, I think it'd be fun to incorporate a lesser-known option (at least for those of us not from Asia). In the past, Blizzard has borrowed dances from French artist Alizee and Bhangra singer Daler Mehndi - so why not some Korean pop influence next? Here's the super-cute Girls' Generation performing "Gee." Goblin female I haven't seen too many suggestions yet for either male or female Goblin, so these are mostly my own ideas. Knowing the Goblins' stereotypical love of commerce and exchange, why not have the females dance to a song demanding a diamond ring? It's a great dance song with some neat moves, plus it's already been the inspiration for a WoW spoof song. Know what I'm suggesting yet? Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)." Here's a version that includes a preview of what could be the next BlizzCon dance contest. Beyonce not your cup of tea? Here's something a bit more classic. A scene from the movie "Flashdance." Goblin male Do Goblins already have a dance? Well that depends on whether you think this is enough for a full on /dance: If that's not satisfactory enough, I'll suggest an alternative: Soulja Boy's "Superman" dance. The little green Goblins would look fantastic pulling this one off. One final suggestion that I've seen thrown around a ton on the forums should not be taken lightly. This goofy, crazy, seizure-inducing meme could be inspiration for the Goblin male, or really, any of the new characters. Here's some Caramelldansen: Well, there's your list folks. What are your fave options? Did I leave something out that you think would work better? Let me know. This post will serve as a good running list of possibilities - so we can see if any of us predicted correctly once Cataclysm is released!

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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. It's a surprisingly tame day on the forums, folks. Well, of course there's the usual whining, and some questions about the Paid Faction Change, but if you want to find answers to those or discuss the new service, Project Lore's coverage is a really good place to start (I even wrote it myself!). With that said, I've still managed to cherry-pick a few things that I think are worth looking at: So Explain To Me Again... Weapon Skill: Quite possibly the most useless skill in the game! Wait, wasn't that supposed to be Spirit? Nerthuz must be suffering from Memory Gremlins in her brain again, because she can't remember what she was told last time she asked about Weapon Skill. It must be hard with those nasty little critter eatin' up your thoughts and all. But, hey, she has a point. What is up with Weapon Skill, anyway? This is an issue we've covered here at Project Lore before. Why iTZKoopA posted something about it just one month ago, and he came to the conclusion that it was a sloppy, poorly-implemented stat, though it may have simply been used as a limiter to keep people from tackling mobs way above their current level. But, then, couldn't weapon proficiency simply be built into levels instead of being something you need to raise? Why not just tack on an extra five points every time you ding and automatically pro-rate new skills you learn from Weapon Trainers? Lore-wise, I suppose there is some sort of justification. Ancilorn points out, in accordance with the theme of Nerthuz's original post: "The worlds most skilled swordsman are not so skilled when it comes to wielding axes in combat. They would have to hone their skill to become competent at wielding axes in combat effectively." Indeed, it makes sense that while just about anybody should be able to theoretically wield any weapon, Weapon Skill is associated with how well they can actually do it. In real life, anyone can learn to shoot a gun, but not everybody can be a Bob Munden. Still, I think it's an iffy stat. It's not terribly inconvenient to max out, but it does feel kind of useless. Even if its inclusion can be justified, maybe it should've been tossed out like all those other stats were at BlizzCon. Cataclysm Compilation Nothing snarky to say about Frejya, the kind of person that everyone on the official forums should strive to be. And it seems that Blizzard approves, as well, as they've given her the hallowed green text of a V.I.P. (Very Important Poster). Now that the Cataclysm section has been opened, Nethaera thought it was high time to move Frejya's extensive and resourceful thread on the next expansion to the new forum. The only flaw with it, of course, is the lack of back-linking to Project Lore! Be sure to check it out if you need to know something about Cataclysm on the fly! Two Minute Buffs Need [To Be] Changed! It just wouldn't be a normal day on the forums without Ghostcrawler addressing a little bit of QQ. This time, 'letter Z' fanatic Bearlizion wantz to know why Blizzard dizcriminatez againzt all of hiz two-minute buffz. This is where I bring up something we talked about yesterday, namely people who don't play the game as it is and rather desire to play it the way they want it to be. Usually, this means ignoring basic play mechanics in favor of unrestricted convenience. Why can't people realize that without limiters placed on your class, it wouldn't be fun to play at all? Ghostcrawler's sage advice shines like a light from the heavens once again: "With warrior shouts, the intent is that the resources do matter. You might not have enough rage at any given moment and part of the skill required in playing a warrior is making sure you have enough resources to both shout and do your other damage." The fun in playing the game comes from strategizing in combat and figuring out how to manage your resources and when to use your skills. As I see it, most Warriors (especially tanks), already deal with a rather bland experience and the best thing to do would be to make them more complex, not easier to play. GC goes on to detail a couple of ways in which that could be accomplished, but the common theme seems to be restructuring rage so that a Warrior tank would have to pay attention to it throughout an encounter and not just at the beginning of it. You guys do remember the old days, right? When threat was actually something people had to worry about? I know I can recall the days of having to strategically limit my DPS and make alternate use of Feint and Vanish to clear my aggro on the target. His other core idea is perhaps putting key Warrior buffs on CDs: "Imagine (I am arm waving for a moment) that Battle Shout and Commanding Shout didn't cost any rage and in fact gave you rage, but were on a cooldown. Then using the shouts might become a more interesting choice -- you'd want to use them at moments when you're rage-starved and generally not when you have a full bar. However, you'd also want to keep them going because of their buff so you couldn't neglect to use them too often either. A challenge of playing the class / a test of your skill would be to shout at the right moment to keep the buff up but also make sure you earn the rage when you most needed it." Sure sounds more interesting to me! But I don't play a Warrior as my main, so I'd like to hear what you more experienced players think of this sort of change. Keep in mind that they're only ideas and this is not an indication that the development team is going to suddenly change the class' mechanics. I just happen to believe that making any class more strategic to play can only be a good thing!

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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. It's the beginning of September, and you know what that means! New content for all! OK, so that has less to do with the beginning of the month, and more to do with it being a Tuesday. But that doesn't mean we can't get excited about it, right? You can bet the forums are abuzz with people discussing Arena Season 7, Koralon: The Flame Watcher, and the release of the final boss in Trial of the Crusader, Anub'Arak (which brings with it the unlocking of Heroic mode).

• Oddly enough, the big issue of the day is none of these things. Instead, people are concerned with something Bornakk said yesterday in regards to heirloom items in Cataclysm: "Heirloom items specifically state that they go from levels 1 to 80 so we don't currently plan to make the currently available items auto-update to go to level 85 in the next expansion. As for the experience gain, nothing is set in stone yet, but I think it makes sense that we won't want players to get a 20% exp bonus when leveling to 85." Seems like some people will do just about anything to get ahead! Isn't a boost from 1-80 good enough for ya? After all, they were meant to lend you a hand through the painful process of leveling an alt for the umpteenth time. Bigger and broader changes are being made to the 1-60 game in Cataclysm, not to mention all of the new items and equipment that Blizzard would probably rather you use (considering they've spent so much time developing them already). Really, heirloom items should be less of a concern until the whole process becomes boring once again. Why not concentrate on enjoying the streamlined leveling experience and new zones instead of being the first on your server to hit the cap? Wryxian doesn't rule out the potential for "Tome of Cold Weather Flying" style upgrades when your first character hits 85.
• RAWK! The complaining doesn't end there. You'd think Carstalker would be happy after beating out his little sister for first place in the Domino Rally, but he's only interested in figuring out what he's going to do with all those badges he spent on heirloom gear (you know, the ones that Blizzard practically hands out for free these days?): "Sooooooo i just spent alot of badges for my shadowcraft parts giving me a total of 20% bonus to experience gained for my rogue which has been lvl 80 since a week after wotlk was released... can i have these badges back please? i feel kinda tricked, the chest heirloom got handed too us pretty recently ingame which made me think that heirlooms is going to be a + when cataclysm arrives..." Listen up, Carstalker, I'm not sure you're entitled to anything. Blizzard's not out to get you, mon frere! Outside of the experience bonus, do you really think it's worth running around in those old hand-me-downs like Azeroth's own Bag Lady? Surely, you'll be able to find better (and better looking) gear from quest rewards and leveling dungeons. Maybe it's just me, but I get really cheesed when it seems the only thing anybody ever worries about is the race to the finish. What do you think, readers, should the man get all those badges back or is he simply a victim of planning a little too far ahead for his own good?
• Kanye West impersonator, er... Kanye, insists that he doesn't like fish sticks. But he does enjoy things when they're hard. Case in point: raiding in World of Warcraft. Echoing a popular philosophy amongst the player base, he asks if Blizzard can make Icecrown Citadel just as challenging as Sunwell: "The concept of a hard version of every instance sounds okay at first, but then you realize how easy they make the regular version and it just seems pointless. This expansion needs more fights like Brut/Muru that are extreme cockblocks and make you feel awesome when they die. Hopefully some of the ToC hardmodes are like this, as well as plenty of Icecrown encounters. I will be beyond disappointed if 3 or 4 months into Icecrown these same 31 guilds have killed Arthas too. This may come off as me being an elitist #%%###* but who can honestly say they hope the final encounter of the game will be puggable eventually? There were only like 10 guilds to kill Illidan and even less to kill KJ at level 70 on my server." The reponse from Valnoth was as curt as his rant was verbose: "Heroic Modes are for progression. Please make use of them." I'm a rather big fan of difficult raids myself. To most people, they may feel like running a sheet of sandpaper over your genitals until they bleed, but oh man does the payoff make all the pain worth it. At the end of the day, though, I'm not going to let it bother me. While my guild's easily bested all comers in Trial of the Crusader so far, we still haven't made it past General Vezax in Ulduar. I'd say raid difficulty, overall, is more lop-sided than it used to be, but challenges remain for those who seek them.

Anyway, that's enough from me. All of the servers should certainly be up by now, so go forth, and enjoy the new offerings Blizzard has so beautifully laid out before us today. Whether you're a fan of PvE or PvP, there's something for everyone!

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"I'm Ron Burgundy?" One of the biggest side effects to the upcoming cataclysm is the destruction of Azeroth by Deathwing's return.  The Earth Warder - or Warderer for the overzealous, over caffeinated, under REMed writer - will return with a bang.  The leader of the Black Dragonflight will cut a hole in the world and leave a fiery trail from his exit wound across the Eastern Kingdom.  The effects of such a tumultuous event will be felt as far away as Kalimdor (no mention of major Northrend changes have been made), shattering The Barrens, ravaging the coastline of Auberdine and refreshing the Wailing Caverns.  It's only natural that the quests and tasks we've done over, and over, change alongside the world. To my knowledge no developer has abandoned old content entirely.  We players do it all the time though.  When was the last time you spent more than a few minutes running around Outland?  (Farming old achievements does not count!)  For us, it makes sense to move on to the new hotness for leveling, loot and a myriad of other reasons.  Being the efficient minded players that we are, we do just that. This, unfortunately, leaves the old areas crawling with tumbleweeds, bored mobs and unchallenged raid bosses.  Why shouldn't Blizzard nuke it and start over?  Nearly no one is using it, and to top it off, Blizzard is often ashamed of the archaic design ideas that the company implemented so long ago.  By combining the release of new races with Deathwing's destruction players will have a perfect reason to rerun all of the "new" zones, but that leads us to the bad - the disappearance of the old. This may sound contradictory to the good point.  That is because it is.  The removal of the old content, by way of the new stuff, is going to upset a lot of people.  Blizzard surely agonized over the decision to abandon all the vanilla WoW content, but that doesn't matter to the old school.  No matter what, those rose colored glasses will make players remember the "good ole days." *cough*Perhaps someone should archive the old dungeon content before it disappears?!  I wonder which site would be capable of such high quality hijinks?!  Any ideas?*cough* As a consolation prize, much of the old world raids will be returning alongside Cataclysm, albeit in an entirely new form.  Apparently beheadings do not kill dragons. The ugly is simply laziness.  I've seen, and heard, people claim that Blizzard isn't redoing anything, the company's artists are.  Subscribers to this philosophy believe that the massive changes will just be updates to art, textures and models, with little gameplay being modified.  I put the question mark in the title on purpose, as I have no fuel to add to this fire.  Are any readers out there capable of making a poignant case of laziness on Blizzard's part?  In my opinion, there are simply too many zones drastically changing, and too much raid content incoming for me to see the light. The keen-eyed readers will note that the post lost meat as I continued down the list of topics.  The Holmes-ish readers will then deduce my stance on the subject, which applies to my girlfriend as well.  I hate to see it go, but love to watch it leave.  What about you?  Feel free to leave my girlfriend out of your comments.

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