Project Lore

Community Spotlight On LoreCrafter.com's Catalysm Ideas I, like many of you, absolutely love Warcraft's lore.  We've been talking about it much lately, ranging from various quests and zones all the way to the predicted reveal of the upcoming expansion.  To be completely honest, the lore is what I spend most of my time on.  I read about the universe all over the place, from manga and books to various websites and blogs.  I spend hours a week raiding, leveling and farming.  Yet, I'd wager that I dedicate almost an equal amount of time pouring over the many resources available.  And we need so many due to the immense size and scope of the universe that Metzen and his underlings have created for us to play in. I simply can't get enough of the lore.  Lunches, "smoke breaks", waiting for things to install.  I steal every moment I can to absorb the seemingly endless amounts of information, stories, conjecture and background to Warcraft.  It's this very reason that I have between 15-20 sites on my RSS feeder dedicated to this single purpose.  And one of them really caught my eye, and teased my brain, recently, LoreCrafted.com. Let's be clear, the latest series of posts by Tharion Greyseer are complete and utter speculation on the aforementioned upcoming expansion.  Over the course of a couple of weeks Tharion crafted a recap of what could be coming from World of Warcraft v4.0 and beyond.  The author even took the time to include Blizzard-esque role playing introductions for each patch, crafted a possible world event focused on rising seas and the incoming Naga swarms from the Maelstrom and addressed other popular expansion theories. I don't dare recap the entirety of the posts for fear of "spoiling" those who want to remain clean, and to force you to check out the excellent posts.  The information contained within is indeed pure speculation, and unlikely to be spot on, but it makes Cataclysm sound pretty interesting.  Not to mention complex if the intertwining lore aspects come to fruition.  Upon completion of the series I did enter into a surprising state of depression.  Reading the synopsis made me realize how formulaic the expansions can easily become. Who else dedicates unsafe amounts of time to reading Warcraft's past?  Have any of the non-Warcraft III players gone back and read about The Frozen Throne and the current lore?  May I recommend just playing it?  Enjoy the community spotlight? Interesting tidbit.  According to WoWWiki the bonus campaign in TFT, featuring Rexxar, was created to showcase the Orcs, because they weren't a large enough part of the story proper.  I guess that answers the 'what is the Horde doing' question I posed earlier.

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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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A series of trademark requests that Blizzard Entertainment recently filed may indicate the possible name and lore of the next World of Warcraft expansion. Wednesday, Tumblr blogger Supererogatory revealed that Blizzard is seeking trademarks that would include computer games, paper-based products and online games with the name "Cataclysm." For all we know, that could be the name of Blizzard's super-secret project under development, a new MMO or something else completely unrelated to WoW. But given the name's relationship to the Maelstrom, some people (including myself) speculate that this could be the name for the next WoW expansion. There's been a great deal of speculation for a long while now that the next expansion will relate to the swirling vortex of power that lies between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, the Maelstrom. To refresh your memory, the Maelstrom was created in a huge world event at the end of the War of the Ancients, thousands of years ago. Often referred to as the Cataclysm or the Great Sundering, it all started with the destruction of the Well of Eternity. The giant explosion that this caused ripped Azeroth asunder, destroying most of the land mass (previously there was one giant continent, Kalimdor) and reshaping what little remained. In place of the Well of Eternity now lies the Maelstrom, a constant, thunderous reminder of the peaceful times that now are lost to the world. It also is implied that the giant storm is slowly drawing in the surrounding land masses. It could even eventually swallow all that remains of Azeroth. What more could you ask for in a conflict? Another noteworthy, though perhaps coincidental factor: WoW.com pointed out that the WoWcataclysm domain expired on June 26, the same day that the trademark requests were filed. Interesting. There also have been a lot of guesses that the next expansion could be related to the Emerald Dream, the realm of Dragon Aspect Ysera. That speculation was flamed by several blue posts that hinted at the area as a possibilty for future development, but I haven't seen any new, official mentions of that for at least a couple of years. Let's see if we can glean a little bit more information for what the Trademark would encompass by reading the details of the applications, which were filed June 26. According to the documents posted on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's website, the three requests are classified to cover:

• Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads
• Comic books, computer game strategy guides, trading cards, coloring books, adhesive stickers, rub-on transfers, notebooks, stationery-type portfolios, posters, greeting cards, calendars, instructional leaflets in the field of computer games, computer game instruction manuals, catalogs in the field of computer games, advertisement boards of paper or cardboard, photographs, art prints
• Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; providing computer games that may be accessed via a global computer network; and providing on-line information in the field of computer gaming entertainment

It certainly sounds like an MMO to me. So what does everyone else think? Would you be all for some maelstrom-based content for the next expansion? Do you think that's what all this information points to? What else do you think the trademarks could be for?

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