Project Lore

Ever have trouble finding quality versions of Blizzard cinematics on the internet and refuse to spend the time downloading them from the official site? Well, now there's an easy and convenient solution! Perhaps as part of their social networking kick lately (see their Twitter accounts), the company has established their very own YouTube channel. As yet, the selection is a curious mix of "wow, that's available?!" and "where the hell is it?" In other words, it's primarily pre-rendered introduction movies and upcoming game previews that go from unreleased titles all the way back to Diablo II and the original StarCraft (though the inclusion of Wrathgate is a curious anomaly). The good news is that all of them are available in High Quality, and the newer ones in High Definition. Just don't expect to be able to view every in-game cutscene from their catalog just yet. Though, considering the prevalence of amateur recordings so comprehensive that you could watch the entire plot of WarCraft III unfold just by surfing YouTube for an hour, I wouldn't be surprised to see Blizzard to start buffing their own offerings real soon. There's nothing wrong with honoring and showcasing the work of the developer's tremendous art team, but since the service is fueled by its rich community of content creators, I'd also like to see Blizz host things like machinima, StarCraft II Battle Reports, tournament play records, and other fan offerings so that it could all be accessed in one place. Clearly, there's still some work to be done, but if you ask me, what's there is already pretty worthwhile for a channel that's still in its infancy. In fact, I think i'm going to go watch the Cataclysm preview trailer again right now. Goblins? Worgen? Massive, world-changing events and new lands to conquer? Ooh, it gives me chills every time!

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Can the awesomeness of Blizzard games be distilled into a scant 140 characters? The company's Licensing Project Manager, Kat Hunter, seems to think so. According to her own account, all three of Blizzard's core franchises are being given the Twitter treatment. So whether you're a fan of Warcraft, Starcraft, or Diablo, there's something for everyone. Or just add all three (hint: clicking the previous links take you straight to the games' respective Twitter pages)!  These accounts appear to be alternate news feeds for all of the latest Blizzard buzz. I'm willing to bet that they get quite the work out during Blizzcon. And did someone say licensing? Considering Mrs. Hunter's involvement (and the pedigree of corporate Twitter accounts in general), I think we can expect to see plenty of posts about events, new merchandise, and promotional opportunities in addition to general news items. So go ahead and add 'em. And while you're at it, why not follow Project Lore, as well? We provide a link to every new article as it's posted and it's a great way to keep up with our schedule of live streaming feeds. So what do you think of this readers? Do you even use Twitter? Is this something useful and interesting to you? I don't think you can fault Blizzard for giving their fans options and the convenience factor can't be beat. Where else can you keep up on the latest WoW news and pretend like you're best buds with Ashton Kutcher at the same time? Wait... does Ashton Kutcher play Warcraft?

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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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Pixiestixy wasn't the only part of the PL crew who thought about crafting a story for the Creative Writing Contest.  I've been writing about video games for nearly a decade now, so I contemplated the opportunity to create my own lore, but thought better of it.  It had nothing to do with time constraints or any reasonable excuse.  It came down to sheer confidence, something I have never had in my right brain.  Heck, I did actually give it a shot.  I came up with a trio of plot ideas, but I didn't believe that I had the chops to flesh the story out for 3000+ words.  With the little birdy in my ear yelling "stick to what you know" I dropped the ambitious project and returned to my comfort zone, reporting, dissecting and analyzing other people's work. Thank god that my affliction, being technical rather than creative, doesn't hamstring the whole populace or we wouldn't have 18 winning entries to the contest.  In case you missed the post on the official forum, the winners have been announced with Sarah Pine taking the crown for her story In the Shadow of the Sun. According to Nethaera, Metzen himself had to make the decision in the end. Being a Blizzard run project it should be no shock that we still can't read any of the award-winning stories.  At least not in their entirety.  Nethaera made no mention of the word soon, but Bornakk stated that no stories, winners or losers, can not be "legally" posted.  This gives me some hope that the winning articles will get bound in some sort of physical release.  Otherwise, I do not really understand the lengthy delay in their release.  It would be great of Blizzard to launch the winning stories in a budget-priced physical form as a treat to the community.  But we will have to wait and see. Pine's story isn't one of the shorts on the excerpts page, but there are some quality ones across all three of Blizzard's properties.  Kuma's Song, a tale, or at least the excerpt is, about the horrors of AV, caught my eye as the most intriguing of the seven.  Where Loyalties Lie, a StarCraft piece also seemed particularly interesting.  The collection promises to spread the gauntlet of emotion if the subset of stories are anything to go by.  We have revenge plots, exploration, war, death, destruction, humor and remorse all represented.  I can't wait to digest the rest of the content these unappreciated writers have created. Which story did you enjoy the most from the selection?  Would you be interested in picking up a budget-priced collection of the shorts?  Any readers submit their own stories? I'll take the plunge.  I'll put out one of my creative story ideas for you to giggle and poke fun at.  The favorite plot that I came up with was to be, at least largely, a joke piece, entirely based on boss mobs of various instances.  Not just any boss mobs, but the boss mobs that are effectively tank and spank.  The story would be a collection of soliloquies where the bosses would speak about their strategies to defeat the incoming raid and ruminate over their continued failings.  We'd be treated to colorful plans, elaborate schemes and complex strategies, only to see them fall apart due to personal issues like anxiety, stupidity, or other character flaws.  As for linking the normally unrelated bosses together, the story - One Hit Wonders - would be presented as if they were all in the after life, reminiscing their last minutes on Azeroth to each other. I know open the floor to the Internet for comments and analysis.

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Kotaku just came to the realization via Official Blue Post (tm) that one of Blizzard's projects, their unnamed next-gen MMO, is an entirely new franchise, which means it's not Starcraft, it's not Warcraft, it's not Diablo, it's not Lost Vikings, it's not Rock n' Roll Racing, and most disappointingly it's not Battle Chess. Zarhym says, in response to a poster wondering why Blizzard hasn't started advertising for their new MMO:

We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it's a shell of a game thus far. We've already stated it'll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It's an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this.

So, they're working on all new stuff. They have two fantasy titles releasing along with a Sci-Fi future title, so what's next? Where will their new MMO end up being set? The wild west? An apocalyptic future? A realistic contemporary world? Ancient Egypt? A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? Canada? I'm thinking none of the above, because Blizzard has a way of surprising us all. Nevertheless, it may end up being a battle between two Blizzard MMOs at the top, with some players unable to tear themselves away from WoW, but many making the transition to their new property. What do you think? Are you getting tired of the Fantasy MMO? Are you looking forward to Blizzard's new title? Where do you want to see it set, and what do you want it to include? How many question marks fit in one post?

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We saw a glimmer of this when installing Wrath, and its now beginning. Players now have the option to create an overarching Battle.net account and link all of their Blizzard games together. This may become mandatory in the future. After registering, you can "merge" your WoW account and your Battle.net account. Whenever you login to WoW, you then use your Battle.net credentials, namely the email address you used for your Battle.net account and your new password. Login for the non-WoW Blizzard games still uses their existing logon system and they will not (yet?) accept the new Battle.net credentials. You can add StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warcraft Battle Chest, Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, and Diablo II Battle Chest into your Battle.net account by providing the site with your CD key. You can also buy a CD key online from the Blizzard store. You are then able to download the fully patched game to your computer using the standard Blizzard downloader used for all WoW patches and media, and in the future there may be more integrated features to unify the games. Warcraft II Battle.net edition is notably not on the list. In the future, its likely that we will see "account wide achievements" and other such things. Its unclear how or if the older games will play into this, but you can be certain that Starcraft II, Diablo III, and the currently unannounced MMO that Blizzard is working on will use the new Battle.net heavily. Warcraft II, Warcraft III, Diablo II, and Starcraft all shared the same Battle.net servers and game channels could be joined by anyone from any of those games. I'd love to see WoW join in on this, as I still hop on Warcraft III and Starcraft once in a while and would like to chat with players across all of these games. In addition, Blizzard annouced that the highly popular Blizzard authenticator will be available as an application for mobile devices, namely the iPhone and iPod touch. Its a great piece of equipment that improves account security. It is being re-branded as the Battle.net authenticator. The authenticator will work with all Battle.net games. Downloadable software is much easier to keep in stock than hardware, so hopefully this will provide players with a venue to get an authenticator. Price is not yet announced, and it may be free to increase account security. Since mobile devices (especially the iPod) must authenticate over the internet, I don't think its unlikely that an exploit to replicate the authenticator will happen at some point in the future.

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Oh BlizzCon, how I wish to be a part of you. Yes, that is right folks, another episode in my on-going saga to join the masses at BlizzCon 2008. I am not simply going just for World of Warcraft either. Yes, I was a hardcore raider during vanilla WoW before turning casual with The Burning Crusade but that is only part of my addiction to Blizzard Entertainment's products. My first Blizzard game was actually their epic Rock N' Roll Racing. But it is hard to be addicted to a racing title from that generation for too long. It was really Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness that drew me into Blizzard and StarCraft that had me addicted. But I was by no means a great StarCraft player. Great in my high school, yeah, but nothing special outside that. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos/The Frozen Throne was a different story though. I was an avid AT (arranged team) player, even winning a few tournaments with my brother. You won't find my name on any replays or in the Worldwide Invitational so stop looking. Just small local tournaments and one regional appearance. And like many of my generation, I learned to mouse click thanks to Diablo II. My point is, I really want to goto BlizzCon, not only WoW but all of Blizzard's properties...and the goodie bag. Despite asking for all your luck I missed out on the lottery drawing. The drawing was my last chance at receiving a ticket through the more official channels. When the BlizzCon e-mail failed to appear in my mailbox I turned into a new man. More grouchy than Oscar in Azeroth. My girlfriend was not amused. This morning at breakfast I started looking at the grey market once again. I refuse to pay the ridiculous eBay prices for my entry into Valhalla so I have found some other alternatives:

• Pixelated Executioner is offering a BlizzCon ticket for the best, original 700+ word story related to Wrath of the Lich King. However, the goodie bag is NOT included.
• Blizzard and its partners are offering an all expenses paid trip for two to BlizzCon. All you have to do is enter some information to be eligible. 25 runner-ups will receive a mix of SteelSeries (they make the Zboard line), UpperDeck Entertainment, Brady Games and J!NX swag.

So far I have only found those two contests, if anyone knows of any others please add them via the comments. Personally, I will likely enter both as they have to have better odds than the lottery system! Can't wait to read some of those stories. The WoW community is so creative that I expect some gems to come from it.

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