Project Lore

In press release earlier today, Blizzard announced that, in China, World of Warcraft will be licensed to NetEase.com, who already has the rights to operate both Starcraft II and Diablo III. Once Blizzard's current deal with The9 expires in June, NetEase will take over the operation of WoW in China, with further details to be announced on their website. According to a VentureBeat article, that means Blizzard's cut of revenue from WoW in China will increase from about $50 million per year over $140 million per year, almost purely profit. It will be interesting to see if this means that Wrath of the Lich King will be coming soon for China, because they still have yet to see it released. This is a reminder of how, although WoW is a huge and global game, we aren't even able to interact in game with nearly everyone due to restrictions like different regions, languages, and servers that the game is played on. In the Totally Rad Guild, we have people from all over the United States, Canada, Australia, and probably more that I don't even know about. So how about you guys - where are you gaming from?

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We know Blizzard is developing a third expansion for World of Warcraft. We know they're developing Diablo III, Starcraft II, and a nameless next-gen MMO. As it turns out, they're also developing a fifth project that will use a completely new engine built from scratch. Silicon Alley Insider reported on a post on DIII.net as they discovered a few job listings filed under "Unannounced Project," which is a different category from the "Next-Gen MMO" that has been used for Blizzards upcoming unnamed MMO. A couple of days later, there was confirmation that the job listings were for a game that had previously not been mentioned:

The job openings mentioned in this newspost is indeed a brand-new game that has not been mentioned before. 1. This brand-new game is not a World of Warcraft expansion, and it is not related to the Next-Gen MMO. 2. In the present, the brand-new game is using the World of Warcraft engine merely for testing purposes. 3. The Client Software Engineer job opening is to hire the person that will have the responsibility to develop an engine from scratch for this game.  This new engine will be built depending on the skill and interest of the person hired for this position. Whether this game is based on the three major franchises (Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo) or a new IP, that remains unknown.

Blizzard has expressed plenty of interest in starting a new franchise, so it wouldn't be too surprising to learn that this new project was completely unrelated to their other works. On the flip side, it would be interesting to see a new Warcraft-related game. What could it possibly be? What are your thoughts? Excited at the prospect of new Blizzard games every year? Nervous that Blizzard may be spreading itself too thin? Silicon Alley Insider sees it as a great new revenue stream for Activision. I just can't wait to see what else Blizzard has up its sleeve.

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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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BlizzCon has come and gone, but that doesn't mean I have been able to absorb the insane amount of information to come from the event. Tons of information and yet Blizzard Entertainment had a bit of a lackluster announcement to make this year – as it wasn't a new game. Instead we got news such as the unveiling of the third class for Diablo III, the Wizard, and the splitting of StarCraft II into three games.

I know this isn't ProjectStarCraft but I need a soapbox for a minute. What the crap is this? Blizzard claims that the main reasoning behind the trilogy is cost, stating that StarCraft II has become a far larger project compared to the first game. Thus, they have split the title into three editions, the “full” game will focus on the Terran campaign and be titled Wings of Liberty. Then we will have the Zerg title, Heart of the Swarm, followed by the Protoss' Legacy of the Void.

In fairness, Rob Pardo stated that the second and third games will feature fleshed out campaigns, featuring 26-30 missions each. He comments that the second two titles should be viewed as expansion packs, rather than the rest of StarCraft II. Pardo states “we really want them to feel like stand-alone products.” Personally, Blizzard didn't divulge enough information about the second and third releases to keep me happy. If the additions are full-fledged expansions like Relic Entertainment's Dawn of War expansions, which went so far as to add a new campaigns, new races and units, then I will gladly pay full expansion price. If Blizzard only delivers campaigns for the focused race, then I feel like we may end up paying ~$100 for a single game.  Time will tell as more information comes out.

Diablo and StarCraft aside, Blizzard hit us with plenty of World of Warcraft information. As I mentioned, I am still digesting it all, but have been excited by numerous headlines:

• Patch 3.1 is already completed and will be the first content patch for Wrath. It will feature Ulduar raid instance.
• Patch 3.2 is in the works and will feature an unknown instance.
• Patch 3.3, the last patch for Wrath, will feature the Icecrown Citadel, Arthas and resolve the Ashbringer story.
• Dual-Talent spec will allow players to switch between specs without going back to a trainer. Specs can be switched between raid pulls, but not during Arena matches.
• Blizzard will be trying to create raids that are more accessible than Sunwell Plateau. Meaning, they believe it is too difficult.
• Toying with the idea of awarding XP for PvP.
• Battlegrounds are supposed to be brought back to the forefront of PvP.
• Queuing to Battlegrounds and Arenas from anywhere in the world coming.
• Strand of the Ancients, the upcoming Wrath Battleground, bumped to 15v15 with double the siege weapons.
• Unrelated to WoW – Blizzard confirmed their upcoming MMO is a brand-new universe.

Echoes of Doom (Patch 3.0.2) is coming soon, are you ready for the changes?! Hit the recommended sites to the right for further details and coverage of BlizzCon 2008.

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