Project Lore

Ever since Blizzard went about the process of remaking Battle.net the company has kindly asked players to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with Battle.net.  As many of you may know, Battle.net is being completely revamped as the catch all account service for all of Blizzard's online-enabled products (WoW, Warcraft RTS,Diablos, StarCraft).  Version 2.0 of the system is supposed to launch alongside StarCraft II, a title that is now expected in the first half of 2010. To date, Blizzard has been enticing players to merge their accounts.  Claiming it'll make logging in easier, give you faster access for spamming for BlizzCon 2009 tickets, win Warcraft III games on its own and even make one immune to H1N1.  Yesterday the company stopped asking politely.  Now it's outright bribery. Or is it? The information that Heartbourne revealed yesterday has since been modified, the mentions of a penguin pet and the firm date since removed.  It's unlikely that Blizzard will back down.  After all, if the company did, it would have a mob of vanity pet lovers charging the building.  With Heartbourne and I at the helm. It's not like Blizzard to hand out a specific date to something.  Let alone do so and then take it back, but that's exactly what has happened.  We'll likely hear more about the pending merger requirement in the near future. I merged my WoW account long ago and haven't had a single issue.  There's been problems on and off, mostly login issues, but they have never affected me (/me knocks on skull).  How many of you have merged and joined the Big Brother system powered by Blizzard?  For those of you that haven't, is it out of laziness, or are you actually scared of bad things happening? Actually, Tobold just pointed something out to me.  By forcing us to use an e-mail account instead of an original login name, there's a good chance that your friends/family will now know your login name.  Worse yet, it'll be easier for nefarious beings to find it as well.  He explains his worries about the lower security via BNet merger here. *Note* I logged in during lunchtime and the launcher confirmed that all accounts must be merged to Battle.net by November 12, as previously reported.  Penguin will indeed be the reward for complying (to continue to pay Blizzard money).

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I have been obsessed with collecting non-combat pets recently. I've got quite a collection, and I'm hoping to round it out with more pets soon. Well, it sounds like we are going to have a new penguin friend very soon! Players who merge their WoW accounts with a Battle.net account will receive Oswald the penguin as a reward! This will come with the requirement to have a Battle.net account merged with your WoW account to play WoW, effective November 11. Note that these details are from the European WoW site and will almost certainly be applicable to US accounts as well. Battle.net is scheduled for a major revamp, and Blizzard seems to be preparing for that by getting their huge WoW player base onto the network. Soon, features like being able to friend accounts instead of just characters, account-wide achievements, and a single account for all Blizzard games will be reality. The ability to get the pet will likely be removed shorty after the mandatory merge date, as it seems to be an incentive to merge early to relieve stress on their servers on the cutoff date. Oswald used to be known as Mr. Chilly, which was a reward for Wrath beta players who merged their accounts to Battle.net accounts. He has not yet been obtainable on live servers, and it is unclear why he is now going by his first name. In addition, the existing penguin pet, Pengu, will have a slightly updated model that changes his red eyes to nice blue ones.

As well as Oswald, players will soon be mailed their Onyxia Whelplings for logging in on or around WoW's 5th anniversary on November 23. The EU WoW site's FAQ answers some questions on the details:

Q: What happens if I don’t merge my World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account? A: After November 12, 2009, you won’t be able to log in to the game unless you merge your account with a Battle.net account. You will need to log in using your Battle.net account username (your email address) and password. Q: How can I obtain the penguin pet? A: Once you’ve successfully merged a World of Warcraft account with a Battle.net account, the penguin pet will be sent via in-game mail to all existing characters on the merged World of Warcraft account, along with all future characters on that World of Warcraft account. Players who merged previously will also receive the pet this way. Q: Do I need to merge by a certain date in order to receive the penguin? A: We plan to remove the ability to get the penguin pet at some point in the future, we haven’t determined exactly when just yet. Q: If I create a new World of Warcraft account, will I receive the pet? A: Only existing World of Warcraft accounts that merge with a Battle.net account are eligible to receive the penguin pet. If you create a new Battle.net account after November 11 and merge an existing World of Warcraft account with it you will still be able to receive the pet. However, please note that we plan to remove the ability to get the penguin pet at some point in the future.

Are you as pumped up as I am?

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