Project Lore

I'm constantly amazed at the sorts of things that can be found by digging through patches. The disparate elements that come together to form what we all know as Azeroth are split into thousands of files and even more lines of code. It's not entirely surprising that bits of the game not yet (or ever to be) implemented are contained deep within them, like unmarked graves never meant to be dug up. Of course, it's also a standard industry practice to leave things just laying around. In the process of coding or testing certain aspects of a program, it can become inconvenient to completely remove them upon release, even if they haven't been green-lit for player consumption. One of the most notorious incidents involving left-over code you might know as "Hot Coffee." Scenes depicting hot polygon-on-polygon action could be hacked into the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas because they were still on the disc, even if in the normal course of play, you'd only hear the action off-screen. If you've spent any significant amount of time in the this community, then you've no doubt heard of Boubouille and his site, MMO-Champion, which often features the results of his adventures deep into the data files of World of Warcraft. Apparently, one of the most frequent questions people ask him is: "What the heck is up with that Dance Studio Blizzard promised us?" Back before Wrath of the Lich King was released, the developers told us that we'd soon be able to visit the fabled disco, where they could create and share their own dances apart from those normally assigned to their given race/gender combination. After all, nothing says "stay at home and play WoW on a Friday night" like knowing how to bust a groove! An exclusive preview of the dance studio in Lord of the Rings Online. With another dungeon, an upcoming expansion, and various other content to attend to first, I can't imagine that the Dance Studio is at the top of anybody's list, but nonetheless, Boubouille did find several hints that Blizzard might still be working on it. According to him, several dance moves were added to the game (though you can't activate them, so don't try) and they demonstrate the level of customization that might be found in the eventual release of this feature. In addition to basic component parts (slices cut out of existing dances and the like), there are also modifiers which can extend, shorten, or hold given moves. To add a little bit of extra flair, you can even include special effects normally reserved for spells (like the cold blast of Frost Nova, here called "Icy Finale"). Though we may have no idea what the front-end will look like, it's assumed that all of these things can be stringed together and then saved into separate dances, like different gear profiles in the Equipment Manager. Better yet, you can then send your creations to your friends to use (that's one way to start a new dance craze!). Sadly, there's still no indication when (or if) the Dance Studio may come to fruition. If I were to make an educated guess, I'd say that it will be released somewhere down the line, but streamlined to be part of the UI instead of there being a real, physical "discotheque" somewhere in Azeroth. At this point it seems like prime "minor content patch" material. Nonetheless, I hope it shows up as soon as it's convenient. I could really use a new victory dance for they day I can use it on top of Arthas' corpse! Are you still anticipating the Dance Studio, readers, or has it fallen to the bottom list of your most desired features?

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I've always been a loud talker, very loud in fact.  Unlike most normal human beings I do not possess the ability to whisper.  Instead my whisper is more on par with a normal homo sapien's indoor voice, in that when I whisper, everyone within earshot hears me.  I may have struggled through elementary and middle school with discipline issues, but my lack of quiet talk isn't all bad.  Midway through secondary school I realized that being loud enabled me to grasp the attention of the teacher when I needed it, not just when I was a little out of line (I still raised my hand most of the time though).  In my adult life I have no teachers, but there is another type of authority figure who's attention I need, the developers.  Only now the odds have been raised from being part of two dozen souls, to twelve million. A loud voice doesn't cut it on the Internet though.  Neither does CAPSLOCK, the equivalent of yelling, so STOP DOING IT.  If you want the attention of the developers, or really anyone on the Internet, your best bet is to be persistent, creative, funny, part of a mob or a jackass who happens to have an accurate point.  You can also combine those to become a persistent, creative, hilarious jackass leader of a mob (Stephen Colbert comes to mind).  Wondering why you should bother acting out to get heard?  It's simple, the developers are a limited commodity, who are only able to do a few things at once. My point is this, if you see a problem in World of Warcraft and you don't ask for it to be addressed, it's likely to get bumped by something that is perceived to be "more important" or "more wanted."  A perfect, and recent, example would be Wintergrasp.  People from all corners of WoW (due to the solid rewards) have been clamoring for the zone to be fixed.  The sheer mass of QQ lead to numerous attempts across a few patches, but none proved satisfactory for Blizzard or us players.  With the QQ continuing, Blizzard took a final drastic step and overhauled the quest, and therefore a large chunk of the rewards (honor, tokens, gold).  Not exactly what we were looking for, but at least Wintergrasp is more relatively playable now. Yes, I am giving you a greenlight to complain on the official WoW forums.  If you have an issue with the game, then by all means do an intelligent write up to present your case and post it.  Heck, post it to our forums first if you need help formulating your ideas.  On the flip side, don't belittle other people's concerns (thinking along the lines of the PvP versus PvE battles).  In fact, doing so has a good chance of ruining your own post's credibility. Speaking of opinions, what do you most want to see corrected in World of Warcraft?  Balance, raid, group, or solo content, PvP, Arena, loot and ilvl?  What has your panties in a bunch?

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What, No Official Trailer? Wow, Blizzard's holiday announcement was certainly unexpected.  The company began discussing the intimate details of Patch v3.2 starting with its official title, Call of the Crusade.  Previously, we were enlightened to some of CotC's updates thanks to various forum revelations, like the new battleground and Argent Tournament updates.  Now we have some additional juicy details to salivate over. As the title suggests, Patch v3.2 will bring us one step closer to the upcoming battle with Arthas.  In preparation, the Argent Crusade will drastically expand their operations in the area thanks to all the resources we have happily donated.  Those of you who are, like me, a bit bored of the Argent Tournament will be happy to know that the Crusade will unleash a collection of "new dailies, rewards, and more" in an attempt to lure us into the soon-to-be-erected coliseum.  The Crusade's new digs is no joke, it'll contain not only a 5-player challenges, but 10- and 25-player ones as well.  It is unknown what these tasks will be, PvP, PvE or some combination thereof. For the PvPers out there, not me, you've got two things coming your way.  Amazingly, the start of Season 7 at the outset of Patch v3.2 probably isn't the most exciting bit of news.  Nope, that would belong to the Isle of Conquest announcement, a new "large-scale siege Battleground."  According to Zarhym, the Isle will be a battle over resources that plays out in the style of “Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley.“   I absolutely loved the age old Alterac Valley - not the original, original incarnation, but the tweaked vanilla WoW version - and combining it with the best aspects of open world PvP makes this rogue sharpen his pokers and "practice my stabbing". Best of all, it appears that Blizzard has gotten ahold of their patch development cycles, because this patch is expected in a more timely manner.  When chastised by a player who didn't expect the patch before the end of the year the disembodied skull of Zarhym stated that his "presumed time lines are way too inflated? :)"  Of course he could have been referring to when we will see Icecrown Citadel...that wouldn't be bad either. New solo content, check.  New PvP content, check.  New PvE content - probably part of the Coliseum updates - check.  So ladies and gentlemen, let the thoughts, impressions, QQing and sequels of excitement begin!

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