Project Lore

Upper Deck Entertainment was one of the first companies to jump on board of the World of Warcraft band wagon, and now it is also going to be one of the first to leave it.  According to ManaNation, a Magic: The Gathering site, Upper Deck Entertainment and Blizzard have split.  Fear not, like so many of my high school relationships it was a mutual, or "ami­ca­ble" in business terms.

ManaNation's sources could not locate the exact reasoning for the split, but the website assumes it has something to do with Upper Deck's recent legal troubles.  The card company has had not one, but two foul ups recently.  The first over another licensed card game, the ever popular Yu-Gi-Oh from Konami, and a more recent tiff with one of the company's longest-standing partners, Major League Baseball.

Blizzard's disembodied head hit the official forums shortly after the news broke to clear the air.  Zarhym is quick to point out that although the rumor is true, Blizzard is not going to let the game die. 

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We reported, pre-Blizzcon, that Blizzard had created several new Twitter accounts, each focused on one of the company's key franchises. Some of you started following them instantly, while others maintained their distance from the social networking site wonder what, precisely, it could offer beyond the usual community or news features. Well, so far, the latter would be right. Posts have generally concerned themselves with daily questions, opinion polls, and highlighting the more creative aspects of the Blizzard fandom (things like fan art, stories, and, most recently, papercraft). Though there is an on-going Battlecry contest -- in which fans of the Horde or Alliance update their own accounts with "For the ____!" whenever their side's banner is lifted -- there have yet to be any prizes that you can actually use within the game. But, a recent post on the Warcraft Twitter page hints that might not be the case for long:

We are talking to our licensing department about giving out some#WoW in-game pets/mounts through Twitter. Looks promising. Stay tuned.

That's right, soon enough, you could be earning in-game content just for participating in the usual Twitter shenanigans. I can tell you from personal experience that it's not a sham, either. I recently won a Starcraft 2 Beta Key through Blizzard's Starcraft Twitter page. Generally, these contests involve little more than "re-tweeting" a phrase or offering up your own thoughts on a given subject. At 140 characters, that's not very hard at all. So what sorts of things might Blizzard actually give out? According to another tweet from yesterday, quite possible pets and mounts normally available only through loot cards:

What types of in-game prizes would you like to see us give on Twitter? Interested in #WoW TCG loot items? Spectral Tiger Mounts maybe?

This is wonderful news for those who have no interest in playing (or spending money) on the Trading Card Game. I wouldn't expect to see anything game-changing to be offered through these contests, but vanity items like Spectral Tiger Mounts, alone, are desirable and rare prizes. Do you think this sort of giveaway might get you to sign up for Twitter if you haven't already? Well, if you do, please make sure to follow Project Lore and myself, as well! We're always keen on having new friends to talk to!

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In a move that makes scammers and gold farmers cry in agony, patch 3.2 will make all of the mounts obtained by from the Warcraft trading card game, such as the immensely popular Spectral Tiger Mount, will no longer be bind on pickup. However, instead of unlocking the ability to buy the mount and still have to shill out the gold, you receive the mount upon entering the code. Any mounts bought before patch 3.2 will still be bound to their owners, but any codes exchanged after 3.2 will instead just give you the now BoE (actually, bind on use) mount. Additionally, the vendor will be disabled in patch 3.2, so if you redeemed the code but did not purchase your mount, you should do that right away. This was done to prevent a scam that has been increasing in popularity, where people advertise the in-game sale of their TCG mounts for gold in trade chat. Once they have a buyer, they send them an email with a fake code and a link to the site to enter it. Except, they actually link to a phishing site and steal victim's account information. Its strange that Blizzard supports the in-game trade of these items, as the cards have real world value because of their implications in the game. It provides a link between real world value and in game gold. For example, a person could pay top dollar for these loot cards and then sell the mounts in game for insane amounts of gold, thereby effectively exchanging dollars for gold. On the other hard, this may make the mounts more accessible. If you ever wanted one of these rare mounts and are among the richest players in the game, you may be able to finally get your hands on one:

• Spectral Tiger
• Swift Spectral Tiger
• X-51 Nether-Rocket
• X-51 Nether-Rocket X-TREME
• Big Battle Bear
• Magic Rooster Egg

Other cards, like the Fishing Chair or Path of Cenarius, are unaffected. The Riding Turtle was strangely not listed by Bornakk, and its fate remains uncertain. Do you have any of these, and do you plan to get any?

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It looks like we'll have to stop calling the Swift White Hawkstrider the Chicken Mount, because Blizzard is adding an actual chicken mount into the game. MMO-Champion once again revealed some of the newest items in the game before anyone even knew they existed. One of the loot cards included in Upper Deck's newest Trading Card Game expansion - "Field of Heroes" - will be the Magical Rooster Egg. This teaches El Pollo Grande, which as you can see, is a very large chicken that players can ride around on. How amazing does that sound? It may be a little too out there for me, but I'll decide what I think when I actually see one in game. There are also two other new loot cards incoming, one being the Ogre Piñata, which will presumably output candy when you break it. This is cute, but I think it may have been a better item if Blizzard used a different model such as, say Void Reaver, Archavon, or some other boss called a "Loot Piñata" by the players. Oh well, breaking open an ogre to find candy should be fun. Lastly, we'll be seeing the Path of Cenarius, which will leave flowers in your wake as you run around the world. Lifeblood already does this for me, but I may be dropping herbalism soon for something a little more min-max (aka Jewelcrafting), but I don't really need this for the time being. I've still yet to see a lot of the loot card items that are still available, such as the Foam Sword Rack, which looks like so much fun. Although, thanks to a nice warlock, I was able to get a Sandbox Tiger, which is fun to pull out next to a real Spectral Tiger. Anybody looking forward to picking up a gigantic chicken?

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Three hours into the fight...

Since day one, I have been trying in earnest to score myself one of the TCG loot cards.  Any of them.  Every time I hit Target or see a pack of cards laying around a random EBGames I snap it up in hopes of scoring something.  To date, I have been enticed by a few dozen packs of cards, covering all the available expansions.  Yet, I have nothing to show for it.  Not a Turtle Mount, Paper Flying Machine, nor even the swanky Fishing Chair.  I can't really complain though, I simply haven't paid my dues.  Even if I had purchased 50 packs of the Fires of Outland set I would only have over a 25% chance to score that chair.  Not what I would call gambling odds. Starting March 24, I will have a new expansion pack to fail at collecting.  Upper Deck Entertainment's Blood of the Gladiators will offer players - or collectors - a new trio of loot cards.  Unlike previous releases, I can't see any of the following cards going for hundreds on eBay, but there is some fun stuff.

• Sandbox Tiger - Remember those old horsie things that sat on a giant spring in the playground?  They were the things you'd jump on, rear back and forth a few times, get bored and head off to the monkey bars till you fell and went crying to Mom.  Well that is what this is, only instead of a horsie, it is a miniature Spectral Tiger.
• Center of Attention - This baby enables players to fill one more slot with a purpal - the shirt slot.  Center of Attention grants players the in-game Epic Purple Shirt they always wanted.  Finally, my character's lust for violet can be completed!
• Foam Sword Rack - Like the Owned! card before it, this one is a gag item.  Players will be able to toss out the aforementioned rack full of s-words and bonk unsuspecting players with their Nerf quality weapons.

Upper Deck Entertainment's announcement of the loot cards did not include their respective rarities this time.  But I don't think that will matter to me.  Thanks to coincidental timing, the cards are available for beta testing on the PTR right now!  Players who wish to battle it out at 1 DPS, get nostalgic about their favorite rocker or implement the digital "Look At ME" saying, can do so via Landro Longshot and the following codes:

• Sandbox Tiger: 1111
• Epic Purple Shirt: 2222
• Foam Sword Rack: 3333

Being able to play with the loot items before they are launched won't stop me from dropping more money on the booster packs though.  I have lived through another Square Root Day, so I am one step closer to my victory over the mathematical world and its bastard child known as probability.

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