Project Lore

Blizzard Entertainment announced the official System Requirements for their second expansion to World of Warcraft. Wrath of the Lich King sports higher requirements in a few areas that will likely force some users to upgrade their computers, or go nuts and get new ones. The announcement comes by way of Bornakk and the official forums. If you are interested in the full run down, then click that link. I will simply highlight and discuss the major changes. We learned shortly after Wrath's official release date was announced that the title would only be available on DVD. According to a poll run by WoWInsider, this means that some 7.5% of WoW users will need to upgrade their CD-ROM or CD-RW drive to a DVD-ROM or DVD+-RW. Thankfully, that cost is only about $30-$50, if you have the know how to install it yourself. Of course, there are some tricks around this, such as loading the game off an ISO image by way of an external harddrive. The rest of the upgrades are likely caused by Wrath's bump in graphics capabilities, like real-time shadows. The upgrades fragment a bit for the different platforms, PC or Mac. First off, PC users must have Windows XP SP3 or Vista SP1, but both service packs are free upgrades (for legal owners). This means that users of Windows 2000 will finally have to make the jump to Vista. Those who are scared of Vista should start searching for copies of XP now. Then comes the most drastic change for PC users. PC machines are required to have a faster processor than before, a 1.3GHz processor (or equivalent) instead of that old 800MHz dog. That is almost a 40% boost and will cause people on the low end to upgrade.  If you have the know-how this can be cheap, but most people will probably just opt for a new machine.  Ram and video card requirements remain the same, although Vista users need double the Ram than XP players, since that OS is a hog. Mac gamers are an entirely different story though. I will start it off with the worse news, all G4 machines will be unable to play Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard states that the minimum processor requirement for Mac machines is a Power PC G5 1.6GHz processor.  This kills G4s across the board, PowerMac and PowerBooks. As for the OS, 10.3.x is being dropped in favor of 10.4.11 or higher. Look on the bright side , at least your OS doesn't cost hundreds of dollars.  Mac players will also need double the Ram at 1GB required, another low-cost upgrade. Lastly and most costly, Mac Minis and most MacBooks have been dropped due to their on-board video cards being a bit behind. MacBooks released almost three years after World of Warcraft can not play Wrath due to Apple's poor choice in graphics processors. Models from Late 2007 were finally updated with the Intel GMA X3100 on-board graphics solution, which can do the needed Lighting and Hardware Transform.  However, as of press time Blizzard has not confirmed them as suitable for Wrath, but it meets the announcement's listed requirements. It seems that many Apple supporters got the short end of the stick on this deal. This isn't to say that all year old PC laptops will be able to play Wrath.  Many OEM manufacturers (Dell, HP, Sony, etc) cut costs on the low- and mid-range machines the same way. Rule of thumb for those PC gamers, if you have an Intel on-board solution, there is cause for concern.  Lucky for me, my third gaming machine (I have a problem) squeaks by the requirements with a Radeon 9700 Pro. How do your machines hold up?

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I haven't been playing a whole lot of WoW lately. I'll hop on vent every once in a while to hear the latest haps, or maybe log an alt and spy on the Totally Rad Guild (or their lower level equivalent, The Knights of Radshire), but I haven't spend much time doing anything meaningful in game. The one thing that really made me want to play last week, Brewfest, is no more. Of course, there are some other fun holidays coming up, but the Darkmoon Faire just doesn't do much for me. I turned in the Blessings deck a while back for the Crusader card, but now I don't even use it in enhancement spce (I've got a couple of trinkets that are better). So in light of this lull that many players seem to be noticing, I decided to look forward. The 3.0 patch is coming soon, which means there are going to be a lot of changes for, well, everyone. For some, more than others. Some classes, like Shaman and Paladin, are having set pieces reworked to play nice with new class mechanics. This will probably cause me a few headaches. To avoid those headaches, I have been playing around with Wowhead's recently unveiled Item Compare feature. In short, it allows you to compare a bunch of items or groups of items with built in stat weighting so you can decide which item would be best for you. For example, say I have two helmets and I need to decide which one is better for me. I take a look at this page and it shows me. What does this have to do with the changes to certain set pieces? Well, change the www. in that link to wotlk. and you get this page. Now, currently the feature doesn't seem to allow socketing or enchanting, but since, for an enhancement shaman, strength will be worth one attack power after the patch hits, even a lowly Bright Blood Garnet will be better than an epic Bold Crimson Spinel. So, let's say red socket will be worth 16 AP, a Bright Living Ruby. That offsets the AP bonus. Enh shaman will also be gaining 1AP per agi and 1AP per Int (talented). This means that, while crit chance will go down by a little under 1%, with the Cyclone Helm, AP will be much higher. Take into account a Meta gem and we have a winner. So, all I'll need to do is change to a Bright Living Ruby and I will be set for 3.0, at least in the helmet department. This tool will give me a chance to really figure out what I will need to change before the market gets crazy. Well, crazier, I guess.

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Wrath of the Lich King has me far more excited than The Burning Crusade ever did. I don't know what it was about TBC that turned me off so much, because I was interested in what it had to offer. I was in TBC's beta, but I didn't burn myself out in it. In fact, that is where I realized that I wasn't as intrigued by The Burning Crusade as much as I was for World of Warcraft. I bought the first expansion regardless, hoping that Blizzard would manage to wow me in some way. I don't believe TBC struck me as much as vanilla WoW, but the expansion – and the community - managed to keep me entertained for the past 21 months and counting. Thankfully, WotLK seems like it will do more than just hold on to me.  With exciting features like these, how could it fail?

• Questing & Exploration – I love exploring these digital worlds that we spend so much of our time in and the new quests should make it that much more enjoyable.  To top it off, the lands are full of unseen monsters living in harsh conditions.
• Phasing – Phasing is the new black. The idea of phasing is to allow players to have their own unique world. Did you manage to do an escort quest and your buddy didn't? Well, to you, the person you escorted may appear in the nearby town, while for your buddy, he is still held captive by the forces of the scourge.  Same game, but appearing to each player in its own special way.
• Stormwind Harbor – Stormwind is getting a large addition that will gradually be introduced to the Human stronghold.  For the aesthetics alone, it is nice to see the major cities change over time.
• Naxxaramas – My hardore raiding days ended with Naxxaramas 40-man. No guild on my main server managed to clear it before TBC went live, although we were the closest. I can't wait to dance tackle it again, only this time at level 80.
• New talents & Level 80 – The idea of dual specs are interesting and so are all the new talents, for all classes.
• World PvP – World PvP and Battlegrounds are to make a comeback in Wrath. Arenas with environmental hazards are all well and good, but Lake Wintergrasp and Strand of The Ancients are where it is at for me.
• Enchanting Changes - Being able to sell and purchase Enchants on the Auction House = priceless.
• Death Knights – Forget about new races, that is old hat. Yea, we will have new racial abilities, but what could be more exciting than the first Hero class? I won't be leveling a Death Knight right away, but I will definitely take one for a spin due to the quest chains and lore associated with starting one.
• Lore – This is actually the number one thing I am waiting for. Wrath of the Lich King promises to have some killer lore.  With the introduction of the new Death Knight class, new quests, the lead up to Icecrown Glacier and the battle against the Lich King/Arthas, how could it not be awesome? I guarantee you that there will be one quest chain in the game that will blow you away. KooPA's are known for their truthiness...and walking off cliffs.

There is tons more to Wrath of the Lich King than what I have listed, another reason that I can't wait to jump in on November 13th. What has you all in a tither?

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Recently, I was interviewed for a feature on Nihilum's site. Nihilum is one of the most well known and amazingly dedicated guilds in the world, and they have claimed many world first kills. They are also one of the guilds that has completely beaten all of the Burning Crusade content, including the final boss of the Sunwell Plateau, Kil'jaden. The interview covered all sorts of subjects, from behind the scenes info about our videos, to Alexis' Wrap-Ups, Alex's CNN interview, and the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Check out the interview on Nihilum's site!

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It seems like the entire world (of Warcraft) has gone into a bit of a holding pattern lately. Many people (myself included) have stopped raiding, we just heard about the arena points reset, so there is not a whole left for anyone to do other than count the days until November 13^th. While I am very much in the same boat, like hell I'm going to stop playing the game! So I have been trying to find a few activities to keeping me going. In the short term, I have been spending my days grinding the Kodo mount for Brewfest. I have over 200 kills and still have yet to see the thing drop, I'm beginning to suspect the cake is a lie. I imagine I will get it eventually, and if not, Brewfest will ultimately come to an end. Soon I will be looking for other alternatives. I have been trying to stay positive and look at this as a good excuse to catch up on those things I have always been meaning to do. I'm talking about all those projects I have always meant to get around to, but never did because I was busy raiding. Here is my list of things I think I will finally be able take a shot at:

Netherwing - I want to finally grind out the Netherwing Dailies, and get my nether drake. Although I must admit, with all the new mounts on the horizon, my desire here is waning a bit.

Fishing / Cooking - I have played around with the idea of leveling my fishing and cooking. It seems like a good way to make some cash and be able to make all that tasty raid food.  Problem is I hate fishing, so I guess this one is just a matter of how bored I get.

Farming Gold - The last thing I could even thing to do on my main is stockpile gold. Certainly not a bad approach, but I question what is going to happen to the WoW economy, and if this will pay off in the long run.

Alts - I have a Rogue that is closing in on 70 fast, and want to make her a priority. I have a few others sitting in 60 range that I may have time to get up there as well.

New Professions - With the prices on the AH falling through the floor (at least on Executus), this isn't a bad time to powerlevel a new profession on one of my alts, and I've always wanted to try Jewelcrafting. For some it may be a good time to push to 375 on your main.

Roll Horde - I've always wondered how the other half lives.

I'm sure there are lots of other worthy projects that would be worth taking on during this time. So tell me, what are you guys doing?  Have you come up with a productive way to spend your WoW time? Please don't tell me you are still raiding... I may become incredibly jealous.

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First things first, this post will contain some information that many players may consider spoilers.  The information presented later in this post will only be discovered by most players once Wrath of the Lich King goes live. So that is your warning. I actually haven't managed to get myself into the beta, despite my best efforts.  This is coming from someone who has been in the previous two closed-beta sessions, so I feel a bit left out now.  Thankfully, my closest World of Warcraft buddy did manage to snake his way into the beta and has kept me up to date on things I need to know.  Over the weekend he pointed me to the small image you see to the right.  As any WoW player knows, those little foot icons are flightpaths. The image only shows the horde friendly flightpaths, so you can safely assume that there are at least 50% more.  At first glance I thought this was an incredible amount of nodes for the island of Northrend.   That is until I compared the size of Northrend to Outland and the other major islands.  The small picture  does not do the new island justice since it is not to scale, but Northrend is probably two to three times the size of Outland.   For a more appropriate picture check out the upcoming World Map. But my original surprise at the amount of flightpaths still stands.  There are more nodes crammed into Northrend than either of the original islands.  What makes even less sense is that players will be able to us flying mounts in Northrend, so why the need for more nodes than before?  I guess the one saving grace is that Blizzard will not allow players to use flying mounts on the island instantly.  Therefore, players will still be forced to explore the island before taking to the skies. Oh and as proof of the island's size. the route selected in the picture – Dalaran to Borean Tundra – takes about five minutes to complete.  Just enough time to get some dual-gaming in.  Does anyone else feel that Blizzard is eroding exploration by making it so easy to get around?

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Project Lore made their way through the second boss in Utgarde Keep in the Wrath of the Lich King beta this week. The guys had tons of fun rolling through the trash but had a couple of hiccups once they found Dalronn the Controller and Skarvald the Constructor. Eventually they took down the second pair of bosses with style. Remember that stuff in the beta is constantly changing! Here's each episode's link in case you missed something: Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.7 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.8 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.9 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.10 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.11 Project Lore WotLK Beta 1.12 (Wrap-Up) Before we got started with this week's videos, we finally found out the release date for Wrath of the Lich King. 11.13.08. Nope, we didn't make that date up. The price and pack-ins were also announced for the WotLK Collector's Edition. We also found out that Onyxia's attunement would be lifted, temporarily. Random Heroes escaped certain death by bunny, and more is coming every week. SaintGermain keeps the Life Lessons coming, and iTZKoopA kicked off a series about designing dungeons and encounters with an idea for a hybrid PvE and PvP raid. We would like to thank everyone who participated in our Trash Mobs Poll. We got some great feedback, and it seems like you guys want longer episodes, so we'll do our best! Keep up with all of the happenings here with the Episodes RSS feed, the Blog RSS feed, or Twitter, and join our Facebook Group, Facebook Page, and MySpace! You can head to our subscribe page to find us on some of your other favorite sites. Remember to get over to the Lore Store to grab a Project Lore T-Shirt!

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Yesterday, we were one of the first to announce the official release date for Wrath of the Lich King.  The faithful day is just over two months from now, since this month is actually September.  A few hours after the announcement, Blizzard updated their page with the addition of the expected Collector's Edition of Wrath of the Lich King. Here are the goodies included in the Collector's Edition for those who may have missed the announcement:

• A 208 page book entitled The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King chock full of never-before-seen images.
• An exclusive non-combat baby frosty wyrm.  (This also unlocks an achievement)
• Behind-the-scenes DVD featuring developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King cinematic with commentary, and more.
• The official 21 track soundtrack CD.
• A Northrend mousepad.
• Two WoW TCG March of the Legion starters decks and two exclusive cards only available via the Collector's Edition.

The normal edition of Wrath is coming in at a $39.99 price point while the Collector's Edition is receiving a steep 75% market up to $69.99. The Collector's Edition of the second expansion is now equal in price to many full titles.  At first I was pretty upset at this.  For me the last two items are basically worthless perks.  The soundtrack and DVD are more of a one shot deal, as the information in the DVD probably isn't worth seeing a second time.  I addressed my appreciation for Blizzard's game music previously, and my opinion stands. In the end this means that I would simply be paying $30 for the art book and the non-combat pet.  I am not sure of the sell rate of collector's editions but if Blizzard manages to sell WotLK CE to even 5% of its subscription base then the “rare” pet is actually owned by over 500,000 other players.  Not that exclusive. But honestly, who am I kidding?  Of course I am going to get the Collector's Edition.  It isn't like any sort of whining would get Blizzard to change their mind anyways, it's to close to release for them to change production. That being said here is some items I would appreciate far more:

• Allowing purchasers to download and install the title ahead of time – think Steam's pre-loading service.
• Small action figures of the universe's main characters.
• An exclusive item other than a non-combat pet.  A spiffy cloth map that I could frame in my "nerd room" would be awesome.
• An invitation to a future Blizzard title's beta phase.
• A collectible t-shirt in sizes other than XXXL.

With the exception of the t-shirt item, all of these are fairly straight forward additions.  Allowing pre-loading would be the most exciting feature for me.  Heck, that way you can order the item online, sans tax and possibly shipping, and still start at launch.  That ability and the art book alone would have me paying the mark up and viewing the rest as just gravy. So are you as big a sucker as I am?

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A few things happened this weekend that have me worried about my PvE excursions for the week. As you can see by our chilly site, Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced Wrath of the Lich King's release date. Wrath is officially set to launch November 13, just shy of two months from now. Why does the launch of the second expansion have me worried? Simple. With a new expansion coming so soon, many players will go into a coma of sorts. Most will simply cut back on their playtime.   Perhaps in a squirrel like effort to store it up for Wrath's inevitable push to level 80. Then there are the players who will no longer see a point in putting the time in, when any activity they pursue will change drastically in a months time. Especially when the change will make all those efforts fruitless. Many guilds will take a break from their normal schedules and perform some house cleaning as they wait for the new content. The launch of patch 3.0.2 – which hit the PTR this weekend as well – will keep many people interested but I doubt my guild will be performing any Karazhan badge runs again. That is one half of the battle though.  So what was the other thing that has me worried about my PvE plans? Well, a little game called Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has gone live. The game isn't actually out until September 18th but Mythic Entertainment and Electronic Arts have a head start program if you pre-order the title. If you ordered the Collector's Edition, one of the bonuses is getting the server to yourself for two days.   That started on Sunday morning.  Then the people who pre-ordered the normal edition join you for two days before the game launches to everyone. I know many of my guild mates are interested in WAR, so if they aren't put off by the closeness of Wrath then they may head there to check out the title. Blizzard's recent timing of various announcements - a new round of beta keys, PTR character copying enabled and official release date – are an obvious diversion tactic from WAR as well. Thinking about it further I am not worried about raiding anymore.  Now I am just hoping my main's guild still exists two months from now.

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As you may or may not have noticed, our home page is looking a little cooler (get it?). Included in that look is a key piece of information. In Stores 11/13/08. That's right, Wrath of the Lich King will be available at retail stores on November 13, 2008. How close was that to your guess? That means we've got approximately two months (or less, depending on when patch 3.0.2 is released) to do what we need to do before starting on the epic quest to level 80. After that, Outland is going to be empty except for Death Knights and dual boxers. Is that enough time for you? Are you excited or dreading it? Remember to stay tuned to Project Lore for more videos from the Wrath of the Lich King beta in Utgarde Keep!

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