With the Wrath of the Lich King beta in full swing, it looks like Blizzard is well on its way to releasing the latest World of Warcraft expansion this year. The question is, when exactly will it become available? According to Mike Morhaime, Q4 2008 is the correct answer. More in the full article.

Former World of Warcraft lead designer Rob Pardo (aka Enoyls) mentioned a few interesting details on the WoW forums regarding the launch of StarCraft II. The details he gave has lead some individuals to believe that the launch date is closer than what Blizzard originally hinted.

Want to find out what Rob Pardo said? Check out the full article for more details.

 

During a lengthy coverage of many aspects in the World of Warcraft to date, including the many developments since the 2.1.0 major content patch went live on the Public Test Realm, World of Warcraft Radio started out their "Blue Plz!" session with an opinionated overview of the alleged lack of effectiveness for the patch's public beta testing.

Based on firsthand experience, many players on the Public Test Realm spend less time testing out changes and more time trying to experiment with certain aspects of the game - builds, binding equipment, professions - without risking the loss of gold or ingredients on their character (or mess up their character per se) originally located in one of the many live realms.

But assuring that Blizzard as a whole is trying to patch up the kinks in the new content and changes, the PTR hasn't completely lost its basic purpose. Seeing as how Blizzard's past success with the battleground matching system was presumably tied to an immediate incentive, Big Blue should heed some helpful advice: perhaps testing would be smoother with some form of reward for meticulous beta testers.

The same "Blue Plz!" session tackled an interview with Method, the guild in Europe that bagged both First and Second Kill, legitimately, for Lady Vashj. There are many other issues discussed by two of the members of the guild, especially mastering phases of the particular raid and overcoming some of the raid's specific bugs (Fearward rings a bell?), but are better left heard straight from the horse's mouth than read from the scribe's tablet.

 

The Armory, a built-in database and soon-to-be official part of the World of Warcraft site, is a location for WoW players to search and browse various profiles of players, guilds, and Arena tournament teams in addition to the Arena ladder profiles even when not logged into World of Warcraft. And no, it doesn't sport weapons or armor.

The Web portal should make most players above the 10th level accessible for searching, and it possibly extracts its contents from the game database itself. Most other MMORPGs already have this feature built into their sites and Blizzard wasn't going to let World of Warcraft lag behind in that department.

The Armory is currently in beta testing, so expect updates to be applied soon. World of Warcraft Europe also have their own version of the Armory.

Some days, I can't help but feel the need to look back on parts of my life. Even if some part of that life is spent in a virtual world, there is some aspect of being online that translates into real-world change and somehow, there's also a good chance that whatever changes the real world has effected upon me will inevitably show themselves in how I think and play games.

One thing I wondered about recently was how a good number of online games don't happen to refer to the outside world in creating events for players. Sure, there's Christmas, Halloween, and even the Chinese New Year. With the World of Warcraft expansion, there's even the chance to relive specific historical points previously accessible only through stories, games, and canonical lore. What seems to be lacking, at least in my opinion, is the virtual counterpart of a real-world event in history.

More on the unbearable lightness of being a gamer after the jump.

We've been keeping a close watch on the beta test for Blizzard's highly-anticipated WoW: The Burning Crusade expansion. And with the official launch finally drawing ever nearer, GameStop went in for another look to find out exactly what the changes have been in light of the beta.

So, what's up at Burning Crusade? Basically, it's been found that the major changes focused more on the opening of several new zones in Outland, which happens to be the major new region in the expansion. It's also been said that for the game's most dedicated players, "The Burning Crusade really acts as a preparation for that Hyjal encounter, but to get there, you'll need to complete a large number of complicated quests."

Shadowmoon Valley and Netherstorm are named as the hardest regions you'll be encountering. But without a doubt, these will surely take you to the new level cap of 70.

As for the new PvP rules, which were introduced to the current game in a recent patch, these will enable less-avid players to build up significant rewards over time. Also in place to keep everyone busy are the new 25-person raid content, the heroic difficulty settings, as well as the "long, complex path to Mount Hyjal."

To know more about the tour of the new Outland Region, just head on over to the Read link below.

11 more days to go before World of Warcraft's expansion, The Burning Crusade, hits store shelves. In spite of the speculated problems that TBC might bring, WoW aficionados can't keep themselves from being excited about it and from sharing their opinions on why TBS will definitely rock.

Over at the WoW official forums, there is an interesting thread wherein players have listed down a list of what The Burning Crusade will teach us. Here's a sample of that list from WoW player, Kallen.

1. Hunters level faster than the general population
2. Your T2 gear is actually going to last you quite awhile
3. Raiding Guilds will Always have better stuff than non-raiders
4. More guilds will start casually raiding
5. MC is even more fun at 70
6. World PvP events are rarely controlled by horde on PvE servers
7. Outland is going to be the new Tauren Mill bloodbath on PvP servers
8. Nobody will ever run Dire Maul again, and in a year new players wont even know it exists.
9. Mages will be the most hated class after they get their stealth ability

That's a nice list of things to learn. But for me, I think what I need to learn are that I have to stay really patient (servers might get clogged), that I would not sell any body part to have money for WoW, and the fact that even after rigorous beta testing, there is always the possibility of bugs. There, I just shared mine, you could also share yours if you feel like it.

After singing along with the Winter Veil Twelve Days of Christmas, it's definitely back to business for WoW players. WoW PvPers, here's a head's up for what seems like a Christmas afterparty.

An announcement from the WoW Community Site has indicated that there would be a focused PvP beta testing on Hellfire and Blades Edge beta realms. Players who would like to participate need to be online between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. server time on December 27 to 29.

Here are the specific PvP areas where the tests would be held:

Wednesday, December 27 - Outdoor PvP objectives in Hellfire Peninsula, Zangarmarsh, Nagrand and Terokkar Forest

Thursday, December 28 - Any of the three Arena Skirmishes

Friday, December 29 - Eye of the Storm Battleground

It was announced two weeks ago that the coming of the Burning Crusade will be delayed. Blizzard Entertainment explained that they need the extra time to further polish and improve the much anticipated WoW-expansion. Well it seems that they did need the time as things continue to evolve during the on-going Beta testing. Some appreciate the changes while some are rather disappointed.

Let's discuss the Rogues first. Cloak of Shadows gives players the ability to hide well; in shadows, you can appear behind the target for a surprise attack. It's actually part of the 41-point talent in the subtlety tree but during beta, Blizzard changed it into a trainable skill. If this change makes it to the realm, we believe people would be quite fond of shadowstepping their enemies.

Also, it seems that the Paladins received some important changes as well, specifically protection buffs. While active Improved Righteous Fury now also reduces damage taken by 2/4/6%. Overall stamina for Sacred Duty was increased by 3/6% while Divine Shield's cooldown was reduced. However, all of these changes come with to the Retribution Tree.

When you really think about it, it all depends on one's choice of play. Some will be definitely gain from these changes while others might feel disadvantaged. However, Beta testings are there for a reason - to check and know if the players will like it. Let's all just wait and reserve our comments until the expansion arrives early next year.

Ever wondered why less-popular MMORPGs these days are beefing up for the great MMO battle? We thought it's because Blizzard has managed to maintain the WoW fandom at the edge of their seats... until the WoW expansion, that is. We won't be the messenger of ill news, but let's hear what veteran (and even newbie) WoW players have got to say about the latest expansion to one of the most popular online games of our time, WoW: The Burning Crusade:

"WoW is easy to learn but hard to master."

"Blizzard is very lazy. They have become very good at nerfing and buffing, and pretending it isn't so, or masking it as a "bugfix"."

"I personally don't see the great need to change stuff. Do you want massive changes that alienate people like the things that happened to SWG ?(not that it was a great game to begin with)."

Now before you start throwing fits, no we are not putting down WoW. In fact it's one of our favorite games, but in his editorial for MMORPG.com about WoW: The Burning Crusade, Garrett Fuller saw fit to outline the reasons why he thought TBC is just the same old WoW game with more content, more updates on talents, spells, lands, and quests, more activities such as farming, questing, and instancing, and with more levels - which all happened to be things that can be created far easier than the original game. Ofourse, there are mixed (and violent) reactions as to whether TBC is still truly the same WoW that we know and love, with just more flavors.

Burning Crusade is currently in its beta testing stage, and were hoping that those who were able to do some hands-on would be able to let us know whether these comments are true or not. Nothing beats real experience, so to speak, and we're all ears.

Pre-order: [World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade]