You know you're going to be getting some good information when World of Warcraft producer J. Allen Brack as well as lead designers Tom Chilton and Jeff Kaplan talk about Wrath of the Lich King. These guys talked about the possibilities of a graphical reboot as well as more information on the 10-man raids. To find out more about what they had to say, head on over to the full article.

Lots of speculation have come up behind the creation of the new Hero Class in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft. In a featured article on CVG, lead designer Jeff Kaplan finally reveals some of the details behind the highly anticipated class. He also talks about some of the major features players will get to experience once the expansion goes live. You can check out the details in the full article after the jump!

The official Blizzard podcast has finally gone live and in the first episode, Sam Didier (StarCraft II and World of Warcraft art) and Jeff Kaplan (WoW's Sunwell Plateau) were on the centerstage while Karune and Drysc were the interviewers.

Find out more in the full article, you can check out some Sunwell Plateau screenshots too.

It's time to make our entrance with guns blazing. Or not, lest you're a musket-toting hunter. But Blizzard will have players entering Northrend under a hail of flaming rounds and corpse chunks as soon as they enter from their respective faction portals. Lead designer Jeff Kaplan just sprinkled more details about World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King in an interview, and they can be had at the full story.

With podcasting being the "in" thing, these days, it's no real surprise that Blizzard Entertainment has come up with an official monthly podcasting service. Dubbed BlizzCast, the service is aimed at bringing the Blizzard developers and the Blizzard fansite community closer. While you probably already know about the interviews and the giveaways, there's something else in store for inquisitive Blizzard fans.

Find out what that is after the jump!

Here's some interesting news for all of you Blizzard fans out there. Blizzard's planning a podcast of their own to update gamers on the latest happenings in Blizzville.

They already have an inaugural podcast in the works, which features interviews from important members of the company.

Samwise Didier and Jeff Kaplan get to speak! More info after the jump!

 

Blizzard lead designer Jeff Kaplan and lead character artist Chris Robinson reiterated Blizzard Entertainment's stance on the new Death Knight class in an interview. And like what we've heard from Blizzard community managers, Kaplan and Robinson clued in on how World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will be oodles better than The Burning Crusade in profession, features (like voice chat), and instance access because the previous expansion's issues taught them well.

But interestingly, Eurogamer managed to slip a quick question to Kaplan which milked opinions on how long a level 70 player would take to reach the new extended cap of 80. If our memory still serves us well, one player managed to hike from 60 to 70 in 28 hours, and that happened not more than two days since The Burning Crusade launch. Will we see a repeat performance?

We probably will, because Kaplan replied, "Theoretically, it takes as much time to progress from level 70 to level 80 in Lich King as it did to progress from 60 to 70 in The Burning Crusade." Now though his estimate considers "average" player skills and devotion to the game, we should consider the fact that all levels from 70 to 80 will have an instance to run through, plus the usual mobs to grind on.

 

It's become quite common to have a couple of questions and discussions about the World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. And it's good to know that the community managers over at the WoW Forums never seen to tire of answering the questions.

Today's discussion is regarding flying mounts in Northrend. The opening post (OP) cited an interview with Jeff Kaplan, aka Tigole, where he discussed the Wrath of the Lich King things the Blizzard dev team had to consider and change. They decided to open the Death Knight class to lower levels to prevent players powerleveling to get level cap. The OP then ventured to ask why the devs can't the change the rules regarding flying mounts to Northrend.

According to reports, players will have to venture forth by foot until they reach level 78, at which time, flying mounts will be usable. Blizzard poster Bornakk came by and answered the OP:

From a design standpoint, we don’t want people to just fly over continent and skip things when they are leveling up. Instead we want people to explore and experience the environment around them when they first reach the shores of Northrend. You will walk (or ride) from one quest to another as the zones unfold before you instead of just flying over it without batting an eye.

At some point though you will definitely be able to fly in Northrend. We are currently thinking around level 78, but haven’t made a final call on this yet.

It looks like they want you to actually experience the expansion and it's not a bad thing. Without the lore and other stuff, the World of Warcraft might become just a grind.

In the MMO arena, one of the most wanted men in the Leipzig Game Convention was Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan, lead designer of World of Warcraft. In the industry, he's known more as simply Tigole, and he was kind enough to answer a ton of questions from Curse.com. As if the other GC interviews with him weren't enough already, we have more info for you guys today.

The video interview (behind the Read link below) is packed with around 25 minutes long of content from the man himself. He reveals a lot of new stuff too. Most of the interview focuses on the upcoming WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. For one, there's the announcement of Utgarde Pinnacle. Here are a couple of other things talked about in the interview as well:

• Alliance/Horde starting points
• Patch 2.3 with more powerful items
• More discussion on Guild Banks
  
• The levelling curve, PvP zones
• More details on the new Inscription class

We can't possibly summarize the whole thing, given that Tigole was just so utterly bombarded with questions. Which is good, of course. So, without further delay, the Read link, if you will.

ActionTrip was able to score an interview with Blizzard's lead designer Jeff Kaplan and art director Chris Robinson during the Leipzig Games Convention (GC 2007). In the interview, they were able to discuss how the World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion is more in tune with the original Warcraft look, PVP, and an announcement about a new patch just before the Lich King arrives.

Robinson explains how they decided to go back to the Gothic feel that the original Warcraft gave in Wrath of the Lich King. Kaplan furthers there is also a drive to bring back old elements as well: "We are constantly in a push and pull; we are creating a universe that we want to be broad and deep. We want there to be stuff that players of the old Warcraft games can refer to, but also push it and make new things."

Kaplan also explained how the expansion will be putting more emphasis on 10-man instances. In the same line of thought, he announces that there will be a patch just before Lich King comes out. Aside from getting a 25-man instance, Sunwell Plateau will also get a 5-man instance in both Normal and Heroic mode.

Changes were also made to accommodate more world PvP. Lake Wintergrass will be a non-instanced zone and will have siege weapons and destructible buildings. The zone is located in the center of Northrend and about the size of Westfall. The effect they are going for is a really massive, epic feel.