Blizzard wants your questions for the upcoming BlizzCast 7 (podcast). Episode 6 was released just a few days ago, and production of the next one will start as soon as fans like you submit questions. Post a comment to submit yours. We will forward them to Nethaera for you to increase your chances.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Bornakk: We are once again looking for fan-submitted questions to answer in future episodes of BlizzCast. If you have a question you want to get to us, please send an email with the subject line "BlizzCast Q&A" to the email address and you can include a name/character along with a location/realm if you'd like for us to refer to you during the show if your question is picked. You can also attach a recording of your question to this email if you want to hear your voice in the cast! If you send in a recording make sure it is very clear and easy to understand. We recommend including a typed out version of the question in the email as well to ensure it is properly interpreted. While we won't be able to get to every one of them, we want to keep you updated on whatever aspects are most important to you. Thanks for your help and be sure to tune into future BlizzCasts (http://us.blizzard.com/blizzcast/) to see if your question was answered!

In celebration of the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, we’re running a second Razer competition!


You may have taken part in our previous Razer contest to design a Death Knight Crest, but you’ll be pleased to know that you can enter this comp in addition to that one, so you have twice the chance to win some Razer goodies! Ok, so on to the details of this new challenge:

Lich King First Impressions Movie - By IncGamers and Razer.
Specifically for those of you that wanted a competition which didn’t involve designing something, a screen shot contest, or just adding a comment in a thread, Razer have come up with an idea for a video contest. We want you to make a video that shows off your first impressions of the expansion. Maybe it’s your first trip to Northrend, or your first steps as a Death Knight, we want to see a movie which captures the excitement and wonder of the new content. How you do that is up to you. No specialist expensive software is required, you can use something free like WeGame to capture and upload the footage.

Here are the rules: For all video submissions, the contestant has to include an “IncGamers” and “Powered by Razer” logo with his or her video. We will choose the three videos which best relate to our contest title. The 1st prize will be a Razer Lachesis and Razer Destructor, 2nd & 3rd will be a Razer DiamondBack 3G.You have until the end of the month, that’s Sunday 30th of November, which gives you plenty of time to get the game, explore, capture footage and post up your videos. Send links to your uploaded entries .

EDIT: The addition of the Razer & Incgamers logos is now optional, we don’t want to put off the lesser experienced of you out there

Asian teams duked it out last weekend, now it's North America's turn, as Philadelphia hosts the next round of the Electronic Sports League's Extreme Masters Global Challenge:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	The Asian Continental Finals in Seoul last weekend saw the defeat of Korean team 'kill e A' by local rivals 'H O N'. http://www.esl-world.net/masters/season3/seoul The next round of the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge will be located in Philadelphia, USA from the 21st to the 23rd of November for the American Continental Finals. The best American 3v3 arena teams will be battling it out for a share in a $30,000 prize pool. The Electronic Sports League's official coverage page contains all the details on team profiles, rules and a free non-stop video stream of the matches as they're played with live commentary in English. http://www.esl-world.net/masters/season3/philadelphia/

The guys from Stone Falcon Productions and Oblivious Films have put together a new machinima for the 48 hour film project. As the name suggests, they are given a few things they must include and then they must create the movie within 48 hours.

Considering they did this in the short time they were given, it's an impressive and amusing little story. Here's a note from the makers, and the finished product (beware adult themes):

The new US President Barack Obama has assigned Net Neutrality Advocate Kevin Werbach to be new co-chairman of the FCC Department once the government transition takes effect on Q1 2009. The interesting bit of news here is that Kevin Werbach is well-known to be a World of Warcraft player since early 2006. Kevin Werbach is an observer of technology trends and played the MMO in order to study its social and economical aspects: "I play Warcraft because it’s fun. It’s taking time away from watching TV, reading books, and other entertainment pursuits. But I’m also playing because I believe MMOGs will be one of the primary forms of social software for the next decade. Defined broadly, they may become the dominant form of social software. And you can’t understand games without experiencing them first-hand."-- said Kevin Werbach in his blog back on February 2006.

Those outside USA who do not know what the FCC is, it stands for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - charged by the commisioners appointed by the US President with regulating all non-federal government use of the radio spectrum (including radio and television broadcasting), and all interstate telecommunications (wire, satellite and cable) as well as all international communications that originate or terminate in the United States. Having a World of Warcraft player in the FCC foreshadows great potential for the MMO genre.

Blizzard EVP of Product Design, Frank Pearce, told MTV Multiplayer during the Wrath of the Lich King midnight opening there are no plans to make the Cinematic team work for the World of Warcraft film. Legendary Pictures is still seeking a film director and writer for the film, but Frank Pearce confirms the Cinematic Team is quiet busy with internal projects (obviously Starcraft II trilogy, Diablo 3 and probably the next-gen MMO).

Very little has been said about the World of Warcraft film in the past two years. Fans have speculated it could be entirely done as a CGI film, or with real actors, or a mix. Certainly what Frank Pearce commented doesn't rule out some kind of CGI in the film. Legendary Pictures has experience with special effects and CGI for the 300 film, and the recent The Dark Knight, 10,000 BC and The Ant Bully to name a few.

	Blizzard Quote:
	“[The idea] has come up in discussions but it’s not something we’ve really considered because it takes so long to generate just the brief amount of footage that we create for the game,” Pearce explained. “That department’s focus is creating the footage for the games to tell the story; it would be a huge undertaking and it’s not really something that we’re ready to do anytime soon.”

Blizzard Entertainment and 3 Point Entertainment have had a successful sale of World of Warcraft Steins since its launch back on October. For this reason, they have teamed up to release a special limited edition in Europe where the steins have been highly sought by collectors.

Blood of the Horde and Alliance United Steins Now Available for Purchase at http://www.wowsteins.com

SAN DIEGO, CA (November 20, 2008) – Following their successful October release in North America, 3 Point Entertainment today announced the availability in the European territories of the World of Warcraft® Epic Collection, a series of high-quality old world-style steins based on Blizzard Entertainment®’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

“The response to the steins in North America has been exceptional and we have sold out of our first and second shipments of the production run scheduled for October and November. The third and final shipment is scheduled to arrive in December for the holiday season. We have had high interest from players in Europe and are pleased to now be able to offer these steins to our ever-growing European community,” said 3 Point Entertainment president Jerry Bennington The first two Epic Collection steins, Blood of the Horde and Alliance United, depict panoramic full-color bas-reliefs of night elves, tauren, orcs, and more, illustrated by Blizzard Entertainment artists Samwise Didier and Glenn Rane. Each 11”, .94 liter authentic fine grain stoneware stein is hand-crafted by world-renowned Brazilian manufacturer Ceramarte and topped with a sculpted pewter lid. Each of the subsequent Epic Collection steins will also commemorate World of Warcraft’s iconic characters and memorable moments with the same level of artistry and quality.

Ghostcrawler has announced some pretty big upcoming changes for Feral Druids' armor and attack power. Additionally, Warlocks are in for a treat, as it looks like their Ritual of Summoning is in for a massive change - a really good one too! Read up on it after the break:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	ARMOR As previously announced, we are changing the way bear armor works so that bonus armor on items does not receive the bear armor multiplier. Specifically this means that weapons, trinkets, rings, necks and cloaks with bonus armor will not be multiplied by the bear bonus. Only cloth and leather will benefit from the Bear and Dire Bear multiplier. We are compensating Ferals for this armor loss by improving the Survival of the Fittest talent. In addition to its current effects (stats and crit prevention), it will now also increase armor contribution from cloth and leather items by 22/33/66%. That should be very close to your current armor bonus. This makes Survival of the Fittest rather over-budget by talent standards, but we figured it was one talent we can be pretty certain most tank-oriented druids will have (and to be honest nearly all Ferals). FERAL ATTACK POWER We are no longer going to have weapons in the game which improve feral attack power. Instead, your attack power will scale based on the dps of the item. Practically speaking this means almost no change for any gear you currently use -- you should not see your dps change. What it does mean is that we can create the occasional dps staff that could be used by druids or hunters (or very undergeared warriors), and that Ferals may occasionaly use two-handed dps maces. We are going to convert all existing Feral staves over to this new system (but again, you should not notice any change to your dps). We are also adjusting the UI so that when druids look at these weapons, you will see what the improvement will be to your damage in forms. This does not mean we are no longer going to create bear and cat weapons, just that those weapons will be slightly less niche than they are now. These changes will be in place in the next patch. This patch will ship sometime before the 3.1 major content patch featuring the Ulduar raid.

Blizzard have released two new TV ads, one features rock legend Ozzy Osbourne, the other one has Steve Van Sandt (Silvio). Ozzy's add shows him claiming that he is the ultimate Prince of Darkness, but guess who shows up to argue with him. Steve Van Sandt's ad is more of a general gameplay advertisement, but it's still very cool.

Check them both out after the break:

It's official: Wrath of the Lich King has broken the record for the fastest selling PC game of all time! WoW's latest expansion sold 2.8 million copies in the first 24 hours of release, the previous holder of the record was another WoW product, The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million in the same time period.

Now we wait and see it they manages to sell the predicted 5 million in the first month. Here's the press release, more after the break:

IRVINE, Calif., Nov 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft(R)'s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King(TM), has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability*, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. This eclipses the previous record of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in January 2007 by Blizzard's first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade(R). Wrath of the Lich King was simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia on November 13; Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand on November 14; and South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.

In celebration of the launch, more than 15,000 stores throughout the world had their doors open at midnight to welcome thousands of expectant players. Several of these locations were attended by Blizzard Entertainment representatives, who met players and signed copies of the game.

As always, we’re looking to improve and expand on what we do here at Worldofwar.net. Something we would like to see are more writers for our front page, with regular slots.

If you’re interested in writing about anything WoW-related, whether you feel you have a lot to say on a certain class, about game mechanics, or just about WoW in general, then please get in touch. We’re keen to get you writing as soon as possible, so don’t leave it - .

If you have any queries or questions about writing about WoW, please ask in the email, and I’ll be happy to chat to you about it.

We know many of you can’t access the Blizzard pages from work and/or school, so if you’d like to read the transcript of BlizzCon 6, you see the full thing, along with images that come with Blizzard’s original, after the break. Alternatively, if you’d like to ensure we see more of these podcasts, support Blizzard by downloading the original from here.

Yes he’s terribly annoying, and we all know it’s just another shameless publicity stunt, but Athene has released a video in response to this business about reaching level 80 first, or rather, reaching level 79 then getting banned. Hmm, if his mother is like that it’s no wonder he turned out the way he is… Catch the video after the break.

BlizzCast 6 is finally Live as a sound stream and as a transcript. Welcome to BlizzCast Episode 6!  Nethaera (WoW Community Manager) interviewed Lead Tools Programmer, Monte Krol. He talks about his career background from the early days of Atari games until he applied for a job at Blizzard back on 2000.

Karune (RTS Community Manager) interviewed Senior Art Director Sam Didier and Lead Designer Dustin Browder who explain the process behind creating Starcraft II Unit design from Concept to Creation. Bashiok (Diablo Community Manager) interviewed Senior Character Artist Anthony Rivero who discusses Diablo character design. Don’t forget to read the fans Q&A at the end.

Support BlizzCast 6 and download it.

Thanks, Handclaw

Blizzard has released a sneak preview (PDF) of the upcoming World of Warcraft # 13. The comic book is just getting better and better. Lady Prestor has been unmasked by King Varian Wrynn to be Onyxia, who escapes Stormwind with a treasure on her paws: Anduin. Varian must reach Theramore to rescue his son. This new story arc will reveal exactly what the impostor duplicate of Varian really is.  Is he a black dragon? Is he from an alternate reality?  Or even worse ... was Varian magically split into two personas? From what it looks the kindness of Varian was split into the impostor, while the bravery and cockiness of Varian was split into who we know as Lo’gosh.  Only time will tell ... grab your copy to find out. And don’t forget ... Garona will make her first appearance in the comic book. Check out the sneak peek preview.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Hitting stores this week, the penultimate chapter to our first major comic arc sees our heroes heading off to Theramore Island to resolve the damage done by the evil usurper of the throne. Check out the preview pages for yourself. If you like what you see, you can visit Wildstorm for more information, locate a nearby comic store, or subscribe to the series directly. Also be sure to check out World of Warcraft: Volume 1, a hardcover collection of issues #0 through #7. It’s on shelves and available online now at all major comic retailers.

We got our hands on a copy of Bradygames’ new Official Strategy Guide to Wrath of the Lich King, and have written up a review for you to check out. These are the same people that made one for the Original World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade, so they know their stuff.

It’s packed with some really helpful info, for new players as well as old, so if you haven’t got into WotLK yet and you’d like some tips, or even if you’re just interested on reading up on the expansion and all the goodies that came with it like Achievements, new content, new spells & talents, the Death Knight, you might like to see:

• Full listings of Achievement
• Every Spell and Talent for every class
• Maps of all new zones
• Instance guides
  

and much more, check out our review! 

Submitted By Snodge:
Among the plethora of reviews now starting to make their appearance, Eurogamer’s 3 page review of WotLK stands out:

Wrath of the Lich King takes the best-of-breed MMO and improves everything about it. It’s a work of supreme confidence and quality that is twice as fun and ten times as beautiful as classic WOW, not to mention anything else in the genre. But above all else - in the breathtaking sweep of Northrend, in the assured, epic storytelling, in the constellation of brilliant quests - it is a grand adventure. Perhaps the grandest adventure in all gaming. In every sense, Azeroth is still the place to be.

From what I have personally seen of WotLK, I can totally agree with their conclusion!

Championship Gaming Series has announced that after only two seasons, it will be shutting down with immediate effect due to lack of profitability. The company presented eSports on TV and included coverage for many games such as Dead or Alive 4 and Counter-Strike, as well as WoW Arena tournaments. Thanks IncGamers.

Read the full statement from their website after the break.

When the newly-combined Nihilum and SK Gaming cleared Naxx 25 and Malygos over the weekend, it prompted many questions from the community about the difficulty level of Lich King; is it just too easy now?

Blue poster Zarhym responded to some of the concerns on the official forums:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	Q u o t e: I understand wanting to make something more available to the general public, but i thought that was why the 10/25 man versions were made available for all raids. You are correct about the 10/25 man versions of raid dungeons being added to allow for more accessibility of the general population. That said, I think you draw an incomplete conclusion when you use the fact that the current 25 man dungeons have been cleared by the top guilds in the world to argue we’ve made this content a little too accessible to the general public. Q u o t e: I must admit, I love what you’ve done with WotLK, but it was extremely disappointing to see that all raid content was cleared by a nihilum/SK guild in 3 days. Keep in mind that guilds like this are comprised of people who have bested every raid encounter we’ve released since Onyxia and Molten Core. They’ve made it a focus for years now to conquer every piece of PvE content we put out there, and do it first. Knowledge, experience, and teamwork are built rapidly when struggling through so many different boss encounters. Now, I’m not arguing that the raid content is any easier or harder than in the past. I’ve not done any of the 25 man raids yet. I do get the feeling though that the majority of the people I’ve seen on the forums specifically arguing that the content is too easy, based on the performance or opinions of the top guilds of the world, have not experienced the content either. Is it possible you will draw the same conclusion when you’ve cleared every 25 man encounter through Arthas (when his time comes)? Of course. When your intuitions grow into experience after you’ve made such accomplishments you’ll have better ground from which to justify your disappointment. Of course we’re monitoring your feedback and experiencing the content ourselves. I reiterate that we’ll always consider adjusting content for greater ease or difficulty if we feel it is necessary to maintain a fun and rewarding game.

Apologies to all fans who got to read the news alert a few weeks ago. Richard A. Knaak has informed me that he is not the author of World of Warcraft: Deathknight. Amazon is now listing this book to be written by Dan Jolley. I considered necessary to post this as my role in the community is to inform, rather than to misinform.

I have seen a few wiki entries that used Blizzplanet as source. So it’s my responsibility to correct the previous misinformation. Make your updates accordingly. I did not reach Richard A. Knaak until now about the book. Originally, I saw it freshly listed over at Amazon. Knaak does have an upcoming manga about a mage, but not much can be said at the moment until the script is approved by Tokyopop and Blizzard.

Author: Dan Jolley
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: TokyoPop (July 6, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1427814961
ISBN-13: 978-1427814968

So let’s learn some stuff about Dan Jolley. He was voted Best Horror Comic of 2001 by Wizard Magazine for the limited series: Obergeist.  He was nominated for an Eisner Award on 2003 for writing the JSA: The Unholy Three limited series. A novel based in the sci-fi shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: IRON MAN: Teen Novelization (based on the 2008 film), STAR TREK S.C.E. - Some Assembly Required, Firestorm (DC Comics); Dr. Strange: The Flight of Bones (four-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics,1999); JSA: The Liberty File; Sabretooth: Mary Shelley Overdrive (four-issue mini-series, Marvel Comics 2002); Vampirella: The Choir in the Mist (2004); Warcraft Legends # 1 (World of Warcraft: How to Win Friends, short story). And a few Tokyopop mangas: Alex Unlimited, HarperCollins, The Warriors Series (The Lost Warrior, Warrior’s Refuge, Warrior’s Return).

Below are some of his comments based on his experience as a World of Warcraft player with two level 70 characters ...