World of Warcraft Articles
Robin is taking a look back at World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Battle For Azeroth, as we gear up - literally - for the upcoming Shadowlands expansion.
This past week we’ve seen some interesting updates to 8.3 and, in particular, to how the Horrific Visions of Orgrimmar/Stormwind work. However, the choices made in some of these changes are a bit frustrating in certain respects.
One of the cornerstones of how World of Warcraft has operated, at the very least since Wrath but it might have started before then, is to have a constant eye on what’s next. So, this week, I’m going to be talking a bit about the 8.3 PTR and what we have to look forward to.
Two weeks ago, Blizzard dropped the 8.2.5 patch, and with it came the end of the War Campaign we’ve been working on since Battle for Azeroth launched last year. However, almost everything went differently than I expected. Warning: there are spoilers are ahead.
This past week Blizzard opened the doors on World of Warcraft Classic, and I took my first steps back into a world I haven’t seen since 2006. I purposefully spent very little time in the beta and stress tests to minimize fatigue and enable me to have a clear impression of it right from the beginning. Make no mistake; this is not a recreation of the game it was when it first launched back in November 2004, rather a recreation of what existed before Burning Crusade rolled out in 2006.
I'll admit it: I never played World of Warcraft at its inception. In fact, I only started playing WoW when Legion hit, and even then it was only briefly. So the chance to see Azeroth Unmarred was one I had to take.
It’s now less than 23 hours until World of Warcraft: Classic is live around the world for everyone who has a subscription, and I must admit I am a little bit excited. I’m not one of the people who has been clamoring for Blizzard to bring back the old game, but it will be fun to run around some of the old places again to do some of the questlines which were destroyed in Cataclysm. In these last few hours before launch, I want to take a look at the recent AMA Blizzard did regarding Classic. They answered a few questions which are essential for understanding the experience players will find when the servers open later today.
After spending months playing the Legion beta, columnist Gareth Harmer talks about his experience returning to the live game.
I have seen MMORPGs rise and fall, but none of them felt as depressing as watching Nostalrius, the most popular private server for World of Warcraft, shut down on Sunday. It wasn't just the end of a wonderful community, but a stark reminder that, despite what the back of the box might say, MMORPGs are ultimately products first and virtual societies second.
Games are serious business, we get it. But that doesn't mean they can't be a bit of stupid fun. With that in mind, we're starting something new today: The Quiz. A while back we tried these, but we didn't have the tech to do them right. Yes it's pointless, yes it's silly, but have a little laugh. Find out which World of Warcraft Villain you are!
We’ve all seen the signs before: ‘limited time only’ the words say, usually with a McDonald’s McRib sandwich plastered on it. We dismiss the idea of a ‘limited time only’ experience. Holiday events come along like the seasons they represent and we don’t truly find it devastating if we missed out—it will all come back next year. However, what if a feature, a paid one, was truly here for a limited time only… should players be punished for the lack of participation?
It’s the fall of 1999 and my Paladin is sitting on a pyramid in the eastern commonlands of Norrath waiting on the start of a raid. Our raid leader is barking instructions, to the extent one can bark in a /shout channel. Fairly soon 30-odd player characters take a trip up to the Plane of Hate to fight the minions of a god.
Entertainers these days don't seem content to succeed at one thing. That's because making money in the entertainment business just isn't as straightforward as it used to be, so performers have learned to expand their brands beyond music or movies and into other markets. Similarly, game makers are realizing if they want to survive, let alone thrive, they too need to expand their commercial and cultural reach.
This week, Blizzard announced that its subscription base for World of Warcraft rose by more than 100,000. Since all logic says that a near-decade-old MMO should be tailing off, that's something of a surprise—especially since game industry augurs have spent the last year or so predicting the death of subscription-based games. Is the turnaround just a fluke, or could it mean gamers aren't as gung-ho about free-to-play as business analysts say they are?
It’s no secret that World of Warcraft inspires many people to great heights of passion, both because of their affection for or antipathy towards the game. In the nine years since WoW launched, every subsequent MMO has been compared to it in one way or another, usually by those who mean that comparison as an insult to the developers who made the game.
