Can't get your World of Warcraft Battlechest fix because Recruit-a-friend has sold out all the copies at Target? Worry not, because Target has got just as great a substitute for you: Paws and Claws Pet Vet 2: Healing Hands. Because when you can't conquer the tower of Medivh or slay beasts in Nagrand, the next best thing is playing a mediocre attempt to grab the money of kids who want to grow up to be vets.
Yeah, it's pretty sad, but then again, Target employees aren't necessarily videogame players. And even more sadly, what exactly does it say about PC gaming when the next best seller to WoW is a vet simulator?
To tell the truth, we're not sure why Blizzard made this deal with DirecTV -- well, to be fair, we know why (to make more money), but they did provide a live stream of the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and while sure, there were occasional problems, it worked far better than I ever expected it to. Why Blizzard didn't just upgrade the servers and send the stream of BlizzCon out into the world for free (as much as DirecTV wouldn't like it) is a good question.
The petition has already 1800 signatures as of this writing (more, we'll note, than the actual number of tickets sold to BlizzCon of course Blizzard has sold thousands of tickets, not hundreds. Sorry about that.), and we're sure it'll be way more than that soon. It's likely that Blizzard has tied themselves down by selling the rights to stream the show to DirecTV, but you never know -- maybe a groundswell of public support for an internet stream will make them reconsider.
Normally, we don't concern ourselves with sales charts too much -- we really only cover the one game, so comparing it to others really isn't our thing. Unless it's the only game in town, which, according to this month's NPD PC game software sales charts, posted by WorldofWar.net, it pretty much is. Out of the top ten PC games, Blizzard is responsible for a full half, and of those five, four are World of Warcraft related. 1. WoW: Battle Chest 2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe 3. World Of Warcraft 4. Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice 5. Spore Creature Creator 6. Diablo Battle Chest 7. Warcraft III Battle Chest 8. WoW: Burning Crusade 9. The Sims 2 Ikea Home Stuff 10. Call of Duty 4
Just wild. Diablo's Battle Chest is undoubtedly there because of the Diablo III announcement, but the rest is all World of Warcraft -- people are picking up the game, its expansion, the Battle Chest (which combines both), and even the predecessor Warcraft III (in which the Wrath backstory features prominently) in droves.
PC gaming isn't dead at all. But there's no question that of the struts keeping it standing, Blizzard is definitely one of the strongest.
There is a certain party, a regular emailer to us among our readers, who believes that we here at WoW Insider take a little too long at the start of our posts to get to the actual point of each story, so in this one, I'll just get right down to it: Blizzard needs to put Auction House information on the Armory.
I've been on the grind to the 5000g for my epic flying mount lately, and I've been playing the Auction House like a demon: calculating, buying, selling, and crafting my way to as much gold as I can throw together. And while Auctioneer has definitely helped, the best way I've found to track prices and make sure I get the most for my time in the AH is just to see the prices themselves -- no average price calculated by Auctioneer is worth enough as seeing the real thing. And that's where Blizzard comes in -- while there are a few sites that attempt to track prices with various methods, they have actual, constant access to the prices on every server. And they have a great place to put them: on the Armory.
The item pages on the Armory right now are practically empty -- besides some vendor and reagent information, there's almost nothing there (especially compared to, say, Wowhead). Giving player access to AH information would pull them into the game even when they couldn't play, not to mention let some of Blizzard's most talented web programmers -- their fans -- at data that they could do tons of great stuff with. Want a text alert when your favorite mats drop in price, or when there's room on the AH to finally sell off those Elixirs of Agility you've got? By passing out AH info to the Armory, Blizzard could give fans access to the data needed to make their own great tools, not only leaving Blizzard free to work on actual development, but giving us Auction House haunters all the access we need to track prices and have that much more fun playing the AH.
The debate over whether Death Knights should get a free hand up on their primary professions continues to rage, but what actually interests me most are some of the arguments put forth by those opposed to Death Knights getting "free" tradeskills. Some of them are saying that it doesn't matter that Death Knights have to wait, because people should wait until max level to deal with professions anyway.
This is a completely alien concept to me. On any new character, the first thing I do upon hitting level 6 is run to the nearest profession trainers to learn my chosen professions. I like being able to doing something about those herbs and mineral nodes I see while I'm leveling. I can go do some tradeskilling if I start getting bored of leveling, and I can use the final product for my own leveling process, or sell the raw materials on the AH for a nice chunk of change.
I can't really fathom waiting for maximum level before I started a profession in earnest. Why go back to Elwynn forest to harvest bushels of Peacebloom at level 70 when you could have done it from level 1-11 while you were there?
So here's something that may be considered somewhat of a companion question to yesterday's profession question: Do you level your professions while you level up, or do you leave them until after you've leveled up?
With Wrath's release inching closer and closer, we've had a flood of profession information coming in. The latest Blizzcast gave up some insight into the future of professions, and we've seen rumors and recipe lists for quite a few professions. Even gathering professions aren't immune to the fun, with some nice little innate bonuses being granting to mining, skinning and herbalism.
So, with Wrath coming, it's the perfect time to take inventory of your tradeskills and decide which way you're going to go. Will you drop Leatherworking now that you don't need the drums for raiding? Will you head over to Inscription so you can trick out your own spells and skills? Will you go strictly gathering for the buffs and for selling off raw materials to everyone trying to level their professions?
In short, what profession will be your primary pursuit in Wrath of the Lich King?
There's a ton of asking going on around this site lately -- between "Ask a Lore Nerd" and "Ask a Beta Tester," you guys are asking more questions than a two-year old who just learned what "why" means. But this column, Ask WoW Insider, is the O.G. of Ask columns here on the site, and unlike all of the other Ask columns, we put the question back to you readers. Chippen of EU Doomhammer sent in this great question this week:
We are having a discussion in our guild whether alts have priority on loot before guild members and we do have different views on this. Some say that an alt is an alt, and need to wait to be geared up, while others can't really see the problem. What is a main and what is an alt?
I suppose a main is the...well...I don't know. The first character I created? Or is it the character I play the most? Or is it the character I want to play the most and also enjoying playing the most? When does an alt become a main, and is it possible to swap between the two?
If you're asking me, I'd say it's definitely possible to switch mains (I've done it a few times) -- your main is currently the character that's getting the majority of your playtime, and the one where loot matters the most to you. Some guilds ask you to declare a main, so that they can make a clear distinction for passing out loot, while other guilds just have players switch alts depending only on what situations require what.
So let's show up those other Ask columns and give this great, open-ended question out to you, our dear readers: what is a main and what is an alt? And what's the difference between the two?
If you've got a question for our readers to be posted right here in the original Ask column, be sure to send it along to ask@wowinsider.com. And there's lots more Ask WoW Insider, including this question on abusing the /roll, and how to make friends and influence raiders on a new server.
Aside from players that are bitter because they missed out on Recruit-a-Friend benefits, is there anything wrong with this program.Kuahs of Kil'jaeden has encountered problems with raising enough cash to keep up with gear and ability upgrades.He has a level 70 character, but rerolled with his recruit on another server.He can't simply send money down from his main, and is sitting at level twenty-two with level twelve abilities.
Many posters suggested sending down money from a main character, which isn't so helpful on a new server.Others made the usual suggestion of gathering skills for sale on the auction house.While this is a good suggestion, mining and herbalism will suffer the same problem of being outpaced by leveling.There is always the option of begging for gold in major cities, though I personally don't recommend this method.
Yes, the WoW Insider Show is returning to the virtual airwaves of WoW Radio this afternoon, and after our 50th episode last week, we're ready to stop celebrating and get back to work. Amanda Dean from this very blog will join Turpster and I, and we'll chat about all the biggest stories in the World of Warcraft this past week, including the whole BlizzCon fiasco (and Morhaime's apology), the big downranking change, and all of the other big news coming out of the Wrath beta (which I finally got invited to, by the way).
Plus, you can expect to hear me brag that I was right about potion sickness, and Amanda is apparently going through a tough Arena breakup, so listen for that as well. We'll also be reading your emails as usual -- feel free to drop us a note at theshow@wowinsider.com, and as usual, we'll be in the IRC channel during the show, at irc.mmoirc.com in the #wowradio channel.
It all kicks off at 3:30pm Eastern (8:30pm GMT) in just a few hours from now -- definitely join us over at WoW Radio and listen in, it should be fun.
Apparently the company is also running a few other games, but clearly WoW is dominating their income, and, needless to say, doing very well for them. And probably won't be stopping anytime soon -- if Blizzard follows through on their plan to release Wrath asap in China, odds are that The9's biggest game will get even more popular.
It was perhaps one of the most unexpected and controversial changes to hit Wrath Beta: Potion Sickness, the debuff that spelled the end of chain-chugging by allowing only one potion to be quaffed per combat and no more. Some people loved, since it would cut down on pre-raid farming and perhaps allow for bosses to be balanced more around classes and roles and less around Haste, Ironshield, and Destruction potions. Some saw it as a major nerf to Alchemists and to casters who were used to chaining mana pots to stay in the blue.
What smells like dead Orcs and flies?Goldseller spam in Orgrimmar.In the last few weeks it has been dead Gnomes in Ironforge.The dead bodies spell out the name of a gold selling website. This tactic has returned from about a year or so ago, but this is the first time I've heard of it in Orgrimmar. The body advertisements look sharper than the old versions. All in all it seems like an awful lot of workto get around spam filters.
Gold sellers have used several means to get their message out to the public, and Blizzard has found ways to combat it.I remember back in the day when we used to get spammed with whispers.Blizzard introduced the report spam feature for users to flag this content, the whispers nearly completely ceased overnight.I have to hand it to them, the gold sellers come up with innovative ways to market their product.Sure it violates the terms of use, but gold-selling by its nature is a violation.What's one more script here and there for them?
Time for a little WoW blog roundup, cowpokes! Whoopie-ti-yi-yo!
Making gold with second account | Full Time WoW Addict With Blizzard's new refer-a-friend incentive, you might be thinking about opening a second account to get those XP benefits. Even better, Examino at Full Time WoW Addict shows you how to earn your raiding gold with some light multiboxing. No Wrath spoilers!
Spellpower and You: Gearing in WotLK | Banana Shoulders Siha at Banana Shoulders (best blog name ever!) compares theories to practice in Wrath's current Paladin spellpower changes.
Achievements and why they suck | Yet Another Warlock Nerf Some people think the achievements system coming in Wrath is awesome sauce. Horns at Yet Another Warlock Nerf vigorously disagrees.
Larisa over at The Pink Pigtail Inn mused on an interesting question the other day: Should you pay for the wipes you cause? Her feeling is not only that you shouldn't, but that the mere fact of offering to pay is offensive to her, like offering hush-money or a bribe. Instead, she says, apologize quickly and confess what you did so that others can learn from your mistakes.
I agree with the idea of the mistake-maker apologizing and confessing immediately. This technique also works in real life situations. (I wish it was heeded more often in politics, too.) Further, I vigorously disapprove of ham-fisted reactions from over-zealous raid leaders or guild leaders. Overreacting by /gkicking people (as one of the commenters related) in normal guilds is completely ridiculous. (If you joined a guild who wants to make world's firsts or server-firsts, then you know what you're getting into.) If you are the raid leader then you need to take responsibility for the team you put on the floor. In life, work, politics, and gaming, the buck stops with leadership. Leaders need to pick the right team and remind people who they know are not as experienced or strong in the particular raid situation about tactics, strategy, and common mistakes. Or else they need to chill the heck out. In fact, from a certain point of view, it's not the person who caused the wipe who should pay repair bills: it's the raid leader.
Other commenters on Larisa's post offered different payment plan ideas. One suggested a tax on all the loot acquired in the raid. Another suggested that before the raid even begins, raiders should pay an ante to participate, thereby socializing the costs of what might happen. Of course, there is the ever-popular solution of letting the guild pay for repairs afterwards, too. But as another commenter pointed out, repair bills and buff flasks for a 25-man raid can run a guild nearly 400G per run. My feeling is that as long as everyone goes into the raid knowing those taxes are being imposed, it sounds like a fine idea. Or, realizing that mistakes are going to be made, even by the most experienced and savvy players, we could all act like we realize that raising gold is as much a part of the game as raiding, questing, or grinding, and suck up our own repair bills, regardless of who caused the wipe.
Every once in a while we do nice things for other players out of the goodness of our hearts. More often we do things in game in exchange for gold or other necessary services. Feevah of Shattered Hand is unhappy that he was given a two silver tip for a portal.He feels that the acronym "WTB" implies that the tip for the service will be at least enough to cover the cost of materials.Thus defining the distinction between a purchase and a gratuity, which is usually given to members of the service sector above the advertised price.
Some suggested that the tip was mistyped in either the wrong coin slot or missing a digit.Others suggested that Feevah should have immediately disbanded his group so that the penny pincher could simply stare at the portal without being able to use it.Perhaps the poster was unaware of the material cost of the spell, or maybe he was just a jerk.