Patch 6.2 is coming to World of Warcraft next week, and it's bringing with it a whole new zone to explore, a new raid in the Hellfire Citadel to repeatedly wipe in, and a bunch of other new features. Tricksy orc shaman Gul'Dan has constructed a stronghold in the Tanaan Jungle, surrounded by hellfire and corrupted by the demon armies of the Burning Legion. Your job is to infiltrate and cleanse it.
The mob can put away their pitchforks and torches because Blizzard will in the future allow players to take to the skies on their mounts in World of Warcraft's Draenor. Why was it restricted airspace anyway? The studio says it was a design decision for the "best moment-to-moment gameplay" with the thrill of discovery 'only possible by ground'. They also "recognize that breaking free" is just as fun and exciting.
Blizzard has posted a lengthy preview on the Hellfire Citadel raid, accessible through the Tanaan Jungle. It's a "fel-twisted bastion" with power items levels ranging 675 to 685, and up to 735 in Mythic difficulty. There's a new rare pet too called the Corrupted Nest Guardian. World of Warcraft heroes will initially fight off waves of enemies and salvage ammunition to use in Hellfire Cannons ready to blast the Citadel open.
Orgrim Doomhammer is just one of the subtly named orcs who'll be making their cinematic debut in Duncan Jones' film adaptation of World of Warcraft next year, and the first pictures of this key character in the fantasy mythos have been posted online. It's actually pretty surprising how close the film's orcs are to their video game cohorts – both favour strong jawlines with pointy tusks, bulging muscles, and a permanent expression of grumpiness/maniacal rage.
Blizzard has been wielding its +1 Hammer of Justice against a horde of bot-using World of Warcraft players, handing out six-month bans against anyone found to be using "third-party programs that automate gameplay". According to PCGamesN, it's the so-called 'Honorbuddy bot' that's been the focus of Blizzard's wrath, a program that automates the accumulation of PVP honor points. It's like these people don't understand the whole point of WoW - grind, grind, and grind some more.
World of Warcraft is still the biggest deal in the MMO world, but subscription numbers have dropped quite significantly in the period since latest expansion Warlords of Draenor launched last October. The brief bump in subs after Draenor pushed the player count up past 10 million in November, but since then it's slid back down to 'just' 7.1 million. That's still a huge number, but it's a big drop-off for Blizzard.
The upcoming film for Blizzard's World of Warcraft has some "good news and bad news" from director Duncan Jones. It will no longer be coming in March 2016, but instead will take an extra 3 months and release in June 2016. It just wouldn't really be an authentic Blizzard release if there weren't some kind of delay. Obviously this extra time will be spent on the Murloc musical number in the second act. It will change lives.
World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo and other Blizzard Entertainment titles dependent on the studio's Battle.net service are now 'offline' in Crimea following the United States' trade sanctions on the region. Blizzard have been forced into switching off their services and informed affected gamers through an email. All subscriptions have been terminated, though they hope to "restore access" in the future.
World of Warcraft's WoW Tokens went live yesterday for $20, giving players a new way to buy play time in the auction house with their hard-earned in-game currency. Blizzard expected the auction house value of the Tokens to fluctuate, and that's exactly what's happened – the value has fallen by around a quarter in just one day.
WoW Tokens, the new currency for World of Warcraft that allows players to buy subscription time with in-game gold, go live today in the Americas. Blizzard will reveal additional regional launch dates further down the line. Tokens are designed to give long-time players something else to do with their Smaug-esque virtual gold reserves, and help deal with the ongoing problem of gold-farming.
Blizzard is adding a new option to World of Warcraft that will allow players to exchange their hard-earned in-game gold for extra game time. You'll be able to buy 'WoW Tokens' through the World of Warcraft in-game shop for cash, then sell it in the auction house for gold at a non-negotiable price. When a player buys your Token, it becomes Soulbound and they can redeem it for 30 days game time.
Blizzard has announced that World of Warcraft's Patch 6.1 will be leaving the Public Test Realms next week as it officially launches for the MMO, and with it comes whole new systems to improve the lives of Azeroth's denizens. There'll be the new heirloom system, we'll be able to flood Twitter with text and images, new character models for Blood Elves, fancy new anti-aliasing and lighting, plus help for colourblind folk.
World of Warcraft's big 6.1 patch will add some support for colourblind gamers, namely by adding three special filters designed to assist players who have one of three types of the condition. In addition to that, there will be a special UI designed for colourblind players, adding helpful words and phrases to tooltips throughout the game that typically use colours to signify information.
The 'Engineer's Workshop' over at Blizzard has just blogged their latest technical update for World of Warcraft, letting us know some of the new shiny visual options coming in Patch 6.1. We get HBAO+, CMAA, MSAA and SSAA+CMAA. That all totally made sense to you I can tell, but for the knuckle-dragging 'what's a RAM?' types out there, the World of Warcraft engineers break it down and give some teasing in-game sample shots.
Argi the blue goat pet for World of Warcraft has accumulated over $1.9 million to help Ebola relief efforts in Africa by the Red Cross. Blizzard announced back in December that all the 'adoption fee' for Argi would be donated. They're proud the community "embraced this cute little intergalactic nibbler," and for collectively making a big difference to the relief efforts. The Internet has one weakness; cute blue space goats.
The vanity virus known as 'selfie' has just been confirmed for World of Warcraft as Blizzard has included the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera in the latest Patch 6.1, currently on the Public Test Realms. There is no known cure for the 'selfie' - it continues to ravage humanity. A level 100 quest called Field Photography will unlock the S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera, which can be upgraded to Mk. II with another quest.
If you're one of those brave, loyal (obsessive) players who've maintained their World of Warcraft account non-stop for the last ten years, Blizzard has a gift for you - a fancy statue. The studio announced last week that it would be rewarding long-time devotees, and thanks to WoW forum poster Smitti we can take a look at what they've come up with.
Patch 6.1 for World of Warcraft will shortly be released into the wilds of the public test server, and leaks reveal a bucketload of new features, tweaks and fixes, including new anti-aliasing options, mounts, and even Twitter integration. That means you can spend hours in one of the most time-consuming and addictive things of all time while also using one of the other most time-consuming and addictive things of all time. Never leave your computer chair again.
Duncan Jones' highly anticipated Warcraft movie won't jump straight into the series' increasingly complex lore, but will instead feature a "first contact" between the warlike orcs and their human rivals. Jones was discussing the film with Chinese movie site Mtime, translated here by ManMadeMovies, and revealed that his idea of what the film should be matched neatly with Blizzard's when they met to discuss the film.
What's in store for World of Warcraft in the new year? Blizzard has put together a post on Battle.net. One thing that stands out is the possibility of an in-game tradeable game-time economy popping up. Blizzard likes the idea of "surplus gold to cover" some of the subscription cost, just like some other MMOs. Other things for 2015 include "more-direct routes" with flight masters.