davextreme

MMO Champion publishes leaked information about the next World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. With the presumed the defeat of Arthas coming at the end of the Wratch of the Lich King expansion, Blizzard has played out most of the plot threads left over from Warcraft III. Cataclysm will let them move on to newer storylines that (more or less) started in WoW.

My World of Warcraft account is inactive, but this news makes me want back in!

This permanent update to Onyxia will convert the dungeon into 10- and 25-player modes. We will be adding new items to Onyxia’s loot table that have the same model as some of the classic loot from this dungeon, like Tier 2 helms, with stats updated to match the current level of content. There will be a special new item too: a normal drake-sized 310% speed flying mount modeled after Onyxia herself called an Onyxia Broodling. We will also be updating the encounter mechanics to be more fitting for modern raiding, but we can guarantee players will get to experience the frightening horror of deep breaths once again.

Then for a limited time, after the 5-year anniversary event officially begins in November, anybody who logs in will receive an Onyxia Brood Whelpling pet.

Really cool. Onyxia is a great looking dragon. I’m assuming the 310% speed mount will be from an achievement.

Time to bone up on strategy.

Update: A Q&A MMO Champion reprints says the mount will be a rare drop. They also have photos of the new stuff.

What I like about this video, n00b Boyfriend, is how attractive the daughter and family are vs. the boyfriend. It would have been easy to make the gamer characters look like dorks, but the joke works way better making them look normal.

(Moslty for my own reference.) If you’re trying to download a patch of World of Warcraft, have an Apple AirPort base station, and are getting the error “Your computer appears to be behind a firewall”, these are the steps I was able to use to get it to work.

1. Open up AirPort Utility.
2. Click on your AirPort station and select “Manual Setup” from the “Base Station Menu” (or ⌘-L).
3. Click “Advanced”, and “Port Mapping”.
4. Click the “+” button.
5. Enter “3724,6112,6881-6999” into the Public and Private UDP and TCP ports, and enter your own IP address into “Private IP Address”. (To get your IP address, open up System Preferences, go to Network, click on your AirPort station, click “Advanced”, then “TCP/IP”. Your IP address is what’s listed as IPv4 Address.)
6. Click “Continue”, and name it whatever you want, then “Done”.

The Blizzard Downloader should turn green. If it doesn’t, try restarting the app.

Despite lots of rhetoric, the next-generation video game landscape is lining up basically like the last one did: one system comes in early (this time Microsoft instead of Sony), two go for power (Sony and Microsoft), one tries to be different (Nintendo both times). The current generation will take all of that to the next level: the graphics will be sharper, and Nintendo will be even more different.

What I worry about is that basically Nintendo’s banking on innovation, and I’m not sure that’s something you can count on. Certainly a game can be visually stunning without having the most polygons. World of Warcraft was never the most graphically intense, but the art direction is so through the roof that it doesn’t matter. Not evenyone liked The Windwaker’s cell shading, but it was effective. Still, can you count on all your developers to hire great visionary artists that can overcome the temptation to just push for photo-realism in lieu of real art? Probably not. Likewise for game design. A generic shooter or brawler can always be fun, but the Wii seems to be begging for something different on each title, and different might not always work. What’s going to happen is that some developers will take chances with the new controller, and it won’t quite work. Hopefully others will find the sweet spot and succeed. Needless to say, the first few waves of games will see a lot of cool stuff, and there will be some amusing changes as the platform matures.