BlizzCon brings out the strangest, coolest, and most insanely detailed costumes this side of Outland, and we were front and center at last night's costume contest, hosted by comedian Jay Mohr. He appeared to have taken notes from Jamie Kennedy's appearance at E3, and was actually funny instead of stupid.
Check out the gallery down below for the highlights, and be sure to take a look at the winning Warlock costume. The girl who designed it was patient enough to pose for a billion photos afterwards with her heavy (and lighted!) helmet, and as far as we know she wore it all night. We even saw her waiting in line for the bus with those wings still on. Most entries were from WoW, but there were a couple of nods to other Blizzard games, including a Terran Ghost from Starcraft.
We attended a press conference at BlizzCon this morning that was held far too early for people who had been out all night ogling people in World of Warcraft contests. In attendance were J. Allen Brack, senior producer for WoW, Rob Pardo, the Senior VP of Game Design for Blizzard, and Frank Pearce, Executive VP of Product Development at Blizzard.
One big tidbit that they dropped was the fact that The Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack may require you to have the Burning Crusade as well. Blizzard isn't sure if this will require an additional purchase, or if they will bundle it in at no extra cost. When asked how retailers might react to this, no one had any idea. If you're Joe Retailer and selling copies of Burning Crusade pretty well, will you want to put something on the shelf that will cannibalize those sales, or will you just stop carrying the older title altogether?
Another interesting fact is that if you pick up say, the latest expansion pack a couple of years from now, when there are three are four out, will you have to go back and buy the others? That could get potentially very expensive for players who have already shelled out for the base game and are paying $14.95 a month. What are we, made out of gold? We'll follow this as it develops.
Whereas some console are only being predicted to have a downfall, the real estate market for Blizzard megaton World of Warcraft is down as players appear to be deserting the MMO. A concurrent player activity census compiled by a Warcraft Realms site admin reveals a steady decline in the US and European market since peaking in February 2007.
Before anyone starts championing these statistics as the end of WoW's reign, let's take a logical approach to the data. Player activity spiked in January 2007, when TheBurning Crusade came out with inordinate publicity for the game. No doubt many gamers with little interest in MMO tried out the title then based on its hype and then slowly moved onto something else.
The census does not take into account other markets such as China, Korea and Japan.
Current activity is still higher than pre-Burning Crusade levels by a decent margin and, if the trend continues at a somewhat linear pace, we suspect World of Warcraft player activity won't be at those levels again for another six to eight months. Now, if the MMO continues to decline, or reaches a level where it might actually have sizable competition, then perhaps Blizzard should consider another expansion to keep the hype going.
Sister-site WoW Insider really has all the details on patch 2.1 for World of Warcraft. The newest patch opens up the Black Temple, along with a slew of other content, that tells the story of ... oh, who are we kidding? Do people even read the quests anymore? By level 60 isn't it just standard ops to find question mark NPC, accept, do the quest (kill, collect or escort), hand in, get phat lootz, rinse and repeat? Sure, it's been the same thing for 70 levels, the same raids over and over again, but can we stop? Can anybody stop?
If you haven't taken your first hit of WoW -- be happy. If you broke the habit -- be overjoyed. The rest of us are still licking the baby Murloc and just letting the drug course through our veins. How obsessed are WoW addicts? We haven't looked, but we're sure there's a thread on the WoW forums asking where patch 2.2 is already.
Well, this explains why Blizzard kept stalling on answering our distribution questions. Blizzard began very quietly offering World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade through digital distribution this week.
The offer is made every time you start up WoW, so it's not like players who decided to ignore the launch have that option anymore. The expansion costs $39.99 online, the same as in the the stores, preventing the need for pesky poisonous outdoor air to enter one's lungs.
The digital distribution question about WoW has been floating around since The Burning Crusade was announced. Guess it was nice for Blizzard to give the brick and mortar stores a chance before they totally cut them off and made their use in Burning Crusade distribution obsolete. Other than those who need the box to feel complete, what's the point of getting the Burning Crusade in a store now? Not to mention that this shows Blizzard will use a similar tactic in future expansions.
With silly non-animation and infantile STD humor, With Your Mom dot Com takes the [adult swim] award for best game-related webcomic this week.
Second and third place were occupied by Tycho and Gabe, with PVP Online's Penny Arcade joke edging out over Penny Arcadeitself. Thanks to everyone who voted this week and be sure to let us know of any gaming comics you stumble upon this week!
According to Blizzard, and based on reports from select distributors, 2.4 million copies of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade were sold worldwide in the expansion set's first 24 hours at retail. With an estimated combined total of 2.3 million copies sold in North America and Europe, Burning Crusade has become the fastest-selling PC "game" (it's technically an expansion) ever in the two regions. Despite lines forming, overcrowding, and server instability, 1.7 million North American and European players managed to log in and upgrade to Burning Crusade status by the end of the first day (just hours before Gullerbone reached level 70).
The worldwide release, which also included Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, followed by Australia and New Zealand, was not without its distribution blunders. Romania, home to more than 10,000 WoW account holders, was sent a mere 1,600 copies of the expansion (even though Blizzard supplied roughly 4 million copies worldwide). Still, the launch marks a great, albeit anticipated success for Blizzard, and will no doubt drive WoW's dominance for months to come.
Though it's intended to meet the needs of overworked graphic designers or computers users with physical constraints, the Ergopod seems like the ultimate tool for those World of Warcraft players who simply must reach level 70 in one sitting. In fact, there's no need for sitting at all. Lying down in bed with your equipment eerily hovering above you will do just fine.
The Ergopod (likely named for its ergonomic qualities and not its ability to logically present arguments) supports several other, less horizontal positions, but the effort required to make use of them just seems so daunting now.
So, what are you up to this week? Chances are, you're too busy to read webcomics on account of that newfangled World of Warcraft thingamajig. So for everyone else, here are our picks for the best gaming webcomics this week, be sure to vote for your favorite!
Just 28 hours after the release of The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft player Gullerbone snared the touted level 70, the game's new ceiling. But how did Gullerbone do it? An unlimited supply of Chex Mix? Non-stop jungle music? Caffeine injections? We just don't know.
But investigators have discovered a three-minute video showing the process of monster killing and leveling up, today's most-watched YouTube game video. Alas, the investigators couldn't find the 28 hours of time to give back to the player.
Well, that wasn't much of a race. After being on store shelves for little more than a day, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has gained its first level 70 in French player, Gullerbone.
Clocking in at 28 hours, Gullerbone's journey from the lowly plain of mortals known as level 60 to the god-esque status of 70 seems almost disappointing for a task estimated to take most players a few months at the very least. Somewhere, in the halls of Blizzard, someone has slapped their forehead.
For the curious, Gullerbone goes deeper into the method of his leveling madness in an interview with World of Raids. While his act of gaming fortitude is commendable, we're just glad that no babies died in the process this time.
Gullerbone can now look forward to sitting on his hands, waiting for the rest of the folks on his server to catch up so that he can actually do something worth his level. Congratulations!
Blizzard's just-released Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft appears to have inspired customers (old and new) to return in droves. The screenshot above was taken moments ago. It demonstrates that the huddled masses, yearning to breathe digitally, are forming long lines at the borders to Azeroth. "Let us in," the wretched refuse cry!
Unless you were lucky enough to have snagged an early copy off of the shelves at a Wal-Mart, then you probably haven't seen the insides of a World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - Collector's Edition yet. If you don't want to wait until midnight tonight, then here's your chance for a sneak peek.
Unfortunately, this Collector's Edition appears to be sold out everywhere, including the Blizzard store. We're hoping to find a copy somewhere tonight, although it sounds like we'd have a better chance surviving as an icecube in the Molten Core. You can still snag a copy on Amazon ... to the tune of $200 and up. Hardly surprising, since folks are selling the original WoW collector's edition for over $500. Is an exclusive pet worth that much, we ask you?
The highly anticipated expansion for WoW will be selling in stores at the stroke of midnight tonight. In fact, they're having midnight launches for it, and Joystiq will be braving the cold and freezing our butts off to bring you some coverage.
Our pals at WoW Insider have obtained a page from Walmart's Release Playbook concerning World of Warcraft's new expansion, The Burning Crusade. Though the page itself is somewhat dated ("December 27is so last year, Joystiq"), the information reveals a sign of confidence in Blizzard as a major source of revenue for the big box retailer.
The Playbook page cites figures from an unspecified source that 90% of current WoW players intend on purchasing the expansion, with 75% purchasing within the initial 10 days. The document also notes that, of the then-7.5 million players of the MMO, 450,000 of them purchased their copy from Wal-Mart. Assuming they can keep up with the supply (eBay bidders seem to think otherwise), repeat customers tally approximately 303,750 in sales for the first 10 days, with 405,000 total expected. More generally, Wal-Mart expects The Burning Crusade to sell 5 million in the first 10 days and at least 6.75 million in its lifetime. Holy Market Value, Batman!
To this end, the Wal-Mart playbook page outlines that 2,008 stores have been selected, based on sales data of the original WoW, to receive at least one half-pallet containing 60 copies of The Burning Crusade. Those packages were noted to arrive January 8 in stores and amount to at least 120,480 in expected first-day sales. Wal-Mart has told its stores to release the product to the masses at 12:01 a.m. January 16, so if you have a pre-sell card (or just hope to be lucky), then you better expect a midnight-sale camp-out of consolerelease proportions.
SOE and Sigil have upturned some eyebrows today with the announcement that their MMORPG Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be released on January 30; just two weeks after Blizzard drops the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion. While it seems like poor timing for any new MMO franchise to enter the market, there's also pervading doubt that Vanguard has been thoroughly beta tested.
SOE has already become (somewhat) infamous for a string of ill-received alterations to its big brands, notably EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies. If Vanguard is indeed rushed, such a careless release would only deal further damage to the studio's image.
Well, this explains why Blizzard kept stalling on answering our distribution questions. Blizzard began very quietly offering World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade through digital distribution this week.
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