Blizzard Entertainment Shop Talk — 3.2 in Review
After a number of patch 3.2 content previews, nearly a full round of our class Q&A series, and weeks of public testing for this patch, we’d like to provide you with a convenient, comprehensive list of the information we’ve been sharing. Let’s enjoy a walk together down memory lane as we wait to sink our teeth into patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade.
Whether you seek information about the , , , or our developers’ take on the
, or you want to peek at the , search no further than our updated .
Still have questions about the Isle of Conquest or the Crusaders’ Coliseum? Well members of our development staff were kind enough to take some time to answer frequently-asked questions submitted by players on our forums worldwide. .
We’ve just about wrapped up our where we answered some of the most common questions asked by the community. We’ve received a great amount of feedback thus far about the Q&As we’ve posted. If you have yet to take a look, you can find answers to a great many questions about , , , , , , and . Stay tuned for the priest and rogue Q&As coming next week and, don’t be afraid to head over to our and to discuss all of the class information we’ve been sharing.
Many players have been asking about whether or not they’ll still have a shot at obtaining the special mounts offered through the normal and Heroic Glory of the Ulduar Raider meta-achievements when patch 3.2 rears its head. We have .
We’re making a change to the way instance locks work to allow players to progress through content at a pace more of their choosing. Read about it .
We’re revamping the emblem system a great deal in patch 3.2 to give players more incentive to continue plunging through the raids and dungeons Wrath of the Lich King has to offer. .
Patch 3.2 introduces ambitious new means through which players can now gain experience by participating in Battlegrounds. While this is covered in our , we welcome players to join in on the discussion on our forums .
With World of Warcraft ever-expanding, level 60 just isn’t what it used to be. For this reason we’ve eased the burden of obtaining mounts and are giving players at lower levels a chance for some sweet rides.
.
It’s time to take professions to the next level, beginning with epic gems. Read more about it all
.
Shamans will have a few new tricks up their sleeves when it comes to dropping totems come patch 3.2. Check out the new interface and spell functionality surrounding totems. .
Now that you’ve had a chance to check out the complete overhaul given to cat and bear forms, along with the five different color options available, you’re probably wondering how to go about selecting the set of cat and bear forms that best suits you. Whether you’re a tauren or a night elf, a simple visit to the barber shop will do the trick, and we have a breakdown of color associations .
The testing taking place on our public test realms is invaluable. If you haven’t checked out some of the information being shared on the , you may want to have a look. We’ve also sent our 3.2.0 PTR patch notes through several revisions. You can review the notes and a summarized history of the changes made to them .
World of Warcraft news and blogs - July 30, 2009
Below is today’s roundup
of news and blogs that haven’t yet hit top story status by our community. Visit
World of Warcraft news and blogs for even more
news and blogs converage.
• The Daily Grind: What are your top 5 MMO must-haves? –
by Brooke Pilley from Massively
• Major farming: World of Warcraft sells 8.6 million in the US –
by Glenn M. from World of Warcraft
• World of Warcraft Sells 8.6 Million Units in US –
from *Shacknews* Games
• A Letter To The Lazy PUG Member –
by WoWGrrl from WoWGrrl.com
• Exclusive: World Of Warcraft's U.S. Retail Sales Total 8.6 Million –
from Gamasutra News
• Got an MMO addiction? Just /shout "LF Counselor!" –
by William Dobson from Massively
• Little lol moment –
by wowladiesmods@gmail.com from WoW_Ladies: Girl Gamers of World of Warcraft
• Booyah releases Booyah Society, an app/game that tracks "life achievements" –
by Mike Schramm from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
• Let's pretend you're a media shark for a moment… –
by wowladiesmods@gmail.com from WoW_Ladies: Girl Gamers of World of Warcraft
• Games need focus and perfection before innovation –
by Keen from Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog
See complete World of Warcraft news, blog, video, and photo coverage at Boxxet.
If You're Addicted To World Of Warcraft, Why Not Get Therapy For … - Techdirt
 bit-tech.net |
If You're Addicted To World Of Warcraft, Why Not Get Therapy For …
Techdirt from the I-can-think-of-a-few-reasons-why-that's-a-bad-idea… dept While we tend to have trouble with the idea that there's a real "addiction" issue with … Real-World Therapists to Treat World of Warcraft Addicts OnlineAppscout In-Game Therapy Coming to World of WarcraftSoftpedia 4 Games That Could Beat wow (But Probably Won't).I4U bit-tech.net all 5 news articles » |
Spectral Sandbox Tiger Loot Card - Unredeemed / Unscratched World of Warcraft TCG newly tagged "world of warcraft"
Spectral Sandbox Tiger Loot Card - Unredeemed / Unscratched World of Warcraft TCG
By Warcraft
Customer Rating:
First tagged “world of warcraft” by Heather C. Novakouski “Kitty-H”
Customer tags: wow, world of warcraft, spectral sandbox tiger, charges, tcg
Major farming: World of Warcraft sells 8.6 million in the US
WoW is wow. Since its release back in November 24th, World of Warcraft has farmed its way to 8.6 million copies sold in US retail alone, with 800,000 of those coming in its first month. This figure includes sales from World of Warcraft, the collector’s edition version, Battle Chest, and the two standalone expansions: The Burning Crusade and Wrath of The Lich King.
There wasn’t any breakdown on the average sales price and which version sold the most, but Gamasutra is pegging total revenues at around US 258 million from US retail alone. Surprising? Hell no. Blizzard has 11.5 million subscribers paying US 15 a month to play - that really says something about how great this game is.
Celebrate with these steins:
Chain and Priority "Justice Blindburn"
Hello all, this is Sean Ryberg, floor judge from DMF Boston ‘09.
I have a situation which received much discussion on the ride back from DMF Boston ‘09 the other day.
Player A (turn player) is in control of ally Vanda Skydaughter which has attacked Player B’s ally Araelun. (I have chosen allies w/o powers to simplify the situation in question.)
Player B’s hero is Justice Blindburn
Player A is in control of location Circle of Blood, The which has two arena counters on it and is in the ready position.
<Both players have enough resources available to fulfill the payment costs of all cards and effects.>
Prior to combat resolution Player B uses his flip power hoping to force Player A to destroy one of his allies once Araelun is destroyed. Player A wishes to add a third arena counter to Circle of Blood, The in response to the damage dealt by Vanda Skydaughter and create an Arena Gladiator ally token which he can then use to fulfill the requirements of Justice Blindburn’s flip power.
As I understand the situation it would resolve as follows:
Player A: Vanda Skydaughter exhausts and has become an attacker of Araelun. There are no other allies on either side of the board in active play.
Player B: Justice Blindburn uses his flip power before combat resolution takes place creating a triggered effect.
Combat resolution takes place, both allies deal damage simultaniously at which point the triggered power of Circle of Blood, The creates a triggered effect.
Combat resolution ends and we enter PPP the triggered effect for Circle of Blood, The is added to the chain first since it belongs to the turn player. Then the triggered effect from Justice Blindburn would be added since he is not the turn player.
This would cause Justice Blindburn to complete first, now waiting for “When the next ally in your party is destroyed this turn, each opponent destroys an ally in his party.” Next the triggered effect of Circle of Blood, The completes adding a third arena token to . At this time Player A (the turn player) may exhaust activating it’s power to create an Arena Gladiator ally token, this would be added to the chain.
If no other effects are added to the chain the Arena Gladiator ally token would enter play before fatal damage caused Araelun to die and cause Justice Blindburn’s flip power to be fulfilled.
OR
Would the Arena Gladiator ally token have to wait until after this PPP resolves to be added to the play zone?
708.1 As a player is about to receive priority, any waiting triggered effects that have been created but have not yet been added to the chain are added to the chain during PPP (410.5).708.1a If multiple triggered effects are waiting, first the turn player chooses in what order his or her
triggered effects go on the chain, and then they are added to the chain. Then, the next player clockwise chooses in what order his or her triggered effects go on the chain, and then they are added to the chain on top of the previous player’s. Then, the next player clockwise, and so on.708.1b No player gets priority until all waiting triggered effects have been added to the chain.
708.2 Adding a triggered effect to the chain follows the applicable rules for adding links (707), although triggered effects never have costs. If a triggered effect requires targets, but legal targets for that effect can’t be chosen, or if other choices made on announcement can’t legally be made for it, the
effect ceases to exist and doesn’t affect the game in any way.
It’s a good time to be a dude.
|
FOR the female half of the population, it may bring a satisfied smile. Scientists have found that evolution is driving women to become ever more beautiful, while men remain as aesthetically unappealing as their caveman ancestors. The researchers have found beautiful women have more children than their plainer counterparts and that a higher proportion of those children are female. Those daughters, once adult, also tend to be attractive and so repeat the pattern. Over generations, the scientists argue, this has led to women becoming steadily more aesthetically pleasing, a “beauty race” that is still on. The findings have emerged from a series of studies of physical attractiveness and its links to reproductive success in humans. In a study released last week, Markus Jokela, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, found beautiful women had up to 16% more children than their plainer counterparts. He used data gathered in America, in which 1,244 women and 997 men were followed through four decades of life. Their attractiveness was assessed from photographs taken during the study, which also collected data on the number of children they had. This builds on previous work by Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics, who found that good-looking parents were far more likely to conceive daughters. He suggested this was an evolutionary strategy subtly programmed into human DNA. He cited two findings from the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a US government-backed study that is monitoring more than 15,000 Americans. The measurements include objective assessments of physical attractiveness. One finding was that women were generally regarded by both sexes as more aesthetically appealing than men. The other was that the most attractive parents were 26% less likely to have sons. Kanazawa said: “Physical attractiveness is a highly heritable trait, which disproportionately increases the reproductive success of daughters much more than that of sons. “If more attractive parents have more daughters and if physical attractiveness is heritable, it logically follows that women over many generations gradually become more physically attractive on average than men.” In men, by contrast, good looks appear to count for little, with handsome men being no more successful than others in terms of numbers of children. This means there has been little pressure for men’s appearance to evolve. The findings coincide with the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution first described the forces that shape all species. Even he, however, might have been surprised by the subtlety of the effects now being detected by researchers looking into human mating. The heritability of attractiveness is widely accepted. When Elizabeth Jagger became a model, her mother, the former model Jerry Hall, said: “It’s in her genes.” Women may take consolation in the finding that men are subject to other types of evolutionary pressure. Gayle Brewer, a psychology lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, said: “Men and women seek different things in their partners. “For women, looks are much less important in a man than his ability to look after her when she is pregnant and nursing, periods when women are vulnerable to predators. Historically this has meant rich men tend to have more wives and many children. So the pressure is on men to be successful.” |
Working in a more affluent area and with children, I can tell you that these findings are pretty accurate. 
Some thoughts on making the UC better
The ESRI sessions are a great place to really see what the people in our field are doing. The diversity is really inspiring. Occasionally I’ll get the random person who’ll ask, “What can you do with GIS?” I’d love to have a copy of the User Conference program to whip out when that happens and say, “Take a look at this. The question you should be asking is, ‘What CAN’T you do with GIS?’”
That being said, the User Conference sessions aren’t without their issues. A big part of the problem lies in the sheer numbers of topics available. If the final session is any judge, ESRI is clearly aware of this and trying to take steps to fix it, which is great. Some sort of vetting process or voting process might help keep the focus on the sessions that people are really interested in attending. One danger in voting I can see is that it might make a self re-enforcing system. The stuff that makes it into the sessions will be the stuff that everyone is used to seeing. New and innovative ways of doing projects or applying existing techniques to new applications might not make it into sessions simply because those voting might not see the value. Whatever vetting system ultimately gets created, it must allow for new innovations and techniques to surface in sessions. In fact, it might help to have a few sessions left open for those very things.
However, I think a vetting process really just starts to scratch the surface of the problem. Anyone who’s attended any of the programming-centric sessions can tell you that max capacity only isn’t just a possibility, it’s increasingly the norm. The User Conference seems to be the victim of ESRI’s success. I think they figure the developer’s conference is the place for the programmers. Sure, that’s the hope, but what ESRI is forgetting is that they’re making the tools so easy everyone is turning into a ‘programmer’. Opening up second and third offerings of those sessions has helped, but it hasn’t fixed the problem. They really need to expect that those sessions are going to drag in WAY more people than anticipated and ask the conference center to open up some of the rooms that have moveable walls.
Something else that would help so much is a better ‘classification’ system for the sessions. One of my favorite parts of the closing session was when someone asked for more keywords for each session or paper. In essence, they’re asking for more metadata on sessions (everyone take a moment to scream now). That’s a great idea. However, they’re really going to have to make the traditional paper format and kick it up a notch. Clearly 9.4 is going to embrace the iPhone application space. Why not take the program in that direction as well? The online scheduling is really cool, but it’d be nice if there was a way to download that stuff down to a mobile device.
On top of that, I’d like to see a better track system than they’ve got so far. Right now, you have these tracks that are pretty varied and wide. It’d be much more useful if you had tracks broken down by reasonably broad job descriptions, like Developer, GIS Manager, Analyst, etc. Those could be color or icon coded and each paper could be tagged with the color/icon combo for that job. I think it might help people more closely figure out what types of materials will be covered in sessions. Too often I found myself in sessions that seemed to be targeted at one broad group of people and contained much different material.
No doubt about it, the annual International User’s Conference is an amazing place to learn about our ever growing, ever changing field. I’ve run and hosted my fair share of conferences and I know it can really be disappointing to throw your everything into making it the best conference you can and get criticism. ESRI has always been good about listening to feedback from the users. The 2009 UC was my third and each has gotten better than the last, so I have no doubt next years will be even better!
have you ever imagined…..
YouTube - The Blues / Image Classic Video Of Their 1970 Hit (((Stereo))) [WS]
YouTube - sugarloaf - green eyed lady
YouTube - The Mamas & The Papas: California Dreamin’
YouTube - MAMA TOLD ME NOT TO COME by 3 dog night
YouTube - The Youngbloods - "Get Together"
YouTube - Creedence Clearwater Revival: Who’ll Stop The Rain
YouTube - The Beatles, in Hey Jude
YouTube - The Rolling Stones "Satisfaction" (rare)
YouTube - Led Zeppelin Black Dog 1973
YouTube - Looking glass - Brandi you’re a fine girl
YouTube - Three Dog Night - Never Been To Spain
they were the most glorious of days [/melancholy old fart]
Chain and Priority "Justice Blindburn"
Hello all, this is Sean Ryberg, floor judge from DMF Boston ‘09.
I have a situation which received much discussion on the ride back from DMF Boston ‘09 the other day.
Player A (turn player) is in control of ally Vanda Skydaughter which has attacked Player B’s ally Araelun. (I have chosen allies w/o powers to simplify the situation in question.)
Player B’s hero is Justice Blindburn
Player A is in control of location Circle of Blood, The which has two arena counters on it and is in the ready position.
<Both players have enough resources available to fulfill the payment costs of all cards and effects.>
Prior to combat resolution Player B uses his flip power hoping to force Player A to destroy one of his allies once Araelun is destroyed. Player A wishes to add a third arena counter to Circle of Blood, The in response to the damage dealt by Vanda Skydaughter and create an Arena Gladiator ally token which he can then use to fulfill the requirements of Justice Blindburn’s flip power.
As I understand the situation it would resolve as follows:
Player A: Vanda Skydaughter exhausts and has become an attacker of Araelun. There are no other allies on either side of the board in active play.
Player B: Justice Blindburn uses his flip power before combat resolution takes place creating a triggered effect.
Combat resolution takes place, both allies deal damage simultaniously at which point the triggered power of Circle of Blood, The creates a triggered effect.
Combat resolution ends and we enter PPP the triggered effect for Circle of Blood, The is added to the chain first since it belongs to the turn player. Then the triggered effect from Justice Blindburn would be added since he is not the turn player.
This would cause Justice Blindburn to complete first, now waiting for “When the next ally in your party is destroyed this turn, each opponent destroys an ally in his party.” Next the triggered effect of Circle of Blood, The completes adding a third arena token to . At this time Player A (the turn player) may exhaust activating it’s power to create an Arena Gladiator ally token, this would be added to the chain.
If no other effects are added to the chain the Arena Gladiator ally token would enter play before fatal damage caused Araelun to die and cause Justice Blindburn’s flip power to be fulfilled.
OR
Would the Arena Gladiator ally token have to wait until after this PPP resolves to be added to the play zone?
708.1 As a player is about to receive priority, any waiting triggered effects that have been created but have not yet been added to the chain are added to the chain during PPP (410.5).708.1a If multiple triggered effects are waiting, first the turn player chooses in what order his or her
triggered effects go on the chain, and then they are added to the chain. Then, the next player clockwise chooses in what order his or her triggered effects go on the chain, and then they are added to the chain on top of the previous player’s. Then, the next player clockwise, and so on.708.1b No player gets priority until all waiting triggered effects have been added to the chain.
708.2 Adding a triggered effect to the chain follows the applicable rules for adding links (707), although triggered effects never have costs. If a triggered effect requires targets, but legal targets for that effect can’t be chosen, or if other choices made on announcement can’t legally be made for it, the
effect ceases to exist and doesn’t affect the game in any way.
