It’s been five years since this game launched, and it’s changed so much that you might have forgotten what life was like back then. But thanks to the magic of the Internet, those times are saved in clear HTML. Let’s dig up some memories of the early game.
It’s interesting to think what Blizzard was like before World of Warcraft. Today, the two are almost synonymous — while they have two other major franchises (and one secret IP hiding in the works), it’s almost impossible for anyone to think of Blizzard without thinking of WoW, and vice versa. The company has become almost solely defined by what they’ve done with this game. But of course, before the release, that wasn’t the case.
Continue reading The early days of the World of Warcraft
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Guilds, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Leveling
The early days of the World of Warcraft originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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According to Eyonix, the background downloader for patch 3.3 will begin its work soon. There were some reports that it was turned on yesterday for a short time, when it began to deliver a roughly 450mb pre-patch file. However this time, Blizzard is turning it on for good.
Eyonix points out that the background downloader should provide a faster download than normal. Go into the preferences of the downloader and check “Don’t throttle background download” to see the new speed in action. However, this option has often been known to interfere with WoW and other applications accessing the intertubes, so I recommend you only turn it on when you’re not going to be doing a lot of online activity.
This does point to patch 3.3 coming soon. Whether or not that soon is next week is too early to tell, but usually Blizzard runs the background downloader for a couple of weeks before rolling out a patch. But who knows — we haven’t heard anything yet on (or off) the record.
Update: Many readers are reporting that the downloader is now active.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of
Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas.
WoW.com’s Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Filed under: Patches, News items
Background downloader enabled originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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You’ll notice that I surreptitiously left the question of “screenwriter” out of the other day’s Breakfast Topic. That’s because, quite frankly, I have no idea who I want writing the Warcraft movie. The folks I really like in Hollywood are probably too quirky to write an epic movie like this, and the folks who usually write these epic movies are too lame to handle a world like Warcraft. In my mind, only someone like Metzen should wield the pen for this one, and even then, his strengths lie in creating universes, not dialog. So I have no idea.
But apparently there’s already a screenplay being worked on: with the news that Sam Raimi is taking the helm, screenwriter Gary Whitta (who’s written both for games and movies) says he’d been working with both Legendary and Blizzard on crafting a screenplay that included both the sprawling world and a story that would resonate with non-players. But he says that since Raimi took over, it’s likely the whole thing will go in another direction, as “his own pretty specific vision of what he wanted to do story-wise.” Whitta does say, however, that, from what he’s heard, “Raimi is the best possible director for this.” Sounds good to us.
It’ll be quite a tightrope to walk: depending on what Legendary actually wants out of the film, they’ve got to make the story interesting and pressing enough that even non-WoW players will get into it without ruining and/or ignoring the reason why there are so many players in the first place: the lush and intriguing universe we’ve all enjoyed playing in. Anyone tasked with putting together a script that uses all of those blocks to build something great will have quite a job ahead of them.
[via Blue's News]
Filed under: Horde, Alliance, Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Lore, NPCs
Gary Whitta worked on a Warcraft screenplay originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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