Blizzard Entertainment today announced the creation of a book-publishing label, Blizzard Publishing, dedicated to developing and releasing new Blizzard publications and reissuing out-of-print titles in the company’s Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo settings. These releases will either come directly and through ongoing global partnerships.
Blizzard has plans to make several of their publishing arm’s upcoming releases available in multiple formats, including print, audiobook, and e-book.
The first books published under the Blizzard Publishing label include two sets of previously released novels and manga. The books include titles under the Blizzard Legends banner, including Warcraft: The Last Guardian by Jeff Grubb, Warcraft: Lord of the Clans by Christie Golden, and World of Warcraft: Rise of the Horde by Christie Golden.
Titles included in the Blizzard Manga banner include Warcraft Legends: Volume One, with stories by Richard A. Knaak, Dan Jolley, and Jae-Hwan Kim as well as Warcraft Legends: Volume Two, with stories by Richard A. Knaak, Dan Jolley, and Aaron Sparrow.
Future releases in the Blizzard Legends and Blizzard Manga series will include titles across multiple Blizzard franchises.
I still actively play World of Warcraft. No, I don’t mean that I just log into my garrison a few times a week to collect gold and send out followers.
I love pets, but that’s not why I log on. There are many more I have to farm, but don’t have the energy to put into hunting them down.
I love exploring the beautiful worlds, but that’s not why I log on. I’ve seen almost every inch of every map.
I love interesting quest lines, but that’s now why I log on. I just don’t have the motivation needed to finish Lore Master.
I love being an insanely geared druid, slaughtering enemies and fighting for top dps, but that’s not why I log on. I’ve stopped caring as much about that.
My main character in World of Warcraft, a feral druid named Riku.
So why do I log on?
My guild.
I log on every Wednesday to raid Heroic Hellfire Citadel, even though my druid has, for the most part, best in slot gear. Even my legendary ring is maxed out at 795. This is the state that most of my guildmates are in: all with great gear, all know every fight, and we slaughter every boss without much thought.
Yet, every Wednesday a group of people come together, yes, to raid, but also to laugh and talk and banter.
I’ve been in the guild for nine years, yet I still feel like a newer member. Scalebane has held strong since before the release of World of Warcraft and is the oldest active guild on our server. They are my second family and I enjoy every single game I play with them, but World of Warcraft is the one that we all play together.
All of them know my name is “Renee”, but I am still called “Riku”, because that’s my name in this family of mine. Durkk, Tullen, Estara, Rel, Riin, Kinan, Raun, Frakir, Cyria, Perse, Sumerr, Nite, and more. These are names of the people in my family, even when Frakir is fondly called “Fucker”. Sure, I know they are Joe, Dan, Katrina, etc, but that’s not their name to me.
People are often startled when they hear I am still raiding and even more surprised when they see the strength of the bonds in the guild. This wasn’t always the reaction, though, because guilds meant more to everyone in the past. I remember when I could tell a lot about a person just by their guild, because it said a lot about the people they hang out with and what they enjoy doing. Nowadays, even the great raiding guilds are falling to the side, even Paragon has disbanded.
World of Warcraft is an amazing MMORPG. The content is expansive and high quality, but people consume it so fast that only the end game and random grinding/farming prizes are left to entertain. Thus, with all MMOs, a main draw is that you are playing with other people; people you can befriend; people you can grief.
Blizzard has done a great job of creating content, events and areas that help form connections between people, but that has been reduced greatly by group finding tools. They make the content easier to play, but greatly lessen the connections to the people you are playing with.
You no longer battle outside of raids, running from the graveyard back into the instance. Or recruit people in town to adventure out to the closest dungeon. Or banter outside of the battleground while waiting for the next one to begin.
Looking for Raid, Looking for Group, Dungeon Finder, battleground queues — all of these tools make the content faster and easier to access, but greatly reduce the need to interact with other people, especially in ways that encourage camaraderie. They make World of Warcraft easier to consume, they make it less intimidating for people who are shy, but they also prevent people from forming the connections that keep drawing them back to the game long after they’ve had their fill of content.
People who play through these tools do not have to be nice to the people they are playing with, they do not have to learn the fights or even their own class, and no one is motivated to teach them, because no one they play with is likely to group with them again. Due to this, people are much more likely to be toxic or simply give up on a group or someone that is not doing well. You have more players getting angry, more people being yelled at, and new players being so confused about boss fights that Blizzard implemented their own guides to fights in game. Though I’m still not sure anyone reads them.
Blizzard’s subscriber numbers dropped to their lowest numbers and Blizzard has stopped reporting them all together. While people have blamed slow releases of content for scaring people off, I think that Garrisons removing town interactions and looking for group tools reducing the need to work closely with other players are what is causing subscribers to drop like flies.
Is there a good solution? It’s hard to say. Hopefully Class Halls will not be as lonesome as Garrisons, there will be more content that requires working together, and Dalaran will once again regain it’s glory, druids humping pigs and all.
Blizzard announced this morning that they are partnering with Scholastic to create a new series of children’s books based on World of Warcraft.
The series, titled World of Warcraft: Traveler, will follow Aramar Thorne, the 12 year old son of the great explorer, Captain Greydon Thorne. Due to a series of unfortunate events, Aram finds himself far from home, only equipped with his father’s magical compass and his sketchbook to help him on his way. His unlikely companion for his adventures is the second mate of his father’s ship, Makasa, who is a tough, teenage girl.
Some juicy information has been leaked today ahead of Blizzcon detailing the pre-order bonuses for Legion, the next expansion for World of Warcraft along with its release date. It was leaked through Blizzard’s own website. The expansion will raise the level cap to 110, introduce a new class called the Demon Hunter and add a new continent to Azeroth named The Broken Isles. The image reads “Expected game release on or before September 21st, 2016.” That gives us just under a year until Legion is released. Pricing seems to go from $49.99 for the standard edition to $69.99 for the digital collectors edition.
The digital deluxe touts early access to the Demon Hunter Hero Class, a free character boost to 100, Illidari Felstalker mount, and a pet named “Nibbles” which also appears to be a Felstalker of some sort. There seems to be content for Diablo 3, Heroes of the Storm and Starcraft II.
This would also be a good place to mention that the beta for World of Warcraft: Legion starts this year. You can sign up on your account page on Battle.net.
Also leaked ahead of Blizzcon today was the announcement that Overwatch will be released on consoles.
Blizzcon starts today at 2pm EST. Make sure to tune in to catch all the latest news and keep checking here for details later on.
For the launch of Blizzcon 2013 today, it was revealed that World of Warcraft’s newest expansion would be Warlord of Draenor! I know what you’re thinking, you’ve already been to Outland. However this seems to be the Draenor of the past, focusing on the world rather than a revised Outland. How this time traveling story unravels is still something we’re waiting to hear full details on.
So what does the new expansion hold? Read on to see the animated announcement trailer and some of the details within.Read More
As many of you know, I was a huge fan of the Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War novel by Christie Golden. Unsurprisingly the events in that book and seemingly the following title Vol’jin Shadows of the Horde (I haven’t read it yet but it does seem to fit the current WoW story) fit into actual World of Warcraft lore.
Odds are if you’re reading this, you’re already a big WoW fan anyway, but if you’ve been out of the game for awhile the info below may contain spoilers. Or if nothing else, a good glipse at the future of Azeroth.Read More
The latest World of Warcraft novel by Christie Golden is an absolute treat, and now you can purchase it in travel size! Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War is now available as a paperback novel. Our upcoming review will go into detail on just how awesome this book is, but I can safely say it’s definitely worth a read. I’m sure fantasy fans in general can enjoy it as a stand alone, but Warcraft fans especially will want to experience these latest moments in the war between the Alliance and the Horde for themselves.Read More
The magical words appared in World of Warcraft announcing Mists of Pandaria had launched! Sadly I watched as my guild mates ran off to make Pandaren monks, however I figured I’d go check out the action around Stormwind. I was delighted to learn that Battle Pet Trainers would train my character even though I don’t have the expansion! What followed has almost been an hour of awesome collecting action!Read More
Stuck at work, missed the midnight launch, and want to know what you’ll be getting with your MoP box when you rush into the game store later on today? We’ve got you covered! I just picked up my standard edition of the game and here are some images from the unboxing.Read More
As has been noted before I’m currently reading World of Warcraft – Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War by Christie Golden and I’m loving it. Though it’s definitely a book you’ll want to pick up ASAP if you want to be the nerdy one like me that can impress your guild mates with how much you know about Theramore’s Fall.Read More
For those geared up and leveled up enough to take on the challenge, Theramore’s Fall is now available to all level 85′s leading up to the Mists of Pandaria expansion launch! After launch, you’ll be able to que up for Scenarios at level 90 in Mists of Pandaria, which is what the Theramore’s Fall level requirement will convert to after this week. These are small instances that group three adventurers together.
So how is the first released scenario and how does it tie into Christie Golden’s wonderful Tides of War novel?Read More
Though it is very much a Pokémon system for WOW, I’m very eager to get into the Mists of Pandaria Pet Battle System. For those unfamiliar with the concept, the pet battle system takes your collectable yet non-combat companions and turns them into characters you can level up, teach skills to, and even hunt in the wild to add to your collection!
So instead of just buying or finding pets as item drops, you can now encounter and capture pets in the wild. I’m excited for this. The main story to Pandaria sounds wonderful to me and I’m eager to enjoy that new WOW content, but the pet battle system sounds like a bonus game that comes with the universe you’ve already come to know and love. It’s there for those who want to finally name that hard earned rare drop pet and turn it into a high level champion of this new system. Read on for more details Read More
The intro video for the latest upcoming expansion to World of Warcraft has been released! Keeping with Blizzards explanation from Mists reveal, this cinematic features a Pandaren being the peaceful, but able, innocent between the two factions. I’ve personally been holding back on researching information to play out the story myself, but I’m eager to see how the Alliance and Horde influences affect Pandaria.
Set to be released on the 25th of September, that means one month today you’ll be able to play WOW’s first dual faction race. It also adds the new Monk class to the game. Mists is the fourth expansion to the long running MMO based on the lore from the classic RTS franchise.
