Back in May, Blizzard added the Cenarion Hatchling pet to the Blizzard Store to raise money for the American Red Cross' Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts. The company just announced that it raised more than $1.9 million for the cause, making the fundraiser a huge success!
Blizzard donated 100% of the $10 adoption fee to the Red Cross, which means more than 190,000 Cenarion Hatchling pets we purchased between May 2 and July 31. Do you own one?
According to MMO-Champion, Blizzard trademarked "Mists of Pandaria" last week under computer game software. Our friends over at Wowhead found the official filing if you'd like to take a look at it. Wowhead also pointed out that a Pandaria domain was purchased last week.
So what is Mists of Pandaria? One idea that springs to mind might be a new novel, but that doesn't fit since it was filed under game software. With a book out of the running, it's possible that it's the title of the next expansion. After all, BlizzCon is only a couple months away. As Wowhead pointed out, Cataclysm was filed for trademark on June 26, 2009 and its domain was bought subsequently. The Cataclysm expansion was then announced at BlizzCon 2009 on August 21, 2009.
What do you think? Is Mists of Pandaria the next WoW expansion or a false alarm? If it is an expansion, will the pandaren be a playable race? Share your thoughts in the comments below or in our WoW general forum.
Auction houses for both gold and real money. A requirement to connect to the internet at all times. The upcoming beta test. Blizzard released a lot of Diablo III details yesterday that divided the community, so Darnell decided to go straight to the source and ask some hard-hitting questions in his latest episode of Blizz Blues.
In the midst of Blizzard's announcement that Diablo III's auction house will let players sell and purchase items with either real money or gold, the company released a new 7-minute gameplay preview video that's worth a look for any Diablo fan. The trailer features all five classes, including never before seen skills, rune effects and locations. Check it out below!
"What makes a good MMORPG?"
I've decided to devote a bit of my time and a few articles to exploring this. In my last few pieces, I wrote about character progression, followed by gameplay mechanics and combat, and in the one before I spoke of story and premise. Today I'll talk about my favorite aspect of any MMORPG: PvP!
I have a confession to make. As a self-described PvP enthusiast in all things MMORPG, I've never played what many consider to be the holy grail of world PvP: Dark Age of Camelot. Even worse, the reason I missed out on those golden days was that I was firmly entrenched in two very distinctly PvE heavy MMORPGs: Ragnarok Online (before War of Emperium) and then Final Fantasy XI. Still, in spite of my transgressions, I'd like to think that I've acquitted myself quite well by delving deep into almost every PvP-oriented game since: Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Bloodline Champions, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, the short-lived Fury, Atlantica Online, Champions Online, Aion, Rift and World of Warcraft. In other words, I've seen most of what MMORPGs have to offer, so let's just get down to talking about what makes for a thriving PvP system.
Blizzard just released some details on the upcoming Diablo III beta test and announced that the game will feature an auction house that will let players sell and purchase items with either real money or gold. The beta will allow you to try out all 5 character classes and experience the early stages of Diablo III from the start of the game through the Skeleton King encounter. To sign up for the beta, head over to the Beta Profile Settings section of the Battle.net Account Management menu.
Two different versions of the auction house will be available in Diablo III: one based on in-game gold and one based on real-world currency. The gold-based auction house uses in-game gold for purchases and sales and will be available to test in the beta. With the currency-based auction house, players will be able to conduct these transactions using actual currency from an authorized payment method or from funds that have been added to their Battle.net account. Players can choose to participate in whichever version of the auction house they prefer, on a per-transaction basis.
As an advanced paid feature, players will actually be able to "cash out" and have the proceeds from the sale of items in the currency-based auction house deposited into their third-party payment service account. It's also worth nothing that players will be able to buy and sell gold through the currency-based auction house at whatever the current market price is, as established by the player community.
We're sure you have more questions regarding Diablo III's auction house, so be sure to check out Blizzard's lengthy FAQ after the jump.
GameBreaker.TV has released this week's episode of Legendary. Watch as ZAM's Mike B. aka Fony, Gary Gannon and Tankspot's Josh "Lore" Allen talk about Paragon's comparision of 10-man vs. 25-man raids, a possible new WoW expansion, and China's unlicensed World of Warcraft and StarCraft amusement park. Check it out below!
Can you believe it's already been a year since Blizzard released StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty? The game launched on July 27, 2010 and sold sold over 1.5 million copies within the first 48 hours, making it the fastest-selling strategy game of all time.
In the birthday announcement, Blizzard looks back at the past year, including eSport victories and the impressive additions of the mod community. But what's next for StarCraft II? Blizzard gives some hints:
"Today we have a Blizzard DoTA playtest. Tomorrow we are going to play the first part of the Heart of the Swarm campaign (complete with cutscenes!). We continue to work on expanding multiplayer and improving Battle.Net. We can’t wait for BlizzCon this year: not only will we get to meet with players from all over the world and make some exciting announcements, but we’ll also get a chance to watch some of StarCraft II’s best players go head to head live in both the Global Battle.net Invitational and the GSL Finals."
If you'd like to keep track of the top StarCraft II players, be sure to check out our SC2 Ranks site.
Christie Golden's latest World of Warcraft novel, "Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects," is now available for purchase at stores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It follows the former War Chief of the Horde as he struggles with the ongoing repercussions of the Cataclysm. Want to get a taste of the novel's plot and style? Blizzard has released three excerpts for your reading pleasure:
Are you a fan of the Warcraft novels? Have you picked up "Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects"? Let us know in the comments below!
We still have three months to wait until BlizzCon 2011 kicks off, but Blizzard is already getting players prepared for the convention by launching a new BlizzCon community site. In the weeks leading up to the show, the site will be the place to keep tabs on panel schedules, activities, tournament updates and more.
As you might expect, the BlizzCon site is a bit sparse at the moment. The most active thing you can do is join in on the discussion on the new BlizzCon forums while you wait for more content.
BlizzCon will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA from Oct. 21-22. Tickets are sold out, but you can still purchase a virtual ticket to watch all the festivities from the comfort of your couch or computer chair.
