Monthly Archives: October 2009

WoW.com’s prestige in the community has afforded us the opportunity to speak to major Azerothian leadership figures on any subject, and we’re letting you, the reader, Ask A Faction Leader! We recently spoke to Prophet Velen, leader of the draenei, and he shed light on several key issues, including city construction, elven ingrates, natural history, and compromising positions. In this installment of Ask A Faction Leader, we’ll be sitting with esteemed tauren chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof. Our first reader question: Dear Cairne, Yesterday I was distressed to see a Tauren riding a Hawkstrider. Although I’m not much of a D.E.H.T.A. sympathizer, I think It’s a bit cruel to be asking a poor beast like that to be heaving a 2 ton Minotaur up and around Azeroth. What really disturbed me though, is that later in the day, as I was walking through Dalaran, I saw the same Tauren sitting on his mount (hawkstrider) for about 30 minutes. Anyway, just thought I should bring it to your attention. Jabijin, Troll Rogue, Mannoroth Cairne responds: Your concern for the native wildlife of Azeroth is heartening, young rogue. I, too, was worried for the health and safety of the hawkstriders when our blood elf allies originally began instructing us

Hyacintha of <That Takes Effort> on Terenas writes in, “I snapped this shot yesterday outside the bank in Stormwind. It appears height does have its disadvantages: this hapless Night Elf spent several frustrated moments trying to get in the door before giving up and hearthing to a more accommodating location. Poor guy — I was too busy taking pictures of his plight to kindly suggest that he click off the buff!” Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, Val’kyr on mounts, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran. Older screenshots can be found here.

Of the two new races, Worgen may be causing more excitement among furries Alliance players, but goblins also bring something to the table for the Horde. For instance, they’ve donated some lovely stealth bomber technology to Garrosh as a gesture of friendship. Yves of Dunemaul-EU sent in this screenshot of a well-camouflaged shadow priest on a … shadow wind rider? Okay, I guess that works. Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, gold seller ads with dead gnomes any race at all, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

You sure have a pretty mouth, Mister North Sea Kraken. Mind if I put a hook in it? Cabrillo of <Epoch Veil> on Moon Guard writes, “I was goofing off while doing my Argent Tourament dailies, and decided to hop off the boat after completing <Rescue at Sea>. Always wondered what a Kraken looked like from underneath, so swam down to the bottom and pointed my camera up. Got a fright when he submerged and came straight at me!” Do you have any unusual, beautiful or interesting World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see them on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. Please include the word “Azeroth” in your post so it does not get swept into the spam bin. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards, gold seller ads with dead gnomes any race at all, or pictures of the Ninja Turtles in Dalaran.

Sometimes you’d like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all those other shiny MMOs! Check out this roundup of the latest news from the wider MMO world. MMOGs rated in Australia. Warcraft a bit late, no sign of Conan, Warhammer Back at the end of January, after we spent months investigating, talking to the Australian Classification Board, and both State and Federal Australian Attorneys General offices, it became clear that an apparent discrepancy in Australian games ratings was no discrepancy. Exclusive interview with Aion Producer Brian Knox We submitted a few questions to NCsoft back when players were taking their first baby steps into the strange and lush world of Atreia. Things have obviously been a bit hectic these past couple weeks but Aion Producer Brian Knox took some time out today to answer them for us. Thanks Brian! Choose my Adventure: Dungeons and Dragons Online Last week we ended our Lord of the Rings Online edition of Choose my Adventure with the retirement of Gibbi the Hobbit in his very own hobbit hole. This week, the votes have been counted and it appears that Dungeons and Dragons Online will be the next game in which

Today’s question is possibly a strange one: what’s this game’s Holy Grail? You know, the Holy Grail is that Arthurian object that you continually quest for — if ever you actually reach the Holy Grail, you know that your quest, whatever it is, is finally at an end. So what’s the Holy Grail for World of Warcraft, the thing that, if we ever actually reached it in the game, would change things forever? When we posted the rumor that Gnomeregan would finally be retaken, I thought of this — Gnomeregan has been, since the beginning of the game, a place that’s generally off-limits to lore and change. The Gnomes are pretty much defined by not having a city, and if they were actually to take back and reclaim their home city, Ironforge wouldn’t be the same, and once you’ve messed with Ironforge, then WoW, to me, is fundamentally changed. Same thing if they ever include cross-faction communication — this game is so defined from the core as a game with two factions separate from each other that if they ever did allow us to speak across factions, it’d be a different game. Not necessarily a bad game, not that I’d quit, but the game’s so defined by that, in my mind, that if it ever actually

Blizzard continues to leak out the official information about Icecrown (the raid, as you know, coming in patch 3.3), this time updating their Under Development site with official bios for Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner, two ladies (one living, one not-so-much) that will likely have a large role in the fight against Arthas Menethil, better known as The Lich King. Sylvanas, you’ll remember, featured in the Lament of the Highborne video early on in BC, where the story of her death and resurrection at Arthas’ hands made it clear she’s got unfinished business with the onetime-paladin turned Lord of the Scourge. And Jaina… well, Jaina’s had a front row seat to Arthas’ undoing — they were childhood friends who looked like they were headed towards being more than friends, until Arthas found a big bad sword that turned him into a big baddie. It’s going to be awesome seeing all of these storylines start meeting up together in The Frozen Halls and the raid beyond — we can’t wait.