Blizzard has some big plans in store for Warcraft lore lovers. The company has announced their intent to tie Wrath of the Lich King dungeons in with the World of Warcraft lore.

New dungeons will be connected to quests lines in an effort to further embellish the backstory behind Northrend, Arthas, the Titans, and others.

Below are some bulleted highlights from the Dungeons and Raids Panel, followed by detailed boss encounter information, and several clips from the panel itself. Read more…

In what is perhaps the most shining example of obsession and geekiness I have ever seen, a fella by the name of Bradster has 36 World of WarCraft accounts that he plays on 11 computers simultaneously. He mainly seems to be doing it because he doesn’t like to rely on so many other people to get a raid going, which includes attacking the Alliance capital cities, and on that front I can totally see where he’s coming from.

I hate those Alliance douchebags too, but I’m not about to drop $5711 per year like Bradster is. The best way to get to them is to just live well, right? Well, Bradster doesn’t appear to be letting the Alliance off the hook so easily, as he plans on picking up 36 copies of Wrath of the Lich King on day one, spending around $1500, just so he can have a raid group of level 80 Shamans terrorizing Stormwind as soon as possible.

Read on to see how this crazy man manages to control all of these characters. Read more…

Blizzard talks about the changes made to Druids in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft.

Blizzard talks about the changes made to Mages in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft.

Blizzcon 08 is about to open its doors to the world, and that has many of us discussing our favorite MMO moments, both in game and out. A hands-down personal favorite of mine is the World of Warcraft South Park episode from 2006.

In the event you’ve been strapped to a pipe in a strange basement for the past two years, broke free, stumbled onto a Blizzcon 08 ticket, and decided to go, you may have missed the following South Park episode. Everyone else has no excuse, but you’re free to watch it anyway.

Hit the jump for the classic South Park World of Warcraft episode, and witness Cartman stack sunder armor as only he can. Read more…

I may be reaching a bit, but I think this Fall may be the battle of the genres. Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 are heading for a shooter showdown, while Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and World of Warcraft will fight for the MMORPG of the year mantle. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion will be released on 11/13/08, just about two months after Warhammer. Read more…

So, I have been playing the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King beta for for some time now. I took a break for a few weeks, after they moved around the arms tree for warriors, and decided to come back when I saw that they had removed the speed nerf from the highly anticipated fury warrior 51 point talent, Titan’s Grip.

For those who don’t know, Titan’s Grip would allow a warrior to duel wield two hand weapons. When originally announced, TG came with a speed penalty, but warriors had the option to spec additional points into it to reduce the speed debuff. Blizzard then changed their mind, moving TG down one level, making it a 51 point talent with no penalty — but the fun didn’t stop there. Read more…

Any World of WarCraft player worth his carbon knows that their game of choice is filled to the brim with pop culture references that stretch from Paris Hilton to Big Trouble in Little China. It would seem as though Blizzard is continuing that trend with this recent discovery from the Wrath of the Lich King beta.

Everyone’s favorite orphaned anthropomorphic deer, Bambi, makes an appearance in the game, along with his buddies Flower, Thumper, and his mom (who is still alive at this point). Of course, the names were changed to protect the innocent, that being Blizzard’s wallet, but it’s obvious what the inspiration was.

So what happens if you decide to be a tad bit evil and recreate that murder scene of Bambi’s mom? Apparently, Bambi does not like that very much and instead of just taking it lying down like he does in the movie, he decides to totally destroy you. Read more…

Who needs an epic mount when you can get off your ass and experience the steep hills of Azeroth on foot courtesy of a real life treadmill? I’ll tell you who, gamers who haven’t so much as walked around the block in six months, that’s who.

The video below showcases a one mile race taking place in the World of Warcraft by two neon wig wearing gamers on dueling PC connected treadmills.

The sad thing here is that I actually thought of something like this a few weeks ago (my mind wanders when I am searching for news), not so much as a race, but as a means of mixing exercise with lengthy WoW playing sessions. Seeing it in action however — not such a good idea. Read more…

Pdwarfy ain’t grinding nuthin

Gold farming might be a joke among many MMORPG players, but, according to a recent Manchester University study, it certainly is a lucrative one. The study estimates that the industry is a $500 Million market, with over 400,000 employees (80% based in China) earning an average of $145 a month. Professor Richard Heeks, who authored the study, had this to say:

“I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry. In a way that is still true. It’s just that instead of a few dozen cottages, there turn out to be tens of thousands.”

Hundreds of thousands grinding away in games like World of Warcraft and Runescape, for low wages and in poor conditions. This is the ugly side of globalization manifest in virtual worlds. It’s almost surreal to imagine, but apparently gold farming is becoming a major sector in the economies of the countries involved. Read more…

Morgan Webb of G4’s X-Play gives us a little preview and some interesting info on Blizzard’s upcoming World of WarCraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. Spoiler alert: Arthas is really a good guy and Death Knights are Paladins in disguise.

Seriously, though, there are some spoilers in the video, so carefully consider whether or not you want to ruin the excitement of starting a Death Knight by knowing what happens ahead of time. You’ve been warned. Read more…

Many BlizzFans mounted up and rode towards the portal that is Blizzard’s BlizzCon 08 ticket purchase page yesterday only to be turned away. After what one can only assume were several attempts to resolve the issue, Blizzard eventually pulled the site offline and issued the following statement: Read more…

Get’cher Zhevra Mount!

Blizzard, the developers behind the world conquering MMO World of Warcraft, have added a new incentive to play WoW in the form of the Recruit-A-Friend system. Read all about it after the break. Read more…

This story starts with a young boy and a subscription to the MMO Final Fantasy XI. After a few months with the game, he grows tired of it and decides he’s going to cancel. Great, so how do you do that? What seems like should be a simple task ends up an exercise in frustration. Little did Square Enix know — they just messed with the wrong guy. Read more…

If you thought that there was nowhere on Earth the monolithic, life-stealing MMO World of Warcraft hadn’t reached, then you were wrong. “Were” being the key word, as now it seems WoW’s world domination is complete with its newest translation: Russian. Read more…

Oh boy… If World of WarCraft wasn’t already a massive drain on your free time, then Wrath of the Lich King will make things significantly worse.  Not only will the expansion add Death Knights and an entire new continent, but it’s also bringing with it Achievements, which you earn by doing a myriad of quest-related and pointless things alike.  With examples like Town Crier, which I assume involves /yelling a lot, and another one for giving out 10 hugs, I expect my fellow denizens of the World of WarCraft are about to get a whole lot more annoying. Read more…

A group of women have their husbands hypnotized to believe that their marriages are a part of World of WarCraft and pleasing the women is the name of the game.  Video follows. Read more…

Two things: Do you play World of Warcraft? Do you live in Europe? If you answered yes to both of those things, then I have some good news for you after the jump. Read more…

An Australian man was arrested recently after he convinced a 15-year-old girl he met while playing World of WarCraft to run away from home to be with him. He even paid for the trip. How sweet. Read more…

“Death will rise from the tide” for 360 and PS3 users tomorrow, when the *free* World of Warcraft track, I am Murloc, becomes available for download in Guitar Hero III.

The song was introduced at the 2005 Blizzcon by Blizzard Entertainment’s house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and is quite catchy, even for someone such as myself, who hasn’t played WoW in a while.

Too bad it’s not on Rock Band so we could cover those tasty vocals! Hit the jump for the youtube music video. Read more…