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World of Warcraft movie gets its name changed

Out of all of the video game movies that have been rumored to come out, one of the one that seems the most likely to actually make it to the big screen is the one based on World of Warcraft.

When the movie was first conceived it was listed as just Warcraft however, a recent update to the title’s IMDB listing let us know that it will officially be called Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King. This leads us to believe that either they scrapped the original idea and went for a more Lich King approach or just had this story from the beginning.

Either or, you’re sure to be hearing more about this movie as its release date grows closer, whenever that may be.

via thatvideogameblog

Blizzard COO buys stake in the Pittsburg Steeler

COO of Blizzard, Paul Sams, is looking away from Blizzard’s usual method of money making (ex. World of Warcraft) and onto less conventional things such as the NFL.

This news was made known after it was noted that Paul Sims and his family (wife and 3 kids) have been listed as part-owners of the Pittsburg Steelers. Sure, this news may not have much relevance to the video game industry but perhaps we can expect to see the Steelers appearing in Cataclysm? Then again, maybe not.

via kotaku

GDC Austin keynote to be on World of Warcraft

Looks like the keynote speakers for this year’s Game Developer’s Conference will be none other than Blizzard’s Frank Pearce, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President of Product Development, and J. Allen Brack, Production Director.

The keynote will focus on “The Universe of World of Warcraft.” A bit redundant, don’t you think? One can only assume that it will outline what it takes to maintain and develop for such a large MMORPG. Maybe even a few words on the upcoming expansion, or more improbably, a look at the Warcraft movie.

This year’s GDC will be held at Austin, Texas from September 15th through 18th.

Read (GDC Austin)

Realtime Worlds: APB subscription fees “won’t be normal”

Ever since Realtime Worlds announced All Points Bulletin it has been a highly sought after game with it’s GTA-like gameplay and MMO genre.

Well the developer has again stepped forward to speak of the game and this time about the subscription fees, a topic that has been under discussion for some time. David Jones of Realtime Worlds was quoted to have said the following:

“Basically, you have to buy the client. It’s a traditional game that you buy…We’re not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month’ route. What we haven’t said is which route we are going, and in some respects we’re still looking.”

Let’s hope that they really come up with something unique if you told World of Warcraft players they would have to pay an additional $15 a month to play APB, I don’t think they would be down.

via Kotaku

Rumor: New WoW expansion races leaked?

The latest Public Test Realm patch 3.2.0 in the World of Warcraft not only includes the upcoming Crusaders’ Coliseum, but also textures for upcoming Halloween events. Some of these textures were leaked by MMO-Champion, and reveal to be Goblin and Worgen masks. Now, note that these are the only two masks that were in the texture. Even if the patch itself is merely a PTR, it still holds some significance.

Goblins are a neutral race in the game, meaning they don’t hold allegiance to either the Horde or Alliance, so it’s possible that they can be the very first multi-faction race. As for Worgens, one can only assume that they will be Alliance exclusive, or also be another multi-faction race.

Remember though, it’s all speculation, so don’t get your Warcraft undies in a bunch. Hopefully more information will be revealed in this year’s BlizzCon.

Read (MMO-Champion)

Blizzard launches WoW Armory iPhone App

Just in case you haven’t already spent enough time on World of Warcraft, Blizzard has recently launched the WoW Mobile Armory iPhone app effectively giving players their WoW fix on the go.

If you’re familiar with the World of Warcraft Armory currently available online, you’ll be familiar with this as it incorporates all of said online application’s features into a handheld package. This means you’ll be able to check up on character, guild and arena data along with check your guild’s calender.

Additionally you’ll be able to find out everything you need to know about items, zones and dungeons featured in the game. Best of all, it’s free!

via Kotaku

Gamers band together to protest German ban on videogames

It’s no surprise that Germany’s recent banning of games such as World of Warcraft and Counterstrike would cause an uproar in the gaming community — It seems that a group of German gamers have banded together to form a formal protest against the government’s recent decision.

Said group formed a march 400 strong who paraded through Karlsurhe to show their hatred towards the government’s “war on videogames”. But that’s not all, Destructoid reports that 3 more protests are planned to happen simultaneously on July 25th.

Furthermore, there is an online petition that has formed that hopes to reach 5,000 signatures because if it does, officials are required by law to rethink their banning of such games. Will this be enough? Let’s hope so because I mean honestly, how can you ban Counterstrike?

Want to help out? The online petition is located here.

BlizzCon 2009 Live Stream available for pre-order

Didn’t get a ticket to BlizzCon? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Luckily, Blizzard, RayV and DirecTV are offering over 16 hours of the event live for $39.95.

Below is what will be included during the live stream:

Exclusive interviews and commentary

Main stage presentations including opening ceremony

Tournament coverage and team highlights

Additionally, you will be given the exclusive BlizzCon 2009 WoW in-game pet; Grunty the Murloc Marine.

Read (RayV)

Germany bans public play of Counter-Strike

It seems Germany is at it again, this time setting their eyes upon Valve’s extremely popular Counter-Strike series. Legislation was recently passed that now makes it illegal to play Counter-Strike in public.

This has led to the cancelation of Germany’s Convention-X-Treme LAN event which is sure to discourage the mass of German gamers. Furthermore, Destructoid is reporting that World of Warcraft has also been banned from public play.

What’s next, Germany, Halo?

Micro-transactions in Warcraft?

Micro-transactions are all the rage these days, what with MMOs going free and competing for your hard-earned cash through small premium items. Blizzard’s attention has also been attracted by said micro-transactions – according to this interview with Tom Chilton, game director for World of Warcraft, the company is exploring the possibility of a free-to-play, micro-transaction business model for the mega-MMO.

Don’t get your hopes too high, though, as Chilton only states that he “thinks” it’s possible to implement such a model in the game, but that it is “really too hard to say at this point.”

It’s unlikely that Blizzard will go for such a model while the monolithic MMO is still bringing in truckloads of money for them. Maybe sometime in the distant future when WoW is replaced by some other Blizzard MMO and forgotten.

Twitter + Warcraft = BOOM!

140 characters of banter right up your alley? How about if someone threw World of Warcraft into the mix? Now we’re talking!

A new program called TweetCraft has been released, offering WoW gamers a fully featured Twitter client that allows you to send and receive messages in-game. Heck, it also allows you to schedule your Tweet messages and even send in-game screenshots. Feel like boasting? It also auto tweets whenever you get an achievement!

While both are like drugs on steroids, you simply cannot deny the fun of being able to send pointless little messages to strangers while pretending to slay monsters and whatnot.

Upcoming WoW patch allows faction change

To all of the World of Warcraft players out there which side are you, Alliance or Horde? Regardless, have you ever felt the urge to switch sides but haven’t been able to?

Well, according to an official Blizzard forum poster by the name of Nethaera, you will soon be able to do that:

“There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.”

There’s no telling when this patch is set to drop but when it does there is sure to be a bit of chaos in the World of Warcraft.

WoW held up StarCraft 2 progress

It’s just not Blizzard’s day today, is it? Word comes from Eurogamer that the studio held up the release of its highly anticipated sequel to StarCraft for World of Warcraft.

Rob Pardo told the site that development on the sequel had begun in 2003 and that there had been a playable build since 2005. However, it was held up due to the appearance of World of Warcraft which saw a fair amount of the design team moving to MMO project to help finish the game.

Apparently, these people had lots of great experience and had knowledge and know-how to fix map editor problems, as well as dealing with balancing.

Now you know who to hate for holding up StarCraft 2. The original was released back in 1998. It’s been eleven years since then.

Gamers Get Less Sleep: Gamers Ask “They Needed a Study?”

We’ve all been there. You sit down to play a few levels of whatever you’re plowing through at the moment and the next thing you know it feels like someone’s glued sandpaper to the inside of your eyelids and the clock taunts you with an obscenely late hour. A study presented at the recent SLEEP 2009 event told the world what millions of World of Warcraft subscribers already know: gamers get less sleep.

The study also showed that people who reported their gaming interfered with their sleep got 1.6 hours less shut-eye than everyone else and those who reported being addicted to gaming slept an hour less on weekdays. Only a third of those who reported being addicted felt that it interfered with their sleep.

While it’s easy to blame this on escapist, socially inept stereotypes, it’s quite easy to get caught up in games. Sandbox games can be particularly time-obliterating since there’s no obvious landmarks to call your attention to how long you’ve been playing. Bizarrely, the easiest I’ve ever been drawn into a game without concern for time was Viva Pinata. I haven’t played it since out of fear of losing entire days to its colorful world.

Game Fuel is back, this time with World of Warcraft

Step aside Master Chief, this time Mountain Dew has teamed up with Blizzard to release not one but two versions of World of Warcarft Game Fuel; Alliance Blue and Horde Red.

Of course, gamers will be able to get an exclusive in-game pet, known as a Battle-bot, upon purchasing the new Dew but that’s just the beginning of it. Game Fuel drinkers will also get a chance to win prizes from companies like Alienware, Razer and Jinx.

Fans of the Halo 3 Game Fuel need not be discouraged as the Horde Red Game Fuel is actually a rebranded version of the original recipe. Be on the lookout for Game Fuel everywhere you would normally purchase soda.