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Live
WoW Reaches 12 Million Subscribers
You know, just when you think WoW has FINALLY plateaued, they hit another milestone.
I caught an article on CNET this morning referencing a
press release
from Activision-Blizzard, announcing that they have reached a monumental
12 million subscribers
. That's active subscribers, too—the press release defines subscribers as "...individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access."
The CNET article goes on to make some somewhat laughable claims about what this means for the future of WoW (for instance, that if we use Everquest as a guide, we can predict that WoW will release 480 expansions over its lifespan), but the core number is astounding. Even now, when everyone is kind of waiting for Cataclysm to start everything back up again, WoW's subscribers are still increasing.
CNET Article
[url=
http://www.businesswire.com/news/hom
Live
New Archaeology Skill Page
We're constantly at work to bring you new and better Cataclysm-related tools, and today we've released one we think will be pretty helpful - a new
Archaeology
skill page! On the page, you'll see a list of each item you can piece together along with spell to create it, which contains the lore behind each item. Included in the page are how many fragments each artifact requires and what kind of keystones you can use to make it.
Archaeology
You can read up more about Archaeology on the official
Cataclysm Site
or in Wowhead's
review
of the profession!
PS: Ding 1000 posts!
Live
Cataclysm: Justice/Valor Point Drop Quantities
Nethaera
just posted an update on the forums about how many
Justice Points
you will get when you kill bosses in both Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm!
Let's get down to the meat and potatoes of this announcement: Lich King heroic bosses will give
16 Justice Points
while raid bosses will give
23 Justice Points
. Cataclysm bosses will give
75 Justice Points
in Heroic Dungeons,
75 Valor Points
on 10-player and
105 Valor Points
on 25-player.
You can read the full announcement after the break.
Live
Cataclysm Beta: New Data! Items, NPCs, and Quests
We have another new batch of data for your viewing pleasure! There are a whopping
242 new items
in the database, some of which are Arena Season 9 (
Vicious Gladiator's Dragonhide Helm
) and there are even some of the new relics (
Relic of Khaz'goroth
) for you to check out. We even have a large batch of new NPCs like this new critter the
Hairy Armadillo
!
You can check out all this and more on our latest additions page!
http://cata.cuckhead.com/search?q=date:2010-10-04
Live
It's Official! Cataclysm on December 7th
Blizzard released a press release on their website, announcing that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will indeed be released on
December 7th
! It seems we were
right
in
guessing
the release date.
http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/press/pressreleases.html?101004
You can check out the entire press release after the break.
Live
Running of the Gnomes, Race for a Cure!
Noxy here! I don't write many blog posts, but I was linked
here
by a friend, and I fell in love with the idea.
I'm standing here in Booty Bay, surrounded by lots and lots of little pink gnomes all gathered for the same cause: to support the fight against Breast Cancer.
SeeD is an Alliance side guild on Scarlet Crusade-US, and last year they decided to turn their tabards pink, and post around on the forums letting people know and encouraging them to remind the ladies in their lives to speak to their doctors, and to show how much they care. This year they have organised a fun-run--for each pink gnome that shows, SeeD members have pledged to donate various amounts of money to the Susan G Komen Foundation.
At the peak they reached a total of 160 gnomes, with an estimated $200+ raised. (and thats just the guilds officers! the final total is still yet to be tallied!)
Screenshots after the break.
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Official Cataclysm Preview: Archaeology
Blizzard has posted a new preview of the new secondary profession in Cataclysm:
Archaeology
. Archaeology will be able to be learnt by anyone, led by the
Explorers' League
and the new horde faction
Reliquary
of Silvermoon. According to the preview you will be able to complete artifacts that in turn reward you with some awesome items, like
Scepter of Azj'Aqir
and
Fossilized Hatchling
.
You can check out the preview on Blizzard's Cataclysm Mini-Site.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com//cataclysm/features/archaeology.html
Live
4.0.1: New Flexible Raid Lockout System
A while ago, Blizzard announced that they would be changing the way raid lockouts work so players would no longer be required to raid the same content multiple times a week to increase progression. After a long wait,
Bashiok
has announced the new
Flexible Raid Lockout System
that will be introduced with 4.0.1. At launch, it will only be available for
Icecrown Citadel
and
The Ruby Sanctum
In these dungeons, you will only have to kill each boss once on any difficulty level to count toward a completion of the instance. For example, you could kill the first 3 bosses in Icecrown one night on 10-player and then the next night get 25 people together and kill
Deathbringer Saurfang
and the rest of the bosses. To help coordinate what bosses you have killed there will be a new UI element that shows you what encounters you have already defeated along with a way for raid leaders to link in chat what they have defeated.
You can check out the full announcement and some more examples by Bashiok after the break.
Live
Cataclysm Beta 3D Models! Warrior Tier 11, New Spectral Mounts and More!
We've got some snazzy new models for you guys, including the full Warrior Tier 11 set (and some recolored alternates)! You can check out our
previous 3D model posts
for previews of other class Tier 11 armor sets!
We've also dug up few new and updated mount models, including the new PVP mounts
Reins of the Spectral Wolf
and
Reins of the Spectral Steed
! Two adorable new companion pets join the fray as well -
Dark Phoenix Hatchling
and
Singing Sunflower
! All this
and
new raid items, to boot! Check out all of the models after the break!
Live
Huge Cataclysm Site Update! Over 3000+ Items! (Finally)
So, we've been missing a good number of items on our
Cataclysm site
for a little while now, and our db guys have been racking their brains trying to figure out what was wrong. It wasn't until today that someone dug into an old, musty closet full of code and noticed a particular segment that got added a long time ago—specifically, a block of code which was intended to filter out private server items by blocking all items above a certain (very high) item ID #.
Problem is, over the years WoW has added a
lot of items
. So many, in fact, that
legitimate
item IDs are now appearing in numbers above the "absurdly high" threshold we set years ago. We removed that cap, and suddenly new items started importing...
So! Our latest update includes a whopping
3282 new items
, 1 new achievement, 2 new talents, and 160 spells! You can check out all of our latest additions here:
http://cata.cuckhead.com/latest-additions
Read on to check out some of our p
Live
Blizzard Was Teasing Us With The Cata Release Date All Along
A commenter named Ron over at
WoWInsider
pointed out something we missed!
A little while ago in the
Azeroth Bulletin
which we reported
here
, this was posted:
Speaking to a small conglomerate of various Alliance representatives, Mekkatorque pointed out that the time to strike is now. After all, Thermaplugg has eluded death for years to keep his reign over Gnomeregan; and with the fall of the Lich King, the last great threat to the citizens of Azeroth, the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is
"less than 12.7%,"
Mekkatorque's leading combat medical advisor Doc Cogspin purported.
12.7%? 12-7? CURSE YOU BLIZZARD FOR RUBBING IT IN OUR FACES!!!
Thanks to [url=
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/30/arena-season-9-to-begin-on-december-14-cataclys
Live
Likely Cataclysm Release Date: December 7th!
Edit: The release date was right there all along, and we didn't see it! See
this post
for the details!
While poking through the game files for the next patch, we found this little snippet of text!
"Arena battles and Rated Battlegrounds are only available during an active player versus player combat season. Season nine will begin on
December 14th
, so be prepared at that time to take your shot at glory!"
It's official: Season 9 starts on December 14th. Combine this with a blue post from Zarhym...
We are currently planning to end Arena Season 8 as early as October 12. At that point we will go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the Arena-specific titles and/or the Wrathful Gladiator’s Frostwyrm to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until after Arena Season 8 ends.
The next Aren
Live
Goblin Cinematic Posted on YouTube!
YouTube user
thisnameisuniq
has managed to dig up the level 6 cinematic from the goblin starting zone, and posted it on YouTube!
OBVIOUS SPOILER ALERT: This video contains spoilers.
Remember, this is the video that takes place at level 6—after your goblin is fleeing the rapidly disintegrating Isle of Kezan. Enjoy!
Live
Battle.net Introduces New Privacy Features
Nethaera
posted a rather big announcement that will hopefully please a lot of people who didn't like Real ID when it launched. Blizzard has introduced
new privacy options
to Battle.Net, including the option to opt-in or opt-out of the controversial "Friends of Friends" feature and the "Add Facebook Friends".
We'd like to make you aware of the new Real ID-related privacy options we've introduced to Battle.net. These options provide Real ID users with additional tools for customizing the service based on their preferences, enabling the ability to opt in or out of the Real ID "Friends of Friends" and "Add Facebook Friends" features or to turn off Real ID altogether.
Real ID offers an optional, convenient way for keeping in touch with real-world friends you know and trust, whether they're playing World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, or one of our future games. The "Friends of Friends" and "Add Facebook Friends" features provide you with even more options to stay connected while you play by making it easier for real-life friends to locate each other on Battle.net. You can easily enable or
Live
FFXIV ZAM Site Gets A New Look (From Us, Kind Of)
I know that roughly 80% of you have no interest in
Final Fantasy XIV
, but since we were involved in this a bit I thought we'd take a moment to mention it.
Our design guys have been working with the team over at
ZAM
to make some adjustments to the layout and design of their Final Fantasy XIV site! Between us we've tweaked the menu system, the display for advanced filters, the listviews, the news story display, and more!
If you're interested in poking around, here's the rundown:
http://ffxiv.zam.com/story.html?story=23463
Remember, if you want to search using the Wowhead-style homepage, just go to
FFXIVZAM.com
!
Live
Currency Calculator Online!
We've released a
Currency Calculator
for Cataclysm!
In our last few blogs (specifically
here
,
here
, and
here
), we've noted the upcoming changes to the currency systems in Cataclysm—old currencies (like Emblems) are being converted, either to gold or to a new currency called
Justice Points
. Likewise, old PVP tokens are being converted to honor points.
Sound confusing? Never fear! Just hop on over to our brand new
Currency Calculator
and work it out for yourself. We calculate conversions for Emblems, Badges, honor, arena points, and more! You can find it using the link below, or just select it from the
Tools
menu!
http://www.cuckhead.com/currencycalc
Live
PC Gamer Interview with Wowhead
PC Gamer
has just published an interview with the Wowhead team over on their website as part of their Community Heroes series of interviews. Both
Skosiris
and
TheOnyx
take part in this interview and talk about subjects ranging from Wowhead's creation to things they'd like to see happen with World of Warcraft.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/27/community-heroes-the-wowhead-team/
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 13066) New 3D Models
We have another round of updates for those following our Cataclysm Beta
build 13066
updates today! This time we have some
3D models
for you all to check out. In this update we have models four different colours of Tier 11 Warlock gear. There are even some new hats for you to check out and some new recolours of Djinn mobs. You can check out all this and more after the break!
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 13066) New Data + Talent Calc Update
We've got another update for the mysterious Cataclysm Beta
Build 13066
- this time with a lot of new data! We've got several new achievements, mainly for the new heroic version of
Shadowfang Keep
, which includes achievements like
Bullet Time
and
Pardon Denied
. A new feat of strength was also added:
WoW's 6th Anniversary
. Does this mean we'll get Cataclysm before the next anniversary? Who knows, we can only hope!
We've also included an update to our
Talent Calculator
, so it's all up to date with the latest changed talents in this build!
You can view all the new and updated spells and abilities over on our
Latest Additions
section of the Cataclysm site!
Live
Cataclysm Beta (Build 13066) Maps & Icons
We have a
new build
for the beta servers, as of right now the servers haven't gone down for maintenance nor is this one actually downloadable through the client. But that doesn't mean we don't have some juicy new Maps and Icons for you! In the map area we have a few updated maps mostly with a few minor changes to the art and there is one new map this time of
Ahn'Qiraj: The Fallen Kingdom
, which I assume is the over-world area version of AQ40.
A large amount of new icons were added in this build - everything from new icons for
Leap of Faith
, Darkmoon Faire Cards, and even brand new icons for all the new currencies.
Just a quick note for everyone looking for an updated talent calculator and data for the rest of the site we should have all that updated later today, so stay tuned!
You can check out all the maps and icons after the break!
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