This is an unofficial video of the Blizzard Entertainment Showcase Panel held at the 2014 San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) on July 24th. Apologies for the shakiness of the video due to a tripod malfunction. Thanks to staff member @dperschonok for taking the video.
The Warcraft lore fan-forum Scrolls of Lorehas unearthed a shocking discovery. Forum poster Gurzog completed the quests in the newly opened Nagrand zone on the Warlords of Draenor beta. Nagrand is the final zone in Draenor, and where players will reach level 100.
Unlike past expansions simply giving players some fireworks and a letter from a lore character for hitting the level cap, Warlords of Draenor will have something much larger. Finishing the leveling quests in Draenor will reward players with an event of Wrathgate/Battle for the Undercity proportions: a quest chain referred to in the zone achievement as “The Legacy of Garrosh Hellscream”.
This questline comes across as a conclusion for the first chapter of WoD’s story, and thus has INCREDIBLY MASSIVE SPOILERS. If you choose to read on, know that you have been warned. All credit for the following images goes to Gurzog on Scrolls of Lore.
Thank you for documenting this for lore fans everywhere.
Note: Gurzog only did the Horde version of these quests, and due to how faction oriented they seem to be, it’s possible they might be significantly different Alliance side. Once the Alliance version of events have been documented, this article will be updated, or a followup article will be made if the differences are extensive enough.
Legendary Entertainment unveiled an animated Warcraft Movie Logo today reminiscent of how the StarCraft II logo is animated. Could Duncan be hinting at a StarCraft movie?
While exploring Stormwind to check for further updates on the odd new portal, I discovered a smaller addition. An “Easter Egg” involving an new NPC named “Archmage Nakada <Master of Spells>” giving a Harry Potter-esque magic lesson to some “Junior Mages”.
Upon further research, I think this might be a tribute to Blizzard’s former Senior Software Engineer, Ron Nakada, who passed away this April. If so, it’s a very touching tribute. They easily could have just made another NPC, but his students and interactions with the player character will make Nakada a far more memorable addition to Stormwind.
The offical Warlords of Draenor website has been updated once again, with this time the male Undead. If you don’t have access to the Beta yet, take a look to see if the new model is more disgusting (in the good way), as the old one!
The viewer on our website has been once more updated, this time with the Undead Male model!Our art team and character artists worked themselves to the bone to recapture the creepy feel of the classic model and bring new (un) life to this scion of the Forsaken. We hope you enjoy it!
As development continues on Warlords of Draenor, we’ll show you even more of the updated character models and visuals coming to World of Warcraft. Let us pick your brain in the comments!
Did you ever dreamed of working for Blizzard and thought what with the satisfaction and the pleasure to create awesome stuff you could received back for all the hard work done? If you are good enough, one day maybe you will received one of the many present that Blizzard gives to their employees after years of work.
From a stein after 2 years of work, you can achieved after 20 (yeah.. maybe it’s a long time but as life is) a magnificent helm!
The Service Award ceremonies are an important Blizzard tradition that began in 1996. These ceremonies recognize the dedication and commitment demonstrated by those who help Blizzard create the most epic entertainment experiences…ever. Check out our newly updated service awards page, which now features the two-year stein, new five-year swords, fifteen-year rings, and the twenty-year helm!
Want your chance to earn such amazing loot? Get a job at Blizzard Entertainment and start leveling up. Check out our Career Opportunities.
Blizzard Entertainment deployed beta build 18594 today adding a new intro music theme which plays at the loading screen.
At the moment of this posting servers continue to be offline. A few hours ago, I reported there was a blackout that affected not only Blizzard Entertainment Irvine Campus, but a large area in South California due to a fire at an electrical power substation. The SCE restored power around 4am EST / midnight (Pacific).
Servers will go online as soon as Blizzard staff gets back to the office, and maintenance is completed. This patch will trigger a character wipe, so beta testers will have to start testing and level from scratch. More sightings soon.
Many Blizzard staff tweets could be found yesterday concerning the power blackout. The staff was asked to go home for lack of power. A Southern California Power Substation caught fire and left over 26,000 homes in the dark. Firemen were able to prevent further damage.
However, there is no ETA on when authorities might be able to replace equipment and restore power. For now, Blizzard won’t be able to bring the World of Warcraft beta realms back online until further notice.
Zorbix: Unfortunately due to the power outage that occurred our staff was forced to leave the office. As such, we won’t be able to finish the push tonight and bring the realms up. — source
Update #1: CBS Los Angeles reports only 8,600 homes are in the dark by 10 p.m. Some areas have gotten power restored. Still no ETA on when all affected areas will get power restored, and until Blizzard staff begins tweeting tomorrow no news whether Blizzard has power.
Update #2 – 4am EST: Power has been restored according to the Official SCE Twitter.
SCE: Thanks for your patience, @City_of_Irvine, and thanks to our best-in-class crews: power has been restored. Have a good night. #Irvine
Update #3: Beta Servers will go live today, but the Raid Test is likely postponed until Monday — according to Watcher (aka lead encounter designer Ion Hazzikostas).
So, sometimes things literally catch fire.
We were hoping we could get the servers up in time for the scheduled raid test, but that’s looking unlikely. Servers should be up today, but I’d rather not speculate while everyone is waiting on the off-chance that testing will happen.
I’ll post a new schedule for Monday testing, in a short while. — source
