World of Warcraft Movie WoW Film

Exciting news as the big wigs of Blizzard and movie exec's talk of making a World of Warcraft Movie. Here's the latest talk about the possibility of a movie being made!

Recently Speaking at a Hollywood & Games Summit keynote (Legendary Pictures chairman Mr Thomas Tull discussed the possibility of a World of Warcraft film, saying the game has "all the right stuff" to make a big hit movie appealing beyond subscribers.

Mr Tull made the exciting comments at the 'Driving Mythology Forward' keynote he shared with all the film license-specific game publishers and Brash Entertainment CEO Mitch Davis, in which the two men discussed the parallels between the film and game industries.

“We’re now doing World of Warcraft, and making it into a movie," said Mr Tull, but then noted, "I have strong feelings -- from the movie side of things -- that making movies just based on games just because they sold well is a really bad idea. There has been some like that and just weren’t up to snuff just out of the gate."

He then continued, "It doesn’t matter to us if it’s based on a very graphic novel like [Frank Miller's] 300, or a good TV show – if there’s a great universe and a good story, that’s what’s interesting to us."

Speaking about the relative size of a game adaptation's potential audience, he noted, "Sure, there are now over 8 million people playing WoW, but even if all of those people saw the new movie multiple times, we’d still be screwed badly."

"It’s a jumping off point," he then concluded of the game's subscription base, "and we see it as larger than that. World of Warcraft has the right stuff to make it happen.”

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WarGlaive of Azzinoth

The legendary WoW drop the: 'WarGlaive of Azzinoth' has reportedly fainlly dropped in game.

The WarGlaive of Azzinoth when doubled with another of the same item, (main and off hand) binds together to form the twin blades of azzinoth.This item is the desire of many WoW players and has been highly hunted.

A lot of people from WoW, have been talking about this item and discussing whether the actual item is real. But word leaked out from the Wow community last night that the item has dropped.

As more information comes to hand on the WarGlaive of Azzinoth and the Twin Blade Formation - we'll post it here at http://aWorldofWarcraft.blogspot.com

If you have further info on the twin blades of the single warglaive - please post comments in relation to this.

WoW Addiction / Game Addiction

World of Warcraft (WoW) is one of the most powerfully addictive games in Cyberspace. Yes, your parent, wife or mate should be worried.

World of Warcraft players will know exactly what I am talking about. This game by it's nature, requires you to spend as much time as possible in the World of Warcraft, to increase your level, attend raids, or keep across whats happening with the latest auctions and equipment.

In the past, computer games and console units would keep players in front of screens for long periods. These were single player (player vs computer) type games, and parents in extreme cases would have to resort to 'switching the TV or console off'

These days, online games such as World of Warcraft, where users log in to play with thousands of other 'real' players - the addiction can be much greater.

Blizzard the makers of World of Warcraft require a monthly fee of 14.99 US from users, just so they can keep playing the game.

The basic goal of the game is to achieve a 'high level' or level 70 as it stands now. This very sheer nature of 'gaining levels' means a player must fight monsters, complete quests and the more time they spend playing WoW the quicker they achieve the level they need.

Now this is not some game thats over in a few days. Achieving level 70 by legitimate means in reasonable time usually takes some months. (Its possible to 'power level' and have someone get your character to level 70 in 1 week - but this is a paid service)

Parents have every right to be concerned. I was addicted to WoW for several months. It affected my work habits, my sleep patterns and my family was tearing their hair out as I buried myself in the computer room player WoW for hours on end.

I am a grown man, of 28 years. I hate to imagine, how parents of teens manage to control their WoW habit. Not only must their kids be playing world of warcraft for hours on end, the parents in many cases would be paying Blizzard for access to Wow. I got into the game, a friend introducing me - and I was forever trying to level my character as quickly as possible. I resorted to using 'bots' a program called WoW Glider - where is automatically plays and levels your hero while your at work, and spent hours at night 'grinding' as they call it, just killing monster after monster. Sad Sad. It probably took me 6 months to beat the addiction, finally getting bored of the game. (Thankfully before the Burning Crusade came out)

Maybe parents shouldn't pay for WoW access? Is this the only way to stop it? But is the addiction so bad that Wow might make the teens steal to pay for Wow cards? (Prepaid subscription cards are the main choice for those without a credit card)

We'd like to hear you comments on how addictive WoW is? Please comment on this article by clicking the comments below.

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WowHead Buyout / Bought by ZAM

Just this week news has broken in the World of Warcraft / WoW community - that ZAM networks have purchased WOWHEAD (Wowhead.com)

Please see the press release below from Tim Sullivan from WoW head:

Some days ago us here at Wowhead entered into a new and exciting era. We've been working closely with the ZAM network team to join Wowhead's amazing assets and community with their own stuff. I'll be very honest and frankly I think they are veryup front guys. At first, I had my little doubts about ZAM, which owns the "other" big database websites out there. I heard many many stories about IGE this, and IGE that.I have now spent a couple weeks speaking with the entire ZAM team and let me give you my personal thoughts here.

They are very straightforward folks, honest, and very driven people. I know their big plans, their major goals, and quite a bit about their people / staff. They have no relation with the IGE stuff. They are all about content and building communities and tools to help gamers, just like what we've done with Wowhead.I've now set up an email address for any info and all questions about this. Please email me anything you'd like to say to a new address I've setup for myself and our team. In addition, I'll make sure the president of the ZAM network will read and address it.

The email is press@wowhead.com.

Thanks!

Tim Sullivan, CEOWowhead

The other official statement from the ZAM Networks team:

The ZAM Network is pleased to announce the acquisition of Wowhead.com, the Internet's fastest growing World of Warcraft website. Wowhead will become an essential part of the ZAM Network, joining other leading sites for MMO gamers such as Thottbot, Allakhazam and MMO Interface. Each month, millions of gamers visit the ZAM Network to find game information, access tools and content, and interact with other players."Merging with the ZAM Network is a very positive thing for us and our community," says Tim Sullivan, CEO of Wowhead. "We have seen tremendous growth in our traffic. Now we will be able to continue to focus on building great site features and not have to deal with many of the administrative aspects of running a top 1,000 Web site. It's my strong opinion that Wowhead will remain the best site on the Internet for WoW information, and the community will continue to grow and thrive.""As their rocket ship traffic growth demonstrates, gamers clearly find Wowhead to be a phenomenal resource to get information on World of Warcraft," said John Maffei, President of the ZAM Network. "We feel extremely lucky to be working with such a talented, cool team. Thus far we've been blown away. By continuing to put the top minds together in this space, we can really thrive in making the best sites for MMO gamers."

WoW Arena 2 Season Still Delayed

The team at Blizzard continues to delay the start date for the new Arena Season 2 - date now put back to June 19th, which will allow additional detailed development and more testing time for the Blizzard /World of Warcraft Teams.

WoW forum info about the Arena 2 delay:

FORUM POSTS:

Blizzard mentioned in their initial announcement of the second arena season called Arena 2, the start of the very next season is planned to coincide with the upcoming release by Blizzard of a small patch. Due to even more additional development time and of course testing time needed Blizzard will be delaying the scheduled release of the small patch, and this leads to the start of Arena Season 2 release being delayed by one week, to June 19. This new current schedule is of course subject to change too.

World of Warcraft team ratings will be reset to the original / default 1500 - the start of the new arena 2 season, allowing each and every team to once again go and compete for top honors with a fresh start.

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WoW Chinese Gold Farmers

An hour before 12 midnight, 3 hours into the big night shift with still nine more to go. A workstation in a very small, lightly fluorescent-lighted square office space in Nanjing, China, Li Qiwen sits shirtless and heavily chain-smoking, steely gazing purposefully at the hugely popular online computer game in front of him World of Warcraft. The PC screen showed a lightly wooded mountain terrain area, softly studded with castle ruins and several grazing deer, in which the warrior monks milled about.

Li, or rather his hero staff-wielding wizard character, had been busy slaying the enemy monks since 8 p.m that night, his mouse-clicking on one dead corpse after another picking up the loot as they call it, each time he is busy gathering a few dozen virtual coins — and maybe a magic weapon basic or expensive or two — into an increasingly laden virtual backpack.

12 hours a every night, that means seven nights a week, with only 2 or 3 nights off per month, this is what Chinese Li does — for a sole living. In 2006, the game on his screen was, as always, World of Warcraft or WoW for short, an online fantasy game title in which players, in the guise of self-created avatars — night-elf wizards, warrior orcs and other Tolkienesque characters — battle hard and find their way through the mythical realm of Azeroth, earning some points for every monster slain and rising, over many many months, from the blizzard made game’s lowest level of death-dealing power (1) to the very highest (70).

More than eight million people around the world play this World of Warcraft — thats one in every thousand on earth — and whenever Li is logged on, thousands of other players are, as well too. They share the game’s very vast, virtual world with him, converging in its towns to trade their big loot or turning up occasionally from time to time in Li’s own wooded corner of it, looking for their enemies to kill and coins to gather. Every World of Warcraft player needs those coins, and mostly for one reason: more coins pay for the virtual gear to fight the monsters to earn the big points or experience to reach the next level.

there are only two ways players can get as much of this virtual coin or money as the game requires: they can spend many hours collecting it or they can pay someone real money to do it for them.

Finishing each shift, then Li reports the night’s haul to his shift supervisor, and at the end of the week, and his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. Every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25 per bag, earning a wage of 30 cents an hour. The supervisor boss, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American,European or Australian player) for as much as $20.

The very small commercial space Li and his colleagues tend to work in — two rooms, one for the workers and another for the supervisor — along with a rudimentary workers’ dorm, a half-hour’s journey away, are the entire physical plant of this modest $80,000-a-year business. It is estimated that there are thousands of businesses like it all over China, neither owned nor operated by the game companies from which they make their money. Collectively they employ an estimated 100,000 workers, who produce the bulk of all the goods in what has become a $1.8 billion worldwide trade in virtual items. The polite name for these operations is youxi gongzuoshi, or gaming workshops, but to avid gamers throughout the world, they are better known as gold farms. While the Internet has produced some strange new job descriptions over the years, it is hard to think of any more surreal than that of the Chinese gold farmer.

The market for massively multiplayer online role-playing games, known as M.M.O.R.P.G’s, is a fast-growing one, WoW / World of Warcraft being a big one - with no fewer than 100 current titles and many more under development, all targeted at a player population that totals around 30 million worldwide. World of Warcraft, produced in Irvine, Calif., by Blizzard Entertainment, is one of the most profitable computer games in history, earning close to $1 billion a year in monthly subscriptions and other revenue. In a typical M.M.O., as in a classic predigital role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons, each player leads his fantasy character on a life of combat and adventure that may last for months or even years of play. As has also been true since D. & D., however, the romance of this imaginary life stands in sharp contrast to the plodding, mathematical precision with which it proceeds.

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Phoenix Mount Info - Its There!

Nethaera and Eyonix have both smartly pointed out on internet forums before, the Phoenix mount is certainly in game now (June 07). I had the honor to learn sadly recently, it's not in the place that many might think it is.

Well, the first one isn't. For The others -- well, nobody else but Blue has even the vaguest idea where those things are going to drop. (Most people figure on realm Kael'thas or Al'ar in Tempest Keep as the main or only drop source for the Phoenix Mount item, much like the older tiger mount drops in ZG from the main tiger boss, and the creature Baron drops his own mount in Stratholme.)

The Worlds very First phoenix mount belongs to Ezra Chatterton, a young man who went to Blizzard's offices with Make-A-Wish foundation. Young Ezra was given the very first ever Phoenix mount in game for two main reasons.

It was probably the best gift that Blizzard could really give any online gamer as far as one of the new Outland mounts. Sure, Netherdrakes are awesome, but a phoenix mount trumps that,

Who wouldn't want a mount that could move at 310% speed like the the Swift Nether Drake arena award mount, impressive. Secondly, as little Ezra's father Micah explained to me, the phoenix mount is an extremely important personal symbol for Ezra.

The actual phoenix is an picture that has constantly recurred in Ezra's life over the past years, this is mostly because it's his middle name, and then I think that a little person will usually take any chance they can get to even more closely connect with their given names. His older mother and I named him that mainly because, as teenage parents with an art fetish, we then thought it was very cool. Also, the ordeal of then becoming a father and mother at ages 16 heavily attracted us to the main concept of the resurrection and the rebirth, and rising high above the ashes of a very difficult situation. Not to the credit the name per se, but then I have always been a very proud father of Ezra's ability to cope with very difficult times in his own little lifee. He's been strongly able to go through things, before the onset of cancer, that I couldn't even imagine dealing with as a small child, and still retain his overly generous spirit and massive spark of imagination.

The first thing he recently said when he saw, from a very safe distance, that our house was going up in roaring flames last February was: "I really liked that house." The next thing he uttered, seeing my hellish fear and massive panic start to well up, was: "At least nobody's got hurt. It'll be o.k. because we're all still safe." It was the kind of thing a grown-up would say to each other the very next day or a good week later to put their loss well into perspective, not the kind of thing you'd expect a 9 year old kid to say before the local fire department even got there. That's the kind of person he always is, and that's the kind of rising up that he does, so when he had the opportunity to choose a phoenix flying mount as the crowning gift for Ephoenix from Blizzard, he took it.

There was some concern around about having the mount initially, as Micah was a tad worried some competing players might be unhappy about him being the first to have such a great rare item. I'm glad to report back that recently his guild, 32nd Fleet, organized a large gathering in Shattrath to help get the word out big time that Ezra was recently gifted the World First Phoenix mount item exclusively. After that, Ezra's been able to enjoy flying his mount around the skies of Outland.

Micah then said that the model is "one of the most gorgeous and impressive character designs," although Ezra was a little bit distracted by the phoenix mount model having no feet whatsoever.

Most of all, Micah wanted to mainly express to everyone how very thankful and totally overwhelmed he is at how the WoW / World of Warcraft community has reached out to Ezra. As he said in a recent email to me, "I'm very proud of our large community, Krystalle, and I am so completely and utterly thankful that the prayers and support people have been sending us have given Ezra something good to keep in his mind."

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