Every one of you is a serial stalker, rapist, identity thief, and overall annoyance. No one likes you and no, you are not special; you are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are purified, virtual reality evil.

But only if you play Blizzard games.

So, yes, prety much all of you.

Blizzard’s recent announcement to use real names in the new StarCraft II community site and World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion forum has sparked a heated backlash from Battle.net users, with commenters fearing for their lives, jobs, money, privacy and emotional security when the shift takes place before July 27.

But with the comments it’s receiving on the Battle.net forums, perhaps Blizzard should be fearing for its own life instead. With over 1,399 combined pages of angry rants and threats to leave the forums and games entirely, Blizzard has sparked an online riot that could quickly turn to revolution.
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With western MMOs like Lord of the Rings Online, Company of Heroes, and Dungeons and Dragons Online embracing the free-to-play game model, Blizzard has recently had to ask itself some difficult questions about its World of Warcraft strategy. Questions like, “What should I eat for lunch?”

Lead desinger Tom Chilton isn’t concerned with losing the massive WoW fanbase any time soon, subscription fee or not.

“We’re not spending a lot of time thinking about [going free-to-play]. It’s not something that’s a reality for us in the near future,” Chilton said.

WoW is the largest and most profitable MMO in the western market, with some 11.5 million subscribers worldwide, and while lesser games need to compete with one another, WoW has confidently held the throne since its release in 2004. Chilton thinks that’s reason enough to avoid the free-to-play model for now.

“I feel like they’re doing that to compete with other games that are on a similar subscriber level to what they were at. I imagine that when one of them went free to play it cannibalized some of the other subscribers,” Chilton said.

It seems WoW is in no danger of being eaten up by any games currently on the market or in production. However, Chilton is still casually preparing for the worst.

“I can definitely imagine that being the case with World of Warcraft,” he said. “If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee. Or even further down the line, when we have another MMO out.”

So until Blizzard creates its own demise in the form of a new MMO, WoW will remain subscription-based. Which means we probably have at least another decade to wait, so keep that piggy bank full.

Do you mind paying to play one of the largest and most intricate MMOs in the world? How would free-to-play affect the game? Give us your opinions right here!

via PC Gamer

Cult horror classic director Sam Raimi isn’t just a master of undead action and gore, he’s also a World of Warcraft fanboy with a level-72 character and the franchise’s best bet to make a WoW movie worth watching.

Raimi, director of Evil Dead, Army of Darkness and Drag me to Hell, is currently in production on Warcraft, and with a 40-page story outline, he has taken on the project as both a fan of the WoW universe and a serious artist.

“We’re still working on the story,” Raimi said. “We’re finding the characters and through the characters we’re finding the story… we’re trying to create realistic characters that can live in the world of Warcraft, as though you were in the game itself.”

According to Raimi, the film will be set entirely in the Warcraft universe, and if his epic vision is fully realized, Warcraft might turn out much like Lord of the Rings meets Time Bandits on crack.

Part of Raimi’s fascination with WoW lies in the game’s vistas and monsters, which he called “engrossingly terrifying and exciting.” If we know Raimi, after a comment like that we can expect an emphasis on horrifying beasts and desolate beauty in his version of Warcraft.

Robert Rodat, author of Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, is slated to write Warcraft, with distributor Warner Bros. and production house Legendary Pictures. Blizzard senior vice president of creative development Chris Metzen is co-producing, probably to make sure Raimi remembers he’s not actually in the World of Warcraft during the shoot.

Warcraft is listed on IMDB with a 2013 release date, though this time frame has yet to be confirmed by any studios.

Does Warcraft sound epic enough for you? With Blizzard, Warner Bros., Rodat and Raimi behind it, this could be the next great fantasy adventure movie, easily. Tell us what you want to see in the film!

World of Warcraft’s Remote Auction House is now live and kicking in full beta-test mode. Players can access the WoW Auction House from the iPhone and iPod Touch apps—there is an app for that—or from the Armory website.

Once the beta ends, full Remote Auction House services will be subscription-based at $2.99 for 30 days. A free version will allow users a passive perspective on the Auction House, able to get real-time notifications and view their events but unable to carry out any actions on them. During the beta test, all services will be available but transactions are limited to 25 per day, with this number expected to increase to 200 for the final version. Blizzard has yet to announce when the beta will expire.

Will this new service take some of the stress from your WoW Auction House deals? Is this the beginning of a new era in the game, a transition to app-based and remotely-controlled play? Is that ridiculous? Let us know!

Source

Lo Axeheads and welcome to the weekend! As you know, each friday I try to bring you some golden video morsel from around the web to entertain, inspire, and, verily, even educate. Speaking for myself, I am a voracious consumer of knowledge; I absolutely love learning new things. So, this weekend, I thought I’d share several videos from one of my favorite sources: TED. For those unfamiliar, TED is a non-profit group that organizes conferences to spread ideas. Originally, they brought together notable people from technology, entertainment, and design, but the scope has widened since then.

Last week in discussing the state of life-like computer generated characters, I used a Ted talk from Ed Ulbrich to illustrate the current state of that technology. This week, I’d thought I’d share some of the fascinating and though-provoking TED talks that have focused on our favorite past time: gaming. Ahead, you’ll explore ideas about what gaming is and what it can become; how it can shape people, culture, and maybe even save the world. If knowledge is power, then a good idea is an epic battle axe indeed.

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Rejoice! It’s Friday and man, it’s been a week full of great ideas from our community on how to properly implement Microsoft’s Natal into gaming. Ya know how I know??? I find myself oddly optimistic about the potential (and I stress POTENTIAL) of Natal now that I’ve spent the last week reading and posting our community’s awesome ideas and even getting feedback in this week’s edition of Gaming Matters.

Well, ending on a high note, let’s take a look at today’s Member BattleCry which comes from EBA Member Gaurro and deals with facial recognition and Natal’s potential to enhance our gaming avatar’s like never before. Check it out after the jump and then chime in with your thoughts below.
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With 2009 coming to a close and 10 years of awesome gaming behind us, we thought it was an excellent time to look back on what made the past decade a special one in gaming. Of course, new hardware, industry growth, and and overall shift to acceptance of gaming as a viable platform have helped define the decade that was, but for us gamers, it’s THE GAMES that we’ll look back on and remember the most. On the next episode of EpicBattleCry, we’ll be discussing a rather interesting topic…What was the most influential game/franchise of the past decade?

We wanna hear from you boys and girls to round up some input. I started a thread inside the EBA forums to discuss the matter and will soon give you some of my personal thoughts on which title might be good for the discussion. Now remember…we’re not asking for “Best” game of the decade…We wanna know which title/franchise INFLUENCED gaming the most. This could mean that the game/franchise helped redefine a genre, move gaming towards the mainstream, or otherwise had the most impact on the industry. In other words, gaming might be TOTALLY DIFFERENT if this title/franchise didn’t exist.

Also, feel free to cast your vote in the poll on the EpicBattleAxe.com home page. We’ll keep it live for a few days to gather some good input and let you all see what other people think as well.

Of course, you’ll hear what we conclude on the next episode of EpicBattleCry, which is scheduled to go live this coming Monday, January 4, 2010.

Alright gang, thanks in advance for you input…Now let us know what you think…ttys!

Today, Blizzard launched their new service allowing players to switch factions for their existing World of Warcraft characters. The service breaks down roughly like this:

• players can switch an existing character (level 10 or higher) from Horde to Alliance or Alliance to Horde
• players can re-customize their character, select a new race, and change names
• non-faction-specific equipment and mounts will be retained, others will be replaced with a cross-faction equivalent

Blizzard has put together and in-depth FAQ that should answer all your questions. The new Faction Change service costs $30 per character, per faction change.

Source

The lands of Azeroth are forever changing thanks to the recently announced Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft. Folks who have traversed the storied online universe will notice quite a few changes when the content is released and the gang at Kotaku has put together a vid that delivers a virtual tour of the new diggs. So, hit the jump to check out some of the many land changes expected to go permanent when the new expansion comes out.
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While they lay trapped in the valley, sound the charge and bring down the mountain; its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s skirmish we check out the latest news from the Fable franchise, state the obvious with The Beatles: Rock Band DLC announcement, subscribe to World of Warcraft’s first official magazine, and ponder the wisdom of Dark Void’s new release date.

Straight from Gamescom we have official word on the long awaited PS3 price drop and introduction of the Slim PS3. How does Sony’s new system stack up? Next up we run down just a few of the most impressive titles we saw at Gamescom: Final Fantasy XIV, Dante’s Inferno, Gran Turismo 5, and more.

The Battle Cry of the Week goes to Diablo III and the new Monk class, Earthworm Jim getting a truly new release, Brutal Legend for not making us buy it to try it, and calls for more kick-ass comic tie-ins like we saw with Dead Space.

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