BlizzCon, the annual gaming event for all things World Of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo, has been called off for 2012. Game developer Blizzard Entertainment has been putting the events on since 2005.

Blizzard has very passionate fans that log Millions of hours each week across their different games. While fans are upset about the decision that was announced on Battle.net, the company says that the event will be back next year in 2013.

The reason for the event being called off this year is because they’re “heavily focused on getting Diablo III, World of Warcraft Mists of Pandaria, and Starcraft II Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible.”

Kyle Orland from Ars Technica had quite a bit to say about the whole ordeal:

“It’s also hard to believe that Blizzard would simply want to do without the massive promotional opportunity that Blizzcon represents just because it would require some extra work. Not only does the event serve as a way to provide controlled early previews and major announcements directly to tens of thousands of attending fans (and those following along via press coverage), but those fans actually pay substantial sums of money—$175 per ticket last year—for the privilege of taking part in the marketing maelstrom.”

“Blizzard has said in the past that it actually loses money on the convention despite taking in millions of dollars in ticket sales, but I have to believe that the goodwill and fan interest generated by the event makes it an incredibly good marketing value for the company. Otherwise, why would they have put on the past six Blizzcons at all?”

Have you ever attended BlizzCon?

BlizzCon 2012 Called Off, Fans Upset is a post from: The Inquisitr

In less than a week, November 23 to be specific, World of Warcraft will be celebrating its 7th birthday. To celebrate World of Warcraft‘s seven years of operation, Blizzard will be showing their appreciation for the players by offering a few gifts, but you’ll need to act fast to get them.

If you log in anywhere between November 20 and December 3, you’ll be able to score yourself a Feat of Strength achievement and a Celebration Package item. When you use the package, you’ll be treated to a display of fireworks, a new tabard for you to show off, and a 7% boost in experience and reputation gains for a limited time.

Blizzard also announced a new TV ad will be airing this weekend on CBS during the Bears / Chargers game, which will undoubtedly have a guest appearance from a celebrity of some sort.

Are you still interested in World of Warcraft after seven years, or have you moved on to something else? Let us know!

World of Warcraft celebrates seventh birthday next week, gets a new commercial is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blizzard kicked off the BlizzCon festivities today with a bang, announcing the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft, called Mists of Pandaria.

Naturally, the expansion introduces a significant amount of new content to World of Warcraft. First and foremost, Blizzard will be introducing a race that should be familiar to Warcraft fans: the Pandaren. The Pandaren will come complete with their own zone, Pandaria, and even an entirely new class, the Monk, which is designed to be played as either a damage dealer, healer or a tank. Additionally, the Pandaren will be the game’s first “neutral” race, meaning both sides can start as one.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will also introduce new PVE-focused “Scenarios”, a dungeon challenge mode, a pet battle system, new zones, new instances and raids, and a new, yet-to-be-detailed overhauled talent system.

“Players have been asking to see the pandaren in World of Warcraft since the game’s launch, and we’re excited to finally be able to give them a proper re-introduction to Azeroth,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to the new playable race and class, Mists of Pandaria contains a huge amount of new content, and we’re looking forward to sharing more information about all of it at BlizzCon and beyond.”

There’s no word on a release date just yet, but attendees at BlizzCon will be able to try it out for the first time over the weekend. For now, you can check out the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announcement trailer below.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria announced at BlizzCon is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you have friends scattered across World of Warcraft‘s many realms, you’re probably going to like this new feature Blizzard’s cooking up.

Blizzard is testing out a Real ID party system which allows you to party up with your friends (of the same faction, of course) and queue up for 5-player normal and heroic dungeons, no matter what realm they’re on.

You can mix and match by adding other players from your realm in addition to your Real ID friends, but you won’t be able to invite anyone cross-realm that isn’t on your Real ID friends list, including friends of your Real ID friends.

Here’s a FAQ detailing how it all works, courtesy of Blizzard:

Q: What is the Real ID Party feature?
A: Players can now invite Real ID friends of the same faction to a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon group, regardless of what realm their friends are on. This system is designed to make it easier for real-life friends to play together.

Q: How do I invite Real ID friends to a Real ID party?
A: Inviting a Real ID friend to a Real ID Party is simple. Just open up your Friends list to see which Real ID friends are online. Click on the “Plus” button to send an invitation to a Real ID friend to join your group. You can continue to add Real ID friends to your party until the group is complete. If you cannot complete the group with Real ID friends, you are free to join the Dungeon Finder to fill in the missing roles.

Q: Does a player need to have Real ID enabled to accept a Real ID group invite?
A: Yes, a player must have Real ID enabled, and both players must be Real ID friends to accept or initiate Real ID party invitations.

Q: Can a party leader invite a mix of Real ID friends, character-level friends, guildmates, or random players to the same party?
A: A party leader can invite any combination of Real ID friends from any realm, guildmates from the same realm, or other characters from the same realm to the same party. If the party leader isn’t able to fill up the entire party, the Dungeon Finder can fill in the missing roles.

Q: Can I invite someone who is not a Real ID friend?
A: You can only invite members to a party if they are on your Real ID friends list or if they are on the same realm as you are.

Q: Can I invite a friend of a Real ID friend?
A: No, you can only invite your own Real ID friends to the party.

Q: How long will the testing period last?
A: We haven’t yet determined how long the testing period will last. We’ll keep you updated on the status and inform you when the test period is going to end in the future.

Q: Will aspects of the Real ID Party system be premium-based?
A: We’ll have information on this toward the end of the testing period.

Blizzard testing Real ID party system in World of Warcraft is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blizzard sent out an email just moments ago to boast in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm‘s Rage of the Firelands patch going live. And then they threw a curveball.

The famed developer has decided to do away with the 14-day trials entirely, opting instead to go the Warhammer Online route by turning the game free-to-play up until level 20.

Not only will new blood get full access to start content up to level 20, they’ll also get access to the two races introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion, the Draenei and the Blood Elves, free of charge.

If you’ve been on the fence about the MMO and you want to get addicted try out World of Warcraft, you’ll now be able to do so free-of-charge through this link right now. Should you get addicted take a liking to the game, you’ll be able to buy both World of Warcraft and the game’s first expansion, The Burning Crusade, together in the World of Warcraft Battle Chest for $19.

World of Warcraft Goes Free-to-Play (Until Level 20) is a post from: The Inquisitr

In an interview with VideoGamer, Trion Worlds’ William Cook had a little something to say about the current state of World of Warcraft. Specifically, he thinks that Blizzard isn’t doing enough to change things up in World of Warcraft.

“It seems like WoW is these days…not lacklustre…but it feels like everybody was worried Cataclysm was going to change too much,” he said. “And the feeling I got was that it didn’t change enough. It is the samey kind of thing.”

Back in May, Blizzard revealed in an earnings call that World of Warcraft had dropped from 12 million subscribers down to 11.4 million. The obvious thing to take from the news would be that Rift was involved, but Cook thinks the dip is on Blizzard’s end.

“Well a lot of people said no game would kill WoW, WoW would sort of kill itself. And while I know we’d love to take credit for it, and I don’t know, I mean it’s almost shameful that this giant launch window that we have, nobody is releasing anything.”

Source: VideoGamer

Rift Dev: World of Warcraft “Didn’t Change Enough” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blizzard apparently isn’t content with just releasing trailers for expansions. Earlier this morning, Blizzard released a cinematic trailer for World of Warcraft patch 4.2: Rage of the Firelands out into the wild.

In case you’re not familiar with just what is so special about the Rage of the Firelands patch, here’s the rundown: Patch 4.2 adds a new 10 and 25-man raid, The Firelands, an outdoor raid instance with six bosses, including ol’ Ragnaros himself;  the patch also introduces a handy raid boss guide that informs players on boss basics such as the boss’ abilities and what they do; a new quest hub based on the Firelands raid instance offering up daily quests.

If that all sounds well and good to you, go ahead and check out the World of Warcraft patch 4.2 trailer below to see some of it in action.

World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 Trailer: Rage of the Firelands is a post from: The Inquisitr

Since its release in 2004, World of Warcraft has propelled the MMO genre to mindblowing new heights. MMOs had a modest following among the hardcore PC gaming crowd before Blizzard charged into the MMO scene, but it wasn’t anything remotely close to the massive amount of players subscribing to World of Warcraft month-to-month.

The following infographic puts that 11.5 million subscriber base into a new perspective. 20,000 computers make up WoW’s servers? Sheesh!

Amazing World of Warcraft Infographic is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to the paper’s report, inmates (many imprisoned for ‘ideological’ crimes) are regularly forced to spend their nights earning virtual currency in online games such as World of Warcraft. One prisoner states that, after a day of backbreaking toil in the mines, he’d be forced to sit in front of a computer monitor for hours and indulge in ‘gold farming’, the practice of building up online currency through the repetition of basic tasks:

“Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour. There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [$770-935] a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”

Failing to meet targets in these mammoth gaming sessions was often greeted with physical punishment:

“If I couldn’t complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things.”

With gamers always willing to cough up real money for these virtual goods, it’s a scary tale of exploitation that doesn’t look like it will go away soon.

[Via Guardian]

Prisoners forced to farm virtual gold in China’s labor camps is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rogers, one of Canada’s main wireless, cable, and Internet providers, is well known for its anti-consumer activities so it should come as no surprise that with some intense questioning from the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television Telecommunication Commission) has come clean about the throttling of World of Warcraft traffic on its network.

Rogers recently replied to an inquiry issued by the CRTC that questions Rogers’ internet traffic management on World of Warcraft.

The major ISP has confirmed that it’s slowing down WOW and admitted it’s in fact interfering with the connection. Ken Thompson also stated in the letter to the CRTC that the problem occurs when customers are “simultaneously using peer-to-peer file sharing applications” and offered a lame solution;  turn off peer-to-peer within the Warcraft settings.  Blizzard, the creator or Warcraft uses bit torrent technology to update the game.

Via The Next Web

The problem here is that nothing that Rogers is considered to be ‘illegal’ as it doesn’t break any laws in Canada but Rogers has expressed its regrets over the inconvenience that its game playing customers may be experiencing. Of course Rogers also tried to shift the blame to Blizzard for making recent changes to the game which had created new problems.

Canadian World of Warcraft players getting throttled admits Rogers is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’re one of the numerous individuals with a website selling World of Warcraft gold, then beware, because you could lose your PayPal account any … day … now. WoW publisher/developer Blizzard has complained to Paypal that gold sellers are violating its IP, and PayPal’s response has been swift.

According to this man, Paypal is offering gold sellers one of three options: either stop selling gold, keep selling gold and lose your Paypal account, or fight your case in the courts. Yeah, good luck with that last one.

Gold selling has been around almost as long as World of Warcraft itself. While there are profits to be made in the selling of virtual currency at inflated prices, the practice is frowned upon by most players, who recognize it can harm an MMO’s in-game economy.

It’s not going to be an easy trend to stop entirely, but a lot of gold sellers could be closing their doors in the immediate future.

[Curse, via WoW Insider]

Paypal shutting down accounts of World of Warcraft gold sellers is a post from: The Inquisitr

I don’t give the PC enough coverage as I’d like on these pages, so let’s take a moment to reflect on awesome PC games, shall we? Or rather, let’s reflect on somebody else’s reflections on awesome PC games.

Esteemed UK magazine PC Gamer has just published its annual list of the best 100 PC games ever. Yeah, I’m as sick of lists as the next guy, but Deus Ex is top of this one, so I can let it go. Originally released in 2000, the stealthy shooter is rightly regarded as a classic, and just beat World of Warcraft to top spot. PC Gamer‘s top five:

1. Deus Ex (2000)
2. World of Warcraft (2004)
3. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
4. Team Fortress 2 (2007)
5. Half-Life 2 (2004)

Which is fair enough, but you’ll have to buy the magazine to get the other 95. That said, if Transport Tycoon, Grim Fandango, and Portal aren’t there, there’s gonna be trouble. And by trouble, I definitely mean I shall be WRITING ANGRILY IN CAPS ON SOME UNSPECIFIED GAMING FORUMS.

[Via CVG]

PC Gamer announces greatest 100 PC games ever is a post from: The Inquisitr

Clever girl.

[Furious Fanboys, via Digg]

Girl gives boy World of Warcraft: Cataclysm … but there’s a catch is a post from: The Inquisitr

Sorry, did someone say World of Warcraft was on the way out? Hm? It was the game’s own publisher? Oh, right. D’oh.

Far from being on its last legs, expansion World of Warcraft: Cataclysm hit stores last week, and proceeded to shatter the first-24-hour sales record previously set by the series.

In its first whole day on sale, Cataclysm shifted 3.3 million copies across the world. That means 35 gamers were handing over Cheetos-stained banknotes per second somewhere in the world on that day. Back in November 2008, the last WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King could only manage 2.8 million on day one. Ha! PATHETIC!

Here’s Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime, who must be feeling pretty pleased with himself:

“We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but the result was our best expansion yet. We want to thank all of our new, existing, and returning players throughout the world for their incredible enthusiasm and support, and we look forward to hearing what they think about all the new content.”

While impressive, that doesn’t quite topple Call of Duty: Black Ops‘s all-time record, which towers at 5.5 million copies sold on launch day. Of course, that game is also published by Activision. Basically, being Activision really, really rocks right now.

[Via press release]

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm obliterates Warcraft sales record is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is beautiful. Everything about it.

The stilted delivery of the question. The “Uh, thanks, we’ll fix that” response. The triumphant walk away from camera. The hilarious fact that Blizzard is making so much money from World of Warcraft it can scarcely remember to give a shit about what happens in World of Warcraft.

This is a WoW fanboy at the recent Blizzcon 2010 event, completely owning two Blizzard guys with his encyclopedic knowledge of the MMO:

[Via YouTube]

[VIDEO] Hardcore World of Warcraft fan shows up developer at BlizzCon is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blizzard has confirmed that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be in stores and also downloadable from December 7, making it the first World of Warcraft expansion that can be bought and downloaded before release.

Of course, when I say “before release,” I mean “about eight hours before release.” The add-on will be downloadable from the moment Blizzard turns the servers on, at midnight Pacific Standard Time on December 7th.

As brick-and-mortar stores won’t be open until much later that morning, committed WoWers will get to start grinding earlier than others. That might not sound like a big deal to you or I, but I know those eight hours matter a lot to some people!

Better still, fans will be able to download all the content on the game DVD in advance – we assume so the massive fanboy charge to Blizzard’s site doesn’t completely break the internets.

See also: 6 awesome illustrations for World of Warcraft fans

[Via VG247]

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm to be downloadable at launch is a post from: The Inquisitr

Activision Blizzard has revealed that World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm will launch December 7th, as both a digital download from Blizzard’s online store and as a DVD-ROM for Windows and Mac for all you grandads out there.

World of Warcraft expansions outsell most other standalone games, with the previous two, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, each shifting millions of copies on their first day of release.

Like its predecessors, Cataclysm will introduce new races (the worgen and goblins), and will bump up the level cap – this time to level 85. And it goes without saying there’ll be a special Collector’s Edition “packed with bonus items” will cost $79.99. Here are some words from Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard and, I imagine, Very Rich Man:

“Cataclysm includes the best content we’ve ever created for World of Warcraft. It’s not just an expansion, but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned levelling experience for those just starting out. With the help of our beta testers, we’re putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months.”

See also: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm details revealed

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm dated for December is a post from: The Inquisitr

A Michigan resident and twice-married mother-of-five has been charged with “using the Internet to entice a minor into sexual activity”, after she seduced a 15-year-old boy while playing World of Warcraft.

35-year-old Angie L. Jenkins told the teenager she was 21, while he swore he was 20. If this all sounds a little familiar, well, that’s because it is.

The unlikely couple first met online while playing World of Warcraft in 2009. This led to numerous emails and phonecalls being exchanged between the two, a real-life meeting, and then culminated in sex in a parked car in New York, the boy’s home.

According to the Buffalo News, Jenkins pushed for the meeting in real life and also “initiated the sexual contact” when the get-together took place. The boy even admitted to being 15, but Jenkins told him his age didn’t matter. Her case will be heard later this month.

Oh, and Kotaku noticed an amusing/unfortunate coincidence – Angie L. Jenkins. Heh.

[Buffalo News, via GamePolitics]

35-year-old woman charged with seducing minor on World of Warcraft is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Video Games Live music concert tour has been going for close to a decade now, bringing live orchestral performances of gaming’s greatest soundtracks to venues across the globe. By all acounts, it’s a pretty awesome show.

On July 31, a full 90-minute concert will be aired nationwide, and looked who unexpectedly popped up in the TV spot for the show: it’s only Jamie Lee Curtis, expertly discussing World of Warcraft. Looks like we have another celebrity WoW addict, to join this little lot! I’m pretty sure World of Warcraft‘s biggest demographic isn’t 51-year-old women, so it’s heartening to see how far MMOs have reached.

Skip to 2:17 for Curtis’s surprise appearance:

[Via Big Download]

Jamie Lee Curtis: Actress, author … World of Warcraft addict? is a post from: The Inquisitr

I seriously do not get this buying of virtual stuff. Maybe I am old fashioned but when I pay money for something I want to be able to hold it my hands. So the idea of spending hard earned money on stuff that only exists online like stuff inside of games strikes me as really dumb.

However it seems I must be in a minority as Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft, recently made about $2 million from the sale of virtual livestock.

… That said, Blizzard has started to capitalize a bit on this trend, and now sells virtual pets through its online store. The latest is a “Celestial Steed,” which, for $25, allows players to “travel in style astride wings of pure elemental stardust.” In four hours, Blizzard sold approximately $2 million in virtual livestock — apparently Blizzard understands how to give their community good reasons to buy …..

Source: Techdirt

Apparently this has set off a bit of debate in the WoW community with a number of them arguing against this being able to buy your way through the game.

It’s amazing how much money you can from a bunch of virtual elemental stardust.

Holy.Shit. $2 Million in four hours – for virtual crap is a post from: The Inquisitr