Massively^™

Brace yourself for the obligatory 'New Year' post. I'd resolve to lose weight, tone up and be kinder to my fellow man, but I'd be lying. Not because I'm weak and won't follow through on them, but because I don't need to. I'm practically perfect in every way.

Except not really. I'm lying. I also hate Mary Poppins with a cold, implacable hatred. But that's neither here nor there.

It's been a year of ups and downs in the MMO world. We've seen World of Warcraft go from strength to strength with an expansion pack which knocked the socks off of Burning Crusade. Say what you will about Blizzard, but it's always good to see a company that's willing and able to learn not only from its past mistakes, but its past successes. We've seen the long-awaitied launch of Warhammer Online, but we've also seen some downers, with Tabula Rasa going down the tubes, and Fury falling over. Although, not as many people were upset about Fury, given that it was terrible from start to finish.

Massively's sister site WoW Insider is reporting that the upcoming mega-patch to World of Warcraft will include nerfs. But not to your precious Hunter or Warlock ... no, the nerfs are hitting the bosses of the Burning Crusade and Outlands. Major changes to the way fundamental game mechanics work have resulted in bosses that are significantly more challenging than they were intended to be when the BC expansion was released. To combat this, every boss in Outlands has had their health reduced by (in some circumstances) up to 30%.

Blogger Alex Ziebart runs down the numerous 'old style' raid tactics that, now deprecated, the Blizzard developers had to tune for. "Shaman stacking", and "Shadow Priest mana batteries" were just two of the tactics that neccessitated these changes. Alex views these changes as "an absolutely required retuning", and we're inclined to agree. Check out the discussion of the latest PTR patch to World of Warcraft, and plenty of analysis, at WoW Insider.

World of Warcraft was first announced in 2001, and almost from the get-go players were hotly debating which components of the gameworld of Azeroth would make it into the MMO. Blizzard launched their blockbuster MMO with a very focused experience, and managed to set a new bar for online gaming quality with their 2007 Burning Crusade expansion.

Now the company is set to once again expand the horizons of their gameworld, and in doing so reconnect the Warcraft RTS titles with their MMO. Wrath of the Lich King will reintroduce old characters, allow players to explore acres and acres of new environments, and remake the face of Azeroth as we know it. But what exactly is the expansion offering? What are the brand-new elements coming from the minds 'behind the storm'? Today we have a gallery feature for you that should clear up any questions you might have about this most ambitious of expansions.

In cooperation with Massively's sister site WoW Insider, we present an extensive survey of the changes coming to Blizzard's World of Warcraft. We'll explore the new lands, new beasts, new toys, and class changes coming with the expansion, and even talk a little bit about where Blizzard might go next. Join us as we head north to adventure!

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	One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

The blogger who's titled himself "Lume the Mad" (ahem) has an interesting take on the lore surrounding World of Warcraft's lore for the Burning Crusade as a whole, and the patch 2.4 content drop in specific. According to Lume, Blizzard needs to make a better effort in the future towards keeping everything in-game. As it stands, the final encounter in the Sunwell dungeon is nigh-incomprehensible if you're only using in-game references. The final interplay between Kalecgos, Aveena, and Kil'jaeden is perfectly understandable if you follow WoW Insider's excellent "Know Your Lore" series, but otherwise you'd have to read a few graphic novels to get the full effect of the dungeon's climax.

Lume compares this storytelling to the way that the television show Lost approaches lore. There are pieces of story spread around various types of media - videogames, books, websites, podcasts - all of which expand on the Lost world. The key is that none of these 'extra' components are integral to the television show's story. They enhance, rather than prop up, elements of the show's plot. In WoW, that's not the case - you need to read these manga, effectively, to really get what's going on. As we look forward to seeing a lot of Arthas in Wrath of the Lich King, let's hope the company keeps in mind what players have and haven't seen to date in-game.

This isn't the first time that Bartle has come under scrutiny for one of his outspoken comments. Last year, when asked what he would do if he could control any MMOG Bartle proclaimed he would shut down World of Warcraft. His reasoning behind it was so that other unknown virtual worlds would have the chance to thrive and push new boundaries in the massive genre. One sacrifice for a thousand, but it's definitely something to ponder as the cost of MMO development continues to skyrocket towards the 100 million dollar mark. Big-budget MMOs are less likely to take risks and follow a winning formula.

No matter what you think of Richard Bartle, we only felt that it was fair that we share his follow-up comments that may help discern his perspective as a game designer. More on Bartle's controversial statement which may not be as shocking as one might think, in his own words after the jump.

Or: The Grandfather of MUDs talks the Mother of all MMOs

Earlier in the year this blogger had the chance to attend the Independent MMO Game Developer's Conference, the second annual event held in Minneapolis, MN. A number of luminaries in the field made an appearance, such as Scott Hartsman (former Senior Producer for EverQuest 2) and Brian Green (best known for his work on Meridian 59). Also in attendance was Dr. Richard Bartle, the much-admired co-developer of the original MUD1 online environment. Along with Roy Trubshaw, Mr. Bartle essentially pioneered the field of MUDs. As these games gave rise to MMOs as we know them today, we would most likely not be enjoying the Massively.com website without his efforts.

Join us as we sit down for a conversation about the big kid on the block: World of Warcraft. Some time ago Dr. Bartle made the crack that he'd "shut down" Blizzard game in an effort to improve the industry. Though he was only making an elaborately illustrative joke at the time, he's gotten a lot of flack for it. Today we have the other side of that coin: what Blizzard could honestly do to make the game even better. Click on through below the cut for Dr. Richard Bartle's view on Karazahn, playing MMOs as a player, and his overall view on the near future of the genre's darlings.

In a recent interview over at CVG, Blizzard's senior producer on the Wrath of the Lich King project, J. Allen Brack, talks a bit about how the newest WoW expansion will be better than anything we've seen yet. He says that 95% of the team that worked on Burning Crusade have remained and are working on WotLK. This is an important distinction, as it means the team is happy. As Brack says, "It's a testament to Blizzard culture, the success of the game and the environment we've created."

This interview also touches on the state of PvP in WoW. The CVG interviewer makes some humorous remarks on the changes that have been made to PvP since it was first introduced, and asks if this trend will continue into WotLK. Brack believes that with the expansion's new Lake Wintergrasp area, players will enjoy the siege weapons and destructible environments it will introduce. Let's hope he's right!

Blizzard should have a reason to fret since two games, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, are set to release this year and might rain on Blizzard's parade. However, Blizzard refuses to lower their shield and sword and bubble hearth. They are actually pretty confident in their upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and they do not think that there is too much aggro from the new games. In an interview with Eurogamer, a few of the devs chatted about what spells will be cast to keep the accounts up and the game fresh.

Content updates do not come as much of a surprise. Blizzard is raising the cap to level 80, but they do not want you to feel as if the bar has been set and there is no progression beyond it. Raids and dungeons are going to be more inviting since, in the words of Jeff Kaplan, "Burning Crusade was way too hardcore out of the gate." If raiding is still not for you, the Death Knight is going to add a little flavor to the game. Best of all, there are going to be evolved murlocs! With this exciting change, we may feel badly about killing the poor guys over and over again for their shiny, graphically enhanced, scales. Take a look at the interview and get a feel for what awaits us on the frozen grounds of Northrend.

In the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
-- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

No matter where you go, there you are.
-- Buckaroo Banzai

Recently, in The Daily Grind, Brenda brought up the subject of taking up a new game in addition to, or instead of, one you currently play, and there were some very insightful responses in the comments. We here at TGI have been mulling over the same issue lately as well. There's apparently something in the air or water these days that leads to such ruminations. Not necessarily outright dalliances, per se, but as a gedankenexperiment into the merits of leaving our current realm or realms and striking out for greener fields.

There seems to be a generalized atmosphere swirling around this notion of changing games lately, but why? For some players, it's idle speculation; for others, serious contemplation. For developers, it's either cause for concern or Miller Time. Is it merely widespread anticipation of Warhammer Online and Age of Conan? Is it boredom with the current crop of MMO titles?

Or is everybody out there just playing Grand Theft Auto IV?

So I'll admit it. I've been pretty hard on World of Warcraft ever since The Burning Crusade launched. A large part of the reason I've been so down on the game is because a lot of Burning Crusade's end-game content came off as incredibly daunting to me. I never had any interest in most of the raids offered in the game simply because I didn't feel like going through all the hoops to access them. Sure there were the 5-mans, but most of the super-cool content was still locked away from me.

Even with the original announcement of Wrath of the Lich King, I felt complete disinterest in the expansion as it seemed to be more of the same. More raids, more high quality content that was probably going to be locked away behind hoops, barrels and fire pit traps. Yet that all changed yesterday with the icy cool wake-up blast of new information that jolted my interest -- something I thought could never happen again with World of Warcraft.

If you just can't take the wait of driving to a brick and mortar store (or even worse, waiting for something to show up in the mail!) then Blizzard's got you covered with their new digital download service. As of right now they're only offering the Starcraft Anthology, Warcraft III and its Frozen Throne expansion pack. However, we could see Blizzard eventually offering both World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade -- not to mention Wrath of the Lich King when it launches.

Currently it's possible to get a digital download version of World of Warcraft and its first expansion through third-party. We're sure Blizzard will eventually take over those titles, as the company probably wants to make sure that buying their product digitally is as good an experience as it can possibly be. The thought of having every Blizzard PC title at our fingertips is a little scary though, we're worried that our bank accounts may suddenly drop soon for some mysterious reason.

[via WarCry]

The subject of microtransactions tends to bring out a lot of different opinions in people and sometimes harsh words are exchanged. I've never really taken a stance on the matter, as I've always been a bit unsure of which side of the argument I fell on.

The Blizzard team has learned a lot from their experience with The Burning Crusade, and in a recent interview posted on their official page, producer J. Allen Brack and art director Chris Robinson lay out exactly which of these lessons they're following through on for the new Sunwell Plateau instances and Wrath of the Lich King further down the road. They talk about how Sunwell is really the pinnacle of the Blood Elf design style and how players will see many design parallels with their starting zone.

As for WotLK, one of the cooler design changes they mentioned is more closely integrating the main story-arc into the leveling experience. Brack mentions how with WotLK, Arthas will play a more visible role in the lives of players, even well before they ever reach the level 80 cap. Similarly, he also discusses how the element of snow in the expansion is being used as much as a story-telling device as an aesthetic one, trying to get players to feel the isolation and despair inherent in the Northrend zone. It's pretty fascinating, as both Brack and Robinson are more forthcoming than usual, perhaps because it's an in-house interview.

What do you get when you take Game Developer magazine, Game Developer Research division, Gamasutra and combine their various developer information gathering efforts? Well, you get an all-encompassing list of the top 50 best developers of 2007 that takes not only weekly sales and ratings into account, but an anonymous survey on developer reputation fielded by Gamasutra itself. The survey asked community members to score game developers on overall reputation and direct interaction working for or with said developer, where they had actually done such.

The list puts Blizzard at third for Burning Crusade, just under Infinity Ward at second for Call of Duty 4 and Nintendo Kyoto (Brain Age, Wii Play) at first. It's an interesting method of rating developers, since they have to of had a game released the previous year to be eligible -- yet rankings also depend on developer reputation, which is a longterm concept. We weren't surprised to see Blizzard sitting pretty high on the list, beating out a lot of other developers responsible for some pretty great titles last year. (sorry, Valve)

There is a nagging question in the back of our minds, however: Which carries more weight in determining placement on the list -- sales or reputation?