There's another Olypmics happening apart from the one in Beijing, and this one's much closer to home. WoW Insider is reporting that WoWwiki is holding their very own WoWlympics (wow, that's a lot of wows right there), a scavenger hunt-type contest.

Blizzard will be in cooperation for the event, and so you can win five Wrath of the Lich King US Beta keys, 20 WorldWide Invitational cards containing codes for EU Beta keys and the Tyrael vanity pet. Both beta keys can be converted for use between regions as necessary.

The WoWlympicks kicked off with Clopper Wizbang asking players to search the site for five missing items. Each are located on a WoWwiki page and clues are provided along the way. Now, each of these missing items you have to locate is worth one entry to the WoWlympics sweepstakes, with a bonus three entries if you find all five. This adds up to a total of eight entries eligible for the grand draw.

The event runs until August 25. To join, just follow the source link provided below. That should lead you to the official WoWlypmics page. Good luck!

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Other WoW events:

• Blizzard confirms showcase on Leipzig Games Convention 2008
• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Blizzard selling 3,000 additional BlizzCon tickets
  

Source: wow.qj.net

Eve of the Leipzig Games Convention: setting up the booths
Leipzig is looking pretty spiffy this year, and I'm really looking forward to it, considering how much of a downer E3 turned out to be. Anyway, the good folks at 1UP have posted a new bunch of photos from the site of the Leipzig event as the booths are being set up for the big shebang tomorrow.

My personal favorite are the promotional figures for Lego Batman made up entirely of Lego blocks. Several major booths worth of noting is the not-little-but-big LittleBigPlanet booth, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Mirror's Edge. You can see who else is coming to the show by clicking on the pics below.

For more pics from the site, follow the source link below. As expected, there's no sign of Nintendo, who has decided to go on a roadshow rather than join the rest of the group.

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Related Articles:

• Nintendo to skip this year's Leipzig Games Convention
  
• Acclaim Chief Creative Officer: E3 is broken and an embarrassment
• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Age of Conan DirectX10 features to be revealed at Leipzig

Source: wow.qj.net

If you want to pull up some quick information about your World of Warcraft character (or anyone else's for that matter), why don't you try browsing for it on your iPhone. I'm not talking about the WoW Armory. There's a quicker way for you to do that - on the new and updated version of the Warcraft Characters app for the iPhone.

Released last July on the App Store, the WoW-friendly application now features some interesting and useful additions. Aside from compatibility with Apple's firmware 2.0, the app now allows you to view a character's gear, as well as his or her's reputation status.

In addition, non-US players can now make use of the app since it provides extended compatibility for characters from all other realms, such as those from China, Korea and Taiwan. The only thing missing seems to be the talents list for each character viewed. Otherwise, as a portable Armory, this app definitely does the job quite well.

Warcraft Characters is available on the App Store for free, so go ahead and download a copy. We'll be sure to keep tabs on any further updates regarding this nifty app as soon as we get them.

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Related articles:

• Steve Jobs: 60 million App Store downloads and rising, iPhone kill switch exists
• WoW forums: on how regularly the armory is updated

Source: wow.qj.net

Leipzig: Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic
Heads up, World of Warcraft gamers! As promised, Blizzard has released the opining cinematic of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion at the Leipzig Games Convention! I can't express just how awesome it is, so why don't you see for yourselves? Watch the video below.

Aside from the movie, Blizzard will also host a Q&A portion, playable demos, and a forum at the convention. We'll be sure to let you know if anything new comes out of the event. Enough dilly-dally though, here's the movie, enjoy!

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Related Articles:

• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Blizzard confirms showcase at Leipzig Games Convention 2008

Source: wow.qj.net

account before August 12 (despite Blizzard's website being plagued by massive downtimes), then you're in for more luck! It's just been announced that the opt-in lotteries are now open.

The lottery period starts today, Wednesday, August 20, and will be ending on August 24, 11:59 P.M., PDT. All you have to do is log on to the Blizzard Account Management page any time within the lottery period. By the end of which, 1500 accounts will be picked out from the bunch and be awarded with a chance to get two tickets to the BlizzCon event.

Be advised that simply logging on will already give you a chance to be one of those lucky 1500 winners to be picked out. And since you're already logged on at that time, it might be best to double check your contact information too and update it if necessary.

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Related articles:

• Blizzard selling 3,000 additional BlizzCon tickets
• BlizzCon 2008 tickets sold out

Source: wow.qj.net

will be offering is going to be a breeze, then think again. An article written on WoW Insider indicated that leveling now needs nearly twice as much experience (around 80 to be exact) compared to before.

While it is expected that leveling is a lot harder at this point, the steep slope the new leveling curve introduces can be quite daunting for even veteran World of Warcraft players. It is still a point of contention whether Blizzard will adjust this curve in the future or simply introduce other game balancing methods to draw out the grind.

The expansion does introduce two new starting points for players to suitably level their characters for the area. However, having players clear through them just to level up kind of defeats the whole purpose of creating them in the first place.

We'll be sure to keep an eye on any new updates regarding this matter as soon as we get them. In the meantime, check out our other WotLK articles through the links we've provided below.

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Related articles:

• WotLK beta changes: mounts get the OK in Booty Bay
• Wrath of the Lich King: Everything you need to know, part 1

Source: wow.qj.net

Diablo, WoW, Starcraft goodness fills BlizzCon 2008 panels
BlizzCon 2008 is coming, and with it comes the promise of even more information on Blizzard's three high-profile games:Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft 2. The information, as you can probably guess, will come in the form of panels that Blizzard will conduct.

Interested in knowing what the panels will be? Well we have the basic list of panels right below. Here's what BlizzCon attendees can look forward to when the event begins:

• Diablo III Class Design
• Diablo III Game Design
• Diablo III Lore and Art
• StarCraft II Gameplay
• StarCraft Lore
• StarCraft II Art
• World of Warcraft Class Design
• World of Warcraft PvP
• World of Warcraft Art
• World of Warcraft Dungeons & Raids
• World of Warcraft UI and Mods
• Blizzard Cinematics
• Blizzard Sound and Music

You can find descriptions on the individual panels by checking out the source link below. Enjoy!

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Related Article:

• Blizzard selling 3000 more BlizzCon tickets through lottery

Source: wow.qj.net

, you'd best find an alternative means of entering the convention hall. Blizzard has officially stated that there are no more tickets to be had for the event. Zip. Nada. Zilch.

Here's the official announcement over on the World of Warcraft forums:

Tickets to BlizzCon 2008 are now sold out. We d like to thank everyone once again for their overwhelming interest in this year s show. If you were unable to secure tickets, please keep in mind that DIRECTV will be broadcasting BlizzCon live from the Anaheim Convention Center on October 10 and 11.

The process for acquiring tickets was more or less a hit or miss affair, with the site going down multiple times during the event. As you can probably guess, many are a bit agitated at not being able to acquire tickets, and have gone on to the official forums to voice out their complaints and concerns.

If you were one of those people trying to get tickets but weren't able to, you may want to head on over to the official forums to voice out your disappointment as well. In the meantime, expect us to give you more updates on BlizzCon 2008 as they happen.

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Related Article:

• BlizzCon 2008 tickets now available online, DirecTV pay per view package details

Source: wow.qj.net

I have come to understand that this is not common knowledge to all rogues and I have yet to see it on any site upon performing multiple searches.

This can be soloed for about 200G per hour or done with 2 rogues for about 1000G.

I do this solo but in fairness I have exceptional gear. I'm sure it could be done with good blue gear. If you have problems with this, get a partner to help you. Frankly, as much money as this can make you, it wouldn't be a horrible crime to complely stock up on greater fire protection pots, elixir of mongoose, giant potions, etc. A death will cost you about 6 minutes and time is money.

You will also need improved sap. 100G worth of respeccing is a small price to pay for a weekend of making thousands.

On to the solo strategy:

In Lower Blackrock Spire you want to stealth to the right in the same manner as you would normally clear the dungeon. You'll come around to the left after dropping off the first ledge and work your way to two doors (one after the other) that are very close to each other and have roaming mobs going through them. After you pass the second door, stop. To your right you should see a ledge. Across from that ledge is another ledge where you will see a bunch of ogres. If you move towards that ledge and look down you will see a platform that you can jump onto. Jump to it. Now move forward and you will see another platform. Jump to it. Lastly you will jump to the ground floor where you will see several tents. When you jump down, fall, don't jump or it will break your stealth. Watch out for roaming mobs. You don't want to fall on them.

Continue on until you get to the hill where the spiders are. As soon as you reach this hill you will come to a nook on your right that most groups that do LBRS skip. In that nook you will see three groups of mobs. To the left are 3 mobs, to the right are 3 mobs and in the back right corner are 2 mobs. The two groups of 3 are not linked but all 6 will aggro if you pull one because the two groups are too close together.

Behold my brilliant artwork!: http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2…rrico/LBRS.jpg

What you want is one of the two mobs in the back. One of these mobs is a Blackrock Pyromancer. He is what you will want to kill, so sap the other guy and go up the little hill behind you. Ranged pull the pyromancer. Just before he gets in range hit evasion and kill him as quickly as possible. He will flee just before he dies, so crippling poison is your friend. You could use kidney shot just before he gets to 20% life but why waste it on a fleeing mob?

As soon as you kill him, loot him and vanish.

Duo Strategy

Kill the group in the back in the same manner but don't waste your vanish. Two rogues shouls make extremely short work of both mobs. Heal up, wait for your curses and such to fade and get ready for some big packs.

The problem with the next pull is that you have 6 mobs to deal with. If the two 'inside mobs' are both Pyromancers, dump this pull and reset. The only way you can continue is to reset, fight 4 elits at the same time or kill a couple, die and come back to an easier pull. In any other case, you want to sap 'inside mob1' or inside mob2'. If one of them is a pyromancer, don't sap it, sap the other one and have your partner sap one of the other mobs in sapped mob's group. See this diagram: http://s65.photobucket.com/albums/h2…o/th_LBRS2.jpg

Kill the unsapped pyromancer and vanish.

The duo strat is complicated. You will find that there are several configurations to deal with. I prefer to solo but I make a ton of money if I duo all of the mobs.

Your prize is this: http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=28217

It is one of the best robes that a mage can find if he doesn't raid and that is more than 99% of the mage population. Even raiding mages have bought these from me as gaining archanist or something similar isn't necessarily an overnight process for a new raider. The best part of this robe is that it's bind on pickup. The pattern is bind on use but the robe binds when you make it, so the crafter can only make it for himself.

Yes the downside is that the mage has to be a 300 tailor. I have sold this pattern to 100 people that picked up tailoring just to make this robe. Many dumped tailoring after making it.

These patterns sell for about 200 gold on my server. I've found and sold as many as 5 in a day.

Even better is this http://www.thottbot.com/index.cgi?i=16100

They sell for 300-400 gold on my server. They don't drop nearly as often as the robe pattern does but it's a nice payday when they do. I also find a ton of blues (shadowcraft, valor, etc). Those always sell pretty nicely.

My worst one hour session was about 70 gold. My best was 1000 gold (3 patterns, 1 fire recipie and 2 blues).

Again, if you're having trouble with the solo strat, get a partner. Two rogues in green gear can easily handle the solo strat.

Happy hunting!

A recent survey from What They Play, a parental advisory website, revealed that parents seem to be more worried about their children's exposure to videogames than alcohol, pornography, or violence. Furthermore, a second survey by the group showed that parents considered content showing sex and sexuality as more offensive than depictions of violence.

Here's an excerpt from the What They Play press release, courtesy of GamePolitics (external link):

Nearly 3,000 respondents in two separate What They Play polls concluded that drinking beer and watching pornography were less objectionable activities for children than playing certain video games. Further, viewing violence was more acceptable than seeing content involving sex and sexuality within games.

The first survey What They Play took was conducted from April 4-10, 2008, and asked 1,266 participants what they were most offended by in videogames. Here's the breakdown, according to the poll:

• a man and woman having sex (37 )
• two men kissing (27 )
• a graphically severed head (25 )
• multiple use of the F-word (9 ).

The second survey, done from August 1-6, 2008 looked at what parents were most worried about their kids indulging in while at a sleepover. Here's what the press release said about that:

More than 1,600 respondents revealed they re more apprehensive about their child smoking marijuana (49 ) and playing the video game Grand Theft Auto (19 ), than watching pornography (16 ) and drinking beer (14 ).

While the usual social issues (alcohol, drugs, and porn) are all present in many a parents' list of worries, it seems videogames are slowly emerging as a social issue that many parents fear can be detrimental to their kids. While it's probably a good thing that videogames are becoming more emergent in the social consciousness, the representation of games in the public eye (especially if Rockstar North's GTA is the only game people can remember) leaves much to be desired.

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Related Articles:

• Grand Theft Childhood authors: Parents often ignore game ratings

Source: wow.qj.net

WotLK beta servers down for new build; level cap to be raised?

The beta servers for Wrath of the Lich King are down , ladies and gents. That's because they are about to unleash a new build, and you bet this is but the calm before the storm.

As rumor would have it, based on the Gamona video interview at Leipzig earlier today, the level cap will be raised to 80. We cannot know for sure until the servers go back up. The downtime is expected to run for about six to eight hours, which started at 2:30PM PST.

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Related Articles:

• Leipzig: Wrath of the Lich King opening cinematic

Source: wow.qj.net

's J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton, they squashed every console gamers' hopes of seeing the highly acclaimed MMO, World of Warcraft, boxed neatly inside a console. Also discussed were several other topics regarding the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King, as well as other new content for the game.

Chilton was also rather excited about the new achievement system that they will be introducing soon. It will definitely give players something to strive for and extend their gameplay even further.

When asked about the hardest challenge the developers have encountered so far, Brack answered that the insertion of the new Death Knight class was the biggest hurdle they've faced. However, with the beta phase for WotLK well underway, modifications are still being made to the new character class before its official release with the new expansion.

One of the more interesting things they discussed was Blizzard's take on MMOs made for consoles and social networks. This doesn't necessarily mean gamers should hope for a console version of WoW soon. Brack specifically mentioned while this may work with other MMOs, this setup wouldn't really work with World of Warcraft. I guess this just means we'll just have to play WoW as it was meant to be played: on a PC.

You can view the full interview conducted by play.tm by following the link found below.

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Related articles:

• World of Warcraft devs hint at graphical reboot, speak on ten man raids
• Blizzard's J. Brack Allen on the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion

Source: wow.qj.net

Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
Blizzard has already confirmed their presence at the Leipzig Games Convention, but Kotaku recently found out an extra bit of information pertaining to Blizzard's presence at GC. Specifically, Blizzard will be showing off some new media for convention-goers to drool over.

According to Kotaku's report, Blizzard is planning on unveiling the opening cinematic movie for Wrath of the Lich King at the event.

Following the airing of the opening movie, the company will also host a Q&A session, presumably to answer questions folks may have on the cinematic.

Playable demos, an opening cinematic, and a forum for questions. Sounds like the Blizzard media machine is going full force at Leipzig. Keep checking QJ for updates from Leipzig as it happens.

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Related Article:

• Blizzard confirms showcase at Leipzig Games Convention 2008

Source: wow.qj.net

Here's a short report for you regarding the Wrath of the Lich King beta. Word has come from the Livejournal community for the game that you can now ride mounts in Booty Bay.

As we said, it 's nothing special in itself, but combined with other bits of information, it paints a pretty interesting picture.

For one thing, given that people can now ride mounts at level 30, and that Booty Bay is essentially a mid 30- early 40 zone, it makes levelling just a tad bit faster, since you don't have to run around the entirety of Stranglethorn Vale anymore.

Furthermore, this bit of news sort of signals a change that may grow to be important for the basic infrastructure of WoW. Specifically, we're talking about what constitutes indoors and outdoors in the game and, thus, what areas you can use fast transport in. We're hoping the system caters more to hub towns being mountable areas, but that's just our personal preference.

What do you think? Do Mounts in other hub cities sound good to you?

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Related Article:

• Mounts to be available at Level 30 (via 2.4.3 patch notes)

Source: wow.qj.net

Eve of the Leipzig Games Convention: setting up the booths
Leipzig is looking pretty spiffy this year, and I'm really looking forward to it, considering how much of a downer E3 turned out to be. Anyway, the good folks at 1UP have posted a new bunch of photos from the site of the Leipzig event as the booths are being set up for the big shebang tomorrow.

My personal favorite are the promotional figures for Lego Batman made up entirely of Lego blocks. Several major booths worth of noting is the not-little-but-big LittleBigPlanet booth, Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and Mirror's Edge. You can see who else is coming to the show by clicking on the pics below.

For more pics from the site, follow the source link below. As expected, there's no sign of Nintendo, who has decided to go on a roadshow rather than join the rest of the group.

---

Related Articles:

• Nintendo to skip this year's Leipzig Games Convention
  
• Acclaim Chief Creative Officer: E3 is broken and an embarrassment
• Blizzard to show off Lich King opening cinematic at Leipzig Games Convention
• Age of Conan DirectX10 features to be revealed at Leipzig

Source: wow.qj.net

Ok folks, the release of Burning Crusade is a mere 9-10 weeks away!

Let's recap your current situation. At this point you're level 60…..a PVP king and just sitting back waiting for the BC expansion pack. Well, I'm sure you realize thousands upon thousands of players on your server(s) are sitting on a boatload of gold just waiting to get their hands on the new slotted objects/trinkets/armor that will be coming with the expansion. The question is, do you want to compete with them in the AH to purchase these items, or do you want to be the entrepreneurial chap who has stockpiled the components to make these new items? Hopefully you do realize the demand will be staggering for these components! Time to prepare to get rich! Notice I said prepare, it's time to horde (no pun intended) reagents in preparation for the new item crafting/buying rush!

From the little bit of recipe info leaked it seems many of the new items won't stray too far from the components already needed. Specifically thorium and arcanite crystals will be in high demand! The one item I've found with specific statistics which will only be able to be crafted in the expansion is an "Arcanite Sword Pendant" which you will be able to drop into a slotted sword……and get this. It will add +40 STR! Woah!

Now how many thorium bars will such a craftable item require? Not sure, but it will surely be quite a bit! So essentially it's time to start mining thorium ore like a madman and stockpiling thorium bars! My prediction is thorium will be selling for 500% more than it currently is on the AH once crafting gets rolling on the new items. Demand will be extremely high for thorium and arcanite bars, and arcane crystals (required for the transmuting). So get to stockpiling!

Here are the locations for the RICH THORIUM VEINS all you miners should be picking away at.

http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5892

And now for the ARCANE CRYSTAL farming spots.

http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5924

Stockpile these 2 resources like madpeople for the next few months. You won't be sorry you did! I'll be keeping an eye out for other leaked recipes, but it's a pretty safe bet you should be stockpiling level 60 reagents in general! Herbalists, go get that Wild Thornroot and SAVE it!

http://www.thottbot.com/?i=5924