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Legendary Pictures has just released the San Diego Comic-Con Exclusive character art of Durotan and Lothar from the upcoming Warcraft film.

"The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: Orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people and their home. Warcraft will be released in June 2016."

Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) and written by Charles Leavitt and Jones, the film starring Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Rob Kazinsky and Daniel Wu is a Legendary Pictures, Blizzard Entertainment and Atlas Entertainment production.

Press release:

For more information, see Warlords of Draenor.

This fall, World of Warcraft players around the globe will clash with the legends of Warcraft’s brutal past when Warlords of Draenor charges into stores worldwide. Azeroth’s heroes can prepare for the coming onslaught today by pre-purchasing the expansion digitally. Players who answer this call to arms will receive their character boost to level 90 immediately†, allowing them to join friends on the battlefield or experience the latest content from a whole new perspective.

The fifth expansion to Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game leads players to the untamed world of Draenor, where the orc warchief Grommash Hellscream is forging his twisted Iron Horde into a world-shattering weapon of conquest. Faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, the champions of the Horde and the Alliance must establish a base of operations on Draenor and seek out courageous allies to make a stand against Hellscream’s mighty war machine.

“We’re sending players deep into uncharted territory with Warlords of Draenor,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “New features like the Garrison will give players a commanding role in the Warcraft saga like never before, and everyone can get in on the action right away with the included level-90 boost. There’s never been a better time to go to war for the Horde or the Alliance.”

When Warlords of Draenor launches this fall, it will introduce a wide variety of epic features and content for players of every kind, whether they’re longtime veterans or new recruits. With the expansion, players will be able to:

• Explore a Savage World: Explore the hostile world of Draenor, home of the orc and draenei races, as it once existed, and adventure in all-new zones alongside characters central to Warcraft history.
• Build a Garrison: Construct, command, and expand your own customizable stronghold on Draenor, and gather NPC followers to collect resources and embark on missions on your orders.
• Instantly Upgrade to Level 90: Upon pre-purchasing the expansion, boost one character of your choosing to level 90, making it easier than ever to enjoy the latest content together with your friends.
• Step Into New Character Models: Character models and animations for World of Warcraft’s original playable races are being fully revamped while maintaining the game’s iconically epic style.
• Adventure to Level 100: Reach new heights of power and unlock bonuses to further enhance your abilities on your way to the new level cap of 100.
• And More: Take on a wide array of Dungeons, Raids, Scenarios, Battlegrounds, Challenge Modes, and more, no matter what kind of content you enjoy, new adventures await.

Warlords of Draenor will come in a Standard Edition (physical and digital versions available), which players can pre-purchase now at a suggested retail price of $49.99. Players also have the option to upgrade their pre-purchase to the Digital Deluxe Edition (SRP $69.99), which contains the following in-game bonuses for World of Warcraft and other Blizzard games (each available in-game at the time of pre-purchase):

• World of Warcraft—Dread Raven Mount and Dread Hatchling Pet: Swoop down from the dark of night on the black-winged Dread Raven, a mortal progeny of Anzu, and devour your prey in your next Pet Battle with the adorably ferocious Dread Hatchling.
• StarCraft® II—Warchief Portraits: Summon the strength of two of the most fearsome Iron Horde warchiefs—Grommash Hellscream and Blackhand—as you clash in the Koprulu sector in StarCraft II.
• Diablo® III—Warsong Pennant: Brandish this battle-torn pennant on your back, and channel the rage of the Warsong Clan against the demonic forces of Sanctuary in Diablo III.

Raven mount and Hatchling pet

Warchief portraits

Warsong Pennant

Add a image to this gallery

Players who pre-purchase either the digital Standard Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition from Blizzard will be able to immediately boost one character of their choosing to level 90, allowing them to experience the latest World of Warcraft content alongside their friends. Players who wish to boost multiple characters to level 90 also now have the option to purchase additional level-90 character boosts directly through the game at $60 apiece. Boosted characters will receive:

• 150 gold
• 4  [Embersilk Bag]s
• A stack of 20 food items
• Full set of spec-appropriate Item Level 483 gear
• If a boosted character was already level 60 or above, their existing Primary Professions and First Aid are bumped up to level 600, as mentioned above
• A faction-specific flying mount—a traditional Wind Rider for Horde or Gryphon for Alliance
• Artisan flying—that’s one rank below max flight speed
• Northrend, Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms, and Pandaria regional flying skills trained

Warlords of Draenor will also be available in a retail-exclusive Collector’s Edition, which comes equipped with the digital bonus items from the Digital Deluxe Edition as well as a full-color hardcover art book, a behind-the-scenes two-disc Blu-ray/DVD set, a CD soundtrack, and a Warlords of Draenor mouse pad. The Collector’s Edition will be available at select retailers for a suggested retail price of $89.99. Players should check their local retailer for details and availability and be sure to lock in their preorder, as supplies are limited.

Continuing our coverage with a semi-late blog Time flies when you're scrambling to different panels for different games - here's some of the info we had yet to blog about, but thanks to our hard working community here, is likely already placed on their respective home pages!

Zones

Frostfire Ridge

• Mostly wintery hills and jagged peaks with occasional volcanoes
• Horde role is evict the ogres from Bladespire Fortress
  • This stronghold will serve as the main Horde hub
• Home of the Frostwolf clan and their rivals, the Thunderlord clan

Gorgrond

• Dry, desolate desert of stone and steam vents
• Home of the Blackrock clan who will try to harness the steam vents to build thier machines of war

Tanaan Jungle

• Lush jungle that would be laid waste and transformed into the Hellfire Peninsula in the original timeline
• Home of the Bleeding Hollow clan

Shadowmoon Valley

• Rolling, moonlit hills
• Alliance role is to save Karabor (we know it as the Black Temple today)
  • This is a draenei holy temple and will serve as the main Alliance hub
• Home of the Shadowmoon Clan

Spires of Arak

• Center of the Arakkoa civilization
  • So far we don't know much about what this zone looks like
• Home of the Shattered Hand clan

Nagrand

• Green plains and rolling hills
  • Hosts the crystal mountain of Oshu'gun which is sacred to the orcs and they believe houses the spirits of their ancestors
  • The least afected zone in the original timeline after the catastrophe that created Outland
• Home of the Warsong clan

Talador

• Autumnal forest, similar to Eversong Woods
  • Center of the draenei civilization and the great city of Shattrath
  • Also contains the shrine of Auchindoun that is most sacred to the draenei
• So far no orc clan has appeared to try to settle here

Dungeons

Bloodmaul Slag Mines

• Located in Frostfire Ridge
• Designed to have four bosses in a non-linear layout
• Story: Cruel ogre slavers operate within a sweltering volcano; the objective is to liberate captive Frostwolf clan orcs and draenei to stage a revolt

Raiding

Flex raid is the future and Blizzard will be expanding on it with a new raid system:

• Raid Finder: 10-20 man flex raids
• Normal raids: 10-20 man flex raids
• Heroic: 10-20 man flex raids
• Mythic: 20 man raids (non-flex)

Blackrock Foundry

• Located in Gorgrond
• First raid for level 100 players with 10 bosses and non-linear like Ulduar
• Story: Dismantle the foundry, destroy the Iron Horde's war machines, and defeat Warlord Blackhand of the Blackrock clan

PvP

Zone

Ashran, a small island to the east, will be the PvP zone. It is described as "how old Alterac Valley was"

• Staging area near the Dark Portal
• Faction bases and hotspots, with real-time monitoring of important areas
• Described as a PvP "sandbox"

Battlegrounds

Though the same system will remain in place regarding farming honor for gear, they're adding in a "bonus random" component as well, meaning the gear you're working for? It may be rewarded to you earlier.

Arena

See Trial of the Gladiator.

Greetings from Anaheim! We've managed to survive the first bit of BlizzCon and have some great news about the next Warcraft expansion: Warlords of Draenor (ps - The Dark Below was a hoax). I know everyone just wants to get to the meat of the news, so here we go!

Backstory

Remember Garrosh? Yeah, who doesn't? Well, if you thought he would roll over and stay imprisoned indefinitely, you are dead wrong. Garrosh escapes imprisonment and, thanks to a "friend" that can bend time, hops back to where it all began: before the opening of the Dark Portal.

To what end, though? One might think his motives pure (if one hadn't met him) as he wants to prevent the orcs from drinking the blood of Mannoroth. That's all well and good, but his true reason? To unite the orc clans within Draenor, arm them with modern-day technology, and then bring them through a Dark Portal that is tweaked to dump this new Iron Horde into our time. Not to have tea, but to crush the Horde and Alliance.

You may be rolling your eyes and sighing just a touch if you think he'll be the main boss of the expansion again, but fear not: Chris Metzen has been kind enough to shoot that theory down. There is a "man behind the man" that we'll be meeting.

Features

New stuff and systems

• Level cap raised to 100

• New player models
  • High priority to keep the soul of the original models
  • Higher fidelity
  • Greater facial detail

• Garrisons
  • WoW version of Player housing!
  • Build your own base on Draenor
  • Collect followers
    • Have them run missions/quests/dungeons, etc.
    • Have them gather or craft
    • Many ways to collect them
    • Level them up through missions
    • Increase their gear ilvl once maxed out
    • They have abilities and traits
  • Customize!
  • Integrated directly into the world
  • Rewards: epic gear, own piece of land, unique benefits from buildings, limited access to professions you don't have (like placing a mine)
  • Garrisons can be expanded over three tiers
  • Select which buildings you want
    • Building can be upgraded and have specialization when reaching maximum rank (3)
    • Example: Inn - find new followers, access to cooking
  • Interact with followers and buildings
  • Monuments and trophies showcasing things like achievements/kills

• Create or boost a character to level 90
  • With purchase, boost a new or existing character to 90

• Inventory updates
  • Adding Heirlooms, toys, and maybe tabards to collection panel
  • Sortable bags (designate bags for certain items, such as vendor trash, gear, etc.)
  • Quest items no longer stored in bags
  • Craft directly from the bank

• Adventure Guide
  • Reveal opportunities for character progression (better gear, instances, professions, reputation, etc.)
  • Next steps to get achievements, explore, finish quest lines, etc.

• New dungeons and raids
  • Seven new dungeons (4 leveling, 3 max level)
  • Heroic Upper Blackrock Spire
  • Bloodmaul Slag Mines
    • Located in Frostfire Ridge
    • 4 bosses w/non-linear layout

• New PvP
  • Ashran island world PvP zone
  • Trial of the Gladiator

Draenor

• Homeworld of the orcs before it was shattered into Outland.
• Heart of the draenei civilization
• A brutal, primal world of giants
• 7 new zones
• Goal is to defeat the Iron Horde before they can come through the Dark Portal

Races/Creatures

• No new playable races or classes announced
• New (and some familiar) races and creatures include the following:
  • Ogres
  • Flying Arakkoa
  • Mok'Nathal
  • Forelings
  • Draenei
  • Sabron
  • Fara
  • Gronn
  • Genesaur
  • Other Draenor beasts

Orc clans

Frostwolf clan

• Chieftain: Durotan
• Based in Frostfire Ridge
  • Snow-covered wastes beneath towering volcanoes
  • Frostwolf clan vs. Thunderlord clan
  • Their land hosts Bladespire Fortress, former Ogre stronghold ( Horde city)

Shadowmoon clan

• Chieftain: Ner'zhul
• Based in Shadowmoon Valley (but not as you know it!)
  • Rolling, moonlit hills
  • Does not control Karabor, the draenei holy temple ( Alliance city)

Shattered Hand clan

• Chieftain: Kargath Bladefist
• Based in the Spires of Arak

Blackrock clan

• Chieftain: Blackhand
• Based in Gorgrond

Warsong clan

• Chieftain: Grommash Hellscream
• Based in Nagrand

Bleeding Hollow clan

• Chieftain: Kilrogg Deadeye
• Based in Tanaan Jungle

BlizzCon

The schedule has been posted for BlizzCon 2013! Here are some of the highlights:

• World of Warcraft: What's Next
• World of Warcraft Arena Global Invitational
• World of Warcraft: The Adventure Continues
• Art of World of Warcraft
• World of Warcraft Raids, Gameplay, Questing, and More
• Warcraft Movie Presentation: presented by Duncan Jones, the director

Heroes of the Storm

Blizzard announced that their title Blizzard All-Stars has been renamed to Heroes of the Storm. This free-to-play MOBA will also be covered at BlizzCon!

• Heroes of the Storm Overview
• Heroes of the Storm Deep Dive
• Heroes of the Storm Live Matches

Connected realms

As promised, more realms have been connected:

New Connected Realms Coming *Updated | 2013-10-17 00:00 | Bashiok

As a part of our ongoing Connected Realms implementation, we will be connecting additional pairs of realms as listed below. We don’t have a specific date yet on when these connections will occur, but we’ll provide another update once we do. Please be aware that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

Next Realm Connection Pairs:

• Balnazzar and Warsong
• Gurubashi and Aegwynn
• Dalvengyr and Dark Iron
• Garithos and Chromaggus
• Onyxia and Burning Blade
• Maiev and Bloodscalp/Boulderfist
  

We're currently evaluating further realm connections and will provide updates as they're available.

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Other news

• The Warcraft package will now include World of Warcraft: Cataclysm; Mists of Pandaria will still have to be purchased, but this should make it a little less prohibitive for new players to join.

• Victory against (some) botters! Blizzard won a major victory against a botting company to the tune of $7 million and the immediate dismantling of the company's botting program. It may slow at times - but keep in mind this case took two years to pursue.

BlizzCon

BlizzCon 2013 is right around the corner, and today Blizzard Entertainment opened doors to the pre-sale the Blizzard Store. The assortment of items includes a Diablo III backpack, a WoW mahjong set, a handful of cute plushies, and various art books, among other things. If you were lucky enough to get a physical ticket or purchased a virtual ticket, the sale will run from October 11 through November 9; remember additional items will be added as time goes on.

If you are lucky enough to be an attendee, consider heading over to the Meeting Stone to see who else is going, plan any meetups, or gloat (well, maybe not that...). There will also be a physical Meeting Stone at the conference:

Find Your Friends at The Meeting Stone | 2013-10-08 00:00 | Zarhym

BlizzCon is a great place to meet up with friends, guildmates, and other cohorts, and this year we’re providing you with the perfect space right on the show floor. Located between Halls B and C, The Meeting Stone is an easy and recognizable gathering point as it will literally contain a giant life-sized Meeting Stone. No more hiking upstairs to squint at each other in a well-lit room, this year you’ll be able to meet up at this central location and be just a scant few meters away from the main stage, demo areas, and other attractions.

The Blizzard Community Team and other staff members will be on-hand to interact with those summoned to the Meeting Stone (and to mitigate potential corpse camping). We’ll be putting together a schedule to reserve space and times for larger groups, to also be displayed at the event.

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Connected realms

Two more realms have been put on the list for Connected Realms: Black Dragonflight and Skullcrusher; Boulderfist and Bloodscalp were the first.

Blizz is rolling this out slowly, measuring the technical limitations and adjusting accordingly. Once they have it nailed down and the bumps smoothed out you can bet they'll be quicker with these sorts of things.

Warcraft movie

It doesn't look like it's been widely publicized, but according to Irish Central it appears the powers that may be are eying Colin Farrell for the Warcraft Movie. Was he mentioned in our fan-made Warcraft Movie Actors list?

Vivendi

It turns out Vivendi, the company that owned majority stakeholder in Activision Blizzard for a bit o' time now, has been given the green light to sell most of their ActBlizz shares back to the game company as well as an investor group led by Bobby Kotick. The deal was stalled earlier this year and sent to court, as at least one minority shareholder thought other minority shareholders should be included in the decision. A lower court judge supported that, but now the higher court has overturned the verdict, and it's expected the sale will happen momentarily, before the Tuesday deadline.

Vivendi will still hold a 12% stake in the company.

The lighter side

• Check out some great Chinese fan art!
• The Onion: always a reputable source of factual information - new Warcraft sequel!

A month has gone by since our last news update. We're still waiting for Patch 5.4.0 which, among other things, brings us the Siege of Orgrimmar and Virtual Realms. So what's the news in the meantime?

Warcraft Movie trailer

If you were lucky enough to attend Comic-Con recently, Blizzard released a very short video blip about the Warcraft movie. Judging by news reports, it wasn't really a trailer as opposed to a "mood piece", but the excitement is building. No one's been permitted to show the clip online, but here's a short description:

From what little information has been released it's speculated that the movie will be a combination of live action with some hefty CG thrown in.

Blizz Shop

Forbes, among others, is in a constant state of wondering if Warcraft will move to the free-to-play option, considering their recent admission that they're working on an in-game store for players:

5.4 In Game Store 100% XP Buff/Transmog items? | 2013-07-08 00:00 | Bashiok

For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game, and ultimately that’s our long-term goal for the system, though there’s quite a bit of work involved in retrofitting those existing items into the new system.

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Items have already reported relating to xp buffs and an alternate means to acquire Lesser Charm of Good Fortune. It will be released to the Asian market first, but there's no reason or indication to believe it won't open up to other markets.

But does this mean Blizzard is moving to a free-to-play scheme soon? Not likely. Sure, subscriber numbers are down, but the game still supports a massive population. I suppose the cynic may point out that the company is looking for a back up once the inevitable happens, and maybe that's true, but it won't be for many years. And as for the pay-to-win argument? Blizzard already quashed those rumors a while back when the first in-game pet showed up at the store.

Children's Book

Be sure to also swing by our Know Days page to vote on the contents of swag boxes (Fantasy, Heroes, and Sci-fi) offered by Loot Crate with a chance to win one!

Heads up, Warcraft fans!

Can you imagine a world where World of Warcraft items like [Frostmourne], [Leyara's Locket], or the [Ashbringer] were real? We definitely can. That’s why we’re asking Warcraft fans to nominate their favorite items from the series to include in a Community Wishlist.

Please comment on this blog with your favorite items from the Warcraft universe. The item HAS to be tangible — if it was real, you’d have to be able to hold it in your hands. Some good examples include:

• [Sword of a Thousand Truths]
• [Ashes of Al'ar]
• [Anathema]

We’ll be narrowing down our list based on the popularity of nominations — so, even if someone else has already nominated the item of your choice, make sure you nominate it again!

Hey there, fellow WoWWikians and Warcraft fans!

Wikia is hosting a gaming grub-themed party and we want food from the Warcraft universe featured prominently on the menu! Whether its  [Savory Deviate Delight] or a sweet  [Delicious Chocolate Cake], it's up to you to nominate your favorite foods.

Please nominate as many foods as you want via the comments. Remember: this is a menu for a gaming food-themed party. The more realistic the entries, the better. Be creative!

Here are the details:

• 
1. Pick your favorite foods.
• 2. Post your nominations in the comments below. Remember, the more realistic and original- the better!
• 3. We will accept entries until December 2, 2013. Wikia staff members will vote on the top entries and will create a new blog with polls on Recipes Wikia for everyone to vote! Once the polls close, we will post the winning menu.

Happy nominating!

Nominate foods on other wikis:

I know the way the wiki calculates the page count is a mystery and potentially sketchy, but when the number shows 99,000 (which happened yesterday, 30-October-2013) it is a ton of pages!

What does this mean? Not much in the larger scheme of things, but it does mean we're very close to the even bigger number: 100,000 pages. So you may get harassing notices from the admins about a push to 100K. We'll definitely try to make it part of a contest with some kind of prize or prizes. Most likely it will be some swag from BlizzCon 2013, but who knows?

WoWWiki hit around 50K pages in late 2007, only about 3 years after it started, so growth has clearly slowed since then. So many pages to add! After BlizzCon I'm going to look into ways to make adding content easier, especially filling in those super-complicated templates that make WoWWiki look so good, but also make it harder to add stuff that looks nice. Some ideas include better boilerplates (including new ones for things like battle pets, glyphs, etc.), third party tools that work with your browser to quickly fill-in stuff (on the Mac, I use TextExpander), and if possible, some in-wiki tools (like better pre-loads or template entry UI).

Over the past few months - actually since the beginning of the year and then some - we've been working on making improvements to the site. Some it is for aesthetics while others are for ease of use and greater functionality. Read on for a more detailed listing of what we've worked on!

Maps

Perhaps the biggest and most complicated project was working out how maps work on the site. Working heavily with code-wiz Pecoes, we mapped out how we wanted things to function and came up with some nice shiny tools that readers should find useful.

Map notes

Class and profession trainers

Shops and other areas of note

Click on the above maps to expand them into their own lightbox. The maps and legend respond to screen size. You can look via the legend or on the map itself; either way you'll get the location you need. You can also locate coordinates yourself by passing the mouse over the map. The symbols on the map are now standardized, so going from page to page you should be able to recognize at a glance those things most important to you.

This functionality also allows us to size the maps however we need on the page.

Map Coordinates

We figured it was hard using the coordinates template at times to see exactly what location was being pinpointed due to the size of the hover map. Now, when you click on the coordinates shown on a page, the same new map lightbox will open and the exact coordinate will show on the map.

Notice the map hover functionality is still maintained.

The golden color also matches another template devised that works directly with map images:

Dalaran

Table of Contents

Sometimes our table of contents can be rather large, or maybe they just look out of place on some screens. Even then, for really long pages, you'd have to either scroll through to where you want to continue reading or go back to the TOC at the top.

Here's what we did (you can test it with this page's TOC!):

• Clicking on the small square icon within the TOC will detach the table. You can move this anywhere on the page you want, and the content shifts to accommodate the empty space.
  • Clicking the arrow button will return you to the top of the page.
  • Clicking the reset button will return the box to its original detached position.
  • Clicking the "x" will reattach the TOC as it would normally appear, docked, on the page.
• When scrolling through the page, the box stays fixed, meaning no matter where you are, you'll always have it at your fingertips. This way you can click on any of the TOC links at any time, without having to scroll all the way back up to the top.
• What if you don't want it detached? Well, click on the small icon immediately to the left of the edit link on any header and you'll be sent right back to the TOC.

Class pages

We've had an enormous revamp of the class pages. Readers no longer have to go to a handful of pages to get the information they need. Instead, each class page will have the following information at minimum: Background/Introduction, Races, Specializations, Stats, Skills (Core abilities and talents), and Glyphs.

Other classes, such as pet classes, will have additional information. Some even have extended information, TCG images, racial advantages, etc.

Aesthetics

Reward sections

As of now, this is still a work in progress, but the end result is that hopefully every page will eventually have the rewards (armor/weapons/items) presented like this:

This item is a reward for the following class/spec:

Druid	Monk	Priest

This makes it easy to tell at a glance what class and spec the item is intended for.

Search bar

Up in the top right of the site is the search bar. Now we have an image placed within that will reflect either the current expansion (so Mists of Pandaria for now) or the current in-game holiday. This dovetails nicely with the change in wordmark that occurs with each holiday.

Past changes

Just in case you missed it, here are some other changes we worked into the site:

• Adding 3d model viewing support, partnering with wowhead
• Greatly enhanced blogs that are featured on the main page
• At-a-glance improvements to infoboxes to show normal, elite, rare, and rare elite
• Incorporating TCG image parameters into templates; creating a TCG box for pages where this was not possible.

I will try to keep this blog post up to date and modify it based on commentary.

Commentary and ideas

Commentary on casuals...

As much press as hardcore players get around World of Warcraft, the difference in making money or not for Blizzard Entertainment is not the hardcore players. Hardcore players don't represent the majority of players, but use up a vast majority of the resources in the game. This is because it is obvious that Blizzard spends a majority of its time catering to hardcore players. They spend inordinate amounts of time creating, refining and tweaking top-level raids, creating and tinkering with itemization for top-level raids and heroic instances, and responding to complaints and support requests from raiders. Blizzard is falling into the squeaky wheel trap.

Because of this misplaced focus on hardcore players and their desire for top-level content, Blizzard is losing casuals. Casuals is what separates World of Warcraft from most MMOs. When the game first came out it was by far the most casual friendly MMO with the most depth and wise gameplay compromises. Blizzard has lost its way from this winning formula and so it is losing casuals^[1] at a rate too fast to maintain growth or even keeping at a plateau.^[2][3]

Why are casuals so important? Because they pay as much as hardcore players, but use far less of Blizzard's resources. If the trend continues, Blizzard will continue to spend more and more resources on less and less players. It could become a vicious cycle.^[4] This time is still probably quite far off, since Blizzard can probably justify and maintain adequate content release cycles as long as their player base remains in the multiple millions, but they appear to be on the downside of the game's life-cycle^[5] and are doing very little to really reverse the trend.

Commentary on twinks

Another group of players, some of whom could actually be considered "hardcore" in many respects, that Blizzard is also neglecting is the twink community. Blizzard has apparently long voiced its support for the twink community, but hasn't really delivered in their laser focus on end-game content.^[6] Although they acknowledge the problem, Blizzard has actually stated that their priority is on max-level PvP and that they apparently don't want to divert resources away from that.^[7] The twink community is less interested in immersion, lore, and quests than some of the casual community, but they definitely want focus on non-level cap, non-end game content. The twinks want attention to class balance and itemization at lower levels. So, as casuals will spend more time leveling at low levels, some of the benefits gained from aiding either twinks or casuals will benefit both.

General

• Allow the use of rest as a sort of currency or pre-req for some content.
• Remove as much grinding as possible. Basically, this means put something in dailies or other rep grind activities far more optional.
  • Dailies should give you something useful like profession ingredients, drink, food, potions, etc. and not just money and rep.
  • Dailies should help complete some larger task, like the opening of Ahn'Qiraj or the various phases of Isle of Quel'Danas.
• Make more dailies for different levels, but with much shorter rep grinds (remove the big grind to exalted for dailies below the level cap).
• Adjust all-level dailies to be divided among racial capitals to make each a quest hub for different level ranges of players. This way, there would be less congestion.
  • Stormwind City/Orgrimmar for level 81+.
  • Dalaran for level 71 - 80.
  • Shattrath City for level 61 - 70.
  • Ironforge/Undercity for level 41 - 60.
  • Darnassus/Exodar/Thunder Bluff/Silvermoon City for level 1 - 40.
• Add more low level instances in or near racial capitals not congregated by level cap players.
  • These low-level instances, if done right can also serve the cross purpose of working on twink class balance through itemization coming out of these new instances.
• Make frequenting less central racial capitals easier by making getting in and out or getting between key buildings easier.
  • Put flight path destination inside Exodar/Undercity or portal inside from flight path.
• Allow players to become quest givers to trade soulbound items for profession ingredients.
• UI for trading macros in-game.
• Tune quests in zones more so leveling matches zones better.
• Add back longer questlines lower and mid-level (<level 60), many of which were removed with Cataclysm.

Professions

• Allow players to craft for other players who have soulbound ingredients, but only one type of ingredient at a time and possible only once per day/week/month.
• Fix Archaeology so it isn't so boring:
  • Add finds that point directly to a new dig site zone rather than mostly random hunting.
  • Allow random items to be found at dig sites that seem at least semi-relevant to archaeology, like recipes, jewelry, etc.
  • Since Archaeology is a secondary profession, make different areas accessible based on a related primary profession.
  • ...or just kill it entirely.
• Fix First Aid so there are more useful products like:
  • More powerful bandages at high levels.
  • More powerful anti-venoms.
• Allow "deconstructing" cloth items for cloth items.

Business changes

• Introduce tiered subscription rates depending on what expansion you have up to. The current model is unfair and new subscribers who don't want to buy all the expansions know it.
• Come out with "Battle Chest" omnibus software boxes with all but the last expansion included faster and for a lower price (say around US$40-60/€30-50).
  • Blizzard recently offered vanilla and for US$20,^[8] so they're already going in that direction, but this offer may be promotional and expire at some point.

Pie-in-the-sky

• Player representation committee to Blizzard. Maybe like EVE Online's CSM (Council of Stellar Management).
• Allow groups of guilds to form "nations" (or "unions"?).
• Guild housing.
  • Player housing. This isn't that important, unless it can be done in a way that doesn't strain server resources too much.
• Player built environment elements (bridges, buildings, farms, tunnels, etc.).

References