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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land World of Warcraft merchandisers supreme Jinx have unleashed their new winter line just in time for Christmas, complete with the return of the talking, hand-humping murloc plushies.
Last month, the World of Azeroth got a great deal larger as Blizzard released the second expansion for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King.
Doubt anyone – EB Games included – could have guessed the launch of the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King would be the retailer’s biggest ever.
How can a European guild have possibly defeated all three of Wrath of the Lich King’s major PVE raids in the span of three days? It’s simple – dedication. The kind of dedication that leads a 15-year-old Swedish boy to play the game until he goes into convulsions and passes out. That’s exactly what a teen in Laholm, Sweden did this past weekend, after getting together with six friends for a marathon gaming session. The boy is expected to make a full recovery but his father said he plans on limiting the amount of time his son is allowed to play computer games. His father also warned other patents about the dangers of their sons’ extended game playing. “They also think the boys need to reduce the amount of time they play and will themselves be more vigilant,” he said.
Well now that was fast. World of Warcraft’s latest expansion hasn’t even been out for a full week, and already the three new 25-man raids have been soundly trounced. The nameless European super-guild formed by the union of Nihilum and SK Gaming completed Naxxramas, Eye of Eternity, and Obsidian Sanctum, all by Saturday. That’s within three days of the expansion’s launch. The raiders’ concerns echo my own quite succinctly.
Upgrading from regular old World of Warcraft to the newly released expansion Wrath of the Lich King is likely reward enough for fans of the MMO. But Blizzard obviously appreciates its fans enough to go to the lengths to give them a bit of an Easter Egg following the upgrade process in the form of a gorilla and shark high-fiving in front of an explosion. You know this image, right? Of course you do; you’re a well traveled man or woman of the internet.
While perhaps not as glamorous as the posh New York City Best Buy launch Jim attended last night, the other end of the US East Coast was representing last night at the Mansell GameStop in Roswell, Georgia for the World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King midnight launch. There were chicken wings, and pizza, and…more chicken wings. And the costumes! You should have seen the costumes! Okay, I was probably the most costumed person there, but I don’t think documentary director Roger Michael Moore is a race in WoW…yet.
What happens when you throw a launch event for a game with 11 million subscribers in the biggest city in America? You get a spectacle of epic proportions. Spike TV was there. Geoff Keighley was there. Just about everyone from Blizzard was there. Midnight launch events for video games tend to be hit or miss these days. Considering the amount of big-name titles being release this holiday, fans can’t stand outside in line for every game. Blizzard didn’t have to worry, though, they’ll come out for World of Warcraft. A rough guesstimate says there were about 200 people there, which wasn’t too bad considering it was around 40 degrees outside. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of cosplay, either. But Blizzard promised me a something special would happen when the clock hit midnight.
The Powell Street GameStop started its World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King launch party at 8 pm sharp — but many fans lined up outside the store as early as 6 am. “I’m not a nerd,” said one chair-sitting fan. “Really – I just came here to laugh at people.”
