<News Archives>

Happy New Year!! Guten Neu Jahr!

Merry Christmas all!! Feliz Navidad!! Gute Weinachten!!

Today is World of Warcraft's 4th Anniversary. Make sure you log in before 11:59pm by your server's time and check your mail!

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is out!

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is out! Take the fight to the Lich King in Northrend!

Earlier in the week the Plague was cured, but the Invasion rages on!

Hallow's End is over.

The Wrath of the Lich King Pre-Event has begun! The Scourge Invasion has started in earnest!

In this event, players are able to become zombies by:

1. Eating bad grain found in Booty Bay and in Alliance and Horde Capitals.
2. Being attacked by a zombie.
3. Standing in a zombie's infectious cloud.
4. Attacking a plagued critter in the cities.

This is a disease, so any player who can dispel (cleanse, purify, cure/abolish disease) diseases can remove it, or you can seek the healing of an Argent Healer found all over major cities.

If you attempt to remove the disease through effects such as Stoneform, Divine Shield, or Ice Block, however, you will instantly be converted into a zombie.

As a Zombie, you get the following perks:

1. You are now a member of the Scourge faction, which includes many Undead across Azeroth, and perhaps some not-so-obivious members. Seek them out and tell us what you find!
2. All members of the Scourge faction can communicate, whether or not they were Alliance or Horde "in life."
3. Zombies are less powerful (at least right now) alone, but scary in numbers (as they typically are in modern zombie lore). However, they get a unique set of abilities.
4. Zombies can pass the undead plague on to others, both players and NPCs, so you *could* convert a town if you were feeling evil enough and could survive the defenders.

The price of being a Zombie is:

1. Your life slowly drains away, so you have to have something to attack constantly. Zombies have an ability to help them regenerate hp for a while though, but be careful. Once you die as a Zombie, you of course go back to being your normal character.
2. No one who isn't Scourge likes you while you are a Zombie, so be prepared to be attacked by just about everyone.
3. You're slow (You are a Zombie after all) so that people who want nothing to do with you can get away.
4. If you keep your armor on while a zombie and you die to an NPC, you will still pay the durability penalty.

In this event, there will be people spreading the plague, and people curing the plague, though the latter will become harder as time goes by. There will be zombies attacking normal characters, and normal characters attacking zombies. None of these are considered by Blizzard to be griefing, so don't get too angry if it happens to you. It's exactly what should be going on during this event.

I've (Eonwë) been inspired to write a story from the perspective of my Paladin Auros for this event. I've given it the title of the patch to reflect its connection: Echoes of Doom. My intention is to add to it as the event progresses. You get two parts since it started Wednesday and I didn't get the first part up Wednesday. You can find it here if you're interested:

Link to Eonwë's Story

Since I (Eonwë) am a Paladin and do generally enjoy the surrounding lore, and some of you are bound to be Zombies at some point, it's possible you'll find yourself at the wrong end of my exorcism whether intentionally or not (It's not all that easy to tell one Zombie from another, or a PC Zombie from an NPC Zombie), and I'm fully expecting to be surrounded by Zombies at some point, and perhaps absorbed into their ranks a few times if the numbers are great enough or the event progresses such that they become strong enough. In light of this, I'd like to say up front no hard feelings :}

Finally, just remember that this is a one-time event, and after Wrath of the Lich-King is released it will quite likely be done with. Whichever side of the giant zombie fight you find yourself on, please try to have fun. :}

World of Warcraft: The Argent Dawn has contingents in all major cities. Seems the Lich king is on the move! Beware the grain in Booty Bay!

World of Warcraft patch 3.0.2 has been released! Download it now!

Blizzcon started yesterday, and among the things announced was another class for Diablo 3: the Wizard. Check out the Blizzard's official Diablo 3 page for more.

Blizzard also announced that their secret project is indeed a new MMO set in a new universe. No news yet what it's about.

Turbine has finally announced the release date for Lord of the Rings Online:Mines of Moria : November 18th. Looks like there will be some prizes involved as well.

For more information, see Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online page.

While you're there, take a look at the developer diaries for some of the classes from 50-60, and for the new Rune-keeper class. The latter is particularly interesting.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY VALAR GUILD!!!

The Games Page Mass-Update is complete and your new gaming info is up. Thank you to all who replied! Please check your gaming information for correctness and report any errors.

This year, there are no big changes to the Games Page. Any fancy new additions to the Games Page that do not wait for next year will be introduced in the meantime.

Fladrif has sent in a Review for Spore in celebration of the Anniversary. Go give it a look!