The current Death Penalty in World of Warcraft involves forcing the player to run from the nearest respawn point back to their corpse as a ghost, without any experience point penalty. Is this too light? Should there be an EXP penalty for Death? [comment]
Yes	256	40%
No	241	38%
Don't Care	138	22%
TOTAL	635	100 %	..

Hah, can you get any more devided than that? Well yes, by 2%, but still we can pretty much say that no matter which choice Blizzard makes, half of the people will be unhappy. It's a touchy subject, on the one hand, you want the game to be fun, and losing experience certainly isn't, and on the other, you want players to actually fear death....

Perhaps Blizzard could implement the different rules on different servers? Who knows... we shall see!

Elven Legacy is another of those maps where computers mindless throw cannon-fodder at each other, as player try to change the tide of battle with heroes that they control. Featuring up to 10 players, and radically changed spells that are not just simple variations of the standard set, the map promises to be lots of fun. Side with the High Elves or the Dark Elves in an epic civil war.

Download it here.

By allowing races to recruit neutral heroes, they are able to fill in for deficiencies they otherwise would have that balance them. The best example of this is NE. By recruiting a beastmaster, they are able to not only get a high-hp meatshield hero, which they cannot get normally -- DH is a good tank but goes down fast by nuking --, but they are also able to get high-HP meatshields early on in the game. Considering their only true meatshields appear at tier 2-3 (bears and MG's), this gives them a significant edge early on.

Got opinions? Discuss the issue here.

• World of Warcraft Screenshots

Keep checking back for more.

In our first 2 page installment, we launch the story with a surprise attack on a Protoss Patrol. Light on dialogue, and heavy on action, it makes ideal light 'reading'.

• Phantom's Shadow
• Fan Art Gallery

Remember, if you've got any form of high quality art, wallpapers, sketches, renders, comics or whatever, be sure to send it in.

• World of Warcraft will feature a 24 hour day, just ike real life.
  
• To accomadate for people at various times zones, and people who wish to play at different times of the day (without actually playing at different times of the day in real life), the game will feature internal time zones. That each, different continents will have different times.

Sounds cool!

Comment

• Water Elemental
• Troll Witch Doctor
• Wyvern Sketch

Be sure to leave your comments as well!

For more great art, check out our huge Fan Art Gallery. If you're a talented artist, be sure to send us your work!

• World of Warcraft Screenshots

Kudos to Zogar for the news.

Are there ways to gain experience in the game besides fighting?
Yes, there will be ways to gain experience other than by fighting. Exploring is just one example of how you can gain experience; a character can receive experience by simply finding a new area (for your character) within the game.

Read the rest here. Kudos to Zogar for the news.

It's not hard to see why balance is so elusive, you've got your unique races, each with unique units, all with unique abilities, and you have to somehow make it so that not only does no race have a clear advantage... but every unit is needed to win either! The stats of very unit, every ability will need to be pin-pont exact... or do they?

In our latest editorial, we investigate this matter, and propose a way introducing a 'buffer' against imbalance, and see if we can find a solution to this most difficult problem:

• The Nature of Balance
• Comment

Be sure to give it a read.

While some people love the idea, other's state that it's just not enough to make people care about losing their life. What do you think? Vote this week.

Do you participate in Warcraft III Tournaments on Battle.net? Every Day    4    1%  Sometimes    54    11%  On Occasions    97    20%  No, Never    237    49%  Daboo?    89    19%  TOTAL 481 100 %

• Europe and Asia Battle.net Servers will be down for around 2 hours at 0200 UTC and 0700 KST respectively for maintenance
• Kingdom of Azeroth has scored an interview with Katricia.

And that's all today!

Kudos to Bob Fitch for the news.

When a player dies, he or she will appear at a nearby bindstone as a ghost. While in ghost form, a player can neither be seen by nor see the living. The player must now travel back to where his or her corpse is to become corporeal again. Finding one's corpse will be easy, since players will have a minimap marker that clearly shows the way. Because the player's ghost won't be detectable by monsters, the journey back to the corpse won't be dangerous. After getting close enough to where the corpse is, the player will receive the option to be resurrected a small-but-safe distance from where he or she originally fell (to avoid any nearby monsters). Once the player becomes corporeal again, there are no further penalties for death.

Should a player choose not to retrieve his or her corpse, a Spirit Healer (ghostly NPC) will be available at the bindstone to resurrect the player there for a modest loss in experience.

Of course we are still exploring the death-penalty system and will be flexible in keeping our options open for future changes

He follows the decription of a Death FAQ, so, be sure to read it.

Mass Madness is an advanced variation of the Footman Wars maps that one frequently sees on Battle.net. Except this time, there's Tech Levels, Gameplay Votes, various different cannon-fodder as well as number of other advanced options. Lots of units, lots of chaos, lots of fun.

Download it here.

Yesterday, Joel R. Durham sent them an e-mail about this discrepancy, and got a rather interesting reply:

Thanks for writing to us at Amazon.com.

We rely on the manufacturer for release date information. Our most  recent information is that "Starcraft Ghost" is
currently available at our web site.

It is not uncommon for there to be a delay of several weeks between the release and distribution of a new publication.

If you’ve pre-ordered Starcraft: Ghost from Amazon, you'll probably get a message saying that the game is on its way. If that's the case, don't get too excited. As Joel R. Durham would say, either

a) We're not getting a shipment for a while
b) Someone has been smoking something weird..

Kudos to Joel R. Durham for the news!

Once again we thank everyone for participating in our World of Warcraft beta test signups. Currently, we are reviewing the applications thoroughly, and we will notify selected testers by email before the start of each beta phase. Only selected testers will receive an email from Blizzard. Notification is slated to go out in the weeks ahead. Please stay tuned to www.blizzard.com for more information and extensive coverage on World of Warcraft.

We preach patience!

• World of Warcraft Screenshot Gallery

Be sure to check them out.

• Famous characters, such as Young orc warchief Thrall, the wizard Jaina Proudmoore, and the necromancer Kel-Thuzad will be featured.
• There will be around 3000 people per server.
• Shamans have the 'Spirt Walk' ability, which acts like recall in Morrowwind.
• The faive combat factors are attack value, damage, attack speed, defense, and armor.
• Currently no belongings are lost when you die.

Read the rest here. Oh, there's also new screenshots.

WC3 introduced the town portal as a means to return to your base so you wouldn't lose the game after an unsuccessful attack, or be caught completely unawares by a surprise attack and have your base devastated. By using town portals, you can mitigate the damage of an ambush, or failed attack, or surprise attack on your base or expansions.

However, by doing so, Blizzard removed to a large extent the necessity of scouting and recon that is so prevalent in all the other RTS's. It also removed alot of the aggression present in games like StarCraft.

This is a line of thought that many people will agree with, for a lot of us also consider Starcraft a more fun game to play. Why? This could be it.

• Were Town Portals a good addition?

Be sure to read it and voice your opinion:

As with every other of the author's creation, this one mixes talented sketching with digital effects, creating another worthy contender for your desktop:

• Land of Warcraft

Impressive!

• PG Tour is holding a Wallpaper Competition. The winner recieves $30 US.
• A new World of Warcraft fansite, Blizzard Friends Network, has just opened.
• This is the last day for you to write up your opinions on whether the Orc Race is balanced!

There, boredom quenched!

What is the Total Memory of the your 3D Graphics Card?
Don't Have One	23	3%
8 mb or less	12	2%
8 - 16 mb	21	3%
16 - 32 mb	71	10%
32 - 64 mb	150	21%
64 - 128 mb	287	39%
128+	164	23%
TOTAL	728	100 %	..

It looks like most people are keeping up to date with technology. World of Warcraft is likely to require a 64mb video card to run... and fortunately the vast majority of our viewers do meet that requirement. However, there's still nearly 1 in 5 that do not, if you play to run the next Blizzard game, then it might be time to upgrade!

In Arcane Magic, players can choose between 32 unique heroes to battle it out as the top War-mage... except there's quite a few twists from your average hero Death Match. You can collect herbs to create magical elixirs, visit the library to find recipies, and to win, you must secure all the magical runes from your opponents.

Featuring advanced editing such as custom icons, controls and a hero selection screen is a head above everyone else. It's an excellent map for an intense LAN Party, download it here.

Can you play the game in the first person view?
Yes, World of Warcraft can be played in first person view. Different viewing options can be selected by utilizing either the keyboard or the mouse.

Nice... read the rest here. Kudos to Chib for the news!

So... even if you don't get in the Beta, you'l still have a chance to try the game before its release! Thanks to Ronin for the news!

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In addition, they've release a new Wallpaper titled, Girls of the Alliance, attractive!

There's 10 new screenshots, and some of them are quite funny. So take a look.

We not only take you to the same battlefields, but had to create a multitude of locations that players had never seen before. They range from enchanted forests to volcanic wastelands, from searing deserts to noxious swamps, and even to other out-of-this-world locations through the Dark Portals!

Yes folks, we're pretty sure Draenor is in! Read it.

For your convenience, Chib has compiled all the new questions in one post. Checking that will save you a lot of time!

Highlights this time include this underwater screenshot. The detail is amazing.

In addition, Infoceptor's World of Warcraft Gallery has been totally revamped. It nows features the ability to view all screenshots as a slideshow, viewer components and a lot of other advanced features! Be sure to have a look:

• World of Warcraft Screenshot Gallery

The game is coming along great!

To launch us off, Fadi Mounir has release a script to Infoceptor that allows you to import Warcraft 3 Models Directly into 3D Studio Max. This offers a whole new range of possibilities... and is a major step in making modding accesable to any dedicated fan!

What's more, he has written up a tutorial to get you on right strike. The tutorial is a introduction to modding, and upong reading it, you'll be able to create your custom animations. As long as you have access to 3D Studio Max, the rest is easy! if you've wanted to make your version of Warcraft 3 unique, here's how to get started:

• Warcraft 3 Model Extration and Custom Animation Tutorial
• Warcraft 3 Mod Archive

Got a custom creation? We've love to publish it, so send it in.

This week, we launch off with the topic of Game balance, or more specifically, are the Orc's still too weak after the last patch.

One of the biggest problems pre-patch in this matchup was that HU could easily fast expand and outproduce orc in tier1, then tech to tier2, where their casters were far superior out of the box than orc casters are. As such, orc really had only two choices - they could try to harass HU fast expand and hope to shut it down in time to avoid being outproduced, or they could fast tech and hope to leapfrog above HU tier2 tech and win with a fast wyvern or tauren.

Read the rest here.

Wild-2k once again portrays some very nice work, as you can see. This is Karzack the Shadow King. Check out his thread and post your comments!

Next up we have micuu who has posted chapter one of his "Knowledge ---> Power" story. It's by no means finished, and he's in need of commentary of all sorts. Be sure to help him in his endevour. Good work so far micuu!

We have a couple of works from Guest #22334512. One is a short story of a girl named Amy, and another is a comic strip in the making, called Suicide Girl. Both could use some feedback, so don't be afraid to speak your mind.

There is an odd picture posted by Supersonic2006, albeit interesting. Be sure to check it out.

As far as the Art Forum goes in general, there are quite a few topics asking for some assistance in making banners. If you have some skill with Photoshop and have some time on your hands, stop by and help out.

It's definately interesting, talking about the slow downward spiral of Blizzard. The main reason seems to be Vivendi Universal; they're not giving Blizzard the attention they deserve. Even after employees like Bill Roper resigned, Blizzard heard nothing from its parent company, strengthening and illuminating the reason he, and so many others have left in the first place.

Blizzard's co-founder and president believe that the recent resignations (30 in the last 10 months) will have no long lasting effects on the company; as they say their success is due to the enourmous effort put forward by it's entire team, not a single individual or small group. Personally, I don't believe this is true; Blizzard has lost a great amount of talent this past year, and even if it doesn't somehow affect their ability to create new material, it will certainly effect morale.

The article goes on to discuss the happenings of the new found companies; Flagship Studios and Castaway Entertainment. While both companies are reluctant to reveal anything about the projects they are working on, they assure us that great things are in store. 

Flagship Studios, more specifically Bill Roper; mentioned mixing a few genres when discussing their upcoming game, and they hope to be able to show off that work at E³ 2005. Castaway Entertainment said something on the same lines, along with a hope to display their work at E³ 2005 as well.

Let's hope they reach their goals; I'm rather curious to see what they're cooking up that doesn't fall into a "Diablo", "StarCraft" or "WarCraft" category.

What I'm confused about, however, is why Vivendi doesn't do something about this problem. Even if Blizzard is right about its performance; when you have so many resignations in a short amount of time, especially from CEOs and founders, then something is seriously wrong. Instead of ignoring the problem as they have so far, they should be working to rectify it. If their upcoming games don't take off, it could spell the end of Vivendi's gaming department; something we would rather not see.

Thank White_Pointer for directing me to the article.

In the second part of our guide for the final mission, we detail the exact procedures to eliminate your enemies one by one. How does one destroy base that requires over 100 supply of troops to overrun? What units does one get? How can one prevent Illidan from controlling all the obelisks and spare forces to take an enemy base at the same time? We have all the solutions for you:

• Frozen Throne Walkthrough Index
• Chapter 8: A Symphony of Frost and Flame (Part 1: Techniques)
• Chapter 8: A Symphony of Frost and Flame (Part 2: Procedures)

I've received many e-mails expressing how useful the walkthroughs here have been, and we thank you for your patience as we published the final chapters!

What is the maximum you're willing to pay for World of Warcraft Beta (if it were legal)? Nothing    361    49%  $10    132    18%  $20    103    14%  $30    43    6%  $50    51    7%  $100    11    1%  More!    34    5%  TOTAL 735 100 %

Find out more over here.

Metal: Marines counterstroke is the same strategic game set in a Laval World rather in the Space. What it addresses is the ver large size of its predecessor, and hence is ideal of games on Battle.net rather than Lan.

Download it here. Got a cool scenerio? Send it into our Maps Archive.

• World of Warcraft Fansite Chat

Be sure to read it.

Speaking of WoW, Blizzard is assembling a World of WarCraft team local to Europe; more specifically France. This team will be responsible for customer service as well as technical, along with community relations.

Thanks to Chib for the news. ^_^

When it comes to hard difficulty, the enemy is relentless. There's 3 Level 10 heroes from the enemy, who attack with forces up to 200 supply... and what's worse, you have to protected several bases at the same time.

So how does one spare forces for defence, and yet have a force large enough to attack? How does one protect one's obelisk, and alter once tactics for the new mission objectives? Find out in our tactics guide:

• Chapter 8: A Symphony of Frost and Flame (Part 1: Techniques
• Frozen Throne Walkthrough Index

We will have the second part, a full step by step walkthrough of the level, up very soon.

• 4th: Warcraft 3
• 2nd: Starcraft

But for some reason, the people there decided to give 1st place to Total Annihilation, which was hardly balanced at all, and featured 3D boxes. Oh Well, it is also peculiar that Warcraft 2, the first game that made RTS Games extremely poplar, was not on the list.

You can check out new wallpaper for WoW as well. Very nice work in my opinion.

In RPG news, Tai-Pan has recently started a freeform RPG called Makilia. He's looking for people to join in; so be sure to stop by if you're interested.

In the General Forum, posters are looking for people to play with using Steam. If you're up for a game or two, glance at the thread and add a few people to your list. Be sure to post yours too! The more people to play with...the better...right?

That's all for now...enjoy!

Source: World of Warcraft Forum

• Idiot's Guide to Warcraft 3

Battle of two evils, who would you rather see own Blizzard?
Disney	130	14%
Microsoft	275	31%
Arrrgh!	492	55%
TOTAL	897	100 %

Well, looks like Microsoft isn't the most disdained company after all. When face to face with Disney, hah, it almost looks like heaven! At least, that's what the polls reflect. Perhaps Disney was great when you were eight, but looks like people just don't root for Mickey Mouse anymore.

We sympathise with those become who screamed in terror, and apologise for any nightmares this poll may have induced.