There’s not a lot of news this weekend, but this video floating around the web is causing enough stir to deserve a post all on it’s own. If you were at Blizzcon then you already saw it – the complete destruction of the best guild in the game by Hogger – or the steroid infused, resurrected, uber powerful version of Hogger that Blizzard cooked up just for them. It’s fun as heck to watch though – this guy is insane.

Today, well last night, the Armory was taken down to help ease server load for today’s BlizzCon ticket sales chaos:

Eyonix
To further ensure ticket sales for this year’s BlizzCon remains a smooth process for everyone who intends to purchase tickets, we’ll be temporarily taking down the World of Warcraft Armory. This is being done to further alleviate potential load on our website.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

So, with the servers ready, today at 10 a.m. BlizzCon tickets went on sale and 30 minutes later they where promptly sold out!

Nethaera
The initial allotment of tickets for BlizzCon 2009 has now been sold out. If you weren’t able to get tickets this time, you’ll have a second chance on Saturday, May 30, as another batch will go on sale then. Coverage of the gaming festival will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and Internet stream.

So now that the mayhem is over hopefully they’ll bring the Armory back up. Grats to those of you that got tickets today! GL on the 30th for those that didn’t.

So I just got my email stating that the contest begins today. Basically you can get “tokens” for all sorts of things on the website and from drinking Mountain Dew (of course). Each token is one entry into the drawing where prizes are given out every 15 minutes. The prizes are from the typical Warcraft sponsors (Jinx, Razor, and Alienware). Head over to the contest site where you can sign up, view the FAQ and start earning tokens. Prize drawings begin May 29th.

Come back to this post and let us know if you win anything, I’m curious to hear from the winners.

Earlier today MMOC showed a new in-game pet datamined from the new PTR game files and speculated that it might be the BlizzCon present for attending. Tonight Blizzard confirmed those rumors announcing that the pet would be given to those attending as well as those buying the DirectTV package. So here it is, the Grunty Murloc Marine:

Today Blizzard announced  the dates for the next installment of BlizzCon. Below is the press release with details:

PressRelease

BLIZZCON® 2009 ANNOUNCED

Blizzard Entertainment® gaming celebration to return to Anaheim Convention Center on August 21-22 

PARIS, France — February 17th, 2009 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its fourth BlizzCon® gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® universes. In response to the festival’s increasing popularity, this year’s event has been expanded from three convention halls to four.

“We’ve been amazed by the incredible response to each of our previous BlizzCon events,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased to be bringing the convention back to Anaheim this year, and we look forward to this new opportunity to meet Blizzard gamers from around the world.”

BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities throughout the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:

• Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games


• Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers


• Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents


• Community contests with great prizes


• Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes


• A silent auction


• More exciting activities and attractions to be announced

 

Further details, including ticket availability and pricing, will be announced on the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, as the event draws closer.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at http://eu.blizzard.com/en/jobs/.

So what will be this years big news? More Diablo 3 (release date?), More WoW? (next expansion?), SC3?, Next MMO? Next MMO? Oh yeah, btw, Jeffrey Kaplan also announced this week that he was leaving his position on the WoW team to help the top secret MMO that Blizzard is creating:

Tigole
I wanted to take a moment to let the community know that I’ve switched roles here at Blizzard to work on our upcoming, unannounced MMO. World of Warcraft has been such a central part of my life these past six and a half years, and it’s success would not have been possible without the tremendous community around it, so I wanted to say thank you to all our players who’ve shared this amazing experience with us so far. Also, while I have served as the spokesperson and Game Director for World of Warcraft on Wrath of the Lich King, by no means would WoW be where it is today without the dedicated team that we have in place. The WoW development team is comprised of some of the most talented and experienced game developers in the world, and it was an absolute honor to serve amongst them, and they will continue to make WoW better than ever. I still plan to be very involved with the future course of World of Warcraft, but will leave the day to day operations of World of Warcraft to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack.

When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill. So thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the years, and likewise, thanks to those who have given us pointed feedback on all areas of the game. Without all of the feedback and participation, WoW would not be the game that it has grown to be. Azeroth truly belongs to you and we’re lucky to have shared in your journey. And as always, I’ll still be lurking on the forums and in the game.
Mostly, I just wanted to say thanks. It has been an absolute honor.

Jeffrey Kaplan

And last, but not least, who else besides me got completely robbed of their Fool For Love title because of those elusive bags of candies? Bornakk today may have given a small glimmer of hope:

Bornakk
We appreciate your feedback on this and will look into making changes in the future. For clarification this is no guarantee of any retroactive changes but simply that we hope this event goes smoother next year and beyond.


Well, if ,just as an example, changes don’t come until 2010, then I will give you the title “the Love Fool” a year ahead of several people.

Overall we want events, like all aspects of the game, to offer various levels of challenge but also be fun. If we feel things aren’t fun we will look into changing them. Straight nerfs aren’t always the answer but we will evaluate the situation and go from there.

News and updates have been slow as of late, hopefully as the holiday season ends and more game changes/DK stuff happens it will go back to normal. Until then have a safe and happy holidays!

Make sure you log on long enough to get your presents and achievements!

Get your Crashin’ Thrashin’ Robot for the achievement Crashin’ Thrashin’ Racer and Crashin’ & Thrashin’. And of course He Knows If You’ve Been Naughty for opening a present under the tree. Good luck to all those going for Merrymaker!

Enjoy the madness and enjoy your holidays!

Going to a midnight release somewhere? Plan on waiting in line to get your hands on WotLK? TAKE PICTURES! Better yet, send them to me! I’ll be running a gallery here on the site to showcase the opening day events and pictures of peoples newborn Death Knights. Here is what I want:

Midnight Release Photos! - Take pictures from your midnight release journeys! Send pictures to me, preferrably with when and where they were taken!

Newborn Death Knight Pictures!- Take screenshots of your newly created Death Knight and put on them your name, region (US, EU, etc.) and what server!

Lets see how WotLK spreads across the world in pictiures!

Send them to DeathKnightInfo@gmail.com

** remember engrave the pictures with as much info as possible, you can easily do that in MS Paint or other similar programs**

I can understand some peoples frustration with the madness that this event is causing. I normally don’t participate in these extracurricular activities such as holidays and world events. The achievement system will definitely change those thoughts for me.

Last night is a perfect example. I knew I didn’t have time to play, but still wanted to log on long enough to work the AH for a couple minutes…wrong. No big deal, I just logged off. GD zombies. So, wondering if there is any end in site of those of us ready for normalcy? Netheara sheds some light:

Netheara
While we understand that there are people who are not enjoying the events, we can’t guarantee that everyone loves every event. That said, this one will continue until its end and has a purpose within the game for forwarding the storyline that leads into Northrend. It’s important and for many it’s fun.

It won’t last forever though.

While we don’t mind constructive feedback, this event will continue and has an end. It’s not forever, though some would like it to be.

If this event is causing you undue pain or stress, then, it might be a good idea to take a little time off until it is over. Again, it won’t last much longer and has an end. It’s important that you take care of yourself first and foremost above anything else.

And just as I hit publish on this post, Tigole drops this bit of info:

Tigole
We’d like to thank players for participating so zealously (and valiantly!) during the Great Zombie Plague of ‘08. Our intention with this event was to create something memorable and to literally change the face of Azeroth for a few days. This event is just one of many leading up to Wrath of the Lich King. As you know, the Scourge Invasion is now live as well and there is some other cool stuff coming up before all is said and done. Also, Hallow’s End continues on!

While we recognize that the event could prove to be disruptive at times, we hope you made the most out of it while it lasted. Part of playing in a “living and breathing world” means that things are going to change from time to time. We meant no harm but only wanted to create a lasting impression on players as they head to Northrend to defeat the Lich King. The Lich King’s goals (as you will soon learn) are to turn the Horde and Alliance not only on one another, but on their own kind as well. I think the plague truly demonstrated this firsthand.

So it looks like a cure has finally been found… for now.

Thank you for participating in our most memorable event to date… for better or for…rrrrrrraaaaaains…

Couple of other important notes:

* The scourge invasion will continue for a few more days.
* The prologue event is not over! More to come!!
* The Karazhan boss will be up for approximately another week still
* We increased the respawn rate of the Necropoli
* Zombie cure should kick in by around noon PST

There are roughly 17 more days until the release of WotLK, so one might be thinking; “Can this zombie crap last that long?” Tigole gave some insight on what may be the length of the invasion when someone asked if Tenris Mirkblood would be a permanent addition to Kara:

Tigole
He’s around for approximately 10 days. Because he’s rare, he drops a bat for everyone. The Ripper is the rare item.

No, he didn’t say the invasion would end in 10 days, but last I checked 2+2 does = 4…right? You might also expect to see more zombie action as all servers will be going through rolling restarts this morning.

A cool way to spend your time in WoW!
Hey! Did you know that you can actually play poker in World of Warcraft? It’s called WoW texas holdem and for you who don’t know, texas hold em is one of the most popular version of the genre called poker game. It’s a great WoW addon and perfect to play between raids.

Phase 4 of the Scourge Invasion brought to live servers Tenris Mirkblood, a new boss in Karazhan. Here are his drops along with some video of the encounter and the guitar, um, axe that he drops. (pictures via MMOC)

Loot Table:

• Arcanite Ripper:

• Vampiric Batling (one for everyone in raid)

• Badge of Justice x2

The cool part about the Arcanite Ripper is when you equip it and click on it you will turn into an undead male and play it like a guitar!

Here are a couple of videos showing the actual Tenris encounter: