'WoW' players prepping for 'Wrath of the Lich King'
The inside of the 'Wrath of the Lich King' retail box teases players with a challenge. The expansion to the hugely popular 'World of Warcraft' goes on sale tonight at midnight.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)For World of Warcraft players who over the years have grown accustomed to seeing busy in-world auction houses, the last few weeks may have seemed odd.
Normally bustling with players eager to buy or sell weapons, clothing, armor, or other goods, business at the auction houses has recently slowed to a crawl. But it's not because of the global economic crisis.
Rather, say WoW aficionados, players have been hoarding their gold in anticipation of the release Thursday of the game's latest expansion, , and holding off on buying items that would soon be obsolete.
This is just one example of players of the hugely popular massively multiplayer online game behaving differently as Lich King's release approaches.
The game will go on sale nationwide after midnight (12 a.m.) Thursday, and retail stores expect lines across the country.
And while not all 11 million WoW players plan to upgrade to the new $40 expansion, it seems that enough will do so that life in The Burning Crusade, the first expansion, which came out in January, 2007, will likely resemble the empty streets of an urban downtown in the middle of the night.
According to Colin Sebastian, a senior vice president of equity research at Lazard Captial Markets, Lich King is likely to sell 4 million copies in the first quarter after its release. That means, Sebastian said, that WoW's publisher, Blizzard Entertainment, is looking at potentially $120 million in revenue for the quarter.
The front of the 'Lich King' box. The expansion will sell for $40, and analysts expect that the publisher, Blizzard Entertainment, will earn $120 million from sales of the expansion in the first quarter after its release.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)And while it is too early to tell whether those predictions will prove accurate, it's almost certain that the release of Lich King will end up being one of the biggest days in video game history.
"We would assume that the majority of those who migrated to Burning Crusade will also move to Lich King," said Sebastian. "Wrath of the Lich King should at least match what Burning Crusade moved."
If so, Blizzard is looking at a great Thursday, as Burning Crusade sold 2.4 million units in its first 24 hours, according to a press release Blizzard released in early 2007.
In order to advance to Lich King, WoW players will have to have already upgraded to Burning Crusade. And while not every player has upgraded, many millions have.
One major reason for players to make the move is that Lich King will have a new top level of 80. Burning Crusade topped out at 70, while the original game had a cap of 60.
In addition, Lich King will offer the first WoW hero class, the necromantic death knight; will have an achievement system that offers more than 700 goals and subsequent rewards; and will be played on a new continent, called Northrend, "the icy domain of the Lich King."
The folded-out inside cover of the 'Lich King' box.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)Blizzard recently unveiled the achievement system, however, and that, in conjunction with the forthcoming release of Lich King, has led to one of the most visceral behavioral changes in advance of the expansion.
According to multiple WoW users, many players have been feverishly trying to complete as many of the achievements in advance of Lich King's release as possible.
"Everyone is running old content just to get the achievements for it," said Erik Johnson, a longtime WoW player who plans on buying the expansion at midnight Thursday. "We ran a raid through Blackwing Lair, which was once the toughest part of the (original level) 60 endgame, just for the sport--and to get everyone their achievements. Right now it's time for the obsessive types to do all their achievement runs, because everything else is on hold."
Johnson explained that Blizzard has created achievements for things like completing dungeons and killing the last bosses in each dungeon, for exploring all areas of the game's map, for completing quests, and even for doing things like cooking and fishing that players often did in their downtime.
"Level 70 (players) were chain-running low-level dungeons to get every one," said Johnson, referring to players who were completing easy dungeons in order to get the achievements.
Other players agreed, explaining that many people are trying to finish off as many lower-level instances, or challenges, as possible before the level 71 through 80 areas open up in Lich King.
"Achievements are a big deal," said Mike Schramm, an editor of the popular blog, WoW Insider. "So most people are just busy trying to catch up on those--doing the same old stuff, but getting achievement credit for it. Once the expansion drops, we'll all be up in Northrend, and no one will be going to the old (Burning Crusade) instances. So everyone is trying to run the BC instances as much as possible...to finish them up before the crowd moves on. When everyone's at level 80 and you need to run a level 70 instance, you'll be out of luck."
Schramm also explained why the auction houses in the existing game have come to resemble ghost towns.
"Most of the gear and crafted stuff in the game is about to become useless," he said, "so no one is really buying anything. Everyone's saving their (in-game) money for what's coming in the expansion...(That) means that if you have a lot of items that you're trying to sell, you won't really find too many buyers for them. Crafted items, especially--usually people are trying to gear up their characters with stuff from the auction houses. But (on Thursday) we'll all have access to brand-new gear, so none of that older stuff is selling."
For Schramm, the upcoming release of Lich King has been a boon, and not just because he's excited to play through all the new content.
The back of the 'Lich King' box. Gamers can expect to find lines at retail stores throughout the country Wednesday night, as the game goes on sale nationwide at midnight Thursday.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)Rather, as one of the editors of WoW Insider, which is part of AOL's Weblogs network, he's seen traffic skyrocket as the expansion's release has approached.
He explained that in the weeks following Blizzard's annual fan fest, BlizzCon, which took place in mid-October in Anaheim, Calif., WoW Insider has become the third most popular blog in the network, after Engadget and Autoblog and surpassing the network's main games blog, Joystiq.
And while much of that growth has been because of Lich King excitement, Schramm expects many of his new readers to stick around even after the expansion's release.
One concern he has about the release, however, is whether Blizzard will be able to keep its WoW servers up and running in the face of millions of players logging on simultaneously.
That was a problem the company had with the Burning Crusade release, and Schramm is hopeful Blizzard learned a lesson from last time.
But his real question about the release is just how long will it take someone to get all the way to level 80.
"If (Blizzard handles the server infrastructure) right, we'll see a level 80 player this weekend," Schramm said. "Actually we'll probably see a level 80 player this weekend anyway, but that's just because people are nuts."
He said average players will take a few weeks to a month to reach the new top level, and lots of players will take even longer than that.
"But the big raiding guilds will do it within a week or so," Schramm said, "and someone nuts will do it in about 30 hours. Last time around, it took a guy 28 hours."
Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel. 
MMOG needs to finally evolve into something better. There is so much potential in the genre that is wasted on time sinks, repetition, and cliche.
Blizzard may be making money hand over fist, but they aren't producing anything worthwhile.
It's their life.
Their religion.
Their God.
It's sad.
I've promised myself I'll never start playing it, for fear of being hooked as well. :)
I'm also secretly wondering how many more expansion packs WoW will be able to release before the franchise starts to decline. Guesses, anyone?
It will take a next gen game to put a dent in WoW. Hopefully the next gen games will present something new. WoW == EQ with less time sinks.
Nada, heck try to find a store that even stocks eq2?
We stopped playing and already we're more productive - our apartment's actually fully unpacked! (Wowsers!)
blizzard has already started work on "the emerald dream" the next expac and from what is being said this will be the last expac to follow current lore in the warcraft fantasy world they really would have to come out with a new warcraft before expanding to a 4th(after emrald dream) just to put into play more lore. warhammer was supposed to be the death of wow in fact fopr the last year wow has ment waiting on warhammer. however that game has tanked its not nearly as addicting as wow . to blizzards praise and marketing wonce you start even if you hate games you will never stop
It just takes time. That is the problem, challenge is defined by time, but actual difficulty.
Either way, this game is gonna be huge.
i think that can take down WoW
All I keep hearing is how this expansion is anticipated and everyone is going crazy about it. Come on, there are many other games that are significantly better. Take LOTRO for example. Its like DAoC back during EQ's hayday. Much better product but less advertising.
Forget about getting to level 80 , make friends , explore content .... have fun.
But games are there so you can have fun. And if you're having a blast playing WoW (I did when I tried it) then you do what makes you happy. After all, if you're not hvaing fun there is no point in playing the game. To me personally, endless grind and constant idiocity of 99% of the populace (i.e. barrens chat, chinese farmers, etc) is not fun. But some people arent bothered by it (or part of it).
Was your comment just to stir the pot, or are you really that narrow minded? I have plenty of friends in real life, and plenty of people I have "met" online that I would also consider friends... some of whom I've actually had the opportunity to meet up with in real life.
Just because we are seperated by geographic location and may never see eachother, does not mean we cannot be friends. If you had any experience with these games, you'd know that relationships form through them. WoW is just the foundation that brings us together. We might share the same interest in a sports team, music genre, so on and so on. I myself am a member of a large guild, many of the players I would consider to be friends. A large population of these players will communicate through Ventrilo (myself included). It's gone beyond more than just text on a computer screen. When we can chat live, tell jokes, share stories, or talk about our day... how is that any different than what I would do with a "real life" friend?
End of rant.
WoW is a 3d social playground like the old NeverQuest. I'll stick UO or EVE Online. There, you can OWN structures rather than just the clothes on your back.
- by toninoname April 29, 2009 6:08 AM PDT
- We have roughly 4 days before May 2 to finish the Noble Garden Achievements. I?m following a guide on http://www.wrathking.com. Do check it out! It?s almost May 2nd. Happy hunting!
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