Results tagged “Events” from From the Abbey to Outlands

Below you will find a gallery of a few of the more spectacular sights I saw in the month or so between the launch of Wrath and when my paladin Medros dinged 80. Enjoy.

This game... this community, has seen a lot of changes in the 4 years of live and another 6 months of beta before that. I have seen it progress from the Stress Test leveling contest that was extended due to a Hurricane, to an open beta where thousands beat down the virtual door of File Planet to get access. When the game launched, it did so with a fanfare to rival blockbuster films like Lord of the Rings, and books like Harry Potter. Within days the game had broken the records for MMO sales, and subscribers, the 500,000 peak of the past mere dust in the trail of World of Warcraft to the top. I was live on WoW Radio that day, 4 years ago, when the station owner Athalus interviewed the CM Caydiem live on the air via cell phone, since she was at the Fry's opening in Fountain View.

We have seen patches, nerfs, buffs, and complete game revamps many time since then, with all classes and specs getting their own share of love and hate. All through this, from Northshire Abbey on my first Paladin, Medros of course, on the Mannoroth PvP realm, to Medros, the 71 Paladin on Argent Dawn, who runs alongside 3 other high level characters and in a guilg that I do not think has a rival in the game, there has been a lot of names of the past. Dedric, who I played that stress test with, who played on Bronzebeard least I heard. Arcaron who was at WoW Radio, but loved to another server in the free transfers that came in those early days.

Even with the Shadow Walkers, I have seen a significant number of changes, from officers coming and going, to changes in the top 2 ranks of the guild. The game, my gametime, and how I play has changed a lot over the last four years, and so has the method of my interaction with the community. I went from fledgling show host with a few thousand tunes on WoW Radio to a Podcaster with hundreds of regular downloads with All Things Azeroth and a co host who not only knows her stuff, but has a desire to see the show grow, and improve. How can life, my memories, my game get any better? A polar bear cub pet, of course!

This is a link to my Wrath CE unboxing. It's my first try at this king of video, hell any kind of video, so be kind!

I know, I know, I promised that tonight there would be a live All Things Azeroth recording, and while it likely won't go out as a podcast item, there will be an event tonight on Stickam. I will be doing unboxing, first showing you all my original Collector's Edition for the game's launch, then my Wrath Collector's Edition. These will likely go live about 12:30 or so CST, and last about 15-20 minutes. If I can do it, I will put the video out on YouTube or something, so that you who cannot make it due to purchase lines and stuff can still see the glory of the CE. Graece may be there as a watcher, though her eagerness to get into the game will be hard to beat. So come on, join me tonight, and we'll all revel in the CE together!

I was surfing around a few minutes ago and found a thread posted in the US forums by the Blizz rep Crygil, stating the beta realms were down as of 12 am PST. While it is true that beta realms have been literally deserted since 3.0.2 hit, I am very surprised that they brought the beta realms down so far in advance of the expansion launch. I am both surprised and saddened that there was no final event, like both of the prior betas. Vanilla WoW and TBC betas both had huge end of beta events! Deciding to test the waters, since it was about 3:15 CST(1:15 AM PST) I quickly updated the last beta patch and tried to login.

That was the point when I got the screenshot the to the right, a final farewell to the beta realms. While the beta realms are not yet down completely, I trust the blue in that they will have the realms down, but it saddens me that they could not take the Wrath beta out with their traditional, and beloved bang. No raid bosses in Shatt, not Lich King in Dalaran, no Magtheridon in Dun Morough. Just... *poof*. /mourn You will be missed, Wrath Beta Realms!

[Update: Apparently the 10 PM posting last night was meant to say that beta realms will be going down at 11:59 on the 4th, not 12:01 on the 4th, so they are still up as of 12:30 CST, but alas nothing notable going on, other than people spending all their gold on stupid stuff.]

Well, it's November 2nd, and that means that while it seems the Scourge Invasion is still in progress, the Hallow's End festival is now done for another year. How close are you to your particular faction's Hallowed by Thy Name meta achievement for a wicked 'The Hallowed' title? Don't forget, 3.0.3 will bring a change to that particular meta to remove the Mask For All Occasions achievement from the current live version of the meta. Me? I got no new helms for my toons. I still have no Sinister Squashling, though I will admit I did not summon the Horseman as much as I could, only doing about 30 or so summons between all my toons.

I wish Blizzard would make them more plentiful, as well as the new item The Horseman's Reins, but I think they best we are going to get is that the Squashling and Helm now come in the treat bags. I did get The Horseman's Helm on Telaan, making it 2/2 on my plate wearers, and Ameland got the new The Horseman's Blade, which looks awesome and has a nice Greater Agility enchant. I have about 150 Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern stored away on my mule, and those will be used to get my Death Knight the Check Your Head achievement and the rest will go on the AH around the end of Novemeber so all the other Death Knights can get their heads checked on time.

Lastly we have a little reminder. As it is the beginning of November, it's time to run out to Nagrand, to Aeris Landing, and grab your free container of gems, also known as Membership Benefits, if you are friendly or better. If you have no rep, I would hold off until the end of the month, since rep for these beings is faily easy to grind and honored is not that hard to get. The item you get is based on your rep at the time you complete the quest, I beleive, so it is always better to hold off and see what you can hit by month's end.

I have been blogging a little less than often in the last few days, but I promise I have a few good reasons. I tried to get some posting done in advance, and it worked, to a degree. I did run out of advance writing on Friday. The reason I was in need of working ahead, is because I had a couple of important events in the last week. The first was a private event in game, and while I will not go into what it entailed, let's just say it was an added level of connection for me, and involved a collar.

The second, this past Saturday, my Draenei Paladin was married at an as yet undiscovered location in the world by most players. I will be posting screenshots as soon as possible, but I had several high stress days where I tried to write the  words and timelines for both of these ceremonies, which mean a lot to me. Once the wedding was done, I decided to take a day to relax, and then I realized that my game time expires on the 30th, and I wanted to spend as much time as I can in game, in case I can't come back until around the time that Wrath is released.

I should be back into the writing now, and will do my best to get a few more 'in case' posts which can be posted just in case I am not able to write something on the day of. I also plan to do a podcast episode in the next day or two, and will try to edit it for release by the end of the week. In the meantime, enjoy the vibrant worldwide economy, check out my past posts, and see ya soon!