As of midnight tonight the new Warcraft expansion “The Wrath of the Lich King” goes live and millions of players all over the globe will embark on playing the latest installment of Blizzards long awaited sequel to their last expansion for the World of Warcraft.

It may surprise you to know that If you walk through a crowded town centre the statistics predict that you will never be more than 10 feet away from a World of Warcraft (WoW) player…. that’s quite a scary stat too!
I used to play this game regularly and am at a point now where I only dabble for a few hours a week. I have friends who have racked up over A YEAR in time spent in front of their screen playing WoW! While this is not uncommon around the globe I’m surprised that Blizzard Entertainment are not doing anything to tackle the problem of Warcraft addiction…. and it is an addiction.

I still play the game but the fact is I only do it to maintain the social aspect which I like. In truth the game is pointless. The only fun I have in it now is within the conversations with the players. I’m not really having any fun anymore playing the game cos it’s become repetitive, a constant goal of more epics… no real achievements, plenty of purple gear but nothing really gained…. and to make matters worse the new expansion negates all progress you’ve made by raising the bar to level 80 and rendering all your hard earned gear obsolete. I’ll play the new expansion cos it’ll be fun to explore the new aspects of the game they have introduced… but once I’m lvl 80 I can imagine i’ll not play much.

The real fact is Blizzard need to face up to the issue that they are destroying peoples lives by not setting play limits on the game. There are groups everywhere for people who have lost everything through WoW addiction. Check out a few:

http://www.wowdetox.com/

Yahoo.com WOW Widows

http://gamingsucks.com/

Here’s a vid to help people quit too! - How to Quit Playing WoW!

Remember peeps… everything in moderation!

So I heard an inkling that the female nightelf dance in warcraft is based on the french singer Alizee’s dance in a song of hers…!

Who would win in a celebrityscrap!!!

Check it out!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsKGRAX4KRM&rel=1]

Ok…. so after seeing what various friends of mine have done of their blogs I’ve decided to throw down a Christmas competition! Last month one of my friends quit Warcraft and gave me a free game-card which i still haven’t used!!!

So in the spirit of Xmas I’ve decided to pass this freebie onto all of my celebrityscraps fans!!

It’s very simple…. entrants my post a LINK to a “funny WoW screenshot” that THEY TOOK in the comment section of this post….. the winner is the one that i deem to be the funniest!

Here are the rules!

1.) Winner will be chosen by me

2.) My decision is final

3.) Arrangements for collection of the prize will be made between myself and the winner

So get taking those screenshots and win yourself and extra Xmas pressie!!!!!

Lol… check this out.. for all Leeroy Jenkins Fans!!!

Leeroy Jenkins Sound Keyboard

This isn’t exactly a scrap but as i’ve been following the development of Warcraft I though I’d post this picture and some of the exclusive comments on the upcoming expansion!

The basic story is that Arthas the once Paladin turned Death Knight who became the Lich King at the end of Warcraft 3 is sending out his undead minions on the land of Azeroth to unleash a big can of whoopass… YOU as the player are charged with stopping this!!!

So Blizzard are now gonna raise the lvl cap from 70 to 80 which seems a bit of a sell out to me, as it’s only been about 14 months since the Burning Crusade came out and that expansion will effectively negate a large proportion of players achievements. People may remeber the way T2 items got replaced withing minutes of entering the dark portal… I expect Blizz will have implemented the same frustration in the Lich King Expansion!

New spells and abilities are planned, new trade-skills like “inscribing” and there will be and epic stylee quest that will enable you to unlock the Death night class. This itself seems a bit of a cop out as death knights fought for the scourge…. but apparently you can become one and fight for the alliance.

Judging by the above screenshot out old friends the Murlocs will appear in WotLK!!!! Everyone who did a Murloc impression just now PLEASE leave the room!!

So to quickly run down the confirmed list of extras. Wrath of the Lich King will add a host of epic content to the existing game world. Players can now achieve an AWESOOOOME level of power, explore a vast new continent (Northrend), and battle other high-level heroes to determine the fate of Azeroth. As you battle against the dangers of the north (i’m getting a flashback to my university days in Sheffield) prepare to:

Features

* Master the necromantic powers of the Death Knight - World of Warcraft’s first Hero class.
* Quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way.
* Learn the craft of spell augmentation with the new Inscription profession.
* Brave the harsh new continent of Northrend, the icy domain of the Lich King.
* Engage in epic siege warfare, deploying mighty siege engines to lay waste to destructible buildings in your path.
* Transform your hero’s look with new character-customization options, including new hairstyles and dances.
* Explore perilous new dungeons filled with some of the deadliest creatures — and greatest treasures — on Azeroth.
* And much, much more… like Epic food and stupid dancing Murloc pets etc

Please don’t say…. “You are not prepared!!!”…… ?

After a long battle Warcraft is victorious… although i suspect the 9 million players would have been reduced to about 900 by the rock hard dudes and monsters from the land of Norrath (EQ/EQ2). My reasoning behind the Warcraft vicotry is it has a much bigger community and caters for most type of game player.

But please remeber to not go overboard with it….! Gaming can be addictive. Only last week a chinese guy died in an internet cafe after playing an “unnamed” MMORPG for 3 days solid… hmmmm i wonder what that could have been.

Remember peeps….. Everything in moderation…………………………………..Except Alcohol!

WARCRAFT

Warcraft has it’s fair share of Weapons… the range from:

1. Grey (crappy blunt and old)
2. Green (uncommen and useful)
3. Blue (Rare and highly sought after)
4. Purple (Epic quality a must have for a serious player)
5. Orange (Legendary - very few players obtain these)
6. Red (Artifact - only available to Games Masters)

The dynamic of Warcraft is based around kit and how you play your class. The main focus being on the buffs and bonuses each item gives you. So most of the WoW weapons are pretty nice and shiny!

EVERQUEST

The weapon dynamic seems to be very different in EQ/EQ2 and there is more focus on trained skills and teamwork rather than the brute force used in other games. There are multiple types of weapon and different quality of weapons also, which is comparable to WoW.

The concept of gaining loot of dungeon bosses remains the same however, with groups of players banding together to take down big nasties.

OVERVIEW

Ok so a brief overview of the Warcraft universe; The Warcraft universe was first introduced in the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans PC game. This world exists in an ethereal plane called The Twisting Nether. In this universe’s history, inter-world travel is rare, but can be achieved using magical portals. Known worlds include Azeroth, Draenor, Argus, K’aresh, and Xoroth.

Most of the Warcraft content we see in games is set in Azeroth which has three continents:

1.) Eastern Kingdoms

2.) Kalimdor

3.) Northrend

There are also several small islands aside from the three main continents throughout the sea.

The Eastern Kingdoms is the primary home of the Alliance faction and is divided into four sub kingdoms. From north to south:

* Quel’Thalas, a High Elven (now Blood Elven) kingdom that has lost most of its former glory.
* Lordaeron, a former human kingdom that has been overrun by undead.
* Khaz Modan, a Dwarf kingdom.
* Azeroth (the kingdom has the same name as the planet), the last still prosperous human kingdom.

The continent of Kalimdor is a more rugged area and includes areas like the magical forest where the Night Elf race dwells. Kalimdor is the primary home of the Horde faction. The kingdoms and upper/lower halves of the continents are further divided into smaller regions which in turn are divided into sub-regions (particular geographic features or sites of interest, such as woods or dungeons).

The third continent, Northrend, is an icy continent in the north of Azeroth. Northrend featured in the Warcraft III expansion “the Frozen Throne”, and will feature in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion pack to World of Warcraft.

THE ALLIANCE

The Alliance is one of the major factions in the Warcraft universe.

In World of Warcraft the playable races of the Alliance include Humans of Stormwind, Dwarves of Ironforge, Gnomes of Gnomeregan, and Night Elves of Teldrassil. The Draenei of Exodar became members of the Alliance in the first expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

THE HORDE

The Horde were originally just Orcs but in the World of Warcraft have also formed a loose alliance with the Forsaken, a group of Undead who had broken free of the Lich King’s control (king of the undead dude!). Although mutual trust does not exist between these newcomers and the older Horde races, the magical power of the Forsaken has been a great aid to the Horde. Elsewhere, the Blood Elves, remnants of the High Elves of Quel’Thalas, had been cast out of the Alliance and seek passage to Outland. They joined the Horde after retaking their beloved Eversong Forest and their capital city of Silvermoon.

There are also many smaller powers in the horde, such as some goblins who operate their zeppelins, the stonemaul ogres led by Mok’morokk, the Mok’nathal (half ogres), the forest trolls of the Revantusk tribe led by Primal Torntusk, the uncorrupted orcs called Mag’har who are led by Garrosh Hellscream, the half orcs, as well as the pandaren brewmaster Chen Stormstout.

A wary truce was established between the Horde and the Alliance when they fought the invasion of the Burning Legion in Warcraft III. This truce still exists in World of Warcraft. Currently, both the Horde and the Alliance are at war with the Scourge.

ROUND UP

So that’s ‘Team A’ rounded up… next post will be on ‘Team B’ which is Everquest/Everquest2 and that will be another eye opener.

I hope this post has been a little more in depth as i did get a few messages saying that the first post was a little bland.
Anyway i’ll leave you all with a funny/awesome vid i found!!!!!!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqO7zEWu0W0]

VS

So now to the battle of the Online Gaming giants!!! Everquest started it all… and now there are over 9 Million Warcraft players worldwide!! But what would happen if ever worlds were to collide and forced to battle each other. Who would win??? Everquest with it’s old timer players… or Warcraft with it’s snazzy cartoon features…. LET FIGHT BEGIN!!!!

UPDATED: Due to continuing interest recieved from various sources i’m going to focus on this fight by spliting it into a number of rounds before passing judgement. Enjoy!