Author of World of Warcraft and Philosophy interviewed

World of Warcraft and Philosophy got released a little while back — it’s a book by Luke Cuddy and John Nordlinger that examines WoW-related topics like roleplaying and the Corrupted Blood plague, and ties them into philsophical ideas and thinking. TechFlash has now posted an interview with Nordlinger, and it’s a good read as well. Nordlinger says that one reason they chose to talk about World of Warcraft in this way is that it’s so incredibly big — when you have 12 million (give or take a few at this point) people playing a game with a GDP larger than some smaller nations, you’re going to touch on all sorts of interesting ethical, moral, and other philosophical ideas. He says the book has been pretty popular, and a few universities are currently considering teaching courses based on the material, not only because it’s interesting, but thinking about the game in this way helps improve abstract thinking in general. And perhaps most interesting, he says that reading the book could help players better make ethical and moral decisions in the game. Just ninja-ing

WoW 5th Anniversary Giveaway: World of Warcraft novels

For our final contest celebrating World of Warcraft’s 5th anniversary we have four, count them, four novels from Pocket Books’ WoW fiction line to give away. Well, two novels and two compilation books. So whether you’re a Christie Golden or a Richard Knaak fan enter for your chance to win one of these great lore-filled books. The contest is open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada (excluding Quebec), and everyone who enters must be 18 or older. To enter, leave a comment on this post before Thursday, November 26th, at 12p ET (noon), and please be sure to use a real email that you check often to enter, so we can contact you should you be one of the winners. You may enter only once and a winner will be selected randomly for each one of the following prizes: Arthas:Rise of the Lich King retail value of $25 Night of the Dragon retail value of $16 Warcraft Archive retail value of $17 War of the Ancients Archive retail value of $17 Click here to read the official contest rules.

WoW 5th Anniversary Giveaway: Spectral Kitten loot code

In honor of World of Warcraft’s 5th Anniversary today, we are kicking off three days of giveaways with one of the sweetest, shiniest, most drool-worthy prizes we could get our hands on: the ultra rare Spectral Kitten from Upper Deck’s upcoming Scourgewar TCG expansion. The code from this card can be redeemed for an in-game non-combat pet called the Spectral Tiger Cub (complete with miniature armor) that follows you around playfully and meows when you click on him. How do you get your chance to win this? Put down the E-Bay bid and step away slowly, pet collectors, we have a better way for you here at WoW.com. Simply leave a comment in this post by 12pm (noon) tomorrow ET. That’s it. Limit one entry per person and make sure you’re registered with a valid email address. We’ll be choosing one winner randomly from the entrants and contact them via email after the close of the contest. Note that we won’t be emailing the code to the winner until mid-December when it is made available to us by the fine people at Upper Deck. And the best part? This contest is open to all

Encrypted Text: Leveling a rogue, level 71-80

Every Wednesday, Chase Christian of Encrypted Text invites you to enter the world of shadows, as we explore the secrets and mechanics of the rogue class. This week, we talk about leveling a rogue from level 71 to level 80. Your goal is firmly in sight: your rogue is ready to being his or her assault upon the Lich King’s lands. With only a fleeting few levels between you and the level cap, these last few minutes are among the most important in your rogue’s development. With nearly every trick available and our DPS rotations fleshed out, your rogue will be feeling more and more like the level 80 you are about to become. All three talent trees are fairly viable for leveling, and so this is by far the most flexible period of the leveling process. As I mentioned in the last installment, experimenting with different specs, rotations, and playstyles will only become harder and harder to do once you reach level 80. During these important formative levels, max out your respect costs and give every build a fair shake. You’ll be a better rogue for it in the end. New abilities: While

All the World’s a Stage: Player housing, interactivity, and other possible features

All the World’s a Stage, and all the orcs and humans merely players. They have their stories and their characters; and one player in his time plays many roles. Playing Warhammer recently has made me think of more features that WoW could add in order to create a better roleplaying experience. Far and away the most important one, to my mind, was the Tome of Knowledge. WoW players really need an in-game resource they can refer to as a standard for information about the Warcraft universe, and having this at hand, roleplayers could do a lot better than they can today. Knowledge is the most important thing, of course, but there are other features Blizzard could add to the game that would help roleplayers too. I’d like to address a few of these things, and see how much they could really do for us. Player housing is a possible feature that gets talked about a lot, but I have my doubts as to whether or not it would really help roleplayers all that much. Another issue is one that is more important to me personally, and is another feature inspired by my trial with Warhammer Online: looking at

WoW Moviewatch: The Story

It probably makes me sound like the biggest fanboy ever to say so, but I think that Cranius may be my favorite musical performer right now. Something appeals to me about the emotion and earnestness he brings to his music, and the interesting arrangements he creates in each song. His work is unique and compelling, and I look forward to each new song he produces. That’s why it’s so exciting to see Legs and Cranius release The Story. Just like in Wrought, Legs has again managed to create a compelling story in the machinima. Each tableau and action fits Cranius’s music perfectly. There’s really absolutely nothing negative I could say about her work in The Story. Hell, it’s so good I’m probably going to put this video up on the overhead at my own wedding. When my fiancee and I finished watching it, we both D’awwwwed-out-loud. I think Legs and Cranius are an unparalleled team. Their work blends together amazingly, and I look forward to seeing what they might create next together.

[1.Local]: Belting it out

Reader comments — ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. In last week’s [1.Local], we snarked around a bit about the most common “mistaken identity” emails we receive on the WoW.com news and comments lines — issues for a video game company, a cable company, an ISP and even a gym. “Looks like we just keep diversifying,” observed Eddie Carrington. “I think the next business should we should get into is event planning.” Readers joshed good-naturedly about the idea — and brought up a popular ongoing request. “Oh man, you guys are starting event planning now?” asked paul. “Finally, been looking for some guys good enough to help with my upcoming 18th. Does the package include Belt giving a speech? ‘Cos that would be awesome. xD” “Anything that includes Mr. Belt giving a speech is bound to be awesome,” agreed MusedMoose with a *grin*. Gentlemen, your wish has been granted:

WoW Fifth Anniversary Sweepstakes

If you’re a resident of the United States, Canada, or New Zealand, kindly whack yourself on the head as a show of solidarity for other players who don’t qualify for the World of Warcraft Five Year Anniversary Sweepstakes. If you are a resident of the aforementioned countries or are some Asian or European or Other-Unqualified-Country-an willing to subject themselves to a little geek envy, then read on. Our favorite game turns five this November 23, 2009, and to celebrate, Blizzard is giving away a whole bunch of swag every week for the next four weeks. Essentially, as long as you’re a player whose account is active when they pull your name out of a kodo-skin hat and hasn’t gotten into trouble for breaking the EULA, you’re automatically entered in the sweepstakes. Players qualify for certain prizes depending on how long they’ve been playing the game. Check out the list of prizes and player eligibility after the jump. First Week (Accounts created on or before October 26, 2008) 5 Taverncraft “Charge of the Great Dragonflights” stein. Second Week (Accounts

G4 talks to Blizzard about five years of WoW

We are quickly approaching the fifth anniversary of World of Warcraft’s release (my calendar has it on the 23rd of November), and G4 has gotten a head start on celebrating — they sent Morgan Webb over to Blizzard headquarters to talk to the team, including Tom Chilton, Alex Afrasiabi, and Jeff Kaplan, about what things have been like in the last five years since WoW’s launch. There’s nothing super groundbreaking in here, but there is lots of reminiscing about the game’s early thinking — Chilton talks about how dual specs were never even considered as an idea (until they, you know, were) and what things were like in the early post-launch days. Pretty stressful, sounds like. Afrasiabi talks about how the quest team puts together and tracks all of the game’s quests (he mentions both Metzen and the game’s historian as the “lorekeepers” of the game), and the fact that they’ve put together “millions of words” of story and background lore for the game at large. He specifically talks about Cataclysm and replacing questlines, and