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Blizzard goes to the patent office (because there aren't enough Blizzard threads)
Henroid
Mexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
Mexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered User regular
I hopped over to MMO Champion to get the latest updates on World of Warcraft info and ran into something a little unique.
Blizzcon is coming up soon enough and we'll know for sure I suppose. But hey, why not get into net arguments about it in the meanwhile?
So, the possibilities of this being WoW related are super high as usual. But just to throw that curveball out there, there is the possibility that this has something to do with that "next gen MMO" nonsense that has forever been on their hiring webpages.Blizzard trademarks "Cataclysm"
A few days ago Blizzard filed a trademark for "Cataclysm" on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. Cataclysm was registered for :
* Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line computer games; providing computer games that may be accessed via a global computer network; and providing on-line information in the field of computer gaming entertainment
* Comic books, computer game strategy guides, trading cards, coloring books, adhesive stickers, rub-on transfers, notebooks, stationery-type portfolios, posters, greeting cards, calendars, instructional leaflets in the field of computer games, computer game instruction manuals, catalogs in the field of computer games, advertisement boards of paper or cardboard, photographs, art prints
* Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads
Below is a small extract of the Latest Status Info on the Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) Website
LAST APPLICANT(S)/OWNER(S) OF RECORD
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
16215 Alton Parkway
Irvine, CA 92618
United States
GOODS AND/OR SERVICES
Class Status: Active
Computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads
2009-06-30 - New Application Office Supplied Data Entered In Tram
2009-06-30 - New Application Entered In Tram
So ... What does it mean? Well, Wrath of the Lich King was trademarked a few weeks before the Blizzcon, we're not going to jump to conclusions here but WoWWiki will most likely give you a few things to think about on their Great Sundering article.
The Great Sundering, also known as simply the Sundering or the Cataclysm was a world event which reshaped Azeroth approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the War of the Ancients. This event was triggered due to the Well of Eternity being destroyed.
Prior to the Sundering, there was only one continent on Azeroth, referred to as Kalimdor. In the catastrophic explosion, eighty percent of the land mass was destroyed leaving behind the major continents and scattered islands that are known today: Northrend, Kezan, the Eastern Kingdoms, and the remnant still referred to as Kalimdor.
The site of the Well of Eternity became a swirling vortex of power known as the Maelstrom.
A few days ago, one of our user also spotted a test server named "Maelstrom 3 Test" in the US server list (it only showed up for a few seconds, see This post). If the expansion is indeed The Maelstrom/Cataclysm, we can expect to see a few things here:
* Sargeras and/or Deathwing
* Azshara
* Goblins!
Blizzcon is coming up soon enough and we'll know for sure I suppose. But hey, why not get into net arguments about it in the meanwhile?
Henroid on
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For sure, but by going with the name Cataclysm (assuming this is WoW related) you can bet that it's going to be Caverns of Time heavy in terms of content.
To this day, one of them still refers to "the King Lynch".
Maelstrom as the next expansion is consistent with this old future content rumour list. Sounds good to me.
oh my god that's horrible.
Someone really should correct them.
I'm thinking we should Lich that guy.
Personally, I think that's a silly theory.
My Backloggery
Wonder what the full title will be. The XXX Cataclysm...
I was hoping for the Emerald Dream. I liked the idea behind it more, and shouldn't Azshara be more powerful than anything after being exposed to so much Arcane energy in the explosion?
It will be awesome, for a few weeks maybe months...however, once you get to the max lv it will be the same exact routine as the past 5 years.
Seriously the game sucks dick at end game. I can't believe so many people are suckered into this shit for so long.
Hooray I just spent 6 hours of my life on a chance that a dragon will drop a shirt with a higher number on it than my old shirt!
I could change a few words in this post and make it about any game ever.
I didn't play Mass Effect for 2000 hours
As soon as I read through the patent I first thought of it having to do with a bnet service as well. The description of it especially makes it sound like an online service and store, not a game.
Not really.
Because a lot of games have specific ending points, and recognize that the player will reach the end, plus having more fun things afterwards if the player still wants to play.
MMOs are designed to last forever.
Maybe that's true for single player games but most multiplayer games generally have much much more longevity. I bet there are plenty of people who have played quake/starcraft/tribes etc etc for 2000+ hours.
That seems to explain the utter lack of any kind of Pandaren presence in WoW (at least, up until I quit) aside from a relatively obscure Barrens quest that mentions a Pandaren from TFT by name and makes no mention of his race.
It also explains a few things regarding the Draenei reveals, launch, and retcons (the full rumor was that Pandaren was in for TBC and had to be cut due to the China thing resulting in a quick scramble to dig up something that could be shoehorned in)
Of course, this could have been entirely made up or something. I don't remember what the source was at all.
I hope that wasn't something I learned from a guildmate that was supposed to be sekrit
On the other hand, Blizzard has had a lot of art assets for the Emerald Dream since launch.
On the other hand, Blizzard has had a lot of art assets for the Emerald Dream since launch.
You're thinking of the Sundering.
EDIT: As for Pandaren.. I say just make them a special tribe of furbolgs, that bare no resemblance to Pandas, for the Chinese release. I.E. Reskin them.
Also, that'd be a fairly lame name for a new IP.
I don't see why they'd make something focused on the Sundering and not call it by it's most common name.
IMO, it sounds like a name for a post-apoc MMO.
EDIT: I mean, honestly, I think it's worse name for a wow expansion.
Blizzard ain't touching new MMO material that ain't starcraft or warcraft within the next 10 years
Uh, they've stated multiple times that the job listings for a "next-gen mmo" on their website are for a new ip MMO. 'course, the flipside is that even though they've trademarked a name, it doesn't necassarily mean the game (whatever it is, be it a wow expansion or something else) is coming out anytime soon. Just means they've decided upon a name enough to spend money on it.
Although honestly, I bet "Cataclysm" is the next WoW expansion.
Sorry but that list has proven to be way too accurate to be mere hoax or coincidence, even the level ranges are spot on. Blizzard can claim that design choice for starter zones after what happened in TBC but really, there could only be one entry point into Outland and that's through the Dark Portal and into HFP. Geographically there is no other entry point that makes sense within the lore. It's not too outrageous a claim that they had planned two entry points into Northrend well in advance.
I've heard this before, but I've never seen a source for it. There was a Pandaren in Warcraft 3, remember? I'm fairly sure, actually, I'm really sure, that he's in WC3 in China. As a matter of fact, they changed the costume from a quasi-Japanese samurai getup to the monk costume he has now (Before: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/wowwiki/images/0/0a/Pandarenbrewmaster.JPG and After: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/wowwiki/images/3/32/Pandaren.jpg ). If anything, they'd just reskin them. Crazy Chinese law states you can't show skeletons or something like that (I still have an old, old Magic: The Gathering card called Drudge Skeletons in Chinese, with the artwork of fleshy zombies somewhere), which is why they patched up the holes in the forsaken's knees and elbows, like so: http://www.loregy.com/wp-content/uploads/new_ud_models-300x235.jpg .
Also, people turn into little gravestones instead of skeletons when they resurrect, and as someone else pointed out, China still doesn't have the latest expansion.
The list is bullshit. It's been continually updated and reposted with new information over time. Not to mention inconsistencies like it not the zones in Wrath that were planned and later cut.
And it's really easy to just BS a new way into Outland. Hey, these mages all got together and made another portal with the help of dudes on the other side. It leads to Zangarmarsh.
And you're telling me it's more likely Blizzard lied about when they planned expansion starter zones than some dude BSing about future expansions?
He said within the next 10 years.
edit- Apparently EVE never did have an expansion called "Cataclysm", huh.
edit 2- It was Homeworld I was thinking of.
I don't know anything about the Chinese censorship laws regarding pandas, if any (though I did know about skeletons, also through Magic). I just remember thinking, at the time that I read that story, that the source was very reliable (near the level of a CM blue post), though I can't for the life of me remember what the source was.
But giving people an incentive to kill humans is okay?
edit- Sorry, I don't mean to sound like an ass, just your logic is a bit flawed.
edit: Weren't the Pandarans just an April Fools joke that has seemingly developed a life of its own?
If a bunch of mages could just make a portal in and out of Zangarmarsh why didn't the Alliance surviving contingent at the end of WC2 do that instead of being stranded there for decades? The only way in and out of Outland was through the Dark Portal, not even Blizzard with their spaceships are so trite as to pull another way in to Outland for the sake of a second starting zone. :P
The list massively predates the WotLK alpha. Link. I am usually very sceptical about this sort of thing but this is just too accurate. This was well before WotLK alpha.
Whether it's real or not it's still just a harmless bit of fun