The second part of Gametrailers.com‘s Warcraft Retrospective has gone up, and it’s no less fun and informative than the first. Picking up right where it left off, the second part starts with Warcraft III, following the ascension of some of the most well known Blizzard employees such as Rob Pardo, Chris Metzen, and Samwise Didier, not to mention the company and Warcraft series as a whole.
This edition of the series focuses a lot more on one specific game than the first edition, and there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. Warcraft III changed a lot about the RTS genre and whether that’s a good thing or not is up to the individual. It changed how you managed your units, your base, and your resources, making units more important than just canon fodder. That was especially true when it came to the hero units that now highlight World of Warcraft. This retrospective also goes into the infamous DOTA before it steps up to The Frozen Throne, so if you’ve no idea what that crazy Europop video is all about, you’ll find out!
Want to hear something frightening? There will be no more class forums. Nethaera announced it a bit earlier on the official forums, and I’m still not sure what to think. They’re breaking down the class forums and replacing them with role forums: Tanking, Healing, and Damage Dealing. For those players that have been afraid they’re homogenizing classes a little too much, this really isn’t helping.
Personally, I think this is a horrible move. The official class forums were bad enough, and now they’ve thrust all of the classes together. Have you seen those really cruel, gross videos where they put two scary lookingbugs together in a glass cage and let them kill each other, and they’ll do it every single time just because it’s in their nature to defend themselves? This is the WoW forum equivalent of it. This is going to be a disaster. The walls are going to be painted with blood.
This isn’t EgadPit’s first time on Moviewatch, as he’d previously been featured for his work with the Warchief Debates 2008. Using the soundtrack to a Simon Pegg skit, Do you speak English? tells the tale of a blood elf whose conveyance breaks down.
She asks a nearby undead for some help, only to find out that they “don’t speak the same language.” It’s a short video, and pretty funny. I’m not sure how much of the funny is due to EgadPit, and how much is due to the machinima, but the overall effect is worth a laugh or three. I found the use of screen space to be pretty simple and clean, which puts a lot of focus on the dialogue between characters.
Still, I’m not sure it’s as strong as the Warchief Debates. To be fair, the debates benefit from timeliness. What’s your opinion?
If you’re interested in getting Wrath of the Lich King at a midnight launch with Blizzard employees present to sign your copy and discuss the game, Blizzard will be holding officlal midnight parties around the globe. For the moment, it looks like Amsterdam, Anaheim, Austin, Berlin, London, Madrid, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Stockholm, and Taipei will all have official midnight launches, complete with extra copies of the Collector’s Edition Wrath on hand and Blizzard developers, executives, and CM’s around.
I’ve gone to the different WoW sites to see if there’s any hard info on non-U.S. midnight launches and can’t find it yet. I’ve possibly just missed it, so please let us know if there’s information available on which stores outside the States will be hosting an official Blizzard launch. The one thing that we do know is that each site’s launch will occur at midnight local time November 13th, and while there will be a ton of stores doing midnight launches, the official ones are just the locations where the Blizzard folks are going to be.
A lot of people have been complaining about the nerfed raiding content, but I can see one good effect — it’s allowed a ton of people to see new fights before Wrath comes and makes everything irrelevant again. In this shot, Petrav and <Rising Anarchy> of Doomhammer have just killed Kil’jaeden, and took a shot of WoW’s lovely “ending screen.” Petrav gave props to guild leader Omega for leading them through the last of the content at this late stage. Congrats, Rising Anarchy!
Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? We’d love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wowinsider.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next!
Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We strongly prefer full screen shots without the UI showing — use alt-Z to remove it. Please, no more battleground scoreboards.
Gametrailers.com’s Warcraft Retrospective continues originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Want to hear something frightening? There will be no more class forums. 
If you’re interested in getting 
