The lunar new year is upon us, or will be officially this Sunday. And with that in mind there are a few things that have come up with WoW related, and not, to the celebrations.
- Year of the Six Month Rabbit
It is the year of the rabbit… unless you’re Vietnamese, in which case we’re talking year of the cat… and Blizzard has a special mount to celebrate the year. For just $25 you can get the Bright Foreseer mount… or, if you subscribe in six month billing cycles you get it as part of that package.
Year of the Rabbit in Azeroth
In addition, if you are playing Wrath of the Lich King Classic, you get the Hoplet bunny pet for being on the six month plan as well.
- Lunar Festival 2023
Today is also the start of the Lunar Festival in Azeroth, a chance to seek out the elders scattered throughout Azeroth, earn some achievements, and even get an easy ride to that Moonglade flight point if you do not already have it. It is in both retail and classic, so choose you’re lunar new year destination.
- Wrath Classic Phase 2 is Live
Blizzard has launched Phase 2 of Wrath Classic, which for raiders means that Ulduar is live, and it even has a trailer.
For non-raiders like me, it means that the Argent Tournament is now live. I’ve flown past the empty space where it lives a few times already, but now construction is under way and the tournament is open.
Approaching the Argent Tournament
This is where I spent a lot of time back during original Wrath, where I went exalted with all of the alliance factions, and where I picked up my favorite flying mount, the Argent Hippogryph. It is my flying mount of choice in retail WoW to this day.
The Sun Was Cooperating For Once…
We shall see if we have the wherewithal to do any of that again.
The downside of Phase 2 is that is broke pretty much all of my addons. Now I am waiting around to see which ones will get updated and which authors have wandered off to other games. Always the hazard of addons and mods.
- WoW Closed in China
Meanwhile, things are not so hot for WoW players in China at the dawn of the lunar new year. We heard back in November that a deal between Blizzard and NetEase might not be forthcoming, a situation that has come to pass. As I pointed out in yesterday’s post, NetEase has been very aggressive and confrontational when it comes to the Blizzard deal, blaming Blizzard for any fallout, heaping scorn on their attempts to get an extension, and distancing itself from any attempt for current WoW players ability to save their current player data declaring that Blizzard’s download toolset, used to archive player characters, may contain security risks and could lead to loss of virtual items.
None of this is good for WoW players in China, who are suffering due to friction. I remain a bit surprised at NetEase’s behavior. They clearly are not interested in any goodwill from their former customers. But this performance may be as much a warning to its other Western partners that if they don’t get what they want they are prepared to go for a scorched earth policy as it is a strike against Activision Blizzard.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 