Cataclysm Friends & Family Alpha is ... no longer "public"

[Epicfail]

Which old god?

That dude:
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/ima ... nds_18.jpg

Not to jump out there too quickly, but this is the Twilight Highlands zone right? Other side of the world from darkshore? This means maybe another oldgod was killed here? Just a thought.

TOTALLY loving those sea turtles and spikey crabs. Sea horse mount looks awesome. Sharks need to have a mount... I'm just sayin. Its going to make me sad if they just now finally put sea turtles in the game as tamable pets. I was picketting for those day 1.

The org shots are too dark and need some aerial shots. Stormwind looks brilliant, but did they have to kill the moonwell park? <pout>

looking at the zone pics and maps... it really feels more like this could almost be WoW2. Its such a 'second stage" for the world. Compared to release, graphic quality and game quality has gone up considerably while retaining the overall "feel" of the warcraft universe.

[Saturo]

Aye, Cata is most certainly WoW2.0. We've seen that all over the place.

[Chrizesu]

I think one of the designers been playing Elder Scrolls.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/ima ... ent_11.jpg

And it looks like there's two old gods with swords in their heads, here's the one everyone knows.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/ima ... ore_41.jpg

[Adam-Savage]

The lives stream is from a private server, yes? (I mean something that person is running themselves, not the alpha/beta server.)

Also, I apologize for being a buzzkill, Ryno, but I replaced your file with a link. Last I saw Blizzard is maintaining the NDA, although they look like they probably won't cause a fuss about these leaks -- I'm sure they expected this. But I'd rather not have any files from the leak hosted here.

I'm not sure what it is. It's private server but there is stuff in there that isn't in the world now. Also Boubouille wouldn't be posting what he is on his front page of his site unless he was given the ok to do so.

[Adam-Savage]

Halls of Origination Is now up on both MMO Champion and Blizzard's cataclysm site

[Mania]

You know what I find oddly affecting? The screenshots of Western Plaguelands with crops growing in the no-longer-zombie-infested fields.

Egad! Brill got way, way creepier.

[cowmuflage]

yeah guys thats a forgotten one with a sword thru its head is not an old god http://www.wowwiki.com/Forgotten_one

[Adam-Savage]

Kezan screenshots are now up.

[Vephriel]

I'm loving Kezan. It's such a grungy, smog-filled industrial city. The dark alleys with lighted signs make me think I'll see something advertising female night elf dancers or something. >.>

Either way, I love the character of it. xD

[Saturo]

Unless they do some major revamp to gnomeregan I know where I'll be spending my time...

[Mania]

I'm still drooling over the Lost Isles.

[Adam-Savage]

The Hunter Talent Tree builder is changed to reflect the lvl 85 cap.

http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?hunter# ... 3SW,,11927

[Adam-Savage]

I'm still drooling over the Lost Isles.

As long as you make you clean up the droll it's all good.

[Ryno]

Oop, sorry about hosting the snail here...

Mmm, Kezan looks like my kind of town...

*2 hours after having arrived*

*shows up beaten and naked at the gates of town begging for money*

...

...yep, my kind of town...

[Mania]

Incidentally, Blizzard has stated that the NDA is still in effect for current testing.

However, I believe that the information on MMO Champion and YouTube is widespread enough that we are doing no harm by discussing it here. So I've updated the Spoilers and Leaks announcement to match.

[Bulletdance]

The first thing I thought when I saw the spikey death crabs was "So cute!"
But I'm worried those snakes won't be tameable if you look at the model closely its very similar to those see through purply ones by the nexus,but who knows maybe they will make both tameable.

Also if you look at the basilisk model and think...why is it there? Its the same as the others ones, but the mouth is a little different. Perhaps its for the hunter feed animation. One can hope.

[Ryno]

Incidentally, Blizzard has stated that the NDA is still in effect for current testing.

"So Ryno, you got a whole forum shut down huh? Because of some legal problems I heard? You posted a picture of a snail?"

"...yes."

*stamps thread with a "Crisis Averted!" sticker*

[Mania]

"So Ryno, you got a whole forum shut down huh? Because of some legal problems I heard? You posted a picture of a snail?"

"...yes."

Hah! Very cute. I was afraid you'd take that post personally, but it wasn't aimed at you or your snail.

I just wanted to let people know that I'd seen the Blizzard post about the NDA, and how I think it fits into the careful line we walk here between taking advantage of other people's evil and being evil ourselves.

... although I have to admit that I'd be tempted to ignore any line that kept me away from drooling over the pictures of those adorable spiky crabs.

[Adam-Savage]

Incidentally, Blizzard has stated that the NDA is still in effect for current testing.

However, I believe that the information on MMO Champion and YouTube is widespread enough that we are doing no harm by discussing it here. So I've updated the Spoilers and Leaks announcement to match.

I don't get it then.. Why would he put out so much Info and why would blizz allow it ?

[Mania]

I don't get it then.. Why would he put out so much Info and why would blizz allow it ?

Now I'm just talking out of my hat here, but ...

Blizzard knows there isn't much they can do about it -- with enough work they could drive the info to smaller sites, but they can't eradicate it -- and it gives them a decent bit of hype anyway. People oohing and ahhing over the pretty new zones is better than it will be when they start screaming about mechanics changes, anyway.

As for Boubouille, I suspect it's summed up by his comment: ... "a lot of spoilers will be published soon. I'll just jump in the train." Once the client was accessed and info started leaking, he could let it happen without him (as Wowhead is, for example) or jump on it and own that thing. So long as Blizzard doesn't come down on his head (and, say, boot him out of the alpha that he may or may not be part of) making his site the center of this storm is a win for him.

But as I said, I'm just talking out of my hat.