Blizzard Entertainment has finally lifted, albeit partially, the shroud of mystery covering the intriguing new World of Warcraft class, the Death Knight. In an elaborated Death Knight-dedicated page over at the MMORPG's official website, bits of info regarding the necromantic hero class surfaced in the form of a design team interview and a lore post.

According to the design team, as scary as the runeblade wielding class may seem (you can't have the word "death" as part of your name and be anywhere near nice), Death Knights actually have a rich history of blind heroism. This is the main reason why Blizzard decided to introduce them as WoW's first hero class. Here's what the design team said:

...the expansion is set in Northrend and you’ll be fighting the Lich King, it makes sense to add a class that is directly connected to the coming conflict. The death knights you will be able to play are no longer allied with the Lich King; instead, they have joined forces with the Horde or the Alliance to fight against Arthas. So by playing a death knight, you’re engaged in the story of Wrath of the Lich King right from the start, which makes the death knight a logical class choice for the expansion from a lore point of view.

As stated above, the page also gave light to the dark story behind the grave origins of Death Knights. WoW lore is already one of the richest, if not the richest, in any existing video game/MMORPG today, and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion promises to bring more to the table. We won't be making any spoilers here, it's best to go dig for the info yourself over our read link below. We'll leave you with a teaser though:

Years after the destruction of Draenor, the immensely powerful Lich King created a new breed of death knights: malevolent, rune-wielding warriors of the Scourge. The first and greatest of these was Prince Arthas Menethil, once a mighty paladin of the Silver Hand, who sacrificed his soul to claim the runeblade Frostmourne in a desperate bid to save his people... In the years since Arthas shattered the Frozen Throne and merged with the Lich King, the power and fury of the death knights has only grown. Now these unrelenting crusaders of the damned eagerly await the Lich King's command to unleash their fury on Azeroth once again.

That should make any WoW player's keyboard-tapping, mouse-wielding hands itch for a quick Azeroth Northend (featured here) trek using a Death Knight.

 

If you happen to be a leet Guild Wars player and at the same time in serious need of greenbacks and new gadgets, then NCsoft's Guild Wars $100,000 Tournament Series just may be the event of the year for you. NCsoft is setting up a Guild versus Guild and Player versus Player tourney for fans of the Guild Wars MMORPG. Their goal? To seek the ultimate Guild Wars champions and place them among the MMORPG's halls of heroes (of course the actual prizes are a welcome bonus). Here's the eligibility standards released by NCSoft:

• All Guild Wars players and guilds who meet the eligibility requirements set forth herein are eligible to compete in this online tournament series. All Guild Wars guilds are eligible to compete in the $100,000 Tournament Series championships except those that include employees or contractors of NCsoft, ArenaNet, or each of their respective subsidiaries or affiliates or their advertising or promotion agencies, or those who are domiciled with any such person, or those who have been disqualified for other reasons (see below). This is a skill-based tournament based on each guild or individual's ability to defeat other guilds or individuals. 
• Individuals and guilds will be disqualified if they are banned from the game for any reason, including without limitation a violation of the Guild Wars User Agreement. If individual players are disqualified, the guild may also be disqualified. 
• ArenaNet reserves the right to reschedule and/or restart games and matches as needed. Such decisions will be announced and executed only by official ArenaNet personnel. 
• ArenaNet reserves the right to suspend or revoke a player's account without prior notice for any reason deemed necessary.

Players interested on participating the daily 1v1 should locate the Tournament NPC (found in guild halls, the Hero Battles arena, and the Great Temple of Balthazar) to register their accounts. On the other hand, guilds looking out to test their strength must have at least four of the eight members as part of the group for at least 14 days prior to the start of the tournament.

For more info, just follow the read link below. It should take you to Guild Wars tournament briefing page. What are you waiting for? Whet those keyboards and get your game on!

Despite hitting some snags in the form of Sega, SCEA, Capcom, and Microsoft backouts, it appears E for All is gaining steam after getting big boosts from dozens of other movers in the gaming industry who have confirmed participation. To prove that E for All is going smoothly as planned, IDG World Expo is now announcing that Future US, Inc. will be publishing the official show magazine for the said event.

This is big news especially for those who are familiar in the ins and outs of attending conventions like this. Why? Event magazines not only provide attendees with a good source of show floor guide, exhibitor and product information, special features and interviews, it's also a great souvenir - it goes right beside event press IDs and pictures with booth babes. Anyway, IDG World Expo CEO Mary Dolaher expressed the same enthusiasm after saying:

We're thrilled to team up with Future to create "E for All Magazine," the event’s official show publication. Given Future’s experience producing publications such as Official Xbox Magazine, PSM: Independent PlayStation Magazine, PC Gamer, Maximum PC and Next Gen, we’re greatly anticipating the creation of a top-notch magazine and commemorative keepsake for this inaugural event.

The magazine will be a 64-page collector's edition in support of the inaugural E for All. Contents will include feature stories, game reviews, product highlights, a full expo schedule, floor plan and exclusive features, interviews with acclaimed game developers, and a user-generated car art from Forza 2. E for All magazine will also carry a commemorative cover to give spice to the said event which will take place October 18-21 at the Los Angeles Convention Center - told you it's a keeper.

For us gamers, playing our favorite games is bliss. What could be more cooler than a day on a comfy chair with a bag of chips sitting on our lap while raiding or PVP'ing in Azeroth in World of Warcraft? Answers to that would be few but we bet working behind the scenes of the world's most popular MMORPG is among them.

Blizzard Entertainment has put up a post in their official site announcing their plans of holding a mini job fair at this year's Games Developers Conference in Austin, Texas. They're giving individuals with enough background on the technicalities involved in creating games the opportunity to be among the backbone of the industry currently populated by more than nine million MMORPG players. Here's Blizzard's exact pitch at the WoW's official site:

Do you have the passion to create great games? We're always looking for skilled individuals willing to challenge themselves to achieve excellence. This year at the Austin Game Developers Conference, members of Blizzard's global recruiting team will be on hand to answer all of your job-related questions. Bring your resume, demo reel, or business card -- our recruiting team will be happy to receive all your materials and talk to you about opportunities at Blizzard.

Among the WoW development team slots Blizzard hopes to fill are the following: Senior Graphics Programmer (Next-Gen MMO), Senior Tools Programmer (Next-Gen MMO), Senior Tools Programmer (Next-Gen MMO), and Lead 3D Environment Artist (Next-Gen MMO). If you're interested and living within that area, brush up those interviewing skills, prep those resumes, and head on to our link below to review each job's description.

(Editors Note: Welcome to our 9th ish! I won't be spoiling anything here, dig on all the news below. One request though: Quickjump QuickPeek is here to stay, and we would appreciate any kind of ideas you have on improving it. Are four articles per blog enough? How should we select top stories? Do we need polls for the comment of the week? Do tell us!)

New week, new breakthroughs, new issue. The last week was one of the most monumental so far, so if you've missed checking our sites, you're a goner. Nah, we're just messing with you. That's what QuickJump QuickPeek is for, to provide you guys with the week's top events. Sure, nothing beats being among the first to read about newsbreakers once they hit our pages, but the QuickPeek experience is close enough. On to this week's issue!

The full issue awaits after the jump!

The boys of South Park will once again team up with the orcs, elves, and humans of World of Warcraft with this Comedy Central offering. Unfortunately, no, we're not talking about a followup to the Emmy-nominated South Park episode, Make Love, Not Warcraft. What we have for you is word about a free 14-day trial edition WoW DVD-ROM, which you can get when you purchase the South Park: The Complete Tenth Season DVD.

This offer, to be made available on August 21, is being peddled by Comedy Central Home Entertainment, which currently airs episodes of the said cartoon. South Park: The Complete Tenth Season DVD is an exclusive three-disc collector's edition comprised of all 14 top-rating episodes, including the aforementioned paradoxical take on the popularity of the massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft.

No word yet on its pricing, but if it's got a 14-day free WoW trial it's gotta be worth the price right? Who knows, they might actually decide to throw in the Sword of A thousand Truths as a bonus.

JoyStiq managed to score an interview with NCsoft boss Richard Garriot and Executive Producer Brian Clayton. The talk revolved mostly around the MMORPG industry and their (NCSoft) plans to support the PlayStation 3 with MMO-type titles. Their latest project - Tabula Rasa - was also touched; and surprisingly, they also signified plans to dabble on developing for the PlayStation Portable in the future.

According to Clayton, they're looking at a number of ways on how to beef up the PSP games frontline. A fully immersive and working MMO for the said handheld isn't that farfetched, with Clayton saying that they "see a number of opportunities with the PSP as a standalone MMO or as an extension to our full-blown MMOs on PC and PS3". Hmm... MMO game on PSP, sounds good 'ey? Their plans are best summed in this quote:

I would argue that developing a handheld MMO could be the largest challenge in game development. For example, the game needs to be developed from the onset to address limited communication tools, screen real estate and controls, which are all intrinsic to providing a quality MMO experience. We have a number ideas and solutions to address the above-mentioned concerns, but can't go into those details right now.

The full article awaits after the jump!

 

Nine million World of Warcraft users equal nine million potential buyers of Wrath of Lich King expansion. No wonder online retailer GameStop is trying to beat the competition to the punch with this very early preorder offer for Blizzard's latest expansion of their highly successful MMORPG. Here's the website's decent deal enclosed in very comic description:

Official price and release date have NOT been announced by Blizzard. In this case, the price and release date were determined by the GameStop e-commerce staff, (comprised of overpowered warlocks), using a combination of 6 and 20-sided die.

Important: If the price decreases between the time you place your order and the release date, you will receive the lower price. Woot! If the price increases you will be given the option to either pay the higher price or cancel your order. However, if the price increases by more than $1,000, many of us here at the corporate office plan to retire and purchase a small Caribbean island. You are welcome to visit us at any time. Please bring pizza, chocolate and cold beverages.

Note: We vehemently oppose “ninja looting” therefore your credit card will NOT be charged until your order is processed for shipping. Pre-order now. Power to the players.

At least the folks over at GameStop were able to infuse humor with their stab in the dark approach with the full details (pricing, release dates, etc.). It's your call if you'll get carried away and book yourself a preorder this early, or if you'll stand up and pace your room the whole day to get rid of the urge - only to visit the same page tomorrow and repeat the whole process all over again.

The Wrath of the Lich King will revolve around the WoW lore surrounding The Lich King Arthas, his attempts to end all life in Azeroth, and the heroes who try to thwart his evil plans.

 

With over nine million users, you could say that the World of Warcraft is having its own population explosion. Although it's the kind the folks over at Blizzard wouldn't mind (I can't picture them handing out condoms and birth pills to orcs and night elves), you can bet they're still bent on looking for ways to make sure everybody's got enough playing grounds. With the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion, expanding maps is a gimme.

This map image of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion shows the new NorthEnd realm sandwiched between Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. A careful look will show that the older continents have somewhat changed in shape and mass. The blue scribbles in the picture above outline the original land mass of the continents, and as you will see there have been some considerable map changes done. Thankfully, the folks over at WoWInsider have already listed what the noticeable exactly changes are:

• Kalimdor changed in shape significantly. No longer looking quite so much like a penguin, it now has a more crescent-shaped profile.
• Two new islands off the southwest coast of the Eastern Kingdoms.
• New bit of land north of Westfall, west of Stormwind on the west coast of EK.
• Islands Northwest of Tirisfal removed, and two small ones added north of Scarlet Monestary

Knowing how deep the WoW lore goes, it's easy to speculate what implications these changes could have in the game and its story. Of course, this could also be as trivial as a minor oversight by the Blizzard artists. What do you guys think?

(From the Editor: Another week, another issue of the QuickJump QuickPeek for all of us! The gaming community was pelted with hard hitting updates the past seven days, fortunately for you guys our hardworking writers from various teams managed to squeeze in some time for this awesome issue. This ish is extra beefy since it marks the first month since our weekly compilation of heaps of gaming info was initialized. To celebrate that, we're once again showcasing a comment from one of our more in/famous regulars. Last week it was Mister Common Sense, I wonder who it'll be this week? Read the whole article to find out!)

Whoa! It's really hard to keep track of time especially when you've been deeply absorbed by the gravity of your current undertaking. Hmm, "gravity". That sounds a pretty good word to describe the week's recent events. Gravity's synonymous to "implications", and the things we're about to report will surely eat up our time figuring out what the backlash will be. Surprised? Try imagining what will happen to Microsoft after the resignation of Peter Moore. Or imagine the possibilities opening for the PlayStation Portable with a super team of hackers reportedly working on another custom firmware. You could also try to figure out what kind of new PS3 controller, announced by Kaz Hirai, Sony and Immersion could come up with. Brain juices oozing with possibilities? Read on to find more:

The full issue awaits after the jump!