Update: I was informed the IAMTW had not updated the final nominees at the time this post was made, and haven't yet. The finalists were announced this morning only at their off-site blog located in blogspot. They merged both Fiction categories into one: BEST NOVEL (GENERAL FICTION). Thus, World of Warcraft: Arthas is not among the finalists, sadly. Keith R.A. DeCandido, and Aaron Rosenberg are still in the final nominees roster.


[Outdated] The International Association of Media Tie-in Writers (IAMTW) has nominated World of Warcraft: Arthas by Christie Golden for their Scribe Awards in the Speculative Fiction: Best Novel (Adapted) category. Christie is nominated too under the Speculative Fiction Best Novel (Original) category for STAR WARS, FATE OF THE JEDI: OMEN.

This is quite interesting and rarely seen: four other known StarCraft writers got nominated by the Scribe Awards for some of their non-Blizzard novels: Keith R.A. DeCandido (Starcraft: Ghost Nova), Kevin J. Anderson (known as Gabriel Mesta, Starcraft: Shadow of the Xel'Naga), Aaron Rosenberg (Starcraft: Queen of Blades) and William C. Dietz (Starcraft: Heaven's Devils). Congratulations to all these writers, and good luck.

The Scribe Awards acknowledges and celebrates excellence in licensed tie-in writing novels based on TV shows, movies, and games. The Scribe Awards nominees were chosen from books published between January 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2009. The winners will be announced in a ceremony held at the Comic-Con International through July 22-25 in San Diego.

BEST NOVEL (adapted) Nominees

COUNTDOWN by Greg Cox
METAL GEAR SOLID 2 by Raymond Benson
ARTHAS: RISE OF THE LICH KING by Christie Golden

I will try my best to report news responsibly without too much of my opinion or humor reflected in them. If I offer an opinion, it will be posted in the comments beneath to keep news reporting as clean as possible.

After some self-review, I have to acknowledge I haven't been respectful, among other flaws. Fans may provide feedback by email (through the submit news link at the right menu) to complain or to point out if there's anything I reported that should have been done in a better tone.

I think I need to humble down to admit I am wrong. I haven't been approached by IncGamers editorial, The Escapist, nor by Blizzard directly. I simply felt I should express this in public to reach the fans and other people who I know visit Blizzplanet.

I don't think I posted it in this fansite, but I posted a piece of news at Worldofwar.net and Starcraft: IncGamers -- it was titled Battle.net to Rival Steam.

I reported The Escapist interviewed Rob Pardo about the possibility or at least the thought that Battle.net could be licensed to third-parties. However, I added a personal opinion in that post. Actually, more a joke and a parody than my personal opinion as that's not how I think. I was parodying what some trolls say in the official forums and in other community forums about Activision or Bob Kotick.

The thing is that not everyone knows when I am humorous in written form -- I am shy in real life, but I joke often. Don't ask, I'm that weird. Bottomline, my sincere apologies to Bob Kotick, to Blizzard and to the fans.

Rob Pardo spoke with The Escapist about how Battle.net will approach smurfing or "noob-stomping" when StarCraft II is released. Some good players would create multiple Battle.net accounts in the original Starcraft to pick on noobs, and to quickly rise in the ladder by cheating the system. Some would use the multiple accounts to beat people with hacks, or to load 99+ bots.

With one centralized account, smurfing and all types of abuse will hopefully end to offer players a more controlled and fun environment. Matchmaking pits players of same range of ranks, discouraging progamers from crushing the less experienced and skilled players.

Pardo: "Really good players, they don't necessarily want to play themselves. They want to go beat up on the noob because that's really fun," he said. "When you look at WarCraft III, one of the mistakes we made with that game was that you could make unlimited accounts. All someone had to do, once we knew what their skill level was, they'd just go and make a new account. As far as we were concerned they were a noobie.

"In StarCraft II, we're making sure that you can't do that. You can only have one account and if you want a new account, because you want to go beat up on noobs, you're going to have go out and buy a new copy of StarCraft," he said.

The World of Warcraft TCG lives on with the North America Realm Championships taking place this upcoming weekend, and new plans for the Wrathgate and Icecrown TCG expansions. An official press release will be available very soon to inform players the future of the WoW TCG now that it's no longer licensed to Upper Deck. So stay tuned for the new exciting plans. Comments and questions are welcome at the official WoW forums thread here.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We wanted to take a minute and provide an update on the current status of this game. We want to reassure players that the TCG will continue, and look forward to releasing the Wrathgate and Icecrown expansions this spring and summer. The new plans are being finalized and there should be a full announcement by this weekend. Realm Championships will still take place in North America this weekend. All prizes will be awarded as announced at the event including iPods and Loot cards. Winners that receive a travel award will receive their information in approximately four to six weeks. Unfortunately, the trophies will not be ready for the event. These events will run according to the current World of Warcraft TCG and Miniatures tournament policies, and the current suspended player list will be enforced. We know it's been a chaotic few weeks, so just hang in there for a few more days. North American Locations - March 20-21, 2010 Ashenvale Forest Borderlands Games 546 High St NE Salem, Oregon Last Chance Qualifier Information http://www.cascadegames.com/events/843 Ashenvale Realm Championship Information http://www.cascadegames.com/events/836 Tanaris Best Western Ontario Airport 209 N Vineyard Avenue Ontario, California 91764-4427 Phone: 909/937-6800 | Fax: 909/937-6815 Tanaris Realm Championship Information http://wowtcg.com/OP/tournaments/article_blank.aspx?aid=7581 Durotar XMaxGames 1931 Skillman St Dallas, TX 75206 Contact: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Feralas Heroes Cards, Comics, and Games 211 Bullsboro Dr. STE A Newnan, GA 30263 (770) 251-5754 Mulgore Misty Mountain Games and Diversions 4672 Cottage Grove Rd Madison, WI 53716 (608) 441-0312 Mulgore Realm Championship Information http://legionevents.com/world-of-warcraft-tcg/wow-realm-championships# Teldrassil Pandemonium 1858 Middlebelt Rd. Garden City, MI 48135 (734) 427-2451 Azshara Tower of Games 1400 Kempsville RD STE 132 Chesapeake, VA 23320 (757) 819-7913 Azshara Realm Championship Event Information http://www.towerofgames.com/forums/index.php?action=calendar;year=2010;month=3 Winterspring Gaming Etc Tournament Center 555 Lordship BLVD Stratford, CT 06615 (203) 296-9961

Bashiok and Xordiah invite fans to vote for Blizzard in The Escapist's March Mayhem Developer's Showdown 2010 poll.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We'd appreciate your vote! Popular gaming website The Escapist is running their March Mayhem Developer’s Showdown 2010, in which 64 of the world’s games creators are pitted against each other. Readers will vote for their favorite developers in a series of head-to-heads. To show your support for Blizzard, you can head over and vote – but don’t delay! Each round only lasts 48 hours, and the first started today, March 17, at 9:00 AM PDT. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/532.179651-Poll-Round-1-West-2-Blizzard-vs-15-The-Behemoth

Blizzard has released two previews of the upcoming Operation Gnomeregan which sets Alliance players in a series of quests to retake the Gnomish capital. Apparently, Mekgineer Sicco Thermaplugg is still alive. The one we defeated in the dungeon was not him, but a construct posing as him.

Vol'jin and his Darkspear trolls have learned Zalazane had used dark magic to fake his death. Zalazane's severed head, the one adventurers brought to Sen'jin Village, reverted shortly after into its true form ... a colored rock Volunteers shall side with the Darkspears to retake the Echo Isles from its mad ruler.

	Blizzard Quote:
	High Tinker Mekkatorque, betrayed by Mekgineer Thermaplugg and forced to flee the irradiated city of Gnomeregan with the few of his fellow gnomes who managed to survive, is preparing to reclaim his once glorious city. Meanwhile, in distant Durotar, Vol'jin of the Darkspear trolls is determined to exact revenge upon the witch doctor Zalazane for dividing the Darkspears and seizing the land bestowed to them by Thrall: the Echo Isles. Read more about the ongoing struggles of the gnomes and the trolls... and their plans to seek redemption. gnomes= http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan.xml trolls= http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/echoisles.xml

Kapeselus commented the reason the Lurker unit wasn't included in Starcraft II Beta, and admits some of the developers miss it, but some of the new units cover well Tier 2. From my personal point of view, Lurkers were fun. However, they were expensive, had no attacks while unburrowed, and were easily killed with sweep scan, observer or enemy Overlord detection.

The health regeneration and burrowing ability of the Roach makes it a cost efficient candidate over the Lurker.

	Blizzard Quote:
	The developers say that Lurkers were taken out because their goal is to keep the unit count of the game as small as possible so that players know their choices and understand their enemy choices as well. They feel that the Roach uses the Lurker's burrow ability well, while Ultralisks and Banelings have the splash damage covered. Many units took over Lurkers’ roles over the period of development, so they didn't think they were as valuable anymore. But we all do miss them! Well this is our point of view. I think that Lurkers should not really be Tier2 in the current build, because they don't really fit in there and they wouldn't really be a good counter to Roaches, given the fact that ZvZ is a very dynamic matchup and you would probably still prefer Ultralisks or Broodlords at T3. What do you think about it?

The OCRegister (Orange County) reports the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts has chosen their nominees for the fourth Annual Art Star Awards.

The World of Warcraft's exposition held last year at the Laguna Beach Museum is among the nominees:

Best New Arts Program nominees:

• Festival of Arts' Postcards from Laguna and Coffee and Conversation with the Artists
  
• Laguna Art Museum's World of Warcraft
  
• Sister City's Fete de la Musique.

The Award winners will be announced on March 31, at 6pm PST at 891 Laguna Canyon Road.

Update March 18, 9:40am EST: Several blue posts by Xordiah confirming all these beta keys for friends, and the acknowledgment of an issue with the beta key code plus a work around solution.

Update March 18, 7am EST: Looks like the invites were sent indeed but not in the form of waves. people already playing beta is getting additional keys to invite their friends. However, based on feedback I have gotten via email or PM shows there's a randomness. People who is not in beta do get emails too. There will be new invites in upcoming weeks, so stay tuned and check your email often. Don't let your excitement cloud your common sense, however. Remember to be cautious and don't click links in these emails.

Update 6:00 p.m. EST: After a few hours, I haven't seen any comments at the official forums either from Blizzard or happy fans confirming Beta 4 wave invitations. No one seems to be celebrating they got in. I reached Vadoff, who sent the news tip. He sent me a copy of the email he got. He confirms the beta key worked. Vadoff remembers he previously emailed Blizzard support about his non-working Blizzcon key some time ago. He's unsure if this beta invite he received had anything to do with his former support email. It's a possibility this was an isolated case, and not the awaited wave 4.

Original post

The Starcraft II Beta wave 4 has started, and those who signed to the Blizzard beta opt-in through the Battle.net account page are getting emails from Blizzard. As usual, exercise common sense. This is the season when scammers fake emails that look they are legit from an @Blizzard email address.

Simply copy the Beta Key, and manually type the URL: US.BATTLE.NET/LOGIN or EU.BATTLE.NET/LOGIN to avoid any possible scam, phishing, or malware incident. Once you have logged in to your Battle.net account page, if the Starcraft II game doesn't show up in the main page, simply press the Add Game button and enter the Beta Key emailed to you. That will enable the game in the front page to access the client download.

Congratulations, and see you in the Koprulu Sector.

Thanks, Vadoff.

The Con-hopper Keith R.A. Decandido barely got back from Emerald City Con in Seattle, and now he's heading to Lunacon 2010 -- New York's Oldest Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention -- this coming weekend, and then to I-Con the following week.

Lunacon 2010 will be held at:

Hilton Rye Town Hotel (Map)
699 Westchester Avenue
Rye Brook, NY 10573
(914) 939-6300

Keith R.A. DeCandido wrote Starcraft: Ghost Nova, Starcraft: Ghost Academy and World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred.

Aaron Rosenberg is also attending the Lunacon to direct some panels. Aaron wrote Starcraft: Queen of Blades, World of Warcraft: Tides of Darkness and co-wrote World of Warcraft: Beyond the Dark Portal. Bring these with you and catch them for a quick photo and signing.

While none will have any Blizzard novel signings or panels there, if you are going to Lunacon, you might wish to say hi, and get your novels signed.

These are their Schedules:

The Starcraft II Team has released a Leagues and Ladder FAQ for beta testers who wish to know how the ladder works for 1v1 and 2v2 player matches. In addition, Bashiok announced there will be a full reset, so don't be surprised if your friends list is wiped. Make sure to write them down in a notepad document, and re-add the friend list once it's wiped.

"In the near future, we will be doing a full reset of the beta database. This reset will wipe the following information for all players:

• Character and identifier
  
• Friends list
  
• Profile
  
• League placement
  
• Ladder rank

Due to the amount of people currently participating in the beta, this database reset will allow us to monitor and test conditions similar to a game release (albeit smaller). We want to thank everyone for their patience and continued help and support in testing StarCraft II."

	Blizzard Quote:
	1v1 How do your placement matches calculate which league you will be joining? During your placement matches we match you against players from a wide variety of players and skill levels and we watch the results; whether you win or lose. From this, we are able to determine your ability and place you in a league that we believe to be appropriate for your level of play. How do we move up in rank in your division? For example, from rank 51 to rank 44. Simply by competing with other players and winning. However, it is important to remember that the individual matches themselves can vary in points awarded based on the rated difficulty of your opponent. Example: Player A may have a win-loss ratio of 19-17 and be ranked in the Silver League at 35; while player B may have a win-loss ratio of 18-19, but because of the difficulty of some of those matches (say playing against Gold League players) he either received more points for a win or lost less for a loss. How do players move down in rank on the ladder? For example, from rank 44 to rank 51. This is done simply by losing matches. You are ranked relative to everyone in your division within your league. The amount of points you lose per match is comparable to how points are calculated when you win. If you lose to someone who is rated higher than you, you should lose less points then if you were to lose to someone who was rated lower than you. What is the relevance of the Favored indicator and how does that effect the points distributed from winning or losing a match? The Favored indicator helps give you an idea of whether the contender you’re pitted against is considered to be even with you, challenging to you, extremely challenging to you or not a challenge. Currently there is a known bug where the score screen will display a level of you or your opponent being favored that's incorrect. The loading screen however shows the correct level of 'favoritism'. You can use the level of 'favoritism' to gauge the number of points you are likely to gain or lose after the match depending on the result.

The 6th Annual Senshi-Con celebrating Japanese animation and video games will be held through March 20-21 in Anchorage, Alaska at the Student Union building (SU) in the UAA Campus.

The voice behind Lady Jaina Proudmoore in The Secrets of Ulduar trailer, Laura Bailey, is a Guest of Honor at the event. Feel free to say hi, take a photo or request a signature.

University of Alaska Anchorage (Map)
707 A Street
Anchorage, AK 99501-3600

Student Union
2921 Spirit Way

(907) 786-1896
alaska.edu

WoW.com (WoW Insider) is giving away a few WoW TCG loot cards until tonight (March 16th) at 11:59 PM. All you need to do to participate is to leave a comment in the following page. There are two loot card types in this giveaway:

• Create Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.: Use: Starts a dance party.
  
• Little White Stallion Bridle: Races: Human, Dwarf, Night Elf, Gnome, Draenei - Use: Summons and dismisses a rideable Little White Stallion. This mount's speed changes depending on your Riding skill.

Hey, folks. Bashiok announced today that the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction ladder will be reset on March 23, marking the release of Diablo II patch 1.13 into the live realms.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We will be resetting the Diablo II ladder on Tuesday, March 23 with the release of patch 1.13. We anticipate all Diablo II realms to be down for approximately six hours during the reset. More specific information on realm availability on the day of the reset will be posted in the Battle.net Status forum. When the ladder is reset, all existing ladder characters will be converted to non-ladder. All characters and items being converted to non-ladder will remain intact, but once converted these characters will no longer have access to ladder content such as creating ladder-only rune words. For more information on ladder characters please visit the Arreat Summit Realm Character Types page DIABLO II 1.13 Q&A What's the advantage to creating a Ladder Character? This is similar to starting out on a brand new realm. Players will be able to experience Diablo II like when the game was first released. When the Ladder Season first begins, players start at Level 1 and do not have powerful items. They also cannot use powerful high-level items or other high-level characters to help them level up faster. Players create a character in a brand new world (Ladder Character world) where everything (economy, levels) starts from the beginning. The main advantage of creating a Ladder Character is being able to join in on a totally new economy where powerful items are very valuable. What if I don't play ladder or don't want to compete on the ladder? Although they are called Ladder Characters, players do not have to compete on the ladder to play. You can simply play at your own speed and not worry about how you are ranked on the ladder. Can I convert existing characters to Ladder Characters? No, you must flag a character as a Ladder character when it is first created. How long will the ladder season last? This has yet to be determined. What happens when the ladder season is over? All Ladder Characters become either Normal Core or Normal Hardcore Characters depending on what type of Ladder Characters they are. If you want to be a Ladder Character for the next Ladder season you must create a new character and flag it as a Ladder Character. Do I get to keep my Ladder Only Items when the season is over? Yes. Any Ladder Only Items will be converted over when your character is converted to a Core character. These items can now be traded with other Core characters. That is the only way for Core characters to get ladder only items, as leftovers after a season is over. Do I have to beat the game with a Ladder Character to create a Ladder Hardcore Character? No, you can finish the game with either a Normal character or a Ladder character to unlock Ladder Hardcore Characters. Can you convert a Ladder Character to a Normal Character? No. Blizzard does this automatically when the Ladder Season ends. Does the ladder offer anything beyond a more stable economy? Yes there are some items that can only be obtained with a ladder character such as some class specific and elite uniques. There are also some ladder-only rune words as well as cube recipes that can only be created by a ladder character. While these items can eventually make their way to non-ladder after a ladder reset, they can only be initially found or created by using a ladder character.

Hello Boston fans, how are ya? Starcraft II is heading your way! Blizzard has announced their presence at PAX East in downtown Boston. For airport and transit details visit this page.

Hynes Convention Center (map)
900 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02115

	Blizzard Quote:
	Members of the Blizzard community team will be at PAX East in Boston, March 26-28, hanging out at the NVIDIA booth, talking about our games, and helping to demo StarCraft II. Also at the booth, NVIDIA will be showing off World of Warcraft using their 3D Vision technology. Stop by for the stage presentation Friday at 6pm for a world's first 3D Theatre presentation on an 80 foot screen. If you're at the show stop by the NVIDIA booth and say hi! http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/ http://www.nvidia.com/paxeast/

J!NX has launched the exciting World of Warcraft Spring 2010 T-Shirts line up, the Diablo III T-shirt and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty T-Shirt. It's time to re-stock your T-shirt collection. Click on the images beneath to order your T-shirts. Available for Men and Women in several sizes while supplies last.

T-Shirts available this season are:

• Sen'jin Headhunters
  
• Horde Spray
  
• Alliance Spray
  
• Priest Legendary Class
  
• Exodar Vindicators
  
• I Fight Like A Girl
  
• Diablo III
  
• Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Gamers attending the Emerald City Comic Con 2010 should know Keith R.A. DeCandido -- the convention-hopper -- is there today at booth 502 signing Farscape and Farscape: D'Argo's Lament and D'Argo's Trial.

He recently announced he's gonna be writing some D&D stuff.

Bring your copies of Starcraft: Ghost Nova, Starcraft: Ghost Academy and World of Warcraft: Cycle of Hatred for signing.

The 8th Annual ECCC is taking place at:

Washington State Convention Center (Map)
800 Convention Place
Seattle, WA 98101

Get Directions
(206) 694-5030

The Starcraft II Beta Developer Twitter Chat # 1 revealed several details about beta testing.

• Blizzard plans to release a major content patch mid-April to enable some basic achievements and improved voice chat, 3v3 and 4v4 maps, among other unidentified features.
  
• A Mac beta client will be available in April, when it's ready.
  
• The Map Editor will be out before late-April.
  
• No new races are planned for the three episodes of Starcraft II.
  
• The roach, Infestor and reaper are currently in their Watch List.
  
• Critters were not priority for beta, and will eventually be added.
  
• Plans for Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) and community maps ladder and matchmaking.
  
• Dustin said more players will be invited to beta in upcoming weeks, and encourages gamers to enable the beta opt-in option in the Battle.net Account webpage to qualify.
  
• Replay hosting and sharing won't be available at ship date.
  
• Streamed replays for Tournament Finals is planned in future Starcraft II expansions.

Below you can read the 4-pages transcript.

	Blizzard Quote:
	So many people are complaining about this on the forum... is it true that there will be no chat channels? I hope not! We do have plans for chat channels. Specifically, we want to organize chat channels around users' interests so you know what types of conversations you are going to get into when you join a channel. This feature is not something that will be in for beta. Currently we plan to do this feature in a patch after the game launches. Are you guys still working on the Map Editor; and if so, what features are you planning to incorporate into the final piece? Yes. We're still working on the Map Editor and currently working on the publishing system. We intend to release an early version of the editor during the beta so the map-making community can get a head start creating their own maps. This is going to be a stretch for us to pull off, but our hope is to get it out before the end of April. Do you really use beers to balance units? And do you really use that rubber gun to make a decision? I'm drunk now! Seriously the Jace Hall show was fun to do, but we take our jobs pretty seriously when it comes to the actual work. =)

More after the break.

The winners of our Blizzplanet's World of Warcraft: Stormrage giveaway were randomly chosen. The hardcover books will be shipped soon. Thanks everyone for participating.

Sorry folks, Blizzplanet is international. Better luck next time. By the looks of it, next one might be Starcraft: Heaven's Devils. I got mine =)

And the winners are:

Anatolios (Ontario, Canada)
Frozenkex (Latvia)
Lonami.lonami (Spain)
Mikeztarp (France)
Zatheyll (Colorado, USA)

When we attended the Blizzard fansites summit within Blizzard's theater room, the CMs explained how the community would be able to interact with the developers via Twitter. World of Warcraft has had at least two of these chats, and now it's the Starcraft II Community's turn to have a Developer Chat on Twitter. You must not miss the opportunity this Friday at 4pm PST.

	Blizzard Quote:
	We will be holding our next Developer Chat on Twitter on Friday, March 12th, at 4:00 p.m. PST with StarCraft II’s Production Director and Game Director. This chat session will focus on the recently released StarCraft II beta. Questions will be taken live through Twitter, so be sure to sign up for a Twitter account at https://twitter.com/signup and follow account @StarCraft in order to participate! To submit a question for the Developer Chat, please tweet using the #BlizzChat hashtag between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00p.m. PST on March 12th. Due to the character limitation on responses within Twitter, all answers will be posted on the StarCraft II forums in a dedicated thread.