I’m excited. I know it’ll be months or maybe more than a year before it comes out, but I’m still excited. New continent, new quests, new instances, Death Knights, new level cap (80), customizable hairstyles and dances…fun stuff!
Interesting question:
Arthas; sword, Frostmourne, is described as having the ability to vampirically drain souls. Arthas picked it up, then went mad and ran off into the snow. He later shows up halfway dead and eventually is possessed by the Lich-King. Tell me, is that even Arthas anymore, or is Arthas now sleeping in his own sword?
Great, now I can be ganked by even higher level players that I have no chance catching up to.
Drain the soul? Is it the sword or the game that does this amazing thing?
Good thing you rolled on a PVE server, being gank-sensitive. 
They got walrus people! Man, I wish that was a playable race!
Goo-Goo-Ga-Joob
Jimminy Cricket! I still haven’t explored all of Outland and now there will be another whole continent?
squeee
cant wait to get the beta invite for this one too=)
[spoiler]As I understand it; The sword steals souls, but the sword can control the person wielding it. Essentially what happens is that over time, the soul of the person gradually is absorbed into the sword, but the person often won’t realise it because they’re still sort of in control of the body.
Plus he isn’t just posessed by the Lich King, but merged. I’m not sure what having the LK’s power does in terms of how the sword works, but if normal i’d say the joint Arthas-LK entity is in the sword, posessing the body. [/spoiler]
Yeah, but I have a really hard time imaging the most evil of orcish warlocks himself letting Arthas have any say in what goes on. He might take control of the half-alive but he’s never exactly been the type to cooperate or negotiate.
Don’t worry knowing Blizzard this is still at least a year from coming out. The last expansion was also announced at blizzcon, and it didn’t come out for 15 months after that.
Pfffft, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of SC2 development…
I like the PvP aspect of the game. I was more referencing my complete lack of skill at PvP than my gank-sensitivity. 
The expansion looks cool, and the more that there is to offer, the better the game.
He might do it if it were the only way to break free of Kil’Jaeden’s domination. Getting Frostmourne to Arthas was part of his plan to free himself. If the only way he could do it was by merging with another soul, I think he hates Kil’Jaeden enough to do it.
I was just teasing, by the way. I happen to suck at PvP. In fact, the Swiss rail system’s schedule is set based upon the regularity with which I’m ganked.
The game only drains the wallet.
$15/month is a very cheap bad habit
Agreed. I first started playing MMORPGs back when Everquest came out in 1999? (Maybe 1998–can’t remember) I’ve always been very heavily into computer/video games pretty much ever since the old Atari came out in 79 and PC games started to become popular in the mid-80s. Prior to getting “hooked” on EQ, I would buy tons of games. At one point I was living in this apartment that had a big, walk-in closet. From the floor to the ceiling this closet was nothing but PC game boxes (I kept the manuals in them as copy protection of the time often required the manual.) Now I might buy 3-4 games a year tops. With MMORPGs you get a ton of replayability, and you’re paying less per month than it costs to buy a brand new game.
Anyway, as to the Arthas speculation (and I’m not sure why we’re putting it in spoiler boxes, but I’ll follow the trend):
[spoiler]Arthas and Ner’zul/The Lich King are one entity now, Arthas wasn’t destroyed or enslaved. Him and the Lich King are one and the same, two creatures existing together as one entity/personality. Chris Metzen, who is the head story-writer for the entire WarCraft universe has said this in the past about the Arthas/Ner’zhul merger: “Arthas and Ner’zhul have become a perfect fusion of one being - Arthas’ personality and body with Ner’zhul’s wisdom, experience, power and EVIL.”
Also, there is currently a trailer for the new expansion up on the WoW website. The first words in the trailer are spoken by a voice which is the combination of Arthas and the Lich King’s voice (as heard in Warcraft 3’s campaign mode.) It is the same voice heard in Kel’Thuzad’s chamber in Naxxramas, for anyone who did that much raiding prior to the expansion.
The voice says, “It’s begun, young heroes I was once like you. You have come to this place seeking to bring judgment upon the damned. You will venture deep into forgotten lands. You will see wonders beyond imagining. But, be warned, the land itself will rise up against you. Long-forgotten terrors will smother your courage. Sacrifice everything, as the final darkness falls. In the end, all that awaits you is death. Only then, will you understand, you’ve been following in MY footsteps all along.”
So it certainly appears that while they are a “merged” entity Arthas’ is the dominant personality, or at least that he can function as the dominant personality, since he can refer to Arthas’ past in the first person.
This may not be especially surprising, I’m not sure how much of “Ner’zhul the Orc Shaman” still remains. After failing Kil’jaeden and even trying to turn his back on the Burning Legion, Ner’zhul was destroyed piece by piece, disembodied, and then his soul was tortured for an extended period of time. After all that, he was encased in a block of ice at the roof of the world. That probably has the effect of seriously damaging one’s psyche. In the WarCraft 3 campaign, the Lich King doesn’t seem to communicate directly very often, and when he does it is usually very short, and to the point. Like when he communicates with Arthas at the beginning of the Frozen Throne, all he says IIRC is, “COME TO ME. OBEY!!!”
Also, I don’t know that I can characterize Ner’zhul as entirely evil. While he definitely went down the path of evil, at one point he realizes that what he has done to the orcs is wrong, and that he is destroying their heritage and making the orcs into a corrupted race. By then, it is too late to do anything about it. In the storyline, prior to the orcs crossing through the Dark Portal, Ner’zhul is a respected orc shaman. However, he has an unhealthy lust for power, during one of his regular communications with the spirit of his dead mate, he is introduced to Kil’jaeden and eventually trained in the warlock arts and turned against the Draenei on Outland. This leads to Ner’zhul leading the Horde against the Draenei, however Ner’zhul begins to wonder why the ancestral spirits he communed with for so long as a shaman no longer heed his calls, so he visits Oshu’gun (the big mountain in Nagrand) to commune with the spirits. They call him a monster and the real spirit of his deceased mate appears to inform him that he has been deceived by Kil’jaeden. At this point, Ner’zhul tries to turn things around and bring the Horde back to the way it had been. However, by this time Kil’jaeden had already successfully converted most of the orc leadership (especially Gul’dan). Gul’dan replaced Ner’zhul as the true leading figure within the Horde and Ner’zhul was mostly a puppet from that day forward; the one thing Ner’zhul was able to do, is prevent the Frostwolf clan from drinking the Blood of Mannoroth, so the Frostwolves were able to escape the corruption that the rest of the orc race suffered. Gul’dan is definitely pure evil, and never had any sort of redemption, he even betrayed the Horde during the second war in a mad attempt to get the Eye of Sargeras from the Maelstrom.[/spoiler]
15 dollars a month rarely drained my wallet, but it certainly sucked my social life away. As well as making me think about the game all the time, it drained my soul in that the mindless grind mixed with all the 12 year olds wanting to start fights in public channels and the constant pressure to go on raids and gain L33t equipment.
I quit when I could, but I constantly feel the craving to go back, even if I possess the knowledge that I will get nothing done with my life if I do.
-Jhulian, Lvl 63 Tauren Hunter, Kirin Tor