Look around you. The November newsletter has been unleashed upon the world! Chock full of goodies that will slowly find their way onto the site. Screenshots, videos, and more information continues to trickle out of Mythic HQ.

This month brings some tasty morsels about the Chaos army, details about a couple new zones, including the first contested zone, Thunder Mountain. What this means is that in order for an army to launch an attack upon either the Dwarf of Greenskin capital city, the opposing army must have control of Thunder Mountain. I’ll be calling these zones contested or “struggle points”, since I enjoy coining phrases.

Look for more details next week…

As for official news, not much has come out since the last newsletter, so we’re all anxiously awaiting the November release. There was GenCon in Anaheim, CA, but unfortunately I couldn’t make it there and lost out on some first hand info gathering.

The only official news of sorts have been adjustments to the beta schedule, which have seemingly been made more official now with the EA stamp of approval.

In unofficial news, several new interviews have been posted around the major sites, including a bit on the Chaos army over at Gamespy.

As for the Warrior of Tzeentch

He’s a warrior of Chaos who has given himself to the cause of Tzeentch. He’s a warrior who has decided that he and he alone is going to become the great power on the planet. He has decked himself in armor; he’s like a big tank with enormous swords, and he has decorated it with all the elements of Tzeentch. Tzeentch is comprised of eyeballs, the color blue and eternal fire. He’s all about feathers and birds and claws and beaks. What’s marvelous about this is that not only is this piece of armor fantastic and completely captures what we’re doing, it’s not even one of the top sets of armor! How great is that?

What you’re looking at there is a chosen warrior, someone who is absolutely into Chaos, absolutely given to Tzeentch, the Changer of the Ways, the Great Manipulato. He’s going to slaughter anyone who stands in his way — or on his side — or anyone who’s near the top of the pyramid, ’cause that is the way of Chaos. Although they will fight on the ground with great swords, there will come a point when they will be able to fight strongly… by not having their feet on the ground.

I can’t wait! Additionally, he spoke of the Sorcerer of Tzeentch as well…

So you ask yourself, what do Sorcerers of Tzeentch do? They fly around on disks with great big spikes that glow and they grab energy from out of the air and they can turn it into fire and lightning that they can throw around. They’re resplendent in their enormous fluted shoulder pads and helmets in the Tzeentchian colors. He’s not like an old-fashioned wizard: bloke, beard, hat, stick. As for his gimmick? He’s on a flying disk, armored, claws, and throws lighting bolts at you! Will you shut up?

Chaos is fantastic. It’s been the one area that the artists have been mad on … After working relentlessly on Dwarves and Greenskins, you really do need a bit of breathing room. You need a bit of Chaos corruption in your life. It makes you happy.

Finally, I posted a few new videos that you should definitely check out. They are interview bits from Paul Barnett addressing some Q&A from IGN Vault.

The October newsletter was sent out today, and with it a wealth of new content and information. This time around we get the final career options for the Greenskins and Dwarves. The artist formerly known as Iron Claw and Berserker has finally found its identity in the form of the Orc Choppa! On the other side, the Dwarves’ Runepriest has been detailed.

Other juicy tidbits include some new concept art and early screenshots of the Empire careers: Warrior Priest, Bandit (possibly), and Bright Wizard. I’m sure next month will bring more details.

The latest zone information to come out is the Black Crag - a very Orcish zone indeed. It looks like this will be located just outside the Greenskin capital and connects to the Badlands.

Someone had to do it…

Much of this site’s foundation has been reworked to allow a little more flexibility. Additionally, career information has been updated and the zone updates are coming soon.

The biggest addition is the Video section, which is a collection of all the gameplay footage, interviews, and other goodness that can’t be found on the official Warhammer Online site.

Mythic has released detailed information about four careers - two for each of the Greenskins and Dwarf armies.

For the Greenskins:
- Black Orc
- Goblin Shaman

For the Dwarves:
- Ironbreaker
- Hammerer

Personally, I’m holding out for the Chaos Warrior.

Currently Running: Alpha: Alpha does not have anyone playing who does not draw a paycheck from Mythic.

Summer 2006: Double Secret Beta: That is just beyond alpha, and includes people who draw paychecks from Mythic and our partners.

Fall 2006: First Stage of Closed Beta (Beta 1): Sometimes called “Friends and Family,” somewhat inaccurately, this is a stage where there is actually a game, but it is not usually very complete or even stable for that matter. People who don’t work here are in this stage, but usually fewer than a hundred, and they are nearly all such old, old friends that they are often mistaken for employees.

Fall 2006: Beta 1.7, After Things Stop Going Boom Every Day: This is the stage you’ll start seeing community testers. People who have tested for Mythic for years, or have been otherwise recommended to us as quality volunteer testers, are starting to be included. There is usually a restriction on how many people get in at this point, and often perfectly wonderful people are left out.

Early Spring 2007: Beta 2: Still closed and covered under NDA, invitees include prize winners, guilds that win the guild contest, and some members of the print and web media - usually the ones we have relationships with. People who work at GW retail shops are getting in here, and we’ve got some plans for existing Dark Age of Camelot players to be invited to check out their new sibling. There will be up to a thousand people by the end of Beta 2.

Summer 2007: Beta 3: Closed, NDA. This is where Lady Luck will wave her wand. We will be choosing randomly from the giant pool of people who are subscribed to our newsletter. This phase will have thousands of people invited, possibly as many as ten thousand.

Summer 2007 Final Beta: No NDA. Because there is no NDA, people often refer to this as “open beta.” But I wanted to be really clear with you guys - we are not planning the kind of open beta where everyone with internet access can download the game and hop in. That’s nutty. Right now, we are tentatively considering having everyone who pre-orders the game invited to this phase of beta. This phase will also invite winners from our big media promotions.