For the last two weeks the 100% RvR Driven City changes have been put through their paces in our Closed Guild/Alliance city testing and now it's time to unveil this all new experience to the public!

We invite you to join us next Tuesday, May 11th 2010, starting at 8:00 PM EDT for our mass Public Test of the all new 100% RvR Driven City Siege! Come and invade the streets of Altdorf with the Mythic Development team as we preview all of these exciting changes. Be sure to stick around after the test for a Q&A; session on the official Mythic Ventrilo Server with Nate Levy, Carrie Gouskos, and other members of the development team, hosted by Andy Belford.

We'll follow up the Altdorf test on Thursday, May 13th 2010, at 8:00 PM EDT as we break down the gates of The Inevitable City and storm the throne room of the forces of Destruction.

Greetings!

Those whose accounts were impacted by last month’s billing issues are now eligible to claim their gifts. As previously announced all characters (present and future) on affected accounts are eligible to receive these tokens of appreciation.

Your characters will receive two in-game mails each containing a “Golden Writ.” These writs can be taken to merchants in each realms capital city:

· Altdorf: Valstrong Donnor (In the Library)

· The Inevitable City: Feran Mal’evil (In the Lyceum)

Using these two tokens each of your characters will be able to receive two of the following items:

· Bottomless Chaos Black Dye

· Bottomless Skull White Dye

· Imperial Griffon Mount (Order)

· Enslaved Manticore Mount (Destruction)

· WAR Tract – earn a free level

· Choose from any of these pets – Order: Imperial Hunting Hound or Dwarf Keg Handler; Destruction: Warlord’s Fell Hound or the Goblin Bar-Back.

· Change your appearance with any of these illusion items: Skaven Skin Cloak (skaven), Kossar’s Helm (bear), or the Signet of the Cursed Company (skeleton)

Halo Ring Launches

WV: Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging just to do something on the side and I guess help contribute to the community.

WV: Favorite blog post you have made?

I don't have any favorite posts.

WV: Do you have a favorite blog, besides your own?

No, I do not.

WV: What motivates you to keep blogging?

Not really sure. That is a very good question.

Hello all,

It’s been a very busy month, so busy the time has just flown by. These days, everyone around here is eating, breathing and sleeping 1.3.5. For that reason, in this particular newsletter, I’m going to focus on version 1.3.5 and some of the recent community activity. I know that many like to skip ahead to read teasers of the distant future but , for this letter, I want to focus on the present, because I think the excitement right now is really around the short term future and 1.3.5.

We're back with another edition of the WAR Video Grab Bag, taking questions straight from the community and grilling the developers on camera for your viewing pleasure! With all of the changes going into Game Update 1.3.5 there was so much we wanted to talk about that we had to divide it into two parts! Be sure to check out the 1.3.5 Video Grab Bag - Part One and stay tuned next week for part two!

Greetings!

We're full steam ahead with the 1.3.5 Testing phase, with last night's first Guild City test providing a lot of valuable feedback and information. Thanks to everyone who came out to the test! Please be sure to stop by the 1.3.5 PTS Forums to give feedback about last night's test.

Be sure to join us tonight, 4/28/2010, at 8:00 PM EDT on the Warpstone PTS as we put version 1.3.5 through our regular stability check. We'll be hitting a Keep en masse, replete with our AI Driven friends (Stability Bots!) to test the servers limits! Also, there may or may not be lizards ;). Character copies are enabled for the test and templates will be provided, so everyone can participate!

It was a dark and stormy night. Rivulets of sweat made tracks down my brow as I sat, hunched over my keyboard. A flash of lightning caused a silhouette to appear in my doorway; startled by the unexpected visitor, and the sudden manner with which they manifested, my fingers stumbled on the keyboard as I gasped – heart skipping a beat.

“Good evening, Keaven.”

The form stepped closer, allowing the light from my desk to illuminate his features. The elongated shadows of the room cast a macabre unnatural pallor on the man’s face. This would not be good news.

Thus was my induction into the house of pain ... er, I mean... RvR-Driven End Game revamp of the Capitol Cities.

We have implemented the following Hot Fix during today's maintenance:

Maintenance Notes

* We have implemented changes aimed at lessening the frequency of occurrences of Scenarios ending due to imbalance. We will continue to closely monitor the number of Scenarios ending due to imbalance and will make further adjustments as needed.

We will be bringing all North American Servers offline tomorrow morning, 4/27/2010, at 8:00 AM EDT for weekly maintenance. At this time we anticipate that all servers will be back online no later than 12:00 PM EDT. As always, please be sure to check the Herald for updates regarding this downtime.

Thank you for your continued support.

The battle for the Basin is on! This weekend take part in the bloodbath that is Blood Basin, the reopening of the Black Fire Basin scenario for all tiers. Take no prisoners, suffer no enemies to survive, and emerge victorious with a new title and the satisfaction of a killing rage well sated.

Blood Basin runs from now until 4/25/2010.

WV: Why did you start blogging?

This is kind of a multi-pronged, many faceted question. The simple, immediate, and "at-face-value" reason was because I wanted to chronicle my experience rerolling from a DoK on Destro to a SW on Order. I did the re-roll during a time when Destro was just dominating Order, and I really wanted to try out an archer class. I hate pet classes, so the SW was my only option. Why I continued to blog is a different matter altogether. I kept at it because of the love. I love the genre, I love to write, I love the game, and I love the community. Probably in that order. Maybe. Not 100%, but probably.

WV: Favorite blog post you have made?

Oh, God. Big question. I'm not as relentless in my post count as others, but over a year and 4 mounts, I've made 386 posts. I've ranged the gamut from short, long, witty, serious, flippant, sincere, analytical and whimsical. So, picking just one is a hefty choice. Still, if I was to pick one, and just one, as my favorite example of my writing and as a testament to my "voice" and a look at my progression as a gamer it would have to be "Entitlement Mentality, the difference between punishment and reward".

Does everyone know what time it is?

It's testing time!

That's right, we're kicking off the 1.3.5 PTS phase today with the opening of the Warpstone Public Test Server. Be sure to log in to check out all of the changes coming your way in game update 1.3.5. We're going to be kicking off the Public Testing this coming Wednesday, 4/28/2010, at 8:00 PM EDT with our regular Stability Testing. Come and join in on the fun with players from across the servers as we try to shake, rattle and roll Warpstone.

Also, be sure to keep your eyes on the Herald for announcements about the Public Mass City Testing which will follow our Closed Guild City Testing phase.

Hello everyone,

Two weeks ago, a serious event occurred which resulted in the unintended billing of some of our customers. For this and any difficulties the event caused, we are truly sorry and today we wish to explain what happened, and to make a renewed commitment to your trust and security. We have taken this very seriously. In our 15 year history, trust has been the foundation of our relationship with the gaming community and we intend to rebuild that trust.

Between March 18 and April 7, our payment gateway, experienced a processing flaw that was beyond the scope of our control. Instead of being submitted for processing once, some transactions were submitted multiple times, resulting in some people being charged multiple times. On April 8, we determined what had happened and acted with urgency to arrange for bulk reversal of all erroneous charges. The majority of players saw the refund within 2-3 business days. Some banks did not post refunds until a few days later, a delay that was contingent on the banking institution. We worked quickly to inform affected players of the situation and understand the frustration this waiting period may have caused.

As a result of this event, we significantly increased customer service staffing who have been working with all impacted subscribers to waive any overdraft fees. The majority of the banks have waived these fees as they recognize the unusual nature of this event. In the rare cases that the banks have not reversed the charges, EA is covering the fee.

Once the corrective action was completed, we turned our attention to analyzing the problem in more detail. We determined the root cause, developed a definitive fix and implemented monitoring precautions that will allow us to prevent similar situations from reoccurring. These steps have been in place since April 13 with no further issues.

To be clear, at no point during this event was there a security breach or was subscriber account information compromised.