Company Updates

World of Warcraft Notebook: Horde or Alliance—Which One Are You?

By   |  

You might have seen reactions to our teaser page on Dell.com. Today, we start taking orders for the XPS M1730: World of Warcraft Edition from United States customers who signed up for the e-mail. The product will be available to other customers in the U.S. begininng on December 11.

If you registered at the teaser site, soon you will get an e-mail that looks like this one:

Here's the deal. We have teamed with the folks at Blizzard Entertainment to create a product that allows fans of World of Warcraft (WoW) to immerse themselves in the game. Our partnership started earlier this year in January when we auctioned off two custom WoW notebooks for charity. For this system, we wanted to go way beyond a custom appearance. How did the XPS team go about doing that? They started with the award-winning XPS M1730 and beefed up the minimum config. I'll start with the system itself, and will explain other things that come with every system a bit later.

Every system comes pre-loaded with the games themselves: World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade expansion pack. We'll also install all the major client patches for both games as well. We'll continue to test and ship future patches pre-installed as they are released by Blizzard. Dell's goal is to get you into the game with as little effort as possible. Beyond that, it has lots of World of Warcraft content, including original artwork desktop wallpapers and screen savers. The image below is the default Alliance wallpaper that you'll see when you first boot: 

 

Alliance System:

 

Horde System:

Alliance and Horde systems side by side, front and back:

The Orc box, which contains the hardware accessories like the binder with User's Manual, the notebook power adapter, custom XPS WoW mousepad, WoW t-shirt, etc. coming down the manufacturing line.

 

There's a whole lot more to this than the system hardware. Everyone who orders this system will get three things: a Quest Envelope, a WoW backpack full of stuff and the system itself. Before I explain those things in more detail, I'll introduce Randy "Randydeluxe" Jordan to you. He's one of the hosts from the popular WoW podcast called The Instance. We recently invited him to Round Rock for a first-ever unboxing of the system so you can see exactly what you're going to get. This video is almost 30 minutes long, but it's a complete overview of what to expect.

Note: You can left-click on one of the video format links below to play that video in a browser window. Otherwise, you can right-click, then click on Save Link As, then click Save to download the video to your system. Either way, since it's a 30-minute video, it will take some time to load.

 

      Flash                                                                WMV                                                             MP4  

I'll start by explaining the Quest Envelope. Here's the YouTube video where Randydeluxe looks at the it. The Quest Envelope will come to you separate from the system via certified overnight mail. It contains the following:

  • Golden Ticket – This provides you an opprortunity to get a customized figurine of your WoW character through FigurePrints. FigurePrints will access you character's data through Blizzard's servers to create a custom 3D figure of your character, complete with weapons and armor you can choose. Take a look at this video if you want to see what this is all about.
  • Blizzard Beta Club Card – The code on the card registers you for Blizzard's Beta Club, which gives you access to five upcoming beta tests, starting with the Wrath of the Lich King. 
  • Collector's Edition Account Upgrade Certificate – This allows you to upgrade your account to a collector's edition account, enabling you to get a special in-game pet.

The WoW backpack is what comes in the Night Elf box. Here's the video where Randydeluxe unboxes the it. The backpack has the following things in it:

In this vlog, you'll hear from Shane McWilliams, who is the program manager for the XPS M1730  World of Warcraft Edition development team. His main character is a Blood Elf Mage, and when this video was shot, he was level 56. Today, he's level 60, and has enough battleground experience to get the complete "Gladiator's Regalia" armor set when he hits level 70. He gives you a good overview of the system and the experience, and provides more insight into the design of the hardware.


View Video
Format: flv
Duration:

About the Author: Lionel Menchaca