# Forum > News > OC News > Articles and Interviews >  New World of Warcraft Expansion Memo Leak

## Jeremiah

Got some juicy stuff and a .RAR filled with information about the new World of Warcraft expansion. Got a hold of some kind of memo from a Blizzard conference or email about the expansion titled, "Vengeance of the Void" with some key points and information for reference for (Metzen?) at the Quests and Lore Q&A at Blizzcon 2011.

I've reproduced the note in it's entirety in text form below in case the image is taken down or rendered inaccessible due to a bandwidth issue.




> Since we had a bit of a mixup last time with some of the info on the Quests & Lore panel, I thought it would be a good idea to organize information about VotV all in one place. Fans will probably dump any questions they already have out of their heads when Mike introduces VotV during the o. ceremony, and we should be prepared to give some good Q and A about quests and story for the new product.
> 
> Feel free to add on anything you want and zing it back to me at the company email, but I’ve just prepped up a list with the Creative dept for some main points that we want to cover at the panel.
> 
> - Levels 85-90
> - “Vengeance of the Void” - Name derived from new enemy “The Void”
> - Expansion will also feature the Burning Legion as a central antagonist.
> - Years after the Burning Crusade, situation in Outland has become unstable. The Burning Legion has regained many lost footholds and made progress agianst the Draenei and other allies on the planet.
> - Explain that because of balancing issues we’d prefer not to add any more hero classes for the fors. future, so we decided to focus on fan fave races with new lore and other new features.
> ...

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## Zoidberg

AWESOME! Never seen this before, thanks!
So... Naga race for horde I'm guessing. Ethereal for alliance?
You might want to make space between each note.

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## choweyiii

Very nice, can't wait to see what the other 14 pages have.

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## Confucius

NO it will be pandaren for horde (ofc) and some ugly class for alliance hopefully  :Smile:

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## Zoidberg

> NO it will be pandaren for horde (ofc) and some ugly class for alliance hopefully


Just read it... It's pretty obvious it's going to be nagas for horde.

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## choweyiii

I gotta ask, how did you get this?

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## doclol

Wheres the other 14 pages?

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## Ballwinkle

More pages!!

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## ev1

> - A ton of lore for the neglected Shadow Priest class. Lots of new story content for Shadow Priests and their interaction with the Void and A’dal.


awesomeeeeeee

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## Dombo

Interesting developements in the world of warcraft.

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## spitfire456

You should add a watermark on that picture, its being spread on the internet really fast!

****UNCONFIRMED******** NEW XPAC info Leaked

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## Zoidberg

Hmm, wondering if this actually could be fake...

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## Ballwinkle

On that thread people were saying the address way fake. This says otherwise: ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC, 3100 OCEAN PARK BLVD, SANTA MONICA, California (CA) - Company Profile

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## xf11

i'm having a wow boner just thinking about those other 14 pages

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## thephoenix3000

I did a double check because of the issue with blizzard being located in Irving. The current head office is located in Santa Monica. If it is a fake, it's a really good one.

Activision | Blizzard - Locations

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## Jeremiah

Boub and his fanboys are purporting that it is.

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## Frostfire55

> If it is a fake, it's a really good one.






No. It really isn't. It's a crappy fake. It's very obvious and there's a few reasons as to why:

1. The abbreviations aren't well founded and really have no reason for being there. 'o.ceremony' 'fors.future' 'div'd' make the documental unprofessional looking. 
2. The positioning of the header is very questionable. Uneven logo placement make for an unusually long header and very unprofessional.
3. It's very rare for an internal document like this to be emailed with the company logo. Unless someone wanted to be fancy. Given the wording of the letter. That wasn't the case.
4. Michael Morhaime being referred to as "mike" strikes me as odd. If you want those reading the letter to be informed, you don't skimp on the information. 
5. VotV was mentioned in the opening paragraph yet expanded on the name "Vegence of the Void" afterwards. It's slightly odd that an abbreviation is used before the description is given unless the expansion's name 
6. Blizzard's campus is in Irvine, Ca. Activision Blizzard's financial department is located at the address in the letter. Now how would it make sense that something pertaining to lore, class and expansion development is mailed out from the financial department?

If credibility and competition is something MMOwned strived for, this isn't the way to get it. When in doubt, throw the document out.

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## Remus3

Thank you, Frostfire55. I personally agree, this is not how a company runs a memo.... not even close.

However, we do at least get to run with the story and encourage others to figure out as a group if it's fake or not.

Better first than sorry i guess. Who knows maybe some new ideas can come out of this for private servers /le shrug.

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## Frostfire55

> Thank you, Frostfire55. I personally agree, this is not how a company runs a memo.... not even close.
> 
> However, we do at least get to run with the story and encourage others to figure out as a group if it's fake or not.
> 
> Better first than sorry i guess. Who knows maybe some new ideas can come out of this for private servers /le shrug.


 I agree however taking a business class and working in journalism positions. It is better to run with stories that are actually true than be something that is shifty. I can't think of a better example than the Killian documents controversy to fit this. The event that Dan Rather supposedly resigned over. CBS gained press but they never really gained viewers or validity for running with fake stories. 

As for Aphel, well, I don't know what would work better. A slap on the wrist and being put under a microscope for poor journalism practices or being dropped altogether for being a faulty news correspondant. Where are the other 14 pages? Not enough time to work on them? Or is this just a progressive drip? I think the former than the latter.

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## Jeremiah

> I agree however taking a business class and working in journalism positions. It is better to run with stories that are actually true than be something that is shifty. I can't think of a better example than the Killian documents controversy to fit this. The event that Dan Rather supposedly resigned over. CBS gained press but they never really gained viewers or validity for running with fake stories. 
> 
> As for Aphel, well, I don't know what would work better. A slap on the wrist and being put under a microscope for poor journalism practices or being dropped altogether for being a faulty news correspondant. Where are the other 14 pages? Not enough time to work on them? Or is this just a progressive drip? I think the former than the latter.


We post it for what it is. No news site can ever confirm anything is true about Blizzard's products.

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## xf11

you know, despite the mayhaps bad writing practices of the article itself, the content involving the expansion sounds, well, something that would make sense in warcraft. Considering that the only real venues left for warcraft would otherwise be the emerald dream or where ever the burning legion reside, venturing forth into the twisting nether and making more sense out of the void and the outwordly areas such as xoroth or argus makes a lot of sense on blizzard's part.

From a guy that reads every wowwiki article known to man, reiterating the vague would make a lot more room and a lot more unexpected content, with that reason I think the article may at least a hint of possibility in it, and probably should not of been snuffed out as fast as boub wanted it too be.

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## Frostfire55

> We post it for what it is. No news site can ever confirm anything is true about Blizzard's products, and this includes Boub and his dickriders.


 Well then Aphel. Post the rest of the 14 pages that came along with the document if you just run with it. I mean, it would be silly if you get a RAR of information only containing one picture.

---------- Post added at 02:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:24 AM ----------




> you know, despite the mayhaps bad writing practices of the article itself, the content involving the expansion sounds, well, something that would make sense in warcraft. Considering that the only real venues left for warcraft would otherwise be the emerald dream or where ever the burning legion reside, venturing forth into the twisting nether and making more sense out of the void and the outwordly areas such as xoroth or argus makes a lot of sense on blizzard's part.
> 
> From a guy that reads every wowwiki article known to man, reiterating the vague would make a lot more room and a lot more unexpected content, with that reason I think the article may at least a hint of possibility in it, and probably should not of been snuffed out as fast as boub wanted it too be.


 I'm not saying that the idea is bad. I'm saying that posting false information is. Blizzard really isn't limited when it comes to what they can do with their expansions. Hell, it could be a whole brand new expansion with new characters interacting with old characters. A new villain and whatnot. But really, just because the letter mentions certain things that make sense in a lore perspective doesn't mean the letter is true. 

I still think it was a poor choice to post it when a lot of people are picking apart the letter and pointing out tons of issues with it. At least a few more of the pages of this 'official' document would be nice and give more ground.

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## xf11

well, true it doesent, whoever did write the content in the letter though was convincing lore wise at least

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## Frostfire55

> well, true it doesent, whoever did write the content in the letter though was convincing lore wise at least


 I'll agree with that. But as someone noted in the article comments. Aphel talked about the Ethereal's in previous forums or sites and a video too. If I'd have to ponder as to who made the forgery, I'd look at Aphel.

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## Jeremiah

> I'll agree with that. But as someone noted in the article comments. Aphel talked about the Ethereal's in previous forums or sites and a video too. If I'd have to ponder as to who made the forgery, I'd look at Aphel.


I'd love to claim credit, as it is a decently well-made piece of work. The person obviously put a lot of thought into it, and a lot of work considering both the content and the actual layout of the letter (with the company letterhead and all), but it isn't mine, and we don't even know if it's fake yet.

As for the rest of the pages, they will be released after the 4th of July holiday all at once.

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## Frostfire55

> I'd love to claim credit, as it is a decently well-made piece of work. The person obviously put a lot of thought into it, and a lot of work considering both the content and the actual layout of the letter (with the company letterhead and all), but it isn't mine, and we don't even know if it's fake yet.
> 
> As for the rest of the pages, they will be released after the 4th of July holiday all at once.


So...someone is writing them up as we speak then? I mean, obviously how hard could it be to upload 14 pictures. Crudely link them up on the original article or in a forum post? That has to take, what, twenty minutes top? God bless photobucket.

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## Jeremiah

> So...someone is writing them up as we speak then? I mean, obviously how hard could it be to upload 14 pictures. Crudely link them up on the original article or in a forum post? That has to take, what, twenty minutes top? God bless photobucket.


We planned on staggering them even longer to begin with, so to direct traffic in controlled bursts to the website (and obviously for advertisers). As this news hit networks all across the "WoWosphere" in just a few hours, it's actually a much better idea to release the content on a day when a lot of people will be able to read it. Since a lot of people will be away for vacation on the 4th (or already are now), it's a better idea to release it

1.) On a work week day.
2.) On a non-holiday.

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## Frostfire55

> We planned on staggering them even longer to begin with, so to direct traffic in controlled bursts to the website (and obviously for advertisers). As this news hit networks all across the "WoWosphere" in just a few hours, it's actually a much better idea to release the content on a day when a lot of people will be able to read it. Since a lot of people will be away for vacation on the 4th (or already are now), it's a better idea to release it
> 
> 1.) On a work week day.
> 2.) On a non-holiday.


 Point taken. However, we shall see how well the rest of the memo is written. I still find a few points laughable. Deadwind Pass being a starter zone. Neglected Shadow Priest. The wording of the memo being unprofessional such as 'zing it back to me' and 'plain ol' cool' stuff. The points I've stated above. The memo format being off from the typical. And people from WoW Insider calling it a fake too, one of which I believe was a former Blizzard employee.

-EDIT-

Also. For Blizzcon being a good few months away, it's weird that they've already tried to put out prep notes this early. "We want people to be ready. No, really ready. We mean READY ready." And to elaborate on the Deadwind Pass issue. I think this is the most telling for me considering the zone would be the smallest 1 to 10 zone to date. To make it bigger, they'd have to change almost every zone around Deadwind Pass to make it suitably bigger. Blizzard has, in the past, made each new starting zone either on an island or a pennisula because this is easier to fit into the landscape than injecting it into surrounding zones. No other zones except Hyjal were inserted into the game without being on the outer part of any continent or being part of a new continent together. Putting in new zones in that are surrounded on four sides is something blizzard seems to rarely do.

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## Jeremiah

> Point taken. However, we shall see how well the rest of the memo is written. I still find a few points laughable. Deadwind Pass being a starter zone. Neglected Shadow Priest. The wording of the memo being unprofessional such as 'zing it back to me' and 'plain ol' cool' stuff. The points I've stated above. The memo format being off from the typical. And people from WoW Insider calling it a fake too, one of which I believe was a former Blizzard employee.


Either that, or Blizzard really, really loves Shadow Priests. Seems they love wizards in general, tbh.

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## Frostfire55

> Either that, or Blizzard really, really loves Shadow Priests. Seems they love wizards in general, tbh.


 I guess I'll add another thing that I find wrong with the memo is that it is the wrong logo as well. In the official Activision Blizzard logo, the Activision logo is to the side of the Blizzard logo, not above, as seen in the following sites:

Activision | Blizzard - Press Releases

Go ahead, just click on any of the links for the investor documents. The logo in each of these documents are different from the one in the memo.

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## Jeremiah

> Point taken. However, we shall see how well the rest of the memo is written. I still find a few points laughable. Deadwind Pass being a starter zone. Neglected Shadow Priest. The wording of the memo being unprofessional such as 'zing it back to me' and 'plain ol' cool' stuff. The points I've stated above. The memo format being off from the typical. And people from WoW Insider calling it a fake too, one of which I believe was a former Blizzard employee.
> 
> -EDIT-
> 
> Also. For Blizzcon being a good few months away, it's weird that they've already tried to put out prep notes this early. "We want people to be ready. No, really ready. We mean READY ready." And to elaborate on the Deadwind Pass issue. I think this is the most telling for me considering the zone would be the smallest 1 to 10 zone to date. To make it bigger, they'd have to change almost every zone around Deadwind Pass to make it suitably bigger. Blizzard has, in the past, made each new starting zone either on an island or a pennisula because this is easier to fit into the landscape than injecting it into surrounding zones. No other zones except Hyjal were inserted into the game without being on the outer part of any continent or being part of a new continent together. Putting in new zones in that are surrounded on four sides is something blizzard seems to rarely do.


It wouldn't be difficult if they did it with phasing.

---------- Post added at 03:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:04 AM ----------




> I guess I'll add another thing that I find wrong with the memo is that it is the wrong logo as well. In the official Activision Blizzard logo, the Activision logo is to the side of the Blizzard logo, not above, as seen in the following sites:
> 
> Activision | Blizzard - Press Releases
> 
> Go ahead, just click on any of the links for the investor documents. The logo in each of these documents are different from the one in the memo.


Also, good eye on this one. It seems most of the incarnations of their logo appear side by side.

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## Frostfire55

> Also, good eye on this one. It seems most of the incarnations of their logo appear side by side.


 Well, it most certainly is a valid point that they use this logo in their more formal releases. It wouldn't make much sense to use a more crude Activision/Blizzard top-bottom logo when the Blizzcon logo in the header is just as good looking. I mean, I'd say you have me beat if you can find valid documents that use the top/bottom logo and not the side-to-side logo.

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## KuRIoS

EVERY site posts rumours and it is a matter of being first with the rumour. Nice find and good post Aphel, could be fun if it was/is true  :Smile: 
either way it has started discussions and that is what we want  :Smile:

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## Zoidberg

Even if this IS fake, I wouldn't point at aphel. He wouldn't cook something up like this.

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## Ballwinkle

That is one of the activision blizzard logos

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## Frostfire55

> That is one of the activision blizzard logos


 Like I said, prove that it's been used on their documents like the side-by-side one has.

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## Sychotix

I do agree that the logo looks suspicious, but the slightly casual language and uncommon abbreviations can just be because this was meant as a document from one employee to another (and they are likely good friends). You also have to remember that most of them are gamers/internet geeks and they don't have to be extremely formal when talking amongst themselves.

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## Andeby

> I do agree that the logo looks suspicious, but the slightly casual language and uncommon abbreviations can just be because this was meant as a document from one employee to another (and they are likely good friends). You also have to remember that most of them are gamers/internet geeks and they don't have to be extremely formal when talking amongst themselves.


If it was a casual letter, why all the formal logos?

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## stoneharry

> If it was a casual letter, why all the formal logos?


Default template?

I have no view on the matter, just commenting.

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## Xel

> I have no view on the matter, just commenting.


This pretty much describes my thoughts towards this whole discussion.

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## Andeby

The Daily Blink - This Memo is Completely Real
Made me laugh.  :Smile:

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## Baaja

I was away these couple of days, on vacation. So I missed this whole ordeal and trying to catch up now. However everybody gets excited reading something like this even it's fake, so I wouldn't point fingers at somebody for "leaking" it.

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## Sodee

> I was away these couple of days, on vacation. So I missed this whole ordeal and trying to catch up now. However everybody gets excited reading something like this even it's fake, so I wouldn't point fingers at somebody for "leaking" it.


Not everybody gets excited reading this. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for anyone that actually does believe this or gets excited reading this garbage. I am in no way shooting the messenger on this, as he's just doing his job to report findings. Regardless of what the next 14 pages say, it would be hard to believe anything after how poorly assembled and annoyingly wrong this first page looks. 

Anyone with access to wowwiki could have pulled up the basic information stated in this 'article', anything beyond that is very obvious fanfiction. The amount of things that lore-wise couldn't possibly go through and don't remotely coincide with 'the void' is astounding.

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## ocf

How can anyone actually believe that this is real? The vocabulary, register and articulation is quite similar to what a wishlist made by a fan would look like. In addition, bullet points stating that: "*A ton of lore for the neglected shadow Priest class...*" "*A'dal will be the main antagonist of the expansion, or will he?*" "*...focus on fan fave races with new lore...*" "*Vengeance of the Void - Name derived from new enemy "The Void".*" This is just utter crap, really, and the last one "Vengeance of the Void - Name derived from new enemy "The Void", Blizzard may be running out of ideas, but they're are not desperate.

The only difference between this document and the one created by The Daily Blink is that the latter doesn't take itself too seriously.

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## DavidTwo2009

This was already proven to be fake. ex: MMO-Champion - WoW Expansion "Vengeance of the Void" Rumor is a fake

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## Zoidberg

> This was already proven to be fake. ex: MMO-Champion - WoW Expansion "Vengeance of the Void" Rumor is a fake


Proof? Where? I don't see any proof?
It's his own opinion, not a proof.

I'm not saying I think it's real, just saying that is not a proof.

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## [Pat]

> Proof? Where? I don't see any proof?
> It's his own opinion, not a proof.
> 
> I'm not saying I think it's real, just saying that is not a proof.


^ this (filla)

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