A correspondent for IGN PC recently paid a visit to Blizzard to see if he could squeeze out any more details regarding their current MMORPG project World of Warcraft. While the development team was understandably reluctant to reveal many features, the reporter did manage to garner some new information regarding various aspects of this title in development.

Several environments that were witnessed included Duskwood, the Elven Forest and Stranglethorn Vale. Duskwood was a gloomy forest area that featured cobwebs and glowing eyes in the treetops. The Elven Forest is described as a "beautiful area of reds and yellows that kept with the wooded look you're familiar with in the series." Stranglethorn Vale is a tropical setting of sorts, inlcuding pools of blue water as well as its own share of vegetation.

Concerning Magic in the game, several spells are described including an ice spell, healing spells and a Phase Shift spell that allows teleportation. All of the spells are currently mouse driven, and essentially only involve a couple of points and clicks. There are also spells that must have multiple players grouped together in order to be cast, dubbed Ritual spells.

Food is not a necessary commodity in the game, but will rather act as a healing agent, eliminating the need to constantly cart around food to stave off starvation.

For those that are into special items, they'll be pleased to know that they will be graphically displayed along with the online persona that owns them. When a player gets a flaming sword, their online equivalent will be seen holding that sword, flames and all.

The development team is also looking into eliminating certain annoyances, including camping, "item farming" and item recovery after death. In the case of item recovery, the team has promised "that there will be no 'must have' situations when it comes to having to go back to your corpse. No specifics are given, but they assure that losing all items is not going to happen. There will be checkpoints in the game, known as Bindstones, that basically act as saved respawn points should a player die.

For more details on the above developments, be sure to read the full report at IGN PC. There's still currently no word on a Mac version of WOW, but rest assured IMG is keeping tabs on the situation.

IGN PC - World of Warcraft Closer Look

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