Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

People paying in-game money for powerful players to "carry" them through top-level World of Warcraft content has been a common practice in the game for years, but the revelation that Blizzard's co-lead is participating in the practice has sparked a new flurry of discussion about "raid boosts" within the community.

The chatter kicked off when recently-instated Blizzard co-lead and former Xbox VP Mike Ybarra tweeted a few days ago that he would be streaming his WoW guild's "heroic SoD sales run." For those who don't play WoW, this is Ybarra advertising that he would be streaming his guild playing through the game's most recently released raid, Sanctum of Domination, on heroic difficulty.

The "sales" bit indicates that his guild group will include a few folks who had paid in-game gold to be there, as opposed to joining or assembling a high-level group of their own to clear the challenge themselves.

Likely streaming our heroic SoD sales run and high'ish end m+ tonight (20-23) starting at 5pm PT. 👍👍🎃😍

— Mike Ybarra 🎃 (@Qwik) October 16, 2021

What Is Raid Boosting?

This practice is known as "raid boosting" and has been common in World of Warcraft for years. Like most MMORPGs, WoW has multiple levels of difficulty to its raids. And while options have been added over the years for players who don't necessarily have highly-skilled guilds at their back to at least see the story and boss content available, the higher levels of difficulty — Heroic and Mythic, currently — require serious coordination and specific numbers of people playing certain roles to finish.

Unless you're in the upper echelons of WoW players, finishing a raid on this level can cost a guild lot of in-game gold to buy potions and other necessary items, not to mention the weeks and weeks of preparation and practice required to fell a raid's most difficult bosses.

For those who can manage to clear them, the rewards for high-level content are substantial: stronger equipment, other cosmetic rewards like mounts, prestige in-game achievements, and sometimes even bonus story content, dialogue, or extra boss encounters you might not see on easier modes. So it's natural that players covet them.

But if you don't have the time, skill, interest, or energy to put into finishing these time-consuming raids, then paying in-game gold for those who do to carry you through a raid once or twice to get the things you want seems like a reasonable solution. It benefits the guilds as well, which empty their coffers raid after raid to finish them the first few times and necessarily will need to refill them before the next raid releases.

But there are a few reasons why raid boosting and Ybarra's participation in it has turned people sour. The first, somewhat less common opinion, is that raid boosting cheapens the experience for those who get "legitimate" kills through skill, time, and teamwork. It can be frustrating to watch someone pay their way into the same rewards you took weeks to earn.

Another issue is that the in-game "group finder" tool, intended to be used by players to find others of similar skill and interest to clear raids or dungeons with, tends to get bogged down in advertisements for raid boosts, making it difficult to use. But while annoyance at these issues is certainly valid, they're not the main reason some members of the WoW community are raising their eyebrows at Ybarra.

The WoW Token Conundrum

Back in 2015 during WoW's Warlords of Draenor expansion, Blizzard added a controversial new item into World of Warcraft: the WoW Token. The WoW Token is an item that players can purchase with real money, which can be exchanged for a month of game time. It can then be sold within the game to another player for in-game gold, essentially allowing players to convert real money into gold, or spend in-game gold to maintain their WoW subscription. The real money price for a WoW Token is set at $20, while the in-game gold selling price is set by the game, but fluctuates depending on supply and demand. In the US, it's been sitting in the vicinity of 200,000 gold lately.

Jokes aside boosting isnt really a horrible thing but you shouldnt be required to boost to be able to compete. Also something about people paying to skip content tells me something is off. Should try to remove the incentives to boost and to get boosted imo

— Scripe (@ScripeWoW) October 18, 2021

A post on the World of Warcraft forums from Ybarra's guild, Denial of Service, indicates that taking someone through a Heroic Sanctum of Domination run costs the individual 300,000 gold, with an additional 75,000 gold per boss for the group to "funnel" loot to the payer, or essentially have everyone in the raid group give them any items the boss drops that they can reasonably use, instead of just letting them roll the dice on what they individually pick up.

A player could certainly earn that amount of gold themselves, but a much faster way would be to buy WoW Tokens, effectively paying Blizzard $40 or more just to raid with its co-leader's guild and receive certain desired items from the bosses they kill.

Denial of Service does disclaim in their post that they do not sell runs for real money, as accepting real money directly for a run would be a violation of Blizzard's terms of service. The WoW Token system somewhat allows players to get around that — and has for years now. While some argue that the WoW Token is essentially legitimizing an illicit practice, others point out that the existence of the WoW Token has helped curb shadier practices, as those who want to buy and sell in-game gold for real money have a safe, legitimate place to go to do it. As opposed to resorting to shadier websites or tactics.

Raid Boosting's Mixed Reputation

Ultimately, Ybarra's guild is doing something that has been incredibly normal in World of Warcraft for expansions now, especially as the in-game economy has made it increasingly expensive for guilds like Denial of Service to finish raids at high levels. As their post puts it, "We do these sales to help with mythic progression, as the gold goes towards creating flasks, feasts, vantus runes, potions, and BoE gear. Every run you book with us goes towards killing new bosses, so thank you for supporting us!"

People going crazy cause Mike is doing sales runs, and I agree – I don't like boosting much and wish it was less lucrative/incentivized.

But I am at least happy that @Qwik is a player who boosts rather than getting boosted 😄 https://t.co/M1Spsj63V4

— George (@RogerbrownWoW) October 18, 2021

Some players aren't just indifferent to Ybarra's participating in raid boosting, they're thrilled. After all, a member of Blizzard leadership is publicly, actively playing the game at its highest level, streaming it, and engaging with the community as they do. To them, this means that the top levels of the company are engaged with the community and aware of the struggles that top-level guilds face, an awareness that may one day translate into positive changes for players like them.

But Ybarra, a top-level Blizzard employee, specifically participating in raid boosts has reopened a pre-existing community debate around whether boosts and how gold is exchanged for them are healthy for World of Warcraft's experience as a whole, as this Reddit thread on the subject demonstrates. This is also all coming at a time when Blizzard is already under intense scrutiny from every angle due to an ongoing lawsuit targeting toxic company culture and harassment allegations.

Common practice though they may be, Blizzard's co-lead actively participating has players who already disliked the practice frustrated with the more active endorsement of it, and despairing that anything will ever be done to tackle the issues of game design, balance, and economy that surround it.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

A new trailer for Pokemon Legends: Arceus shows off a fresh glimpse of the Hisui Region.

The video is presented in an eerie found-footage format as seen in horror movies, showing off some snowy terrain surrounded by rocks and trees. You can check out the trailer below.

In the trailer, the narrator describes a Pokemon he sees by saying, "The tip of its tail is red and swaying," and, "the white fur on top of its head and around its neck is so fluffy." He also says it's not a Vulpix or a Growlithe, so it's probably a new form of an existing Pokemon, or a new Pokemon entirely. The Pokemon Twitter account is asking trainers to examine the footage and report back with their findings.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is set to be a big departure from the standard Pokemon formula. While the game won't be open-world, it will feature a handful of open areas to explore, similar to Monster Hunter: Rise. The game is also introducing a new class of Pokemon called Noble Pokemon, as well as a revamped battle system where Pokemon's stats and other factors may allow them to use multiple moves in a row.

If this sounds like too much change, Pokemon purists can look forward to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which we called "the old-school Pokemon games we've been missing" in our hands-on with the remakes.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Black Friday starts early this year, and Best Buy is already getting in on the fun. The big box retailer has plenty of Black Friday prices on a dozens of video games, including many PS5 and PlayStation games and subscriptions. Even better, Best Buy has guaranteed these prices won't go lower, even on the big shopping day.

So grab what you want now, and rest assured you won't find better prices later this year, at least not at Best Buy. Here are the best deals on all things gaming, including items for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Get 12-Months of PlayStation Plus for $39.99 (Save $20)

You won't find a better deal than this anytime soon. It works for new members and current members alike. If you're already subscribed to PS Plus, it'll just add an extra 12 months onto your current subscription.

Best PS5 Game Deals at Best Buy

It's all-time low prices galore on PS5 and PS4 games at Best Buy. Aside from the PS Plus deal, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ratchet & Clank have been the two bestselling deals so far.

Best Xbox Game Deals at Best Buy

Some terrific deals on Xbox games as well, including Guardians of the Galaxy for half price and deep discounts on new releases like Riders Republic (also half off), Back 4 Blood, and many more.

Best Switch Game Deals at Best Buy

The official Switch game discounts start on Sunday, November 21. For now, though, you can save a bundle on the games above.

If you're shopping for loved ones ahead of the holiday season this year and you're not sure what video games to get them, you'll want to start by determining which console they primarily play on. The latest consoles that released last year are the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S. Despite being a different platform, PS4 games also work on PS5, and Xbox One games will play just fine on Xbox Series X|S, too. However, games made exclusively for the new consoles won't work on the older hardware.

The Nintendo Switch is also an extremely popular console for gamers of all ages as it features more family-friendly games from Mario, Animal Crossing, and more. So, consider picking up a Switch game if they have a Nintendo Switch OLED, standard Nintendo Switch, or a Nintendo Switch Lite as all the games will work – regardless of which model they play on.

For more great deals, check out the Black Friday PC gaming deals if you're in the market for a gaming rig or accessories. We're also tracking all the best Black Friday deals overall and Black Friday TV deals as well, so hop over there for the guaranteed lowest prices of the season.

In celebration of the release of Halloween Kills, we thought that we'd revisit the original film that started off the terrifying tale of Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode and tell you seven things you (probably) didn't know about 1978's Halloween.

From Michael Myers' mask being a transformed mask of Captain James T. Kirk to the film's iconic music only happening thanks to an unimpressed executive, we're confident you'll learn something today that will make you appreciate this classic horror film even more.

1. Many of the Names and Locations Are From Co-Writers John Carpenter and Debra Hill's Past

Halloween was co-written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill and damn near everything in the movie is named after something from their personal lives. For instance, Haddonfield, IL was named after Haddonfield, NJ, Debra Hill’s hometown, and Smith’s Grove was named after a town near where Carpenter grew up.

Laurie Strode was named after Carpenter’s first girlfriend and Michael Myers was named after the European distributor of Assault on Precinct 13 as sort of a weird thank you. Sheriff Leigh Brackett is a reference to writer Leigh Brackett, who wrote Rio Bravo, a film that inspired Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, and Laurie and Tommy watch The Thing From Another World, one of Carpenter’s favorite movies.

2. Halloween Pays Homage to Alfred Hitchock's Psycho

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho plays a major influence on Halloween, from the camera movements to creative bloodless murders. The homage doesn’t stop there though. Carpenter went so far as to cast his own Hitchcock's Blonde – Jamie Lee Curtis, whose mother, Janet Leigh, played the iconic Marion Crane in Psycho. Casting Jamie not only paid tribute to Hitchcock’s famous muses, but also launched the era of scream queens and final girls in the process.

And how's this for another Psycho reference? Donald Pleasance’s Dr. Sam Loomis is named after John Gavin's character in the film. Boom, bonus Hitchcock thing.

3. Michael's Mask Was a Transformed $2 Captain Kirk Halloween Mask, But It Could Have Been Another Star's Face

Now, you may already know that the infamous Michael Myers mask is actually a transformed $2 Captain James T. Kirk Halloween mask. What you may not know is that there were other options for the famous facade: such as Richard Nixon, Mr. Spock, and Emmett Kelley’s “Weary Willie”.

The script specifically called for “the pale, neutral features of a man weirdly distorted by the rubber” and Captain Kirk’s expressionless face fit the bill. Production gave the mask a makeover by teasing the hair, ripping off the sideburns, widening the eyeholes, and spraypainting it white to create one of the most iconic horror figures in movie history. And while William Shatner had no say in his contribution to the film, he has admitted that he’s actually gone trick or treating with the infamous Michael Myers mask on.

4. The Myers House Was Literally an Abandoned House Due to the Film's Low Budget

Speaking of transformations, at the time of filming, the Myers house was literally an abandoned house. With the film’s small budget, finding this house was a Halloween miracle by providing a proper spooky production value that the film literally could not afford. However, that meant that the opening tracking shot of the house had to be filmed on the last day. It took the crew all day to clean and paint the exterior of the house.

Production could only afford to decorate what would be shown in the frame, meaning that the Panaglide operator had to be precise or else any movement in any other direction would show a dusty, broken down corner… or a ghost of the last low budget film that used the house?

5. Halloween's Iconic Music Only Happened After an Unimpressed Executive Saw an Early Cut

Everybody knows the score. It’s one of the most iconic pieces of music in movie history and it’d be hard to imagine the film without it. However, you may not know, it came after Carpenter screened the film to an executive who was not impressed with the film and said that it wasn’t scary. So Carpenter played octaves on a piano using a 5/4 time signature his father taught him as a child and wrote the score in just 3 days, and later the same executive told Carpenter the film was terrifying.

In the credits, Carpenter lists himself as The Bowling Green Philharmonic Orchestra, a reference to his hometown in Kentucky. But, that’s not the only place you can hear Carpenter’s musical prowess in the film though. The band playing in the car in this scene is his band, the Coup De Villes, composed of himself, and Nick Castle, and Tommy Lee Wallace.

6. Production Designer Tommy Lee Wallace Had to Paint Three Trash Bags Worth of Leaves Brown to Make the Movie Feel Like It Took Place in Fall

With a $300,000 budget and a 21-day shoot, the filmmakers had to find creative ways to sell the story of a Halloween haunting. Amid a lot of usual budget shortcuts, like John Carpenter’s own car doubling as the Strode’s car here, maybe the biggest challenge for Wallace was that production took place in March IN California.

You can see green trees and palm trees in some of the shots. Wallace had to paint three trash bags worth of leaves brown and reused them throughout the film, with crew scrambling to collect the leaves after each cut, and I bet Wallace let Carpenter hear about what a pain in the ass that was at the Coup de Ville’s next rehearsal.

7. Five Different People Played Michael Myers/The Shape in Halloween

Five different people played The Shape in the film: Two-thirds of the Coup de Ville’s including Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace pulling double duty, stuntman James Winburn, co-writer Debra Hill and actual actor Tony Moran, and all for different, practical reasons. Nick Castle played the role through most of the film, and had that specific body language that’s made The Shape so terrifying even all these years later.

Tommy Lee Wallace, the production designer slash editor, by the way he edited the film too, stepped in during scenes where The Shape had to break stuff because he was good at breaking it correctly on the first take. Cheap movies can only afford to break stuff once after all. James Winburn was the stuntman who literally took the fall off the balcony after being shot by Dr. Loomis in this scene. Debra Hill not only stood in for The Shape in this shot, but she also lent a hand playing young Michael’s… well, hand in the opening sequence POV shot. And Tony Moran took the honor of being the face of Michael Myers for the few split seconds you can actually see it.

This all just reinforces the idea that Michael is not a normal man. He’s actually four men and one woman. Or an editor, a production designer, a co-writer, a bandmate who went on to direct The Last Starfighter, a stuntman and briefly an actor's face. Which is why he’s inspired nightmares for 40 years.

For more, check out our Halloween Kills review, how the film fared in its weekend box office debut, our explainer of the ending, and director David Gordon Green's thoughts on what makes the perfect Michael Myers kill. You can also see a full list of everything Halloween here.

The Google Pixel 6 Pro is the search company’s most serious contender for the flagship smartphone crown yet. Between Google’s first-ever self-made Tensor processor, the massive 6.7-inch display, 120Hz refresh rate, 50MP main camera, 4x telephoto camera, and a remarkably reasonable $899 starting price, the Pixel 6 is throwing down everything to make itself the preeminent phone above the iPhone 13 Pro – not to mention all the Android phones from other companies like Samsung and OnePlus.

From the get-go, the Google Pixel 6 Pro looks unlike any of the other five Pixel phones that preceded it. The gentle curves and modest screen size of the previous devices are all thrown to the wayside to make way for a massive 6.7-inch device with a curved display, sharp corners, a center-positioned hole-punch camera, and a huge camera bar on the backside.

In many ways, these drastic changes make the Pixel 6 Pro a less distinct smartphone among the sea of glass rectangles in the Android phone market. But at the same time, it feels like a huge modernization of Google’s flagship phone.

That camera bar is easily the most distinguishing feature of the Pixel Pro 6 as it gives it an unmistakable rear face. Which is to say, it basically looks like the Geordi La Forge of smartphones. On the plus side, this expansive camera bar eliminates the issue of the device rocking from side to side, as it just sits on an even angle.

Going back to the new 6.7-inch display, it’s an LTPO OLED display with a gorgeously sharp QHD+ (1440 x 3120) resolution and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio made to watch widescreen movies. It also features an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate that makes it a step up from most Android phones and its little Pixel 6 brother. Google hasn’t listed the exact screen brightness and instead only states it has a high brightness mode, but to my eye, it’s as bright as the iPhone 13 Pro that hits 1,000 nits of sustained brightness.

Like I experienced on the iPhone 13 Pro, the new 120Hz screen makes scrolling through apps and news, flicking between screens, and generally navigating around the interface feel incredibly snappy. Unfortunately, just like the iPhone 13 Pro, you won’t be able to experience everything animating at 120Hz.

In my short testing so far, I can see that the Google Now feed and Facebook are operating at 120Hz, but Twitter jerks around at 60Hz. So it’ll be some time before all the apps can make full use of the Pixel 6 Pro’s speedy refresh rate.

Under the hood, the Pixel 6 Pro rocks Google’s first-ever self-made Tensor chip rather than utilizing a Qualcomm chip that’s powered almost every Android device until now. So far, the handset seems just as performant as any top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 888-powered smartphone I’ve used this year, but the real power of Google Tensor will come to play with its ability to learn and adapt.

Google promises the Tensor chip can learn which apps you use most and stop wasting power on ones you never use. The new chip also powers all the AI-powered features that Pixel devices are already known for, such as live transcribing and translation and image processing. Having said that, I’ve only had the phone for half a day, so the phone has yet to acclimate to my usage yet.

As for the Pixel 6 Pro’s other specs, it comes equipped with 12 GB LPDDR5 RAM, plus your choice of either 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage space. The battery on this device is also massive at 5,003mAh, and it’s rated for 24 hours of battery life. With Extreme Battery Saver mode, which turns off your non-essential apps, this device can last for a whopping 48 hours. And when you plug in the Pixel 6 Pro with a 30W power brick – sadly sold separately – you can get up to 50% battery back in just 30 minutes.

Cameras are easily the second most revised part of the Pixel 6 Pro. The main wide-angle camera now features a massive 50MP Bayer sensor with a 1/1.31-inch sensor size, dual pixel autofocus, as well as optical and image stabilization.

The telephoto camera is just as impressive with its new 48MP sensor and 4x optical zoom lens that completely 1UPs the new 3x zoom lens on the iPhone 13 Pro. Even better yet, with Google’s Super Res Zoom, you can shoot up to 20x that should look passable if Google’s optical and image stabilization is decent. This is something I’ll put to the test in my full review.

Unfortunately, the 12MP ultrawide camera has seen the least love, but it now features lens correction. The selfie camera also now uses an 11.1MP sensor and an up to 94-degree ultrawide field of view for group photos.

Alongside the new cameras, Google has introduced a boatload of new camera features. Most prominently, Magic Eraser lets you remove unwanted people and photo bombers from your photos, while Real Tone promises to capture more accurate skin tones better. The Pixel 6 Pro also introduces new Motion Modes to help you capture long exposures and action pans, the latter of which lets you capture motion blur around any moving subject you’re shooting.

The Google Pixel Pro brings a lot to the plate in the world of flagship smartphones and for a reasonable starting price of $899. We’ll have to see if it’s just a promise on paper in our forthcoming full review. The Google Pixel 6 Pro is available for preorder now and will release on October 28th.

Be sure to checking out the newly announced Google Pixel 6 that goes for an even more affordable $599.

Kevin Lee is IGN's SEO Updates Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam