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Today we received calls from players who were encountering difficulty in reactivating their accounts or changing their account information after previously having closed their accounts. This issue has been resolved. If you were experiencing the issue, please try again to reactivate your account using our account-management pages. Should you encounter any further difficulty, please contact our billing department at the phone number or email address listed in the account-management section.

Separately, some players received an error message when attempting to enter a valid game-card number while setting up their billing options. This issue has also been resolved. The accounts for these players have been activated with the entered game card, and these players should be able to log in and play World of Warcraft. If you experienced the error when entering your game-card number and still can't access the game, please contact our billing department at the phone number or email address listed in the account-management section for further assistance.

The Feast of Winter Veil is well underway, and Greatfather Winter is giving treats to all the lucky adventurers in Azeroth. To insure that players unable to visit him in-game could still experience some of the joys of Winter Veil, he struck a deal with the Jinglepocket Goblins, who were more than happy to supply us (for a small fee, of course) with a few items to share with you all. Just click on the links below to receive your gifts!

• New World of Warcraft Wallpaper
• New World of Warcraft MP3
• Holiday Artwork Submitted by Our Fans

The entire World of Warcraft team would like to thank you all for spending your holidays with us, and we wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!

As a special surprise, a couple of sites around the web posted some World of Warcraft-themed holiday goodies for everyone to enjoy. If you have a spare moment, check out the new comic at GUComics.com, which shows why Santa might get added to his own "naughty list" this year. Also, GameSpy posted an entertaining take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol, putting a whole new World of Warcraft spin on the classic holiday story. Enjoy!

During the holiday season, World of Warcraft has experienced unprecedented popularity. We're continuing to ramp up server capacity, but in the meantime, we've seen some issues in regard to the game servers as a direct result of the extremely high traffic. Specifically, on December 22, many players were unable to access the game for approximately seven hours.

In our efforts to provide the best game experience possible, we will address this issue by automatically extending the trial period of all players who created an account on or before December 22 (11:59 PM PST) for an additional day. This will be in addition to the extension awarded previously.

We recognize that the holidays are an opportune time for gaming, and we're grateful that so many players have made World of Warcraft their game of choice this holiday season. As always, we appreciate your patience and support, and we wish you good luck in your adventures in Azeroth!

Follow the continuing adventures of Flintlocke the Dwarven Hunter, chronicled in GameSpy's humorous serial web comic entitled "Flintlocke's Guide to Maiming Meat that Walks."

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Flintlocke, Iron Dwarf, a pillar of strength so hard it is as though he himself were hewn from living rock. Flintlocke the mighty, a level 17 Warrior who -- you know, hang on a second. I have to ask about the getup. What's with the gear? Turquoise and green? With a purple cape? Are you a Dwarf or some sort of Japanese hard candy?

Click here to read more from Flintlocke's Guide.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is happy to announce the World of Warcraft Extreme Stunts screenshot competition. We're looking for a few daredevils to perform extreme stunts in-game and to capture them for all to see! Click here for more information.

'Twas the feast of Great-Winter
And all through the land
All the races were running
With snowballs in hand.

The cooks were all frantic
And for those "in the know"
Swoops and owls were crashing
Like new-fallen snow.

Cookies and eggnog
Were consumed by all
As the snowballs flew freely
And drunks smashed into walls.

May your feast of Great-Winter
Be one merry and bright
And from all here at Blizzard
We wish you a fun night!

The Feast of Winter Veil is upon us, and Greatfather Winter is busy spreading holiday cheer in major cites across the land! Here are a few holiday treats players can now experience in-game:

• The Jinglepocket Goblins have set up their seasonal fare shops in major cities. Adventurers can purchase many holiday favorites - including Greatfather's Winter ale, candy canes, gingerbread cookie recipes, and mistletoe.
• All the cheer-spreading is making Greatfather Winter hungry, and he is looking for adventurers to get him his daily fix of milk and cookies.
• Smokeywood Pastures needs a few brave adventurers to investigate the disappearance of a shipment of holiday goods traveling though Alterac.
• Unconfirmed reports say that consuming eggnog during a snowball fight can have some chilling results.

We'd like to thank our players for celebrating in Azeroth with us, and we wish you all safe and happy holidays!

      

One of the core tenets of the Warcraft universe is the raging conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. Old hatreds die hard, as they say, and the hate shared between these two ancient foes is deep and primal. That's why the player-versus-player gameplay has always been a staple of the design for World of Warcraft; the war between the Horde and the Alliance simply isn't over. It might not look this way now, because our full player-versus-player system isn't in the game yet, but the introduction of Battlegrounds, and the full PvP reward system, will change that perception. We've been testing Battlegrounds and our reward system for weeks internally now, and we're ready to bring you a full-blown, multi-part preview of what we have in store for you in the months ahead. Click here to read more about the upcoming PvP Battlegrounds.

We are happy to announce the winners of the World of Warcraft Scenes from a Movie Screenshot Competition, sponsored by the Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth. We were truly amazed by the superb art direction, acting, directing, and camera work that went into these pieces. Click here to see the winners. There were so many great submissions, we also created an honorable mentions section to show off more of the pictures!

    

The new World of Warcraft game-client update is now available and ready for download! Here are some of the changes in the patch:

• Holiday Events: Some cool decorations and events have been included around the game world to celebrate the holidays
• Maraudon: A new dungeon for levels 40-49 in Desolace
• Cloak & Helm Graphics: You can now turn on or off cloak and helm graphics

Just log in to World of Warcraft to get the patch; the download process will start automatically. To see all the changes, read the complete patch notes! Thanks for your patience during the patch process...we'll see you in Azeroth!

If you experience any difficulty with your patch download, please visit our downloader troubleshooting page. Located there are a helpful FAQ and a number of tips addressing issues related to firewalls, slow download speeds, staying connecting during the download, and more.

PS: For those of you who are interested in seeing some of things we have planned for future patches, take a look at our recently posted Under Development page.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Holiday Fan Art Update
We recently experienced some down time with our fan art submission process and unfortunately did not receive entries sent after Monday the 13th. If you submitted a holiday-themed art piece between then and 1:30 am on Thursday, please re-send your submission to have your work recognized for the art contest update. Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for the inconvenience.

To submit your artwork, please visit this link: Holiday Fan Art Contest.

The world of Azeroth is continually growing, with new challenges and new rewards always on the horizon. To give you a glimpse of the upcoming features and improvements coming to World of Warcraft, we are debuting a new "Under Development" Page. We will continue to update and improve it regularly. Our next update will include some screenshots of upcoming features. A permanent link to this page will soon be found as "Coming Soon" under the Game Info menu on the left side.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring Ironforge at Night.

New recruits are needed for the Horde and Alliance as the battle for Azeroth rages on. Join your friends and vanquish your foes by purchasing your copy of World of Warcraft today. World of Warcraft is nearly sold out in stores across the country, but it's now available in the Blizzard Online Store. So if you missed your chance to buy World of Warcraft, then despair no more! Head to our online store and get your copy now.

Show your allegiance to the Horde or Alliance with two new shirts now available in our Blizzard Online Store. We have also restocked our mouse pads and Blizzard shirts.

The World of Warcraft development team met with the Blizzard fansites last night to reveal a host of new information about the game and to take some questions from the community. You can read the chat transcript here.

The Blizzard Fan Art Program is pleased to announce its first themed art contest, just in time for the holidays. What we're looking for is some holiday-themed artwork portraying a holiday scene set in either the Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo universe. To be considered for the contest, your artwork must be submitted by 12:00 noon PST on Monday, December 20 using the link below. Winning submissions will be selected by a team of judges, and we will then post the winners on our websites for a massive holiday update. Thanks for your support in making the fan art program a wonderful success, and happy holidays!

To submit your artwork, please visit this link: Holiday Fan Art Contest.

Tune in to MacRadio's The Gamesome Mac program at 6:00 PM PST tonight (Monday, December 13) to hear a live interview with World of Warcraft's lead designer, Rob Pardo! For those who miss the interview, it will be available on demand from MacRadio's website thereafter.

Are you a motivated, proactive individual with a professional, customer-service attitude and previous experience participating on community forums? Do you know massively multiplayer online games inside and out, and are you able to effectively communicate with other players about them at length? If so, you might be interested to know that Blizzard Entertainment is seeking to fill two positions on our community management team. Please see the new online community representative job description to learn more.

It has come to our attention that certain individuals are selling Blizzard's in-game property for cash on auction sites such as eBay and on personal websites. The World of Warcraft Terms of Use clearly state that all of the content in World of Warcraft is the property of Blizzard, and Blizzard does not allow "in game" items to be sold for real money. Accordingly, Blizzard Entertainment will take any and all actions necessary to stop this behavior. Not only do we believe that it is illegal, but it also has the potential to damage the game economy and overall experience for the many thousands of others who play World of Warcraft for fun. In order to promote a fun and fair environment for all our customers, we are actively investigating those individuals who engage in this inappropriate activity and reserve the right to take legal action against these individuals to protect World of Warcraft for all those who "play by the rules." If you are found to be selling in-game property (such as coins, items, or characters), for real money, you will lose your characters and accounts, and Blizzard Entertainment reserves its right to pursue legal action against you as well.

We also want to remind potential buyers in the game to please refrain from buying in-game property with real money. We understand the temptation to purchase better items, but Blizzard, and not the seller, does own all in-game property. In addition, we feel that characters can find ample equipment and money within the game through their own adventuring and questing. Please understand that if you do purchase in-game property from sellers on eBay and personal sites, we may temporarily suspend your account, and at the very least, delete the offending items.

Thank you for understanding our position. Blizzard Entertainment is committed to maintaining the atmosphere of fair play and fun in World of Warcraft.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring a Massive Infernal.

The historic launch of World of Warcraft was a wonderful and joyous occasion for everyone at Blizzard Entertainment. To celebrate the launch, the entire staff at Irvine gathered outside the offices today to join in a champagne toast of the event. It was a time to congratulate the team, read aloud some of the generous reviews we've received, and have some fun. We'd like to share some pictures of this afternoon's celebration -- and the raucous aftermath that followed -- and say thanks as well to all the players who have helped make the game's launch in North America, Australia, and New Zealand so successful. Enjoy!

          

          

The World of Warcraft User Interface Customization tool allows users to tweak and customize the game's user interface. We welcome our advanced users to download this free tool and explore the possibilities. For more information on this tool, visit our support tools page.

The community has taken World of Warcraft to the airwaves*! Check out these two World of Warcraft radio sites:

• Gryphon Productions Broadcast Archives
• WoWRadio's Broadcast of World of Warcraft's Midnight Signing Party

Great job!

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: [email protected].

*Or landlines, depending on your internet connection.
**Links on this news post may expire over time.

We released a small patch today that removed the time zone tabs (Pacific, Mountain, Central, Eastern) in order to streamline the realm-selection process for players. Additional changes to further streamline the realm-selection process will be implemented in the future.

The patch will be automatically downloaded and installed the next time you exit World of Warcraft completely and then restart the game. Prior to installing the patch, some players may see issues with the realm-selection screen. Installing the patch will resolve these issues.

We have recently verified that certain individuals were using third party "bot" programs to automate their characters in World of Warcraft. A bot is used to play an account non-stop, allowing its user to accumulate money, items, and experience without actually requiring the user to be physically present to play the game. The use of bots is a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and is absolutely prohibited. Therefore, the accounts identified as having used bots have been banned.

Blizzard Entertainment is committed to maintaining an environment of fair play in World of Warcraft. As stated previously, the company has a zero-tolerance policy for cheating or hacking of any kind. Players caught using a bot program to automate any of their characters' actions will have their characters removed and their account banned. They will not receive a warning. Over 300 accounts have already been banned for offenses of this nature.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using a bot, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at [email protected] or submit a GM ticket in-game. Thank you again for your continued support.

If you've been wanting a way to see the status of your realm at just a glance, we've provided the answer! Our latest addition to the World of Warcraft website is the Realm Status page. This page gives up-to-date information on all live realms -- now you can plan out your evening without having to log in. You can view the page here.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is happy to announce World of Warcraft's first official screenshot competition. We're looking for aspiring actors to recreate their favorite movie scenes using their in-game characters. Click here for more information.

one of the most comprehensive strategy guides ever created, Brady Games gives you all of the hints, tables, maps and tips you need to embark on the quest of a lifetime. This key reference to the World of Warcraft is available in retail stores throughout North America at a listed price of $24.99. To find out more information about this exciting offer, please visit www.bradygames.com/wow. Brady Games is a premier publisher of strategy guides, and can always be counted on to provide hardcore strategies and top secret tips. All of us at Blizzard are especially impressed with the detail, accuracy, helpfulness, and humor in the World of Warcraft guide.

We wanted to take this time to make an announcement about a serious hacking violation in World of Warcraft, one for which we have zero tolerance. Certain individuals have been identified as using speed hacks to accelerate their characters. This goes against the theme of fair play that we have instituted for the game, and is in clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games. This will serve as a final warning to others who are considering using the speed hack. If you are caught using it, you will be banned without question from World of Warcraft and your account will be revoked.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using the speed hack, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at [email protected]. Thank you again for your continued support.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring the Night Elf from the World of Warcraft Intro Cinematic.

The critical acclaim and recognition for World of Warcraft continues to grow across the Internet, with such sites as Apple.com, GameSpy, WarCry, and ActionTrip posting their latest coverage of the game. Apple.com is featuring a "character's eye view" of Azeroth on its games page. Meanwhile, GameSpy writers show the depths of their addiction in a blog dedicated to the game on their site. WarCry awards World of Warcraft a 9.6 rating - one of the highest scores they've ever given a game, and ActionTrip lavishes the game with an Editors' Choice Award.

• Apple.com World of Warcraft Coverage
  
• GameSpy WoW-A-Minute Blog
  
• WarCry Review - 9.6/10
  
• ActionTrip Review - Editors' Choice Award

Gamers are now able to pre-order World of Warcraft from participating retail outlets across Europe. Purchasing a Pre-Order box will secure you a copy of the game on the day of launch. Additionally, the Pre-Order box contains an authentication key that grants you access to the European Final Beta Test, and an Audio CD with a selection of tracks from the official soundtrack from the game. The European Final Beta Test is currently scheduled to begin in December, so check back regularly - we will be announcing the start date on the website.

Both the Standard and Collector's Edition can be pre-ordered at participating retail stores throughout Europe now. Your pre-order payment will be applied against the cost of the game at launch, so be sure to save your receipt! To claim your copy of the game, simply return to the store after the launch and present your pre-order receipt.

Please visit our European Pre-Order information page to read more about the Pre-Order box and to find a list of the participating retailers for each country.

On November 23, nearly 7000 dedicated fans came out to Fry's Electronics in Fountain Valley, California, for a chance to meet the Blizzard development team and be among the first to pick up a copy of World of Warcraft. Due to the impressive turnout, the event stretched into the wee hours of the morning until every last person in line had the opportunity to meet the team and get signatures. We'd like to thank everyone who took the time to attend for making this a special night. Click here and then use the "next" and "previous" buttons to cycle through all 43 pictures from the event.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Within its first day of release, World of Warcraft sold more than 240,000 copies -- the highest day-one total in PC game history. See the full press release to learn more about World of Warcraft's launch-day achievements.

While we feel fortunate that World of Warcraft has proven to be popular in retail stores nationwide, we're especially proud of the positive reviews the game has received thus far. To date, the critics have been unanimous in awarding World of Warcraft with top scores, including an Editors' Choice Award from GameSpot. Click on the links below to view some of World of Warcraft's first reviews. We'll add links to more as they come in.

• Gamespot: 9.5/10
  
• Yahoo! Games: 9/10
  
• Telefragged: 92%
  
• Game Arena: 10/10
  
• My Gamer: 9/10

The holidays came early this year! Check out these great gifts from the World of Warcraft community:

• "Work Complete" An Orc Peon's Vocal Solo by Brutusford
• Journal Entry: Against the Scourge by Salaris
• Shut Up and Dance - movie by Daywalker

Nice job all!

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: [email protected].

*Links on this news post may expire over time.

All World of Warcraft Realms will come down for maintenance today starting at 10:30 AM PST. This maintenance includes a fix for the Instance issues some players have been experiencing, and will take a little over an hour to complete. Thank you for your patience in the meantime!

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that renowned fantasy novelist Richard A. Knaak, author of the War of the Ancients trilogy and a number of other Blizzard novels, will be visiting a string of stores this holiday season to promote his latest War of the Ancients novel, The Demon Soul. If you would like to meet Mr. Knaak in person, please be sure to visit one of the following stores during the times listed:

• December 4, 2004
  Harrison, AR - Treasure Books, from 10:00A.M. - 1:00P.M.
• December 9, 2004
  Denton, TX - Barnes & Noble, from 5:00P.M. - 8:00P.M.
• December 10, 2004
  Round Rock, TX - Barnes & Noble, from 5:00P.M. - 9:00P.M.

World of Warcraft's record-setting first week brought hundreds of thousands of players together to adventure in Azeroth. The extremely high concurrency numbers that we've seen since the game's launch have required us to double our total number of servers over a four-day period, which is much faster than we had initially planned. This caused some issues with a few servers, and some players had difficulty logging in to the game during this period.

We are determined to provide our players with the best experience possible. It is for that reason that we are extending the one-month trial-period for players who created accounts before or during the downtime. The length of the trial-period extension will be based on when the player's account was created:

• Accounts created on November 23 will receive a 4-day extension
  
• Accounts created on November 24 will receive a 3-day extension
  
• Accounts created on November 25 will receive a 2-day extension
  
• Accounts created on November 26 will receive a 1-day extension

Our sincere apologies go out to all who experienced service disruptions. As always, we appreciate your patience and support, and we wish you good luck in your adventures in Azeroth!

In just one day, World of Warcraft sold through an estimated 250,000 copies to players. Over 200,000 accounts have already been created, and peak concurrency across all active game servers has been above 100,000. See the full media alert here to read more about Blizzard's epic first day of World of Warcraft! The alert also contains details about Blizzard's plans to steadily increase server capacity and make more copies of the game available to stores in the coming weeks.

With the release of World of Warcraft in North America, Australia, and New Zealand yesterday, we have already seen an incredible level of demand for the game. We launched with 41 servers in the U.S. yesterday, and we are bringing up an additional 34 servers today to accommodate the influx of players. Over 200,000 accounts were created in just a single day! Based on this, we can clearly tell that players are very excited about getting into the game, and as a result, we expect to see high concurrency on the servers for the first days that the game is available. As the rush to get onto the servers evens out and additional hardware is made available, the necessity for waiting queues will decrease.

We have staff working around the clock to ensure we can smooth out this initial rush, and we will be working through Thanksgiving to address the latency issues that players are experiencing.

In regard to waiting queues for joining servers, here are some important tips to keep in mind when deciding which server to play on:

• When choosing your server for the first time, the server wizard will suggest a server with low load to improve your game-play experience. However, if you decide to pick your own server to play on, we suggest picking a server where the population is not high during peak hours (peak hours are 6pm through midnight in your local time zone). This will help you avoid server queues.

• Also, feel free to play in any time zone. The server wizard automatically chooses a server based on your indicated time zone, but this is only intended as a suggestion for playing with people in your region, not a requirement for better latency. Our datacenters are equally capable of supporting users from any region in North America.

We understand that players want to play with their friends and guild mates, but during these initial days as we bring up more servers to accommodate the load, we ask that you please consider the options discussed above. Please also note that we have determined that the latency issues that have cropped up are unrelated to individual server populations. For the time being, latency while fighting and looting monsters can be expected on all servers, regardless of population. We are continuing to focus on resolving this issue as quickly as possible.

We want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we work diligently to iron out all issues resulting from the overwhelming enthusiasm for playing World of Warcraft.

Due to some unforeseen systems issues, PayPal is not currently able to accept World of Warcraft payments. However, they are working diligently with us to bring this online as soon as possible.

We are also experiencing a brief supply delay with the retail pre-paid game cards. The game cards will be ready to ship this coming Monday, November 29 and should begin appearing in stores where World of Warcraft is sold shortly thereafter. We apologize for any inconvenience and will provide additional information as soon as it is available.

Blizzard Entertainment proudly welcomes you to World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the award-winning Warcraft universe. The events in World of Warcraft take place three years after the conclusion of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, as the forces of the Alliance and the Horde brace themselves for a new struggle for dominance. Great challenges face the denizens of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, but great rewards abound. Azeroth is now open to receive its first heroes; we hope you enjoy your time here.

Be sure to check back often, as we'll be updating the news regularly moving forward. In the meantime, we've posted some tips below to help you get started on your adventures.

To register your account, find your World of Warcraft authentication key, which is located either on the slip cover that holds your four game discs (Standard Edition) or on the front cover of your game manual (Collector's Edition), and go to our Account Creation page.

To start playing World of Warcraft, you must first create your character. To help you learn more about the various races and classes in the game, please visit the following links:

Races of World of Warcraft
Classes of World of Warcraft

To find out more about how to play World of Warcraft, please visit our Getting Started page.

Thank you for your interest in World of Warcraft; we look forward to seeing you online!

-Blizzard Entertainment

To help celebrate the launch of World of Warcraft, we've just posted six new wallpapers and a collection of the latest fan art submissions, which you can view by clicking on the links below:

To help celebrate the launch of World of Warcraft, we've also just posted a collection of the latest fan art submissions, which you can view by clicking on the links below:

Azeroth trembled before the might of the Burning Legion. Human and Orc alike fled before the massive infernals summoned from the chaos to wreak havoc upon the hapless populace. Countless adventurers, driven to protect their homeland, fell before Dreadlord and Doomguard, Giant and Dragonkin. Though the defenders achieved small victories in the defense of their cities, there was no end to the monstrous army that bore down upon them. The damage was devastating. Strangest of all, witnesses swore they could smell roast chicken...

World of Warcraft's Open Beta ended with a bang (or cluck) last Thursday! The Burning Legion launched an attack on the major cities and locations of Azeroth. Fearless adventurers banded together to in a vein attempt to repel the invasion. There were also unconfirmed reports of characters and monsters suddenly and inexplicably turning into chickens! Click here to check out screenshots from the event.

The World of Warcraft open beta test has now come to a close. During the beta test, over 500,000 players adventured through the lands of Azeroth and helped World of Warcraft on its way to becoming one of the largest massively multiplayer online games in the U.S.! The beta test community has been a tremendous source of information and feedback for the development teams, and we wish to thank our beta testers for participating in the beta test process. When the final version of World of Warcraft hits stores on November 23rd, you'll see the culmination of your hard work. The entire World of Warcraft team is now focusing on a smooth launch, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts about the game. Thank you again for your continued support with this project; we look forward to seeing you on in Azeroth.

Once again we'd like to thank all of the testers who participated in World of Warcraft's beta test. Your contributions helped create a fun and exciting game that will entertain players for years to come!

The Blizzard Crew lined up to sign boxes at last year's launch of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Come meet the developers of World of Warcraft at the Fry's Electronics store in Fountain Valley, CA on Tuesday, November 23. Starting on Tuesday morning at 12:00 AM PST, Fry's Electronics will open its doors to local gamers and give them the chance to be among the first to purchase a copy of the game and meet the developers in person.

The festivities will begin at 10:30 PM on Monday night, and the line to enter the store will be cut off at 1:00 AM, so be sure to get there early. We will be raffling away Blizzard recommended NVIDIA BFG GeForce 6800 video cards and backpacks, lift tickets to Bear Mountain ski resort, as well as a complete Alienware Area 51 computer. Local radio station, KROQ, will also be there to play music at the event, and food and beverages will be available.

If you'd like to attend, please be sure to visit:

Fry's Electronics
10800 Kalama River Avenue
Fountain Valley, CA 92708
714-378-4400

The game client for the World of Warcraft open beta test is now available directly from WorldofWarcraft.com! Now is your chance to play one of the most anticipated massively multiplayer games of 2004, free of charge, for approximately two weeks before the game launches on Nov. 23. All you have to do to get started is head ocer to signup.worldofwarcraft.com, create your account, and download the game client. The game is almost ready to launch, and we need your help to test the open beta version to make sure it's ready for release. This is the final testing phase we will be doing for the game prior to launch; the open beta is now officially available, for free, to hundreds of thousands of gamers from North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Included in the open beta version of World of Warcraft is latest patch update, which offers a wealth of new features and gameplay. As with all our patches, we need your dedicated help and feedback in testing it. Here are just some of the biggest changes:

• Hunter Talents: Hunters can finally test their class to the fullest and play with a bevy of new Hunter options.

• Paladin Talents: Paladins can experience their class's talents and test a host of new spells and improvements.

• Raid Content Including Onyxia and Her Lair: See Azeroth's first true dragon; level-60 players now have mighty and rich raid encounters to challenge them.

• Racial Traits for All Races: The racial abilities you've all been waiting for have arrived; experience them yourself to see just how unique each race is.

• Extensive Upgrades to the Warrior: Improvements to all stances and a slew of new abilities make the Warrior more complete, but we need you to test these.

• New Pets and Spells for Warlocks: After months of waiting, you can finally test the Felhunter and Infernal!

• Extensive Upgrades to the Priest: New spells and improvements to existing abilities make the Priest more complete, but as with the Warrior's new abilities, we need your feedback.

• Extensive Changes and/or Improvements to the Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Rogue, and Shaman

• New Tauren Mount: Plains running has been removed and kodo mounts have been added!

  

• New PvP, PvP Raid, and Raid Quests Added

• New Quests Added to Eastern and Western Plaguelands

• New Quests for Molten Core, Desolace, Ashenvale, Stonetalon

It's an exciting time at Blizzard, and as we get ready for launch, we want to invite as many of you as possible to play the game for free before it launches. Note that we are offering the game on a first come, first served basis. If you want to play, please download the World of Warcraft client and create an account immediately. Once we have hit our target number of players in the open beta, we will close our account-creation pages and you will be unable to enter the open beta. So, hurry and begin the process. Azeroth awaits!

If you want to learn more about the open beta test, please read our Open Beta FAQ. Good luck, and we hope to see you in Azeroth soon.

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that the free open beta has begun. In preparation for the launch of World of Warcraft, we are now introducing the most complete version of the game, including a new patch with extensive content, including racial traits, raids, Hunter and Paladin talents, new quests for high-end zones, and much more. We need your help for a final, massive test of our infrastructure, account creation, and the game itself. So we are now opening up the testing phase to the entire Internet-ready public of North America, Australia, and New Zealand. So if you aren't already playing World of Warcraft, sign up for the open beta now and begin your adventures in Azeroth!

An initial run of open beta accounts is now available from FilePlanet, so please visit www.fileplanet.com to grab your open beta key. Please note that there is no fee whatsoever for the open beta; the open beta is absolutely free. Unlike with the final stress test, you do not have to be a FilePlanet subscriber to participate in the open beta.

If you want to learn more about the open beta test, please read our Open Beta FAQ. The open beta slots are available on a first come, first served basis, so hurry to FilePlanet and grab your key as soon as you can. We hope to see you in Azeroth soon.

In preparation for the upcoming free open beta test, Blizzard will be conducting a final stress test for World of Warcraft. Starting today, November 1, at 1:00 PM PST, players in North America, Australia, and New Zealand who would like to get a sneak peek of the game prior to the free open beta test will be able to visit FilePlanet, sign up for the final stress test, download the game client, and begin playing. In addition to helping us further test World of Warcraft's server infrastructure under heavy loads, final stress test participants will automatically have their free open beta test slots reserved, and their account and characters will transfer over to the free open beta test seamlessly! For more information, please check out our final stress test FAQ and free open beta test FAQ.

Please note that a subscription to FilePlanet is required in order to join the final stress test. For those who wish to wait until the free open beta starts to join in, we will be releasing information about signups for that in the week ahead. The exact duration of the final stress test has not yet been determined; however, the free open beta test will begin shortly after the final stress test is brought to a close. Please stay tuned to WorldofWarcraft.com for more information.

--NOTE TO CLOSED BETA TESTERS--

World of Warcraft closed beta test participants are already qualified to enter the final stress test. The final stress test client is NOW available for download by testers at WorldofWarcraft.com. Please note that your account and characters are still available and ready to continue where they left off! Also note that the client that you download will NOT be noticeably different from the last version of the beta that you played. In the days ahead, we will provide a patch that will update everyone's game client with the features, such as Paladin and Hunter talents and racial traits for all races, that you've been waiting for.

The closed beta test is coming to an end. This Friday, October 29, at 3:00 PM PDT, the closed beta servers will go offline as we prepare to run another stress test. All active closed-beta accounts will remain active, and closed-beta testers will be receiving an email with instructions on what to do to continue playing in the stress test. We will post more information about the stress test in the days ahead, so please stay tuned to WorldofWarcraft.com.

We also want to take this opportunity to thank the closed beta testers for their months of dedicated testing and hard work. Thanks to all of your suggestions and bug reports, World of Warcraft is closer than ever to being ready for launch!

The closed beta servers are now offline; this phase of the beta is at an end. We'd like to thank the thousands of dedicated testers who helped us day in and day out to make World of Warcraft what it is meant to be: a fun game. Your aid was invaluable over these past months -- the game wouldn't be where it is now without you! Please be sure to check back here over the next few days for more information on the upcoming stress test!

Please note: due to the increased traffic to WorldofWarcraft.com while the game servers are offline, the Web site and the beta forums may run slowly or be inaccessible at times. We are in the process of making upgrades to our Web servers to address these issues as soon as possible. Thank you for bearing with us during the upgrade period.

The client download will now be available to closed beta testers when we announce further details regarding the upcoming stress test here on WorldofWarcraft.com. It will not be available early as we originally indicated in the email we sent yesterday. While our initial plan was to offer the stress test client for download to closed beta testers ahead of time, this is no longer possible due to the extensive maintenance being performed on our servers. We apologize for any confusion this has caused. Please enjoy your weekend!

WorldofWarcraft.com and the Closed Beta forums will be coming down for maintenance at 4:00 PM PDT. During this time, the Web site and forums will be inaccessible. Feel free to discuss the game and related topics on the Battle.net forums, located here.

In addition, the account authorization severs will be undergoing maintenance this weekend. During this time you will be unable to log into your World of Warcraft account on both the WorldofWarcraft.com and battle.net forums. We will post more specific information, including the time and approximate duration, as it becomes available. Thank you for bearing with us!

Blizzard has gone overboard again to make this year's Halloween extra special. Happy Halloween from Blizzard Entertainment! Here is a bag full of special treats:

Special World of Warcraft Halloween Mp3
This special Halloween-themed Mp3 was created by the sound team especially for World of Warcraft. Join the Invincible Legion of Unconquerable Vanquishing Gnomes in their adventure; it's over seven minutes long!

Download Site 1

Download Site 2

Download Site 3

Download Site 4 [Australia]

New Undercity Mp3
What better place to showcase in our weekly mp3 feature than the spooky Undead city in Tirisfal Glades: the Undercity! (right-click > "Save As")

World of Warcraft Pumpkin Contest Winners
We knew from last year's unofficial pumpkin carving contest that many of you were talented pumpkin carvers. We had no idea just how talented you all were until we started judging this year's submissions. Check out the astounding work of the winners of the 2004 pumpkin contest!

World of Warcraft Costume Contest Winners
We are proud to unveil the winners of the first annual World of Warcraft Costume Contest, sponsored by the Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth. Each winner will receive a copy of the World of Warcraft Collector's Edition. We were truly amazed by the creativity and skill of all the contestants. In fact, there were so many great submissions that we created an honorable mentions section to show off more of the great costumes!

Our policy section has been updated again with a new Account Penalties Overview.

We have posted our new Exploitation Policy and updated our Harassment Policy. For a list of all our policies, go here. All World of Warcraft players are expected to follow these policies. Thanks for making World of Warcraft a great place for everyone!

Once again, the Blizzard team has been busy informing the testers of upcoming developments and game information! Here are the highlights from the forum:

• Class Roles
• Sneak Peek of Upcoming Content
• Upcoming Warlock Pets
• Mini-Games

Check out a new Mp3 (right-click > "Save As") from our sound department for Darnassus, the major Night Elf city in Teldrassil.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

The World of Warcraft Beta Web Site will be down for maintenance on Monday, October 4 at 5:00 AM PDT. During this time, you will be unable to access the web site or forums. The downtime is expected to last two hours. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

Over the past eleven days, we've received many impressive and hilarious screenshots featuring the people of Azeroth. The judges have gone through each and every one and selected the cream of the crop for you to enjoy. You can see the winners here. Thank you for all the creative entries, and keep your eye out for more contests in the future!

In September, Blizzard held a stress test beta for World of Warcraft to help tune the game's network infrastructure. Over 100,000 participants signed up for the stress test beta and connected to our servers to help us analyze performance under heavy loads. In conjunction with that, we ran a small contest as a means of allowing a large selection of dedicated stress testers to continue on into the closed beta test. The 720 players listed represent the winning stress testers. These characters achieved the highest level of experience for their race and class, per faction, on the server on which they were created. Congratulations!

Click the links below to view the winners!

September 9th Winners

September 12th Winners

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is sponsoring two competitions in celebration of Halloween!

Between 3:00 PM PDT on October 15 and 11:59 A.M PDT on October 27, the RPSA will be accepting submissions for the World of Warcraft Costume Contest and World of Warcraft Pumpkin Contest (click here to check out last year's winning pumpkins). People who submit the most outstanding photos of their work will have their pictures proudly displayed on WorldofWarcraft.com and on Blizzard.com. In addition, these skilled artisans will each receive a World of Warcraft Collector's Edition!

Click the links below for additional contest details, including the official rules and submission form, and good luck to you!

World of Warcraft Costume Contest

World of Warcraft Pumpkin Contest

Check out a new Mp3 (right-click > "Save As") from our sound department for Orgrimmar, the major Orc city in Kalimdor.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

The team has been busy on the forums this week! If you haven't been scouring the boards, here are the highlights:

• Hunter Talent Sneak Peek
• Reasons Behind Durability
• Upcoming Paladin Changes
• Warlock Questions Answered
• Warriors and Durability

This week's featured comics are "Partaking of The Well" by Kip Farrar and a "second comic" by Ghoochan. Click the "Next" button at the bottom of the comic to cycle through all the pages of these multi-paged comics. Both talented comic artists are among the twenty-five winners of the Blizzard Insider Comic Contest. The rest of the winning entries will be revealed in the coming weeks here and in the Blizzard Insider.

On Friday, October 15, the servers that handle both sign-ups and account creation will come down in preparation for Web-infrastructure updates. If you have a beta key that you have not yet activated, we strongly recommend you do so before Friday. You will be unable to create a closed beta account once we deactivate these services. As always, thank you for being patient with us while we work to bring you the best experience we can deliver.

Members of the World of Warcraft development team aren't the only people working hard these days. Check out these fantastic creations from the World of Warcraft community*:

• Kingdoms of Azeroth Scarlet Monastery Guide
• "Blind Murlocs" comic from StudioRain
• Our WoW mods, hard at work. By Red_Seal

Great job all!

*Links on this news post may expire over time.

The newest World of Warcraft closed beta patch has arrived! Major features of this patch include the new item durability system and changes to the raid group system, based on player feedback. Read the full patch notes here!

The servers are offline in preparation for the patch. Once they come back up, connect to the game as usual, and an automatic update will patch you up to the current build. Thank you again for continuing to test World of Warcraft; your efforts are appreciated!

Learn how raid groups were conceived and how they will be implemented in this special World of Warcraft designer diary.

Check out a new Mp3 (right-click > "Save As") from our sound department for Stormwind, the major Human city in Eastern Kingdoms.

Here's the latest information on the forums from the Blizzard team!

• Developer Q&A
• Localized Server FAQ
• Upcoming Class Improvements
• Most Powerful NPC in World of Warcraft

We are happy to announce that we will soon be accepting applicants for the World of Warcraft^® Open Beta Test for North America. The open phase of beta will give people a chance to enter Azeroth and play World of Warcraft before the game is released. More details will become available in the days ahead, so stay tuned.

The venerable founders of the Royal Photographic Society have decreed that there shall be a contest to identify the most organized group of heroes on Azeroth. Between 12:00 noon PDT on October 7 and 11:59 A.M PDT on October 18, the RPSA will be accepting group screenshot submissions for this contest. The screenshot depicting the most impressive group formation will earn the title of Best Group Screenshot in the World of Warcraft Beta and be displayed proudly here on WorldofWarcraft.com and on Blizzard.com as well. Do you and nine or more of your associates have what it takes to come together and pose with precision and flair? If so, click here for additional contest details, including the official rules and submission form, and good luck to you!

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Today, Blizzard began showing World of Warcraft to the public at the World Cyber Games in San Francisco, California. Demonstrating the progress that has been made thus far in development, a few members of Blizzard Entertainment are revealing the latest content and updates to the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game. World of Warcraft is being shown in NVIDIAs booth at the World Cyber Games, where it is one of the showcase titles at the show. The World Cyber Games is open to the public from October 6 to 10 in the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Fans in the Bay Area, and especially those who are not in the closed beta test, can visit the World Cyber Games to see hands-on demonstrations of World of Warcraft.

Players in World of Warcraft can give voice to their characters emotions and actions. Drawing on the tradition of humor and wit in all our previous games, the development team has added many speech files to the repertoire of all eight races, giving players the ability to speak insults, flirt, cheer, and utter other funny phrases throughout the game.

To listen to a small sample of each races speech library, please visit the sounds page located here. These voices are the same ones players can utter in the game through the speech command.

In anticipation of World of Warcraft's launch in China next year, the official Chinese World of Warcraft website opened this past weekend. Hosted by Blizzard's partner in China, The9, the leading online game publisher in the country, this website provides the latest news and updates for World of Warcraft's growing Chinese fan base. Fans can visit the site to read the most recent game news, learn more about game features, and chat with other World of Warcraft followers in the official forums. The official Chinese website also features beautiful art and music from the game, as well as translated material from the official World of Warcraft website. The website is in simplified Chinese, but you can stop by for a visit at www.wowchina.com.

Blizzard Entertainment and Ideazon have come together to produce the World of Warcraft Zboard Keyset. This limited edition Keyset will allow players to fully immerse themselves in World of Warcraft and allow players to access the game in ways that traditional keyboards cannot offer. For more information on the Keyset click here. For a preview of the Keyset, click here.

The scheduled server maintenance is complete and the servers are now back online. Thanks again for your patience; see you in game!

This week's featured comics are "Funk of 4000 years" by Matt Clafferty and "Alliance Team Work" by StudioRain. Both talented comic artists are among the twenty-five winners of the Blizzard Insider Comic Contest. The rest of the winning entries will be revealed in the coming weeks here and in the Blizzard Insider.

Kingdoms of Azeroth conducted a Q&A with Associate Community Manager Tyren, from questions submitted by the World of Warcraft community. The interview touches on a variety of topics, including high-end raids, legendary items, and even artifact-class items. Read the full interview here!

Email invitations were sent out this evening welcoming the first round of testers to the World of Warcraft European closed beta. We would like to congratulate all the European testers who received invitations, and thank you for helping us test World of Warcraft!

To get the latest news and information on the World of Warcraft European closed beta, please use the following links:

English World of Warcraft Community Site

German World of Warcraft Community Site

French World of Warcraft Community Site

Cheers!

All servers are back up and operational. Please log in, download the patch, and enjoy! Thank you for your patience during this time.

Our team here at Blizzard has been diligently laboring on a new patch for the World of Warcraft beta. This patch is meant to address some outstanding bugs as well as prepare the way for new content. Here are the major features:

Major Changes

• New Model & Animation System
• New Looting Methods
• Warlock Talents Added

You can download the patch by connecting to the game as usual once the servers are available; an automatic update will patch you up to the Beta 6 build. Thank you again for your continuing to test World of Warcraft -- your efforts are appreciated!

• Information on Spirit Changes
• Explanation of Character Customization
• Elite Monster Clarification
• Test Server and Balance After Launch
• Upcoming Warlock Talents
• Racial Abilities?

Note: These links will stop working when the forum posts expire.

We will be taking our account-creation servers down for scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, September 29 at 7:00 AM PDT. This maintenance should last no longer than one day; however, please note that if you have not yet created a beta account with your authentication key, you will not be able to do so during this time. You will also be unable to change your password while the maintenance is occurring. Beta testers with active accounts will not be otherwise affected, nor will the beta test itself. When the account-creation servers are back online, we will post another message here letting everyone know. Thank you for your patience!

This morning we started sending out email invitations welcoming the next round of testers into the closed beta. A new Player-versus-Environment server, named Beta Server 2, was added at the beginning of this week to handle the increase in players. This new server also gives current testers a chance to get a fresh start.

The email invitations will be going out in batches throughout the day, so be sure to check your inbox. They will contain instructions on how to set up your account, download the client, and connect to the servers. Please do not contact Blizzard with questions on your selection status. Those of you who dont receive an invitation take heart; open beta will be coming up later this year. And to all the new testers: Good luck and thank you for your help testing World of Warcraft!

The World of Warcraft naming policy has been updated. The new policy will be retroactive to affect all current character names. You can check out the new policy here.

This week we have "Confessions of the Unselected" by Jason Plott and three new comics by Andrew Salter. Both talented comic artists are among the twenty-five winners of the Blizzard Insider Comic Contest. The rest of the winning entries will be revealed in the coming weeks here and in the Blizzard Insider.

The servers are back up and players should be able to retrieve their characters lists and log into the game. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you continue to experience difficulties please post your problems in the Support Forum.

We are currently experiencing technical difficulties with the World of Warcraft beta servers. It seems players are able to log in, but cannot retrieve their characters lists or create new characters.

We are aware of the problem and are working on resolving the issue as soon as possible. We will post more information as soon as it becomes available. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The armies of the Horde and the Alliance in the Korean World of Warcraft closed beta test gathered for war on the sands of Tanaris. In a mighty clash involving myriad players on each side, the factions battled. The Alliance fought bravely but was no match for the fearsome might of the Horde. Badly beaten, the Alliance slinked away from Tanaris and inevitable doom.

But for the Horde, a small taste of victory wasnt nearly enough. The Horde raiders mounted up and proceeded through the Shimmering Flats, Thousand Needles, and Dustwallow Marsh to their next objective: Theramore Isle, home of Jaina Proudmoore. They met with only paltry resistance from the guards and rampaged through the gates. They left no home unpillaged, no outpost untouched. The defenders were no match for the raid party and even legendary Proudmoore fell to their might.

Their terrible desires sated, the Horde invaders hurled one final insult at the Alliance by gathering on the ship to Menethil Harbor. Then one by one, they returned to their places of origin, knowing on that day that the Horde ruled supreme.

Be sure to check out all 30 screenshots from this Korean PvP event by using the "next" and "previous" buttons.

We are introducing a new beta phase with this patch and welcoming another round of testers into the game. A second Player-versus-Environment server has been launched to accommodate the thousands of new testers we are inviting into the beta. Select Beta Server 2 on the realms list to play on this server. These new testers will be selected from the pool of applicants from our initial signup period. Those who have been selected to participate in the beta will receive an email from Blizzard with instructions on how to download the client and connect to the new server. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accommodate everyone. Please do not contact Blizzard directly to inquire about your selection status; those who have been chosen to participate will be contacted by email. Good luck and thank you for helping us test World of Warcraft!

The results are in, and the winners of the World of Warcraft Stress Test Beta Contest have been added to the beta! The winning characters have been copied to the original Player vs. Environment and Player vs. Player servers, depending on the ruleset chosen during the stress test. All invites to contest winners have been sent; if you are among the winners, you should have received an email from Blizzard with instructions on how to join the beta.

Thank you again for all the hard work shown during the stress test, and welcome to the closed beta!

Here are the latest news tidbits from the Blizzard team!

• Clarification on Raid Groups
• Scholomance Information
• Acceptable Blackrock Depths Strategy
• Changes to Stealth
• Alternative Download Option?

Note: These links will stop working when the forum posts expire.

As of 9:15PM PDT, Realm servers are operational! Thanks to the tireless efforts of Blizzard systems engineers, we are proud to announce that we have been able to bring servers back online ahead of schedule. Further maintenance will be required in the next few days resulting in intermittent downtimes, but outside of these maintenance windows we expect the servers to be back at full operation.

The development team has been hard at work fixing bugs and adding new content to the game. We hope you enjoy many of the new features and changes we have added to the game such as raid groups, new dungeons, and the Deeprun Tram.

We posted this early to give you a chance to download the patch before the servers are ready to play again. We expect to give you an update on the servers later today.

• High End Locations added
• Raid Groups
• Deeprun Tram
• Trade Skills become Professions
• No More Skill Points
• Level Cap Raised
• Talent System

So, sit back, start the download and take a moment to scan the patch notes which comes in at just over 9 pages!

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Despite the fact that the US World of Warcraft beta test will remain offline as discussed above, the new patch has been tested and finalized, and we are looking into the possibility of making it available for download sometime this weekend. Should we be able to do this, the beta test will still remain offline, but players will at least be able to patch up and be ready to go for when the servers eventually come back online.

The patch notes have also been finalized and are ready for viewing. You can find them here. Please note that while we put every effort into making the beta patch notes as complete as possible, some changes are bound to go undocumented. This is because there are an extensive number of changes that are being done in every area of World of Warcraft up until the moment the patch content is locked down, and our primary focus is on completing the game for launch. After launch, patch changes will be documented more completely.

Many of you have been eagerly awaiting news of the player-versus-player gameplay in World of Warcraft. We have maintained from the beginning that the current rules as they stand are temporary and that the real PvP system has yet to be added. Beginning with this upcoming patch, we will be introducing some elements of our final PvP system, and we will continue to flesh it out in successive patches after this one. But we also wanted to relate to you our philosophy behind our PvP system, reveal some concept art for our battlegrounds, and give you a sneak peek of where we are ultimately heading with World of Warcraft's PvP gameplay. Check it out here.

Were very excited to now reveal the confirmed contents of the World of Warcraft Collectors Edition. This special edition collectors set will feature an inventory of rare, exclusive items created to commemorate the launch of your epic quest into Azeroth, including:

• The full game on both CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
  
• 1-month subscription to World of Warcraft
  
• The Art of World of Warcraft, 200+ page hardcover art book
  
• World of Warcraft Behind-the-Scenes DVD
  
• Exclusive in-game pet
  
• Official soundtrack
  
• Cloth map charting the continents of Kalimdor, Azeroth, Khaz Modan, and Lordaeron
  
• Signed Collectors Edition game manual
  
• 10-Day Free Guest Pass invite one of your friends to join the epic quest

Further details regarding country-specific availability will be announced in the near future.

The gnomes have certainly been busy! When the latest patch arrives, so too does the latest transportation method: the Deeprun Tram!

With the latest in gnomish technology, travel between the two mighty Alliance cities will be faster than ever. Learn more on our updated Public Transportation Page.

As a gift to our patient fans, we have decided to give you a sneak peek at the new Spirit Healer, who will be happy to greet you in one of Azeroths graveyards should your life ever expire.

"Laundry Quest" by Jamie Peckham and "Horde of One" by Chris Byczkiewicz are two of the twenty-five winning submissions from the Blizzard Insider Comic Contest. The rest of the winning entries will be revealed in the coming weeks on WorldofWarcraft.com and in the Blizzard Insider.

Laundry Quest

Horde of One

To better match the design goals for World of Warcraft, characters will be able to be trained in a maximum of 2 " professions" at the same time. What this means is that characters that currently have more than 2 of the following trade skills will have trade skills randomly removed by the upcoming patch until they are left with 2 remaining professions: mining, herbalism, skinning, alchemy, blacksmithing, tailoring, leatherworking, engineering, and/or enchanting.

To avoid having any of your trade skills/professions randomly removed, we advise that, prior to the next patch, you select the 2 trade skills you would like to keep and manually unlearn the rest. To unlearn a trade skill, open your Skills window, select the trade skill you wish to unlearn, and click the Unlearn button that appears to the right of the skill. If you do not do this and your characters have more than 2 of the above-listed trade skills when the patch goes live, then it's very possible that you will lose trade skills that you might have wanted to keep and be left with 2 that you might not want.

Please note that the upcoming trade-skill deletion does not affect cooking, fishing, and first aid, which do not count toward the 2-profession limit.

The Blizzard Team has been keeping busy on the forums! Here are some informative posts:

• Upcoming Warlock Attention
• Sneak Peek of the Upcoming Patch
• New Profession System FAQ
• No Item Wipe This Patch
• Resists Explained
• Upcoming Guard Changes
• Growing Pets
• Submitting Feedback

Note: These links will stop working when the forum posts expire.

We would like to thank you for all of your posts. We saved a copy of them and we'll be pouring over them in the weeks ahead. We hope to see you again during the Open Beta, which we will post an announcement about in the future.

As of 6:00pm PDT, the World of Warcraft stress test beta has come to an end. The past week and a half proved extremely helpful to us in evaluating the performance of our game infrastructure under heavy loads, and we hope that all of the stress testers enjoyed their sneak peek of World of Warcraft during that time.

With the end of the stress test beta comes the end of the stress test contest. We'll be notifying the 576 winners (top 3 players of each class, of each faction, on each of the 12 stress test beta servers) as soon as possible, and in addition to those winners, we will also be selecting as contest winners not just the 48 players who would have won had the contest ended at the original deadline (top 3 players of each class, of each faction, across all stress test beta servers), but an additional 96 players who were next in line at that time (next 6 players of each class, of each faction, across all stress test beta servers).

Should any of the players who would have won at the original contest deadline also be among the 576 selected based on the updated Sunday deadline, we will select the next person down on the list to avoid having duplicate contest winners. That makes a total of 720 players moving on into the closed beta test! All contest winners will be notified by Blizzard as soon as possible, so please do not contact Blizzard to inquire about the contest results.

Thanks again to all of you for participating in the World of Warcraft stress test beta. We look forward to seeing you again online in either the closed beta test or the upcoming open beta test, as well as in the retail version of World of Warcraft when it launches later this year!

Adorn your desktop with this new mosaic wallpaper created with the icons from World of Warcraft.

In the next patch (no ETA as of yet), most trade skills are being renamed to "professions," and the way in which players acquire and learn them is changing. You will no longer learn different professions by paying for them with skill points. You'll still learn them by speaking to the appropriate profession trainer. However, players will now be restricted to learning two professions. We decided to change the skill system to make it simpler, balanced, and more intuitive. The new system should allow everyone to participate in one to two professions, and create a much more vibrant market for goods generated from professions.

We strongly encourage players to choose the two professions (trade skills) they wish to keep before the patch goes live so as to avoid the possibility of losing a hard-earned profession. If you have more than two trade skills known on your character, two will be chosen randomly to be retained as professions. The others will be eliminated from your character. Please unlearn the skills you do not wish to keep, and make sure that you only have two trade skills left on your character. To unlearn a trade skill, open your Skills window by pressing the hotkey K. Select the skill you wish to unlearn and click the Unlearn button that appears to the right of the skill.

The professions are: alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, herbalism, mining, leatherworking, skinning, and tailoring.

The secondary skills are: cooking, fishing, and first aid.

Several old trade skills are being turned into secondary skills. These do not count toward your two-profession limit, so players can learn all three secondary skills, in addition to their two professions, without restriction. The survival skill is being removed and campfires have been folded into the cooking profession.

No More Skill Points

With the changes to trade skills, skill points (SP) will be removed from the game, and currency will be used instead to train skills formerly based on SP.

Mount trainers will now require you to have a certain level of reputation with their respective city in order to acquire a mount.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Upcoming Patch Content
• Weapon Proc Information
• Stamina and Health Relationship
• Current Class Focus
• Last Names for Characters
• Legendary and Artifact Items
• Darkshore Update

Note: These links will stop working when the forum posts expire.

Introducing The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth. Our purpose and stated aim is to promote and nurture the art of photography throughout the world of Azeroth. In World of Warcraft, snapping a photograph is as easy as hitting the "Print Screen" key. If your screenshots are of sufficient quality, they may be used somewhere on the World of Warcraft.com web site; they may even be chosen as the featured Screenshot of the Day. Click here to submit your shots

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with four new pieces of artwork.

We are aware that many of you, like us, are eager for the European beta test to begin. We understand and appreciate your interest in World of Warcraft and wanted to update you on exactly where the European beta test currently stands. The European sign-ups were a huge success, thanks to you, and were much bigger than we anticipated. Hence, the process of selecting testers has taken longer than expected, but the good news is that the process is now complete.

Over the past few weeks, our growing European teams have been striving to prepare the technical platform to support the beta test, and we are now in the final stages of implementing the required technology. It is our intention to post an announcement very soon that indicates the specific date in September when the European World of Warcraft closed beta test will start. Under the current schedule, the first wave of selected testers will be notified by e-mail a couple of days before the beta launch. Thank you for your patience, and we hope to have you playing World of Warcraft as soon as possible!

French website

German website

English website

Tigole reveals some of the exciting new things that the development team is working on!

There is now a 0.9.1 Installer (this installs the 0.9.1 version of the game, which is the current version as of August 30). This replaces the previous installer we had available for download. If you are currently playing, you do not need to download this file, but if you need to reinstall World of Warcraft for any reason, we suggest you download and use this installer, as it will get you back online with fewer patches to apply. To download it, log into the site and select "Download WoW" on the right side.

We have identified a bug with the standalone beta patch that beta testers with fewer than 3 gigabytes of free space on their hard drives encountered when attempting to install the patch. Please see the Technical Support forum post here that describes the solution.

We have become aware of a bug in our patching system that would have prevented future patches of the beta client from being delivered properly to all of our beta testers. In order to fix this, we need all beta testers to download a standalone patch. This patch will also allow us to test our standalone patching capabilities of the World of Warcraft beta client in case future updates need to be made via multiple methods, i.e. through the Blizzard Downloader, mirrored patch files, or by any alternate delivery systems.

Please make sure you have at least 3 GB of free space before you run this patch.

For details on what balance changes have been made, please read the patch notes here. To download the patch, PC users go here and Mac users go here.

If you have difficulty installing the patch, please unzip the patch file to the same directory in which you have World of Warcraft installed and run it from there. PC users should have the patch file "WoW-0.9.1.exe." Mac users should have the file "WoW Mac 0.9.1 patch.dmg." If you continue experiencing difficulty applying the patch, please contact [email protected].

Major Changes

• Hunters
• Boats and Zeppelins
• Talent System
• Level Cap Raised
• Item Stats Changed
• Sharing Quests
• New Micro-Dungeon Designs

This latest patch features the introduction of the Hunter as a playable character class! Players interested in trying the new class out can start their adventures as either a Dwarf, Night Elf, Orc, Tauren or Troll and begin testing their new characters on either of the beta servers. In addition to the Hunter class, players will find that Boats and Zeppelins are now patrolling the world, the option to share quests with party members has been added, as well as the fact that many other tweaks have been made to the world of Azeroth. For a full list of details, please feel free to check out the patch notes here.

We are still working on preparing the US World of Warcraft beta patch for distribution, but it will not be available tonight because there is still some related testing that needs to be done. Our goal is to distribute the patch ahead of time so that a majority of the beta testers will be able to download it and then be ready to resume playing when the beta game servers come back online. As noted above, the servers will remain offline for the remainder of Sunday and into Monday, and possibly longer. Tomorrow, we will post another server update as well as provide more information regarding the availability of the US beta patch.

As mentioned in the news post below, we are working to try to make the US World of Warcraft beta patch available for download this weekend. The World of Warcraft beta game servers will remain offline for at least 48 hours as discussed above, but if we are able to provide the patch ahead of time, then when the game servers do eventually come back online, the plan is for players to already be patched up and ready to resume playing.

We will continue working on making the patch available, but we do want to let everyone know that this will not happen tonight. If you haven't checked them out already, the patch notes can be found here. Tomorrow afternoon we will post an update on the status of the beta game servers as well as on the patch.

At 6:19pm EDT yesterday, the datacenter complex in Virginia that is being used to host the World of Warcraft beta test was hit and damaged by a tornado. Because water was leaking into the building in which our servers were located, we shut down the servers as a precautionary measure and flew out a team of our network engineers to the location to survey the area and provide a preliminary assessment.

This morning, we have confirmed that some hardware has taken on water, so we will need to conduct a careful inspection for damage before we can restore power to the servers. This inspection will take 48 hours or longer to complete, so we encourage you to enjoy the rest of your weekend with other activities, as the World of Warcraft beta test will remain offline for at least that long. We will post another update tomorrow afternoon, and we appreciate your continued patience and support.

The World of Warcraft stress test beta will be ending in approximately one hour, at 6:00 PM PDT.We will post another announcement here at that time, along with more information regarding the contest resolution. Thank you for helping us test World of Warcraft!

We are extending the stress test beta to this Sunday and adding thousands of additional testers from the group of gamers who originally signed up for the closed beta test. Invitation emails have started going out to the new testers already. The stress test beta contest will continue on until the end of the stress test beta, at which time all stress test accounts will expire. Please do not contact Blizzard to inquire about being added to the stress test beta; all the information needed, such as how to access the stress test beta, will be provided in the email going out to new testers. Thanks to the stress testers, the development team has gained a great deal of information that is proving to be extremely valuable in the development of World of Warcraft. By extending the stress test beta, we will be able to gather even more useful data, which will help us ensure a smooth launch for World of Warcraft later this year. Thanks again, and we'll see you online!

The World of Warcraft Stress Test servers will be offline sometime between 2:00-3:00 pm PDT. Downtime is expected to be short, but could last longer.

We are making a change to the World of Warcraft servers at 11:40 am PDT. Users may experience connectivity problems during this time. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks again for your patience during the time the servers were down. All of the servers have been brought back online.

We have brought up 6 of the 12 stress test servers so we can evaluate the performance issue in smaller quantity. We will bring up the other 6 servers in a couple hours. The close beta servers are also back up. Thank you for your patience.

We are currently addressing some performance issues with our database clusters. As soon as they are resolved we will be bringing them back up. Thanks again for your patience.

Server Status Forum

A Community Manager who will be supporting French-speaking players has recently joined the Blizzard Europe team! Players will get to meet him soon via our official European forums during the World of Warcraft Closed Beta test, under the forum name "Aguilar". His previous experience as Community Manager included several communities of gamers in Europe. Our team of Community Managers will soon be complete, when the English-speaking Community Manager finally joins Gungdil and Aguilar, to make sure the European community stays always up-to-date with the latest developments.

Welcome aboard, Aguilar!

At 6:00 pm PDT tonight, we will take all of the stress test beta servers down for 10 minutes, and at 6:10 pm PDT, we will bring half (6) of them back up. We ask that everyone log on to any of those 6 servers at that time in order to help us try to overload the login process. After you have logged on to one of the 6 servers, please stay online and play until 8:00 pm PDT, when we will take the servers offline again. This two-hour test will allow us to evaluate server performance with a concentrated load. We will then bring all 12 servers back up 10 minutes later at 8:10 pm PDT to conclude this "stress" of the stress test beta.

Please remember that the purpose of the stress test beta is to try to push the servers to their limits, so you might experience difficulty logging in and/or playing during this test. Thanks in advance for your help in making this test a success, and please pass the word on to your fellow players to prepare them for tonight's activities.

GM support hours during the World of Warcraft stress test beta will be as follows:

2:00 p.m. -- 11:00 p.m. PDT

At the conclusion of the stress test beta, well post an update with the new GM hours.

The World of Warcraft stress test beta has begun! You can now create your stress test beta account and begin playing the game. Please check your e-mail inbox for a letter from FilePlanet with instructions on where to go to create your account.

After you have created your account, you will also be able to post in the stress test beta forum.

Please keep in mind that the stress test, the forums, and your stress test beta account, will all be closed on September 9, when the stress test beta ends. So, keep an eye on your inbox and hurry into Azeroth once you receive your email from FilePlanet. The World of Warcraft awaits!

Were looking for the greatest of heroes to step forward and demonstrate their skill and valor. If you can prove your worth by becoming the most powerful members of your faction classes, then you could win the chance to continue your adventures in Azeroth beyond the completion of the stress test!

Blizzard will be holding a competition during the stress test to determine the three highest-level characters per class in both the Alliance and Horde factions. At the end of the stress test, three players of every Horde class and three players of every Alliance class will win entry into the World of Warcraft closed beta test. In the event of a tie, total experience accumulated will determine the ultimate winners.

In the interest of fairness and in accordance with the World of Warcraft Beta Test Agreement and Terms of Use Agreement, players are not allowed to share accounts. Any character that has been leveled up through shared playtime by multiple players will be disqualified from the contest.

See complete contest rules

The competition will run through the entire duration of the stress test. At the end of the stress test, Blizzard will notify 48 lucky winners of their acceptance into the closed beta test. As a special reward for their accomplishments, the winners will be able to move their characters from the stress test to the closed beta servers, ensuring that they can continue playing uninterrupted. Visit the " Official Stress Test Contest Rules" page to find out more.

The World of Warcraft stress test beta is just a day away. Hundreds of thousands of gamers applied for the stress test this past week, and FilePlanet was up to the task, issuing over 100,000 accounts and providing the stress test beta client for download. With the signups and downloads complete, we are just about ready to welcome these gamers into World of Warcraft for the very first time.

Starting tomorrow, September 2nd at 12:00 noon PDT, stress test beta participants will be able to create their World of Warcraft accounts and begin playing the game. Their participation will help us optimize our account-creation and server infrastructure, and enable us to deliver the best online experience possible when the game launches later this year. We want to thank everyone who applied for the stress test beta, and we look forward to seeing the new testers online tomorrow when the stress test beta starts.

Selected stress test beta participants should keep an eye on their inboxes for an email containing further instructions. For more information on the World of Warcraft stress test beta, please check out our FAQ. To get a head start on learning how to play World of Warcraft, take a look at our beta strategy guide.

The World of Warcraft servers will be offline for maintenance for approximately 5 minutes starting at 3:45 pm PDT today.

FilePlanet has issued all of their free authentication keys for the World of Warcraft stress test beta and will now resume taking applications from FilePlanet subscribers for the remaining keys. The stress test will start shortly after the sign-up period ends. The actual date is undetermined as of yet, but when the stress test beta is ready to start, an announcement will be posted on www.fileplanet.com. Please do not contact Blizzard on the status of the stress test beta. If you have any questions about the signups or the upcoming World of Warcraft stress test beta, please check out our Stress Test FAQ.

Our new World of Warcraft Compilation is now available for downloading! This exclusive set includes a polished collection of World of Warcraft cinematic and in-game movies that were shown at various industry trade shows over the years. Until now, many of these files were only available as separate downloads.

In addition to acquiring a full series of critically acclaimed World of Warcraft movies, when you download the compilation you will be helping us test the new Blizzard Downloader. The Blizzard Downloader is being developed to ensure that we can deliver files such as game patches to you as quickly and as seamlessly as possible. Download the compilation here.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your Blizzard Downloader experience, please visit our Blizzard Downloader support page. We appreciate your feedback, and we hope you enjoy this collection of highlights from the World of Warcraft archives!

Hey action figure fans, Blizzard has released some new action figures that you could potentially add to your collection. Ranging between 5.6" to 8.5" in height, the figures are fully poseable, with an average of 14 points of articulation.

The Warcraft Series II Action Figure set features Medivh, Grom Hellscream, and the Dwarven Rifleman!

The Diablo Action Figure set features the Necromancer, Baal's Minion, and the Corrupted Rogue!

These figures are available now in our online store.

Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game
The #1 fantasy roleplaying game and the #1 fantasy real-time strategy computer game join forces in Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft the Roleplaying Game.

Warcraft Roleplaying: Manual of Monsters
Manual of Monsters is an essential sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft the Roleplaying Game, which translates the hugely successful Warcraft computer game series into a pen-and-paper roleplaying game world based on the popular d20 rules!

Warcraft Roleplaying: Magic & Mayhem
Sorcerers and wizards truck with deomons while tinkers and engineers build mighty engines of battle in this sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft the Roleplaying Game, which translates the hugely successful Warcraft computer game series into an exciting pen-and-paper roleplaying game world based on the popular d20 System rules.

Warcraft Roleplaying: Alliance & Horde Compendium
Individual heroes skirmish and mighty amies clash in this core sourcebook for Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft the Roleplaying Game, which translates the hugely successful Warcraft computer game series into a pen-and-paper roleplaying game based on the popular d20 rules!

We are very happy to share the news with you that World of Warcraft won the Best Online Game award at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany last week. Over 100,000 visitors attended the show, and many took the time to come check out World of Warcraft. It was the first time that many players had the chance to see the game, and their positive feedback was warmly received by our European World of Warcraft team, who worked hard to set up the gaming area that you can see in the pictures below. Wed like to thank everyone for their support, and we look forward to seeing UK gamers at the Game Stars Live show in London next week!

In order to evaluate World of Warcraft's account-creation process and server performance under heavy loads, Blizzard will be conducting a seven-day stress test beta in the days ahead. This test will require over 100,000 players to download the World of Warcraft stress test beta client, create an account, and log on to play when the test goes live!

To make the client available for download to such a large audience, we have partnered with FilePlanet, GameSpy's Web-based file-delivery service.

Users posting on our Battle.net World of Warcraft Forums have identified some error messages that *certain* users may encounter with the Fileplanet *stress test* file. If you have been accepted into the stress test and are receiving an error stating that the archive is corrupt or that *no installer data could be found,* please see our Fileplanet Stress Test Issues thread for solutions. We will continue to post issues and solutions there as they are brought to our attention. Please note that these issues do not apply to current players in our continuing *beta test.*

• Read the Stress Test FAQ to learn more.
• Sign up for the Stress Test at FilePlanet.

Thanks again for your patience during the scheduled server maintenance. The maintenance is complete, and the servers are now back online.

The scheduled server maintenance is nearing completion, and we expect to be posting another message shortly saying that they're up. Thanks for your patience.

The World of Warcraft servers will be offline for maintenance for approximately two hours starting at 10:00 am PDT today. We'll post another notice here when they go back up.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Winterspring next patch
• New Shaman spell
• New Paladin spell
• More quests coming
• Stuck in combat bug
• Stat changes?
• Paladins role
• Beta testing and changes
• Kalimdor improvements coming
• Item information
• Where are Hunter pet skills?
• Soloing vs. grouping
• Tauren Plainsrunning
• Why was lockpicking removed?
• Player vs. Environment server
• Monster changes
• Blackrock Depths

Check out our new Public Transportation page in our Game Info section!

Read an update from Ogre on recent fixes to the server.

If you share our goals, and have the skills, we want to hear from you! We are currently recruiting for several departments in our Paris office, including Customer Support, Game Masters (French, German or English speaking) and English Community manager. For more information visit our:

French website

German website

English website

Thanks for your patience...the World of Warcraft servers are now ready for you to reconnect and start playing again! If you experience any technical difficulties connecting to the game, please email [email protected]. As discussed in the patch notes, this beta patch incorporates numerous changes. Be sure to review the patch notes if you havent done so already, and as always, we look forward to receiving your /suggests and /bugs.

Thanks again for your patience... the World of Warcraft servers are back up and ready for you to reconnect and resume playing. Please visit the Technical Support forum or contact [email protected] if you have any technical difficulties connecting to the game.

Just wanted to provide everyone a quick update here. We're still in the process of implementing a fix for a serious bug that was identified after the patch went live yesterday. We've also noted some of the other bugs that have already been submitted by beta testers (thank you), including some cases of doubling with monsters and NPCs and some respawning issues, and we'll be addressing those bugs in due time as well. Once the servers are back up and ready for you to reconnect to, we'll post another announcement here. There's no ETA yet on when that will be; we're continuing to work on these issues until they're resolved.

Were taking the servers down now to implement a few fixes that are needed after last nights patch. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please check back here periodically, as well be posting an update when the servers are back online.

Those who are still downloading the patch will not be affected by this; their downloads should continue without interruption.

The World of Warcraft servers are back up and are ready for you to connect and start downloading the new patch. The patch is approximately 800MB, so please be prepared for a sizable download. PLEASE NOTE that well be doing some final tuning on the servers for several hours, so its likely that you will have finished downloading the patch before youre actually able to log back on and start playing again. Well post another message here when the servers are ready for you to reconnect. For those of you who are interested in seeing whats in store with this patch, we will be posting the patch notes here shortly.

Please keep in mind that the World of Warcraft beta is a work in progress, and we continue to find your even-tempered constructive feedback very helpful. If you dont like something about the new patch, please take a deep breath, count to 10 slowly, and then send us a /suggest in-game with a balanced presentation of your thoughts. We continue to read every suggestion and bug submission.

There is nothing wrong with the servers. Do not attempt to adjust your monitor. We control the horizontal and the vertical. The servers are down because we have started preparing them for the new World of Warcraft beta patch! When they come back up, youll be able to log on and begin downloading the patch. We dont expect this to be too long; well post another message here when theyre ready.

We expect to implement the new patch for the World of Warcraft beta in the very near future. We dont have an exact date yet, but we wanted to pass along an important piece of info to help everyone be prepared. The patch will modify the levels of several items, so if your character has an item equipped and no longer meets the requirements for that item, the item will be removed. If your character has bag slots open, then each item removed will go into an available bag slot. However, if your character does not have bag slots open, the item will be sucked into the Emerald Dream, where it will wait for you until you clear enough bag space to hold the items. Once thats done, youll be able to log out and then log back in to have the items appear in your bags. Please help spread the word.

The Blizzard and Battle.net Web sites will be down for 24-48 hours for scheduled maintenance on August 17-18th. This will not affect the Battle.net gaming service or the World of Warcraft community site/patch. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Collector's Edition in-game item!
• Gossip Text
• Auction Houses
• Dragons
• Gilneas
• Fun Facts #2
• Fun Facts

Check out this forum post from Block, revealing more information about the upcoming patch!

Head on over to the beta forums to check out the latest Q&A. Its infolicious.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Check out the PvP News page with a listing of past documented PvP events.

Were delighted to announce the recent arrival of a World of Warcraft Community Manager who will be supporting German-speaking players in Europe. Our new Community Manager joined the Blizzard Europe team at the beginning of August and will be dedicated to making sure that the German community and fan sites are supported with all the latest news about World of Warcraft. For more information on this new Community Manager's arrival, please visit our European community sites: http://www.wow-europe.com/de/, http://www.wow-europe.com/en/, http://www.wow-europe.com/fr/.

Its been two weeks since the close of the European World of Warcraft Beta Test sign-ups, and the selection process for the first group of beta testers is now nearing completion. These testers will be allowed to create accounts on the European beta server as well as log onto their respective community Web sites as soon as the selection process is completed and they begin receiving their authentication keys.

During its first phase, the Beta Test will not be localized, which means that all European beta testers will initially be using the English language version of the game client. However, as the Beta Test progresses, fully localized French and German clients will be made available for download. Please visit the European World of Warcraft Community sites if you would like to learn more about the European World of Warcraft Beta Test: http://www.wow-europe.com/de/, http://www.wow-europe.com/en/, http://www.wow-europe.com/fr/.

Take a look at the Hunter, which will be added in a future patch. You can check out some of the spells and abilities and learn about its pets!

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• No more eating or drinking in combat
• New Micro-Dungeons!
• Bug Fix: Creatures and Doors
• Hunter: Taming
• Warlocks will become better
• Elites too easy to kill?
• Class improvements
• Class content
• Hero classes and raid content
• Tauren plains running
• PVP: player nameplates
• Character resets?
• Humor: BWhittles time lived

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

For those of you interested in keeping up with the latest information on the game, check out the new Q&A posted here.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Finding Blizzard Posts
• Update from the front lines
• Boats
• Goblin Zeppelins
• Ghost Levitate
• Enchanting Soulbound Items
• Level Limit to 55
• Horde Flight Path to Dustwallow Marsh

Check out 42 new screenshots from the Horde vs. Alliance Race War Server.

Check out the PvP News page with a listing of past documented PvP events.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

From the dusty plains of Central Kalimdor and the ruins of Lordaeron come three new action figures based on characters in World of Warcraft. Wielding wildly different forms of magic in service of the Horde, the Tauren Shaman, Undead Warlock, and Jungle Troll Voodoo Priest will hit stores around the same time as the retail launch of the game.

The World of Warcraft development team met with the Blizzard fansites last night to reveal a host of new information about the game and to take some questions from the community. You can read the chat transcript here.

The sign-up period for the World of Warcraft European Closed Beta Test is now over. Please continue to check here for updates and information on when the European Closed Beta Test will begin.

Testers who are chosen to participate in the Beta Test will be notified in the coming weeks by e-mail. Please note that we can neither accept any additional applications nor make any changes to the information on anyones current application. Also note that we are unable to comment on the status of any applications.

Blizzard wishes to thank everyone who has registered to join the European Closed Beta Test of World of Warcraft; we look forward to seeing you online!

We're happy to announce that three new World of Warcraft Web sites in Europe are now operational. You can visit

German: http://www.wow-europe.com/de
French: http://www.wow-europe.com/fr
English: http://www.wow-europe.com/en

These Web sites will offer original content specifically created for European gamers by Blizzard's European World of Warcraft team.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Addressing Horde Concerns
• Planned Auction House Changes
• Next Talents
• Can you ride other faction's mounts?
• Blood Settings
• Boat Trips
• Warlock Suggestions

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Players can now post in the forums as one of their characters, instead of by their account name. To enable this option, players must log into their accounts by accessing the "Log In" interface found at the top right of the World of Warcraft Community Web Site. They can then select the character they wish to post with by using the "Change Character" button. We have also added a search feature and many other improvements to the forums. Enjoy!

Alliance and Horde players could constantly be found fighting throughout the PvP Server this past weekend. Read up on one raiding party's account of one of the skirmishes that was going on in the world.

We've also created a new PvP News page with a listing of past documented PvP events.

We have now posted a 33-page document, specifically created for WorldofWarcraft.com, which features a complete summarized history of the Warcraft universe. This history can help players learn more about the world in which their characters live and do battle! A new main story section is also available, featuring a list of resources for those of you who wish to immerse yourselves in the lore of Azeroth.

GM support for this weekend will be as follows:

Friday, July 16, 2004: 8:00 a.m. -- 11: 00 p.m. PDT
Saturday, July 17, 2004: 3:00 p.m. -- 11:00 p.m. PDT
Sunday, July 18, 2004: 3:00 p.m. -- 11:00 p.m. PDT

The GM support hours will return to normal on Monday, July 19, 2004: 8:00 a.m. -- Midnight PDT

With the World of Warcraft beta test fully underway, were looking for additional Game Masters to help keep the world of Azeroth running smoothly. Think you have what it takes to be part of the Blizzard GM Team? Then take a look over here and send over your resume today!

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Auction Houses
• City Maps
• New Hunter Information
• Druid News
• Reassign Talent Points?
• Racial Talents
• Enchanting is Temporary
• Tauren Plains Running
• PVP Server Race Stats
• Blackrock Spire
• Alliance Bias?
• Any Content Left?

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

The scheduled server maintenance is now complete. The servers are online.

Blizzard is looking for a Billing Representative to help with the changes due to our upcoming game World of Warcraft. If you have experience assisting customers with their billing-related issues and love games, please find more information on our Billing Representative job posting. Previous billing experience with a MMORPG is a plus!

The next scheduled server maintenance will take place on Wednesday, July 14, 2004 from 9:00 a.m. -- 10:00 a.m. PDT.

Want to know more about the new Auction Houses? Check out our new page on Auction Houses in our World of Warcraft Guide.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• Unlearn Talents?
• Killing NPCs
• Emerald Dream Zone
• Tips on Creating Names
• Paladin Charger News
• Languages
• Talents and PvP
• Server Race Stats
• Server Class Stats
• Tauren and Mounts
• Last Names?
• Mage Polymorph
• Raid Groups
• Instance Gates

Major Changes

• Auction Houses
• Talent System
• PvP Changes
• Click to Move
• Rest State Changes
• New Guard System
• Level Cap Raised

A new patch is here so, sit back, and take a moment to scan the patch notes.

Sign-ups for the European Closed Beta Test for World of Warcraft have begun! The sign-up period will last approximately 3 weeks, and all applications will receive equal consideration regardless of when they are submitted during the sign-up period. Everyone in Europe is invited to apply, regardless of country, as long as the applicant is English, French or German speaking. Click the link below to read the registration information and proceed to the sign-up pages.

[Sign up for the World of Warcraft European Closed Beta Test!]

The team will be performing a stress test on the server this evening from 6:30 p.m. -- 8:30 p.m. PDT. This may cause lag on the servers and may also cause the servers to crash. Thank you for your continued patience during the stress test.

The team will be performing various server load tests on the servers this afternoon. This may cause lag on the servers and/or server crashes. Thank you for your continued testing and patience during these load tests.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• More Sneak Peaks
• Tauren and mounts
• Soulbinding
• Weather Effects
• Sleep and Priests
• Mounts: Try before you buy?
• Darnassus
• Changing Account Information
• Horde Quests

The next scheduled server maintenance will take place on Wednesday, June 30, 2004 from 9:00 a.m. -- 11:00 a.m. PDT.

The next patch is just around the corner (it really is) and I wanted to give you all a quick glance at whats coming up:

• The level cap will be increased to 50.

• The Sunken Temple, a dungeon in Swamp of Sorrows, will be opened.

• Many of the quests in The Barrens will be reworked or polished.

• New death graphics will be implemented.

More sneak peeks to come. Enjoy these tidbits!

Blizzard Entertainment today announced July 5th as the date players in Europe can start signing up for the European Closed Beta Test of its eagerly awaited MMORPG, World of Warcraft. The sign-ups will take place on www.blizzard.de, www.blizzard.fr, and www.blizzard.co.uk. Learn more in this press release.

Games Domain has posted an interview with Mark Kern, one of the producers for World of Warcraft. Check out the interview here!

A new World of Warcraft trailer has been released on Yahoo! and Yahoo! Games Domain. Please feel free to check www.yahoo.com to see a link to the trailer at the very top of the page, and be sure to check Yahoo! Games Domain tomorrow for an exclusive interview and article about World of Warcraft. You can find the trailer here.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Blizzard Entertainment seeks an eloquent, sociable, and organized Community Manager for World of Warcraft. This person will serve as the conduit between the development team and players of the game, relaying feedback to the developers and keeping players informed of current plans, policies, and updates. The Community Manager is also responsible for assisting with the development and management of the World of Warcraft community Web site, organizing and promoting fan fairs, and interacting with the gaming press in a public relations capacity. This position is based in Velizy -- France (close to Paris) with all the World of Warcraft European Team. For more information go here.

Faced with the daunting task of eliminating Horde forces in the heart of Silverpine, an army of Alliance men and women formed ranks in Menethil Harbor. From there, they begin their arduous trek, as they marched through the Hillsbrad Foothills where even the rumbling giant Fozruk wandered over to pay his respects to the passing army.

As the Alliance troops moved into the depths of Silverpine Forest, a lone Undead scout was able to spot the approaching forces from afar. Realizing the danger, she hastily sprinted back to The Sepulcher and raised the alarm, warning her brethren of the oncoming assault. Sounds of battle were soon heard echoing across the backdrop of The Sepulchers graveyard as Alliance and Horde forces clashed, unleashing their raw and unbridled fury upon one another.

Horde soldiers quickly drew up a line of defense upon the forest grounds, challenging the Alliance soldiers to cross and meet their fates. The line proved to be sound as the Alliance assault was slowly driven back by the minions of the Horde, forcing the Alliance combatants to retreat east of The Sepulcher in the hopes of reaffirming their resolve and regrouping to turn the tide of battle. However, the Horde forces completely routed the remnants of the ragtag army as they rapidly located the cells recuperating in the area and overwhelmed them with their superior numbers and more experienced soldiers.

Alliance forces fought valiantly in what ultimately became a battle that the Horde was destined to win. Fate met completion that day, but the struggle for Azeroth continues to rage on with every passing hour

Click below to check out 14 screenshots from the Raid on Silverpine Forest. You can then cycle through the screens by clicking the Next Screenshot and Previous Screenshot buttons.

The next scheduled server maintenance will take place on Wednesday, June 23, 2004 from 8:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. PDT.

Check out the latest game news from Blizzard in the forums:

• News about new content in the next major patch
• Rest System
• Player vs. Player respawning
• Player vs. Player attack messages
• Auto increase for skills
• Tauren and mounts

Phase Three of the World of Warcraft Beta Test has started, and we have randomly selected the next group of people to be added for this important phase of our testing process. Invitation emails will be sent out shortly, so please disable your junk mail filters and check your inboxes!

If you dont hear from us for this phase, please note that there will be additional phases with more testers added in the weeks and months ahead. In addition to that, we will eventually be holding an Open Beta Test as well, during which many more people will have a chance to try out World of Warcraft prior to launch!

Please do not contact us to inquire about the status of your Beta Test application. We will continue to post announcements here whenever new phases have started.

The World of Warcraft Fan Site Kit is now available. The Fan Site Kit is a package of materials designed to assist you in the creation of your own World of Warcraft-related fan site. The kit includes logos, hi-res artwork, screenshots, graphic PSD templates, a simple example of an HTML page, and a host of character cut-outs sorted by class. We hope youll find this kit useful in creating your own World of Warcraft fan site, and we look forward to seeing what youve created. Separately, if youre curious about joining the Blizzard Fan Site Program, please check out our fan site program page for more info.

The staff of the Blizzard Insider would like to thank everyone for their participation in the Comic Contest. Over 1,000 people submitted entries into the contest, and the staff is in the process of judging them.

We will announce the results of the contest once all entries have been judged. Due to the high volume of entries, we cannot predict a date for this announcement, but we will post the results as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience and participation!

The World of Warcraft mounts page has been updated with new screenshots and information about the recently revealed Nightsaber, Mechano-Strider, Undead Steed, and Raptor mounts.

War erupted last night in the former kingdom of Lordaeron, with members of the Alliance staging one of the first attacks on the Horde city of Brill. The Horde repelled this attack, however, driving the Alliance back to Thelsamar, where the soldiers of the Alliance held the besieged city, defending the region of Dun Morogh from certain attack. Many valiant Horde and Alliance soldiers perished in battle last night in what is surely a prelude to the greatest war of our time.

Click below to check out 14 screenshots from the Raid on Brill. You can then cycle through the screens by clicking the Next Screenshot and Previous Screenshot buttons.

Following the announcement of the European World of Warcraft team, we are pleased to report that the sign-up period for the European Beta Test will soon begin.

A link to the European beta test application will be provided at http://www.blizzard.co.uk/ (English), http://www.blizzard.de/ (German), http://www.blizzard.fr/ (French). If you live in Europe and youre interested in applying to join the European Beta Test for World of Warcraft, please stay tuned to one of those Web sites for more information.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

A bug was found that allowed players to receive gold they had not properly earned. We have fixed this bug. In response to this bug, any players found to have over 20 gold will have their money modified according to their level. For example, Level 39 players will receive 13.5 gold.

One beta testers four-year-old son loves watching World of Warcraft in action. In fact, if kozial (the beta tester) is away from the computer when being attacked, the son knows to hit the '1' key to make the character attack back. The four-year-old is also good at pointing out when to harvest new plants that appear on the screen. Aww...

GUComics.com has a new comic based on World of Warcraft.

We have created two additional forums. Quest Spoilers can be used to discuss quests. PvP Discussion has been created to talk about combat on our new faction vs. faction realm.

The PvP Server Policy is now available. Links to all of Blizzards policies and legal documents can always be found at the bottom of each page. You can also see our policy page here.

Todays patch features the start of Player vs. Player testing for the World of Warcraft beta test, and we are pleased to announce the opening of an additional realm for this purpose. This new Player vs. Player realm is an all-out Horde vs. Alliance server, where the factions can finally battle! If this rollout is completed successfully, we will then officially begin the next phase of the World of Warcraft beta test and add the next round of testers. Due to the amount of changes and new content being implemented in this patch, we will be distributing the updated version of the beta via the Blizzard Downloader. Please be sure to completely delete World of Warcraft from your computer prior to starting the download. [Start the download]

• Standard Player vs. Environment Server
• Horde vs. Alliance Race War Server
• Rest State Changes
• Enter the City to Rest
• Skill System Changes
• Old Characters Unlocked
• Items Deleted
• Quests Reset
• Resistances
• Introduction Cinematic For All Races
• Postal System Introduced
• Level Cap Raised
• Mounts
• Wide Screen Support
• Macintosh OS Upgrade Necessary

So, sit back, start the download and take a moment to scan the lengthy patch notes.

We have some new information on two features set to debut shortly in the World of Warcraft beta. These are not in the game yet, but will be coming very soon. Enjoy!

[Basics: Postal System]
[Basics: Realm Types]

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

This movie features over five minutes of new gameplay footage from World of Warcraft! Download now.

In advance preparation for the next World of Warcraft beta patch, the Blizzard Downloader will be temporarily unavailable. We do not yet have a release date for the next version of the beta. Once were ready to go, the Blizzard Downloader will be reactivated. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Katricia answered many of the fans questions in the latest installment of the Q&A. Check it out on our World of Warcraft Battle.net forums.

Having trouble with your World of Warcraft Beta? Our new World of Warcraft Technical Support Area is up and running to help you find a solution fast! This should be your first stop when a problem arises. Many issues are already documented along with solutions to help get you back into the Beta as quickly as possible.

The next scheduled server maintenance will take place on Wednesday, June 9, 2004 from 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PDT.

In response to the many requests that have come in over the years, we've now launched a fan art section on our Web site. We already have some really great pieces of art from our fans up in the new section. You too can submit your own art to Blizzard for the chance to have it featured on our site! Check out the new section here to see the current display and to learn more about how to submit your art.

We have replaced our left menu with a new menu that contains more links. We hope you'll now find it easier to navigate our site.

Blizzards European team is looking for a Web Developer/Webmaster. This persons mission will be to develop Web front-end and back-end systems for our French, German, and English (U.K.) Web sites. For more information on this job, which is located close to Paris, France, go here.

Effective Monday, June 7th our in game support will be open 6 hours earlier. GM support will now begin at 8:00 a.m. PDT and continue until 12:00 a.m. PDT.

The next scheduled server maintenance will take place on Wednesday, June 2, 2004 from 8:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. PDT.

Blizzard is looking to hire a Lead German Game Master, Lead French Game Master, and Lead Customer Support and Billing Support Representatives for Europe. You can find complete information at Blizzard UK.

Adorn your desktop with a new World of Warcraft wallpaper featuring the E-3 Tauren Cinematic Art.

The next scheduled server maintenance will take place on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 from 8:00 a.m. 11:00 a.m. PDT.

Adorn your desktop with a new World of Warcraft wallpaper featuring the E-3 Undead Cinematic Art.

Earlier this month Blizzard attended the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, CA. At the expo, we showed World of Warcraft and StarCraft: Ghost. If you weren't able to attend, we spent extra time this year documenting our booth. Some Blizzard employees feel this was our best booth yet. We'll let you be the judge! Check out our largest picture page yet!

Read more about auction houses in our forums.

Adorn your desktop with a new World of Warcraft wallpaper featuring the E-3 Cinematic Art.

Read about new articles and interviews about World of Warcraft in our Press Room.

You can also check out these articles:

• World of Warcraft Vault
• WoW.WarcraftStrategy.com
• E3 Insider
• WorldofWar.net

A fan site, BlizzPlanet, is running a fan art contest for World of Warcraft and StarCraft: Ghost. There are several prizes available to the winners including a free game. Note: this contest is neither sponsored nor supported by Blizzard.

Check out the latest game news from Katricia in our forums.

• Item Types
• Item Feedback
• Upcoming Shaman Changes
• Life Quests
• Generating Money Through Trade Skills
• Fun character customization
• Spears
• Class-specific Quests
• 24 hour clock

For more Kat posts go here.

From Wednesday, May 12th through Friday, May 14th, Blizzard Entertainment will be attending the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, CA. At the expo, well be showing all of our products and meeting with press and game-industry representatives from around the world. Check out our online version of the E3 Press CD for World of Warcraft and StarCraft: Ghost here.

Adorn your desktop with a new World of Warcraft wallpaper featuring the E-3 Mural Art.

Check out the latest game news from Katricia in our forums.

• Account Sharing and Multiple Computer Installation
• Icons
• Weather effects
• Racial Traits
• New Content Coming
• New Ambience Music
• In-Game Mail System
• Least Favorite Class
• Shaman: Astral Recall
• Advanced Mapping Features

For more Kat posts go here.

Blizzards World of Warcraft community team is expanding as the games community continues to grow! Were currently seeking an Associate Community Manager and an Assistant Community Manager to help support and expand World of Warcrafts budding online community. Excellent communication skills, a passion for MMORPGs, and previous experience administering or managing web sites or forums is required. Please see the complete Associate Community Manager and Assistant Community Manager job postings for all the details on these exciting new Blizzard opportunities!

Look at TechTV's video and preview of World of Warcraft.

Here are some impressions from various gaming sites:

• Warcry
• Game Chronicles Magazine
• Gamehelper PC/Mac
• Gamespot
• IGNPC 1
• IGNPC 2
• IGNPC 3
• GameBanshee
• The Wargamer
• Gamers Pulse

GUComics.com has more comics based on World of Warcraft. Check them out, they're great!

• Comic 1
• Comic 2
• Comic 3

Check out the latest game news from Katricia in our forums.

• In-Game Voice Commands
• Upcoming Changes to the Barrens!
• Housing
• Cooking Recipes

For more Kat posts go here.

GUComics.com has a new comic based on World of Warcraft.

Check out the latest game news from Katricia in our forums.

• Upcoming Rest State changes
• Hunter News
• More about Druid Bear Form
• Horde: Bank at Crossroads?
• Horde Cities vs. Alliance Cities
• PVP Server?
• Submit Feedback: What is your least favorite region/zone?
• Boss/Monster Corpse Timer
• Learn about Cloaks!
• New Map/Fog System

For more Kat posts go here.

We are increasing the level cap today. Read more and post your comments in the forums here.

Check out the new Druid page for more information about playing the Druid. We're also working on improving our game information with more graphics and examples. Click on Game Info for all of the latest updates.

Phase Two of the World of Warcraft beta test has begun! Those of you who will be added to the test during this phase were notified in March that your account creation email would be coming soon. In order to manage server stability, we will be sending out these emails in multiple waves, so please do not be alarmed if yours hasnt arrived yet. It may take a few weeks to get you onto the beta test.

Please do not contact Blizzard about the status of your application to join the beta test. We will be adding more testers in the future, so if you signed up but havent received any emails from us yet, there will be additional opportunities down the line. Until then, we hope youll continue to explore www.worldofwarcraft.com and check out all the coverage of the World of Warcraft beta.

The Beta Server is back up and the new client is ready for download. Current Beta Testers can begin downloading here. If you have any problems or questions, contact [email protected].

Weve finally made all of the races available for simultaneous testing in this Alliance and Horde Phase of our Beta Test. Once the client is downloaded, you will have the option to play all eight races: Human, Undead, Dwarf, Tauren, Gnome, Orc, Night Elf and Troll. Eight classes will also be available, as applicable to each race: Druid, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior. You read that right, Druids are available!

Weve also added many new features, fixed some broken ones and changed a few things here and there. Here are the major changes:

• Windows 98/ME Loading Bug
• Patching
• Rest State, Inns & Hearthstones
• Numerous Changes to the Combat System
• New Skill System Implemented
• Character Hold
• Talents Temporarily Disabled
• Monster Claiming System Implemented
• Experience Distribution Changes
• Quest Rewards are Now Bind on Acquire
• World Data Format Changes
• Equipped Cloaks are now visible

So, sit back, start the download and take a moment to scan the lengthy patch notes.

Our GM team has released the World of Warcraft Harassment Policy.

• Just RPG: Beta First Impressions: "If first impressions are any guide, World of Warcraft is going to be a spectacular success. I first logged into beta a week ago, and I have hardly stopped playing since."

• Adrenaline Vault: Preview: "The first thing that hit me, upon logging on, was how much the environment felt like the world of the Warcraft series. The buildings have the same distinctive look to them as they do in the RTS titles - a colorful medieval motif thats thoroughly pleasing to the eye."

• The Wargamer: Screenshot Feature: "My first impressions? World of Warcraft is already a beautifully polished gem of an online role-playing game."

• Kingdoms of Azeroth has updated their spell database.

• Ultimate Gamers has created a map of Stormwind complete with 72 NPCs marked on the map.

In preparation for our next push, we have removed the ability to download the current version of the beta test. The new download will be made available later this week.

Enjoy reading the funny pages? Here are three comics that I found this week: GU Comics, Extra Life, and Comic of Azeroth.

Wonder what the voice emotes sound like? Head over to WoW Vault to find out.

I found a couple of new databases for everyone: WorldofWar.net has a new item database, Warcraft Strategy has a new quest database and World of Warcraft Quest Guides has been updated with several more quests this week as well.

WoW Warcry has a nice strategy guide to help you decide when to solo or when to group.

Two New Previews:

• GameGossip: Preview: "World of Warcraft is a game that is already massive amounts of fun and will only get better as the beta progresses and the retail release nears. The game world is simply massive and there are tons of things to do, for both solo adventurers and groups of adventurers."

• Gamerifts.com: Preview Part II: "All in all, these starting locations do a wonderful job of translating the look and feel of Warcraft III into a game world for the player to explore. Each area just feels right. Blizzard's artists and sound people have really created a world worthy of housing the fiction the company has built up with this franchise."

Enhance your desktop with our new Stormwind wallpaper.

Trying to find the Enchanter in Stormwind? Head on over to Penny Arcade and read their latest article "Compatibility" for step-by-step instructions on how to find this elusive enchanter.

Struggling to make money as a tailor? Warcraft Gaming has a great Tailoring Guide written by Howett. His guide includes some nice tips on how to effectively tailor without going broke!

A few other good reads:

• GameRift: World of Warcraft Preview: "The more you play the game, the more you appreciate the graphics. Each region I traveled to had a consistent and believable feel. The scenery and landscaping is far from just eye candy. Not simply dressed up polygons existing solely to tax your rig or stroke an artist\'s ego. These things *belong* where they are in the gameworld."

• WoW Vault: Adventures of the Fallen: "The time was 0600. I, Kabal Kinslayer, newly recruited soldier for the Alliance, was sitting down for a drink in the town pub with a few friends. Untwisted, a seasoned 32 year old veteran, and I were discussing the possibility of an attack from the Horde, and the readiness of the Alliance. "they wouldn't stand no chance" he kept trying to tell me, "them horde people would just get repelled by our defenses" he ranted on."

• GameSpot: Random World of Warcraft Answers and Advice: "Before joining GameSpot, I was fortunate enough to participate in the World of Warcraft alpha test. I started back in November during the dwarf push and played through the undead and tri-horde pushes all the way up to the current alliance test."

Need Directions?

If you are looking for directions from here to there, then look no further! Ive located three great sites which take cartography to a new level:

• Warcraft Central: http://www.warcraftcentral.com/db/zones/index.php

• World of Warcraft Atlas: http://www.worldofwarcraftatlas.com/

• WoW Warcry: http://wow.warcry.com/content/atlas/

Our next push is right around the corner and I want to give you all a little view of what's to come.

Five new screenshots (click 'next' for more shots) are available and they should give you an idea of what to expect when cloak visibility goes live!

Some other additions to expect:

• Many objects in the world have undergone data format changes to reduce memory usage. For example, Stormwind will use half the memory that it currently uses.
• Several new zones and dungeons are being added!
• New class-specific quests are being added!
• And much more...

We hope you enjoyed our April Fools events. If you missed them, check out yesterdays jokes:

• Playable Two-headed Ogre Race!
• Goblin Tinker Neutral Hero!
• .999~ = 1 Press Release!

The Blizzard Joke Team™ will see you again next year. Just Kidding! Were always around waiting to pounce!

Its official: Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that Two-headed Ogres are now a playable race in World of Warcraft, our upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Giving two separate players simultaneous control of a single body, this new race introduces a unique cooperative gaming experience never before attempted. See them for yourself in this exclusive preview, which includes the first available screenshots and an exciting first look at the innovative new game mechanics. Current beta testers should expect to see this new content added in the coming weeks.

By selecting the Two-headed Ogre race, you are selflessly choosing to share your existence in World of Warcraft with another player. That is, you are staking claim to one half of the Ogre whole. As a Two-headed Ogre, you will have control of one head and one arm at all times. Your other half will be controlled by a second player automatically and permanently paired with you upon character creation

Read more about World of Warcrafts ninth playable race.

Today, Ive found five goodies for everyone. Theres a great Priest Guide by Kansai, posted in the WoW Vault forums that would-be priests might find helpful. There are also two fun comics that debuted today at GU Comics and Comic of Azeroth at WoW Stratics. And lastly, there are two news articles: GameSpys Beta Impressions and IGNs new "Captain on the Bridge" segment, Casual Gaming, Anyone.

Game Masters can now be reached through the in game tools 7 days a week from 2:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. PST.

You can now use in game tools as follows:

• Press the "Help request" button.

• Choose the "Page a GM" option.

• Choose the issue type (Stuck/Harassment/Other Issues).

• Enter a description of the issue.

• Press the "Submit" button.

We would like to give everyone some tips to protect their account login and password security. There are many people out there dying to get their hands on a World of Warcraft Beta Account and they will go to almost any lengths to obtain yours!

Please review the following information in order to protect your account with a secure password:

Bad Choices for Your Password:

• Exactly match a word in the dictionary
• Match a reversed word in the dictionary
• Match a reversed word in the dictionary with some, or all of the letters reversed
• Is shorter than 5 characters in length
• Does not contain a mix of letters, numbers and symbols
• Is based on the users account name, initials, given name, or on any other personal information about the user (like SSN, license plate number, etc.)
• Is the word "password"
• Is a common name of a person or place
• Is a word that can be found in ANY dictionary
• Include keys in sequence on the keyboard (like QWERTY)
• Include repeating sequences (like "abcabc" or "........")
• Is technical jargon (dictionaries for those exist, too)

Good Choices for Your Password:

• Two words separated by a non-letter, non-digit character like 'war3%mast' or 'cat,bear#' (note: It's a bad idea to use these exact examples)
• Is at least 5 characters in length and contain both numbers and letters
• Does not fall under one of the Bad Choices listed above

We have two new forums available for everyone. Our new Server Status Forum will be the place to see those important messages regarding the status of the server, and our new Trading Post Forum will aid you in buying and selling items in the game.

Penny Arcade has a new supplemental WoW Log that I think everyone will like, and Ive found a nice spell database at Warcraft Central too. For those of you who have been enjoying journals, WoW Stratics has a new entry in their Beta Journals and WorldofWar.net has a nice story entitled Stitches, Saviour of WoW that I think you will enjoy.

A Few World of Warcraft Previews:

• Gamespy: World of Warcraft Preview: "The beta period begins for the hottest MMO currently in development, and Delsyn discovers that getting into the World of Warcraft can be hazardous to your health."

• Gameraiders: World of Warcraft PC Preview: "Breathtaking. Spectacular. Easily the best online RPG I have ever seen -- and this is only the beta!"

• Gamezone: World of Warcraft: "World of Warcraft is wonderfully deep, visually delightful and a ton of fun to play!"

Ive been searching out more news for everyone and came up with a few gems below:

• RPGVault: World of Warcraft Beta Impressions: "We journey into Blizzard's virtual realm of Azeroth to compile an initial hands-on look at the eagerly awaited title."

• Warcraft Central: First experiences with a Paladin: "Paladins rule! They heal, buff, fight..."

• Warcraft Legacy: First Impressions & Character Selection: "Well, after about 6 days of playing around World of Warcraft, I can finally say that I'm hooked on a MMORPG for the first time ever!"

Take a peek at some of these Beta Journals:

• MMORPGDot: Random Dialogue: World of Warcraft Beta Journal #1

• The Maelstrom: Silks Dwarf Start

• WorldofWar.net: Player Journals

• WoW Warcry: Lorens Beta Journal

We are taking suggestions for guild tabard icons. If you would like to submit an idea, please do so in one of the following two forums:

• World of Warcraft Beta Forum*
• Public World of Warcraft Forum

*To post in the World of Warcraft Beta Forum you must be a Registered Beta Tester.

Check out the latest news:

Your Connection and Warcraft - "For some time Blizzard has absolutely maintained that World of Warcraft would be playable over a modem. Being that we are beta testers, we thought we might take that assertion and test it."

Sphyerions Beta Experiences - "I had arrived in Westfall and talked to a person with a yellow exclamation mark over him. It was Gryan Stoutmantle, basically the one in command over the outpost at Sentinel Hill. Sentinel Hill lies to the south of Stormwind. He offered two quests, but I only took the one I found interesting. After hearing about the Defias Brotherhood on the WoW Site prior to Beta, it quickly caught my attention."

Secret Cave Beta Journals - "This dwarf then tells me about a nearby cave with ice trolls in it. He tells me their leader has some book of his, and offers a nice reward for obtaining it. I head out to this cave, lo and behold there are the nasty big buggers: trolls. I had to work on my stealth a bit more, so I sneaked around outside the cave building up my rusty skills so as not to be noticed by the scum waiting for me inside."

A Few Fan Sites:

• Only WoW: http://www.only-wow.com/

• WoW Atlas: http://www.worldofwarcraftatlas.com

Did you know that in World of Warcraft you can use XML scripting to customize your User Interface? Its not as hard as you might think.

Interested in learning more? Check out our UI Customization Forums, or head on over to Wowinterface.com for some great tips and samples of previously created scripts.

Starting Monday, March 29, 2004, our North American GM staff will start working during peak play hours from 2:00 p.m. PST to 11:00 p.m. PST - 7 days a week.

We are in the process of hiring a morning shift and will eventually gear up to 24/7 support before World of Warcraft is released.

Thanks!
/kat ;)

The Beta Test servers will be brought down this Thursday, March 25, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. PST for maintenance. We anticipate having them back up in just a few short hours.

We have posted our official rules for character naming. For now, you can find our policies under the support section.

Since last weeks beta release, news and fan sites alike have been posting World of Warcraft news and information. Check out a few listed below::

A Few Previews:

GameSpot

XPD8

Graffes Wizard Compilation

A Few Fan Sites:

WoW Warcry

Kingdoms of Azeroth

WoW Stratics

Inside WoW

WoW Strategy

United Legions

Tirisfal Aura

WoW Vault

The Maelstrom

World of War

A World of Warcraft Comic

GU Comics

Have a mug of ale in one of our many taverns; adventure the wide world; meet friends or form a guild: the choice is yours.

To those joining us for the first time, we are currently in the middle of our All Alliance push. This means that you may play any of the Alliance races (i.e. Human, Dwarf, Gnome and Night Elf) and can choose one of the following six classes: Mage, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, Warlock & Warrior (as each race allows). More races and classes will become available in the next few weeks.

Please be sure to check the Readme documentation supplied with the download. To further help you get settled in, I've included a few links below to help you establishing yourself in the new World of Warcraft community:

• Beta General Forums
  
• Basic Instructions

Last but not least, I wanted to thank all of our Alpha Testers for their many contributions to WoW's development thus far. Your help has been invaluable to the development team! All of your characters are still available; feel free to continue where you left off yesterday.

Thank you all for participating... See you in Azeroth!

Katricia
Community Manager
World of Warcraft

The first round of emails has gone out, and the North American and Korean World of Warcraft beta tests have officially begun. If you didnt receive an email, dont worry; well be adding more testers at the start of each upcoming beta-test phase. Keep an eye on www.blizzard.com for news on when well be opening up the additional phases, because that will be your clue to check the email account you used to sign up. Also, anyone interested in tracking the progress of the beta test can visit our World of Warcraft Community Site, which will contain regular updates as well as general information about the game.

The beta tests for certain languages in Europe and some additional languages in the AsiaPacific regions will take place at a later date. Please stay tuned to www.blizzard.com for more information.

As you all know, the World of Warcraft beta test is just around the corner. While we plan on having several ways available to distribute the files to everyone, our primary method will be through the Blizzard Downloader program.

To ensure that your system works with the Blizzard Downloader, please try downloading the World of Warcraft Cinematics: Sneak Peek or the Gryphon Ride Movie. If you encounter any problems, please check the Blizzard Downloader FAQ or contact [email protected] for help.

A fraction of our testers, who are behind firewalls, will not have access to the Blizzard Downloader download method. If you fall into this category, an alternative download method will be made available to you within a few days of the initial Blizzard Downloader release.

With the World of Warcraft beta test right around the corner, we are in the process of setting up our new World of Warcraft Community Site. During the beta test, this site will be a resource for the testers, as well as serve the community as a place to follow whats happening in the game.

Detailed game information and forums are currently available for viewing. We encourage you all to stop by often to learn more about World of Warcraft. Please note that the Community Site will evolve throughout the beta test.

The beta is coming soon!