Blizzard is proud to officially announce our upcoming World of Warcraft expansion set, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade! Join the Horde as one of the power-driven Blood Elves, or aid the Alliance as a yet-unrevealed new race! Explore the scarred Orcish homeland of Draenor! Delve into mysterious new dungeons, engage your enemies on new battlegrounds, and acquire wondrous new items! Take up dangerous and rewarding new quests for your faction! Train in an all-new profession! Increase your might as an adventurer up to the new level cap of 70, with new spells, abilities, and talents, and meet head on the plethora of new challenges awaiting you!

And the new Aliiance race is....?

One of the big highlights for many attendees today was the opportunity to check out some of the Q&A; panels that they might have missed the day before. In these sessions, players listened as the developers discussed different aspects of our games, including the history and philosophy behind Blizzard's art design and cinematics, as well as specifics on StarCraft: Ghost's new multiplayer elements and World of Warcraft's classes, items, quests, battlegrounds, raids, and more. After each presentation, there was an opportunity for panel attendees to ask questions.

In the Art Design panel, members of World of Warcraft's creative development team and StarCraft: Ghost artists presented concept and 3D art to the panel attendees, taking time to explain how the pieces were created and fine-tuned to fit the themes of the Warcraft and StarCraft universes. The World of Warcraft Character Class panel was especially packed, as many of the visitors to BlizzCon have been extremely passionate about the issues related to the classes they play in the game. Blizzard developers Tom Chilton and Rob Pardo explained how each class came to be, describing the natural progression from Warcraft III to World of Warcraft. In their forty-five minute presentation, the two also expounded on the intended purpose of each class and the future of the classes as planned for future patches and for the Burning Crusade expansion set.

Beyond the panel discussions, many BlizzCon attendees hung out to watch the final rounds of the StarCraft and Warcraft III tournaments. At the time of this report, many are also eagerly awaiting the final showdown between the StarCraft Battle.net winners and the StarCraft Pro-Gamers. For more information on how the tournaments progressed up to the final matches, be sure to check out the coverage at the various tournament sites that had representatives here at the show.

The jousting booth also drew a steady crowd, offering players a chance to challenge their friends to a little real-life PvP action. With foam lances in hand, the jousters did their best to not lose their balance while trying to knock each other off of a three-foot-wide square platform. Near the Blackrock Spire rock-climbing wall, a handful of onlookers gathered to watch a few games of doubles Ping-Pong, played on one of the three Ping-Pong tables brought in for BlizzCon (factoid: a fast-paced match of Ping-Pong is a favorite stress-reliever at Blizzard's Irvine headquarters).

The sponsors' area was also crowded, with hundreds of attendees stopping in throughout the show to check out the NVIDIA, Intel, Games for Windows, Upper Deck, and other booths and to pick up a rubber bouncing ball with a blue light inside of it, which proved to be a pretty popular souvenir. Nearby, caricature and tatoo artists also kept busy, as attendees had their portraits drawn or got temporary tattoos to prove their allegiance to their favorite World of Warcraft race. Those not participating in these events were taking a chance to rest up for tonight's concert presentation, which was set to start at 6:00 PM. The concert will be featuring Level 60 Elite Tauren Chieftain in their first appearance outside of Kalimdor, as well as comedian Christian Finnegan, and none other than the world famous rock band, The Offspring!

This morning, thousands of excited gamers waited in lines stretching around the Anaheim Convention Center, eager to see the future of World of Warcraft and StarCraft: Ghost at BlizzCon. Many of them wore hand-made costumes, and the atmosphere was keyed up as they anticipated the opening of the convention center doors.

Blizzard president Mike Morhaime kicked off the show with a welcoming speech about Blizzard's history and growth as a game studio over the years. He also touched on a few of the features in StarCraft: Ghost that attendees would be able to see for the first time at BlizzCon-namely the addition of Zerg as a playable multiplayer race and the fact that multiplayer games can now feature up to 16 players. The welcoming speech was followed by lead producer Shane Dabiri's official announcement of the World of Warcraft expansion. As part of Shane's announcement, BlizzCon attendees watched a trailer showcasing the new playable Blood Elf race that will make its appearance in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

People came from near and far to view the expansion, to see the latest version of StarCraft: Ghost, and to meet the other gamers attending the show. Many were also speaking about the BlizzCon Invitational tournaments, and the seats in front of the stage where the Warcraft III and StarCraft tournament games were taking place were often packed. Pro-gamers from all over the world have traveled to BlizzCon to participate in the Invitational. The winner will take home a very special (and very heavy) trophy.

Other popular events at BlizzCon have been the Battle.net tournaments and the art gallery, where a steady stream of attendees have been checking out artwork from Blizzard's art department as well as fan art created by other gamers. Attendees are also enjoying the Battlegrounds Tournaments, both watching and participating in them. Many have also attempted to climb to the top of Blackrock Spire-the aptly named rock-climbing wall at BlizzCon. As of the time of this report, many people are enjoying the Q&A; panels that they're attending or just hanging out on the show floor, saving up their strength for tonight's cocktail-and-contest mixer with the development team.

Last, but certainly not least, is the realm meetings. Many players have gathered to meet with those they've fought alongside (or against) in World of Warcraft, creating a communal feel that pervades all of BlizzCon. We'll follow up with our continued report on the festivities tomorrow.

BlizzCon, the convention celebrating all Blizzard games, has officially begun! Gamers from around the globe are joining us in Anaheim today to take part in developer panels, battle with their fellow players, and indulge in the variety of entertainment available. The World of Warcraft expansion set details have been revealed at last -- check out the official site! We'll continue to post updates from the show floor, share photos, and show replays from the BlizzCon invitational at www.blizzcon.com, so stay tuned!

World of Warcraft player Jonathan Davis of Korn, fresh off a European tour to promote the band's upcoming album See You on the Other Side (www.korn.com), will be the judge of the BlizzCon Original Song Contest sponsored by Creative Labs and FilePlanet. The five songs that receive the most votes will be played live for BlizzCon attendees during the Cocktails and Contests event, which starts at 7:00 PM PDT at the Anaheim Convention Center this Friday. JD will choose the grand prize winner, who will receive an autographed Ibanez K7 guitar and Creative GigaWorks ProGamer G500 speaker system.

Blizzard have released a minor update to WoW, 1.81.

Here are the patch notes:
- Battlegrounds
* Certain geometry exploits in Arathi Basin have been fixed. - Items
* The tooltip on the Lightforged Blade has been updated to correctly show its minimum level requirement of 47 and its Bind on Acquire status.
- User Interface
* Fonts should once again display properly.
* Fixed bug preventing UI scripting error messages from wrapping.
* Fixed per-character saved variables for non-English character names.

Blizzard have added the Zandalar Faction pages to the Official World of Warcraft site.

Included are:
- New Recipies
- Plans
- New Gear and...
- Patterns

Click Here to view.

The 10 finalists have been chosen. Now YOU must choose the winner. Click Here to download the songs from FilePlanet and vote!

The prizes up for grabs are:
- Sound Blaster Platinum X-Fi Sound Card
- Free year of World of Warcraft
- Free year of Fileplanet Premium Membership

When you go clubbing, is everyone in awe of your Trollish Capoeira or... "unique" Gnomish style? Well, we want to see you strut your stuff at BlizzCon! Show us your smooth dance moves taken from any dance in World of Warcraft. Five lucky winners will receive an Ideazon Z-Board with the World of Warcraft keyset and Zalman 5.1 surround sound headphones! Haul out that full-length mirror -- there's not much time to polish your performance before the show!

Have you ever leveled to ten so fast you were certain you set some type of record? At BlizzCon, you'll have an opportunity to test your elite leveling skills by competing against others in the World of Warcraft Leveling contest, sponsored by Intel. Just stop by the Intel booth for details on how to enter this contest and show off your elite leveling skills! The winner will receive a Dell XPS2 laptop featuring Intel� Centrino� mobile technology.

Good Luck Everyone!!

When the decorations of Hallow's End light up Azeroth's cities, you know there's mischief afoot! Seek special vendors in Orgrimmar or Ironforge and get your hands on treats! Aid a sick orphan in a little trick-or-treating! Deathcaller Yanka, attending the Forsaken's Wickerman Festival, and Sergeant Hartman of Southshore are seeking your aid in keeping the enemy out of their holiday affairs -- are you up to the challenge?

Blizzard have announced in-game events for WoW this Hallow's End. Enjoy my little witchlings!

Blizzard have released a trailer of an upcoming instance deep within Stranglethorn Vale where many Trolls and unknown evils lurk!

Click here to get the trailer.

BlizzCon isn't just about Blizzard games, it's also about the hardware needed to play those games. Blizzard have teamed up with nVidia, Intel and many more other hardware vendors to be at the show and to show off all their latest gear for your gaming pleasure!

Blizzard are running, not one, but TWO contests for Halloween this year! The two contests are a Pumpkin Carving contest (this one has to be the best) and a Halloween Screenshot contest.

Prizes for both contests are:
- One Copy of World of Warcraft
- A six month subscription of "game time" to the World of Warcraft gaming service applied to the World of Warcraft account of their choosing.

Blizzard have announced the winners to their WoW Wanted Poster contest!

All entries shown, including the five winners are awesome!

Click Here to see!

Patch 1.8 has been released for both US and Europe.

Included in the new patch is:
- A Silithus revamp
- The Emerald Menace
- Hallows End
- Druid Talent Improvements

and much, much more!

A few things to note from Blizzard forums and whatnot recently:
- Any new North American PvP realms are not planned any time soon.
- The mechanics of most instant melee attacks will be modified to improve item balance upon the release of patch version 1.8.
- Ever wanted to know how +Spell Hit Chance works? Click Here!
- Humans and Night Elves will never be able to ride Mechanostriders. *Confirmed*
- Blizzard comments on the Warlock's bugged Shadow Trance.

We are looking to have this resolved in a future patch. Unfortunately, I am uncertain of the exact time this resolution will be in place, but it has been worked on. Of course, if it goes to PTRs it will be retested to verify the fix. Just so we're clear, we are talking about loss of LOS on a Shadowbolt consuming the buff. No bolt, yet the buff is eaten. Gotcha. - Tseric

- A note on the Rank 2 Improved Firebolt bug for Warlocks.

Watch this space for more Blizzard updates!

So Blizzard's announcment is a new Battle.net site design. I have to say it's nice, but what's that centre image at the bottom mean? ;)

One of the more original WoW fansites, WoW Radio is broadcasting live across the net from BlizzCon.

Live video feeds include:
- Interviews with Blizzard employees!
- The costume contest
...and other big events! Tune into WoW Radio now!

If you check out the Battle.net website, there is a splash with the date "10 7 05" or one undead splash shows ".999_ = 1" anyone care to guess what this could be?

All of the splash screens are:
- Orc
- Zerg
- Terran
- Undead
- Night Elf
- Diablo
- Undead (.999_ = 1)

Make of it what you will!

Once, PWC was a great Warcraft site, news was posted on the dot and the forums where always busy and we had upto date content. I have a plan to head it in that direction again, but how can we get you, the readers, to stay? How can we get you to sign up the forums? What is it you are looking for in a Warcraft site. It is all well and good me having my ideas for the site, but if it's not that you guys want, it'd be a waste.

So please contact me at citizenerased@planetwarcraft.com and tell me what you want from the site. If you wish to help out at the site, please contact me too and tell me what you'd like to do.

Thanks! CE