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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
• 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 Asimply isn't over. It might not look this way now, lliance. 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 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 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.

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

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: commwatch@blizzard.com.

*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 hacks@blizzard.com 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 hacks@blizzard.com. 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.

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
• 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: commwatch@blizzard.com.

*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!

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!

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

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:

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!

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

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

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
• 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.

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 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!

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 WoW

German WoW

French WoW

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!

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!

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.