WoW, however, is still going strong — and to celebrate, anyone logging in to the game from November 20 to December 3 gets an anniversary Feat of Strength added to their achievements as well as a “Celebration Package.” Opening that package sets off fireworks (Blizzard asks that you “please observe all goblin and gnome fire hazard warnings and celebrate responsibly”), applies a new tabard to your character, and also activates a buff granting an extra seven percent experience and reputation bonus for however long it’s active (which is hopefully long enough for me to get a bit of grinding in!).

Not only that, but Blizzard’s airing a new commercial for World of Warcraft during this weekend’s Chargers-Bears game on CBS (it starts at 4:15 EST). Someone (we don’t know who at this point) will be asking us what our “game” is. Curious.

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The game will have 20 new campaign missions, new gameplay mechanics and even some new multiplayer units! In-game and pre-rendered cinematics will make a return this time as well. There will also be some new Battle.net features which will help with custom-game searching as well as new tools for map authors.

There are new things to play here at Blizzcon this year, but sadly I have yet to be able to check them out myself. Once I have a chance to play through it a bit you will have a full report on my throughts for Heart of the Swarm!

If you missed the trailer, you can check it out below.

When you sign up for the 12-month Annual Pass plan (and you can do that right here), you not only get a free copy of Diablo III, but you also get an awesome mount based on Diablo III‘s Tyrael’s Charger as well as guaranteed access to the beta of Mists of Pandaria, the fifth expansion of World of Warcraft.

The mount features some pretty awesome wings, right? And I can’t even pretend that it’s the big deal anymore. The free copy of Diablo III is. And it’s apparently a limited-time deal, probably only because the new game is launching early next year.

We still don’t have timing for Diablo III‘s release, or even that of the Pandaria beta, but…it’s Blizzard Time. “Soon” is sufficient, right?

The Annual Pass can either be billed at $14.99 a month, or on your billing plan of choice. Keep in mind that this offer isn’t available to new accounts — you have to have registered a full copy of World of Warcraft before October 18, 2011.

Blizzard’s provided a full FAQ here. One item of note: If you don’t complete your full year of WoW, it looks like you don’t get to keep the copy of Diablo. So…just in case you were thinking about ditching the subscription…yeah, don’t.

I’ve already upgraded my subscription — it was pretty easy, and it really only involved switching my current subscription to another type. If you’re going to play for another year, you may as well switch, too. Free stuff!

DAY ONE: Click HERE to join the Day One live chat, beginning at 10am PST/1pm EST!
11am to Noon (2pm to 3pm EST)
Opening Ceremony

12:30pm to 2:00pm (3:30pm to 5:00pm EST)
World of Warcraft Preview

2:15pm to 3:15pm (5:15pm to 6:15pm EST)
World of Warcraft Class Talent System

3:30pm to 4:30pm (6:30pm to 7:30pm EST)
World of Warcraft Dungeons and Raids

4:45pm to 5:45pm (7:45pm to 8:45pm EST)
Diablo III Gameplay & Auction House

6:00pm to 9:00pm (9:00pm to Midnight EST)
Contests

——————————-

DAY TWO: Click HERE to join the Day Two live chat, beginning at 9am PST/12pm EST!
10:00am to 11:00am (1:00pm to 2:00pm EST)
World of Warcraft Live Raid

11:15am to 12:15pm (2:15pm to 3:15pm EST)
World of Warcraft Art

1:00pm to 2:00pm (4:00pm to 5:00pm EST)
World of Warcraft Classes/Items/Professions Q&A

2:30pm to 3:30pm (5:30pm to 6:30pm EST)
World of Warcraft Open Q&A

4:15pm to 5:15pm (7:15pm to 8:15pm EST)
World of Warcraft: Lore and Story Q&A

6:00pm to 9:30pm (9:00pm to 12:30am EST
Closing Ceremony

These “honorably discharged” servers are getting to serve their true purpose in life starting October 17, when Blizzard will begin auctioning them off on eBay with all proceeds to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

“World of Warcraft realms are like the virtual neighborhoods of the game’s community — they contain the spaces where millions of players have made friendships, forged friendly rivalries, and created lasting memories,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Each winner in this auction will own a small monument to those collective experiences. The best part is that this auction benefits a great charity doing tremendous work in helping children from the U.S. and around the world.”

Around 2,000 server blades, representing 500 different WoW realms will be auctioned off in batches over the next four weeks. Each will come in its own windowed, logo-fied case that allows you to take a peek at the hardware. In addition, you’ll also get a signed commemorative plaque.

If you need more information (and a schedule), check out Blizzard’s eBay page.

“We’re pretty sure that in the future, music historians will look back at BlizzCon 2011 as the unquestionable pinnacle of Foo Fighters’ long and illustrious career,” said Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters founder and frontman. “We look forward to living up to that prediction by bringing the Horde and Alliance together to rock the hell out of Anaheim next month.”

Grohl & Co. aren’t the only performers at the event — The concert will open with a performance from The Artist Formerly Known as Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, followed by Blizzard’s own in-house metal band. (Wait, Blizzard has an in-house band? Why is that ridiculous, awesome and not at all surprising?)

“There’s no better way to cap off two days of gaming entertainment than by blowing the roof off the convention center with an awesome rock concert,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Everyone attending BlizzCon and watching from home can look forward to ending the show with a bang when Foo Fighters bring the house down.”

Of course, you don’t have to be at the sold-out event to see the show — DirecTv will be broadcasting the convention as they usually do, for a price. (That price being $39.99.)

When Azeroth was young, the noble titans appointed the five great dragonflights to safeguard the budding world. Each of the flights’ leaders was imbued with a portion of the titans’ vast cosmic powers. Together, these majestic Dragon Aspects committed themselves to thwarting any force that threatened the safety of the World of Warcraft.

Over ten thousand years ago, a betrayal by the maddened black Dragon Aspect, Deathwing, shattered the strength and unity of the dragonflights. His most recent assault on Azeroth—the Cataclysm—has left the world in turmoil. At the Maelstrom, the center of Azeroth’s instability, former Horde warchief Thrall and other accomplished shaman struggle to keep the world from tearing apart in the wake of Deathwing’s attack. Yet a battle also rages within Thrall regarding his new life in the shamanic Earthen Ring, hampering his normally unparalleled abilities.

Unable to focus on his duties, Thrall undertakes a seemingly menial task from an unexpected source: the mysterious green Dragon Aspect, Ysera. This humble endeavor soon becomes a journey spanning the lands of Azeroth and the timeways of history itself, bringing Thrall into contact with ancient dragonflights. Divided by conflict and mistrust, these dragons have become easy prey to a horrific new weapon unleashed by Deathwing’s servants . . . a living nightmare engineered to exterminate Azeroth’s winged guardians.

Of even greater concern is a bleak and terrifying possible future glimpsed by Ysera: the Hour of Twilight. Before this apocalyptic vision comes to pass, Thrall must purge his own doubts in order to discover his purpose in the world and aid Azeroth’s dragonflights as they face the Twilight of the Aspects.

As a bonus, Blizzard has released an excerpt of the novel on the official WoW site for those who want more of a preview of the novel. I’ve always been a fan of the novels since I’m such a lore nerd, and I have enjoyed Golden’s previous novels set in the WoW universe so I’ll be picking this up eventually. The book is available at local book stores as well as online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

That number is only 50 percent of the total sales for the pet during November and December last year, so I’ve gotta say it — that’s a lot of Moonkin. At least they’re adorable!

Blizzard celebrated the donation on April 29, World Wish Day, by fulfilling the wishes of two fans and inviting them to Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, Calif. The two boys got an inside look at the development of World of Warcraft.

“We’ve had a long relationship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and are proud to help contribute to the great work they do for children,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re also proud of the spirit and generosity of our players – their enthusiasm for World of Warcraft and for supporting a good cause made this donation possible.”

A Blizzard World Wish Day video is below.

(And yes, the picture is my Baby Boomkin. I love him!)

Sadly not much news for Starcraft II fans, and Diablo III fans only got a new class to play. I know as a SC2 fan I’m anxiously awaiting news on when the next part, Heart of the Swarm, will be released. I do feel for Diablo fans as not hearing anything more besides the new class and the PvP. Hopefully we’ll hear of a release date for both games soon, and not in that Blizzard “soon®” way.

You can check out my post on the Dungeons and Raids panel here. Blizzard is making some interesting changes to the way things work come Cataclysm. Between full dungeon maps, cutting older dungeons in half and giving us 3D boss models with loot lists we’re going to have a nicer dungeon and raid system. I really do think that for more casual players this will increase the “fun” factor, not to mention being able to see what kinds of spells new bosses are going to fling at you will be helpful to a degree without fully taking away from a new encounter (or so they say).

But one thing that struck an odd cord with me was when a girl got up and asked if there would be other strong female roles in the game but less scantily clad. Or as she put it “…look like they stepped out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog.” Now I don’t feel like Tyrande or Jaina fall under this entirely, but I can see what she’s talking about when referencing Sylvannas or Alexstrasza (who are basically the same model in-game). I’m not one to immediately rage over scantily clad or overly sexy video game characters (I play a harem of Dranenei females and loved Bayonetta), but the fact that there was booing from the men in the audience and Blizzard’s only response was “Which catalog would you like?” rubbed me the wrong way. You can’t control the audience, but it would have been nice to have them give a better answer. I think that a woman can still be sexy even if she just shows a little bit of a mid-drift or clevage only. I would like to actually hear them entertain this idea as even though I may not mind the bikini-plate armor, other women who play do and they should be allowed to have input into the game without it being laughed at.

I’ll get off of my soapbox now and end with how I love the red shirt guy we’ve all come to know from Blizzcon. He got up during one of the open Q&As and asked the following:

“Hello. I just finished reading The Shattering yesterday, and I noticed something. It said that Falstad Wildhammer was going to be on the Council of Three Hammers, but in the beta, it’s Kurdrin Wildhammer, and Falstad is not in the game at all. What happened to him?”

Well after Metzen responded that he thought he was dead, red shirt guy proves otherwise and is told that they would take care of it. Well not only is Falstad back, but he will have an assistant in the form of the “Wildhammer Fact Checker,” who was placed into the game in honor of a player who decided to call out Blizzard on their mistake.

The most exciting part of the convention this year was the Tenacious D show at the end. I missed Ozzy last year, so I was stoked to be able to stick around and see the closing concert this year. I was even surprised to see that it was the full band with Dave Grohl on drums! The show was insane and hilarious and everything I could have wanted from a Tenacious D show. The rest of the crowd seemed to really enjoy themselves too. Now I thought that Blizzard had painted themselves into a corner last year by having Ozzy, but now I think they’ve made it worse as I’m not sure who’d they get next year. I just hope they keep the metal thing going.

Well in parting, I have to say I enjoyed meeting everyone (looking at you @Fimlys @EntropiaWoW @shammysticks and @lexipanda!) as well as seeing people I haven’t seen in awhile. Hopefully next year I can hang out more with everyone! And maybe Blizzcon will be a bit more exciting next year. And in case you missed it, check out the pictures I took at Blizzcon at the GamingAngels Flickr page.