Apologies to all fans who got to read the news alert a few weeks ago. Richard A. Knaak has informed me that he is not the author of World of Warcraft: Deathknight. Amazon is now listing this book to be written by Dan Jolley. I considered necessary to post this as my role in the community is to inform, rather than to misinform.

I have seen a few wiki entries that used Blizzplanet as source. So it’s my responsibility to correct the previous misinformation. Make your updates accordingly. I did not reach Richard A. Knaak until now about the book. Originally, I saw it freshly listed over at Amazon. Knaak does have an upcoming manga about a mage, but not much can be said at the moment until the script is approved by Tokyopop and Blizzard.

Author: Dan Jolley
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: TokyoPop (July 6, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1427814961
ISBN-13: 978-1427814968

World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon by Richard A. Knaak is finally on sale at a bookstore near you. The events in this book will fit as an intro to World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

Grim Batol: its dark legacy stretches back into the mists of Azeroth’s past. But most know it as the site of a terrible tragedy—where the vile orcs corrupted the hatchlings of the noble Dragonqueen, Alexstrasza, and used them as weapons of war. Though a band of heroes, led by the enigmatic mage, Krasus, defeated the orcs and freed the captive dragons, the cursed mountain stands as another ravaged landmark within the…

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

But now Krasus—known to some as the red dragon Korialstrasz—senses the malice of Grim Batol rising once more to threaten those he holds dear. Determined this time to confront this evil by himself, he is unaware of the quests that will draw others to Grim Batol and reveal the monstrous truth that could not only herald their deaths, but usher in a terrible new age of darkness and destruction.

As always, we’re looking to improve and expand on what we do here at Worldofwar.net. Something we would like to see are more WoW bloggers, who will have regular slots on our front page.

If you’re interested in writing about anything WoW-related, whether you feel you have a lot to say on a certain class, about game mechanics, or just about WoW in general, then please get in touch. We’re keen to get you writing as soon as possible, so don’t leave it - .

If you have any queries or questions about WoW blogging, please ask in the email, and I’ll be happy to chat to you about it.

Good news for Russian players who play on non-Russian servers:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	We are aware that many of our Russian speaking players, European account owners, upgrading to World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King have purchased the retail boxes that only work with Russian accounts. Therefore, we have decided to make the European to Russian account conversion process available again until 16 December (inclusive). http://www.wow-europe.com/migration/account-migration.html However players that would like to keep their European accounts will be able to contact our Billing team(http://eu.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=23210) to arrange this. For all the details, please refer to the forums here: http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=6848316238&sid=5 You should transfer your characters before converting your account. Thus, the free character migration(http://www.wow-europe.com/migration/) from European to Russian realms has also been extended until 16 December. Please check our character migration FAQ for further information: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/russianmigration.html

Bastion of English journalism, The Sun newspaper has a feature today on women who have lost their men to online games, and WoW is the central theme. Support group The WoW Widows claim that WoW and other online games are responsible for the break up of hundreds of couples, and that Relate have started training counsellors to deal with online gaming addiction.

“It feels like he is two-timing me… only with a computer”

The article follows the stories of three couples, but it’s the same deal with all of them; wife wants more time from hubby, hubby likes gaming. In all 3 cases, the women have learned to deal with their partners’ gaming habits. The usual excuses come out, like
“At least by staying in I’m helping us to save some money. If I’m spending all night on the computer it’s not like I can spend all our money in the pub.”. But should these guys get off their backsides and spend more time with their neglected partners, or are they justified in playing a few hours a night as long as they’ve done their fair share of house work?

We all expected Lich King to do well it the charts, and it hasn’t let anyone down. It’s top of the PC sales charts in the US and UK, and it’s also made an impressive 2nd place on the cross platform UK charts, as reported by IncGamers. Read more in their article:

• 1. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR
• 2. WORLD OF WARCRAFT: WRATH OF LICH KING
• 3. FOOTBALL MANAGER
• 4. GEARS OF WAR 2
• 5. FIFA 09
• 6. GUITAR HERO: WORLD TOUR
• 7. PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE
• 8. MARIO KART WII
• 9. PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2009
• 10. WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW

To celebrate the launch of WoW’s second expansion Wrath of the Lich King, we teamed up with Razer, one of the world’s leading developers and manufacturers of gaming peripherals, to give you the chance to win some cracking prizes. The competition was to design a Death Knight crest, and we’ve picked out our three favourite designs.

Congratulations to the following winners:

First Place - Lollezz: Razer Lachesis gaming mouse, Razer Destructor mousepad and Razer Piranha

Second Place - Draconos Kirojin (left), Third Place JedrekW (right): Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse each.

Continue Reading & Comment >>

Jeff is back with another fantastic MMO Weekly, and this time we get to hear about geeks in space! Yes, Richard Garriot, maker of MMO Tabula Rasa, was floating around in zero G this week, then promptly got back to earth and resigned from NCSoft.

Then of course, Lich King launched and there’s oodles of links to coverage of that around the world. And in case you’ve had enough of that already, how about a bit of news about Second Life? More specifically, about a couple who met, married, cheated, divorced and met other people, all through the game! Love these RPers, don’t you?

Read about all this and more, over on IncGamers.

In celebration of the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, we’re running a second Razer competition!


You may have taken part in our previous Razer contest to design a Death Knight Crest, but you’ll be pleased to know that you can enter this comp in addition to that one, so you have twice the chance to win some Razer goodies! Ok, so on to the details of this new challenge:

Lich King First Impressions Movie - By IncGamers and Razer.
Specifically for those of you that wanted a competition which didn’t involve designing something, a screen shot contest, or just adding a comment in a thread, Razer have come up with an idea for a video contest. We want you to make a video that shows off your first impressions of the expansion. Maybe it’s your first trip to Northrend, or your first steps as a Death Knight, we want to see a movie which captures the excitement and wonder of the new content. How you do that is up to you. No specialist expensive software is required, you can use something free like WeGame to capture and upload the footage.

Here are the rules: For all video submissions, the contestant has to include an “IncGamers” and “Powered by Razer” logo with his or her video. We will choose the three videos which best relate to our contest title. The 1st prize will be a Razer Lachesis and Razer Destructor, 2nd & 3rd will be a Razer DiamondBack 3G.You have until the end of the month, that’s Sunday 30th of November, which gives you plenty of time to get the game, explore, capture footage and post up your videos. Send links to your uploaded entries .

EDIT: The addition of the Razer & Incgamers logos is now optional, we don’t want to put off the lesser experienced of you out there

Bornakk announced earlier that more free moves to another brand new PvE realm have become available. See full details, including the list of eligible transfer realms, after the break:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	We will be offering free character moves from selected high population realms to a brand new PvE realm, Dawnbringer, to assist in population dispersal. The ability to move a character on the selected source realms will become available starting on Monday, November 17 at 11:00PM PST, and is scheduled to run until Monday, November 24 at 12:00PM PST. Dawnbringer is a central timezone realm on the Retaliation battlegroup.

The Blizzard iTunes page has been updated to include the official World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Soundtrack. The iTunes edition of the soundtrack contains a total of 21 tracks, including three exclusives—“Path of the Lifewarden,” “Shadow Web Caverns,” and “Obsidian Sanctum”—different from the three exclusive tracks found on the Collector’s Edition soundtrack CD. Individual tracks are available on iTunes for 99 cents each, or you can buy the entire album at once for $9.99. Click here to check out the soundtrack on iTunes, or head to the Blizzard iTunes page for more information—and while you’re there, check out the other Blizzard musical offerings, including soundtracks to Diablo II, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. 

Players in the US can now buy account-upgrade keys and download the game client for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King directly through the account-management section of http://www.worldofwarcraft.com. The direct online upgrade method is the most convenient way to upgrade to Wrath of the Lich King and join the millions of players who are already adventuring in Northrend.

All you need to do is:

• Login to Account Management
• Click the “Upgrade Online” link.
• Enter your credit card information.
• Follow the link to download the Wrath of the Lich King game client.

That’s it! If you haven’t upgraded your account yet, now’s your chance to take your World of Warcraft experience to the next level, whenever you want. Upgrade Now!

Upper Deck announced a holiday limited time offer on all orders over $49.99 which is quietly great for those who plan to give someone special a cool Christmas, or Thanksgiving gift. World of Warcraft Miniature Game and Trading Card Games are covered by this offer.

The perfect loot to give this holiday season. Get Free Shipping only and exclusively through online orders of $49.99 made at UpperDeckStore.com. This Limited Time Offer ends on Friday, November 21st at 11:59 p.m.  Offer valid only on select items. Some restrictions may apply. Free ground shipping is automatically activated at checkout on orders of $49.99 or more.

Wildstorm DC Comics has sent us a solicitation preview of the upcoming World of Warcraft # 16 and its front cover. The role Garona will play in this new story arc continues to be a mystery, and this February issue will finally have Varian and Thrall meet face to face during a summit at Theramore. Whatever happens in this summit will probably fill the blanks on what happened during the Battle For The Undercity [74] questline.

	Blizzard Quote:
	WORLD OF WARCRAFT #16 Broll receives a mysterious summons away from Theramore on the eve of the summit between King Varian and Thrall. Garona is taken captive by the Forsaken, but to what end? Plus, the return of Rehgar Earthfury! On sale February 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US Written by Walter Simonson Art by Mike Bowden & Jerome K. Moore Cover by Jon Buran & Tony Washington

Times Online reported a Swedish 15-years-old boy collapsed and convulsed after playing Wrath of the Lich King for 24 hours straight. The doctor’s diagnosis was that he had a combination of sleep deprivation, lack of food, and the prolonged period of concentration playing the game. Parents need to be more watchful of their children and even adults need to be mindful about their own health.

“The 15-year-old boy and his friends were playing Wrath of the Lich King when he suffered what appeared to be an epileptic seizure, it was reported today.

“They played all day and all night. Maybe they got a few hours of sleep. They ate a little food and breakfast at their computers,” the boy’s father told the Kvällsposten newspaper in Sweden.”—source

On 2001 when I purchased Starcraft and Brood War, I went through the single player for approximately 36 hours straight with no sleep. I can tell you from experience ... it does affect your health. Besides feeling extremely tired, it was hard to fall asleep, and stay asleep with the brief lack of breathing lapses. I felt I would die in my sleep due to lungs forgetting how to breath.

More after the break…

Ready to venture forth into the frozen north? Blizzard are now offering you the chance to purchase a Wrath of the Lich King key through their Electronic Upgrade page! Using this feature, you need not wait until you can purchase a box from a store, in just a few simple steps, you can be on your way to Northrend!

If you’d like to learn more about what awaits adventurers in the frigid lands of the Roof of the World, check out Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King features page.

Athene has released a video in which talks people through how he got to level 80 so quickly (hey, he only made it to level 79 before getting banned...). He actually addresses the issue of getting banned, and for once talks about everything sensibly and honestly. There’s no messing about, it’s just a straight forward guide on how he managed it. I wouldn’t recommend copying his method obviously, but it’s an interesting watch. And he’s a much nicer guy without all the crap he normally talks

In the video, you get to see a full instance run, what they take with them on a run, every single level ding up to 79 and the moment they got banned.


Catch the video after the break:

Here’s a round up of some popular threads this week:

• Everyones Comments/Issues with the new expansion: Do you have feedback on Wrath of the Lich King?
• Girls DO play Wow: Girls are a minority in WoW, there’s no doubt. But don’t think there aren’t any around…
• Some of the best fun I’ve had in this game for a while: Has Lich King revitalised WoW for you?
• The first to 80 is ....: Nymh! But is it worth rushing through all the content just to make a name for yourself? As someone in the thread points out, does anyone remember who made it to 70 first?
• Leveling Build, Attack Order questions: What is your Death Knight spell rotation?
• Official: Blues looking at the way we Tag mobs.: Changing the way we grind?
• 3 Player Mount!!!!!!!!!: All that gold, are the new passenger mammoths worth it?
• New Super Guild Defeats Nax 25 & Malygos: Not even 3 days after the launch, and the hardest content is beaten. Are these players extremely leet, or is WoW too easy now?

If you have recently found yourself having to queue when you enter World of Warcraft, you will be glad to hear that US players have been given a nice long list of realms available for transfer. Players on some Oceanic PvP servers also have the opportunity to move to a PvE server.

Check out the full announcement, including details of all transfers, below:

The latest issue of Teh Gladiators is out; This week the team finally face their biggest foe so far, what will happen?

Do you have a WoW comic but nowhere to show it? We’d like to give comic writers a chance to show their stuff; If you write a comic that is either WoW related or on a general MMO topic, . You could end up with it on our front page every week. Don’t be shy, send us what you have!