The arrival of the next World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, will add more than just new areas and classes to the popular PC MMO. Developer Blizzard today confirmed rumors that Lich King will introduce goal-based achievements.

"Some achievements come with in-game rewards such as tabards, vanity pets, and titles," the company wrote on its official site. "All of these rewards are purely cosmetic and just for fun, but you'll certainly stand out when you proudly display them."

Over 500 achievements will be available initially, with Blizzard noting that the list is "easily expandable." A new window displays the conditions for the various achievements, and also those earned.

The achievements are broken down into categories: Player-vs.-Player, Dungeons and Raids, Professions, Quests, Events, World Exploration, Reputations... Read more

A new World of Warcraft patch has been released, updating version 2.4.2 of the game to version 2.4.3. Changes are as follows.

General

* Dispel effects will no longer attempt to remove effects that have 100% dispel resistance.
* Parry Rating, Defense Rating, and Block Rating: Low-level players will now convert these ratings into their corresponding defensive stats at the same rate as level 34 players.... Read more

Blizzard has begun allowing World of Warcraft (PC) subscribers to register for the beta of the upcoming WoW expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King.

The ability to "opt in for a chance to participate" currently appears on both the European and North American account pages for subscribers, as spotted by fan website World of War. There will be no need to sprain your fingers in a rush to enter, as the selection of participants will be random.

As previously revealed, the forthcoming expansion will include the MMO's first Hero class, the Death Knight, which players will be able to create once their characters reach level 55. Lich King also offers a slew of new abilities and items to aid players in raids and new areas.

No date for the beta was specified, though studio owner Vivendi expects Lich King's new abilities, areas and Death Knight class to arrive by the year's end.

Despite ongoing efforts with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III, PC developer Blizzard has confirmed that it has another MMO in the works.

"There is still one unknown project," Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo revealed to OnlineWelten during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. "We have another development team."

Pardo affirmed that Blizzard's recent job listings for an "unannounced next-gen MMO" were not related to Diablo III. The company had previously stated that the project was not a World of Warcraft expansion either.

Fans have long speculated that Blizzard may follow the ultra-successful World of Warcraft with a World of StarCraft MMO. The three-faction scenario and multi-world setting would seem to lend itself well to the MMO format.

Others believe that the project could be a new franchise, as Blizzard has not created a new property since StarCraft's release in 1998.

"The idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company," said Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams to Gamasutra in a recent interview. "Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don't know when that day will be quite yet."

And as for a release date on any of the three known titles? "We ship the games when they're ready," Pardo commented. "You guys know this."

Furthering its prolific tendency of positive announcements, Age of Conan developer Funcom today claimed that the recently-launched PC MMO is "the undisputed #2 subscription MMO in the western world."

Funcom has repeatedly trumpeted Age of Conan's relative success against Blizzard's MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft, which has over 10.7 million subscribers worldwide and helped bring in over $1.2 billion across 2007.

Conan has now amassed over 700,000 accounts since its European and North American release in May, with the game said to be topping PC sales... Read more

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment has announced the Blizzard Authenticator, a keychain security device that adds greater protection against World of Warcraft account theft and hijacking.

Once associated with a World of Warcraft account, the Authenticator will provide a six-digit code that must be provided when logging into the game. Valid for one use only, each code is generated on the press of a button on the front of the Authenticator. The device can be linked to multiple accounts.

The Blizzard Authenticator will debut at this weekend's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event, retailing for $6.50. The device will be made available on Blizzard's online store at the same price soon thereafter.

The additional layer of security will likely be a relief to those players who have invested countless hours into their characters. World of Warcraft has been fraught with reports of account theft and security breaches since the wildly popular PC MMO's 2004 release.

A track inspired by Blizzard's PC MMO World of Warcraft will soon be available as a free download for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions of Neversoft's Guitar Hero 3.

The thrash-metal track, "I am Murloc," made its debut at BlizzCon 2005. It's described as "a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the beloved race of fish-people by Blizzard Entertainment's house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain."

"I am Murloc" will be available as a free download from the online Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store beginning tomorrow, June 26. It joins the Halo theme, God of War song, and the Portal end song as the latest game-related track to hit a music game.

The track is meant as part of Blizzard's upcoming Worldwide Invitational celebration, which kicks off this Saturday. At the event, it is believed the studio will unveil a new title, one that many speculate to be the long-awaited Diablo 3.

Update: The Blizzard.com splash image has been changed, with few new developments. The number/letter theory has been ruled out, as the new puzzle piece is numbered 23, which does not correspond to a letter in the word "Diablo." I've uploaded my own stab at the up-to-date puzzle, which you can view on the left.

Original story: Anticipation for a big announcement this weekend at Blizzard's World Wide Invitational event has reached a fever pitch after the company posted a slowly-revealing teaser image on its website.

While the icy image at first seems to be an obvious match for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King--a game set on a frozen continent--several images hidden in the page's source code have been found by internet detectives. In the hopes that Blizzard is pulling a fast one, some Diablo devout have pieced together a theory that the hellish action-RPG series will in fact be the franchise to steal this weekend's show.

Pieces of an apparent six-piece puzzle, the purple-dominant pictures are being released one at a time with each change of the splash image. Here's where things get crazy.

The images released thus far--named tundra 04.jpg and cavern 15.jpg--seem to fit opposing corners of the puzzle. Using logic that could only be derived from years of following the Nancy Drew saga, the detectives have speculated that... Read more

According to Gamasutra, Blizzard Entertainment senior vice president Rob Pardo explained that company's hugely successful PC MMO World of Warcraft was initially planned as a free-to-play, ad-supported title.

"When were first going to make World of Warcraft, we wanted to make it free and advertising supported," Pardo said. "We didn't want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn't support us."

World of Warcraft has amassed roughly 10.7 million subscribers since its initial 2004 launch, marking the title as the most successful MMO of all time.

Though free-to-play titles have seen great success in overseas markets, the business model has yet to catch on in the mainstream North American industry. However, several upcoming titles—including EA DICE's Battlefield Heroes—show a steadily increasing interest in alternative sales strategies.

Update 3: More comparisons surfaced overnight, revealing that Limbo of the Lost apparently contains background elements of Gray Matter's Return to Castle Wolfenstein, World of Warcraft artwork, and a shocking number of Unreal Tournament 2004 maps. Left, Limbo of the Lost. Right, Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

"This is not an old game that has been dressed up," director Steve Bovis once told QuandaryLand. It is also worth noting that developer Majestic was planning a sequel to Limbo of the Lost and was seeking a new background artist for the project.

Left, Limbo of the Lost. Right, Unreal Tournament 2004.

Given the sheer number of similarities from so many different games, it is extremely unlikely that all of the duplicate assets are a result of a common texture pack, as was the case with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s apparent use of Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 elements.

Update 2: Along with Oblivion and Thief: Deadly Shadows, it seems the three-man Majestic team stole assets from People Can Fly's Painkiller (PC)... Read more

Continuing its trend of celebratory releases, developer Funcom announced today that Age of Conan has shipped, but not necessarily sold, over one million units worldwide.

Of that sum, nearly half have been shipped in the United States. The mature PC MMO launched roughly 3 weeks ago, hitting North America on May 20 Europe on May 23. An Xbox 360 edition is in the works, though no release estimate has been provided.

"Sales data shows that Age of Conan is the biggest MMO launch since World of Warcraft," Funcom marketing VP Morten Larssen noted. "The numbers are very promising, and we are very proud to be one of the fastest selling PC games ever in a launch month and the biggest simultaneous Europe/US MMO launch in history."

Known also for its work on The Longest Journey series, Funcom recently commented that the adventure franchise hasn't been abandoned, just placed "on the back burner" while it supports Age of Conan and continues development on other games, including its next MMO The Secret World

Users of the popular World of Warcraft bot Glider, the makers of which are currently being sued by Warcraft developer Blizzard, are being targeted in what is rumored to be the largest wave of bannings yet in the MMO.

MMO Glider enables its users to automatically level characters within World of Warcraft. The program sells for $25, with an optional $5 subscription available that provides additional functionality.

Blizzard sued the makers in February of 2007, and now claims that bot author Michael Donnelly has made $2.8 million from the software.

Hundreds of posts flooded the official Glider forums following the suppression, the freshly-banned cheaters sharing their frustration.

"Is there a way (E.U.) to get unused month of WOW money back? I have paid with credit card 6 months..? Is there a way to get Glider Elite money back?" read the post of one Glider user in a thread titled "I want my money Back!"

Other Glide users repented, encouraging Blizzard in its efforts to free the game from AI influence.

"Blizzard just made the game better by excluding the people who ruin it," said confessed Glider user Sundruid. "I hope people learn from this and stop botting."

Blizzard producer J. Allen Brack has said that World of Warcraft will "probably" undergo a major graphical upgrade at some point in its lifespan.

"Will we need a graphical update from the ground up at some point? Yep, probably," said Brack to Eurogamer.

"That's actually something we talk about every expansion. I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."

The WoW game client has seen minor graphical changes in updates and expansions, but no major additions to the renderer have been implemented since the game's release in 2004.

Brack also noted that MMO developers which have done graphical updates in the past have not necessarily benefited from the effort.

"A lot of people continued to play with the original client, because it was faster, or they preferred it, or were just used to it or whatever," he continued. "And so for me as a game developer, the idea that we would spend so much time and energy on something and have people go, 'meh, that's not really for me,' that's not very exciting."

The second expansion pack for Blizzard's so-successful-it-hurts PC MMO World of Warcraft is due out in the second half of 2008, according to studio owner Vivendi.

In financial documents released today, Vivendi twice specified that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack would arrive in the second half of 2008. Developer Blizzard had yet to provide any sort of release estimate.

Vivendi further revealed that, as of March 31, 2008, World of Warcraft's subscriber base had grown to 10.7 million since it hit the 10 million mark in January.

For more on Lich King, check out the latest details as well as our hands-on preview and a look at the new Death Knight class.

The latest World of Warcraft patch is now available, updating version 2.4.1 of the game to version 2.4.2. A 15mb download, the patch offers more class and item balancing changes, as well as interface tweaks and bug fixes. ... Read more

With such renowned institutions as IBM and Harvard suggesting that many traits displayed by dedicated players of massively multiplayer games are key to successful business leadership, Massively reporter Cameron Sorden has a radical suggestion: put that experience on your resume.

As with any resume addition, the trick is to highlight the qualities that employers seek. Sure, raiding in World of Warcraft gives you sweet loot, but it also shows long-term planning, dedication, and the ability to work well with others. And if you're just getting into the job market and don't have a lot of relevant experience, this could be a huge help:

Guild Member, World of Warcraft
Participated as a member of a raiding guild over a two-year period. Consistently demonstrated punctuality, patience, good communication skills, and a team-oriented attitude to overcome shared challenges in a group setting.

"At the very least it makes your resume a little more interesting," Sorden noted. "It never hurts to stand out from the crowd when you're trying to get noticed." Just remember that, even in the virtual world, not everyone makes a good leader.

New details regarding the Death Knight hero class in Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King have recently been revealed.

Players who choose to start a Death Knight character will begin their journey at level 55, the same level required to create one. Death Knights can be any race, but users will only be able to create one per server, according to Curse. Once created, they will begin the game with a series of specialized quests, designed to introduce the player to their new abilities.

As detailed before, Death Knights will have a two-tiered resource system. Runes slotted into their "blade" act as a basic requisite for certain spells. There will be three different types of runes, and some abilities will require a specific number of one type to be slotted before they can be used. Another resource, Runic Power, is then... Read more

Proving itself even more worthy of adoration, developer Blizzard has rejected an offer that would have seen reviled director Uwe Boll working on a World of Warcraft film.

"I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard [about a World of Warcraft film] and he said, 'We will not sell the movie rights, not to you...especially not to you,'" Boll informed MTV News.

"Because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income."

The director of such game-to-film adaptations as Far Cry, BloodRayne, Alone in the Dark, Postal, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and House of the Dead also spoke on the importance of ignoring a game's core fanbase.

"To be honest, the real gamers are the typical download guys, right?" Boll reasoned. "They don't pay anything for movies, because they illegally download the movies. So why [should I] please these guys? I need the normal audience."

Last August, Blizzard confirmed it would thankfully be taking the reigns of the Warcraft movie rights, with the studio-endorsed film, produced in conjunction with Legendary Pictures, currently slated for a vague 2009 release.

Blizzard Entertainment has issued a new patch for its incredibly popular PC MMO World of Warcraft, bringing the game up to version 2.4.1.

The small, incremental 4.93MB patch offers a number of minor fixes over last week's 2.4 patch, which added new quests, dungeons, and more.

In celebration of April Fools' Day, esteemed developer Blizzard Entertainment has posted a number of well-intentioned pranks on its official website.

Chief among today's jokes was word that the company's highly successful PC MMO World of Warcraft will hit Atari 2600 in the form of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core. The collector's edition is said to pack tinted cellophane TV overlays, among other extras.

Another post teased the addition of Warcraft's Tauren race to the upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II, complete with screenshots and artwork.

Blizzard then jested it would be adding a Guitar Hero-esque Bard Hero class to the forthcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, before rounding out the festivities with its plans to sell a child-endangering Diablo-branded loot pinata.