An interview on AusGamers talks to J Allen Brack about WoW and how far it has come in the five years since launch and how they approached the development of WoW. Snip:

"This year, I had another great experience like that, right after we launched Wrath of the Lich King, everyone levelled up, then they got geared up, then we started running Naxxramas, and one night, we just sort of jokingly said 'Hey, let's try to go for the Undying title', and that was an awesome experience, to get that... that was another huge kind of throw your hands up in the air and scream, high-fives all round type moment."

Were the old role play games ever that popular? I get an image of a group of people sitting in a darkened room, rolling their 20-sided dice and play-acting their characters as they venture through an imaginary world together. I know it went on, and still does in fact, but was it something that millions of people took part in on a daily basis? How, then, have MMORPGs become what they are today, and what will they become in the future?

Read on over on IncGamers.

Here's another Monday morning round-up of some WoW comics out there. Grab a coffee and enjoy

• Beyond the Tree
  
• Noobz
  
• Teh Gladiators
  
• NPC
  
• The Scout Report
  
• Looking For Group
  
• Daily Quests
  
• The Battlemasters
  
• The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf
  
• Ding!

Remember, let us know if you have a WoW comic you'd like to share with the community.

Several exciting and noteworthy events occurred in the world of MMO gaming this week. Follow me, dear reader, through the week's big announcements, rumours and revelations which involve Age of Conan, The Secret World, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Star Trek Online and Stargate Worlds.

Check out the full article over on IncGamers.

Its time for another WoW holiday and the Pilgrim’s Bounty to celebrate Thanksgiving is being launched tomorrow and runs until the 28th featuring, as you’d expect, much cooking and feasting related fun.

In other celebration news, WoW’s 5th Anniversary celebrations have begun in Europe with the delivery of the Onyxia Whelp pet in your mailbox. Note you may need to log back in to retrieve your Whelp

Blizzard has updated the Bosstiary: The Frozen Halls with lore about the bosses within the Icecrown Citadel's 5-players dungeons, and an interview with Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton and Lead Systems Designer Greg Street who explain the development of some raid dungeon encounters from concept to execution. The interview includes 13 new screenshots.

Bosstiary: The Frozen Halls Update

They say that knowledge can be a greater boon than even the most powerful spells, or armor, or weapons. The battles that lie ahead beyond the gates of Icecrown will test your mettle like none before, and you will need all the help you can get. So arm yourself with knowledge, and discover the truth about the dangers that await you within the Frozen Halls in our new Icecrown Dungeon Bosstiary.

The Heart and Souls of Icecrown Citadel

To shed some light into the chilly gloom of Icecrown Citadel, we sat down to talk about the decision-making process behind Wrath of the Lich King’s ultimate dungeon, the World of Warcraft team’s design philosophy, and the dangers that lurk in the heart of Arthas’s stronghold.

Check out the resulting interview to learn more.

A quick note to the commujity that the latest IncGamers Podcast is now online for your listening pleasure featuring all the top game news of the past week. It's great way to find out about what's happening in the world of videogames, MMOs and upcoming titles. Don't forget our regular features, the BS story of the week and the 'Special Needs Forum Post of the Week'. Listen to the podcast now and leave your comments and feedback.

WoW TCG players, set your timers because the countdown has begun for the World of Warcraft TCG: Scourgewar Sneak Preview Events at various locations around the world through November 20-21. The Scourgewar Expansion will be officially at stores on November 24. Check out at the bottom of this page your location to find out where these events take place at.

The prizes for the tournament winners are: Scourgewar Playmat, Series 2 Priest Class Deck Box, and a cool Kilix the Unraveler Extended Art Card.

Yesterday, a WoW Developers Panel was held at the IgroMir 2009 event in Russia. Those who missed the Blizzcon 2009 live stream back in August have now a briefing on the plans Blizzard has for PvP in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. More details of the Guild Advancement feature was discussed to give you an idea how guilds can strengthen their raiding experience together following common goals that benefit everyone. Check out the official IgroMir 2009 Coverage page over at Blizzard's website.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Developer panel. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm November 19 2009 Last week at the premier Russian games event IgroMir, J. Allen Brack, production director of World of Warcraft, presented the recently announced expansion for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm to the Russian audience. He spoke about three features that WoW players are especially looking forward to: rated battlegrounds, Tol Barad, and guild advancement. Rated Battlegrounds Battleground and Arena gameplay are different and currently completely separate. Some players enjoy battlegrounds more but they cannot gain Arena points in battlegrounds and thus they cannot receive Arena rewards. Rated battlegrounds will be an alternative way to get Arena points. Each week, there will be a featured battleground, helping concentrate queues and keeping the rated battleground experience exciting and different from week to week. If you win a game in a rated battleground you will gain rating, however your mileage may vary depending on the BG. Each victory in a rated BG will also give you Arena points. However, a loss will not affect your rating, nor your total number of Arena points. If you have Arena points, you should spend them on something epic! Among the possible rewards, the most exciting will be the return of the classic honor titles like Grand Marshal or Knight Lieutenant. Players will also be able to earn epic ground mounts and vanity items such as tabards and pets in addition to helping their guild acquire levels and achievements. Tol Barad Tol Barad is a brand new battleground which will have features similar to those found in both Wintergrasp and the Isle of Quel’Danas. When battle mode is active, the contest will be similar to WIntergrasp with PvP fights, vehicles and destructible buildings. When battles are not in progress, Tol Barad becomes a daily quest hub like the Isle of Quel’Danas. The faction that wins the battle in Tol Barad will not only get Tol Barad marks of honor, but also will get access to bonus daily quests and special bosses. Guild Advancement Guild advancement will be one of the biggest changes made to the World of Warcraft game system when Cataclysm arrives. Guilds will be able to level up and gain talent points, develop guild professions and gain achievements. Players earn guild experience in a variety of ways, for instance by gaining levels, reputation ranks, boss kills, rated battleground or Arena wins, or profession ranks. Each guild level grants a talent point that can be spent in a guild talent tree which works similarly to character or pet talent trees. Some of the options in this tree include repair cost reduction and increase in looted gold. Guild talents will affect all guild members. To give fair opportunities to both big and small guilds, only the top 20 earners per day in each guild will contribute to guild experience points. Guild experience will be converted into a special guild currency, which can be used to buy a variety of rewards such as profession plans, recipes and reagents; vanity items (mounts, tabards, etc.), and guild talent respecs. Guild heirlooms can be created with the help of professions and are bound to the guild, which means that if a player leaves a guild, the item will be returned to the guild. Guild items require less reagents, which can be bought with guild currency. Players will be able to earn achievements as a guild as well. To do so, at least 75% of guild members (for the moment) will need to complete an achievement to make it appear in the guild achievement tab. As players’ guilds complete achievements, players who are offline will be able to read the latest guild news through an RSS feed to the World of Warcraft Armory and get access to profession info and much more. Guild banks will receive a percentage of gold looted from a boss when guild members make boss kills. Also, it will be possible to invite other guilds to various events such as weekly battlegrounds.

The documentary entitled “World of Warcraft Stole My Life: Second Skin” will be showing for the first time on UK television next week. As we reported last year when Second Skin was first released, it's a documentary about gamers and the world of MMOs, primarily WoW.

“Second Skin takes an intimate look at computer gamers whose lives have been transformed by the emerging genre of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs). World of Warcraft, Second Life, and Everquest allow millions of users to simultaneously interact in virtual spaces. Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders - all living in a world that doesn’t quite exist.”

Current TV will be airing the programme on Monday 23 November at 10pm. See the trailer below.

Patch 3.3 is upon us and Blizzard prepares to enable the Blizzard downloader to spread files in the background. Make sure to enable background downloading using the Launcher.

	Blizzard Quote:
	The next major content patch is coming and in order to smooth the way, we will shortly enable background downloading of most of the data for this patch. Players who use the Launcher and have background downloading enabled will automatically start receiving the data. The download speed is overall faster than before, so you may want to adjust your background download settings. You can adjust these settings in the Launcher, by visiting the options page. If you want the fastest possible download, check the "Don't throttle background download" option. However, note that this choosing that option can affect the performance of other programs running at the same time.

Blizzard got a new preview available highlighting the legendary weapon Shadowmourne, and they got a crafty lore to kick. Learn the origins of Shadowmourne, and what it is made of. We may have been given hints on how to craft it, and when it's going to become available.

	Blizzard Quote:
	As the Lich King continues his dark work inside the halls of Icecrown Citadel, the warriors and smiths of the Ashen Verdict scramble to forge a weapon capable of defeating the Scourge. To aid the Verdict in its cause, you'll need to follow in Arthas's footsteps, gambling with your very soul to gather the materials that will create the legendary axe Shadowmourne. Find out more about the quest to build Shadowmourne, available in the upcoming Fall of the Lich King content update, in our new preview of the legendary weapon Shadowmourne.

Patch 3.3.0 is very near to release, but don't count on Ensidia and other top guilds rushing to kill Arthas the Lich King on the first week of patch release. Blizzard has just informed the access progression plan that separates each section of Icecrown Citadel. Basically the first section will be opened when patch 3.3.0 is installed up to the Saurfang encounter, but guilds won't be able to get past into the next section. The next section will be opened at a later time, and the same over and over for the next section up.

Further more, Heroic mode won't be unlocked until you defeat the Lich King. That means heroic mode won't be available for many months. All this separation of sections and making them available over a undetermined period of time in a sense will help guilds experience and savor each section, get to polish their skills, get to know the encounter enough to have it on farm-mode, and help you gear up your members in advance for when the next section becomes available.

Now if we extrapolate the sheer amount of weeks and months before all these sections become available and Heroic mode gets unlocked, we have a pretty picture of how far along is World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and it's not anywhere close.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. We want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there. As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, we wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point we can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately. The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace. There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty. The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week. The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty. There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity). In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.

The developers invite you for the third round of PUG with the Blues on the PTR to test the dungeon tool. They will be playing both factions and await you this Wednesday. This allows you a unique opportunity to interact with the developers, offer feedback or suggestions.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Since our first two tests went so well, we’d like to invite everyone out again for round 3! Come join the fun on the PTR and instead of getting the PUG blues, you could end up grouped with a blue. Members of the Development Team (including the encounter designers themselves), the QA team, and the Community Team will be on the PTR to test out the new dungeon system and want you to come join in the fun. To have a chance to group up with one of us, just queue up for a random heroic through the Dungeon tool. We will be playing both Alliance and Horde and since the Dungeon tool allows players to group cross-server, it doesn’t matter which of the two PTR realms you join from. Join us Wednesday 11/18/09 at 4:00pm PST.

Introducing Revil Kost, a priest of the Holy Light! Karlain and Revil combine forces to defend Sentinel Hill from a Defias Brotherhood attack. What are the mysterious Dark Riders hunting for in Westfall?

On sale February 17
Wildstorm Comics
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Written by Mike Costa
Art and cover by Neil Googe

The orc known as Malgar recovers from his battle wounds and awakens in Orgrimmar – the city to which he swore he’d never return. Meanwhile, the undead warlock Felgrim is ordered to join the Horde militia, but first he embarks on his own sinister mission... a personal quest that promises only one reward: blood.

On sale February 3
Wildstorm Comics
32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Written by DOUG WAGNER
Art and cover by POP MHAN

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the availability of the Mohawk Grenade, and to do so unveiled a new TV Commercial with Mr. T -- who curiously is wearing a J!NX Murloc Taco T-Shirt. Upper Deck and J!NX to lure people to World of Warcraft? A picture in my mind shows Paul Sams smiling with a shiny gold tooth. Now that's marketing strategy at its best.

	Blizzard Quote:
	"You gotta choice, Jack. You can watch Mr. T's new TV commercial…or you can HURT." Mr. T, outraged that any fools would doubt his hacking skills, has returned to World of Warcraft to show off his latest invention in a series of nationally televised ads. Watch them here first at World of Warcraft's YouTube channel or click to Learn more about the mohawk grenade and how you can claim your own in-game. What is the Mohawk Grenade? The Mohawk Grenade is Mr. T's latest invention: an in-game item that, when hurled at another character, gives everyone within the blast radius an instant T-riffic haircut. Don't worry, you and your friends will look gooooood. Where do I get it? Quit your jibber-jabber and claim your Mohawk Grenades from any of the Night Elf Mohawk NPCs camped outside every starting zone. What regions are eligible to claim the Mohawk Grenade? North America, Europe and Korea. Is this a permanent item? Each Mohawk Grenade has five charges before exhausting its power, and you're welcome to claim another once the charges are gone. How long will the Mohawk Grenade be available in-game? Claim Mohawk Grenades starting November 16th in North America and November 24th in Europe and Korea. They'll be available until... well, until the Night Elf Mohawk decides his work is done. Where can I see the Mr. T commercials? The commercials will be airing on major TV networks throughout North America beginning on November 16th and in Europe starting on November 27th. You can also view the ads on the official World of Warcraft YouTube channel here.

The Upper Deck Senior Director Scott Gaeta addressed fans at the official UDE forum to debunk rumors that the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (WoW TCG) is nearing its impending demise after the ScourgeWar set (On sale November 22, 2009). The rumor caught momentum when the site claiming the demise said the buzz came from a reliable source. No wonder, the Senior Director emerged to squash the bugger.

Gaeta revealed their team visited the Blizzard Entertainment offices in Irvine to discuss their 2011 plans for the WoW TCG, and as UDE informed a few weeks ago, they announced a schedule list for 2010. The WoW TCG license is stronger than ever and to stay. The past weeks UDE has thrown the house through the window with spectacular WoW TCG Tournaments. Precisely yesterday and today UDE held the 2009 Season 4 WoW TCG and Mini Realm Championship with up to $500,000 in prizes.

That looks pretty strong for a TCG line nearing its demise ...

It’s unfortunate that web rumors can so easily throw everyone into a panic but let me assure you that Upper Deck will be producing the WOW TCG in 2010. Plans for future sets have been moving along as normal and we even announced a good chunk of the 2010 product schedule a week ago.

Just recently the Upper Deck team was at Blizzard to discuss plans for 2011 and just today we were at Blizzard to get a sneak peak of Icecrown Citadel, to help in the development of the 2010 Raid Deck and Treasure Packs.

We have lots of great plans for 2010 and beyond and look forward to another great year for the WOW TCG. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support!

Best,

Scott
___________________________
Scott Gaeta
Sr. Director
Upper Deck

Thanks, WoW Insider

Richard A. Knaak continues his journey throughout Texas visiting BORDERS bookstores as part of his book signing schedule. Today Saturday he will be at the Austin BORDERS, and tomorrow Sunday he is visiting the San Antonio BORDERS. Check out the schedule below and make arrangements. Bring all your Dragonlance, Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo novels and manga for signing, and say hello. Send us your photos with him to post them on the front page.

November 14 2:30 PM
AUSTIN - BORDERS
4477 S. Lamar street, DALLAS, TX

Phone: (512) 891-8974

November 15 2PM
SAN ANTONIO - BORDERS
Ste 350
255 E Basse Rd,
San Antonio, TX 78209

Phone: (210) 828-9496

So there's been no major releases this week, no major shockers, but as usual with MMOs, there's plenty to keep fans interested and wanting more.

A number of games have had some bad news, others are looking up, and some are looking pretty darned awesome, so take a trip over to IncGamers' latest MMO Weekly to find out about the headlines this week featuring Star Trek Online, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Aion, Global Agenda, Guild Wars 2, Age of Conan and The Secret World.