The Leipzig Games Convention 2008 is about to get even more exciting as Blizzard confirms their attendance for the event. They didn't say anything about making a presentation on the highly anticipated Diablo 3, but there sure are a lot in store for those who will be attending. More information are provided in the full article.

One of the biggest risks of playing an MMORPG is someone hacking into your account and getting away with everything you worked hard to get. No matter how secure a game is there's always a possibility of this happening.

Skee, a member of the World of Warcraft forums, posted a very helpful FAQ on how to protect yourself against keylogging programs while playing WoW. Read more in the full article right after the jump!

Vaneras has given out details about the introduction of Voice Chat in the Blizzard's European World of Warcraft servers. Apparently, not all servers will have this feature right off the bat. They will be introducing it in various phases a week after patch 2.2 is implemented.

The community manager said that this was being done to help the developers "test voice chat in a live realm environment before enabling it on all environments." The first wave of English realms in Europe who'll be getting this feature include Earthen Ring, Ravencrest, Runetotem, Shadowmoon, Shadowsong, Shattered Hand, Silvermoon, Skullcrusher, Spinebreaker, Stormrage, Stormreaver, Stormscale, Terenas, Thunderhorn, and Turalyon.

This announcement should act as a nice heads-up to those who play on Europe servers. Hopefully, the introduction of this feature goes without a hitch so it can be implemented on the rest of the realms

Okay, so maybe defecting to the other side in World of Warcraft isn't a hot idea at the moment. How about maintaining an account in both?

While there aren't any rules regarding this, Brunhild posted this as a matter of concern over at the WoW Europe forums. This was due to the player receiving angry reactions from fellow guildmates when they were told that Brunhild had characters for both the Alliance and the Horde.

Brunhild's apparently looking for reassurance that playing both sides wasn't some unwritten rule that would draw the ire of the rest of the WoW community. And what better source of comfort, than some words from Blizzard spokesman Vaneras, who told Brunhild that it was a perfectly normal thing to do. Here's the blue-texter's answer:

There are always some people, who are more "dedicated" towards a specific faction in games, which I guess is a quite normal thing. It is human nature to be competitive and to form groups and communities, so it is only natural to choose sides in order to more easily draw a distinction between you and others as well as friend and foe.

But some people are open minded and some are not, and that is often the sole reason why you meet this kind of behaviour in-game and on the forums. I believe that most people have characters of both factions in WoW, which is nothing to be ashamed about.

My recommendation is to try not to listen too much to those people who fanatically make an issue out of belonging to one side and are calling everyone with characters on both sides for traitors, because it is them and not you who are missing out on things!

If you find yourself having similar dilemma as Brunhild, consider this Blizzard's (semi)official stance on having toons in both the Horde and Alliance. Enjoy your adventures in WoW - just remember to take a break from the gaming scene once in a while.

What's in a name? Quite a lot apparently, of you're thinking of World of Warcraft's assorted character titles and tabards. There's an ongoing discussion over at the WoW Europe forums specifically about these topics, and about the possibility of having more titles and tabards cropping up in the near future.

As Narci the thread starter explained, titles outside PvP would add some much-needed uniqueness to the game. All the more given that WoW currently doesn't have that big a collection of tabards and titles. Other interesting add-on suggestions we picked up include Nathisha's, who was thinking of adding tabards for each of WoW's major cities. A little later, Blizzard spokesman Vaneras dropped in with some encouraging news:

More titles will be introduced to the game in the future, and some of the old PvP titles may likely be reintroduced to the game as well at some point in time, however we have no more specific information on this available to us at this point in time.

I don't really know anything about tabards, but I too would love to see more of those being introduced to the game... I like flavour, so it could indeed be cool to see more tabards like ones that are common and can easily be purchased or crafted, but also more rare or unique ones that can only be gained through quests or reputation rewards or are rare drops and loot :-)

Looks like we've got something more to look forward to in the near future. Drop back in case we pick up any updates regarding this topic. Or if you're keen on reading over the details, There's also this topic's discussion thread accessible via the source link below.

 

Our trusty internet hamsters recently picked up on this useful nugget of information on the boards. Apparently, Solipsist of Stormrage has conjured up a new Mage guide, focusing on tactics and tips to increase the power of mages in both PVP and PVE.

Solipsist's handy guide talks about the basics, from how to use Blink (keep moving while using Blink!) to the basics of using lag to your advantage (also called Lagcasting), as well as the best way to pull two mobs with a polymorph-able target. One thing that's especially useful for mages-in-training is that Solipsist has included videos that show the different tactics in use.

The useful information, coupled with the helpful videos, lead Solipsist's guide to be noticed by Blizzard community manager Salthem. It's now in Vaneras' list of useful mage threads, making it the latest addition to the compendium of mage-related knowledge available for World of Warcraft players everywhere. Enjoy!

Players have been waiting for Guild Banks in World of Warcraft for a very long time now. This feature was supposed to have been added when The Burning Crusade first came out but it didn't make the cut with all the bug fixes and balancing that Blizzard had to do.

Blizzard Poster/ Community Manager Vaneras on the WoW Europe Forums finally gave word that Guild Banks will be in the 2.3 patch. Currently though, it is still being worked on by the developers. Hopefully, they will make good on their promise of introducing this since a lot of guild members in the WoW community have been complaining about lack of space for their items.

So far very little information on how the Guild Bank will work has been released, but it's a pretty safe bet that more details will be coming out soon. Be sure to keep checking back here for more updates on this.

Rogues have been getting the short end of the stick in World of Warcraft. While many other classes may feel the same way, this complaint may actually have merit.

There are multiple problems that are plaguing the class (such as pets tracking rogues) after using Vanish or even the introduction of resilience which kills critical strike builds. Blizzard Poster/ Community Manager Vaneras agreed with the complaints fielded and threw in his own two cents:

There are a lot of valid concerns and thoughts inhere, so I would like to blue-tag this thread just to let you know we have both seen and read this thread.

Most of the things posted inhere have been forwarded to the developers already, and some of the things have already been commented in other threads both on these forums and the US forums.

It's nice to see that Blizzard's representatives are following up on the concerns of this class. Hopefully, they will also get to work on the other classes as well to balance out the field. I know a lot of people long for the day when winning becomes a question of skill and not about class.

Among the announcements that have been the subject of much buzz here at the World of Warcraft blogs, one that's been picking up momentum is the upcoming Zul'Aman instance over in the Ghotslands.

As a brief recap, this new instance is 10-man raid that's expected to rival even Karazhan in difficulty. And in case you're wondering when Blizzard is planning to unleash this new challenge for our resident raiders, Blizzard spokesman Vaneras over at the WoW-Europe forums dropped by with an announcement:

Season 3 is likely to start when the Zul'Aman patch (Patch 2.3) is launched, however there is a chance that it might be delayed to some time after the release of that patch.

Additionally it should be interesting for you to know that once season 3 have started, it will be possible for you to buy Season 1 gear using honor points (approximately 15k/piece).

If all goes well, players can expect to see Arena Season 3 and Zul'Aman make a near-simultaneous launch. Given that 2.3 is still pretty far off, however, we advise the guys to keep updated in case more news gets sent in.

Had a bad Arena Season 2 in World of Warcraft? Well, don't worry because it's going to end soon and you'll have a chance for retribution when Season 3 begins. We know a lot of you are wondering now when this will commence and what developments it's going to bring to the table.

While Blizzard is still not giving any concrete answers regarding the matter, forum moderator Vaneras gave a hint when confronted with the same question over at the official WoW community forums for Europe. The blue poster had this to say,

Season 3 is likely to start when the Zul'Aman patch (Patch 2.3) is launched, however there is a chance that it might be delayed to some time after the release of that patch. Additionally it should be interesting for you to know that once season 3 have started, it will be possible for you to buy Season 1 gear using honor points (approximately 15k/piece).

Currently, notes for Patch 2.2 has just gone live over at the Public Test Realm (PTR). Despite that, we're pretty sure Season 3 will be here soon. Better make your preparations now because we heard Blizzard is considering to give the Arena a "spectator mode" enabling the whole of Azeroth to see who's the best darn PvP'er out there.