There’s no denying that the new Death Knight class is one of the major selling points of the upcoming World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion. And I guess as far as marketing goes, it worked pretty well, because the first thing I did upon getting into the beta was to create my own Death Knight and fool around. So here’s a brief overview of what’s in store for those of us who try out the Death Knight (referred to as a "DK" from now on) when the expansion comes out.

But there is a catch! Yup, you heard me, a catch... a lottery actually . Good luck!

Blizzard Gamers,

On behalf of everyone at Blizzard, I want to apologize for the challenges and frustrations you experienced while trying to purchase BlizzCon tickets on Monday and Tuesday. BlizzCon is about the positive experiences you all have had with Blizzard games. As a result of this week's events, the excitement that many of you felt about the show has turned into dissatisfaction and disappointment.

Due to these circumstances, we've reevaluated our convention hall space and come up with some solutions that will allow us to offer 3,000 more tickets for sale. We know this will not be enough to satisfy the very high level of demand for tickets this year, but we want to ensure that BlizzCon remains a great experience for those of you who are able to attend. To avoid the issues many of you faced this week, we'll be selling these 3,000 via a lottery. We'll post further details once our plans are finalized. Please note that the lottery will only be open to those with an active Blizzard Account as of 9:00 PM PDT on August 12, the time that the "Sold Out" notice was posted.

I, and everyone else at Blizzard, share the frustration and disappointment that many of you have expressed as a result of this process. We'll do what it takes to avoid this type of situation in the future.

Sincerely,

Mike Morhaime

BlizzCast 4 was released yesterday, but with all the Blizzcon ticket nonesense, it kinda got ignored! So here it is, transcripted even !

BlizzCast episode 4 brings us several new perspectives on World of Warcraft. Starting us off is an interview with Russell Brower, director of audio and video, about the process of creating music for World of Warcraft to be a part of an evolving, epic experience in the world of Azeroth. Next we interview World of Warcraft game designer Jonathan LeCraft about professions, covering both what we have learned from them in the past and where they are going in Wrath of the Lich King. We finish up the episode with our Q&A segment, which features developers answering a variety of questions from our communities.

Lots of interesting stuff, with a mostly WoW based theme! Hope you guys got your Blizzcon tickets yesterday, because the site is apparently down.

I always thought it was funny when people said Blizzard getting into MMOs would be good for the industry. It turns out that's not so true.  Rik Alexander from Monumental Games had this to say to Games Industry.biz about why he didn't want to compete with the MMO mammoth!

Monumental Games boss Rik Alexander has explained why his studio is producing an MMO based around football - rather than opting for a more traditional fantasy theme.

"Sports just makes the most sense," he told the audience at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, during an MMO roundtable. "Loads of people like football. At Monumental we want to take national pastimes and make them MMOs - things like fishing or trainspotting," Alexander said - though he was careful to note Monumental isn't currently working on any fishing or trainspotting-themed games.

"Fantasy is very well serviced. I'd need a billion quid to take on WoW," he added, to which Redbedlam boss Kerry Fraser-Robinson responded, "I could do it for a tenth of that."

For those wondering, a billion quid is way more then a billion US dollars!

World of Warcraft Miniatures Game - Downloadable Demo

From Comic-Con to Gen Con, the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game is taking the summer convention circuit by storm! And now, the Minis are invading the homes of World of Warcraft fans everywhere, with the launch of the Downloadable Demo! Visit WoWMinis.com to play this amazing game in the comfort of your own castle, cave or cottage!