Speaking at the London World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King launch, Blizzard’s Paul Sams and Lee Spark answered questions about their unannounced MMORPG they have been tight-lipped about so far. That stance didn’t change, as they would reveal no information on the project, though they did point out the reason for the silence: it is early in development.

The duo also fielded questions about console development, which they shot down, noting that there is a “lot more that can be done on a PC.” They also talked about paid character customization in WoW, which they pointed out acts as a deterrent for users for wanting to jump between appearances and whatnot.

Said Sams: "We want to give you the ability to do this, but we don’t want you to do it all the time. The same thing goes for paid character transfer, we don’t want people bouncing back and forth. It serves as a tool for people to do it, but also as a deterrent to not do it too much, and also allows us to have the staff to be able to continually manage the population.”

Best Buy has announced plans to hold a midnight launch for Wrath of the Lich King, the upcoming highly anticipated expansion for World of Warcraft, in New York city on November 13.

Beginning at 8pm on Wednesday, gamers can gather at the Times Square Best Buy to meet with Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce; G4’s Geoff Keighley will also be there. The event will be host to interviews, prize giveaways and more.

The official World of Warcraft website offers details on the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion for the game. There is a new Death Knight gameplay information page, new gameplay features page and new wallpapers among other things.

If you’re a hardcore World of Warcraft player, keep running Windows Media Player 11 in the background then! Gizmodo reports that running the media player speeds up loading in the popular MMORPG, strange as it may sound. Blizzard knows about this and is currently investigating.

Game god John Carmack of id Software, in an interview with Gamasutra, has noted the power of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, saying that it has spurred PC gaming, all the while reaffirming his company’s support for PC as a gaming platform.

He described WoW as a “train driving all the PC sales numbers altogether on gaming,” while at the same time acknowledging that most players of “higher-end games” have moved onto the consoles, citing well-implemented console features as well as connectivity options such as Xbox Live.

However, he still believes in the strength of PC as a games platform, stating that “the PC still has a strong enough margin to make games, and we continue to support it.”

The South Park episode “Make Love, Not Warcraft” has won an Emmy award for Outstanding Animated Program, as announced by the organizers of the prestigious award body. Other nominees in the category were Avatar, Robot Chicken, The Simpsons and SpongeBob Squarepants.

To celebrate the event, Comedy Central is offering a 15% discount on the Season 10 DVD that features this episode. Just enter “WARCRAFT” when purchasing the DVD to get the discount.

A preview of the episode can be found embedded after the jump.
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World of Warcraft junkies looking to get the fix for free now have an opportunity to experience the game free for 11 months. DirecTV and Blizzard have teamed up to offer a free subscription for the aforementioned period of time to new DirecTV subscribers.

With the Leipzig Games Convention just two days away, Blizzard has announced that it will be showing off World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II at the show in playable form.

Wrath of the Lich King will let players adventure in the Howling Fjord region of Northend and check out Utgarde Keep, a five-person dungeon located there. For StarCraft II, attendees will be able to experience the newly revealed units of the Terran race and play as either the Terrans or the Protoss in single-player skirmishes and in multiplayer battles on six different maps.

Though Blizzard is doing well in China, it still isn’t far away from legal problems. The company has been sued by Chinese IT company Founder Electronics who is claiming for 100 million yuan in damages for copyright infringement. Apparently, Blizzard, The9 (which runs WoW in China) and Qingwentuwen (Beijing distributor) had used five fonts from the company’s database for use in World of Warcraft without proper authorization.

Founder Electronics, the largest provider of Chinese fonts in the country, claims that the infringement of copyright was “serious” due to the fact that WoW has more than 7.5 million active player accounts. “The lost earnings of one billion yuan was a conservative estimate,” they said.

No comment has been made yet by Blizzard. This is, interestingly, the largest IP suit in China, a country ridden with software piracy.

Easily making it the most popular MMORPG in the world, Blizzard today announced that World of Warcraft has surpassed 9 million subscribers worldwide.

The game has debuted in North America in November 2004 and has since then seen steady growth thanks to worldwide launches and regular new content.

Instead of bashing games, this senator plays video games, and is damn proud of it. Pacific Daily News recently sat down with Sen. Ray Tenorio, a lawmaker from the state of Guam, who plays a level 70 Dwarf priest by the name of Paleray in World of Warcraft.

“What I like about World of Warcraft is it’s a great way to be able to reach out and connect with other people,” he said. “So many different people play — attorneys, accountants, geeks… all kinds of people.”

He also stated that he currently has no plans to move on to a different game, mostly because WoW adds new content regular. “There’s always something new to come back to,” he claimed.

Tenorio is a member of Guam’s 15-member unicameral legislature. More details on this gamer can be found on his official website.

The classic MMO-themed South Park episode Make Love, Not Warcraft has been nominated for Emmy in the outstanding animated program category. It is up against The Simpsons, Robot Chicken, SpongeBob and Avatar.

The winners will be announced during a live broadcast on September 16.

Blizzard’s latest efforts to combat gold farmers has been detailed in this World of Warcraft forum post, stating that the company has sued Peons4hire, a popular gold-selling organization operating within the MMORPG world.

According to the post, the organization is to cease its activities at once, though it is yet to do so.

MMO Portal has announced that MMO Calendar 2007 has gone on sale, offering artwork from a wide range of MMOGs for the twelve months of 2007. Titles range from the ubiquitous World of Warcraft to Dungeons & Dragons Online. In addition, each artwork is signed by the developers themselves. Proceeds from the sale will go directly to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, so if you want to bring a smile to childrens’ faces and want to get yourself some MMOG love, this is the way to do it!

Further details, as well as purchase information, can be found on their website.

Blizzard has foiled the cheaters again! The World of Warcraft Community site carries word on action taken by the company against cheaters in the month of November, stating that they have banned over 105,000 accounts and removed over 12 million gold from the game’s economy that were the product of cheating and gold farming.