Want to learn more about the recently added World of Warcraft player-vs.-player Honor System? Check out this extensive new Honor System F.A.Q.

A new, minor patch has been released to address a crash issue in 1.4.1. There will be no downtime to apply this patch, and players can begin playing as soon as their version of World of Warcraft has been updated. We greatly appreciate your patience during the time it took to get this patch to you. Thank you for bearing with us!

We recently added a new community section to the site. This new section contains information on contests, events, and other community highlights! You can access this page by clicking here, or by using the Community -> Complete List button on the left hand navigation bar.

Also, be sure to check out the new In-game Events page and a Real-life Events page.

Character transfers are now available for the realms listed here. Transfers will be available to players until next Monday, May 9.

PLEASE NOTE: Your character's Honor system rank (calculated each week during the Tuesday maintenance) will transfer to the designated realm. However, if you participate in PvP after the maintenance but prior to transferring your character to the new realm, you will lose the honorable kills and contribution points you earned for that period prior to the transfer. For example, if you log back on to your original realm after the maintenance, earn 40 honorable kills, and then decide to transfer to the new realm, then when you log on to the new realm you'll find that you've maintained your Honor system rank, but you'll have lost the Honor points for the 40 kills. To avoid losing any of your progress toward the next Honor system rank, please be sure to transfer your character to the new realm before you participate in PvP again

The World of Warcraft Insider E-mail Newsletter is now available! Featuring exclusive interviews with the dev team, new gameplay trailers, contests open only to World of Warcraft subscribers, and more. . . Sign up now and receive the first issue, featuring these articles:

• Honor System Interview
• WoW Spotlight:Battling Onyxia
• Test of Honor Contest
• On the Horizon: Battlegrounds

Dragons are among the deadliest denizens of Azeroth - gigantic and graceful, cunning and terrible in their wrath. Onyxia ranks high among the dragonken of Blackrock, the brood of Deathwing, and is one of the most dangerous foes in World of Warcraft. In this featured snapshot from the game, watch a brave raid group take on this fearsome creature...and prevail!

Watch every fork in the road, travel in packs, and keep your weapons close at hand - player-versus-player (PvP) combat in World of Warcraft just got a little more competitive. The Honor System is up and running, and players will be ranked weekly based on how well they do in the PvP game and can earn special rewards based on that rank. We recently caught up with Tom Chilton - a designer on the World of Warcraft team - and asked him a few questions about the Honor System and how it was implemented.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Fan Created Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring Night Elves, drawn by (Evil Gerbil King).

Two new realms just went live and are now available to players. These new realms give players the opportunity to begin their adventures on a fresh, untouched version of Azeroth!

• Gurubashi - PvP
• Skywall - PvE

We've added a new Raid Areas page to our online guide. Check it out to learn all you need to know about raids and raid encounters.

Blizzard's VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen and author Richard A. Knaak were featured speakers at the L.A. Times Festival of Books this past weekend. Their panel discussion centered on their newest project, the first installment in a series of manga titled Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy. After the presentation, fans had a chance to ask Chris and Richard about some of their past collaborations as well as their current manga project. One lucky attendee walked away with a copy of the World of Warcraft Collector's Edition!

For those who missed the event this weekend but would still like a chance to meet Richard, he'll be making one last stop in the Los Angeles area at the following location:

• April 27, 2005 - 5:00 PM: Golden Apple Comics, 7711 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA.

To celebrate the launch of the Honor System, Blizzard is giving away top-of-line NVIDIA 6800 series graphics cards and other prizes to lucky participants in player-versus-player combat. Here are the details:

HOW IT WORKS:

Everyone that participates in player-versus-player combat from the time it is patched into the game until the contest ends on May 24th will have a chance to win prizes ranging from NVIDIA graphics cards to free WoW gametime. The higher your ranking in the Honor System on May 24th, the better your chances of winning - but anyone that participates has an opportunity to win something. For every rank you advance in the Honor System during the contest, you will receive a certain number of 'virtual tickets' that are each a chance to win. Click here for full details.

THE PRIZES:

• 100 First Prizes: NVIDIA^® GeForce™ 6800 Ultra Graphics Card and a Kingston DataTraveler Elite 256 MB USB Flash Drive
  
• 300 Second Prizes: One free month of World of Warcraft gametime

Also, the top player for each faction (Horde and Alliance) on each server according to the honor system rankings on May 24th will receive a custom in-game Tabard proclaiming their prowess. Click here for full details!

This week's community watch spotlights a very special, heartfelt video from one of our players. Click the links below to take a look:

• Here Without You by Dimoroc

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: wowcommwatch@blizzard.com.

*Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.

As a reminder, you can access the forum list directly by visiting http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/.

Yesterday's patch introduced the highly anticipated player-vs.-player Honor System into World of Warcraft. Integrating a new system such as this into the game can cause minor errors to arise, as was the case yesterday when the patch caused an error with quest logs for some characters. In order to fix this error, all realms were brought down for an additional two to four hours. Due to this additional downtime, all players will be receiving a 24-hour time extension. This time extension will be applied to players' accounts by April 27.

Thank you again for adventuring with us in Azeroth; may all your raids be successful!

Check out the first manga set in the Warcraft universe. Follow the adventures of Kalec, a blue dragon in human form, and Anveena, a maiden with mysterious powers, as they quest to save the High Elven kingdom from the forces of the Undead Scourge. Dragon Hunt is the first of a three-volume set and is available now.

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that Chris Metzen, head of Blizzard's creative development team, and renowned New York Times Best Selling fantasy novelist Richard A. Knaak will be visiting the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend. Chris and Richard will be discussing the creative process behind the Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy Manga on the Barnes & Nobles stage this Saturday, April 23 at 1:00 P.M. For more information and general directions to the LA Times Festival of Books, please click here. If you are unable to make it out for the Festival of Books, Richard will also be making appearances at the following locations while he is in Los Angeles:

• April 24, 2005 4501 E. Carson St. #104, Long Beach, CA - Pulp Fiction at 3:00P.M.
• April 27, 2005 7711 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA - Golden Apple Comics at 5:00P.M.

The new content patch, including the all-new Player vs. Player Honor system, is now live and available on all realms. Some of the major features include:

• PvP Honor System
• Children's Week Event
• Gurubashi Arena Event
• Elemental Invasions

The full patch notes are available here.

Also check out the new PvP Honor rewards pages! You can find more information regarding the various weapons, armor, and mounts you can earn by achieving victory in PvP battle!

Can't seem to find someone who shares your interests? Tired of striking out at clubs? Why not try finding your perfect match in World of Warcraft, as this couple did in the Korean version of the game? Having originally met in the Korean open beta test, "Good At Diablo" (the Groom) and "Ix" (the Bride) continued their adventures together in Azeroth after the commercial launch in Korea, playing in the guild "Frienz." While at an offline guild party, they decided to begin dating and soon fell in love, which led to both an online marriage and a real-world marriage as well. Congrats from Blizzard!

[Download Movie] (World/FilePlanet)[90 MB]
[Download Movie] (Australia/AusGamers)
[Download Movie] (USA/Fileaholic)
[Download Movie] (USA)

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to announce that Chris Metzen, head of Blizzard's creative development team, and renowned New York Times Best Selling fantasy novelist Richard A. Knaak will be visiting the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend. Chris and Richard will be discussing the creative process behind the Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy Manga on the Barnes & Nobles stage this Saturday, April 23 at 1:00 P.M. For more information and general directions to the LA Times Festival of Books, please click here. If you are unable to make it out for the Festival of Books, Richard will also be making appearances at the following locations while he is in Los Angeles:

• April 24, 2005 4501 E. Carson St. #104, Long Beach, CA - Pulp Fiction at 3:00P.M.
• April 27, 2005 771 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA - Golden Apple Comics at 5:00P.M.

There is now a new menu on the left side of the website. If you place your mouse over select sub-menu items, an additional menu will pop up. Another new feature of the updated menu is the ability to customize the left menu. You can select which major menus to expand or collapse for future visit. For example, if you click on the "-" icon on the Account button, you can collapse the account menu. If you click on the "+" icon, it will expand again. Your preferences will be saved in a web cookie.

We have also added some new buttons to the top of the site. We have plans for continual upgrades to the www.worldofwarcraft.com web site. Watch the news for updates!

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Diablo Fan Art Contest
The Diablo Fan Art Contest is coming to a conclusion this Monday, April 18 at 12:00 P.M. PDT, so remember to send those hellish renditions of your favorite Diablo characters in before Monday. If you are interested in entering or would like more information, please click here.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Fan Created Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring a Gnome Warlock Shop, drawn by OrcOYoyo.

Due to an overwhelming volume of character transfers from high-population to low-population live realms and character copies to the test realm for the purpose of helping us test our upcoming patch content, we've had to disable the character-transfer/copy functions for all realms sooner than anticipated to avoid any overflows. We'll continue monitoring the realm populations and announce the re-enabling of the character copies to the test realm, as well as the character transfers to the designated low-population realms from the eligible high-population realms, as soon as possible.

[PC Test Server Download] [Mac Test Server Download]

The World of Warcraft all-access open beta test, set to begin on April 29, was announced in China earlier today. The game is scheduled for release in China later this year. On April 10th, fans in select cities had the chance to purchase copies of the game in advance. Thousands of people waited in line for this opportunity, and most locations sold out within a few hours. Check out pictures of the events here!

This week's community watch spotlights a PvP comic strip on family gaming, a community run PvP tournament, and some fantastic fan art by Saraquael! Click the links* below to take a look:

• PvP strip by Scott Kurtz

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: wowcommwatch@blizzard.com.

*Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Diablo Fan Art Contest
If you are a talented artist interested in entering the Diablo Fan Art Contest and showing off some of your demonic talents, then click here for more information.

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring a Dwarf Warrior.

The Under Development page has just been updated with a few of the features being implemented next patch! This content patch focuses on the Player vs. Player Honor System, new live events, and bug fixes. This post does not list all of the additions, changes, and bug fixes going into the next patch. Click here to take a look. Once again, we thank all of you for spending your time with us, and we wish you luck on your adventures in Azeroth.

New mounts New weapons

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Diablo Fan Art Contest
If you are a talented artist interested in entering the Diablo Fan Art Contest and showing off some of your demonic talents, then click here for more information.

This week's community watch spotlights Chris Metzen's interview with National Public Radio, the adventures of Trojand the Brave, and World of Warcraft is a Feeling from purepwnage.com! Click the links below to take a look:

• World of Warcraft is a Feeling from purepwnage.com
• The Art of Storytelling in World of Warcraft; Chris Metzen speaks with Rob Sachs of Day to Day on National Public Radio
• The adventures of Trojand the Brave at Actiontrip.com

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: wowcommwatch@blizzard.com.

*Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.

We hope you enjoyed our April Fools' events. If you missed them, check out yesterday's jokes:

• Pandaren Xpress
• World of Warcraft forums (posters became Murlocs and heard Murloc sounds)
• World of Warcraft meets Warcraft III

The Blizzard Joke Team™ will see you again next year!

Blizzard Entertainment, in conjunction with the Pandaren Xpress^® chain of quality restaurants, is proud to announce the /panda program! Don't let the inconvenience of eating impede you from reaching your Maximum Gaming Potential! Click here to read more!

You've all seen the sneak-peek articles of the upcoming Player vs. Player Battlegrounds system in our recent web previews. We're now taking Battlegrounds in an entirely new direction. Many players noted that the Battlegrounds resemble some aspects of Warcraft 3. Then it hit us; Why reinvent the wheel? Why waste resources on a project we've already developed and perfected?

The completely redesigned (and yet still very familiar) Battlegrounds system will allow us to better focus our efforts on creating game features that players really want, such as ordering various types of food in-game! You can see a preview of some upcoming intense Battleground PvP combat™ here.

We will continue to refine the implementation of this system over the coming year(s). You can view initial test gameplay screenshots of the Player vs. Player combat system below:

We have another two pages for you to check out. The World Dungeons page has been updated with new history and descriptions for each dungeon from the story creators themselves! We also have a new and very large Player vs. Player tips page.

The technology website Anandtech has posted an extensive hardware performance guide for World of Warcraft.

We've changed the Downloads section of our website. We hope you enjoy this new format.

The patch released last Tuesday contained many new features, content, and improvements to World of Warcraft. However, the new patch also contained a few small bugs which caused interruptions in play time for some users. These bugs were quickly identified, and most of them were hotfixed last week. We plan on implementing fixes for the remaining bugs in tomorrow's maintenance.

Our team continues to work hard to provide our players with the best play experience possible, and we realize that extended, unscheduled downtime is frustrating. Therefore, all World of Warcraft players will receive a two-day time extension for the downtime caused by last week's patch. This extension will be added to players' accounts early this week. We apologize for any inconvenience, and we once again wish you all good luck in your adventures in Azeroth!

The following realm transfers are being temporarily disabled:

Shattered Hand to Bloodscalp
Mannoroth to Destromath
Blackhand to Windrunner
Warsong to Bonechewer
Whisperwind to Azjol-Nerub
Blackrock to Daggerspine
Arthas to Nathrezim
Bleeding Hollow to Crushridge
Illidan to Stonemaul
Stormreaver to Stormscale

We apologize for the short notice and we hope to have transfers available to these realms active again in the near future. Please check back here for future updates.

Chris Metzen speaks with Rob Sachs of Day to Day on National Public Radio about the art of storytelling in videogames. As part of a Day to Day series of personal profiles, Chris talks about his capacity as the creative director of World of Warcraft and of his experiences working at Blizzard Entertainment. Click here for more details and for an audio link to the interview.

We have added two new pages to the info guide, with more pages on the way. Check out our new Dungeon Tips and Auction House Tips.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is happy to announce our latest screenshot competition! We are looking for a few brave adventurers to seek out the most awe inspiring landmarks in Azeroth. Interested? Click here to learn more!

We have added two new pages to the info guide, with more pages on the way. Check out our new Dungeon Tips and Auction House Tips.

This week's community watch spotlights the continued adventures of Salaris, a special remix by The Wayfinders, a misunderstood Amish Night Elf, and a World of Warcraft review on NPR! Click the links* below to take a look:

• Amish Paradise
• World of Warcraft on National Public Radio

Great job!

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: wowcommwatch@blizzard.com.

*Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.

The new content patch is now live and available on all realms. Some of the major features include:

• New Dungeon: Dire Maul
• UI Improvements
• Chat Bubbles
• Class Improvements
• Meeting Stones
• New Outdoor Raid Encounters

You can also read the full patch notes here.

We have opened transfers for four more realms today. The four new realms are Shattered Hand to Bloodscalp, Mannoroth to Destromath, Blackhand to Windrunner, and Whisperwind to Azjol-Nerub. That brings the current total characters transfers running to:

• Arthas to Nathrezim
• Warsong to Bonechewer
• Bleeding Hollow to Crushridge
• Illidan to Stonemaul
• Blackrock to Daggerspine
• Stormreaver to Stormscale
• Shattered Hand to Bloodscalp
• Mannoroth to Destromath
• Blackhand to Windrunner
• Whisperwind to Azjol-Nerub

Click here to move a character and see what other realms are currently scheduled for character transfers. For more information, please read the character transfer F.A.Q. located here.

It has come to our attention that certain World of Warcraft users have been posting personal information regarding other individuals on the World of Warcraft forums and in the game itself. We consider this harassment and want to remind all of you that such behavior is in direct violation of our end user policies and forum code of conduct. Blizzard takes the reckless dissemination of others' personal information over our public forums and in the game very seriously, and we will aggressively pursue all individuals who engage in such activity, regardless of their reasons for doing so. Those individuals who have posted personal information on others on the forums and in the game were warned against this behavior when it first occurred. We have recently banned several individuals because they continued to do this despite our warning. Please note that others who embark on such irresponsible behavior will likewise get one final warning, after which they will be banned. We ask that you please respect the privacy of other people and adhere to our end user policy and code of conduct. We want to make the environment of World of Warcraft and our forums as safe and friendly as possible. Thank you for your understanding. If you wish to review our forum code of conduct, click here.

National Public Radio, heard by millions of listeners across the country, recently profiled World of Warcraft on air and online. Reporter Robert Holt gave World of Warcraft a rave review on the program All Things Considered, and wrote a follow-up review on the NPR website. Go here to read the review, which claims that World of Warcraft is the best of all MMORPGs. You can also find a clip from the recently-aired All Things Considered segment via the web review.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Head over to WoW Radio to check out their interview with your favorite community manager - Caydiem!

We are happy to announce the next step in our continued efforts to improve the stability and performance of our realms. Players with characters on high-population realms will now have the option of transferring their characters to a low-population realm. Dispersing the population across all the available realms will reduce lag and queues and improve the overall play experience for our players.

Character transfers are optional for players with characters on eligible realms. Each high-population realm selected for character transfers will have one designated realm to which characters can move. The first character transfer will be offered for the Arthas realm to the Nathrezim realm. Click here to see what other realms are currently scheduled for character transfers. For more information, please read the character transfer F.A.Q. located here.

This service is being offered to a single high-population realm at first to ease any possible load created by character transfers on the live service, as well as isolate any issues that may arise. We will announce further character transfers once they are ready for release.

Once again we thank you all for adventuring with us here in Azeroth, and we look forward to seeing you in the game!

Computer Games Magazine has a new interview with Shane Dabiri.

The Horde comes alive with these three highly detailed, 6.5 - 8 inch, scaled World of Warcraft action figures.

• With its voodoo-based powers, the Troll Priest is adept at entering the minds of enemies and mending the wounds of allies.
• The Tauren Shaman seeks to preserve balance among the Four Elements and calls on the awesome powers of nature to defeat foes.
• A deadly magic-user, the Undead Warlock taps into destructive energies and summons fearsome demonic minions for the cause of the Forsaken.

Warning: Links on this old news page may stop working =]

This week's community watch spotlights the adventures of an angry dwarf and his bear, ghostbusters, and a Horderap! Click the links* below to take a look:

• Ghostbusters by Volty and Scyleonie
• Grudges by An Angry Dwarf Productions

Great job!

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: commwatch@blizzard.com.

*Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is happy to announce our latest screenshot competition! We are looking for a few brave adventurers to seek out the most awe inspiring landmarks in Azeroth. Interested? Click here to learn more!

If you've longed to discuss dungeons and raid strategies, but didn't want to sift through the General forums, then despair no more! We've recently added a new forum for Raid and Dungeon discussion. Check it out, and start chatting with like-minded adventurers.

Set in the rich universe of Blizzard's online RPG World of Warcraft, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy recreates the world of Azeroth as you've never seen it before: as a manga!

The three-volume graphic novel series follows the adventures of Kalec, a blue dragon in human form fleeing from forces that seek to destroy his race, and Anveena, a maiden with a mysterious power. What starts as a flight for survival turns into a quest to save the entire High Elven Kingdom from the forces of the Undead Scourge.

Written by New York Times best-selling novelist Richard A. Knaak (Warcraft: War of the Ancients) and illustrated by Korean manga superstar Kim Jae-Hwan (King of Hell), The Sunwell Trilogy is a must-read manga for gamers around the world. Go here to learn more about the Sunwell Trilogy and purchase the first volume.

Richard A. Knaak, author of the War of the Ancients trilogy and numerous other Warcraft and Diablo novels, now has a pdf newszine with the latest info on his various projects! Find out what's coming next from him by joining his e-mail list

Two new public test realms will be going live soon! These realms will give select players the chance to experience new content before it is patched to public realms. More importantly, it gives us a place to test new features and systems in a live environment without impacting the public realms. This will allow us to provide players with more frequent content patches in the future.

Moving forward, all players who have an active World of Warcraft account will be eligible to participate in testing on the test realms. However, this initial testing phase requires characters between the levels of 55 and 60 in order to properly test the content and functionality for the next patch. Email invitations have been sent out to a random set of players who meet these qualifications. Their level 55 to 60 characters have been copied to the test realm and will be waiting for them when they log in for the first time.

The version of World of Warcraft currently running on the test realms contains all the content additions, changes, and bug fixes that will be implemented to the public realms next patch. If you would like to read the details of these changes, additions, and bug fixes, please read the patch notes located here.

The goal of the public test realms is to facilitate the introduction of any game changes to a live environment. This will allow us to test, analyze, and present new content to players on a regular basis with the shortest delay possible. If you would like more information, please view our Test Realm FAQ located here. We want to thank all of the players who have been selected to test this new content, and we look forward to seeing you in game!

Cautiously I crept through the verdant growth of Feralas, edging ever closer to the towering walls I could make out through the trees. I remained hidden, careful to keep the horns of my feline shape from tangling in the undergrowth. There, dusky skin stark against the lush green of the wood, stood the Gordok ogres. . . Dire Maul is a new high-level dungeon encounter featured in World of Warcraft's next content patch! Click here to see the preview.

We have created an introduction to World of Warcraft for people new to the game. This intro can be found on the left menu under Game Info or under the "What is World of Warcraft?" link on the right.

GameSpot has a short report about World of Warcraft storming China.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

When an important Blizzard post becomes old, we take the post down and repost it to the Blizzard Archive forum. We suggest you check this forum regularly for any important posts that you might have missed.

Our Game Info section has been updated with a new tips page on finding quests for your level.

We have improved the layout of our support sections. We hope you find these new sections easier to navigate.

We have updated the Blizzard company profile. This update includes the most recent information regarding World of Warcraft's launch throughout the world.

The Under Development page has just been updated with a few of the features being implemented next patch! This content patch focuses on high-level content, class improvements, UI features, and bug fixes. This post does not list all of the additions, changes, and bug fixes going into the next patch -- we will be releasing more information as the patch draws closer. Click here to take a look.

We also wanted to give you an update on two of our most highly anticipated features. These features are currently the development team's highest priorities.

Player vs. Player Honor System
The PvP Honor System is in its final phase of testing. We are currently running stress tests with data taken from live realms. These stress tests allow us to catch any unforeseen problems that can occur when the system begins calculating data from hundreds of thousands of players at one time. As soon as we gather enough information and are comfortable with the performance, we will activate the Honor System in a patch.

Battleground System
Battlegrounds are currently undergoing extensive internal testing. Once we are happy with our internal playtests, we will open up an external test realm so we can begin testing Battlegrounds in a live environment with existing players. Please note that we are still working out the details of the test realm and we will release more information as soon as it becomes available.

Instead of holding back already-finished content and necessary bug fixes for a combined patch with these systems, we decided to split them into separate patches. This lets us present new content immediately while still allowing us to refine these two new systems. The Honor System and Battlegrounds will be introduced in a later patch in the future, and might not be unveiled at the same time. We will reveal more information as it becomes available. Thank you for your patience. Once again, we thank all of you for spending your time with us, and we wish you luck on your adventures in Azeroth.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

Last week, we welcomed a whole new continent to the World of Warcraft, and by all accounts, the game was an absolute success from day one. In just its first day of release, throngs of fans lined up in stores throughout Europe to purchase an estimated 280,000 copies of the game, a number that far exceeded what other experts estimated as the overall size of the European MMORPG market. As World of Warcraft's launch proved, those estimates were clearly too low. By the end of the weekend, the number of World of Warcraft players only grew, with over 380,000 copies sold in its first weekend. By this first weekend, peak concurrency had hit over 180,000 players. We're thrilled that our neighbors in Europe are enjoying the game as much as we are, and are excited at the successful launch of World of Warcraft in just its first weekend. To see first-hand photos of the European launch of World of Warcraft, click below.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the World of Warcraft Valentine's Day Wallpaper Contest! These wallpapers showcase some of the fantastic artistic talents of our players. Each winner will receive an official World of Warcraft poster signed by the development team. You can view winning wallpapers here. Congratulations to all the winners!

Valentine's Day Screenshot Competition Winners!

We have just updated our World of Warcraft Wallpapers section with a new wallpaper featuring the Horde Poster Art.

Valentine's Day Wallpaper Contest

Our inaugural World of Warcraft Wallpaper Contest kicks off with a Valentine Day's theme. We are looking for talented artists to commemorate Valentine's Day in Azeroth with their own wallpaper creations. The winners will receive an official World of Warcraft poster signed by the development team! Click here for more details.

World of Warcraft players around the world have been enjoying the game as much as our North American audience!

European players celebrated the end of their beta test by shooting fireworks and dancing, only to be suddenly met with a barrage of demons spawning in their neighborhood!

In Korea, players welcomed in the Lunar New Year by wearing festive clothes and greeting friends and family in Azeroth. In recognition of the year of the chicken, El Pollo Grande made an entrance and promptly began polymorphing players into chickens. Unfortunately, some players got a little hungry and decided to hold a giant chicken roast.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is happy to announce the Valentine's Day Screenshot Competition! We are looking for adventurers who aren't afraid to show their softer side by taking pictures of romantic in-game scenes! The winning screenshots will be displayed proudly on the WoW. Click here for more information.

After months of testing and anticipation, World of Warcraft is now ready for its official release in Europe tomorrow, February 11, 2005. The launch is a major event in Europe, with various shopping centers and stores across the continent featuring prominent World of Warcraft-related displays to commemorate the historic release. The European release offers different versions of World of Warcraft with fully localized games for the English, French, and German markets, as well as versions with localized Spanish and Italian boxes and manuals. All of us in North America and Korea would like to give a warm greeting to our European compatriots as they get set to embark on the shining shores of Azeroth for a lifetime of epic adventure! Welcome to the World of Warcraft!

This week's community watch spotlights three excellent movies -- right in time for awards season! Click the links* below to take a look: Blaze of Glory by Gumpor GnomeVasion by GnomeVasion Changed, the latest movie from Crafting Worlds Great job! Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: wowcommwatch@blizzard.com. *Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.

World of Warcraft Flex-Fit Hats are Now Available in the Blizzard Online Store The Flex-fit hats come in two sizes, Small/Medium and Large/XL, and feature an embroidered World of Warcraft logo. Check 'em out here while supplies last.

IGN.com has a new Battlegrounds article that contains an interview with one of the Game Designers from World of Warcraft.

The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of artwork.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is proud to announce the winners of the World of Warcraft Sports Screenshot Competition. We were happy to see that so many of Azeroth's heroes take time from their adventures to enjoy recreational activities! Click here to see the winners. There were so many great submissions that we created an honorable mentions section to display more entries!

This week's community watch features a great comic, a fantastic community information site, and another journal entry from Salaris! Click the links below to take a look:

• Heroes of World of Warcraft at worldofwarcraft.net
  

Great job!

Have you made or seen something that you think deserves to be on the World of Warcraft Community Watch? Send us a link at: wowcommwatch@blizzard.com.

*Links on this news post may expire over time and are created by other companies/individuals that are neither affiliated with nor supported by Blizzard Entertainment.