The forums are available
Thundgot, 31/12/2004

The European forums are finally back online. Thank you for your patience. Happy new year 2005!

It is the last day of the year, and soon it will be time to say goodbye to 2004. What a remarkable year this one has been! Does anyone remember March 18th? On this day, the US Closed Beta Test launched and players were finally able to experience World of Warcraft first hand. Even though there were only four races and six classes, many players were immediately drawn into Azeroth, discovering for the first time a vast, unexplored world full of adventure and mystery.
Who could forget the day almost exactly half a year later, when the datacenter complex hosting the North American game servers was hit by a tornado? Everybody learned an important lesson that day: never ever make the guy with the Cyclone spell angry.
Many of you will remember September 30th, the start of the European Closed Beta. Four minutes before midnight, the servers went live and the gates opened to invite an ever growing number of players from all over Europe into the World of Warcraft. And then, of course, there was the end of the US Beta Test and the North American launch of World of Warcraft, which swept us all off our feet. We can only hope that 2005 will be as incredible as 2004.
Thank you all for your support through all the ups and downs of this amazing year! Blizzard Europe wishes you a happy New Year's Eve and all the best for 2005.

Starting with the European Final Beta Test in early January 2005, all European realms will be assigned a preferred language. English, French and German will each be the preferred language on at least two PvP and two PvE servers at the beginning of Final Beta. Additional servers will be added throughout the Final Beta period to accommodate the increasing number of players. The type and language of added servers will be based on the demand we see from server populations.

While you are able to use any language client on any server, we strongly encourage you to use a client of the server's preferred language. When playing on a European server all public chat and contact with customer service is required to be in the server's preferred language.

We're continuing to sort out the problems with the European forums and will have them back online as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

More secretive than SI:7. More powerful than the Silver Hand. Though you may have never seen them, you have probably already heard about them. They move unseen, hidden by a layer of secrecy shrouded in shadows which are veiled by anonymity. They are our first, last, and only line of defense against the forces of Chaos. And Blizzard Europe is looking for a few brave men and women to join their ranks! Who are "they"? They are the Game Masters.

The Game Masters are the ultimate Good Guys (and Gals). Your character's skills are gone? Your corpse has been swallowed by the Twisting Nether? No problem, the Game Masters can help you. They hold the power to right almost every wrong, striving to make sure that order is maintained and a fair, enjoyable playing atmosphere is guaranteed.

	Do you have what it takes? Is there a way to find out for sure? If you would like to join our Game Masters and work with a young and creative team as part of Blizzard Europe, then head over to our jobs page, read the job description, and send in your CV and cover letter.
	What are you waiting for? Join Blizzard Europe now – be a Game Master!

The holidays are here and the citizens of Azeroth are celebrating the occasion with festive decorations and winter-time activities. Keep an eye out for some exciting and fun surprises throughout the world!

As Christmas wouldn't be the same without presents, we invite you to click below to get our specials gifts.
New World of Warcraft Wallpaper
Holiday Artwork Submitted by Our Fans.

We're now releasing the Intro cinematic trailer in German and French Versions (the links are available in each localized main page).
Happy downloading!

As you've no doubt noticed, there has been a problem with the game servers and the official boards today. We've managed to put the servers back online as soon as possible, but at the moment the forum authentication issue is not yet solved. We will keep working on this problem which is of course creating a certain amount of confusion on the boards because of a persistent poster called “anonymous”!
As a consequence we've decided to close the boards at 6:30pm (GMT+1) in order to keep them legible for the future, while we keep investigating this bug. I'm sure you'll benefit from this forum downtime by getting back into World of Warcraft :-)
Thanks for your understanding.

We have launched three new forums that you can now use:

• Guild Recruitment – Are you looking for a Guild? Are you a Guild leader, looking for new members? This is the perfect place!
• Suggestions – Post here any suggestion that aims at improving the gameplay experience in World of Warcraft.
• Interface Customization – Discuss about interface customization.

One of the core tenets of the Warcraft universe is the raging conflict between the Horde and the Alliance. That's why the player-versus-player gameplay has always been a staple of the design for World of Warcraft. It might not look this way now, because our full player-versus-player system isn't in the game yet, but the introduction of Battlegrounds, and the full PvP reward system, will change that perception. We've been testing Battlegrounds and our reward system for weeks internally now, and we're ready to bring you a full-blown, multi-part preview of what we have in store for you in the months ahead. Click here to read more about the upcoming PvP Battlegrounds.

The Closed Beta servers are now running with the new patch and support for the localized clients. Have fun playing with the new additions and changes. You can read about them in the full patch notes.

The new patch will be pushed live tomorrow morning on the Beta and PVP servers. In the meantime, you may now begin to download the new full client installer in advance. You will need this installer to continue playing on the European Closed Beta Test after the patch has gone live, no matter what language version you intend to play.

To start downloading, just log on to the European World of Warcraft website for the language you want to play (you can select the flag at the top right of this page), and click either on “Download WoW”, “WoW herunterladen” or “Télécharger WoW”.

Please keep your current installation of the game until the patch arrives. You will not be able to connect to the servers if you install the latest client before the servers have been updated. You will be informed on this page when the patch is live.

Our development team is devoted to providing players with the best play experience possible in order to insure that World of Warcraft remains the top MMOG on the market. All info about upcoming features in World of Warcraft are on this new page, named "Under Development".

With the European launch of World of Warcraft just around the corner we're happy to be able to give details on the final stages of the European Beta Test process.

In the upcoming days, the current players of the European Closed Beta will be able to download and test the French and German localized versions of the game.

Additionally, the European Closed Beta testers will be treated to an exclusive of the much awaited upcoming World of Warcraft patch, before it reaches the US and Korean servers. The patch will be available in the localized versions as well as English. More news about the contents of the patch will be available soon.

The Final Beta Test, which is currently scheduled for the end of December / beginning of January, will begin simultaneously in English, French and German. The start of the Final Beta Test will be the next time new testers will be welcomed to join the game.

You can read more about it on this page.

Last night the webmasters and administrators of the web sites included in the Blizzard Fan Site Program had the opportunity to chat with Blizzard representatives on Battle.net. The developers had some very interesting things to say about new quests, raid content and much more. You can read the full transcript here. Some of the topics were:

A new instance in Desolace called "Maraudon", planned for the next patch
Linked auction houses for each capital city
More quests for existing zones, including more class-specific quests
Battlegrounds are being tested internally right now and will include the capture of graveyards and watch towers
It will take months to reach the highest rank in the planned PvP-System

What are you still waiting for? Head over here and read the full transcript.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is proud to announce that your snapshots are now displaying your glorious name. Be a hero, go to strange places and bring back proof of your heroic deeds! There will be no more unknown soldier in Azeroth...

We have recently verified that certain individuals were using third party "bot" programs to automate their characters in World of Warcraft. A bot is used to play an account non-stop, allowing its user to accumulate money, items, and experience without actually requiring the user to be physically present to play the game. The use of bots is a violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use and is absolutely prohibited. Therefore, the accounts identified as having used bots have been banned. Blizzard Entertainment is committed to maintaining an environment of fair play in World of Warcraft. As stated previously, the company has a zero-tolerance policy for cheating or hacking of any kind. Players caught using a bot program to automate any of their characters' actions will have their characters removed and their account banned. They will not receive a warning. Over 300 accounts have already been banned for offenses of this nature.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using a bot, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at hacks@blizzard.com or submit a GM ticket in-game. Thank you again for your continued support.

The Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth is pleased to announce the winners of our recent Halloween Screenshot Contest. Please accept our most sincere apologies for the delay of this announcement; for your information, the Goblin Snapshot Brigade has been relieved of all its duties and will not be handed any more reviewing assignments in the future. We would also like to take this opportunity to announce a bounty of 10 Gold for the capture, dead or alive, of the notorious Goblin called Despiris Cubemantle on account of vandalism, arson, misappropriation of photographic equipment, and general mischief. Warning! Cubemantle is armed and extremely annoying.

And now, without further ado, the winners for the English-speaking category are:
The lucky winners for the French-speaking contest are:
And last but not least, the German-Speaking finalists are:

The winners should be receiving their prizes shortly. Thank you for all the creative entries, and keep an eye out for more contests in the future!

We wanted to take this time to make an announcement about a serious hacking violation in World of Warcraft, one for which we have zero tolerance. Certain individuals have been identified as using speed hacks to accelerate their characters. This goes against the theme of fair play that we have instituted for the game, and is in clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Those individuals who were caught using the speed hack have been banned from the game and have had their accounts closed. We must stress once again that we are opposed to hacking and cheating of any kind and are dedicated to maintaining a fair environment in our games. This will serve as a final warning to others who are considering using the speed hack. If you are caught using it, you will be banned without question from World of Warcraft and your account will be revoked.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter. If you suspect someone of using the speed hack, or wish to report other instances of cheating, please email us at hacks@blizzard.com. Thank you again for your continued support.

We're delighted to announce the arrival of a Community Manager for the English-speaking players who joins the Blizzard Europe team. The new Community Manager has several years of experience from a similar position with another company, and together with the other Community Managers, Aguilar and Gungdil, he will work to keep the European players and fan sites up to date on everything World of Warcraft.

Players will get to know him under the name "Thundgot" on the forums very soon. We'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Caswallawn for all his efforts in keeping the English-speaking players up to date before Thundgot's arrival.

Our account creation pages are up again, and the third wave of authentication keys for the European Closed Beta Test has been sent out. The next group of testers should by now have received their notification e-mails containing their Beta keys. After successfully creating an account, players can download the latest World of Warcraft client, log on to the European servers, and start playing.

May our paths cross in Azeroth...

Within its first day of release, World of Warcraft sold more than 240,000 copies – the highest day-one total in PC game history. See the full press release to learn more about World of Warcraft's North American launch-day achievements.

Last week's launch of the European Pre-Order campaign was a huge success, as all over Europe store clerks were facing the daunting task of handing out limited supplies of Pre-Order boxes to hordes of players – all wanting to get a hold of one of the rare boxes! Many retailers report that their stock of Pre-Order boxes is now sold-out, so if you are planning on getting a Pre-Order box, you should make sure to visit a participating retailer as soon as possible.

Buying a Pre-Order box ensures you a copy of the game on the day World of Warcraft launches in Europe, and it is also the easiest way to get into the European Final Beta Test. If you read the press release about the North American launch, then you know that it would be best to be prepared. So what are you waiting for? Head out to a participating retailer now and secure your place among the legends of Azeroth!

The European websites are progressively getting a facelift. You can spot the changes on the Professions and Classes pages.

November 2004

Starting today, gamers will be able to pre-order World of Warcraft from participating retail outlets across Europe. Purchasing a Pre-Order box will secure you a copy of the game on the day of launch. Additionally, the Pre-Order box contains an authentication key that grants you access to the European Final Beta Test, and an Audio CD with a selection of tracks from the official soundtrack from the game. The European Final Beta Test is currently scheduled to begin in December, so check back regularly – we will be announcing the start date on this website.

Both the Standard and Collector's Edition can be pre-ordered at participating retail stores now. Your pre-order payment will be applied against the cost of the game at launch, so be sure to save your receipt! To claim your copy of the game, simply return to the store after the launch and present your pre-order receipt.

Please visit our Pre-Order information page to read more about the Pre-Order box and to find a list of the participating retailers for each country.

In just one day, the US version of World of Warcraft sold through an estimated 250,000 copies to North American players. Over 200,000 accounts have already been created, and peak concurrency across all active game servers has been above 100,000.

See the full US media alert here to read more about Blizzard's epic first day of World of Warcraft! The alert also contains details about Blizzard's plans to steadily increase US servers capacity.

In just two days, the official European Pre-Order Campaign for World of Warcraft will begin. This means that starting on Friday, you will be able to pre-order both the Standard Edition, with one of the two box designs, and the limited Collector's Edition. Pre-ordering the game through the official campaign will ensure you a copy at launch as well as access to the European Final Beta Test.

We have prepared a new information page where you can find a lot of useful information about the European Pre-Order campaign and about the two versions of the game (Standard, and Collector's Edition). To make pre-ordering even easier, you will also be able to find a list of participating retailers on this page. Starting on the 26th of November, you will be able to purchase a pre-order box at any of the retailers in this list and secure your place among the legends of Azeroth.

Today we'll focus on Gianna, an Italian player who became fan of World of Warcraft and spends lots of time drawing and creating MMO-related comics.

Let's introduce her: "I've always loved drawing and reading comics... In June 2004, I bought a tablet and started drawing 'The Noob', which is a comic about Ohforf'sake (naming error at creation), a newbie in the online world of Clichequest, Valley of the Grind. 'The Noob' is a lot of fun to do, even if it's terribly time-consuming - I do it all in Photoshop and a panel takes me at least six hours."

You should have a look to her website "thenoob.keenspace.com" now! Notably, here's her latest creation and her comment about it: "For the picture of the absent-minded shaman, well, that's me... I don't lose totems in my handbag, of course, but my hotkey bars are a complete mess."

Who said it was easy to be a player?! =)

Since a few days, the screenshots that you're submitting to the Royal Photographic Society of Azeroth are online; the "Screenshot of the Day" does not show images from the US game servers anymore, it's the result of your own screenshot submissions indeed, direct from European servers!

This leads us to our Halloween contest results: the list of winners will be announced at the end of this week. To be continued...

The new patch is finally up and running! This one is not as big as the last, but there are still a few big changes inside. You can read the patch notes here. Some of the highlights are:

• The repair cost was lowered for some items.
• The loss of durability when resurrecting at a spirit healer has been decreased.
• Some spells that previously had reagent costs are now free!

As usual, you can download the patch by connecting to the European servers.

Blizzard is pleased to announce that World of Warcraft will release in Europe in early 2005. This will follow a final beta test, which is currently scheduled to start in December 2004.

At launch the game will be available in two versions: standard and collector's edition. The suggested retail price for the standard box is 44.99€, and for the collector's edition is 69.99€. Both versions include a free one-month subscription to the game.

After the initial free one-month subscription ends, players will be able to continue playing under one of three different subscription plans. The month-to-month subscription plan will cost 12.99€ per month, the three-month plan will cost 11.99€ per month, and the six-month plan will cost 10.99€ per month. All of the announced European prices include VAT.

For more details about the European launch plans click here to read the press release.

Good news, European forums are now back, after a 24-hour maintenance. Thanks a lot for your patience.

Good news all! We have a fix ready for all the characters with bugged professions. It will not be a simple fix, our game masters have to apply it to each bugged character individually. If you have a character who is affected by this bug, please page a GM during our in-game support hours (8:30 to 22:00, GMT+1 Paris time).

For a quicker process, please write "Bugged Professions" in the first line of the ticket and then list all the skills that are currently bugged for you. An example would be: "Bugged Professions. Blacksmithing, Mining, First Aid, Cooking". You should expect at least a partial loss of skill points in the process. While we will try to keep it low, this cannot be totally avoided. The main objective is to make these professions available to you again.

After you have paged a GM, you will be contacted as fast as we can manage. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Due to urgent maintenance, European and US forums have been shut down. We will inform you when the forums will be back online. Sorry for the short notice and thank you for your understanding.

Recently, 30 courageous fighters embarked on an epic quest to defeat the mighty dragon Onyxia. Their objective was brave, but she didn't agree and did her best to let them know...
Thanks to one of our official Swedish fan sites, www.warcraft.nu, you can now watch how the raid party got on, and see this great first video of Onyxia! (Just right-click and choose "Save as..." on this link, or on this mirror.)

On the 26th of November, World of Warcraft will be available for pre-order throughout Europe. With more than 330,000 Closed Beta applications received and limited quantities available at launch, players are encouraged to pre-order in order to guarantee their copy of the game. Players who pre-order World of Warcraft at participating retailers will also receive a bonus Soundtrack “EP” at the time of pre-order as well as a personal “Authentication Key” providing guaranteed access in to the European Final Beta Test, once it goes live.
Click here to read the complete Press release.

When World of Warcraft launches in Europe later this winter, the standard edition of World of Warcraft will be available in two unique box covers representing the major factions of the world – Alliance & Horde. However whatever your box preference, you'll still be able to choose to play on the side of either faction in the game. After the initial shipment, only one of these two covers will survive on the packaging of World of Warcraft.

As part of the European Fan Site Program, wow-ni has launched a banner contest. It was really hard to make a final decision but the jury came up with 3 winners. You can see these banners and 12 others which made it into the final selection here. We hope that those participants who were not selected are not too disappointed as we were particularly impressed by the outstanding quality of the work overall. Congratulations to all of you !

There is but one creature in all of Kalimdor that possesses the strength and stamina to bear a tauren rider into battle: the majestic kodo beast. Tauren players will lose the plainsrunning ability, but will now be able to ride kodo mounts.
Learn more here.

October 2004

As you may know, ye olde all hallow's eve is near – the night the ghosts of the dead roam the world of the living, the eve when all that goes bump in the night comes forth, the eve that… will see nine lucky winners of our Halloween screenshot contest! Today, we are pleased to announce the start of the European World of Warcraft Halloween Screenshot competition. Following a long-standing Blizzard tradition, Blizzard Europe will honour the zaniest holiday of the year with a special competition.

During the next few days, we will be accepting submissions for our Halloween Screenshot Contest. Here's what we want from you: take screenshots of you and your friends spreading the Halloween spirit in World of Warcraft. You and the gang are out trick or treating in Contested Territory? Great! You are hosting a little Halloween soiree on Raven Hill? Show us! Go all out with it – there is no such thing as "too silly"!

Our dedicated team of Halloween specialists will review each screenshot submission and then announce three lucky winners for each language (English, French, and German – that's a total of nine people). The grand prize for each of these intrepid photographers will be a brand new World of Warcraft action figure! The winners will be able to choose from three figures: the Tauren Shaman, the Undead Warlock, and the Jungle Troll Voodoo Priest.

Please keep in mind that technically, you will be able to make submissions for all three languages. But for reasons of fair play, we ask that you only submit screenshots for your own language. This means that players from German-speaking countries should make their submissions via the German KLicKIE page, players from French-speaking countries should submit their screenshots via the French SRPA page, and everybody else should use the English RPSA page. Please choose the Halloween category in the drop-down menu, and provide us with a valid email address so that we can contact you if you have won. We'll accept screenshot submissions until Sunday, October 31st, 23:56. >=]

Happy trick or treating, everybody!

Our Downloads page has been updated with a new music in .mp3 format: Darnassus, the major Night Elf city in Teldrassil. Click on this link to discover it.

Tomorrow on Friday the 22nd, our Game Masters support hours will end at 19.00 CET instead of the usual 22.00 CET. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

One of our official European fan sites, WoW-Ni.com, recently had the opportunity to interview Aguilar, our French-speaking Community Manager.
Also featured on this fan site is an interesting article which will get you right into the crocodile-infested Wailing Caverns.
Last, do not miss the chance to enter WoW-Ni's contest to try and win an Authentication Key for the European Closed Beta!
Good luck to everybody!

In World of Warcraft you will encounter many different characters from all over Azeroth. Whether they are Dwarves from the snowy mountains of Ironforge or Tauren from the lush grasslands of Mulgore, they all have a unique way of living and their very own way of talking. Now you can hear voice samples of player characters from all the races in World of Warcraft. They can be funny, silly, or even smooth-talking and suave. Go to our updated Movies and Music page and listen to these 16 samples.

On that page, you will also find a brand new music sample: The ambient music from Orgrimmar, the Orcs' capital city in Kalimdor.

Despite all our efforts, some errors, spelling mistakes, broken links might appear on this website. If you encounter an error on the European website, please report it using our Customer Support Web Form.

Fan sites are an important part of the Blizzard Community. We appreciate their hard work and are always happy to hear from new candidates for our Fan Site Program. Members of the program receive regular updates and access to exclusive news and chat sessions with Blizzard representatives.

There are fan sites all over the world, in many different languages, which are already in touch with Blizzard US, Korea and Europe through a global Fan Site Program. We are now launching a dedicated Fan Site Program for Europe, and your site can become a part of it! If you run a Fan Site and would like to apply to our program, just read our information page and find out how you can join!

All European websites which are already members of the global FSP will receive an email within the next few days, explaining in more detail about the new program. The European Community Managers are looking forward to hearing from you!

The newest World of Warcraft Closed Beta patch has arrived! Major features of this patch include the new item durability system and changes to the raid group system, based on player feedback. Read the full patch notes here!

The servers are offline in preparation for the patch. Once they come back up, connect to the game as usual, and an automatic update will patch you up to the current build. Thank you again for continuing to test World of Warcraft; your efforts are appreciated!

Raids have been a staple of high-end gameplay in massively multiplayer online RPGs for years. It will be no different for World of Warcraft, where the designers have plans for some incredibly challenging and rewarding raid content for players that approach or hit the maximum level cap of 60. Designer Jeffrey Kaplan, who designed hundreds of quests and is now heading up the world and raid design, shared his thoughts on designing and implementing raids, how non-instanced raids will benefit the entire server, and how raid looting will differ from normal looting.

With the release of the European Beta, our Game Masters are now ready to answer your questions and solve your problems. Even if the servers are only in English for now, you are already able to make petitions in any of the following languages: English, French, German.

The GM teams are available through in-game petitions from Monday to Saturday, 08:30 to 22:00 (Paris Time / BST+1). These hours are subject to change as we invite more players into the Beta Test.

Remember that if you have a technical problem, you will need to use our Support Webform. Game Masters will not be able to help you with technical problems.

In anticipation of World of Warcraft's launch in China next year, the official Chinese World of Warcraft website opened this past weekend. Hosted by Blizzard's partner in China, The9, the leading online game publisher in the country, this website provides the latest news and updates for World of Warcraft's growing Chinese fan base. Fans can visit the site to read the most recent game news, learn more about game features, and chat with other World of Warcraft followers in the official forums. The official Chinese website also features beautiful art and music from the game, as well as translated material from the official World of Warcraft website. The website is in simplified Chinese, but you can stop by for a visit at http://www.wowchina.com/

The European Closed Beta Test of World of Warcraft starts today and European gamers will be able to test the very latest version of the game, which includes the latest content and updates, following the push yesterday in North America and Korea. Moving forward, Beta Testers in Europe, North American and Korea will have access to the same content as future pushes will occur simultaneously in all territories.

The European Beta Test will initially offer the English language version, and in due course the French and German language versions will be introduced to the testing process.

The game will be tested in multiple phases and the first phase of Beta Testers is currently being notified by e-mail. This notification process will continue daily over the next few days. Thereafter, additional testers will be included each time a new phase begins and they will be notified by e-mail accordingly at the time. We intend to do our utmost to include as many players as possible from the pool of those who signed up to join the European Closed Beta Test.

We would like to thank again everyone who has signed up and wish you all the very best of luck in being selected.

May our paths cross in World of Warcraft!

The World of Warcraft official European forums in English, French and German open at the start of the European Closed Beta Test. Here you'll be able to keep up with the latest news and meet your local Community Manager for French and German speaking territories. For the time being, English-speaking players will receive news in the official European forums from a member of our gamemaster team while we finalise the recruitment of a permanent Community Manager, English.

Selected Testers to the European Closed Beta Test will be able to post in the official European forums once they've received their authentication key and created their own account. However, the forums will be open for all to read. There are guidelines to follow when posting in the World of Warcraft official European forums.

Our Community Managers are looking forward to meeting you in the forums!

While our Game Master teams will be ready to answer your questions and solve your problems in-game, we also have other teams, but in the shadows, among test computers, heavy manuals and ringing phones: The Technical teams and the Billing Teams!

To contact these, you are now able to use our support web-form. One form to sum them all up: Account problems, Technical problems, billing problems (once relevant), even comments if you want! A special ActiveX file will fill in all the computer specifications for you (depending on the browser and security settings you use), giving you more time to focus on detailing your problem. Pick a category, type in the details and there you go! Once received by our teams, your email will be analysed, investigated, discussed and soon after we will send you our answer.

Remember, while the web-form is nice, simple and efficient, it cannot (yet) guess what problems you are having with World of Warcraft. The best way to get a fast answer is to give us as much details as possible.

As you know, the World of Warcraft European beta test is just around the corner and we're now in our final stages of preparation. Whilst we plan to have several ways available to distribute files to everyone, our primary method will be through the Blizzard Downloader program, which uses BitTorrent technology.

To ensure that your system works with Blizzard Downloader, please try to download the World of Warcraft Movie Compilation (PC or Mac). If you encounter any problems please check the BitTorrent FAQ or contact our Technical Support for help.

Temporary loss of connection Apologies to all for our servers going down in the early hours of this morning, as you can see they're now back up and running. We hope the interruption didn't cause you too much inconvenience.

We're happy to welcome you to the new version of the website, which now boasts several new pages in preparation for the upcoming European Closed beta.

There's lots of new information but you may find these particularly interesting:
Public transportation
PVP gameplay in World of Warcraft

Also, the authentication page is now online and the official European forums in English, French and German are ready to start for the beginning of the beta.

We are all looking forward to meeting you soon in the World of Warcraft, let our adventure begin!

Last week, US producer Chris Sigaty and Blizzard Europe's PR and Community Managers were on a pan-European press tour presenting World of Warcraft. They travelled through London, Frankfurt, Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm. We are all extremely happy about the enormous interest of the press for the game. You can find some interesting articles about the UK, Nordic, German and French press events here:
- EuroGamer.net
- WorldOfWar.net
- ClubSkill.com
- Stratics.com
- Krawall.de
- 4players.de
- T-Online.de
- WorldofWar.de
- MondesPersistants
- JeuxOnline
- JudgeHype
- Le Grimoire

Thanks a ton, and see you soon in Azeroth!

Many of you have been eagerly awaiting news of the player-versus-player gameplay in World of Warcraft. We have maintained from the beginning that the current rules as they stand are temporary and that the real PvP system has yet to be added.

Beginning with this upcoming patch, we will be introducing some elements of our final PvP system, and we will continue to flesh it out in successive patches after this one.

But we also wanted to relate to you our philosophy behind our PvP system, reveal some concept art for our battlegrounds, and give you a sneak peek of where we are ultimately heading with World of Warcraft's PvP gameplay. Check it out here.

The gnomes have certainly been busy!

When the latest patch arrives, so too does the latest transportation method: the Deeprun Tram!

With the latest in gnomish technology, travel between the two mighty Alliance cities will be faster than ever. Learn more on our updated Public Transportation Page.

Have a sneak peek at the new design of the Spirit Healer, who will greet you in World of Warcraft's graveyards should your life ever expire.

Adorn your desktop with this new mosaic wallpaper created with the icons from World of Warcraft.

The trade skills system is being updated. Trade skills are being renamed to "professions," and the way in which players acquire and learn them is changing. Players will no longer learn different professions by paying for them with skill points. You'll still learn them by speaking to the appropriate profession trainer. However, players will now be restricted to learning two professions. We decided to change the skill system to make it simpler, balanced, and more intuitive. The new system should allow everyone to participate in one to two professions, and create a much more vibrant market for goods generated from professions.

The professions are: alchemy, blacksmithing, enchanting, engineering, herbalism, mining, leatherworking, skinning, and tailoring.

The secondary skills are: cooking, fishing, and first aid.

Several old trade skills are being turned into secondary skills. These do not count toward the two-profession limit, so players can learn all three secondary skills, in addition to their two professions, without restriction. The survival skill is being removed and campfires have been folded into the cooking profession.

No More Skill Points
With the changes to trade skills, skill points (SP) will be removed from the game, and currency will be used instead to train skills formerly based on SP. Moreover, mount trainers will now require you to have a certain level of reputation with their respective city in order to acquire a mount.

World of Warcraft was presented at the Game Stars Live event in London last week where UK gamers got their first chance for a hands-on experience of the game. The event, which not only attracted the public but also a large number of trade and journalists, saw an impressive number of visitors pass through its doors.

And just like at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany a couple of weeks ago, the World of Warcraft booth drew a lot of attention. Our team from Blizzard Europe was delighted to meet the gamers and was very happy to introduce visitors to World of Warcraft both out-of and in-game, as they hosted live group presentations and gave individual guided tours.

Here are some pictures from the booth:

A Community Manager who will be supporting French-speaking players has recently joined the Blizzard Europe team! Players will get to meet him soon via our official European forums during the World of Warcraft Closed Beta test, under the forum name "Aguilar". His previous experience as Community Manager included several communities of gamers in Europe.

Our team of Community Managers will soon be complete, when the English-speaking Community Manager finally joins Gungdil and Aguilar, to make sure the European community stays always up-to-date with the latest developments.

Welcome aboard, Aguilar!

We are aware that many of you, like us, are eager for the European beta test to begin. We understand and appreciate your interest in World of Warcraft and wanted to update you on exactly where the European beta test currently stands. The European sign-ups were a huge success, thanks to you, and were much bigger than we anticipated. Hence, the process of selecting testers has taken longer than expected, but the good news is that the process is now complete.

Over the past few weeks, our growing European teams have been striving to prepare the technical platform to support the beta test, and we are now in the final stages of implementing the required technology. It is our intention to post an announcement very soon that indicates the specific date in September when the European World of Warcraft closed beta test will start. Under the current schedule, the first wave of selected testers will be notified by e-mail a couple of days before the beta launch. Thank you for your patience, and we hope to have you playing World of Warcraft as soon as possible!

Blizzard Europe has new job positions to fill. We are currently looking for some brave heroes for our Customer Support and experienced Game Masters. You have a burning passion for games? The best thing that could happen to you would be to land a job with one of the most creative teams in the gaming industry? You've always felt that there was nothing more rewarding than helping a fellow player caught in a tight spot? Then have a look at Blizzard-Europe.com's job page and read our job descriptions.

The contact address for each job is posted along with the corresponding description. If you've always wanted to work in the gaming industry, then this job at Blizzard could be your big chance. But remember, you won't be the only ones applying for these jobs. If you really want to stick out from the masses, make sure your read Blizzard's Basic Tips for Resume Submissions page and the job FAQ on Blizzard's official website.

Good luck!

We are very happy to share the news with you that World of Warcraft won the "Best Online Game Of The Show" award at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, last week. Over 100,000 visitors attended the show and many took the time to come to see us at our booth. It was the first time that players had the chance to see the game and their positive feedback gave us a real boost.

We'd like to thank everyone for their support and look forward to seeing UK gamers at Game Stars Live in London next week!

The world of Azeroth is huge. In fact, it is so huge that you will need to fly if you want to get to some places in time. Luckily, public transportation is available in a lot of places to speed up your travels a little bit.

In the coming weeks, there will be a few sightings of World of Warcraft in Europe, most notably at the Game Stars Live event in London (Wednesday 1st to Sunday 5th of September) and at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany (Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd of August).

Visitors to Game Stars Live, which takes place from 1st to 5th September at London's ExCeL centre, will have the opportunity to play the US closed-beta version of the game and experience the vibrant world of Azeroth firsthand. World of Warcraft will be presented on stand no. F11/F12 in the Main Hall N1-N5.

If you are in London early September, be sure to make some room in your schedule so you can stop by and check out what's waiting for you in the not at all distant future.

It's been two weeks since the close of the European World of Warcraft Beta Test sign-ups, and the selection process for the first group of beta testers is now nearing completion. However, as we have an impressive list of applications, the finalization of the first selection still lays a little way ahead.

The first wave of authentication keys for the European Closed Beta Test will be sent out to beta testers by email as soon as the selection process is completed. With these keys, testers will be able to create their accounts for the Beta Test using a Web interface that will be hosted on the official European World of Warcraft Beta Test Web sites (www.wow-europe.com/de, /fr, and /en).

During its first phase, the Beta Test will not be localized, which means that all European beta testers will initially be using the English language version of the game client. However, as the Beta Test progresses, fully localized French and German clients will be made available for download.

We will announce the notification of the first group of testers and the start of the European World of Warcraft Closed Beta Test on these sites as well as on the official European Blizzard sites: Blizzard-Europe.com, Blizzard.de, and Blizzard.fr.

See you in Azeroth.

Finally, the last character class of World of Warcraft has received its own info page. The hunter will be one of the most versatile classes for solo players as well as a welcome addition to any group, thanks to its wide array of special abilities and spells: Beast Taming, ranged combat, and much, much more.

You can read all the latest information about the hunter on the hunter info page.

A Community Manager who will be supporting German-speaking players has recently joined the Blizzard Europe team, and Community Managers for the English and French-speaking communities will not be far behind.

Working under the forum name "Gungdil", our new Community Manager joined the Blizzard Europe team at the beginning of August, having previously spent several years managing some of the largest Blizzard fan sites in Germany. Gungdil, along with his soon-to-be colleagues on the European community team, will be dedicated to making sure the community and fan sites are fully supported with all the latest news about World of Warcraft. You'll hear from them shortly via the official European World of Warcraft beta-tester forums, which are due to go live in the next few weeks.

Check out these 42 new screenshots from the Horde vs. Alliance Race War Server. The screenshots show a large group of Alliance players raiding Horde territory in Orgrimmar, Crossroads, and Thunder Bluff.

Yesterday, the Blizzard Fan Art Section received an update with five new pieces of art.

On Monday, Block posted a Q&A on the US forums which addressed some interesting questions which beta testers had asked the development team. A transcript of this Q&A for convenient reading can be found here.
This Q&A answers questions about how players will be able to change or influence the World of Warcraft, and how the development team plans to balance player crafted items to be able to compete with quest rewards.

Members of Blizzard recently met with Blizzard Fan Sites on Battle.net to discuss World of Warcraft. The chat was attended by Blizzard Reps. These pages contain some interesting information about the way the Beta Test is used to balance the game.
Read more on the English, French and German transcripts of this Fan Site Chat!

The European World of Warcraft team is recruiting in the Game Masters, Community and Customer Support departments!
Interested? You can visit our jobs page on Blizzard-Europe.com to get more information.

All pages about Professions have now been updated!
You can discover which gathering skill goes best with your favourite production skill; then, learn how the trade skills will help you make your own character different from the other Horde grunts :)

Site Updates - Four new trade skills pages are online:
* Mining
* Engineering
* Tailoring
* Enchanting

The sign-up period for the European Beta Test is over and thanks to you, it has been an overwhelming success. While we are in the process of selecting the first group of testers, why don't you check out the European World of Warcraft website? At the moment, these pages contain a selection of information aimed at giving you a general idea of the most important aspects of the game. For example, we explain how grouping works, what trade skills are, the classes you can play and their strengths, plus much more.

During the next weeks and throughout the Beta, we will continue to expand and update this site on a regular basis. Here, players will find useful resources for playing World of Warcraft, and our future forums will give the community a means to keep up with the latest developments.

So, have fun and keep checking back; remember, you'll be needing everything you read here very, very soon - the Closed Beta Test is right around the corner!

Please note that we're unable to comment on the status of any applications to join the Beta Test. The first group of testers will be notified by email in the coming weeks, and we will be adding additional testers in phases throughout the Beta Test. We'll be sure to post an announcement here when every new phase of testing has begun so you'll know when to check your inboxes!

This gameplay trailer contains all-new footage for your viewing pleasure!
Download it now for an insider's look at World of Warcraft.