Whether you play the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game for fun or simply buy packs in search of loot cards, you may be happy to hear that Scourgewar, the game's 10th expansion, will be released on Nov. 24. Scourgewar will add three new loot cards to the mix, and Ryan O'Connor has previewed them on the official WoW TCG site.

The ultra-common loot card is a miniature mount named Tiny. Horde characters get a raptor, while Alliance toons get a pony. The catch is that you won't be able to move any faster than you can run. Each code can be redeemed for 50 uses.

The uncommon card lets you fly your very own Tuskarr Kite, which counts toward your companion pet achievements. The rare card gives you a Spectral Kitten companion pet. Head over to Landro Longshot on the PTR and enter the following codes to try out the items before Scourgewar is released. Tiny's code is 3333, the Tuskarr Kite code is 2222, and the Spectral Kitten's code is 1111.

While most of the non-gaming media continues to cover events like BlizzCon as a nerd-fest gathering of an incomprehensible and socially-inept subculture, one guy is helping to lift the curtain and change those preconceptions. Well, from his standpoint, at least. Chris Nguyen, a.k.a. ddrfreak5o3 on YouTube, directed and produced his own fan-made, mini-documentary called "BlizzCon: An Event For Fans" while attending BlizzCon 2009 last month.

"I suppose the main purpose of this decision was to challenge myself, prepare for some documentary film classes (as well as a few other Journalistic Electronic Media classes), and update my digital portfolio," he wrote in the video's description on YouTube. Although he might not have originally intended it to be a deep, sociological insight into the die-hard gaming community, it's a fairly distinct and refreshingly alternative piece, compared to similar "fish-out-of-water" documentaries and news reports.

The mini-docu runs just over 10 minutes long and is surprisingly well-edited and shot. Nguyen captured high-quality video throughout a variety of BlizzCon events and exhibitions, including the Ozzy Osbourne performance. He also interviewed a couple of WoW gamers, and the winner of this year's costume contest. All in all, it's an extremely polished video for a fan-made documentary; one that shines a light on the best elements of BlizzCon, and the community behind it.

A number of battleground queue changes have been added to the most recent 3.2.2 PTR build. For example, the patch notes state that "players may now only queue for no more than two Battlegrounds at a time." Players can currently queue for three Battlegrounds at once, so a user on the official forums asked why the change has been implemented on the test servers.

According to Zarhym, "All of the User Interface changes in 3.2.2 to the Battleground queuing system are to help address matches starting with uneven numbers on each team. These changes may not fully address the situation, but in that case we have some other possible solutions we can implement further down the road."

Zarhym said the team doesn't want to implement a system like Tenacity to balance population issues since it isn't designed for instanced PvP. "Besides, I doubt most players would like to see Battlegrounds arbitrarily balanced by a buff rather than by numbers of players on each team," Zarhym said.

You can read all of the changes to battleground queuing taken from the 3.2.2 PTR patch notes after the jump. Keep in mind these updates are still in testing and subject to revision.

According to a post by Zarhym, another round of the class Q&A series should begin in the near future due to "all of the recent announcements coupled with the 3.2.2 testing process." The class order won't be the same as the last series, so hopefully rogues and priests won't be at the end of the list again.

Zarhym's comments were actually made in response to a player asking if priests would get answers to some follow-up questions from their Q&A interview. Zarhym said the timing of BlizzCon made conducting a follow-up Q&A difficult. The blue poster did say, however, that Blizzard is "in the process of discussing ways of improving the Class Q&A Series, looking at what worked well the first time and what didn't."

Reactions to the class Q&A series were mixed. Some players appreciated getting information on their classes, while others felt some of the more important questions were ignored. What do you think? How would you change the class Q&A series?

Now that some of the dust has settled since the BlizzCon announcement of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we wanted to dig a little deeper into the mysteries that encompass the next expansion. Unfortunately, we didn't get much, but at this point, we take what we can get. Enjoy!

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ZAM: Will the Wrath of the Lich King and Northrend story arcs continue into the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, or will they begin and end separately?

Liam Knapp: The Northrend and Wrath of the Lich King stuff will be complete when Cataclysm goes [live]—the story and progression have moved forward. We're still working on the final patch for Wrath of the Lich King, where Icecrown Citadel and Arthas will come to a head. So we're still working on that and players are going to be able to sink their teeth into it in the near future. Once that storyline completes, that battle has just ended but a new terror comes and hits the world. So even though people thought they may have a [lull in the action], the Horde is already breathing down the Alliance's neck, and vice-versa. Then something new comes into the world and they have to take it on while [neither faction] is being very friendly toward [the other].

ZAM: Ever since WoW came out, Maelstrom has been in the middle of the map. I've always thought one of the expansions would focus on the Maelstrom, with an underwater zone, raid or something...is that in the works? Anything underwater?

Lead Encounter Designer Daelo has announced a handful of hotfixes that affect the difficulty of Trial of the Grand Crusader and the Holy Wrath spell for Paladins. The Trial of the Grand Crusader fixes target the Northrend beasts and Lord Jaraxxus encounters. For example, players now have more time to defeat the beasts encounter before Icehowl berserks, and the Felflame Infernals and Mistresses of Pain will spawn quicker in the Lord Jaraxxus encounter.

As for the Holy Wrath hotfix, the spell has been modified to give it "the same diminishing return mechanics that other player stun spells and abilities currently have." Daelo said this will prevent a team of Paladins from rotating their casts to permanently stun Undead enemies.

You can read the full posts regarding the hotfixes after the jump.

According to an Associated Press article published on the Austin American-Statesman Web site, a residential treatment center for Internet addiction opened its doors in July to help Web addicts, including World of Warcraft players, kick their habit. The Seattle-based reStart claims to be the first treatment center of its kind in the United States and comes with a hefty price tag; the 45-day program costs $14,000 plus other potential fees.

The article focuses on Ben Alexander, a 19-year-old whose 17-hour-a-day WoW habit caused him to drop out of the University of Iowa. According to NPR, Alexander is the first client at reStart, "which operates out of a massage therapist's large country home in the woods outside Seattle." Alexander works on projects like building a chicken coop and baking cookies while attending counseling sessions and going on outings.

The NPR article states Alexander's family is spending $300 a day to keep him away from the Internet. The reStart Web site has addressed the high cost of the program by saying "a program like this costs a great deal to run." What are your thoughts about the cost and the program as a whole?

Fans of both the World of Warcraft MMO and trading card game (TCG) might remember the real-life Darkmoon Faire hosted in select cities last year. Created by Blizzard and Upper Deck, the WoW-themed carnival/TCG event returns to Amsterdam this year on Sept. 12 and 13, and hits Austin, Texas and Las Vegas, Nevada in October. The event's name and theme are inspired from the in-game Darkmoon Faire in WoW, a traveling carnival that players can visit each month to win prizes and play games.

The Upper Deck event in Amsterdam focuses mainly on the company's World of Warcraft TCG and miniatures game, the former of which has been licensed out by Blizzard since 2006. Upper Deck uses the "Darkmoon Faire" name to host tournaments and other events around the world, including North America.

Upper Deck's Darkmoon Faire features a variety of tournaments and other games and events, including contests and a ticket-earning gimmick similar to the in-game mechanic found in WoW. Surprisingly, admission to the Faire is free, where the TCG "Darkmoon Faire Championships" are held, along with other tourneys. Last year, the Faire attracted many WoW fans who don't play the TCG, simply because of the theme and atmosphere of the event, which is modeled from its in-game namesake. Check out the Faire's main page on the Upper Deck website for more info and locations.

Ever since it was introduced as a stat in World of Warcraft, "armor penetration" has seen its fair share of debate and controversy. First it was too weak, then apparently, too strong against squishy targets. Ghostcrawler said in a recent forum post that the developer team noticed AP classes like Hunters stacking the stat too heavily, via gems and other means.

"The nerf to armor pen in 3.2.2 is intentional," he wrote. "Compared to the recent buff where we increased the value of armor rating to 125%, this nerf would take it back down to 110%. While we are still evaluating the effects of this change in the 3.2.2 build, we did want to let you know of the possibility in case you were about to spend a lot on armor pen gems."

In his next post in the thread, he reiterates that the upcoming change is for the best, and that the armor penetration stat will be gone (along with many other stats) when the future expansion, Cataclysm, is released next year. Check out the full post for more details and player feedback.

As we mentioned earlier this week, Blizzard is making an appearance at Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) this weekend, to showcase more WoW: Cataclysm content, as well as new Diablo III and StarCraft II demos and news. We can hope for some new screenshots, videos and news about the upcoming WoW expansion to come out of PAX this year, but at the very least, we should get a better look at the Goblin and Worgen starting zones and gameplay.

Blizzard's appearance at PAX will provide the first round of new World of Warcraft news and info since BlizzCon 2009, when it officially announced Cataclysm. It's probably too much to hope that the company might finally reveal a teaser about its top-secret, "next-gen" MMO; a subject that made the news earlier this week in a Wired.com interview with Blizzard's chief operating officer, Paul Sams.

In the interview, Sams told Wired's Tracey John that the new MMO will be "significantly different" from WoW, and that it won't be something Warcraft fans will feel like they will have to choose between. WoW's life expectancy is also brought up; it's an old topic receiving new attention after the game-changing details of Cataclysm broke. Will the upcoming expansion prove to be the key to WoW's continued survival? And as Wired's interview points out, will Blizzard's secret MMO "cannibalize" WoW's player base when it finally hits the shelves?