As we reported yesterday, Blizzard is planning to rebroadcast the BlizzCon Internet stream for those who purchase the service so it can be watched at their convenience. Well, there's more Internet streaming news. According to a post on the official World of Warcraft site, BlizzCon tournament coverage will be available on the BlizzCon site in both high-resolution and low-resolution formats for the first time. Oh, and the tourney coverage is free, so you can just pick hi-res or low-res and watch all the WoW, Warcraft III and StarCraft fights you want.

The full announcement can be found below.

Zarhym just posted that BlizzCon confirmation emails have gone out to all ticket holders, check your email for more information!

You can read the original post after the jump.

As many of you know, World of Warcraft has been suspended in China for more than 50 days while the game's been investigated for approval following NetEase being granted the license. Well, the suspension has been lifted and WoW China is currently in a week-long closed beta event. MMOsite has some screenshots of the packed starting areas, and you can see the mob of players in the Undead starting area after the jump.

While a mad rush of players is to be expected following the lack of WoW, perhaps the more interesting news is that icons depicting blood and skeletons have been replaced with images of boxes and bags. MMOsite has screens of the icons, as well as shots of the boxes as they appear in the Warlock talent tree.

Whether you're attending BlizzCon or just plan on watching from your TV or monitor, Josh "Waxpaper" Bashara has you covered in the ZAM Preview Guide to BlizzCon 2009. If you plan on purchasing the Internet stream for $39.95, a post on the official World of Warcraft site has announced that rebroadcasts will be available for viewers both during and right after the show at no extra charge. This means you won't need to sit in front of your computer from Aug. 21-22 in fear of missing anything. Go to work, run some errands, play WoW and watch the event at your convenience. You can find out more about the Internet stream here.

While you're doing all that, make sure to keep an eye on ZAM.com during the convention. Members of our team will be at BlizzCon and will be posting photos and news from the floor. So are you buying the Internet stream of DirecTV Pay Per View? Better yet, are you attending BlizzCon? Let us know.

Since 2005, tens of thousands of gamer fans have flocked to southern California each year (with the exception of 2006) to take part in BlizzCon; Blizzard's celebration of its complete IP lineup. The first convention took place on October 28, 2005 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, and it's remained there ever since. About 8000 people were in attendance; a fairly substantial turn-out when you consider that no one knew exactly what to expect.

By the end of the weekend though, fans were thrilled with what they had finally found: a convention for gamers, by gamers. Technically, BlizzCon is similar to a trade expo in some functions, but Blizzard knew from the get-go that it wanted to offer its fans something other than the stuffy, industry-only direction in which tradeshows were headed. One weekend out of the year, Blizzard wanted to throw a massive party disguised as an expo, where its fans could gather and celebrate the entire array of the Blizzard franchise—including the Warcraft RTS series, StarCraft, Diablo…and of course, World of Warcraft.

For those of you lucky enough to score tickets to this year's convention (Aug. 21 and 22), ZAM has you covered, in this preview guide to BlizzCon 2009. You'll find a round-up of this year's highlights, along with some sage advice gleaned from attendees of years past. And if you weren't able to purchase tickets this year (along with seemingly everyone else who tried), don't worry! We'll give you all the info you need to consider the live "virtual pay-per-view" service being offered this year—which also entitles you to receive the same "Grunty the Murloc Marine" in-game vanity pet in this year's swag bags.

According to data obtained by Gamasutra, World of Warcraft has sold 8.6 million copies to date in the U.S. since its launch in November 2004. The number was provided by the NPD Group, which is a market research company. This data includes the base game, the collector's edition, the Battle Chest, and the two expansions.

While Gamasutra wasn't able to get information on average sale prices, the staff uses a price of $30 for each unit sold to estimate Blizzard has earned as much as $258 million total from U.S. retail alone. And since the company last stated it had 11.5 million subscribers worldwide in December 2008, the money just keeps pouring in through subscriptions.

Another week another comic, this one with koboldy goodness. We also now have an RSS feed that links to the comics at here. You can also follow me on twitter where I keep random updates about the comic here.

You can view the comic after the jump.

Whether you're a World of Warcraft fan or not, chances are you've seen or heard of The Guild, a "Web show" that began as an indie project and eventually found success after signing an exclusive deal with Microsoft. Created by actress and WoW player Felicia Day, The Guild is an satire comedy show that spoofs a technically-unnamed fantasy MMO; although it pretty much goes without saying that the show was inspired by WoW.

Felicia Day and the cast made an appearance at a panel during Comic Con in San Diego last week, and MSN is offering a pretty nice assortment of video clips from the panel, including behind-the-scenes interviews. The Guild is also offered via Microsoft's Xbox Live streaming video service, so you'll see some videos regarding that topic as well. Expect to see more news from The Guild in late August, when the crew makes an appearance at BlizzCon 2009.

Although it's not confirmed by Blizzard yet, the data-mining gurus over at MMO-Champion have discovered that the bind-on-pickup restriction on WoW's trading card "loot" items may be a thing of the past in the upcoming patch 3.2. According to this thread, the coveted Spectral Tiger and other loot card items don't have the BoP restriction in the current 3.2 public test realm.

If it's a legit change, it's one that was probably made by Blizzard to deter all the "loot card scams" that seem to have skyrocketed in popularity throughout the last few months. If the item could physically be put into the trade window, most scammers wouldn't be able to get away with their current scheme, which relies on the buyer to trust the seller when they say, "Yeah, just mail me 20,000 gold and I'll mail you back the loot card code!"

You might remember our hotly-debated editorial about the concept of "MMO addiction," published last month. In it, we reviewed the negative media coverage and various claims that MMOs are addictive, supposedly leading to social withdrawal and real-world failures. It's a debate that will probably rage for years to come, although some mental health professionals might already be preparing for an "epidemic."

According to a recent article in the UK's Telegraph, addiction therapists plan to sign up for MMO accounts (such as World of Warcraft) and use their in-game characters to offer resource advice and counseling to "youngsters who are spending so much time playing these games that they have lost touch with the real world," according to the article.