Have you ever wondered what Blizzard Headquarters looks like? The team over at MMOsite has posted 64 photos from a tour of the main building and two development buildings, and the pictures range from exterior shots to images of Blizzard's museum and library. There's even photos of the gym, which is available 24 hours a day, and the cafeteria to show what employees can do when they're not working on World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III or other projects.

MMOsite even took photos inside the office of Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime and caught a glimpse of the StarCraft II development room. Check out their article to view 16 pages of pictures from the tour.

Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has answered numerous questions submitted by a player on the official forums regarding Shadow Priests. For example, he said the team would like to boost the Vampiric Touch penalty in patch 3.2. "We think the whole dispel protection game needs to be overhauled. Buffs should be valued for their buffs, not for whether or not they can protect other buffs. We need to change this whole system to something more sane," he said.

Ghostcrawler also said they might consider adding more special effects to Shadow Priest DoT spells and discussed why there won't be a new 51-point talent added. "We want the 51-pointers to be very attractive, but not necessarily the most powerful talent in the tree," he said.

You can read the full Q&A below.

Bornakk has started a new thread for July's in-game fixes. Only one fix has been added so far:

"In the Mimiron encounter, the abilities Rapid Burst and Hand Pulse no longer cause spell pushback."

If you'd like to look back on June's in-game fixes, you can find them all in this thread.

Blizzard has trademarked "Cataclysm" a few days ago. You can find the official filling for the patent at the United States Patent Office's website here.

What does that mean to us? Well many amongst the community feel this is a sign of the next expansion which might be announced at the upcoming Blizzcon 2009. There are a few signs of proof for this, according to the wiki page for the Great Sundering at WoWWiki states the event that caused the Maelstrom has also been called "Cataclysm".

Here's to hoping!

Fields of Honor, the ninth expansion for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, is now available in stores. The booster set focuses on battlegrounds and introduces Warsong Gulch rules, and it includes a new Honor theme and Death Knight weapons and armor.

Whether you play the TCG or not, you may be interested in the three new loot cards that have been released with the expansion. The ultra-common Path of Cenarius makes flowers grow under your feet; The uncommon Piñata card lets you set up an Ogre Piñata that can be opened by attacking it so you can chew gum and blow bubbles; and the epic El Pollo Grande card will let you summon a giant rooster mount.

We reported on these loot card back in May, which is when William Brinkman previewed them on the official TCG Web site. Check out his article for YouTube videos of all the loot card rewards in action. Keep reading below for more information on Fields of Honor.

As we reported, Nethaera announced on Monday that Blizzard is working on a service that will allow players to change their faction from Alliance to Horde or Horde to Alliance. Even though this announcement was a "very early heads-up," the upcoming service has received much attention from the WoW community. In response, Nethaera has edited the original post with answers to some frequently asked questions.

You can read the full Q&A after the jump. You'll only be able to switch to a race that has your class type available to it, there's no information on how much it will cost yet, and there will be restrictions on how often you can change your faction.

In a recent interview published by IncGamers, StarCraft II lead producer Rob Pardo and lead designer Chris Sigaty broke the news that you won't be able to play the upcoming sequel on a LAN. The redesigned Battle.net is being used by Blizzard to compile it's library of games into a centralized hub, similar to the Steam client. The new Battle.net has been met with mixed reactions, both offering the pros and cons of its implementation. Presumably, the LAN-lockout will apply to all future Blizzard games.

When asked if StarCraft II would support LAN play, Pardo said, "We don't have any plans to support LAN [...] The only multiplayer available will be on Battle.net." After the interview, IncGamers asked Blizzard to comment on why it would not allow LAN play. The company responded, saying the reason "is because of the planned technology to be incorporated into Battle.net," which basically means that Blizzard wants complete control over any multiplayer activity within its games.

Younger gamers might not see the significance of this move, since LAN parties and the neccessity for LAN play has dropped steadily since broadband modem speeds began replacing dial-up. However, there is still a generation of PC gamers who enjoy LAN gaming and hold massive get-togethers to play various games (like the original StarCraft) for fun or sport. Beyond that, LAN usage is still sought after by many gamers who don't have access to an Internet connection, but still want to play with other people. What do you think? A sign of the times, or a snob move by Blizzard?

Nethaera just posted an exciting announcement, It seems Blizzard is in the process of ironing out the details of a faction change service where you can change the race of your character to an equal version of the character in the opposite faction.

You can read the original post after the jump.

According to an article on InformationWeek, the Chinese government has banned the trading of virtual money for real goods and services. So yeah, China has banned gold farming.

In a joint release issued Friday, China's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce said, "The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services." The release also says virtual money trade in China topped several billion yuan last year after rising around 20 percent annually. According to InformationWeek, one billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million.

The Chinese government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, stating it includes "prepaid cards of cyber-games." The release says the most popular Chinese online credits are "QQ coins" issued by Tencent.com, which has at least 220 million registered users. The Web site said it supports the new rule.

Zarhym just posted a bunch of new and exciting changes coming to everyones favourite profession engineering! With wonderful new items like Mind Amplification Dish attachments for your helm and other goodies it looks like all you engineers will be jumping with joy.

More information and the original post after the jump.