According to a post on MMO-Champion, a new feature was added in the latest PTR patch that lets you "trade BOP items with members of your raid who participated in the kill." It looks like a time limit will be placed on the trade. For example, a screenshot supplied with the post shows a 22-slot Dragon Hide Bag that the player can trade in 1 hour and 59 minutes according to the tooltip.

ZAM user Ailitardif started a thread on this topic in our WoW general forum, and it seems like most of our readers agree this will help both master looters and lessen the amount of GM tickets submitted regarding the distribution of BoP items. What do you think?

The Blizzard Community Team has published the newest installment of its class Q&A series, and this one focuses on the Death Knight. The team sat down with Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street and the development team to get some questions answered regarding the hero class.

THe Q&A covers numerous topics, including the team's thoughts on Death Knight tanks. Ghostcrawler said he thinks the evidence is overwhelming that Death Knight tanks are overpowered: "It’s entirely possible you’ll see Icebound Fortitude on a two-minute timer in the 3.2 patch. I want to reiterate though that our vision hasn’t changed -- we still want death knights to be able to tank every encounter. Rather than posting in the forums that you are now doomed and will have to reroll, help us get the death knights in a place where they are an attractive option but not the clear best option on most fights."

You can read the entire Q&A below and discuss it in this thread in our Death Knight forum.

If you couldn't get BlizzCon tickets and aren't a DirecTV subscriber, there's another way you can view coverage of the event. Eyonix has announced on the official forums that you'll be able to purchase a live internet stream of the convention for the first time this year.

The stream, which costs $39.95, will contain the same content as the DirecTV pay-per-view coverage, and you'll get the exclusive Grunty the Murloc Marine in-game pet. That means you can watch "over 16 hours of video, including interviews and commentary, main stage presentations, and tournament coverage" right from your computer.

Visit the BlizzCon 2009 Live Stream Web site to place your order or test out your system to make sure it'll play the video. ZAM user PentUpAnger has started a thread in our general forum on the BlizzCon internet stream, so feel free to add to the discussion. BlizzCon will be held from Aug. 21-22 and ZAM staff members will be at the Anaheim Convention Center to supply you with as much news as possible.

As players continue to try out patch 3.2 on the public test realm, Blizzard is naturally going to implement changes based on feedback. Zarhym has announced the dev team will be making several updates to the Isle of Conquest battleground in the next test realm build.

Changes include a handful of increases to various aspects of the BG: the health of all gates will be bumped up from 300,000 to 600,000, the reinforcement count will double from 200 to 400, and the health and damage of the keep generals will be significantly buffed.

Seaforium, Glaive Thrower, Demolisher, Keep Cannons and Siege Engine updates have also been announced. You can read Zarhym's full post below.

As Nethaera has announced, patch 3.2.0 is now available on the PTR for testing. Check out the official test realm forum for threads on player feedback, information on how to install the PTR and the most recent patch notes. For example, the notes were updated today to include quest tracking features, which show quest creatures and objects on a player's world map.

If you'd like to discuss the PTR and 3.2, IDrownFish has started a thread in our general forum. MMO-Champion has a ton of information, including data on items such as the Tier 9 item sets and a list of badge rewards. Boubouille also posted new weapon models and Call of the Crusade achievements. Just remember, always take datamined information with a grain of salt.

Are you playing on the PTR? What are your thoughts on the patch?

It seems as if everywhere we turn, someone has a problem with video games these days. Even the President of the United States, it appears. Addressing the American Medical Association last week, President Barack Obama outlined a series of "preventative care" issues deemed important to modern health care reform. Limiting the amount of time that kids spend playing video games is a small part of that plan. "The second step that we can all agree on is to invest more in preventive care so that we can avoid illness and disease in the first place," Obama said at the press conference, referring to his reform plan. "That starts with each of us taking more responsibility for our health and the health of our children. […] It means going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside."

Sure, it's not exactly a defining topic of the speech, or even a full paragraph's worth. But it does indicate—at the very least—that modern video game culture has the attention of the Obama administration, in some capacity. It doesn't read like a "call to arms" against video games as a whole. More so, it seems as if the administration is urging the AMA to recognize video games as a potential "health hazard" (if only in the sense of physical fitness and mental well-being). The question remains: "Does the government believe video games—including MMOs—pose a risk to public health?"

One of the most controversially-discussed changes coming for World of Warcraft in patch 3.2 is the redesign of some major PvP mechanics. Specifically, the changes to the "resilience" stat has left many people on opposing sides of the fence; some seeing it as a well-needed fix to a broken part of the game, while others feel it has the potential to break the game itself.

The changes we'll be seeing to resilience in 3.2 have been slowly trickling in over the past few days, ever since the patch notes "floodgate" opened. People have been trying to make sense of the changes, especially those who apparently lacked clarification regarding some of the finer details. One of the biggest changes? "The change to resilience affects ALL player damage," Ghostcrawler (aka Greg Street) clarified in a recent post on the official forums.

The day World of Warcraft's annual Midsummer Fire Festival launched, we reported many players experiencing problems tied to the in-game achievements. Players were having trouble completing certain quests, namely "Honor the Fires," "Desecrate the Fires" and "Unusual Activity," among others. Apparently some of the problems were caused because the achievement system wasn't implemented this time last-year, and the acts to complete the current achievements purposely weren't retro-actively attributed to player accounts, otherwise nothing would be required from those who completed them last year. Or something like that.

Regardless, Blizzard poster Bornakk announced in the official forums last night that the developers "are in the process of applying an in-game fix that will restart all of the quests associated with the Midsummer Fire Festival event and allow players to complete them once again." The fix will be applied only after realms have been restarted.

He also notes that if you're currently in the process of completing any of the festival achievements like "Extinguishing Kalimdor," your progress will be reset and you'll need to start over. That's a bit of a bummer for those of you who might have been halfway done; but on the other hand, the Midsummer Fire Festival is one of Blizzard's longest-lasting holidays, running until July 5 this year.

We recently reported that World of Warcraft's annual "Midsummer Fire Festival" is now officially upon us, and there's no doubt many players will want to hit the ground running. If you've been trying to complete all the holiday achievements with the hopes of completing the "What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been" meta-achievement so you can score that coveted Violet Proto-Drake, you might be interested in checking out the 2009 Midsummer Fire Festival Guide just released by our sister site, Wowhead.

Having a tough time juggling those fire torches? Don't know what to do with those Burning Blossoms? Wondering how to most efficiently extinguish all those braziers? (Or maybe you're just confused and wondering what ladies' undergarments could possibly have to do with the holiday?) Don't worry; you've got all the way until July 5 to get it all done, and Wowhead's got you covered every step of the way.

According to a post by Bornakk on the official forums, the rusted and ironbound proto-drake rewards for the Glory of the Ulduar Raider meta achievements will be removed in the future, possibly with the release of patch 3.2. Whenever the team decides to remove the mounts, they will provide about one month of warning so players can try to complete the achievements one last time.

So why are the proto-drake rewards disappearing? Well, Bornakk said the mounts are meant to be rewards for the top tier of raiders, and the introduction of new and more powerful equipment into the game will make the completion of the meta achievements "easier than intended."

Bornakk also said the team plans to continue removing similar rewards in the future. So basically, once a high-end reward becomes too easy to get, it can no longer be obtained. You can read the full announcement below.