The following is a Christmas story written by ZAM user matrigs.  he also posted his story in our WoW general forum. How do you celebrate Christmas in WoW?  Let us know!  If you're interested in writing RP style stories, drop by the story thread in the WoW general forum. Also feel free to send me a PM (Xsarus) if you'd like a story of yours put on the front page.

It had been more than two hundred years since the coastal waters of Darkshore were last frozen solid and only the eldest Night Elves could remember it as children…if they chose to. The snows from Winterspring rarely came down into Central Kalimdor, but never with such ferocity as it did this year. Auberdine was locked down tight and the few elven villages that skirted the borders between the Veiled Sea and Felwood were left to fend for themselves. One such village wedged between The Masters Glaive and Northern Ashenvale not only had to deal with a record snowfall that literally buried everything surrounding them, but something worse... much worse.

An illness that had spread quickly from the sickly deer of the region to their own stock of winter supplies overtook the children without warning and what started as a dilemma immediately became a deadly problem. It was twelve days until Winter Veil and the Night Elves of this buried village had less than that to save their little ones. The constant blizzards battered back any attempt to contact Maestras Post and helplessness bordered outright panic. Early that morning a banged-up sled clawed its way into their lives, seemingly from nowhere.

In his newest World of Warcraft blog entry, Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street talks about the importance of threat. Here's a brief summary of his points on the mechanic:

• "If threat generation is too easy then the entire risk of the encounter drops."
• "We want tanks to care about the buttons they hit instead of just relying on auto-attacking to control their target. "
• "When threat is too hard to maintain, it can be exasperating."
• "We don’t usually want DPS classes to have to stop attacking in order to keep from generating too much threat."
• "It’s fairly gamey as game mechanics go and we think there are probably better ways to communicate it to players."

For more details, including Ghostcrawler's guidelines for knowing when threat is a problem in a group, check out the entire blog post after the jump.

Are you a Wrath of the Lich King player who's still on the fence about Cataclysm? Then you may want to take advantage of Blizzard's new 10-day free trial for the latest expansion. The trial will give you access to all of Cataclysm's content, including creating a goblin or worgen and exploring the new zones. You'll even be able to advance up to one experience point below level 81 and keep all the items and gold you gain during the trial.

For more details, check out the Cataclysm trial FAQ after the jump. Are you going to try out 10 free days of Cataclysm?

What happens when you pit 300 naked level 1 orcs against Gamon, a level 85 elite tauren NPC in Orgrimmar? The hosts of the Legendary World of Warcraft video podcast (including ZAM's own Mike B. aka Fony) decided to find out with the help of their viewers. I'll give you a hint: it's epic. Watch the video after the jump!

UPDATE: The Legendary guys did a similar video with goblins involving the Rocket Jump racial ability. Those poor goblins. The video has been added below.

With the recent release of World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion, you may not have left your computer much in the last week. Normally, that's no big deal, but have you noticed that the holidays are right around the corner? Not to induce any more holiday shopping panic, but what are you gonna buy? We're assuming some of your friends are WoW players, and we have some great gift ideas for the WoW junkie in your life. Taverncraft, maker of all things epic, recently launched three new WoW-related beverage holders that would fit perfectly under the tree this year. We even have a 15% off coupon code to help you out!

The newest batch of Cataclysm hotfixes is live, and it includes a handful of notable profession-related changes. For example, the Alchemy mount Vial of Sands is no longer Bind-on-Pickup! Blizzard has also clarified the Holy Paladin nerf that Nethaera recently discussed on the official forums:

Zealotry no longer consumes the Hand of Light proc effect.

Tower of Radiance no longer grants Holy Power from Holy Lights cast on a target buffed with Beacon of Light. It continues to work as the tooltip describes for Flash of Light and Divine Light. Please note the tooltip may not be updated to reflect this change until a client-side patch is applied.

Healing done by Beacon of Light is now properly affected by healing modifiers on targets which reduce healing done (i.e. Mortal Strike).

The healing done by Light of Dawn has been reduced by approximately 40%. Please note the tooltip may not be updated to reflect this change until a client-side patch is applied.

The lengthy list of hotfixes can be found after the jump.

In case you haven't heard, all of the Gawker Media sites were compromised over the weekend. If you've registered an account on Gawker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, Jezebel, io9, Jalopnik, Deadspin or Fleshbot, it's best to assume that your username and password were leaked. Gawker Media is recommending that you change your passwords immediately on their sites, as well as any other site where you used the same password.

That's why Blizzard issued password-reset e-mails for several accounts. If you use the same login information for Battle.net and your Gawker Media account, Blizzard highly recommends that you change your Battle.net e-mail address and password as soon as possible. If you don't trust clicking links in an e-mail, you can change your information in the Account Management section of Battle.net. Blizzard's full announcement can be found after the jump.

It's time once again to enjoy some holiday cheer in World of Warcraft! The Feast of Winter Veil is now live, so get ready to kiss Winter Revelers, transform into a Little Helper, and throw some snowballs. And don't forget to open your presents from Greatfather Winter starting Dec. 25! They'll be available until the event ends on Jan. 2.

The quests may all be the same as last year, but there's still plenty to do during this year's event. Check out Wowhead's Winter Veil Guide for details on all the festivities and achievements, including how to earn your Merrymaker title. You can also find a couple of amazing wallpapers by Noxychu at the end of the guide. Happy holidays!

Today marks the launch of PvP Season 9 in World of Warcraft, which means players who are at the level cap can now compete in level-85 Rated Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds. This is the first time that players can fight for titles and gear in Battlegrounds, so get ready to put your capture the flag and king of the hill skills to the test.

In addition, the new War Games feature also goes live today. These unranked skirmishes allow Battleground and Arena teams to hone their PvP skills in a setting of their choosing. The leader of your group can choose a map and initiate the challenge, even against a team of the same faction. Check out the FAQ for all the details.

Blizzard has implemented another batch of Cataclysm-related hotfixes, and it includes a nerf to guild experience gained through questing. According to Wowhead, it looks like looks like only 1/4th of individual experience is contributing to guild experience. Blizzard made the chance because "guild experience caps were being hit faster than expected."

The drop rate on all Bind-on-Equip items in Cataclysm dungeons has also been reduced, and disenchanted green items are now giving more materials as the item levels increase. You can read all of the hotfixes after the jump.