UPDATE: Blizzard has increased the guild cap to 1,000 members.

Blizzard just announced that a single guild will be able to have a maximum of 600 members in Cataclysm. This new hard cap will go live with patch 4.0.1. The soft cap used to be 500 members will some allowances given, but the hard cap is necessary due to the new guild system that's coming in the expansion.

According to Lead Content Designer Mumper, the 600-member cap covers "more than 99.9% of all the active guilds in World of Warcraft." Guild that make up the remaining tiny fraction will be able to keep their guilds intact, but won't be able to add new member until they drop below the 600-member mark.

So, how many members were in your largest guild? Have you ever come close to 600 members?

Wowhead was right! Blizzard just announced on the European World of Warcraft site that Cataclysm is coming to stores on December 7! Mark your calendars!

PARIS, France – October 4, 2010 – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, the highly anticipated third expansion for the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game*, will be released starting on December 7, 2010. The expansion will be available on DVD-ROM for Windows® XP/Windows Vista®/Windows® 7 and Macintosh® at a suggested retail price of €34.99 and will also be offered as a digital download from the Blizzard Store. A special Collector’s Edition packed with bonus items will be available exclusively in retail stores for a suggested retail price of €69.99.

Blizzard announced about six months ago that their philosophy on raiding in Cataclysm will be focused on flexibility. You should be able to choose whichever size raid fits your style, and you shouldn't have to run the same content twice in a week to maximize your character. With that in mind, Bashiok just posted an in-depth look at the Flexible Raid Lock System that's coming in patch 4.0.1.

The new system will debut in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum when the patch launches, but it will ultimately be featured in all Cataclysm and Wrath of the Lich King raids once the expansion is live. The Flexible Raid Lock System will allow each character to defeat each raid encounter once a week. Here's Bashiok's example: "You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday."

To help plan out your raiding schedule, a new UI element will be introduced that shows you which bosses you have already defeated. Raid leaders will also have the ability to link in chat which encounters the raid has completed. Bashiok goes into much more detail on the system in his post, so be sure to read it after the jump.

Poldaran is hosting a story competition!  Anyone is elegible to enter, although if you're currently not a ZAM user you'll have to make an account.  Come on out with your spooky stories, your grim reminders of horror, your elaborate halloween pranks, and anything else your twisted mind can come up with.

Visit the thread in our WoW general forum to ask questions, read the rules, discuss the competition, and generally have a good time.

Disclaimer:
ZAM is not responsible for any terms and conditions or any other problems that may arise. This contest is being held solely by the user Poldaran

UPDATE: Wowhead has pointed us toward another important bit of information! Looks like Blizzard's been teasing us with the Cataclysm date all along. In April's Azeroth Bulletin, Doc Cogspin says the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is "less than 12.7%." 12/7! Sneaky!

All sorts of rumored dates for the Cataclysm launch have been flying around the web lately. Numerous dates in November and December (and even early January) have been mentioned, but our friends at Wowhead think they have discovered a plausible answer: December 7.

So why that specific date? While digging through the game files for the next patch, they found this snippet of text: "Arena battles and Rated Battlegrounds are only available during an active player versus player combat season. Season nine will begin on December 14th, so be prepared at that time to take your shot at glory!"

Zarhym recently said on the official forums that "The next Arena Season will begin for level-85 players approximately one week after the official launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm." So if Season 9 begins on December 14, that means Cataclysm will come out on December 7.

Just to be clear: This has not been confirmed. However, Wowhead's detective work seems to support their findings. We'll just have to wait and see if they're right. What do you think?

Great news for players vehemently opposed to Blizzard's controversial Real ID system, or for those of you who just don't like it when your Facebook friends add you in Starcraft 2. Blizzard is now introducing some new Battle.net privacy settings for all players to customize their RealID services based on their preferences. What this essentially means is that you can choose to opt in or out of the Real ID "Friends of Friends" and "Add Facebook Friends" features, as well as even having the choice to turn off Real ID all together.

For those of you who don't know, Blizzard was recently in a bit of a tousle with its community when it announced that its "Real ID" system would force all forum users to post their real names and would try to marry our gaming profiles with our Facebook profiles. Unfortunately, after an incredible amount of community feedback, Blizzard was forced to take back its changes. This new update to their privacy settings is a great step in the right direction, as it gives users the choice as to whether or not they want to keep their gaming lives seperate from everything else. You can access your privacy settings by going to Account > Settings > Communication Preferences.

We've been talking a lot about the upcoming PvE/PvP currency changes a lot lately. Basically, old currencies (like emblems) will be converted into either gold, Justice Points (PvE) or Honor Points (PvP). There's all sorts of math involved with the conversion; in fact, Blizzard's planned Justice Point conversion rate was just updated yesterday.

So are you confused yet? Don't worry, our friends over at Wowhead have just the thing to help you out. They've created a Currency Calculator that calculates conversions for Emblems, Badges, honor, Arena points, and more! Just plug in your numbers and find out how many points you can expect to have when the new system goes live!

Earlier this month, Blizzard outlined the PvE/PvP currency changes that are coming in Cataclysm. To make a very long story short, Emblems of Triumph and Frost will be converted into Justice Points (PvE), and Arena Points, Honor Points, Battleground Marks of Honor, Stone Keeper's Shards, Venture Coins, and Spirit Shards will turn into Honor Points (PvP). There's more to it than that, so check out the previous post for more details.

Anyway, Bashiok just posted a revised Justice Points conversion rate for Emblems of Triumph and Emblems of Frost. I'll let him explain it:

When the upcoming 4.0.1 patch goes live, these emblems will be converted into 11.58 Justice Points (up from the previously planned 2.75 Justice Points per emblem). Justice Points accrued above the soft cap of 4,000 will be converted to gold at a rate of 47.5 silver per point (down from 2 gold per point) when patch 4.0.3 goes live.

You can read all of the math in Blizzard's updated post. So what do you think? Does the revised rate sound fair?

Blizzard has refurbished its Under Development page for patch 4.0.1, patch 4.0.3 and Cataclysm, and it's a handy little summary of what you can expect to see in World of Warcraft leading up to the launch of the expansion.

Personally, I like Zarhym's phrasing in the announcement regarding the updated page: "The time has come to set the framework for the imminent release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm." Sure, it's just a fancy way of saying "soon," but it sounds better.

You can read all about the upcoming patches and Cayaclysm after the jump. Which new features excite you the most?

This news post is going out to all your Arena fans out there. Zarhym just announced on the official forums that Arena Season 8 could end as early as October 12, and Season 9 will begin for level 85 players approximately one week after the official launch of Cataclysm.

Speaking of Season 9, it now available for testing in the Cataclysm beta. You can read both posts after the jump. What are you goals for the last two weeks of Season 8?