Despite Blizzard's effort to accommodate more fans at this year's BlizzCon (October 22 and 23 at the Anaheim Convention Center), tickets sold out amazingly fast during online sales last Wednesday and Saturday. According to statistics tracked by WoW.com, the first round of tickets sold out in just 23 minutes, with the peak ticket queue at 30,000. The second round of sales, on Saturday, sold out in 28 minutes, with the peak queue at 20,000. Recent blog and fansite chatter reports that the Blizzard Store was in better shape during this year's ticket sales than in 2009, when it was slammed with traffic, resulting in downtime and disconnected customers. Nonetheless, this year's ticket capacity was reached within a half-hour throughout both sales, leaving many fans empty-handed.

This year Blizzard implemented a new policy to deter ticket-scalping; everyone who purchased a ticket will have to provide photo identification at the door, which must match their badge information. However, the new ID challenge isn't fool-proof; Blizzard allows ticket buyers to "update" their personal information until June 20, giving scalpers a brief window of time to sell the tickets by changing the purchaser info to match that of potential buyers. Hundreds of tickets have already shown up on third-party sites like eBay and Craigslist (both links show the result of a "BlizzCon 2010" query). But for those of you who missed out on the official sale or don't like the idea of lining a scalper's pocket with ridiculous amounts of cash, there's still a way you can enjoy the event from the comfort of your own sofa...

When Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft's subscriber base reached a whopping 11.5 million people in 2008, it didn't come as a surprise to most players, fan communities and media. It is, after all, the most-successful MMO in video game history. World of Warcraft continued to prove its market dominance by gaining millions of players each year, despite a strained economy and outdated game technology. It wasn't until last year that WoW's record-breaking success finally come to a halt; for the first time since its launch, the MMO's subscriber base leveled off, as we reported in February.

WoW took a substantial hit in 2009 when the Chinese government suspended its license to operate; Blizzard attributes half of its worldwide subscriber base to the Chinese market, according to president Mike Morhaime (reported during an Activision Blizzard full-year financial call, via VG247.com). One month later, in an annual report for investors, Activision recognized WoW's sluggish performance and several "risk factors" the MMO faces this year, which we detailed in our news report, "Activision Worried That WoW May Become Obsolete?" Despite all this, Blizzard executive vice president Frank Pearce recently said WoW's subscriber base hasn't peaked yet, and will continue to grow.

Last month we featured a mini-report about the ongoing status of "Operation: Gnomeregan," the World of Warcraft live event that will ultimately culminate in Cataclysm's launch. Just as "Operation: Gnomeregan" will see the Gnomes battle to reclaim their hijacked city of Gnomeregan for the Alliance, the event also parallels the Horde's "Zalazane's Fall," in which the Darkspear Trolls (led by Vol'jin) will try to reclaim Echo Isles for the tribe. Both live events will run simultaneously for each faction, growing in activity as Cataclysm draws closer to launch.

Since both events are now live on the Public Test Realm, the Wowhead.com team recently updated its ongoing coverage, posting "Impressions from Operation: Gnomeregan" on its blog yesterday. If you don't mind a few spoilers that are already "in-the-wild" via the PTR, Wowhead offers some great, comprehensive information about the pre-launch events and more. New quest details have been uncovered, along with a bunch of awesome screenshots depicting the quest and story arcs. In addition, you can check out Wowhead's original post from May 27, announcing both live events on the PTR, along with some spoilers about the lore behind Troll Druids. Finally, to learn about all the Cataclysm pre-event details the Wowhead team has discovered so far, visit the "Pre-Launch Events" section of its in-depth Cataclysm Guide.

We've been hearing about the "Remote Auction House" service for a few months now, but the wait is finally over; Blizzard is currently beta testing the new service, which will allow players to access their realm's in-game auction house features from a variety of mobile Apple devices. World of Warcraft players who have characters in participating realms can visit the official Remote Auction House site to sign up for a free beta-test preview of the service right now, which will eventually be an extension of the already-existing Blizzard Mobile Armory service. Once the beta test is completed, the Remote Auction House service will be available for $2.99 (USD) per month and allow users to "bid on and buy out auctions with real-time results, create auctions from items in your bags, bank, or mailbox and collect gold earned in your auctions," according to the official site. Eligible beta participants can download the Remote Auction House app from Apple's iTunes store at this link for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

While Blizzard hasn't announced additional versions of the app for the Google or Windows mobile platforms, the Remote Auction House service is available via the Web for free. The "Web Auction House" can be found at this link. However, the free Web service is also currently in beta-testing and only available to WoW users on the same participating realms as the iPhone app. On the official Remote Auction House site, Blizzard published a graphic comparison chart that illustrates the difference between the free Web-access and the subscription-based service (only paying subscribers will be able to bid/buyout auctions, create auctions, collect gold and more). For more detailed information, players can check out the Remote Auction House FAQ and if eligible, try out the beta service on the official Remote Auction House site.

It's official; Jay Mohr will return to BlizzCon this year to serve as master of ceremonies, hosting the live events and contests, according to a recent announcement from Blizzard on the official WoW site. The 39-year-old actor and comedian has appeared in dozens of TV shows and several movies (Go, Pay It Forward) since the early-90s, in addition to performing TV and stand-up comedy (he's also voice-acted a few video games, like Leisure Suit Larry). Mohr's return will mark his fourth time hosting Blizzard's annual fan convention, which will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 22 and 23. As reported earlier this month, tickets will be available for purchase on Wednesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. PDT, with a second round of sales scheduled for Saturday, June 5, at 10 a.m. PDT. Check out Blizzard's official announcement below, and stay tuned to ZAM for more BlizzCon 2010 news and info as it develops!

Comedian and actor Jay Mohr will be returning to BlizzCon this year to serve as master of ceremonies for the live costume contest and other contests on the first night of the show. Jay is the star of the popular television show Gary Unmarried, and is known for his roles in movies like Jerry Maguire and for creating, producing, and hosting the successful TV series Last Comic Standing. We'll have more info to share about the Friday-night contests and other events at BlizzCon in the months leading up to the show, so keep your eye on BlizzCon.com for more details.

When we reported EA's unveiling of its Need For Speed World racing-sim MMO in London earlier this week, the news received little fanfare from our readers, and they weren't alone. Most MMO fans weren't exactly frothing at the mouth in anticipation of a new "massively-multiplayer online racing game," with the exception of Need For Speed's established community and the usual racing-sim fans. We're not specifically picking on Need For Speed World here; it's just another sign of the times. The unrelenting emergence of online multiplayer games branded as MMOs has watered-down the market. Today's new MMO announcements (which surface weekly) just don't carry the weight they once did, even those with relatively-unique gameplay based outside the usual RPG fantasy and sci-fi genres.

One problem is that today's market is bursting at the seams with games that tried to ride the coattails of the MMO craze. As the success of games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft rose, video game publishers ran wild with the "MMO" tag, often branding it on multiplayer games that don't even feature a persistent world. Today, the line that actually defines an MMO has become blurrier than ever. However, a lot of video games that teeter on that line have benefited from the influence of "traditional" MMOs. The first-person shooter and real-time strategy genres, for example, are taking cues from the progression-based gameplay and social/co-op aspects of MMOs that made them famous.

Secretive and elusive the Pandaren race is one of the most revered in all of Azeroth … at least to the fans of the ever-evolving Warcraft universe. Although they were once a proud ally to the night elves in Kalimdor, they have since moved on and separated themselves from the rest of the world. So now that the Pandarens are once again showing themselves in Warcraft (in the form of a player pet), World of Warcraft players are as eager to pick up a piece of Pandaren merchandise as they are to nab the latest murloc plush toy.

Thus, when Blizzard partnered with the DC Unlimited toy company to produce a Pandaren action figure, the editors at ZAM were more than a little interested. We finally got our hands on one of these toys, and we’re ready to give it our detailed run-down (and don’t forget that you have your own chance to win one of these figurines over at Wowhead).

So is it worth the $49.99 price tag from the Blizzard store? Keep reading to find out!

The annual convention for all things Blizzard is coming Oct. 22-23, and Blizzard has finally announced when tickets will become available to fans. The $150-a-pop tickets will go on sale in two batches, the first coming on Wednesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. Pacific time, and the second on Saturday, June 5, at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

In 2008, market research company NPD Group released its first-ever report of online gaming subscriptions, gleaned from its 2007 to 2008 survey of MMO players. The report offered a rare insight into the closely-guarded proprietary statistics that most MMO publishers will never release, as Gamasutra reported in May 2008. Back then, NPD Group estimated that the top five PC MMO subscriptions ranked as follows, in order of market share: World of Warcraft, RuneScape, Lord of the Rings Online, Final Fantasy XI and City of Heroes.

Last week NPD Group released its latest report of online gaming subscriptions, based on its January 2010 survey of 19,000 gamers of all ages, according to an analysis at Massively.com. It should come as no surprise to MMO fans that World of Warcraft is still the most-popular title in terms of both subscribership and play time, and Jagex's RuneScape is still holding onto second place. What's interesting, though, is that Turbine's Dungeons & Dragons Online knocked out the ever-popular Guild Wars for third place this year, making it the third-most popular MMO in the United States, according to NPD Group's survey results. The survey also asked participants a variety of questions about their playing habits, indicating that a substantial amount of former WoW players left the MMO for the free-to-play DDO (and that the industry's free-to-play revenue model is gaining popularity over subscription-based MMOs). Check out the full analysis at Massively; it's an interesting read for any MMO fan.

Zarhym has released the 3.3.5 patch notes for the next content update for World of Warcraft, and while it doesn't offer much meat in terms of the number of changes, players will be happy to know that more content will be available before Cataclysm hits.

Prepare to hit The Ruby Sanctum ...