According to the 3.3.3 test realm patch notes, "World Event bosses (such as Ahune for the Fire Festival) will now be accessible through the Dungeon Finder. Players must use the Dungeon Finder to access these bosses." Zarhym has chimed in on the official forums to clarify exactly what that means, and it's a pretty big change.

Zarhym first confirms that the Dungeon Finder "will have a separate selection for special World Event bosses in dungeons. If players zone into the dungeon without using the Dungeon Finder, the bosses will not be there." The blue poster then clarifies later in the thread that "the summoning of holiday bosses is going away. ... Once the party is finalized, the group will be ported directly to the area where the holiday boss resides."

But wait, there's more! Players will be able to kill the bosses as often as they want for standard loot, but each boss "will only drop one holiday-themed loot trove per player per day." Each of these bags has a chance to contain a rare holiday item. This means you have one chance per day to get rare holiday loot, but you can continue to queue for the boss to help other players and roll on the regular loot.

Zarhym admits the change has "some positive and some negative consequences." What do you think?

UPDATE: Zarhym just confirmed that the Ruby Sanctum content is coming in patch 3.3.5! Check out the post after the jump.

Game Informer recently sat down with Tom Chilton to look back on the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, and the game director hinted that there might be some more content coming before Cataclysm launches. Here's his quote:

"We can't say for sure at this point, but we are looking into the possibility of having a boss in the Ruby Sanctum, which is another part of Wyrmrest Temple. It's a little too early to have a lot of details on that, but I wouldn't characterize it as a huge chunk of content. It’s not a patch 3.4 or anything. ... I think of it more as an extension of patch 3.3."

While this is the biggest news from the interview, the rest of it is definitely worth a read. For example, Chilton says that the necromancer and runemaster were in the running to be the game's first hero class.

ZAM user Horsemouth has started a thread on the Ruby Sanctum encounter in our WoW general forum, so head over there to see what our users are saying about the topic.

Bornakk's newest update to the recent in-game fixes list is comprised of only one item, but it's a noteworthy one. The drop rate of Frost Lotus from herbs in Northrend has been increased by 50%, which should make it more abundant on your local auction house.

So what are your thoughts on this change? Alchemists should be happy because it means they'll be able to quickly pump out more flasks. Herbalists who farm herbs for gold may not be as pleased since the Frost Lotus should begin to lower in price.

Blizzard announced yesterday that some major changes are planned for Battlegrounds in the next minor content patch that include the removal of Marks of Honor, changes to battleground weekends, a random battleground system and increasing honorable kill rewards by 100%. This patch will be hitting the PTR in the coming days.

You can read all the details after the jump. ZAM user Azwing has already started a thread on this topic in our WoW general forum, so feel free to add to the discussion. What are your thoughts on the changes?

The Internet has positively influenced our lives in an innumerable amount of ways; from the revolution of the standard business model to the friends we decide to go out with on a Friday night, we've come a long way in such a short amount of time. The Internet has forever changed the video games industry as well. As multiplayer gaming gained momentum in the late-90s, players began to coalesce on the Web in virtual communities, ultimately paving the way to the massive-scale gaming networks,  like Xbox Live and MMO environments, we use today.

The ubiquity of online gaming communities comes with a price, though. It's easier to spread bigotry and inflict prejudice in virtual spaces than ever before. That's not to say that problems like these are anything new, or exclusive to online mediums like gaming networks. By middle-school, practically every student in the country is exposed to defamation in some form. Homophobia is particularly one of the most-debated issues in online gaming today; harassment of gay and lesbian gamers in virtual communities is drawing more media attention than ever before, and some analysts believe it's only getting worse.

The World of Warcraft Battlecry Mosaic was filling up pretty slowly for awhile, but Blizzard must have received a flood of photos from players. The 17th and 18th tiles were just unveiled, which unlocked an art collage and an awesome image of a draenei paladin by Wei Wang.

Only 1,962 photos are needed to complete the 20-piece mosaic, so be sure to submit your photo as soon as possible if you'd like to be a part of the final product.

As we reported, Blizzard announced over the weekend that it will not be renewing Upper Deck's contract to produce the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. Upper Deck International has revealed some more details on what this means for the TCG, and it looks like Upper Deck's World of Warcraft products will only be available until the end of March. Upcoming products, including starter and booster packs, will not go into production.

Upper Deck said that it decided to discontinue its WoW product lines "due to gradually declining sales over the past few years and the overall downturn in the economic climate." You can read the full announcement after the jump.

Did you purchase a Pandaren Monk in-game pet last year? If so, then you supplied a portion of the $1.1 million that Blizzard just presented to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The donation is based on 50 percent of the total sales of the pet during November and December 2009.

Blizzard marked the donation yesterday by inviting 15 wish children and their families to tour the Blizzard campus. The young gaming enthusiasts got to meet with the World of Warcraft development team and participate in a variety of fun activities. More information, including photos and a video, can be found on the Orange County Register's Gadgetress Blog.

We're happy to see that a portion of the Pandaren Monk sales was able to go toward such a great cause. If you own the pet, make sure you pull him out soon for some fresh air in celebration of the donation.

Diablo III may not be scheduled to launch until at least 2011, but Blizzard has been busy updating the game's site with female versions of a couple of the game's classes. The female barbarian was revealed today, while the female monk was unveiled last week.

These may not be the most amazing reveals for eager Diablo fans, but it's good to see that the official site is being updated with more than just fan art. Aside from some new screenshots that were added in January, these female models are the first major updates to the site since September 2009.

Since its launch in 2004, World of Warcraft has dominated the gaming industry, regarded as the most-successful and popular MMO in history. Throughout the past five years, Blizzard continued pouring its blood, sweat and tears into WoW, ensuring its legacy by retaining a multi-million-player subscriber base. And with each passing year, as Blizzard reported, the MMO's subscribers continued to grow. Players grew from 5 million to 8 million, followed by a staggering 10 million. Around this time last year, Blizzard boasted more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide after Wrath of the Lich King's release.

For the first time since its inception, WoW's seemingly-boundless momentum might be leveling off, according to Activision-Blizzard's recent end-of-fiscal-year conference call with its investors. As we reported last week, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime confirmed that the company's upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, will launch in 2010. In addition, Morhaime revealed that WoW's current subscriber base is 11.5 million; the same figure announced in November 2008. Has the MMO finally reached the pinnacle of its success, or is there another reason behind the stalled numbers?