The latest scuttlebutt surrounding Blizzard's upcoming "next-generation" MMO is that it will take place in the future and feature first-person-shooter gameplay, according to NoFrag.com, a French gaming website. The news story (which plays the old "a source familiar with the matter" card) attributes its source anonymously, so Blizzard fans shouldn't put too much stock into the following info (pardon the grammar; we used a Google-translated conversion to glean these quotes in English):

"[...] the next MMO from Blizzard is in part an FPS. It will take place in a futuristic universe. [...] In this new MMO, each player has two "lives" his first "life" is a kind of Sims Online, a giant hub with social interaction and the ability to connect to its second life. Which will consist of fighting for subjective."

Despite the shadiness of the article and alleged source, we do know with moderate certainty that Blizzard's next-gen MMO will not be based on one if its existing IPs (which would include StarCraft), according to a post by community manager Zarhym last summer in the official forums. Many fans have predicted that Blizzard's next MMO would feature hybrid gameplay, possibly bridging the gap between the MMORPG and MMOFPS genres. We have to admit, the premise of the MMO described in this article does seem like the brand of innovative game design the community expects from Blizzard; a sort of "two MMOs in one" theme, with one aspect geared toward social interaction (and perhaps all the things that never made it into WoW, like player housing, guild halls, Web 2.0 integration), and another gameplay front devoted to action-oriented, FPS-styled combat. On the other hand, it could all be complete BS, intended to spike reader traffic. Still, it's fun to speculate. What do you think?

Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has listed some possible upcoming 3.3 balance adjustments, and rogues are first up for nerfs. "As many of you have suspected, we think rogue damage is too high," he said. The newest hotfixes reduce the base damage bonus from Hunger for Blood to 5% and decrease the bonus damage rogues gain from attack power for poisons.

Other possible upcoming changes could boost warlock PvE damage, nerf protection warriors in PvP, adjust the Elemental 4-piece Tier 10 set bonus, and refine the Icecrown weapon procs. These changes, if pursued, would be made through hotfixes or an upcoming patch.

You can read Ghostcrawler's full announcement and the hotfixes for Jan. 7 after the jump. The hotfixes include a reduction of Rotface's hit points in the 10-person encounter, which is described in more detail in this post.

According to WoW.com, "trusted sources close to the situation" have stated that Blizzard is giving serious consideration to making authenticators mandatory for all players. The sources say that details have not been finalized, but it's a "virtually forgone conclusion that it will happen."

This news should be considered a rumor until Blizzard makes an official announcement, but it would make sense following the addition of the Core Hound Pup pet. What do you think? Should authenticators be mandatory? Do you already have one?

As World of Warcraft players scurry about to get the latest gear from the Lich King's minions, it's only a matter of time before the slow moving Arthas himself must fall, presumably dropping some of the rarest shinies to be seen thus far. Of course, after the fall of the Lich King, and after most players have experienced all that there is to experience in WotLK, Cataclysm will come barrelling out the door, thrusting a new nemesis into the spotlight and leaving the old one behind to be forgotten. A few months after this, three level 85 players will go back to the dusty old Lich King encounter and beat the 25-person version with just the three of them; they will record a video and set the whole escapade to loud techno music, and that will be the last we'll ever hear of Arthas.

Now don't get us wrong, we, here at ZAM, really do love World of Warcraft; so much so, in fact, that we selected it as our "2009 ZAM Game of the Year" for its Wrath of the Lich King expansion. Unfortunately, what we are talking about is just how… predictable this progression is becoming. With every new expansion, Blizzard introduces the arch-nemesis of the day and players meet (and kill) this arch nemesis in about a year's time. Users may also meet this arch-nemesis before the fated final battle is to take place, and since the absolute destruction of the player is usually a bad way to advance the story, World of Warcraft's bad guys (and girls!) must pull one of those "I could kill you but instead I'm going to mock you so that you can kill me later" kind of moves. Every time.

Blizzard has implemented another handful of hotfixes, and this set includes a couple of fixes for Rotface and Festergut. Here's the list straight from Bornakk's post:

• Deathbringer’s Will trinket will now proc haste as a replacement for armor penetration.
• The val’kyrs spawned by the Nibelung staff will now always hit with their smite attack and their damage has been increased for both normal and heroic versions of the staff.
• The chance for the proc to activate on the Black Bruise weapon has been increased.
• In the Rotface encounter, big oozes should now properly combine.
• Rotface’s acidic blood and Festergut's acidic blood now function appropriately through the use of the group looting and master looting systems.

The seventh and eighth tiles of the World of Warcraft Battlecry Mosaic have been revealed, which in turn unveiled concept art for Mulgore and Alliance architecture. Blizzard has currently received 8,277 photos of players showing pride for their factions, but there's still a long way to go before the mosaic is complete.

Blizzard is revealing a new piece of the puzzle every time it gets 1,000 photos from fans. We're not even halfway there yet; 11,273 pictures are still needed to unlock the entire mosaic. Have you submitted your photo yet?

In case you missed it, The Plagueworks wing of Icecrown Citadel is now open. ZAM user IDrownFish has started a thread on the new wing in our WoW general forum, so feel free to add your experiences to the discussion.

The Crimson Hall wing is officially scheduled to open in two weeks on Jan. 19. If that timetable continues, it looks like we'll be facing the Lich King on Feb. 2. You can read more about the wings on Blizzard's Icecrown Citadel: The Frozen Throne page.

Bornakk just announced that Arena Season 7 will end as early as Jan. 19. Season 8 won't begin for at least one week after the current season ends.

"It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the arena-specific titles and/or Relentless Gladiator’s Frostwyrm to refrain from transferring their character to another realm until after Arena Season 7 ends," Bornakk said.

In order to entice players to stay in The Oculus when it pops up in as their random Heroic dungeon using the Dungeon Finder tool, Blizzard has decided to give out an extra loot bag once Ley-Guardian Eregos is defeated. According to Zarhym, "each loot bag will offer players rare gems, two additional Emblems of Triumph, and a chance of being rewarded the Reins of the Blue Drake."

You won't be able to get the bag if you specifically queue for Oculus using the Dungeon Finder. You have to enter the instance using the random Heroic option to get the extra rewards. In addition, the Reins of the Azure Drake will now have a chance of dropping in both 10- and 25-player versions of The Eye of Eternity.

So what do you think of the change? Is this a good way to keep players from abandoning Oculus parties, or is it a bit much to reward players for running through a dungeon that some may consider easy? You can discuss the topic in this thread in our WoW general forum.

UPDATE: Bornakk just posted four more hotfixes that were implemented today, which include the Oculus loot changes. You can read them all after the jump.

It's officially January 2010, which means it's time for Bornakk to start a brand new list of hotfixes for the month on the official World of Warcraft forums. The newest batch contains only three hotfixes, and here they are:

• The mail Bloodsunder Bracers have had their appropriate socket bonus added.
• The proc on Zod’s Repeating Longbow should no longer reset auto shots.
• The gear requirement for heroic Halls of Reflection has been increased.