Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has acknowledged on the official forums that there's a bug with the Frost Witch's Regalia Tier 10 set for Elemental shamans. It looks like using the two-piece set bonus in cross-server instances puts the Elemental Mastery Skill on a seven-day cooldown.

"You may not want to use the set while using Dungeon Finder until we know for sure what the problem is. When we have an update, we'll be sure to let you know," Ghostcrawler said. He also noted that there have been a few similar bugs, such as the hunter ability Call Stabled Pet.

Sadly, the holiday season came to an end last weekend, and the dead of winter is approaching. For many folks, January to March is a rather dismal time of year; the coming months are usually cold, dark and bleak for everyone north of the 38th parallel, until the warmth of spring finally arrives. Luckily for MMO fans, there are quite a few anticipated games scheduled for release this winter, and even more throughout the later months of 2010.

As we wrap up our collection of last year's best and brightest in the 2009 ZAM Awards, we can also look ahead at the great-looking MMOs scheduled for release in the future. Some developers are already running beta-testing trials, while others are diligently working to reach post-production in time for a third- or fourth-quarter launch date. In this feature, ZAM scouts ahead and takes a preliminary snapshot of a handful of MMOs we're looking forward to seeing in the coming months. In time, we will take a closer and more-comprehensive look at what the MMO industry is promising this year. But until then, keep reading for a brief overview (in no particular order) of the games we're looking forward to the most in 2010.

Last summer at BlizzCon 2009, we reported one of the "smaller" announcements released by Blizzard; the company would soon begin publishing its own "official" World of Warcraft magazine, described as being "packed with fascinating features, in-depth interviews, expert analysis and player points-of-view covering all aspects of World of Warcraft," according to the initial preview description.

It now appears that the first issue will be published any day now; the magazine's official website was recently updated with new information, including a preview of content to be included in launch issue. The magazine is a joint venture between Blizzard and Future US, Inc., a popular print-media publishing company. You can preview a few of the upcoming feature stories by visiting the website and clicking one of the content links, like this "Siege of Icecrown Citadel" story. The features are viewable in a Flash-based Web app that allows you to "flip" through virtual pages, zoom in, "clip" selected portions and email them to friends.

According to the website, each issue will be printed as "a deluxe, high-quality, collectible quarterly
coffeetable [sic] publication" with 148 pages, and no advertisements. Each cover will feature exclusive "commissioned artwork created by a top Blizzard approved artist," as well. As announced last summer, a one-year subscription will cost $39.95 USD, and the two-year subscription is $69.95. It's a quarterly magazine, which means four issues will be published each year. For more information and international subscription rates, check out the official website.

Tip: if you're "on the lam," try to resist the urge to log in to World of Warcraft—a SWAT team might break down your door the next morning. That's a similar story to what recently happened to a wanted fugitive, and it's one of the hottest anecdotal, WoW-related news stories making its way around the blogoshere today. According to multiple reports, the Howard County Sheriff's Department in Indiana had been searching for a man named Alfred Hightower, after a warrant for his arrest—relating to drug charges—was issued in 2007.

The fugitive's trail apparently went cold until just recently, when the department's investigators collaborated with U.S. Marshals and learned that Hightower had fled to Canada. According to the Kokomo Perspective, a local newspaper, the investigating sheriffs finally caught the break they were looking for when they discovered Hightower was a regular WoW player. The newspaper interviewed the man behind the investigation, Howard County Sheriff’s Department deputy Matt Roberson, to find out how the department used WoW to capture a wanted fugitive...

Happy holidays everyone! We hope you're all enjoying the remaining days of Winter Veil and have gotten the chance to play with your new Red Rider Air Rifle. In honor of the season, Blizzard has announced the winners of its holiday card and dessert contests.

In addition, Blizzard has released the artwork for its annual holiday card by Art Director Sam "Samwise" Didier. We know some of you may have had your fill of holiday cheer by this point, but we feel it's safe to enjoy these pieces of art at least until Winter Veil ends on Jan. 2.

Our friends over at Wowhead have been busy adding all sorts of new features to their site, and they're definitely worth checking out. Just think of the features as holiday gifts from the Wowhead team. Here's the list of additions:

• The beta version of the Completion Tracker is now live. You can now use the Wowhead Profiler, in conjunction with the Wowhead Client, to keep track of the quests you've completed, the recipes you know, and the mounts and pets you own.
• The Wowhead navigation tabs have been updated to include links to additions like the new guides section and Wowhead's Facebook and Twitter pages.
• Share links have been added to Wowhead blog posts so you can repost them on other news-sharing services.

Do you like to create World of Warcraft machinima? If you're capable of making digital movies using WoW gameplay footage then you'll want to consider entering Blizzard's Rise to Power Movie Contest, which is sponsored by Alienware.

Players have until Jan. 31, 2010 to submit movies that are created in-game for the chance to win one of four $2,400 gift credits toward an Alienware computer. Files must not exceed 100MB in size or be longer than three minutes. Check out the official rules for more information.

If you can't make a WoW machinima, you can still enter Alienware's raffle to win an Alienware M15x laptop or an Alienware Aurora desktop. All you need to do is register by Jan. 31, 2010.

In a new interview with Blizzard—celebrating the Warcraft franchise series' 15-year anniversary—WoW producer J. Allen Brack told Gamasutra that Blizzard will "definitely" deliver another console game in the future (via Eurogamer.com). The story, which highlights Blizzard's original roots as a console developer, features quite a bit of interesting commentary from Brack about the past, present and future of video game platforms.

"[...] there's a perception, I think, that Blizzard is anti-console, and that's absolutely not the case," Brack told Gamasutra, when asked how invested Blizzard is in the PC market. "We just want to make the right game for the right platform. Think about StarCraft II. Some real-time strategy games have tried to happen on the console. Some of those have been successful, but overall, our experience is that it's going to be a better game on the PC, ergo it's developed on the PC."

"We're a culture of gamers," Brack continued, in response to the same question. "We will definitely work on a console game at some point. I have no doubt about that. It's just [a matter of] what game." The interview also features commentary from Blizzard art director Sam Didier; check out the full story here.

Blizzard only has three new World of Warcraft hotfixes to add to the growing list, and here they are:

• Everlasting Affliction can now refresh the duration of Corruption on a target when the Warlock casts Drain Soul.
  
  
• Sweeping Strikes will now only trigger once per whirlwind rotation of Bladestorm.
  
  
• Players will now receive appropriate credit for the Full House achievement.

By our count, Blizzard has implemented 47 hotfixes since patch 3.3 launched on Dec. 8. We'll just have to wait and see if more are needed by the end of the year.

Blizzard has decided to give its European players a holiday gift this weekend in the form of a discount on the original World of Warcraft game. Players can purchase the classic version of the MMO for 9.99€ / £6.49 in the Blizzard Online Store from Dec. 19-20. If you're already playing the trial version, you can upgrade for the discounted price right from your Account Management page.

If you're looking to get a friend of family member interested in WoW, now's the perfect chance to either buy them the game for a discount or point them toward the Blizzard Store this weekend. At the very least, you could get them to sign up for the 10-day free trial. And if you use this opportunity to try out the game for yourself, then welcome to Azeroth!