Just as Chinese players expected to finally get Wrath of the Lich King later this month, China's GAPP has given NetEase (China's World of Warcraft operator) its non-approval which means NetEase needs to stop taking in subscriptions and new sign-ups. This is strange as the content was already approved while being run by the former operator The9, which may (or may not?) mean this will be overturned.

Also, this just may have been a problem for Netease as they have been collecting subscription fees for quite some time now, which they weren't supposed to be doing without official GAPP approval. What makes this even stranger is that NetEase hasn't had any communication with the GAPP other than the official press release on the GAPP website.

You can find out more about this story over at Reuters here and here.

World of Warcraft turns five years old on Nov. 23, and G4 has kicked off the celebration a little early with a series of retrospective interviews with some big names at Blizzard. X-Play host Morgan Webb sat down with Game Director Tom Chilton, Lead World Designer Alex Afrasiabi and former Game Director Jeffrey "Tigole" Kaplan to look back at the history of WoW from day one.

The combined videos total more than 35 minutes in length, so there's a lot to digest in the retrospective. There's nothing particularly noteworthy mentioned in the interviews, but they're certainly worth viewing for fans who are interested in hearing Chilton, Afrasiabi and Kaplan reminisce about WoW's history and explain their duties at Blizzard.

For those of you who don't know, Kaplan left the WoW team to work on Blizzard's next big MMO project, which he's "super excited about" but couldn't discuss in detail in the interview. However, I thought his views on Cataclysm were worth noting: "Personally, I'm somebody who made some of the earliest content in WoW. I can't wait to see what the dev team does with it. I can't wait until they throw out some of those old quests and come up with new stuff because they can make stuff that's so much better than anything we were making five years ago that it's going to be absolutely mindblowing. Just to see Azeroth evolve and to see World of Warcraft evolve, I think it's nothing but a good thing."

As we reported yesterday, this is the first year World of Warcraft players get to participate in the new mini-holiday, Day of the Dead. Based on the real-world holiday of the same name (Dia de los Muertos), the WoW version gives you a small window in which to earn the one and only achievement for this holiday, Dead Man's Party. With the event scheduled to end on Monday, November 2 at 11:59 p.m., you only have today left to earn it! To complete this achievement, just find Catrina, the NPC located in every capital city graveyard, and /dance with her.

If you're visiting her in your own race's capital city, you can also pick up a quest to receive a holiday-exclusive cooking recipe to make Bread of the Dead, although you'll only be able to bake it during the event, since it requires the special blue-flame fire located near Catrina to cook. Completing the associated quest will earn you the Macabre Marionette non-combat pet, although for some reason the little guy only lasts as long as the event. You can also stock up on a bunch of cool-looking Spirit Candles (I can imagine role-players loving these year-round), as well as the wearable Whimsical Skull Mask. For a complete guide to the Day of the Dead event, including details on obtaining the achievement and items, check out this killer Zam wiki page! (And hurry up, before you run out of time!)

Coming soon is the short 2 day holiday known as Day of the Dead which takes place this Sunday and Monday. The Holiday is based around the real world Day of the Dead where family members get together and remember those who have passed on. There are a few rewards for this event, including a Macabre Marionette, which is a small pet that looks like a skeleton wearing a sombrero and holding a pair of maracas. This pet can only be used during the Day of the Dead event and cannot be learned or kept.

You can read more on the event after the jump!

Blizzard has released BlizzCast episode 11, and this one features the community managers for World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo as they look back at this year's BlizzCon. Nethaera stated in a post on the official forums that
this BlizzCast is not meant to reveal any extra information and that additional BlizzCasts "will have a little more 'meat' to them."

You can listen to the BlizzCast and read the full transcript on the official Blizzard site. Also, check out our BlizzCon coverage for another look back at the convention that officially revealed Cataclysm to World of Warcraft players.

In anticipation of patch 3.3, Blizzard has posted the lore surrounding Quel'Delar, the sister blade of Quel'Serrar. The articles focuses on the history of the weapon, from its creation at the hands of the Dragon Aspects and night elves to its destruction at the hands of Queen Lana'thel.

Actually, destruction is too harsh a word. Quel'Delar was shattered, and players will be able to embark on an epic quest in patch 3.3 to find the pieces and reforge it. According to the post, "several classes can use Quel'Delar, and the sword can fit several different play styles. For any class that is unable to wield it, however, the Sunreaver blood elves and the Silver Covenant high elves will gladly take this relic of their history in exchange for a usable weapon."

Check out the full post after the jump for more information on the powerful blade.

Daelo just announced on the official forums that a spell called Chill of the Throne will be in effect for all enemies in Icecrown Citadel that "will allow creatures to ignore 20% of the dodge chance of their melee targets."

Why would Blizzard do this? Basically, it looks like tank avoidance has grown so high that a hard-hitting melee boss can take down a raid tank in a couple hits if the blows aren't avoided. Chill of the Throne will give the dev team "a bit of breathing room" while they look at ways to keep tank avoidance from growing so high in the future. Presumably, the overall damage will be reduced to compensate — meaning the damage will be similar overall, but less spiky.

Just to be clear about what the spell does, I'll use Daelo's example: "if a raid's main tank had 30% dodge normally, in Icecrown Citadel they will effectively have 10%." Chill of the Throne should be up on the PTR soon so you can check out the effects. What are your preliminary thoughts on the spell?

In the upcoming 3.3 Content Patch the current Looking For Group system is getting a much needed overhaul with many new features and even some rewards (such as a pet) too!

There are some great features planned, such as the ability to join as a Group or go Solo, Cross-Realm Instances, and the ability to be teleported to the instances similiar to how it is done in Battlegrounds currently. One of the features that looks really promising is the Daily Random Dungeons, which will pick a random dungeon (heroic or normal) and if you defeat the final boss you will receive either 2 Emblem of Frost on heroic mode or 2 Emblem of Triumph on normal mode.

More on the Dungeon System after the jump.

Zarhym from Blizzard has announced it, you can now pay to change your character's race without needing to change faction. For more information, you can view the race change FAQ, the race change page or the original post by Zarhym.

If you like writing World of Warcraft fiction, one of our users has set up a Halloween contest that you'll definitely want to check out. Poldaran is asking players to submit WoW stories that are either set in a creepy place or involve a monster vaguely associated with Halloween. The tale doesn't need to be scary; if you want to write a comedic story that's set in the Plaguelands involving ghouls and zombies, go for it.

All entries must be submitted by Saturday, Oct. 31 at noon Mountain time and be at least 700 words. Poldaran will post links to all the entries right after the deadline and it will be up to the ZAM community to vote for the winners. The grand prize will be three to six months of ZAM premium membership depending on how many entries are received. We think it's great that Poldaran has set up this contest, so be sure to visit this thread to find out how to submit your story.

Also, the WoW Admin team at ZAM is still hosting its World of Warcraft scavenger hunt contest. You have until Oct. 31 at 11:59 a.m. PDT to decipher the clues and take screenshots of 20 in-game items for a chance to win a 60-day WoW game card or three months to a year of ZAM premium membership.