MTV Multiplayer sat down with Blizzard yesterday and talked about why Diablo 3 is not an MMO, and why they're not afraid of competing with WoW!

On why “Diablo III” isn’t an MMO:

Sams: When we’re deciding what type of game we’re going to make, we look at what the gameplay experience is going to be. We talked to the team a lot and say, “What is it you want to play? What is it that you want to make?” And we really felt like “Diablo” is a franchise that is very cooperative in the manner in which you play it. We felt like the gameplay experience that we had delivered historically with being in a non-persistent world was the right way to do it for this particular product. I think a lot of people expected us to say that this is going to be an MMO — maybe an obvious choice in a lot of people’s minds. But really, the bottom line is we thought the right game to make was “Diablo III” in the way that we’ve announced it.

That's not to say that it won't have multi-player via Battle.net, but that's not what makes an MMO, now is it?  Check out the awesome interview to find a glimpse into why Blizzard is one of the most impressive game makers out there!

Nethaera has spoken!

We have women on the development team as well as in many other departments.

Player housing is something that may happen in the future but there are no plans for it just yet. Good try though! If I had a house in game, it would just be crammed full o f weapons with maybe one throw rug so I didn't look like I didn't care about how it looked completely. ;)

While WoW housing was indeed planned at one time early in the process, it is no more, and apparently, never will be, if current plans do not change.

You can now go to your Account page in WoW and sign up for the Wrath of the Lich King beta!!  No word yet on when it will start, or how accounts will be chosen for the beta.

European players can access their account page here.

Once you're in, go down to the icons below, and chose the one that says "Wrath of the Lich King Beta Opt-In" and you'll get this message, after submitting a yes response!

You have successfully opted in for a chance to participate in the Wrath of the Lich King Beta. In the event that your account is selected, you will be sent an email with further instructions. Good luck!

Indeed!  Good luck, now go sign up!

Straight from the Game Politics blog:

An attempt to block Activision's merger with Vivendi has ended with a ruling issued by William B. Chandler III (left), chief judge of the Delaware Court of Chancery.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, the judge has apparently taken notice of what World of Warcraft - one of the leading assets in the merger - is all about.

In denying a municipal pension plan's request for a preliminary injunction which would have put the Activision-Vivendi marriage on hold, Judge Chandler wrote:

In some ways, perhaps, the world of Mergers and Acquisitions is a massively multiplayer role playing game as well. Like in World of Warcraft... the participants in the M&A field take on certain roles, interact in their own community, hone specialized skills, and even develop a unique, somewhat curious vernacular.

One particular quest in the world of M&A is disclosure litigation. In the instance of disclosure litigation presently pending before this Court, the world of M&A meets the World of Warcraft.

In the role-playing game that is this disclosure litigation, both sides have played their respective roles well. Like any game, this one has rules, and the most essential rule of disclosure is materiality. Because the plaintiff could not establish the materiality of its final three disclosure claims, the motion for a preliminary injunction is denied. . . .GAME OVER.

Nice to see that some people take their jobs as seriously as some of us take our games. It's just another step to the shareholder meeting on July 8th, where the merger will be voted on!

WoW is asking for your submissing for their screenshot features!

We're always on the lookout for eye-catching screenshots of World of Warcraft. Do you have a screenshot that would make other people go "Wow!"? Send it in. We've been really happy with our screenshots of the day and would like to thank you for your great submissions (over 1,350 and counting). We particularly enjoy screenshots featuring humor, creativity, or large gatherings.

WoW Europe has announced that the MMO is coming to the Russian Market!

We are delighted to announce the World of Warcraft Russian Technical Alpha, commencing next week.

All our Russian-speaking players are invited to participate in this first phase of testing which focuses only on the technical aspects of the game. We would especially appreciate your reports regarding any connection and latency issues you may experience.

The second phase, the Localization Beta, will begin with patch 2.4.3 and will focus on the localization of World of Warcraft.

To coincide with the release of the Russian Technical Alpha, the Russian forums will also be launched, giving our players a place to discuss the functionality of the game in Russian. A list of known issues will be featured here for the launch of the first phase of testing.

You can read this announcement in Russian here.

The forums will go live next week and we look forward to seeing you there!

This comes six months after the announcement that they were working on the project!  Congrats to all the new players who will be able to experience WoW!

Eurogamer has posted new Wrath of the Lich King screen shots they obtained from the Worldwide Invitational going on right now!

They're incredible, so don't miss out!

Attn: TIME IS TICKING DOWN!!! Get to posting and wikifying ASAP!

Today's lucky winners are Prostacean, axhed and penguinsforever!. Congratulations!!!

To be sure to receive your 60-day game card, check your email inbox AND spam looking from an email from me!

Remember if you want to win, all you have to do is add to our wiki, post on our boards, or add quality comments to our site.

TWO more days to go, so get off your butts and get your entries in, you just might win a new laptop! Come on, you know you want to!!!