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I have to admit that as someone who’s just watched from home and never gone, I can certainly see why it isn’t necessary to have a BlizzCon every year. I’m a little bored during the years they don’t announce a WoW expansion. But I understand that attendees love to go for the community, and I can see why many must be disappointed.

How much are they going for on your server? Are you buying a pet on the Blizzard store? If so, are you keeping it? Selling it for gold? The price will probably never be this high, so now’s the time to sell if you’re going to.

Perhaps by the time you’re reading this you already know the answers to those questions. But only one thing is certain at the time of this writing. Chloe and Bink aren’t there this year. 2009 and 2010 were too much for them, and these days they can’t afford it.

If you’re at Blizzcon this year or watching the stream from the comfort of your house or cardboard box, I hope you enjoy it. I’ll be catching it when I can and watching the on demand programming from it in the days ahead. Or maybe Blizzcon’s not your thing. To you I say, Happy October! It’s the best month. Don’t let it get away…

I like that they don’t affect gameplay. You can take them or leave them and do just as well as anyone else in raids or heroics or pvp. Or the auction house game. They’re optional flavor.

Blizzard just announced they’ll soon be selling a $10 tradable Guardian Cub. It’ll be a one-use item, so unlike other pet store pets, you can only have it on one character. You can sell it on the auction house and trade it in game. For gold, services, gratitude – whatever you negotiate!

Guardian Cub us.battle.net

I’m guessing my reaction to this is a common one. I’m uneasy and unsure about it. I want to outright condemn it, but on the other hand maybe it won’t be that bad.

Blizzard has always taken a hard line against gold selling. I thought that was because they didn’t want real world wealth to equal in-game advantages. I was wrong! From their announcement:

 Also, it’s important to note that we take a firm stance against buying gold from outside sources because in most cases, the gold these companies offer has been stolen from compromised accounts.

I found their lengthier stance against gold-selling here. Man, I feel dumb. These annoying exploits that gold-sellers use are great reasons to be against the practice, and I was aware of them. But I thought that a greater philosophy of economic equality was also part of it. Nope. If they can figure out how to bypass these exploits, there’s nothing stopping Blizzard from completely legalizing gold-selling in WoW. And this guardian cub may be the beginning of that.

And now this has me thinking. One aspect of WoW and other MMOs I’ve never cared for is that it often seems that they reward players for putting time in. And not putting time in to practice and improve a skill, but just PUTTING TIME IN. Farming for raid mats. Farming for gear in dungeons you’ve done so many times you could do them blindfolded. Leveling a character through a zone you’ve done countless times on other characters. Players vary widely how much time they can put in, just as they vary in their economic reality. Is there any difference between a player paying for an advantage and a player grinding away many hours for that same advantage? After all, time is money.

I guess I’m getting pretty jaded as I write this. What it comes down to is how much advantage can gold buy in World of Warcraft? You can buy raid mats, and dungeon runs, and some gear. What do you guys think about all this? What do you think a $10 pet will buy you?

WoW Insider just posted this and I couldn’t resist sharing it with you in light of the recent comic, Patch 4.03a. Maybe these are the lyrics Lisa, Mike, Chloe, and Bink would sing as they continued their song?

You can see more from the creators, The Warp Zone, here.

I feel a little unprepared for this day. I didn’t do everything I wanted to in the Wrath era. I never leveled another character to 80. I completed Loremaster of EK and Kalimdor, but not of Outland, and I only have a few more quests to go in Storm Peaks for the Northrend version. But I had a good time nonetheless, and I’m excited to explore the content. My hopes going into this expansion are that I stay on top of current content as best I can, and spend more time in battlegrounds. I really enjoy those. I’m a little overwhelmed with everything else I’d like to do, but I’ll focus on those two for now.

So what are your Cataclysm goals? Has anyone leveled yet???

Before today.

Grinding through Loremaster gave me an appreciation for the old world I didn’t previously have. And it gave me some insight into quests designed for players who took a much longer time to level, and for whom the end game was approaching at level 55.

But it also made me realize that I’m ready for a change. A big one. Can you imagine what an expansion would be like if Deathwing DIDN’T cause major upheaval throughout the old world? If we still had to run the long road from Auberdine to Ashenvale to progress our level 17 night elf? To grind another lowly alt through the gloomy wasteland of Desolace? On LAND mounts?? No thanks.

The last thing Fenwick did in the old world was finally defend Stormwind from the elemental attacks she kept missing all week. The first thing she’ll do in the new world is run out of the front gates and to Westfall to witness the changes there, and then on to Dun Morogh to see what’s happening with her gnomish brothers and sisters. And then the rest of the world of course.

What’s the last thing you did in the old world? What’s the first thing you’ll do in the new one?

The PST part means us East Coasters can’t play until 3am.

But it’s still very tempting to not have to wait for a package or go to a midnight release.

John and I both preordered the Collector’s Edition from Amazon. I’m a little nervous about it, as it STILL says it won’t deliver until a week AFTER Dec 7. *grump* Hopefully that’ll get sorted out. But I sure don’t want to be punished by having to wait a few days after spending $80. And we sure don’t need two art books sitting around. But we both definitely want the Lil’ Deathy pet!

So what are you guys doing?

But it got me wondering about Real ID in general. Sure, it won’t be required to post in the forums anymore, but it still exists. I have yet to friend anyone with it. If I do, I think I’m gonna limit it to my family. (I always like to remind you that my Mom, Dad, and brother play WoW. ) Have you guys been using Real ID to keep in touch with WoW friends? Do you like it? Does it ruin the immersion? Feel free to use the comments to talk about it, whether it’s touched on in the following poll or not.