We like to keep you updated on the opportunities to make some money off of all that WoW experience you have, so when we saw an announcement on the Blizzard job postings site that they're looking for fiction writers, we had to let you know. Not too often do people get a chance to write for their favorite game making company. The announcement says that if you get this job, you'll be working with their intellectual property (read: writing cool stories about all your favorite Blizzard characters), do lots of creative writing, and work on story development.

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Since the inception of the arena system in WoW, players have been very creative in finding ways to boost their ratings. First it was a matter of highly-ranked teams selling slots to less skilled players. Lately the subject of trading wins and losses has been the buzz. Blizzard has taken the steps that they feel necessary, such as instituting the personal rating system, to combat the issue.

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The D.I.C.E. Summit's official site describes the event, currently taking place in Las Vegas, as a meeting of "the video game industry's most influential leaders," so of course you know Blizzard's there. Gamesindustry.biz's coverage of Mike Morhaime's presentation today doesn't reveal anything too earth-shattering about the company or the World of Warcraft. It's about the same thing we've heard from him in the past, but hey, if the presentation isn't broke, don't fix it, right?

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More expansion news today as Blizzard has just posted a new bestiary entry and a set of screen shots to the official WotLK site. The new monster is a strange creature called the "Shovel Tusk," which the page describes as a territorial and cantankerous moose-like beast. The concept art looks a bit like some mad scientist tried to splice together a moose, a ram, and an elephant. We've seen these before at Blizzcon, where they appeared in Howling Fjord in a fashion similar to the Clefthoof packs near Oshu'gun in Nagrand, with one hostile "leader of the pack" leading a group of neutrals. Mike Schramm's speculation was that they might be a Clefthoof-like Beast of Burden for the Tuskarr, which seems to have been proven wrong for now. I'm actually thinking that this would make a pretty awesome quest or faction mount, sort of like the Talbuk, that other species over in Nagrand.

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Every Wednesday Thursday Maureen Carter brings you World of WarCrafts, which features a recipe or craft that teaches you how to make your own real life version of in-game recipes and items.

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To me, there are 3 types of WoW players out there: the Purists, the Moderates, and the Borg. The first group swears off any addons that aren't expliticly required by their guilds. You'll see them writhe in pain as they download the latest version of Omen. I'm probably in the Moderates group. If it's a useful addon, I'm happy to install it, but I'm mindful of what a drain on my system some of them can be. The Borg pretty much have every addon they've ever seen mentioned. Trivia game? Got it! Chat mod that moves all my channels into new windows (which you can actually do on your own, kk)? It's right here!

Well, with Patch 2.4, the Purists are getting an upgrade to the default Raid UI. Rislyn says "The Raid UI now can display the range of players relative to you. The option to enable this is in the Party & Raid section of the UI Options." Now, this functionality has been available via RaidRangeAid V2 for a long time now, but personally I never understood why it wasn't built in to begin with. I mean, my spells always know who's close enough, so why not my frames?

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Whew! Kat's strange and unknown power saved her last week, and it looks like Byron showed up just in time to save her again. Unfortunately for him, the odds against two Naga aren't so great. Can he hold them off until Kat returns with help? You'll have to keep reading to find out.

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I can't say I quite understand the ultraportable thing (why not just use a real computer?), but I have to admit that the Eee PC from Asus is a slick little device. Not as slick as the Macbook Air, but not nearly as pricey, so still pretty slick. And now it's even slicker- Dan from UltraMobileGeek has figured out how to install World of Warcraft on an Eee 701.

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The good number of changes seem to be making its way into the latest 2.4 patch for Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMORPG. As a result, it's very easy to get lost in all the techno babble the developers have mentioned they'll be putting into the update. Fortunately, green poster Iriel from the WoW forums was kind enough to consolidate all the major changes included in the upcoming patch's User Interface API and functionality.

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Or

"I'd give my right arm for that schematic."

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Some players have been asking if Blizzard's World of Warcraft is optimized for Dual Core systems. Community Manager Drysc got wind of this and explained that the game is indeed compatible with the system.

According to Drysc, the game is compatible and will take advantage of the the multiple cores by offloading some tasks such as the sound system (assuming you don't have a hardware solution) to the additional processors.

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Totem Talk is the column for Shamans. Matthew Rossi has played two shamans to 70 and is working on a third, his main problem being he can't decide whether to level another Horde or Alliance shaman. Yes, he's technically working on two elemental shamans at once. Once again, we at Totem Talk hasten to point out that no one has ever said that he was very bright.

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Last week our own Marcie Knox pointed out in her Ready Check column the daunting task that's given to raiders when they face Lady Vashj and Kael'Thas Sunstrider. These two bosses have earned their reputation as a guild killer, and are some of the hardest encounters in the game. While there is a plethora of information out there on how to defeat the technical aspects of the fights, very little is written on the social aspects these fights give us. Examining what can be done to keep a group of raiders together during this difficult time is critical to success.

Lets take a brief look at why these two encounters are so difficult. When it comes down to it, Blizzard is testing our ability to deal with two different skill sets. The first being immediate and unknown change, and that comes with Vashj during phase two and three: which side will the Naga spawn, where will the Tainted Element appear, how many times is your main tank going to get rooted and bat poison dropped on him, which way will the tanks need to drag the Naga around to avoid getting the melee cleaved, etc...

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In the course of my daily machinima search, I learn new things all the time. For example, I now know that I need a rainbow unicorn in my life, or the fact that Martin Falch can see into my SOUL! It's a good thing that I wore my tinfoil hat today, or things could have been messy.

Inside World of Warcraft is a machinima series produced by Oblivious Films in collaboration with machinima.com. Apparently they're going around WoW searching high and low for the latest issues, gripes, and machinima. Their inaugural episode features some epic forum complaints about each class, and a speedy review of Tales of the Past 3.

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Every Thursday, Well Fed Buff will be serving up the tastiest dishes to boost your HP and stats, just in time for your weekend gaming.

Hello hungry readers! Welcome to this week's installment of Well Fed Buff. When the weather gets cold nothing hits the spot like Dragonbreath Chili. This recipe can be acquired from vendors in Dustwallow Marsh or Desolace and requires 200 skill in Cooking to create. For ten minutes after eating, the consumer occasionally belches a cone of flame. The effects of the real version are much longer lasting, but just as deadly.

Patience is the key to the perfect pot of Dragonbreath Chili. Well Sriracha is actually the key, but patience comes in handy. Be prepared to wait at least three hours for this recipe to come to fruition, and keep in mind that it is even better the next day. These instructions makes enough chili to feed a horde of Horde (or Alliance). and are guaranteed to warm you from the outside in... and then some.

Ingredients:
1 Lb Mystery Meat (I use crumbled veggie burgers, but you might want to use ground beef)
1 Small Flame Sac (1/4 c. Sriracha)
1 Packet Hot Spices (2 Tbs Chili Powder, ½ Tsp each Red Pepper, White Pepper, Garlic Powder, and Cumin)
5 Jalapenos
1 Onion
1 28-Oz Can Crushed Tomatoes
1 28-Oz Can Diced Tomatoes
5 15.5-Oz Cans Beans (I use Chili Beans, Dark Red Kidney Beans, Light Red Kidney Beams, Black Beans, and Pinto Beans)

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Reader Saldemor took his Undead Mage to the gates of Orgrimmar and did what he does best: let loose with a Cone of Cold. Ok, he probably does other things better. Like making things dead quick. And preparing delicious banquet tables of handcrafted breads and home-brewed drinks. And pulling too much aggro before the tank can lock down the mob. But hey, at least with this, he looks good doing it.

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The first episode of Blizzcast apparently caused quite a stir, so much so that with the announcement of an upcoming second episode, World of Warcraft players peppered Blizzard blue poster Bornakk with a plethora of questions.

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Sa of Burning Steppes has a question in mind for Blizzard representative Vaneras: What's up with stealth animations? Apparently, the player behind Sa has been waiting for new stealth animations to come out.

This was inspired by Vaneras' original announcement almost a year ago, but unfortunately, there's been no word on them. Vaneras acknowledged Sa's post, though it wasn't all positive.

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