You might suspect (correctly) that Blizzard is running a business more than creating a game. With myriad soft toys for your consumption and the monthly payments generating a Flying Dutchmen’s hull space worth of cash, Blizzard still is not satisfied. I mean, I guess, what would we do? The latest in this line of gears on a steamroller is a new reward for those of you that convince your buddy to play with you. Its the first two-person mount. No joke. You and your buddy can enjoy the fictional aerial torpedo as soon as she/he signs up. I am kind of interested in how it works. Then I remember how much real world XP I lost when I was playing. I’m still questing to make that up.

No, I don’t mean the level 30 something old-timey dungeon mini-shooter that gets put on auto farm. We’re talking full, high-level experience. Will Gnomeregan finally be taken back once and for all?

Blizzard has just revealed the female equivalent of the witchdoctor class in Diablo III.

Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose. However, there is something that I noticed straight away that you might also spot. When you head over to the female witch doctor page, you’ll see the GIF of the in game model that’ll be used. I thought the proportions of the model were interesting to say the least.

The character is more or less “pear shaped”, the hips of the character being larger than the stereotyped female heroine compared to the upper body. This is important on a number of levels, most of which the average reader could surmise. Beyond that, though, is that even when looking at the concept art and the GIF of the in game model the realistic proportions of the character imply a heightened realism of the game world.

I’m really glad to see that there isn’t any kind of warped proportions coming through in this reimagining of sorts. The world of Diablo seems to be one of the most persistent game worlds I’ve seen, which is curious, since the game doesn’t have too much depth to speak of. Does this mean that every design choice, every visual aspect, even the body proportions of the characters, imply the themes and state of a world, even to a higher degree than the actual written content? I think very much so. I’m interested to watch the design of the game coalesce over the next couple of months… or years, as the case may be.

The new class is official, and a gameplay video has been released with not only a new class but a new setting as well. Check it out inside.

The new site is up, and it’s official! Check it out: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/

There are rumors (and I say this only because they are difficult to confirm) that the newest class to be revealed for Diablo III will be none other than the monk. Obviously, there was a monk in the wonky “Hellfire” expansion to Diablo I, but if this rumor proves true we’ll have a brand new experience on our hands, As of now, the class appears to use staves at the very least, but you can bet there will be some hand-to-hand combat. Let’s just hope it doesn’t replace assassin with their use of fist weapons (nahhhh).

So I’ve just caught wind that the details of the new World of Warcraft expansion, “Cataclysm” were leaked. Its true, its the goblins and the worgen as new races. You can check out the rest of the details here, but first browse over this list of new race/class combinations:

1. Human Hunter
2. Orc Mage
3. Night Elf Mage
4. Dwarf Mage
5. Blood Elf Warrior
6. Dwarf Shaman
7. Undead Hunter
8. Tauren Paladin
9. Tauren Priest
10. Gnome Priest
11. Troll Druid

On August 19 in Cologne Germany, thousands will gather for Europe’s GamesCom conference in hopes of becoming Germany’s leading trade show for interactive gaming and entertainment. This debut event hopes to attract the entire industry, as well as anyone interested in video games or computers.