Intense discussions have been going on over at the official Blizzard forums today after they released a "hotfix" for the Christmas season special in World of Warcraft, the Snowball. Many people have had fun throwing Snowballs at players on the same faction as they are in, particularly those hardpacked snowballs you can find over at Alterac Valley. (We've even gotten hold of some videos of their World of Warcraft festive fun.)

The festive hotfix took place today. Whilst it may spoil the festivities for some, slating Blizzard devs as a bunch of scrooges, it will certainly benefit those who are trying to earn honor points, reducing the amount of times they are reduced to the floor by a well-placed snowball.

Here's what the hotfix does:

• Regular snowballs will no longer knock down groupmates in a Battleground. This only applies to Battlegrounds. The reason for this is that grouping is forced in the Battlegrounds and players were using the mechanic to cause grief to their teammates.
• "Hardpacked Snowballs" - specific to Alterac Valley - can only be used against enemy targets. Again, the reason for this was due to negative player issues caused between teammates in Alterac Valley.

It will certainly lower the amount of team attacks with snowballs since you can no longer use them. This will come as a massive advantage to most users. For those of you who are sad about this hotfix, we advise a nice hot cup of coco as you think it over and realise that you can still throw snowballs at the enemy team! What's so bad about that?

Get off your mount, sit down, make a nice cup of coffee and get ready to be astounded because Blizzard have just released the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade into cinematic for all of you to watch (the above video was uploaded by Haradachii).

If you're a little scared of horror movies then you may want to be a little vigilant of this trailer as it does start off a bit threateningly. If you think you can handle the wrath of Illidan then sure, go ahead but be warned.

This isn't no "sneak peek" either, this is the full, almost 3 minute long intro cinematic you'll get with Burning Crusade when it is released in January.

This cinematic tells a bit of a story, and we won't spoil it for you but it does start off with the words "Imprisoned for 10,00 years."

Don't be too quick to shoot off Blizzard's sense of humor either, with the cinematic intro containing a mage transforming a Tauren into a sheep amongst other things. You'll have to watch the video in order to find out why but we'll leave you with a few words from our sponsors to tide you over until January 16th: "You are not prepared!"

Nethaera popped by the official World of Warcraft forums today just to tell everyone that "the LFG channel will not be making a reappearance." Of course, Blizzard did implement a new LFG system with their latest v2.0.1 patch for WoW, but many players have said that the good old-fashioned LFG channel, although messier, is more effective at finding groups and have complained about the new system.

Nethaera however did state that people should use the new LFG system so that Blizzard can continue to develop and enhance the interface and figure out any bugs or problems users have with the system.

She also said that users should not take part in protests or create petitions as this will not be effective in any way in bringing back the old LFG channel, but as many users will already know, if you log onto virtually any server and type in "/join lookingforgroup" you'll find a close approximation of the old LFG channel.

Lets just hope that Blizzard listen to some of it's users concerns and bring back the old channel. Surely the LFG system and the LFG channel could live together in harmony?

Blizzard Entertainment just released a huge gallery of new screenshots for their upcoming World of Warcraft expansion pack, Burning Crusade. Just think about it for a moment. If you're finding yourself spending loads of time on WoW, imagine having the ability to rise up to level 70, going into a new level 61-70 dedicated battleground, trying out new classes, spending loads of time in a great PvP area... okay, you can stop drooling now. If anything, it'll be a nice break from all those twinks swamping the battlegrounds at the moment.

These screenshots show the originality of WoW but with the added kick of something you haven't seen before. Burning Crusade is set to be released in January 2007, so if you haven't scored one of the many free beta keys offered then we'd suggest you get your order in now. Come January, Burning Crusade will fly off the shelves!

Check out more of the new screenshots after the jump!

We all know how you guys love the Burning Crusade expansion pack and how you are dying to get your hands on one of those many beta keys floating around the internet right now. Well, it looks like your chances of catching a beta key are even better now as IGN has 250 keys to give away - free! To enter the competition all you have to do is own a legitimate version of World of Warcraft, which has been active since October 8.

If you're drooling right now and can't wait to get the chance to play as the Blood Elves or the Draenei, check out the IGN competition by clicking the link below. If you do get lucky, you can always come back here to get all the latest news on the expansion to be released on January 16th.

With the recent availability of even more Burning Crusade beta keys on the market we thought we'd give you a closer insight into the depths of the World of Warcraft expansion due for release on January 16 2007. One mode which most people find very fun is the PvP Battlegrounds, and with the addition of the new "Eye of the Storm Battleground in Burning Crusade, having fun killing players from the opposing team can only get better (whether players be Alliance or Horde).

The Eye of the Storm Battleground is located in the Outland zone of Netherstorm and has a combination of capture-and-hold style gameplay with capture-the-flag for players at the golden levels of 61-70.

The Alliance and Horde are separated on two floating landmasses which are connected by three bridges, with four towers overlooking the battlefield and a single flag to capture. One flag you say - how will this work? Teams will have to capture the single flag by taking it to a tower which they control. In order to achieve victory your team must accumulate 2,000 victory points to win the match, with players also earning points for their faction by capturing and returning a flag to a tower controlled by their faction.

Because the Eye of the Storm is in the Burning Crusade expansion, it does not have an actual entrance portal connecting it to the outside world. The only way to enter The Eye of the Storm Battleground is to speak with an Eye of the Storm Battlemaster in one of the major cities.

Check out the Eye of the Storm screenshots right here and wait for the battle in the Eye of the Storm to begin! Fight the enemy, capture towers and flags, and seize glory for your faction. An epic conflict in Outland awaits.

Check out the Eye of the Storm screenshots. Just click on the Full Article link below.

Tseric has popped by the World of Warcraft forums to provide us with an update on the paid character transfer issue. The changes to the character transfer cooldown time from six months to one month, as we reported on earlier this month, have been overruled by Blizzard after the public expressed disappointment over it. Instead of one month, the paid character transfer cooldown time has changed from one month up to three months as of today, a decision that according to Tseric will "make it more likely that players or entire guilds would hop from realm to realm, and possibly result in more gold being transferred between realms as well."

Tseric said that the transfer cooldown of three months is the perfect compromise between having a sufficient buffer between transfers and having the flexibility to transfer a character. The original six month cooldown period made not a few players unhappy, thus the said change. Remember, if you have transferred characters three months ago or more, you can now transfer them again through the Account Management page.

If you were lucky enough to get your hands on the exclusive Burning Crusade Beta, then you may have been disappointed to find out that a lot of your UI modifications wouldn't work any more and that you were back to the good old days of Blizzard's tiny quest log, which features a small tracker which only allows five quests to be tracked at a time. Based on DanielRehn's amazing Extended Questlog 3 for World of Warcraft, skeetskeet's Extended Questlog for Burning Crusade gives you the same large open Questlog to make it easier for you to track your quests.

Extended Questlog for Burning Crusade Beta features everything that EQL3 has including double pane quests, quest level, and an infinite quest tracker. Remember, as this is for Burning Crusade beta, there may be a few bugs. Skeetskeet suggests that you play around with the options and turn things on/off if you get any script errors. What's left for you to do now is download and install this excellent modification. By the way, we're still jealous of you for getting the Burning Crusade beta!

Download: [Extended Questlog BC BETA]

Pre-order: [World of Warcraft Burning Crusade]

The standard Blizzard Questlog, besides being a bit dull, is way too small and lacks the customizability that we've become used to with all these World of Warcraft mods floating around. If you have a large monitor or would just like to have a much bigger questlog window, then DanielRehn's Extended QuestLog v3.6.1 is just for you. It features a much bigger layout compared to the Blizzard one, allowing you to see more details without scrolling and enables you to watch 27 rows instead of 6, which will often be enough to see all quests at the same time.

Download: [Extended QuestLog v3.6.1]

Don't sound much to you? Find the full feature list and more screenshots after the jump!

The moment of truth is upon us. Thousands of World of Warcraft players will now be desperately checking their email to see if they are a part of the WoW Burning Crusade closed beta. Many players signed up to test the expansion pack for the popular MMORPG, but only a handful will have qualified to test the beta which begins today. There couldn't possibly be a less revealing post by a Blizzard poster, with Eyonix simply saying "Just a heads up that closed beta has begun. What's new with you guys? ;P."

If everything goes well in the beta testing stage, Burning Crusade should be well on it's way to the currently unannounced release date. If you have been lucky enough to be selected for the closed beta you will have received details via e-mail. If you haven't, then welcome to the large group of WoW players that are eagerly awaiting the release of Burning Crusade. Good luck checking your mail!

Click on the link below for the WoW forums thread.