Just a week after the in-game pets for World of Warcraft were announced, one of the two variations has apparently been sold out, just goes to show how WoW-crazy some people get. The Pandaren Monk, listed for US$ 10 on the Blizzard pet store, has now been "sold out" in the United States.

If you want to pull up some quick information about your World of Warcraft character (or anyone else's for that matter), why don't you try browsing for it on your iPhone. I'm not talking about the WoW Armory. There's a quicker way for you to do that - on the new and updated version of the Warcraft Characters app for the iPhone.

How would you feel if Blizzard will allow you to access any realm in World of Warcraft regardless of your original location? We know it sounds exciting and such is the promise of the latest patch notes for the MMORPG.

However, Blizzard CM Nethaera dropped by the official forums and clarified the notes. Know what it really means by clicking the "read more" link below.

Sometimes, you just want to dispense with the grind and cut right to the chase - PvP that is. That's precisely what Blizzard will allow you to do with the new format of the Global World of Warcraft Arena Tournament.

Curious? More details await in the full article, right after the jump.

We had previously noted that Drysc announced several realm shutdowns to remedy the mix-ups being reported for Season 2 arena titles and Nether Drakes. This time around, a WoW Europe forum moderator states that the bug is still under investigation. More details up ahead in the full article.

  

Everyone has been talking about the Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in Korea last May 19 and 20. Now to give this topic a little closure (since we're still sore about not being able to go there), we decided to give a little recap on the entire thing and post some of the pictures lovingly provided by Blizzard on their site.

We have to start with the biggest announcement in PC gaming this year: Starcraft 2. This game was announced on the event through a rather elaborate presentation. To be honest, we were anxiously waiting for some news about people's head popping from excitement when the news was announced, but no such luck.

The game also hosted a couple of tournaments, highlighted by the regional finals of Warcraft III Season 5 and the first season of World of Warcraft's Arena Tournament. Other tournaments of note were the Invitational StarCraft and Warcraft III which brought some of the best professional gamers worldwide to Korea to test their skills.

It would also be good for players to know the venue where this was held to show you guys the magnitude (as if you didn't know) of this event. It was held in the Olympic Gymnastics and Fencing Stadiums in Seoul. They needed that large an area to hold everyone who wanted to be a part of this event. Hopefully, next year we'll be able to send our own team to cover it. Till then, keep checking back here for the latest gaming news.

  

More pictures await after the jump!

Earlier today, we reported on StarCraft, Diablo Series">Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming "Medusa Demo" at the World Wide Invitational later today in South Korea. No one really knows what this is all about but we've been theorizing, with fingers crossed, that it's related to StarCraft 2 or StarCraft MMO.

Anyway, to those of you who are also anticipating this, we managed to get a copy of the schedule for the said event. It's from online site GGL, the same company that covered last year's event. According to the site, here's how the things should go later and tomorrow:

May 19

• 11:00 to 12:20 : Warcraft 3 Season 5 Consolation Final ( Shy  vs.  Moon)
• 14:00 to 16:00 : Opening Ceremony / Announcement of the New Products
• 16:20 to 21:40 : Starcraft Invitational Last 8 / Warcraft 3 Invitational Last 8

May 20

• 11:00 to 12:20 : Warcraft 3 Season 5 Overall Final
• 12:20 to 15:20 : Warcraft 3 Invitational Semi-final
• 15:40 to 17:10 : Warcraft 3 Invitational Final
• 17:30 to 19:00 : Starcraft Invitational Final
• 19:00 to 20:00 : Closing Ceremony

Gaming website 1UP reports that according to StarCraft, Diablo Series">Blizzard's itinerary, the company will be revealing a little demo during their upcoming and highly-anticipated mega-announcement during the World Wide Invitational in Korea.

It seems nobody knows aside from the people at Blizzard what the demo is about. We do have a name, though: "Medusa Demo". 1UP theorizes that it could simply be a code name for a new game engine. They also note that there's an item called "Medusa's Gaze" in Diablo 2, so it could be something Diablo-related.

We, on the other hand, are still rooting for something Starcraft 2-related. Those things sticking out of the Queen of Blades's head give her a Medusa-like impression, really. Or maybe we're just too hung up on Starcraft.

In other news, the Blizzard website has finally reached World of Warcraft on their little teaser timeline. Keep checking back here for updates on that final question mark.

Video Games Live, the foremost game music-centric concert tour in the world, has announced that it will be creating and performing special concert presentations for attendees at the 2007 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, Korea and BlizzCon 2007 in Anaheim, California.

In keeping with the whole Blizzard theme, the performances will showcase a variety of tunes from Blizzard titles. Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, said that the company is "looking forward to sharing the experience with our players at these events."

"It's really great to see how connected Blizzard is to their players, and it's easy to realize why Blizzard's games have become so popular around the world," said game composer and Executive Producer Tommy Tallarico. "They really appreciate and understand their audience."

 

At the Game Developers Convention (GDC), Jong Hyun Wi, Ph.D, gave a presentation regarding East and West gaming preferences and why the World of Warcraft seems to work for both. He is the president of the Game Contents Research Center at Chung-Ang University, Korea and during the GDC presentation, showed some interesting numbers about eastern and western players.

Dr. Wi gathered polls from player communities from both territories and found several differences between the two sides. Chinese players are more goal oriented which means they value item gathering. Customization, number of valuable items and item diversity are most attractive to them. Also, Player vs Player (PvP) gameplay is an important part of the gaming experience and socializing in game is mostly for play advantage.

Western gamers on the other hand prefer good graphics and quests. Only 34.7% of American gamers experienced PvP as opposed to 91.3% of Chinese players. Western gamers like the hunt for items though it's more important for them that the quests or raids be substantial. Another gaping difference is that 48.68% of Americans join guilds to meet friends.

Dr. Wi concluded the Chinese players are focused on the endgame while American players prefer fostering communities. And since Blizzard's World of Warcraft basically has all the said content, there's no question why it shouldn't appeal to both Eastern and Western players - even when Asian MMOs get imported to the US and Western MMOs fail miserably when trying to grab an Asian playerbase.