A loot of information enough to fill a guild's coffers have been uncovered in the latest issue of Games for Windows Magazine, and it's all about the upcoming expansion to Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King. We get you the skinny on what's to expect with the expansion that promises to get you more in touch with your dark side - just like Arthas did.

So, what's new about Wrath of the Lich King, besides the fun stuff we've already covered? A whole lot, apparently, with factoids coming in about the zones, the dungeons, and even the newly-unveiled Death Knight hero class. For your reading pleasure, here's a list of the compiled info, nugget-sized for convenience and brevity:

• The ending of Wrath of the Lich King will be definitive and have a note of finality, unlike Burning Crusade.
• The Sunwell will be the "ending".
• Kil'jaeden is not fully summoned, which means players will be able to take him down with 25 Level 70s.
• Dalaran will have instanced dungeons, but no Auction Houses or Class trainers.
• Sunwell will have tweaked Blood Elves and somewhere around six to eight bosses.
• Utgarde will be similar to Ramparts, with parts of the map only being accessible after killing specific enemies. It will also have a Lich boss and a Vrykul boss.
• More micro dungeons (non-instanced dungeon-like areas). One example is Gjalerbon, where the Vrykuls and the Liches are working together.
• Two Death Knight spells revealed: Army of the Dead, which summons undead minions, and Death and Decay, an Area of Effect spell.
• Inscribers will be able to sell scrolls.
• Only a handful of spells can be inscribed.

Certainly a very meaty list, and if it's anything to go by, Wrath of The Lich King will certainly change the playing landscape of World of Warcraft as we know it. Let's just hope Blizzard delivers on the shots they're already calling!

World of Warcraft players have been waiting for a number of things since the game went live. Things like guild housing and guild banks for example. Shane Dabiri, Blizzard lead producer, gave us something to hope for in an interview with Games for Windows Magazine.

Players over at the WoW Forums are buzzing with questions regarding the two future-slash-potential additions to the already huge MMORPG. Neske offered some suggestions for the guild housing. He suggested that these havens for guilds feature things like a sparring room, trophy room, practice room, and maybe a poster board. He also said that the Guild house would be a perfect place in which to place the guild banker NPC.

It would really be cool to have these things in place, though we all know people find different ways to exploit certain things. Anyway, Blizzard poster Nethaera indicated that guild housing "is something that is a possibility for the future but there are no specific plans I could share with you at this point in time" as an answer to whether guild housing and banks are really on the dev's drawing board.

Guess we'll have to wait for a more solid confirmation than that. Keep it here for more World of Warcraft news and info.

The news is out and a new expansion for Blizzard's World of Warcraft is already in the works. Lead producer Shane Dabiri has already confirmed this in a recent Games For Windows Magazine interview. Sadly, Blizzard poster Nethaera has said on the forums that they have decided to keep mum on the details of the game.

Quite a few ideas have been circulating around such as the inclusion of water mounts. In terms of territories, most players are expecting to find the Maelstrom and Northrend in the new expansion. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that a lot of people are rooting for a cow level. we can see it now, an instance populated by nothing but packs and packs of Taurens. Well, people can dream right?

This expansion is said to have started development from as early as the start of this year, though we can't confirm that. Hopefully, they will add fixes to some of the more glaring problems in the game as well as properly balance-out the characters without over-nerfing them.

   

For the World of Warcraft players who read our recent report on the guild banks and VoIP chat to be added after Patch 2.1 goes live, here's an update. We have some scans of the article in question, reports, and some players' reactions to the additions.

According to Blizzard's Shane Dabiri, the said additions will occur after patch 2.1 goes live. The Guild Bank addition will probably prove to be very useful for players who need the extra space for items and gold. On the other hand, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) chat is getting some attention from the players.

Over at the WoW Forums, Schoolgirl of Blackwing Lair started a thread entitled "VOIP: The End of Girls in WoW". He/she (you never know) was concerned that the existence of men pretending to be girls would be in trouble.

Speaking as a girl gamer, it's pretty hard to function properly when you're being bombarded by questions like "Are you really a girl? Or some bald guy in your mother's basement?" Trying to convince guys can prove to be something very futile indeed.

So what do you think? Are you concerned about VoIP chat? While you're turning that over in your mind, check out the scans of Games for Windows Magazine featuring the Guild Banks, VoIP chat, and the new arena called the Ruins of Lordaeron.

It looks like Ventrillo and TeamSpeak are on the way out of Azeroth, as Blizzard is reportedly gearing up to add VoIP directly to World of Warcraft. According to Curse Gaming, this is one of the tidbits that World of Warcraft lead producer Shane Dabiri will reveal in an interview in the June 2007 issue of Games for Windows magazine.

In the WoW VoIP, a player's name will reportedly be highlighted when they are talking, so other players will be able to click on the talker's name to select them and give them their buff or heal. The in-game voice chat will apparently be available only to Parties and Raids at first, but will probably be expanded to include custom channels in the future.

Players will also reportedly have the option of separating the in-game voice chat from the game's other sounds (music, etc.) and setting it to a different sound channel. In theory, this will let players have the game's background sound and music piped through their regular speakers while the voice chat goes only to their headsets.

Another new feature that will reportedly be implemented after patch 2.1 goes live is the Guild Bank. This will let guild members use the money put in the bank, like a sort of community chest. The Guild Bank will also have hundreds of slots for items and such. Transactions will also reportedly be monitored and documented by Blizzard to prevent abuse.