With today's deployment of the World of Warcraft v4.2 patch, "Rage in the Firelands", MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller is feeling like he's 'been there, done that'. He remembers the heady days of raiding the Molten Core. Check out Garrett's thoughts about Rage in the Firelands and then let us know your thoughts.

Today we get Patch 4.2 from World of Warcraft. As a WoW player from day one it feels kind of like déjà vu all over again. I raided Molten Core, a lot, in the early years. I remember downing Ragnaros for the first time; it was amazing. Now here we are with another fire based zone and it is 2011. Seven boss fights in an epic raid and all of the trimmings. More daily quests which actualy look to be the gem of the Firelands patch. Loot, gear, flying mounts, but haven’t we seen all of this before?

Read more of Garrett Fuller's World of Warcraft: 4.2 is WoW Déjà vu.

Blizzard has released a trailer to tease players about the upcoming v4.2 patch for World of Warcraft. Called "Rage of the Firelands", the trailer is a cinematic look at the story behind it all.

Across the breadth of Azeroth, the Horde and the Alliance have dealt crushing blows to Deathwing's elemental minions and fanatic Twilight's Hammer cultists. Through it all, the Earthen Ring has never wavered from its tireless charge, holding Azeroth itself together amid the tidal fury and errant magical energies that churn at the Maelstrom. Yet as the elements continue their chaotic upheaval, it seems that the noble shamanic order might finally be on the verge of breaking beneath the great weight that rests on its shoulders. Even Thrall, for all of his wisdom and skill, has grown aggravated by his failure to effectively communicate with Azeroth's elements. Recently, his calls were acknowledged, but the malevolent entity that responded has only intensified Thrall's fears and doubts.

Read more on the World of Warcraft blog.

Click the image below to watch the trailer.

Mega Brands has reached an agreement with Blizzard Entertainment to bring World of Warcraft Mega Bloks construction sets to retail outlets. The sets will feature locations, characters, and mounts from World of Warcraft and are expected to reach retail outlets in the summer of 2012.

Mega Bloks has achieved remarkable success translating gaming content into innovative and entertaining toys for kids and collectors alike.

"We're proud and thrilled to enter into a partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, the world leader in creating epic online game franchises," said Vic Bertrand, Chief Innovation Officer of MEGA Brands. "The depth of content in World of Warcraft and StarCraft will fuel years of fun, collectible products for gamers and collectors."

Find out more about Mega Brands.

Want to check out all things World of Warcraft and what devs have planned for the future? Want to find out about Titan? If so, you'll want to join the queue on Wednesday, May 25th at 7 p.m. PST to grab your Blizzcon 2011 tickets. Blizzcon is scheduled for October 21-22, 2011 in Anaheim, California.

Tickets  run $175 USD for the 2-day event.

The second batch of BlizzCon tickets will be going on sale Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT -- keep your eye on the ticket sales page at that time for the chance to get yours. If you are unable to purchase tickets, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit Children's Hospital of Orange County will go on sale Saturday, May 28 at 10 a.m. PT (BlizzCon admission included). For those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available through the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, which is offered as a multi-channel Internet stream and also via DIRECTV in the United States.

Find out more about buying your Blizzcon tickets.

In Guild's Eye View this week, MMORPG.com columnist Sean Stalzer checks up on and takes the virtual pulse of the World of Warcraft community. Is the WoW community in need of heroic life support measures or is it as vibrant and healthy as it appears? Check out Sean's thoughts and then offer up a few of your own.

All of that matters because it begs the question of "is Blizzard in danger of losing their community?" If there is one thing Blizzard is not known for it is being fast at creating content. While many would say they create compelling, polished, entertaining, top tier content (and I would agree) they are far from fast at doing so. When WoW first came out, there was a public commitment to 1 expansion per year. In actuality there has been about one every 2 years. The first new major content patch (the 4.2 patch that adds a new raid zone and a new crop of daily quests) is still in testing. Blizzard is not fast at creating content.

Read more of Sean Stalzer's Guild's Eye View: Is Blizzard Losing Its Community?

Want to hobnob with other World of Warcraft players? Want to try out (we hope) a demo for Diablo III? If so, you'll want to join the queue on Saturday, May 21st to grab your Blizzcon 2011 tickets. Blizzcon is scheduled for October 21-22, 2011 in Anaheim, California.

Tickets  run $175 USD for the 2-day event.

Tickets to attend BlizzCon 2011 will go on sale in two batches on Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and Wednesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. Pacific Time. Visit the official BlizzCon website or the online Blizzard Store on either of these dates for a chance to purchase tickets.

Find out more about buying your Blizzcon tickets.

The World of Warcraft team has released issue number seven of its Ask the Devs series. The team tackled fan questions about professions in World of Warcraft and answered about a dozen.

Will professions at some point regain the ability to make upgradable items, such as the Weaponsmiths had in the Burning Crusade? It was quite a cool concept, and wouldn't be unfair if all crafting professions would gain at least 1 of those items. - Hydramith (EU-EN), Auryon (EU-DE)

The concept of upgrading a piece of equipment is a very cool idea that we'd love to revisit, but not as a best in slot item. A crafted BIS item removes that entire slot as an interesting drop choice, and it strongly forces players into specific professions. For example, if there is a crafted best in slot weapon, you can bet a vast majority of players will feel obligated to take up blacksmithing, as was the case in the Burning Crusade. The profession perks, which are reasonably balanced, already add an incentive to take professions.

Read more on the World of Warcraft community forum.

The financial outlook for Blizzard is very good according to the latest Q1 statements issued by the company yesterday. The company took in $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2011 as compared to $1.3 billion for the same period last year. The strength of the financial earnings is largely due to World of Warcraft, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Starcraft 2. Interestingly, WoW subscribers dropped over a half million since late 2010.

Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated, "With over $1.4 billion of GAAP net revenues and $0.42 of GAAP EPS our record first-quarter performance was driven by digital sales and the continued strength of Activision Publishing's  Call of Duty and Blizzard Entertainment's  World of Warcraft franchises.  Digital content continues to represent a significant portion of our revenues and increased by about $100 million year over year, enabling us to deliver record first-quarter operating margins and earnings per share.   The  Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike content pack shattered Xbox LIVE launch records, surpassing 1.4 million downloads in the first 24 hours alone,(1) and Blizzard's Battle.net service continues to grow its service offerings.  To date,  Call of Duty: Black Ops players have logged more than 1.2 billion online hours of online gameplay."

Read more on the Blizzard Investors page.

In addition, Blizzard indicated that it will be working to streamline the release of World of Warcraft expansions to get them out more quickly:

"We need to be faster at delivering content to players," he added. "And so that's one of the reasons that we're looking to decrease the amount of time in-between expansions."

When asked if this decrease might mean we'll see expansions lighter in content than in the past, Morhaime said the company is not ready to talk about the content of its upcoming expansions, saying only that "we are looking at ways to speed up the development process."

MMORPG.com writer Phil James admits to being something of a lone wolf in his game life. So what's he doing writing about Community Spirit? Well, that's the thing: Phil is trying to break out of his solo mode and LFG. See how successful Phil has been in finding a community in World of Warcraft in the MMORPG equivalent of speed dating in Part II. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Getting to know a community in a short space of time can be a bit of a fool’s errand. Now apply that to World of Warcraft with its long list of servers, too many guilds to name, and far too many groups to count. The breadth and depth of socialisation that goes on is staggering; what I think of as ‘community’ is every players interaction with others. So in writing about the social side of a game like WoW, how do you sum it up? How could one guy speak for all the millions of others? In discussing communities the phrase “your experiences may vary” is very true. So all I can do is share my stories with you and if you can relate, great and if not, that’s great too, all our experiences are equally valid.

Read more of Phil James' Community Spirit II: World of Warcraft.

RipperX heads into the magical World of Warcraft for a basic run down of the game, character creation and his initial 1st impressions.  Check out our latest game overview / first impressions video on the MMORPG.com World of Warcraft page.

The team behind the WoW Community Site are happy to announce the new "sweeping" update to the database. Improvements have been made to the website's search function, the game section has been expanded considerably and item pages saw some update. Check it out!

In our ongoing efforts to bring you the most epic website experience ever (with as few explosions and malfunctions as possible), our special task force of goblin Web designers and gnomish engineers has just released a sweeping update to the Web database.

Read more over at Battle.Net.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the arrival of the Cenarion Hatchling with 100% of the sales proceeds going directly to relief organizations working in Japan to assist those devastated by the recent earthquake and tsunami. The Cenarion Hatchling retails for $10.00.

Introducing the latest World of Warcraft companion up for adoption in the online Pet Store: the wild and noble Cenarion Hatchling! This little critter is the twin of the rare Hippogryph Hatchling pet players could randomly encounter in the first World of Warcraft Trading Card Game set, Heroes of Azeroth -- and he's emerged from the forests of Azeroth to lend a helping talon to some friends in need. For every Cenarion Hatchling purchased between now and July 31, 100% of the $10 USD adoption fee will be donated to the American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts. This support will enable the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support, and other assistance to victims of this disaster.

Read more about the World of Warcraft Cenarion Hatchling.

MMORPG.com writer Phil James admits to being something of a lone wolf in his game life. So what's he doing writing about Community Spirit? Well, that's the thing: Phil is trying to break out of his solo mode and LFG. See how successful Phil has been in finding a community in World of Warcraft. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Recently, I’ve found myself between games, and by recently I mean for almost a year - I’ve just not been able to find one to stick with. Maybe part of the problem is that I don’t involve myself with the community of the games I play. It’s pretty well documented by countless players across many forums that playing with their friends was the only thing that kept them coming back to game X, Y or Z. Could be where I’m going wrong. I mean one game is pretty much like another these days. There are exceptions, but most play out in similar ways. So maybe my missing ingredient is socialisation. What I need is the right group of people to play with, and then I’ll find a reason to be that game for the long haul.

Read more of Phil James' Community Spirit I: World of Warcraft.

The World of Warcraft team is featured in the current (and first) video Blizzcast. Game Director Tom Chilton talks about what the patch is all about, Lead Quest Designer Dave Kosak lays out info on the new Firelands quest hub, and Lead Content Designer Cory Stockton spits and flows on Ragnaros and the upcoming raid content.

Welcome to BlizzCast 16! We’re excited to present the first-ever video BlizzCast, now in beautiful full-motion 2D! (Don't forget to wear your 2D glasses.) We’ve also jam-packed this episode with juicy information on World of Warcraft patch 4.2.

Read more about World of Warcraft.

Click the image below to watch Blizzcast: World of Warcraft Patch 4.2 Preview

The World of Warcraft team has released a new trailer to preview the v4.1 patch scheduled to be released soon. Called "Rise of the Zandalari", the trailer features a look at the troll empires of the past and the Zandalari's quest to reunite them in the wake of the Cataclysm.

Click the image below to check out the Rise of the Zandalari trailer.

Another issue of the World of Warcraft "Asks the Devs" series has been posted. This is the final installation with regard to achievements in the game. The questions run the gamut of whether or not more class-specific achievements will be added to the possibility that achievements will unlock content. Beginning next week, devs will field questions about another topic.

Q: I'd like to see the achievement system become more active and dynamic, will we ever see achievements that unlock quest lines, dungeons, or other Easter egg content as a reward for dedicating so much time in Azeroth? – Grandevil (North America/ANZ)

A: Probably not. As we said above, we want Achievements to feel optional. Some players don’t care for the game of collecting pets or mounts, so they still feel like they can opt out of achievements. If there was a cool quest line involved, then players who felt like they could safely ignore achievements in the past would now have to go back and play catch up. If you are doing achievements today, it should be because you like to do them, not because you’re hoping for some additional reward to materialize in the future.

Read more on the World of Warcraft forum.

Following yesterday's announcement about the Blizzcon ticket sales coming in May, the Blizzard team also revealed a new "Hashtag Twitter Campaign". During the event, Twitter fans are encouraged to keep an eye on their favorite Blizzard universe for special announcements and information from the dev team.

We love communicating with Blizzard gamers through as many mediums as possible, so it’s 'bout time we kicked our Twitter pages... into overdrive. We’re starting a new campaign with unique Twitter hashtags to cover a variety of topics on our Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo Twitter pages. Follow us and be on the lookout each week for random questions or interactive tweets from your favored game universe, or universes. (Universi?) Check our tweets with the #WoWTag, #SC2Tag, or #D3Tag hashtags and tweet your best response. Your replies can range from ridiculous, to awesome, to ridiculawesome, but don’t forget to include the hashtag. We’ll be sharing some of our favorite responses on Twitter, in our official community sites, and around the watercooler.

Read more here.

Mark your calendars and set your alarm clocks for Saturday, May 21st at 10:00 a.m. PST and Wednesday, May 25th at 7:00 p.m. PST. These are the dates when Blizzard reps will begin selling tickets to the 2011 Blizzcon in Anaheim, California. The tickets always go fast so save the date!

In addition to serving as a mutual stomping ground for the different Blizzard communities, BlizzCon will feature an array of activities, including discussion panels, hands-on playtime with current and upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games, professional and casual tournaments, contests, and much more. Blizzard is looking forward to learning more about its own games from Red Shirt Guy if he can make it to the show again this year.

Tickets to the convention will be priced at $175 USD each and will be available for purchase from the official BlizzCon website (www.blizzcon.com) in two separate batches.

Read more here.

In today's Guild's Eye View, MMORPG.com columnist Sean Stalzer takes a look at remote guild chat in World of Warcraft. Sean's contention is that community is the lifeblood of any MMO and chat is an integral part of ensuring that a community feels connected. Check out Sean's thoughts about remote guild chat in WoW and then weigh in with your own thoughts.

I will likely reassert this premise many times more in the future but... Successful communities are the lifeblood of a successful MMORPG. Game developers that invest in the right tools and development of a culture that fosters successful communities will have the successful MMORPGs of the future. One of the areas that more focus needs to be paid to is the "always on" aspect of gaming. By that I mean things such as being able to communicate with your guild or friends, at any time, from anywhere, whether you are in the game or not.

Read more of Sean Stalzer's Guild's Eye View: Remote Guild Chat - The Good & the Bad.