Ugh, not feeling super great today. I think all the pinching and prodding of my body yesterday rearranged some organs. But fear not, I took down the Bitch Sales Lady boss and won two emblems. Why no I will not try on that ridiculously overpriced dress with the impractical long train for a third time, and I am DONE prancing about like a show pony. OH SNAP

Anyway. I don't normally post on weekends, but this weekend is special. If you haven't been paying attention (LAWL), the best sites, IMO to check out are wow.com and, of course, the official Cataclysm website.

I am not going to relist all the new crap covered, since it's pointless and you can just go to the website. But I AM wondering if there are a lot of people eating crow over the details about Cataclysm. There was a lot of rage and talk about irresponsible journalism with MMO-Champion and WoW Insider leaked the news about Cataclysm, and a lot of people saying that the news was untrustworthy because of that.

I was skeptical about a lot of the information, but I think it was more because I didn't *want* it to be true. The perfectionist inside me is weeping about night elf mages. Also, I'm skeptical about most things, but I will say that I personally have a LOT of confidence in Wow Insider. That's where I go to get my news, and they never disappoint. There is a reason why I rely on them for incoming patch info. They always source things pretty well.

A week and a half ago Matticus made a post about responsible journalism, and I think that post really helped convince me that Wow Insider wasn't doing anything particularly wrong. I was still skeptical, but soothed quite a bit. Now, I don't know much about MMO Champion, I don't like their interface, so I don't read them, heh. And then, a few days ago, Dueg pointed out something that for some reason I hadn't even considered - it was quite possible that Blizzard purposely leaked the information, to get people hyped about Blizzcon (even moreso at least). And I truly believe that's exactly what happened.

Although I guess it's pretty safe for me to weigh in after the whole controversy is resolved, eh?

I wonder if the next time Blizz decides to leak things, they will do it in a different way... because at this point, I'm convinced that is exactly what they did. I feel bad that Wow Insider bore quite a bit of criticism over the whole ordeal, but I suppose that is the nature of the beast. I hope that regardless of that fact, it generated a lot of hits on their website and made them some money. This is American, money fixes, like, everything. Just ask Ross Perot yo.

Now that I've covered that, I'm going to set out by explaining some of my thoughts on the announcements made at Blizzcon so far. There are definitely a lot of really cool changes incoming. Overall though, I'm more than a little concerned. People, enjoy the way Azeroth looks now, because it is confirmed that when the expansion comes out, you will never see it look that way again. Cataclysm is a perfect name.

I have a very conservative personality. I'm not talking about politics, though this aspect of my personality is reflected in many of my political beliefs. It's not that I don't like change... it's just that I get really nervous about sudden, drastic (you may say CATACLYSMIC) change. So even though I know the expansion is still quite a ways off (even though I'm sure there will be kids in trade chat insisting it will land within 6 months), I'm still trying to prepare myself for what I know will be a difficult transition for me. I mean seriously, I still clutch to the days of waiting until level 40 for a mount.

So yes. I'm already feeling nostalgic for "Old Azeroth". But I also recognize that people have been begging Blizz for the ability to fly around the old world ever since TBC came out. The response has always been that they want to focus their development efforts on moving forward, not going backward. It seems, however, that they did listen to us. I mean let's face it, so much time and effort was put into the old world, it's ridiculous how little time we spend there after level 60. So as much as I'm sad about leaving Old Azeroth in the dust, I am happy that they finally have decided to turn their attention back to the Old World. I am really interested to see just how much phasing will take place, and how it will be administered. I'm also glad they will be improving the UI so that you can tell when someone is in another phase.

Also, Worgen look way cooler than any wedding dresses I tried on yesterday FYI. I can't wait to see what the females will look like!

Expect lots of long posts from me coming in as I weigh in on Blizzcon announcements. I still have a LOT left to say (is anyone surprised?).