The first official Blizzard podcast, the BlizzCast, has gone live and can now be downloaded:

To kick off our BlizzCast series, we’ve decided to begin where every great Blizzard idea begins, at the concept level. To speak with us we have Samwise Didier, our Art Director and concept artist to many of the popular Blizzard icons you’ve grown to love such as the Pandaren, Fel Orcs, Dark Templars, Zerglings, and many more.  We’ll be chatting with Samwise on how he came up with the characters he did, as well as what it is like to work on both the Warcraft and StarCraft franchises.

Why are you seeing long 2v2 queue times? Because Blizzard doesn't want to fork out the cash for more computers to handle more games at once.... GG BLIZZARD!

There's a limitation on how many games can run at the same time, and while we're always looking to expand and improve our infrastructure to 'give some extra slack' to those types of restrictions, there are no current plans to see an increased amount of games running.

We recommend playing in the larger team sizes, or outside of the peak play times. 2v2 teams are obviously the most abundant, and if you just go up one team size to 3v3 or play before or after the peak ~5PM-9PM, you should have an easier time.

Think you could come up with some nice quests for World of Warcraft? Well it just so happens that Blizzard are looking for a new quest designer...

Blizzard is looking to hire a talented and enthusiastic quest designer for the World of Warcraft team. The position will involve the design and implementation of quest and event content. The ideal candidate must have a deep understanding of game design. This individual will possess an aptitude for critical thinking and analysis as well as demonstrate a mastery of logical problem solving. Creativity is a must. 

The launcher that you start with WoW was updated with 2.3 and it can pretty much do anything at all to your computer and you wouldn't know jack...

We all know that World of Warcraft has checked for hacks to ensure a safe game environment for all players. The latest version of these checks goes beyond anything seen so far in that what is being checked is now completely encrypted. Obviously this hits bot writers as can be seen from these complaints, But it also strikes at the privacy of all users. Now Blizzard has a tool that is encrypted and can run any type of scan, transfer any file or edit any document on your computer. That can't be right.

Blizzard have added polls to the official forums:

Welcome to our first test of the World of Warcraft polling system! With this new poll system we’ll be able to pick the collective brains of the forum goers, and encourage discussion based on the questions they pose. While we're pretty sure that they won't always be accurate, it will hopefully still be a lot of fun. With our first poll we’re asking you, the poster, the controversial and highly debated, discussed, and argued question:

Does .999~ = 1?

While we already have some great poll questions all lined up, we need more! Offer us your best questions for future polls. These can be yes/no or multiple choice, and if we like it, you may just find your poll up here in the weeks and months ahead. 

Is your audio in World of Warcraft crap after the latest release? Well Creative have offered to come to the party and help out Blizzard, but get no response!

Blizzard have posted some more details on the open job positions that they have going.

Do you think you have what it takes to make the next award winning game sell millions in effect giving you world-wide recognition and fame? Well, it may not sound as simple as it seems, but Blizzard is willing to get you there by giving people the chance to make their mark in the video gaming industry. To date they've opened some new positions in their illustrious company and are offering applicants to work on some of their top-notch games that have wow-ed (pun intended) the world.

Should Blizzard offer lifetimes subscriptions to World of Warcraft? If they did, how much should it cost?

A reader pointed out to me that Hellgate London is offering a lifetime subscription, and asks whether I regret having paid for my lifetime subscription for Lord of the Rings Online. Good subject! The short answer is that I don't regret my lifetime subscription for LotRO, but would advise against paying for one for Hellgate London. The long answer is a lot more complicated, because whether a lifetime subscription is a good deal depends not only on the game, but also on your finances.

A Chinese company is suing Blizzard over alleged copyright infringement of its fonts.

Beijing Founder Electronics Co Ltd said yesterday it has sued US game company Blizzard Entertainment over alleged copyright infringement of its fonts.

The case is the latest in a string of lawsuits launched by Chinese companies against US firms recently as the rift over intellectual property rights protection continues.

Once again we camped out near the life-giving sustenance of two 110-volt friends to bring you as close to the action as it happened as possible -- here's a roundup of the sessions we liveblogged today at Blizzcon...

Links to Liveblogs by WoW Insider at Blizzcon are in this post:

Day 1:

• Opening Ceremony
• Wrath of the Lich King live demo session
• WoW Class Panel
• Dungeons and Raids Panel

Day 2: