Five Things From Friday : WoW Edition

I haven't done one of these in quite a while, so it's worth reiterating that the title "Five Things From Friday" contains three implicit promises (five items, on friday, every friday) that I have no intention nor inclination to honor.

1. If Blizzard released a patch in the woods and there was no one to complain about it, would it still be a patch?
   
   
2. The Greedy Goblin is a pretty interesting blog concerned with making money in WoW. He's also a self-admitted Randian, and when he's complaining about other players it often brings to mind Whitaker Chamber's famous rebuke:
   

   From almost any page of Atlas Shrugged, a voice can be heard, from painful necessity, commanding: "To a gas chamber — go!"

   I mention Gevlon because above he recently bragged about excluding a player from a five-man heroic group because the player had not yet completed the Naxxramas ten-man raid (in case you aren't familiar with WoW, a ten-man raid is far more advanced than a five-man heroic). People in over their heads are certainly a problem in WoW, but so are elitists who take upon themselves to arbitrarily decide who is worthy and who is not.
   
   Come to think of it, there's considerable overlap in that particular Venn Diagram.
   
   
3. Faction changes are here, which have to be the most-signficant-yet-least-asked-for feature in the entire history of WoW.
   
   It's nothing I seriously considered before, but it does hold a certain charm. In the Grand Pantheon of MMORPG's I could never get into, there resides a special place for Leveling in WoW As Horde, a task I've oft begun but have never completed.
   
   
4. The Chinese ban on Gold Farming came and went this week. Like many things that seemed to odd to be true, it was too odd to be true.
   
   
5. I keep meaning to make a "Coolest Things Since I Returned From WoW" list but I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. One very cool thing that has nothing to do with Blizzard : I can now get my WoW news from WoW.com instead of scanning the (awful) forums for blue posts thrice daily. This is a dereliction worth celebrating.
   
   
6. The other "Coolest Thing" that has nothing to do with Blizzard : mods have really grown up. I'm returning from my second long absence in WoW. During my first nine-month absence mod maturity advanced ... by about nine months. During my second, two-year-long absence, mods seemed to advance by ten years.
   
   Ackis was originally based on a mod I wrote and then quit maintaining, and if any of my work is still left it is now unrecognizable. And Ackis is marvelous, far better than anything I could have done.
   
   So it's quite possible that the greatest thing I ever did in WoW was make a mod and quit.
   
   
7. The #1 Video Game podcast on iTunes is WoW-focused The Instance. I have recently partook and found it excellent, although my #1 Video Game podcast will always remain the Bombcast.
   
   
8. The Expansion Prediction Wagon has arrived : it will be called WoW Cataclysm and it will be based on The Maelstrom. I am hitching myself to this wagon.
   
   
9. Speaking of hitching, some time ago there was a (possibly fake) secret leaked plan for WoW expansions. It has proven remarkably accurate in the duration, although details have obviously changed. According to the notes, the fourth expansion seemingly introduces new starting zones, "Wolfenhold" and "Pandaria", presumably for Worgen and Pandarens.
   
   I'm going contrary to The List, and predicting that based on the Children's Day updates, the two new races will come in the Third Expansion, and will be Wolvar and Gorlocs.
   

Happy Independence Day to you, readers!