I'm sure you've all been dying with curiosity while waiting to hear the winners of last week's tabard design contest -- and to find out which tabard would become the official guild tabard of WoW Insider's It Came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh. so, fortunately, I'm here to announce the winners! In first place, and showing off the tabard you see to the right, is Hellbena, whose eyes tabard snagged first place. Yep, this is the tabard you will soon see on ICftB members all over Zangarmarsh!

In second place, we had Zungaba with this lovely bunny tabard and in third place we have Sylvina's excellent octopus design. (To see the rest of our entries, check out our tabard gallery!) All of our winners are taking home an I'm Only Here Because My Server Is Down t-shirt from J!NX (think of them as a RL version of your tabard), so if you meet any of them in-game, be sure to congratulate them!

Someone's gotta tank, and it's often warriors. The class most famous for standing under the nose of the most dangerous enemies in the World of Warcraft and taking everything such monsters can dish out on them sometimes just want a break, to sit back and just kill things like rogues get to do -- and they do that well too! Today is Warrior Day in this breakfast topic, and it's time to show all our warrior friends out there what we love about what they do for us.

So if you play as a warrior, with a warrior, or against warriors (and good ones!), shout it out how much you love it!

[gorgeous art by Pulyx!]

Yep, last week most realms had rolling restarts, which means that this week we have a regular maintenance. This week all US realms (which means AUえーゆー realms, as well) will have a regularly scheduled maintenance period, starting at 5:00 AM PDT and ending at 11:00 AM PDT. Sure, on good weeks, the realms can come back up early, but it's just as common for them to come back up late. So for those of you who usually play during this period of time, my apologies -- maybe you can join me in my downtime hobby of re-playing the original StarCraft!

[Information via the login screen -- nope, there's nothing on the official site, or I'd link it]

This isn't the first time we've heard this, but recently PC World has reported that your virtual assets may worth more than your real assets. From the article:

According to Craig Schmugar, a researcher with the McAfee research labs, McAfee now sees more password-stealing malware designed to nab accounts of games like Lineage and World of Warcraft than Trojans that go after financial accounts.

Why? Your in-game assets can easily be converted to cash and there's much less legal risk involved in trafficking virtual goods than trafficking, say, stolen credit card numbers. So treat this as a reminder: be careful of keyloggers! (And if you're not sure how, read up on our advice on how to keep your system keylogger-free.)

For those interested in the results, today Blizzard has announced the winners of their recent music video contest. (And before you complain about the winners, remember, you had a chance to vote on them!) WoW Insider would like to congratulate the winners: in first place, Sedrin; in second place, Baron Soosdon; and in third place Dead Workers Party.

If you fancy yourself a machinima-maker and didn't make the winner's list for this contest, there's always the BlizzCon movie contest. And with entries due on July 19th, you'd best get started!

Distraction on the WoW LJ posts about something I've noticed while sitting in the LFG channel over the last few days on my server as well: Alliance are having a nice big party in the LFG channel, while Horde seem kind of lonely in it.

Why does it seem like Alliance run more PUGs than Horde do? It seems to happen on every server that I've been on, and it can't just be a population thing-- even Horde heavy servers (of which there aren't many) seem to have more PUGs rolling on the Alliance side. Could it be that Alliance players are more social, or just more likely to be unguilded?

And another thing I've noticed (and while Distraction doesn't mention it obviously, you can see it in his script) is that Horde seem to be less responsive to pleas for help in terms of LFG as well. Not only is it less common for a group to be LFG on Horde side, it seems, but it's less common for anyone LFG to find the help they need. I watched one guy Hordeside look for a Botanica group member for about 2 hours over the weekend, and when I finally joined up, the group frll apart anyway. Has that been your experience? And if so, why could that possibly be?

Tobold linked to a new blog about MMO gaming called Hardcore Casual, and the first entry is a nice one-- it's all about the differences between a "carebear" game like WoW, and the much more hardcore games of the past. His big example is Ultima Online, where players could gank each other and actually loot the corpses. Playing a game where others could steal your armor is very different from playing a game where BoE means it's yours forever.

But you don't have to go back that far to find a really hardcore game-- in Blizzard's own Diablo 2, you could play "hardcore mode," which meant that when your character died, that was it. Game over, no respawns, nothing. Either you lived and beat the game, or you died and lost the ability to play your character and everything with it.

To tell the truth, I'd love to see a server like that in WoW. Not because I'd love to play it (what are you, crazy?), but because the stories coming off of that server would be terrific-- we could all just stand in awe of the character who made it to 70 on the Hardcore server. Or would that even be possible? Especially if the server was PvP (and it would be, wouldn't it?), it seems like an impossible challenge to keep a character alive that long, especially since the other side would be gunning for anyone who got too high. Would you play on a hardcore server, where you could lose your life (and/or your gear)?

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

Odds are, your guild has its own Web site. With Web hosting becoming so cheap, there's really no excuse not to have a site. You've done all the ground work, paid the fees, set up registration, created forums, designed a shiny new logo, and posted pics of your latest Prince kill. This week, one reader wants to know, after doing all that, how do you get your members to actually use it?

Scott,

First off . . . a small bit of background: I'm the guild master of [. . .] the largest Horde guild on [my server]. We have about 200+ accounts in our guild. The guild has been running strong since August 2006; but what sets us apart from all the other guilds on [the server] is that we are VERY laid back to the point that we almost cater to the "casual" gamer. [. . .]

Here's the question that brought me to e-mailing you: How do you reconcile the difference between your guild's in-game roster versus your guild's Web site roster? For example, we have all the usual bells and whistles of any "organized" guild (bank inventory, dedicated Ventrilo server, domain name, forums, ranks, etc, etc). But one thing that has been a constant battle for me is _getting_ people to come to the Web site. Each week I take a tally; promotion to our first rank requires Web site registration . . . Nonetheless the better of 50% of my guild has never even visited our Web site let alone registered there. Last I checked, of the 209 accounts associated with [my guild], only 100 or so had actually visited the Web site and registered. This makes it very difficult for us to keep everyone informed and, more importantly, to get everyone's input on what they want out of the guild, etc.

So, how do you effectively encourage people to visit your guild's Web site? What is the "secret"?

[Reader's character and guild]

Until today, it had been a very long time since I visited the suggestions forum. I remember the last time well... long long ago, with a character far far too ugly, I posted this awesome new idea: "Why not make some kind of beauty parlor that lets us change our characters' appearance! Wouldn't that be neat?" Little did I know that it had already been suggested lots of times before. It's one of the suggestions they get most often, in fact, but it's still anybody's guess as to whether they'll actually implement it or not.

I might have offered up more brilliant ideas, but the fact that I could never get an official Blizzard response there discouraged me. Besides, realizing that my first great idea wasn't all that new made me think "well someone's probably suggested all that before."

So today I just poked my head in at the suggestions forum on a whim. I discovered that the only stickied suggestion there, other than the "welcome" post, is a compilation of suggestions designed to help us realize what's been suggested before, and start thinking of something new. It has everything from UI improvements to oft-suggested expansion ideas. It's updated to a certain extent (patch 2.0) and after skipping over the 4 or 5 paragraphs beseeching people not to post their suggestions in that thread, I noticed a lot of the ideas I had were there, as well as some that I'd never thought of before. Below are a few of the ideas which struck me as most interesting:

What is it with kittens and World of Warcraft? What's their strange draw to the monitor or keyboard? Because I'm telling you -- you can't browse World of Warcraft videos these days without being overwhelmed by an onslaught of adorable kittens, busily trying to melt faces or pwn n00bs. They've clearly got an unhealthy fascination with that cursor...

Previously on Moviewatch...

It looks like an old idea from the TBC Beta has returned to the game. Ever since patch 2.1.2, when you enter "unreachable" areas like Mount Hyjal, you receive a debuff called "No Man's Land" that tells you "You are where you should not be" and teleports you out. Rumor is that it also reports you to a GM for account actions, but that hasn't been corroberated with any evidence.

People who enjoy exploring unreleased/rare content are upset about this change, and have posted threads on both the US and Euro forums. The explorers make some pretty persuasive points. There are no mobs in the unreleased areas, so the players aren't getting any material benefit out of being there. And since most of these areas are found by cliff jumping and regular game mechanics, Blizzard could automatically make them off-limits by changing the terrain or putting in instance gates. It's not like explorers are removing walls to sneak into other areas. Plus, exploration gets us great movies from Noggaholics that help give us an insight as to what Blizz is planning for the future.

I'm a bit of an explorer myself -- I swam around both the bottom of Kalimdor and the top of Eastern Kingdoms before BC, spent a long time cliffwalking to get into Hyjal and see Archimonde's skeleton, and used to lead expeditions to the Caverns of Time and got to watch as certain reckless mages blinked themselves into the abyss ("Summon me quick! Summon me! Summon ... too late.") It makes me sad that you can't do that anymore. If they have to do something about exploring, can't they just bring back the Guardians of Blizzard? Then at least we'd get to watch poorly-informed raid groups attempting to take on invulnerable bosses.

What do you think of this change?

Drysc has laid out the science on exactly how Daze works. When we all first entered Outland, it seemed like mobs were Dazing us left and right, but it wasn't really clear why or how it happened. Now, months later, Drysc says they've gone over the Daze code again, and it really is "working as intended."

Daze, he says, is based on a character's base defense rating as compared to a mob's base attack skill. The standard Daze rating is 20% (so if you're facing a mob of equal level and your defense rating hasn't been increased, then a hit from behind should daze you 1/5 of the time), and it goes up or down from there from 0 to 40%. Characters below level 30, interestingly enough, have a much reduced chance to be dazed (it's almost impossible for a level 1 character to be dazed by an equal level mob), in order to make the game easier when players first begin playing.

The reason Drysc gives for us seeing it more in Outland is a little shaky-- he says there weren't many actual level 60 mobs in Azeroth, and there are now quite a few level 70 (and higher) mobs in Outland, which means a fully leveled character will be dazed more. Finally, the reason, he says, for Daze in the first place is that they don't want to make it "safe" to randomly run through a group of mobs. "A cautious and alert player," he says, "is less likely to be dazed than one who is haphazard and careless."

My only problem with that is that I get dazed more not when I'm trying to run away from characters (I understand I'm going to be penalized when I sloppily run through a group of mobs), but when I get jumped while fighting. Should the same penalty apply when a single add jumps me from behind? And while we're at it, shouldn't being mounted lower the chance of getting dazed as well? Having a flying mount has made serious dazing tragedies much less common, but for characters still on ground mounts, shouldn't being mounted protect them a little more than being on foot?

I've always enjoyed the eternal sunset sky that you find in Blade's Edge Mountains, but I've never seen it quite like this. Reader Snowmist of Silvermoon (EU) sends this telling us that you, too, can see such a view in game by flying high, high above Blade's Edge Mountains. From this screenshot, it appears to be so high that there's no longer any ground...

Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! Or perhaps you'd just like to see more of your pics from Around Azeroth.

This week's caption contest has come and gone -- but if you didn't get a chance to enter, don't fret! Next Monday we'll have a brand new contest starting with another chance to win a 60-day gamecard or a World of Warcraft-related t-shirt. But for now, the winners! First place, and a 60-day gamecard, went to Aziraphale, who amused many a reader with his Resevoir Dogs-inspired dialog:

[Troll Joe]: With the exception of Neutral the flight master and myself, whom you already know, we're going to be using aliases on this job. Under no circumstances do I want any one of you to relate to each other by your Christian names, and I don't want any talk about yourself personally. That includes where you been, your guild's name, where you might've raided, or maybe a noob you ganked back in Blackrock Mountain. All I want you guys to talk about, if you have to, is what you're going to do. That should do it. Here are your names...

[Pointing to each Blueberry]

[Troll Joe]: Mr. Skull, Mr. "X", Mr. Square, Mr. Moon, Mr. Star, Mr. Circle, Mr. Triangle and Mr. Pretty Pink Diamond.

[Mr. Pretty Pink Diamond]: Why am I Mr. Pretty Pink Diamond.

[Troll Joe]: Cause your a Ret. Pally, Alright?

And second place was awarded to Sylvina, who offered

Troll Mage: You expectin' me to be polymorphin' all dis 'mon?

So congrats to our winners and we'll see you back next week for another caption contest!

These are dark days for me in the World of Warcraft. Lately, when my guild is lining up for raids, I've been nowhere to be found -- instead, I'm playing other games or going to movies or discovering that Long Island Iced Teas can make the world a happier albeit blurrier place. My guild is progressing quite well, my paladin is almost 70, but somehow, WoW has lost its magic for me right now.

This has happened before, and is usually cured by taking a break from the game. But this time I'll put the question to you, readers: When you find yourself losing interest in WoW, how do you rekindle the flames? Reroll on a different server? Roleplay? PVP? Is taking time off the only cure?