It Came from the Blog got together Monday night for a last minute Day of the Dead Dance Party. We danced, we got dead pets and we traveled to all the old world Horde graveyards.

Paragus and others made some Bread of the Dead for all to share. Rossor (Matthew Rossi) joined us as well for some dancing and tank discussions.

I am still working on the video, but here is a gallery of stills from the dance party:


We'll definitely have a PIlgrim's Bounty event and I'm hoping to fit in a DK Battleground party as well. Join us!

Sound files in Patch 3.3 uncovered over at MMO Champion have got players all abuzz. In particular, lore-nerds who have listened to the sound files and put them together in the most reasonably coherent fashion are going nuts over the possibilities and implications. Tissue-sniffling, underpants-changing nuts. The kind of nuts that happen in Twilight Zone episodes. So understand that clicking on any of the links below are on a Need to Know basis. That means it's full of spoilers.

No, seriously. It has so many spoilers that unsuspecting players can explode just by clicking on the Read More link below. It's that dangerous. The sound files are so revealing, so incriminating, that every agent sent by SI:7 to safeguard them has been removed from active duty and sent to the loony bin. They're so volatile that even Ragnaros got burned when he read the rest of this post. So juicy that it cost Lady Vashj an arm and a leg -- or six arms and a tail -- just to listen to them.

The sound files in question are mined from the goings-on in Icecrown, which may (or may not) reveal the ultimate fate of the Lich King. It also includes previously unrevealed first names of only sons, emotional moments from hot mages, uncharacteristic coolness from leaders heretofore labeled as hate-mongering and racist, and unexpected appearances by heroes long dead (but not forgotten). Click on the link for madness-inducing spoilers. Otherwise that lady by your side will whisper something in your ear and you'll go crazy, anyway. Might as well have WoW.com do it for you.

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Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.

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Halloween is over and we're headed towards Thanksgiving, which means it's the time of year that charities everywhere ask you to open up your hearts and wallets and support some good causes. Azeroth United, the recently-formed community for WoW players, just revealed the prizes in their "Hearts, Hands, and Voices" charity giveaway. They're officially supporting Child's Play (they got mentioned on the main website), and your donation there (of $10 or $20) will get you into two tiers of giveaways, featuring prizes of all kinds from all over the WoW community. Sounds like a great chance to both support a good cause and maybe even win some free stuff.

And from our old friend John "BigBearButt" Patricelli comes news of a "Raid for the Cure" -- on Saturday, November 14th, a group of players from both factions will walk in-game on the Kael'thas server from Darnassus to Ratchet (and on to Booty Bay) to raise awareness and funds for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity. Pink shirts will be handed out at the event, and making a donation of any kind over on the WoW page for the charity will enter you in a raffle to win a guest appearance on the Sidhe Devils Gone Wild podcast (a member of that guild has been dealing with breast cancer, and the in-game run is in support of her and her cause).

Allison's great post about all of the Feats of Strength still available in the game got me thinking: just what kind of value do players place on these "kinda" achievements? Personally, I never gave them much weight -- I have a few of them (I picked up the Vampiric Batling a while ago, and I've got the Competitor's Tabard, among a few other old-school and commemorative achievements), but the ones I've got I didn't really do anything to earn, and the Feats still available don't really mean that much to me. Unlike "real" achievements, Feats don't even give you meaningless points, and they can't be used to get you into any raids or runs that you couldn't do otherwise. They're boring to me.

I'm not that way about all achievements -- there have been a few that I've worked to get done, and there are even non-achievement items that I've pushed for in the past (I worked like crazy to finally get my Netherwing drake, and the only achievement I got for that was the Netherwing reputation). But Feats of Strength in particular seem passive to me, by Blizzard's design: if they happen, great, but there's not enough reward there for me to go out of my way to get them. What do you think?

Welcome to November, dear readers! It's the beginning of the month, so you know what time it is. Yes, we're still judging our entries for October, but it's time to kick off November's Guild of the Month contest. If you haven't been around for one of these before, let me explain how this works:

If you think your guild is the best in the World of Warcraft, you might have a chance to win a $100 gift certificate from SwagDog where you can pick up custom guild apparel for you and members of your guild.

What do you need to do to enter? It's simple: You nominate your guild by sending us a short (no longer than 200 words) summary of why you think your guild is the best out there. Tell us why you think your guild is so unique! What sort of guild are you? What do you do together? What sets you apart from all of the other guilds out there? If you entered last month, no problem! Your guild can't win again if you've won previously, but if you haven't won yet in previous months, feel free to enter this month's contest.

Please send all submissions to contests@wow.com! At the end of the month, we'll pick a winner from those entries and profile them here on the site. Keep in mind, that means if you like your obscurity and don't want to be profiled, you might not want to enter.

You must be 18+ to win, and the contest is open to both US and non-Quebecois Canadian readers. Please submit your entry with an email address you check regularly, as we'll be contacting you via email if you win. All entries must be submitted by November 30th or they will be disqualified. For the full official rules, click here!

• Where: Falconwing Square on Zangarmarsh (US) realm
• When: Midnight EST (10pm Server time, 9pm PST)
• Who: Any level Horde character
• How: Ask Robinella or any It came from the Blog Lurker for an invite to the guild
• What: We'll be making a video of dancing with Catrina and transforming (so don't do the achievement before the rest of us) as well as completing The Grateful Dead quest.

If you have time to log on before the event and make some pocket money, learn cooking and bake some bread, please do. But we'll have extra cash and bread for those who don't. Of course, you'll only be able to complete The Grateful Dead quest outside of Silvermoon if you are a Blood Elf, but we will travel to other graveyards for other races, time permitting. Or you could just make a baby Blood Elf for this event only -- for those of you not dead set against it. (See what I did there?)

Most questions about It came from the Blog are answered in our FAQ. If you have others, please ask in the comments.

Hope to see you there!

Whoosh. Well, that went by rather quickly, didn't it? Day of the Dead ends today. Two days is most certainly a short time for a World of Warcraft holiday, but fortunately, there was little to do. Just a visit to Catrina, buying a bread recipe, sharing it with some dead folks, and that's it. It didn't exactly go off without a hitch, either, as there were some known issues with the event. But everything was fixed, eventually, and the short event is now about to finish.

How did everyone find the short holiday? It mirrored the short holiday it was based on in the real world, and even similar holidays all over the world. In the Philippines, we got a non-working holiday for November 2, where most folks are off to the provinces visiting their dead. How did everyone's Day of the Dead go? Were you able to take a gander at the lovely dancing Catrina? Were you able to bake some (presumably stale) bread? What's your take on these short holidays? Personally, I think it's a nice touch. These blink-and-you'll-miss-it events similar to Pirate's Day are nice nods to our real world happenings. Hopefully, all of you got a chance to enjoy this new but brief world event.

Reader Verdus sent us a tip reminding us that this weekend is the one-year anniversary of one of the simultaneously most loved and hated events in WoW's history, the zombiepocalypse. Right around this time last year, infected crates started appearing all over the world, and that expanded out into a full-blown zombie invasion (which was so big it made it out into mainstream news). After the zombie plague had been quelled, the Scourge attacked with full force, leaving us to fall back and fight for our necrotic runes up until the expansion released. It was definitely a huge event, and now, a year later, I'm sure most of us (though not all of us) look back on it with fond memories.

And surely Blizzard learned a lot from what happened a year ago -- Linedan has a nice wrapup of the good and the bad that Blizzard may have taken away from the zombie apocalypse. The idea of turning players on players was great, but that unfortunately led to more griefing than most players would have liked (and the fact that, by the end of it, you couldn't avoid the zombies at all, probably didn't help). And for all of the disruption, there was no real reward (the eventual rewards came with the Scourge invasion, and then it was simply just farming tokens), and no real payoff (the final world event seemed half-cooked, and it was only implied that Arthas was the one who'd shipped the crates).

Feeling a little disconnected with Day of the Dead? Is your head not fitting on your neck exactly right? No, it's not because of my lame attempts at two puns right there, but it is because of a series of known issues being acknowledged by Blizzard today. The major ones are as follows:

• Macabre Marionette disappearing when changing zones (Fixed!)
• Players being disconnected when retrieving Bread of the Dead or Candy Skulls from the mail, auction house, and guild banks (Fixed!)
• The Day of the Dead costume may not last the full 12 hour duration

Blizzard doesn't want you to contact them about these issues, since the GMs can't help you with them. And while the disconnection issues, if it happens to you, could hinder your ability to complete the quests associated with the one day event -- it will not stop you from dancing with Catrina to get the achievement.

The full announcement from Blizzard after the break.

Update from the blues: "Update: Novermber 1, 2009 - 9:15 AM PST - A hotfix has been applied which will prevent various Day of the Dead items from disappearing while changing zones or retrieving items from the mail."

This is it, the end of Hallow's End. Let's make today's Breakfast Topic a quick one... how did your Hallow's End go? Were you able to obtain everything you needed? It took me logging on every hour on the hour (alright, on the hour when I remembered it, anyway) to get the Hallowed Helm which I didn't manage to pick up last year. Along the way, I lined my bags with an assortment of wands, loads of ridiculous masks that still didn't complete A Mask for All Occasions, and enough Tooth Picks to make a family of sharks sparkly clean. I finally got it with forty-something hours to spare, after five straight tricks from Innkeeper Gryshka.

How did you fare? Did you manage to get The Hallowed title on all your characters? Were you able to beat the Headless Horseman into coughing up more candy? Did you go around making those emotes just to get treats for those kids? Time's run out on this World of Warcraft holiday, so share your in-game stories about this past week or so.

Because we're such nice guys, we over here at WoW.com would like to remind everyone that while the Hallow's End festivities have come to a much-too-soon end (who doesn't enjoy all of Azeroth feeling a little bit like the Undercity?), a new, very short holiday kicks off, too. Day of the Dead, literally the English translation of Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday celebrated to remember those who have moved on, begins right when Hallow's End ends. The short, two-day holiday happens on November 1 and 2, coinciding with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day and All Soul's Day, which are celebrated elsewhere in the world.

During the event, players will have to /dance with an NPC named Catrina in order to get the Dead Man's Party Achievement, a reference to the Catrina dolls of Mexico, those skeletons in fabulously fashionable dresses and hats. There's also a recipe in-game for Bread of the Dead, another translation of the holiday's Pan de Muerto. This is required for The Grateful Dead, which appear to be a collection of quests requiring players to bring the bread to various ghosts in graveyards all over the game world. We hear the bread also goes very well with some Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia.

Last week, the gang from It came from the Blog participated in several Hallow's End activities. We put out the fires in Falconwing Square, pranked Southshore and went Trick or Treating through the Eastern Kingdoms. Levels were dinged (and those that received them were called Dingalings), Achievements were achieved and a dwarf dressed as a troll was rescued.

Here are some screenshots of the fun:



Also, at the beginning of October, It came from the Blog went on an Epic Harvest Brewfestival Ride to honor a hero in Ashenvale. The pictures from this event are long overdue and here they are:



Look for more It Came from the Blog activities in November and throughout the in-game holidays.

Happy Halloween, dear readers! Today's the day, the spookiest day of the year! In the real world, prepare yourself to sit through hours and hours of random children in costumes ringing your doorbell begging for treats from strangers. In Azeroth, you only have two days left to finish your various Hallow's End achievements, everything disappears into the aether on November 2nd it ends tonight! Whoa!

Halloween is being celebrated in worlds beyond Azeroth and our own, too. All month long, our sister site Massively has been covering the numerous celebrations going on in the various ongoing MMOs, from Free Realms' Spooky Spectacular to Aion's Harvest Revel. If you're interested in any of those, head on over to Massively's Halloween roundup to check out their coverage, as well as a screenshot gallery of some holiday eye candy from those many games. Some of the events were quite cool, so I highly recommend taking a look. Guild Wars still has some pretty fantastic aesthetics.

As long as you're all here, I'm curious: Are you dressing up today? If so, what's your costume? If it's something WoW-related, we would love pictures! And are you taking anybody Trick or Treating, or will you be giving out candy? Personally, I'm dressing up as a chubby computer nerd (it's a classic) and handing out Dum Dums by the handful.

As part of their Halloween celebration, the Escapist magazine is giving away twenty Grunty the Murloc Marine codes to sharp readers able to answer their 10-question quiz about the World of Warcraft's Hallow's End event. Readers, who have to register at the site (go ahead, it's free), need to get all ten questions correctly in order to be entered in a random drawing to receive one of the codes for the murloc pet. Aside from being unbearably cute and badass at the same time, the Starcraft-themed baby murloc which was given away at this year's BlizzCon also gets into a shootout with the Zergling pet. Or explodes in green goo. It depends on who gets the jump.

Fortunately for you readers, there's no need for that kind of violence. Just head on over to the Escapist Magazine and answer their fairly easy quiz (insert Headless Horseman laughter here), a multiple choice affair that doesn't have any time limit -- so it's actually kind of a giveaway. Well, a giveaway for players with a good grasp of wowhead and wowwiki the game, as it's not exactly easy. Well, it wasn't easy for me, but I'm no expert on Azerothian Holidays (I got 9/10, so I'm out of the running). If you think you've got the chops for it, though, hop on over to the Escapist and start the quiz!