MMO Champion has datamined up some video of the new Pandaren Monk vanity pet that's been floating around, and as you can see above, it's pretty darned awesome. Just like the Grunty the Murloc pet, this one comes with some fun animations, and they look terrific. Blizzard has been pretty coy about getting the Pandaren into the game, and they're teasing big here, too -- this little bear's got moves that would make the Diablo III Monk hang his head in shame.

However, the question remains: how do we get it? At this point, it's just speculation and rumor -- some say it might be a special anniversary pet for people who've been subscribed all five years of the game's life, some suggest it might be part of the Cataclysm collector's edition (past CEs have had a pet in each one, including a Diablo figure in the first box), and still others suggest that the Monk will be a new pet in the upcoming Brewfest holiday. How do we get it, really? We won't know for sure until we hear it from Blizz.

In the good old days, expansions came around once in a blue moon. They were the stuff of legend which invited almost two years of hype and intrigue. You paid your dollars/pounds/euros/yuan, and you got your new classes, those shiny new zones and those ten extra levels. But, with patch 3.0.2 (aka Echoes of Doom) we got something new, we got transition. Yes, this was the patch where we got a sampling of Wrath designed to tease players waiting on tender hooks and also keep interest for that final week until the expansions hit properly.

Given Blizzard's shift in how they treat patches, now geared towards larger mini expansion style updates like patch 2.4 and patch 3.2, there's definitely something changing in the way we get new installments of the game. After all, there's as much hype about every mini expansion-like patch, from the new areas, class buffs/nerfs and weapons to the smaller changes involving the UI. Shiny expansion special editions aside, do you think it would ever be possible to have expansions become automatically downloaded massive patch updates over a standalone disc or download that you have to buy every two years? What do you think, readers?

Surprised? You probably shouldn't be -- NPD has released the top sales list for November, and our favorite game is sitting right on top. In fact, the most interesting thing about the list is what's not on it: games. Wrath is at number one, followed up by such great titles like Office 2007 and Trend Micro Anti-virus. The collector's edition of Wrath comes in at number four, and after that it's all utilities except Call of Duty: World at War at number six and Spore at number 10.

That's a sad month for PC gaming, especially during a time when sales are supposed to be at their highest. Blizzard's leading the charge (and they're not leaving PC anytime soon), but they seem to be pretty much the only PC studio able to bring it home this year.

Videogame sales in general are doing just great: even in a bad economy, console companies -- both developers and retailers -- are seeing nice growth. But those saying PC gaming is dead will only have to point to November's sales for proof. Maybe in 2009 we can get a couple more titles quality enough to give World of Warcraft a run for its money.

WoW players that preordered their copies of Wrath of the Lich King through GameStop have been having a bit of a scare since late last night sometime. Preorders have started to display as Backordered on order histories and order trackers.

Our advice? Don't panic. Until your item specifically ships, it's not unusual for the Item Status field to reflect the status of the item in general and not your copy in particular. The Backordered status refers to their stock as a whole, meaning overall they've hit the Out of Stock point. The copy you ordered may be just fine and dandy and you'll probably see your Status flip to Pending or Shipped at some point throughout the day. If you ordered your copy early, you are most likely completely safe and fine. If you ordered it very very late, it's a little more likely that your personal order will be affected, but chances are still very good that you'll turn out okay.

It's a weird system. When that Backordered label crops up, it's hard to tell whether your copy is actually going to arrive at your doorstep or not. It's not a completely unusual occurrance, it happens now and then with really big releases. It's just as confusing each and every time. Just relax, keep an eye on it, and don't worry too much until it still says Backordered tomorrow morning and your copy hasn't shown up on your doorstep. Then you might have a problem.

Can't wait to get your hands on the Wrath Collector's Edition box to see what shiny shiny lies within? We've all seen the list of what's included, but now you can watch it for yourselves. Somehow reader Havok of Norway got his hands on the box early and shot a 2 minute video opening it and exploring each element inside. Start about 30 seconds in to avoid some shaky camera set up.

And check back with WoW Insider. We are giving away more Wrath CE boxes as part of our Countdown to Wrath Giveaway!

EDIT: Mysteriously, the video has been taken down off YouTube by the user. I guess we'll have to wait until Thursday to get a look at the CE.

A few days ago the Collector's Edition went up for sale again on Amazon. A few hours after that post went live it was sold out again. Today the CE is back on sale. This time the price has nearly doubled, and is being sold through Amazon for the site Hubbagames.

As it stands, you can get the Collector's Edition for $129.79 right now. That's up $59.80 from what you could get it for a few days ago. The price hike can easily be contributed to the demand for the Collector's Edition.

Wrath of the Lich King will be released next week at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 13th. Amazon and other online retailers are "guaranteeing" that they'll deliver Wrath to you during the day of the 13th.

The regular edition of Wrath is going for $39.99. We have previously covered the contents of the Collector's Edition.

Edit: You can also order the Collector's Edition online at Walmart at the price of $69.82, however your mileage may vary.

In less than a week, at 12:01 AM on 11/13/08, Wrath of the Lich King will be available and (hopefully) live on the servers. If you, like many of us, are planning to get the expansion immediately, how are you going to get it? After all, there are so many options:

• Pre-Order for in-store pickup: You can pre-order your copy and then pick it up when it is available. This works great if you are going to a Midnight Launch or you just want to make sure it is available when you are able to get to the store.
• Pre-Order for delivery: You can pre-order your copy to be delivered to your door. Amazon even gives an option to have it delivered before midnight. Though if you want the Collector's Edition, you have to catch Amazon during one of the brief windows it is available.
  

More options are after the break.

In honor of the impending Wrath launch WoW Insider is giving away a World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition box. That's right, the sold out CE box complete with:

• DVD with Wrath expansion files
• The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, a 208-page book featuring never-before-seen images from the game.
• An exclusive in-game pet: Frosty, the baby frost wyrm.
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, the Wrath of the Lich King intro cinematic with director's commentary, and more.
• The official soundtrack CD, containing 21 epic tracks from the game, along with exclusive bonus tracks.
• A mouse pad featuring a map of the newly opened continent of Northrend.
• Two World of Warcraft Trading Card Game March of the Legion starter decks, along with two exclusive cards available only in the Collector's Edition.

To enter, leave a comment on this post before Friday, November 7, 2008 at 12pm ET (noon). One winner will be chosen randomly and will receive a World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition box (valued at $70.) You must be at least 18 to enter and a legal resident of the United States or non-Quebec resident of Canada. You can only enter once. Click here for complete Official Rules.

And keep your eyes on WoW Insider. We have many, many more giveaways coming your way from now until Wrath launch day!

EDIT: Giveaway closed to further entries. We'll be contacting the winner today. Good luck to all who entered. Be on the lookout for more contests every day until Wrath launch!

This just in: Amazon has opened up the Collector's Edition of Wrath of the Lich King again for sale. Don't expect this to last for very long. If you want one and have your credit card nearby I would order it within the next few minutes.

The Collector's Edition has previously been sold out, and getting a chance to grab one now is pretty amazing.

Wrath of the Lich King will be released next week at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 13th. Amazon and other online retailers are "guaranteeing" that they'll deliver Wrath to you during the day of the 13th.

The Collector's Edition is selling for $69.99, and the regular edition is going for $39.99. We have previously covered the contents of the Collector's Edition.

We'll update this post once when we learn the CE's are again sold out.

Updated 6:45 p.m. EST: Sorry! Amazon is now once again sold out of the Collector's Edition.

Macros are awesome. I may not use them all that extensively, but the ones I have, I love. And I'm always on the lookout for more good macros to simplify my action bars. WoW Macros, a site that's been around quite a long time and has the laudable mission of listing handy macros for all classes, has just undergone a complete redesign, and they're having a contest to celebrate, with some pretty sweet Wrath-related prizes. Up for grabs are:

• One Wrath of the Lich King collector's edition
• Two regular copies of WotLK
• Three 60-day time cards

As well as ten copies of Derek's WotLK Guide, a normally-paid Wrath leveling guide. If you want my opinion, though, just go for Jame's guides; they're free and very high-quality. Jame's guides will be released in the week ahead on WoW Pro.

At any rate, there are some very cool prizes here. And what do you have to do to participate? Just head on over to the WoW Macros site and submit a new macro, or suggest an improvement to one that's already on the site (be sure to use a valid email). Every valid submission gives you a "ticket" to the contest, and shortly after midnight on November 12, the day before Wrath, sixteen winners will be drawn randomly and emailed. You can't win more than one prize, but submitting more macros does give you a greater chance to win something. Now get coding -- that collector's edition isn't going to win itself.

Here at WoW Insider sometimes we go a little nuts around big news events due to sleep deprivation or sensory overload in conjunction with large hits of caffeine. When that happens while we are writing "Ask A Beta Tester," occasionally we ask ourselves questions ("Why am I not in bed?") that we later realize might actually be useful.

As Wrath of the Lich King's release date creeps up and the beta becomes more and more deserted (seriously: Dalaran is a ghost town these days, not that my computer's wheezing hardware doesn't appreciate it), I find myself turning to a few topics that readers generally never asked about, but wound up being game-defining experiences in the beta. By necessity, most of them are a little more general -- overall impressions, things you wouldn't necessarily think to ask about unless you were a fresh arrival in Northrend and noticed the differences -- but I've included a few specific things that I hope people will find interesting. Unlike --

Why are you not in bed?

What makes you think I'm not?

Until recently, Gamestop was offering pre-orders of the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, the Collector's Edition.

At this point, you can still pre-order, but you'll have to drop in at one of their locations, because according to their website, they are "currently not available online."

Being Canadian, I'm an awfully sad panda right now. I could not decide if I wanted to pay the extra $20, plus customs, and have to wait an extra week at least in order to get my hands on one, and now I'm regretting not putting in the order. At least it would have been a back-up I could have canceled later!

I stopped into my local EB Games last night and was told that they do not know if, when, or how many copies they'll be getting.

Of course, if you're willing to shell out approximately $300 for a copy, Amazon has you covered. Anyone else have any leads?

Right when we talk two of our friends into playing World of Warcraft with us again, the same two that talked us into playing in the first place, I miss out on all the fun. Almost a day without power, and the internet has, as of earlier today, finally gotten back up to par. At least I have the weekend to look forward to!

I hope I'm not the only person looking forward to my very own Frosty. I missed out on all the other fun vanity pets, but I finally (might) get a cute little Frost Wyrm, oh and the Collector's Edition's other extras as well. I just don't think I'll be cuddling it any time soon, he looks a little bony.

See you next week!

Gamestop employees got a memo yesterday that preorders of the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition may have reached their limit, and we've just called and confirmed that -- the Collector's Edition is sold out already at Gamestop. Looks like Amazon also has also taken down their preorders, instead offering a signup to be notified "when this item becomes available." The thing has only been on sale for two days, and already it seems many retails have run out of their listed units -- in fact, Gamestop told their employees that they may not even have been able to fulfill all the orders taken so far.

Of course, we're still talking preorders here -- just because they got reserved doesn't mean that they'll all be sold, so there's still a chance that you could get one at release (Gamestop, we believe, will hold reserves for 24-48 hours after release, and then sell them first-come, first-serve). And there's a chance that Blizzard could put a larger order in (since the game hasn't gone gold yet, the sets aren't even manufactured yet), which would mean more preorders would be available.

But on the other hand, Blizzard has always wanted the Collector's Editions to be limited, and the guys at Gamestop assured us that there were still plenty of regular copies to reserve. It's hard to believe the CE could be completely sold out in just two days, two months ahead of the actual release, but it's clear that Wrath is going to be one of Blizzard's biggest releases ever.

Update: And now, for some reason, it looks like preorders are back up. Either Blizzard decided to make more or Gamestop figured out how they could sell more, so if you want to get one, better order it quick.