Blizzard Now Selling Gold for Cash... In Pet Form

The good folks over at Blizzard announced yesterday morning that a new pet will be arriving in the World of Warcraft Pet Shop in the near feature.  He seems to be a cuddly miniature version of the Winged Guardian mount already available for purchase.  In reality, however, the new Guardian Cub pet is nothing more than a stack of gold that you can purchase straight from Blizzard itself.  Check out a picture of the pet below and the insidious truth behind those big doe eyes after the bump.

Blizzard Has Plans to Save Inscription in Cataclysm

For those of you who were worried that the new glyph changes would drastically harm Inscription as a profitable enterprise in Cataclysm, it's time to worry slightly less.  Blizzard has just announced that after level 80, swapping out a glyph will require a new reagent called Dust of Disappearance. 

Though Dust of Disappearance will be sold by NPC Inscription vendors, it may also be made by scribes.  Unlike with Vanishing Powder, however, Dust of Disappearance's 10 gold vendor price should still leave room for scribes to turn a profit by undercutting the greedy NPC's.  Feel free to check out the official announcement on the forums.

It will be interesting to see how the dust settles for Inscription.  Theoretically, the same number of Glyphs will continue to be produced as scribes level up their profession.  Unfortunately, however, since the small market of players who swapped glyphs on a regular basis has been eliminated, demand will ultimately drop.  This should tank prices.  I am skeptical that Dust of Disappearance will make a huge impact on scribes' wallets, but Blizzard has frequently implied that they are none too concerned with the ability of the crafting professions to turn huge profits.  Thankfully the current glyph boom should last well into the early months and diligent scribes may be able to make an expansion's worth of profit in the coming weeks alone.

News Coverage of Blizzard Real ID Disaster

Blizzard is currently deleting each and every forum post attempting to express how bad of an idea the planned mandatory use of players real names on the World of Warcraft official forums is. At the moment, a thread mentioning Real ID is unlikely to survive more than thirty seconds and the mods' ban hammers are being wielded liberally. Some of those fallen posts contained links to news coverage of Blizzard's poor decision and I was quick enough on my feet to reproduce them here. Enjoy!

BBC News - World of Warcraft maker to end anonymous forum logins

USA Today - 'WoW' studio Blizzard to require real names on forums

ABC News - Bye-Bye Trolls? Blizzard Forums to Use Real Names

CVG - Fans rage over Blizzard forum plans

PCGamer (UK) - Why Blizzard’s new forum plan is an epic fail

The Register - Blizzard exposes real names on WoW forums

About.com - WoW Real ID: A Really Bad Idea

Ars Technica - Blizzard: post about StarCraft 2? Use your real name

Gamespy - Blizzard to Require Real Names on Official Forums

Kotaku - Blizzard Forums Will Soon Display Your Real Name

Kotaku - Blizzard's Real Name Forum Policy Has Fans In An Uproar

Joystiq - Your real name to appear on Blizzard's official forums

Inc Gamers - Blizzard Going Too Far With Real ID?

MTV Multiplayer - Blizzard Cracks Down On Anonymity In Official Forums

TechEYE.net - Blizzard forces users to show real names: Internet security they have heard of it

Product Reviews News - WoW Real ID System: Security Flaw Found

ITWorld - Blizzard to share your name with angry video game nerds


Voodoo Extreme - Is Blizzard's Real ID Safe, Or A Playground For Sexual Deviants?

Voodoo Extreme - Blizzard Forums To Require Use Of Real Name, Rage Ensues

Examiner National - World of Warcraft Players WoWed by Blizzard's REALID announcement

EuroGamer - Blizzard forums to require real names

GameFocus - Blizzard To Kill Anonymity On Forums

Strategy Informer - Battle.net removes "veil of anonymity" on forums, real names used

HuskyStarcraft - Blizzard Forums: First and Last Names [VIDEO]

AusGamers - Blizzard Switching Forums to Real ID System

Australian Gamer - Blizzard decide to give out subscribers' real names

It doesn't exactly make for happy reading, but at least Blizzard now knows that not only the "small but vocal" population that uses the official forums thinks this is a bad idea.