84 – The Instance: "The Golden What Stick?"

Paid Character Name Changes Go Live, Let The Confusion Begin
Blizzard revealed an addition to their management site on Friday – the ability to pay them to change your character’s name. All you have to do is pony up $10 – plus State sales tax in Texas and New Mexico – and wait a little while and, viola! Your character is now know as Sackmaster.

-$10 per name change. -Only once per 90 days, and old name is locked for 90 days. -Your friends and ignore lists will be updated automatically. -New mail to old name will not be forwarded. -You must log out of the game for 20 minutes before starting, and your character will be unavailable until the name change is completed.

You Twinked My Battleship!
Pouring in from the 2.3 PTRs are reports that the low-level-dungeon re-fit is revealing some kick-butt new gear. Boubouille over at MMO Champion has compiled a list of the items that have been discovered so far, and it looks like twinks are about to move to a whole new level of silliness.

That Boubouille Guy Finds Everything
MMO Champion Admin Boubouille also provided us this week with a first look at some new in-game toys. They may be non-combat pets, and they may be engineer-crafted items, or who knows what? We’re talking about a dragon kite, a paper zeppelin, and a gyrocopter.

Clearing Up The Broomy Confusion
Blizzard Blue poster Bornakk finally put an end to speculation on how long the broom mounts from this years Hallow’s Eve event will endure in your bags. Forget what the tooltip says – it’s 14 days of played game time on the character that possesses them.

Sub-divided Contested Territories: Coming Soon To A Safe Zone Near You
CM Netheara posted on Thursday that as of a recent patch, Blizzard now has the ability to make a small part of a safe zone into a contested territory. First up – the Zul’Aman section of Ghostlands. Next – possibly Scarlet Monastery. Then?

Town Cryer
Karorou writes:

For my composition class in college, I am writing a paper on video game addiction. Because you are the hosts of one of the most popular World of Warcraft podcasts ever, I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Do you believe a person can become addicted to a video game just like someone can become addicted to drugs or alcohol? Why or why not? How would you define an addiction?

Mana Princess Hits The Instance. We Can’t Resist.
We got some goodies in the mail this week from Mana Princess - AKA Lady Kildare. Namely, a couple of magnetic ribbons that say “The Instance”, and some hearthstone keychains. What do you think of them?