I'll say it now, and then you'll see it again in the 2011 news in a few hours: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :}

Merry Christmas!!

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is out!

Blizzard is planning to have PTRs for Starcraft 2 patches, starting with 1.2. This patch will bring chat channels to Bnet 2.0. There's plenty more changes in the patch notes.

Patch 4.0.3a has been released! The Face of Azeroth has changed forever! (Well, at least until they decide another revamp is in order.) Oh, the devastation Deathwing has wrought!

Servers will be down Monday, November 29th, to apply the November Update. Read the patch notes for more info.

Probably the biggest news of the day is the announcement of the next expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. This one is named "Rise of Isengard. Check out the press release and the teaser trailer.

A new Darkmoon Faire web page has been put up by Blizzard. It's worth a lookover,as there are some things to do, including a personality test that asks you 10 questions and matches you with one of the classes of WoW. If there was ever a doubt, I got Paladin on my first go :}

The 4.0.3 patch is out. See the patch notes for details.

The old WoW fora are becoming read-only November 17th. The new fora will be found here. The new WoW Community Site will likely be here.

Patch 1.1.3 for Starcraft 2 is out. It doesn't do much, but check out the patch notes.

Phase 2 of the Elemental Invasion for World of Warcraft has begun!

Check out the new videos for the races of Starcraft 2 at the official site.

Patch 1.1.2 for Starcraft 2 is out. Check out the patch notes.

The 4.0 patch is out, and now it is time to get used to all the class changes. See the patchnotes.

HAPPY 13th ANNIVERSARY, VALAR GUILD!

It's now official. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be out December 7th. See the press release.

The Games Site Mass-Update is complete. Everyone's new gaming info should be up. Check your gaming info and make sure it's correct!

Patch 1.1.1 is out.

Brewfest has begun, but it's not changed for the new year. If you missed your 2009 green stein, you have another shot at it.

Patch 1.1.0 is released.

Cataclysm looms closer: The 4.0.1 patch has appeared on the Public Test Realm.

Well, the Pre-Cataclysm Event has kicked off. The Gnomes are taking back Gnomeregan and the Trolls are taking back the Echo Isles. Don't miss your chance at a Feat of Strength!

The Games Site Mass-Update 2010 is underway! Letters have been sent out to all full members with available e-mails. Even if you didn't get one, please make sure you send in your new gaming information by September 30th to have it put up by the 13th Anniversary.

LotRO's giving a Head Start on the New features that begins Sept 8th. Read more about it on the LotRO Site!

There's also several developer diaries available, on Lua being used for the UI, The LotRO Store, Vault Changes, Captain Revisions, Crafting, and the Wardrobe System.

The Cataclysm Collector's Edition contents have been announced! Check it out at the Cataclysm website!

LotRO goes free to play September 10th! Read the press release!

In addition, part 5 of the Instances Developer Diary has been released! Read it here!

Patch 1.0.3 is live. It doesn't do much, but you can't go on without it anyway. Blizzard won't let you :}

Well, I've now got my copy of Starcraft 2, and you'll notice I added it to my list of games. Members need to let me know if you're playing as well.

Starcraft 2 will be out in a matter of hours... :}

Just Two days until Starcraft 2 is released! I'll be in line tomorrow night for a midnight release :}

A beta journal has been posted, concerning the LotRO Store.

A new developer Diary has been released, discussing changes to instances coming in the next content update. Read it here.

The Icecrown Citadel buffs have been increased to 30%.

This week's Monday run took the group to the Grand Stairs in Moria, where they obtained many Moria Medallions and completed many quests.

This week's Monday run took the group to Gathburz in Mirkwood for quests and dailies.

Blizzard has recanted their position on using RealID in their forums. For those who don't know or didn't read the first post about it, it would've meant anyone who posts on their new fora would be revealing their real name to the world. See this post for the official announcement.

A preview of the Twilight Highlands has been released by Blizzard. See it here.

It looks like Blizzard is now planning to relieve those who post on their forums of their privacy. Read more about how they're using their "optional" RealID for their Forums.

Some significant changes to talent trees and the mastery system lpanned for Cataclysm are on their way. Read this post on the WoW Forum for more info.

Happy Independence Day to the United States of America!

I've added a new review on Lord of the Rings: Conquest. Enjoy!

The NDA for World of Warcraft:Cataclysm has been lifted, and the beta has begun!

Sauron is the first member to have found and won the Battered Hilt! Congrats Sauron!

Patch 3.3.5 is out, and with it RealID features. In addition, the Midsummer Fire Festival is going, debuting the inclusion of holiday boss runs through the LFD tool. Get some easy Frost Emblems! The Icecrown Citadel buffs have also been increased to 25%, and the number of attempts have also been increased.

The Valar Guild Games Site v5.0 is now up! The first thing you might notice is that I just said "Site" and not "Page." Yeah, not a big deal, but given how much is actually on this "Page" I thought it was time to start calling it a "Site" :} So, what makes this version 5.0? The same thing that makes any piece of software jump to the next full version: I made some major changes :} One of the biggest results you will probably notice because of this is that the Games Site has a background image again. I got rid of the iframe, so nothing is in the way anymore :}

Before continuing I would note that the Games Site is now best viewable in IE8 or equivalent/higher browsers with CSS3 and javascript enabled.

Other features (likely not comprehensive):

• All pages now have headers, with subheaders when appropriate.
• The Valar Guild shield, once used as a link to the front page (valarguild.org) has been replaced by a series of links in the upper right-hand corner of the page: Home, Community, Tolkien, and Gaming. The first of course leads to the front page. Community and Tolkien lead to the primary pages for those parts of the page: the framed Guild News page and the Tolkien Site front page, respectively. "Gaming" is not actually a link, but up there for completeness, and highlighted to show that's where you are :}
• The menu now starts open instead of closed (if people prefer it the other way, I can be convinced to change it back).
• A new menu section titled "Other Gaming" has been added for gaming pages for which we don't have an official guild branch, or which are old, such as the Diablo pages. As you can see, there are sections for all three Diablo games and both Starcraft games right now. Expansions and any mods, i.e. the Middle-Earth mod, are grouped with the original game.
• The links pages "Diablo and His Kin," Files of the Xel'Naga," "Sites Through the Palantir," and "Azeroth and Surrounding Realms" have been officially retired. They served their purpose well at the time, but without them, I have the option of adding better or different ways to group links in the future. The Diablo and Starcraft links specifically can be seen under their respective menus in Other Gaming. A master list of all links can be seen under "Misc Gaming" in Other Gaming.
• Much work has gone into making the entire Games Site more uniform visually while providing for easier expandibility and adaptibility (and hopefuly a moderate amount of awesomeness :})
• Many old pages' layout changed greatly. The following pages were adapted to the layout of the Games Site: Murezor's Starcraft/Broodwar page was merged/turned into a Starcraft Tips Page; the D1 ME mod uniques page and the D2 ME mod Uniques and Sets pages were adapted to the layout and given internal navigation links for easier viewing; The D2 Sets and Uniques were also updated; Sirian's "What Game Are You Playing" paper; Diablo 2 Experiences was pulled out of the Reviews page and merged back into Diablo 2; Diablo Tips and Diablo Shrines pages.
• Attempts were made to render the old news pages readable while imposing the new Games Site layout on them. General rule is: the older the news file, the more likely you are to need to highlight portions to read it. I converted the old txt files from version 3 of the Games Page into html for easier forward compatibility (the php script I used to display them turned them into html for display anyway), but I didn't touch the older html files from the earlier Games Page versions. What can I say, I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to news files :}
• Member names listed on the Member Games table now link to their information on the Members Page. Same with member names on the Player tables for WoW and LotRO. Character names on those tables link to their profile in the WoW Armory/MyLotRO.
• The Member Games page has internal navigation to sort players by game as well as the menu. Also, all player gaming tables will now tell you the number of members playing and how many games, how many characters, or which game, as appropriate. Mousing over table rows highlights that row and increases font size for easier viewing.
• More functionality added for the news page, more likely coming soon. Reviews Page has the ability to show images now. Blame or thank Arathorn for that, as is your wont, as I had to provide the ability in order to convert his review to the new Games Site format :}
• The LotRO Crit Items are back up, and fully updated. Thanks to Varda, Pippin, and Nimrodel for that (as well as anyone else who helped). Thanks to Melkor for making the original attempt with the old crit items :}
• Some pages are preserved outside the layout of the Games Site due to historical value. The original Valar Guild Tourney Page remains one of these. This and a few others can be found in "Archives" under Misc.
• For those particularly interested in any type of history, or particularly bored, I've made available a rough chronology of the Games Page under my care. This can also be found under "Archives."

All the kinks should be ironed out, but if you catch something that doesn't look quite right, just let me know.

I hope you all enjoy the new Games Site :}

Real soon (by the weekend if all goes as planned), I'll be updating the Games Page. When I do that, the index will redirect to the guild front page (valarguild.org) until I'm done. The Games Page will be back as soon as the updates are complete, and hopefully the Games Page will be a little bit more awesome :}

Well, I'm not sure what I think of this just yet, so I'll just tell you that Lord of the Rings Online is apparently planning to go free-to-play, and let you read about it directly from the LotRO Community Site.

In June I (Eonwe, WoW Branch Leader and Lothar branch Guildmaster) intend to do some "spring cleaning" of the Lothar Guild Bank. Today, I posed to the Lothar membership present in World of Warcraft a series of questions concerning the layout and organization of the Guild Bank. Of the discussion that ensued, we generally agreed on a few things:

1.) That the guild bank should focus on collecting rare or generally harder to obtain items, with a preference for items from the current expansion. For example, armor, weapons, and crafting recipes should be of rare (blue) quality or higher, glyphs should focus on the more useful ones, and consumables should be from the current expansion.

2.) That a single bank tab should be allocated for items encompassing the experience from levels 1-60. Whatever falls between this level range is to be put here, but once it's full, it's full until something out of it is used. There is to be no spillover into other bank tabs. Anything falling beyond this level range can be stored normally, with respect to the above.

3.) That items used to gain reputation with a faction were generally given a pass.

4.) Profession-specific items (i.e blacksmith keys, leatherworking drums) should not be stored in the Guild Bank, as they are not universally usable. It's better to store these in one's personal inventory.

More detailed (though not necessarily comprehensive) notes will be put into the info tab for each bank tab once the cleaning is done. For anything that will not be found in the guild bank after the cleaning, members are welcome to seek these items from other members either in person, or through the WoW Trading section on the Forum.

A preview has been put out for Profession Changes in Cataclysm. Also, don't miss the Beta Opt-in announcement. There's also a preview of the Halls of Origination. Finally, I would recommend reading up on Blizzard's RealID Feature. Looks like we won't get a simple way to chat across Blizzard games after all. Good thing we have AIM :}

Starcraft 2's release date has been announced! Be prepared to get out there for it July 27th! Read the Press Release for more info.

Children's Week is underway!

In addition, the Night Elf Mohawk returns! Check out the commercial at Blizzard's Youtube Page or read about it in The Mohawk Grenade FAQ.

Alot of changes are being planned for PvP and raiding in the upcoming expansion. See the posts covering Badge and PvP Point changes and Raid Progression Refinements on Blizzard's Cataclysm forum. There's also a new blurb on The Echo Isles.

Information updates made to LotRO and WoW player tables as well as Member Games table.

It seems Turbine has been acquired by Warner Bros Home Entertainment. See the Press release.

Cataclysm information is forthcoming! We've already heard about changes in dispel mechanics and rage normalization for druids and warriors. We'll be hearing about planned changes to classes on the following days:

Shaman, Priest, and Warlock - April 7th

Warrior, Death Knight, and Rogue - April 8th

Hunter, Druid, and Mage - April 9th

Paladin - April 16th (they hope)

Read the original post for more info. We do know right now, though, that Blood will be the Death Knight tanking tree come Cataclysm.

Happy Easter!

Well, it's April Fool's Day, so take a look at what Blizzard is doing today :} on the WoW Official Site. You can see Blizzard's other jokes at the main Blizzard site. I find my Tuskarr Paladin to be quite amusing though. :} Too bad that link won't work after today, so see it while you can. :}

I've made adjustments to the News Page, as you will hopefully notice. Links will now work in the Gaming News, there will now be actual links instead of URLs as text. All 2010 Gaming News has been retroactively updated, but 2009 will not be. Enjoy!

The Spring Festival has begun! You can also read the Developer Diary.

World of Warcraft Patch 3.3.3 is live! You can read the patch notes as it downloads, or check them out at Blizzard's Patch Notes page.

The pre-expansion event has been officially revealed! The Alliance will be retaking Gnomeregan for the Gnomes and the Horde will be retaking the Echo Isles for the Trolls.

A ladder reset is coming for Diablo 2 players. Patch 1.13 will be released March 23rd. Check out the announcement at The Arreat Summit.

The Lord of the Rings Online servers will be down for an estimated 12 hours today, from 4am to 4pm Eastern, while they finish up the final stage of their datacenter move.

Changes to WoW's Battleground System coming with the next minor patch. Get more info in this thread on the official WoW forum.

This is old news at this point, but for those interested, the 1.13 patch for Diablo 2:LoD is on its PTR. You can find the announcement at The Arreat Summit and some more info in this thread at the battle.net forums.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Some slight adjustments to the News display. Text shouldn't hang off the bottom of the text square anymore.

Patch 3.3.2 is out, and the time to face the Lich King has come!

After a bit of work and tidying, the Reviews page is back. Enjoy reading them :}

Fixed a couple of links I noticed weren't quite working right :}

Another wing of the Icecrown Citadel raid has been made available.

Updates have also been made to Blizzard's official World of Warcraft armory, including the ability to see your character in 3D, among other things. See it at The World of Warcraft Armory.

Happy New Year!

If you're reading this, it is now 2010 Valar Standard Time, which is equal to the current US East Coast time. It means that the automatic transition occured automatically, and I'll never have to change the link manually again :}