Gilneas & Lost Isles Zone Maps, Hotfixes, Daily Blue

Cataclysm - Gilneas & Lost Isles Zone Maps
Two maps from Gilneas (Worgen starting zone) and Lost Isles (Goblins starting zone) that you probably didn't see anywhere as they were published on a Spanish WoW Blog.

Recent In-Game Fixes - August 27th, 2009

Crygil on Recent In-Game Fixes - August 2009 (Source)

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18031081949&sid=1

8/27/2009
Individual players will now only be able to build a vehicle in Wintergrasp once every two minutes.
Characters who are in vehicles now receive quest credit for the daily Call to Arms quest.

Daily Blue

Race Change and the new races (Worgen/Goblins)
We may add the new races to the Race Change feature, but it will probably not be something that is available immediately after Cataclysm's launch. We are putting large amounts of work into the flow and feel of leveling in the new expansion. Thus, we would be doing many players a disservice by allowing Race Changes to circumvent the leveling process early on in the expansions natural life cycle. (Source)

Dalaran in Cataclysm
There are no plans to move Dalaran right now. Anybody leveling through the Northrend content would have a hard time without it. (Source)

Worgen Death Knight and Lore
Hexe gives some compelling arguments about how a potential worgen death knights may occur (non Gilnean.) Of course, there is also the possibility that some small scouting parties of Gilnean worgen were captured by the Scourge, in and around the events that were the 3rd war. Not every battle or conquest of the Lich King is chronicled in the lore, nor would the capture of some small amount of worgen. Remember that none of the creatures we're talking about here are the original worgen conjured by the Scythe of Elune. These are all hybrids and, for the most part, humans. One would think that may just be a good enough reason for them to be able to rejoin with the Alliance.

To say that something is anathema to lore is tantamount to saying that something is entirely impossible and in a world full of dragons, demons, undead, and countless other magical wonders, it's good to keep an open mind. Just because you can't envision it, doesn't mean that someone else can't do so in a compelling way. (Source)

Argent Tournament and Cataclysm
One thing to keep in mind is that not everybody will be purchasing Cataclysm on day zero, so the content and stories for the previous expansion(s) needs to be there for those players as well as be there for any characters leveling up.

Because of how well the Argent Tournament allows you to gain reputation with city factions, I think it will continue to be relevant. I know some people who still head to Netherwing Ledge and get their repuation/drakes because they want to do it on a new character.

Generally speaking - spending a lot of time on new content and then making it end and disappear is not something we like to do and have to be very careful on when and how often we do it. We are changing some of the classic continent because they have been there for 5 years so we feel it's okay to change it around after all this time.

The Onyxia example is a special circumstance for the 5 year anniversary. This isn't something we plan to do for every instance. (Source)

Player versus Player

Unrated Battlegrounds
Unrated BGs aren't going away. In fact, you'll have access to slightly more than you did in the past even just through unrated bgs. So, it should continue to be a great way to spend 30-40 minutes when you don't have time to organize with others. (Source)

No PvP Weapons for honor points
...because we make the assumption that since WoW was engaging enough for 80 levels of play to get to the scenario you mention that most people aren't actually that horribly offended by doing pve content (which is arguably the core of the game).

We may need to reconsider that particular philosophy if doing heroics is indeed that unappealing to many players. Although, I'm not sure how "many" players that really is TBH... forums like these are a surprisingly poor way to actually figure out what percentage of players think what about a given issue. (Source)