Reader Aaron V., creator of the Path of a Hero site that we linked to a while back, sent us an email to say that the site is better than ever. It's jumped up to 3700 users (probably more since he told us that), all the EU realms are now supported, and there are many more social updates built into the interface. Not only can you search the entire database with a new Ubersearch, but users can now comment on journal entries and even send messages to each other. Aaron tells us that stability is better than ever, and he says he's been getting a lot of good feedback, too -- people have been telling him that they wish the site had been around since they were level 1.

Cool to see that it's working so well. The site lets you upload screenshots of your character, and then pulls Armory data (including gems, enchants, and set item bonuses) out into the page as well. We'll have to see, too, if Aaron is able to implement the new Achievement and stat info -- maybe you'll be able to chart your character's gold or achievements over time.

Finally, Aaron says that he is working on support for alts and thinking about setting up "path of a guild"-type features, so you can track not only a character's progress, but a guild's progress as well. Definitely a cool idea to look back at where you were in the game, and see all of the things you've earned and achieved so far.

Felicia Day is a girl. Felicia Day plays WoW. Felicia Day tells boys how to meet girls in WoW. If that just didn't get the attention of every hormone-infused-female-liking nerd on the planet I don't know what will.

Felicia say down with the Asylum and talked about this topic for a bit. Their interview with her touches on a few interesting points.

"Would it matter if the guy's a noob?" Asylum asks. "Yeah..." Felicia answers. She goes on to mention that the difference is like seeing a guy in a Ferrari. Not being a total noob and having some good gear at least catches the eye. This makes me and all my purples happy.

The interview is an interesting and entertaining read. Hit it up when you have a minute and enjoy.

And stay tuned to WoW Insider for more news on Felicia Day and The Guild. She'll be sitting down with Mike Schramm and a few folks on our podcast soon talking about Season 2 and Wrath of the Lich King.

Nick Yee's excellent MMORPG survey and data site, the Daedalus Project, has been updated with new survey results on the following topics:

• Guild demographics: What influences players to choose certain guilds, how attached they become, the likelihood of their knowing guildies in real life, and how long they stay. What I find fascinating here is the graph displayed above -- 26% of surveyed players have been with their guild 2 years or more. Alex Ziebart mentioned the other day that his guild has been together so long across multiple games that guild chat's gone from talk of teenage dates to coaching expectant parents through morning sickness. I get the feeling that this is only going to become more common in long-haul games like Second Life and WoW.
  

• Character creation: How players choose characters, the elements of character selection they consider most important, and whether classes and races tend to be researched extensively before they're picked, or chosen based on impulse. Character class seems to matter to the most people; starting area the least.

Curse is running an excellent story about their time spent last evening with Blizzard developers Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton. There's a few things we didn't know before that are in the article. The major ones are:

• Patch 3.1 is already done (says Kaplan). Will release Ulduar 10-man and 25-man raids.
• Patch 3.2 will contain a yet to be announced raid instance. Hopefully more on this over the next two day. Release date / timeframe is unknown.
• Patch 3.3 will continue the Ashbringer storyline. Release date / timeframe is unknown.
• Dance studio to be released after WotLK.
• Guild ratings, where guilds get a rating based on PvE/PvP achievements. The idea is being "tossed around."
  

The other interesting note is that the development team is three patch cycles ahead of the live game. That's amazing, in my opinion. And beyond that, they're also working on the next expansion. Doesn't that raise your eyebrow just a bit? Perhaps we'll hear something major in the next few hours...

Violet_helix asks a good question over on WoW Ladies LJ -- is there a way in the official UI to form up guild alliances. And unfortunately, as the commenters answer her, there is not. Guilds who want to raid together just have to kind of do it.

The only little workaround that is available, of course, is the chat channels -- those can be created and even moderated in an ad-hoc way (though I believe that they can't be given permanent moderators, which means that if someone leaves the channel, they could lose moderation privledges). But even if a guild alliance is able to keep up a chat channel and keep it moderated, they can't do things like leave a message of the day, or store ingame information on guilds or members as regular guilds can. There is an addon called Guild Alliance that will do lots of that stuff, but there's nothing official.

Should there be an ingame UI for creating alliances? We've been promised more backend guild-based content (like guild battlegrounds and even guild housing), and if Blizzard does choose to heavily update the guild system, there could be a lot of benefit to guilds aligning. Not to mention with the 10/25 main raiding split in the expansion, it's not unexpected that we'll have smaller guilds who join up with each other for the big raids rather than huge guilds with big raiding teams. On the other hand, the practice isn't so widespread at this point -- there may not be enough alliances out there to start officially recognizing them within the game world anyway.

I've only ever written two guild applications, but I used to pride myself on writing a damn good one, the sort of application you might see written by the manager of a successful hedge fund, or possibly Mother Teresa. So I had my doubts when tipster Roflharris wrote in to tell us that a friend of his, MsFahrenheit of Sylvanas-EU, had submitted what was possibly the best guild application of all time to Anointed, but it's completely true. You'd have to try pretty hard to top this fully-animated, written and visual joke-infested riot. I just about died when he hit the part about how he got class leader and what attempts on Kalecgos were like.

MsFahrenheit applied as a resto Druid and it looks like he was accepted, not that I would have expected anything less. There's not much more I can say apart from please see this; you'll be glad you did. Just so you know, it takes about 6 minutes to play from start to finish.

(A non-audio version is here if you absolutely must, but the audio version is funnier).

Otrebla asks a good question on the forums: how long, do you think, will it take before we see our first level 80 character? He wasn't around during the BC launch, but I was, and you could literally watch people level in the /who -- a few hours after launch, I saw some 64s pop up, and maybe 36 hours or so after the game's midnight release, I did a "/who level 70," and sure enough, there were a few names floating around in there.

Of course, the level 80 titles have been removed, so there's not any real ingame need to rush to level 80, but people will of course do it anyway. Odds are that within the first day after release, we'll see a few level 80s floating around, and I'd imagine that all of the various realms will have at least one or two level 80s within the first few days. The fastest people will do it with the help of their guildies (or saved quest items), but there'll probably be a few people who will just go nuts and get it done all on their own.

I won't be one of them, and I'm sure there are plenty of players like me, who are more interested in seeing the content rather than reaching the next highest level as fast as possible (and that's exactly what Zarhym recommends as well). A few people will race to 80, no question, but the vast majority of people playing will likely be taking their sweet time.

Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.

It's no secret that the game we all know and love is in a period of transition. Many basic assumptions of Warcraft are changing, from the way loot is itemized, to the way buffs work, to the very nature of raiding. Amidst all this change, I decided to update the document my guild wrote to define our basic principles and guidelines. Written in 2005, it was astonishingly outdated. I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised. Someone who stopped playing back when Blackwing Lair was the endgame would barely recognize WoW if they rolled a premade 80 on the beta servers today.

We call this document our guild's philosophy. Many guilds call it their charter. However you label it, right now is a great time to reevaluate exactly what your guild is all about and what your basic rules and beliefs will be going into the next expansion.

My realm's seen a number of guild instability issues of late, which is something most of us have come to expect with an upcoming expansion. I've found reason to mull over how the virtual world differs from the real world with respect to friendship, backstabbing, greed, betrayal, honor, and how people choose to handle their problems. In my considered opinion it doesn't differ at all, and your experience ingame is largely determined by the network of players assembled around you, whether that alliance is a recognized one in the form of a guild or simply a more informal group of friends.

So, from my own experience and with a hat tip to Pjammer, these are the people you want in your posse for the best possible experience in the game:

Videogame Price Charts (who?) has compiled a list of seven videogame conventions to attend before you die. Unfortunately, the list seems unattainable by design, as they want you to attend E3 before 2007, but besides last week's Leipzig Games Convention and this weekend's upcoming PAX, Blizzard's own BlizzCon is right there on the list.

We're not sure why you'd want to go to BlizzCon if you didn't happen to be a fan of Blizzard's games, but then again, who isn't a fan? They list the legendary costume contest and the chance to try out PC games as reasons to go (along with meeting your guild -- I did all three at BlizzCon last year), though they forget all of the great Blizzard panels and the entertainment offered at each 'Con (where else can you see Level 70 ETC, besides, you know, in-game).

Especially since it's going to be bigger than ever this year, there's no question that BlizzCon is going to be awesome. And even if you weren't able to grab a ticket (we're hearing just now that lottery winners are being notified), we'll have everything you need to know and see from Anaheim this October right here on WoW Insider.

[via WorldofWar]

The BlizzCon tickets are slowly (and unsurely) being sold, and the first few lucky buyers have been linked to a "BlizzCon Exclusive" from SwagDog.com -- apparently they've teamed up with Blizzard to offer real-life versions of your guild tabard on a t-shirt, and folks who attend BlizzCon will get their pick of the first shirts off the presses.

Note to Blizzard and SwagDog: feel free to send the royalty checks over to me whenever you want. The bad news is that they've eschewed the idea of "t-shirt as tabard", and instead it looks like they're making a custom-printed shirt for everyone, so it'll have not just your tabard on their shirt, but your guild's name, and your character's name and realm, race, class and faction as well.

As neat as these are, I think I'd like something a little more subtle -- all that text and the icons muddy it up a bit. But otherwise, definitely seems like (assuming the prices and shirt quality are respectable) a fun way to show off a little guild and toon pride.

I love motorcycles. Always have, and I probably always will. I was very excited to see that Blizzard is introducing them in Wrath of the Lich King. I'll probably spec engineering on most of my characters just to make my own little biker gang. Wouldn't it be great to see a guild rolling around looking like Fel's Angels? But how would others know you are a guild?

Stonewhisper of Scarlet Crusade suggested some additional accessories from other crafters. I like his idea of having guild jackets for raiding. He also suggested using engineering for performance modifications. Something like a rocket fuel for a nitrous-oxide-like speed boost.* I could see a world of after-market parts for WoW bikes: blacksmiths could sell sissy seats and wheelie bars. Tailors could make saddle bags to add to carrying capacity. Taurens and Draenei would probably need some kind of suspension upgrade.