As you may have heard, there is a serious issue awaiting us in the next expansion. Blizzard has kept us in the dark for a while, but after careful consideration, we at WoW Insider believe it's time to throw our considerable weight (we are, after all, one of the top 50 most influential blogs in the world, with all of the benefits and perks contained therein) behind what the players have asked for, time and time and time again.

Yes, we're making our stance official: there definitely need to, in some way, shape or form, be penguins in Northrend. Not only would it obviously win us the Linux vote, but consider the facts: penguins are birds, they don't fly, and penguins lay eggs. Of course, there is one problem: Penguins (order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are only found in Antarctic regions, which means there aren't any in the Northern parts of the world (which, in Azeroth, is right where the aptly named Northrend is). But then again, this is a world where dragons can turn into women and people can shoot fire out of their fingertips -- surely, Blizzard can stretch the science just so we can have some cute little formally-dressed birds up there.

So while petitions are banned on the forums, we here at WoW Insider know the power that you, our readers, carry, and we want you to add your voice to ours. Sign the comments section below if you agree: when the Alliance and the Horde hit the shores of Northrend, we of course want to see Arthas, and we'd like to have Death Knights, and we want a floating Dalaran and Tuskarr (yes, with a bukkit quest) and Forsaken architecture. But everyone who leaves a comment on this post, Blizzard, wants, almost more than all of that other stuff, just one thing in Northrend: penguins.

We want penguins. /signed.

So I wandered over to Blizzplanet this morning to check out what new information they might have, about the Wrath of the Lich King, about the upcoming patches, really anything of interest. Now, I only recently got into the Starcraft universe, really since the announcement about a sequel being in development. It was at that time that I decided to pick up a copy of the game and see what it was all about. RTS had never been my genre, but I am really enjoying the game for multiple reasons. So when I saw the petition listed on Blizzplanet, I was intrigued.

In Starcraft2, Blizzard's new addition to the genre, there are many things that have reappeared. Characters we know and love are back, albeit with some updates. The most notable change in the characters aside of their appearance is their voices. Evidently Blizzard has decided to go with new voice actors for this project, which leaves diehard Starcraft fans feeling disjointed and more than a little irritated. Thus Blizzplanet has put together a petition, and no it's not to bring back the Firebat. The petition is to let Blizzard know how much the players of Starcraft want to hear the same voice acting in Starcraft 2. The voice work in Starcraft was particularly brilliant, and was a huge part of what gave the game its personality. They ask that Blizzard work with the people that brought that magic to the first game. It really isn't a lot to ask, it just requires a change in Blizzard strategy. Will it work? Sign the petition and find out.

No, really.

It seems that a ton of new pet options have appeared in the new talent trees in 2.0.1 -- ice mages got water elementals, balance druids got those annoying trees and demonology warlocks can now summon felguards. And in the expansion, two new classes -- priests and shamans -- will be able to summon temporary combat pets at higher levels.

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that rogues (semi-seriously) want in on the action. Three months ago, Eskar proposed that rogues be granted the notoriously thieving ferret as a pickpocketing combat pet, and his petition is still going strong today. Community Manager Nethaera crushed Eskar's dream by noting that ferrets are still illegal in some states, and to be true to reality, the ferret would have to occasionally become confused and attack you. Rogues then asked for spider monkeys and/or rabid raccoons.

Other classes then joined in on the combat pet action. Warriors asked for throwable sharks (?!), while paladins demanded fluffy bunnies. What kind of combat pet do you think your class could use?

If you've logged in to the game this afternoon (US realms), you've probably seen the regular messages showing up in your chat window explaining that the in-game petition system will be unavailable between 10:30AM and 1:30PM PDT. In case you managed to miss those, a message box also pops up whenever you zone in or out of an instance saying "GM Help Tickets are currently unavailable" and requiring you to click OK to make it go away. I do wonder what sort of issue would require them to take the in-game customer support system offline, but at least it's not during peak hours. If you're having problems before the system reappears, the customer service forum usually has a fairly good turnaround time.