Here in the US, it's not yet Talk Like a Pirate Day (that happens on September 19th every year), but over in Oceania, it's already been 9/19 for a few hours, and players have discovered some scurvy-ridden sea dogs in Booty Bay celebrating the event. Apparently, there are a bevy of pirates (what do you call a group of pirates exactly?) hanging out above the Inn there, and their leader is Captain Demeza, who will give you a 12-hour buff that makes you look like a pirate. We're also told that her commoner cronies are hanging around the capital cities, so talking to any pirate should give you the buff.

Kisirani confirms that the holiday is new, and that while yes, it only lasts for one day (which means weekend warriors won't have a chance to see the proceedings), there are no lasting rewards to be found, just that 12-hour buff (which itself is just cosmetic anyway). So happy TLAP day, maties!*

*Yes, you landlubbers, I can do a better pirate than just "maties." But it's not September 19th here in the US yet. Stay tuned.

More politicians are coming out of the WoW closet. Jeanne Stevens is a WoW player -- with a 70 Orc Hunter, a 58 Troll Shaman, and a 53 Blood Elf Rogue -- and a Republican running for the Connecticut state legislature. And she freely admits it in a new interview with Wandering Goblin, as covered by our sister site, Massively. Her hunter is balanced between marksman and survival, her shaman specs elemental (close to my heart!), and her rogue climbs the assassination talent tree. Will she be able to master the beasts in her political race? (Okay, you go ahead and insert your own shaman or rogue wordplay here.) Maybe she'll hold some in-game speeches or rallies. She could hold forth on top of Orgrimmar's bank, or maybe lead a raid to Stormwind as a metaphor.

Is it surprising that a Republican chooses Horde? I think you could make a case for either faction going with either political party. Personally, I love to see that she's middle-aged and a woman, which defies Blizzard's assumptions about the majority of WoW gamers. She also chooses pirates over ninjas. I'm not sure there's a political comment there, but I'm sure someone will show me the light.

[Thanks to Wandering Goblin via Massively.]

Some guilds are formed for raiding, some guilds are formed for PvP, some guilds are formed for leveling, some guilds are formed for social reasons... but Los Banditos Locos seems to have been formed with the goal of eliminating Alliance faction leaders while dressed up as pirates (well, okay, the pirate idea seemed to slip in later -- perhaps just killing faction bosses was dull on its own?). No, Los Banditos Locos isn't the only guild to make the effort to take out faction bosses, but with their pirate attire, they pull it off with more style than anyone else. So as a fitting end to Talk Like a Pirate Day, I offer you a complete collection of Los Banditos Locos raids (with their Bandito Coastguard video, above, as a bonus). See the Banditos taking out Archdruid Fandral Staghelm in Darnassus, the Lady Jaina Proudmoore in high in her Theramore tower, Highlord Bolvar Fordragon in the heart of Stormwind City, Prophet Velen (who probably thought the Exodar was safe), the Gnomish King High Tinker Gelbin Mekkatorque, and finally Dwarf King Magni Bronzebeard in Ironforge. For all the pirate action you need, check out the Fordragon kill and the Bronzebeard kill.

Yarrr maties! It be me, ol' Cap'n Blackbeard, here ta tell ya about some of of me favorite quests in Azeroth! What, ye don't think us pirates are noble enough t'go on quests? Well, ye're right-- obeying is for landlubbin' scallywags. But we'll do anything to get piratey treasure, so occasionally yer pirate captain assists in a quest or two in between his normal piratical duties (those being combing his luxurious black beard, and makin' landlubbers walk the plank).

And when that happens, it's only best pirate quests for your blackbearded leader! Here's my favorite pirate quests in the game, in no particular order, ye scurvy-ridden dogs!

Pirate Hats Ahoy! Pirate hats ahoy is right! There's no bigger humiliation to a pirate than stealin' 'is hat, and those Southsea scallywags are askin' fer it! Go to Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris at level 40, and talk to Haughty Modiste-- she'll send you south to a secret pirate cove where it'll be time for fisticuffs! And don't forget to grab Southsea Shakedown while you're there, too-- you'll need to kill the same lubbers for that one.

Deep Ocean, Vast Sea The ocean, she's a mean mistress, and ye can't know Davy Jones' locker until ye been down in it, fightin' fer yer life! At level 12 in Darkshore (at Auberdine), Gorbold Steelhand will send ye on the hardest journey ye've ever seen-- some say the hardest in the game! I don't know what ye mongrels are caterwhalin' about. Just swim down there and get the chests! And when you get back, scrub the deck until yer cap'n can see his handsome face in it! Finish the job or get fed to the kraken!

You may have already heard this one, but I figured it would be a good thing to post on Talk Like a Pirate Day. Our friends over at WoW Radio recently dropped a new track from Captain Dan, "rising star in the field of Pirate Hip-Hop," called "Deadmines Battle." You can listen to it over on their website-- it features some trippy beats, a little Casio jamming, and rhymes all about everyone's favorite pirate instance. My favorite part of the song, just like the instance, is Mr. Smite, of course.

WoW Radio also says Captain Dan's new album hits today (it's called Rime of the Hip-Hop Mariners, which I, being a Coleridge fan, find very funny)-- there's more tunes and information about that over on their Myspace page.

Avast ye maties, thar be some good rapping off starboard side! Now get back to yer deck-scrubbing, ye scurvy dogs, afore I keelhaul the lot of ya! Yarrrrrr!

Arr mateys! For those that be not in the know, today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and we be dedicatin' much a' today to those seafarin' scallywags, the pirates! That said, writing like that for any length of time makes my brain twitch, so you'll have to pardon me while I simply keep with the overall theme and instead wish you all a happy Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yarr!

Warming up for Wrath of the Pirate King, err Lich King, I've been revisiting my old copies of the Warcraft RTS games. One of the things that I always enjoyed from Warcraft II was the fact that I got to build boats, load my Orcs and Trolls up and go pounce on the unsuspecting Alliance. (My friends seemed to enjoy doing much the same by pouncing on my little Horde villages in return when we'd play together.) In replaying the games now, I've gotten to once again load up those boats and sail around, torching oil platforms and raiding towns. With the talk of the buildings that will be destroyable in WotLK, I can't help but wonder -- where are our naval skirmishes? In WoW, you can ride the same boats with the opposite faction from Booty Bay to Ratchet. But at no point do you get to jump on a boat and attack the other faction's boats or take out shipyards.

I can't be the only one who liked the ship battles from days of Warcraft yore. So for today's Breakfast Topic -- If they offered ship-based PvP, would you play it? How about if you were helping your side to cut the other side off from "resources" kind of like a ship-based version of AB? Did you like the sailing action in the previous RTS games too? How would you like to see ship battles enacted, were Blizzard to do them in the future?

Sleeper Cartel on Perenolde is a great guild-- they've shown up on Guildwatch more than a few times before, not for drama, but because they routinely put on really cool server events. Their events have a roleplaying flavor, but they aren't really hardcore RP-- rather, they're just a fun way for people to get together and do social things in game.

And now, finally, they've told us about one of their events before it's happened, so we can tell you. Tomorrow (still not very much notice, I know), Saturday, August 18th at 7pm server, they're having their second annual serverwide party, and they are throwing quite a bash. Player-run quests, pirate costumes, a player wedding to kick everything off, tons of giveaways, items, fireworks, and they're even giving away a Professor Plum-- yup, one Epic will be handed out to a lucky winner.

The whole thing is going to be held out at Fray Island (and probably a few other places around the server), so if you're free tomorrow afternoon, you'll definitely have to check it out. I've been super impressed with everything else SC has done, and I don't expect tomorrow's event to be an exception (and now that I've posted this, they'll probably have more people than they know what to do with). Should be a lot of fun.

Avast ye mateys! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day! And also Tuesday, which mean it be time to put an eye through ye olde spyglass and check out the latest, greatest, and swabbiest of guild news! Click the link below, if ye dare, to see this week's GuildWatch. YARRRRR!

And don't forget, landlubbers, if ye want your guild drama, downing, or recruiting featured in GW, put your message on an albatross and release it to wowguildwatch@gmail.com. Even a salty sailor like meself needs your submissions to keep the ship afloat, so send em out, ye scurvy scallywags!