We reported yesterday about the new icy splash screen which has appeared on many of Blizzard's corporate and gaming sites. There's already tons of speculation speeding around the web about it, and of course the pot was only stirred all the more this morning when the picture changed slightly: the light in the middle of the cracked ice became brighter, and there's some new detail that can be seen through the ice, including a rune of some sort just to the upper right of the center. we can probably assume that the picture will change more each day until something is announced at the Worldwide Invitational. However, the question remains: What is being announced?

Right now, there's two major schools of thought about it: One school says that this will lead up to the announcement of the WoTLK Beta, while another says that this will be the announcement of Diablo 3. Each side has some pretty passionate arguments, and are bringing the analysis to back it up. Let's look at what we have after the break.

The first time you experience an event in World of Warcraft is something you never forget. The first time you saw one of the enormous player cities. The first time you saw a player on a mount. The first time you got a random tell from a gold spammer.

Amadeais of the Nazjatar server remembers his first purple, the Underworld Band. He created a thread on the official forums and many have chimed in with their own first epics. From the hard-won PvP purples to the surprise gift from a generous guildmate.

What about you? What was the first purple drop you remember receiving? Was it a world drop, boss loot or did you save up your coppers and bought it off the Auction House? Do you still keep it in your bank? Tell us your story.

Mingka of Dath'Remar shares her story of genuinely needing an item that dropped on a Sunken Temple run, the Robes of Insight, only to have it snatched away by greed. The hunter in the group rolled need on the item as well, with the excuse that his alt/friend/guildmate/girlfriend needs it also. The bottom line question: who is allowed to roll on an item that drops while grouped? The debate continues, but people are very united in the answer that items should always go to players who were present for the drop and need the item as a direct upgrade. What happens if nobody directly needs the item is still a question.

I personally think that loot should be discussed if a clear upgrade situation is not present. Many people have alts, and would like to outfit those characters. But All of us have mains that require funding and gear/enchant/gem upgrades to progress further.

I am impressed by EU forumgoer Yippi. Despite having two characters at level 70, one at level 69, two more at 60, and a host of lower levels, Yippi has never even seen a world drop epic. That's enough to make you wonder if the darn things even exist! Even though, in my experience, I have to say that they do -- while leveling, I've gotten Robes of Insight, an Underworld Band, a Jeweled Amulet of Cainwyn, and I've seen (though I didn't win) a Krol Blade. Maybe I'm as lucky as Yippi is unlucky?

But, I don't know... like the guys over at Penny Arcade say -- green is the new purple. Maybe missing out on those world drop epics isn't that bad after all.

Interested in more forumgoer opinions? Take a look at previous forum posts of the day!

I really wanted to call this article "The Peculiar Purple Paladin of Porcupine Peak", but aside from being fairly non-descriptive, I was afraid the reference would be lost. Instead, I decided to just state exactly what we're looking at over on the right.

I hope we can all agree that the Paladin Tier 2 Judgement set is a solidly designed set of gear, which really breathed some life and energy into the Paladin class, stylistically speaking. As a paladin myself, it became my whole world. It was the single reason I played with my online dress-up doll, err.. paladin. When I had finally achieved the set, I felt satisfied and complete. Then the Burning Crusade came. Try as I might to not do it, I've had to put several pieces of judgement into storage as I'm leveling from 60 to 70. My poor little pally now looks like a hodgepodge of pieces from a bargain bin.

Luckily for those of us who plan to take our (forced?) places in a raid group upon hitting 70, there's a bit of a black light at the end of the tunnel.

While "Purple Judgement" isn't a fully realized set, with bonuses and a name, it is a grouping of very viable healing gear for the level 70 paladin. If you're keen on maintaining that Judgement look, and you're okay with being a healer at level 70, you'll want to seek out the following pieces, from helm to boot:

This forum thread goes over something we've talked about here before-- the thrill of finding your first purple world drop. Yup, it's special when you kill what must be the thousandth lava spider you've ever killed, and suddenly you loot, and you're looking at one of the rarest items (if not the rarest) you've ever seen, and it's all yours, nary a group member in sight. It's a great feeling, but Drysc's comment (he found an Ardent Custodian, and accidentally bought a second one off the AH) made me think of what I've found is the dark side of finding a world drop: getting rid of it.

Now, if you can use the item you find, more power to you-- my Priest was lucky enough to find a Holy Shroud at level 33, and she's still wearing it at level 40 (can't beat +healing on a lowbie item). But more often than not, a world drop is supposed to be your ticket to riches (and, hopefully, that mount you've been eyeing). The problem? As I've found, selling an epic on the AH isn't easy. Either you put it up and it sells in seconds (which means you likely sold it for too little), or you just can't get rid of thing, no matter what price you put it at. My Shaman was lucky enough to find a Dwarven Hand Cannon off a worm in Silithus. I tried to sell it for weeks at a couple hundred gold with no luck at all. Eventually I dropped the price to 100g, then 75g, then 50g. Eventually I begged a hunter to take it off my hands and got 45g for it. Still a nice chunk of change, but nowhere near epic mount money.

And right now it's the Ace of Beasts I can't seem to lose. I was lucky enough to win a roll on it in UBRS, and none of the guildies needed it, so I figured it would help clear me the last 200g of my epic mount. But after listing it at 300g, then 200g, and now 150g, I haven't gotten so much as a nibble on it. You're going to say it's my fault for being too greedy, but I've seen the Beasts deck in full on my server for 500g before-- if I have to sell the Ace for 50g, I can't help but feel I'm getting ripped off.

Coming across a terrifically rare item is a great feeling. But rarity, it seems, is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. Have you had epics you just can't seem to get rid of? And, in the end, how did you unload them?