Bugs and Other Problems in Patch 4.0.1

First, a description of the name plates bug and a workaround.
http://clearcasting.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/nameplates/

The most articulate writing about how leveling in Patch 4.0.1 is difficult because "mobs die so fast that you cannot actually play your char" is below. cannot actually play your char.”
http://nilsmmoblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/blizzard-overstrained.html

Cywise says Battlegrounds is broken and lists the bugs he has seen there.
http://cynwise.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/the-broken-battlegrounds/

Samuel is having all sorts of buggy mount problems.
http://samueltempus.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/double-u-tee-eff/

Big Bear Butt has found a workaround that makes X Perl useable again.
http://thebigbearbutt.com/2010/10/20/bug-hotfix-x-perl-unitframes-right-click-dispell-buff-workaround/

An interesting discussion of balancing realms and ways to make it better.
http://blacksen.com/archives/211

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Cataclysm Guilds: Size Matters (and Doesn't)

Apparently Blizzard is tinkering with the new guild achievements in such a way that the bigger the guild, the easier it will be to get the achievements. Larisa is not pleased.
http://www.pinkpigtailinn.com/2010/09/blizzards-message-to-guilds-get-bigger.html

UPDATE:  Apparently Blizzard has announced that realm firsts will be shared between 10 and 25 man raids.  In other words, there won't be separate firsts for 10 man and 25 man groups.
http://www.lumethemad.com/2010/09/21/10-and-25-man-realm-firsts-shared/

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Tips on Choosing a Realm

http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/16/wow-rookie-how-to-choose-a-new-realm/#continued

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24 Hour Maintenance Announced for August 17

Some realms will be down for 24 hours at least next Tuesday; others will hve regular maintenance downtime.  The list is here-
http://www.wow.com/2010/08/14/24-hour-maintenance-announced-for-more-realms/

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Blizzard's Going to Patrol One Role Play Realm (and Starcraft 2 mods)

Apparently a father complained to Blizzard about the behavior on Moon Guard, a role-playing realm notorious for terrible behavior and Blizzard GMs plan to patrol Goldshire Inn on this realm heavily.
http://www.wow.com/2010/08/04/blizzard-to-patrol-moon-guards-goldshire-for-harassment-erotic/

I think it's about time.  Given the behavior that the Solo MMO Player sees every day, WOW should be rated M for Mature instead of T for Teen (age 13 or older).  Personally I'm astounded WOW hasn't ended up on Fox News already as the new in-game Sodom and Gomorrah.

Anna of Too Many Annas pretty much sums up what most players feel about Blizzard's new policing.
http://toomanyannas.com/feature/policing-roleplay-somewhere-else/

UPDATE:  Blizzard is apparently policing Starcraft 2 mod maps and removing those it finds offensive in any way.
http://kotaku.com/5605333/blizzard-policing-inappropriate-starcraft-ii-maps-because-they-can

According to this story, the only inoffensive item in the map that was removed was the word "badass."  I'm pretty sure my mother would disapprove if I used badass in her presence, but I don't think she'd wash my mother out with soap.
http://www.1up.com/news/blizzard-deleting-inappropriate-starcraft-maps

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The Shrinking Population and the Disappearing Servers

Gazimoff explains how Blizzard is invisibly shrinking the servers and predicts how this will play out in-game as WOW's player base shrinks.  This is a must-read for players interested in the mechanics of networking MMOs.  It starts out with a history of how Blizzard organized their servers (and realms) in 2005 and continues through today with the "random" battleground and dungeon finder systems which allow Blizzard to balance their servers.  This is why you end up in the same dungeon or Battlefield over and over again, by the way.  Blizzard is putting folks where they need them.
http://www.manaobscura.com/2010/07/the-growing-yet-shrinking-world/

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Free PvE Realm Transfers Announced

The list of places one can transfer from/to is here.
http://www.wow.com/2010/05/25/free-realm-transfers-announced/

The article links to a 2009 article about how PvE realms are the ones with too many players, not PvP realms.   I expect this to spark discussion as to how this will impact the PvP changes Blizzard is contemplating with Cataclysm.
http://www.wow.com/2009/01/09/no-pve-servers-are-under-populated/

If you are curious, this site is supposed to list how U.S. servers are doing.  The FAQ tab has info about how/what they measure.
http://www.wowprogress.com/realms/rank/us

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Warhammer Online Fight History

Karthis mentioned a site that collects the Realm versus Realm (RvR) history from Warhammer Online.
http://teethandclaws.blogspot.com/2009/09/new-tool-warhammer-rvr-history.html

I thought this quite interesting and added the direct link here.
http://www.pvphistory.com/

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Realms Up or Down? Your iPhone Knows

There's an iPhone app that will tell you which realms are up or down and which will also notify you when the realms you specify go up or down.  It's $1.99.  Details here.
http://www.wow.com/2009/09/09/realm-status-iphone-app-sends-push-notifications-for-the-servers/

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