Blizzard giveth, and Blizzard taketh away! While many people have enjoyed the splendor that is the 64-bit client for World of Warcraft, it seems that the upcoming patch 4.3.3 is going to break it, forcing users back down to the 32-bit client. To make matters worse we don't know how long it will be until we get another functional 64-client.

If you were previously running the 64-bit client, according to Blizzard you need to delete the following files in order for the patch to work properly. 

• Wow-64.exe
• MovieProxy.exe
• Battle.net-64.dll
• World of Warcraft-64.app

For more information be sure to check the support website.

Develop is reporting that Blizzard might be looking into an interesting approach for one of it's upcoming games, saying the company "will embrace free-to-play and will apply the model in an upcoming, as yet unannounced game."

The website couldn't provide further details on the specific project this would apply to, but the studio is widely known for working on a next-gen MMO named "Project Titan". While the move would be a major change from the model we have become accustomed to in World of Warcraft, Blizzard may need to follow suit to keep up with many other MMO titles going free-to-play in the past few years.

It is also possible that this game in question applies to an entirely different "unannounced game" as the California studio has said it will expand business opportunities to create both subscription and freemium titles.

Huge changes went into place for the Mists of Pandaria Talent Calculator, causing a huge storm of community posts about the various changes. One thing that is very clear is that Blizzard is really trying to perfect the idea of playstyle choice. Not just in terms of class specialization, but in the various tools and abilities that are now available for an entire class via the new talent system. 

Mages were pretty excited during BlizzCon to see a talent tier dedicated entirely to affecting their main crowd control effect, Polymorph. However, that has now been replaced as a tier that gives more options and style to how a player regenerates their mana. Other major changes were visible in the Paladin's talent tree. Talents like Holy Prisim, can be cast on enemies or allies with varying AoE effects if it's cast on friend or foe.

But talents weren't the only thing getting changed. Even class abilities are being adjusted and even consolidated. For example, tanks now have a debuff called Weakened Blows, which weakens a target's physical damage by 10%. This debuff is applied when a normal rotation ability like Thrash, Thunderclap, and Hammer of the Righteous is cast. This helps eliminate the incursion of a global cooldown on abilities that felt less interesting and helps ensure the maximum amount of debuffs are up on a target.

These changes definitely are going to bring an entire new learning curve for the entire player base. The best recommendation is to familiarize yourself with the changes coming to your class and be ready to experiment when the beta finally launches.

The legendary board game Monopoly is teaming up with the world's largest MMORPG! Blizzard Entertainment has announced it will partner with the company behind this real estate focused game to create a World of Warcraft themed Monopoly, available in May for $39.95.

Like most Monopoly themed hybrids, the game will put signature locations up for sale for you to buy, and to later fight with your friends over. Places will include Twilight Highlands and Swamp of Sorrows, but the real question is: what will Boardwalk be? Dalaran? As for game pieces, Blizzard is allowing fans to decide which tokens will make the final cut by voting on Facebook. But with choices like Murky, Corehound Pup, Doomhammer, and the Hearthstone, it seems like there's no losing in this poll.

As a final note, World of Warcraft isn't the only game getting the board game treatment. The real-time strategy game StarCraft is making its way to one of the most infamous strategy board games, RISK, this summer.

The quarterly earnings call is coming to a close but the major news is out for all things Activision Blizzard.

In the recent quarterly earnings call from Blizzard, we learned that the "Chuck Norris spot was super effective!" for the MMO king World of Warcraft, and they are now only down to 10.2 million subscribers. This is great news for Blizzard, as WoW's biggest competitor, Star Wars: The Old Republic, was launched during this earnings report. To top it all off, the annual subscription service climbed to over one million, possibly in part due to the free digital copy of Diablo 3. To round off the call, Blizzard added that Diablo 3 is being pushed to Q2 of this year and Blizzard DOTA being free-to-play. 

Things are definetly looking up, as WoW's decline in subscriptions is starting to level off. Speculation can only hold that as the excitement builds for Mists of Pandaria, if Blizzard can hold onto its title as king of MMORPG subscriptions for some time to come.

Some startling news out of the mouth of Blizzard Entertainment, as they've just recently announced that in light of their "jam-packed" schedule, they've decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013. This has obviously set the rumour mills a-churning as to what this really means, but common concensus is that without any major announcements to make (no Titan?), Blizzard has simply decided to focus on delivering their products (Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and Heart of the Swarm) as fast as possible.

Blizzard is not, however, going to kill one of its biggest Blizzard eSports tournament venues, which usually takes place at BlizzCon and, as such, they've announced the 2012 Battle.net World Championship that will take place in Asia "toward the end of 2012." For now, let's have a moment of silence for those BlizzCon memories that would have been.

Want to help a good cause while being truly nerdy? Blizzard Entertainment is hosting the last of their Charity Auctions for European World of Warcraft Server Blades! With all net proceeds being donated to the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, fans will be able to bid on eBay until January 30th. The server blades have all been preserved in presentation cases, and each features signatures from the various heads that contributed to the making and upkeep of World of Warcraft.

There are currently 347 World of Warcraft Server Blades up for auction on eBay, with the highest bid sitting at $255.00 for the Al'Akir Realm (Europe) server blade. If you want to pick up a little piece of World of Warcraft history, this is a great opportunity!

Lead quest designer, Dave Kosak, revealed in an interview that there will be no more major content for World of Warcraft until Mists of Pandaria goes live. This comes as disconcerting news to the average player, as content is being cleared rather quickly and day to day activities are starting to feel less exciting. However, when asked if there is enough content in patch 4.3 to keep gamers busy until Mists of Pandaria, Kosak said "between the three excellent dungeons, the new raid, and Raid Finder, that should give people something to sink their teeth into for a few months."

Taking into account this is the last patch until the next expansion, hopefully in "a few months" we will see the usual pre-launch introductory patch to transition in the new talents, spells, characters, and lore. What is more exciting is this could point to a summer-time release. Until those of us who paid for an annual subscription recieve beta access, however, there is no reason to get excited just yet.

It's no new complaint that World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Cataclysm, had an incredibly linear design that left a lot of players wanting more. It appears, however, that Blizzard also agrees with this sentiment!

In a very long thread on the official forums, discussions have been going on about WoW's direction, and Community Manager Draxxari has responded to concerns about the fact that, "There [was] almost no reason what so ever to venture out into the world." Draxxari responded, noting that, "That was an error we made with the design of Cataclysm, but getting players invested in the world again is something we're interested in addressing with Mists."

If this promise holds true, what kind of changes do you think we can expect from Mists of Pandaria?

Better late then never! ZAM's Mike B. aka Fony was a bit delayed on getting a BFF Report last week, but this week he's back with the BFF Report - Episode #95: The Top 5 Most Controversial Games of 2011! In this episode, Fony... well... he covers the top five most controversial games of 2011. That's pretty much self-explanatory.

Anyway, it's a great way to wrap up 2011 for those of you suffering from your post-holiday funk (it's been two weeks, get over it). If you're still in that "New Years" mood, why not check out ZAM's ongoing "The Top 5 Most Important MMOs of 2012" series? Original titles are running high, people.