This fall you'll be able to recreate your virtual online adventures in the privacy of your own home, all thanks to a new collection of World of Warcraft toys from DC Direct.

What's the primary language of night elves?

UPDATED: Yesterday we inaccurately reported that World of Warcraft had reached 7 million subscribers. Blizzard has given us the correct figure of 6.5 million. We apologize for the mistake.)

The drums of war are beating, but right now a handful of World of Warcraft players can't heed the call. Blizzard is experiencing a few delays with today's release of its latest patch for WoW, version 1.12.0. This patch adds a slew of highly anticipated new features, including Cross-Realm Battlegrounds and World PvP. While countless gamers are eager to check out the new features, some will have to wait for their servers to come back online.

Ever since battlegrounds showed up in World of Warcraft, there hasn't been a lot of interest in world PvP among WoW players. Now Blizzard is setting out to change that. The developer has recently announced that the new 1.12 patch for World of Warcraft will introduce outdoor PvP objectives to help renew interest in world PvP. These new objectives are titled A Game of Towers and The Silithyst Must Flow.

Want to score a free PC upgrade? How about a free XFX GeForce 7900 GT? How about a set of PC hardware and accessories valued at more than $1,000 and a free 12-month subscription to World of Warcraft? These prizes and more can all be yours if you enter a winning machinima movie using World of Warcraft into Blizzard and Xfire's Summer Movie Contest.

It's good to see Blizzard actively policing its virtual world. The Irvine-based developer announced recently that 59,000 World of Warcraft accounts were banned this June. Not only that, but more than 22 million in gold was removed from the total economy across all the WoW servers. In an official post on the WoW message boards, a Blizzard representative writes, "While we regret having to take such extreme action, these accounts were participating in activities that directly violated World of Warcraft's Terms of Use, including the use of third-party programs to farm gold and items."

This is huge news to WoW players. Now both the Alliance and the Horde will have access to the same player classes. Paladins are considered to be a big factor in why Alliance players generally progress faster and more easily in raids. Now this won't be the case anymore. Many other questions are also raised by this new revelation. Will shamans still have their guaranteed raid slots? Will shaman and paladin buffs stack? You can bet that WoW-related forums across the web are filled with theories, but we'll probably have to wait for the release of The Burning Crusade expansion pack to get all our answers.

Yesterday Blizzard began its Paid Character Transfer service. For $25 you can move one of your World of Warcraft characters from its current realm to a new one.

The bonfires have special properties that can rid your character of ailments, and if you find special burning blossoms and toss them into one of these flames, you'll get a special treat. When the festival ends there will be a huge fireworks show courtesy of the goblins. For full details of the WoW Midsummer Fire Festival, just head over to the official World of Warcraft website.