As covered live by the ZAM.com reporting team, BlizzCon 2009 ended with a roaring thunder of a performance by Ozzy Osbourne and BlizzCon-regulars Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain. After two days of new and exciting announcements, fun contests and fan-driven celebrations, around 25,000 people left Anaheim, California as the convention came to a close.

The news and announcements that came out of BlizzCon 2009 will be dissected, analyzed and refined by the media and fan community for months to come. Even though BlizzCon 2009 provided a finite amount of information, nearly every piece of it will be examined with a fine-tooth comb, leading to almost infinite speculation and pondering. New questions spawn from the answers we received, and this is just the beginning.

World of Warcraft is headed to a new era; the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, will forever change the world’s most popular MMO. Blizzard’s new-and-improved Battle.net system is poised to change the way we play upcoming games like StarCraft II and Diablo III; possibly impacting the market as substantially as services like XBox Live. If you weren't able to find out what happened at BlizzCon until now, don’t worry; you'll be reading about it for months to come. In the meantime, here’s a succinct recap of the most important news and announcements that came out of BlizzCon 2009.

Blizzard's game library might not be the first collection that you think of when it comes to video games that need to be censored for content, but it turns out that the international censorship applied to World of Warcraft will be extended to Diablo III. A Wired.com interview with Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson shed some light on the subject, ironically titled "Why Designer of Gory Diablo III Lets His Daughter Play." Wilson says Blizzard will have to change the more violent aspects of the game, including all the blood, if the company hopes to release the long-awaited RPG in German and Australian game markets.

When it comes to China, the game might not even get a chance, according to an answer Wilson gave to Wired.com in the interview:

We could have a lot of trouble with China, yes, but it would be our goal to go there. We haven’t decided what regions we’re going into, obviously. It certainly would be our goal to go there, but we will struggle to go to China.

He says the Diablo III team received a "lengthy list" of requirements that would have to be met for the game to be released in China; but if it turns out that the development team would have to "redo so much of the game that it’s not viable anymore," they won't even bother, according to the interview.

For those of you just waking up, getting off work or getting online for the first time since BlizzCon 2009 began on Friday afternoon; I promised you a quick-and-easy round-up of the most important news and announcements from "day one" of the convention. The biggest news of the day for most fans was the confirmation of the World of Warcraft's upcoming third expansion, Cataclysm. It turns out the rumors and "leaked" info we've been reading about was spot-on, for the most part. The Old World of Azeroth will indeed be permanently changed forever; the landscape of many low-level zones like the Barrens and Darkshore will be completely altered by the event, as will the rest of Azeroth's zones, to some extent.

Our next two playable races will be the Goblins and Worgen, aligned with the Horde and Alliance, respectively. The level cap will be raised to 85, and professions will increase by another 75 points. Archaeology will be a new secondary profession that everyone can use, and Azeroth will be retro-fitted to allow flying mounts the ability to traverse the skies. You can read about all this and more at Blizzard's newly-launched, official Cataclysm website.

Blizzard also announced Diablo III's next playable class, the Monk. Attendees saw a video of the Monk in action, and had the chance to play the game shortly after the announcement. The StarCraft, Warcraft III and WoW Arena tournaments raged on as the developer discussion panels began...the Class, Item and Profession panel proved extremely interesting; Zam's own Togikagi attended and reported a recap of the panel. Finally, returning MC Jay Mohr closed out the night and hosted the costume, dance, and sound-alike contests. Check out a few pics of the winners and other contestants at Blizzard's own TwitPic photo stream.

Check out the official recap of BlizzCon 2009 "Day One" after the jump, with all the links you need to find out more.

Sometimes it's tough being blue. Blizzard, that is; or technically, Activision-Blizzard. It can be easy to forget that the developer/publisher that launched World of Warcraft a few years ago isn't quite the same company it is today. Except, that is, during times like these.

Because of a recent remark made by Activision-Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick about raising the price of video games (and, perhaps, the recent news that StarCraft II's release is being pushed back until 2010), some gamers and MMO fans are on the verge of an all-out, nerd-rage meltdown.

Since 2005, tens of thousands of gamer fans have flocked to southern California each year (with the exception of 2006) to take part in BlizzCon; Blizzard's celebration of its complete IP lineup. The first convention took place on October 28, 2005 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA, and it's remained there ever since. About 8000 people were in attendance; a fairly substantial turn-out when you consider that no one knew exactly what to expect.

By the end of the weekend though, fans were thrilled with what they had finally found: a convention for gamers, by gamers. Technically, BlizzCon is similar to a trade expo in some functions, but Blizzard knew from the get-go that it wanted to offer its fans something other than the stuffy, industry-only direction in which tradeshows were headed. One weekend out of the year, Blizzard wanted to throw a massive party disguised as an expo, where its fans could gather and celebrate the entire array of the Blizzard franchise—including the Warcraft RTS series, StarCraft, Diablo…and of course, World of Warcraft.

For those of you lucky enough to score tickets to this year's convention (Aug. 21 and 22), ZAM has you covered, in this preview guide to BlizzCon 2009. You'll find a round-up of this year's highlights, along with some sage advice gleaned from attendees of years past. And if you weren't able to purchase tickets this year (along with seemingly everyone else who tried), don't worry! We'll give you all the info you need to consider the live "virtual pay-per-view" service being offered this year—which also entitles you to receive the same "Grunty the Murloc Marine" in-game vanity pet in this year's swag bags.

The following editorial contains views that are the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of Allakhazam.com

If anyone’s been keeping an eye on Blizzard’s changes within World of Warcraft, they would have noted that there has been a consistent push towards getting casual players more gear. In particular, arena rating has become easier to achieve, and therefore arena gear has been easier to acquire. Now, the moment cool gear becomes easier to get, you don’t need to be bulimic to predict the myriad of responses that would come. Bad Zoolander references aside, should Blizzard have done this?

World of Warcraft PVP has often been considered one of the few places where rewards do not correlate directly with the amount of time one has to spare (except in the era of the Grand Marshall and High Warlord). Rather, when an individual is seen sporting full Season 5 Deadly Gladiator gear, the general populace assumes that this is a player who really knows how to play the game. The general disagreement with easier arena ratings can be summed up in one colloquial phrase: “baddies getting free gear.” Straw man arguments aside, the quarrel stems from the belief that skill and dedication are pre-requisites when it comes to rewarding individuals.

Those of you hoping to deck your character out in the latest and greatest gear in World of Warcraft only have a small amount of time to prepare: Blizzard has been teasing and tantalizing us about it and it is enough to drive a sane massively multiplayer gamer totally bonkers. Although they will not be available until 3.1 goes live on the servers, they are still something to look at and they are still nothing but impressive. Check out the YouTube video and prepare, young challengers, for soon, you will have them. Happy practice-raiding in the meantime!

Three nominations for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, for Best Musical Score, Best Game of the Year and Best Massively Multiplayer game from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, a non-profit organization consisting of gaming industry professionals.

These peer-based awards recognize the outstanding products, talented individuals and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.

In the massively multiplayer category, Warcraft is also up against EVE Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Warhammer and Passively Multiplayer Online Game, but it is the only massively multiplayer game to be in the “Game of the Year” category. The competition is fierce, and no matter what, the greatest game will always win.

The following editorial contains views that are the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of Allakhazam.com

I have a hypothetical scenario for you. Let's say you just got off work and decide to meet up with your friends who are currently eating at a restaurant. Of course, everyone else seems to have the same idea as you weave through rush hour traffic worse than the “Office Space” opening scene. You finally get to the establishment and walk toward the entrance, noticing a line has formed. Actually, scratch that. It’s more of a mammoth throng of people vanishing into the distance, waiting to get inside. It’s a bloody queue.

You go up to the greeter and ask how long it'll be until it's your turn. “Five minutes,” she says. Then she pauses. “No, wait, make that two hours.” Another pause, “45 minutes maybe?”

You sigh. You probably should have expected this since it this is the most popular restaurant in town (hell, it's so good that most people try to copy it), but it’s ridiculous to think you should arrive early every time you want to eat. You've asked the management in the past if there’s anything that can be done about the wait time, and you keep getting the same response.

“We've been opening up new locations. There's no wait at most of them. In fact, they're pretty empty right now. Why don't you go try one of them out?”

The time of year has come again. No, not tax season: Chinese New Year. And while we go from the Year of the Rat to the Year of the Ox, it also marks the time when World of Warcraft players celebrate the Lunar Festival.

The Lunar Festival consists of festivities that are based off of the Burning Legion being defeated all those centuries ago. Omen, a demigod red-eyed wolf with two heads, spawns around this time of year in Moonglade. Along with the constant-partying comes questing, and there are quite a few of those. Regardless, it is now time to whip out the fireworks and enjoy the shows in Stormwind, Thunder Bluff and Booty Bay when Chinese New Year hits, as they Blizzard makes them correlate as much as possible.

For those of you in the questing sort of mood, check out the festival guide over at our sister site, Wowhead. It can be a difficult series for even the most seasoned of veterans, so the advice for them is welcome and necessary. This year is going to be quite the shindig, to say the least!