When World of Warcraft's seventh expansion pack went live this week, Blizzard's dramatic pre-launch events had whipped me into an anti-Horde frenzy. Three days later, I just want to hang with these snake critters. War's over, everybody go home.

It’s a big day today for World of Warcraft, the massive multiplayer online game from Blizzard Entertainment. The game’s seventh expansion officially kicked off at 8AM AEST for Australian players, ensuring many a geek will be rushing home after work to devour as much content as they can get before bedtime - or else just taking the day off.

There’s only so much punishment a gnome Warlock can take, and I can’t take no more. World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth expansion is live, and the Horde is going to pay for their grievous trespasses. Once I finish finding a little girl some seashells, hunt for some treasure, and some other stuff. But after that—WAR.

There's a lot of war flying around this week: Azeroth gets set alight with the newest World of Warcraft expansion, Phantom Doctrine brings a touch of XCOM to the Cold War, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes hits the Switch, and the Bard's Tale franchise gets its newest title in seemingly forever.

Last week a fire rocked World of Warcraft. It was an epic act of petulance, strategically foolish. It seemed bizarrely out of character for a beloved anti-hero, and damaged the honour of half the game's player population.

In the heat of the moment, it's been hard for many players and fans to accept. The game has thrived on nuanced reasoning that keeps the Horde and Alliance opposed while both feel justified in their animosity. But this was pure aggression and murder. How do you maintain your faction pride in the face of an evil act?

It's not quite on the same level as the Fallout 4 Hype Tram, because Sydney's light rail isn't as good. But hey, at least they're looking a little better.

I started playing World of Warcraft in about 2006, and it’s a testament to the allure of its world — the fantastical war-laden realm of Azeroth — that I’m still playing it 12 years later. In that time, the world of Warcraft has changed so much. And now, ahead if its latest expansion, one big change to that world is tearing me up inside.

I've been asking for this ever since StarCraft. Blizzard's cinematics team are the bset in the business, and Christ it would be good if they just made a feature length movie.

World of Warcraft’s new “communities” feature just launched. These communities are a lot like guilds, except they’re unconstrained by servers, which should be an easy win. Unfortunately, players have found some easily exploited blind spots in the new feature, as well as some drawbacks for marginalized players.

For the next month, The Annandale Hotel and The Raby Tavern in Sydney will be doing something slightly special: they'll be selling World of Warcraft burgers, ahead of the launch of Battle for Azeroth. Spoiler: they're massive, tasty, and available from today.

Keen to see what Battle For Azeroth has in store, but don't fancy your chances of winning the Blizzard lottery? Then never fear: we've got 500 beta keys to give away as well.

Briefly: World of Warcraft's next expansion, Battle for Azeroth, will be out on August 14. If you're interested in WoW but don't even know where to start, check out our guide for playing the addictive MMORPG in 2018.