I've been sitting on this story since the end of November, still deciding whether to write about it. I was waiting for another confirmation before posting anything. But, it looks like some new information has hit the news outlets confirming what mmogamesite.com has been writing about.

Here are some links to bring you up to date:

Blizzard Product Slate Leaked
China Management Reshuffle
China GM Fired for Leak
Blizzard Release Schedule Leak?
Blizzard Angry, a Lot of Other Information Leaked
Competitors Trying To Buy Confidential Information

The information was leaked from a 178.com forum user, which mmogamesite.com, a very new website, picked up.

One item that concerned me was that new MMO was called "Project Titan". However, "Project Titan" is the exact same name as Ensemble Studio/Bungie's secret "Halo" MMOFPS project that was cancelled. It would be easy to get that information confused with Blizzard's MMO from all of the random internet sources out there. The "Codename Titan" has been around for a while too (I've even used it too), and there have been obscure forum posts calling Blizzard's new MMO "Titan" as well for several months now. The Portuguese translation ("WOW BRAZIL") has also been known internally for some time for example.

Keep in mind that "Project Titan" is just a code name too and it wouldn't be the actual name of the new MMO (which hasn't been decided yet).

For example,
Diablo 3 was called "Project Hydra".
Starcraft 2 was called "Project Alpha" then changed to "Project Medusa".
Cataclysm was called "Project South Seas" then changed to "Worldbreaker". (Another reason for the name change was because they significantly reduced the scope of the game so that they could reserve parts/zones/content for later expansions.)

(Note: For the past few years, Blizzard has been using names from Greek mythology to label their secret projects. Hydra, Medusa, Titan, and Phoenix are all from Greek mythology so if you wanted to create a new fake roadmap - just pick a name from mythology that can be interpreted a hundred different ways to keep people guessing.)

Here were the more interested tidbits of information I pulled out from these leaks and related news stories:

- It appears that we're getting a Warcraft movie (didn't need a leaked doc to tell us that), there's a Starcraft 2 Phoenix project that looks related to the Map Marketplace (probably map and game designs using the SC2 engine), and there's going to be an online multiplayer Warcraft trading card game. Sounds like a lot of fun! =]

- It also appears that the information might have been given to a Blizzard competitor already (sold?), and that someone there was the one who leaked it that Chinese forum. If this production release schedule is proved true, this is very bad for Blizzard's security.

- Other competitors are showing interest in purchasing this information (due to the sales information, full income/revenue breakdowns, advertising budgets, media plans, and subscriber details.)

- Global subscriber information (yes - you) is all out there in the open market now. It wouldn't contain credit card details though, this was a breach from a different database so to speak.

- Although it was believed that NetEase fully operated WoW in China with impunity (and Blizzard only provided Technical Support), apparently Blizzard has a deep penetration and large say in the complete operation and maintenance of WoW China. This means that Blizzard HQ is "okay" with the massive account selling/gold buying/selling in one country, but not okay with it in others. Talk about double standards. This is very interesting to know.

I've been talking about this for a little while now. For years, Blizzard has been stating that there have never been any breaches, there never will be any breaches, all echoed by Blizzard CS and Forum reps and fanboys. Well, it just happened like what I've been writing about all along.. simply put, it's all about the internal personnel breaches and leaks of information. "External hacking" attempts are much more rare and significantly more difficult by comparison.

But these internal breaches by employees are more frequent, this one just happened to make it public before Blizzard could seal the leak.

This is a pretty massive breach too - all global subscriber database information in fact. Paul Sams (remember him?) in fact had to take a trip to Shanghai to fix things there, and what was interesting is that they had a very quick (external) replacement after the "unexpected resignation" of their GM. Strange how they had someone so readily available..

Meanwhile, Blizzard maintains that this Release Schedule is just rumor and speculation, and that the resignations, management shuffle, and executive management travelling overseas are all just coincidence. =]

Oh! By the way.. here's what Blizzard has officially stated on the matter of security breaches:

There are substantial and multi-layered safeguards in place, after all. An inside job is IMPOSSIBLE!

The list just goes on and on..

Here are some other interesting reads from Forum Reps and Blizzard fanboys on the matter. Many players actually believe (falsely) that Blizzard is required by federal and/or state law to notify of data breaches, so logically there have been no breaches at all.

And finally.. here are some examples of security breaches that did actually occur before said official statements. These are just the ones that made it public too, there are tons of cases and even blogs/websites have received take-down notices from Blizzard.

Blizzard GMS, CS/Forum reps, and Community MVPs are all trained to say "There have been no security breaches." Don't believe everything you read though, that's just what they're trained to say - whether it's fact or not. But that's the beauty of plausible deniability.. plus, they may actually believe what they are conveying is the truth.

If you followed my cross-faction gold-making strategy, chances are that you still have a guild bank full of recipes like I do.

Well, stop posting [Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy] and [Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak] immediately!

Some of your recipes might have become Bind on Pickup, but HOLD ONTO THOSE AS WELL if you have them stored in your (personal) guild bank! The two recipes I just mentioned are no longer available - meaning that prices for these two cooking recipes will sky-rocket once people figure this out.

For the new soulbound recipes [Recipe: Westfall Stew] and [Recipe: Cooked Crab Claw], hopefully you still have those in your Guild Bank. If you do, they're not soulbound and can still be sold! First, just wait to see if they become rare or not. If they're introduced again after Cataclysm, just vendor them. If not, you can sell the recipes (after a long wait period) in Trade Chat. What you do is move a single recipe to a Guild Bank tab, and invite players to the guild who want to buy the recipe from you. You give them access to the single Guild Bank tab only (or only allow 1 withdraw for their rank), and then kick them after. =]

For Frenzy and Tasty Lion - as of right now, no one has been able to find any vendors that offer these recipes. The Tasty Lion/Menace quest has been removed from Southshore, and Laird (the NPC who sold Fillet of Frenzy) was killed during the Shattering.

No word on whether these will be available after Catacylsm, so I would recommend you hold onto these for dear life!

Right now, they don't seem to be available but they might be back in Cataclysm.

If you like taking risks, you should start hunting down these recipes and buying them out on the Auction House before others realize how valuable they've become (spend up to 500G per recipe for example). The other option is to advertise that the recipes have been removed, and try to sell them for 5,000 gold each or more - in case it does make a return in Cataclysm.

Otherwise, if you don't want to take any risks - just wait to see if they're available again from NPCs after Cataclysm, or watch as they become extremely more rare and valuable. (The longer you wait, the more valuable they will become.)

Remember the [Ruby Shades]? They were widely available for 5 copper, Blizzard removed them, and now they sell on the Auction House for over 100,000 gold.

(Note: I'll update if I find any other missing recipes - I heard that there are 6 recipes missing from Tanaris, but I haven't investigated yet.)

* Update:

The other missing Tanaris recipes are sold by Gikkix (first 4) and Jabbey who are both MIA.

Recipe: Grilled Squid
Recipe: Nightfin Soup
Recipe: Poached Sunscale Salmon
Recipe: Spotted Yellowtail
Recipe: Undermine Clam Chowder

According to Blizzard, however, the recipes will be making a return sometime after the Cataclysm release but they weren't sure on an exact date.

If you have these recipes, you should buy them out on the AH and start selling for very high prices (tell everyone that they were taken out of the game.. you know, a half truth.) =]

No word on Tasty Lion and Fillet of Frenzy however.

* Update (12/03/10):

I've received confirmation from a GM that [Recipe: Fillet of Frenzy] and [Recipe: Tasty Lion Steak] will NOT be making a return. The NPCs were killed during the Shattering and therefore the recipes died with them. So, hold onto these recipes - they can only go UP in value. In 6-12 months, they'll be worth 60-75k at least. Maybe they'll even reach the heights of those Ruby Shades one day (eg 150,000-250,000 in a couple years)..

[Recipe: Keldorei Spider Kabob] has also been removed - another extremely valuable recipe if you still have it sitting in your bank space.

If you're looking at creating a new character for the purpose of Mining and Herbalism (especially since you can track all types of nodes now), here's the absolute best class benefiting from both speed and utility:

Tauren Frost Deathknight (with Unholy Presence)

What's also nice about DKs is that you start at 55 and you can practically level yourself to 80 from just gathering. By the time you hit 80, you'll have enough to purchase all flying upgrades including [Master Flying] (4000G with Exalted Rep) to get your 310% mounted flying speed.

Benefits:

+20% Mounted Speed
+15% Foot Speed (Stay in Unholy Presence)
Cultivation allows you to herb very quickly
Path of Frost
100% Underwater Movement (*with [Hook of the Master Angler])

Frost abilities are also awesome for crowd control and survivability:
- Hungering Cold!
- Freeze, silence, or slow down players and NPCs alike.
- Frost Fever disease on enemies causes a 50% reduction in speed for 10 seconds. Howling Blast hits multiple enemies too.
- Immunity to knock-back or pull mechanics (other DKs).
- Fast escape skills (if you just want to keep gathering and avoid combat).
- Summon ghouls to keep NPCs busy while gathering.


* All of the benefits listed above make this class ideal for Fishing (Path of Frost FTW) as well, and the class is perfect for beating the Stranglethorn Fishing competition. Just make sure you do your research before competing!

Other Notes:

Mining and Herbalism used to benefit from Haste Rating, but I'm not sure if this is still the case. Herbalism might, but I couldn't tell with Mining - if you know for sure, please let me know.

With Haste Gear and Lifeblood (Herbalism ability), you could pop it every 3 minutes for super-speed mining if you're in a rush. =]

If you're interested in Herbalism only, I would recommend the Tauren Druid race/class instead. You don't get the extra +20% mount speed, but when you're in Flight Form, you don't have to "dismount" to farm herbs which is very nice (for avoiding combat as well). Skinning also goes well with this build, since you can remain in Flight Form the entire time (easy to skin/herb then escape.)

Unfortunately, if you want mining and herbalism - you have to sacrifice the mount/dismount time. It's worth it though for all of those precious herb and mining nodes out there. =]

On a side note, with Death Gate and your hearth set to Orgrimmar, it gives you very easy access to UC, ORG, Blasted Lands (then Shattrath), and the portals to Cataclysm locales. During downtime, I would also recommend doing the Argent Tournament daily quests to get the [Argent Pony] for remote access to your banks.

[Note: I don't want to make a habit of these types of posts, but I see a lot of people still looking for information on this. I'd prefer to be a more obscure blog containing non-mainstream information (unless it's something I find really interesting), so I won't be doing this too often since this can be found through a little research already on other sites.]

With the recent changes to Dire Maul (Ogre Suit reputation reward + Free Knot gone) you pretty much have to sacrifice your Bloodsail rep (ie, go back to being hated with the pirates) in order to get reputation with the Cartel. Although it would be nice to stay Honored with them, there's really no way to build up Cartel rep without losing it.

There's supposed to be something introduced in Cataclysm where you can keep your Bloodsail rep but also increase Cartel rep without damaging it. So, if you're patient - wait until after Dec 7th and avoid Cartel cities for now. Level 85 Bruisers hit hard. =]

I would recommend waiting if you can.

If you don't want to wait, keep in mind that you only need to obtain the Bloodsail Honored reputation ONCE. Meaning once you're hit Honored, you can decrease the reputation without losing the achievement.

You can track your [Insane in the Membrane] achievement by typing:
/script AddTrackedAchievement(2336)

To remove tracking, type:
/script RemoveTrackedAchievement(2336)

Basically, even if you're hated with the pirates again, you still get to keep your Bloodsail Admiral title and the Insane in the Membrane achievement prerequisite.

So here are the current methods to grind Cartel rep after obtaining Bloodsail Admiral:

- You can still kill pirates around Ratchet, Gadgetzan, and Booty Bay. They reward 5 per kill for the closest cartel member, and 2-3 points for the other cartel members. Named NPCs can give 25 rep per kill. Spawn rates are very fast.

- Venture Co. Evacuees in Grizzly Hills grant +5 to Booty Bay and +2-3 for the other Cartel members. What's nice about Northrend mobs is that they drop Frostweave cloth, you can use them to level (you or your pet), and they drop other Northrend items.

- Killing all of the pirates (except for STV pirates) will not hurt your Bloodsail reputation, so you could farm these guys to build up Cartel Rep and still keep your Bloodsail.

- There are new groups of Gadgetzan pirate mobs (Lost Rigger Cove) that spawn fast, it's a nice place to grind Magecloth cloth (for turn-ins) without losing Bloodsail rep too.

- Note: Other than Dire Maul, all of the Feralas + Burning Steppes Quests (e.g. Zapped Giants, Fuel of the Zapping, Egg Freezing, and Egg Collection) have all been removed as of 4.0.3 as well.

- By far, the fastest method to regain rep are the Cartel Rep Cloth Turn-in repeatables. These cause -500 to Bloodsail by the way. Cloth prices have dropped significantly on the AH due to all of the new toons, so this is a very cheap and fast method now.

[Mending Old Wounds]
Requirements: 40 Linen Cloth + 4 Empty Vials
Location: On the road out of Ratchet towards Crossroads
+500 Ratchet, +250 For Other Cartel Members

[Traitor to the Bloodsail]
Requirements: 40 Silk Cloth + 4 Red Dye
Location: On the small hill of east of the road outside of Booty Bay
+500 Booty Bay, +250 For Other Cartel Members

[War at Sea]
Requirements: 40 Mageweave Cloth + 4 Strong Flux
Location: Just outside of Gadgetzan, near the road coming from old Shimmering Flats
+500 Gadgetzan, +250 For Other Cartel Members

[Making Amends]
Requirements: 40 Runecloth + 4 Coal
Location: Near the fork in the road towards Winterspring, he's easy to spot
+500 Everlook, +250 For Other Cartel Members

Note: You can only interact with these NPCs if you are lower than Neutral. Once you hit Neutral with the Cartel member, you can't turn in cloth to that NPC anymore. (Once you hit Neutral with Everlook for example, start turning in cloth with Gagetzan instead for example.)

Other ways to improve reputation gain:

During Christmas, [A Smokywood Pastures' Thank You!], [Treats for the Greatfather Winter], and [Metzen the Reindeer] give you +500 Steamwheedle Cartel each.

Although it's too late now, the Thanksgiving [Spirit of Sharing] and Halloween [Invocation of the Wickerman] grant 10% reputation gain for 2 hours.

If I learn more (ie, new quests before Cataclysm), I'll update this blog post.