Since starting this blog I’ve been following a lot of other good gaming resources, not just Wizard 101 stuff. I don’t have a video to post today and not much to talk about since my big ‘Level 22 announcement’ earlier this week, so I figured I’d talk about some other gaming stuff I happened across this week… Let me know if you like it….

Of course I have to start with the big Wizard 101 news!!: The July update has arrived, and with it the first (now non-mandatory) steps towards the wonders of Celestia!!! Plus Grizzleheim house crafting, a quest line written by some old rock and roll person, and UNICORNS!!! NOOOOOO!!! Anything but that!!!! Ahem… sorry about that.

Age of Conan Briefly Opens Expansion to all Players: Current players can hop straight on over to the land of Khitai while those with inactive accounts will receive ten days of free play in both the expansion and original content.

Blizzard will not Require Real Names: Here’s yet another big announcement in the ‘blizzard-realNames’ saga. I have to admit, I saw this coming… In a move that is sure to generate just as much discussion as the initial decision itself, Mike Morhaime, co-founder and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, has released a statement that says “real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums.”

Blizzard Discusses Making WoW Free: Here’s something of direct interest to F2P Game fans… Speaking to PC Gamer at their studios in Irvine, California, World of Warcraft’s lead designer, Tom Chilton, explained that “at some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.”

Guild Wars 2 Death to be an Experience: And why am I excited about Guild Wars? NO UNICORNS!! Also, Guild Wars 2 players will enter a “downed mode” state, similar to near death states in Borderlands. If players manage to defeat the attacking enemy while downed (using four class-based “downed mode” abilities), they will rally to their feet, free to continue adventuring. Sweet!

Final Fantasy XIV Beta Begins Saturday: Last week, Square Enix revealed Final Fantasy XIV would hit stores in late-September but would not lock down a date for the anticipated PC beta test phase of the game. Earlier today, Square Enix revealed the test is scheduled to begin this weekend.

Multiplayer Combat in Star Wars: It’s Star Wars, and there’s a video – need I say more?? Seriously…

TCOS Shutting Down?: This doesn’t surprise me much, seeing as playing TCoS was the single worst MMO experience of my furry orange life.

WoW Cataclysm Class & Mastery Update: another WoW article. Not sure why they get so much press – this is just a small niche title, isn’t it? Anyway, for people into that sort of thing, there are lots of changes for talents to make talent trees that matter and let you see the impact of your decisions quickly.