It's patch day again in the World of Warcraft, and that means there's a whole bunch of upgrades and updates and brand new challenges, quests and things to do in the most successful MMO ever made. Joystiq's sister site WoW.com has all the patch 3.3 info you'd ever need, from the new Dungeon Finder system to class changes, to all of the various UI tweaks and tips for getting your add-ons ready. Find ten of our most popular posts of the past week after the break, and head over to WoW.com for the latest on the game's newest update.

They said it couldn't be done. Well, to be fair, it can't -- however, if one were to track the completion of Blizzard's super successful World of Warcraft by the number of achievements a player had unlocked, then a Taiwanese player has effectively solved that game tape. A character named "Little Gray" on the Wrathbringer server has completed all 986 of the game's 'cheevos, killing 390,895 creatures and finishing 5,906 quests along the way.

However, this triumph of human resolve has been diminished by one small caveat: one upcoming winter holiday–tied achievement, titled "BB King," remains locked, but due to a glitched PvP achievement that apparently unlocked twice, his statistics say he's batting a thousand. With the game's Winter Veil festivities approaching, we expect Little Gray will unlock that last feat soon, at which point the credits will roll, and his account will be permanently erased. Or the server will explode. Definitely one of those two.

[Via CVG]

Patch 3.3 is just around the corner in the World of Warcraft, and WoW.com is there as usual: we've got lots of information about what's coming in the new patch, including the new Icecrown raid instance, the cross-realm Dungeon Finder system, new loot and gear, lots of class updates and changes, and of course lots of new achievements and quests. Hit the break below to read ten of our most popular posts from the last week -- whether you're a new player or just coming back for the game's fifth anniversary, we've got something for you.

Erik Estavillo has been given a handful of nicknames by the press recently – he listed "Professional/PSN Plaintiff," "The Serial Suer" and a few others when he spoke with Joystiq this morning. He assured us though, time and time again, "That WoW lawsuit, that's my final lawsuit. So people know, I'm not suing any more companies." In case you missed it, Estavillo is currently engaged in four separate lawsuits – one with Microsoft, one with Nintendo, one with Sony (in both Federal and State court), and one with Activision Blizzard. "One lawsuit for each major console maker and one for the PC, so four total," he clarified to us.

Aside from seeking money (anywhere from as low as $180 to $1 million, depending on the case), we asked Estavillo what his intentions were behind launching the multiple lawsuits. "What I wanted to do was exploit the weakness of each console and show that they're not impervious to flaws ... each console has a flaw and they should fix it," he said. During the interview as well as in some of his court filings, Estavillo claimed to be suffering from a variety of psychological maladies, and has repeatedly stated that he uses online gaming as his primary form of communication. "I told this other interviewer and it's true – I actually have no friends. I rely on online gameplay for socialization."

Though he's yet to win a case, his first (by default) could come as soon as December 3 – the end of Sony's 30 days to respond to a summons. If he does, that would mean $180,000 and a "no contest" ruling against Sony. Though he said he'll keep some of the money he may win, he noted that, "Half the money I get is gonna go to God. I'm giving half the money I get to CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network], local churches, charities, or poor people on the street."

We talked to Estavillo about a variety of other topics – from what games he plays to why he's subpoenaing celebrities instead of experts – but due to sheer length we've broken the rest of the interview out after the break.

Update: Erik Estavillo emailed us this evening to say that Sony has responded to his summons, thus closing out the possibility of a default settlement. The first hearing will be in early 2010.

Say what you will about MMO market dominator Blizzard Entertainment, but it truly cares about the well-being of its competitors. In a recent interview with gaming magazine PC Zone, Blizzard's Shane Dabiri offered some helpful advice for his fellow MMO developers: "There are a lot of people that try to emulate World of Warcraft - and as flattering as that is our end it's definitely not the right move."

Dabiri posits that the MMORPG-playing community -- particularly those who've already sunk months into WoW -- want "to try something completely new and different" in their online games. This is terrible, terrible news for Snowstorm Interactive, whose fantasy-themed MMO Planet of ConflictMaking is due out next month. Time for some originality, guys. Ooh, we know! A superhero game! No, wait, a space simulator! Better yet, an interactive forum for sexual deviants! Brilliant!

Mother of pearl! We thought it was safe to assume that Shanghai-based MMO operator The9 would lose a chunk of its revenue after handing the license for World of Warcraft over to competing company NetEase. By "a chunk" we, of course, meant "a fraction." Not "almost all revenue," which according to the company's Q3 2009 financial report, is how much it lost year-over-year after passing off the rights to run WoW.

To put it numerically, The9's revenues dropped 94 percent from the same quarter last year. A hit that big must have left a sizable dent in the ol' pocketbook -- however, we're guessing the company's board members take some small, spiteful satisfaction from the tribulations the game has brought to its new operators.

Happy Pilgrim's Bounty, everybody! That's the brand new Thanksgiving holiday going on right now in the World of Warcraft, where you can level up your cooking for cheap, chase turkeys around in-game, and even earn yourself the title of "Pilgrim." You'll find information about Pilgrim's Bounty and everything else in Warcraft over on Joystiq's sister site, WoW.com. Check out the links after the break for much, much more.

Five years ago today, Blizzard unleashed the World of Warcraft, a scourge that went on to ruin countless lives and make venture capitalists around the globe throw millions at any monkey with an MMO idea. The game has sold beyond 8.6 million units in the US and that's not even accounting for the millions of players happily handing over $15 a month for an Azeroth fix.

The full cultural and financial impact of World of Warcraft can't yet be comprehended, as the phenomenon marches on into the Cataclysm. One day we may be able to grasp the myriad ways WoW has impacted gaming, but that date with epiphany appears to still be a ways off.

World of Warcraft may have around 25 hojillion subscribers (give or take), but it would appear that only a small fraction of our collective gaming time is being spent in massively multiplayer online worlds. A recent survey conducted by GamesIndustry.com (via IndustryGamers) asked 13,000 US and European citizens, aged eight and up, to break down how much time they spent playing various types of games.

The article detailing the survey's results, titled "Today's Gamers MMO Focus Report," claims that US citizens spend more time with MMOs than Europeans by far – 21 percent on this side of the Atlantic and 10 percent across the pond. Furthermore, 8-12-year-old males make up the majority of US players, "[which is] explained by the popularity of virtual worlds aimed at young children, such as Club Penguin and Disney Toontown," according to the report. We might normally wonder how the rest of our time stacks up in other gaming genres, but we're too busy playing Modern Warfare 2 online. See ya later!

We thought the institution of a for-pay pet store in World of Warcraft would incite enough outrage. However, Blizzard has gone one step further, declaring the Pandaren Monk pet "sold out" just one week after the launch of the store. Even though, as a virtual item, any scarcity or supply limitation would be fully artificial. And even though Blizzard pledged to donate half of the proceeds from sale of that item to Make-A-Wish until the end of the year. The Lil' K.T. pet is currently still available.

It's the Make-A-Wish pledge that makes us believe that this is less a nefarious plot to deprive players of their fake pets and more an error in Blizzard's shopping system -- probably triggered as a result of too many people buying the Monk. We fully expect WoW players to be given the opportunity to waste their money on this pet (for a good cause) soon.

Update: The Pandaren Monk is once again available for sale. Blizzard told us that a "minor technical error" caused the Monk to display as out of stock.

[Via WoW.com]

It's been a big week in the World of Warcraft -- aside from both the impending patch 3.3 release and the onset of the game's fifth anniversary (yes, it's been almost five years since Blizzard brought their MMO online), Blizzard has finally done something that many thought they would never directly do: start selling in-game items for real money. There was lots of argument about that one this last week, and you'll find that, along with the usual news and insights, over on Joystiq's sister site WoW.com. Check out our most popular posts of the last week in the second half of this post.

Look, just feign surprise, it makes these financial posts so much more exciting: Activision today reported net revenues of $755 million (on a non-GAAP basis) in the quarter ending September 30, 2009 -- that's $55 million more than the suits hoped to stack, according to previous projections. While the blockbuster adaptation of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen might have played a part in this outpouring of our money, we're gonna go with Kotick's explanation: "Our performance was driven by positive audience response to Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero 5, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, and the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises, as well as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft."

In fact, the CEO called Guitar Hero the year's "#1 best-selling third-party franchise in North America and Europe" through September, claiming that U.S. sales of music games increased 72 percent year over year in September. Last year's big-band-box edition, World Tour, and Call of Duty: World at War combined for total, world domination, becoming this year's "#1 and #2 best-selling third-party titles" in North America and Europe through September, according to Activision. Additionally, World at War DLC map pack sales continued to climb last quarter and have now surpassed 7.5 million purchases.

Needless to say, the publisher is not backing off of its prior financial outlook. Activision anticipates annual net revenues of $4.5 billion (on a non-GAAP basis) at the close of the year. Did you remember to feign surprise?

Blizzard just opened a huge can of worms -- or of pandas, in this case. The company announced the opening of an in-game pet store in World of Warcraft, wherein players can purchase their own Pandaren Monk or Lil' K.T., the Littlest Lich, for ten bucks. Half of the purchase price of the Monk goes to the Make-a-Wish Foundation until the end of the year, but all of the Lil' K.T. proceeds go to Blizzard's spare Ferrari fund.

Blizzard currently offers for-pay services including realm transfers, race and faction changes, and character appearance edits, but this shop offers the first in-game items for sale -- and these items are exclusive to the Pet Store. While we wouldn't be surprised to see a backlash related to this new offering, we expect it to be the kind of backlash that comprises very public complaining combined with furtive purchases.

[Via WoW.com]