And the comic contest winner for September, 2007, is... Darthus!Congratulations! Keep those comics coming, and you might be next! Stopby each week to see a new comic from the contest. Also, check out allof the September comics.

There are two new screenshots to the Wrath of the Lich King Screenshot released.

To celebrate the launch of the World of Warcraft Voice Chat feature, we will be giving away 40 Logitech® Digital Precision PC Gaming headsets for each of the next five weeks. Each week's winners will be randomly selected from among players who have been World of Warcraft subscribers for a minimum length of time, as shown below.

• Week One: Three months
• Week Two: Six months
• Week Three: Nine months
• Week Four: Twelve months
• Week Five: Fifteen months

Please visit our Official Rules page for more information. To check out more great Logitech gaming gear, visit the Logitech website at http://www.logitech.com/gaming.

In J.R.R. Tolkien's TheLord of the Rings, one of the most awe-inspiring momentsin the saga was the Fellowship's flight through Moria, only to betrapped at the least moment by a flame-wreathed creature made of shadowand sporting equally menacing weapons of a sword and a whip. It wasthis creature, the Balrog, that forced Gandalf the Grey to give up hislife to save the remaining members of the Fellowship. When he returnedto the world of the living, he was Gandalf the White. The Balrogencounter in the bowels of Moria truly was a huge turning point in The Lord of the Rings saga,as it also inevitably broke up the Fellowship and caused Aragorn totake up the mantle of leadership after Gandalf fell. If anyone didn'tbelieve it was a pivotal encounter, they'd be kidding themselves.

For a bit of short background info on the Balrog, these powerfulcreatures were originally Maiar, angel-like beings thatbelonged to the same order as Gandalf and Sauraman, but through thetemptations of a Valar (similar to archangels), the Maiar werecorrupted and became the Balrogs. However, many LOTRO lore afficionadoshave contended that having an encounter with a Balrog - aside from theBalrog in Moria - is an affron

The Independent Game Conference is delighted to announce thatRichard Garriott, the creator of Ultima Online and Richard Garriott’sTabula Rasa®, has agreed to make a Keynote presentation at the event.

Garriott blazed a trail in the computer gaming industry byco-founding Origin Systems with brother Robert and producing one of themost successful, longest-running game series of all time, Ultima. In1992, Origin was acquired by Electronic Arts. Richard stayed withOrigin until April of 2000, when he started a new company calledDestination Games™. Destination Games became a part of NCsoft®Corporation in 2001. Richard is launching his first title for NCsoft,Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa, October 19, 2007.

“We’re thrilled to have Richard speaking at IGC this year.” saidMark Chuberka, Director for ICG Austin, “As one of the preeminentindependent thinkers in the game industry, he has been able to push theenvelope in game development and create successful companies as well ashighly evolved games. His experience heading up independent studios aswell as his success in developing his own world-renowned brands willlet the conference participants gain insight into how independentdevelopers can be suc

As the nights grow long and leaves shift from green to gold, whilesquirrels scurry to prepare their winter stores and autumn curls chillyfingers around the mornings, our thoughts turn, once again, to thatmost beloved of holiday seasons—Halloween!

With that in mind, you are hereby invited to put your imagination and creative talents to work crafting Halloween art with a Guild Wars theme. This is our third annual opportunity to celebrate the season with the entire Guild Warscommunity. Past contests have provided many wonderful chills, thrills,and a few chuckles, too. (You can see the winners from 2005 here, and from 2006 here.) Dream up your own way to bring a Halloween twist to Guild Wars, and enter the contest before October 15, 2007!

How to Enter:

Chu Chi

• Create a concept and bring it to life:
   
  • Carve a pumpkin—real or not—and take a photograph.
     
  • Create a blueprint for other pumpkin carvers.
     
  • Sketcha costume by hand or on the computer. If you're extra creative, stitchup that costume, add some makeup or temporary tattoos, and model it ina photograph.
     
  • Design a desktop image to share the joy in your home, school, or office.
     
  • Decorate a cake, bake some cookies, compose a menu, build an edibl
    
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Type: Brewfest
Date: 2-16 October
Location: Main Event: Orgrimmar and Ironforge.Beer gardens will also be set up outside of Silvermoon City, Darnassus,Undercity, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, the Exodar, and Shattrath.

Enjoying the Brew

Complimentary mugs filled with fresh, foamy beer sit atop tablesoutside of all the major cities. If you drink one down while standingnear one of the brewers' stands outside of Ironforge or Orgrimmar, oneof their assistants will toss you a new mug. You can also fill up yourempties at any of the kegs sitting near the brewers' stands. AtBrewfest, you'll never have to worry about how you'll quench yourthrist!

Things To Do

Brewfest is about more than just sampling fine ales from all overAzeroth and Outland. Read on to find out what mighty deeds you can dowhile quenching your thirst:

Ram Racing
Adventurers can show their ram-riding skills by speaking with NeillRamstein or Ram Master Ray. Before they'll trust you with theirprecious rams, though, you'll need to prove you can control one! Onceyou've proven your expertise at handling the rams, you can earn someBrewfest Prize Tickets by picking up some kegs of brew from Kharanos orRazor Hill and bringing them back to the

Today, RightNow Technologies congratulated Electronic Artsfor winning the North American 2007 CRM Excellence Award. This honorrecognizes companies that managed to "deliver a dramatically improvedcustomer experience, while powering growth in revenue and customerbase." For the past two years, EA has dealt with a 60% increase inincident volume and a 20% budget cut while still delivering highquality support.

"We are extremely proud of RightNow clients, EA, Shaklee Corporationand TomTom for earning such significant recognition from Gartner," saidGreg Gianforte, CEO and founder of RightNow Technologies. "Our solepurpose at RightNow is to help our clients better serve theircustomers. Having three RightNow clients receive such prestigiousrecognition in a single year demonstrates that our products are trulyhelping organizations improve the customer experience."

"RightNow's technology and people have contributed greatly to EA'songoing success, especially as our business continues to grow andchange," said Boyd Beasley, EA's senior director of customer support."EA has been working with RightNow for seven years, and RightNow hasalways been an extremely supportive and responsive partner we dependo

HELLGATE: LONDON: To quote the Boomtown Rats, “Idon’t like Mondays. I want to shoot them all down.” And with thatlovely thought in mind, I’ll point you towards G-Spy, who are hosting aseries of exclusive guided tour videos (with text descriptions from Flagship staff) of HELLGATE: LONDON’s subway battlefields. It’s worth a look-see.

On a personal note, I have been through Covent Garden tube stationon many occasions over the years and I’m looking forward to seeing howfaithfully it has been recreated - and decimated. Go minions of Hell!

“On this first trip around the block, we’ll be stoppingby a variety of places that you’ll visit as you play through the firstof five Acts. First and foremost is Covent Garden Station. Now, thisand every other station in the game act as a hub for just abouteverything you’ll do in the game outside of actually battling Demons.Shopping for items, partying up with your friends, receiving quests,upgrading weapons - it all happens at the stations. Covent GardenStation is the first real one you’ll come upon, and will get youfamiliar with all of the game’s basics, as well as introduce you tosome key story characters.”

MYTHOS/HELLGATE: LONDON: A couple of quick Flagship Studios stories in the news today. Firstly, the MYTHOS team are reportingthat due to a company-wide focus on getting HELLGATE: LONDON ready forits Halloween debut, the latest MYTHOS update has been delayed. Theteam promise a nice, fat “Zone 2″ patch will be arriving soon.

Secondly, a fire might have broken out(they’re not too sure) in the building where HELLGATE: LONDON is beingfeverishly created. I for one, find it slightly amusing that an actualfire flared up where they are busy creating artificial fires of hell.No one was injured.

“The fire alarm went off. The power went out. We allevacuated the building and waited in what felt like 100mph SF winds.What happened? Actually, we don’t really know what caused the alarm togo off, nor on which floor the fire was on (or if there even was afire). We can tell you that it wasn’t at Flagship or Ping0, and thatwe’re all safe and back at our desks. Sorry if you ran into any sitebugs last night - we were in the middle of adding some features rightwhen the power went out.”