Blizzard has outdone themselves once more with the features they are making available to their community. This last week has seen the World of Warcraft Atlas, a Guild Relations system and a whole new section devoted to PvP launch. I'm constantly reminded of how much polish these guys put into their game and it's definately noticeable. There is a very fine attention to detail that just smooths all the rough edges you find in other games.

More information on each of these over the break.

First up is the flash World of Warcraft Atlas. To veterans this is nothing new, most of us have some form of map addon installed and when pressing [M] are faced with a plethora of notes, icons and other information we rarely refer to. This atlas allows you to browse through continents for flight points, PvP objectives, trainers and all the little bits of information that new players need. My one complaint is that I've not yet found how to drill down into an outpost. Finding somebody who is not on a guard's hotlist is an exercise in frustration many times, particularly when you are looking at a city like Shat'trath. It would have been nice if you could have searched for a specific person and seen where they were on the map.

Next up is Guild Relationships. If your guild is mature, helpful and kind to other players across the game and the forums and it is noticeable by Blizzard you will get an invitation to this unique new program. It provides the following benefits to a Guild:

• A dedicated page linked to on the WorldofWarcraft.com community website listing the name of the guilds in the program, details about each guild, and links to their websites.
• Eligibility to participate in upcoming beta tests.
• Invitations to live online chat sessions with Blizzard game designers.
• Q&A updates to be posted in the Guild Relations forum based on feedback received directly from members of the program.
• Additional features and benefits to come.

The benefits seem a bit light at the moment, but you can see the direction this is going in. Guild are becoming, if they are not already, a brand name that is recognizable and attracts a certain amount of fame (or infamy if you like). This builds a closer relationship between Blizzard and those guilds and provides a good amount of epeen stroking where it's necessary. I can see some beloved guild leaders will already be salivating over this ... oh, the drama!

The last update is a new section on PvP. To you long in the tooth PvPers who are out there on your crutches and wheelchairs every AB weekend this is nothing new. To the newbies though there are many tips that, while they appear fairly frigging obvious, might not have crossed their minds. I have not read through everything there, but it seems again as if they have put something out there for the new players. Now let's hope the newbies RTFM.

So there you go, some Blizzard updates too. See, it's not all about Lord of the Rings now ;)