Ever wonder where all that gold comes from? The answer is China, or at least if you’re talking about World of Warcraft.

This BBC news story gives an interesting glimpse into the gold farming scene for World of Warcraft, even though it’s really nothing new. One part I found surprising was the fact that Blizzard canceled over 100,000 accounts because of this, though one might assume it was the accounts of the gold farmer.

So the question remains: Are you against gold farming, or did you buy that Mount with U.S. Dollars?

Blizzard developers are set to test the World of Warcraft battleground matchmaking system on the Public Test Realm. Since nothing gets testers involved like the chance to put the hurt on the development team, they offer themselves as bait. On May 4 at 2:00 PST the devs will be waiting in WSG for all challengers. Beware, they have been known to bend the rules.

If you’re hopelessly addicted to World of Warcraft, this may be a bittersweet post for you. According to their jobs page, Blizzard is looking for a few good folks to work on the creation of a “next-gen” MMO. Currently, they’re searching for an engine programmer, a tools programmer, and a technical artist. Now, I have no clue what a “next-gen” MMO is. It could be the oft-rumored World of Starcraft. It could be WoW 2. It could even be nothing more than a console port of WoW. Whatever it is, I’ll make you a bet: It’ll sell like pizza at a Weight Watchers convention.

Seems Blizz may be getting a little looses with the old Ban Hammer. There are always a few players complaining they were wrongly accused following one of Blizz’s sweeping account closures. Difference now is that a lot more of those players speak English. Perhaps it would be easier to spot true power levelers if it was harder to level in the first place? To those of you who feel wrongly displaced fear not. I hear Vanguard has room for new faces. There is also a rumor they are giving free hugs to new players! Hey SOE, where’s my check!?!

Being the overachievers that they are, the folks at Blizz let loose a ton of news today. First off, the news that their expansion to World of Warcraft sold 2.4 million copies in the first 24 hours. This makes TBC the fasting selling PC title in US and European history. Apparently the WC3 team was also on the ball and released the v1.21a patch earlier today. Add that to their shady snippets about Starcraft, and thoughts on a new MMO and you’ve got some busy beavers.