WOW expansion playable at Blizzcon, Battle.net baits and switches

[UPDATE] If you visited Battle.net yesterday, you were in for a surprise. The site sported a splash page that bore the numbers "10 7 2005," which presumably ment October 7, 2005. Behind the numbers was a rotating close-up of the left eye of several creatures from World of Warcraft, including an orc, an undead, and a night elf. Given the aura of grandeur the splash page presented, the prevailing opinion was that the still-untitled-but-confirmed expansion to World of Warcraft would be announced today.

However, two other creatures featured on the page raised the possibility that said opinion could be wrong. One looked like a gnome from World of Warcraft, though it could also be a Terran from Starcraft. Another resembled both a Starcraft Hydralisk and one of the dragons currently menacing WOW denizens.

[UPDATE] As it turned out, neither was the case. Like Origen360.com, which staged an elaborate viral marketing campaign to announce a Europe-only sweepstakes, battle.net's teaser was for an underwhelming event--namely, a Battle.net redesign.

That said, PC Gamers will have something certain too look forward to--the World of Warcraft expansion being playable at Blizzcon, Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming expo. On its Web site this week, Blizzard confirmed that attendees of its annual event, which will be held October 28-29 at the Anaheim Convention Center, will be able to get their mitts on the first expansion to the wildly popular massively multiplayer role-playing game.