No, Christian, you do NOT have to do it that way. At the very least, remove the link.

You haven't addressed the competition aspect that I mentioned in my first comment.

You also don't realize that this is a fairly prominent WoW-related website, that your parent company is making money off this blog, and so are your advertisers. Your attitude is irresponsible. You call yourself a journalist. Good journalists have some ethics...

As a WoW player, I don't mind seeing leaked info. However, I am not naive enough to ignore the consequences it can have to leak that info. You should consider things from a broader point of view.

The above was meant to be a reply to C. Belt's coments below. Dunno how it ended up here.

WTF? You've never peaked at your Christmas gifts when your parents were asleep?

Everyday in WoW is like Christmas, and WotLK is a brand new gift with a big ass red bow on it.

Screw.

Yes, xtole... becaue peeking at Christmas's gifts clearly affects millions of people, right... Good job ignoring consequences.

What s Blizz going to do? Threaten to sue them? We have a right to know this stuff and they didn't even invite WoWInsider to the Alpha! So I say: let Blizz /cry.

Yes I'm sure some leaked info about the next expansion is going to help the "competition"...got news for you buddy, it really has nothing to do with competition

Mognet T, explain to me how you have a "RIGHT" to know this ? Blizzard is a private company, they do what they want with their product and they can tell you and hide whatever they want from you.

JPN, it has EVERYTHING to do with the competition. Other MMORPGs will exploit any weakness from WoW that they can find to gain customers. Having Blizzard's plans leaked months in advance gives them a lot of turnaround time to compensate for Blizzard's ideas.

Again, this is hurting the game you love to play. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Why none of you can understand that is beyond belief. It's not about your little self and wanting to know what's coming. There's far more than your precious personal knowledge at stake here. Too bad wowinsider doesn't see that either.

"We have a right to know this stuff"

What planet do you live on Mognet? What magic pixie gave us this right? Me, I'm gonna ask it for cash.

Warhammer Online is going to destroy WoW now because they know what the 51 point Arcane Talent is. What a disaster.

Yo, Shadoweric, stfu.

ShadowEric;
Blizzard isn't a private company, it's publically owned through its parent company Vivendi International or whatever. You can buy Vivendi stock on the world's major exchanges and own a (really tiny) piece of Blizzard yourself.

If you instead had meant that Wrath alpha information is some kind of trade secrets you'd had somewhat more of a point, but fact is, Blizzard's released the alpha into a wider circulation than to just its own internal development teams. That argument isn't going to hold very much water.

And if alpha information leaks - SO WHAT. It's essentially free PR for blizzard. It's not as if another MMO maker can just grab these ideas and run with them, how would they fit into the world of that MMO? Do other MMOs even HAVE a skill and talent system comparable to WoW's?

You also seem to misunderestimate the amount of work needed to actually implement them into a game. It's not something you do in the course of a coffee break exactly.

hahahah age of conan will pwn u

I'm not quite sure if the writer lives in the US, but since Blizzard is HQ'd in the US, they abide by the constitution, and although he's leaking info that could potentially hurt Blizzard entertainment or it's parents or subsidiaries, he may be protected under the 1st amendment to the U.S. constitution. Although I do not condone in any way his actions, basically betraying Blizzard's trust by linking to other sites, I believe in the fact that he just may have the freedom to do that.