Getting into the Game

I was quite pleased when I learned the actual Shattering of Azeroth was going to take place a week or two (probably two) before the actual release of Cataclysm.  I would have been mildly annoyed if I had to waste an hour or so to go explore the changes before heading into the new areas to level.  Yay for that.  So, as it stands right now, when the Shattering does occur, I have two things to do:

1. Get the new faction city tabards.  My 25-tabard achievement will then be complete.

2.  Explore the world, get the new explorer achievement.

And maybe...

3.  Start doing the new old world quests?  I've no idea about this one, because I've no idea how the new Loremaster achievement is going to work, or whether my current Loremaster achievement will be linked to it in some way.  Honestly, I really hope I don't have to do every quest in Azeroth all over again.

Apparently Blizzard is going to release information regarding this some time today, so hopefully I'll find out.

Anyway, that's what's going to be keeping me occupied until December 7th.  (In addition to getting my last 5 AV wins.)

Next I'm going to provide some advice when it comes to gaming forums.  Any time you want to find more information about a game, chances are you're going to end up in some kind of forum, whether it be the official forum hosted by the company, a fan site, or just a generic forum for gamers.  Forums are a double-edged sword.  Typically, when it comes to forums, I think of this line:  "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."  Unfortunately, it's also a place where you can find just about any information that you need about a game, if you know how to find it.

Golden rule for using forums:  Assume that every single post you read is false.  Never, ever, ever think that one post by one person is the answer to your question.  Read the entire thread(s).  The most frequently repeated answer is then probably the correct one.  Forums are filled to the brim with people who want to give you bad information or crave attention, and sometimes it can be difficult to decide if someone is one of these people, or if they are actually trying to be helpful.

My only other advice to you is to not get discouraged.  Unfortunately, when you give human beings the tool of anonymity, they will use it for nefarious purposes.  They will post false information, flame you, call you a bad player, tell you that something is easy and that they can do it with one hand behind their back while jerking off and drinking red bull while fucking your mother, all because they crave attention, get a high off of the false sense of superiority, or because they are bored.

So, you need to take an entire thread as one piece of information, and use your common sense to process its contents to derive the correct information you're trying to find.  It can be challenging, but sometimes you'll have no other means of acquiring what it is you need.