Stephen Totilo over at MTV News continues to file very interesting stories, and the latest is one on the introduction of weather effects to Blizzard's World Of Warcraft.

As the article explains: "A rotating team of developers at Blizzard Entertainment actually worked on creating a weather system for five years. Only last week, however, did the game's developers find a way to patch it into the game in a way the meets their expectations — and that they hope will meet fans' as well."

Designer Jeff Kaplan explains that the weather is thus far cosmetic, but he "...has seen gamer requests for rain that isn't just cosmetic but has the effect of rusting armor and muddling travel. Those are even the types of features promised in the upcoming MMO "Dark and Light," whose Web site says winds will slow winged characters and accumulating snow will stymie dwarves." Dude, my dwarf is buried!