MMO-Champion reported it over the weekend, and now it's official: all current World of Warcraft players will be required to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with a Battle.net account on Nov. 11 in order to log in to the game. This is becoming mandatory because the new Battle.net will ultimately let players "participate in cross-realm chat in World of Warcraft, create real-life friends lists, communicate across different games, and a whole lot more."

Players who merge their accounts, as well as those who already completed the process, will receive a new penguin in-game pet. Bornakk says you can "check for him in your in-game mailbox later this week." To merge your account, all you need to do is visit the Battle.net Web site. You can also check out the FAQ here. Bornakk's full post can be found after the jump.

How do you feel about the mandatory mergers? Personally, I found it to be a quick and painless process. What about you? There's already a discussion going on in our forums, so feel free to add to the thread.

A few months ago, we unveiled the Battle.net account, our new way for players to log in to World of Warcraft and future Blizzard games, sign up for upcoming beta tests, shop the online Blizzard Store, and more with just one username and password. This was just the first step in the rollout of the brand-new Battle.net; in the future, players will be able to use Battle.net to participate in cross-realm chat in World of Warcraft, create real-life friends lists, communicate across different games, and a whole lot more.

In preparation for the launch of these new features, on November 11, 2009, all current World of Warcraft players will be required to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with a Battle.net account in order to log in to the game. As our way to say “thanks” for taking a moment to go through the process, existing World of Warcraft accounts that upgrade to Battle.net (including those that have already switched over) will receive a brand-new penguin in-game pet -- check for him in your in-game mailbox later this week. Starting on November 11, all World of Warcraft players will need to log in to the game using a Battle.net username and password, and anyone who wishes to create a new World of Warcraft account will need to start with a Battle.net account.

Creating a Battle.net account is simple and free. To merge your existing account with a Battle.net account, visit http://us.battle.net . For more info, check out the Battle.net site or read the FAQ: http://us.battle.net/faq/index.html