This week saw the world's largest annual LAN party get underway as Sweden played host to DreamHack Summer 2013 and a series of live cash-prize competitive game tournaments. League of Legends had the biggest showing, with a dedicated 1,200-person stage for its $30,000 DreamHack Championship tournament. Heroes of Newerth presented the $30,000 HoNTour grand finals with livestreaming and commentary from the Honcast crew. Dota 2 launched its own huge $46,600 tournament for the event, but fans have been up in arms about the tiny seating area reserved for their game.

Blizzard revealed more details on its upcoming console release of Diablo III, from skill and runes to transferring your co-op characters between consoles. Path of Exile tackled the issue of RMT head-on by locking currency items to new players' accounts until one of their characters hits level 25 and revealed that thousands of players are being banned each week for botting and RMT spam. Indie MOBA Skara also dropped a gameplay trailer this week and was at E3 to show the game off, but things aren't looking good for its kickstarter campaign.

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Are you looking for a new character to play in Dark Vale's Forge PvP title? Look no further than Tinker, who is the game's next piece of free DLC.

Tinker is available in the live game starting today, and Dark Vale has posted some teaser info -- including three gameplay videos -- on Forge's official forums. You can also get a load of Tinker's cata pad, armored booth, barricade, buzz saw, turret, and more via the clips that we've embedded just past the break.

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With Issue #7 A Dream to Kill inching closer and closer, my anticipation for the new auxiliary weapon coming to The Secret World is reaching near impossible heights. I'll admit it: As a pyro at heart, I am giddy with the thought of wrapping my hands around a permanent flamethrower! And I'm certainly not alone in that sentiment, either.

But an excitement for the new weapon doesn't diminish any of the current ones that are already in game; each auxiliary weapon -- the rocket launcher, the chainsaw, the quantum brace, and the whip -- is awesome in its own right with distinct skills and style. Is one right for you? Heck yeah! If you aren't taking advantage of an auxiliary weapon, you are depriving yourself of some extra oomph in your fights, not to mention an eighth active and passive skill on your hot bar.

How do you know which one is better for you? Honestly, you needn't choose just one; as with regular weapons, you can earn all four. But with a hefty price of 35 SP per weapon, payable all at once, it's impossible to get more than one at a time. So which do you choose first? And then how do you go about getting it? This guide will give a general overview of the four current auxiliary weapons and the paths to acquiring them.

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If your primary complaint about MOBAs is that they move too quickly, Arena of Heroes might be something that lands a bit more in your comfort zone. Developed by Sneaky Games, Arena of Heroes is a turn-based, tactical MOBA that focuses more on strategy than on twitch-clicking hard skills.

Essentially, you and another player square off in an arena (duh), each controlling a team of four heroes in a battle for supremacy. It's your basic MOBA fare, but with a smaller battle zone and a slower, more deliberate pace. You and your opponent receive two minutes each to make your moves, or you can try the game's asynchronous mode and play several games simultaneously, with up to two days being allotted for turns.

Arena of Heroes has officially shifted into open beta, so you're free to check it out at your leisure. You can also read our hands-on with the game for a more detailed look at its inner workings.

The free-to-play game will launch on PC, Mac, iOS, and, at some point, Ouya and Android.

[Thanks to Venova for the tip]

Last week's E3 reveal of Ubisoft's The Division MMO shooter was met with some oohs, some ahhs, and some WTFs as PC gamers realized that the software giant was ignoring their platform of choice to focus on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

What's a disgruntled gamer to do? Sign a petition, of course, and as of press time, over 50,000 disgruntled gamers have expressed their desire to see the Tom Clancy-style title find a home on the PC. According to Dark Side of Gaming and PC Gamer, Division developers encouraged potential players to "sign petitions, get on forums, and post their requests."

Undead Labs' latest game for Xbox Live, State of Decay, is a resounding success. The game moved over 250,000 copies in its first 48 hours of release, landing it the title of "Fastest Selling Xbox Live Game that isn't Minecraft." However, one successful game does not guarantee another, and Undead is still at the mercy of Microsoft when it comes to getting its next game off the ground.

The studio is set to begin work on Class4, an MMO follow-up to State of Decay, but cannot proceed until Microsoft gives it the go-ahead. According to Undead's Sanya Weathers, none of this can happen until the two parties reach a "mutually agreeable contract." She also noted that the two companies must agree on the goals of the project and on where the technology will be by the time Class4 finishes its multi-year development cycle.

According to Weathers, the discussion between Microsoft and Undead is "in progress."

There are many things you could say about people who play MOBAs. Most of those things would be negative. Games in the MOBA bracket, most notably League of Legends and Dota 2, have a reputation for being unkind to new players, both in terms of the mechanical skill required to play and the vitriolic communities that tear apart new players for not being instantly granted that skill upon downloading the game.

Conduct in MOBAs is so awful that it has become a design issue. Riot Games created a Tribunal system that allows players to report the bad behavior of others, and Valve has done much the same thing. Every new developer showing off an in-development MOBA is at some point asked the question, "How are you going to deal with all the jerks?" Built-in mechanisms for handling abusive teammates and opponents are now considered mandatory features.

There is no question that some MOBA players are bad apples. But something has always bothered me about the pigeonholing of these gamers into this negative space. Surely not all MOBA players are elitist snobs waiting to smack down any new player stupid enough to join a public match. Surely not all of these passionate gamers are horrible humans waiting in the dark to pounce on unsuspecting noobs with a barrage of verbal abuse; there have to be some friendly diamonds in the manure-piled rough.

I swung by the first-ever Chicago Dota 2 Open, billed as the biggest open Dota 2 tournament in the Midwest, to find out.

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Last week the unstoppable Jasmine Hruschak was one member of Massively's crack team who braved the traffic of Los Angeles to take in the sights, sounds, hawking, yelling, and craziness that was the Electronic Entertainment Expo. While she was there, she interviewed Star Trek Online's Executive Producer, Daniel Stahl, and put forth a few questions from the Massively team.

Stahl was able to drop a few hints about the future of Star Trek Online in his responses, so join me past the jump as I deliver the highlights from their conversation!

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I like WildStar a lot. You knew from an early time that I liked the game's aesthetic and sense of humor, and as time went on it became clear that I also liked the mechanics and the approaches it has toward an endgame. When I finally got my first hands-on playtime with the game, I liked that, too. What I'm getting at here is that WildStar is currently fighting with Final Fantasy XIV for the title of my absolute favorite MMO, and they both coexist in a space of I want to play you both all the time.

But some people aren't in that boat. Some people aren't that wild about the game, even some people whom I work alongside. And that is totally fine.

Last week's events made me decide to do one of my periodic column-topic-switches to discuss the fact that there is going to be bad press about WildStar out there, sometimes even bad press that complains about things that you don't think are relevant. And the best thing you can do is be cool.

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Although sharing sound, music, and video from the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn beta is still prohibited, testers' thoughts and screenshots from phase three are now allowed. Taking advantage of that partial NDA lift, one creative beta participant has put together a montage of stills in video form to show off the upcoming reboot of the game. Wondering if you can glean what's going on from the screenshots alone? Don't worry -- he also added commentary to explain each shot.

The nearly 33-minute montage includes character creation (all races have two genders to select from), the public quests (Fates), menus and the UI, combat, and a look at the updated graphics. Get a glimpse of the game for yourself in the video after the break.

[Thanks to Chris for the tip!]

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Ready for Wurm Online's summer update? It happens tomorrow, June 18th, and it's all about enhancing client performance in the long-running browser-based sandbox. Also on tap are new housing extensions, fence types, mystical sorcery powers, and overhauls of the foraging and botanising system.

The UI and the graphics are getting an overhaul, too, thanks to new creature models, animations, inventory grouping and more. So, yeah, it's a pretty substantial patch. You can read more about it at Wurm's official blog and be sure to check out our recent revisit of the classic sandbox game.

With all the talk about bashing stuff lately, I can't help but envision a certain prehistoric child going around whacking everything with a club, "Bam! Bam! Bam!" Of course, who can blame the little tyke? There are definitely times in game that we've all wanted to swing a cudgel or two, be it a nerf design or a just-quitcher-whining bat.

Destructive tendencies can even be harbored in the gentle hearts of your favorite Stream Team hosts. A number of you can surely attest to that. Need proof? Just watch Massively TV and see for yourself. Warning: You may start to feel sympathy for those poor mobs...

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So the big E3 MMO news centered on consoles this year, with existing titles like DC Universe Online and PlanetSide 2 as well as upcoming projects like The Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV's reboot unveiling their plans for extensive console ports.

For today's Daily Grind, we're interested to know what you think about the increased consolization of the MMO market. Do you think it's a good thing, or do you think it will ultimately water down what have traditionally been complex PC games? Are you planning to play any of the aforementioned titles on a console? How do you feel about the current console MMO trend?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post.

Color us surprised: What we expected to be another hum-drum E3 for the MMO industry was actually packed with genuine reveals and even new title announcements. Massively's away team returned home loaded down with interviews and hands-on with big-budget MMOs like WildStar, huge console-port news for several games including The Elder Scrolls Online, and a peek at upcoming IP-driven titles like Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade.

Join us after the break for a roundup of all our E3 coverage as well as a few other top MMO stories from the past week.

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Tech 1 ships in EVE Online used to be arranged in tiers that determined the cost and power of the ship and what level of the appropriate skill was required to fly it. This gave a sense of progression back in 2004 when all we had was frigates, cruisers, and battleships, but developers have since filled in the gaps between ship classes with destroyers, battlecruisers, strategic cruisers, and tech 2 ships of all shapes and sizes. In a recent game design initiative, CCP has been removing the tiers from within each tech 1 ship class by buffing the lower-tier ships up to the same rough power level as the largest ship in its class.

The recent Odyssey expansion saw the humble battleship buffed beyond all recognition. The Megathron, Raven, Tempest, and Apocalypse all became extreme damage-dealing powerhouses, but the Dominix, Scorpion, Typhoon, and Armageddon were buffed the most. Each of them can now fit several monster setups, dealing upward of 1,000 damage per second or completely disabling enemy ships with energy neutralisers and electronic warfare. The build costs of these tier one battleships were more than doubled in the expansion, but prices are only slowly rising due to the existing stock on the market. That makes the tier one battleships incredibly cost-effective PvP powerhouses at the moment, and players are beginning to take advantage of it.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I experiment with PvP setups for the newly revamped Typhoon, Armageddon, Scorpion, and Dominix battleships.

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So E3 happened this past week. If you're a Massively regular, you're no doubt aware of that since we spammed up our front page and your RSS feed with gobs of hands-on coverage including everything from racing games to The Elder Scrolls Online.

One thing we didn't cover was Star Citizen, because thankfully, Cloud Imperium's upcoming space sim sandbox didn't bother with an official E3 presence.

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I remember playing Ragnarok Online, the first one, quite a while ago and semi-enjoying it. I liked the isometric views and even enjoyed some of the gameplay, but it was a bit of a mess much of the time. I walked away more confused than entertained. At the same time, I met reader after reader after reader who seemed to have grown up on the game. This "grind generation" was made of steely reserve and tougher stuff than I was because the game was notoriously grindy. How did they play it?

Even now as I was looking for a few different views on Ragnarok Online 2, I came across a video that was hosted by a player who acknowledged the "boring grind" that left players with literally "nothing to do but level alts," yet he played the game to the max level, several times. If only we could get these guys to put that much energy into world peace, I might be having dinner in the middle of a former warzone right now!

I found number two to be a bit like its older version but surprisingly modern and more fun than I thought. But only a bit more fun.

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Here's a tip from your friendly One Shots coordinator: If you send in a screenshot from a game that hardly ever gets featured in this column, there's a better-than-average chance that I'm going to bump it right up to the top of the pack. Case in point: this groovy shot from Lineage II.

Reader Johnny said he played this game back in 2007: "Behind me we can see the endgame, the Baium Raid Boss. Baium resides on the 13th floor of a the Tower of Insolence, a massive, non-instanced hunting ground with 13 fully accessible and monster-packed floors. The weapon I am holding is a Flaming Dragon Skull, an A-grade blunt weapon."

Be prepared for A-grade awesome screenshots and B-grade commentary as you forge on in this week's repository of player-submitted pictures!

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While I'm totally rocking the minivan these days (no, I was never cool), I actually love my car. It's not just an object that transports me from point A to B; it's a mobile base of operation. It has hookups for my gadgets, diaper bags, DVD players, and so on. It's home away from home, as it should be.

What about our mounts in MMOs? Most of them do nothing other than give us a nice increase in speed, with a select few granting us a pilot's license and clearing us for flight. But do they have functions other than just transporting us? Once in a while I read about a mount that allows you to pick up passengers, or one that offers a vending service, or even one that fights alongside of you.

What do you think? Should mounts do something other than just transport, and if so, what?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

I have a pretty standard M.O. when it comes to my MMOs: Regardless of how various tutorials want to direct me, I wander off and explore the new world I find myself in. I love to poke around, look into corners, and see all there is to see. The same goes for any time a patch or expansion opens up new places to meander through. That's really just how I roll/run/fly/shamble/hop. So it should come as no surprise that I am excitedly awaiting the new lands of Katalam and Danaria when Aion: Dark Betrayal launches on the 26th.

I know that I am not alone in my anticipation, so for all those who are also looking forward to taking off into Aion's new realms, I've got something special for you. No, I can't let you into the game early (but if they ever open the door early for me, I'll prop it for you!), but I do have the next best thing to a first-hand experience: a visual tour.

I've gotten a hold of -- legitimately, I swear -- a video and a number of screenshots showing off all three (yes, I said three) new zones, and I want to share them with you. On top of that, I also have some highlights of the story behind these new areas that Daevas will soon be soaring into. Join me to take a tour and learn the lore of Katalam, Danaria, and Idian Depths.

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