MMO Week in Review: Expect retribution

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.

How awesome is Retribution, EVE Online's latest free expansion? "Freaking awesome," says Massively's EVE columnist Brendan Drain. "A great foundation for the second decade of EVE," declares producer John Lander. Gushing aside, Retribution is a massive balancing update that implements a revamped bounty and criminal flagging system along with tweaks to both modules and the notoriously overcomplicated UI. Massively celebrated launch day with a roundup of our best Retribution content and a peek at the official trailer, and we capped it off by putting a substantial bounty on a few of our commenters. Just kidding.

The rest of our top MMO stories are tucked behind the break.

	Time names Guild Wars 2 the top video game of 2012
	Opinion: Ascended gear in Guild Wars 2
	Guild Wars 2's data and design in detail

	SWTOR plans to tweak endgame PvP balance
	SWTOR Game Update 1.6: Ancient Hypergate goes live December 11th
	Opinion: SWTOR Update 1.6 PvP progression
	SWTOR's Jeff Hickman encourages player feedback on F2P changes

	Massively takes a peek at RIFT's Update 2.1
	Exclusive: RIFT's 2.1 Eternal Eclipse raid and video revealed
	Jukebox Heroes: RIFT's soundtrack

	PlanetSide 2 state of the game talks infantry render fixes, six-month roadmap
	Opinion: Banning aimbotters in the age of F2P
	PlanetSide 2 players score a double XP weekend
	Smedley slams aimbotters, teases new PlanetSide 2 weapons

	League of Legends pro player banned for jerkiness
	Korea Times quotes Mercedes Lackey calling City of Heroes closure 'unethical'
	The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's alpha footage so far
	Ragnarok Online 2 schedules closed beta events
	Neverwinter boasts character customization equal to Cryptic's other titles
	The top 10 absolutely ridiculous cash shop selections
	Trion Worlds is taking over End of Nations development
	Why we play DC Universe Online
	Relics of Annorath sandbox features rock slides, realistic weather
	Addressing bad League of Legends behavior is 'a major focus' for Riot
	New Final Fantasy XIV questing and combat video released
	Moving forward after City of Heroes
	Petroglyph lays off End of Nations developers
	Turbine proposes and then nixes $50 LotRO hobby horse
	The War Z is officially in beta, world map increased by 50%
	Aion's new class looks like a battlemech
	The Secret World ARG heralds the end of days

And from our sister site, WoW Insider...

	Death knight Mionee solos WoW's Madness of Deathwing
	The balance between new and old World of Warcraft content
	Ditching the death penalty in WoW
	WoW Insider readers crowdsource their best Pandaria tips and advice
	Blizzard takes a stand against pre-made battleground groups
	Cinder kitten now on sale in Blizzard store