PvP

Diablo III delivered 100,000 beta keys to North American fans this week, but it also revealed that the epic death animations from the game's first gameplay reveal were actually faked and won't be in the final game. Upcoming online FPS Blacklight: Retribution has challenged players to play 20 ranked matchmaking games by Thursday to win an exclusive golden helmet, and Massively still has beta keys if you'd like to get involved.

Heroes of Newerth released its potentially overpowered new hero Berzerker this week, placing Artesia into the free hero pool for legacy accounts a week early. League of Legends introduced its updated AI, adding 40 champions to the bot roster for both Summoner's Rift and Dominion co-op games. Dota 2 released a new test version to trial experimental changes without interrupting balance testing, and dungeon crawler Path of Exile showed off two new screenshots of its upcoming 0.9.6 patch. Finally, Bloodline Champions increased all XP gains by 50% this week in patch 2.3 and has launched a hilarious new photo content that's sure to get some questionable entries.

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Fansite Sandboxer.org reports that it has discovered the release date of Mortal Online's upcoming expansion The Awakening in a Star Vault report to investors. We had to do some digging to find the original Swedish document Sandboxer was referring to, but we were able to confirm that the memo does contain the expansion's release month and further as-yet unannounced information.

The Awakening is slated for an April 2012 release, with May and June dedicated to magic and balance updates. The company expects to break even on a monthly basis between July and August of this year and sign a deal with publishers in August. Star Vault's plan is to have the game published in China between July and September and then release an as-yet unannounced expansion in October, with another in April next year.

Today's a big day for fans of Tribes: Ascend, and it's also a big day for Hi-Rez Studios, the Atlanta-based indie firm behind the upcoming online shooter.

You see, today is patch day, and while that's not terribly unusual (Hi-Rez has updated the Tribes beta client early and often since the start of closed testing last November), the latest tweak is a bit of fan service that will likely bring smiles to the faces of franchise die-hards waiting in the wings to see what becomes of their baby.

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Aeria Games has sent word that its Repulse sci-fi shooter has shed its beta tag and is ready for prime time. The company is celebrating release day with four new maps, an east coast server, and a high-ping safeguard feature designed to "provide a better experience for everyone."

Repulse was previously known as Genesis A.D., and though Aeria refers to it as an MMOFPS in today's press release, it's actually more of an online shooter given that it features 16-player mayhem and the usual capture-the-flag and team deathmatch-flavored gameplay. It's free-to-play, and you can see it in action via the trailer after the break.

[Source: Aeria Games press release]

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Admit it: You aren't always out just for the thrill of the experience -- you want the bling-bling to go with it. A shopping spree, with your sword playing the role of "credit card" and each corpse a potential bonanza of fashion acquisitions. That's okay; we're not here to judge you.

In fact, if fancy armor gets your motor running, Guild Wars Insider has a treat for you: two pictures of Guild Wars 2's PvP Scholar armor set modeled by a majestic Norn Elementalist. While the armor may not maximize skin coverage, the detail and design is certainly fetching.

These pictures were taken inside of the PvP lobbies, which are breathtaking environments all to themselves. The picture on the left was taken in the Battle of Khylo lobby.

ArenaNet has been rolling out the news of Guild Wars 2's PvP system ever since Gamescom last year.

[Thanks to Seven for the tip!]

[Update: Guild Wars Insider has posted up additional screenshots of PvP, pets, and even more armor.]

Dota 2 revealed its latest hero, Clinkz the Bone Fletcher, in this week's beta patch, while the Realm of the Titans beta was rudely interrupted by a security breach that saw thousands of passwords stolen. Blacklight: Retribution's fourth beta phase is now underway, and we have beta keys for those of you who haven't managed to get into it yet. Bloodline Champions celebrated the two-year anniversary of its first beta test this week, and developers revealed details of upcoming bloodline Headhunter.

League of Legends spilled the beans on its brand-new psychotic yordle champion Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert, this week with a full gameplay reveal, art spotlight and patch preview. Diablo III seems slightly nearer to release this week with the news that Blizzard has cancelled BlizzCon 2012 in order to focus on getting the game to release as soon as possible. Heroes of Newerth player Fatmilk set a new world record by playing the game for 76 hours straight and raised pver $3,700US for charity as a result. Finally, the Rise of Immortals developers discussed the latest immortal, Ukkonen, and other topics in the first part of a new developer podcast series.

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Maybe you've been a fan of PvP in RIFT from day one. Or perhaps you eschewed it due to the slow rate of rewards and the awkwardness of needing PvP souls to make any real headway. The good news is that the game's upcoming patch 1.7 is taking aim at a variety of PvP issues, starting with a change to the Prestige Rank system. The new system will offer 40 ranks instead of the previous eight; while the time to reach the cap will remain identical, you'll gain new ranks and rewards more frequently, making the overall experience smoother.

PvP souls are being outright abolished, with the abilities rolling into the new Attunement Path of War that works just like other Planar Attunements. There's also the addition of the "mercenary" option for queueing, allowing players to fight with the other faction during PvP matches in order to ensure a balanced and full group. All of this combines with across-the-board item improvements to ensure that following the patch release, taking part in PvP should be quite a bit more fun.

Time flies when you're fragging newbs, and Global Agenda fans have been doing just that for the better part of two years now. Hi-Rez Studios' sci-fi shooter launched on February 1st, 2010, and for this week's anniversary, the firm is offering up some exclusive prizes as well as trotting out a few old flair favorites.

Starting today, any Global Agenda player who wins an instanced PvE or PvP mission before February 6th will receive a mini Switchblade pet to parade around Dome City in between matches. Hi-Rez is also sponsoring a 6-on-6 PvP tourney that features a dragon helmet for all participants and an unnamed exclusive item and cash prize for the winning team.

But wait, there's more! Check out Chloe's Burning Fashion for an extensive back catalog of previously retired flair pieces. There are over 100 items available for purchase using Hi-Rez's cash shop currency, including some headgear from past holiday events.

Finally, check out this Friday's The Firing Line for more info on Global Agenda at the two-year mark.

[Source: Hi-Rez press release]

As Darkfall "sprints" down the road toward its second incarnation, bloodthirsty PvPers are looking to Aventurine for more information about how their favorite game world is being remolded. Tasos Flambouras came forth today with word that not only is the project still powering forward, but the development team is growing as new hires are brought on to assist in the efforts.

Flambouras uses the post as a progress report and To Do list all in one. Perhaps the most exciting teases that he mentions are new methods of progression in the game. "These are significant and exciting changes to the way the game is played because they add more purpose to player freedom," he writes.

Currently the art team is adding and revamping many of the game's objects and animations, while the world builders are hammering away at Mahirim. As part of Darkfall 2.0, introductory dungeons will be integrated into the game to help newbies get a foothold in the cutthroat MMO.

The team is also experimenting with "alternatives" to player respawn time after deaths, as well as a brand-new market system and improved trading experience.

I recently had the opportunity to fire off a few questions to Henrik Nystrom, and the Star Vault CEO was kind enough to provide some interesting insights into the firm's Mortal Online fantasy sandbox.

Though Mortal is thus far renowned for its full-loot PvP ruleset, it's also got a number of nifty features that you may be unaware of, with more on the way. Join me after the cut for a lengthy discussion of the new Awakening expansion as well as a glimpse into Nave's future.

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Fair is a four-letter word. I mean, literally it is; you can count them if you like. It's a figurative four-letter word too, especially when it comes to MMO design and PvP. What's unfair to some is smart tactics to others, and the subjectivity here is responsible for a large part of the rancor that underlies PvP discourse.

Funcom's Craig Morrison recently expounded on the subject via his personal blog, and among the interesting nuggets up for discussion was the notion of a fair fight (and more specifically, whether MMO players actually want one). Some do and some don't, of course, but the more important question seems to be what is a "fair" fight? Can it even be defined, let alone coded?

Morrison writes that "most people simply don't like being fodder for a dominating force. They don't like to be bullied or out-muscled by a force that the game mechanics have allowed to have a clear position of dominance." He's right, but what's left unsaid is that everyone has the same opportunity to take advantage of those game mechanics.

What say you, Massively readers? Do you want a "fair" fight? If so, how do you define the word in this particular context?

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!

People of Midgard, Albion, and Hibernia -- fight for glory! The call to battle is strong and never-ending, and Mythic is looking to your continued diligence and thirst for blood to keep Dark Age of Camelot's PvP raging. For its part, Mythic has delivered the latest tantalizing update to the game today, Patch 1.111.

To keep the battlefield skirmishes hot, the studio has added new RvR missions to the Frontiers. This should hopefully cause a greater amount of conflict as players strive to accomplish their tasks.

Patch 1.111 also includes a host of class tweaks (including a huge buff to Thanes), additional controllable pets for Animists, and new Atlantis quests. These quests start at level 30 and will help players garner more Atlantean Glass for their artifacts, which should help ease the pain of grinding out Master Levels.

The patch is currently live on all servers.