The New York Times logs back in to World of Warcraft originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

EA acquires J2M, a South Korean free-to-play MMO studio originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

World of Warcraft Molten Core raid for ATARI becomes reality originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: Have you played a Flash MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: Tank, DPS, Healer, or other? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SOE is going all in with Free Realms, what with beta signups already underway and rumors of spinoff PSP projects, so well-known-card-maker Topps has made a deal with SOE to distribute a trading card game that will exist both virtually within the game and in physical packs you can buy at the store.

The card game will launch in the Spring with 200 or so cards, and each booster pack (priced at $3.99) will feature a loot card that will allow consumers to unlock unique in-game items. Keep in mind that the game itself was designed by SOE's Denver studio -- Topps is just printing and distributing the physical card packs. Anyway, check out our gallery of artwork from the TCG -- fine stuff!

Gallery: Free Realms TCG

Free Realms gets a TCG too, courtesy of Topps originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Felicia Day talks WoW addiction, characters, oldschool PC gaming

Felicia Day talks WoW addiction, characters, oldschool PC gaming originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

WoW Enchanting mats are selling high, opportunists -- to the auction house! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Let's say that, like most folks, you only have one monitor. Let's also assume that you either prefer to enjoy games in all their full-screen glory, or your one monitor doesn't run at a resolution high enough to make multitasking while running a game in a window practical -- also probably true of most folks. But you're playing World of Warcraft and you want to check Thottbot, or your e-mail. Well, very-specific-user, GotGame has a solution for you: Rogue, a browser that runs as a transparent overlay while you're playing games.

Rogue's visibility can be toggled on and off by pressing the F12 key, and it has customizable transparency settings. It doesn't work with all games, but World of Warcraft and Age of Conan are the two MMOs that have been tested by the folks at GotGame and confirmed to be Rogue-friendly. No word on, say, Warhammer Online or The Lord of the Rings Online (EVE Online already has a built-in browser, so no need there), but feel free to try and let us know how it goes.

Note that for the moment, Rogue only runs in Windows. Mac users are out of luck, though to be honest, we're a bit surprised that neither Vista nor Leopard supports this kind of thing natively. Maybe next time, eh?

MMOs get an in-game web browser: GotGame's Rogue originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Having looked at Pailaka and New Kamaloka, we're as pleased about Lineage II's Gracia Part 2 update as anyone, but we have to admit we're now a little... creeped out. NCsoft has described another adventure area appearing in the update -- Kratei's Cube -- and as awesome as it sounds, those demented killer anime doll monsters are just plain freaky. It's high fantasy, not Chucky, alright?

Kidding aside, we've got the scoop on what you can find in Kratei's Cube. Once you sign up through an NPC on Fantasy Isle, you'll be whisked away to a big maze that resets every 30 minutes. During each cycle, players kill monsters -- and each other -- in a competition to rack up the most points. Once things settle down, folks receive experience, SP, and Fantasy Isle coins based on their performance.

The cool thing is that if you die in the maze, you'll pop back in with full health and mana, so there should be very little downtime. If you're in a party, carrying a cursed weapon, or of chaotic orientation, don't bother signing up though -- you won't be allowed in. Poor you!

Lineage II's Kratei's Cube has ruthless PvP, extremely creepy mobs originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Turbine: Horsemanship to become "important" when LotRO reaches Rohan originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Guild strikes a deal with Microsoft, becomes a timed Xbox Live exclusive originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The announcement that Tabula Rasa will close in February came suddenly, what with NCsoft employees saying there were "no current plans" to close the game only a couple of months ago. We're sad to see the game go, though we're not surprised in the wake of Richard Garriott's departure.

Are you a current or former Tabula Rasa player, and if so, what's your take on all this? Did you see it coming? Is it a tragic early death, or an appropriate end to an era? And where do you plan to go next? NCsoft is offering a fair deal to refugees -- months of free playtime in City of Heroes, Lineage II, or the forthcoming Aion. Does that tempt you, or are you going to take your business elsewhere -- to Turbine, Blizzard, SOE, CCP, or Funcom, perhaps?

The Daily Grind: Penny for your Tabula Rasa thoughts? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bet you'd just about forgotten about Star Trek Online by this point, hadn't you? There was a big explosion of information when Cryptic announced its iteration of the game in August, but since then, we've seen less and less information as time's gone by. But lo! There has been an update at the officlal site! Turns out the executive producer, Craig Zinkievich, did an interview with Skewed and Reviewed.

It makes for a decent overview if you're new to Star Trek Online, but there isn't much in the way of new gameplay information except for some specific revelations about visitable locales and playable races. First of all, he confirmed that Deep Space Nine -- the setting of the TV series of the same name -- will be in the game. He also rattled off a few of the playable races (but not all, and remember you can create your own): "Human, Vulcan, Andorian, Klingon, Orion and several others." Trekkers / trekkies should be glad to hear that there will be no shortage of scantily clad green people or blue antennae.

Star Trek Online producer confirms familiar races and locales originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

WoW movie still needs a writer, Blizzard's CGI team won't be involved originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading World of Warcraft's birth and development chronicled by video retrospective

World of Warcraft's birth and development chronicled by video retrospective originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With Halloween now behind us, the Thanksgiving events are starting up. Vanguard appears to be the, well, vanguard here, as its Harvest Day event began yesterday. Quest NPCs with four new quests have arrived in Khal -- the Halgrim family are recent immigrants who want to host a Harvest Festival, but Salrash the Birdmaster is determined to stop them because he finds the Halgrim's plan to have a feast on bird meat abhorrent.

There are, in typical Vanguard fashion, raid four raid mobs that you can hunt down to celebrate: the aforementioned Salrash the Birdmaster, Turfin, Duksworth, and Ciran. Sounds like fun -- don't stuff yourself with phat loot and costumes too much!

Vanguard's Harvest Festival brings new quests, encourages bird-eating originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: How much content should an expansion have? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jeffrey Steefel: LotRO will be the second western MMO to succeed in Asia originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Darkfall beta is actually happening, tester feedback proves it originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Spellborn's American launch pushed back, closed beta starts the 27th originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Australia-based Eminence Symphony Orchestra (who performed pieces for the soundtrack of the console fighting game Soul Calibur IV) have recorded a vast musical tome called Echoes of War that encompasses virtually every game Blizzard has made -- including World of Warcraft. The international (Australia, United States, Japan) project is made partly out of the proverbial love of the game, but the folks behind it also want to get a young generation interested in classical music by playing "the music they want to hear."

Australian orchestra records tribute to WoW, Blizzard in general originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

And the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 is... originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Blizzard is one of the most prestigious and succesful developers in the world for good reason -- it takes the best ideas from all over the industry (even ones that don't quite work right... yet) and refines them, forcing them to succeed in ways they never did before.

Millions of people are playing World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King today, so we decided this would be the perfect time to dive into WoW's mechanics and see what other games inspired Blizzard when it was creating this monumental phenomenon. We'll look at seven critical predecessors to which Blizzard paid homage with its own design decisions. Join us and learn a bit more about why WoW is the enthralling experience it is today.

Click to start >>

Gallery: The Anatomy of WoW: Seven games that inspired Blizzard

The Anatomy of WoW: Seven games that inspired Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Alright, boys and girls, you've had a day to play around with your Death Knights. Sure, it's a bit early to make any definitive judgments, but what are your first impressions? We've been hearing glowing (wink) reviews of the Death Knight starting experience from our colleagues, and we'd tell you what we think, but eh, we're too busy playing right now.

For those of you who actually have to, y'know, work this morning -- that is to say, for whom work doesn't include include playing World of Warcraft (you poor souls) -- go ahead and sneak in your impressions when your boss isn't looking. Unless you took a few personal days for the launch, in which case you're surely lost to the ice wastes for now, and we'll see you in a few days when you return for pizza and other supplies.

The Daily Grind: How you likin' that Death Knight? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It looks like Age of Conan is headed for South Korea thanks to a distribution deal between Funcom and well-known Korean publisher Neowiz. You thought you were safe from King Conan's wrath just 'cause you live 7,700 kilometers from Funcom? We could've told you that was a false assumption -- this particular blogger is almost 6,500km away and he's still knee-deep in the barbarism!

We won't predict that it'll be more well-received there than StarCraft, but Korea is a bastion of online gaming, and Neowiz plans to offer full localization and support, as well as all the same content updates the US and EU players get, to the Korean audience. The release date "has not yet been finalized," though -- not even a hint was provided in the press release, so, uhh, we guess we'll just wait and see.

---

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Age of Conan expands its bloody conquest to Korea originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: Do expansions cheapen all that hard work? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gallery: Meet the Team

Continue reading Meet the Team: Samuel Axon

Meet the Team: Samuel Axon originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With The Lord of the Rings Online's Mines of Moria expansion slated to hit store shelves on November 18th, Turbine is taking extra measures to entice old players to come back with another Welcome Back Weekend. This has been done a couple of times before, so you might know the drill, but in case you don't here goes!

From tomorrow through November 17th, all former subscribers in good standing can play for free, no commitment required. During that period, everyone -- former subscribers and current -- will receive 25% extra experience from monsters, which will stack with rested XP. These are pretty simple incentives, but if they're enough to bring you in, you can download either the standard or high-resolution client and get started tomorrow.

EDIT: We read wrong! While the XP gains push through the 17th, the free play period only lasts through the 10th. Thanks, Bissrok.

The Lord of the Rings Online's Welcome Back Weekend event starts tomorrow originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

4,000 copies of Age of Conan stolen in biggest, most pointless MMO heist ever originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You may have noticed that the lightsabers in Star Wars: The Old Republic are disproportionately large. A vocal minority of fans are crying bloody murder about this, and BioWare is not unaware of that fact. At a company Halloween party, it would appear that they made a self-deprecating joke of it, with at least one employee showing up with an outrageously huge lightsaber, then staging a recreation of the screenshot that raised all those eyebrows.

The image was leaked to gaming blog Kotaku, and here it is. BioWare seems to believe it's good to have a sense of humor about yourself, and we agree!

BioWare employees satirize SWTOR's ginormous lightsabers originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

	Our five all-time greatest hits this is the last episode! We're wrapping it up by presenting what are arguably your favorites -- our five most viewed featured articles ever! Three of these are top five articles, so we're three-fifths of the way to making a top five top fives list, it would seem. The numbers don't lie, though, so enjoy, and tune in Sunday for the first giveaways!
	Our ten most important interviews We're starting with our ten most important interviews. We tried to find a good balance between interviews that have insights that are still relevant today, interviews that were important for the history of our site, and interviews that were just plain awesome. We saved the coolest ones for last, so be sure and stick with us to the end!
	Our top 5 weirdest news stories This time around, we're looking back at the top five strangest, weirdest and sometimes-raciest news stories we've covered since we launched last November.

Continue reading The Best of the Best of Massively

The Best of the Best of Massively originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Since the WoW movie probably won't happen anyway, here's why it shouldn't originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

SWTOR's lead writer describes BioWare's ambitious storytelling initiative originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Our first birthday is this weekend and we're very excited -- so excited that we're giving away tons of stuff with reckless abandon. As you know, we've been leading up to it for the past month by listing our best work in the Best of Massively series. Well, folks, this is the last episode! We're wrapping it up by presenting what are arguably your favorites -- our five most viewed featured articles ever! Three of these are top five articles, so we're three-fifths of the way to making a top five top fives list, it would seem. The numbers don't lie, though, so enjoy, and tune in Sunday for the first giveaways!

Click to start >>

Gallery: The Best of Massively: Our five all-time greatest hits

The Best of Massively: Our five all-time greatest hits originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

WotLK launch events announced -- meet other fans, get your copy signed, etc originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

EA financial report: WAR did great, layoffs happening anyway originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: Do you buy Collector's Editions? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MindFuse Games, which a couple of weeks ago announced it had raised $1 million in funding for a Victorian-themed MMO, sent out a press release yesterday officially announcing and providing details about the game, which is called The World of Gatheryn. Gatheryn is not merely Victorian, as we originally reported -- there are steampunk elements too.

The focus seems casual, although the graphics are quite strapping for an independent game. MindFuse promises character customization, apartments, and puzzles, while specifically singling out violent conflict as a no-go. It seems to be a mostly laid back, friendly, social affair, but aimed at grown ups rather than pre-teens, in contrast to a lot of other casual titles.

When we say the game has been pseudo-dated, it's a bit of a stretch: the press release says it'll be released in 2009. When in 2009? Your guess is as good as ours, but we'll bet it's not soon.

MindFuse's The World of Gatheryn detailed, kinda dated originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Daily Grind: Will The Old Republic beat World of Warcraft? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.