Next week on Massively, tensions run high as Bree races to prevent Justin from assembling the shards necessary to release The Matrix Online from its shutdown. Meanwhile, Eliot, Matt, and Lis continue their investigation into Allods Online by concluding that it is in fact a game. Shawn investigates the fact that every game in the world is now free-to-play and concludes it's the fault of space aliens from another dimension who are also ghosts. Terry O'Quinn guest stars.

We hope you enjoyed this week of Massively, and now it's time for WRUP because no one read the end credits before. Instead of telling you who did what, we've opted to just let you know what we'll be playing over the weekend. You can let us know what you'll be up to in the comments and tune in again next week for the exciting episode that we just explained to you, thereby obviating any need for you to sit down and watch it.

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You've got nothing else to do on a lazy Saturday. You've got plenty of food and beverages, a comfortable seat, and a burning desire to get something accomplished in your game of choice. So you settle down, you log in, and you start running around and getting stuff done.

Exactly how long is it going to be until you get up?

We're not asking about when you get up to grab more chips or run to the bathroom or whatever. Today's question is just about how long you can sit in front of the screen without needing to get up and do something else for a little while. How long can you play a game in one sitting? Does it depend on the game, with group-based games like Final Fantasy XI meriting a longer session compared to solo-friendly titles like World of Warcraft? Or can you tolerate only a certain amount of time before you need a break no matter 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!

Having a settlement you worked hard to build be under constant attack just isn't fun. Pathfinder Online realizes this, which is why settlements are normally defended by large numbers of respawning NPC guards. Not too many to prevent players from scouting a town or stealing a few things, but enough to make a frontal assault fruitless unless you want your corpses to litter the outskirts of town.

If that were always the case, though, attacking a settlement would be pointless. So during a brief window every day, the guard respawn rate decreases, numbers thin, and suddenly the town looks much more vulnerable to attack. A well-developed settlement will still have guards, but a coordinated force will be able to eliminate them... unless players step in to defend the settlement. This also solves the problem of having massive attacks come when no one is awake to know what's happening. Read the full details in the latest development blog on the official site.

You don't need to read the rest of this column, folks. City of Steam goes into open beta in two hours, so there is no reason for you to be sitting here when you could be playing that. Oh, and Marvel Heroes is running one last open beta weekend. And UFO Online is also in open beta. Plus, Arcane Saga launched (or re-launched) its beta. There is too much stuff to play for you to be sitting around reading columns about betas. You've got your project right there.

Still here? You're really dedicated to that beta list, huh? Well, we appreciate that. And you can find it just past the break as always, and you can feel free to let us know if we missed anything down in the comments just as always. But seriously, you don't even need to close your browser for City of Steam. That's accessibility right there.

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A while ago, Project Tank popped up on our radar for two reasons. First of all, it was a browser-based multiplayer tank-based combat simulator. Second, it bore a lot of similarities to the existing multiplayer tank-based combat simulator World of Tanks, enough that Wargaming.net brought out the copyright lawyers. A copyright infringement suit was filed today by Wargaming.net, claiming that Project Tank directly copies many elements of World of Tanks and violates some existing patents.

Gamebox has responded to these claims on the official site for the game, claiming that Wargaming.net has engaged in "underhanded" actions to try to shut down the project. This marks the end of the closed beta for Project Tank, which is promising open beta in approximately a month. You can take a look at the side-by-side comparison from before and draw your own conclusions about whether Project Tank is being unfairly accused or entirely fairly accused.

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When Marvel Heroes announced that Squirrel Girl, Emma Frost, Nova, and Luke Cage would be delayed until after the game had launched, it was bad news, depriving the game of three popular heroes and Nova until later. Now another hero has joined the ranks of the not-in-launch crowd. The Human Torch will be delayed until after release, although players who have pre-purchased launch packs will still have full access to all of the Torch's add-ons when he does go live.

Despite this loss, the game has obviously generated enough heat to make its way on to Steam for its final open beta weekend. Players who already have the game installed don't need to worry, but Steam users can install the game directly from the Steam client. Launch packs purchased prior to the Steam integration should work seamlessly, and you can also purchase launch packs directly from Steam if the final beta weekend inspires you to do so.

Considering how long Allods Online was launched-but-not-officially-launched, we think it's slightly inaccurate to acknowledge gPotato's claim that this is the title's second anniversary. Still, any excuse for a party, right? Starting today, Allods Online is featuring plenty of events, giveaways, and store sales to mark the occasion.

Active players have another shot at taming a free grey wolf or earning a "Noble Hero" costume set during the anniversary. There's also a few special NPCs who will be accepting anniversary coins in exchange for an array of special goodies. If you're of a mind to spend some money, all of the item shops wares are available for 20% off through the 13th.

GPotato is also giving veteran players 250 premium crystals and an anniversary gift package for those who have been in the game prior to today. The anniversary event goes from now until June 10th.

Many players in my guild are really looking forward to Elder Scrolls Online. Nearly everyone has signed up for beta. I cannot confirm or deny whether some of them might be in playing right now. When I announced that I was taking on the ESO column for Massively, I could feel their questioning eyes burning through the internet: Why would you want to do a column on the Elder Scrolls? You have said that you were burned out on fantasy. Skyrim gave you trouble because of the first-person view. And there are no playable dwarves. They might have caught me on that last one, but the others are partially true, as well. I have played a lot of fantasy games, but TES bends a lot of the traditions of high fantasy. And thankfully, you can play all of Skyrim in third-person view.

There are three major factors that have kept me intrigued with the entire world of the Elder Scrolls. Tamriel is full of deep and rich lore. Granted, most of ESO's lore is future-tense, but a good chunk can be applied to the current timeline -- much as in Star Wars: The Old Republic, my other editorial focus. Secondly, Elder Scrolls Online intends to keep the mechanics and the flavor of the franchise within an MMO setting. This includes a PvP system that pits three factions against each other. Although I usually have a take-it-or-leave-it approach to open-world PvP, I have always been fascinated by how three-faction systems work. Lastly, the community is passionate. I enjoy connecting with people who are looking to connect with each other and share their hopes for a game that hasn't even been released yet.

Those will be the three main focuses of this column. Let me tell you how it will work.

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As the Flame and Frost living story in Guild Wars 2 draws to a close, ArenaNet is gearing up for the next step of its story delivery system. Starting on May 14th, the team will be enticing players to return to Southsun Cove, the location of the controversial Lost Shores event.

A new dev blog on the official site outlines what the team is looking to do with the living story: "May represents a transition: The Flame and Frost arc is now complete, and our plan calls for content to build on what came before while also kicking things off in a new direction. With that in mind, Team Spring Break first focused on the essentials: characters, story, and gameplay."

In this first chapter of the new living story, players will team up with Inspector Ellen Kiel of the Lionguard as she and her allies address a tense situation between the settlers and the Consortium. It's only the start of the story, however; events won't be heating up until the summer proper.

Hark! Is that a new update for Lord of the Rings Online on the horizon? It is indeed, my chums. And with any fresh LotRO patch comes an expected slew of developer diaries.

Today we have two dev diaries to report about for players getting ready for next week's Update 11. The first talks about the next addition to the epic story, Volume III, Book 10. The diary discusses the 15-chapter storyline as well as the optional "interlude" Ranger episodes that may be played in sequence or out of order. There's even a funny behind-the-scenes moment when the devs show how badly they messed up an NPC model.

Then there's a diary on what Turbine is calling "Mounted Combat 2.0." Sweeping changes are coming to mounted combat with Update 11, including retooling the movement tree into a class-specific one, the addition of more class-specific skills, and a ton of polish and iteration.

Massively will take a deeper look at Update 11 tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Even with Syfy doing a happy dance over Defiance's premiere numbers, there's been a cloud of doubt hovering over the show's survival. Because, well, this is Syfy. We've never quite forgiven the channel for canceling Farscape in favor of Octosharkasaurus vs. Mecha-Piranhadon. But it looks as though the MMO's sibling has received an extension of life, as Syfy renewed it for a second season.

Syfy President of Original Content Mark Stern had these words of encouragement at the news: "Bringing the rich world of Defiance to life has been an incredible team effort. We couldn't ask for better partners than Kevin Murphy, his amazing cast and crew, and Trion Worlds. We can't wait to see where they take us in the second season."

The press release says that the demographics for the show have remained impressive for the network, that over a million registered players have enjoyed the multi-platform MMO, and that the Trion-Syfy collaboration will continue into the second season.

Executive Producer Naoki Yoshida has a couple of significant announcements concerning the testing and release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. He's excited to announce that the relaunch of the title will be happening in "summer 2013," with a more specific date to be announced by the end of May. He also said that details and pre-orders for the collector's edition will be coming this month as well.

"The whole team has been working at full throttle to ensure the game will be ready for a summer release," Yoshida said. "It won't be long before you can mark your calendars and begin the final countdown!"

Before the launch happens, however, phase 3 of beta testing needs to happen. This will start at the beginning of June, according to Yoshida. Phase 3 is notable in that it will be the first time that the PlayStation 3 version of FFXIV will be included in the beta testing.

A while ago, I talked about the fact that roleplaying in MMOs most closely resembles comic books. This is apropos of the current discussion because both mediums have a fundamental issue with how villains are supposed to work. A good villain should be roundly trounced by the end of a story, but you also want to bring back a villain for more antics later on. So as I begin the follow-up to my recent column on the topic, the question becomes how you can make a villain who's entertaining and satisfying to encounter without becoming boring or making everyone wonder why no one has stabbed him yet.

To be fair, there's no way to absolutely fix this problem. Someone will always have the idea that stabbing the villain to death will alleviate the problem, and that assumption is pretty much right. But there are ways to minimize the issue without making everyone seem like a colossal twit or creating the soap opera problem (wherein everyone is a malicious jerk every so often and no one seems to make long-term changes). This week I want to examine how both antagonistic and malicious villains can be played to avoid those pitfalls.

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Pocket Galaxy, a new sci-fi mobile MMO, is relatively impressive at first. It's a nice looking game that feels like a cross between Dark Orbit, Asteroids, and EVE Online and seems to be pretty casual and cheap to play. These things make me happy. I've adopted a casual playstyle because of my need to be the guy who plays every single game he sees, and that has had the side effect of making casual gaming perfect for me.

For example, a Pocket Galaxy player who wants to craft more ammo for one of her guns needs to create the items by waiting a certain amount of real time that can be shortened by using cash. Many players might see this as some sort of money-grab. I see it as a casual game with the option to speed up build times, but then again... I'm patient.

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If you've been eagerly awaiting your chance to get into the browser-based steampunk goodness of City of Steam, your wait is nearly over. Clear your Friday night plans because in just a few hours at 10:00 p.m. EDT, the city of Nexus will be welcoming its new residents. And you won't be needing any early access key, as Mechanist Games is throwing the beta doors open wide for any and all!

Returning testers will notice many new features have been added since the closed beta runs, like events, a plethora of new cosmetic items, and more streamlined skill, talent, and crafting systems. And jetpacks -- who can forget the jetpacks! Players will also find over 80 dungeons, over 100 quests, new PvP maps, open Wilderness levels, customizable gear, and more... and that's only to start! The devs have an aggressive release schedule plan of adding new features and content on an almost bi-weekly basis throughout the beta.

For more details on what you can expect, check out Massively's hands-on experience as well as the official open beta features list.

[Source: Mechanist Games press release]

Movement does not normally seem like a complicated topic in MMOs. You press forward; your character goes forward. Backward? Same deal. You can turn, and you can strafe, and you can turn and strafe and run forward if you're some kind of rebel or you want to give yourself motion sickness. But WildStar makes movement a bigger deal than normal because with a greater emphasis on action comes a greater emphasis on moving out of the path of danger.

The latest official video covers all the basics of movement, from dashing to sprinting to pining for the presumably nonexistent quadruple jump. But we had a chance to sit down with lead combat systems designer Chris Lynch and lead class designer Hugh Shelton to talk about more of the specifics, starting with the obvious question: What beast must we slay to unlock the all-powerful quadruple jump?

Wait, that wasn't it. It was about chaining movement tricks together in an endless cycle of airborne dashes.

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Party like it's 2013! Snail Games invites players in the world of Jianghu to join in a special Age of Wushu Royal Celebration starting today. This celebration will have various events sprinkled throughout the month, from earning rewards just for just logging in to chances to face and fight world bosses for their loot. And the rewards themselves range from gift packs to buff items to VIP bonuses.

Want to earn a special gift pack? Log in for one hour a day and you'll get one for each day. Players who manage to spend at least two hours online every day for the entire week will earn a much larger reward that includes a 30-day mount and a number of buffs and bonuses. Gain even more rewards for leveling school inner skills and for being a VIP. The event is open to all players regardless of school or skills. For a full listing of the events and their accompanying rewards, check out the official event schedule.

[Source: Snail Games press release]

I remember playing Age of Conan when it first came out; it seems like an eternity ago. So many titles have been released and failed since then that it's easy to get it all mixed up, and it doesn't help when many of those titles are sub-par or just plain boring and forgettable. Age of Conan sort of messed with my head with its insistent instancing and odd combat mechanics. I just couldn't wrap my head around what the game was trying to do.

Is it a hardcore PvP-centric MMO? Many would say so. Is it a grand, single-player adventure? In some ways. Is it an immersive romp through the long-lived lore of Conan the Barbarian? I guess so. It's a bit of all of these but does none of them perfectly. I decided to jump back into the game because the last time I played it was when it switched over to its odd freemium model that is all-too-common in Western MMOs these days.

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There's only one Western subscription MMO that can stand to lose 1.3 million subs in three months and shrug it off: World of Warcraft. But shrug it off doesn't appear to what Activision-Blizzard is doing. During the investor call that revealed the heavy sub losses, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick acknowledged the changing market and his plans to adapt with speedier content. "It's important to note that the nature of online games has changed," he said, "and [that] the environment [is] becoming far more competitive, especially with free-to-play games." And Blizzard president Mike Morhaime suggested the company is "studying" the comings and goings of players and how to entice former players to return.

Well, we don't have to look much further than Star Wars: The Old Republic's recent rejuvenation to figure out that free-to-play is one of the better ways to entice gamers to return (and open their wallets). Surely, Blizzard has to be wondering whether F2P might be a huge boost to the game as it's approaching its ninth birthday later this year. What do you think -- will World of Warcraft eventually go free-to-play, and more importantly, should it?

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!