Beckett Massive Online Gamer

There are a lot of different ways to enhance and better your gear in Aion, and I wanted to go over them briefly for players so that you could see what those differences were. After all, when you're constantly looking over your shoulder trying to make sure that you're not about to be killed, it's always best to be at the top of your game, whether you're doing some PvE questing, or PvPing in the Abyss.

World of Warcraft community manager Eyonix has posted a preview of the talent tree mastery system being introduced in the game's third expansion, Cataclysm, scheduled for release later this year. WoW's talent tree, which allows players to customize their characters' abilities to suit their own play style and chosen role, is such a key feature that any major enhancement (especially an expansion that changes the level cap) would automatically affect it. But in the past, changes to the talent tree mostly meant adding new talents or getting rid of or replacing old ones. This time around, Blizzard is introducing passive bonuses that are granted to you as you continue to spend points in a particular tree.

Three months ago, Blizzard commemorated the fifth anniversary of the release of World of Warcraft with a special web site that invited fans to send in images of themselves holding either a Horde or Alliance symbol, which would be incorporated into a giant mosaic image. The mosaic's been revealed, piece by piece, as the images have come in and, now, with 20,000 images in house, Blizzard finally unveiled the entire mosaic:

December saw the release of Underfoot, the 16th EverQuest expansion (wow!) and now Sony Online Entertainment is preparing to roll out another zone to add to the expansive area of the game. Not only that, but if you log in before March 31, you can claim an exclusive Gnomework Mercenary Skin (there's a different type for both healers and tanks) so that your mercenary can wander Norrath in style. Here’s the official description from SOE:

Most people would consider the MMORPG genre to have begun with EverQuest, in 1999. Networked and Internet games existed beforehand, but the MMO is, by most accounts, a 21^st-century (and very late 20^th-century) innovation. So what kind of MMO profile would certain historical figures have cut? If you think that one guy in your guild always ninjas all the good loot, imagine how tough it would be with a real ninja in your party?

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that its annual celebration of its games, Fan Faire 2010, will take place Aug. 5-8 at Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas. Highlights of the Fan Faire will include special announcements and sneak peaks of upcoming SOE titles, in-game tournaments, live, game-themed competitions and quest, developer forums and roundtables giveaways, and other fun events for fans of all of Sony's online games. For more information, visit the Fan Faire web site .

Breaking news here this morning about Wizard101, where KingsIsle Entertainment has announced a new spring competition for all wizards to participate in! So far, we've only been given a little teaser of what this competition could involve and what new things are headed to The Spiral.

We know it's coming, this mythical patch 1.9 for Aion that has so many players excited. The problem is that we don't even know (yet) exactly what we're waiting for or when we'll get it. What we do know is that there are over 20 pages of patch notes, and that a top-secret critical meeting took place on March 3 to discuss these notes, in which were also given a little teaser of what is to come:

We're giving away a brand new Star Trek Online game to three lucky Massive Online Gamer readers! For your chance to win, please send your name, age, address, phone number, and e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject "STAR TREK ONLINE Contest #24." One entry per person. Entries due by June 1, 2010. Three winners will be randomly selected from all completed entry forms.

Just because the apocalypse has come doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day! The Fallen Earth team will host a month-long "Shamrock Shindig," offering free copies of the game, in-game events, prizes, and 50% off the game if you purchase the game from the online store.

Icarus Studios had this to say about the celebration: