With few exceptions, every successful MMO has taken place not in space, or in the future, or even in the past, but in a fantasy universe. Lord of the Rings: Online, Warhammer, World of Warcraft, Everquest, the list goes on. It's not that these are the only games coming out in the genre, it's just the only ones that thrive while others like EVE never really grow to bulbous proportions? Why is this? Easy: elves.

While reports are still flooding in that DC Universe Online is having an expectedly rough start, with players complaining about issues ranging from needing to reinstall to endless login queues, Sony Online is still enjoying a fairly large launch. Hoping to fix at least one of those problems, they've released two new PvP servers, titled "Cry for Blood" on the PC, and "Blood Will Run" on the PS3. This is great for anyone looking to pull on some tights and battle against superpowered foes, as it means you might not need to stare at loading screens for hours on end. Hopefully they get around to fixing the other glitches, too. We don't know about you, but we're definitely interested in hearing how the first day sales went, since it's obvious the game is doing at least a little better than expected. We'll keep you in the loop.

Every so often, it’s fun to look into the future, and when we look into our misty, glass orb, we see something that many aren’t talking about: browser-based games. Yeah, like Runescape and Maplestory. Let us explain.

As free-to-play MMOs pick up in popularity and more gamers are added into the “casual gamer” market, there’s a good chance there may be a big drive towards browser-based games. At CES 2011, Microsoft even went out of their way to show how strong their browser was when it came to displaying interactive content, and while they were only demoing fish, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine a game running there. So far, only a few major companies are creating non-Facebook browser games, but I’d be shocked if this number didn’t grow in a major way throughout 2011, especially with companies like Bigpoint making Battlestar Galactica Online for browsers.

You might scoff now, but when Blizzard announces that Titan is going to be a browser-based game, we’ll be the ones saying “told you so!” Alright, that might be a little too far, but still…

If you're playing Aion, you're likely anxiously awaiting every single patch, update, and expansion. Sadly, since the game is made overseas, the US audience needs to wait for the content to be translated before it makes it over. Making this wait even harder (or easier?), the American Aion site has translated the update notes for 2.5, which list massive changes including new instances, a slew of balance and glitch fixes, and, as usual, a lot of silly new clothing. For a full list of the patch notes you can check out Aion's North American website. Be warned, though, they're just as insanely long as ever, proving that NCSoft still has a lot of work to do on that game. Seriously. How many more 300 page patches can they have?

Deep in the mountains of Stonefield, an artifact known as "The Codex" stands sentinel over an ancient Ethian outpost. Kept secret for centuries by The Unspoken, the location was recently discovered by spies of the Eldritch Seekers. Now this once tranquil site is an active warfront between the Guardians and the Defiant. Who will dominate the area and unlock the secrets of The Codex?

Trion's Rift has potential. Loads of it. Launching in just a few weeks, the MMO brings a polished experience to the table, and it's obvious that the developers know exactly how special their game is. In their launch trailer, they're taking a swing at the big boy: World of Warcraft. After a bunch of clips showing off the world's strange, dynamic world, the text flashes up: We're not in Azeroth anymore. It's a bold statement, and, for their sake, we're hoping their game has the goods to back it up. You can check out the trailer here and decide for yourself if it's a low-blow or a great ad. Personally, we're thinking it's about halfway, especially considering it doesn't actually insult the game. It's just stating a fact, and there's nothing wrong with that... right?

Today, Wednesday, January 5th, is the last day to log time into the beta for DC Universe Online. With the launch only weeks away, your window to try before you buy has just about closed. Luckily, for those already in the beta, SOE has big plans. Namely, large-scale battles between Superman, Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Batman. I expect that there will likely be some carnage on both sides. The full posting can be found on Facebook, but the times, places, and servers are posted below for your continence. If you're planning on playing, be sure to get in quickly, time is, as always, of the essence for superhumans.

Every online game should have voice chat built in. Every. Single. One. There's absolutely no excuse not to, and it's annoying whenever a developer points towards Ventrillo as the excuse for their laziness. Yes, some players prefer to use their own methods of communications, but saying that you didn't include voice chat in your game because there's something out there that does it for you is sloppy. Why create a game, then? There are already others out there. 

Well, that's one way to get WoW players off their chairs... a Kinect modder has added support for World of Warcraft to Microsoft's camera-based peripheral, letting players move in the real world to control their WoW avatar. While it's being demo'd for WoW, the tech is actually the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), which is "middleware to facilitate integration of full-body control with games and VR applications." In the description of the video, it's said that "FAAST currently supports the PrimeSensor and the Microsoft Kinect using the OpenNI framework." It's obviously not the easiest way to play World of Warcraft, but it is the most interesting, there's no doubt about that. You can check out the video here, and try your best not to laugh at the thought of 60-man raids full of out-of-shape MMO players passing out from exhaustion. We'll just wait for some news agency to pick this up and explain how it's going to kill our nation's youth. Any day now...

Runescape's developers want the players to guide the future of the popular MMO. In order to do this, they're allowing them to vote on the implementation of several game features that were taken out in the past. While it might sound strange, it's actually completely sensible, and it's shocking that this isn't a fairly common thing in the industry. If you want to keep people paying for their monthly subscription or buying in-game items with microtransactions, you might as well give them some stock in the game's future. The two choices, Free Trade and the Wilderness, are detailed below, and you can find out more on their website.

About Free Trade:

• Unrestricted Free Trade between players
• Unlimited staking in the Duel Arena
• The Grand Exchange would remain, but with the lower and upper price limits removed
• Party Room drop restrictions removed
• Item Lending still available
• Assist System still available
• LootShare and CoinShare still available

About the Wilderness:

• The Wilderness becomes a rather dangerous area again and players can kill each other for their items
• PVP, Bounty and Bounty +1 Worlds removed (game mechanics may be re-used in the future)
• New objects that affect combat will be analysed on an individual basis
• Gravestones would still be used outside of the Wilderness
• Various PVP items and gear will still be available and won’t become ‘rares’
• Revenants patrolling the Wilderness will be relocated
• Content located in the Wilderness area reviewed as follows:
• Quests (e.g. Spirit of Summer) and Activities (e.g. Clan Wars) would be relocated
• Other content (e.g. Treasure Trails, the Beacon Network and D&Ds) would be looked at on a case-by-case basis

Most who have played Cryptic's Star Trek Online will tell you that the game wasn't what everyone hoped it would be. While it has been at least moderately successful, it hasn't yet gained the large userbase a game with the Star Trek license would be expected to attain. Likely because of this, the game is incredibly cheap to pick up now. Amazon has marked down the title to a mere $2.50, and that still comes with a free month of play. At that point, you can almost consider it a free-to-play game. For double the price, the game's Deluxe edition comes with a slew of additions, which makes it still a cheap purchase for anyone looking to go where (apparently) few have gone before.

With winter break in full-swing for college kids, others getting games and computers for the holidays, and the cold weather serving as an excellent excuse to stay inside, there's simply no better time to get into an MMO. In fact, better than that, it's a great time to try a bunch of different ones. With all of the free-to-play options available, you can dip a toe into the water in any number of virtual worlds. Give each a day or two of play, rank it in your head, and move on to the next one on the list.

If you’re not interested in that, then there are some other options. Games like League of Legends are great to play for a few weeks at a time, and the lack of persistence (beyond leveling up your summoner), means you don’t need to feel bad about abandoning it once the real world catches up with you come January.

There’s also the third option, which is a little more dangerous: reigniting an old flame. Throw in an old MMO, pay the $15 you had no problem paying in the past, and see why you spent 400 hours leveling up your Orc in the first place. You never know, maybe the time away will help you see why you loved it so much in the first place…

“We’re thrilled to be working alongside SG-TY on the launch of Realm of the Titans,” said Lan Hoang, CEO of Aeria Games. “The action strategy genre has been growing at an incredible pace and ROTT promises to deliver an engaging and innovative experience that sets a new standard for the competition.”

It wasn't too difficult to figure out why DC Universe Online was delayed: Cataclysm. Now that World of Warcraft's behemoth of an expansion is out, however, the calender is open for newcomers, and Sony Online has marked their spot. On January 11, 2011, gamers will finally be able to choose a hero (or villain) and hit the streets to take part in one of the larger MMO launches in recent years. While games like Conan and Warhammer were big when they came out, neither of them hold a candle to the things DC Universe is attempting, with its physics-based combat and, more importantly, console release. Will the MMO survive its largest console MMO yet? We'll know in just under a month. 

While reports are still flooding in that DC Universe Online is having an expectedly rough start, with players complaining about issues ranging from needing to reinstall to endless login queues, Sony Online is still enjoying a fairly large launch. Hoping to fix at least one of those problems, they've released two new PvP servers, titled "Cry for Blood" on the PC, and "Blood Will Run" on the PS3. This is great for anyone looking to pull on some tights and battle against superpowered foes, as it means you might not need to stare at loading screens for hours on end. Hopefully they get around to fixing the other glitches, too. We don't know about you, but we're definitely interested in hearing how the first day sales went, since it's obvious the game is doing at least a little better than expected. We'll keep you in the loop.

If you're playing Aion, you're likely anxiously awaiting every single patch, update, and expansion. Sadly, since the game is made overseas, the US audience needs to wait for the content to be translated before it makes it over. Making this wait even harder (or easier?), the American Aion site has translated the update notes for 2.5, which list massive changes including new instances, a slew of balance and glitch fixes, and, as usual, a lot of silly new clothing. For a full list of the patch notes you can check out Aion's North American website. Be warned, though, they're just as insanely long as ever, proving that NCSoft still has a lot of work to do on that game. Seriously. How many more 300 page patches can they have?

Deep in the mountains of Stonefield, an artifact known as "The Codex" stands sentinel over an ancient Ethian outpost. Kept secret for centuries by The Unspoken, the location was recently discovered by spies of the Eldritch Seekers. Now this once tranquil site is an active warfront between the Guardians and the Defiant. Who will dominate the area and unlock the secrets of The Codex?

Trion's Rift has potential. Loads of it. Launching in just a few weeks, the MMO brings a polished experience to the table, and it's obvious that the developers know exactly how special their game is. In their launch trailer, they're taking a swing at the big boy: World of Warcraft. After a bunch of clips showing off the world's strange, dynamic world, the text flashes up: We're not in Azeroth anymore. It's a bold statement, and, for their sake, we're hoping their game has the goods to back it up. You can check out the trailer here and decide for yourself if it's a low-blow or a great ad. Personally, we're thinking it's about halfway, especially considering it doesn't actually insult the game. It's just stating a fact, and there's nothing wrong with that... right?

Today, Wednesday, January 5th, is the last day to log time into the beta for DC Universe Online. With the launch only weeks away, your window to try before you buy has just about closed. Luckily, for those already in the beta, SOE has big plans. Namely, large-scale battles between Superman, Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Batman. I expect that there will likely be some carnage on both sides. The full posting can be found on Facebook, but the times, places, and servers are posted below for your continence. If you're planning on playing, be sure to get in quickly, time is, as always, of the essence for superhumans.

Well, that's one way to get WoW players off their chairs... a Kinect modder has added support for World of Warcraft to Microsoft's camera-based peripheral, letting players move in the real world to control their WoW avatar. While it's being demo'd for WoW, the tech is actually the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), which is "middleware to facilitate integration of full-body control with games and VR applications." In the description of the video, it's said that "FAAST currently supports the PrimeSensor and the Microsoft Kinect using the OpenNI framework." It's obviously not the easiest way to play World of Warcraft, but it is the most interesting, there's no doubt about that. You can check out the video here, and try your best not to laugh at the thought of 60-man raids full of out-of-shape MMO players passing out from exhaustion. We'll just wait for some news agency to pick this up and explain how it's going to kill our nation's youth. Any day now...

Runescape's developers want the players to guide the future of the popular MMO. In order to do this, they're allowing them to vote on the implementation of several game features that were taken out in the past. While it might sound strange, it's actually completely sensible, and it's shocking that this isn't a fairly common thing in the industry. If you want to keep people paying for their monthly subscription or buying in-game items with microtransactions, you might as well give them some stock in the game's future. The two choices, Free Trade and the Wilderness, are detailed below, and you can find out more on their website.

About Free Trade:

• Unrestricted Free Trade between players
• Unlimited staking in the Duel Arena
• The Grand Exchange would remain, but with the lower and upper price limits removed
• Party Room drop restrictions removed
• Item Lending still available
• Assist System still available
• LootShare and CoinShare still available

About the Wilderness:

• The Wilderness becomes a rather dangerous area again and players can kill each other for their items
• PVP, Bounty and Bounty +1 Worlds removed (game mechanics may be re-used in the future)
• New objects that affect combat will be analysed on an individual basis
• Gravestones would still be used outside of the Wilderness
• Various PVP items and gear will still be available and won’t become ‘rares’
• Revenants patrolling the Wilderness will be relocated
• Content located in the Wilderness area reviewed as follows:
• Quests (e.g. Spirit of Summer) and Activities (e.g. Clan Wars) would be relocated
• Other content (e.g. Treasure Trails, the Beacon Network and D&Ds) would be looked at on a case-by-case basis

Most who have played Cryptic's Star Trek Online will tell you that the game wasn't what everyone hoped it would be. While it has been at least moderately successful, it hasn't yet gained the large userbase a game with the Star Trek license would be expected to attain. Likely because of this, the game is incredibly cheap to pick up now. Amazon has marked down the title to a mere $2.50, and that still comes with a free month of play. At that point, you can almost consider it a free-to-play game. For double the price, the game's Deluxe edition comes with a slew of additions, which makes it still a cheap purchase for anyone looking to go where (apparently) few have gone before.

“We’re thrilled to be working alongside SG-TY on the launch of Realm of the Titans,” said Lan Hoang, CEO of Aeria Games. “The action strategy genre has been growing at an incredible pace and ROTT promises to deliver an engaging and innovative experience that sets a new standard for the competition.”

It wasn't too difficult to figure out why DC Universe Online was delayed: Cataclysm. Now that World of Warcraft's behemoth of an expansion is out, however, the calender is open for newcomers, and Sony Online has marked their spot. On January 11, 2011, gamers will finally be able to choose a hero (or villain) and hit the streets to take part in one of the larger MMO launches in recent years. While games like Conan and Warhammer were big when they came out, neither of them hold a candle to the things DC Universe is attempting, with its physics-based combat and, more importantly, console release. Will the MMO survive its largest console MMO yet? We'll know in just under a month. 

With few exceptions, every successful MMO has taken place not in space, or in the future, or even in the past, but in a fantasy universe. Lord of the Rings: Online, Warhammer, World of Warcraft, Everquest, the list goes on. It's not that these are the only games coming out in the genre, it's just the only ones that thrive while others like EVE never really grow to bulbous proportions? Why is this? Easy: elves.

Every so often, it’s fun to look into the future, and when we look into our misty, glass orb, we see something that many aren’t talking about: browser-based games. Yeah, like Runescape and Maplestory. Let us explain.

As free-to-play MMOs pick up in popularity and more gamers are added into the “casual gamer” market, there’s a good chance there may be a big drive towards browser-based games. At CES 2011, Microsoft even went out of their way to show how strong their browser was when it came to displaying interactive content, and while they were only demoing fish, it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine a game running there. So far, only a few major companies are creating non-Facebook browser games, but I’d be shocked if this number didn’t grow in a major way throughout 2011, especially with companies like Bigpoint making Battlestar Galactica Online for browsers.

You might scoff now, but when Blizzard announces that Titan is going to be a browser-based game, we’ll be the ones saying “told you so!” Alright, that might be a little too far, but still…

Every online game should have voice chat built in. Every. Single. One. There's absolutely no excuse not to, and it's annoying whenever a developer points towards Ventrillo as the excuse for their laziness. Yes, some players prefer to use their own methods of communications, but saying that you didn't include voice chat in your game because there's something out there that does it for you is sloppy. Why create a game, then? There are already others out there. 

With winter break in full-swing for college kids, others getting games and computers for the holidays, and the cold weather serving as an excellent excuse to stay inside, there's simply no better time to get into an MMO. In fact, better than that, it's a great time to try a bunch of different ones. With all of the free-to-play options available, you can dip a toe into the water in any number of virtual worlds. Give each a day or two of play, rank it in your head, and move on to the next one on the list.

If you’re not interested in that, then there are some other options. Games like League of Legends are great to play for a few weeks at a time, and the lack of persistence (beyond leveling up your summoner), means you don’t need to feel bad about abandoning it once the real world catches up with you come January.

There’s also the third option, which is a little more dangerous: reigniting an old flame. Throw in an old MMO, pay the $15 you had no problem paying in the past, and see why you spent 400 hours leveling up your Orc in the first place. You never know, maybe the time away will help you see why you loved it so much in the first place…