Fallen Earth Project Manager Colin Dwan said, “During the Alpha test phase, testers will be focused into specific towns so we can have miniature stress tests each week. They will be able to experience all of our game systems including missions, combat, crafting, scavenging, economy, and vehicles. We are extremely excited to move from general content creation to game balance and bug fixing.”

Incidentally the game date is 2145 and their apocalypse of choice is a plague named Shiva that wiped out 99% of the population. Always good to know which post-apocalyptic scenario we are working with. Hit the jump for full details on the alpha sign ups.

FALLEN EARTH ANNOUNCES ALPHA TEST

CARY, NC – August 12, 2008 - Post apocalyptic MMOG Fallen Earth announced today it will officially begin Alpha testing on Thursday, August 14, 2008. The test is scheduled to run through early 2009, immediately followed by Beta testing to begin in 1Q09.

Fallen Earth Project Manager Colin Dwan said, “During the Alpha test phase, testers will be focused into specific towns so we can have miniature stress tests each week. They will be able to experience all of our game systems including missions, combat, crafting, scavenging, economy, and vehicles. We are extremely excited to move from general content creation to game balance and bug fixing.”

Fallen Earth is a post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online game that mixes first person shooter and role playing game style mechanics. The game is set in 2156, one hundred years after the world is brought low by a plague known as Shiva that killed 99% of the population. The game takes place in and around the Grand Canyon, one of the few habitable places left on Earth, which makes it a place many are willing to kill to control. Our world is one where mankind teeters on the edge of extinction, clinging to the bones of the old world while trying to recover their lost secrets. It's a world of scavengers and desperation. The players are those who choose to rise above the hardships of this new world and work toward a better world, or decide the old world was corrupt and all signs of it must be erased completely.

Gamers who are a GameSpot subscriber can apply for the free Alpha test at http://www.gamespot.com/event/codes/fallen-earth/. Gamers who are not GameSpot subscribers can go to http://www.gamespot.com/signup/index.php and sign up for free. Participants will be chosen based on qualifying criteria, applicant numbers, and testing schedules. If accepted into the Alpha test, gamers will receive a key code and can download the file immediately.

Fallen Earth, being developed using the Icarus Studios Tools Suite platform, will be showcased in the Icarus Studios booth 307 at the Virtual Worlds Expo in Los Angeles, CA, September 3-4, 2008 and in booth 316 at the Austin Game Developer Conference Expo, September 16-17, 2008.

For more information, players can visit www.fallenearth.com.

METEOR GAMES ANNOUNCES TWIN SKIES
New MMOG Features Multiple Ways to Play Including 3D PC Game, Web-Based Flash Applications, Mobile Games and Social Networking

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – August 5, 2008 – Meteor Games, LLC, an independent game studio created by Neopets founders Adam Powell and Donna Williams, is developing Twin Skies, a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that will target players of all ages with all new content, accessible gameplay and advanced socializing options. While Twin Skies is a complete, fully 3D PC MMOG, players will be able to interact with and even impact the online game world in entirely new ways, including through a series of extensive web-based activities, mobile applications and social networking capabilities.

“We’re excited to announce Twin Skies, our first major project since creating Neopets and a much more ambitious undertaking that aims to change the way gamers of all ages play and socialize in MMOs,” said Adam Powell, CEO and creative director, Meteor Games. “Twin Skies’ technology and design will allow players to access the game from anywhere and in any way they choose. The immersive world, advanced technology and accessible gameplay will be fun for gamers young and old, casual and hardcore alike.”

Unlike traditional MMOGs, such as World of Warcraft, Twin Skies will provide its players with multiple access points for enjoying the game world, allowing them to interact with the game when, where and for however long they want. PC players will be able to jump into the main Twin Skies PC MMO game to adventure, craft or explore the massive open world by themselves or with friends; players can also interact with Twin Skies on the official Web site via a series of fun and impactful flash-based mini games; or users can play Twin Skies through mobile applications and games.

Twin Skies will leverage BigWorld Technology to deliver advanced 3D graphics throughout a vast and seamless open world. The PC component of the game will deliver all of the core mechanics and gameplay that millions of MMOG fans have come to expect, while pushing beyond the boundaries of current MMOG competition by including deep player customization, fun and accessible content and advanced functionality, such as player housing.

Meteor Games has already launched the Twin Skies Web site (www.twinskies.com), which includes several preliminary flash-based games, including The Very Hungry Junkworm, where players gain points by eating junk and avoiding their ever-growing tail, and The Legends of Laundry, an exciting and fast paced puzzle game where players must contend with bombs, cats, evil fungi, and an unrelenting assault of stubborn stains in their quest to finish the laundry on time.

Once Twin Skies launches, these mini-games will have a direct effect upon the game world itself. Registered players will earn points, which can be spent to customize their avatars, unlock new areas of the Web site or even spawn events within the online world. For example, achieving a high score in the Web-based Hungry Junkworm mini-game might create a huge junkworm in the Twin Skies game world which will then head off and attack players. To play the first Twin Skies flash-based mini-games or to visit the game’s official forums, please visit www.twinskies.com.

Adding further accessibility to the title, Twin Skies will leverage today’s increasingly connected mobile technology by implementing games and applications designed specifically for cell phones and other devices. These applications will allow players to access characters and affect the online persistent world. More information on mobile applications will be announced at a later date.

Twin Skies is expected to enter Beta testing later this year. Full launch of the game is expected in 2009. For more information about Twin Skies, to play the flash-based games, or to learn how to take part in the Beta release, please visit the game’s official web-site at www.twinskies.com.

This video was recorded in NetDevil's second Lego Universe Project event. According to Scott Brown, NetDevil's president, in the first LUP event they asked these Lego users to give them an idea of what the game should be like, which of course resulted in them building hundreds of actual Lego models of monsters, places, and all kinds of devices, machinery, and vehicles.

After that session, NetDevil started to program the software tools and the models needed to design Lego Universe terrains and structures. Now, in the second LUP event, they have trained those Lego people on the tools themselves, which they are using to create the virtual worlds. Apparently, NetDevil is very impressed by how fast these people—who in their day jobs are mostly engineers—got into the tools after just a three-hour class. Hopefuly that means things are progressing fast and we will see this game—which seems to have great potential—sooner than later.

Ed Wood and Second Life go together like chocolate and peanut butter. After all, Ed was a director of inspired incompetence; Second Life is an entire virtual world filled with that incompetence.

So we were pleased to get a note from Kotakuite Ben B. telling us that the second annual Ed Wood Machinima Festival is taking place this weekend in Second Life. As he explains:

Ed Wood made films so bad, they were good. This weekend, Second Life residents have 48 hours to make a movie in the spirit of Ed Wood. Halloween Night, 7pm SL time, we will screen these movies IN Second Life at our theatre in Lukanida. Last year, the Ed Wood Festival was Alt-Zoom's first ever machinima festival, and so we are celebrating our first birthday as well by giving out L$60,000 in prize money for Worst Film, Worst Story, Worst Acting, Worst Costumes, and Most Disturbing Film!

You can check out last year's winners over at the official site. And, you know, I may very well finally dust off my furry avatar with the excreting phallus-nipples to make a dashing appearance. Maybe Eliza will deign to be my date. Florian Eckhardt

Ed Wood Machinima Festival [Official Site]

The Congressional Joint Economic Committee — a group of taxmen, economists and autocrats — have admitted that tax law has fallen "way behind" the march of MMOG progress and are now seriously looking into the issue of taxing virtual assets and incomes.

There's a good argument to be made for taxing virtual economies, of course. Second Life has over $500,000 dollars worth of in-game transactions a day, mostly in furry prostitution. Fair enough to tax virtual economies when it's possible to cash-in and cash-out of your virtual holdings.

But I'm going to tell you this: the second the Murky, Omnipresent Man cuts VAT off the top of the Helm of Fire I just bought off the Undercity Auction House is the day I motherfucking snap. Imagine a dozen law offers lying in pulsing, quivering wrecks of mutilated flesh at my feat as I stare at the sun and laugh and laugh and laugh. And when the Feds bullets tear through my flesh, turning my internal organs into slurry, my last words will be "Is that the best you pansies can do?" before the inferno-like hate dims from my eyes and my grip loosens on the throat of Dan MIller, senior economist for the JEC. Florian Eckhardt

US Congress launches probe into virtual economies [Reuters]

As a gay albino African-Irishman, you just know I have rhythm. If you've ever read Voltaire, you might recall Candide's description of what happened when Cunegonde stripped naked: every bystander fell to the ground in epileptic seizures of ecstasy. Well, that doesn't happen when I expose my mottled, creepy pink flesh, but when I get naked and hit the DDR mat? Everyone becomes my ho.

So excitement! Shiny Founder Dave Perry has announced that he is directing game development on a game that finally meshes my penchant for dance with my inherent catassery: Dance!, a DDR MMOG.

Acclaim's press release focuses on the aesthetic aspects of the player's appearance in DANCE!, promising players will have a chance to create their own unique dancer through variable styles, facial features, clothing and accessories. It's certainly an interesting approach to a game type that's found difficulty moving outside the hack 'n flash of orcs and elves.

Get it hooked up to the Live Vision cam and see me become the Leeroy Jenkins of Dance!. Florian Eckhardt

Dave Perry Overseeing a ... Dance MMO? [1UP]

Neither man, nor woman, nor furries, nor Wagner James Au is safe from terrorism, even when digitally ensconced in the Metaverse, as wild-eyed Warren Ellis describes a terrorist attack that took place in Second Life.

Materialising on the Integral Castle grounds, I found myself in the middle of a rain of small boxes, all of which were trying to load themselves into my inventory (where the objects in SL that I choose to hold on to are kept) while looping some Biblical jabber through the chat circuit, filling the entire screen.

Well, terrorist attack might be a tad hyperbolic on Warren's part. Instead of insidious agents of Al Qaeda, think pustule-faced teenage dorks hyurking in their computer labs. This isn't a purposeful attack targeting a civilian population to enact political change: this is just a bunch of griefers. Florian Eckhardt

Second Life Sketches [Warren Ellis]

A feature in this week's Economist, on news stands now, does something that Wagner James Au and all his fruity techno-utopianism never could: make me want to try Second Life.

How? Largely due to vivid descriptions of experiments like Professor Peter Yellowlees' in-game attempts to convey what it feels like to be schizophrenic to the healthy mind:

Peter Yellowlees, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, has been teaching about schizophrenia for 20 years, but says that he was never really able to explain to his students just how their patients suffer. So he went online, downloaded some free software and entered Second Life...

Mr. Yellowlees created hallucinations. A resident might walk through a virtual hospital ward, and a picture on the wall would suddenly flash the word "shitface". The floor might fall away, leaving the person to walk on stepping stones above the clouds. An in-world television set would change from showing an actual speech by Bob Hawke, Australia's former prime minister, into Mr Hawke shouting, "Go and kill yourself, you wretch!" A reflection in a mirror might have bleeding eyes and die.

Of course, go for the shitface eye-bleeding schizophrenia, stay for the virtual hookers. Florian Eckhardt

PS: The image is by Louis Wain, a cat fancier artist whose slide into schizophrenia can be seen in the growing madness (and, consequently, genius) of his paintings.

Living a Second Life [Economist.com]

Eve Online is a game I desperately want to love: an MMOG that doesn't involve playing a bearded midget dressed only in his Underoos. I gave the two week trial a shot: I loved the imagination behind the universe and my Shodan-like ship A.I. But after the initial novelty wore off, I realized that most of my time was playing Eve Online was actually spent in another room entirely, reading a book. I guess that's swell for multitaskers, but I like games that actually require me to be around to play them.

Still, a lot of Eve Online fans should be interested by this Firing Squad interview with senior producer Nathan Richardson. One of the subjects touched upon are details about the upcoming expansion for Eve, including a slew of graphics improvements, better management of corporations, more organization tools for combat and better situational awareness. A lot of spreadsheet stuff, in other words. There's also going to be a Direct X 10 Version of Eve, called Eve Vista... you know. Eventually. Florian Eckhardt

EVE Online Interview [Firing Squad]

This has been doing the rounds lately, but just in case you're looking for an MMOG fix and don't know which bobble-head Korean freebie to turn to: this astonishing blog compendium of free MMOGs and MMORPGs, called descriptively enough "The Best Free MMORPG List (and MMO's)"

Expect the quality of these games to be from absolutely terrible to surprisingly good, even if games like Mu Online have a class actually called "Fairy Elf." Anyone know which of these games are even worth bothering with?

The Best Free MMORPG List (and MMO's) [mmolist.blogspot.com]

In Spend the Night, players would have congregated virtual social lounges, desperately trying to catch the attention of some polygonal babe. Once a babe was procured, the couple would gravitate to a private room, where they would fool around until — at the highest moment of passion — the girl would whisper in her lover's ear, "LOLZ! I'M A D00D, U FAG."

Alas, Babylon. Republik just couldn't get the money together to make Spend the Night a reality.

Coitus Interruptus [Next Generation]

The infamous John Romero — known for designing Doom but better known for (ha ha ha!) Daikatana and marrying an Eastern European teenager — has posted a petulant retort on his blog in response to a recent interview done with him on Computer and Video Games. In it, he is outraged that his friend Lane's name is misspelled as "Lain", positing "how many times have you seen that name spelled 'Lain'"? Realizing that it's not exactly the sort of name you hear outside of Missouri trailer parks, Romero then asserts that he never claimed that John Carmack and Adrian Carmack were lovers... sorry, we mean brothers. He also corrects Computer and Video Games for saying that he is working on an MMOG with an unnamed company. He does this by mentioning that the name of his company hasn't been announced yet.

Ladies, gentlemen — this is the sort of 'clarifying' one does when they are married at Chernobyl. Luckily, the interview John's so incensed about — despite the 'errors' — is a lot more interesting, detailing his early days at id and his work on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.

Computer and Video Games Interview With John Romero
John Romero's 'corrections'

GamersReports has two images from the recently announced Star Trek massive multiplayer online game available for viewing. Their blurb is careful to note that these aren't final screenshots, but rather engine renders. This is more or less what is being targeted for the game's final product. It looks good considering how early it is.

First Star Trek Online PC Screens [Gamers Reports]

It sounds romantic, doesn't it? Stop having to trek to the office, stop having to file TPS reports and just play a game and make money? Wired has a piece that looks at people leaving the real work force and entering the digital workforce. The vehicle for this? Linden Lab's Second life. Wired looks at Jennifer Grinnell, a woman who stopped working as a furniture delivery dispatcher when she realized she could make more money selling virtual clothing to people in Second Life. In the world of Second Life, the users are rsponsible for creating much of the content, so the oppotunity is there to capitalize. The last part of the article wonders if this is a fleeting chance to make some cash, or a legitimate way to earn for the future. Wharton professor Dan Hunter points out that "the expansion of the economy is almost certainly going to be dependent on expanding the service opportunities." Services like, cyber sex, among other, more utilitarian ones, I'm sure.

Making a Living in Second Life [Wired]
Are You Good at Cyber Sex?

Tony at Clickable Culture links to and blogs about a writer reviewing the sexual services found in Second Life. Simply called Second Life Escort Ratings, the blogger writes up detailed NSFW-text descriptions of encounters with various escort services. The reviewer, Tommy Thompson, is based in real life Amsterdam and visits SL's version of the country to see which escorts are the best. I guess when people are able to make money within the confines of Second Life it makes sense to review the "product," right?

Kissing and Telling in Second Life[Clickable Culture]
Second Life Escort Ratings [Second Life Escort Ratings Review Page]

True, the headline makes me think about the Super Mario Brothers Super Show and how a similar show hosted by Night Elves could be a giant mess, but that's not what this is about. Instead, Business Week published an article interviewing James Cameron (yep, Terminator 2 director). Cameron indicates he wants to create a game that will first lure MMO gamers and have them play in the virtual world, before the movie comes out shortly thereafter.

Also in the story is Imagine Entertainment's team-up with Alex Seropian (one of the guys behind Halo, now running Wideload) on a program titled XQuest. That curious experience is described by Business Week after the jump.

James Cameron's Game Theory [Business Week]

"If it flies, contestants will occupy a cramped spaceship-like module for a month. Its flight simulators will subject them to rocket-like conditions, including six Gs of thrust. Players will ply the galaxy while following the rough contours of a plot. Outside the ship, online gamers will track the crew's mission and ultimately board their own PC-based spaceships to rendezvous with contestants in shared, simulated space."

Prodigious Gaming reports that MMO City of Villains will get a content update with the April showers. Timed missions called "Mayhem Missions" will be introduced, allowing players to harass civilians, mess up the Po-Po and rob stores for points. Expect some user interface updates, general streamlining and a bunch of textures being upped to hi-res in both CoV and its honorable older brother, City of Heroes.

City of Villains update in April [Prodigious Gaming]

Gaming Steve is a fan of Blizzard's World of Warcraft, but his friend Clapperoth is an even bigger one. So big, in fact, that Clapperoth came up with an excellent guide to leveling your fishing and cooking to 300. Click over, check it out and get out there and open that damn wall.

World of Warcraft Guide to Cooking and Fishing [Gamer Steve]

'Second Life' Events Go Public With Eventful [Clickable Culture]

Gamers Reports links to an OGaming interview with Stephen Hewitt, lead designer of the MMO cops and robbers 360 game, All Points Bulletin. The biggest carrot APB will offer? The endless turf war between cops and gangs an ever-landscape all set in the pulse of the inner cities. If they give the players enough freedom, this could be a game worth writing about.

APB Q&A [Gamers Reports]
Interview with All Points Bulletin lead designer Stephen Hewitt [OGaming]

NCSoft and Cryptic released some screens this week of the Longbow organization in City of Villains. This one picture just feels really Ace & Gary to me. There's a couple more pics after the fold.

Before I started to read this paper on MMO gambling, I balked a little at the article title "Internet Gambling and the MMORPG." I remember the joke-y bingo game some clever WoW players created, but thought little of it. Mark Methenitis, however, didn't. He authored the aforementioned paper and in addition to gambling, Melethenis takes a long look at the rise of virtual economies and their penetration into very real world wallets. It's a looooooong read, but one of the best I've come across.

Internet Gambling and the MMORPG [Mark Methenitis' Texas Tech Law Paper]

An NPR piece takes a look at how MMO economies are threatened by power leveling, gold buying and account purchasing. The writer infuses a little of his own situation when he asks if the time it's going to take him to make 90g for his level 40 mount is worth more or less than the amount of real life money he could spend to purchase the gold for the mount. However, the headline is a little misleading as you can't really "win" MMOs, you can clear what they have to offer, but there is always something to do, some obstacle implemented - and if not, one is probably coming a future patch.

Thanks Tim!

Paying Real Money to Win Online Games [NPR]

Is this guy, Lord Recluse. Even though I don't play CoV, seeing MMO uber bosses is still pretty exciting, especially when you consider the work the playerbase puts in to the games. Couple more pics after the jump.

For some addicts players, it's been a year of gaming in Azeroth. From login queues to begging for new servers to having your class broken before your very eyes, it's the ups and downs of an MMO. Admittedly, here in Detroit, I missed the WoW craze when it launched. I was all about Halo 2. Then, I installed this infernal game March 9 and have since logged something like 77 days played on my main. Gross.

I am ashamed.

This kind of sums up how I feel about the Star Wars MMO. Star Wars Galaxies am cry?
Adam, thanks for the tip!

R.O.S.E Online is pretty kawaii - lots of glitter and purple, cute girl avatars, magic, planets: slightly reminiscent of World of Warcraft's gnome class (who are adorable). This may well have significant appeal to those strange half-humans: "tweens".

On an aside, the press release rambles off into some entertainingly inane detail: for instance, we hear that R.O.S.E stands for "Rush On Seven Episodes" which is a direct translation from the original Korean. Antony Burgess, the CEO of the publisher GamesRouter, comments that

"'Rush' is very apt as players will certainly rush to level up to be tough enough to try and defeat the in-game monsters with their well-honed skills".

Ooh *wince*. Mister. Shh. Back to your spreadsheets.

"The thing that will get most folks to play Sociolotron is the fact that the game is explicitly designed to be absolutely debaucherous. The skills range from the normal (blacksmith, sword, etc.) to the strange (prostitution, succubus). Sociolotron focuses on skill development, property acquisition, and social roleplaying to motivate the gameplay, and what it lacks in the graphics and polish department is made up for in the What the fuck?!? department."

Full Piece Here [GamesFirst] Thanks Aaron!

The in-game plague that temporarily harassed citizens of Blizzard's World of Warcraft wasn't a piece of malicious code, it was a bug. The citizens of Second Life aren't so fortunate. Clickable Culture says that the "Red Wing" virus has returned to the game. This isn't the first time Second Life has had virus issues. I'm not sure what's worse, a crippling in-game bug that wipes out entire populations or a virus that pops up with lewd pictures of men behaving badly.

Second Life Virus Defies Containment [Clickable Culture]
Virtual Humiliation Virus Contained [Clickable Culture]
World of Warcraft Still Infected

According to Next Generation, gamemaker Q Entertainment is planning on making an MMOG for Japan, South Korea and China. The developer, who is best known for puzzlers like Lumines and Meteos is currently working on Xbox 360 titles Ninety Nine Nights and Phantagram. No word on whether or not techno music will be the backdrop for the MMO.

Lumines Outfit Eyes MMOG [Next Generation]

At the Austin Games Conference in Texas, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley announced plans to release a new massively multiplayer online game that does not require a subscription fee. Then he declined to name names.

According to Eurogamer, players will most likely hand over real cash for virtual weapons, characters, items, etc. in an online auction site similar to Station Exchange. The MMOG will be launched on yet-unamed-platforms, but PS3 is certainly the strongest contender. That, my friend, is a no-brainer.

Read the Article [Eurogamer]

The New York Times' travel section (interesting location) has a piece about virtual vacation spots, specifically focusing on the world of Second Life. Author Mark Wallace (of Walkerings) shows that Second Life and other virtual spaces serve as more than just games. Interviewees range from an Indiana telecommunications professor who uses Wow to say hello to his wife, to a woman who met her husband in Second Life. I wish logging into Azeroth felt like a vacation, most of the time it feels like a second job.

A Virtual Holiday in the Virtual Sun [The New York Times]
The Work of Warcraft [Clickable Culture]

A South Korean student is being held by Kyoto police for stealing another student's online game items. The Korean student obtained the other's password and then logged on, taking 24 items from the RPG game Lineage 2. The South Korean police have been called in to assist with the matter, making this an international incident.

Uh, hello. Like, he stole fake things. Is that a crime? Better not take some kid's imaginary friend. The fuzz will lock ya up forever.

Update: Kotaku reader Brad pointed out that it wasn't the fact that he stole the MMOG items that caused the fuss. Rather, it was that he logged onto the network with another person's password. Does this mean that stealing stuff is a-ok, and logging on with a stolen i.d. is a no-no?

Full Story Here

Sure, it sounds a little strange, but Thomas Malaby's post over at Terra Nova makes pretty good sense. He talks about a comment that was made which called Blizzard's World of Warcraft the "new golf" and then extends that into virtual worlds possibly serving as the new country clubs and gathering place for the social elite. Before you untie the sweater that's around your neck and beat me with it, he's simply wondering if online gaming can "become a marker of class." If they can, my Shaman is the new aristocracy. All kidding aside, read the piece. We need more thinkers like this putting fingers to keyboard.

Class Begins... [Terra Nova]

The stigma around gold farming in MMOs isn't glamorous. Gamecloud has an interview up with "Christine" of Enjoy WoW that tries to change that. Aside from being a farming group composed entirely of women (according to "Christine"), Enjoy WoW allows gamers to get more than just gold, they'll run Upper Blackrock Spire for your BoP Blue chest piece until their faces match your new breastplate.

Enjoywow.com Interview [Gamecloud]
Wage Slaves [1UP]

We've got a handful of Coralax Villains shots for the upcoming MMORPG City of Villains, which drops this Halloween. And dang, these badies look like they've been hit with the ugly stick.

Pics after the jump.

This City Has Villains [Official Site]

Equally interesting is the segment on the shift-changes of the farmers (who usually work in pairs on an account). As they near a shift change, the farmers try and dump their wares. At this point, the patient consumer can try and get their goods on the cheap (assuming the farmer hasn't hit their quota for the day). The net result of the piece is the argument that farmers do not inflate the market and instead that their sales of many items at bargain bin prices actually restricts inflation.

Secrets of Massively Multiplayer Farming [Game Guides Online]

A. Fleming Seay's tremendous undertaking at Project Massive is starting to yield results. Next Generation takes a look at the findings from Seay's MMOG study and spoke with Seay on the process. Seay contends that developers are actually "selling gamers to one another" in addition to selling the product. Not particularly interested in the notion of addiction, Seay calls overplaying of MMOGs "Problematic Use," i.e., playing too much WoW and having your significant other get angry at you for not completing a honey-do. Seay isn't just preaching though, he has loads of statistics to back everything up and it's all available at Project Massive. He's also continuing to solicit for the fourth wave of surveys for Project Massive. If you're an MMO gamer, take the survey.

MMOG Player Trends Detailed [Next Generation]

Over at MMORPG.com they put up part one of a three-part interview with City of Villains' mayor, David Cook. This week he talks about the possibility of converting heroes to villains in the expansion and showing off your super group's bases. MMORPG.com will be adding a new part of the interview each Wednesday, so check back. You do want to know more about what kind of tights your character can wear in the upcoming expansion, right?

Q&A With David "Zeb" Cook [MMORPG.com]
Get a Free In-Game Helm With City of Villains Pre-Order