The popular social games developer Playdom has acquired Acclaim, the once legendary developer that nowadays has focused on being a publisher for free to play MMORPG’s such as 9Dragons, 2Moons, The Chronicles of Spellborn and more. But those games are not the reason Playdom was interested in Acclaim, it was some of the later browser based titles such as RockFree that sparked their interest. Apparently Playdom is still focused on social, browser based MMO’s and Acclaim’s recent move into the market has made it a great investment. Let’s hope they’ll keep publishing desktop MMORPG’s, too.

Back in late September of ’07, Marvel and Microsoft announced that they had buried the hatchet and were coming together along with developers Cryptic Studios of City of Heroes fame to create a cross platform Marvel universe based MMO tying the PC and XBOX 360 together in an ambitious unison. Unfortunately, the project fizzled out in February of 2008 due to an “inability to complete.” Cryptic studios continued developing the IP despite losing the Marvel license and has since created the well received Champions Online MMO.

Last March, another Marvel and Microsoft match up was announced with Marvel Super Hero Squad Online. To much of the hardcore gaming communities dismay, the title is “kid-centric” featuring midget-sized versions of popular heroes and villians. The MMO, created by developers Gazillion Entertainment, is also said not to have its plot based on the mainstream Marvel comics.

Whether the game will draw in a new community of followers or push too many away to be successful, we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, a trailer for Marvel Super Hero Squad Online has recently been made available. Click here to watch the trailer.

Lord British himself, Richard Garriot will be on massively.com’s webchat, Massively Speaking episode 100. Garriot will join hosts Shawn and Rubi for some chat on the past, present and future of MMOs. Topics will range from the early days of Ultima Online to the possible reinvention of Tabula Rasa and beyond.

To send an email, or sign up for the Massively Speaking episode 100 with Lord British podcast visit their website.

So it seems Blizzard have been sending out the first screenshots of the female Worgen,  the new Alliance race in the upcoming Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft. (link at the bottom of this post) Bear in mind these are still a work in progress and are subject to change.

There are several pictures of the model in different armor classes and poses. The screenshots can be found below courtesy of WorldofRaids

The first expansion pack for their hit MMORPG Aika Online, Ashes of Betrayal was announced by Gpotato. For now, all we know is that it will introduce tons of new areas, equipment, content and such, as well as raise the level cap. The expansion is scheduled for release sometime near Mid-June, and more info is to come soon. For now, anyone interested in Aika Online can have a look at the game over here.

Exciting news for all you Square Enix fans, their only MMO not based on a jRPG(technically not developed by Square, though) has just launched worldwide, thanks to GamePot USA. Yes people, Fantasy Earth Zero was made official. To celebrate that, GamePot has started a series of game events, including a 50% exp and drop increase. Anyone interested in Fantasy Earth Zero can download the game right now and play for free. All you have to do is visit this site.

Perfect World Entertainment just released a few details about the upcoming Jade Dynasty expansion, who is yet to be named. The new expansion will include a Territory Wars PvP system, where alliances to confront each other for control over various regions in the game, including towns. Controlling an area will benefit you with resources. But that’s not all, many improvements will be made to the basic game mechanic such as smoother smoother movement, better physics, and even destructible terrain. More information about the expansion coming soon. For now, just keep playing Jade Dynasty.

The third chapter for the popular free-to-play Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, Runes of Magic is now live. The update to Runes of Magic includes a plethora of new content that is sure to keep fans both occupied and entertained. If Runes of Magic is already installed on your computer, the update will begin downloading automatically when the client is launched.

Below you will find a list of new and upcoming content:

What’s new in Chapter III:

• Level-cap raised to 58
• Two new zones with brand new dungeons and world bosses
• Enabling of battles involving entire guilds with the new siege wars feature
• Expanded monster compendium
• New party search tool
• New crafting system to create fusion stones with individual values
• Newly expanded skill system linked to armor sets
• Two selectable difficulty levels in the most challenging dungeons
• New token system allowing players to trade for exclusive armor sets
• Guild buffs available in guild castles
• New guild mini-games

Upcoming content in Chapter III:

• Level-cap raised to 60
• Two-player mounts
• New role playing elements including a marriage system
• New dungeons
• New zones

An updated client of Runes of Magic can be downloaded for free through the official website, here.

Guild Wars 2 character artist Kristen Perry sat down for an interview to talk about the game’s fashion and character customization which was posted on ArenaNet’s blog.

Perry discussed NPC clothing choices, why the team went with the particular style they did, the re-envisioning of the character clothes designs for Guild Wars 2, what you can do to your character clothing-wise and much more centered around Guild Wars 2′s fashion designs .

For the full article, click here.

Blizzcon will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, CA on October 22 and 23 of this year. Blizzcon tickets go on sale June 2nd, 2010 at 7PM Pacific and June 5th, 2010 at 10AM Pacific. Tickets are $150 a piece.

For those of you who can’t be there you’ll be able to catch it on Pay Per View (DIRECTV only) for $39.95 in full HD. Both days of the show will be broadcast, and the PPV event will include exclusive interviews, demos and more. Just like the previous year, World of Warcraft players who order the DIRECTV pay-per-view will get an exclusive in-game item which will be revealed at a later date.

Tickets can be purchased through the Blizzcon website.

Check out the official announcement from Blizzard here.