After a recent round of downtime, in which players were already compenstated partially with free skill points, CCP decided to go one step further and reward active (not trial) accounts with a brand new ship.  On the EVE Dev Blog, CCP Zinfandel outlined the story arc and the details of retrieiving the ship for the players.  It seems that an NPC business in the game is providing the new ship, the Primae, to all capsuleers free of charge.  The Primae is specially designed to aid in the new planetary interaction content that was recently launched.

One interesting thing to note is that, besides only active accounts in EVE Online having access to the new ship, the free gift, if not redeemed by July 13th, 2010, will expire.  So if you have an active account on EVE Online, be sure to log in and claim your ship before it’s gone.

Though MMOs switching from subscription-based to free to play is no longer entirely out of the ordinary, particularly since the successful relaunch of Dungeons & Dragons Online and the anticipated relaunch of Turbine’s other MMO Lord of the Rings Online as free to play, it usually comes later in the life of a game. With this in mind, it is somewhat surprising to see Hi-Rez Studios’ Global Agenda becoming free to play, as it was only released in February 2010, not even five months ago.

Nevertheless, I’m always supportive of developers who choose to go this way, as I’ve been a big fan of subscription-free games in the past. In Global Agenda‘s case prospective players will still have to buy the game itself, but after that there will be no recurring fee. The initial investment has also become a little easier, as Steam has put the game into its Summer Sale in celebration of the change, knocking 33% off the price. This deal will only last until July 5th.

Finally, if you’re still not convinced, there is a completely free trial up to level 15 available at GA’s official site. For more information on the subscription page, check out the FAQ.

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Wargaming.net sent over new screenshots for the MMO World of Tanks, which you can view above. World of Tanks is a tank-based combat game that will have many historical scenarios to play through. It is a free-to-play MMO and features massive 30 tank v. 30 tank battles. No release date or beta information for North America has yet been hinted at, but once we hear something, we’ll be sure to tell our readers. You can find out more about World of Tanks on the official site.

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UTV True Games sent over two brand new screenshots, the first released for their upcoming MMO Faxion Online.  There is also two concept art, giving a look at some of the possibly twisted humor the game is going to boast.

The two Faxion Online screenshots show off two character types.  The Crusader is a force for Heaven, whereas the Reaver will be on the side of Hell.  These two classes will be very strong and powerful warriors and very in touch with weapons and armor.  Both screenshots are taken in areas of Purgatory where open world PvP is possible.

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NASA announced an MMORPG they were working on a while ago, but since that announcement, little has been said about the game.  The NASA MMO is currently named Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond MMO, with very little info being released.  However, they are launching a mini-demo game that looks like it will have some multiplayer.  Moonbase Alpha will launch July 6th and might just give us a taste of what the NASA MMO will look and feel like. 

The official website for Moonbase Alpha only has a teaser as of now.  From the trailer, it looks like a cooperative building scenario game.  It’s not really an MMO, but it’s the precursor, so it’s definitely worth a look.

We’ll be checking it out here at MMOCrunch.com come July 6th, so stay tuned for more information.

Outspark, creators of the recently mentioned Fists of Fu, have today announced a new action MMO called Divine Souls. The announcement trailer can be viewed above, while we have a collection of screenshots for you below. The premise appears to be a Japanese hack & slash game taken into the MMO genre with a focus on team-based dungeons and PvP arenas. The announcement mentions that both four player and eight player dungeons will be available, and arenas will run from 1v1 through to 4v4 and there will be some sort of larger guild-based battle system.

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I’ve got some good news and some bad news, well, it’s now mostly good news. If you tried to log into EVE Online for the past day or two and have had problems, this is due to some unexpected downtime for testing, movement and updating of EVE Online’s Tranquility server clusters.

In response to this downtime, CCP will give all active accounts a pool of skill points appropriately sized to the amount of downtime experienced; this gift will be extended to both paid and trial accounts. There will be more downtime next Tuesday for patch deployment on the Tranquility server as mentioned in the developer’s notes, that will be followed up by another gift to all active players as compensation. Lock onto MMOCRUNCH for more upcoming EVE Online news and you can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

Ever want to play an MMO that focuses more on spellcasters, sorcerers, and mages without all those pesky rogues, brutish warriors and fancy clerics? Well, look no further, KingsIsle Entertainment has released a magical MMORPG in Wizard 101 – the primary focus being on, you guessed it, wizards!

In Wizard101, players are dropped into the fantastical world of Wizard City as student Wizards setting out to test their Wizard skills, cast spells and summon powerful creatures to fight the surrounding evil forces. One of the most interesting facts about the game is that characters and worlds are influenced by literature, history and pop culture, giving the game a unique depth and ever-changing game system.

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Hardware developers Razer will be hosting a City of Heroes: Going Rogue Q & A to take place on Wednesday June, 30^th.

Questions can be submitted now through June 28^th 11:59 PM CST. The developers of City of Heroes: Going Rogue will be taking questions via email at rogueqa@ncsoft.com.

It seems that the team wants to give players a chance to get as close to the expansion as possible before its release and welcome any and all questions you have about the upcoming update.

To sweeten the deal, three lucky players will also will win a free Razer Naga Gaming Mouse simply by submitting a question. Nice!

For more official details about the contest, click here.

The 2010 Blizzard Global Writing Contest has begun, allowing fans of the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo game series to submit their stories set in those universes for the chance to win a trip to Blizzard Entertainment’s HQ in California. The rules are that the submission must be a short story set in one (or perhaps more – not specified) of the aforementioned worlds, it must be between 2500 and 7500 words, it must be written in English and it must be submitted by August 23, 2010. The grand prize winner will also receive their choice of either a Diablo III “OVERTHROWN” barbarian diorama or a Frostmourne sword.

Blizzard has also announced that Real ID for Battle.net has officially rolled out with World of Warcraft‘s 3.3.5 patch. This feature will eventually apply to all Battle.net games, allowing players to give out their Real ID to those other players who they want to be able to see their characters and status in every Battle.net game. Real ID will also allow cross-game chat, for example if one of your Real ID friends is playing Starcraft II while you play World of Warcraft, you will be able to speak to them from within WoW.

For more information on the Writing Contest, visit the Blizzard Entertainment site, and for more information on Real ID, visit the Battle.net site.