The first part of Phase 3: Deployment for Star Wars: The Old Republic begins today. Pre-registered guilds can now finalize their guild for inclusion into the game when it launches sometimes in December. While the official release date is Dec 20th, the early launch date for players that pre-ordered the game has yet to be announced.

In order for guilds to be included in the pre-launch, they must have at lease four members what have pre-ordered the game and redeemed their pre-order code.

To help guilds determine this, a new indicator has been added to each guild page showing how many members have pre-ordered the game and will provide a notification if that guild is ready for pre-launch.

Runewalker Entertainment, the development team behind Runes of Magic, has launched a new website for their newest MMORPG, Dragon’s Prophet.

Not a lot of information has been released so far, other than a trailer which you can watch below, however some was released to a Taiwanese website gnn.gamer.com.tw. It seems players will be able to capture dragons by jumping onto their backs and if they can stay on, form a bond with it and capture it.

There will be different types of dragons to capture, each with their own characteristics. They will not only be used as mounts, but will aid the player in combat by providing addition capabilities. For example, a “tank dragon” will enhance your characters physical defensive capabilities, so the role you play in a group is not determined by your character, but by the type of dragon you capture.

It also seems the dragons themselves will be trainable where players will be able to increase their skills such as running speed and attack power.

Dragon’s Prophet will be a free to play title and is scheduled for release sometime in 2012.

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The new DC Universe Online website has been launched and the game is now official a free-to-play MMORPG. To go along with the launch SOE has released a new trailer, but unfortunately it’s not embedable so you’ll need to go to the DCUO site to watch it.

The new membership plans have been revealed for some time, but if you’re interested you can view them here. You can also check out the FAQ for more information about DCUO new membership plans.

KingsIsle is getting ready to cast their next big patch for Wizard101. The upcoming content update, which is scheduled to be released before the end of the year, will introduce a new zone called Zafaria and will shortly be added to the test realm.

The new zone introduces an African-themed world and is a continuation of the Celestia storyline. The update will also increase the level cap from level 60 to 70 with the new Zafaria zone being for players level 60 and up. Along with the new zone, the update will introduce new gear, pets, mounts and of course spells.

Launching along side the update is a minigame called Grub Guardian, which is a tower-defense style game. Grub Guardian will be available via browsers and later on on Android and Apple phones and pads. The new game can be linked to players Wizard101 accounts where players can gain rewards for their pets.

Look like another MMORPG is making the switch to free-to-play, this time being NCsoft’s Lineage 2. Today it was announced that the next expansion Goddess of Destruction, which will not only be the largest expansion to the game yet, but will also be including an in-game item store.

Lineage 2 won’t be a  freemium game as everything will be available for free, meaning there’s no restricted content or separate membership levels.  The game will be powered entirely by the item-shop.

The L2 Store, as it is called, will supply players with XP/SP boosts, potions, buffs, and other consumable supplies, as well as cosmetic items and hunting helpers. In addition, players can also purchase packs that accelerate character leveling and contain exclusive items not available for individual purchase.

Items purchase from the L2 Store can be traded between characters within a player’s account, however some items will be tradeable to everyone.

It sounds like Lineage II is going the way of Pay2Win as it looks like there’s going to be a lot of non-cosmetic items available in the shop.

Watch out Perpetuum, there’s a new mech MMO in town. Last week Piranha Games launched the official website for their upcoming MMO game, MechWarrior Online. Currently there’s no set release date, but the FAQ does give a tentative date of 2012.

MechWarrior Online will take place in the year 3049 of the BattleTech Universe and will be free-to-play, powered by micro-transactions. The game uses a  first-person camera perspective, however there could be an option for third-person as stated in the FAQ. The game will also have a persistent world called the Inner Sphere where players in Merc Corps will be fighting for control of various border planets.

You can check out the full FAQ for more information and details about MechWarrior Online.

Source: ZAM