Star date 2-2-2010. It was a very emotional day for Star Trek fans. It saw the release of Star Trek Online. Initial reactions were mixed. Some couldn’t stop complaining about pitiful ground combat, various bugs, and the fact that space looked like a trip to Candyland. Fans were completely dazzled with fact that they had their own little bridge officers to push around. Later, when the populous boldly went to end game, where they found very little content, and even more… horrid ground combat. Still, many of the diehard fans would go on to purchase lifetime subscriptions. We would also see Cryptic laying claim that the game’s 50-80 dollar price tag was perfectly acceptable.

In all fairness, Star Trek Online’s release was not the worst we’ve ever seen and they have done quite a bit to make the game more interesting over the last few months. I would even go as far as to say that Cryptic has done a good job. This, however, was not completed by listening to the community. Nearly 8 months after launch, features requested by the community still go unanswered or half-implemented.

Join me after the warp and I’ll try to take you beyond all this negativity to the point where Star Trek Online is today, and where it continues to fail. I promise not to make too many more bad Star Trek puns.

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We all do it. Sometimes we do it with friends, sometimes we do it with people we just met, sometimes we do it with complete strangers, and sometimes, by ourselves, alone, in front of our computer, while no one is watching. I’m, of course, talking about roleplay. I’ve not yet once met a gamer, MMO or otherwise, that did not roleplay in some fashion.

For most people, the roleplay community is not something they think of themselves as a part of, but everyone who plays an MMORPG is a roleplayer; at least to some extent. Not everyone claims to be a roleplayer, and on the other hand some claim it loud and proud. If you have ever thought how your character feels about a specific quest, pictured your character’s smile while he slew his foes, or became inspired during a quest as the cavalry comes in to save you – you my friend, are a roleplayer. Roleplay comes in so many forms that it’s hard to determine what is “good roleplay”, what is “bad roleplay”, and what’s “just plain inappropriate”. It’s not all a bunch of super-geeks dressing up shouting “thou”, “thee”, and “forsooth!”

Follow me after the jump and I will show you exactly what you’ve been missing all your life.

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Cryptic has announced that sometime in the first quarter of 2011, Champions Online will be going Free-To-Play! Divided into Gold and Silver plans, gold players (14.95 standard subscription) will get full access to all new content and adventure packs as they are released. Silver players (F2P) will be able to access all of the content, minus the adventure packs and certain class combinations. Fear not, they have a matrix that describes everything.

The free to play beta will begin on November 9th and , we can only speculate as to why the decision was made to go free-to-play. Then again, with the wildly popular success of Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, an Global Agenda, why wouldn’t they? It seems these days, any triple-A title having trouble just goes free-to-play and immediately becomes a hit. Stay tuned to MMOCrunch.com for information as it’s released.

What happens when the initial population of an aging game dies down and the “great need” to accommodate the mass influx of players are is longer so “great”? Being an IT Infrastructure Engineer (this means I work on large enterprise servers, like the ones we’re talking about here) as well as a writer for MMOCrunch.com I seem to be in a great position to answer this question. Simply put – some servers must be shut down. Contrary to popular belief, SOE is not shutting down servers because of the cost. Operationally speaking, servers are cheap to run and maintain. It’s true, adding a brand new server (or cluster in some cases) can be quite the daunting task both financially and logistically, but simply keeping one running? Bah! There’s more in the task of merging servers than there is just letting the server continue.

Join with me after the jump to find out why servers are merged, and the latest news on the EQII server moves including which servers are getting moved.

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It’s nice when our game, whatever game that may be, hears us. It’s nice when they recognize their player base and throws us a bone. Call it what you will, but this is the norm for most massively multiplayer games. Now that you’ve met the norm, I’d like you to meet the exception. For over a year now, Fallen Earth has continued to deliver steady updates of both polish and content as well as keeping a constant line of communication open with its subscribers.

Ask any Wastelander, and you’ll find out quickly; Fallen Earth is not a well polished game. It has a lot of combat problems, graphics glitches, and even some animation issues, but you have to ask the right questions to get the real take-away.

Ask those same players how the game has matured. Ask them if the game is getting better. Ask them if the developer listens to their players. Ask them if the developer cares about the game they play. What you’ll find is a very loving community, dedicated to helping out new players and talking Fallen Earth up. Icarus Studios needs no PR Team. After all, they have their players.

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Today, Stunlock Studios and Funcom released four new videos for their upcoming Arena-PvP centered Bloodline Champions. The videos feature four of the classes including the Alchemist, the Gunner, the Spear Master, and the Thorn. To our surprise, these videos pack quite a bit of excitement. While PvE (player vs. environment) content is completely non-existent save for a few bots in the turorial missions, Funcom claims they are attempting to  “combine deep gameplay with great graphics and a powerful matchmaking system to become a true next-generation PvP game.”

With sixteen different Bloodlines, we should see some fairly varied gameplay. As of this point Funcom has assured us they will release more videos for the other Bloodlines soon. While we could provide the complete play-by-play of these videos, we’ve decided to show them instead. Enjoy them after the jump!

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Many things are coming out of the GDC today – one such interesting tidbit is that of Sky Legends. UTV True Games and Smart Bomb Interactive have teamed up to make the free-to-play, browser based, Action MMO Flight Simulator with seemingly familiar stylized artwork. Focusing on fun, Peter Cesario, Director of Product Development of UTV True Games says “Sky Legends expands the typical flight combat genre of games and brings a fun and irreverent feel to the gameplay experience,”

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Blizzard Entertainment announced today that World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has finally been given an official release date. On December 7^th, we shall log into our accounts (many currently collecting dust) and venture forth into the new version of Azeroth as we know it. The expansion will be available both Windows and Macintosh operating systems at the MSRP of $39.99 and the Collector’s Edition for $79.99. The Collector’s Edition is only available in stores, but there will be a digital download of the $39.99 version available at Blizzard’s online store.

Cataclysm features a complete reformation of the original starting zones as well as high level content in the form of new raids, new areas to explore, archaeology, and more. “With the help of our beta testers, we’re putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming new gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months.” says Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment. 

Allods Online fans rejoice! Volume 2: Rise of Gorluxor will be available tomorrow night and with it, a new raid boss, Gorluxor.

“As the legend goes, it all began when Nezeb fell during the Great Astral Campaign and the Empire began to look to their future after years of mourning. It happened that two persons came to the front of the political scene – Gorluxor and Yasker – a Great Mage and an enthusiastic young war hero, both always on Nezeb’s side and both fighting for the lead after his death. While Gorluxor had the support of the Xadaganians, Yasker went to the Orcs and Arisen and promised them full rights as citizens of the Empire in return of their support. After aligning their armies, Gorluxor faced imminent defeat and fled to escape his capture and execution. Until now, no one has known of his whereabouts.”

With the Volume 2 update, many of the classes have had their talents and rubies reset, the friend’s list has finally been repaired, and many quests have been reworked.

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In their latest news article, Bioware has broken down advanced class mechanics in Star Wars: The Old Republic into something “somewhat” easy to understand.

We all know there are four classes on each faction and two factions. Recently we were told that each of these eight classes will have two Advanced Classes stemming from them to choose for a total of sixteen advanced classes  Details on how these advanced classes would function were scarce, until now.

In Star Wars: The Old Republic not only will you be choosing a Class, but you will later choose an advanced class. If that wasn’t enough, you will then have access to three talent trees. These trees basically work as your archetype. Each advanced class will then have access to two trees with a third shared between both advanced classes. Allow me to explain…

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