It seems like NCSoft was quick to act in regards to their launch day jitters, as a new patch is set to go live today that will address the main queue blockage problem: private vendors refusing to log off, and simply setting up a player-made shop to avoid being booted from the game indefinitely.

The new patch sees to it that if you leave a private shop up for more than 30 minutes, you’ll automatically be logged out of the game.

Read more… »

It appears that the virtual world can be just as pricey as reality if you want to have the very best in Second Life. Linden Lab, developer of the extremely popular MMO, has released specific information regarding in-game sales figures, stating that gamers have spent over $1 billion in “digital goods”.

But Linden Lab didn’t stop there; the developer also claimed that their title has “the largest virtual economy in the industry”, and that they are seeing $50 million every month in user-to-user spending.

Read more… »

Aion already appears to be getting off to questionable start, not only with our previously reported epic queues, but now players are being banned for merely joking about gold sales.

Below is a copy/paste of the email banned Aion player Redmoons sent us.

Read more… »

Well, Aion is technically here, and it’s not looking good so far. The official forums are flooded with complaints over insanely large queues for an event that was supposed to allow people that pre-ordered the game to play two days early with a pre-claimed character.

While this is fairly typical of MMOs (and this isn’t even technically a true launch), it seems like NCSoft wasn’t able to meet the initial demand despite pre-order and pre-registration statistics they had far in advance. Whether this problem will carry over to launch day come this Tuesday is yet to be seen. Read more… »

Somehow, someway, you’ve played either Crackdown, GTA IV, or Saints Row 2. Whether or not you liked them is a different story (I wasn’t too impressed with Crackdown), but at the very least, you can enjoy this brand new trailer for Real Time Worlds’ free to play MMO.

I think the best part about this game is how you can recreate a Tango & Cash tandem cop team with the fully customizable avatar system. If anyone wants to be Cash, let me know: he’s still available! Read more… »

As most of the MMO players amongst you know, the recently Westernized Aion opens its servers for pre-purchased customers on September 20 (tomorrow!) for North American, Australian and New Zealand players.

It was announced a few days ago that NCSoft had decided to listen to the large Oceanic community and create a server with a GMT+10 timezone, so AU/NZ/SP players could participate in events and endgame raid schedules! The server, Nezekan, is currently available for character selection and will be active on launch.

A couple of members from the local Aion Oceanic community have asked us to spread the word – If you’re an Aussie, choose Nezekan!

Read more… »

Today Turbine, Inc. relaunched Dungeon & Dragons Online, scrapping the previous pay-to-play model in favor of a free-to-play one. In celebration of this, Turbine has released a new trailer letting  soon-to-be adventurers know what to expect when they enter the world of  Ebberon.

Taking gamers to the continent of Xen’drik in the Ebberon campaign setting, DDO provides players with a massively multiplayer version of the classic table-top Dungeons and Dragons gameplay. Although DDO follows the revised edition of D&D 3.5 rule-set, several changes were made due to differences in the dynamics between the media of computer game combat and tabletop gaming. For example, combat is done in real-time in DDO, as opposed to turn base in the table-top game. Don’t let this scare you away though. I’ve been a huge fan of pen and paper D&D since I was a kid and I’m having a blast with DDO.

For the official relaunch trailer and more info on DDO hit the jump. Read more… »

Today developer Turbine revealed a new downloadable expansion for the literary based MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. Dubbed Siege of Mirkwood, the new expansion comes packed with new features and abilities. Gamers who choose to download the new content will gain access to “The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria,” an increased level cap, a new skirmish feature and a new 3 and 6 player instance.

According to Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of LotRO, “2009 has been a year of unprecedented growth for The Lord of the Rings Online and the launch of Siege of Mirkwood will end the year with a bang. As the game expands east of the Misty Mountains, players will face the raging war and shadow that has spread across Middle-earth and the new Skirmish system will thrust players and their soldiers into the War of the Ring.”

For all the details hit the jump. Read more… »