The MMO week in a minute

Posted Jun 22nd 2008 5:00PM by Michael Zenke
Filed under: Features, MMO

Big Download's sister site Massively.com has all the news you'll need about MMOs. Here's the best, brightest, and most interesting stuff from the last week, all in one convenient place for your MMO minute.

	World of Warcraft patch 2.4.3 notes forecast cheap mounts, fun pets We all knew that World of Warcraft patch 2.4 was going to be the last major milestone before Wrath of the Lich King released. Who could have forseen that Blizzard would be making such major changes to the original gameworld in the newest changes to the PTR?
	EverQuest 2 Game Update 46 goes live The tempest is gathering. Runnyeye, a storied dungeon since the days of the original EverQuest, is now a more dangerous locale. EverQuest 2 Game Update 46 is now live on the game servers, and we have some new media to go along with it.
	EVE Fanfest 2008 to have first public preview of Ambulation Massively previously announced some of the details of the upcoming EVE Online Fanfest 2008, but CCP Games has just updated their site dedicated to the annual capsuleer pilgrimage.
	Star Wars Galaxies Chapter 10 launches to the live servers Early this morning the live servers for SOE's Star Wars Galaxies went down, fans quieted for a specific purpose. Chapter 10 arrives today, bringing with it a whole new array of content designed for characters across all level ranges. You can find official patch notes on the game's website.
	Funcom responds to concerns following first instances of AoC's "Massive PvP" Age of Conan players have started getting to the stage where they can partake in the game's much-hyped "Massive PvP" -- the first battlekeeps are up, and you can be sure that people are all too keen to go and knock them down.

	Legends of Norrath: Oathbreaker expansion released Last week we brought you an exclusive spoiler of the loot cards for the newest Legends of Norrath expansion, Oathbreaker. As of today, Sony Online Entertainment has released the Oathbreaker set, letting those great mounts and fobs loose in the world of Norrath.
	Lineage II NA server merge coming July 8th Ever since Linage II began allowing server transfers there has been a shift in server populations that was leaving some communities worried. This has prompted NCsoft to announce the merging of a few servers on July 8th to bolster their overall population and ease the growing fears some players were beginning to have about the future of their digital homelands.
	Fallen Earth is feature complete and alpha ready Hopefully, it won't be long now until we are running around Fallen Earth's Grand Canyon setting and throwing some Molotov cocktails around!
	Vivox voice integration coming in EQ2 Game Update 47 's Technical Director Joshua "Autenil" Kriegshauser has released some very interesting news via the official forums. The GDC announcement of Vivox and SOE's partnership appears to be reaching fruition, as in-game voice chat will be added to EQ2 with Game Update 47.
	Massively Exclusive: Tabula Rasa's AFS War College Last week we got a chance to visit NCsoft's Austin offices to attend the first ever AFS War College, where some of Tabula Rasa's finest soldiers were invited to join NCsoft's developers for a day of discussions, questions, and demos.
	Gearing up for Guild Wars 2 As we stand now, we know that the latest Guild Wars expansion pack entitled Eye of the North is to act as a liaison between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2.
	Exclusive: Richard Bartle on how he'd make World of Warcraft better Join us as we sit down for a conversation about the big kid on the block: World of Warcraft. Some time ago Dr. Bartle made the crack that he'd "shut down" Blizzard game in an effort to improve the industry.
	EVE Evolved: Faction warfare unleashed When talk of how Faction Warfare was going to work began, the goals it hoped to achieve were laid bare for all to see. EVE Online developers CCP wanted to encourage small-scale PvP combat and make the experience easy for even new players to get involved in.
	A Hunter's guide to fast-travel in LotRO There are several reasons to roll a Hunter in Lord of the Rings Online. You can usually do the most damage. You are the primary ranged-attacker. You can track virtually anything in the game.
	Player vs. Everything: The MMO clone wars For some reason, MMOG players in particular just love to cite the classic "It's just a clone of (whatever)" when they're trying to challenge the very essence of a particular title.