A talented World of Warcraft fan created a very well-made online comic, which covers the lore of World of Craft in comic book style layout. Let’s just hope it stays up long enough for people to enjoy.

Read more: Read the fan made World of Warcraft lore comic

Well, that was shocking. Cryptic, Marvel Entertainment and Microsoft Game Studios today announced that Cryptic has been tapped to develop Marvel’s upcoming MMO, Marvel Universe Online, which will be released for the Xbox 360(!!) and Windows Vista, presumably next year. This is a shock because it was only a short time ago that Marvel Entertainment (and DC Comics) had Cryptic and NCsoft in their sights, accusing both of allowing users to infringe on their respective copyrights, by allowing users of NCsoft MMO City of Heroes to create characters resembling well-known Marvel and DC brands. I’m sure somewhere in South Korea, an NCsoft executive is throwing things at the poor intern who has to break this piece of bad news. How this will affect NCsoft is unknown yet, but, I can only imagine that with the release of Marvel Online Universe, NCsoft had better be planning a way around the potential fallout, as City of Heroes and City of Villains players abandon ship to play as Marvel-created super heroes. Though, whether players will actually get to play as Wolverine or Spider-Man remains to be seen.

Read more: Marvel and Microsoft announce Cryptic as Marvel Universe Online developer | Cryptic’s open letter to their fans

As the new City of Heroes Issue 8 expansion approaches, more information has been released on the City of Heroes rewards program, which NCsoft is using to show their appreciation for their subscribers, a smart move considering the beating the City of Heroes has been taking in the past few months. Players get rewards based on the length of time they’ve been in-game, going in 3 month increments, rewarding players with badges, tokens, costume upgrades and the ultimate, a free respec, always a good thing to have in a MMORPG.

3 months: Trustworthy
- Trustworthy badge
- Costume Piece: Trenchcoats
- Costume Change Token given to all characters on account

6 months: Faithful
- Faithful badge
- Costume Piece: Greek Alphabet Chest Emblems
- Costume Change Token given to all characters on account

9 months: Dependable
- Dependable badge
- Costume Piece: Belly Shirt for Females, Scottish Kilts for Males
- Respec given to all characters on account
- Costume Change Token given to all characters on account

12 months: Loyal
- Loyal badge
- Temporary Power: CHOICE: Permanent Undead Slaying Axe or Permanent Sands of Mu
- Pre-Order Sprints: Rush, Dash, Quick, Surge
- Base Item: Wall Mounted Weapon Displays

Read more: City of Heroes Veteran Rewards program

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming Pirate-themed MMORPG, Pirates of the Burning Sea. Unfortunately I’m not too interested in the traditional fantasy-based MMOs that are all around, so I’m always happy to see someone breaking the mold and taking on a subject matter that I both find extremely interesting and somewhat new. Who doesn’t want to be a pirate, I mean, come on? Pirates of the Burning Sea takes the player on an epic and historic trip back into the days of sea-battles, peglegs and frilly feather caps, allowing the player to take on several professions and compete both financially and with firepower. My only concern is, who would want to be anything BUT a pirate in the game? I’m sure there will be a few people who want to be traders or navy captains, but, come on, where’s the fun in that!? PotBS is currently in beta and is accpeting beta applications now.

Watch the E3 2006 hands on preview after the jump..

Read more of “Pirates of the Burning Sea E3 2006 hands on“

Even though Talk Like a Pirate Day has passed, the gents over at my most-anticipated new MMO have put together a brilliant little contest in order to celebrate. The devs behind Pirates of the Burning Sea have put together a t-shirt design contest, where they are seeking contributions for future PotBS t-shirt designs from their large (and eager) fanbase. The contest runs until October the 3rd and the winner gets the first shirt off the press, signed by the entire PotBS development team and a collection of the “coolest booty you will ever see”.

Hit the jump for all of the info on the contest, arghhhh..

Read more of “Pirates of the Burning Sea t-shirt contest“

Worlds collide in the latest EVE Online developer’s blog post, where EVE developer and amateur economist “Redundancy” takes on the heavy task of analyzing the massive multiplayer’s player-driven economy, resulting in a short tutorial on how EVE Gross Domestic Product is affected by inflation and deflation and giving fans insight into the latest financial data available for EVE. Whew. I need a Tylenol after just thinking about that. The data runs from October 2003 until June 2006 and shows that EVE’s GDP is growing monthly, appearantly inline with EVE’s subscriber growth. Ah, back in the old days when we were only making 60,000 ISK a month, those were hard times.

Read more: Analyzing the GDP of EVE Online

Ultima Online and World of Warcraft mega-guild The Syndicate® has taken an epic step recently, by trademarking their guild name as well as it’s logos and identity, protecting their brand from being deluded by copycats and people wishing to make a name for themselves by protraying that they are associated with The Syndicate®. Though the guild is involved with creating guides, contributing to game development books, and cosulting, their primary operations are virtual, taking place in the various game worlds which the guild supports.

As one of the oldest, largest and most powerful guilds in all of online gaming, The Syndicate® has developed a strong reputation over the years. We seek to protect that reputation from misuse of our guild name and have taken the step of Trademarking our guild name “The Syndicate®” along with our logo and our motto.

There are a number of cases where guild’s have taken our guild name knowingly and perhaps unknowingly and used it. That has resulted in a negative impact to our reputation as a result of that misuse of our name. Thus the name was trademarked and use of that name is restricted.

Read more: In-game guild trademarks their name and identity (via the excellent Davis games law blog)

Whoa, we’re beginning to think this would fit in better over at Bunch of Nerds, but you know, World of Warcraft, games, Playthrough, games. You get the idea. Dianius is addicted to pets it seems and he’s collected just about every cute little creature you can in WoW (he points out that he’s covering the non-Hunter pets btw), which means it’s time to write a guide on collecting pets! He includes a screenshot, featuring 42 of his pets, with names, locations and ways to actually acquire them (even the “rare” Pet Rock!). WoW-porn or a highly useful guide, it’s Playthrough recommended and approved.

Read more: Dianius’ pet guide

Good news for European space-mmo fans! With the launch of the recent German localisation of the Eve Online client, CCP have started shifting more resources onto the European marketing of their online massive-multiplayer, Eve Online. In a recent interview with CMO (?) Magnus Bergsson, he admitted that during the past 12 months, CCP’s focus was focused primarily on America (”80%” of their marketing efforts), with only 20% being split between Europe and presumably China). This is set to change, as CCP plans more localizations for the Eve client, new payment options (a real problem in Europe) as well as hotfixes and patches to address some of the numerous bugs that have popped up in the recent patch changes.

Read more: Eve Online returns marketing focus back onto Europe

With over 200,000 players signed up for the US beta, Codemasters and Turbine have opened registration in Europe for The Lord of the Rings Online beta round! LOTR Online allows players to role-play in the ongoing struggle for Middle-Earth, exploring detailed realms and joining storyling characters in an evolving and persistent re-creation of the epic Tolkien world. We’re currently waiting to hear if we’ve been accepted, so you can be sure to hear more from us, as we’re really looking forward to this (and Pirates of the Burning Sea).

Read more: Lord of the Rings Online beta signups begin for Europe