Welcome to The Weekly Grind, a weekly roundup of all of the important news that graced the ever-growing genre of the MMORPG. Make sure to check the end of the post to see how a reader like yourself can get involved! Sit back and relax while we take a stroll through our favorite virtual worlds.
PvP Beta Weekend for Age of Conan – This is a pretty sweet in deal with GameSpot selecting 15,000 eager players to play PvP nonstop during the April 18th – 20th weekend. Too bad you need to be a GameSpot member to sign up, though.
One Crazy Party – The Farewell to Gaile party went smoothly, and many people came by to join in the festivities. Even the infamous Frog visited the major areas of Guild Wars giving players in those zones party buffs. So if you were there, I hope you enjoyed your spirits and cake. Adios Gaile!
Cruise on the River Styx – In Hyboria, in the land of Stygia flows the river Styx. Different boats float down the river, from tradeboats to transprt boats, but the most famous is the Pride of the Luxor, manned by Amir. And what a man Amir is! Read more about the lore to learn about Amir and his pride and glory.
Too Many Dreams – Aeria Games’ Dream of Mirrors Online is a pretty popular game. It’s fun, has a cool graphic style and it’s free! So you would imagine that the only server that they have up, Onyx, is getting pretty crowded. Luckily for the players Aeria Games is opening up a new server, Sapphire, for you and your friends to level together in a less crowded environment. Finally your dreams have more breathing room.
The Genius that Kills – I introduce you to Menton! He is the next villain introduced to us from the Champions Online universe. His hobbies are: trying to take over the world, using his psionic powers to lift people and cars, and calling out other villains and saying they are stupid in comparison.
Now for the Slow Descent – It appears some people think that WoW has reached its peak and that they can only go down from here. Even though Blizzard has maintained a steady user-base of about 10 million now, without much of an increase, the release of Wrath of the Lich King might boost those numbers up. An expansion is intended to get back players who quit and try to get in more new faces, after all. We’ll see what exactly will happen in the next couple of months.
Warhammer in Space – New info trickled in from PC Gamer about the upcoming (but in no way soon-to-be-released) game Warhammer 40k Online. This MMO will play more like an RPG than an FPS, even though there will be extensive gunplay elements, such as flanking, suppressive fire, and cover. "All of the races important to Warhammer 40,000 lore (not to mention the fans) will be represented". Oh yeah, time to get into my ‘destroy everything in my path’ mode as a Chaos Berserker.
Everyone is Experiencing Fallout – That’s right, 4 years after the initial announcement, it defenitely looks like the Fallout MMO is under construction. Check out the site and the hiring opportunities they have for developers.
Time to Get Epic – With Issue 12 of CoH comes the introduction to Epic Villain archetypes. Some good information is in place and this definitely looks like something to be excited about. Why settle to be an ordinary villain when you can be EPIC!
Give Us a Second Chance! – Hellgate: London wants a second chance to be a part of your sweet sweet computer. No, really, it has changed for the better! The bgs have been ironed out, balancing isn’t a huge issue and the single-player aspect received a huge patch that also adds more zones. Take me baby!
My Home Movie – The guys over at EA Mythic made a "home movie" of their trek in the lands of Warhammer. Take a look see and see if you can spot all the new content that hasn’t been shown before.
Entering Alpha Stage – WoW: WotLK has reached the status of being in Alpha stage. What does that mean for you? It means you’re still going to have wait a long time to play in Northrend. Following Alpha is Beta, which at this moment has absolutely no date to fall upon. Will WoW players be less and less anxious for the expansion, especially with Age of Conan and Warhammer Online coming out soonish?
Lovely Concepts – Blackstar is a science-fiction MMO being developed by Spacetime Studios, and it recently came out with a bunch of pretty concept art. Read about the process of character development over at their site.
Embrace the Warmth – With LotRO announcing the new Forochel area in Book 13, the ability to see your character’s breath from the cold air is being implemented. Sure it might not seem like much but it adds to the effect of immersion. Don’t stay in the deep cold for too long, because your stamina will slowly start to decrease. Suggestion: build campfires or search fo vents.
My Life in Vana’diel Returns! – James Mielke from 1up.com has been writing a FFXI journal ever since the game came out. He stopped writing for a short amount of time and his reader base cried for more entries. Luckily for us he back with all new journal updates so check it out. 
You Tease – Teasing is fun when you are the one teasing the person. But if you are on the other end of it, it’s not so fun. Especially when Funcom teased us with this little dosage of cool. Come on Funcom, give us the GOOD stuff!
Journal of the Week
This week we are featuring James Mielke’s FFXI journal, which was mentioned two blurbs ago. I wanted it to be Journal of the Week because it was such a good read filled with awesome screenshots.
How can you get involved? I want all of you MMO fans to write me with your best fan fiction, or send me a picture of your best fan art of any MMO and it might just be featured on next week’s Weekly Grind. Also remember to send me your best screenshot that fits the theme that I ask for and I’ll put the best ones up. (There may even be a prize.) So start taking screenshots!
For next week I want to see your best MMO screenshot that best describes this word: Big. It can be a big monster, a tall building or a huge sword — just take it with style.
Email me at demetri(remove)@(remove)gamernode.com with your submissions.
Until next week, keep on grindin’.
