Trion has been clear in its statements that they have no intentions of taking RIFT F2P and that the game is doing well as a subscription game.  Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman had this to say in regards to RIFT Lite, “In the past ten months, RIFT has evolved at a breakneck pace, through seven massive updates that set new expectations for live MMOs, in features, in content, and in service. We think a Lite edition with no time limit is the best way for players to see what an amazing experience RIFT continues to be.”

Patch 1.7: ‘Carnival of the Ascended’ continues RIFT‘s trend of frequent content updates and includes PvP improvements, Expert Dungeons changes, the River of Souls Chronicle, and more.  The full patch notes can be found on the official forums.

With the release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare took storytelling in MMOs to a new level.  The majority of quests and NPC interactions take place in small cut-scenes with voice acting that, for the most part, is quite well done.  For some side quests I do still find myself hitting the space bar to skip the voice-acted interaction, particularly in the parts where the person I am speaking with uses some sort of alien language, but the class quest scenes and major story-line arcs for each planet have me enthralled.

Later this year BioWare is set to release Mass Effect 3, and potentially change the way you play video games.  Yes, it is a single-player RPG, but what makes it relevant to this article is the three game modes available to choose from in the game.  Currently being called Story Mode, Action Mode, and RPG Mode, Mass Effect 3 will allow players to customize their gameplay experience to their liking.

Click here to redeem your code!

They followed this news up with a look at the last remnants of an ancient society of giants known as the Jotun, who may have existed before the human gods.

Over the centuries of their existence, the jotun have fallen far from their state of grace, losing command of technology and magic they once utilized, and remembering their place as kings of the land only in legend and story.

You can check out the entire Jotun article on the official ArenaNet Blog

All-in-all ArenaNet appears to gearing up for what should prove to be a pretty epic Guild Wars 2 release.  The developer is promising big things in its upcoming MMO, and many players are excited to see if they can deliver on those promises.  The Year of the Dragon could very well turn out to be a huge one for ArenaNet.

Funcom has unveiled some new information on its upcoming MMO, The Secret World.  MMORPG.com has an article up showing off some screen shots as well as a bit of the story of the Blue Mountain preview.

Players must explore Blue Mountain and attempt to set right the abuse of Nature and fight the evil that has come as a result.  Working with the Wabanaki Indians you must travel into the afterlife and face the demons that dwell there.

Funcom has also released a creepy preview video for the zone which shows off some of the locations and creatures found there.

As of May 1st, 2012, the wait will be over, and Tera will be launching in Europe and North America.  The game will be available in both a standard and collector’s edition, with details of each coming in February.

There will be a series of alpha and beta tests leading up to launch, and you can sign up to help test the game over on the official sign-up page.  The process is quick and easy.

As we head towards official launch more and more information is sure to begin making its way out.

Starting Thursday January 19th, and running through Sunday the 22nd, Trion is letting players new and old play Rift for free as a special weekend event promotion.

Former subscribers will also be able to pick up some veteran rewards depending on the amount of time they spent subscribed to the game.

I have already logged in and I had complete access to all my characters, including the max level ones, so it looks like you will be able to freely explore everything your heart desires.

Head over to the official site to download the client.

Be sure to check out our Initial Impressions article posted yesterday, as well as the First Look Video below, and be prepared for the strange new worlds you are about to encounter.

Like many free-to-play games, there is the opportunity for a parent to upgrade membership to a premium account. It is not entirely clear what the free-to-play membership features, however, pay-to-play accounts will have access to events, unlimited friends, greater character customization opportunities and more. The Web site, curiously, does not readily list the cost for pay-to-play, either.

This storyline will begin in January 2012, and will be free and fully available to VIP account holders.

The question is, will Statesman wind up really being alive somewhere down the line like other killed-off comic book heroes?

Do you play City of Heroes/City of Villains? How do you feel about the loss of Statesman?

In the last few months the lands in Atreia have become more and more deserted. We want to reinvigorate the world of Aion and attract new adventurers to the towns to take to the skies as Daevas.

Aion players will not be affected by this change of service and change in publisher. At this time, you’ll still have to pay-to-play and admire your wings.

Are you an Aion player? How do you feel about the change of service, and how it affects only European players?

The Borg are taking advantage of all the new releases happening on Tribble, and a distracted player base, to launch a full scale invasion of the planet Defera! Both Starfleet and the Klingon Defense Force have responded by sending officers to the planet in an attempt to prevent the Borg from fully assimilating the world and the knowledge it contains.

The Defera Invasion zone is a new event that pits players against the Borg in different situations scattered throughout the planet’s vast and varied landscape. There are four different areas of conflict on the map, each with its own range of difficulties. Missions vary in difficulty from solo play to requiring a 5 member team to succeed.

The event also contents new drops, mission rewards, and craftable items. To access the event zone, simply head to either the Defera Visitors Center or Defera System in the Deferi Sector of the Orellius Sector Block during mission hours. If an event is not running, you can still access the area’s crafting vendors and roam the zone freely. The event will run for two hours every four hours while it’s in testing.

Are you going to check out this new Borg event?

Bigpoint expects to add more beta account accesses to players as the closed beta progresses. To sign up for beta, hit the big red “Sign Up” button, located on The Mummy Online’s Web site.

We decided to let all our players [experience] unlimited gaming until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features some of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players”, said Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios.

Meanwhile Earthrise will be used as a test for the new free-2-play model and Masthead will limit the creation of new accounts. Invitations will be sent to selected new players and a new sign-up option will be provided. All existing subscribers will receive a number of invitations to bring their friends in the game.

Last August, Masthead dropped the monthly fee for Earthrise by a whopping 60%.

The wealth distribution is a huge topic in the real world. Both countries that I’ve lived in, the US and China, are teeming with its fair share of problems. Luckily one demographer/World of Warcraft enthusiast conducted a survey about the income inequality within Azeroth.

The results of his survey of nearly 2,500 players—with an admittedly great margin of error—is that the wealthiest one percent in the game control 24.25 percent of its gold.

In America, the figure is around the richest 1 percent have 40 percent of the wealth, which would seem to be a greater disparity. However, the lower 75 percent of World of Warcraft players control just 14 percent of the game’s gold. That leads the survey taker to conclude that:

The whole ingame economic system is an extremely top-heavy one, leaving large sums of gold sitting idle in the top players pockets kept isolated from contributing to the economy, which is especially detrimental if one considers that a server economy is the simple flow of gold and materials. One can argue however that by holding such large sums of gold such players can more easily influence and correct markets, keep inflation in check by keeping the sums of gold out of the hands of the masses, and provide buyers for big ticket items such as TCG Mounts.

The Golden Survey, the name of the blog who conducted the survey, wouldn’t be the first person or team who used MMO’s as a test subject for behavior. LiveScience is another team who does exactly the same thing and their results are interesting every time.

If you’re curious about more information, the link below has great facts to peruse over while stroking your beard and making that thinking noise you always do. Don’t deny it.

Source (via The Wow Insider)