That unnamed update that's slated to release somewhere between March 18th and March 31st on the Star Trek Online Release Calendar? Yeah. It's got a name now.

IGN is reporting on the announcement of Season 1: Common Ground, Star Trek Online's first major content update. Common Ground will include: a trio of Lifetime Subscriber bonuses, Federation vs. Federation PvP, a new ground PvP scenario, new character customization options including off-duty uniforms, new Klingon ships and Klingon ship customization options, new fleet actions, new skills, and additions to the C-Store including new bridge and Federation ship variants.

Phew! 

Get the full details over at IGN.

[Thanks Thorgrimm for the tip!]

The APB Video Podcast series continues with episode #17. This latest entry to the podcast series features APB Audio Lead Roland Peddie answering questions from the community regarding the in-game music creator.

Watch the video here.

CCP Games has licensed Unreal Engine 3 to power DUST 514, the console FPS tie-in to their wildly successful sci-fi MMOG EVE Online.

CCP has also announced that they have entered a joint-development agreement with Geomerics to integrate their Enlighten real-time radiosity lighting tech with Unreal technology.

View the full press release here.

[Thanks Kost for the tip!]

Gala-Net has announced that the Open Beta for Aika will begin next Tuesday, March 16th! All six classes will be available in the beta, along with all content from levels 1-50, a full range of PvP options, and a player-run political system.

Additional details below:

New and returning Aika fans will be able to access a regular lineup of the exciting PvP events introduced during CB. Invading nations continuously attempt to steal valuable relics from their rivals in 1000 vs. 1000 battles, while weekly Castle Sieges pit guild against guild in a bloody struggle for political dominance. A diverse range of class-specific riding mounts will be accessible to players starting from level 40, from the Warrior's war hamster to the Dual Gunner's hoverbike.

Players will also be able to benefit from an expanded Arcan economy by buying and selling rare items across all five nations through the auction house.

Sign up for the beta test here.

This week's Friday Update adds yet another planet to the roster of planets that will be featured in Star Wars: The Old Republic, bringing the new total to a whopping 11 planets.

The newest addition is the glacial world of Belsavis, a prison-world  housing some of the galaxy's most dangerous Sith Lords, Mandalorians and vicious aliens. A Republic world, the Empire has recently discovered Belsavis'  existence and seeks to liberate its allies from Republic imprisonment.

Check out Belsavis' HoloNet entry here.

In addition to the new planet, BioWare has also announced a new webcomic entitled "Blood of the Empire." BioWare has teamed up with Dark Horse comics once again to publish this new webcomic series, which will feature a new perspective and a strong character-driven story written by BioWare's Senior Writer Alexander Freed.

View a sneak peek of the new webcomic here.

Looking to celebrate the success of the Allods Online Open Beta test, gPotato has released an official trailer for their free-to-play MMORPG Allods Online.

Watch the trailer here.

The folks at Massively spoke to Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich at this year's Game Developers Conference and managed to score some tasty information: new playable factions will be coming to Star Trek Online this year.

So what factions are coming? They aren't sure yet, though Craig does admit many of the development team are interested in introducing Romulans to the game:

There's a huge amount of the dev team right now interested in doing Romulan. I think the Borg would be really interesting as just something totally different, totally different gameplay. There are a lot of really cool mechanics, a lot of really cool things you can do there. Really, if you're in the MMO for the long haul, there are going to be a lot more playable factions, you can't stop with those two. There's Jem'Hadar, you're going to be going to the Dominion, there's Cardassians [...] so many playable factions that we can and will be releasing with the game.

Craig also dated the next major update for Star Trek Online for this July, which will be followed by yet another large update possibly around November.

Via Massively.

[Thanks Eric M. for the tip!]

Yesterday, we reported on FFXIVCore's bonanza of FFXIV information revealed in this month's issue of Famitsu. That post has since been updated with info on several more classes as well as the game's battle theme. FFXIVCore has also posted a translation of a lengthy interview from Japanese magazine Dengeki on FFXIV.

Image Credit: FFXIVCore

The interview discusses a number of general game mechanics, with one notable highlight being the strong emphasis on distance, range, and direction in battle:

Q: About how many people make up your average party? Do alliances exist?

A: The average party will probably be between six and eight people, but there are many flexible ways to adventure where you can go out with more or less people than that, and even play solo. Of course, we also have something like alliances in the works. Battles are planned to be party-versus-party oriented. Battles are not so much focused on dealing direct damage as they are on finding the right position to attack from for the best attacks. First, you’ll have to find the best distance and method of attack, and then the trick will be to keep that positioning. This is important not just for damage and accuracy, but also for certain attack effects (like the pole arms ability to stop an enemy’s movement) and other things in battle. Also, and this is true especially for the magic classes, but there are many skill and spells that have special types of effect areas (like the conjurers’ circle and the thaumaturges’ cone). Not only that, but the position of the focus of the effect, be it yourself or another target, also becomes important. Furthermore, direction is also a factor. Hitting the enemy’s blind spot, calling an enemy’s attention to a certain direction, and other things will all have an effect on the battle. “Distance,” “range,” and “direction” are the most important themes in battle in FFXIV, and intermediate to advanced players will always want to have these things in mind.

Information on the alpha and beta test was also revealed, and many of the classes were the subject of several smaller Q&A's.

Check out the information overload over at FFXIVCore.

TQ Digital has announced that Conquer Online will see the release of its third expansion this April, coinciding with the game's 7th year anniversary.

The team at TQ Digital solicited players for their input on what they'd like to see in the game during the game's 2010 New Year's Resolution event, and the "Legends Return" expansion is the result of that feedback. The new expansion contains a new skill system, high end loot, new guild wars, a number of new dungeons and quests, a new Monk class, and more!

Legends Return is going to be released in several chapters, the first of which, Shadow of Darkness, will be released in April.

Details below:

In Chapter 1, the first release of the Legends Return expansion, the Shadow of Darkness will throw players into an age of chaos and destruction. An ancient legend has told of special sub-classes that will be recovered when evil befalls the land, and now that prophecy has been fulfilled. New skills and fabled weapons were recently unearthed by thieves, but their blind lust for gold has seen them unwittingly help an incredibly powerful, unspeakably evil demon rise from the very pits of hell.

For more information on Conquer Online visit the game's official site here.

We've got a number of new screenshots of En Masse Entertainment's TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea straight out of GDC 2010!

Check out the new shots in our TERA gallery.

MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh spoke to Free Realms' Lead Animator Floyd Bishop in this latest interview discussing the challenges and benefits of animating a game targeted at children.

In the second of this series of interviews with SOE developers, about the differences in designing for adults and children, we speak with Floyd Bishop, a Senior Artist working on Free Realms and its lead animator. Floyd has over ten years of experience as an animator, having worked in film, television, commercials, and games, and I was curious to know what he had worked on and how different it was.

“I was a character animator for the first Ice Age movie and also for many commercials,” said Floyd. “With BottleRocket Entertainment, I was animating for a mature title where the ‘Wow factor’ was how visceral we could make the disemboweling but with Free Realms, our ‘Wow factor’ is all about the funniest pet tricks.”

Read the full interview here.

MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood reports on a lecture at this year's Game Developers Conference given by EVE Online's Lead Economist Dr. Eyjo on how CCP fights RMT in EVE Online.

The Game Developers Conference always gives reporters like those of us at MMORPG.com the opportunity to meet up with a large number of developers at the same time to conduct interviews and take part in demonstrations. So much so that we occasionally lose scope on the fact that this show is actually about developers getting together to share their successes and failures with one another all in the hopes of making the games industry that much stronger.

It is with that in mind that we sat in on a lecture given by EVE Online’s Lead Economist, affectionately known as Dr. Eyjo. While we’re most used to hearing the good doctor (PhD, not MD) talk directly about the game’s economy, today he was talking about Real Money Traders and the various strategies that CCP has been using to combat them.

Read GDC 2010: Fighting RMT.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller got a look at En Masse Entertainment's action packed MMOG TERA at this year's Game Developers Conference and reports back with the details in the this first look preview.

This week at GDC we got a chance to see En Masse Entertainment’s newest AAA MMO TERA. The game has been known for a while and is currently in its third closed beta in Korea. It is currently being worked on to bring over to the Western audience as well. TERA is a new subscription based MMO that offers lush graphics and intense action MMO gameplay. The core development team previously worked on Lineage II, and with TERA they are seeking to develop an MMO that can crossover and bridge the gap between Eastern and Western tastes.

Read the full preview here.

Player Perspectives columnist Jaime Skelton writes this latest article looking back on the history of GM interactions with players and how they can no longer be as cool as they once were.

GMs used to be cool. I don't mean that the current GMs across the world of MMOs are all dull, lifeless drones in small cubicles with no love for gaming. I mean that, in the majority of cases, game masters have been stripped of the ability to have fun and do the things that players can love them for. While the people behind the specially marked names may be awesome gamers, often they must suppress their inner geek and put on a suit of cold professionalism.

It didn't used to be this way. There were days when GMs were generally loved by a server's populace because the greatest among them were able to do great, fun things for their server's and game's community. GMs had the ability to run in-game events unsupervised, the ability to teleport at will, to chat with players outside of problem solving, to have a public presence to let their personalities shine and offer a new dimension to the game. There were, of course, the spoil-sports of the GM world: the cold professionals who played by the rules and wanted nothing to do with “the customers.” There were many more, however, who made names for themselves.

Read I Can't Be Cool.

MMORPG.com is pleased to present a new feature at our ever expanding website - the Allods Online game DB! We have partnered with Playata to bring our Allods fans an up to date game database for this title. If our community like this new addition we will look forward to adding more games in the future!

You can check out the new item database at this link.  Also note that you can quickly find this in our new network bar located at the top of all pages!

MMORPG.com is working with Eudemons Online to give away 4000 Beginner Package keys. These keys are just for new registered players. So don’t hesitate and get your gift package today!

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE BEGINNER PACKAGE KEY!

Massively.com is reporting that Alganon's David Allen has parted ways with Quest Online and is no longer involved with the game. Allen has been replaced by the often controversial creator of the Battlecruiser 3000AD series, Derek Smart.

As Massively notes, this departure comes hot on the heels of the announcement that Alganon will be going free-to-play, something Mr. Allen has stated in the past would never happen. Perhaps there is some correlation. Alas, we will likely never know.

Alganon is still in a "soft launch" phase with the full official launch set for mid-April.

Via Massively.

[Thanks Christopher8 for the tip!]

UPDATE: Ok. I guess I was wrong. We will know indeed! Derek Smart has pulled no punches, opening up on the situation  in an absolutely scathing (and candid) post made to the official Alganon forums.

Smart kicks things off by correcting the record, stating quite clearly that David Allen did not leave Quest Online, he was in fact fired due to insubordination. Smart also discusses a number of issues at length, including the fact he also fired Allen's "longtime buddy" Jason Blood, and admits that the December 1st release date was a mistake.

Smart then switches course to shower his team with praise and reveals a number of quite dramatic plans for Alganon's future.

First on the agenda, is getting rid of the "WoW look-a-like" style of the game. Smart doesn't shy away from the comparisons, instead he tackles them head on and states he plainly told the team to throw it out and work towards a unique look for Alganon and Alganon's UI. Smart admits that Quest Online doesn't have the budget to take on WoW, so instead of doing that (as apparently David Allen insisted on) they are going to be going their own way.

Indeed, Smart is brutally realistic and claims they aren't interested in "meelions" of players, even though they would absolutely love that, they are happy with working to create a game that they can carve their own niche out with.

Smart also mentions the recent announcement that the game would be going free-to-play, and that players will be receiving a full refund for all their subscription payments. An e-mail address will be setup in the near future to facilitate refund requests.

Finally, Smart reveals that everything that has been added to the game has now been disabled and he has the team working full bore on fixing the game up. The April 8th launch is still set, but only if the team can get the game into an acceptable state by then, which includes getting a number of critical elements and features in place, as well as  the aforementioned UI changes.

Even if the game does not fully launch on April 8th, it will continue to run subscription free with patches pushed out for players to put through the paces.

In the end, even Derek Smart admits he doesn't know what the future holds for Alganon, or whether the game can even recover its footing after all that's transpired, but he states that he and his team are determined to take the game all the way with what they have and find out.

Read the full post here.

[Thanks Kost!]

SteveManly over at FFXIVCore has come across a cornucopia of information and images of Final Fantasy XIV from this month's issue of Famitsu.

Image Credit: FFXIVCore

An interview with Square Enix's battle director Atsushi Okada and planners Sei Sato and Kenichi Iwao discusses a number of topics ranging from the role of elements in FFXIV, to the importance of distance in combat,  to how MP replenishment will work.

There is also a breakdown of a number of the game's Jobs including descriptions of their abilities and comments from the developers themselves. The jobs outlined include: Conjurer, Thaumaturge, Blacksmith, Miner, Pugilist and Archer.

Screenshots from the VanaFest 2010 opening trailer are also available, but what is most interesting is a single in-game screenshot that also features the game UI.

Get the full details over at FFXIVCore.

This week’s Community Spotlight focuses on the thread “Sooo… The Future for MMO’s? – 5 Things you would like to see” by Breezeycouk. Breezeycouk’s thread is an attempt to channel a lot of the dissatisfaction and negativity many of us are feeling into a positive discussion on what five things you would like to see in future MMOGs.

Read Community Spotlight: Five Things You'd Like to See.