Electronic Arts blew the doors open on Need for Speed World today. Need for Speed World is, of course, their upcoming MMO racer based on the Need for Speed IP.

Need for Speed World will feature single & co-op racing (teams) and even "epic online pursuits." We're not sure what that last one means yet, but it certainly sounds interesting.

The game's website is replete with new screenshots, as well as a trailer. But we know what you're really after -- beta! And EA doesn't support here, as you can also sign up for beta beginning today! What're you waiting for? Start your engines!

View the original announcement here. You can view the new trailer here.

MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy counts down five popular miconceptions about MMORPGs, from the obvious to the slightly more subtle.

#5 They're Just for Geeks

Whenever I'm in a new social situation and someone asks me about what I do for a living I tell them about my job with the Department of Veterans Affairs, to which they applaud me for helping our country's vets. When I add that I also write videogame-based articles for a site devoted to MMORPGs I get blank stares mixed with wary looks of "But-he-seemed-so-normal."

One of the most common misconceptions, and one that gamers in general still face (though admittedly less these days) is that MMOs are filled with only the most socially inept and maladapted people on the planet. It wasn't long ago that simply being above the age of twelve and enjoying videogames instantly labeled you a reject of society. Slowly but surely gaming is moving into the mainstream as "Geek Culture" takes center stage in the American mainstream. But for some reason MMORPG is still an acronym that many people seem to associate with basement-dwelling and eternally virginal loner.

Read Five MMO Misconceptions.

MMORPG.com's Jon Wood recently sat in on an introductory demo of the upcoming MMORPG from Nexon, Vindictus. Vindictus is perhaps better known as Mabinogi Heroes to players in the East.

At the 2010 Game Developers Conference, we had the chance to meet up with Min Kim from Nexon to get a look at the next product that the company is planning to bring to the North American market. What we saw was certainly outside of the norm for games developed in the East and then brought over to the Western Market.

The game, where it was originally developed, was known as Mabinogi Heroes, a prequel to the last game that the people over at Nexon localized for our market, Mabinogi and while it may be in the same family as its predecessor this upcoming game, titled Vindictus, departs significantly in both presentation and gameplay from what came before. Where the original Mabinogi made use of an anime-like art style that belied its combat based gameplay, Vindictus makes use of a more realistic style to really drive home the game's brutality.

Read the Vindictus First Look Preview.

Nexon announced at this year's GDC that Mabinogi Heroes, their incredibly popular action-MMORPG from Korea, will be getting a Western release in Q4 of this year, however, the game will bear the new title of "Vindictus" here in the West.

Vindictus, which is powered by Valve's Source engine is based in Celtic mythology and focuses on action-packed gameplay, teamwork, and even features interaction and weaponization of the environment. Ever wanted to beat the crap out of a Yeti with a vase? Well, you can.

Vindictus also features some cloth physics, which are sure to encourage players of female characters to get hit often, as clothes will rip and tear revealing more of the characters skin.

Want to see Vindictus for yourself? Check out the game's debut trailer from GDC here!

Have any of you played Mabinogi Heroes? If so, let us know what you thought of the game in the comments below!

Hi-Rez Studios will be releasing update 1.2 for Global Agenda today, which includes city chat, 4v4 Arena queues, Theft missions, a No Facility mission type, as well as a number of tweaks and adjustments to game rules and various maps.

Theft missions are described as missions designed for groups who either have as much territory as they want to defend or for groups who have no territory in a particular zone yet still want to help their Agency. The missions are launched through the bid window, just as capture missions currently work.  A successful Theft mission grants an immediate reward to the attackers and shuts down the attacked facility for 15 minutes. Theft missions will feature the Payload game type as opposed to the typical Breach type, and Hi-Rez Studios has said they will be developing a unique game type for Theft missions in the future.

There are a few caveats, however. While thievery will be rewarding, it won't be as rewarding as actually holding territory, as some items cannot be stolen and must be produced in a facility.

Defense facilities will also be introduced to the game in version 1.2, basically serving as a supplemental defense to typical base shields as a discrete facility that can protect up to two adjacent territories.

Looking ahead, version 1.3 was also mentioned in a recent blog entry highlighting the 1.2 update, details below:

While Patch 1.2 concentrates primarily on enhancing the existing Global Agenda Conquest gameplay, we are actively working on a Patch 1.3 to be released soon that introduces Mission-based PvE and PvP zones, in addition to even more AvA enhancements.

• With the introduction of Open Zones you will be able to step outside of Dome City into the Desert as a solo player or in teams as large as 10 people
• While in the Open Zone you will see and interact with many other teams; each team pursuing an assigned mission goal within that same, very large environment area.
• Our first themed Open Zone is set in the Sonoran Desert. You will interact with the brutish Desert Dweller element of the Commonwealth; and encounter robotic enemies manufactured by the nearby Recursive Colony.
• Update 1.3 will include both a safe PvE zone and an entirely different PvP oriented zone. We are pretty excited about both!
   

View the full patch notes for additional information on the numerous AvA changes in 1.2, as well as details on the new 4v4 Arena queue and city chat features.

Cryptic Studios has announced special "Thank You" perks for Lifetime Subscribers of Champions Online. The new perks, which will be released later this month, include: an exclusive in-game chat channel, front-of-queue support, an in-game title, an in-game VIP lounge, and a unique costume piece.

The front-of-queue support is perhaps the most interesting benefit, as it will allow lifetime subscribers to jump to the front of the queue if they encounter queues when attempting to log in.

View the original announcement here.

[Thanks Christopher8 for the tip!]

MMORPG.com's Justin Webb returns to his regular column day with this look at making players feel more heroic in MMOs.

I wrote a bit yesterday about R.A. Salvatore’s talk at GDC. A portion of his talk was about player death and the teasing of the Well of Souls feature. However, Bob also had a lot to say about making players feel like heroes. Since he created one of fantasy’s most enduring heroes, he assuredly knows what he’s talking about.

A lot of Bob’s talk centered around heroic events that he experienced as a player in Everquest. He gave one hilarious anecdote concerning a well-timed use of Supernova in the Estate of Unrest during a twink run that had a lot of the old timers in the audience mumbling in agreement and stroking their beards.

He put forward the argument that a harsh death penalty; a big hard-to-navigate world; challenging content; and a bunch of good friends can all help lead to a world where “heroic moments” can occur. And that it is absolutely vital for the player to feel like a hero when playing a game.

Read Nobody Wants to be the Janitor on the Death Star.

While at the 2010 Game Developers Conference, MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller got a look at the new iPhone app being developed by Icarus Studios as a companion to their post-apocalyptic MMORPG, Fallen Earth.

Many MMOs are starting to bring their games into other spaces. While forums have always been around for us players who were stuck at work all day and still want to engage in some kind of activity related to our game. Fallen Earth, however, is taking game play to a new level with its newly announced iPhone application. WoW has its Armory, but that is nothing compared to what the guys at Fallen Earth are doing with their application.

Icarus Studios is still deciding on a price for their app, but after seeing the demo, it will be worth the money for any player to download. In terms of functionality, it's simple and moves you quickly through its steps. The best part is that everything you do with the app, you do in game. No other MMO has anything like this and we were shocked by how much game play you could accomplish with this device. The iPhone app is already hooked into the live game when you launch it. You have access to your character, equipment, in game chat, auction house, crafting system, and even maps.

Read Introducting the iPhone App.

Cover art for the first official Star Trek Online novel, The Needs of the Many, has surfaced. Check it out below!

Additional details on the novel are available below:

Product Details

Pocket, March 2010

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

ISBN-10: 143918657X

ISBN-13: 9781439186572

Description:

Prior to the terror-filled times of the Long War—the seemingly endless struggle against the Undine, a paranoid, shape-shifting race once known only as Species 8472—enemy sleeper agents quietly penetrated every echelon of Federation society, as well as other starfaring civilizations throughout the Alpha and Beta quadrants. The ensuing conflict shook humanity to its very core, often placing its highest ideals against a pure survival instinct. All too frequently, the Undine War demanded the harshest of sacrifices and exacted the steepest of personal costs from the countless millions whose lives the great interdimensional clash forever altered.

Drawn from his exhaustive research and interviews, The Needs of the Many delivers a glimpse of Betar Prize–winning author Jake Sisko’s comprehensive "living history" of this tumultuous era. With collaborator Michael A. Martin, Sisko illuminates an often-poorly-understood time, an age marked indelibly by both fear and courage—not to mention the willingness of multitudes of unsung heroes who became the living embodiment of the ancient Vulcan philosopher Surak’s famous axiom, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Pre-Orders are available at Amazon, as well as several other booksellers.

[Thanks Thorgrimm for the tip!]

The latest State of the Game letter for Star Trek Online is now available. In the letter, Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich discusses the recent release of Special Task Force: Infected, Engineering Reports, the newly announced Season 1: Common Ground update, the launch of the Tribble test server, and some details on Cryptic Studios' plans for increased transparency with players going forward.

Read the full letter here.

[Thanks Kost for the tip!]

Some pretty exciting news for Mortal Online fans today! StarVault has announced that Mortal Online is set to launch sometime this month.

The StarVault team does acknowledge there are still some desync issues to work on, which they've got the folks at Epic Games hammering on to fix (Mortal Online runs on Unreal Engine 3). The solution for the desync issues is as expected as soon as next week.

To drum up even more excitement, StarVault has also released a new trailer (the second in the Beta trailer series) which you can view here.

MMO Champion has discovered some new information on Cataclysm from the April edition of PC Gamer, as well as a few scattered Blue posts.

SHOW SPOILERS - so consider yourself warned!

Warchief of the Horde

• Thrall will become the next Guardian of Tirisfal. However, Thrall will merely 'leave Garrosh in charge' though this does not stop Garrosh from declaring war on the Alliance and fortifying Horde outposts and cities.

Inner-Horde relations

• After assuming command of the Horde, Garrosh labels Cairne a traitor and executes the Tauren Leader. However, this does not seem to be the end of his involvement in Cataclysm and his seeming demise is linked to the greener, lusher Desolace.
• Garrosh will throw out most of the Blood Elves and Forsaken from Orgrimmar.

Deepholme

• It is possible that the Alliance and Horde will be involved in a major battle within Deepholm.
• Airships will battle in the gigantic caverns al a Icecrown style.
• The area will also cater for flying mounts.

Raids and Dungeons

• Cataclysm will ship with 8 Heroic Dungeons (not including Deadmines and Shadowfang) and 4 Raid encounters.
• The Skywall will contain a raid with Al'Akir as the end boss.
• Grim Batol and Uldum raid will patched in post-launch.

Other

• Harrison Jones has returned with his friends and is linked to the Archaeology profession.
• One of the new features included in the guild interface/mechanics system is a Looking For Guild function.

Also revealed in the MMO Champion report are a number of details directly from Blue posts, such as information on Frozen Orb need/greed rolls in 3.3, low level talents in Cataclysm, tanks and Stamina, and 1v1 Healer vs. DPS balancing.

Get all the details over at MMO Champion.

[Thanks greed0104 for the tip!]

Cryptic Studios has sent over a number of new screenshots featuring several of the new characters players will encounter in Vibora Bay when Champions Online's first mini-expansion "Revelation" goes live later this month.

A brief overview of the new characters is available below:

Guy Sweetland: At his restaurant in Vibora Bay, Guy Sweetland makes the best cheval steak you’ve ever had. Anyone you meet will tell you he’s also a mobster, not that most of them have proof. Some will tell you he’s a werewolf, although most are too afraid to say anything. A few people will also tell you that he consorts with demons, which isn’t precisely accurate - More like a fallen angel. He is a powerful man looking for more power. If that means hurting other people, he doesn’t have a problem with that.

Black Mask: She is the first woman to pick up the mantle of the Black Mask. Jennifer Ward was the only child of the prior Black Mask. Her father was reluctant to train her; he wanted to keep his little girl safe. But Jennifer wasn’t about to give up her quest to become a part of the family legacy. Eventually, her father gave in. Since his retirement she has worked tirelessly to protect her chosen city, Vibora Bay. She’s a well trained martial artist with a keen analytical mind. If she has to, she’ll use weapons to defend herself, but she prefers to use her intelligence to defeat her enemies.

Baron Cimetiere: He is the leader of the street gang known as the Sovereign Sons, a voodoo priest in his own right, and a very dangerous man. He uses his power to strengthen the Sons, expanding their ranks – some whisper – with his zombie servants. What few know is that he has become little more than a shell for the Loa, powerful spirits, who ride him for their own purposes.

Juryrig: Juryrig is a mechanical genius. He can build almost anything and do it even with limited resources. He’s also a bit of a prankster. He gets a kick out of capturing bad guys and making them look ridiculous at the same time. While he doesn’t have the same kind of physical prowess as the Black Mask, or magical ability as Dr. Ka, he’s determined and inventive. He has a particular vendetta against VIPER; they stole one of his earliest inventions and used it to commit crimes. He’ll do almost anything to spike their guns.

Check out the new shots in our Champions Online gallery. Also, be sure to visit the official "Revelation" mini-site here for more information on the expansion.

The team at Fallen Earth have announced a new Facebook application for their post-apocalyptic MMORPG. Dubbed "Faction Wars," the application will allow players to choose a character from one of the game's six factions in order to fight over nine active conflict towns.

Some additional details below:

Much like in the Fallen Earth MMO, players will have the ability collect crafting components by running missions, which can then be used to build items for use in PvP. Players will also gain experience and "Faction Points" by leveling and completing achievement challenges and milestones, all of which provide an advantage and may influence town control.

Players may engage in an easy, one-click version of player-versus-player combat with other Facebook friends and players -- each win will earn town influence for that player’s faction while simultaneously taking points from the opponent’s faction.

View the original announcement here.

Frogster has announced the development of a new Facebook game called "Runes of Magic - The Challenge," which is as you would guess, based in the Runes of Magic universe. The game will feature tie-ins to the full fledged MMORPG as well, as players will be able to earn special cards that grant rewards in the MMORPG.

"Runes of Magic - The Challenge" is being produced by Frogster America and developed by Mothership Interactive, Inc. Look for it in the second quarter of 2010.

In the shorter term, Frogster will be implementing a "Facebook Connect" feature, that will allow players find their Runes of Magic friends on Facebook, as well as view their non-Runes of Magic playing friends on the official Runes of Magic website, with the ability to invite them to the full game.

Visit the official Runes of Magic website for more information on the game.

MMORPG.com's Richard Aihoshi returns to his Free Zone column this week to talk about three concepts or perceptions about the F2P side of the industry that may not be as true as we think they are.

Last week's column occasioned some responses that ran contrary to my opinion that relatively few people realize the first 12 words in Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", do not comprise the novel's entire opening sentence. For instance, one reader contended in the comments thread that I'd be surprised how many are familiar with the larger context. Frankly, I hope my assessment was inaccurate. It would be great if a major proportion of the general population or even of the online gaming audience is well read enough to know this.

In any case, I got to thinking about some things within the MMOG space and the free to play sector that, at least in my opinion, fall short of being universally known or even common knowledge.

Read Free Zone: Who'da Thunk It?

Dragon Master Evan, the latest character to hit MapleStory is now available! Evan is an interesting character, because as you'd expect he is a dragon master, and so he fights alongside his own dragon, Mir.

Find out more about Dragon Master Evan here.

Today, MMORPG.com is pleased to present these new Trooper class screenshots from Bioware's upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: the Old Republic.

Check out the Trooper Screenshots.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently had the opportunity to test drive the Trooper class in Bioware's upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO.

During this year's GDC I got a chance to head out to the super secret LucasArts headquarters for a sit down and demo of their much-anticipated upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. We have interviews and further coverage coming later, but for now, we wanted to give you a look into the game from the player's point of view. Being that the demo time was short and only the Trooper class was available for play at the moment, I'll do my best to give you a feel of the game and talk about some of the abilities the Trooper showed off while blasting away at thugs in Ord Mandell.

The characters we were given for the demo were already specced out and equipped with some pretty good gear. We were not max level by any means, and started by running around on the planet of Ord Mandell. The customization options must be widely varied, because my Trooper looked like he ate one too many burgers while sitting in some intergalatic diner.

Read GDC 2010: Hands On With The Trooper.