We've already introduced you to the Druids and Scion of Set, and so as to keep the ball rolling (or so they say), we're gonna let you have a meet-and-greet of sorts with even more characters you'll encounter in Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Item customization's the "in" thing in MMORPGs these days, and in their next free expansion, City of Heroes (and City of Villains, of course) will also be implementing their own crafting system.

Writing for Gamastura, freelance writer Emily Balistrieri has a lengthy run-down on the biggest party of the year for Final Fantasy XI fans: Fan Fest. She offers up two features for the price of one. Here is also a very interesting mmorpg game called Warhammer Online.

Arden, the MMO supposedly based around "the world of William Shakespeare," has been released... kind of. I've been waiting for this one for a while-- who wouldn't want to walk the halls of Kronborg Castle with Hamlet, or visit Banquo's banquet with MacBeth?

The connection between the country of China and online gaming has been a running theme in recent years, with the negative press of 'farmers' outweighing the news of enthusiastic investments by regional businesses.

Oh, Halloween -- that one time of the year when it's almost completely socially acceptable in most circles for grown men and women to dress up as goofy fantasy characters. We're not knocking cosplay or LARPing, we're just saying ... if you're gonna do it, October 31st is the best time.

The most defining characteristic of a massively multiplayer online game is the very fact that it's massively multiplayer. Until the advent of the MMOG (and yes, I'm including MUDs as MMOGs) playing video games was either a solitary experience or one you experienced with a few existing friends.

German Lord of the Rings Online site, Lotro-welten, held their last monthly LotRO dev chat on Friday. Unlike some previous dev chats, this one had some juicy bits.

I should probably start this week's column by apologizing for missing last week. I won't, but I probably should. In the game of Final Fantasy XI, making Final Fantasy XI Gil is necessary.

Ahh, Ered Luin. Not a bad harvesting zone, not really a good one either -- just average. The next in the series of the Lord of the Rings Online resource guides at TenTonHammer examines the fairly ordinary Ered Luin.