Now that the Guild Wars 2 Live Story is moving on with the arrival of The Secret of Southsun, we wanted to give the new content an in depth look. See what we think before leaving your impressions of Southsun in the comments.

Dynamic events have always littered the island of Southsun Cove.  But new ones have been added to help expand on the new event’s story.  You’ll see some riots break out, and things get pretty crazy.  You’ll have to hold refugees back from causing mischief.  I felt bad beating them up.  These new events are far too few.  While Crab Toss will add some life to the event, I felt like the refugees and consortium would butt heads way more than what we see. The build it made it sound like things were way worse than they are. 

Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: Uncovering the Secret of Southsun.

If nothing else, your character might enjoy relaxing on the beach.

The next World of Warcraft patch is looming large on the horizon with tons of new information released about it recently. In our latest WoW Factor, we take a deeper look at what v5.3: Escalation will mean for players. Check it out and then leave us your thoughts about the next update in the comments.

Whether you fight for the Alliance or the Horde the objective for both factions remains the same: Remove Garrosh from his seat of power in Orgrimmar. The Barrens in Kalimdor serve as the focus of a new set of daily and weekly quests where those who have not sided with Garrosh will make preparations for the inevitable assault on the heavily fortified Horde city. In the Northern Barrens, a weekly quest will have players hunting for four different resources: oil, wood, meat and stone. These resources can be found in various locations including the Caravan Escort missions that I discussed in my last 5.3 preview article. 

Read more of Reza Lackey's The WoW Factor: A Deep Look at Patch 5.3.

Redbana is releasing new content for Granado Espada at a fast rate during the month of May. Players can look forward to new quests, new weapons, and the new Bloody Navy Mission raid.

New 35 AR Weapons

Breaking the attack rating (AR) plateau with the new 3 new 35 AR weapons, this May update will introduce these highly coveted items as craftable items - a must for all harcore gamers. Players can now prowl the maps of Kielce for new recipes and materials to produce the new and powerful Masterpiece Series.

Find out more on the Granado Espada Online site.

ArenaNet has announced that after eight years, active development on its flagship title, Guild Wars, has officially ended. From here on out, the Automated Tournament System will kick in, as well as an automated map rotation system.

You've already seen changes to support automation rolled out to our festival content, but to recap, major festivals now use tokens that players can redeem for one of the special items the event offers. Players are only allowed to choose one, but the choice allows newer players a chance to get items they otherwise never would have been able to and allows longtime players the opportunity to complete their collections. We'll be making changes along these lines to our remaining celebrations, so that the entire year's worth of festivals will run seamlessly.

In conjunction with this, we've also changed the distribution of birthday presents. Characters celebrating eight or more years in Tyria now get a token that they can then trade in for one of the gift boxes from any of the previous years. The distribution rates for the miniatures remain the same, but players can now target their favorite era every time a new year rolls around.

With these changes, Guild Wars will be more streamlined and self-supporting than ever, traits that will enable the game to be enjoyed for years to come.             

Read the full post on the Guild Wars site.

ArenaNet has released a brand new Guild Wars 2 video that features and in-depth look at The Consortium and how its own brand of licentiousness will lead to big trouble on Southsun Cove later this month. Enjoy!

UPDATE: According to information we have received from Trion Worlds, no employees were "escorted out" of the building and all executives are receiving severance packages.

Update from IGN: Trion tells us these numbers are "exaggerated," and we've reached out for more information regarding the extent of the layoffs.)

IGN is reporting that Trion employees have been laid off, primarily from the Defiance San Diego team. 

A Trion representative confirmed the layoffs and provided the following statement to IGN:

"To best position Trion in a rapidly changing industry, we have reorganized our teams and are expanding our free to play offering. With Defiance, we delivered a great game that more than one million gamers registered to play and continue to enjoy. As we progress from launch to ongoing development of the game, we are adjusting our staffing levels to deliver new content and improved features. RIFT, and our other titles in development, were unaffected by these changes. We are very much looking forward to the free to play release of RIFT and are excited by the other new titles currently in development."

Read more at IGN.

Gazillion Entertainment has released the first episode in a four-part motion comic that will usher in the release of Marvel Heroes Online. The comic lets players in on the backstory behind Dr. Doom's rise to power.

Mail.ru and Obsidian Entertainment have announced that they have signed a development agreement to bring the Skyforge MMO to life. According to the announcement, the team that created Allods Online will work with Obsidian to bring Skyforge to release in 2014.

"Skyforge is very interesting and promising project and I am glad that Obsidian Entertainment is involved in working on this game." Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said, "I am confident that the cooperation with the Allods Team will be a great experience for all of us."

The Skyforge site is online.

WeGame USA has updated Lost Saga with a huge new patch that includes new a premium character, game map, and game mode. In additon, the Free Pass Community Event has been announced.

Currently in progress, the Free Pass event gives players GP, useful items, and an Event Ticket to claim Legendary Gear from the Event Shop. Logging in on certain days will gain bonus items, and weekend play on the weekends of May 18 and May 25 will garner a 50% boost to GP and EXP.

Find out more at the link above.

The Final Fantasy XIV blog has been updated with a bunch of new screenshots showing off changes in the character customization / creation process based on feedback from the last beta test. 

We've received a two-tonze truckload of feedback on character creation since the alpha test, and from what I saw in today's build, much has changed since then. If you thought there were a lot of options before, wait until you see all the new ways to customize your avatar, including...

An extended hair color palette, plus a plethora of playful tattoos.

Check them all out on the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

RuneScape is one of the oldest and most revered of MMOs in the genre today with a still-active and vibrant community. We took a few minutes to chat with Mark Ogilvie about RuneScape and about MMO design in general. See what he's got to say before continuing the discussion in the comments.

Massively multiplayer online games are hugely popular, but what happened to that last part? The final piece of acronym puzzle that invoked wizard hats, billowing silk robes, and dice beyond count? We caught up with RuneScape lead designer, Mark Ogilvie, to discuss his influences and why the RPG factor is hugely important to Jagex's game.

Read more of Adam Tingle's RuneScape: Mark Ogilvie Talks MMORPG Design.

One of the more common occurences as more games go free to play is to see "soft launches", so-called open betas, where the team can hide behind the beta moniker but simultaneously profit by taking players' money for cash shop items. In his latest column, Bill Murphy takes on this troubling trend. Read on and then tell us what you think in the comments.

I could probably make this a video rant, but in the interest of just getting it all out there, I thought I’d keep it to the old print format that we serfs have dominated since the movable type was invented (thanks, Mr. Gutenberg!). It’s a topic that’s been bothering me quite a bit lately: the idea of “open beta” meaning “we’ll take your money, there will be no wipes, but please don’t call it launch”.  The most recent case of this is of course Neverwinter, but Firefall seems to be doing the same thing (someone can correct me if there will be character wipes there). And it’s been the standard practice of the F2P MMO industry for years now. 

Read more of Bill Murphy's The Beta Is a Lie.

As we continue our journey through Neverwinter, we come to the third installment of our Beta Diary. This week, we take a closer look at the Neverwinter cash shop and game currencies as well as PvP. Check it out before leaving your thoughts in the comments.

Being open beta, this is our, the players’, chance to influence the final release of the game. Constructive criticism is always a good thing in any game and Cryptic has shown willingness to listen to its community. I love Neverwinter. I really, honestly do. But there are things that need to be changed to give it a chance at a long and healthy life and I only bring all these up, because aside from these issues, Neverwinter is a fantastically fun experience.

Read more of Suzie Ford's Neverwinter Open Beta Diary #3.

On the patch release page on the Guild Wars 2 site, a new graphic has cropped up that indicates a new patch will be released on May 28th and will be called "Last Stand at Southsun". No further information is available but we'll keep you posted!

As Funcom's The Secret World nears its first birthday, we decided to take a look back at where the game was at launch and where it is today. See what we have to say before leaving your thoughts in the comments.

I threw myself into The Secret World heavily for the first month the game was out. I spent many hours streaming it on our MMORPG.com stream channel. While the PvP was lacking and turned into a Merry-go-round for control points, and everywhere you looked people seemed to complain about the combat animations (they never really bothered me), I thought the game was innovative enough to overlook these flaws. I still think the 5-man dungeons in the game are some of the best I have ever played. They contain very little trash, and the packs they do have prepare you for a mini-boss or boss fight. Also the boss encounters themselves feel like they are not constant rehashes of fights we have seen one hundred times before in other MMOs. Toss that in with a unique setting that offers an alternative to anything else that was out there and you have an instant winner. I was not alone in my praise for TSW, it even received a good review from this site. But as most of us know a good review doesn’t guarantee a huge commercial success. 

Read more of Rob Lashley's The Secret World A Year Later.

When it comes to making psychotic NPCs Funcom is in a league of their own.

Carbine Studios is ramping up coverage of WildStar, a game that is beginning to look like a genre changer. We spent a long while speaking with Jeremy Gaffney and have a tome of new information to share. Read on and then tell us what you think in the comments.

Carbine Studios’ WildStar is gaining more and more steam in the hearts and minds of expectant MMO gamers as it drives through Closed Beta on its way to launching later this year.  Mixing the traditions of theme-park MMOs with the sensibilities of play-how-you want sandbox MMOs, WildStar seems like it’s poised to please a lot of gamers when it finally does launch. That is, if they can make good on all of the design principles and promises they hold so dearly... because lordy, if they do pull it all off? Carbine’s flagship title is going to be a world rife with fun for just about every MMO player out there.  We caught up with Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney to find out how Closed Beta 1 has gone, and what’s coming up in Closed Beta 2 and beyond.

Read more of Bill Murphy's WildStar: The Summer of WildStar is Upon Us.

Crimson Isle is filled with plenty of places to explore and climb to.

When the Star Trek Online expansion, Legacy of Romulus, goes live on May 21st, the Haakona Advanced Warbird will be part of the game. Players who take advantage of Legacy Packs will receive the ship when the expansion launches.

Equipped with a Romulan Battle Cloaking Device, your foes won’t know what hit them when you emerge from behind in combat. Equipped with a universal Haakona Separation console, divide your Haakona into two separate ships to confuse the enemy and choose to pilot either one.  The Haakona Advanced Warbird is one of the most feared Romulan ships in the galaxy, and will make a deadly addition to any commander’s fleet.

Learn more about this formidable ship on the Star Trek Online site.

Ubisoft has announced that the open beta for Anno Online has officially kicked off as of today. Interested players can swing by the site to sign up and get started playing Anno Online which brings classic Anno series features to the game as well as new features that fit a persistent online world.

The closed beta of Anno Online^® was a great success due to the high stability and the good performance provided by the game. To celebrate the end of the closed beta, players current accounts won’t be wiped and active users will automatically receive a decorative gift to thank them for their involvement: a nice deco statue. Players who continue to play the game during the first week of the open beta will also be rewarded and will get an exclusive in-game item: a premium ship. This boat gives access to some nice features as it can carry more freight and is faster than usual ones.

Head to the Anno Online site to get started.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that DC Universe Online Update 7: Origin Crisis is now live and in the game. Origin Crisis brings new raids, operations, feats, gear and the new Quantum Powers set into DCUO.

In Origin Crisis -- the space/time continuum has been compromised, and though Brainiac has been defeated, war wages on. Players must battle through new Raids and Operations and fight alongside Future Batman or Future Lex Luthor in order to shift the balance of destiny for Heroes and Villains forever. The two will summon their forces in an attempt to modify fundamental events in the histories of iconic characters and transform their futures. As the story unfolds, players gain access to an assortment of new multiplayer adventures and solo simulations.

Find out more about Origin Crisis in the new Producer's Letter on the DC Universe Online site.

Despite a somewhat rocky launch, Trion Worlds' Defiance team is hard at work to make the game that players want. We scored an interview with Nathan Richardsson, VP of Development & Executive Producer Defiance to talk about what's happened since launch and what the future will hold for the groundbreaking transmedia game. See what he's got to say and then tell us what you think in the comments.

MMORPG: First, let me congratulate you on the launch. I know it's been a rough one, but it's still one hell of a milestone for any studio.  What is the day-to-day like in the office now that the show and game are up and running?

Nathan Richardsson: Thank you! The day-to-day is always pretty interesting as nothing really compares to that launch month. You get far more player feedback to respond to than in Alpha or Beta, everything is on the line, we're working with a large set of unknowns since we're doing so many industry firsts that it's as exciting as it is frustrating. It's an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. I use a new strategy, multiple personalities. Being a man I can't multitask so I found having many personalities each doing one thing helps me work on all the facets of this entire venture simultaneously without going insane.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Defiance: Looking to Push the Envelope.