Perfect World International will receive it's third and largest update to date this December. The update, entitled "Rising Tide" will introduce the new Tideborn race, the Assassin and Psychic classes, and tons more.

Read below for more details on what you can expect in "Rising Tide" this December:

· A New race – “Tideborn”

· Two new classes – the stealth “Assassin” and magic and buff enabled “Psychic”

· New Quests – more than 200 new adventures to complete

· Additional territories for factions to conquer

· Cooperative questing – A new public quest system

· Additional areas to explore - new dungeons with more than 100 new monsters

· More customization – new, upgraded gear and equipment

· New “Recasting” equipment system

· Daily Quests added just for Married Players

· New Fashion Slot—for the hair/hat option

· Newly implemented shared stash system for player accounts

Watch the new trailer here.

More than three million quests have been created in Star Wars Galaxies this month using the Chronicle Master system, which was released in an update just over a month ago. Even more impressive, in our opinion, is the fact that apparently a single individual is responsible for 6,000 of those quests. Wow!

For more information on Star Wars Galaxies, visit the game's official site here.

This weeks Friday Update is Threat of Peace #20. This latest issue in the Threat of Peace webcomic series follows Lord Angral as he returns to Korriban to confront a traitorous Lord Baras. Meanwhile, Jedi Master Orgus Din tracks down the Bounty Hunter Braden to a Nar Shaddaa cantina and demands to know who was responsible for the attack on Coruscant.

Read Threat of Peace #20 here.

Funcom has sent us four new screenshots of the new Anarchy Online engine in action. Things are looking pretty snazzy! The screenshots are of the before-and-after variety for the purpose of comparison.

Check out the new shots in our Anarchy Online gallery.

MMORPG.com Jade Dynasty Correspondent Segun Adewumi continues to chronicle his adventures in this F2P MMO.

Jade Dynasty still has the ability to surprise me, and I love it for that. I’ve said before that Jade is a lot like Final Fantasy XI, in that everything possible is not always obvious. In Jade, the easiest and perhaps the quickest way to make money is to sell the provisions you get as drops. Every fifteen levels you get a new set of four provisions, and they sell for decent money especially the higher level grade provisions. But you can also turn in provisions and get honor. Honor or reputation works rather similarly to World of Warcraft in that the more reputation you have, the more it opens up to more loot. I started playing Ettarre again and got a new esper. Because each esper can be upgraded by getting an Esper Tome and an Esper Accessory to make it even more powerful during invigorate. Searching through the forums it became apparent to me that the best way to get both of these was through quests I could get if my honor reputation was high enough. But for as long as I’ve known about it I couldn’t seem to turn in the provisions for rep, I’d get a log full notice and that would be that. Finally I read a post that says I can only have eight quests as a maximum. Jade lets you have twenty or so in your log so I’ve always had fifteen to twenty or so in quest log, so that explained why I kept getting an error.

Read A Day in the Life.

Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventuresn is now available on Steam! The game will be normally priced at $19.99, but is currently on sale for $9.99 until Thanksgiving.

The Star Wars Galaxies: Complete Online Adventures contains the original game and all three expansions (Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookiees, and Trials Obi-Wan). Also included is the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game: Champions of the Force.

The Steam version of the game also comes with a bonus item: the General Grevious Wheel Bike!

Check out SWG on Steam here!

Following a successful closed beta, which is set to wrap up next weekend, is an announcement from NHN on the release date for Karos Online's Open Beta test! The Open Beta for Karos Online will begin on December 4th, 2009. The game is currently scheduled for a Q4 2009 release.

In addition to today's announcement, we've also got some details on the final Closed Beta event taking place next weekend on November 27th and  28th. Next weeks closed beta event will see new characters come fully equipped with high level gear and items, as well as a dramatic boost in XP rates so that players can hit the level cap of 44 "almost immediately". 

Names created in the final Closed Beta event will be locked to testers' accounts so that they may be used for Open Beta and even launch, as well.

For more details on Karos Online visit the game's official website here.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Masthead Studios' Atanas Atanasov about the progress of the upcoming sci-fi sandbox MMORPG Earthrise.

MMORPG.com:

The game follows a sandbox approach. MMOs like EVE and Ultima have built their success on this format where other games have failed. Why does the sandbox approach add so much to the longevity of a game?

Atanas Atanasov:

So far MMORPGs have figured two proven paths of keeping players interested in the game long term: constant addition of solo-able content or raid challenges that players must overcome and then wait patiently for more, and the sandbox approach where players have to find their own niche and approach to the environment and their challenges are set not by the game designers but by the combined actions of all other players. The latter approach's main strength is the cooperative notion that the game is indeed shaped by the players. To many players, the ability to change content to their personal or collective will is much more important than the chance to experience more and more content. The sense of involvement and power to create and change can invigorate and keep players glued to the game for years to come. Games like EVE and Ultima have both succeeded to achieve a stable and exciting environment for sandbox gaming and have been some of the inspirational sources for Earthrise as well.

Read the Update Interview.

MMORPG.com's Dana Massey recently traveled to the LucasArts compound for a demo of Bioware's upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic. While there, he got a look at the recently announced Imperial Agent.

The recently revealed Imperial Agent class in Star Wars: The Old Republic provides the Empire with a hefty dose of subtlety and intrigue. While many classes, like say the Sith Warrior, barge through levels with their lightsabers blazing, the Imperial Agent uses stealth and tactics to quietly creep up on her enemies.

LucasArts and Bioware put on a press demonstration last week in San Francisco to give us the first chance to see these guys in action. While it was quite clearly very early - we were told to imagine the "stealth" effect as the character snuck around on a massive theatre screen in the LucasArts compound - this class adds something to the Star Wars world that has never really been the focus before: subtlety.

Read Impressions of the Imperial Agent.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with CCP's Noah Ward about the upcoming EVE Online expansion, Dominion. In the interview, among other issues, Ward addresses a CCP decision regarding changes to Motherships.

MMORPG.com:

Talk about the recent changes to the Massive Super Carrier. Many players are calling it a nerf. Can you set the record straight?

Noah Ward:

Unlike most other MMORPGs, with EVE we try to give every class of ship a clear role. It's not a simple game of bigger is better. It's more like a complex and nuanced game of Rock/Paper/Scissors. Unfortunately the poor Supercarrier (previously known as Mothership) never had a clear role much like the lion in Wizard of Oz didn't have a heart. They occupy a space between the massive Titans and the more ubiquitous Carrier class of ship without really standing out on their own. We wanted to improve this situation, find their true role and make them something pilots would be proud to fly; enter Fighter Bombers. Fighter Bombers are anti-capital weapons that launch big dumb warheads that do a lot of damage but have trouble hitting the broad side of a battleship. We like the direction things are heading and the models look damn cool but we're still not 100% sure the changes are achieving what we want to achieve. This is why the changes to Motherships/Supercarriers are being deferred and won't go out in Dominion 1.0. We're going to continue to play test both internally and on our public test servers. We're going to continue to talk to players. We're going to follow the yellow brick road and we're going to find the unique role these ships fill which will hopefully make the largest number of people happy.

Read the Dominion Interview.

MMORPG.com's Jaime Skelton uses a brief stint without her internet service to take a look this week at internet service providers and a possible crackdown that could be coming on bandwidth that could affect MMO gamers.

This weekend, I had to deal with one of the greatest frustrations an online gamer can deal with: internet connection problems. I spent half of my raid time disconnecting and reconnecting, which was terribly fun. Then Monday, the internet went out entirely, and stayed off for 24 hours. Besides giving me a lot of free time to take care of things I haven't been able to recently, it also gave me time to reflect on how much the internet has become part of my daily life as a gamer.

There's no doubt that many of us, myself included, often take our internet access for granted. At times, it feels like a utility, even though it feeds off them. I couldn't even begin to explain to my provider that I needed the internet up as soon as possible so I could work, and that my work, at least partially, consists of playing games online. There's little respect for online gamers at ISPs, even though many of their employees are part of our growing group. The attitude is that the internet is a luxury, and we should be happy with the speed and service we get. It reminds me of all the times that my dad would tell me to be grateful for the dinner on my plate, and I better eat it because there were starving children in Ethiopia.

Read Have You Hugged Your Internet Lately?.

MMORPG.com has teamed up with Zemi Interactive to bring our community a special offer for the 4Story MMORPG! Each key will give you $100 in free in game stuff! So get yours now!

TO GET YOUR FREE GIFT KEY CLICK HERE!

The date for the Star Trek Online Open Beta test has been announced today as beginning on January 12th, 2010 and running through to January 26th, 2010. This should give gamers on the fence about the game a solid two weeks to evaluate it and decide whether they want to be there for opening day on February 2nd, 2010.

Below are some comments from Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich on today's announcement:

"We are excited to announce the dates for the open beta phase as this is one of the final steps in launching Star Trek Online to the public," said Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer on Star Trek Online. "We are looking forward to the launch of our first-of-a-kind MMORPG with anticipation and excitement and we expect Star Trek Online to explode onto the scene, giving fans and gamers a Star Trek experience like no other."

For more information on Star Trek Online, head over to the game's official website here.

This latest Star Trek Online trailer showcases the recently announced bridge interiors to be featured in Star Trek Online. Make it so, number one!

Watch the video here!

Get a first look at the recently announced Nemesis Confrontation lair in this latest Champions Online trailer available exclusively at MMORPG.com!

Watch the video here!

This weeks Community Spotlight focuses on a thread started by user MMOnsterkill entitled, “FFS Stop Complaining About Subscription Fees”. In the original post, MMOnsterkill makes his case against the many people out there who scoff at the industry standard $15.00 monthly subscription fee attached to most AAA MMOG’s.

Community Spotlight: Subscription Fees? Bah! Humbug!

This week, MMORPG.com's Jon Wood uses his column to comment on three news stories this week. First, Cryptic's addition of bridges to Star Trek Online, then on to a possible Call of Duty MMO and Aventurine's Community Publishing Program.

This week, there were a few topics that I wanted to cover, so rather than presenting a single, coherent thought in this week’s column, I thought I’d break it up into smaller, bite-sized chunks for your reading pleasure. Welcome to the ramblings of my mind. Don’t pay any attention to the upside down clown weeping in the corner:

Star Trek Online Bridges

Last week, I came down pretty hard on the folks at Cryptic for their cross promotion of Star Trek Online with their Champions Online lifetime subscriptions. This week though, I’m happy to be able to actually applaud the STO dev team for their recent decision to include interior bridges in the launch version of the game.

Read Wood: Bridges, Cash for Players and CoDO.

MMORPG.com contributor Shannon P. Drake writes this informative and sometimes humorous look at five different developer jobs that, while important to the MMO development process, often get left without the glory.

Follow MMORPGs too long and you begin to forget it's not just a world of rock star designers making amusing youtube videos during breaks from single-handedly shaping the destiny of their perfect, ultimate online world. The face of the modern MMO tends to be a single person, or a handful of people, who are well-spoken or amusing enough to go out and promote their title, while not giving away too much in the way of specifics, hopefully, though sometimes they are prone to overpromising based on the vague idea in their heads, much to the chagrin of PR handlers and fanboys everywhere. They become the loved and/or loathed figureheads of a title or studio, the guys blamed and/or praised when everything goes right/wrong.

Read Five Unappreciated Developer Positions.

Yesterday we reported on the announcement of a new five man lair called "Nemesis Confrontation". The lair will be introduced in an update set to release next Tuessday, November 24th.

But given the short time frame between the announcement and the update's release, there are sure to be many questions about the update on players' minds with regards to the update, and Cryptic Studios is happy to oblige as they have announced a Nemesis Confrontation Dev Chat set for this Friday, November 20th at 4PM PST.

As always, you'll want to submit your questions in the designated forum thread, though they are likely to take some live as well.

View the original announcement here.