There are few of us who are true MMO aficionados who aren't eagerly anticipating the arrival of Funcom's The Secret World. With its release ostensibly within a few months, Funcom seems to be revving up the info-release engine. See what tidbits we picked up around the 'Net recently and then let us know what you think!

Funcom has always said that the target release for The Secret World is “April 2012”. Still, it’s time for Funcom to get those information wheels grinding and give out some new facts about the game in order to generate buzz and, one can hope, sales for a game that has landed squarely on many people’s “Most Anticipated” list for the year. Happily for us, that actually seems to be happening. In the past couple of weeks, some very interesting information has started leaking out about all sorts of Secret World things, things that will surely get fans slathering for more.

Read more of Suzie Ford's The Secret World: Are the Floodgates Opening?

Trion Worlds has announced that it has inked a partnership deal with Shanda Games to publish Rift. No release date was revealed but the announcement takes Rift one step closer to a blockbuster release in mainland China sometime in 2012.

Buttler declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, but he said that it is one of the “biggest licensing deals ever in China.” He said the partnership is a broad one that will allow Shanda to launch an exclusive version of Rift that is localized in Chinese. He said that Trion will learn a lot from the deal, and was proud to show that online gaming isn’t just about Asian games moving into the U.S. market. He believes the appeal of games such as Rift, which has a dynamic environment and ever-changing storyline, is universal.

Read more at VentureBeat.com.

The Crystal Saga team is offering their players an easy way to score some nifty in-game prizes. Simply follow the Crystal Saga Twitter account to keep informed about events, chat with GMs and more. The team has promised some "handy free prizes" for randomly selected followers.

Read more about the event on the Crystal Saga forum.

Want to know why Crystal Saga is so successful 32 servers later? Read a new developer blog post on the Reality Squared site to find out!

Reality Squared Games, developer and publisher of Crystal Saga, has managed to open up 32 servers in their leading browser-based MMORPG since launching into open beta last September 2011.  That's quite an impressive achievement considering how other browser-based MMORPGs are doing in the market.  Crystal Saga is already following in the footsteps of the world's #1 leading browser-based MMORPG, RuneScape, developed and published by Jagex.  The difference? Runescape has been out since 2001 and has double the servers Crystal Saga has as well as more in-game features.  However, going from 1 server to 32 servers in less than 6 months puts Crystal Saga on a good path to follow Runescape's accomplishments.

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIV world will be merging on March 27th. The server count will go from the current eighteen to ten. All players will be required to choose which server they would like to live once the merger is complete.

From March 1st through March 19th, players will choose which server to have their characters reassigned. According to the dev team, the merger is "intended to improve the player experience during the period up to the launch of FFXIV Version 2.0."

Read more of the details of the merger on the Final Fantasy XIV site.

Frogster has announced a special test of the TERA Velika server to take place this evening at 20:00 / 8 pm CET/GMT+1 and feature an increased player cap for this test. Players will be able to play TERA during the test but characters will be wiped afterward.

Read the full details on the TERA EU site.

Thanks again to Coolit for the tip!

The Secret World is going to feature one of the most complex abilities systems in any MMO to date. The dev team has partnered with MMORPG.com to unleash new information about the pre-made "deck templates" that will help players navigate the complexities. Check it out and then let us know what you think in the comments.

The Secret World does away with classes and levels to let players develop any combination of abilities they choose. They can learn any out of the five hundred found in the Ability Wheel, to create exactly the type of character they want.

This system offers great freedom and depth, but may initially seem be a bit daunting for some. For those who may want a little guidance, we have developed the deck template system.

Read more of our exclusive look at The Secret World: Deck Templates.

The Xsyon team has a new challenge for players with the Skills Competition Event. Players will be challenged to complete mini quests that will require the use of all gathering skills.

The Event will be conducted in different locations around Xsyon, and will survivors will be transported to each location by the Guides. The mini events will consist of…

• Logging
• Fishing
• Scavenging
• Foraging

Players will need to use these skills in order to find a specific Item in each mini event. This will truly be a diverse and interesting event, which will be a true test of the survivors skills.

Keep an eye on the Xsyon site as details emerge.

Artix Entertainment has announced that a special Valentine's Day event will kick off on Friday, February 10th and will feature Australian singer Mia J. Park. Players are challenged to find Mer'angel (Park herself) and take a journey into the Underworld to reunite two separated lovers. Park's music will be featured during the event.

Get all of the details on the AdventureQuest Worlds site.

Perfect World Entertainment and the Star Trek Online team are inviting players to check into the game on Saturday, February 11th as Series 4: The 2800 kicks off. In Episode 1, a lost fleet reappears in the Alpha Quadrant and players are sent to find out what's going on. Further episodes in Series 4 will debut weekly through March 10th.

Check out the full list of upcoming events on the Star Trek Online site.

Starting on Friday, February 10th and running through Valentine's Day on the 14th, Fantage players will have a ton of fun with new items, prizes and events to participate in.

Players can take part in several events:

• Chocolate Fountain: Run through it and get covered with sticky sweetness if wearing a limited edition costume
• Scavenger Hunt: Seek and find 20 golden hearts
• Stamp Book: Complete activities to get stamps to fill the book to win a Valentine's Day Medal
• Prize Booth & Limited Edition Items: 10 new items
• Finkelstein's V-Day Battle: Players dress up as parfaits and sprinkle one another with toppings. When the contest ends, the team covered in the most of a specific topping wins.
• Four new chocolatey mini-games

Many of us actually realize that social activity in MMOs is fun, weird uncle in the guild house included. In today's Coyote's Howling, we take a look at that online family that we know and love, identifying each one by type. See if you see YOUR virtual family in today's column. Have other ideas? Leave them in the comments.

The Jilted Lover - The Jilted lover has been hurt in the past and the event was so traumatic that they've never been able to enjoy a video game since. No game will ever live up to the quality of the game that they remember before the change that ruined their life.

Read more Coyote's Howling: Every Guild Member Ever.

Masthead Studios has announced that service for Earthrise will cease as of today, Thursday, February 9th. According to Atanas Atanasov, Director of Masthead Studios, the team felt that Earthrise had been released too early and never managed to meet its players' expectations.

Here is the announcement in its entirety:

Masthead Studios announced today that it will be shutting down the Earthrise servers on 9th of February.

“One year after the launch of the game, we have decided to stop the Earthrise servers. Earthrise was released too early and did not meet the expectations of its fans” said Atanas Atanasov, Director of Masthead Studios. “We did our best to revive the game in 2011, but the time was not enough to keep up with the user requirements. There is a huge interest in high quality open world sandbox MMORPGs, unfortunately the big publishers do not show any interest in the genre. It is unfortunate that low budget companies like ours are trying to bring innovativeness in the already saturated MMO market. I hope that one day an independent studio will be able to release the long anticipated open world sandbox MMO, which everyone is talking about, but no one is making. We tried, but did not succeed. We would like to apologize to those who were disappointed from Earthrise and to thank everyone who supported us during the years.”

The free to play version of Earthrise, which was planned for 2012 may be released only if there is investor or publisher interest.

Check out the Earthrise site for more information. As yet, this announcement is not live on the web page.

MMORPG.com has been given special keys for the Roll n Rock open beta event! Each key will give you many free items. Key your key now while supplies last! The open beta starts Feb 8, 2012 at 8PM EST!

The Arena.Net team has announced that tomorrow will mark the release of Miku's Tale: Winds of Change Part 3. The ongoing story and content bridges the gap between the events of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. The last installment of the update will feature nine new quests, new rewards and hidden scenes that will add even more to the story.

Before the third chapter goes live, we thought we’d give you a recap of sorts told from the perspective of the assassin Miku, one of the pivotal figures in our tale…

Let me tell you a little something about adventures: they’re seldom what you think they will be. They all start the same: with a reason. It may be a reason born from choice, or one that is thrust upon you by circumstance. A reason provides a goal, and achieving that goal provides a story. We are all, at heart, the storytellers of our own lives—and we love nothing more than to imagine the paths that we will take.

Be sure to check out the Guild Wars Winds of Change mini-site. Read more of the teaser recap on the Arena.Net blog.

Our own Paragus will be live streaming League of Legends TONIGHT at 10:30 p.m. EST on the RTSGuru.com Twitch.tv channel. Be sure to join Paragus and the RTSG team for a fun hour (or so) of LoL streaming fun and chat galore!

NCSoft has sent us some amazing stats about Lineage II: Truly Free. From what we can see, the transition from a traditional subscription-based MMO to a free to play title has been awesomely successful. 

Check it:

• NCSoft has almost quadrupled its revenue in two months
• The concurrent player base as increased more than 800%
• The number of servers more than doubled to accommodate the influx of new players.
• More than a quarter of a million players have enjoyed the Path to Awakening service, which provides helpful buffs, items and advice to accelerate new characters towards the level cap.
• A surge of activity in forums as well as Facebook, where Likes soared to more than 280,000 thanks to an active and still growing community

Get started on your 'truly free' journey on the Lineage II site.

Star Wars: The Old Republic players are flocking to the official forums with reports that PvP kills on the planet are not registering for daily and weekly quests. The dev team has weighed into the thread and reported that the team is tracking the issue down.

What about you? Have you noticed the issue in your journeys on Ilum? Let us know!

Sourc: DarthHater.com

Rise of Dragonian Era (RODE) is a forthcoming MMO from Mgame USA. The dev team has announced that a beta event will be taking place this weekend that will feature some pretty powerful incentives to participate.

The beta is running on Saturday and Sunday and Mgame USA will be giving out four $500 cash prizes, eight high-end video cards from EVGA, four surround sound headsets from Logitech, as well as in-game currency to lucky participants.

The event will run on Saturday, February 11th from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and during the same hours on Sunday, February 12th.

Get signed up for beta testing on the RODE Online site.

Conquer Online is one of the first 'traditional' MMOs to make the leap from PC to iPad. In our latest review, we take a look at the iPad version of Conquer Online to see how it measures up and how well it made the transition. Read on and then let us know what you think in the comments.

Conquer Online by TQ Digital Entertainment is an Asian F2P MMO that was released in 2004 and exhibits many of the typical features such as steeds, in-game marriage, PvP and purchases of potions – health, mana, XP, buffs as well as basic crafting components and additional bank and inventory space. There isn’t a background storyline but a setting – ancient China as evidenced by the buildings, but there are also green-skinned orcs. There is also a form of “automatic play” in Conquer Online in the automatic pathing as well as in-game training that I shall elaborate on. And now it’s ported to the iPad, and works amazingly well.

Read more of Carolyn Koh's The Conquer Online iPad Review.