Coming in at a full nine minutes in length, this latest trailer for NCsoft's Aion gives us an expansive look into the future of Aion.

Aion's future will bring a major graphics upgrade, housing, underwater cities, real time seasonal changes, mounts (and mounted combat!), and more!

The seasonal changes are quite impressive, with snow gathering on the ground as well as on objects over time, and slowly melting away with the seasons change. The housing component appears quite robust with the ability to be fully decorated, so everyone out there can look forward to letting their inner Martha Stewart out.

Mounts (including flying mounts!) are also shown in the trailer, with the player being able to seemingly tame various creatures into mounts, and it also appears there is support for multi-person mounts as a second rider gets on one of the creatures later in the trailer. Mounted combat is also shown, with the creature itself biting and swiping at enemies with its tail.

Aion  will also be receiving a major facelift, which comes to a surprise to us as it looks quite beautiful as it is, but it is impressive nonetheless with what appears to be vastly improved lighting and shadows, among other things.

We also contacted NCsoft for comment on this new development, and they had this to say:

The trailer shown at this year’s G-star event is a glimpse at the future of Aion. As you can tell from the movie, the development team is hard at work on evolving and growing the Aion experience in some very unique and innovative ways.

When we learn more, we'll be sure to keep you all in the loop. Until then, watch the new trailer here!

What do you think of NCsoft's vision for Aion's future? Have you left Aion, and would you come back when these changes are implemented? If not, why not? Let us know in the comments below!

Dick Grayson aka Robin flees the coop and becomes Nightwing in the DC Comics universe. Now, the former Boy Wonder officially joins the ranks of DC staples such as Superman and even his former mentor, Batman,  on the roster of iconic heroes that will be making their appearance in DC Universe Online.

In addition to today's announcement, SOE has released six new screenshots of Nightwing which you can view in our DC Universe Online gallery.

Quest Online has published a State of the Game address for Alganon with the intention to address the numerous concerns raised by members of the Alganon community.

One such concern is the uncanny similarities between Alganon and World of Warcraft, to which Quest Online responded:

Interestingly enough, when we look at the content and features of Alganon, the majority of negative feedback is centered on complaints that there are similarities to World of Warcraft. It's absolutely no secret that Alganon is a game made by gamers and with gamers in mind. That being said, we see what gamers want and what they're asking for, and we are creating a game that will hopefully do just that. World of Warcraft is a fantastic MMO with many great features, as are a great many others still played by online gamers, and it would be fighting against the very nature of this community not to consider and include as many of the wonderful ideas and features that we've come to love and wish for in a single game as we can. In fact, interestingly enough when given a chance to privately talk in game to GMs the majority of players giving negative feedback weren't all that upset about bugs or problems in the game, but the fact that the game has similar features to others they play. When asked why they were upset by including some of their favorite features in the game, many were left wondering this themselves. We aren't trying to take another game and change it - we're just making a game with as many asked-for features as we can fit in.

Read the full State of the Game address here.

The Nemesis Confrontation update, which was announced last week, is now live! In addition to the "Nemesis Confrontation" five man lair, today's update also includes a bevy of costume additions, including several new capes, many new back items and accessories, and a pass on many of the existing costume pieces to incorporate the glow feature.

Along with the usual fixes, tweaks, and balances that come with any major update the Archery power set has seen a major overhaul with this patch as well.

For more information, read the full patch notes here.

MMORPG.com's Jon Wood uses this week's list to explore five ways that a player can tell whether or not they're really "into" their current MMO, encouraging players who just aren't that into it anymore to find greener pastures elsewhere.

Sometimes when you're in a relationship, it's hard to let go. It's comfortable, it's safe and whenever you think of letting go all you can think about are all of the good times that you've had together. This is perfectly understandable and it's only human nature, but while it may seem like the right thing to do at the time, the most common mistake that people make is to try and hang on, not because it's good for them, or because they're still having fun, but because it's all they really know.

The bond between gamer and MMO can be a strong one, and it can be difficult to know when enough is enough and it's time to throw in the towel. Stay too long and you risk pain and frustration that could keep you from enjoying another MMO that comes after it. We here at MMORPG.com have been there before, and we offer the following five pieces of advice to help you know when you're just not that into it anymore:

Read Five Ways to Know You're Just Not That Into It.

The team from Icarus Studios' Fallen Earth has put together this new series of developer journals highlighting some of the "hidden content" in their post-apocalyptic MMO. This week, they discuss some creatures you may not even know existed.

Sounds major, right? They are! And you won't find them just anywhere. These massive, powered-up creatures roam the wasteland unbeknownst to many players. And if you are a lone player out in the desolate land, you probably won't want to stumble upon one of these creatures solo. World Bosses aren't just your random wandering creature, they're super-charged mutants on a mission, and they don't like to be bothered!

So what makes these creatures "World Bosses?" Well, if their massive size isn't enough to convince players of their World-Boss-worthiness, perhaps their colossal strength will do the trick. That's right, it will take more than a single player, or in some cases a single group, to take out one of these creatures.

Read Hidden Content 2: Concealed Creatures.

It's never fun having to slap people on the wrist for wanting to talk about an upcoming game that is under NDA. Today, however, Mortal Online is the latest game to be crossed off that list and be placed firmly into the "open floodgates" category as the NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) has been lifted as of yesterday.

StarVault's Henrik Nystrom explains in the announcement post made to the Mortal Online official forums that the decision was made due to the fact that while polish is still needed on the game, the main features are in the game and working. The decision also ties into the fact StarVault needs to increase their efforts in marketing the game and they believe the  best way to explain some of the game's features to players is through testers' word of mouth testimonials.

So get started! You got some 'splainin to do!

What do you think of Mortal Online? Let us know in the comments below!

By the way, even though the NDA is dropped the T&A screenshots are still inappropriate for our forums, so don't post them! :)

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Tim Adams from the upcoming item mall based MMO, Turf Battles.

MMORPG.com:

How has the development of Turf Battles been going? Can you talk about the state of the game currently?

Tim Adams:

Turf Battles has been through a multitude of changes over the last year. Originally the game was very sparse in terms of content, and was not received well. So we shut it down, and began rethinking our strategy. This included adding tons of content based on our player suggestions, such as the Islands PVP system, and PVP channels. Over the last few weeks we have had this content implemented onto our test server, so everything is slowly coming together. We are now very close to launching into beta, again.

Read An Introduction to Turf Battles.

MMORPG.com Correspndent Joseph Lavender takes a quick look at what might happen with Final Fantasy XI when its quasi-sequel Final Fantasy XIV is finally released. Will the game live or die?

"What is going to Happen to Final Fantasy XI?"

With the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV out in the open many Final Fantasy XI veterans are asking themselves this very question.

Unfortunately, it's not a question that can be totally answered yet. We don't really have enough information from Square Enix regarding FFXIV to be able to tell exactly what kind of game its going to be. A lot of FFXI old timers are hoping that the game will hold true to its FFXI roots, while others are hoping that the new Square Enix game is a completely different beast. Still others hope it might be a mixture of the old and the new.

Read Is FFXI Doomed?

MMORPG.com columnist Victor Wachter writes this look at failed games in our industry, why it happens and whether or not games can return from the brink of disaster.

Recent layoffs at Funcom and Mythic should tell us that MMOs aren't in a healthy place right now. Compared to five or six years ago, there are relatively few new games in development claiming to be the next big thing. That's mainly because the big thing happened (we're talking about WoW here, naturally), and who's going to try and claim they can kill it? Leading up to WoW's release and ever since, the MMO landscape has been littered with failed releases and half-successes.

If you were a fan of Asheron's Call 2, The Sims Online, Dungeon Runners, The Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, then you know the pain of seeing your game shut down. Even if your game is still in operation, if it failed to hit the critical mass that a publisher requires to call it a success, it will probably have a direct impact on your play experience in the form of minimal live development and customer service. Successful games are few and far between, with people choosing aging but reliable games over newer offerings.

Read The Failed Game.

PC Games, a German gaming magazine, has spoiled our December 3rd surprise, revealing the final two Star Wars: The Old Republic classes: the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular.

Much as I described in my June "12 Possible Classes" piece, the Sith Inquisitor (Sith Lord, same thing!) will fill the role as the Force power focused Sith character, think Emperor Palpatine, or a mage, if you will. And again, the Jedi Consular will be the Republic's force power focused Jedi class, but instead of damage will focus on team support and yes, even healing.

The folks over at Darth Hater have posted an excerpt of their interview with LucasArts Producer Jake Neri regarding the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular classes, which you can read here.

An excerpt from the Darth Hater interview below:

We talked a lot today about being able to customize your classes in a number of different directions. When you think of Sith Inquisitor, you’re thinking about how we’re talking about him today in the Emperor Palpatine mold, the force lightning using guy. But as time goes on, we will show you other ways to customize that class that will give you a different gameplay style. We thought as core classes the Consular and the Inquisitor made the most sense. We thought they balanced well against the other two. You can think of the Jedi Knight and the Sith Warrior as more of a melee-style Jedi, and the other two maybe more of the ranged-style Jedi. I think it made a lot of sense.

Also, be sure to check out MMORPG.com forum user greed0104's translation of the PC Games magazine scans.

UPDATE: MMORPG.com was also on hand to see them recently in San Francisco. We can confirm that we did see the two classes, and even got to play the Inquisitor. On December 3rd, we'll follow up with a full preview, as well as an interview with a member of the team on those classes and much more.

What do you think of the final two classes? Let us know in the comments below!

Jeff Strain, the former co-founder of ArenaNet who parted ways with NCsoft this August has pulled back the curtain on his newest project in an announcement made today. Strain has formed the Seattle based game development studio "Undead Labs" with the intention to develop a zombie themed console MMOG.

An excerpt from the announcement is available below:

Undead Labs’ sole focus will be to create the definitive massively multiplayer online zombie game (MMOZ) for console gamers. Nothing screams funny quite like wading into a group of rotting zombies with a lawn chair and a box of sharpened HB pencils, and nothing says fun quite like doing it with your friends, whether online or on your sofa. Undead Labs is committed to bringing to life an MMO loaded with action, humour and, of course, a lot of zombies, because the world doesn’t any need more dragons.

Strain left NCsoft last summer to build a creative studio around the most talented – and zombie-loving – developers in the industry, and to pioneer a new development model that will create a new breed of MMO built from the ground up for console gamers.

“Every time I see a good zombie movie with friends, we spend days debating our strategies for surviving the zombie apocalypse,” said Strain. “The police station or the supermarket? Garden rake or staple gun? Bach or The White Stripes? I’m a game developer, so I’d probably be useless for anything other than ghoul bait, but I’m excited to have the opportunity to build an MMOZ that lets us put those strategies to the test and find out for sure.”

Add MMOZ to your long list of gaming acronyms, guys.

Eurogamer scored an interview with Jeff Strain to discuss today's announcement, read it here.

The official Undead Labs site can be viewed here.

Five years ago today, the 800lb gorilla also known as World of Warcraft made its debut on the MMOG scene. Today, Blizzard is celebrating this event by giving all players an Onyxia Whelping pet, as well as an e-mail thanking fans for the continued support.

Read the e-mail below:

Wow, another year has gone by for WoW!

We wanted to thank you again for continuing to play World of Warcraft with us. In celebration of our 5th year online, we decided to bring back our first raid encounter, the black dragon Onyxia.

To help remember the event, you are now the proud owner of your very own Onyxian Whelpling. We suggest you bring the little guy out whenever you can and say "Many whelps! Handle it!" Your friends won't mind. Honest.

The WoW dev team

For more information on World of Warcraft, check out the game's official website here.

During our recent trip down to the Bay Area, MMORPG.com spoke to Jon Belliss of Perfect World International about the upcoming expansion pack to the popular free-to-play MMORPG.

The Assassin is “a true stealth class.” They hide, they fight hand-to-hand and they’re a great source of quick damage (DPS). The twist is that they are far more group oriented than the average player might imagine them to be. Assassins in PWI are not lone stalks of the night. They should become a key component of any group. Why? As they injure their enemies, it sucks life from them and disperses it into the group around them.

The Psychic should also bring some fundamental changes to the way people play. In fact, it is likely to have far reaching effects beyond even its own class. At its root, this is a support character who helps out with buffs and debuffs. Unlike other classes, which derive their magic from the elements, Psychics use “Soul” as the source of their magic. What PWI has tried to accomplish with them is to use their support to make other classes work in situations where they may not otherwise have been able to. For example, the Barbarian was of pretty much no use in an AOE (area of effect) oriented party. With the help of psychic, he now can be.

Read it all here.

What better way to start your day than by annihilating 16,000 botters and gold spammers from your game? Today, NCsoft did just that! Aion Community Manager Andrew "Tamat" Beegle made an announcement on the game's official forums alerting the community to today's crackdown. It's important to note that today's bans span across both NA and EU servers.

For those of you who have accounts that have been caught in today's wave of bans a Ban FAQ has also been made available.

Read the official announcement and Ban FAQ here.

MMORPG.com columnist Richard Aihoshi writes this article asking how useful MMORPG previews really are when it comes to specific player tastes.

The last time I wrote a preview of an MMOG was at least a few years ago, long enough that I don't even remember the time frame or the title. What's more, it wouldn't bother me if I never do another. Indeed, if I had to guess, I'd venture to say I won't.

To put the above into its proper frame of reference, I'm using my own definition of "preview" and referring to what I usually call a "full" one. This means I'm talking about an article that describes enough of a game so I, as a reader, can get an accurate sense as to the key things I want to know without having to know anything beforehand or to go look for further information.

Read How Helpful Are MMOG Previews?

The team from Global Agenda has updated their official MMORPG.com blog with "The Utopian," a new lore piece for the game.

The Utopian

Steven made a conscious effort to awaken several minutes before his alarm sounded every morning, creeping out of bed as quietly as he could to peer out the window at the street a few stories below. The immaculately cleaned road had never suffered an automobile on its surface, as most of the traffic in Commonwealth Prime was airborne, clogging the skies above the incredible city in a perpetual jam of personal vehicles, public transportation, and security patrols. Ground level was reserved for pedestrians, with narrow walkways punctuated by neatly trimmed gardens and every imaginable shape of abstract sculpture. Thick nationalist banners hung from so high up on each towering skyscraper that the morning haze would obstruct their origins, making it appear that they hung from the clouds themselves, unfurling to broadcast their message of loyalty and pride. Steven wasn’t interested in any of that, not the cleanliness and beauty of the metropolis, or the eerie complacency and ruthless efficiency of each passersby. All he cared to see was the single hovering garbage collection drone that would visit the intersection just below his window every morning, a few minutes before his assigned duties began.

Read The Utopian.

MMORPG.com Istaria expert Erin McManaway writes this look at Dralnok's Doom after receiving a tour of the upcoming high level content update from the folks at Virtrium.

A new darkness has taken root deep beneath the settlement of Delgarath and has brought the Dwarven King, Dralnok, to his untimely end...

Earlier this year, Virtrium (VI) launched a free, high-level content release for Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted entitled Dralnok's Doom. I was given the opportunity to take an exclusive, in-depth look at this massive update -- so please join me for a journey into the deep!

Read Dralnok’s Doom: New High Level Content Tour.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently spoke with Martin Tan, the General Manager of ChangYou.com (US) about their upcoming item shop based MMORPG, Dragon Oath.

MMORPG.com:

Give us the status of Dragon Oath right now, how is the game moving along?

Martin Tan:

Dragon Oath entered Open Beta on Nov. 5th. We have met all of our internal goals for Closed Beta and this good trend is continuing. We are still seeing a steady rise in new players. Our team is now preparing for three things, (i) A Thanksgiving update that will encompass 2 weeks of holiday events, (ii) the launch of Dragon Oath's Item Mall and (iii) the launch of Dragon Oath's first expansion pack in Early February.

Read the Interview With Martin Tan.