Guild Software is celebrating the fifth anniversary of Vendetta Online with the release of a new trailer! This latest trailer is being featured over at Apple.com and has the distinct honor of being the first game trailer available in HD over at the site.

Check out the trailer here!

This week’s Community Spotlight focuses on a topic started by user Eronakis which poses the question: how many classes are appropriate for an MMORPG? The thread is entitled “Acceptable amount of classes in an mmorpg” and features a poll with ranges from 9 or lower, to 20+ classes. The topic is fairly straightforward, but responses in the thread indicate that most users definitely do have some pretty specific preferences in this regard.

Read the full Community Spotlight to find out what people are saying!

A new iPhone app for for the recently released post-apocalyptic MMOG, Fallen Earth, has been announced!

The new app will allow for players to log in to Fallen Earth through their iPhone's and perform a number of tasks:

...the application will allow Fallen Earth players to view their in-game character stats, mutations and trade skills as well as provide access to equipped and stored items. Players will also have the capacity to view maps for each of the three sectors in the 1,000 square kilometers of the game's landscape.

...Players will be able to manage their crafting queue, view recipes, craft items, buy and sell items at the Auction House as well as interact with friends, Clan members and other online players through multiple chat channels, mail and private messaging.

The app is scheduled for release in early 2010. Thanks go out to user Calundann for the tip!

MMORPG.com Free Realms Correspondent Pamela Blalock writes this look at the new soccer mini-game and offers tips on how to become a "soccer star."

There's nothing quite like tripping avatars and scoring on their goalie. That is what I have learned from my time with the soccer mini-game in Free Realms. I like to trip dudes and take the ball right out from under them. It is a tactic you will become quite familiar with while on your way to becoming a soccer star in Free Realms.

Mechanically, you can play as a soccer star relatively well. The controls are awkward though and they take some time getting accustomed to. The scheme seems like it would be much more at home on a controller than a keyboard. If you like Free Realms you will learn to live with it. If Free Realms is more of a passing fancy you might not want to deal with the uncomfortable control scheme.

Read Becoming a Soccer Star.

According to a report over at FFXIV fansite FFXIVCore, fans who purchase FFXIII will receive access to the FFXIV beta test. This information has appeared in a set of scans from Japanese magazine Shonen Jump.

Keep in mind that this story is currently classified as a rumor, and it has not been confirmed.

Via FFXIVCore.

A recent post to the WAR Herald reveals that the Warhammer Online Endless Trial, which allows for players to play through Tier 1 for free, is now live! The launch of the new trial will automatically convert all current 10 Day trial users over to the new system, and also sees the introduction of a new streaming trial client.

Similar to the World of Warcraft trial download, players will only have to download a 1GB client with the rest of the data being streamed in as it's needed. This will allow players to jump in fairly quickly and get right into the skull crushing!

Read below for the restrictions of the Endless Trial taken from the WAR Endless Trial FAQ:

What are the restrictions on the Endless Trial?

• Endless Trial accounts are restricted to Tier 1 of the Empire versus Chaos pairing. This includes Tier 1 scenarios but does not include access to the Capital Cities or the other racial pairings within the game.
• Endless Trial accounts may receive mail and purchase from the auction house; however, they cannot send mail or create auctions.
• Endless Trial accounts are limited to designated servers. If you'd like to play with friends on other servers, you will need to purchase a retail copy of the game and transfer your character to their server (or create a new character on their server). All characters Rank 11 and under on purchased accounts have access to unlimited transfers, with a max of one transfer per day. Please note that you can only transfer characters to the same server type as the server you created your characters on (Core, Open RvR, and Roleplay). Please see the full server list here for details about each server, including server type. Alternatively, if you have a friend who is currently playing WAR, you can ask them for a Recruit-a-Friend code that will allow you to create a Recruit-a-Friend trial account which has access to all servers. Please see the Recruit-a-Friend section for more information.

The official announcement can be viewed here. 

Thanks to user Msly007 for the tip!

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Thomas Lee, the Senior Director of Gamepot USA about their most recent addition to our Game List, bright Shadow.

MMORPG.com:

Tell us about Bright Shadow and what it brings to the MMO space.

Thomas Lee:

Bright Shadow brings highly customizable characters, high-quality graphics, smooth gameplay, and a fairly deep combat system that combines group attacks, summons, transformations, Soul Power abilities, and Monster Card buffs as well as class-based skills to create fun, free experience for all players.

Ok, so that’s our standard answer. Getting more into it, Bright Shadow is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and places an emphasis on the player customizing their gameplay with their friends. We have thousands of items, hundreds of monsters, a plethora of quests, party buffs, guild skills and a vast world for players to adventure in.

On top of that, we’re also adding new content from our side, so players can look forward to some exciting content we have planned.

Read the First Introductory Q&A.

The Imperial Agent has been revealed as the sixth class for Star Wars: The Old Republic at a recent European press event. Today, the new class has been officially confirmed on the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums, with its HoloNet entry to be published next week.

In addition to today's confirmation, IncGamers has the very first set of screenshots of the Imperial Agent, which you can view here.

Below you'll find the official description of the Imperial Agent  by Star Wars: The Old Republic Community Manager Sean Dahlberg:

The Imperial Agent is heavily inspired by several classic Star Wars characters such as Zam Wessel and Grand Moff Tarkin. Imperial Agents work behind the scenes to get the work of the Empire done. Specializing in high-tech gear, the Imperial Agent always has the right tools at the right time. They use abilities of subversion and subterfuge to infiltrate and assassinate enemies of the Sith Empire with deadly efficiency. Players who choose to be Imperial Agents in The Old Republic (TOR) will see the underbelly of the Empire in a whole new light.

This leaves two more classes to be unveiled. What do you think they will be? And what do you think of the Imperial Agent? Let us know in the comments below!

Jaime Skelton returns this week with a look at loot systems in MMOs and their effectiveness amongst players.

World of Warcraft players are generally aware that the newest patch will introduce a new LFG tool, one that forces the Need Before Greed option on any pick-up groups put together through the tool. The Need Before Greed loot option is being changed accordingly to new rule sets, in which in order to roll need, it must be the primary armor type of the class (no mail for paladins, etc.) and must be appropriately statted (no spellpower gear for melee classes.) This naturally upset a portion of the player base, particularly hybrids.

In discussing the change, Ghostcrawler said, "Looting to some extent is always going to have a heavily social component. There's only so much we can do (or should do) to try and 'solve' that problem for players."

The crab is right. Ever since multi-player games have had treasure, loot has been a sensitive social issue among players. Thrust that delicate component into a massive game in which social interaction plays a huge part, and there is no denying that trouble will happen constantly. Feelings get hurt, and not only do personal reputations get hurt, but even the reputations of friends and guilds can get dragged into the mix. I doubt there's a single one of us that hasn't at one point or another been part of loot drama.

Read Player Perspectives: Every Man's Greed.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller spoke with Mythic's Josh Drescher and Jeff Skalski about patch 1.3.2, how it went and what we can expect in the future of WAR.

Yesterday we sat down with Josh Drescher and Jeff Skalski to discuss Warhammer Online's changes after Patch 1.3.2 was put into effect. The game has seen its ups and downs in 2009 and looks to make a come back as we near 2010. Josh and Jeff explain some of the issues the game has had as well as offer solutions for the future.

In discussing Patch 1.3.2 Josh and Jeff explained that performance has been the biggest boost within the game. Many of the performance issues were solved with the patch and the game has been moving better than ever. Josh mentioned that they keep a close eye on performance and constantly look to improve it. They have the performance now at a good base line to be able to work on other areas and get them set up. The team admitted it was the performance that was holding them back from making certain changes, now that they have it in check, they can move forward with other ideas.

Read Looking Back on 1.3.2.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Senior Writer Drew Karpyshyn discusses writing for the recently reveealed Jedi Knight class in this latest Developer Diary. In the diary, Drew poses a number of questions to the reader on the sorts of choices they are going to have to make while playing a Jedi Knight.

The life of a Jedi Knight is certainly trying, and players are going to have to decide whether or not to compromise their values for the greater good, or to follow the Jedi Code to a tee:

You see, combat is never a problem for the Jedi Knight. Acrobatic lightsaber moves, unleashing devastating Force attacks and back-round kicking opponents in the face are second nature. But what happens when a sworn enemy surrenders and begs you for mercy? You *know* letting him live is going to come back and bite you. Unfortunately, slicing an unarmed opponent in half sort of violates everything the Jedi stand for. So, do you let him live? Or do you bend the rules – just this once – for the greater good?

Suppose you don’t kill him. What if he offers you power in exchange for letting him go free? You can use that power for good. Make the galaxy a better place. The Jedi Council might disapprove, but they’re not out here on the front lines fighting for their lives day in and day out, are they?

Read the full dev diary here.

Slobodan Simic of Fudzilla has picked up on the fact that Amazon.com has attached a release date to their pre-order listing of Star Trek Online, which is being listed as releasing on February 2nd, 2010.

Generally, it's best to take retailer listed release dates (in the absence of an official announcement) with a grain of salt, but they are often pretty accurate when listed only a few months before a game's launch window. As it has been previously reported, Cryptic Studios and Atari have already confirmed the game will launch in early Q1 2010, and this date most certainly falls into the Q1 2010 timeframe.

Doing some digging around we discovered that GameStop is also listing their Star Trek Online release date at February 2nd, 2010, lending some credence to this rumor.

However, until Cryptic Studios either makes an official announcement or confirms this date to us we're cautioning that this story is still in the realm of speculation. We'll update this story if we receive any more information, so stay tuned!

UPDATE: Eurogamer has now confirmed with Atari and Cryptic Studios that Star Trek Online will indeed launch on February 2nd, 2009 in North America, and February 5th, 2009 in Europe.  Set your calendars!

The team from Quest Online, the folks developing the upcoming MMORPG, Alganon, have provided us with these four new screenshots.

Check out the exclusive screenshots.

Hotfix 14.5 applied today adds double XP and tokens for the Star Wars Galaxies Chronicles system. In addition to the XP boost, the hotfix also addressed a number of bugs found in the Death Troopers update, and adds a bazaar to the Dathomir quarantine zone.

The full hotfix notes can be viewed here.

Character transfers for players seeking to move from the EU1 server to the NA1 server are now being offered, free of charge, until December 6th, 2009. Your character will not retain his loot or other belongings during the transfer, but he will still keep his skills, spells, quests, alignment and titles.

In addition, Aventurine is offering a 30% discount for six month subscription packages during this free character transfer period, with both EU1 and NA1 subscriptions eligible for the offer.

For more details on the Character transfer service, go here.

Turbine has sent us a handful of new screenshots depicting the new zone of Ashenslades,  which is to be introduced with the release of Siege of Mirkwood, the upcoming digital expansion to The Lord of the Rings Online.  Siege of Mirkwood is set for a December 1st release.

Check out the new shots in our LOTRO gallery.

Today, we've received a new batch of screenshots from Petroglyph and True Games depicting the various environments players will get to explore in their upcoming game, Mytheon.

The new screenshots show off the Colchis, Dominion of Hades, and Shattered Isle zones. Check them out in our Mytheon gallery.

MMORPG.com has been given a limited number of keys that will give players one month free for the sci-fi MMORPG "Knights of Dream City"! Get your key while supplies last!

GET YOUR FREE TRIAL KEY AT THIS LINK

LOTRO Developer Orion writes his latest blog entitled "Problems & Solutions #1", which discusses the issue surrounding the fact that the developers designed LOTRO to be a story-centric MMO, but that players are largely skipping the Epic Storyline content past Volume 1 Book 1.

The source of this issue is the fact that most of the player population is concentrated at the higher level range due to how long the game has been out, and that newer players are unable to find groups to tackle the epic storyline content, resulting in them having to skip what Turbine considers a focal point of their game.

So what's Turbine's proposed solution? The introduction of an "Inspired by Greatness" mode. The new mode would enable players to dig deep down inside themselves and find inspiration to accomplish great things. In game terms, players who select this mode will be given a significant boost to morale and power, in and out of combat morale and power regeneration, damage, and healing. 

"Inspired Greatness" will be available for all books starting from Volume 1 Book 2 with the release of Siege of Mirkwood on December 1st, 2009.

Read more at Orion's Blog: Problems & Solutions #1.