The official "Guild Wars" website has been updated with a new screenshot showing a Ranger and a Lynx.

"One of the skills of the Guild Wars Ranger is the ability to charm different creatures. Our new screenshot shows the ranger with her pet, a charmed lynx."

For more information on "Guild Wars" visit the official website.

The official "Warhammer Online" website has updated the races page, with new background information, images, concept art and animations. You can check out the updates here.

 Ered Luin has just been added to the World Section on the Middle Earth Online.

"The ancient East-West Road ran through the Shire... and dwarves had always used it on their way to their mines in the Blue Mountains. They were the hobbits' chief source of news..."

-The Lord of the Rings^TM

You can read the full article here.

Please find more information on the Adellion official boards at http://www.alchemicdream.net/forum/announcement.php?f=13

GameSpy has posted an incredible preview feature on Guild Wars.  It has tons of new information as well as a great line-up of new screen shots.  Here is a snippet:

When the creators of Blizzard's Battle.net service decided to found ArenaNet and make games on their own, they wanted to create an online experience unique to the industry. This year gamers will finally get to see the fruits of their labors with Guild Wars, an upcoming massively multiplayer game with original new gameplay and a business model that won't charge gamers monthly fees. These days it's easy to dismiss an online fantasy game as something that's been 'done before,' but Guild Wars has some tricks up its sleeve to make it stand out -- backed with some incredible graphics, to boot!

Guild Wars fans won't want to miss this one.  You can catch it at this link.

The fine folks over at Artifact Entertainment have released a lot of details concerning some major changes taking place in Horizons:

Dragon Hoard and Abilities: A follow-up to the Dragon Hoard and Ability changes:

"As we outlined last week, there are some big changes in store for Dragons in terms of how their hoard functions. The first set of changes to dragon hoards and abilities is complete, and should be on Blight shortly. Two ability lines were modified and both now cost hoard to use and got an upgrade in the process. A new ability was also added: adult dragons will now get "Shield of Gold"."

Read the full article on Dragon Hoards and Abilities here.

Self Buff Changes: Details on some planned upcoming tweaks to self-buff abilities:

"The first issue we're looking at is some of the frivolous busywork involved with Horizons combat. In particular, we're looking at self-only buffs, which in a lot of cases aren't situational -- when it wears off, you refresh it, because there's absolutely no reason you wouldn't. We've begun looking through these for candidates to turn into passive abilities, so that players can clear a few hotkeys and concentrate on more important things."

Read the full article on the upcoming Self Buff Changes here.

Treasure System Details: A detailed explanation on how the Treasure System functions and a clarification on "different treasure":

"Over the past few weeks, we have been reorganizing our treasure profiles for a variety of different creatures in order to help streamline the system and make it easier for us to add additional items when and if necessary without having a drastic impact on the items already in these treasure groups. This has been reflected in our Release Notes as "Different Treasure." Some players have started to perceive this as a "nerf", when in reality, the prime goal has been reorganization."

Read the full article on the Treasure System Details here.

The official website for "The Saga of Ryzom" has been updated with more details for the upcomming dev chat. The chat will be held Thursday 29/4/04 at 5PM (GMT+1) on the epiknet IRC server at #sordevchat .

Blizzard has announced it is currently hiring English, French and German community managers for "World of Warcraft" in Europe. You can view the details for applications here.

FunCom is offering some special springtime offers.  They are making their client available for download for only $4.95 with 30 days of playtime included!  In addition, players who ended their accounts before Jan 1, 2004 are invited back for only $4.95 for their first 30 days.  Here is their press release:

Durham, USA - April 28, 2004 - Funcom announces a special spring campaign for the multi award-winning MMORPG Anarchy Online. New players can now download and buy the Classic Edition of Anarchy Online for just 4.95 USD/EUR. It includes an updated version of Anarchy Online as well as 30 days of game time. In addition to this great offer for new players, Funcom is inviting hundreds of thousands of previous players to revive existing characters during the campaign period at only 4.95 USD/EUR (regular price 14.95) for a 30 day period. The offer to previous players is open to everyone who ended the game in good standing before 1st January 2004. With an even better value, previous players also get the chance to buy an upgrade to the Deluxe Edition of Anarchy Online with 30 days of game time included for only 14.95 USD/EUR. This is a savings of 29.95 USD/EUR. The normal pricing is 44.90 (29.95 for the upgrade and 14.95 for 30 days). The offers end on 1st of June 2004, 12:00 CET, midday European time.

If you are interested in participating, just follow this link.

It is official - Lineage II servers have been live for a few hours now.  We have switched the status of this game from "Beta" to "Final" and we now hope that all people who are playing this game will submit fair and honest reviews at MMORPG.COM!

We wish NCSoft great success with their new release and look forward to covering this exciting product!

If you would like to order Lineage II, just follow this link.

FunCom made a recent press release that announced their recent capitol acquisition from some major European investors.  Interestingly the announcement states they are working on *three* MMO titles...hmmm :)  Here is the release:

Oslo, Norway - 27 April, 2004 - Funcom NV, a leading developer and publisher of computer and console games, announced today that it has secured a 4.5 million equity investment from a consortium of Northzone Ventures (3.5 million) and existing investors Teknoinvest and Stelt Holding. The investment enables Funcom to further increase the scope and quality of their future Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG), while expanding Funcom's sales and marketing capabilities globally. "We have already proven that we are a world leading MMOG developer with Anarchy Online" says Funcom's CEO and President Trond Arne Aas, and continues "Anarchy Online is today a highly profitable game. The financing from Stelt, Northzone and Teknoinvest will enable us to further increase our investment in the development of the next generation online games and to become even better at what we excel at; creating unique and immersive virtual worlds for a global market of consumers". Torleif Ahlsand, Partner in Northzone Ventures and new Chairman of the Board of Directors, said,: "The MMOG genre is currently the fastest growing segment within the expanding gaming industry, and offers several attractive attributes, including the monthly subscription revenue model, a global market potential, expanding demographics and low risk of piracy. We are impressed by the high calibre of the Funcom team, and feel confident in their ability to develop new world-class games". Funcom is now developing three MMOGs, one of them being the successful Anarchy Online which is the subject of ongoing development.

   As of today at 12:00A.M., City of Heroes has officially launched! We here at MMORPG.COM wish Cryptic Studios success with their new MMORPG. Enjoy fighting the evil that inhabits the streets of Paragon City!

The official "Guild Wars" website has been updated with part 5 of their lore section titled "The Wilds". Two concept art pictures have also been placed on the website and can be viewed with the the new lore here.

Once again the Wish bestiary has been updated to include the newest member, the treant.

   Katricia has updated the Game Information today with three new topics, a detailed druid page and some brief information on two tradeskills: Basic Engineering and Basic First Aid.

You can view the official WoW website here: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com

   I'm not sure how old this news is (if it's really old, I apologize) but Risk Your Life will be holding an open beta starting May 1st, 2004. There is still time to register so make sure to check out the Risk Your Life website if you're interested.

Click here to go to the Risk Your Life website: http://www.gamemyth.com.my/

The development team at Sigil - creators of the highly anticipated MMORPG "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes" are going to be hanging out at the Dave & Busters in San Diego, CA on May 1 at around 7PM PST.

If you are interested in joining them you should pre-register for your name tag ASAP - or you won't be able to get in the door! 

You can find registration information at this page.

The EVE Online site has posted a new chronicle titled "Tides of Change".  Fans of EVE and the Sci-Fi genre should find it to be a cool read.  Here is a snippet:

Shan stubbed his cigarette on the deck, despite the Kapitan's earlier admonitions about in-station regulations. The old bastard was soft after his years with those paper-pushing Fed Navy pod-wetters, soft as the blubber that hung from him. Besides, with the situation the way it was today, their high and mighty Legionnaire had better things to worry about than a smudge on the platform. Climbing into the pod and fastening himself, Shan reflected on the current state of affairs. Ever since the Alliance had been born, the smattering of independent outfits morphing and mutating into the massive, brutal beast it was today, things just hadn't been the same in Curse. The Salvies had been the first to complain, of course - you couldn't fart in Curse space without the Salvies getting up in arms about it - but within a month it had become clear that this new coalition was nothing to be taken lightly. Squadron after squadron of Cartel fighters had fallen to Alliance battleships as their prized 'roid fields were slowly wrested from their grasp.

Want more?  Follow this link.