You can now find out all you want and need to know about being an Everquest 2 beta tester in one convenient spot thanks to Community Manager Steve "Moorgard" Danuser:

How do I become a part of the beta program? You can apply via our official website beginning at 10am PDT on May 3, 2004. How long will registration be open? We will only be accepting beta applications for a limited time, so your best bet is to apply as close to May 3 as possible. When does beta begin? The first phase of external beta will begin in June of 2004. Can more than one person from the same household or IP address apply? Yes. We will not be restricting the number of applications from a single residence or IP address. However, duplicate applications from the same person will be deleted.

You can read the entire FAQ by clicking here, and visit the official Everquest 2 site by clicking here.

The great people over at the Darkfall main site have added the newest installment in the "Travels on Agon" series:

Travels on Agon visits a minotaur ruin on Cairn in Episode 2. The location was decided by a poll during Episode 1 which visited a Sadayel village. You are asked once again to vote about where the next episode will take place. Travels on Agon is a regular feature on the Darkfall website and gives you a close look at places you can visit when the game launches, as well as the people and monsters you'll encounter while there. The travelogue will visit a different a place or region every 14 days. In addition to text-based observations, rich selections of graphical material (including screenshots) will indicate what the various locations and creatures look like in-game.As the series progresses, we will also use the travelogue to highlight and explain key aspects of Darkfall's gameplay.

Be sure to head over and check it out, also check out the first episode if you missed it.  And if you like the series don't forget to vote on where Torgrim visits next!  You can also visit the main site here.

Square Enix has officially announced the new expansion to Final Fantasy XI, Chains of Promathia. The FFXI website has been updated with a section outlining two areas, the Tavnazian Archipelago and the goblin city of Movalpolos. The updates include a brief overview and screenshots of each area.

Visit the official Final Fantasy XI website here.

Ragnarok Online continues its events that coincide with holidays.  There is a post on the official site outlining the Celebration of Love event, in honor of Mothers Day.

With the coming mothers day holiday Gravity Interactive would like to introduce the love story between the Munak and Bongun to the iRO Users. During this event you will find event NPC`s that will start you off on an adventure that will explain the love and the love lost between the Munak and Bongun, as well as explain the history of their love, and the sad story of their loss. The event NPC`s will be added May 4th and be removed May 11th during the normal maintenance periods. We wish everyone a happy Mothers Day! Thank you, iRO GM Team, Gravity Interactive LLC.

Visit the official site here.

Three Rings Design has announced that Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates has topped 5,000 active subscribers.  Also, they have signed deals with entities in Germany and China, bringing the game to a multinational audience.

"Harr! We be shivering our timbers to bring Yohoho! to the gaming fanatics of Germany and the exploding audiences of the China Seas!" said Daniel James, Three Rings' CEO, known 'pon the high seas as Captain Cleaver. "Puzzle Pirates has shown that a downloadable persistent world can appeal to the casual gaming audience, and we are confident that great swathes of German and Chinese Pirates will soon be sailing the Oceans in search of rum and booty!" "With respect to the Chinese market, most folks there play in web cafes, and we know Puzzle Pirates is a lot o' fun to play in a crew with yer mates, not least as it be appealing to the ladies as much as the gents," continued Daniel. "In Germany, the popularity of games and board games in particular bode well for Puzzle Pirates, which has been greatly inspired by the German board gaming aesthetic."

The big games tend to grab a lot of the spotlight, but 5,000 paying subscribers is respectable for any game, especially a smaller title like Puzzle Pirates.  See what all the fuss is about at the Puzzle Pirates website.  Arrrrr!

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.