The Lineage Thanksgiving Event is now live! The event, which runs from November 25th through November 30th is really quite simple. All players will receive double XP and all polymorphs will be unlocked.

Read the original announcement here.

CCP Games has announced that the site for their upcoming Dominion expansion to EVE Online has been launched! Previously, the site was merely a teasing splash page but it now contains a number of new sections, including a feature page that has cataloged all the devblogs on the expansion's numerous new features all in one convenient spot for your perusal.

Speaking of features, below are a number of features you can expect from Dominion, which is set to release on December 1st:

Sovereignty Evolves

The system of territorial control in EVE advances, providing more tactical, capture-based gameplay. Alliances both large and small will find more opportunities within their grasp and an engaging conquest system in place to seize them. Rulers will now have to actively defend space they have claimed.

New Doomsday Devices and Capital Ship Changes

The rebuilt Doomsday Devices lead the pack of several changes to capital ships, bringing the need for new strategies to the wreck-strewn battlefields of capital ship combat.

Exploration and Advanced PVP Tutorials

New introductions to two of EVE’s most popular areas of gameplay: ship combat and discovery. The exploration tutorial teaches how to probe space for anomalies, hostile ships and hidden asteroid belts. In the advanced PvP tutorial, new pilots can learn the basics safely... well, relatively safely.

Pirate Faction Epic Arc Missions

Choose to ally with the underworld of New Eden as the first of many pirate epic arcs arrive. Hidden deep within the most dangerous regions of space, these agents provide significant rewards for the bold and the villainous.

Full Featured In-Game Browser

Fully compliant with current industry browsers, including support for the many ‘EVE-enabled’ sites created by the community.

In addition to the launch of the Dominion website today, a new trailer has also been released, which you can view here.

Scott Jennings takes a lesson from Modern Warfare 2 and looks at how MMOs handle (or don't handle as the case may be) controversy.

The argument over whether an MMORPG is “just a game” or “more than a game” has raged for years – essentially, since they were invented. From a design aspect, this usually hinges on whether a given MMORPG is a theme park, like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, and the many games that play similarly, with a straight line to the “cheese”, or a virtual world, such as Ultima Online, EVE, or to a greater degree Second Life, that give you no goals save that which you make. And from a market perspective, the theme park has won, overwhelmingly. World of Warcraft’s position in the market alone sees to that, if nothing else.

Yet among the players of games, the argument rages, and even in wholly “theme park” games such as World of Warcraft. Players of these games can take them very seriously indeed, and they have every right to given the amount of time that character development can entail. “Guild drama,” after all, can be far more riveting to experience first-hand than any canned quest.

Read it all here.

Square Enix has announced that the Mog Bonanza lottery will return to FFXI on December 24th, 2009! On December 24th, all characters who have been active for at least 45 days will be able to purchase a Mog Marble which is inscribed with a set of five numbers. On January 29th, 2010, the winning numbers will be announced and players will be awarded prizes based on the amount of numbers matched.

Players can purchase multiple Mog Marbles (up to a maximum of 10 per character) at 2000 gil a pop, and will be able to do so between December 24th, 2009 and January 15th, 2010.  Players can select their own Mog Marble numbers or have a randomly generated set be inscribed onto them.

Prize details below:

Rank 1 prize: all five digits matching.
Rank 2 prize: the last four digits matching.
Rank 3 prize: the last three digits matching.
Rank 4 prize: the last two digits matching.
Rank 5 prize: the last digit matching.

For more information including the breakdown of Gil prizes and the rank gated prize list, go here.

SOE has announced that between November 23rd and November 29th at 10PM PST all Station Cash cards redeemed will receive a 25% bonus. Station Cash is used in SOE games such as Free Realms, EverQuest, and EverQuest II.

If you have a Station Cash card, you can redeem it here.

NetDevil has released these three new, exclusive MMORPG.com screenshots from their upcoming space-based MMORPG, Jumpgate Evolution. The first two images show Solarian fighters, while the third image shows a mining establishment in the Bleakstone sector.

Check out all three here.

MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller recently had the chance to ask a few questions of Jehanzeb Hasan, the Jr. Project Manager for the upcoming Grand Fantasia Item Shop based MMO.

MMORPG.com: Talk about the free to play model and how it applies to Grand Fantasia.

Jehanzeb Hasan: I know there's a segment of the MMO fan base that has a certain aversion to free-to-play games, and some out there who are simply unwilling to give them a try. Often, this stems from an assumption that free-to-play games limit content--that you have to pay to unlock the really worthwhile and valuable stuff. Of course, this feeling isn't always unfounded, but in the case of Grand Fantasia--and really, many of Aeria Games' other titles--this simply isn't the case.

Grand Fantasia is a strong, robust, complete standalone title. There's a wealth of content available to players that are game enough to give it a chance--branching class trees, pets, guilds, instanced dungeons, PvP, team based battlefields, mounts, a player-based economy--it's all there and it's all free. For those players who are willing to pay, what we'll offer in terms of microtransactions are items of convenience and vanity. Nothing will that dramatically affect mechanics or unbalance the game.

Read it all here.

MMORPG.com Aion Correspondent Josh Price writes this look at the the lower and upper decks of the Steel Rake instance that takes place on the upper and lower decks of a ship flying through the air.

So, you've killed Golden Eye Mantutu at the end of the middle deck and all you can think to yourself is, "Could this place be ANY longer?!" The answer to that riddle is yes, yes it is quite longer. Enter: The Middle and Lower Levels. The entrance to these last two levels is located in the first room of the instance at an elevator switch. Because you can't access Steel Rake until 40 and because middle deck is around level 41, you will definitely spend more time farming the end of Steel Rake than you do the beginning. Though it may not be by choice since the advanced stigma quest will keep you coming back for a while to complete it-an issue that isn't as bad as it sounds, since the pacing of this part of the instance helps keep it from dragging on.

Read it all here.

Beginning Thursday, November 26th at 10AM PST, Cryptic Studios will be offering a free Thanksgiving weekend for Champions Online. The free play event will run for a full four days, coming to a close on November 30th, 2009 at 10AM PST.

To get started, sign up here!

For this week's Question of the Week, Community Manager Moll answers the question, "What are the multiple types of quest systems and how do they work?"

Moll explains that that each faction (such as Noir and Continoma) will have their own quests and storylines, but players will also have the ability to defect to the other faction and experience the opposing side's story as well. Of course, they want players to have to weigh such a decision and so there will be prohibitive consequences that players will have to consider when doing so. Players will also earn contribution scores with their faction, which will allow them to claim special rewards from faction NPC's.

Aside from the main story quests, Earthrise will also offer exploration quests, smaller one off or repeatable (daily, weekly, etc) side quests, though all quests will tie into the game's reputation system. You will earn favor points doing these quests and they, unlike your contribution score, are the actual currency that is spent on rewards. Favor points are specific to their respective organizations, so gaining favor points for one faction may result in a loss of favor with an opposing faction.

Read the full QOTW here.

Two formerly hugely popular servers will soon be added to the list of merged servers, as free transfers will be offered for both the Phoenix Throne and Dark Crag servers beginning  December 2nd.

Source and Destination details below:

Phoenix Throne will be able to transfer to either Iron Rock OR Badlands

Dark Crag will be able to transfer to either Gorfang OR Volkmar

Players will also see a bonus of 20% XP/Renown on the aforementioned destination servers during the weeks following the server transfers.

For more details read the official announcement here.

NetDevil has announced today that Lance Robertson will be joining their team as Executive Producer on Jumpgate: Evolution. Lance Robertson's previous work includes a long stint on Dark Age of Camelot, and he also served as senior producer on Warhammer Online.

Read the official announcement here.

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! :)