Yes, every single MMO nowadays has an array of dancing animations, but BioWare’s venture into the kill-ten-rats arena, Star Wars: The Old Republic, is the only MMO where that simple, intended-to-be-benign dancing animation prevents a whole bunch of damage by consistently interrupting an enemy’s casting. Not working as intended, as you may have guessed, and BioWare was rumored to be handing out bans for those caught abusing the exploit, but BioWare has responded to those claims saying that no, they aren’t banning anyone.

In news that might’ve been expected due to the lack of news regarding the developer or its products, Multiverse, the developer behind the Firefly MMO, has unfortunately closed down. Though they’ve raised over $7 million in funding throughout their lifetime, they were unable to raise enough to continue the journey forward. Though Multiverse created some brand-based games, for instantly recognizable companies such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, the Firefly MMO they’ve been working on will probably be most missed.

What BioWare hopes to be the next big thing in MMO land, Star Wars: The Old Republic, has finally received an official release date and price. Announced at the Eurogamer Expo in London, the game will see release on December 20, 2011 in North America, and December 22, 2011 in European launch territories. For those in Australia and New Zealand, those launch dates have not been set as of yet, though BioWare isn’t planning on region locking the game, but players outside of launch territories may experience lag when attempting to play a version of the game that has not officially released in their territory.

Each purchase of SW:TOR will come with 30 free days of subscription time, with a one month subscription costing $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99); pretty standard fare for MMO territory. The game also offers a three month subscription for $13.99 per month, or a one time charge of $41.97 (£25.17/€35.97), and a six month subscription for $12.99 per month, or a one time charge of $77.94 (£46.14/€65.94). Those who pre-ordered the game can head on over to the game’s site and enter in their pre-order code to be eligible for Early Access, which doesn’t yet have a date for when it will begin, though BioWare assures everyone that there will be multiple days of Early Access. So, only a few months until everyone can play the MMO version of Knights of the Old Republic, only one of BioWare’s best games.

(via Massively)

To some developers, it’s become a dirty curse. To others, it has become a venerated phrase, something immediately associated with excellent growth and revenue. To the common gamer, it is instead a promise of gameplay without immediate monetary investment. Considering the typical console game has a sticker price of $60 whether the player ends up liking the game or not, this can be the point that pushes their curiosity over the edge.

Regardless, we are living in a free-to-play gaming revolution.

But that’s a good thing. It means that developers and publishers are aware enough of their customers’ wants and needs to provide them with tailored content specifically for them.

The New York Times is reporting that North Korean despot Kim Jong-il has put together a team of hackers to farm gold in popular South Korean MMOs. Police in the region said that the team created software that allowed them to breach the servers of MMOs, such as Lineage and Dungeon and Fighter (which seems to be Dungeon Fighter Online, possibly either named with the “and” in Korea, or a translation error on someone’s part), which granted “round-the-clock play by ‘factories’ of dozens of unmanned computers.”

Regarding World of Warcarft, there are basically only two groups of gamers: Those who play it and those who know they won’t like it. Both groups are fairly large, but with the latest patch, Rage of the Firelands, Blizzard is attempting to turn that latter group into “those who know they don’t like it, but play it anyway.” Now, rather than the free 14-day limited trial, WoW has shifted over to a limited free-to-play trial: Instead of 14 days to test out the game, players will be able to play some of the content forever, but with a limiting level cap of 20 that will only be removed once they upgrade to the full version of the game.

Dubbed the World of Warcraft Starter Edition, the free-to-play “trial” includes the base game and some content from the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, namely the two added character races. So, not exactly a massive shift to a free-to-play model like every other game seems to be doing lately — even games that never had a subscription to begin with — but still, a step in what many people would call the right direction for WoW, a game that needs to reach a new audience, but is so widely known that most of that potential new audience already knows it doesn’t want to play WoW. At least if the game moves to some kind of free-to-play model, all of those people who wouldn’t want to play may give it a shot. It’s entirely possible that this free-to-play trial could be the first step in that direction.

(Blizzard via Joystiq)

Performance artist Jordan Wayne Long is preparing to ship himself from Bald Knob, Arkansas to Portland, Oregon in a crate over the course of one week without a connection to the outside world, except for a rig which allows him to play Lord of the Rings Online. Long claims the project relates to his study of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and related coping mechanisms, but we all know he was just looking for way to grind some levels without being bothered by the outside world.

Long’s friend Bradi Roberts will be transporting him on her truck, so he won’t be going through any kind of actual postal system, nor have to sign up for an Amazon credit card in order to get free shipping. Long plans to update the interested masses via his Twitter and has also created a blog to cover his week of playing LOTRO in a box, which should barely be any different from playing it in his room. I kid, MMO gamers, because I love. Long’s experiment is planned to take place between July 1 to July 7, and end at a Portland art gallery.

(via Kotaku)

On November 21, 2010, a man drove under the 7,500 square meter LED screen at The Place (which seems to be a mall) in Beijing, sat down on a prepared lounge chair, whipped out his laptop, connected to the world’s second largest LED screen above, and played an MMO for ten minutes. According to MMO Site “insiders,” renting the screen for that amount of time cost the man around $15,000.

The screen normally features fairly useless scenery, such as underwater scenes or an assortment of coins, wasting what many gamers would consider to be the second-holiest of gaming grails. Reading through various comment sections, the identity of the MMO is yet to be discovered, even though the video features a load screen. It’s over in Asia though, so it must be of the grindfest variety, am I right?!

if you didn’t like the series finale of Syfy’s Battlestar Galactica, maybe the new Battlestar MMO will give you a chance to kill Mitochondrial Eve before it all happens again.

NBC Universal and Bigpoint have announced their new MMO based on the television series Battlestar Galactica.  Unlike World of Warcraft or Star Trek Online, the Battlestar MMO will be completely free and browser-based, eliminating the need to buy additional software or pay a monthly fee to play.  We like free.

What will gameplay be like?