The Matrix Online has finally joined Morpheus in the great beyond, joining the very short but always expanding list of commercially-released MMOs that have closed up shop.

Check out Giant Bomb’s 1-hour long video of the end of the world above, and if you find yourself with an extra five hours of your life to waste, you could do worse than skimming through the other videos of Giant Bomb’s time spent with the game. It all starts out very silly and funny and ends up being genuinely sincere and depressing before the end.

The Matrix Online: Not Like This – Part 01
The Matrix Online: Not Like This – Part 02
The Matrix Online: Not Like This – Part 03
The Matrix Online: Not Like This – Part 04

EverQuest is now ten years old, and regardless of your opinions on the game itself, it’s hard not to respect SOE’s genre-defining behemoth. And it seems like EQ only just reached level nine. They grow up so fast!

To celebrate, Sony put together the above video filled with interesting EverQuest facts. Who knew that the world of Norrath was home to 3.5 tons worth of rats, or that there are still over 3,000 items still waiting for players to discover?

Even more interesting is Massively’s EverQuest Turns Ten feature, which includes lists of the 10 things some members of the EverQuest team wish they had known before building an MMO. Specifically, a programmer, another programmer, and an artist.

Cue “this is the coolest thing you’ve seen all month?!” comments.

I am a weak, pathetic waste of man-meat. This isn’t news.

I pre-ordered Warhammer Online through Direct 2 Drive in order to get access to the “open” beta. I am nothing if not predictable.

It was the awesome cinematic trailer and this series of informative videos that finally eroded my paper-thin self-control, forcing EA Mythic’s opus into my (now slightly more) pathetic life.

More than just a blatant World of Warcraft ripoff, Warhammer Online promises to do away with WoW’s poop-socking endgame by integrating features usually reserved for the end of a lengthy leveling treadmill – epic pvp encounters, tiered armor sets, “raid” content – into the leveling experience itself. And then adding an additonal pvp-centric means of progression in the form of 80 renown levels on top of it. Realm vs. realm gameplay, guilds capturing and holding keeps, and the adorable squig herder are just icing on a very delicious cake. Plus there’s that damn Tome of Knowledge—an obsessive-compulsive’s wet dream.

So now you know how I’m going to be spending my weekend, minus the trip to Best Buy so my ancient PC can do this game justice. Pity me, and don’t expect to see this space updated for at least another month.

The DORK Club is now a games developer. If Nibris can get away with being classified as one in the eyes of the gaming “press,” then consarn it, so can we. We’ve got a $100 game engine and everything!

We’re setting the bar high with our ambitious first project: An MMO based on Stephen King’s cherished library of award-winning novels and short stories. Being good friends with Mr. King, I secured the rights for just $19, meaning I got a much better deal than J.J. Abrams.

While the game is obviously still in the very earliest stages of development as we look for cheap out-sourced programmers, today I will reveal the first details of this tentatively titled project, and give you an overview of some of the game’s most exciting and innovative features.

Players can choose from one of four playable classes as they pledge allegiance to The White in the ongoing war against The Red. Gunslingers dual wield deadly six shooters and command cunning hawk pets. Elderly Jedi can teleport short distances as well as control others and lift heavy objects with their minds. Impossibly Mature 12-Year-Olds use
their wise-beyond-their-years maturity to outwit enemies four times their age. And finally, Popular Artists Trying to Escape Their Past walk a thin line between hating and embracing post modernism. Possible expansion classes include the Mildly Racist Magical Negro and the Gentle Retarded Mongoloid.

As players level up (wait until you hear our ding sound!), they will actually transcend to higher levels of The Dark Tower itself, gaining access to more and more of Stephen King’s “other worlds than these,” including locations as diverse as Derry, Maine; Castle Rock, Main; and Haven, Maine.

While our planned partnership with Microsoft fell through with the cancellation of their DC Universe MMO, we’re proud to announce that we’ll be partnering with Turbine to help make our Stephen King MMO the best possible game it can be. Players will be able to transfer their characters between our game and Turbine’s upcoming Harry Potter MMO, and vice versa, at no extra charge.

Our partnership with Turbine also allows us to present every aspect of our game in terms of The Lord of the Rings Online. Ka-tets (like fellowships in LotRO) will allow players to forge everlasting alliances and friendships that grow over time. Using our robust music system (similar to the music system found in The Lord of the Rings Online), players can play brief snippets of popular songs that best represent their current situation. Players will even be able to temporarily take
on one of Randall Flagg’s many persona – the hard case, the walkin’ dude, the dark man, the ageless stranger – and fight against their former allies (not unlike LotRO’s monster play).

Like The Lord of the Rings Online, we also have some exciting raid content planned for our upcoming MMO. Planned raid bosses include Stephen King’s alcoholism, Stephen King’s drug addiction, and Stephen King’s head on a stick (like the last boss of Doom 2—a reference to The Lord of the Rings Online). Stephen King fans will also be excited to hear they’ll be able to face off against the Crimson King himself, standing idly by as a previously unmentioned NPC quickly and easily
defeats the game’s ultimate evil. Following the final boss fight, players can enter The Dark Tower and begin the game again at level 1, but with an additional, class-based musical instrument.

I hope everyone who reads this site will be free for GM duty when the game finally ships. We can all hang out in Stephen King’s virtual house, the game’s equivalent to GM island, and ban any player unfortunate enough to find it.

[EDIT: Bango "vector_black" Skank was here<---]

Besides scoring a blowout preview of the recently-announced Warhammer 40K RTS Dawn of War 2, the latest issue of PC Gamer also has the first details on THQ’s Warhammer 40K MMO.

The title will have more in common with World of Warcraft and other traditional MMORPGs than MMO shooters like Planetside, but will feature a deep combat system that focuses on cover, suppressive fire, and flanking.

THQ promises combat on a much larger scale than what we’ve seen from MMORPGs like EA Mythic’s Warhammer Online, with players forming squads to explore “alien temples, Chaos shrines, deserted battlefields, mysterious ruins, ancient structures, and … space hulks.”

Most exciting, however, is creative director Joe Madureira’s claim that the Warhammer 40K MMO will have the “coolest looking characters of any MMO ever.” Madureira promises “tons of stuff hanging off your character, weapons, scrolls,” and that once THQ begins releasing images of the game, fans are welcome to call him on his claim.

And while the world needs another big budget MMO vying for our free time like it needs a kick in the teeth, consider me cautiously excited in spite of THQ’s non-existent MMO track record.

Actual WH40K MMO details here [CVG]

Some kind soul recorded a presentation given by Jeff Hickman and Josh Drescher, two of Warhammer Online’s producers, from the recent WAR Paris Press Event and put it online for the rest of us. The video clocks in at just over an hour in length, but Jeff and Josh remain funny and engaging from start to finish, and highlight the ways in which WAR differentiates itself from the WoWs of the world, making it required viewing for anyone even remotely interested in the upcoming MMO.

After a brief description of some of the classes available to the elves and dark elves – Warhammer online features six different races, each with four unique classes – the producers began an in-depth explanation of Warhammer Online’s clever living capitol city mechanic. As players of any given race grow, level up, and accomplish deeds throughout the world, their capitol city will grow and level with them. New areas, quests, vendors, and even dungeons are automatically added to the cities to keep pace with its evolving populace.

Of particular note are player monuments, statues depicting players who have contributed the most to the ongoing realm versus realm (RvR) campaign. Everything in the capitol cities serves a purpose for those that call them home, but also serve as targets for any invaders. Besides serving as fabulous ego boosts and cool reminders of in-game history, these player monuments can also be desecrated by invading players, who can capture the statues’ heads as trophies of their own accomplishments.

This back-and-forth, RvR gameplay is a real focal point for Warhammer Online. Depending on their race, each player fights either for the forces of Order or Destruction, and EA Mythic wants players focusing on the success and well-being of their realm rather than their own personal advancement. All aspects of the game, from small PvP skirmishes and PvE encounters to full-on raids feed this RvR campaign. The game is all about “taking what the enemy has and making it your own.”

The most direct means of bringing glory to your realm is through confrontation with your enemy, and Warhammer Online promises to provide plenty of variety in that regard. The most basic and easily accessible form of RvR combat are scenarios, instanced battles between even teams that should last about 15 minutes—think World of Warcraft’s battlegrounds. Players can also expect to run into enemy players in the open world, and EA Mythic has placed capturable objectives throughout the world to act as the focal point for these incidental skirmishes. Defeating enemy players in scenarios or in the world of WAR not only benefits you personally, but also furthers the cause of your realm.

Players will also be able to participate in epic, large scale battles against opposing realms through keep battles and city invasions. Keeps are large castles dotting the landscape that give dominion over the surrounding land to anyone fortunate enough to hold them. Wrestling keeps from enemy control and invading their cities both require siege weapons, and each race has their own arsenal of siege engines ranging from battering rams, orcapults, and even giant trolls. Should your realm manage to invade an opposing realm’s capitol city, not only do you gain access to the city itself, but you also open up special PvE encounters against the leaders of your enemy’s realm.

Ultimately, both PvE and RvR players need one another in order to access the upper tiers of content for either playstyle. RvR players need PvE players to build up the capitol cities and complete public quests – cooperative zone-wide quests that offer special rewards – to boost the strength of their realm. At the same time, PvE players need the hardcore RvR players to invade enemy keeps and cities and unlock new PvE content. It’ll be interesting to see if EA is really able to cater to both types of players without alienating either.

The video also covers Warhammer Online’s living guilds, which level up over time and have in-game calendars and news feeds, as well as the Tome of Knowledge, an extremely clever metagame feature that tracks your character’s personal history with the game. Jeff and Josh cover a great deal of content in relatively little time, and while they may not provide a tremendous amount of depth on any one subject, it’s clear Warhammer Online is a feature-rich game that may actually put a chink in World of Warcraft’s seemingly unchinkable armor.

War in Paris – Präsentation [Trailerwelten via NeoGAF]

Double Fusion and NCsoft have announced plans to team up and battle the evil of drying revenue streams by bringing an optional in-game advertising program to City of Heroes. In-game ads for real world products would replace Paragon City’s fictional billboards to help fund continued development of the superhero MMO. Subscribers who would rather see ads for Hero Quencher than Gatorade are welcome to opt out of the system, but City of Heroes’ development manager Brian Clayton hopes most players choose not to, as “all ad revenue dollars go directly to the further development of the game.”

In November, NCsoft transfered development of City of Heroes from Cryptic Studios to a new studio in Northern California. Brian Clayton assures leery fans that City of Heroes is “entering a major phase of reinvestment for the game (and brand)” under the direction of this new studio. They hope to keep City of Heroes relevant in an ever-expanding MMO market.

As far as in-game advertising campaigns go, City of Heroes’ looks to be as unobtrusive as possible. NCsoft is merely trading one set of billboards and street signs for another. Ultimately, the in-game ads will bring more new content to the aging MMO more quickly than before, which should quiet any fans currently up in arms over Double Fusion’s arrival in Paragon City. Just the same, here’s hoping Pepsi billboards don’t start cropping up in the fantasy worlds of Guild Wars and Lineage.

Double Fusion, NCsoft Partner For In-Game City of Heroes Ads [Gamasutra]

THQ plans to tap into the Chinese games market by developing an online-only version of Relic’s popular WWII-themed RTS specifically for the country. They plan to design “[an] experience for online gamers where players will be able to build their character up from private to general through new multiplayer cooperative missions, gameplay modes, and player-versus-player combat.”

Because piracy is so rampant in the Chinese PC games market, the game would need to be online-only (and presumably supported by some sort of pay-to-play scheme) in order to turn a profit. Working MMO elements into the real-time strategy game may just be the clever solution THQ needs to convince Chinese gamers that Company of Heroes is worth paying for.

The decision to target China with this new Company of Heroes iteration doesn’t come at random; Relic reports about 800,000 Chinese players download patches for the game. Obviously, they would much rather see those players pay for the experience than get it free of charge.

The idea of addictive MMO features in an online RTS is extremely appealing, so hopefully THQ won’t exclude the rest of the world from getting in on the action.

Company of Heroes’ Next Theater of Operations [1UP via CVG]

Jane Barnett of Middlesex University in London claims people are more relaxed after playing World of Warcraft. She conducted a study of just under 300 WoW players between the age of 12 and 83 and found “there were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type.”

Barnett claims, “This will help us to develop an emotion and gaming questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to transfer their online aggression into everyday life.”

She will showcase her findings at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference being held in Dublin.

So, there you have it: A laid back, mostly non-violent game doesn’t frustrate or anger those who play it. A shocking revelation, to be certain. Perhaps next time she’ll study the affects of Manhunt on convicted killers.

‘Violent’ games can lower anger says one UK university researcher [Strategy Informer]

Guild Wars players lucky enough to have their 15K armor sets (like me!) will find their armor now transforms them into a stick figure. Monks rejoice; now it’ll take the opposing team ten whole seconds to figure out which player you are and mercilessly tear you apart. Your teammates will thank you for the additional heals.

Upon logging on, I discovered Guild Wars had exploded into impromptu break dancing parties (pictured) in the game’s areas that aren’t populated by hungry wildlife looking for a quick meal. As always, players who haven’t yet crafted their final armor set are left out of all the fun and scorned by enemies and allies alike.

April Fools’ in GW: Pick up sticks [Massively]