Free-to-play

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After stepping into the leadership role for Champions Online and launching the game's conversion into a free-to-play model, Shannon "Poz" Posniewski is waving goodbye to Cryptic Studios, at least for now. In a recent news post, it was announced that Posniewski was heading off to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and in his own words, possibly face death by exposure. Rob Overmeyer has been announced as the man to fill Posniewski's shoes and continue to lead the game into the future.

Although the absence is termed as a vacation (which certainly implies that it's a temporary affair), all signs point to Posniewski's departure being a permanent one. The rather tongue-in-cheek style of the announcement certainly doesn't help matters. While some fans are clamoring for a clarification, it appears the man behind the past year of development is departing the project, which makes it a sad day for Champions Online players pleased with Posniewski's leadership. We wish Poz the best of luck in his future endeavors.

Do you love all things steampunk? Have you been indulging that preference in ARGO Online? Well, that's about to pay off thanks to Massively's latest giveaway.

The ARGO Online development team has given us some awesome model blasters sure to delight any steampunk fan. The first prize winner will receive the Big Daddy, an 11.25-inch revolver complete with display stand. Three second prize winners will receive The Consolidator, a smaller raygun model, also with a display stand.

So what do you have to do to get your hands on one of these? Play some ARGO, of course! Send your best screenshot of steampunk gameplay in ARGO Online to rubi@massively.com by noon EDT on Monday, May 9th. Let us know what area of ARGO you took it in and what we're seeing, and we'll choose the four best on Monday and send each winner one of these deadly looking little beauties. In the meantime, check out our gallery below for a detailed look at your potential new toys. Please read our contest rules for eligibility information, and good luck to all!

Last year, I spent a column giving my reflections, thoughts, and observations on the entirety of Volume 1 of Lord of the Rings Online's epic storyline, and today I'd like to do the same for Volume 2. Since these stories are at the center of LotRO's player experience, it's important to see how they function and hold up in today's increasingly story-centric MMO environment.

I've gone through Volume 2 twice, once before the "solofication" of the recent update and once after. The second journey was, by far, much more enjoyable since I didn't have to sit there for weeks hoping to find enough players on the same part of the Fellowship portions to continue the tale. Being able to go through it at my own pace was vastly more enjoyable, especially when I could dedicate huge chunks of time to knock out several chapters in one go.

And this is a good thing, as this volume of the epic story not only gives you one of your legendary traits but greatly helps you build reputation toward a faction that will give you another one (the Iron Garrison Guards). As such, Volume 2 will continue to be an important part of any character's journey.

So let's dig into this puppy (not... a literal puppy, you understand) and see what Volume 2 has to offer. If you haven't yet gone through this part of the epic story, beware: Here be spoilers!

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It's expansion time for Fiesta Online, and gamigo is trotting out some new content called Burning Rock to keep the hearts of its loyal fans aflame. In addition to the new stuff, the free-to-play fantasy title's existing zones have been tweaked to "reduce the amount of time it takes to level up," according to a gamigo press release.

Regarding the new content, it's a mixture of new quests, new boss monsters, and new zones, including the Cave of Fever, the Burning Cave, and mobs like the Stone Giant and Fire Golem. There are also 19 new quests, all of them designed for players between the levels of 84 and 92. Head to the official website for more on Fiesta Online and the new expansion.

It's a stupendous month for MapleStory as the obscenely popular MMO not only dinged its sixth year in operation but also racked up over eight million accounts and 24 million characters created. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Nexon is throwing a joyful celebration for the game code-named Jubilation.

As the name suggests, Jubilation is all about partying, and party the players shall. For starters, there's a dual-raid for two teams of three competing to down a balloon first. Those looking for more relaxing activities may want to help grow a small maple sapling into a mighty tree by collecting sunshine, assembling an anniversary jigsaw puzzle by collecting all the trees, or simply logging in every day to earn enough stamps for a loyalty medal with spiffy stats attached.

MapleStory's sixth anniversary events are going on now through June 14th, so there's plenty of time to check it all out! You can read the full details of the game's Jubilation at the official site.

The holy trinity is a sort of abolished concept in recent MMOs, and Champions Online is really no different. It's easy to make healer-tanks, tank-DPS, healer-DPS, and all sorts of variations on those themes. I commented previously that I like the idea of the trinity, but that was a year ago, and I've got a little more to say.

Champions is a hard game to explain in terms of role, so I don't really expect the community at large to actually accept a lot of what I'm explaining here. However, this is a breakdown of the real contributions each person can make to a team. Although there is no real "crowd control" role, there are still a lot of ways people can contribute to victory.

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Floating characters and items are a common glitch in MMO-land, as evidenced both by yesterday's contribution and today's from Varun Nagwekar:

Since it is the season to be posting bugs, here's one I found in LotRO. Behold, the Levitating Minstrel! Here my character is basically standing on the edge of a huge crossbow. But from the third-person view, it looks like my character is levitating in the air!

We've got a few more days left in bug week, so keep those screenshots coming! Thursday is also the time of the week when we reveal next week's theme: endgame! This one's for the ambitious among you -- send in your best screenshot of endgame gameplay to oneshots@massively.com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to enjoy and then give you the thanks!

What's better than launch day for Elsword Online? Well, free beer for everyone springs to mind, but since we can't afford the latter, you'll have to settle for the former. Kill3rCombo's action manga is the next best thing for fans of anime-themed MMOs, though. The free-to-play title sports a highly stylized look resulting in an original side-scroller that feels as much like a comic book as it does a video game.

Elsword boasts three customizable player characters and fighting styles that evolve based on job class upgrades and a variety of skills and combos. Gameplay includes solo content and cooperative missions, and there's a bit of PvP for the competitive crowd as well.

"By keeping with the original manga aesthetic and animation, we hope to give players easily accessible gameplay while also staying true to the game's Asian roots," says Ben Colayco, CEO of Kill3rCombo. Head to the game's official website to download the client and get started.

We talked earlier this week about APB Reloaded's impending open beta date. Thrown into the mix was a mention of character restoration services for those veterans of the original (i.e., Realtime Worlds) version of the game. Today we're happy to report that the service is live in Reloaded's closed beta.

A brief blurb on the official APB forums outlines all the details. Players will need to have an open character slot on their G1 accounts as well as their old RTW login credentials (the process involves logging into the RTW account to initiate the transfer).

GamersFirst notes that this is not a comprehensive restoration. "The main items being restored are clothing and symbols. Please understand that no progression, APB cash, RTW Points, Action Time, weapons, or vehicles will be restored," says the post. Also, only two outfits are being restored due to technical issues (though any symbols and clothing items used in other outfits will still exist on your character). Check out the APB forums for more.

Yearning for an early look at Age of Empires Online? If so, Microsoft Game Studios has some good news for you. Starting today, you can jump into a 48-hour secret access beta signup session simply by registering for a Windows Live ID (or logging in if you already have one).

This is your last chance to get in on some Age of Empires beta action before MGS closes it to the public, so hurry and visit the signup link before Saturday, May 7th. You'll be able to download the beta client immediately and get started testing shortly thereafter. If you missed our beta key giveaway a couple of weeks ago, don't miss what could be your last opportunity to take part in the upcoming MMORTS' testing phase!

We hope someone brought cake and presents, because Perfect World Entertainment's Battle of the Immortals hit the big one year mark today! The free-to-play game, which drops five classes into a variety of dungeons ranging from Mayan jungles to Egyptian temples, is celebrating its first anniversary by giving away prizes -- including epic Soul Gear equipment and the prestigious Flame Kirin pet -- to its loyal players.

If you want a piece of the giveaway action or just want to try something new for a change, head over to Battle of the Immortals' official site. Register to claim your goodies, and help PWE celebrate one year of dungeon-crawling fun!

Each and every article I write will have at least a few comments from different points of view on the subject of free-to-play profits and cash-shop uses. Once again my wonderfully unique position as a writer for a large gaming website gives me some general insight into the mind of today's modern MMO gamer -- at least the type of gamer who comes to Massively for his information. As with any group, there are a lot of myths that are passed around, as well as many truths. Figuring out which is which takes time.

I decided to continue with this fascinating look at payment models by gathering even more information. Already I have collected some of my favorite comments from many of you for possible future use in a column, but I love asking questions for you to answer. This week I thought it would be fun to examine some of the different "truths" about free-to-play that get passed around.

For example: How do free-to-play publishers make their money? Do most free-to-play players really pay more than a typical subscription price? Do free-to-play games sell power?

Click past the cut and let's look into some of these items.

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