Coming up today is a fairly robust roundup of the MMO market to my knowledge, from things I’ve played and things I’ve yet to. So saddle up, put on some chaps and get ready to be taken for a ride through the fields where the MMO’s roam and the Developers groan.

Below you’ll find news on 9 different MMO games and some other tidbits too, so read on!

City of Heroes/Villains: Issue 12 has been out for a few days now, and I’ve started to look into some of the Midnight Squad missions with fellow RP’ers from EU RP guilds The Militia and The Silent Tempest. For the first two missions I’ve done, let me just say. There’s a hell of a lot of Rikti. Attack of the X-Box armour too, in the case of Headman Gunners. People are reporting some connectivity problems, though that may just be the UK to Mainland EU infrastructure, which is less than stellar and literally a tangled web in places.

Psychic Blast/Mental Manipulation continues to be very fun, and at the UK Games Expo there’s a new addition to the Saturday line up at Draw the World Together; frequent Games Workshop artist Karl Kopinski.

There are still Known Issues with The Midnight Hour, so people having problems with the game should check it out there. Also, two community members have worked on a comic to celebrate Issue 12, which can be found in PDF form at this link. Good work, Chase Arcanum and Cinder Flame!

Oh, check out these player done videos on YouTube, from a fan made Issue 12 trailer to some rather epic work done in some shorts, just check out that camera work!

Dungeon Runners: Currently receiving patches for its retail launch, the free-to-play MMO has recently had some changes in Build 121, that include members getting 15% more experience. Of course, technically this is not the case, they get 100% of the exp. People on free play accounts such as myself have had an exp gain reduction of 13.6%. Of course, membership does only cost $4.99 if it really bothers you.

They did add a new system where completing a quest gives you a 15% exp gain bonus (Named ‘15% more cowbell’ in honour of the SNL Blue Oyster Cult skit), and general ‘class’ tweaks (though the game is a classless system in essence, it just affects how you start off) plus some PVP reworking to make things more fair. The retail box is due out in late June at this moment in time, and includes a free passive skill that summons a Bling Gnome to gather gold for you. Build 123 was release a bit later that added some more tweaks to the game and some bug fixes. The game still only has US servers, with no current plans to my knowledge for a EU server and release.

Exteel: The MMO3PS Mech game, another in NC Soft’s Free to Play lineup, had a content patch a few days ago that added some new weapons (for Credit purchases, instead of the micro-transaction NCCoin), skills and some bug fixes, including to the rapid refresh of the lobby screen that made selecting a match to play in hellsome. No word on Clans yet though. As with DR, no plan on an EU release as of yet.

Tabula Rasa: Deployment 8.4 has been live for a few days now, bringing some class changes, tweaks, bugfixes and content to the game. My playtest during the trial is still going, and I’ve found myself oddly split over what to think of the game. It’s cool, definitely, and the setting is rather funky, but parts of the execution, the missions and the interface just don’t seem to appeal to me. Of course, the trial is still ongoing with keys still available, so skip back a few posts or look on the official site for your chance to get in on the action.

Also throwing out a plug to the Tabula Rasa Unoffical forums, which are run by a friend of mine (and DJ at Titan Gaming Radio) Gangrel. I’m sure if you have questions about the game, this place is a good start to finding answers. You may also wish to drop by TabulaCast and TabulaBlogger for more information on the game.

World of Warcraft: Level 60 has been hit, the grind for gold continues to get my epic mount and riding skill. Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational event will be occurring in Paris on June 28th and 29th, where visitors will be able to experience a hands on playtest of the upcoming expansion ‘Wrath of the Lich King’, which will take heroes to Northrend to face the bitter cold of snow and darkness. Or embrace it as the Death Knight Hero Class, which has just had some more details released about it.

There is still no beta for the expansion, though certain competitions from the company have guaranteed invites as a prize.

EVE Online: Playtesting will begin today for their latest content update, the Empyrean Age, scheduled for Summer release on the live servers. Bringing more content, gameplay changes and ways of play to the star system, people can check out the space-faring sci-fi game with a 14 day Free Trial. I’ve played EVE myself, but didn’t really find it to my liking. A bit too much of a small fish, huge pond, bigger sharks feeling, if you get my drift, but give it a try yourself and see.

The game may have some competition for its genre soon, from the upcoming Jumpgate Evolution. Time will tell to see how the battle plays out.

Guild Wars: Some skill balancing is coming soon for the MMORPG, which you can read the details on here over at the offical GW wiki. Some bug fixes were also brought in with this patch, which is always good. Also this weekend you’ll get Triple key and lockpick drops during play time, and when using Lockpicks on chests get double points towards the Lucky/Unlucky Titles. I really need to get playing some more on my Mesmer/Elementalist, but what with Tabula Rasa, City of Heroes and World of Warcraft, I’ve just not had the time.

Lineage 2: I’ve still yet to try my trial of this game, but I have some news for you! The event for the latest content update to the game, Hellbound, has been extended to the 27th of May, allowing you more time to partake in the activities. Of interest is the Adventurer’s Guides, that will assist new players with special novice weapons available from Level 6 plus. Good time to give the game a go.

Age of Conan: The latest contender to the MMO market, currently in Early Access for EU players, recently had some issues with missing nipples on character models. The dev team was quick to state on the patch launcher that this was nothing to do with censorship and a mere technical issue. Considering you decapitate, disembowel and eviscerate people, you’d think -nipples- would be the last of the censors worries. Oh wait, male nipples are fine, female nipples are sexual and will corrupt innocent youths who shouldn’t be playing the game at all. Go Team America!

Good news for all those RP’ers out there who didn’t want to play on Aquilonia, an RP-PVP server. Funcom have finally put up an RP-PVE server, named Hyrkania. When it’s time for me to test the game, and I will, I’ll check out both servers so I can try and get some ideas on PVE and PVP. Got some character concepts ready for giving RP a try.

Oh, one game I’m keeping my eye on is Aion, which from what I’ve seen of gameplay footage looks very fluid. Warhammer Online may also get a look in from me, even though I’ve not had much to do with the IP or that of 40k.

Oh, I hear the folk over at NC Soft Austin have been working on a new fantasy MMORPG. Scott Jennings speaks about it and the industry over in this interview. Whether this has anything to do with the Java engine world building tool that the Austin folks have been working on, well, who knows?