There's a war going on. No, we're not talking about the one between the Armies of Order and the Armies of Destruction depicted in the recently released cinematic trailer for EA's upcoming MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Nope, we're talking about the war being waged on blogs and in forums over which fantasy MMO-themed video is better: this one or the Wrath of the Lich King opening. Since it's a war, you all have to watch both and pick a side. Apathy is not a choice!

Once you finally, finally install the Wrath of the Lich King onto your personal copy of World of Warcraft, what's the first thing you'll bear witness to (besides empty Mountain Dew cans and an empty, empty apartment)? Why, the above video, of course. For your viewing pleasure we present the opening cinematic from Blizzard's upcoming opus.

So, what's it like? C'mon dude, it's a new Blizzard cinematic, do you really want some tubby blogger spoiling it for you? Of course not. Now, get to clicking.

News

• Latest Beta build kills spell downranking
  No more downranking spells to save mana in-game, says Blizzard.
• How Blizzard mishandled the BlizzCon ticket situation
  Our long look at what exactly happened last week with the BlizzCon tickets.
• This is a very fast rug
  More cool mounts and items coming out of the Wrath of the Lich King beta.
• First look at tailoring in Wrath
  What cloth wranglers will be able to make in the next expansion.
• Looking for ladies in Outland
  Have you ever noticed that there don't seem to be that many females among NPCs in Outland? Why is that?

Features

• Ask a Beta Tester: Dalaran and UI updates
  Our Ask a Beta Tester column covers everything you've ever wanted to know about what's happening in the beta, and then some.
• Know Your Lore: The Ashbringer
  Everyone's all giddy about Frostmane finding its way into player hands, but Know Your Lore takes a long look at the other side of the "Awesome Two-Hand Sword" spectrum.
• Scattered Shots: Pet talent trees in the Wrath beta
  Our starting Hunter column checks out how pets might spec when Wrath comes to town.
• The Colosseum: Stormie of Shadow Council
  We interview one of the best Arena players around.
• Ask a Lore Nerd: Skeletons, slavery and shadows
  Experts talk about what they know. And the Lore Nerd talks about lore.

Although it was dangled in front of us like a tantalizing carrot, it looks like you won't be able to get any cross-gaming action between PS3s and PCs out of Sony's upcoming spy MMO, The Agency. Last year, designer Hal Milton told us the developer weas looking at it, but in a recent interview with Eurogamer it looks like he's closed the door on things for good. You can thank Shadowrun for ruining it all.

"PC guys say, 'PS3 guys have aim assist and the controls nerfed for them'. And PS3 guys say, 'PC guys have a mouse and keyboard - it's all easier for them'. Even if it's not true." Not that we're complaining, because Shadowrun made us a bit mental. But this really needs to happen in a fun way sooner or later. Which title is going to be able to nail it down and make it work? Super Mario Crossover Party Platformer 2: Now With More Fun has our money.

If you can't wait to get your hands on Warhammer Online, EA announced today that an open beta for the game will kick off Sept. 7, giving you a whole 11 days to play before the general populace sullies it on Sept. 18.

So, how do you get in? Just pre-order the game with one of EA's "select retail partners." (We don't know who they are yet, but even money says GameStop is one of them.) Also, those who are already in the closed beta will automagically be invited. So, are you getting in on the ground floor? Or have you been burned one too many times by start-up MMOs?

At Sony Online Entertainment's Fan Faire event in Las Vegas, expansions to two of the MMO developer's major titles, Everquest and Everquest II, were revealed and dated: EQ fans will be planting Seeds of Destruction on October 21, while EQII players will find themselves embarking on The Shadow Odyssey November 18. Shortly thereafter, SOE revealed a teaser trailer for each expansion. We debated about which one to feature on the main page, and ultimately decided upon the expansion for the game that hasn't been out for a hojillion years (fret not, Seeds' trailer is after the jump).

The Shadow Odyssey's teaser shows off some of the rather uninviting locales featured in the update, and not much else. The Seeds of Destruction trailer previews the new mercenary system, and flaunts a number of new areas which will be added to the title. Pretty impressive from a game that, if it were a human being, would be entering the fourth grade this Fall, where it would slowly begin to develop funny feelings towards its classmate, Asheron's Call.

Read: EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction teaser trailer released
Read: EQII: The Shadow Odyssey teaser trailer released

At its annual Fan Faire, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has revealed new expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II. For EQ players, The Seeds of Destruction expansion offers a new level cap (85), 20 new zones, a new mercenary system, and all fourteen previous expansions in one box. EQII: The Shadow Odyssey will feature brand new zones, some revisits to the original EQ dungeons, a bump in the number of achievements you can get (up to 200), new deities, new quests and a new loot system that lets you pick your loot rewards.

Our MMO-obsessed colleagues at Massively have interviews with the EverQuest design team and EQII Senior Producer Bruce Ferguson about the expansions. All Fan Faire attendees will receive both games for free and will be able to participate in the SoD and TSO betas when they begin on August 19 and September 2, respectively.

Seeds of Destruction will come out October 21, while The Shadow Odyssey is scheduled for November 18. Stay tuned to Massively all week for more Fan Faire coverage.

Hey, have you given up? We don't mean just depressed. We're talking to those of you who are ready take the precious gift that each day of life is, attempt to put it back in its clamshell packaging and return it for store credit. Then you might just be ready to take on the Pandemonium Warden, a newly added Final Fantasy XI boss that guild Beyond the Limitation plugged away at for 18 hours before finally giving up the fight. They estimate that with 5 or 6 more hours of work they could have finished the job.

"People were passing out and getting physically ill," guild leaders said. "We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible new story about how video games ruin people's lives."

So, to recap: There's a boss in Final Fantasy XI that's so tough that people who play Final Fantasy XI enough to be in a guild don't think it's worth their time. Moreover, he was so difficult it was enough to force them to start making responsible choices with their lives. Mother Brain, you can consider yourself trumped.

[Thanks, Anthony]

News

• Forum Post of the Day: Vicarious' legend
  And the first Legendary bow in the game goes to... a Rogue?!?
• Potion Sickness gone, Herbalists get new ability
  The change that threatened to get potions out of the endgame disappears while the Herb profession picks up a new buff.
• The Death Knight starting experience
  Our team walks you through what it's like to start up the first new class in the game since release.
• Warlock talent plus Tier 5 set bonus equals 56 million DPS
  An everlasting bug in the beta means Warlocks get really, really overpowered.
• Beast Mastery implemented, new exotic pets added
  A new patch on the beta realms brings in even more changes to the Hunter class.

Features

• Death Knights get a new look
  Our gallery of all the different new looks for all the Death Knight races.
• Guildwatch: Giving out epic gems to scrubs
  Our weekly guild drama column covers all of the craziness that happens when WoW players take themselves way too seriously.
• Ask a Beta Tester: Gold, Atiesh, and Mr. Tiron Fordring
  We answer what's up with everyone's favorite caster legendary, and all the other beta questions readers have.
• WoW Insider finds familiar faces in Wrath of the Lich King
  Check out this gallery of people we've seen in Wrath that you probably already know.
• Hybrid Theory: State of PvP in the Wrath beta
  Player vs. Player in Northrend, and what it's like in the beta.

Hot on the heels of news that Midway would be laying off approximately 90 employees from its Austin location comes a tip from a reliable source that NCsoft Austin (a.k.a. NCsoft North America) is on the verge of eliminating all of its development staff. The studio is currently home to the teams behind Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runners, the latter of which will "be closed," according to our source. We've been told that only customer support staff will continue to operate out of the branch.

Future development of Tabula Rasa will reportedly be handed over to Seattle-based Guild Wars creator Arena.net, with Massively reporting that the title may meet a similar fate as Dungeon Runners if it "fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations." It has also learned that any future collaboration between NCsoft and Tabula Rasa principals Richard and Robert Garriot will be "limited in scope," due to a souring of relations with the Korean management team over their title's lackluster performance.

With regard to City of Heroes, a source at NCsoft's Bay Area studio confirmed with us that its development staff will be completely unaffected by the events transpiring in Austin, saying that the title's status is "sound." Further to this, the source echoed Massively's report that only the Austin studio is being affected, with remaining development proceeding normally in Seattle, Los Angeles, and Korea.

As of 3:50 PM ET according to the World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard reinstated the BlizzCon ticket sales after "murloc failing" the first time earlier this week. But within 30 minutes the Blizzard store was listing the tickets as sold out ... then it came back up ... and now it's sold out again. Additionally, there are a few unverified reports of credit cards being double- and triple-charged without even receiving confirmation of a ticket.

While you shake your Epic Fists of Anger (with +2 fire damage) at them for yet another botched launch, our calmer friends at WoW Insider remind us that Worldwide Invitational tickets sold in multiple rounds and that more BlizzCon tickets -- with hopefully less technical malfunction / malfeasance -- could be given out at a later date. For a more detailed chronicling of the BlizzCon ticket drama, check out WoW Insider.

Update: A WoW forum poster is reporting that a billing service rep is telling her that the tickets are being sold in phases at the moment to keep up with order processes and that it's going to cycle between "sold out" and "available" repeatedly today until they really do sell out. When you're not busy refreshing the Blizzard store listing, practice typing in your account information really fast.

Update 2: Blizzard has posted an official statement on their website: "The bulk of the BlizzCon tickets we had available were sold out within minutes of ticket sales going live again this afternoon. We have a small reserve of tickets left -- to make these available to some of you who might not have had a chance to purchase yet, we will be releasing the remaining reserve tickets for sale tonight, August 12, at 8:00 PM PDT. We appreciate the enthusiasm everyone has shown, and wish we were able to accommodate even more attendees at this year's BlizzCon."

Even those who indulge in the sanctioned decadence of a Hyborian lifestyle can find themselves bound to otherworldly codes of conduct, as one Age of Conan "Game Master" (real job, apparently) recently learned after he engaged in a brief, albeit illicit affair with one of the game's denizens. While some would-be sleuths have concluded that the incident was a classic case of entrapment, the governing authority nonetheless terminated the frolicking GM. "If the guidelines are broken there are consequences," Funcom has stated. Let this be a lesson to all of us working the virtual shift: Pants are to be worn at all times.

[Via Big Download]

Welcome, Trekkies! [Insert clever Star Trek reference here] Cryptic Studios has beamed up (har) a gameplay trailer for Star Trek Online as it debuted today at the Star Trek Experience Event in Las Vegas. All footage is in-game, according to the developer. As revealed earlier, you'll be able to create your own alien species to play as, possibly even a Super Smurf (our conjecture). We imagine the cartoony art style will have a better reception than, say, Diablo 3.

The trailer is available via the official site; we've also made a new gallery of images from the trailer if you're too impatient to download. (Update: Video embedded after the break.)

As one can tell by frequenting the World of Warcraft class forums, one of the trickiest parts of MMO development is making sure that your game's classes are perfectly balanced. If your paladins can walk all over your warriors, or your druids can outheal your priests, you're going to hear about it. For this very reason, many MMO developers choose to keep their catalog of classes fairly limited -- however, Mythic Entertainment's design team reportedly decided upon the classes in their upcoming MMO Warhammer Online after plotting out nearly 250 careers for the title.

This report comes from an interview with Mythic's Creative Director, Paul Barnett, on Videogaming247. Barnett explains that the Warhammer team got a little out of hand when developing certain aspects of the title, and that the team decided to cull their expansive career roster to the 20 classes available at launch. A wise choice, considering the countless months it would have taken to make sure that the Treasure Hunter, Gymnast, Dermatologist, Pastry Chef, Assistant Dermatologist, Chimney Sweep, and Librarian classes were all evenly matched.

We're just hours away from Cryptic's world reveal of Star Trek Online during the Star Trek Experience event in Las Vegas, but those wishing to jump the phaser on all the hubbub would be wise to read a recent AP interview with Cryptic Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert. In said interview, a number of intriguing details about the MMO are revealed -- chief among these include word that players will be able to choose an alien species to play as, or create their own, in an uncharacteristic show of disregard for Star Trek canon.

New players will then captain their own Starfleet or Klingon ship, the size and crew of which will grow as the player progresses. Players will also be able to leave their ships to explore planets in true Trek fashion. Don't expect to see many familiar, pointy-eared faces on your travels, however -- Emmert explained that the game takes place "a few generations" after the last Star Trek film. It seems your best bet of running into Shatner in an MMO is to continue searching World of Warcraft for a shaman with unusual vocalized pauses.

[Via 1UP]