The third edition of the TERA Podcast was recently released by En Masse. Things have been very quiet with TERA since the community play event and this podcast touches on what has been happening since then.

Community Manager BrotherMagneto hosts the podcast and is joined by Brian Knox and Chris Hagar.  They cover a wide range of topics like voice acting, the community play event, and their upcoming E3 presence.

They even touch on the controversial declaration system. This PvP mechanic requires players, even on open PvP servers, to declare their intention to attack another player. After the declaration is made there is a five second wait before open PvP can be commenced. The purpose of this system is to prevent accidently hitting other players with your spells and abilities, however many think that it goes against the essence of a PvP server. Listen to the whole podcast for more details and as always keep checking back for news here at ZAM.

The Korean version of TERA is getting a MASSIVE update soon, with the promise of at least three more updates to come this year. You can read the Google translated version of the updates, but you can check out some of the highlights after the jump.

The Community Play Event that En Masse Entertainment hosted at the beginning of this month will most certainly not be the last of these events. As we approach more in-depth alpha/beta testing of TERA, these small events are extremely important.

One of the most important aspects of this latest event is that it was the first event to be performed on EME's new servers and hardware. This allowed them to see how their servers acted with a few thousand people on one of them. By all accounts, things went very well. You can read more about this testing in Chris Hager's CPE Recap blog.

Another interesting read for those number crunchers among us is the CPE Statistical Analysis, written up by EME's Jon Tuite. This write up contains stats from what classes and races were the most popular down to who made the most gold on the test.

Keep checking back with ZAM for all the latest TERA news and coverage!

En Masse Entertainment has given us an exclusive flythrough video of TERA's Mistmoor Island. Here's a quick description:

"The hidden harbors and deep jungles of Mistmoor Island are among the most dangerous places in TERA, infested with dangerous arachnens and slavers eager to add to their “stock.” And among the ancient ruins, something stirs... something far more sinister than buccaneers and slavemasters."

Sit back, relax and enjoy your personal tour of Mistmoor Island!

This week in the Community Play Diary Scapes and BrotherMagneto travel further into the Isle of Dawn and visit the Tainted Gorge. Both of them are decidedly rusty after playing different classes during the community play event and they comment about how it can feel almost like playing a different game.

In the next installment we can count on BrotherMagneto and Scapes to progress to the end of the Isle of Dawn quest lines, and very likely take on the group quest “Sorscha's Reckless Challenge.” Good luck to the both of them as that was a tough quest for two people to handle during the play event.

In Chris Lee's Blog, En Masse Entertainment's VP of Publishing, he writes about the types of people who are employed at En Masse Entertainment. After a review of this blog, who wouldn’t want to work for En Masse?

With the community play event barely behind us, Brother Magneto and Scapes posted their feelings and experiences on the event. You can read about it over at the official TERA site.

Even considering the small number of players who were able to participate, the event was a huge success. Servers remained stable, lag was minimal, and spirits were high through the weekend.

The only part of the event that dampened the mood was the fact that it was over almost as soon as it started. We can all hope that En Masse moves the TERA beta along swiftly so more players can have a chance to participate in the fun!

En Masse launched its second episode of their podcast today. The two main topics of discussion on this episode are the community play event and the Atari distribution announcement. Senior Producer Brian Knox sits in on this podcast and we found it thoroughly enjoyable. You can check it out here.

For those of you who missed their first podcast and want to catch up, it can be found here.

There was one other announcement worth noting: the cover art for the TERA box was unveiled today! You can check out the full art after the jump. Quite impressive artwork.

The latest TERA community play diary has BrotherMagneto and Scapes minging, fighting mini bosses, explaining the use of crystals, moving to a new section of the Isle of Dawn, and more.

It would seem a recent update to the TERA client has changed a few things. Ore seems to be much more common on the Isle of Dawn than it ever was in the past, first of all. Also some environmental elements have been added, like AoE damage dealing exploding barrels.

You can read the full article of AnungUnRama and Amareth’s recent exploits here.

Also we are only a couple days away from the first North American play event since the second Focus Group test, which was held last summer. If you were lucky enough to get into this play event, drop us a line on our forums and let us know how you enjoyed it.

The selection process was pretty strict for this round and the play event will only be open for a couple days. However, En Masse has promised that following this play event we can expect to see more community and beta events. Keep checking back for more information!

En Masse Entertainment announced today that Atari has been named the exclusive North American retail distributor for the launch of TERA. The press release states that the action MMO is still scheduled to launch on PC in North America this year. You can read the full announcement after the jump.

This news follows yesterday's announcement that the TERA Community Play Event will be held from March 28 to April 3 and give some lucky community members the chance to dive into TERA for a weekend. Another event should follow in a couple months, followed by the launch of the beta cycle.

En Masse Entertainment just announced that the TERA Community Play Event will be held from March 28 to April 3. So who gets to participate? Here are the details:

"We've selected our former Focus Group Testers in good standing and a large number of additional community members who have distinguished themselves over the last year by making contributions to the TERA community (and who have filled out our testing application). On Friday, March 25, these people will receive invitations to the Community Play Event. At that time they'll gain access to a private area of our forums where they can discuss their experiences, interact with our staff, and give feedback about TERA."

While the entire week of March 28 will be focused on discussing the game and forming guilds, the servers will actually be open for play from April 2-3. If you happen to get an invite, be sure to clear your calendar that weekend.

We recently got the chance to speak with Senior Producer Brian Knox at the Game Developers Conference, and he said that this Community Play Event should kick off some consistency in terms of other testing events. If the team's original schedule remains firm, then the next community play event should be held in a couple months, followed by the launch of the beta cycle.