Check out ZAM's other Top Five Most Important MMOs of 2012:

• Guild Wars 2
• The Secret World
• Firefall
• PlanetSide 2

If 2011 was the year of blockbuster RPGs and FPSs, then 2012 will certainly be the year of MMORPGs and online games. With almost a dozen highly anticipated titles confirmed to launch in 2012, there can be no doubt that this year will be a revolutionary one for MMO gaming. That being said, not all of you will have the time to check out all of these big releases, so ZAM has compiled a list of what we consider to be the Top Five Important MMOs of 2012. In this top five series, we'll be looking at some of the most innovative titles of 2012 and why you should keep a close eye on them. Today ZAM Staff Writer Patrick "BakersMan" Do will talk about.... TERA!

Action MMOs are a big thing in Asia right now - we're talking life-sized Gundam big; and TERA has thoroughly embedded itself into the narrative as one of the best entries the genre has to offer. Stateside, however, the idea of the action MMO has yet to capture the collective imagination of the North American public. Short for The Exiled Realm of Arborea, TERA is an online action MMORPG developed by Bluehole Studio and published in America by En Masse Entertainment. The game was released in South Korea last January and is slated for a spring 2012 release in North America and Europe. When it finally does arrive on our shores, a minefield of tribulation awaits it. The most interesting aspect of TERA will not be the game itself, but rather how the game is received. 

Onward ho! The official TERA closed beta sign-ups are rolling out today, with players able to register their emails for consideration. En Masse Entertainment has also confirmed in the post that they will be ending with an open beta test just before TERA launches, so if you missed out, don't fret!

As a final note, each Closed Beta Test will require a unique invitation, so if you do get one, do remember that it might not be for every testing session. All TERA alpha testers, however, will continue to have access to TERA's beta tests.

Now go sign up!

It's a lion! It's a man! It's a statue! No! It's a.... Prion! TERA's latest monster bestiary reveal is the deceptively vicious-looking Prion, with the historical background noting that while Prions may look "fierce and beastlike," there are actually "quite intelligent and count many scholars among their number." There was no indication if the writer of the historical excerpt, one "Rukal," was a Prion himself, so I can't really call bias at this moment in time.

Anyway, go read up on the Prions over at the TERA bestiary!

Normally I resize these kind of images, but perhaps... not today. Look at that smooth dancing! In a new holiday post from En Masse Entertainment, the team behind TERA's North American localization wants to let players know that they're more excited about 2012 and launch than the actual holiday break. In fact, some of the team is looking forward to launch so much that they're spending a portion of the holidays to work on pre-launch events next year!

Take a break guys! Go drink some Eggnog and Rum!

It's no secret that one of TERA's most unique features is going to be its deep political system, and Frogster Interactive, TERA's European publisher, is setting out to make sure everyone knows this. Thus, in a new trailer from the duo, they set out to detail exactly what TERA's political system is as well as how players can get involved. With a skilled group of PvPers, you could hold an entire region hostage to your whims! 

More Producer's Letters for all! In this month's Producer's Lettera for TERA, the team at En Masse has confirmed that they've managed to launch (in alpha) their new fully localized launcher for the game. The team is also hard at work in supporting their own friends & family alpha, which has been running for about four months now.

Altogether, the letter details what went En Masse Studios has spearheaded regarding the localization of TERA, including a dungeon finder, a "western" leveling curve, controller support, wesetern key bindings, and a revamped (and resizable) UI. That's a lot of localization! There will probably be hundreds more thing sto do for En Masse going into the New Year, but for now, the team is wishing everyone a happy holidays!

More and more customization highlights in TERA! This time around the TERA team is talking about Enhancement Crystals and how they can give your game the edge it needs to survive. Currently, all weapons and armor in TERA have between two to four crystal sockets, with red crystals socketing into weapons and blue crystals socketing into defenses. 

Some examples the team gives for enhancement crystals in TERA include crit damage boosting crystals, crystals that give you MP when you crit from the rear, damage reduction crystals, crystals that allow you to deal more damage to knocked down opponents, and even crystals that increase your crit damage on enraged monsters! That's a lot of crystals!

Check out the full post on the main TERA website.

It's glyph-tastic! A new dev post from the people at TERA outlines how players can get an extra advantage in customization through Glyphs! At level 25, all players in TERA will be able to access Glyphs, which are unique marks of power that dramatically modify class skills in TERA. According to the post, "glyphs of Influence and Brilliance help skills cost less MP; glyphs of Energy and Persistence give skills shorter cooldowns; glyphs of Lingering increase skill durations."

With over a hundred different glyphs for hundreds of skills (each skill has four different glyph variations), it will be up to players to decide just how their character plays. Check out the post for some class details on how they can customize themselves!

In their latest batch of Twitter conversations for the month of November, TERA is confirming that they are currently in closed alpha testing, with their first public preview event planned for early 2012. The discussion, hosted by TERA's Producer Chris "Chager" Hager and Senior Community Manager Evan "Scapes" Berman, talks about the new TERA forums on the way, as well as the possibility of a hardcore PvP server, player housing, Guild vs. Guild wars, long-term plans for mod support, and much, much more.

The transcript is fairly large, since this was a twitter-based QA session, the answers are fairly short and to the point. Get in there and get reading TERA's Production Chat transcripts for 2011!

Affectionately referred to by the TERA Team as the "Fabergé Death Egg" the Ovolith is one of TERA's BAMs, otherwise known as Big Ass Monsters. These BAMs are basically designed as high-octane encounters for players, with each monster requiring intense coordination and skill to overcome. This time around, the team is highlighting the Ovolith, a huge spider-ish monster that also retreats into an egg-shaped cocoon. The Ovolith then rolls over players, smashing them under its high-cholesterol carapace (kidding!). There's a lot of cool abilities on display in the trailer, so take a peek at TERA's new BAM!