For many Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn players in North America and Europe, it has been a trying weekend.

With anticipation for FFXIV running white hot, many fans ordered early to get the chance to jump into Early Access before the game's full launch tomorrow, August 27.

When players did get in-game, reports were overwhelmingly positive, but a number of error messages spelled doom for play time over the weekend. Error 90000 and 3102 both reappeared from Beta Phase 4 and multiple emergency maintenance downtimes did little to improve the disconnects and inability to get in.

Many players could not progress with their characters as they would hit an impasse in class and story quests when part of the chain needed an instance, as the instance servers took a particularly brutal bashing.

To anyone browsing through the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn website for the first time, without having any prior knowledge of the game, the importance of the Armoury System  will not need long to become apparent. 

The Armoury System is the cornerstone of the game, after all, and would be among the top “game features” listed should someone be asked to recite them in a top-5 list.

But is Armoury convenient? Well implemented? Balanced enough? Let’s find out.

As all beta testers already know (and even casual visitors to the FFXIV:ARR website can easily find out), the Armoury System allows a single character to become a “jack of all trades”. The difference is that with the way it works, you can feel quite assured that the “Jack of all trades, master of none” mantra does not apply.

ZAM has been there for the Final Fantasy XIV community for a long time. Our thriving forums have long been a hub of activity as devotees of Eorzea discuss the finer points of their favorite game. We recently announced that the wonderful resource for FFXIV fans, XIVDB, has also joined our family of sites.

Now we are very pleased to open up another new place to engage the community: XIVwiki.

The two most feared numbers to strike Eorzea in recent days were 90000 and 3102. Fans flocked to social media to express their brow-furrowing displeasure after being disconnected from Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's final beta phase.

Due to the intense anticipation for the game, tens of thousands of posts concerning the matter slammed the beta forum. Nerves have been a little ragged among some in the community as FFXIV fans fretted over whether they would run into the same problems in Early Access and at game's launch.

Never fear, Yoshi-P has posted on the official forums and spells shall be flung and Chocobos mounted with nary a problem—fingers crossed.

The Jita System. Home of the most important trading hub in all New Eden. Scene of the biggest riots EVE Online has ever seen. Den of countless scammers, con artists and felons. And yet, anchored off the fourth moon of the fourth planet in the system, the Caldari station continues to welcome capsuleers from across the galaxy.

It plays such an important role in EVE’s economy that almost every industrial corporation makes a regular visit, either to trade commodities or deliver finished goods. While there are other hubs to hawk your wares at, Jita is the one that most flock to. And, since I had minerals to sell, it was about time I made the trip for myself.

Pay a visit to Funcom’s website and you’ll notice that something has changed. A countdown has appeared, promising that “awesome stuff will be revealed” in just over a week’s time.

With LEGO Minifigures silhouetted underneath that countdown clock, it looks like we’ll be hearing more about the Oslo developer’s upcoming new MMO, announced last year. That announcement looks to be planned for August 29, placing it firmly between the two major gaming events of Gamescom and PAX Prime.

Each week, Chris "Syeric" Coke gives his unfiltered thoughts on the MMO industry. Taking on the news and hottest topics, Chris brings his extensive experience as a player and blogger to bear in Experience Points. Join him as he continues his journey reviewing the features of EverQuest Next. Read part one here!

Welcome back to another edition of Experience Points. This week we’ll complete our two part series reviewing EverQuest Next's features. Last week we examined everything from the game's stylized graphics to movement to multi-classing, but that only told half the story. Today I want to delve into destructibility, StoryBricks, and just how different Rallying Calls really are from what's being offered today – just to name a few. There is a lot to discuss, so let's dive in.

Excitement for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is hitting a fever pitch as it nears release on August 27.

ZAM has united with XIVDB to ensure that Final Fantasy fans have all the tools, stats and resources they need at their fingertips ready for launch.

Almost two years after it was announced, the launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is almost here. I've enjoyed my time in the closed beta weekends leading up to this point, but now that Beta Phase 4 is letting everyone in for the weekend, many of you will see Eorzea for the first time. Previous beta players are probably plotting how to best use this Early-Early Access window, since Square Enix has told us progress made during this Open Beta will carry over into Early Access and Launch, but for everyone else there are a lot of questions that still need answers. What classes can I play and what needs to be unlocked? Which guilds start in the same town so I can play with my friends? When can I start crafting/gathering? Hopefully, by the end of this post I'll have answered everything you need to know to get started in FFXIV and get a head start on everyone waiting for launch day.

Here are our takeaways from attending the SOE Live 2013 EverQuest Next Landmark panel!

Creating a World

• Use core principals from the EverQuest franchise
• Bring a product that can't be found anywhere else
• Landmark is intended to appeal to players who want to interact with the world
• Longevity is important
• Kicks off the integration of content for EQ Next
• You're in "Our" World Now - creating a world together and Landmark is the beginning of this
• Building upon a completely constructable and destructible world
• Break the mold by going back to the roots of a game like Dungeons & Dragons, where everyone is part of the game and has fun