EverQuest II's lastest game update, Scars of the Awakened, is right around the corner with new content for Norrathian crafters!  Be sure to take your artisan to Cobalt Scar where Acting Supplymaster Grant could use a hand. Along the way you'll help the Othmir, save the day at the main camp, and help a mysterious dark elf. Your reward is a nifty set of gloves handed down the Bayle line. Check out our Cobalt Scar Crafting Series guide and the shopping list so you're not shy on resources.

Level 95 crafters will find that their Apprentices have some new ideas and need new equipment to get the job done.  The new researched recipes will use Tier 10 resources and are set up so that while they require more reactants, those reactants aren't as hard to come by as they are in the level 80 recipes. 

Tier 10 recipe books are being renamed to be consistent with other tiers. With GU66 all volumes will be available on the usual merchants, although the Advanced once are quite expensive. It's important to note that you can still get these recipes adventuring and questing, and you don't have to buy them from an NPC to obtain them.

Game Update 66, Scars of the Awakened, is slated to hit live servers Tuesday April 30. Be sure to log in this weekend and get some of that bonus experience!

When building a sandbox-based MMO, getting the foundation right is crucial. It's a lesson that CCP learned when developing EVE Online, and has since continued into World of Darkness. But while the studio didn't present much gameplay, executive producer Chris McDonaugh shared a wealth of information about those pre-production steps.

SOE Live (formerly Fan Faire) will be held from August 1 - 4, 2013, at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas. Late this morning Sony Online Entertainment announced that badge registration is now open, with special Early Bird pricing available. There are a variety of passes, which offer the following:

• Friday or Saturday Only Day Pass: $39* (reg. $49), includes an SOE Live T-shirt and Swag Bag; exclusive SOE Live in-game goodies**; access to the exhibitor showroom, panels, and roundtables; one complimentary green screen photo; eligible for game tournaments and live quests.
• Evening Only Pass: $99, grants entry to the Welcome Reception (including the Thursday Keynote Address), Pool Party, and Grand Banquet (including the Costume Contest). 
• All Access Pass: $129* (reg. $149), includes everything the Day and Evening passes get, as well as complementary copies of both the upcoming EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions.
• Optional Dev Brunch Add-on***: $59, join various SOE developers for a breakfast buffet on Sunday, August 4 from 10am - 12pm. Space is "extremely limited" and registrants are accepted on a first come, first serve basis.All Access Pass is required. Seating is assigned based on primary game chosen during registration.
• Kids ages 12 and under are free and must be accompanied by an adult at all times.

* Special pricing only available for a limited time. Register by May 22, 2013 to take advantage of these prices.
** In-game goodies will be granted after SOE Live, but the registrant does not need to attend to receive their goodies. See below for more details.
*** Dev Brunch requires that you have an All Access pass.

Find out more information about SOE Live this evening (Thursday, April 25) during the webcast on Twitch TV! Tune in at 4:30pm PDT (7:30pm EDT) to watch Brasse will chat with Jen Belfield (Marketing Services Director) and Casey Roberts (Marketing Services and Events Specialist) to give you the details on registration, tournaments, panels, Live Quests, in-game items, the Keynotes, and more.

Register now for SOE Live and continue reading for more info on the exclusive in-game items!

With the announcement that Storybricks will be joining SOE in breathing life into EverQuest Next, time has come for the prognostication to recommence.

We expect that we will have some more concrete information revealed at SOE Live this year, but there are some snippets that are certainly making me a little rabid with anticipation.

The involvement of the Storybricks team itself is exciting, in that it reveals SOE is looking to add levels of player interaction with the world that will have some interesting AI and choices under the hood.

For a better idea of what we can anticipate from Namaste Entertainment’s involvement, check out this enlightening interview by David Souza, formerly of RepublicTrooper.com and now one of our marvelous new writers at ZAM (keep an eye out for his excellent first editorial on PvP, coming soon).

For some, MMOs are all about exploring the world and everything in it. They’re on an adventure, questing through every corner of the land, or battling through the toughest dungeons. If it involves saving the city for an epic reward, they’re in.

Others choose to take a different path; one littered with the corpses of those who challenged them. They’re out to prove themselves on the killing fields, either in tight arena combat or open battlegrounds. With the bloodlust in the air, the opponents they seek aren’t dungeon dwelling monsters, but other players.

After battling through the first ever WildStar Arena PvP tournament at Arkship EU (you can read her Dev Diary on arenas or responses to PvP concerns), I asked Carbine’s Lead PvP Designer Jen Gordy about her plans for the upcoming MMO. During the interview we touched on her general approach, skill balance between PvE and PvP, itemization and much more. 

Less than a week ago I got a fantastic email from the Square Enix media team informing me that the embargo for the closed beta test would be lifting today, and that not only could I write about phase 1 of the beta for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn but that I could cover things also happening in phase 2!  I'm very excited to share with you what I've experienced so far!

I've taken a poll on the ZAM forums and I'm going to attempt to answer your questions while providing my account of how the beta is going so far as fairly as possible.  For those readers currently participating in the beta please be aware that this lifting of the embargo is for media only, and that you are still under NDA regarding your own experiences. 

Discuss in the Zam Forums!

The game engine is often an unsung hero of modern MMOs. When it works brilliantly we hardly even notice it, focusing instead on the dramatic art style, sublime musical score or excellent narrative. It’s only when problems emerge that we sit up and take notice how our favorite games are presented to us.

But what about the technology that brings it all together? After seeing the upcoming MMO for myself, I wanted to recognize this unsung hero of gaming greatness, and so I asked the folks behind WildStar if they’d shed some light on how their engine works. Whether it’s processing game rules or delivering pixels to our screens, WildStar’s MMO engine is a complex machine that acts as a window into the world of Nexus.

With Carbine’s upcoming MMO entering closed beta, we were eager to take a closer look at this mystical device. Luckily, Lead Software Engineer Steve Moret agreed to give us a rare peek inside the box and explain some of how WildStar’s engine works. From those first lines of code to more recent features, Moret explained what goes into the software that will be sitting on our desktops.

The world of Auratia is crammed with dragons. Legend has it that Elder dragons arrived many years ago, breeding with other creatures and creating hundreds of new species. From soaring fliers to graceful swimmers, each of them is blessed with a unique set of abilities that adventurers will be eager to make use of.

Dragon’s Prophet has a slogan: “Their Strength is Your Power”. But, as Senior Producer Todd Carson explained, this is about more than just a fighting companion or convenient steed. In this upcoming MMO from Taiwanese developer Runewaker and published by Sony Online Entertainment, dragons impact every aspect of the game, from questing to crafting.

It's a shooter box, I'd argued dismissively. A scaled up version of Team Fortress 2, without the hats and grim humor. It won't have any lasting appeal, I’d persuaded myself, when there are so many other established multiplayer shooters. There's nothing new here at all.

I was wrong. Planetside 2 is possibly the natural evolution of the modern shooter. By swapping small maps that support 8 players a side and replacing them with giant landscapes that contain thousands, it reflects the ebb and flow of war in swirling, chaotic glory. It is by no means perfect, but it is incredible to experience.

EverQuest II fans are in for a treat! Back in March, Sony Online Entertainment announced their upcoming Game Update, "Scars of the Awakened", would be coming to live servers on April 30th.

Beta servers for the new update however, are now in full effect for players who are eager to go and test out some of what it has to offer.