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At Noon CST today (That's right now), the servers will be offline for maintenance. There is no estimated downtime. However, you can check the Server Stat Page for updates.

Now, while you're not playing Auto Assasult, you have some time to visit our Auto Assault Community. Good things are happening there.

I'm reading about this and on one hand I'm excited and on the other I keep thinking.. Hmm this sounds just like Dusktreaders. although set in the future.

FiringSquad: First, how did the idea for Dark World Online come about?

David Bowman: I was on a work/vacation trip with my family to British Columbia. It was the first time I had taken some personal time and gotten away from the daily running of Horizons. This allowed me to think freely about all of the genres and experiences that aren't currently available in persistent world spaces. It also allowed me to have some time to read, one of my greatest pleasures that I no longer get much time to do.

I knew that we didn't want to do another family fantasy game like Horizons at this time since we like what is happening with the game and the audience. Eve and Anarchy Online are currently doing a good job of entertaining people in the science fiction space. That eliminated my two favorite genres. So I went to my third and started reading the horror section of a great book store in Victoria. It quickly becomes aparent when reading horror that no single author dominates this space. I think that is partially due to the very long history of horror lore and the resulting depth and complexity of material. I looked at the material and the common themes that separated themselves from any single author were the sensuality, danger and mystery of the Vampires, the tragedy and ferocity of the Werewolves and the bravery and cleverness of the humans who have protected humanity from the monsters that prey upon us. I called several people at Tulga and bounced the idea around with them and they all responded with "I'd play that."

You can read the rest of the story here.

I feel like this is De'ja Vu. Don't you?

In order to address an issue affecting realm stability, we have disabled pre-existing character transfers and templated characters on the public test realms. We have isolated the issue and we are currently working on a solution; however, until the matter is resolved character transfers will not be available.

To find the latest and greatest information on World of Warcraft, visit our Community site!

Arena Net and ATI have teamed up to bring you a spankin new contest with hot new prizes.

To participate just simply enter the name that you think fits the monster for a chance to win a prize. Come back each week for another chance to win. No purchase necessary. For a list of complete rules, click here.

Prize Details:

* Copy of Guild Wars Factions
* All-in-Wonder® X1900
* Winning Monster name appears in the game.

This weeks Monster

Choose a name for the monster. It can be a name that is a first and last name, such as Stank Reekfoul (a famous Guild Wars Prophecies monster) or it can be a name and a title, such as Neing the Tanner (a helpful NPC in Guild Wars Factions).

For those rules click here.

For the best Guild Wars Community ever, click here.