Even WAR's exceedingly upbeat Creative Director Paul Barnett noticed a dour mood at this year's Game Developers Conference, which wraps up today. On our weekly live podcast last night, Paul found the silver lining, pointing out a number of wise trends in game development that will get us through the economic downturn. How will these trends affect MMO development? Read on!

We have a rare beginner's look inside Darkfall as Ten Ton Hammer's Cody Bye learned to stop worrying and love the gank, Dalmarus delivers a State of the Game on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, we have WoW Northrend rep guides for Shamans and Paladin, a new WAR Choppa ability list, and Paul Barnett's second of three blogs from the GDC floor in today's Loading... GDC and the Future of MMOs.