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What should we name this MMO planet? How about...Irth! Brilliant!

New screenshots are available for the 2005 year ender fantasy MMO "Irth Online" at Stratics. The first is of "a stableboy going to work" - nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more!

Irth Online’s virtual world is populated by three distinct PvP civilizations -- The Arcadians in the snowy north, The Morbus in the southeastern swamps, and The Mezoteks in the tropical southwest – which have a thousand-year history of battling to capture the resources of the others to ensure survival. This persistent state of war inspired peace-loving pilgrims from all three civilizations to form their own civilization, and this fourth civilization in Irth Online is non-PvP, and survives via commerce in lieu of combat. Players join Irth’s history at a period when a fragile truce exists, and determine the course of history of each civilization.

View the new Irth Online screenshots at Stratics Central.

Safe sets!

Expansion sets, that is! MMORPG.com gives their take on the 2002 Dark Age of Camelot expansion: "Shrouded Isles" expansion. What struck me: just as Ralphie said in this week's Op/Ed, one MMO (in this case, EverQuest) sets the standard, and then 6 months later you see the other MMOs catching up when they see what "works." Why not let your competitors do your gameplay testing for you, after all?

Creating expansions for MMORPGs has become an art form, it would seem. As the genre begins to settle somewhat, and starts to take on standards learned from aging veterans like Ultima Online and EverQuest, it becomes at once easier to craft an expansion, and tougher to craft a great expansion. A great expansion can keep current players happy for another year, or even bring in new players; a bad expansion can ruin the experience for veterans, and possibly scare off recruits. Mythic, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot, offered up Shrouded Isles in late 2002, a year after the original game’s release. At the time, it seemed like a very thorough expansion, and kept me playing for another year. In hindsight, it seems more like a very safe expansion.

Take a look at the "Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles" review at MMORPG.com.

A Pox on World of Warcraft.
It is rumoured that a disease is sweeping through World of Warcraft. Whether it is intentional or not is still up in the air. Get your penicillin folks. Dustin Hoffman warned everyone that this could happen, but nobody listened. He's warning them again, in a very loud voice, that sounds something like this:

"Apparently there's a plague spreading in World of Warcraft. I can't verify this because I'm back at 30,000 feet"

You can read the entire A Plague on World of Warcraft Story at Wonderland.
Other Links You Might Enjoy:

• TenTonHammer.com World of Warcraft Community - Guides and more.
• World of Warcraft Search Tool - One click searches every big WoW Site for what you want.

Searching....Please Wait...
Killer Betties has posted an Op/Ed titled, In Search of the Next EverQuest. Antonia Bayle would not answer our calls, damned Caller ID, but her answering machine did have this message:

"EverQuest was my first MMO and I haven’t found another one that could hold my interest since. I honestly tried to like Final Fantasy XI, Lineage II, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars—one or two of them even held my attention for a month or two—but nothing has had the staying power or stolen my spare time (and even some time I couldn’t really spare) like EverQuest has. "

You can read the entire In Search of the Next EverQuest Article at Killer Betties.