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The Warhammer Online NDA has been lifted, and a veritable tidal wave of WAR-related information has struck the internet. The open beta test is imminent, but countless pre-order customers are already in the closed beta. The game's launch is only a month away! So this is a great time to ask for your predictions: is Warhammer Online the long-awaited World of Warcraft killer?

Some folks hoped it would be Age of Conan, but while that game is doing all right, it hasn't lived up for the hype for everyone. Are all your hopes placed in WAR now, or will it take BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Online or Cryptic's Star Trek Online to move the genre into the next era? Hell, maybe WoW will never be dethroned by one game.

Make your predictions here, but we have a disclaimer: we won't be held responsible for any shame and embarrassment when you're proven way off base in the future!

If you're a planning on being a Destruction player in Warhammer Online and want to focus on healing, consider yourself covered. For starters, don't worry about being a heal-bot, this game probably has some of the most damage capable healers in an MMO that we've seen to date. That's not to say a healer can out-damage a DPS class, instead they're simply deft at dealing with combat on their own terms. For example: whether you enjoy keeping some distance from combat while supporting allies or prefer to get down and dirty, your needs will be met. It's indeed a diverse healing world in Warhammer Online and we've got it all mapped out for you.

First off, this post is not part of giant campaign to promote World of Warcraft, Age of Conan or any other game. This post is based on two things: a recent opinion piece at MMOCrunch regarding AoC's "demise", and an eyebrow-lifting quote from Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime that says "40% of the World of Warcraft subscribers that left for Age of Conan have since returned."

The post at MMOCrunch points out a few interesting issues on both sides of the fence. First off, there's Morhaime's quote, coupled with recent AoC numbers that range from 1 million subscribers at launch to 700,000 on June 30th to the recent report of 400,000 subscribers remaining. On the WoW side, they point to another article claiming that Blizzard's recent Recruit-a-Friend campaign is a cry of desperation against falling subscriber numbers. Either way you look at it, and no matter what you actually believe, many are obsessed with WoW's success and every time it rises or falls, new speculations and theories arise. So will there ever really be a WoW killer, or should new developers just take the approach of Paul Barnett and aim more towards being the Led Zeppelin to their Beatles?

Warhammer Online offers two takes on melee DPS classes for Destruction at this moment in time. One of them is the slightly traditional Witch Elf, who's kind of like a rogue with a thirst for unrelenting murder and on heavy doses of mind-altering drugs. The other class is the Marauder, who is more irregular with his very flexible and cool looking mutation mechanic -- he can grow all sorts of disgusting stuff out of his body. So which one will you be playing come launch day? We've put together this class overview for exactly that question.

With gaming expo season also comes live tournament season to most of these events. During the Penny Arcade Expo's event later this month, ArenaNet plans on continuing their trend of hosting competitive Guild Wars tournaments with some great contests held at the ArenaNet/NCsoft booth, and also at their VIP after-party. As we previously reported, this party will be held at the Gameworks across the street from the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in Seattle.

These contests include a 2v2 tournament and a Rollerbeetle racing tournament. The prizes range from ATI graphics cards, laser mice, gaming keyboards, character slots, bonus unlock packs and more! Head on over to the main GW website for more info on each of these prizes.

If you've not yet reached level 40 in Age of Conan, you could be forgiven for not knowing a single thing about gems or gemcutting. There's no reason why you should; gems don't even drop before level 40. But gems are, right now, one of the most controversial subjects in AoC to date. There are even mutterings that the PvP patch shouldn't go live until gems are properly dealt with somehow. So what's the fuss about?

Here's the short version. Gems are a way to add extra magical effects to crafted items. They drop from foes in a raw state, and can be crafted (cut into a usable form) by characters who have the appropriate skill and equipment. They can then be socketed into player-crafted items, giving bonuses and other effects. On the face of it, this is a pretty swish crafting system, allowing for customizability and a personal touch. There are serious issues with it, however.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

Meat shield. Damage sponge. Brick house? You know them as tanks, we know them as bipedal beefnauts. The players who wade through the battlefield wearing nothing but the heaviest of heavy metals. In Warhammer Online, the side of Destruction has two tanks to pick from and both of them are very angry individuals. Maybe it's because of all that trauma that they're constantly taking to the head. Then again, they could just be crazy. You'd have to be, to want people to beat on you constantly. Either way, we've got the skinny on the Greenskin Black Orc and Chaos Chosen.

By now, if you've been keeping track of the metrics, it should come as no surprise to you that Linden Lab's virtual environment Second Life is dominated by Generation X and Baby Boomers. Generation Y (also popularly called Millennials) don't make much of a mark on the landscape of Second Life at all. While the boxing and labeling of generations in this fashion seems a little arbitrary, it is commonly done as demographers identify various key socio-cultural differences between the groups, though the edge-cases between them, of course, tend to be a bit blurry -- and everyone, of course, is an individual.

The Metaverse Journal's Feldspar Epstein looks at assorted issues with the use of Second Life and education as it pertains to Millenials. In a broader social context, however, the generation gap between the Boomers/GenXers and the Millennials is starkly apparent. Millennials consistently number among the least active users of Second Life. The Baby Boomers dominate the virtual environment's usage landscape, followed closely by the Generation Xers.

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	Are you a part of the most widely-known collaborative virtual environment or keeping a close eye on it? Massively's Second Life coverage keeps you in the loop.

The Warhammer Online NDA has lifted. So let's get to the good stuff. We're kicking it off with a series of guides to the careers in WAR.

Ranged DPS classes come in three flavors in Warhammer Online: steampunk pet class (Engineer), bow-and-blade Legolas clone (Shadow Warrior) and classic glass cannon (Bright Wizard). But which one is right for you? If race isn't a deciding factor, check out a brief overview of all three careers below to help you make your choice.

Dwarf Engineer
The good news is these Dwarfs can make gun turrets, flash grenades and throw out barb wire to trap your enemies. The bad news isn't so bad, but your turrets don't move. Whereever you drop them is where they stay. You can stay by their side and shoot your enemy with your gun or melee with your enormous wrench while lobbing grenades for extra damage output. But in many situations, your group is going to be running amok, so be prepared to replant your turret on a regular basis.

• Rifleman: Focuses on long-range combat
• Grenadier: Focuses on bombs and grendades
• Tinkerer: Focuses on deployables and turrets

The Tinkerer path is particularly interesting. It gives you access to abilities that allow you to use your turret to restore your Action Points or heal your group. This class's mirror on the Destruction side is the Chaos Magus.

European Stargate fans take note: Stargate Worlds will be making an appearance at the Leipzig Games Convention in -- you guessed it -- Leipzig, Germany. As was the case earlier in the summer at Comic Con, Firesky/Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment have some special stuff planned.

The team will be "taking over" the Leipzig Train Station, where they'll be showing "the latest" gameplay trailer (we don't know if it'll be new or not, but presumably, right?) and giving away various stuff, including t-shirts and dog tags. Apparently the prizes will be given out by "Stargate commandos." People in uniform, perhaps? Also, Studio Head Dan Elggren and marketing guy Kevin Balentine will be on site to promote the game and talk to the press.

The Stargate franchise has always been popular in Europe -- especially in Germany, so we know there are a few of you out there who'll want in on this. And with that subsidized airfare, getting there might be almost affordable, right?

At Gen Con, we spoke with Turbine's Andy Cataldo, the Community Manager for Asheron's Call, about the future of this historic game. Cataldo told us a lot about AC's epic 100th update. The update is coming within the next few weeks, and it's a doozy. According to Cataldo, AC players will get a whole new faction system, three land areas to battle over, tons of new loot and spells, and various other improvements to the game, particularly to enemy AI.

In addition to working its regular monthly event and patch schedule, Turbine is attempting to respond to player demand for a variety of new features in the 100th and all future updates. Particular emphasis is being placed on adding features common in modern MMOs, such as a quest tracking menu. AC has been around for almost ten years, so it has some catching up to do!

Learn more about Turbine's big push to modernize the game, add lots of new content, and more in the interview after the break.

When you hear Age of Conan, you probably think half-naked women, hack and slash, or perhaps 'bugs and unfinished content.' We're betting you never think of NPC children playing games, but that's just what today's One Shots shows off! This screenshot comes in to us from Graeymap (aka Pumpkinbum) who ran across this particular scene while out adventuring recently. Graeymap writes: Kids playing 'AiirPlaaaaane' in Old Tarantia reminds us of our carefree childhood days before heads rolled. It's certainly an unexpected thing to find a game like Age of Conan!

Have you stumbled across any NPCs doing unexpected things? Perhaps you caught a bunch of them huddled together in a strange fashion due to a bug? Or perhaps you just want to show off the cool things that you're doing? Whatever your reason, whatever your game, grab those screenshots and send them to us at oneshots AT massively.com! We're all about seeing different game worlds, but we need you to send them in.

The Shadow Odyssey, EverQuest II's fifth expansion, is more than just a bump to the level cap, a couple of new raids, and a reset for all the armor you already got. It is, in fact, none of those things. What SOE has done with this expansion is go through the level 50 to level 80 portion of the game and say, let's make an expansion that has something for pretty much everyone. Let's make an expansion where even if no upgrades drop, you can be working toward some awesome stuff just by playing.

The original EverQuest started out as a supremely casual and social game. It was the players that pushed SOE to make the game more raid focused, but sometime after the heavily raid-oriented Planes of Power expansion, the casual players asked when they'd get an expansion for them. SOE came out with the Lost Dungeons of Norrath, which offered three or four variants at each of six dungeons, meant for single groups of averagely-equipped players. The difficulty and mission type could be selected, and every time you completed a mission, you got points with which you could buy hard-to-find spells, armor of near raid quality, adornments which would push that armor into the quality of raid gear, and some cool stuff only available through the LDoN merchants.

The Shadow Odyssey is EverQuest II's Lost Dungeons of Norrath -- and more. Click on through to see why TSO might be the best EQ2 expansion yet.

The servers are down this morning for extra time, allowing a major patch to be applied to Age of Conan. This particular set of changes has been a long time in the testing, going through several iterations on the Testlive server. The new PvP consequence system, however (which includes PvP XP and notoriety) isn't included and is still being tested. The focus on Testlive is still apparently on setting appropriate PvP XP and murder points. We haven't yet seen the promised PvP gear appear on Testlive yet, let alone on Live.

In today's patch, among a host of class changes and other crunchy bits, there are a lot of fixes and alterations to massive PvP, which should make a big difference for the players who have reached level 80 and were looking forward to this feature working properly. We're also interested to see new voice acting for a large number of later quests. The sudden silence after Tortage always did strike us as peculiar.

Complete patch notes follow after the cut.

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	Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!

The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.

Battleground Europe launches new website
Playnet Inc.'s Amy-Lynn Engelbrecht informs us that the destination site for Cornered Rat Software's World War 2 MMO, Battleground Europe, has gotten a significant makeover. With a focus on providing information that's more helpful to members of its strong and active community, the new updated site also features an RSS feed for news, or the option to receive regular updates by Feedburner email. Join up and fight with a 14-day free trial!

Ankama Games announces new Wakfu features
The spiritual and temporal successor to Ankama's previous title Dofus, Wakfu is an up-and-coming 2D MMO with a currently unreleased launch date. However, bits and pieces of news trickle out from time to time, such as the following: There will be an Enchantment profession, in which items are dismantled for their runes, then grafted onto new items for special powers. Taking a page from World of Warcraft?

Secondly, Wakfu will have no NPCs to offer quests. Instead, the game will have "Dynamic Challenges" -- quests that arise when environmental conditions are right, such as time, area, etc. The types of Challenges include Kill, Ecosystem, Social, and Discovery. Each will be available in both solo and team play.