Drew Karpyshyn is the senior writer for the Star Wars: The Old Republic team with plenty of experience writing characters from the dark side, but now he's stepping out of his comfort zone to take a walk on the Jedi side. The fun he's having writing the Jedi Knight class comes through clearly in Friday's developer blog entry: "Nothing says Star Wars like a brown-robed figure brandishing a shimmering energy blade of righteous destruction."

Exploring the Jedi Knight class meant delving the Jedi Code and how it works in theory vs. how it works in practice. What happens when you take that code and mix in a hefty dose of "what if?" is a recipe for all kinds of possibilities, and Karpyshyn is having a great time exploring them. His experience writing the dark side gives his version of "what if" a little edge, exploring thoughts of renegade Jedi Knights who are willing to bend the rules for the greater good.

It's a fun read, with a great look into Karpyshyn's thoughts on the class -- you can take a look at the full entry on the official site.

We've got Trooper, Smuggler, Jedi Knight, Bounty Hunter, Sith Warrior, and now Imperial Agent. BioWare revealed the sixth class for Star Wars: The Old Republic today on their forums. This news comes as absolutely no surprise to those who attended the EA Press Tour earlier this week -- they enjoyed advance information from producer Blaine Christine.

Imperial Agents are a rogue class of sorts, doing their work for the Empire with high-tech tools to help them infiltrate the republic and assassinate enemies of the Sith Empire. The announcement from Sean Dahlberg says that Imperial Agents are "heavily inspired by several classic Star Wars characters such as Zam Wessel and Grand Moff Tarkin. [...] Players who choose to be Imperial Agents in The Old Republic (TOR) will see the underbelly of the Empire in a whole new light."

The Holonet will be updated next week with the Imperial Agent, but the class already has its own forum on the official site and discussion is going strong.

Rumors and speculation have been floating around this week about the Jedi Knight, so no big surprise when BioWare reveals that, yes, Knights of the Jedi persuasion are in fact a player class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The news comes with all the expected class page accoutrements such as screens, concept art and a few videos showing off three Jedi Knight attacks. It's all standard practice information release at this point, which only slightly dilutes the excitement of the announcement.

The videos all show the proper level of Jedi powerhousing that you'd expect, although we're not entirely cool with all the droid destroying that's happening. Sure, we're aware that unlike Sith, Jedi are limited to disabling droids and pushing things around but that's no excuse to pick on the little helpless mechanical people. Yes, we said people -- robots are people too!

In all seriousness, this is probably the class reveal everyone has been waiting for and/or expecting all along. Jedi and Sith were a given, so from here on out it's almost entirely anyone's guess. Spy? Rogue? Droids? Wookiees? Albino Ewoks? Okay, that's a little silly, nobody wants to play a rogue over a spy.

We have a bit of a linguistic issue when it comes to information about Final Fantasy XIV -- while no one could argue that it's not being heavily anticipated worldwide, there's the simple reality that the slow trickle of information to news magazines are going to be in Japanese. Great if you can read the language, slightly less so if you can't. But luckily, the intrepid fans at FFXIVCore have a number of people who can at least manage it well enough to bring us the latest tidbits from Connect! On magazine, which had the benefit of having some input from someone who at least briefly got to experience the game hands-on.

It's already been hinted that Lancers, much like Archers, will be affected by the range of their weapons. The magazine goes into further detail regarding this -- for example, if the Lancer is too close to the enemy they'll have to swing the haft of their spear rather than jabbing with it, but they can also potentially sweep the lance like a staff to hit multiple enemies. There's also talk about the difference in tools that crafters can use and what some of the expanded features of the crafting might involve, possibly including the ability to craft multiple items at once (a welcome expansion for those familiar with crafting in Final Fantasy XI).

There's still no word on when exactly we'll be seeing Final Fantasy XIV, but it can't be soon enough. Take a look at the full translation for more details, speculation, and a clearer picture of how the game is different from its predecessor.

Final Fantasy XI's November update is just around the corner (what with the end of October fast approaching), and that means we're hearing more about what job abilities are due for an upgrade. This time around, we're getting information about the game's two classic pet-using classes, the Summoner and the Beastmaster, and what new abilities are in store for them. To summarize in brief: pure, unadulterated awesome.

Summoners will learn a new ability called Avatar's Favor at level 55, which provides a passive benefit to all party members and reduces the MP cost of keeping an avatar active. With a two-hour duration, the ability is clearly aimed at the longstanding irritation many players have had about the "preferred" approach to summoner pets. Traditionally, the class has been forced to summon their pet, use one of its party-buffing abilities, and then immediately dismiss it due to its low utility in normal combat and the high MP cost of keeping it active. Avatar's Favor obviously rewards keeping a single avatar active on the battlefield to reap the most benefit, and its promise of a cost reduction makes that more fesable.

Beastmasters, meanwhile, are gaining the ability to directly control the special abilities used by their called beasts (as opposed to beasts tamed on the field). The system is explained in brief, but it should help provide some utility and control to a class that has slowly been making the shift over to called pets instead of tamed ones. Both updates should be welcome by the classes, and lend more support to the idea that if the November update is one of the last ones to grace Final Fantasy XI, it will be going out on a high note.

The next Cryptic Studios MMO Star Trek Online should be an interesting mix of avatar 'away mission' gameplay with the ship-based combat that existing sci-fi titles like EVE Online offer, as well as what's on the way with Jumpgate Evolution and Black Prophecy. We'd mentioned that the STO devs would be answering questions from Star Trek fans for their dev chat yesterday. If you missed it, however, you can still read the transcript on the official Star Trek Online forums.

Cryptic Systems Designer Steve Nix (aka "Snix") was on hand to field questions from the fans about player progression in Star Trek Online. Snix discussed a number of aspects of how players will interact and progress, from race selection/Species Traits that allow for character customization beyond aesthetics to STO's take on a sidekick system, which will allow for grouping of players at different levels. He also mentioned some of the tactics involved with avatar ground combat as well. If you're following the development of Star Trek Online, be sure to check out what Cryptic's Steve Nix revealed about the upcoming title in the latest dev chat transcript.

BioWare Producer Blaine Christine recently sat down for a Star Wars: The Old Republic interview with Steven Crews at The MMO Gamer. The interview hits on a number of facets of SWTOR's gameplay and the process of creating the title. They also discuss how BioWare is designing the game to dissuade everyone from (only) running around wielding lightsabers through the unique strengths of each class, but their talk really focuses on the game's story.

Blaine discusses how the story for SWTOR players, whether they choose to be good or evil, will always be more than kill ten rats or "collect ten boxes for some random vendor." That story you play through fits the role you've chosen for yourself. Blaine likens a player's story progression to Knights of the Old Republic. He tells The MMO Gamer, "If you look at KOTOR and how that worked out, if you played light side versus dark side, there were distinct differences in the story, and distinct differences in how your character developed. It's going to be very similar to that."

The optimal ways to play are pretty easy to find, these days. If you didn't have several dozen sites with forums, guides, and other tricks to let you know exactly what the best approach to a given game might be, many players will also be very helpful in offering their advice. (Often they'll offer it repeatedly, whether you want it or not, with little regard for phrasing or whether or not they even know the subject well.) Naturally, if you want to play the game at your best, you should be reading these guides and tricks and deviating as little as possible.

For some of us, of course, that's exactly why we've disregarded everything the guides say.

When you play an MMO, do you try and make your character optimal, or do you throw all caution to the wind and grab whatever you want? Do you play undervalued classes or use skills generally considered sub-par just because you like working up to the challenge? Do you like trying to crack a new build that no one else will realize the strength of for a while? What are your little ways of rebelling against the "correct" way to play and build your character, if you have them?

It's hard to tell how far along Final Fantasy XIV is in development -- there have been rumors that it's aiming for a beta late this year, and the pictures we've seen already have a metric ton of polish, but there are a lot of questions unanswered. Luckily, the intrepid fans at Final Fantasy XIV Core have been hard at work combing not just the official American information releases, but the plethora of Japanese magazines covering the title. Recent translations of features in both Dengeki Playstation magazine and Famitsu have shed some more light on features and intents regarding the game's overall direction. Although some of the information has been stated elsewhere, such as some of the general attributes of the Discipline system, there are some interesting tidbits.

One of the more noteworthy features is the promise that there will be an "optimal distance" for attacks not just for archers (a feature it has in common with its predecessor), but for lancers as well. Lancers are also slated to be gaining the option of using javelins as thrown weapons. We're told nothing regarding having multiple jobs, but rather that leveling one job will also level attributes useful for several different jobs -- possibly indicating a more holistic approach to levelling in multiple fields. If you're even remotely interested in Final Fantasy XIV (and who isn't by this point), take a look at both translations for more nuggets about the game, including some of the game's slated music and several high-quality scans.

Square-Enix is going to release information about Final Fantasy XIV at its own pace, as the company always has. However, that can be more than a little agonizing for those of us on the ground, who are left running along after scraps in a desperate attempt to get more information. As a result, we can only be happy when there's an interview with Hiromi Tanaka, producer of the game, in which he gives more information about the upcoming game's features.

Among the more interesting answers are the fact that there will be no player flight (which ties in with his answers in an earlier interview that there will be no jumping), that players will not be pledging their allegiance to a single city-state a la Final Fantasy XI, and reinforcement of the idea that there's not really a concept of "classes" extant in-game. Rather, it's a matter of several different disciplines based upon what weapon or tool you're using. Equally interesting is the response to the question of whether Roegadyn and Miqo'te will be dual-gendered races, after their predecssors (Galka and Mithra, respectively) are all single-gender. He doesn't say they'll add in the other half, but he also doesn't discount the possibility, implying it might well be in the cards. Along with more reinforcement of the game's focus on allowing players to focus on or skip crafting as they wish, it's an interesting set of questions, so take a look at the full interview.

The team over at Nexon has given us a look at the Mage class from their new 2D dungeon crawling brawler, Dungeon Fighter Online, and boy does she pack a punch!

Hard hitting magical spells define this class, of course, but that's not all she can accomplish. The class also has some monster controlling abilities, like gravity wells and knockbacks, in addition to their elemental area of effect spells. If that wasn't enough, the mage can also summon elemental pets, making her the "stand back and let something else beat it" class of the game.

Of course, you shouldn't take our word on this alone. We have this fancy exclusive video of the mage exploding people! Hit the continue reading, and let your eyes absorb all of the tasty monster destruction.

We've already covered the new Druid class that came with the The Elven Prophecy update to Runes of Magic this month. Now we explore the other new class, the Warden. This class relies on their blade to inflict damage on their foes. It's not a ranged attack class as it does not rely on the bow, it is a melee attack class. They also use their summonable nature spirits for quite a bit of DPS as well as their self-only utility and protection buffs.

The Warden comes with a number of damage dealing spells. But instead of being long range nukes, they are usually channeled through the Warden's weapons. Later on, the channeled weapon attacks will restore the Warden's health with every blow. The Warden does have one direct damage spell, but it drains the lifeforce of their pet. They also receive one area of effect damage spell. At level 32 the Warden gains the ability to wield two-handed axes and swords and at level 50 they get an AE melee attack.

Since the Warden is usually on the front lines of battle, he also has a number of protection spells to reduce damage to himself. These include emergency spells like the Level 16 Elven Amulet that reduces physical damage to the Warden for a short time. All of the Warden's buffs are restricted to themselves and their pets.

After the jump, a full list of abilities and more playstyle analysis for the class.

With all the choice in MMOs in terms of who and what you can do, it seems like some of us are inexplicably drawn to the same classes over and over. For example, our own Features Editor, Dan O'Halloran, absolutely loves Druids. When he found out that there were going to be Druids in Runes of Magic, he offered to write the Druid class overview for them himself. My particular guilty pleasure is Rogues. Even though Fallen Earth has a classless system, I'm still running around with a couple of shivs and a length of pipe - enjoying that up-close stabby-stabby (and wishing for stealth options). Others we know are almost always Hunters, still others love to play Priests.

With all that said, this morning we thought we'd ask you - is there a particular class archetype you find yourself gravitating towards? Do you prefer to tank up front, with a huge sword and shield? Is your particular passion the ability to hurl magical damage at your opponents? Can you not resist playing any pet classes available? Do you have an archetype you like to play? Or do you just jump in and look for whatever suits you best in each particular game?

The free-to-play Runes of Magic launched its first expansion called Chapter II: The Elven Prophecy this week. Along with new content came two new classes beloved to the fantasy RPG genre: Druid and Warden. Only playable by the Elf race, these two new classes use the power of nature to both defend and attack to keep their world safe.

The Druid class is envisioned not only as a healer and buffer, but also as a damage dealer and performer of great feats of magic. Certain spells increase the Druid's Nature's Power counter. With enough counters the Druid gets access to spells that can turn the tide of battle in a big way, both defensively and offensively. But with only cloth armor and a weak staff attack, melee damage is not one of the strong suits of this class, unlike their counterpart in other MMOs. Later in their career, Druids can specialize in augmenting either their healing or their damage spells.

After the jump, the full line up of spells for the class.