Band of Brothers (renamed KenZoku) was once the most powerful alliance in EVE Online with a stated goal, even here at Massively, to control all of the game's New Eden galaxy. Now, KenZoku has reportedly left the contested, lawless frontier of 0.0 space after months of resisting the combined forces of rival alliances.

One of EVE's in-game journalists, Interstellar Correspondent ISD Clarity Brown, reports from the site of KenZoku's last holdout: "GoonSwarm and their allies deployed a camp on KenZoku's sole remaining outpost last night. A joint force of pilots from Pandemic Legion, GoonSwarm, Morsus Mihi, Razor Alliance and KIA deployed 27 titans around the station in a show of force and gave a demonstration of the sheer power embodied in such a gang."

Titans are the game's most expensive weapons of mass destruction, massive ships capable of unleashing 'Doomsday' area-of-effect attacks that melt fleets caught in the blast. To unleash 27 Doomsday blasts at once is... quite a sight, as the video footage demonstrates.

Black Prophecy is one of the new breed of space-based science fiction MMOs on the horizon that will be a noticeable departure from the type of gameplay that EVE Online offers. Specifically, Black Prophecy is by design a more casual game. This is not to say that Black Prophecy won't have high-level or 'endgame' content, but it will be a faster progression to endgame, according to Reakktor Media CEO Kirk Lenke.

Kirk was interviewed by GameSNAFU's Sylvester Rozylo and the questions turned to PvP and Black Prophecy's endgame. Kirk said, "Black Prophecy is designed to allow players to achieve major goals in character development without investing excessive amounts of time. So basically it will be possible to reach the endgame content within a few weeks, but you shouldn't be afraid that the fun will run out once you reach the endgame." Kirk added that Reakktor "will pay very close attention to creating a lasting experience that's as attractive as possible wherein the focus will be on intense PvP action for solo, team and clan players."

Kirk has plenty more to say on PvP in Black Prophecy, which you can find in his interview at GameSNAFU.

Are you one of the folks who has leveled your classes all the way to max in Free Realms and are kind of wondering what now? Well, if you're the type who loves progression and really building your character up to be better, you're in luck. The folks at SOE are planning to introduce Prestige classes (much like the aforementioned racing ones) that will allow players to level their jobs to 20, and improve them through further play.

Along with this interesting development, they are adding in some new jobs to the game, like the Pro Racing class - and perhaps a new class to go with the Soccer game (Soccer player? Footballer?) since SOE has let us know that they are finally bringing those fenced-off soccer fields into play. Added to these new tidbits will be further expansion on the backstory of Free Realms, which will explain a bit more about the lands and inhabitants of this crazy fun casual MMO, as well as opening up more story-driven quests for players. Sounds like a bunch of exciting news coming in the next few months! We can't wait.

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Massively was on the ground in Los Angeles last week and covering all the latest E3 MMO news coming from the convention. Check out our breaking coverage (or all the Joystiq network E3 reporting) and keep your eye on Massively's front page for the latest developments.

Lineage II never had cloaks. It's funny that we never really realized this before, but those characters just never wore cloaks. Luckily, the developers have realized their oversight and have finally fixed it -- cloaks will now be available to characters in the Gracia Final expansion. However, don't expect that you'll get a cloak just for logging in.

Cloaks are reserved for players who fight in Territory War, have high ranks in their clan, and those who fight against some of the major raid bosses of the game. The cloak rewards for these accomplishments are the Ancient Cloak, Knight's Cloak, and Holy Spirit cloak respectively.

The Hunter's Mark has an interesting post regarding making the transition from casual to hardcode raiding for if you decide that you have enough of PuGs or your casual guild and want something a bit more hardcore. Although aimed at WoW the ideas and concepts are true for all the other games that also have a similar raiding system.

The guide starts off with the important point of checking that your current guild doesn't already have plans for that already, not burning your bridges with your current guild leadership because that may well be asked what you are like by your new guild and then where to go to actually find your new guild. It follows up with actually getting onto your guilds raids if they use DKP or a system like EPGP, how to be prepared through doing your homework and finally how to keep that spot when you get it so that you can continue raiding.

Of course we laugh about a topic like this one. Games aren't suppose to be serious, that's why they're games! They're suppose to be fun and enjoyable. If you're not having fun, then you're doing something seriously wrong. For the most part, all of this is true. Yet, there are small segments of the games that we play that actually can require everyone to sit down and "get serious."

We see it in raiding tactics, player vs. player tactics, loot distribution, and many other areas (including the entire universe of EVE Online, which seems to be played very seriously.) We've even dedicated a segment of our culture to this type of behavior -- the "hardcore" crowd.

So, let's go forward and look at the question, "Are games getting too serious?"

You might see where this is going now...

This is a hard concept to explain, yet it's the concept that drives all social games, real-life based or online based. If you're taking the game so seriously that you're not having fun, then you've found the line where the problem begins.

"Serious business" sounds like a joke, but all games have some degree of seriousness in them. The only ones that are truly unbound by this rule are the ones that are entirely luck based, like The Game of Life, Chutes and Ladders, or Trouble, where the dice determine the progress of game play. Players have no true input into the game, thus no true focus is required.

"So are games getting too serious? Nope. They're doing the same things they've always been doing."

Once decision making is introduced, strategies begin. Once strategies are introduced, players will formulate efficient ways to win and those winning methods will always win unless luck determines otherwise or a more efficient strategy is found. Regarding our MMO games, which require player movement, button presses, and (to some degree) luck, you will need players who are focused. If players aren't standing in the right places or if the right skills aren't being used, then loss will almost constantly occur. Players don't gather in raids to lose, they gather in raids to win.

A football team and a raiding party are actually closer than one might think. Both get together to overcome a challenge presented to them, whether it be the Blue Mountain Eagles from the other side of the county or Patchwerk of Naxxramas. The fun comes from the work of overcoming the challenge; from "winning" the game. Sure, there might be rewards involved, like trophies or purple loot, but there is also going to be work involved. So are games getting too serious? Nope. They're doing the same things they've always been doing.

So next time you're in that raid group, or next time you're on that PvP team, or in that corporation war, or sieging that city, remember that focusing is not being overly serious. It's about working to get the task done, not screaming at one another. It also means that perhaps you might want to save your list of jokes and gossip for another time.

There's always more time to kid with friends. But right now is one of the few times you may be standing in front of Malygos.

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Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who is still forced to make decisions he totally doesn't want to. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.

It's been just over a week since the Apocrypha expansion went live and EVE Online is already starting to see the impact of the new content on gameplay. Wormholes in particular have revitalised gameplay for so many individuals that Apocrypha may just be the best EVE expansion to date. Everything from piracy to low security space, system ownership and exploration have been affected by the advent of unstable wormholes. But how could something as simple as unstable wormholes revitalise other areas of gameplay?

In this article, I examine the far-reaching effects of EVE's newest gameplay addition – wormholes.

A few nights ago, I was in one of the worst pick-up groups I have ever seen. It was World of Warcraft, we were in Halls of Lightning, and we had opened up with a dramatic wipe on the first boss. (He wasn't even in his powered mode, which surprised me.)

Valiantly, we tried the battle again, but found the same effect. Everyone looked like they had enough gear -- I had done that boss with "worse" people backing me up. Of course, while I was pondering that, the squabbling had already begun in the party. Priest blames hunter, hunter blames mage, mage blames paladin, then the paladin stops pondering why we were failing, realizes people were blaming her, and becomes flustered that someone would actually blame her for the wipe. Meanwhile, the rogue sat in stealth and went afk. Perfect party dynamics.

Before long I found myself outside of Halls of Lightning again, sitting on the steps in my pristine holy plate armor. I held up a sign that said, "Will tank 4 food," while I kept up hopes that another party would take me in. (Note: Apparently Game Informer used "Will tank 4 food" in their latest magazine, which just read 5 minutes ago, well after this article was completed. Scary.)

Party dynamics seem to be on the decline, but why? Pick-up groups were always a scary prospect, but lately they seem to have become something entirely more nightmarish. What the heck has changed?

CasualLolz player, meet OMGHARDCOREBBQ player

The last part of odd group dynamics comes from how much our genre has grown since the days of EverQuest and Final Fantasy XI. Back in the days pre-Warcraft, the MMO community was a small group of gamers who, for the most part, had the same play styles. If you didn't like the genre, you probably didn't play the games. The games presented their basic dynamics to the player very quickly, and people who didn't like how the game was going had the chance to drop out at level 10 or earlier.

That's not how the community is today. Thanks to the rampant success of Warcraft, friends are inviting non-MMO friends. People who haven't even touched a game before Warcraft are picking up MMOs. They jump in, do their soloing, fall in love with those dynamics instead of being immediately introduced to party dynamics, and then enter into parties with explosive consequences.

It's then, at this late point in the game, when they realize that they don't want to be with other people. They don't want to re-learn everything because they feel that they have mastered what the game is all about.

Then you have the player that has played the older games, who does know what to expect, and who runs his endgame content with an iron fist. Do one thing wrong and he screams at you, because in the "olden days" doing one thing wrong netted you extreme penalties and raid wipes.

Putting these two people into the same group is not going to work. Yet, this occurs every day in Warcraft and other MMOs because of how huge the genre has become. Some people come because they want to have some easy fun, but then they falter when they get to the content that is obviously targeted towards people who have been in the genre for some time. The people who have been in the genre can't stand the people who are there for the casual soloing because they act too loosely in raids.

Yet, it's not all that bad

For how much we moan and complain about pick-up groups, you'd think the sky was falling. Sure, the rate of failure in grouping is much higher than it use to be, but that's the way it's going to become.

The bright side to all of this is the very same sentence I used at the beginning of the article -- grouping is all about having experience grouping. As the newcomers and old players adjust to the new ways MMOs work, they will become more experienced. The fail wipes of today will become the successes of tomorrow, as long as players learn to stick with it and take the good with the bad.

Failure will never disappear from online MMOs. It's a necessary game mechanic that can't be removed, no matter how much we try to minimize penalties. Just remember to learn from the mistakes you witness -- you'll be a better player because of it.

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Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who thinks people might like to play with other people in MMOGs, but is probably totally wrong. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.

Several years ago, CCP released a new upgrade for EVE Online's standard system scanner. Scanner probes were deployable tools that could be used to find ships, drones and a few hidden complexes lost in the vastness of space. The system was later expanded to provide an awesome exploration experience – combat encounters, dungeons and rich asteroid belts were strewn throughout space for some lucky explorer to find.

With EVE's latest expansion, the exploration system received a complete overhaul. A new scanning system was devised, complete with new probes and probe launchers. As if that wasn't enough, a new "True Exploration" mechanic was introduced with the appearance of wormholes all throughout space. Many wormholes lead to one of the 2500 new star systems that aren't on the main system map, each of which contains lucrative but dangerous sleeper NPCs that drop components for tech 3 ship production.

In this article, I delve into the new probing system with complete strategies that have been proven to work. Read on to get an edge on wormhole exploration.

Leveling content and endgame are two completely different things. Most people think that they can just jump into raiding without any new learning curve, but those people need to understand that they're pretty wrong. Raiding is a brand new world with brand new rules.

Good for those who are new to the raiding scene that MMORPG's World of Warcraft correspondent Dana O'Shea will be doing a multi-part guide on learning raiding. The initial guide can be applied directly to World of Warcraft, but some of the advice is great for any endgame player in any game. Some tips go beyond just the game itself and can be applied to most situations where you need a large group to take down an objective.

For the full guide, check it out over at MMORPG.com.

If it feels like World of Warcraft may be losing its luster for your, then chances are that you feel the game has become too easy. Since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, a large chunk of the game population has hit 80, done the heroic dungeons, and even entered into the raids with ease. Has the game become too easy?

GameSpy editor Gerald Villoria has dedicated one of his columns to just some of the ways that Warcraft might have become too easy for everyone. While he points his finger at both the player community and the developers, his main point comes from the newly introduced heirloom items that come from the endgame emblem vendors. With enough emblems lying around to fill a bathtub, Gerald was able to equip a new rogue with three heirloom items and effectively outclass almost everything in the lower levels including blue item drops.

At this point, it seems that any higher class player, or any player who enters the game through the recruit-a-friend program, can develop a character that can completely skip through low-end content without giving it a thought. You don't need to get excited about rare drops in early dungeons, or even really pay attention to the item drop system anymore. Has the game become so easy that it's no longer fun?

Seven long months ago, players of Final Fantasy XI came across a threat worse than the notorious Absolute Virtue. It was he who resided at the end of the Zeni Notorious Monster system, he who waited for adventurers who could climb the ranks and defeat 12 other notorious monsters. It was the Pandemonium Warden.

And the Warden gave FFXI a boost of publicity when the linkshell Beyond the Limitation couldn't take him down after 18 hours of straight battle. This caused the outcry of over-punishing boss battles, and the FFXI team actually dropped their monsters down a notch from all of the heat. A new rule was placed in with the Warden however -- he would despawn after 2 hours if not defeated within that time frame. Sure, he was easier, but the time limit still made him extremely hard.

But now, seven months after his introduction, the linkshell Shard of Apathy of the Remora server has put the Warden down for the count. They successfully tanked through all 10 of his forms, plus his pets, with reportedly 5 minutes left before he was to be despawned. Congratulations Apathy! So when are you running him again?