For the first time in a long while, we've come across a tale of digital wrong-doing that doesn't involve internet spaceships and is definitely not allowed by the developers. The game in question is Tales of Pirates published by IGG. Apparently a number of the game's players have fallen victim to a trick, and IGG wants to publicize this to make people aware of the scam. There's a brief warning on the official Tales of Pirates site about account security, but they just put out a press release that's far more detailed.

IGG writes: "As with any popular game, IGG's Tales of Pirates has attracted its share of scammers. Even the most careful pirate can sometimes be fooled by a well-executed scam. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to learn the common tricks scammers use. To help players, the ToP would like to highlight one particularly popular method used recently." We can only hope they emailed the full info to their playerbase, but we'll keep our own take on it short and sweet here -- five steps to violating the Tales of Pirates EULA and getting banned (and of course, what to watch out for.):

The kid-centric MMO Wizard101 from KingsIsle Entertainment seems to be doing quite well for itself, having already gained millions of unique users since its launch last September. Wizard101 has gotten a steady stream of updates as well. In fact, today marks the game's largest expansion release to date, adding a new land called Grizzleheim with a Norse theme, and a Bazaar in Olde Town where players can buy and sell their wares.

Perhaps the biggest addition to Wizard101 with today's expansion is a crafting system which will bring new gear into the game that spans the various schools of magic. Wizard101 players will be able to craft hundreds of items ranging from clothing to Treasure Cards. In addition to using crafting tables in their houses and dorm rooms, players can progress through five tiers of crafting advancement.

When we heard the infectious Free Realms theme song by The Dares, we knew we were headed for some silliness. After all, if a game is truly about "your world" as the song declared - meaning player choice - well, that's the stuff today's bubble-gum pink One Shots is made of. It comes to us courtesy of Brian H, who tells us a bit more about this image: Just a fun little screen shot I captured of my level 20 ninja being a real ninja, you know, in pink...

One Shots relies on you, dear readers, to send in your images of adventure, silliness, or battle! It's easy to participate. Just email an interesting, cool, etc. screenshot to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. We'll put it up here for everyone to check out and give you the credit. So send in those screenshots!

This past January, Cartoon Network launched their first foray into the MMO space with the wildly successful FusionFall, offering families who like to game together a great deal at $9.95 a month for up to four separate MMO accounts. Since those exciting first days of launch, they've given away all manner of funky swag, racked up over 5 million accounts, and started a whole new generation of explorers down the road of MMO enjoyment. With this summer, however, they're planning on adding even more to their fantastic freemium game with their first major content patch since launch - Dexlabs Upgrade 1: Speed and Style!

This super souped-up update, slated to launch later this summer will bring vehicles to the lands of FusionFall. The first one will be a cool new limited-time availability promo vehicle which will be collectible by both paid and free members. After the first vehicle is launched, players will then be required to reach level 10 to start their collection of other vehicles. What types of nifty ways to get around will there be? Well, as you can see above, we have an exclusive first-ever look at FusionFall's Jetbike, Hoverboard, and a very special guest appearance by Kimchi from Chowder! We're not sure, but considering FusionFall still remains the only MMO where players can get around via flying monkeys, we'd bet that whatever they come up with will be cool.

While Massively focuses on a lot of the bigger games on the market, the World of Warcrafts and Warhammer Onlines out there that define fantasy MMOs for many gamers, we still like to keep our eyes on the lesser-discussed MMO titles. Which leads me to my point -- we're on to you Hello Kitty. We've said this before and we'll probably say it again, Hello Kitty has her cute little eyes set on nothing less than absolute global domination through Hello Kitty Online.

It began with her decking out Beijing with even more stars than the real Beijing, a feat most thought impossible, much less swathing the city in pink and purple hues. We've since learned that she wants Brazil, as well as Singapore and Malaysia, in her little paws. Apparently the next phase of her plan involves new avatar customization options with cute little... outfit... thingies... in the item mall. It's diabolical! Just check out the screengrabs below, if you dare.

Sony Online Entertainment has just announced today that their kid-friendly free-to-play mega-hit Free Realms has hit the 3 millions registered user mark. This news comes less than seven weeks after the game's launch, and only two weeks after their last milestone of two million registered users.

"SOE worked diligently over the past four years to ensure that Free Realms would take the online space by storm," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment. "We are pleased to be able to provide such a vast, in-depth and, most importantly, fun world to an average of 500,000 new gamers per week."

As with the previous milestones, this one is being celebrated with more exclusive in-game items. The 3M Pet Party Pack will be filled with goodies for use on a character's virtual pets, and players have until June 19th to redeem this special offer. Keep reading just after the jump below for the complete press release.

Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into? Comparing one of the largest and most popular MMOs with the current fastest-growing MMO? Do I have a deathwish? Well, it turns out World of Warcraft and Free Realms actually do have a few things in common, but a straight comparison isn't the point of this article. We at Massively have decided to compile a guide for World of Warcraft players who may be interested in checking out what Free Realms has to offer. Even better, for those WoW players out there with children, this guide could be valuable for some alternatives to your usual family gaming choices.

"But why would you want to play in a children's game? And isn't Free Realms all instanced anyway? I've heard it's not even really an MMO!"

These are the types of concerns and questions we hope to answer with this article, so follow along below as we take you through our WoW Player's Guide to Free Realms.

We thought the first day of E3 2009 turned out pretty well, with announcements for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Final Fantasy XIV, and All Points Bulletin. That's in addition to the packed interview schedule we lined up so we'll have plenty more to show you in the coming days. While the Massively team frantically taps their fingertips down into little bloody tater tots to bring you more fresh E3 goodness, have a look at some highlights of what day 2 of E3 2009 brought in MMO news.

• Massively's day one video from the E3 floor

• In-game footage from The Agency

• Platform release info for Final Fantasy XIV

• The Dares concert in Free Realms sets Guinness World Record

• Hands-on with Global Agenda

• Friends fix coming to Free Realms

Want to see more? We've got E3 galleries to flip through for these titles and events after the jump.

We've written a bit about the Cartoon Network MMO FusionFall of late, which enjoys a great deal of popularity with younger MMO gamers. Now it looks like two other cartoons will be coming to the MMO space: Tom and Jerry and Ben 10. Tom and Jerry is going massively multiplayer (for Asia in 2010) through TurnOut Ventures Limited, a joint venture between Turner Entertainment Holdings Asia Pacific Limited and Outblaze Investments Limited.

Hong Kong-based Typhoon Games (who are developing Hello Kitty Online) is developing the Tom and Jerry MMO. A look at the TurnOut Ventures product page also shows they're working on Ben 10 Omniverse. Both massively multiplayer titles are being built on the Unity game engine, for PC and Mac compatibility. There's no announcement at this time for North American or European releases of either title.

[Via Kotaku]

Cartoon Network has done fairly well for itself with its IP-centric FusionFall. In fact, the words 'wildly successful' may come to mind when you take into account that FusionFall has already gained over 4 million registered users since its January launch. Having a TV network to promote the game is advantageous, of course, but with that many kids running around in the game's world, it was inevitable that some of them would get up to mischief.

This topic came up in an interview conducted by MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh with FusionFall community director Richard Weil. It's interesting to note that some kids are basically testing the limits of the game world by finding ways into the "Wastelands" -- vast in-game areas where the developers test aspects of FusionFall. These players have managed to find holes in the game code and slip into these off-limits areas that were thought hidden and inaccessible to them in the first place.

The team at SanrioDigital and Typhoon Games has lovingly re-created the city of Beijing as you've never seen it before -- through the pink-lensed glasses of Hello Kitty, heavy on the star motif. Well, more stars than the real Beijing, in any case. They've even put some of Beijing's landmarks into Hello Kitty Online and have posted screenshots of the HKO version of the city, with a brief introduction.

They write on the Sanriotown blog: "To start things off, we'd like to showcase the new, never-before-seen city that's been added to the game: Beijing! In it you'll see some narrow streets, red lanterns, unique buildings, and walls surrounding the heart of the city." Some of the places they've included are the Bubble Dome and the Forbidden Museum. Sanriotown also adds that Hello Kitty Online will have '14 new adventure maps, 8 of which make up Beijing's surroundings.' You can check out the screenshots in the Sanriotown blog announcement.

According to this MSNBC article, there are no less than 200 youth-oriented virtual worlds and MMOs either in development or on the market. Some of these titles even boast account numbers that rival Facebook and MySpace as analysts estimate 30M users in Club Penguin, 52M users in Neopets, and 90M in Habbo.

Is this really surprising though? Probably not when you consider that kids today aren't totally different in this generation than previous generations. 'Tweens have always liked to socialize, play, and simply "hang out." The difference nowadays is that parents tend to have looser restrictions and the kids can accomplish most of the things they like to do without even leaving a computer chair. The rules and tools have changed.

The article also talks about a 89/10/1 rule that most F2P/RMT games aim for. This rule assumes that 89% of people will play your game for free, 10% will pay the minimum, and 1% will spend lots of money. Apply that rule to the recent announcements that both Free Realms and Runes of Magic have surpassed 1M users. If the rule applies, it means 100,000 people are paying the basic fees (~$5/month) and 10,000 are spending oodles on extras ($15+/month). That's roughly $650,000 per month, which isn't half bad depending on your development costs.

"Well that didn't take long" was the gist of what the Massively team had to say about today's Free Realms announcement of over one million players signed up in the first eighteen days. Are these players all shelling out for Station Cash? Doubtful. And it's way too soon to judge how many of those players will stick with the game, but it's still a pretty big deal.

Sony Online Entertainment seems to think so as well, and have announced they'll be giving out virtual gifts to all one million Free Realms players. 999,999 players will receive an in-game T-shirt with a matching shirt for their pet, in addition to 200 Station Cash. The one-millionth player will get a sweeter deal -- a lifetime membership to Free Realms, an astronaut suit (the only one in the game), and 10,000 Station Cash.

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	Want to know more about Free Realms? SOE's new whimsical free-to-play MMO is already being called a refreshing change of pace for kids and adults alike, and we have just the coverage you need!

Wizard101 has introduced housing into the game today with their latest May patch. This housing feature has been highly anticipated by the community and allows for your character to have up to three houses, plus your dorm room. These "Castles & Lands", as they're called, are available for players level 10 and above.

In addition, this patch brings even more voice-overs to characters in Marleybone, MooShu and Dragonspyre. A new Mark & Recall feature lets you easily teleport around any points in the game, when pinged with special marks that cost a small amount of mana. Be sure to read the complete patch notes on Wizard101's site for more information, and definitely check out Tipa's review of all houses available.

We've known for a while now that the Sony Online Entertainment studio in Denver has been hard at work developing a collectible card game to coincide with the launch of Free Realms. SOE and Topps have partnered to create and distribute the Free Realms Trading Card Game which will hit store shelves this week. The Free Realms Trading Card Game bridges the gap between a physical card game and the MMO with virtual rewards like pets, clothing, and 'special character effects'. There will be over 180 game cards, with 50 virtual reward cards that can be redeemed for in-game items. In fact, each pack sold will have a virtual reward card. In addition, there will be 16 cards with codes that unlock their corresponding card in the game.

Free Realms players interested in checking out the trading card game can pick up the 'Passport to Free Realms Starter Pack', at $10, which includes a 40 card deck with virtual benefits in the MMO: a card that unlocks a Black Lab, a t-shirt for your character, three jumbo health potions, a virtual 'Cardie Racer', and one month of full (subscriber) access to Free Realms. Booster packs will also be available at $4 each. Booster packs will include 10 game cards, one virtual reward card, and 50 Station Cash.