Massively has been following the growing prevalence of MMOFPS games poised to enter the market in the coming months and years, with the most notable of these being Global Agenda. The game's developer Hi-Rez Studios got in touch with us today to let us know about their partnership with Vivox, who will provide voice features for Global Agenda. Vivox will enable push-to-talk voice chat and in-game news broadcasts "that describe key victories and events associated with Global Agenda's persistent territory control gameplay," states Hi-Rez Studios. An additional (subscriber-only) feature will be out-of-game voice chat that will keep agency members in touch when they're not fragging their rivals. According to Hi-Rez, "Players can use a variety of access methods including the Vivox Web Voice within the toolbar controls, Vivox Voice on Facebook, or calling into a specified chat channel from their phone."

Hi-Rez also announced they will hold a dev chat via Facebook on Wednesday, November 18th, from 10-11pm (Eastern), which will require participants to download the Vivox Voice app for Facebook. A Facebook group announcement from Hi-Rez today states that the dev chat will be limited to 75 people who will pose questions to the Global Agenda devs.

We had some good news about Black Prophecy the other day and how things are looking up for the game's developer Reakktor Media. We're hoping more info will be revealed about the game in the coming months, and now they've released a dev blog on the art direction of the game's Genide faction. Whereas the Tyi faction is a cybernetic offshoot of humanity the Genides embrace biogenetic manipulation in their pursuit of perfection. The aesthetics of what the Genides have become is the focus of Black Prophecy Art Director Nick Ebenhoch's dev diary.

Nick kicks it off by explaining the significance of the Genide faction logo and what the symbol was designed to represent. Unlike the more utilitarian Tyi faction which favors a modular complexity, the Genide's cleaner, minimalist aesthetic sense permeates everything they create. This is seen in the smooth and tall look of their various space ships, which have vertical wing orientation rather than the standard horizontal orientation typically seen on such vessels, explains Nick.

MMO fans who enjoy the crafting aspect of their games might be interested in what Earthrise will have to offer. The post-apocalyptic game's creators at Masthead Studios have been dropping quite a bit of info about how crafting will work, culminating in a two-part overview of Earthrise's crafting system. Masthead explained how gathered materials can be used to craft an item tailored for a specific purpose in last week's installment. They continue this week with the second half of "The Crafting Process" which walks us through the creation of a finished product.

Masthead's overview explains how players will manufacture the various modules which are assembled into the final product in factories. In this case, the example is of an assault rifle customized for the specific goal of taking down the Burzun mutants that prowl Enterra island. The second part of The Crafting Process also looks at how that weapon a player manufactures can be disassembled and upgraded to higher tiers of technology further down the line. Check out the latest installment of Masthead's Question of the Week series, The Crafting Process Part 2, for the best look we've had thus far at the game mechanics surrounding crafting in Earthrise.

It looks like the rumors were true and Star Trek Online will indeed be hitting in early February, 2010. The dates are February 2nd in North America and February 5th in Europe, so start warming up your nacelles now because it won't be long before we'll all be warping into Cryptic's first non-superhero title.

With Trek's popularity on the rise due to the new J.J. Abrams movie -- and a second movie on the way at some point in the future -- there's no doubt that Star Trek Online represents a huge opportunity to Cryptic Studios, who've until now been known as "that superhero MMO developer" to anyone you might ask.

Since the release date is so very close at hand, there's no doubt that a flurry of new information (Klingons!) will soon become available. Be on the lookout for our weekly community Q&A sessions with the STO team, starting with this weeks' forthcoming feature focused on everything ships!

Many an MMO has its own word for the ever present quest, but usually a name change is the only real difference. With Star Trek Online's Episode Missions, Cryptic is working towards creating a nomenclature that describes the experience of living out the beloved television shows of our past, and you can read all about it in a new developer blog.

Each episode will be roughly 45 to 90 minutes long and functions as a primary mover in player progression. Many of their stories will be infused with conflict, although Cryptic is saying not all episodes have to end with battle. The setting -- the year 2409 -- is a time of war, which gives credence to a Trek universe where blowing things up is unfortunately more common. In this respect, Star Trek Online is much more like the movie versions than the series.

The game is set to launch with three seasons of episodes, where each season represents 14 episodes. That's 42 episodes at launch, which is kind of like a nerdy lucky number. We'll take it as a good sign.

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.

Today Fallen Earth has announced a new iPhone app in the works that might well make all but the most hardcore earth-loving Vista reconsider their wary stance on technology. This new Fallen Earth app will offer players the ability to access their stored and equipped items, check out their character's stats and maps of the different sectors. What's most interesting to us is the addition of real-time chat, email, auctions and crafting to the mix. The ability to interact with the auction house and crafting queue is going to be huge to many crafters and travelers, thereby making sure that one never gets stuck with dead time when a project could be rolling.

While currently underway for the iPhone, the eventual plans are to branch it out to other smartphone platforms from there as we're given to understand. The Fallen Earth app is slated to release sometime in the first of next year, and no price has currently been mentioned that we're aware of. There's no doubt it will be wildly popular with many in the wastes. Stuck at work? You'll be able to let your clan know you'll be a bit late for that PvP scavenging trip. Or you could in-game mail some Red Rooster Chicken Beer off to one of those crazy Post Apoc Radio DJs. We hear they like drunken parties.

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.

You can argue the specifics about whether or not MAG qualifies as an MMO, but the game certainly fits the "massive" portion of the bill -- 128 characters to a side in battle, customized and developed characters, persistent world based on the performance in the skirmishes. The game's release is only a couple months away, and there's still a great deal more to learn about it if you haven't yet opted in to the preorder beta. Luckily for all of us, Giant Bomb has an interview with Seth Luisi which sheds more light on how the game will play and progress.

The interview is quite substantial, covering everything from MAG's skill progression to leadership roles in the game. Among the more interesting tidbits is the system for squad leaders and further command posts. In order to give some incentive to follow a commander's orders, the objectives they set give a bonus to experience when fulfilled, and as the objectives are fulfilled the leader gets points to help improve their character. It's an interesting dual-reward system that should help lead to people being a bit more inclined to give and take orders in a setting notorious for just the opposite.

But that's hardly the entirety of the interview -- it's only a tiny slice of a talk that ranges to the state of the world affecting map play, character specialization, and some of the problems that the team is facing and working on improving. Take a look at the full interview, which clocks in at around eight minutes long, and you might be inspired to place a pre-order and get your hands on the beta early.

September 2009 saw the release of Champions Online, Dungeons & Dragons: Eberron Unlimited (an older MMO going F2P), Fallen Earth, and Aion. This was easily the busiest month for MMOs in recent memory and we're sure many of you at least picked up one of them to try out. We're curious to know if you're still playing a September MMO just over a month later. If so or if not, why?

No MMO in the history of MMOs has experienced a perfectly smooth launch and these September titles were no exception. Did the action-packed combat of CO pull you in or did the lack of content push you away? Were you awed by DDO-EU's polished suite of tools or annoyed by the limitations put on free accounts? Was Fallen Earth's post-apocalyptic setting a breath of fresh air or did you choke on a mouthful of radioactive bugs? Did the beauty and smoothness of Aion make your heart beat faster or did its grind and bot infestation crush your soul? Just how impressed were you with September's crop of new MMOs?

North American Closed Beta Test 1 is beginning on November 10th for Allods Online, and we're happy to throw a few keys out to our loyal readers. We have 500 to give out, thanks to our friends at gPotato, so they may go quickly. Simply head on over to our giveaway page and follow the directions there.

You can download the game from this link, but it won't be available until 2pm EDT today. You can also take a look at their main website to find out some interesting tidbits about the expansiveness of the game and its award-winning development team.

[Update: Make sure to only enter the numbers after the comma in the beta code you receive. Thanks!]

Do you have burning questions for the Star Trek Online development team? We certainly hope so, because over the next several weeks we'll be issuing posts like this looking for your questions on a specific topic concerning the upcoming Trek MMO. This week? Ships! We want all your ship-related inquiries, whether they're about customization or weapon points; Federation of Klingon Empire.

We'll give you until 12pm Pacific time Friday, November 6th to submit your questions in the comments section below. Following that, we'll round up a cross-section of the most popular and most poignant questions and by next week we'll have your answers straight from the folks at Cryptic. We're also open to suggestions on next week's Q&A topic, so feel free to throw your hat into that ring while you're typing 'em up.

Update: We'll be extending the time limit on questions until the end of Friday, November 6th, so keep 'em coming guys!

In an interview with Hi-Rez Studio's executive producer Todd Harris, Ten Ton Hammer discusses Global Agenda's Assault class at considerable length. For those looking for a simple analog, the Assault is like a meaty tank class wielding huge weaponry such as mini-guns. The interview covers such topics as ammo concerns -- as the aforementioned mini-guns chew up ammo like a man on a desert island drinks fresh water -- and several other matters that dig deep into the earth center of the class. Then again, if blowing stuff up is your preference, that's offered as well.

Much of what we've seen of the Assault class tells us that it's going to be a favorite with players who generally enjoy inflicting damage in the most terrible of ways. And really, that's a whole lot of people; those who drool at rocket launchers and chain-fed ballistics weaponry.