Agent missions are one of EVE Online's most popular pastimes. While EVE is most often lauded for its open-ended gameplay, player-determined markets and PvP action, a significant portion of the game's players use missions as their primary income source. There is something comforting about missions that seems to draw players in. For many, running missions and upgrading their ship with the ISK becomes the focus of their achievements and their primary measure of progress. The ability of mission-running to provide a direct translation of effort into a stable ISK income offers us a reassuringly linear work-to-reward scheme in a relatively risk-free environment. Missions and exploration are EVE's primary PvE experiences and new missions are released with each major expansion to help keep the game fresh for casual players. There are even several epic mission arcs planned for the future, long sequences of storyboarded missions much like the quest chains you might find in other MMOs.

In this multi-part guide, I will thoroughly examine the profession of mission-running, from the basics to ship fittings and finally some tips and tricks for maximising your performance. In this first part of the guide, I look at the basics of mission-running from mission types and rewards to agent standings and how to find the best agent for you.

EVE Online's in-game economy has been the subject of intense study over the years. The markets of EVE react very effectively to accomplish goals with the same economic laws that apply to many real-life marketplaces. The game's developers CCP even hired a professional economist to analyse the in-game economy, advise them on problem issues and deliver interesting quarterly reports. The driving force behind EVE's markets is often assumed to be basic supply and demand but this isn't always the most potent component. In the hyper-capitalistic universe of New Eden, all bets are off and the only rules are those players enforce themselves with an iron fist. Cartels, market manipulation and theft run rife in EVE, with far-reaching consequences.

In this succinct article, I examine the hidden forces pushing and pulling EVE's markets and show that EVE's economic sandbox comes complete with quicksand and land mines.

EVE Online's Faction Warfare system was released almost one year ago with the Empyrean Age expansion and was initially a complete success. It provided a stage on which thousands of players waged war. From fleets of over a hundred players to gangs as small as two or three pilots, everyone found their own place in the conflict. After the initial wave of success, questions began to arise on the lack of rewards to offset the cost of losing ships in PvP. In addition, while the point of faction warfare initially revolved around capturing systems, holding an enemy system provided no benefits beyond bragging rights. Almost a year on from its initial release, faction warfare has barely changed, prompting very real concerns from players that EVE's developers CCP have entirely abandoned it. These issues have even made it as far as the Council of Stellar Management.

In this article, I take a retrospective look at how faction warfare has (or hasn't) progressed in this past year and ask the question "Has Faction Warfare been abandoned?".

MMORPG.com have a new developer journal for Aion, NCSoft's new MMO which is due to make it to the west later this year. Aion launched in Korea last year and has already proved highly popular. This journal introduces us to the Daeva, humans who have undertaken a sudden mystical evolution.

Daevas are revered by the people of Atreia and are created when the invisible lifeblood of Aion, Aether, infuses a human. This often happens to somebody who is undergoing trauma or pain. The human will then sprout feathery wings, break free from the bonds of gravity and mortality and become the first line of defense against the invasions from the Balaur and incursions from Daevas from the other side of the world.

You can read the full developer journal at mmorpg.com.

The drug trade has been a part of EVE since the very beginning. Originally, drugs were nothing more than a trading commodity occasionally demanded by agents in low security space. The old drug trade goods still exist in EVE, a non-functional relic of years gone past. A new drug trade has taken its place - the black market for performance-enhancing combat boosters. If you want to push your ship to the absolute limit of its abilities, whether it's for PvE or PvP, you're definitely going to want to get your hands on some combat boosters.

In this article, I take a look at the drug trade in EVE and the different kinds of performance-enhancing combat boosters that are available.

In a recent interview over at IGN, SOE's Senior Game Designer for Free Realms, Luke Sigmund, explained more about how the job system works in the game. As we inch towards the retail release of the game later this year, many are excited about what Free Realms may offer to those looking for something with a more open-ended experience.

According to Sigmund, these jobs act just like classes in more traditional MMOs, yet you can have an unlimited amount on one character. At launch there will be 15 jobs available, with more to come in the future. These jobs include Brawler, Ninja, Chef, Miner, Demolition Derby Driver, Kart Racer, Card Duelist, Postman, Pet Trainer and Adventurer. On paid subscriptions, five more jobs are unlocked: Blacksmith, Archer, Medic, Warrior and Wizard. "The coolest thing about Free Realms is that you can really be any class you want any time," Luke says. "So if today I wake up and I want to be a Postman, I can be one. If I want to be a Wizard, I can do that too. It's also really great for grouping. In normal MMOs, you can't do a dungeon without a healer. So here, you can always have whatever group setup you want." Check out the complete interview for more on the jobs of Free Realms.

Wormhole exploration is perhaps the key feature that came to EVE Online with the Apocrypha expansion. Its 'true exploration' of thousands of uncharted solar systems can bring great rewards but also entails equally great risks. The Sleepers are the strongest NPCs that players can face in the game's setting of New Eden, adding to the challenge of taking them on is the fact that you may be hunted down by players at the same time. The delayed local channel in wormhole space ("w-space") means you won't know if you're really alone in the uncharted solar system until you find yourself being targeted and fired upon by a roving gang of hostiles.

Wormholes can also have tactical environments which affect how well your ship operates in that solar system, sometimes imposing penalties. Then factor in that wormholes are inherently unstable and can collapse once enough ships have passed through, and you've got a fair amount of unpredictability injected into your gameplay. Wormhole collapses have led to a number of EVE's capsuleers being stranded in unknown regions and unable to find a way back into known space ("k-space"), much less navigate their way home again. That's where "Wormhole Rescue Service" and its founder Astro Glyde can help.

A major strength of the sci-fi massively multiplayer online game EVE Online is that there are no classes and certainly no professions that a player is locked into. EVE's professions are freeform, but this can lead to new players being unsure about what to do (or be) in the game. The title's developer CCP Games is attempting to remedy this. One of the resources that complements EVE Online's New Player Experience in the Apocrypha expansion is the "EVE Careers Guide", which introduces new players to the gameplay possibilities in New Eden. It's largely put together by Benilopax of Warp Drive Active: Industry podcast fame and Richie Shoemaker (aka "Zapatero"), the Editor of E-ON -- the official magazine of EVE Online -- who we've interviewed at Massively in the past. The EVE Careers Guide is a PDF file with interactive links throughout to navigate between sections, providing a comprehensive look at the game for rookie pilots.

Zapatero welcomes new players to EVE Online, explaining the game in broad terms: "Many have found their own path in EVE by taking turns that are wildly divergent from what its makers envisaged. EVE is about relationships, prejudices, trust, greed and creativity more than it's about spaceships, trade and combat. New Eden is a very human universe, and with almost 300,000 people making up the population, it's a very dynamic one. Yes, it's harsh and uncompromising, frustrating and callous, but it's also illuminating in scope, vast in stature and utterly unique."

There are so many massively multiplayer online titles on the horizon that it would be hard to pick a staff favorite among the Massively writers, but one game that consistently draws 'oohs' and 'aahs' from us is Free Realms from Sony Online Entertainment. We're not alone in wanting to know more about the game. Adam Sessler from G4's X-Play recently got some screen time with Free Realms associate art director Sebastian Strzalkowski.

Strzalkowski walks the viewer through character creation, which is done via the Free Realms website before the game itself actually launches. As the interview progresses, he mentions that a storyline runs through the game's quests, but players aren't locked into following along with it. A wide variety of mini-games will be on offer, as the accompanying footage shows off. SOE's hope is that the mix of various types of activities in the game (plus pets and social networking) will hold appeal for its younger target audience as well as the parents of those gamers. We've got the video embed of X-Play's Hands On: Free Realms Game Preview after the jump.

One of the massively multiplayer online titles eagerly awaited by sci-fi fans is Star Trek Online, currently in development at Cryptic Studios. Star Trek Online's executive producer Craig Zinkievich has written a dev blog for MMORPG.com titled "Focusing the Experience." Zinkievich discusses that initial excitement the Cryptic Studios team had when they obtained the license to create Star Trek Online, and the process of deciding what the IP's MMO universe should encompass.

This was no small task. The Star Trek universe spans decades across multiple television incarnations and film, so the challenge wasn't so much about what to include, but what not to include while making sure that the setting is fleshed out. The developers asked themselves how they could make the MMO universe of Star Trek Online a place where there's more to being part of the setting than energizing transporters all day. And how to incorporate the roles of characters seen in Star Trek television and film into the MMO?

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.

The latest expansion for EVE Online is Apocrypha, which has added numerous exploration-intensive elements to the sci-fi game. Apocrypha brought drag-and-drop to the exploration system, making the discovery of hidden encounters (and now wormholes) a more visual process than the old system. However, for those players who are accustomed to the old methods of exploration, Apocrypha's revamped system can take some getting used to. EVE Online developer CCP Greyscale posted a dev blog earlier in the week which is a visual tutorial explaining how to find all that hidden content in the game. It's pretty much essential reading for any would-be explorers in New Eden.

We also came across a player-created video tutorial showing how it's done, by Espoir from TridentGuild. The video covers everything from exploration probe placement to how to focus in on the signatures you discover. We've got the YouTube embed of the Apocrypha exploration tutorial for you below the cut:

EVE Online developers CCP Games have launched a new site for the sci-fi game's Apocrypha expansion, slated for a March 10th launch. The site has a teaser trailer, screenshots, wallpapers, and concept art related to Apocrypha.

In addition, there are brief video presentations from three key developers involved with the expansion: Lead Game Designer Noah Ward (CCP Hammerhead), Associate Producer Arend Stührmann (CCP Whisper), and Senior Producer Torfi Frans Olaffson (CCP Torfifrans). Their presentations range from discussion of Tech III to how wormhole exploration and the New Player Experience will add something fresh to the game:

Among all the massively multiplayer online games out there, with their respective learning curves, EVE Online perhaps has the deserved reputation for being the hardest MMO to get a grasp of. Much of that confusion is because the game itself is such a departure from your standard fantasy MMO, in almost every respect: open world/single server, PvP can happen everywhere, a harsh setting, and a UI that's a far cry from anything a player has seen in World of Warcraft.

The EVE in-game tutorial has been revamped a few times in order to make it easier for new players to get a handle on things. What is currently offered is a noticeable improvement over the tutorial of a few years ago, but CCP Games is in the process of completely reworking a player's first steps into the game's setting of New Eden. EVE Online developer CCP Fear's latest blog is, in his words, required reading for anyone interested in the game, new player or not. He says, "I want to get one misconception out of the way. This blog *will* concern you and everyone else. If you have played for a year, 6 years, 3 months or a week, you will want to read further than this. Chances are there will be changes that will affect you!"

Massively multiplayer online games are continually changing, from the time a game launches to the day the servers shut down. Sure, patch notes spell out most of those changes, but it's always good when an MMO developer opens up a test server for the players. It allows you to check out new game mechanics firsthand, risk-free, and see what works for you and what doesn't. More importantly, it lets the developer know what they need to improve. This is what Mythic Entertainment is doing for Warhammer Online players as of today (Tuesday, February 17th), letting them preview the changes coming to Realm vs. Realm combat as well as Career balance changes on the public test server.

Mythic will be conducting a large scale Tier 4 Open Field Realm vs. Realm test on Wednesday, February 18th at 8pm EST. The dev announcement states: "Bring your friends to the PTS and be amongst the first to experience the new Zone Domination system in a focused player test. Be sure to log on early to join the premade guilds (points of contact for invites will be announced in game) for the night."

Detailed info on how to access the public test server is found in the Warhammer Herald announcement as are the patch notes for the public test of Game Update 1.2.

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	Mythic has announced the first expansion to Warhammer Online! Check out the announcement itself, the two brand-new classes coming to the game, and the enormous new dungeon/zone slated for a few months away! Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!