Sony Online Entertainment might just take the prize this Halloween for the best transformation item in an MMO this year. EverQuest and EverQuest II players can purchase a Transmogrification Scroll or a Race Change Potion for a change of race. If you've been dying to try out a new race but hate the thought of starting all over and losing your progress, you need to get to the marketplace.

The change is permanent, but you can always purchase another scroll or potion to change back or try a different race on for size. EverQuest players have even more fun items to check out while they're shopping. A couple of different auras will surround you with floating jack-o-lanterns or candles, a Collar of the Cursed Lupine will net you one werewolf companion, and a Bat on a String will summon a bat to follow your every move.

Halloween's coming up fast, so grab your bat, your floating jack-o-lanterns and pick your shiny new race in time for trick-or-treating!

Well, okay, it's not called that, but it's going to look awfully similar. EverQuest II is calling for players to create a brand new, level 1 Ratonga character for the Rat Race, a scavenger hunt of sorts being run on 21 different servers. The race will begin in Hate's Envy on all servers, where the horde of new Ratonga will be given a list of items to gather as they race through Norrath. The fastest finishers will win special in-game prizes, but there are also gifts for everyone who participates.

Kiara and Amnerys from the SOE Community Relations team will be your hosts for this event, so it's sure to be lots of fun. This is an ongoing event, with the first race set for next Tuesday, the 13th, and races scheduled nearly every day until November 6th. Check the list on the official site for starting dates and times for each server, and good luck in the Rat Race!

Craig Zinkievich covered a great deal of new information about Star Trek Online in his interview with Eurogamer yesterday, including the burning question "Can I play a Klingon? I want to wield a Bat'leth!" Well, you can. It turns out that Cryptic has put a great deal of thought into this, offering full character advancement as a Klingon and a "drastically different" playing experience.

Klingon gameplay is initially locked, requiring some time to open it, but Zinkievich says it's "not deep in the game." Once unlocked, the Klingon faction will be less story driven than the Federation story line. "The content that they will be experiencing is a lot more focused on PvP -- fighting the Federation, fighting House versus House within the Klingon empire. So it is a full-on character with advancement, with items, with bridge officers as well," says Zinkievich.

While the overall Klingon arc in the game is that of a "bad guy," there will be chances for the Klingon and Federation sides to work together, as well as some good Klingons in the federation. "You can't really make a Star Trek game these days without allowing people to live out their Worf fantasy," said Zinkievich.

He goes into further detail in the full interview.

There are so many reasons we love to play MMOs, but for most of us, repetition isn't one of them. Although EVE Online differs from most other MMOs on the market in a number of ways, it still has some of those PvE pitfalls that have long been part of massively multiplayer online games -- specifically, repetitive missions (quests). As with any game where there are only so many quests that NPCs can give out, a mission runner in EVE will play through the same stories multiple times.

Granted, many players who run Level 4s all week are doing so for the ISK, not to enjoy the story. There are only so many times you can rescue The Damsel or blow up another Zor before you've stopped paying attention to the story that's presumably taking place around you. Although this issue of quest repetition in MMOs certainly isn't limited to EVE Online, the developers at CCP Games want to address this problem in their game, and their solution to creating more engaging PvE content is the Epic Mission Arc.

I've been holding off on this for a little while, but it's the kind of subject that is impossible for me to avoid indefinitely. Classes were the last topic I touched upon, and there was quite a lot of conversation. In fact, there was a whole bunch of it to follow. So let's discuss the potential races for Star Wars: The Old Republic and, as usual, feel free to toss in your thoughts and picks in the comments. It wouldn't be the same without them.

It was only the other day when we first mentioned Karos Online, a fantasy MMO in development at Galaxy Gate, which will offer a twist on standard game mechanics with a dual dungeon system. Event dungeons will be limited to five players but battle conditions will adapt to player actions. Maze dungeons, on the other hand, won't have those player caps, and are essentially shifting labyrinths which add more difficulty the further players venture in.

If that's caught your attention, Karos Online's publisher NHN released more info today about the game's closed beta test. The closed beta weekend event will begin on Friday, August 21 and last through Sunday, August 23. This first weekend event will let players choose from three different races -- Humans, Shadows, and Seroines -- and one of each race's sub-classes.

Frogster has just announced a September 15 release date for Runes of Magic's next content update, Chapter II - The Elven Prophecy. The update will bring players into new zones, like the Savage Lands, in addition to adding a new race to Runes of Magic -- the elves. September 15 will also mark the release of a boxed version of Runes of Magic for Germany, France, and Spain (at a recommended retail price of €9,90). That boxed version will include a few collectors items:

• Manticore pet

• Printed manual

• Poster-sized world map of Taborea

• Time-limited mount: Thunder Wartiger

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

With our Guild Wars adventures behind us, it's now time to branch out into our next game for the Choose my Adventure series. According to your votes accumulated this week, Lord of the Rings Online will be my next game to explore, with a little help from you, the readers. You also voted to keep the format the same, so I'm happy to hear that it's been working well so far.

Now I must say, I'm certainly no stranger to either GW or LotRO (I didn't rig the polls, I promise!), but I think this can still be approached from a fresh perspective through the use of both the in-character gallery journal and the brand new character that you will help me create. So keep reading after the jump for the polls and more information to get me started in my brand new journey through Lord of the Rings Online.

New information is dropping rapidly on this game. Now, Final Fantasy XIV's race names and first classes have been revealed. Hmm, maybe those rumors of an earlier than expected beta carried more weight to them than we thought.

If you weren't already aware, the races in Final Fantasy XIV are visually alike to the ones found in Final Fantasy XI so that players from that game feel more at home in the new one. Aside from this, names and lore for each race are completely different. Today, we've got the official new names. Here's the rundown with the Final Fantasy XI names in parenthesis for comparison: Hyuran (Hume), Lalafell (Tarutaru), Elzen (Elvaan), Miqo'te (Mithra) and Roegadyn (Galka).

There are four jobs, each with two subclasses, revealed so far. They are: Fighter (Archer & Swordsman), Sorcerer (Enchanter & Warlock), Crafter (Blacksmith & Cook) and Gatherer (Gardener, Fishermen). Interestingly, it appears that FFXIV may eschew crafting professions for a system that incorporates the feature into jobs. When you couple this with the news of no levels and no experience points, it becomes even more curious.

We think the dev team are really onto something, and 2010 cannot come soon enough.

[via Kotaku]

You have to give the gnomes of EverQuest II some credit for their devotion to all things mechanical. If you're going to be creepily obsessed with something, it's probably better to go all out than to half-ass it. With their love of machinery in mind, the gnomes have brought back one of their favorite holidays, Tinkerfest. The special occasion was ignored for the last 500 years, which probably stressed out the gnomes immensely, but no longer! The festivities began yesterday and will continue until the 3rd of August.

Those looking to get involved with Tinkerfest should head to the places that you might expect to find gnomes en masse, including Gnomeland Security Headquarters in the Steamfont Mountains, Baubbleshire in Qeynos and Temple Street in Freeport. To get into the Tinkerfest mood, head past the break to see a video that demonstrates how a simple cog can totally change your life.

NetDevil's upcoming sci-fi MMO Jumpgate Evolution is notable for its aggressive, joystick-style approach to PvP. Needless to say, it's a game we're really looking forward to trying, we're just not sure about when that's going to be. Without a solid ETA on when the title will launch, we're just keeping up with NetDevil's updates on Jumpgate Evolution's development. They've recently announced some new info about the game's move towards a player-driven economy, but we'd imagine most of our readers are more interested in JGE's PvP. That's the focus of an interview with the title's lead producer Hermann Peterscheck that we've just come across over at MMORPG.com.

Jon Wood spoke with Peterscheck about how PvP will factor in the game's lore, and vice versa. Peterscheck explained how each of the nations has a personality or a character, which they've been trying to convey with the lore released for the militaristic Octavians, the profit-motivated Solrain, or the mystic Quantar. NetDevil's goal is to present enough 'character' for each nation that players can identify with that faction and bring that into their gameplay.

We've told you all about the next patch -- entitled The Elven Prophecy -- for Runes of Magic and, in advance of the launch in September, Frogster have introduced two new Elven classes: the Druid and the Warden. Both classes are rooted deeply in nature, with their abilities tied to the world itself and each have their place within the world and lore of Runes of Magic.

Essentially Elven priests, Druids have similar abilities to a mage and are able to channel the gifts of nature in battle or to heal their allies. Wardens meanwhile, are the peacekeepers of Elven society and the land who exist in an almost symbiotic state with the flora of the Elves' homeland. In times of war, they are skilled at close combat. Frogster have updated The Elven Prophecy site with some suitably Elven artwork and information on both classes. You can also take a peek at our gallery to see what the new patch is going to look like.

I've played Alliance since Day One of my time in World of Warcraft. Granted I've dabbled now and then with Horde, I've always been so depressed by the starting zones that I never went further than level 4. However my recent experience with Aion and leveling both factions has given me a new perspective on playing 'good' and 'evil' factions. Indeed terms like that are fast becoming obsolete. So when a friend of mine told me she had rolled a Horde on a backwater server (describing her toon as 'furry with horns') I was eager to join her. Of all the Horde races, the Tauren seem the least evil, the most peaceful and have the prettiest starter zone. So I rolled a female shaman just to be completely different and my friend chose a male warrior.

The grass really is greener on the other side of the fence. The quests are new, as is the lore and while the actual objectives are often similar it's like seeing an MMO with a new pair of eyes. Indeed I think it could totally change how you enjoy a particular MMO and how you play it. When it comes to WoW specifically, this is even more the case now that Blizzard have revealed their plans to allow you to change your faction. So, come on readers, have you leveled a toon in (insert your chosen MMO here), got them geared up and then decided to see things from the other side? Did you switch because you wanted a change? Was it the lore? Better quests? A chance to do something different? If you were like me, would you consider jumping ship and re-rolling during your next bout of burn out? Speak up, constant readers, and drop your comments in the box.

It began as a rumor but was confirmed at SOE Fan Faire 2009 -- EverQuest's 16th expansion will be called Underfoot and is coming in November of this year. We've mentioned some of the features that Underfoot will bring to the game, like the expansion progress window and new zones, and Sony Online Entertainment is also updating the game's lore.

The lore update explains the subterranean Plane of Underfoot and some of its notable inhabitants, namely Brell Serilis, the Duke of Below. But mostly it provides EverQuest lore fans with a history of Underfoot, from the time it was shaped by the gods to the creation of Norrath's races. It's all part of the official EverQuest Underfoot announcement over at EverQuest Players.