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Happy Fourth of July! Yes, here in America it's the day to celebrate our nation's birthday with fireworks and BBQ, and lots of different games are going to be shooting off their own fireworks and otherwise holding celebrations this afternoon and evening to enjoy. Our Tip of the Day has a nicely comprehensive list of what's going on around the virtual realms already -- from free food and beer in Warcraft to a Void Storm in Everquest and the Dragon Festival of Guild Wars, there's tons of stuff to do ingame, no matter where you are.

So what are you going to be playing in the world of MMOs this holiday weekend? Leave a comment below and let us know which games you'll be playing on your day off this weekend (or, if you're not in America, which games you'll be playing when you get off of work).

And from all of us at Massively, have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in Runes of Magic (AKA Radiant Arcana), Runewaker Entertainment has taken all they loved about Ultima Online and World of Warcraft, combined that with elements from EverQuest, EverQuest II and Final Fantasy XI Online to make a free-to-play MMORPG combining all the elements of both Western and Eastern games. It's like a highly-concentrated booster shot of high fantasy goodness -- and it's free!

Runes of Magic will include a dual class system, where you will choose a primary and a secondary class, armor dying, player housing, crafting, an auction house, unique mounts, a fully customizable user interface and either click-to-move or WASD controls.

The starter zone of Taborea has a deep and rich lore, a colony struggling to stave off the darkness, with your help. You'll need a PDF reader to read that, but we have some of the highlights in our gallery. Can a free-to-play homage to some of the Western world's greatest MMOs succeed on in North America? Distributor Frogster is looking for a US publisher to take that chance.

The game play video from the Chinese open beta (you can find that after the break) shows clearly the developers at Runewaker loved World of Warcraft perhaps more than is really healthy. Still, a free-to-play WoW clone may be exactly what players want, and Runes of Magic may just be different enough to make it interesting.

On this 232nd day marking Independence in the United States, we wanted to feature some of the patriotic videos created in MMOs. They range from quick videos showing off fireworks in platforms such as Second Life, Everquest, and World of Warcraft, to artistic videos set to Bruce Springsteen, all the way to silly safety tips from the Red vs. Blue boys. As you're planning your real life festivities this year, considering taking some time to pop into your favorite game to get in on some of the action. Happy 4th of July!

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

Check out more videos after the jump!

Massively Speaking Episode 12 runs down news and features from Massively.com for the week of June 25th - July 1st. This week Colin Brennan and Adrian Bott up the respectability level something fierce, with considered opinions and thoughtful commentary on the week's topics. It's true that most of those topics are Blizzard-related, but they just had a big event. Sorry for our WoW-weary listeners. We also chat about Lord of the Rings Online book 14 and Star Wars Galaxies big anniversary.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

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It's a hectic summer over at Blizzard HQ. Inundating the masses with Wrath of the Lich King across the pond at the World Wide Invitational, announcing Diablo 3 on top of that, and battling it out in the courts against the kingpin responsible for World of Warcraft's bot brigade. Aside from all that, there's the whole pending merger with Activision and Vivendi approval process with Blizzard Entertainment right in the middle.

The latest legal development involves a preliminary injunction filed by some shareholders who weren't satisfied with the $27.50 per share offer. The injunction suit was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery last February by the Wayne County Employee's Retirement System in an attempt to halt the merger. Activision has announced that a Delaware Court junked that preliminary injunction, a decision made by the very illuminated and WoW-knowledgeable Chief Judge William B. Chandler III. Activision will be holding a stockholder meeting next Tuesday on July 8, if approved the merger will complete on July 9th and a new titan, Activision Blizzard will join forces and the gaming world will never be the same again.

We wonder how many level 70 characters the Judge plays or maybe he's already level 75 in the WotlK beta?

Today's question actually comes from Age of Conan's in-game chat. While the sane among you may marvel at the fact that my brain cells did not immediately shrivel and die upon coming into contact with your average chat channel ranter, I'll describe the discussion using enough creative editing to shield you, our loyal readers, from some of the more mind-numbing motes of mental malfeasance on display that night.

• "This game sucks, they only designed one class to be a main tank!"
• "No game should ever be released with bugs. Look at how Blizzard did with WoW!"
• "My class sucks. They should make it more powerful and nerf everyone else. There is no balance in this game."

I think you get the idea. To the valiant souls who tried to answer these criticisms intelligently and thoughtfully, I salute you. When faced with intelligent responses to their rants, one of our misguided miscreants fired back with a very good question.

What do you know about designing an MMO? If you know so much, how come you don't write games?

As a former game developer myself, and as someone with several years of experience in the commercial software development industry, allow me a chance to use my bully pulpit in order to answer their points.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime recently went into some depth about the origins of World of Warcraft. According to the company's CEO, the roots of the world-girding MMO giant stem from discussions held as early as 1994. Just after the release of Warcraft II, actually. Said the executive, "We thought, wow, this would be such a great game to create a virtual world around, where you're a character inside the game and you can explore this fantastic universe. Technology finally advanced to the point where it was feasible to make the game. So, genre first, then franchise."

Morhaime also steps up on the PC gaming soapbox, joining Gabe Newell in shouting down detractors that say PC gaming is 'dying'. He slams those who would rely solely on retail sales to judge the health of the marketplace, and views that sort of thinking as 'completely dead wrong.' Read into the article for all this, and a sense of what can make the CEO of a billion dollar-a-year company nervous.

The moment everyone's been waiting for -- aside from a release date -- is finally here, Wrath of the Lich King US beta opt-ins are now available! All you're required to do is sign into your World of Warcraft account and make a couple clicks and bang, you're done. Do be warned that you'll only get an email if you're actually accepted into the WotLK beta and not a simple confirmation email for entering.

We can't imagine that it'll be very long before the beta actually starts now that Blizzard is accepting both EU and US entries. Once the beta does begin information about what we can expect from World of Warcraft's next expansion should begin to flow even more freely. It's possible that we'll see the beta begin before Blizzcon 08, so make sure to get your submissions in fast, while the clickin's still good!

The blogger who's titled himself "Lume the Mad" (ahem) has an interesting take on the lore surrounding World of Warcraft's lore for the Burning Crusade as a whole, and the patch 2.4 content drop in specific. According to Lume, Blizzard needs to make a better effort in the future towards keeping everything in-game. As it stands, the final encounter in the Sunwell dungeon is nigh-incomprehensible if you're only using in-game references. The final interplay between Kalecgos, Aveena, and Kil'jaeden is perfectly understandable if you follow WoW Insider's excellent "Know Your Lore" series, but otherwise you'd have to read a few graphic novels to get the full effect of the dungeon's climax.

Lume compares this storytelling to the way that the television show Lost approaches lore. There are pieces of story spread around various types of media - videogames, books, websites, podcasts - all of which expand on the Lost world. The key is that none of these 'extra' components are integral to the television show's story. They enhance, rather than prop up, elements of the show's plot. In WoW, that's not the case - you need to read these manga, effectively, to really get what's going on. As we look forward to seeing a lot of Arthas in Wrath of the Lich King, let's hope the company keeps in mind what players have and haven't seen to date in-game.

With the 4th of July, America's Independance Day, coming up tomorrow, we want to remind everyone that even your virtual personas can celebrate! Several months ago, a group of level one Tauren warriors gathered in Undercity to let loose and go for a swim. While The Infinite Fish Crisis chose to splash around in toxic sludge, there are many ways to relax on this holiday, such as setting off fireworks in your chosen platform, or checking out the Midsummer Fire Festival, which ends soon, in World of Warcraft!

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

We get the distinct impression that EverQuest 2 players might not appreciate it when World of Warcraft players come to their forums. Call it a territorial thing, call it something else, but the beauty of this interaction is when we get a gem of an article like the one posted by SpyderBite over at Allakhazam. The topic pretty much says it all, but we'll let you read through these yourself, nodding your head in agreement (if you're an EQ2 player) or getting frustrated and ready to flame this post in the comments (if you're a WoW player). Enjoy!

10. Where's the auction? How do you people trade with each other?
9. My mods aren't working. Can somebody help me get them to work in this game?
8. Where's the Battlegrounds? I tried a PvP server but people kept killing me.