The endless trial has arrived in the land of Warhammer Online, and it's quite the offer. Of course, we've reported on the actual trial before but as of today (post-maintenance) it's officially enacted within the game. So if you've been waiting to go back and check things out but didn't feel like re-subbing or somehow missed out on all the excitement of the game's launch last year, then now is the perfect time to get in and take a look. If you're not sure what the heck this whole "endless trial" thing is all about, here's a handy official FAQ to peruse.

We think it's a good if not bold concept, especially considering players only have to download 1gig of data before the game will dynamically stream the rest as they play. Hopefully it works out for Mythic, who've been putting much blood, sweat and tears in trying to improve perception since its heady launch days.

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.

Rumors and speculation have been floating around this week about the Jedi Knight, so no big surprise when BioWare reveals that, yes, Knights of the Jedi persuasion are in fact a player class in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The news comes with all the expected class page accoutrements such as screens, concept art and a few videos showing off three Jedi Knight attacks. It's all standard practice information release at this point, which only slightly dilutes the excitement of the announcement.

The videos all show the proper level of Jedi powerhousing that you'd expect, although we're not entirely cool with all the droid destroying that's happening. Sure, we're aware that unlike Sith, Jedi are limited to disabling droids and pushing things around but that's no excuse to pick on the little helpless mechanical people. Yes, we said people -- robots are people too!

In all seriousness, this is probably the class reveal everyone has been waiting for and/or expecting all along. Jedi and Sith were a given, so from here on out it's almost entirely anyone's guess. Spy? Rogue? Droids? Wookiees? Albino Ewoks? Okay, that's a little silly, nobody wants to play a rogue over a spy.

One of the big claims about Star Wars: the Old Republic is that the game is meant to be fully voiced, from start to finish. On the flip side, Star Trek Online will not be fully voiced -- in fact, its executive producer Craig Zinkievich recently made some statements asking more or less what the point of voice acting in the game really is. To quote: "It adds something to the game, but I don't think that VO-ing all of your text provides for that big a bang for the buck in terms of immersion."

Bio Break seems to disagree rather emphatically. As he points out, voice is one of the most immersive and important parts of a game world in which our immersion is, by necessity, limited. We can only hear or see what's going on in front of us, which makes the things we hear and see all the more important. (Or makes a USB taste simulator all the more urgent.) He points out, quite rightly, that each of us have at least one or two bosses that we remember more on the strength of their voice acting than because of the fight itself.

Bioware, of course, has long offered a great deal of voice acting in its games. It remains to be seen if the promises of pervasive acting in Star Wars: the Old Republic will be carried out, but the discussion about how important voice is will remain either way. Take a look at the article, and share your thoughts in the comments: is it important that a game have full voiceovers and cutscenes, or is that a distraction without much relevance?

One of the things we like about the lead up to the Star Wars: The Old Republic launch is BioWare's series of timeline videos that explains the political and military background of the upcoming MMO. The fifth holorecord from the Jedi Archive is The Battle of Bothawui which recounts a major Republic victory against the Sith. It also chronicles the last stand of a heroic group of Jedi knights and Republic troopers, who became martyrs in the struggle against the Sith Empire.

If you're following along with the lore of Star Wars: The Old Republic you'll want to watch "The Battle of Bothawui" on the game's official site.

BioWare Producer Blaine Christine recently sat down for a Star Wars: The Old Republic interview with Steven Crews at The MMO Gamer. The interview hits on a number of facets of SWTOR's gameplay and the process of creating the title. They also discuss how BioWare is designing the game to dissuade everyone from (only) running around wielding lightsabers through the unique strengths of each class, but their talk really focuses on the game's story.

Blaine discusses how the story for SWTOR players, whether they choose to be good or evil, will always be more than kill ten rats or "collect ten boxes for some random vendor." That story you play through fits the role you've chosen for yourself. Blaine likens a player's story progression to Knights of the Old Republic. He tells The MMO Gamer, "If you look at KOTOR and how that worked out, if you played light side versus dark side, there were distinct differences in the story, and distinct differences in how your character developed. It's going to be very similar to that."

Like it or not, Star Wars: the Old Republic is not so dissimilar from its source materials -- its planets universally have themes. There's the city planet, of course, and we all know there's going to be the desert planet. And, as it stands, we're now poised to have the weapons planet -- which promises to be as explosive as such a title would suggest. The game has recently unveiled Balmorra, the site of an ongoing struggle between the Republic and the Sith Empire, where the victor claims the preeminent weapons manufacturer in the Core Worlds. The planet started as an ally of the Republic, but during the long war with the Sith Empire the Republic was forced to scale back its efforts to help perserve the planet's independence, culminating in a full withdrawal of its reinforcements to the world.

The Sith quickly claimed the planet in force, with only an underground resistance left with some Republic support to fight back against the invaders and do what damage was possible. Of course, when you're on the most deadly weapon-making planet in the area, you can do quite a bit of damage. The rejuvenated Republic is now returning its troop presence to the planet's surface in hopes that it can wrest the world back after the brief lull of peace, but the Balmorrans haven't exactly forgiven and forgotten the earlier abandonment. For more information on what promises to be one of the most explosive areas in Star Wars: the Old Republic, take a look at the official page containing more pictures and information.

Think for a minute about what it means to have a city taking up an entire planet. No, really, think about it. Think about the scope involved, the huge numbers of people involved, the sheer scale of any kind of project or even the most humble buildings. It's a massively dwarfing concept, which makes it all the more interesting to see the latest trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic which discusses the creation of Coruscant, capital of the Republic and home to a single, massive city.

In the trailer, the designers mention many of the issues that they faced with designing the planet, chief among them the absolute lack of any terrain on the planet due to its nature and the difficulty of relating it to real-life places and things. It also discusses the events that lead into the beginning of Star Wars: The Old Republic -- the Sith sacking of Coruscant that leaves some portions of the planet still damaged and rebuilding. Coruscant is being set up to help establish the role of the Republic and the Jedi in the larger galaxy, a symbol of everything positive in the galaxy. We also see still more vistas of the city, which retain the polish that Bioware has been long known for.

On the very real chance you're hungry for more visions of the universe after the trailer, the latest installment of Threat of Peace has also been added to the site. But that's only enough to whet our appetites for what's shaping up to be a truly massive and immersive game.

Everyone is worried about the Jedi player population when it comes to Star Wars: The Old Republic, but the Sith are in every way a likely -- if not moreso -- threat. With franchise analogs like Vader and Maul, there's going to be a lot of people auto-running around the game to the tune of Imperial March.

Even BioWare seems to think the Sith are kind of a big deal in this new developer blog promoting the greatness of embracing the darkness within us all. We're not even exaggerating in this case, the blog really does go on for quite some time about how awesome dark Jedi are -- so don't be too shocked when legions of Sith roam the battlefield looking for Republic blood.

The merging of BioWare with Mythic Entertainment announced in June created a combined RPG and MMO group within Electronic Arts, and since then we've been wondering what will come of this pairing. Chris Remo at Gamasutra interviewed BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk about his role as a Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO group, which sheds a little more light on the inner workings of this new division.

The interview subject matter is heavier on RPG discussion than it is on MMOs, but Zeschuk gives readers a look into how the BioWare-Mythic "merger" is working out so far. It also touches upon the company's continued focus on the PC platform. Check out "Building Experiences the BioWare Way: Greg Zeschuk Speaks" at Gamasutra to read about BioWare's approach to making games in a constantly changing industry.

Bioware might have tipped their hand accidentally today as they briefly updated the Star Wars: The Old Republic website with a call for testers for the highly anticipated MMO. The announcement only lasted a few minutes before being taken down off of the site, indicating an accidental posting.

While the news announcement has been removed from the website, some screenshot happy community members have snapped pictures of their RSS feeds, which still show the call for testers. This has, of course, sent the community into an uproar of anticipation for the intended date of the announcement.

Update: The intended date of the closed beta signups is today! We have all of the details over in this post!

Jeffrey Steefel, The Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer, Turbine:

"It's been fascinating to see how the MMO game has been evolving over the past 10 years... A lot has happened. Games have become more complex, consumers mostly all have faster internet access, are comfortable buying things online and spending time online. Social connections now happen through the network as readily as in person or over the phone or through mail. Mass consumers regularly consume media content in small chunks through the network; whether its music, ppv video, eBooks, ringtones, games or even now television shows.

"Players don't want to 'play' with thousands of people, they want to play with a small group in the presence of thousands. It's like an old-school arcade. You don't want to play pinball with 10 people, but playing by yourself in a crowded room is a lot more fun. Players have more varied play-sessions. Some still play for hours on end, some want to come in for some quick fun. Subscription is alive and well, but it is not the only way to charge for this kind of experience. Microtransactions, premium services and content, free online play are all creeping into the genre.

"In other words, 'MMO' is too confining. 'MMO' was the spawning point for all kinds of new online entertainment. And it is reaching a much wider audience. Not to mention the critical importance of not only the game, but the service and media infrastructure that surrounds a good online experience.

"So I believe what we're really building is entertainment services, that combine the flexibility and accessibility of the network, the appeal of social networking, the freedom of an online persistent universe, and the structured fun provided by video games. So it's hard to say there is one term that can cover all that this can be or become. I think we need to look at the ingredients -- persistence, sense of place, sense of purpose, social connectivity, social identity, social grouping, participatory experiences and storytelling -- and then perhaps try and find a name for it."

Thom Terrazas, EverQuest Producer, Sony Online Entertainment:

"Obviously 'massive' is the main theme to the name, but what was the target number of people online when the term 'massive' was [coined for] MMOs? I'm no expert by any means, but I believe the term first referred to a couple dozen simultaneous players if not hundreds of players existing in a virtual world, interacting between each other. When it started, it was with a lot of passion from many that pushed the envelope of technology that enabled the first dozen to be achieved. That just set the bar for others to improve on and it continues today. Today, it means everything. It's a game and it's a business and everything in between. It's a place you can go and leave everything else behind, but at the same time, it's a place you can visit and be everything you've ever wanted. It means a release from the real world and an invitation to your imagination. ... I think ['MMO'] only needs a new term for those that don't know what it means right now.....or what it was meant to be."

Rich Vogel, Co-Studio Vice President, BioWare:

"MMO to me means the ability to play with thousands of players in a world. This was actually coined by 3DO back in the Meridian 59 days and later adopted by EA when marketing Ultima Online. ...

"It was coined over 10 years ago to convey a marketing message. There were no games that allowed thousands of players in one environment and it was a great selling point. Today, that feature is well understood. It has branched out beyond the RPG genre into others like MMOFPS, MMORTS, etc.

"No [I don't think we need a new term for 'MMO']. I feel it has become its own category and a mainstream term that people recognize now -- especially after [World of Warcraft]. The term 'MMO' can be applied to any single player genre that wants to have a large-scale multiplayer component. ...

"Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMORPG in every sense of the term. BioWare has a long tradition of making great story driven RPGs and now we are entering into the MMO market for the first time. Our game has all of the traditional components of MMORPGs like combat, exploration, advancement, great loot, and crafting. However, we are going to add another element to the MMORPG genre -- storytelling the BioWare way."

Raph Koster, President and Founder, Metaplace:

"I think now, at this point, now that we've chopped the 'RPG' part off of it and just say 'MMO,' which by itself is a meaningless acronym. Massively multiplayer online... The problem is the very word massive is not particularly useful. Sorry Massively website! But the problem is that "massive" is kind of relative. New York is a massive city, until you go to Shanghai. It's completely relative. ...

"I was never that crazy about [the term 'MMO']. We've been here before. There was a huge turf battle over the term 'MUD'... There were people coming up with MUVE, multiple user virtual environment... random acronyms people were coming up with to describe the field. Several of us kept saying, 'These are just virtual worlds, damnit!' Part of the reason why that was working okay was it was fairly easy to say, and MUDs do have a very specific kind of family tree that we can point at, and they all fall under virtual worlds.

"That was great until people started calling things -- without any games in them -- 'virtual worlds,' excluding MMO-anythings. This is where you get people saying, 'Well, [World of Warcraft] is a MMORPG, it's not a virtual world.' And it's like...errrr. Because the battle has started all over again with people trying to appropriate the term 'virtual world' to mean Second Life or to mean Habbo Hotel. So now you have things like social virtual worlds and generic virtual worlds, and people think it means just Second Life, and that's... wrong. I'll say it bluntly, that's just wrong, because WoW is a virtual world and so is Second Life, and so is YoVille. A lot of people don't want to claim YoVille as being in the family, but it is. I much prefer to define these things by what they are rather than how many people they hold.

"I do still say MMO, because at this point it usually has the connotation of game. If you say 'MMO' people assume you mean a game. ... Even us design types, we still need to know what we're actually doing. The terms, right? We need to agree on a language so we can talk about it. Disclaiming something that is a massively multiplayer, comma, online, comma, first-person, comma, shooter, and saying, 'Well, it's not actually massively multiplayer online'... whatever. That's clearly marketing talking.

"There are people that call them MWOs, people that called them MOGs, and people that call them POGs. There's PSWs which is an art term for a specific sub-set of virtual world so that one gets misused all the time because it means 'persistent state world.' ... There are some others... PIG, I've seen PIG, 'persistent interactive game.'

Massively: I don't think a game maker would like to call their game a "PIG."

"Probably not."

These days it's extremely rare for a video game to be made by one person. Groups of people from different disciplines work on a game, hired for their proficiency in their area of specialty. When we're talking about an MMO, the game development team often ends up being pretty big. When we're talking about an MMO as ambitious as Star Wars: The Old Republic, the team is freaking enormous, by necessity. In a recent article on Gamasutra one of the members of the SWTOR team, Bioware Austin technical director Bill Dalton, discussed the challenges that come up when working with such a large group of people.

Unsurprisingly, Dalton said that communication is at the core of keeping a big team afloat: "There is nothing you can do to communicate too much. In a situation where things are in crisis and something is broken, and you've told individual people as they come up, it's not a bad idea to overcommunicate and tell the whole team what's going on." Dalton mentioned that another difficult aspect of team development is balancing the differing view-points that each sub-team looks at the game from. Again, communication is the key to solving these puzzles. Check out the full article at Gamasutra to read about an interesting case study involving Star Wars: The Old Republic and its Hero Engine, which allows developers from all disciplines to make live edits to the game simultaneously -- impressive.