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Sure, the price of oil may seem harsh tese days, and pulling up to the pump is certainly no bargain ... But the worst is yet to come. Those whose business it is to track the price World of Warcraft gold goes for on the black market have seen the price of gold double in the past couple of weeks, likely due to a mighty swing of Blizzard's ban hammer. With the highly profitable gold farming operations shutting down due to the suddenly lowered demand and supply, an easy source of liquid assets is now gone. The ripple effects will be felt globally. Until those brave gold farmers can get back in business, long lines at the pump may translate to long lines in the unemployment office.

An over-reaction? Perhaps. But Andrew at GameRates describes, in a tongue-in-cheek way, how protests against the high price of fuel will lead to protests against the high price of gold. So seriously -- have you stopped buying gold until the price comes down? What's the best price point for WoW gold? And would you consider buying gold at a higher price in order to help the Chinese gold farmers over this difficult hump?

Note: Massively in no way condones the buying and selling of gold or the breaking of any EULA in any way We're just interested in hearing from people who choose to on their own accord.

Arr! Closer come ye, for I have risen with news of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online!

Be ye an honest captain or be ye a pirate, be there one amongst ye who can clear the seas of the scum that floats upon 'er? Aye, I be talking about Privateering! Turn your sheets into the wind and lash the wheel tight and bring yourself to Isle D'Etable De Porc if ye be friendly to the French, or Isla De La Avaricia if the Spanish have y'r loyalty. Seek ye there crew, provisions and ammo fer the fighting ahead! And may the wind be ever at your back but pass over the sails of yer enemy! Privateering only be available to Unlimited Access members on the Test Server, but it be coming soon enough to the Live servers.

I wager there be more news after yon break. Click ye through to see thar th' rest.

EverQuest and EverQuest II are getting the lion's share of the attention in SOE's Living Legacy promotion. But they are reserving something special for their massively collectible card game, Legends of Norrath. Win the Living Legacy Photo Contest, and not only will you get your picture painted, in character by artist Kieran Yanner for use on a Legends of Norrath card, but you'll be flown to the SOE Fan Faire this August. If you're an EverQuest player, your image will be made into a statue and placed into the guild halls of every guild in Norrath. If you are an EverQuest II player, your card will be made into a painting that can be hung in a place of honor in your apartment. All you need to do is to send them a picture that shows your passion for EverQuest. Find the complete rules on the Legends of Norrath web site. And good luck!

Pi Story, a 2D side scrolling MMO in the style of Maple Story, has announced a new round of their closed beta test. The beta is currently limited to previous beta testers for Aeria Games' lineup of import MMOs, or those quick enough to snag one of the closed beta keys they are giving away. If you'd like to get in on the casual MMO goodness that flows from Aeria Games, why not head over and sign up? From Pi Story to the incredibly popular Dream of Mirror Online to the pet collecting and raising game Stone Age 2 to the massively kung-fu game Twelve Sky (and many others), you'll find a game there you'll enjoy. And they are all free to play.

Pi Story tells the tale of a perfect world -- Pi -- that was torn apart by this very desire for perfection. Now the world is broken into shards, and your job is to bring these shards back together by finding all the pieces of Pi. Mmm. Pi. Pi Story features casual play, a very easy grouping system, instanced adventure areas, a strategy-based guild activity system and housing, an apartment of your own you can decorate as you wish, a built in web diary and browser, and built-in message boards.

Want to see more? Check out the gameplay video after the break.

Two weeks on from my initial foray into EVE Online's new faction warfare system, the state of the war has changed considerably. Interesting developments have cropped up on all sides as the tides of war have pushed players into action. Pilot numbers on all sides have swelled, several high profile engagements have occurred and new fleet tactics have emerged. The four militias are beginning to find their feet and the face of war in EVE Online is evolving at pace. In this article, I examine the state of the war and how it has changed in the past two weeks.

High profile battles:
In the early days of faction warfare, several high profile engagements and epic fleet battles occurred. Since then, the border zones have continued to heat up and news of further high profile combat has surfaced. Under the expert command of Caldari fleet commander Boromos, a Gallente militia carrier was killed in Heydieles star system. Co-ordinating with a large nearby fleet, Boromos managed to trap the Gallente militia fleet in a classic pincer manoeuvre. The Gallente carrier was called as a primary target the moment it entered the fray and was killed as its support fleet crumbled.

Enraged, the Gallente militia got revenge for their carrier loss six-fold.

Remember when Kerafym the Sleeper went on a rampage slaying every mortal after the Warders were defeated? Think further back to your first excursion into the Plane of Fear and Plane of Hate, when tragedy struck and what followed was the tireless effort to recover one's corpse or the ultimate raucous victory that immediately followed a guild's first God kill. Good times and bad, it was special. Many years have passed, bringing many unknown expansions since your last foray into Norrath, but that shouldn't stop you from visiting now with the Living Legacy promotion providing all inactive EverQuest and EverQuest II veterans with ample opportunity and incentives to return at no cost until the end of July and relive the adventures.

Events are planned all throughout the campaign and the current event running this weekend is: "Sacrifice at the Sand Keep." It is an endurance challenge that pits players against Eothar and his echelon of undead minions. The goal is to endure attacks as long as possible. Players can seek out Dougan Merule in the Southern Desert of Ro to initiate the expedition, but if you're a returning player you probably want to check out the Guild Halls first located in the Plane of Knowledge to find other fellow and more than helpful to answer any questions you have. So did you go back?

In the second part of MMORPG's interview with Lord of the Rings Online's Executive Producer Jeffrey Steefel, we learn more about the final stages of development with LotRO's Book 14. Steefel discusses exactly how this final book of the first volume will unfold before the Mines of Moria expansion arrives on the scene. He also mentions the fact that Moria will not be considered Book 15, but instead be referred to as the first book of Volume 2.

Despite the wild success of the fishing system, there will not be another hobby introduced until Moria, he says. The live event system, which has been in under-the-radar development since launch, is the largest focus of Book 14 . With a little help from their cohorts at Asheron's Call, they will build a new event-triggering system based on a number of variables including a schedule, a time of day, a specific day or other in-game triggers. This feature seems to add more dimension to what has already proven to be one of the most incredible parts of this immersive game.

Supernova 2008, an annual conference on how pervasive connectivity and decentralization is changing the world, decided to take a look at how massively multiplayer games "offer glimpses of how social interactions and work will develop in the Network Age." On the panel were Doug Thomas, Dave Elfving, and Metaplace's Raph Koster. Koster pointed out that there's a natural desire on the part of MMO players for "transgressive" gameplay -- for doing things the game designers never intended. For instance, raiding was not an original part of EverQuest, but something created by players and later made by the developers into a central part of gameplay. Doug Thomas predicted that gamers will become more successful than non-gamers in the workplace, as we are more focused on getting things done, as well as being more open to diversity. Dave Elfving brought up the topic of hikaru dorodango, shiny balls of mud that Japanese children obsessively mold and polish for hours, and how the grind that most MMOs encourage might be tying in to a basic human compulsion.

Uptake's Elliot Ng was there for (almost) the full panel, and has the complete write-up on his blog. Raph has his own take on the panel, and points out the similarities to an earlier talk he gave at Project Horseshoe.

There's a natural desire to justify the games we love by insisting they will give us an edge in business, or that we are merely expressing natural human behavior in a new way. Is this the case, or is this just wish fulfillment?

Were you a EverQuest or EverQuest II player who has returned because of this summer's Living Legacy promotion? You're not alone. From all we've heard, and all we've seen in game, people are coming back in droves. If you've come back, how are you liking it? The EverQuest II forums are full of stories of people who returned (and lots who are offering help as well). Having looked around EverQuest again, are you planning on staying for awhile?

It's a dark time in EverQuest. Meldrath, the evil gnome necromancer harrying Faydwer with the mecha-monstrosities, has seen the summer celebrations bring joy to the land, and he is not happy. To prevent Meldrath from breaking out of his mecha-castle and taking over all of Norrath with his numberless mechanical minions, the engineers of Ak'Anon have constructed the Infinitely Regenerative Automaton -- the I.R.A. -- to stop him in his tracks. This marvelous machine pops back to life and full health two minutes after he is defeated, and so can never be stopped for long.

To make sure that the I.R.A. can handle whatever is thrown at it, they need you -- and lots of your friends -- to test it. As part of the Living Legacy promotion, your skill as a raider will be tracked and rewarded. Every time a raid that you're in takes the I.R.A. to 5% health, he will deactivate and reset, and you will get a point (which you can track on the clockwork abacus you will receive). At the end of the promotion, every player that participated in the fight against the I.R.A. will receive an augmentation -- the Silver Threaded Worm Gear -- with power that scales to the number of times they raged against the machine.

Check out the teaser video after the break.

World of Kung Fu is the radical 3d martial arts MMORPG that utilizes Chinese mythology and themes for its setting. The game is free to play, and uses a micro-transactions to sustain development costs. It's important to stress that goods purchased in the "item mall" are not required to complete any quests or objectives in the game. New players also receive three "novice cards" that can be traded for in game items or cash including the following: Earth temple, which grants instant travel to any city already visited. Lion Toy, which will resurrect your character. And the Tai Yi Pill, which grants full healing.

To keep player s busy over the summer VestGame Entertainment has announced regularly scheduled events, which World of Warcraft players would recognize as daily quests. However, the daily events in World of Kung Fu aren't just your run of the mill fair, one is a trivial pursuit type of challenge. Quests are given out by Town Crier in the city of Liuhe and their rewards will range from experience, cash, and even rare items. Hey, it's free, and worth checking out if you are struggling to find something to play this summer.

Deep in Ronfaure, a fallen knight looks around at the bodies of his fellows on the battlefield, then catches sight of a dark horse nosing through the bodies. Dark Ixion, the lightning-wielding heroic notorious monster of legend, has returned to Final Fantasy XI Online's world of Vanadiel, and death is riding by his side.

"The raging flame, whose lapping tongues but a moment ago had threatened to scorch the underbelly of the sky, had regressed to wisps of smoke unfurling hypnotically in the cool breeze. An elderly knight, a veteran of countless campaigns, lies half buried in smoldering debris with limbs entangled with those of fallen friends and foes, his pallid complexion masked in the grey and crimson of ash and caking blood. He stares with glazed eyes at clouds drifting lazily across the dusk sky, his head swimming in the mingled smell of rusted metal, burnt foliage, and death. The faint whistling of the wind is a soothing song compared to the horror-filled shrieks that accompanied the sickening sound of flesh and bone giving way to tempered steel."

Read the rest of the fallen knight's story and his encounter with the legendary beast!

Have you returned to EverQuest as part of the Living Legacy promotion? Or are you a veteran player who is just looking for a new home? Perhaps you're just curious about the state-of-play in one of the MMO genre's oldest, yet still thriving, games? Maybe you're a guild leader looking for some new blood? If any of these is you, why not stop by the Norrathian Guild Recruitment Festival and have a look around, or sign your guild up so prospective new recruits can see what you're about?

SOE is getting sneaky. Along with their recent EverQuest II game update 46, SOE added (without telling anyone) red shinies to the game. In EQ2, you might see little harvest-able white sparks here and there while you are walking around. These shinies can be collected and turned in to collectors for experience and items. The Echoes of Faydwer expansion introduced "blue" shinies, that can only be seen when wearing special goggles that are themselves the reward from a collection quest. And now, GU46 brings us "red" shinies.

Red shinies may only be seen by level 80+ crafters that have obtained and are wearing the crafting epic, the Earring of the Solstice. Stargrace of MMO Quests has an excellent article showing off some of the many house items you can get from red shiny collections. So head down to the Barren Sky, Loping Plains, Steamfont or the Fans of NASCAR (er, Fens of Nathsar) and get digging!