Two of the biggest aspects of Champions Online are easy to point out: the character creator and the wide selection of powers. Certainly it's not the first game to use a classless system by a long shot, but the visual and immediate nature of power selection and the cosmetic effects of those choice are a big part of the game's distinctiveness. So it's hard not to be interested when Bill Roper sits down and talks with MMOCrunch about which powers he thinks worked excellently out of the gate and which onces were a bit less impressive.

Bill gushes quite enthusiastically about powers such as Force Cascade, Killer Instinct, and Thermal Reverberation -- powers that encourage alternate playstyles or different combinations of abilities. He's also enthusiastic about Uppercut and Haymaker, which he feels have an excellent payoff if they're used successfully and force the player to think more carefully. On the flipside, passive offensive powers don't have nearly enough effect, Chain Lightning tries to encourage alternate approaches but fails to do so, and summoning doesn't mesh nicely with the game's core play aspects. Roper also talks about what's being planned for the underwhelming powers to help bring them more in line, as well as discussing data mining and the infamous launch day nerfs. Take a look at the full interview for more details.

Difficulty in games is a contentious issue at any point. Brian "Psychochild" Green recently had a musing on the topic of difficulty as it applies to most games, but even that discussion stops shy of discussing MMOs, where multiple difficulty levels are rarely an option. Designers can make harder events, but if the rewards are the same as something easier, no one will bother making life harder on themselves. That makes the "hard mode" more than just an increased challenge, and sets up a hardwired and sometimes arbitrary challenge-to-reward ratio. On the flip side... well, it's not fun to have the game just hand everything to you. We want to feel as if we're accomplishing something when we play.

So today, we ask you, what's too far in either direction? What sort of penalties or challenges make something so ridiculously hard it's not worth bothering? By the same token, how simple does something have to be before you're annoyed at the ease of it all? What levels of difficulty can be tinkered with without making the game unpleasant, and what elements of gameplay are best kept at a set level?

Earthrise fans will still have a bit of a wait ahead of them in terms of getting into open beta, but development and improvements are ongoing through the current closed beta. Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov was recently interviewed by MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller, updating Earthrise fans on the game's current status and details of some of the game mechanics of skills and tactics. Noteworthy -- Atanasov discusses why Masthead Studios chose to develop a sandbox MMO and foster a player-driven setting, rather than a more typical game where players move quickly through the content and then wait for the next expansion to release.

"The sense of involvement and power to create and change can invigorate and keep players glued to the game for years to come," says Atanasov. On that topic of sandboxes, the interview also discusses how MMO titles like Ultima Online and EVE Online have been part of the inspiration for Earthrise.

So you're jumping back into playing your favorite character on, say, Champions Online, and you press the button that you're pretty sure is bound to your energy-building power. It's only a minute later as you stare at an empty gauge and watch your health slowly disintegrate that you realize you hit the button bound to your opening skill in Guild Wars, because you've been playing that more lately. So then you mentally adjust to the keybindings that are, you soon recall, for your Fighter/Monk in Dungeons and Dragons Online... and then you remember what you had bound on Champions Online, but it doesn't matter because you've died.

Everyone has done it. (Probably.) If you're reading Massively, you very likely have more than one game that you play on a regular basis. That means there's always the issue of remembering different keybindings, abilities, playstyles, et cetera. And all this doesn't even mention the problem of varied amounts of playtime. So, how do you juggle multiple games? Do you allot certain times to certain games, do you follow your interest at any given moment, or is it all more or less random? If you've tried multiple methods, what's worked the best for you?

We can all stop making "Waiting for Godot" (Godhuum?) jokes. Thursday evening ArenaNet quietly updated "The Waiting Game", the Guild Wars quest we all picked up back around Halloween. Dhuum is awake, he's not happy, and the Shadow Form debate rages on.

The update to The Waiting Game revealed that Dhuum will appear once all of the Underworld quests have been completed, and defeating him is now required to "complete" the Underworld. With a skill set including things like "Judgement of Dhuum", this new addition to the Underworld is most likely the challenge that bored Guild Wars players have been looking for.

Shadow Form continues to be a hot topic, however. Many players expected this to be the thing that put an end to Shadow Form Underworld farming, but one of the earliest reported successes proved that wrong very quickly. Players responded quickly with one commenter summing up many people's thoughts: "It's...disappointing that even a God of Unholy Death can't bypass shadowform...". (Community Manager Regina Buenaobra stepped in to mention that the goal was new content, not a nerf of SF farming.)

In the meantime, Dhuum seems to be the biggest challenge around in Guild Wars -- kudos to ArenaNet for the new content!

Some things don't go well together. Like peanut butter and soap, or open PvP in a neutral quest hub, or melee attacks for a spellcaster. On the other hand, there are some things that seem as if they'd go together so perfectly that it's a wonder it hasn't already been put into place. Final Fantasy XI's multiple jobs paired with the unique nature of Warhammer Online's classes, for instance. Or the skill-based approach of Guild Wars in a classless game such as Fallen Earth. Or Sword of the New World's multi-character system combined with, well, more or less anything.

When you've played enough games, you start seeing how systems could be stapled together to produce something very different in the end, and possibly even something better than either system individually. What systems would you like to see combined? Would you want them to be in a current game, a new game, or in a sadly-deceased game that would have been uncommonly excellent with the two things put together? Or would you not even look at systems, and just like to port the engine of one game (such as the gameplay of City of Heroes) into a totally different setting?

A new patch for an MMO is a bit like a present. At best, it can provide a number of new opportunities for fun and enjoyment. At worst, it can break several things you already liked and now have to replace. Aion has recently deployed the new patch 1.5.1 and, as could be expected, fan reaction is somewhat split on whether it's a nice present or the immortal pairing of socks and underwear. Certainly there isn't a major content influx, and the often-requested reduction of the game's grind has yet to be implemented, but there are still a number of nice updates and additions.

Leaving aside the bugfixes and optimization with only a mention that they should help the game play more smoothly all around, several instanced dungeons have been adjusted somewhat. Nearly all of these changes look beneficial to players -- reductions in difficulty and increases in reward, as well as added UI displays for important objectives. They've also added stealth-detecting NPCs to starter areas and increased several NPC health totals in an effort to curb destructive PvP tendencies. Quest experience at mid-to-high levels has been adjusted upward, rewards have been slightly improved on several quests, and level-difference experience penalties have been reduced. Last but not least, there's now more incentive to hold a fortress in the Abyss and work to defend it, as rewards are offered for defending players. Aion's fans aren't all happy about the changes, but it's best if you take a look at the changes yourself. Just remember that even if you don't like it, this present is unreturnable.

The EVE Online developers have announced that some of their proposed changes to capital ships will not deploy with the Dominion expansion as originally planned. This may come as good news to some of EVE's supercarrier (formerly "mothership") pilots who've expressed no small amount of dissatisfaction at how their ships were slated to be changed. With the supercarrier changes not going through, this also means that the fighter bombers -- anti-capital ship drones intended to bathe EVE's largest ships in waves of torpedo explosions -- will not arrive on December 1 with Dominion.

Changes to other capital ship weapons systems like XL Turrets, however, are another matter entirely. They're discussed at length in a dev blog from CCP Nozh titled "Capital Ships in Dominion" as are the new Citadel Cruise Missile Launchers intended to be a long range weapon system.

Back in the day, there were two ways to play most MMOs -- you could form a group with other players, or you could stay inside the cities and wait. Those days are long gone, of course, and it's a rare game that doesn't allow a player to do quite a bit without the support framework of a group. But there's a point to be made about what's been lost in the process, and We Fly Spitfires has an interesting take on how we now have to be pushed and prodded into grouping. There was a time when people were expected to group to complete tasks, but players are increasingly opposed to the idea as more and more becomes possible to solo and we grow less and less patient for finding a group.

Unsurprisingly, Game by Night brings up the obvious counterpoint: that evolving game design has relegated forced grouping to the past. There are more MMO players now than there were back then, and the majority of them started on games such as World of Warcraft or City of Heroes where grouping was only occasionally necessary, and even then only for specific tasks. By removing the requirement, player expectations become different, and there's no longer a sense from most of the playerbase that soloing should be possible for a majority of tasks. It's a debate that's been had over and over through the years, but as the solo play model becomes more and more expansive, it no doubt will be revisted time and again -- and attitudes toward it will shift as the playerbase does.

Champions Online is still wet behind the ears, but we're moving through the game's third month of operation, time enough to take a slightly calmer look at how things went at launch and how the game has been shaping up. Jeux Online recently interviewed executive producer Bill Roper regarding the game's launch and its future, which might not contain as much information on the latter as the fans would like but still contains some interesting bits and pieces.

Looking forward, the most interesting bits are the promise of an upcoming Lair in which each player's Nemesis makes an appearance, in a union of several high-level threats to face off against a team of heroes. (Shades of the Masters of Evil or the Legion of Doom.) He also discusses a bit about the upcoming winter event, which he states will not include a new powerset but will include a number of "presents", as well as a fight against a truly massive opponent. There's also discussion regarding mission instancing a la City of Heroes, PvP maps, and the ongoing task of balancing Champions Online. How the game will mature in practice is yet to be seen, but we're getting a clearer and clearer idea about the game's direction at the very least.

It might be a slight exaggeration to say that everyone in the world is looking forward to Star Wars: the Old Republic... but only slight. With the latest class reveal, the Imperial Agent is poised to give an excellent sneak-and-snipe playstyle to the Sith side of the game. All well and good... but as Kill Ten Rats notes, how is this game going to get any PvP balance? To the best of everyone's knowledge there's no equivalent ability in the Smuggler's arsenal, the Republic's counterpoint to the Agent, and it's not much of a matchup when one side is invisible and the other side isn't.

Overly Positive recently made a few observations regarding the class balance, noting that BioWare seems to be taking an approach a la Warhammer Online -- each class has a loose equivalent on the other side, but they don't result in being direct copies of one another. However, the downside to this approach is that you can easily wind up with one side's class being overpowered in relation to the other. Direct equivalencies leech some of the flavor, but they ensure that the game remains perfectly balanced for both factions. It's a question worth considering and keeping an eye on as the game moves through development -- after all, if a Jedi and a Sith Warrior can't face off in fair combat, it'll be a sad day for many players.

Free-to-play MMOs have been staking out an impressive share of the gaming audience, and one of their poster children is Runes of Magic. Frogster Interactive, is understandably pleased with the success that the game has enjoyed, so they've taken the time to share some interesting figures of the game's popularity.

The most recent chapter of the game, The Elven Prophecy, was released only a couple of months ago. Since then, over fifteen million quests have been completed (even more staggering when one considers that the game has recently cleared the two million mark for registered players). A quarter of a million bosses have been brought down in that span of time, as well as over sixteen million items crafted. Even allowing that some of those were likely craft grind fodder, those are impressive numbers.

Of course, one of the wonderful parts about any sort of free-to-play game is that any curiosity about the game can be satisfied by playing right away, which has no doubt contributed to the success Runes of Magic has enjoyed thus far. While it's not the biggest name in the industry, it's experiencing a groundswell of popularity, good news both for fans of the game and the business model alike.

There's a lot of interesting material coming with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, not to mention a large number of player questions and curiosity about where the game is headed. Luckily for the playerbase, WarCry was recently lucky enough to get a chance to chat with the developers, with a full transcript now available for all who missed the live chat. As is par for the course for developer chats, there's the occasional question that seems rather out-of-place or unnecessary, but on the whole it's full of tidbits that should excite the game's fans.

The discussion ranges from the tangible issues with the upcoming expansion such as class upgrades (each class will get one new skill upgrade at level 62), meta-issues (there will be a Skirmish sneak peek coming soon to let players try the new format), and some wholly random bits (the developers will not add your farm on Facebook as a neighbor). It's a weighty and lengthy chat that can't be summarized easily, so it's best to take a look, digest, and start thinking about the first thing you want to do in Lord of the Rings Online when the expansion goes live.

The Dominion expansion for EVE Online is so-named for its heavy focus on the game mechanics of "Sovereignty" or control of territory in the New Eden galaxy. There's been no small amount of controversy surrounding CCP's proposed system, however, particularly as it's slated to go live on December 1st with the Dominion release. While some of the core game mechanics of control are still undergoing revision, CCP Games recently explained how ownership of solar systems will change hands in a dev blog titled "Storming the Gates."

EVE developer CCP Abathur lays out how new equipment will be used in claiming space and repelling invaders.

If there's one thing that MMO gamers all agree on, it's the short list of things we almost universally hate: cheaters, gold (or equivalent currency) farmers searching for your credit card, and bugs. Oh, the dreaded bugs. They do so much damage to your gameplay experience, why doesn't the company just fix them? The inimitable Scott Jennings tackles this question in his latest column on game design, explaining that the main reason bugs don't get fixed faster is because doing so is much harder than it seems.

As he points out, the architecture of an MMO is a tricky thing at the best of times, frequently only held together with the coded equivalent of a wing and a prayer. Some bugs are so massively detrimental to the game that they get to jump to the head of the class, but others are annoying and bad but not at the highest priority. Or -- as sometimes happens despite everyone's best efforts -- fixing the bug would require doing so much damage to the rest of the game that it's better to work around it. If you're wondering why your favorite company hasn't fixed a much-hated bug, this article should prove an interesting read.