Lots of shooter/action MMOs coming out in the future, and we here at Massively are eager to play them all. From the 256 player battlefields of MAG to the chaotic, persistent territory control of Global Agenda and even over to the streets of APB, more MMOs are taking the route of the action title and avoiding the point-and-click style of the MMORPG.

So, readers of Massively, what's your shooter of choice? Are you more of the first person, character development style of player that's embodied in MAG? Would you rather customize your character and your ride while shooting up the town in APB? Or are you up for some spy-fi jetpack action in Global Agenda? Or, do you want to take the none of the above option and lay down all of your chips on PlanetSide or PlanetSide 2? (Mmmmm... PlanetSide 2....)

Shoot your mouth off in the comment box below! See what we did there?

Thanksgiving, for those of us in the US, is still a couple of weeks away. But beta testers of Global Agenda will have something to be thankful about earlier than that, as this weekend promises to host another beta event for the game. The testing will be running between 11 AM to midnight PST, and the event spans both Saturday and Sunday, each one testing another aspect of the game's growing combat systems.

Saturday will be focused on PvE content, including a new mission type that promises to offer some interesting new dynamics to the gameplay. The "Double Agent" mission type, which is limited to regular subscribers at launch, puts one player amidst of a horde of NPC allies and pits them against a four-person squad of players, thereby mixing PvE and PvP combat into a single arena. Sunday's testing, by contrast, is a pure PvP slugfest. 10v10 matches will be run, allowing people to queue up in groups of up to four to help establish allies for coming events. The developers are also teasing at new maps being dropped into the mix during this testing.

The bad news is that only a small number of new testers will be added for the event -- this party will mostly be confined to existing beta testers. Watch your mail closely, either in hopes that they let you in or for the preparation mails Hi-Rez Studios is forewarning testers about, and keep an eye open for a chance at some early testing starting on Friday.

Massively has been following the growing prevalence of MMOFPS games poised to enter the market in the coming months and years, with the most notable of these being Global Agenda. The game's developer Hi-Rez Studios got in touch with us today to let us know about their partnership with Vivox, who will provide voice features for Global Agenda. Vivox will enable push-to-talk voice chat and in-game news broadcasts "that describe key victories and events associated with Global Agenda's persistent territory control gameplay," states Hi-Rez Studios. An additional (subscriber-only) feature will be out-of-game voice chat that will keep agency members in touch when they're not fragging their rivals. According to Hi-Rez, "Players can use a variety of access methods including the Vivox Web Voice within the toolbar controls, Vivox Voice on Facebook, or calling into a specified chat channel from their phone."

Hi-Rez also announced they will hold a dev chat via Facebook on Wednesday, November 18th, from 10-11pm (Eastern), which will require participants to download the Vivox Voice app for Facebook. A Facebook group announcement from Hi-Rez today states that the dev chat will be limited to 75 people who will pose questions to the Global Agenda devs.

In an interview with Hi-Rez Studio's executive producer Todd Harris, Ten Ton Hammer discusses Global Agenda's Assault class at considerable length. For those looking for a simple analog, the Assault is like a meaty tank class wielding huge weaponry such as mini-guns. The interview covers such topics as ammo concerns -- as the aforementioned mini-guns chew up ammo like a man on a desert island drinks fresh water -- and several other matters that dig deep into the earth center of the class. Then again, if blowing stuff up is your preference, that's offered as well.

Much of what we've seen of the Assault class tells us that it's going to be a favorite with players who generally enjoy inflicting damage in the most terrible of ways. And really, that's a whole lot of people; those who drool at rocket launchers and chain-fed ballistics weaponry.

Did we have a good time at this year's GameX in Philadelphia? Well, if you can't tell by all of our coverage, we certainly did. But there was certainly more to the expo than just interviewing people and checking out Warhammer Online and Global Agenda running on the show floor! There were, gasp, other games there!

We got many neat photos of the various things on the show floor, from robots to steampunk to Egyptian statues, and we collected them all in one gallery for you guys to ogle. If you were interested in Bayonetta or Dante's Inferno, then also look no further, as we got some pictures of those booths in action as well.

So enjoy the photos as tomorrow we wrap up our coverage of GameX 2009. Hope you enjoyed reading/watching it as much as we enjoyed writing/recording it!

We recently mentioned that Star Trek Online fans would get a chance to play through a demo of the game at Eurogamer Expo last week. One of the first reports we've read about the Star Trek Online demo comes from Oli Welsh at Eurogamer who was uniquely positioned to check out the game (it was their Expo after all.) Welsh begins by writing, "Trekkies can put one fear to rest right now: Star Trek Online feels just like Star Trek." Although this might assuage a bit of the apprehension some gamers have about trying yet another Star Trek game, Welsh is up front about the fact that the demo he played through was a contained single player experience. It's too soon to say what gameplay will feel like when hundreds of other players are thrown into the mix.

He writes about the demo's transitions between locations via warp jumps, keyboard navigation of star ships (standard WASD, with additional throttle control), and the pacing of ship combat. Welsh also walks the reader from the bridge of a Federation vessel down to the surface of a planet where Klingon opponents await. Fans of the game should read Eurogamer's hands on with Star Trek Online and may also be interested in the video footage of STO gameplay from Limited Edition, shot at this year's Eurogamer Expo (starting at 02:40. They've also captured gameplay of Global Agenda as well.) We've got a video embed of that for you after the jump.

As we've said before, we got to see many, many people at GameX 2009 this year. But one of the main reasons we went to the expo was to catch up once again with the team from Hi-Rez Studios and ask them some more questions on their "spy-fi" MMOFPS, Global Agenda.

On the top of our burning question list was what exactly made Global Agenda into an MMO, so we set out to ask associate producer Michal Adam all about what made their AvA and persistent world battles so special. Along the way, we also inquired as to what their PvE content will hold, and what rewards players could expect to find from participating in Global Agenda: Conquest.

For our full video interview with Michal, look no further than after the break!

GameX, the Northeastern video game industry summit and expo, is starting tomorrow! As we said earlier this week, we'll be there, getting face time with guests, visiting Mythic Entertainment and Hi-Rez Studios, and getting you information on some of your favorite titles.

In addition to our coverage here on the site, we'll be updating our Twitter account with things we see at the expo and pictures! Now instead of running to us every five minutes for your Massively fix, you can get updates, pictures, and more from us in the form of tweets! If you're not currently following @massively, or if you're not on Twitter, now is the time to both sign up and add us to your follow list!

Good news for you Global Agenda fans out there, as Hi-Rez Studios announced their pricing structure today for the upcoming spy-fi MMO. In a phone call this morning to Executive Producer Todd Harris, we learned that the game will have a few options, depending on your playing style. If you'd like to play Global Agenda as a multi-player, hub-based shooter, all you need to do is buy the box. There will be no subscription fees at all.

If you'd like to take part in large-scale Alliance vs. Alliance battles throughout a persistent world, then the subscription model would be for you. This sub model also opens up other features, like the Auction House, mail system and more. This is what any MMO player would want, while the subscription-free option would cater more towards your average Call of Duty fan. Keep reading after the jump for complete details on Global Agenda's payment model, feature comparison and details and their newest projected launch window.

This weekend is GameX in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Massively.com is going to be on hand to grab some interviews with the members of the MMO community and perhaps a few more interviews from some notable non-MMO individuals as well.

Over the weekend, we'll be catching up with the two MMO companies in attendance -- Hi-Rez Studios and Mythic Entertainment. Hi-Rez will be showing off Global Agenda, continuing their convention tour around the US, and we'll be there to get our excited hands on the game for another round of futuristic shooting.

Mythic Entertainment will be bringing the WAR and the WAAGGGGH, showing off Warhammer Online to the unwashed masses. We'll be there as well, taking a look at all of the new changes that have come in Patch 1.3.2 and getting some talk time with the team.

So stay tuned for this weekend's coverage of the expo, including interviews, game coverage, photos, and more!

The MMO industry is always changing, and if we're going to stay ahead of the curve, we need to re-evaluate some of our views and ingrained notions from time to time. The Redefining MMOs series at Massively is our look at the state of massively multiplayer online games as it is today, and where we see it going. This week we're going to look at how shooters have invaded the MMO space, give you a run-down of some promising MMO shooters on the horizon, and finally tackle the question of whether or not they should be covered here at Massively.

Something we're seeing more and more is a blurring of the lines between formerly distinct game genres -- this is especially true of shooters and MMOs. There are a number of shooters on the horizon that fit the bill as MMOs (although not RPGs), but such games are a radical departure from the DikuMUD pedigree shared by most MMORPG titles we cover at Massively. These shooter-MMO hybrids may have quests, levels, and classes, but they cast few illusions about being true RPGs. They're shooters through and through, but have persistent settings or are massively multiplayer -- traits which catch our attention.

At Dragon*Con this year, we had the chance to grab a quick video interview with Stew Chisam, VP of Game Operations at Hi-Rez Studios. Following two successful closed beta weekends, and some wonderful demos at Dragon*Con and PAX, Stew was happy to tell us how things are going in the progression of Global Agenda.

As promised on our last tour of the Hi-Rez Studios HQ, we're following the studio -- and the game -- as they progress through to launch. Follow along after the jump to see what Stew has to say about player feedback, projected launch and the overwhelming following they've seen at Dragon*Con.

A game we've had our eyes on from Hi-Rez Studios is Global Agenda, a cross between a class-based shooter and an MMO. Given its first person shooter roots, the game is heavily PvP-oriented. This match-based combat is the focus of an interview by Jon Wood at MMORPG.com with Global Agenda Executive Producer Todd Harris.

Harris relates that PvP in Global Agenda happens both in small squads and "AvA" (agency vs. agency), where players will participate in a "massive meta-game to control land and resources involving hundreds of territory locations and tens of thousands of player agents."