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In yesterday's meaty comment discussion that followed the news about Blizzard president Mike Morhaime's admission that Age of Conan stole away some World of Warcraft users, one Massively reader (Heraclea) brought up a very valid reason for leaving WoW -- "performance anxiety" in the endgame.

WoW is obviously not the only game with this problem; pretty much any MMO with a big raid focus (and maybe some others too) can be a bit too intimidating and demanding for folks who just want to play games to relax. This might be one essence of the hardcore/casual divide. Maybe hardcore types play to excel in competition, while casual players play just to unwind. Or maybe the problem is more complicated than that.

Let's get to the bottom of this! Are you turned off by raids because you get performance anxiety? If so, why do you think it happens to you? And for extra points (cause we totally keep track; okay, not really!): is there a way games can be designed differently so the endgame isn't so draining?

Every Tuesday TurpsterVision is LIVE (kind of) right here on Massively! Take the 'T' from 'Tuesday' and the 'V' from 'LIVE', smash them together like its going out of fashion and you got yourself TV for TurpsterVision - the best video podcast LIVE right here on Massively!

Welcome back, it's been two weeks too long - though I blame that on the fact that its been time to party! Forgetting that, today is a special post, its a game close to my heart, and it isn't a review. It's World of Warcraft folks; there is no need to review it, what do you want me to say? Honestly, it's THE World of Warcraft, there aren't any imitations that even come close, well, maybe one. So I won't bore you with a 5 minute long video reviewing what we already know, instead I have made a 9 minute long video showing off my mad PvP/PvE skills in my recent DINGSTRAVAGANZA! (An event which saw my Shadow Priest finally tip the scales and join the big boys at level 70)

It is also a friendly plug/invitation letting you all know that I will be at the World Wide Invitational this weekend in Paris and if any of you guys are out there then I urge you to come seek me and my camera out and share the love!

In last week's Ask Massively , we discussed some of the lessons learned from "Old School" MMOs and how they have been applied to newer games in the genre. This week, we're going to go into more detail about one area in particular.

It's time to take out the yard trash.

Yo Massively!

You mentioned, last week, that games should strive for balance between "accessibility" and "challenge". Since you set yourself up for it, and even promised to write about it in a future column, can I get credit for asking the question "What is 'challenge' in an MMO?" I just want to see my name in lights, so to speak. Chicks dig famous people, and Massively is my ticket to Internet stardom!

-Llamas Notsheep

William Hung. Adam Carolla. Ric Ocasek (obscure 80's references FTW!)

If those guys can "score babes" just for being famous, then I guess I can help Llamas out here. Lord knows he needs the assistance. Of course, if you really think appearing in this column is your "ticket to Internet stardom", let's just say that it's a lot cheaper for me to be flattered than it would be to give you prescriptions for all of the drugs that you so clearly need. With a name like Llamas, I'm fairly certain that your issues stem much further than the merely pharmacological.

Now that we have skirted close to the event horizon of "getting off the subject", let us take a gut-wrenching pull back on track and discuss "What is 'challenge' in an MMO?" Challenge can take several forms, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. A good dungeon, and by extension a good game, will combine these forms without relying too heavily on any one type of challenge. We will discuss examples of games or even individual dungeons that lean too much on one type of challenge and show how that can adversely affect the player experience.

Who needs pesky graphics and immersively realistic environments anyway? Estiah is a new browser-based MMO that is completely free and approaches the usual online gaming experience from a bit of an "old school meets new school" angle with the fact that it is mostly a text-based adventure. Aside from the battle animations which take on a card game feel, and the world map, the rest of the game is strictly text-based.

Now you may be wondering why we would cover something like this here at Massively, but let's take a look at just a few of the game elements to determine how massively multiplayer it really is.

• PvP: Check! Battle other players in your daily traveling adventures, or head out to the arena looking for a fight. There's even an achievement ladder.
• Auction House: Check! You can travel between cities to buy and sell goods to other players.
  
• Raid Grouping: Check! You can actually join up with your friends to take on dungeon raids for that very best loot.

Dungeons & Dragons Online continues to hold their own in a quickly-growing MMO world. When DDO first showed up as a licensed MMO of the grandaddy of roleplaying games, their main goal was just to meet expectations -- so many people have been a fan of the pen-and-paper game for so long that putting it into MMO form was no easy task. But since release, the DDO team has made improvement after improvement, and added so much content to the game that it's moved beyond the license to stand on its own as a very singular kind of MMO.

Massively got a chance to sit down with the team and take a look at the latest update, Module 7, due out on June 3, and currently in public testing. In addition to some extended playtime with the new Monk class, we got to see updates to the lower level Three Barrel Cove area, a shrine to recently passed-on D&D creator Gary Gygax, and the new raid area under the destroyed Marketplace tent, as well as a few new monsters and raid bosses that can be found down there.

To start your tour through Module 7, just roll a d20 and click on through. To jump to any section of the walkthrough (including directly to our exclusive video preview, if that's what you're looking for), hit the links after the break.

As World of Warcraft slowly progresses to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the juicy tidbits keep hearthing our way. Blizzard recently took some time to release some more information concerning Northrend within Wrath of the Lich King. There are a few glimpses at new dungeons, some notes on vehicle combat, and some new screens of snow and ice. The big feature is an entirely new site devoted to the new class, the Death Knight.

Not surprisingly, the updates come rather close to the release of Age of Conan and are filled with content information and a nifty little Death Knight animation. The new WotLK gameplay features talk about some rather major changes to quest mechanics and, most importantly, raid mechanics. For the hardcore raider in you, the instances now carry a 10 and 25 man raid that are the exact same instances, but offer different ways to advance. Players taking on the 25 man content will get better rewards, but the shift is meant to allow more folks to absorb the new content.

If some extra power is needed, the new Death Knight class will be a welcome friend (oddly enough) in any raid or group with his all powerful skills. Unlocking this class of doom is an easy task. Simply have a level 55 character and the class is open to you. Then you create your Death Knight and start raising skeletons to do your bidding! The expansion is still in alpha testing, but make sure to check out some of these changes before you are left in the cold.

The second part of Ten Ton Hammer's interview with Kevin O'Hara, Senior World Designer for The Agency, focuses on the game's mission design and eventual end-game. We find out that there will be a main story to the game that will be continued through a major line of missions, but you can expect plenty of side missions similar to pretty much any other MMO as well. Following what was said in the first interview, these missions will take place in a variety of settings, both large open areas and smaller enclosed spaces.

As for the end-game, O'Hara expects that there will be a few choices for players of The Agency. The PvP in the game will have rankings and leaderboards for people to ascend, and a lot of re playability is being built into the missions via the scoring system -- people will want to replay old missions and try to do better, to receive more rewards. But how about raiding? Obviously you won't be suiting up with 40 friends to take out a dragon, but O'Hara says that the raiding will likely be in the form of a large-scale mission that requires a lot of people and co-ordination.

There's a two-pronged assault of Age of Conan raid content information at Ten Ton Hammer -- a 20 minute raid presentation video, and an interview with raid boss scripter Eirik Munthe. Both the presentation and the interview occurred at the AoC launch event in Oslo last week, and both were rich with information. It looks like the endgame content has some incremental innovations just like the lower-level stuff; that should make the hardcore crowd happy.

In the presentation, bits and pieces of one of AoC's level 80, 24-person raids were shown to an audience with live commentary by Game Director Gaute Godager. Multiple bosses were shown, such as a poison-leaking monstrosity and two demons -- one ice, one fire -- who gain power when standing near one another. Godager explained the philosophy behind raiding and epic gear, and using collision detection in battle strategies. He revealed that raid groups will be able to call it a night halfway through a raid and finish any time they want (so long as it's before the raid expiration date -- one week after its start date). There was also a brief series of clips of a massive PvP siege.

In the interview with Eirik Munthe we learned that Funcom put together strike teams consisting of designers, scripters, and writers. Each strike team focused its attentions completely on a 20-level span; for example, Munthe's team worked on content for player levels 60 - 80. Munthe described the challenges he faced when scripting encounters with some of AoC's unique features such as collision detection and CoE (cone of effect) healing in mind.

When Blizzard released patch 2.4 for World of Warcraft in March, they brought a plethora of changes to all types of end game play. They introduced new casual daily quests, a new five person dungeon, and a new raid zone for twenty five person play; all of this on a new island off the northern coast of the Eastern Kingdoms called the Isle of Quel'Danas.

Many who play WoW consider patch 2.4 to be the largest and most complex patch to date, sans the actual expansions. It is quite rare for Blizzard to open up a whole new zone in a free patch, and even rarer for them to completely change the raiding landscape (a staple of WoW) by removing attunements and lifting other restrictions.

Despite having a large and successful release of the patch, Blizzard has continued to update the game in with Patches 2.4.1 and 2.4.2. They offer more tweaks and changes that make the WoW community even happier.

Take a look through our gallery for a highlight of the changes we've seen in 2.4 through 2.4.2.

When the interviewer frowned at our resumes with raiding experience as a category, accepting the job may not have been a good idea. As each day goes by, smashing gnomes over the head, podding miners, or living a life of drunken combat all remain daydreams as we waste away in the cubicle. Luckily, there is hope! Gax Technologies of Second Life will be affording players a chance to find a real world job so that visiting the Stonefire Tavern for an ale might be a viable lunch break option.

The best part of job hunting through Gax Technologies' Working Worlds Career Fair is that you do not need to get up, put on a tie, and drive through traffic that rivals Jita on a good day. Just take a double shot of soda, grab your laptop, fire up Second Life, and start job searching! The employers will be logging in for the virtual career fair so that you can easily meet and greet some of the top employers from Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Check it out and be sure to find the perfect job that allows you to work hard and play harder.

Ten years ago, the idea of putting something like being an officer in a hardcore raiding guild on your resume would have been laughable. When trying to sell yourself to a prospective employer, you want to put your best foot forward. The last thing you'd want them to know is that you spend upwards of 20 hours per week frittering your time away on something as silly as a videogame. Businesses want employees who are punctual, intelligent, analytical, and driven -- problem solvers and team players. What's funny, however, is that those are exactly the same qualities which a guild looks for in its raiders. Good luck trying to explain that to a non-gamer, though.

Fortunately, gaming is slowly becoming a mainstream activity. As the generation of gamers that pioneered the online gaming craze begin to climb into their 30s and 40s, a younger generation of gamers is just starting to graduate from college and enter the mainstream workforce for the first time. Unlike their older peers, these young men and women face a business world where their boss is as likely to enjoy playing World of Warcraft in his free time as golf. For the first time, it's possible that your hiring manager might actually view your dedication to your guild as a reason to hire you, rather than a reason to dismiss you. Does that mean that it's time to start putting your MMOG experience on your resume?