Massively^™

Check out the above glimpse from Florensia Online's vast dungeons, dark secrets, horrifying monsters, sinister nightmares, and infernal bosses. Oh no, what will you do? Combine efforts and lead your band of cute and merry anime-inspired adventurers to victory of course! If you want to dare the impossible join the open beta that is underway.

In all seriousness, the Japanese import is free-to-play and will sustain development from a micro transaction "itemshop" model. Florensia does feature a somewhat unique leveling twist. The dual battle system gives players the freedom to choose if they want to level at land or at sea, as well as the ability to specialize in both areas of combat. The sea system is more difficult to master, but the catch is that sea based gameplay is unavoidable if you want to visit other islands. There's a new dungeon preview on the official website along with other news updates. If you thought the trailer was a bit cheesy and left you lingering for something like some ship action, there are several other official clips available.

If you're looking to download a copy and check it out, our sister site Big Download has the files waiting for you!

Eight weeks remain in the fact discovery phase under the court's calendar and two recent developments have surfaced. First, a declaration on behalf of IGE's CEO Brock Pierce which states IGE merely holds stock in Affinity Media INC. and does not employ anyone nor have anything to do with the alleged activities in the Amended Complaint was filed. Second, Hernandez has moved to compel production of documents and asked the court to force IGE to respond fully to plaintiff's interrogatories.

Virtually Blind has been following the lawsuit closely since the outset and has all legal documentation available for download.

So what is it about Entropia Universe that has kept players hooked for five years now? What sets it apart from the other virtual worlds or MMOs out there? Well, according to one of EU's Ambassadors, Buzz Erik Lightyear, the game is about much more than simply playing a game. It's about playing a game that actually gives something back. "I'm not paying to play. I'm profiting from playing," he says.

This real-world money system is not unique to EU, as it's seen in other virtual worlds, such as Second Life. In most other online games, the exchange of in-game currency for real-world currency is against the terms of service. But EU is seen as more of a venture into the MMO space than Second Life, using skills, crafting and auction houses as you would in something like WoW or LotRO. In addition to this, EU is updated monthly, with word of new planets on the horizon and the new CryEngine2 platform being introduced soon.

Shanda, operator and developer of several popular online games in China, is being sued by a gamer for RMB 100,000 (USD 14,300) in losses resulting from technical issues in Legend of Mir 2. The plaintiff, named Wen, claims to have spent roughly RMB 200,000 (USD 28,600) on virtual items in the game. Wen filed the lawsuit in Shanghai, following the disappearance of more than 30 of those virtual items over the course of a year.

Shanda is no stranger to controversy, or to the legal system of China. An assistant manager at Shanda received a five-year prison sentence in 2007, following the discovery that he and two conspirators established an illegal trade in virtual items in 2004 and 2005. The trio netted a cool RMB 2 million (USD 286,000) in just 14 months. Although the lawsuit presents little in the way of financial distress to Shanda and there is no way of knowing if the company was negligent at all in respect to Wen's grievance, this is yet another incident of negative publicity related to Legend of Mir 2.

The previously-postponed Live Gamer Exchange service has now launched, and EverQuest II players that are into the whole RMT thing can start spending. To get started, you'll need to register at the EQII Live Gamer page, and you can then take part in trading real cash for characters, items or in-game currency for the Vox and Bazaar servers. It looks like the bidding has already begun, so hurry along to the Live Gamer Exchange if you want to snap up the first deals.

SOE has informed EverQuest II players via the game's official community website that the opening of the Live Gamer service has been delayed. The originally stated launch date was March 31st. No new date has yet been provided. The Station Exchange -- the service Live Gamer is to replace -- ceased operation Thursday. In this new announcement, SOE noted that it will update a status thread on the official forums with new information at some point.

If you're not in the loop about Live Gamer: it's a company that works with game publishers and developers to provide legitimized RMT (Real Money Trading) services to users of MMOs. SOE has had all sorts of problems in the past with credit card fraud and gold farmers, and it hopes the folks running Live Gamer will have much better luck. Is this delay just technical in nature, or have new concerns arisen? It's a bit late for second thoughts, so this is probably just a technical bump in the road, but we'll be keeping our eyes and ears open for updates.

Oh, and if this is all new to you: before you raise your eyebrows too high note that, as with Station Exchange, Live Gamer service will be limited to the specified RMT-friendly servers.

The five men are facing a stiff three million yuan (almost $400,000) civil lawsuit from Priston Tale's license holder, Shanghai Yetime Network Technology Co Ltd. The supposed mastermind behind the operation, 33 year-old Yan Shaodong, bought a Japanese version of the game back in 2006 raising the question if Yan actually believed, or was sold a legit license.

Yan recruited the others, ages between 17 and 32, to help with logistics, translation, server maintenance, and promotion. They were all paid for their pirate services, maybe in duped potions -- that would do the trick. Yan claims that Shanghai Yetime never sent a cease and desist letter, and that if they had, he would have complied with their demands and shut operations down. Uh-huh, right! Apparently, Yan's pirating endeavor earned 70,000 yuan total, but during court proceedings he proclaimed no profit was earned and that they were operating at a net loss. What I want to know is if those players who thought the servers were legit and who bought any items ever saw a refund after the illegal servers went dark? Yea, I didn't think so either. Take heed, if you ever take a trip to China, setting up your own illegal MMOG server and selling in-game items isn't the best plan. There's always farming gold...

[updated: Remind me not to make posts wee-early in the morning without having my coffee first!] :)