It was announced some time ago that Square-Enix would make it easier for Final Fantasy XI players to get married in-game, with the vague insinuation that the feature would go live at around the same time as the version update. Sure enough, the new wedding system is now in place, and it makes the entire procedure so much easier that it's almost trivial. After all, you already get to avoid meddling in-laws, reams and reams of wedding invitations, and the joy of finding a caterer who won't server your guests microwaved dog food.

The official page offers all the details you could want on the wedding system, including the procedure for crafting all of the wedding items if you prefer that option to purchasing them. It also offers traditional Vana'diel wedding vows, a nice touch for a roleplaying event, especially one supported by the game's official systems. So go ahead and tie the knot in Final Fantasy XI, free and without the bulky and restrictive system of the past. No rumors yet of a messy and acrimonious divorce system being added into the game, but now that marriage is simpler, perhaps it's in the cards.

Weddings in MMOs are sort of an odd beast at best, but the setting and atmosphere found in Final Fantasy XI suited the feature even way back when it was first introduced. Unfortunately, actually going through the process in-game has always been something of a hassle, what with the additional fees, the scheduling problems, a convoluted registration feature and so forth. Considering your only reward was usually an in-game wedding ring, it didn't light many people on fire. However, even though the game is entering its twilight years (or possibly because of that), Square-Enix is rolling out a new and more straightforward system to make marriage less of an issue -- in-game, at least.

Rather than having an ornate application to fill out, the game will be instituting a page in which you can simply schedule a time, date, and place. The nation's wedding masters will be added in as NPCs, allowing you to talk with them at any time to retrieve a certificate as a house furnishing once you've gotten married. In addition to all of this, you'll no longer have to jump through hoops for most of the wedding items (presumably including the game's tuxedo and wedding dress), as they'll be purchasable by anyone who requires them. If you prefer having a more ornate wedding, however, there's an optional Player Event system in place allowing you to expand beyond the confines of the existing system. It's not exactly a Vana'dielian Vegas, but Final Fantasy XI's updates to the system should at least make it a bit easier to tie the knot.

Well hello there intrepid Massively readers! This week, instead of my usual selection of complaints crammed into the tight space of a single column, I've decided to do something different. This Monday, I opened up a call for questions on anything MMO related on the Massively Facebook fan page, the Massively Twitter, and my own personal Twitter. You guys didn't disappoint, and you certainly sent me more than a few intriguing e-mails.

So, for the past three days, I've been preparing responses to some of the questions that landed in my inbox. What did intrepid readers ask me to answer? Whose e-mails did I select from the pile of text I received? What is the airspeed of an African Swallow? These and many other questions (except that swallow one, that one's been done to death, go Google it or something) shall be answered after the break! Thundercats, hoooooooooo!

It's strange that when our favorite game genre has "roleplaying" right in the title, the topic of roleplaying in-game can produce such varied and divisive opinions. On one end of the spectrum, some people consider it to be not much more than a group of people sitting around and talking endlessly instead of actually playing a game (which, to be fair, is not always far from the truth). On the other end, some people point to the fact that roleplaying is right in the title, and that if you don't care at all about the flavor you might as well not be playing the game genre in general (which, to be fair, is also not always far from the truth). And there are always the people who want to just play the game and don't care if you say "pull boss" or launch into a quick diatribe about slaying this foul mountebank.

How important is it to you that a game have features just oriented toward roleplaying? Do you consider them integral to your gaming experience, or do you get angry at seeing development time spent on something that you find so useless? If you're glad to see them, do you consider yourself a dedicated roleplayer, or are you just a player happy to see the option to further immerse yourself?

They begged. They pleaded. They sacrificed loads of marsupials all in the name of Aion. And NCsoft listened. Aion will officially launch with an Oceanic server set to GMT+10 and it will be called Nezekan. Neze-can-you-dig-it? Okay, maybe not. This announcement comes after months of beta testing results and community feedback. You won't see the server labeled as 'Oceanic' until a week or two after launch (coming in a patch), so we wanted to make sure you all knew about this before preselect and launch.

We also have a status update regarding the official Aion server poll we mentioned yesterday. It appears that NCsoft was experiencing some technical difficulties (e.g., missing languages) and sort of stepped on some unofficial community organizational efforts by releasing this poll altogether. Many Aion roleplay communities had already spent days, weeks, and months designating unofficial role-playing servers, so NCsoft decided to take down their survey to honour all that hard work. Expect to see these community results officially promoted by NCsoft soon.

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

All through the week you voted on what type of character I should make to begin my journey through this Choose my Adventure in Lord of the Rings Online. My new male Hobbit Warden has begun his new life on the Brandywine server and is ready for action!

So without further ado, I present to you Gibbi of the Harfoots! His story is a sad one, but he has determined that his life needs some adventure, which is very unbecoming of a hobbit. Unless you count those meddlesome Tooks, of course. Follow along after the jump for his background story, another poll for next week and a list of playtimes where we can all play together and you can have your chance to be involved in his evolving story.

Second Life gets a really bad rap from the MMO community that's largely undeserved. I get to hear all of these slams like it's a usless waste of data, there's nothing to do, it's a bunch of sex sims, and how I should work on my "first life" before my Second Life. Har, har, har.

But, like I said at the opening of this column, Second Life doesn't deserve those punches to the gut. The world of SL is pretty vast and has much to offer any gamer, regardless of what they like. It's important to remember that this system is not a game. It has no objectives and no overt goals, but it does have an unlimited supply of imagination and creative possibilities. It's not a place of "serious business," because something that's fun shouldn't be taken quite that harshly. Sure, you can make money, but you guys want to have fun, right?

So let's talk about Second Life, the reason the masses hate the system, and how you can find something enjoyable inside of "the grid" even if you've tried it before and got some negative first impressions.

Tip #1 -- Take the time to learn the UI

The tutorial, while not the best thing in the world, isn't a bad introduction to learning how to navigate the user interface. It shows you the ropes (dryly) and lets you get in some practice before you're dumped onto the main grid. Take your time through it, listen to what it has to say, and then jump on into the world.

For gamers, here's a couple of protips. Right click opens a radial menu, and holding it down does nothing. If you're looking to spin the camera, remember to use alt + click and hold. However, also remember that alt + click centers your camera on whatever you clicked on. If you want to orbit your avatar, alt + click and hold on your avatar, then move the mouse left and right to orbit and forward and back to zoom.

Resetting your camera is the escape key. That's very handy.

Clicking activates many, many things. Try clicking on objects, as you never know what might occur.

If moving is too slow for you, try flying. Hold down E to start flying, then use E to go up and C to go down. Beware that you can't fly everywhere though... look at the top bar to see if flying is amongst the "banned symbols." It looks like a little man flying.

Tip #2 -- Search is your friend

If Second Life is the internet, then the search button is your Google. This little fellow is super handy for finding stuff that you want. Interested in finding a Star Wars group? Just type Star Wars into the group search box after you press the search button, and you're on your way to finding Star Wars fans like yourself. Do you want to buy a lightsaber? Open the "places" tab and type in lightsaber -- you're sure to find a few hits.

You always know where to go when you master the search tool.

Tip #3 -- Be social!

You see the people over there? Talk to them! You like someone's avatar? Tell them! You looking for a specific sim? Ask questions!

One of the most important assets you can have is to speak with the others around you. Find out new things, make new friends, and actually experience SL rather than just watching it on your monitor. If you want a good place to check out that's reliably filled with people, I recommend the city of Nova Albion. If you're new and you want more help with Second Life, then I recommend checking out all of the help options at New Citizens Incorporated.

Tip #4 -- Know what you want

Lastly, set a goal for yourself in Second Life. Don't just go in to wander, go in and search for something you like. Does roleplaying interest you? Search for some roleplaying sims. Games? You'll find a wide variety of independently created games in Second Life. There's even an MMORPG inside of SL! Clubs? Yeah... there's way too many clubs to really count in SL.

If you follow these few tips, your time in Second Life will probably benefit greatly. Of course, if the system isn't your thing, then it isn't your thing. You can't enjoy what you don't enjoy. But if you were always on the fence with Second Life, perhaps now you can give it a "second look" (see what I did there?) with confidence.

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Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who thinks all games should be given a fighting chance. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.

Roleplaying is on most MMORPGs, but it can be hard to find. Sometimes the greater roleplaying community all flocks to one server, leaving you in the dust if you happen to make a character on another server without knowing it. Sometimes they're spread across all servers, only holding events at times you can't make because of your schedule. And still other times there are just very few roleplayers in a game, and that's how it is.

Well if you were looking for roleplay, look no further than Ryzom. Accompanying patch 1.5 is a brand new area of Ryzom's website -- a whole site dedicated to the roleplaying community. Roleplaying is pretty big business in Ryzom, so it serves the company well to create a whole series of tools aimed directly at roleplayers.

The big part of this announcement is the integration of the animation team with the roleplaying website. The community will be able to work hand in hand with the animators to aid their events and create things that the roleplaying community desires.

To celebrate the launch of the site, an event will be held to gather the community tomorrow, June 12th, at 7 PM GMT (2 PM EST.)

[Thanks, Petter!]

Being anonymous is par for the course when it comes to the Internet. When approaching any kind of online community for the first time, the very first given task is usually to pick a whole new name, and even without thoughts of deliberate anonymity, it can be very difficult to actually be yourself. Common real names, such as James or Mary or John or Linda, are likely to have already been chosen as login names a long time ago and the nature of the database means duplicates are rarely allowed. A more unique name is needed when signing up, and so almost everyone begins to create for themselves an online persona.

In the world of MMOs, the idea of not being oneself becomes even more integral. The player is more than merely a user name attached to forum posts or comments, and is a mighty adventurer too! This presents even more choices; physical attributes, choice of class and profession, even an invented racial background, and with each choice, the opportunity to precisely recreate the real world self diminishes. A game might only provide two different 'light brown' hair styles for male humans, none of which resemble the player's real hair in the slightest. The player has to pick something however, in order to get on and play, and with each choice a made-up version of ourselves is increasingly realised.

This other self, comfortably detached from the consequences of a real life existence, can be a liberating thing, but can also be a source of troubles and difficulties all of its own. Just how much anonymity is good for us, and what makes us hide ourselves online?

Pirates of the Burning Sea is a bit of a departure from some of the other MMO titles on the market since its setting is rooted in history rather than built upon pure fantasy. Given this backdrop, it stands to reason that some players would enjoy logging in for some anachronistic 1700's-era roleplaying in Pirates of the Burning Sea as privateers and pirates. Flying Lab Software has decided to give PotBS's roleplayers a dedicated venue for their player-run events, "Roleplay Rooms", which is the subject of a devlog written by Xenobia.

The devlog is all about the repurposing of old interiors; some altered color and texture here, a motif changed there, and you've got spaces ready to be used solely for RP events. It seems simple, but these changes proved to be tricky in some cases given the objects incorporated into such rooms, and Xenobia describes how the interior revamps were done, illustrated with before and after shots. Check out Xenobia's "Roleplay Rooms" devlog for more info about this feature that's coming to national capitals in patch 1.16.

My personal favorite moment? Past attending a few of the Merovingian's parties (being a faction leader in the organization certainly qualifies you for the guest list), it had to have been investigating into the street magician, Cryptos. Cryptos appeared in the Mega City with a bang, placing "Cryptos coffins" all over the city as he popped out of them at certain intervals to speak riddles to players. As I attended one of the coffins for its speech, the clacking of heels turned my attention over my shoulder, my camera falling onto Niobe walking down the street towards me.

She commented that she was surprised that I actually found my way down a street without falling over in a drunken stupor, while I smirked and laughed. Soon afterwards, a whole vanguard of Zionist players showed up, backing up Niobe with guns -- lots of guns.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't kill you right here, *Lady* Return." She mocked. That would be when I pulled out the three best words in the Merovingian organization arsenal.

"You owe me. I helped you in the church at the funeral. You cannot neglect your debt, Niobe," I replied with a strong smile. She acted taken aback and motioned to the others behind her. The players all lowered their guns and shot me angry looks, to which I shrugged happily and laughed.

In no other game could social combat be as effective as physical combat. You didn't always have to shoot your way out of a situation if you knew the right people... or just paid enough of them.

An MMO not all about combat? Lies!

Certainly the combat of MxO was awesome. You had great martial arts combat, you had insane wire-fu moves, and you even had bullet time. (It would basically slow down on your screen just long enough to show you some great action, then it would speed up again to match up with the action that had gone on while you were slowed down.)

But some of the real charm of the game came in the fact that puzzles were hidden inside of it. Billboards, the newspaper, and even specially constructed events started by a simple forum post or a simple tell from a character lead into stories told in live action.

The game had elements of collaborative puzzle solving, social tension started by organizational warfare, and a driving sense of community that no other game that I've played since has come close to having. People were there to really interact with the world, not just hit level 50 and grind their faces on endgame.

Hopes for the future

It's sad to see this game go, but I have the strong personal opinion that this game did not die because it embraced different styles of gameplay. It died because it stopped embracing them.

What MxO was offering players no other game offered. If there had been more polish to the static content and the developers would have stayed on their path of dynamic storytelling, I think this game would certainly would have continued on with a loyal fanbase because it would have offered gameplay that no other mainstream MMO to date has embraced.

And, with any luck, perhaps we'll see another attempt at this universe in the future. Look at what we have with two Star Wars MMOs coming out. The potential is still there for a great Matrix Online game.

With all of this though, thank you developers for all of your work, and thank you Sony Online Entertainment for keeping it up as long as you did. While I may not agree with all of the decisions surrounding the game, the effort was still there to keep the game alive for as long as it was.

Everything that has a beginning has an end.

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Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who hates aimless hate. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's rambling on his personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow him on Twitter through Massively, or through his personal feed.

The sci-fi MMO EVE Online has a rich backstory that now spans 6 years. That backstory is coupled with the many contributions of (volunteer) in-game journalists who report both on the actions and machinations of EVE's players and alliances, and who also write news-style fiction that helps drive the game's storylines forward.

EVE Online's Lead Writer CCP t0nyG (aka Tony Gonzales, author of Empyrean Age) has made some major announcements this week regarding changes to EVE's storyline and lore, in a dev blog titled "The Rediscovered Scrolls". The dev blog focuses on how CCP plans to address some of the issues players have noted in terms of the backstory and how it relates to them as 'capsuleers' in the setting of New Eden, given that official fiction and lore are now being released quite frequently. Gonzales says, "Unfortunately, we haven't been perfect in the execution of this effort. A balance had to be maintained between keeping the storyline fresh and dynamic while also holding fast to the core attributes of foundation material. That led to mistakes, contradictions, and general inconsistencies in the canon. We took that personally, and decided to do something about it."

Among the various business, educational and social uses to which Second Life is put, Role-Playing gamers have quite a number of thriving communities. If you want to role-play in the world of Joss Whedon's Firefly, or Straczynski's Babylon 5, Lucas' Star Wars universe(s), Tolkien's Middle Earth, John Norman's Gor, Frank Herbert's Dune, Roddenberry's Star Trek, or the settings of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy VII or CCP/White Wolf's World of Darkness, Second Life is home to all of these and more.

Well, until this week anyway. According to Wagner James Au, Trident Media Group, a literary agent "designed for the twenty first century",which maintains the Herbert Estate sent cease-and-desist notices via Linden Lab requiring one non-profit role-playing community to remove Dune-related names and objects from the virtual environment within two days.