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The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.

Mabinogi welcomes Generation 3
The MMO that bills itself as "your fantasy life" has gotten its next upgrade with Generation 3. Now Mabinogi players will have the ability to marry each other, complete with license and wedding attire for both genders. An overarching quest will require warriors to recover dungeon seals to prevent the Fomor from entering the world. And finally, the pet system gets an overhaul, with new interactions, behaviors, and controls. The removal of the combat cap, increased UI options, and new items all await players in Generation 3.

Neocron 2 developer declares insolvency
10Tacle Studios AG, parent company of Reakktor Media GmbH, developers of Neocron 2, declared insolvency on August 6th. They are awaiting an insolvency administrator to determine what will happen with the game servers. In a later update to the original forum post, Kirk Lenke, CEO of Reakktor Media announced that the insolvency will not affect business operation of Neocron 2, and that they are still in development for upcoming title Black Prophecy.

When I first started playing MMOs I was in college. I'd bounced from major to major but ultimately settled on Economics (from a starting point of Medieval and Renaissance Studies - how'd that happen?). Like other economists in games like EverQuest and Ultima Online, I was thrilled to find a lively economy and interested to apply classical economic models in the study of it. The most basic of these models is the typical supply and demand curve.

Any economic model starts with price and quantity. The higher the price, the more suppliers want to sell but the less consumers want to buy. As the price decreases, more consumers are interested in purchasing, but fewer suppliers are able to produce profitably. In theory, there is a magical level in the middle where supply and demand meet. That is equilibrium (see graph).

What I have since found, which is furiously debated by other economists in the field, is that the typical supply and demand curves do not fit well with the economies of most MMORPGs these days. Depending on the game, add-ons used, and availability of additional market data, there may be sort of invisible caps to the price, and thereby the quantities, of goods traded. Furthermore, auction house fees and vendor sales act much in the same way as taxes or subsidies in real world economies.

It's not that gamers are overly fond of the subscription model. Indeed a lot of console and FPS gamers specifically avoid MMOs because of monthly fees. This hasn't stopped game developers from continually using the subscription model though. Despite all the different payment models being explored by industry, the subscription model continues to be the most popular for AAA titles. There seems to be an underlying notion in the west that subscribing to a MMO is still the most beneficial payment method for the consumer. If you look at the history of early MMOs it's not hard to see how this notion was formed.

It's been awhile since we checked in on Sparkplay Media's furry animal MMO, Earth Eternal. The story goes that, eons ago, the creatures known only as "Man", once the greatest of all living things, poisoned the Earth and warred amongst themselves, making themselves extinct. The gods and other elder creatures who had more or less left Man to their own devices, decided to give that whole"mortal creature" thing another try, cleaned up the Earth, and placed the Beast people on it.

Earth Eternal will be a free to play, Runescape-like MMO where you play one of sixteen different animal races in a land of adventure and high fantasy. The game runs with a small client that downloads new areas in the background as you encounter them. As well as the usual quests, adventures and dungeon crawls, EE players will be able to make their own Groves, areas of the world of their own design, in two parts. The public part will be above ground, but there will be an equally extensive portion below ground that can be set to be as private as you like. Pictured above is a shared Grove; they can be quite elaborate.

We estimate about ... three hours after it goes live before someone makes a Grove named The Island of Misfit Toys. It's not gonna be the kind of place you bring your children, either. Check out the latest teaser video after the break.

Earlier this week, we've been giving you a ton of news related to Jagex's Runescape and the newly-announced Mechscape. In a recent blog post by Relmstein, he gives us his impressions of this news, and why he takes them seriously.

Despite anyone's opinion on Jagex and their work with Runescape so far, the facts are overwhelmingly in their favor for being a serious company. As Relmstein points out, this company started out from a couple brothers working out of their home, "but it has the potential to become as big as SOE or NCsoft in a very short period of time." Anything is possible, in fact, but how great would it be to see them actually get that big with these new projects and new ideas they have.

Alongside a number of insights into the new Runescape HD release and tantalizing hints at the upcoming Mechscape, our discussion with Jagex yesterday morning yielded a few tibits about FunOrb. Jagex's under-the-radar casual games offering is built on the same technology as Runescape, implying some interesting things about the company's future plans. We spoke with Geoff Iddison and developer Henrique Olifiers about the project, and came away with some interesting viewpoints on Jagex's future development plans. Read on below the cut for hints at how casual gaming and browser-based RPG fun might combine into a new (and delicious) whole.

We sat down Tuesday morning to talk with the people at Jagex, the US-based company that develops the wildly popular Runescape MMO. They're a company in the midst of growing from a one-game studio to a multi-game mini-empire. Alongside the casual game service FunOrb and the newly announced in-development title Mechscape, these titles combine to portend a unique future for this Korean-inspired American company.

The company sees itself as offering a real alternative to the client-based high-end graphics experience we're used to in massive games. Join us as we chat with Jagex CEO Geoff Iddison and developer Henrique Olifiers about the newest update to the game and the future of Jagex as an organization.

Recently, Runescape sent along a chat with their Lead Developer and Co-founder Andrew Gower. In this chat, Gower explains the history of the game, what he does for the team and what he sees for the future.

One of the major highlights of this chat is the fact that Runescape is said to be right on target with their initial plan with the game. Gower says that it was always meant to be a graphically-advanced social game, and it has not only exceeded in achieving this, but their plans for the future of Runescape HD is even greater. Check out the complete chat just after the jump.

If you weren't aware, the free-to-play browser-based MMORPG Runescape is being reborn as Runescape HD. That means players with computers capable of handling the graphics (and at this point that's probably all of them) will be able to enjoy Runescape with both improved visuals and at a full-screen setting. The visual upgrades consist of a new lighting system and procedural texturing system. According to Jagex, the game still runs at below 256mb of RAM on most machines and is very much an efficient title even with the upgrade. We have to admit it's a pretty impressive upgrade for a browser game. The official FAQ on the Runescape HD experience upgrade can be found after the cut.

Massively will have more information for you from our hands on time with the HD experience and new tutorial; expect details on that later today!

Earlier today we spoke with Jagex CEO Geoff Iddison and developer Henrique Olifiers about the future of the company. We'll have more from that discussion later today, but as we talked we noticed something interesting about Mr. Olifiers' business card. His official title, according to the card, is "Head of Mechscape." So we asked, point blank, "what's Mechscape?" Mechscape, according to the company men, is the next MMO coming from the folks at Jagex. They're expecting that it will be released in the first Quarter of 2009. It's going to be the next step or two beyond Runescape HD in terms of technology, and a slightly more mature product. Their view is that, as players grow older with the fantasy product, they're going to want something a little more in-depth, deeper. That said, they don't feel that players will want to give up the jump-in jump-out portability of a browser-based game.

Mechscape will capitalize on that by providing a science fiction world and more complicated gameplay, all via your standard web browser. What's amazing is how passionate Jagex's fans are for this game already: the above logo was discovered by nosy fans searching out information about the game. There are already two fansites for the game, even though there are almost no details released about the game yet. They've even put together a video showing what assets and information they've unearthed. which is embedded below the cut. Stay tuned to Massively for more on Jagex's new game as we hear it.

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	Did you enjoy this? Check out all of our E3 coverage as the week rolls forward!

As we reported last April, popular teen hang-out site Gaia Online is making the leap from virtual world to full-blown MMO, further blurring the lines between the two genres. It will still have movies, malls and minigames ... just with a few more monsters. Gaia Online was a separated series of rooms, but now its filling in the lands between those rooms with impromptu games around fountains and battles with psychotic garden gnomes.

VentureBeat talks with CEO Craig Sherman and senior producer Dabid Georgeson about the new MMO world and the challenges of turning a fabulously successful social space with millions of users, into a succesful MMO. Is the world ready for another Runescape? Look for Gaia Online -- the MMO -- when it launches this summer to find out.

Today's the day for Runescape fans across the globe: the high details version of the game is now officially in Beta testing. Subscribers can jump into the full-screen, widescreen supporting, actually-pretty-darn-good-looking version of Runescape at will. Free players will be able to get the pretty after the Beta test is over. Full details on the new version are available in the official FAQ. If you're looking to get subscriber benefits, now's the time to do it. Folks signing up for the pay-version of the game will be paying about a buck more every month for the priveleage after the 4th of the August. All of these details are on the game's shiny new website, which they've rolled out for this special occassion.

If it seems like Jagex and Runescape have been in the news lately, you'd be right. The runaway success of this game is amazing to see, and the folks at Next Generation have a several-page exploration of the web-based game's history. The site talks with Paul and Andrew Gower, founders of the company, about their ambitions to take the accessibility and fun of a MUD and bring it to the web.

Make sure to click through below the cut for a full video presentation on the brand new HD experience.

Jagex, the developer of Runescape, has confirmed to IGN that they will be showing the next iteration of their popular free-to-play MMO at this year's E3. They have dubbed this version Runescape High Detail, referring to the game's fancy new graphical option.

Not a whole lot else is known about the the upgrade, other than what was reported by Jagex when they first talked about the high definition version of the game. This earlier news does make mention of a full-screen option which many fans should be pleased about. Thankfully, E3 and Jagex's grand unveiling are not too far away now, and we'll be able to see what this all looks like in action.

A few years ago now, I heard a news story about a man who traded one red paperclip for a house. There were several intermediate trades, but the basic gist of it was that he started with a paperclip and traded up from there until, eventually, he was offered a house in Saskatchewan in exchange for a movie role.

I remember thinking then what an interesting concept it was (and wishing I had thought of it first). He really did not need any particular skills except maybe negotiation. He did not need any money. In the early stages, he probably didn't even need a lot of buzz. Just some connections and a dream.

In more recent times, I have seen similar things done in games. Using the auction house and connections with guildies, friends, or just willing participants in the streets, it is entirely possible to trade your way to fame and fortune without ever picking up a trade or completing a quest.

Here's a strange one for you Runescape fans. Geoff Iddison, CEO of Jagex, said that the company is working on "Nextscape", a new MMO to be released March 2009. This news, revealed at the GameHorizon Conference in Newcastle, England seemed almost beside the point compared to what Iddison really wanted to say about his company.

"We've got an infrastructure behind Runescape which is the real silver of the Jagex, the value of the company," he said. "It's not the game, the game is going to come and go." Now, granted, this was at a developer's conference, so he's not there to hype the next big project necessarily, but talking up your infrastructure is like saying "Forget about my personality and skills, my skeletal and circulatory systems are where it's at!" While we're sure things are great at Jagex, we'd like to have heard a little more about the game -- you know, the reason that infrastructure exists.