Last week we spoke to Laralyn McWilliams, the creative director for Free Realms, and she had a lot to say about upcoming changes and additions to the game. The most important change she mentioned was to the job system: "...as of early November, free player characters that are newly created will be able to play any job (Ninja, Chef, Postman, Kart Driver, Demo Derby Driver, Brawler, Miner, Soccer Star, Archer, Wizard, Medic, Blacksmith, Warrior) in Free Realms up to level five for free."

The Free Realms team will usher in the new availability of these jobs by holding a community job sampling event this week, running Monday through Friday. Twice each day, they'll be hanging out by a specific job trainer to spend some time with the players and answer questions to familiarize you with the newly available jobs. The full list of jobs they'll be covering, as well as locations and times, can be found on the site.

The world of Free Realms is about to get a bit bigger this holiday season as even more content is being added and improved for the game. According to Sony Online Entertainment's Creative Director for Free Realms, Laralyn McWilliams, the game is about to see a new job, new job structure, new pets, player housing and more added by mid-December.

We caught up with Laralyn to get a few more details on the upcoming improvements before the first stage of these updates goes live this week. Follow along after the jump for the complete interview, and in our gallery below for some exclusive screenshots of the new content.

What's makes beating raids in Ruins of Kunark and The Shadow Odyssey even better? Achievements, of course. That's why SOE is adding brand new achievements to several heroic zones and raids to those two expansions. Players will be challenged by several new goals, such as Flawless Victory, which requires finishing an encounter without losing a single party member. Other achievements involve winning a raid encounter with three or more people less than the maximum and clearing a raid or heroic zone within a set time limit.

Obviously, these challenging new achievements wouldn't be worthwhile without a reward. The form of said reward comes as three new titles: the Dragonslayer, the Urgent and the Flawless. We'd point out which titles go with which rewards, but we're pretty sure you've got it figured out. In our opinion, the Dragonslayer title is probably the coolest sounding, what with the dragon murdering and all that. Being "Urgent" sounds kind of cool but in a confusing way, like when your friends tell you they blew up a car, until they reveal it was, in fact, your car.

[via WarCry]

One of the upcoming SOE titles we're hoping to hear more about is DC Universe Online -- the superhero MMO that will build on the DC Comics legacy. DC Universe Online's Creative Director Chris Cao recently did a video interview with DCUO Source that explains how the devs have approached the game's design.

Cao fielded a number of questions posed to him by the fansite's readers -- How will player feedback impact the game's development? Will there be voicework in DCUO from the actors who've voiced characters in the various DC animated series and video games (specifically, Kevin Conroy)? How will DCUO handle secret identities? All good questions. For the answers, check out the video interview with Chris Cao at DCUO Source.

[Via MMORPG.com]

Often times grind is lambasted as the worst part of this genre, something to be minimized and removed to any and all extent. I understand all too well why; hundreds of hours of brain melting repetitiveness. Only here's the rub: the very nature of MMOs -- persistence -- creates a grind. Unless you keep it under a reasonable number of hours played, it'll turn into a festival of grind.

I used to think this was a colossal problem, yet lately I'm beginning to rethink my stance.

Sony Online Entertainment revealed a brand new addition to DC Universe Online Friday: Bizarro. Even if you're not already familiar with the character, you can pretty much assume that anything with a name like that is going to be probably evil and definitely awesome. So who is this guy? DCUO provides a brief backstory for anyone living in a cave, and for the sake of moving on and getting to the good part, we'll go with that: "In hopes of having a Superman of his very own, Lex Luthor called upon his top scientist Dr. Teng to scan and replicate the hero's genetic structure. Due to complications in the construction of the carbon copy, their results gave birth to a monstrous menace, Bizarro."

Bizarro's the polar opposite of Superman. Where Superman has heat vision and freeze breath, Bizarro has freeze vision and flame breath. Best of all (or worst of all, depending on your outlook) Kryptonite gives Bizarro strength. Following this train of logic, it seems like Bizarro would also be really slow, but that's no fun.

The problem with getting players into a new game after a couple years is that, well, the game has moved on. It has a couple expansions under its belt, it has a whole lot of new concepts, and new players aren't going to be on board for it. A new player is hard enough to rope into an MMO as it is, much less when you tell them they have to buy three expansions and hit level 30 in a month to see some of the cool stuff. Everquest II knows how much of a struggle it can be, which is why they're releasing the Everquest II Complete Collection just in time for both the holiday season and before the upcoming expansion pack The Sentinel's Fate (due out in February).

What does it contain? The initial Everquest II, obviously, along with all five of the game's extant expansion packs. If that's not enough, it also offers sixty free days of play (up from the usual thirty) and 500 Station Cash to help buy things from the game's microtransaction system. At the risk of sounding like a marketing press release, it's an ideal way to get a friend into the game over the holiday season, and presumably get them ready in time for the new expansion to hit.

We're noting that there's a slew of Halloween events happening in the MMO world this month, and it comes as no surprise that Free Realms is getting in on the fun as well with a "Super Spooktacular" Halloween update. This is the topic of the latest "Ask a Dev" video with Associate Game Designer Julie Burness and Lead Character Artist Matt Case. The Q&A is done in costume, with questions from the players themselves on the Free Realms forums.

The Free Realms devs discuss the new content which includes Halloween themed quests, werewolf and dinosaur costumes, and all kinds of holiday items -- like candy that turns players into... something else. There's going to be trick-or-treating in Free Realms as well, where players will have to scare others to get treats.

We've got the video for you, so stick with us after the jump for the Free Realms "Ask a Dev" devoted to the Super Spooktacular Halloween update.

It's easy to talk about gaming addiction as an abstract concept, but whether or not you think the idea holds a lot of water there are an awful lot of studies and examinations of it that just won't go away. Still, the concept is easy to deny. The human element, however, makes it much more real and that much harder to ignore. Which is why, ultimately, it's probably a good thing for everyone that Kotaku's editor Mike Fahey has written up his story of his EverQuest addiction -- the origin, the escalation, and the recovery of sorts.

Mike describes how the death of his relationship led to him escaping into the video game that increasingly was preferrable to his normal life -- which, in turn, led to him winding up without his car, then without a job, and then ultimately to the point that we could probably see coming, where the game became preferrable to pursuing a romantic relationship. He chronicles the downward slide, followed by the slow crawl back out of being addicted -- but, at the end, he doesn't conclude that EverQuest itself is the problem.

As he himself puts it regarding his addiction: "I hid. I ran from my problems, hiding away in a virtual fantasy world instead of confronting the issues that might have been easily resolved if I had addressed them directly." His story focuses not upon the game, but on his own responses and how they were what was ultimately responsible for what happened and where he wound up. It's an interesting piece for the conclusion alone, and worth reading for anyone with even the slightest stake in the topic of game addiction -- which, for those of us who play MMOs, should really just include all of us.

We are well into that time of year - Halloween is almost here and a quick look into nearly any MMO out there will show it. We've been talking about quite a few games out there and how they're celebrating, but they're certainly not the only ones putting jack-o-lanterns in their windows. Follow after the jump for a look at how some of our other favorite MMOs are celebrating.

There's been no shortage of buzz about Star Wars: the Old Republic, but it's good to remember that there is another game in the same universe that's several years older... albeit set many thousands of years later in the timeline. Star Wars Galaxies is about to make the jump that several other recent games have tried and are allowing player-created content to enter the gameworld, opening the doors for would-be quest and dungeon designers to craft their own stories. MMORPG.com recently interviewed producer Tony Tyson regarding the upcoming "Chronicles" system, resulting in a groundswell of new information about the content and how it would be generated.

The basic building block of these player-generated quests are known as "relics", which contain information relating to enemies, objectives, and so forth. Relics can be looted from kills, crafted, sold, and similarly passed around, with no "required" path to get them. Answering a question that everyone was thinking after the difficulties other games have had, the enemies in a player-built quest will give experience, but the experience generated for both the enemies and the quest will be entirely based upon the elements used and not in the hands of the creator in any way. There's a fair bit to digest in terms of what the implications will be for the future of the game, so take a look at the interview and see what's coming for Star Wars Galaxies when the system goes live.

The ground in Norrath has literally begun to tremble with the introduction of the third and final "Road to Underfoot" event in EverQuest. "Breaking the Seal" completes the series of events, and participating in all three will allow players to gain access to the Underfoot expansion ahead of its official release date. This time the event involves the Cliknar -- from our Underfoot zone previews, we know that the Cliknar inhabit (or rather infest) many regions in the expansion. Now they've raised a significant army and are causing trouble on Norrath's surface.

The Road to Underfoot mini-site has been updated with a section on Breaking the Seal, as well as a short video showing the enemy in action. The epicenter of the shaking seems to be coming from Odus, so those willing to fight should gather there. Remember that apart from the early access, there is also a beta for Underfoot that SOE is still taking applications for, so there's another way to see the expansion ahead of time too.

Is the Christmas season coming early? Contests and freebies seem to be the name of the MMO game this month, with all kinds of in-game and physical items being offered by fans and games alike. We've even gotten in on the fun here at Massively.

Now Sony Online Entertainment has teamed up with sci-fi and fantasy blogger Patrick (Pat's Fantasy Hotlist), to offer an extremely generous gift: 20 six-month Station Access subscriptions. Patrick says "As I mentioned a few days ago, in an attempt to bring the disparate factions of the fragmented SFF fandom together, I'm collaborating with the nice folks at Sony Online Entertainment to see if we can bring some SFF gamers into the fold."

"Nice" is a bit of an understatement. Each access pass is worth around $180, and the only thing you need to do to enter is send an entry email. Twenty winners will be chosen at random from everyone who enters by October 25th. Patrick's got full details on his site and SOE has the information as well, so good luck to all.

It's time for another EverQuest: Underfoot zone preview, as the EverQuest Players community site is featuring a look at "The Foundation". Like many of the other areas in the Plane of Underfoot, The Foundation is used by Brell's servants to create things that will end up in the world -- however, we haven't previously seen any creations quite as massive as what is made here. If you've ever admired a scenic mountain located somewhere in Norrath, then you have the inhabitants of The Foundation to thank. The enormous Genari stone giants push up mountains from underground, and then tirelessly hold their positions to keep the mountains standing.

Their job gets even worse. Sometimes a god might decide to raise a new mountain themselves, without thinking about the Genari underneath. When that happens, the Genari will most likely be crushed under the new weight. Don't fret though, because the Genari's broken form is often enough to keep the mountain up, and Brell can simply make another giant later on. Now that's cold.

Screenshots for The Foundation have been added to our Underfoot gallery, and we're very pleased to have another handful of exclusive pictures to share. Check them out below, and learn more about The Foundation's lore at EQ Players.