Massively^™

We'd like to thank everyone who has helped our first few months here at Massively be as massive as they've been! It's only going to get better from here. We just closed up another round of applications yesterday, we've got some insanely cool things coming this next week, (we bet some of you can guess what's going on!) and we're working on things that you all told us we needed to work on in the last round of "How are we doing" questions.

Good things in store as we build Massively up -- more coverage, more interviews, more unique content and most of all -- more fun. Stay tuned!

We reported on it last weekend, and on Saturday it finally came to fruition. Certainly fetching the honors as one of the more... bizarre in-game events we've ever heard of, for Tabula Rasa or any other game, the gregarious lot on the Planet TR forums put together the first ever Blind Race. Racers were tasked with running a marathon race through a series of predetermined check-points with their monitors turned off. Guided by the voice of a coaching partner, they had to navigate the oft-treacherous landscape of the Wilderness, the Divide, and the Plains. With the buff to enemy mobs in patch 1.4, it's difficult even making that run when you have all your senses about you, so even more kudos to Andriss and Mcloseky for their victory!

In a sadder bit of news, the DG crew rescinded an announcement in a previous community update. Due to some complication on which they didn't care to elaborate, PvP safe zones will likely not make it into patch 1.5 as expected. It's still in the pipeline, we are assured, just not for a little while. I can live with that, as long as they're using the resources to address some of the other, more easily-fixed problems with the game.

Perhaps you remember our holiday postcard contest -- where we asked you send us holiday-themed postcard images from your favorite games. It may not be the holiday season anymore, but here at Massively we like to think there's room for delicious eggnog holiday cheer every day of the week! After extensive deliberation, our team of judges found enough time away from their favorite MMOs to look through the entries managed to come to a decision on the winners. Thanks to everyone who participated, and congrats to our winners: Durinthal, Cyn Vandeverre, Emerson, and Kevin, who are all walking away with some cool computer accessories, including Plantronics headsets, Logitech G15 gaming keyboards, and Logitech G9 laser mice.

And for those of you more interested in our 12 days of holiday giveaways, we've got winners for them as well! Congrats go out to Andy, Andrew, Dermit, jgodden, Speedmonkay, Curious George, trevrd, Auriea, DC Flyer, Dragnipurake, Shinagani, and celeron450 who each picked up a first place prize of a game time card of their choice. While they didn't get any game time, our second place winners did get some delicious candy: Paul, Ryan, Ryan (different people, same name!), Speedmonkay (one lucky guy), onetrueping, Moopcow, NCteacher, crispy, Fuzakeya, Quejebo, Animagnum, and Girricane!

Our top two postcard winners are included after the jump for your viewing pleasure!

Wintersday approaches, can you all see the signs?
The grentches and snowmen will all soon align.
For a battle in the end is what we all face;
To decide the wintry fate of the whole human race.

So began NCsoft's notice of the Guild Wars Wintersday 2007 event. The event itself begins on Friday, 21 December, and runs for 12 days. Holiday NPCs will be all around Kamadan, Lion's Arch, Droknar's Forge and Ascalon City, spreading holiday joy. Some holiday joy came early for Nian, however, as the creator of the winning entry in the Wintersday 2007 contest with Desmina's Ice Crown. The rules of the contest were that players submit an original new hat design with both a Grenth and a Wintersday theme, and the best of the best would be chosen, with the winning design being the reward for the showdown between Grenth, Lord of Death and Ice, and Dwayna, Goddess of Air and Life. Congratulations, Nian, and here's hoping to see all of you in-game on January 1st.

Week 3 of the Lord of the Rings Online DirectX 10 screenshot contest has rolled around, and there are two more winning snaps to share (full-sized versions available from the forum post). Both of the winners this week have shots that show off some nice tree shadows, and the reflection of the castle in the above shot is good too. Incidentally, an upcoming patch to the game will improve performance of DX10 with shadows in particular.

If you missed the other winners so far, here is our coverage of Week 1 and Week 2. There should be two more weeks of entries still ahead, and we'll be sure to report them when they come through. It's also not too late to enter, if you have a ridiculous machine to back you up, so check out the contest rules if you want to get a chance at having a featured screenshot.

There are two winning entries as with the last contest, one from Eirek Lillebo of Norway (left), and the other from J. Garrington (right). If you think that either one of these wouldn't look too shabby on your character, you'll only need to wait a bit longer. Both of these designs will be available to pick up with the Book 12 update, along with all the other things to look forward to in that patch.

Full-sized pictures of the cloaks: Eirek Lillebo. J. Garrington.

The anticipation is over, and for those of you eagerly awaiting the results, Dungeons & Dragons Online has finally released the list of winners for its Game Guide contest.

Want to know the best way to acquire information in the game? Just use the lessons learned when MysticTheurge teaches you how to Ask a Loremaster. Need more assistance? SableShadow lands a sneak attack with Notes from a Dancing Rogue, and LostLeader helps you get to where you need to be with The Lost Quest Guide. As well, there are an additional seven runners up who will also have their game guides published in the DDO.com compendium. And don't forget that you're not limited to just these ten entries: the full list of top-rated and most useful guides is available in its own forum category, and they range from general information to quest-specific rewards.

When Dungeons & Dragons Online first opened its contest on September 20, they stated that they were looking for the best guides from the most knowledgeable participants. The guides were posted to their online User-Written Guides forum, and participants were allowed to nominate their favorites.

If you've ever needed a reason to learn more about Dungeons & Dragons Online, or to enjoy the wit and wisdom of other players, here's your excuse.

Our Tabula Rasa giveaways continue! It's every hour on the hour, man -- more faithful than Old Faithful, and a lot more often than Blizzard updates WoW.

This hour, we're sending out a Tabula Rasa hat (valued at $10) and a game poster (retail value $5). You could be the first on your block to have a wearable ad for Lord British Garriott's brand new alien-shooting MMO! All you've got to do, as usual, is live in the US, be 18 or older (official rules here), and leave a comment (and only one comment) on this here blog post before 3pm EST. Oh, and the most important part: you've got to be one of our random winners. Some say that's the hard part, but really, it's the easiest, because we choose that one, and all you've got to do is type some stuff in and hit "Add your comments."

So get commenting -- you've got an hour! And hey, if you don't win, don't worry -- you can also enter for that iPod, and we'll have contests every hour for the rest of the day, too.