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One of the most annoying parts of EVE Online isn't so much the learning curve or brutal dog-eat-dog world. It's the nonstop gold (ISK) farmers and other ads hitting the chat channels in the game. CCP makes it extremely easy to get a 14-day trial account, so easy that you don't even have to do something like click a link in the email they send you to activate it before logging in. Just submit the web form, scoop up the email, and then log right in.

Final Fantasy XI is still alive and kicking and getting regular content updates across all three platforms it runs on -- the PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox 360. The next update in development will add something very interesting that seems to be aimed squarely at the higher-level players of the game who may be getting bored.

A new Level Sync feature will allow higher-level players to "power down" and adventure with lower-level ones and earn rewards similar to how the lower-level players would earn them. It scales them down to the lower-level player so they can access lower-level areas with them and will also scale their equipment down. This way high-level players don't have to scrounge around for lower-level equipment to go adventuring with their lower-level pals.

This sounds like an inspired game feature and shows that the FFXI team is committed to retaining as many higher-level players as possible by letting them enjoy earlier areas they might have enjoyed again with other lower-level friends. This should also boost mentoring as well since there's incentives for letting higher-level players replay these areas.

For my own adventures in FFXI, check out this thread. For the details on the content update see the Newsletter Issue 26.

As a sci-fi fan, I've given a number of sci-fi MMO games a fair shake. Years ago when Anarchy Online went to a free-to-play model with quite inexpensive subscription options I jumped at the chance to play it. This week Anarchy Online has celebrated its 7th year, and I have to say I'm surprised it's lived this long. Yes, it's now ad-supported, but I haven't heard anything that tells me they have addressed their core problems.

What were those problems? Give them a look in this reprint based on my experiences that I made for Aeropause.

Fun fact: the Game Director on Anarchy Online is now the Game Director on the extremely successful Age of Conan MMO, also from Funcom.

Most massively multiplayer online (MMO) games handle skills, abilities, and leveling the same way. You create your character by choosing your race, which sets some stats, then you choose your class, which may modify those stats further and add some features, and maybe you have some points to sprinkle on your stats and early skills before you drop into the game world to start a tutorial.

You level up by earning experience points via combat and quests, and gaining levels increments some of your stats, often based on your class and even race. These stats control your effectiveness in the game. Stronger players swing clubs better, smarter players fling magic better, and faster players dodge better. Leveling can also give a point or two to spend on special abilities or skills every so often.

Where to spend these points can be a difficult decision, but as time goes on player guides appear telling you the "right way" to spend points to get the most bang for your hard-earned skill point bucks. Skills in one area often keep you from trying skills in other areas without starting over, and your character joins a larger population of me-too players who have been configured to follow the "best" way of doing things. It behooves you to follow these guides since you're paying to play the game and want to get the most value and least frustration for your money. And if you discover these guides after you start assigning skills you think would be useful? Well, you can always start over.

EVE Online differs greatly from all of those other games. There are no levels, and your character's stats do not affect how you play the game. There aren't any experience points in the game, either, and your skills actually do not improve with use. To be fair, it does track your standing with various factions, and performing favors -- combat or otherwise -- for them does get recorded, but you don't receive the universal reward of experience points like you do in other MMO games. From the classical MMO standpoint this sounds almost heretical and at first glance doesn't seem to make sense, but a quick run through of how the skill system works should clarify things.

Over the weekend I took a few minutes to take NCSoft up on their invitation to jump in and play City of Heroes again on my computer. These free-play weekends show up every so often as an excellent incentive to get back in and bust some heads with your super-powered characters and try and get you hooked on the game again. I did have to download the game into my laptop, not having played it on this computer before, and thankfully the download and install process was pretty painless. The game itself, though, hasn't changed much, at least in the looks department.

While I imagine their salvage-based crafting system might have addressed my old lack of interest with the game not having the "loot factor" of other games, not having the visuals get much better is something of a downer. One thing I noticed recently in the news, however, was the upcoming feature of letting end users write their own missions for the game, submit them online for others to download and play, and have player votes determine the best ones to earn fame and fortune. I've noticed more than a little similarity to the level sharing system that LittleBigPlanet should sport at launch. While I used to be a frustrated creative writer in my distant past, this isn't enough to get my creative juices flowing by itself, but it's still something I'll be watching with great interest. A publishing platform, regardless of what the medium is, could be something that becomes a vehicle for discovering good writing talent.

Seen on Kotaku.