Massively week in Review

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria launches!
The official patch notes are up on the forums, and the servers went live at midnight with all the new content! We've collected up all of our best pieces of news and information on Turbine's latest ... check it out!

EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey Launches!
Massively has been following the expansion's lifecycle since it was announced at this year's SOE Fan Faire, and today we've put together the best of all our content touching on this brand-new chapter in the EQ2 saga. Read on for all the details!

And the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80 is...
Nymh, Human Warlock of the EU server Drek'thar (and the real-world country of France) became the first World of Warcraft player to reach level 80.

Further details emerge on the canceled Halo MMO
Shacknews had the chance to speak with Ensemble director of technology Dave Pottinger, who had quite a bit to say about the Halo MMO. The biggest surprise revealed was that the game had gotten a green light and was in development for a good length of time before leadership changed at Microsoft, and the title was canceled.

Cryptic may be porting Champions / Star Trek Online to the PS3
Cryptic Studios has shown their superhero game playing quite well on Microsoft's console at events all through the summer con season. Now it seems as though they're looking to bring those games to the PlayStation 3 as well.

The Anatomy of WoW: Seven games that inspired Blizzard
Blizzard is one of the most prestigious and succesful developers in the world for good reason -- it takes the best ideas from all over the industry (even ones that don't quite work right... yet) and refines them, forcing them to succeed in ways they never did before.

Richard Garriott announces his departure from NCsoft
Some say they knew this day would come, while others swore it never would. In an official announcement on the Tabula Rasa website, Richard Garriott announced to the world today that he is leaving NCsoft to pursue other interests.

World of Warcraft's paid customization may allow race, gender changes
Essentially, the company views it as another value-added feature along the lines of the paid server transfer or name transfer. The paid character customization options will allow players to go back and tweak choices made at character creation.

Venture into Ymir's pass! Free content update on live AoC servers
Ymir's Pass has hit the AoC live servers, and brings you the largest Hyborean content update to-date! Well, largest for adventuring space anyway. Ymir's Pass won't crowd your hard-drive too badly.

Warhammer combat and careers patches pushed back
Patch 1.0.5 is going to deploy to live servers tomorrow (Tuesday, 18 November), with fixes/improvements to the Realm War system, and the "Heavy Metal" Live Event that sets the stage for the Knight of the Blazing Sun and Blackguard.

Low-level guide to Mines of Moria: What's in it for me?
So you are enjoying Lord of the Rings Online, and are looking forward to the Mines of Moria expansion tomorrow, but you're wondering if it will actually have anything for you, as a low-level casual player. This is a very common concern with most MMO expansions, so we've assembled a little guide for those of you out there who could really care less about the hardcore 12-man raids or end-game content offered in Mines of Moria.

Lord of the Rings Online player's guide to World of Warcraft
While both games are considered high fantasy, and many of the features of both games could be considered very similar, actually comparing the two is a whole different story. In this feature article, we're going to break down and compare the two games and what they have to offer.

Know Your LotRO Lore: The story of Gandalf
In this inaugural edition of Know Your LotRO Lore, we thought we'd kick it off with one of the most lore-tastic characters of all time: Gandalf. If you don't know Gandalf, you don't know Lord of the Rings. He's been an iconic figure throughout Tolkien's books, Jackson's movies, countless songs, works of art and prose.

Massively catches up with the new Age of Conan director
Join us as we reflect on this initiative, discuss issues that the Funcom staff see as most important to the Age of Conan playerbase, and walk through features associated with the most recent expansive patch. Read on for the full details and insight into this unique MMO.

World of Warcraft miniatures game launches
One of the biggest names in the trading card industry is Upper Deck Entertainment. Given the success of their World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, they've released a follow-up game this week: The World of Warcraft Miniatures Game.