MMO Roundup: Massively's week in review

Massively interview with Aion's new community manager
Aion is easily one of the biggest MMOs of the year, so when a new North American community manager took over recently we decided it was the perfect time for an interview with the new team member, Andrew Beegle -- known as Tamat to community members.

Massively's complete coverage from GameX
GameX 2009 was insane this weekend and we were all over the place, but one of the first groups that we set a chunk of time aside for was Jeff Lewis (Vork), Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo), and Robin Thorsen (Clara) from The Guild. We weren't missing out on catching up with those three.

Checking up on Fallen Earth: One month later
It's been a little over a month since Fallen Earth launched, and we think it's safe to say that quite a bit has changed since then -- but what, exactly? For those who may have found themselves unhappy with the game's state at launch, this article is for you. For those of you who may have tried the game during a beta stage or stress test event, and come across some technical issues that made the game completely unplayable, this article is for you, too.

LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood developer tour
If you've been faithfully following along with the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood beta, you may be excited by what you've heard -- or even seen yourself -- so far. The new expansion, which is set to launch on December 1st of this year (December 3rd for EU), centers around the forest of Mirkwood, just to the east of Lothlorien. It introduces us to a large new map of Mirkwood, the skirmish system, five new instances and much more.

Champions Online announces 1 million heroes
It would seem that spandex hasn't gone out of style in the MMO world. Kotaku is reporting that Cryptic Studios told them that one million superheroes have been created in Champions Online to date. That's a lot of different heroic concepts, costumes, and back-stories! What's even more fun when you think about it? That means there are a million nemeses running around in there too. Cryptic has created a veritable cornucopia of comic-book evil.

Jagex cancels MechScape at significant cost, restarts anew
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has indeed confirmed the cancellation of MechScape, although you wouldn't quite know it from his comments, which seem excited to be working on a different title with a new direction. This isn't the first time an in-development MMO has been rebooted in favor of a completely new direction, although Tabula Rasa at least kept its original name.

Warhammer Online, now with 100% more Mac support
There have been some big changes in Warhammer Online of late -- that's undeniable. But the game is pressing steadily onward, making a major change that oddly hasn't altered a single element of the gameplay. No, this change is entirely targeted at the players, as the game has now launched the Macintosh version of its client. They've been hinting at it and talking about it for quite some time, but it has gone live and is available, complete with full support for the game's free trial for any Mac gamers still on the fence regarding whether or not they want to dive in.

Choose my Adventure: Leave no Kobold unturned
Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as the ultimate goal is reached, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

Progression and building in LEGO Universe
Information on LEGO Universe has been somewhat thin as of late, but that's beginning to change. Over at 1up you'll find a meaty preview that covers quite a bit of ground, including basic MMO features like progression to LEGO specific stuff like building quests. The building mode is of course the keystone to this game, and the fact that a player cannot be harmed when entering the mode speaks volumes about its importance.

Star Trek Online cinematic war trailer shows off combat footage
The next major MMO from Cryptic Studios is Star Trek Online, which may bridge the gap in sci-fi MMOs between ship-based combat and avatar interaction on planetary surfaces. Cryptic has been releasing new screenshots and talking quite a bit about character progression lately, but sometimes it's better to show than to tell. That's what they're doing with the latest game trailer showing off footage of conflicts in space and planetary environments your away teams will explore.

A look back at Aion's first month and impressions
43,829 minutes. That's roughly how long Aion's been out in the West. Depending on your tolerance for grinding, it may or may not have felt like that amount of time passed. There's no doubt it's been a busy month full of ups and downs, so we'd like to take an extensive look back at the last 30-days and give our impressions on the game.