This is a special Thursday edition of MMORPGamer. As you may have noticed, there wasn't a column on Sunday. My wife's grandmother passed away last week, so we had to spend a few days in rural Nebraska. With no time beforehand to set up internet options, nor much time while in Nebraska, I was unable to write my column. I had asked someone to cover for me, but that fell through in some manner.

So, I have one pressing title that I wanted to cover before the next column is ready. The normal column will still run this coming Sunday, so be sure to watch for it.

I've recently received some emails about The Chronicles of SpellBorn, so I did some exploring around the internet. The main site is at http://www.tcos.com where you can sign up for their beta which requires signing up for their forums first. I think we can expect this to be a new trend.

The game sports larger than average character models, which is a bit different than the typical MMO. Of course, we'll have to wait and see if this is because the camera is zoomed in on the screenshots or not. The environments look decent, but I can't be too critical of a pre-beta screenshot collection. I'm not biting at the bit to try out this game, but it has definitely caught my eye.

And finally, the reason the column couldn't wait is that I have found a contest worth mentioning. While I wish RPGamer could have set something like this up, check out the MMORPG.com Chronicles of SpellBorn Giveaway. The grand prize is a trip to Amsterdam to try out The Chronicles of SpellBorn in person for two days, create a blog for the official site about the trip, and a whole boatload of bragging rights. You do have to sign up for the site, but I know you'll come back to me.

Halloween is rapidly approaching. Be sure to send in screenshots via email from your favorite MMORPG halloween event. I haven't had a chance to try out any of them myself, but I hope to get a new warp staff before the Vana'diel event ends.

Have fun,
Mikel Tidwell