There's been a veritable landslide of MMORPG-related news for me to sift through this week. I'm still worried that I included the wrong story or excluded the right one. At any rate, there's a lot of content in this week's column. So let's just get straight to it.

New facts have been revealed on the upcoming superhero MMO, DC Universe Online. Currently in production for the Playstation 3 and the PC, the game will allow players to customize their own heroes or villains and unleash them in the world of DC comics. You can fight for, or in opposition to, various DC heroes and villains and go on adventures created by famous DC comic writers. There are also hints that the gameworld will be destructible and even used as a weapon, but there are not many details on how exactly this will work.

I’m more of a Marvel girl myself, but the information sounds promising so far. It’s like City of Heroes, but with a pedigree.

The first commercial expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Mines of Moria, will be available in stores throughout North America and Europe on November 18th. Turbine, Inc. has announced pre-order and early upgrade programs for the expansion, with special in-game items available with each program. Here’s to hoping for awesome skirmishes with Balrogs in the mines.

MindFuse Games has been working on a Victorian-themed MMO called The World of Gatheryn. The company just got a huge boost for its efforts, as it recently gained $1 million dollars in funding from Keiretsu Forum angel investors. MindFuse states in an article on Conde Nast Portfolio that the money will be used for working capital, and for building customer service and marketing teams.

The World of Gatheryn is MindFuse Games' first original title, and I like an MMO premise that isn’t sci-fi or high fantasy, since I'm kind of dried out on those settings. So I hope for the best.

I’m the first to admit that my hobbies of choice, video games and anime, are not by any means cheap ones. I have to be more frugal as I get older, since I can’t just go spending money on all the games and DVDs I want when there’s food and rent to be concerned with. And then I hear about this guy, who makes the amount I’ve dropped on my silly interests look like pocket change.

I don't know how many of you have already heard this story; there is one single World of Warcraft player who owns 36 game accounts. He pays $5711 a year for his subscriptions, and he also plans to buy 36 copies of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion when it is released. Those purchases will run him about $1500. Not only that, this guy has a setup of eleven computers on which he plays World of Warcraft simultaneously. He's done all of this so he can, “invade Stormwind and Ironforge when they reach top level.�E This guy is running raids all by himself.

My first thought is this kind of dedication is way too extreme for that kind of investment. But then I think that this guy must have some kind of lucrative career to afford this hobby. Or maybe he’s a trust fund baby or something similar.

For you sci-fi fans, CCP is launching a free expansion for Eve Online called Quantum Rise. The expansion is available for download on Eve Online’s site. The full list of features will also be up soon on the site. I don’t know if I could ever master a game like Eve Online; it’s always sounded more complicated than I have the time to figure out. But I’ve also heard that’s part of its appeal.

It's a little under a year since I started playing 9Dragons. It's not a game that, until recently, was my particular favorite. But it had a lot of good things going for it. Nice graphics, better paced questing and grinding than I see in other free-to-play MMORPGs, relatively fun combat, and an interesting back story. To give a brief overview, there were eight clans (four white and four black) in the Ming Dynasty who, in general, got along with each other until a new clan called the Black Dragon Clan appeared, led by the Thunder Emperor. He declared that he would take over all the clans and their lands. That was the beginning of the War of the Nine Dragons. After years of fighting, a stranger called the Vagabond appeared with the intention of ending the war. He gathered the leaders of each clan together for a series of duels. Those who would lose or die in combat would have to seal their clans from accepting new members and bow out of the war. None of the clan leaders have been seen since, but circumstances have occured that caused the clans to open their doors again. That's about where the player joins in.

Out of the six clans available to join (I'm wondering when the last two clans will be available), I chose the League of Beggars, whose general philosophy is to give back as much as you take. You actually have to contribute items to your clan in order to earn fighting moves and styles. We don't get spiffy uniforms like the sword-wielding Wu-Tang clan members do; my clan is required to wear beggar's rags. It makes me extremely curious to find out if the other clans each have their own unique personalities like I feel the League of Beggars does. And I'm still amused that I was able to make my character look surprisingly like my mother.

Despite all that, I wasn't sure where the game was headed. I felt a bit closed off since I mostly operate in the League's territory or the neighboring one. I have yet to see any other players besides ones in my own clan and an occasion Wu-Tang clan member (since their land is close to ours), and wondered if the story was going to take off. Then I got my first real sense of accomplish when I completed the first chapter of the game. Also, I got a sort of job upgrade when I was asked if I wanted to be a front line fighter, an assister, a stealth fighter, or a healer within my clan (apparently all the clans do this in some variation). I choose fighter, since I wanted to continue using a staff as my main weapon. So I reset my stats for my new position, and frankly I'm really quite pleased with the results. I'll be giving 9Dragons my full attention in the hope that the game world opens up a bit more now.

Sorry if I'm not as perky this week; I'm a bit under the weather. I still don't feel like I'm finalized on the column. I might be adding or removing sections as time goes on. As always, I'd love to hear everyone's comments. See everyone next week!

/not LFG,
Sarah Williams (Feed me mail!)