It's time again to recap the best moments from the past week of livestreaming. Each week Massively hosts several livestreams and chats that showcase your favorite titles! Keep an eye on the Massively TV Guide so that you never miss a single event. We show off a large variety of different games and boast quite a few different personalities as well!

This week we had some Guild Wars goodness, house construction in RuneScape, more APB: Reloaded action on Tboo Thursday, a bit of Arcane Tranmuting in Runes of Magic with Jeremy, an explanation of magic in Ryzom with yours truly, and some Imp-ownage by Dylan in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And Adventure Mike returns with some Guild Wars and Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds streaming!

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There's an art to taking a cool screenshot, an art that I'm sadly not very good at. I never seem to be able to take good shots in combat, and my attempts at picking out perfect environments are pretty much nonexistent. The one thing I can do is ensure that whether I'm in Final Fantasy XIV or Star Wars: The Old Republic, I have good screenshots of my characters looking cool. I've paused what I'm doing in-game on occasion just to make sure that I can line up a nice character shot perfectly.

Of course, some people can find perfect angles for landscapes. Some people look for a funny glitch or a strange character type. And some people just find the right art to capture an intense battle in one moment. What do you look for when you're taking a screenshot? Do you go to great lengths to set up the right shot, or do you just have a knack for getting a certain picture type just right?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

As EverQuest II gracefully ages, it's become a game that's rich with content. That's especially true of the in-game holidays, like the current live event, Erollisi Day. And now that Erollisi herself has returned, the holiday is cause for celebration rather than remembrance.

The event is winding down, but there are still a few days left to participate. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll highlight some of the many things to do during Erollisi Day, including something old, something new, something borrowed, and something.... Gnome!

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Grouping with other players is inconvenient. It can also be a lot of fun, but it takes more work to get a half-dozen people running in the same direction compared to just operating on your lonesome. But you're a lot more likely to stick with a game if you can find other people to play with, and thus both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV have offered different approaches to grouping and encouraging parties.

When I started playing MMOs back when Final Fantasy XI launched, I wound up being soured by the game's insistence on grouping for a long while. These days, I can take a much more objective view of both sides because for all the hiccups that the system brings, Final Fantasy XIV's much more open environment has its own pitfalls -- some a result of basic game design, some a result of the less demanding approach. But why just look at this from the top down?

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It's been a long, long time since I've been able to work on this series, going through each Lord of the Rings Online zone quest by quest and pulling the top 10 locations, points of interest, or missions for the aspiring adventurer to check out. There are many reasons I've been tardy in continuing it, but no excuses today! Today we dine in the Prancing Pony, for tomorrow we die!

I decided to divide Bree-land into two separate articles, with this one covering the eastern portion and Bree proper, and the upcoming one tackling the western and northern areas. This is not just because Bree-land is a pretty dang big zone but because it's pulling double-duty: East Bree-land and Bree serves as the 1-15 leveling area for Men, while the west invites all four races to continue the journey to level 20.

While it may seem like a generic fantasy zone on the surface, Bree-land is actually teeming with interesting details, stories, and activities. I've never regretted leveling in the area (it's a darn sight better than Ered Luin), and it was pretty tough to limit myself to just 10 activities for this list. So what should you do in East Bree-land before you die? Let's take a look!

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Executive Producer Rob Overmeyer is beating the drums about the "big goals" for Champions Online's next update. Possibly one of the biggest of these goals is the addition of the Grab Alerts system, and in a new dev diary, Overmeyer outlines how these will work.

Grab Alerts are small team instances designed to allow players to get into exciting scenarios without a lot of waiting. Each Alert centers around a super-villain who's up to no good -- such as a heist or kidnapping -- and challenges players to thwart the evil-doer's efforts. Overmeyer promises that it will take just "two clicks" to get into an Alert, as the system will team up like-minded heroes automatically and then toss them into the instance.

Alerts will be shuffled around on a regular basis as to keep things fresh, so players will need to check the Alert Rotator to see which ones are available. If a player is looking for a specific reward that's tied to a certain Alert, the Rotator will help him or her find it. Overmeyer promises a wide range of rewards including costumes, gear, and bonuses.

I haven't played it yet, but the Mass Effect 3 demo strikes me as silly. For me, and I suspect pretty everyone else who played the first two games, this is not a game that had to do much to sell itself. BioWare could have just announced the title and done nothing else, and I would still have been getting out my wallet. All that playing the demo does is make you more anxious for a thing that's a while away and have probably already preordered.

I'm not saying I can resist it, mind. But it seems a bit silly.

In other news, it's time for this week's installment of WRUP, where the Massively staff members talk about what they plan to do over the weekend. This week, we're also discussing whether or not we'd fund an MMO project via Kickstarter. So storm on past the cut for our weekend plans, and let us know what you'll be up to in the comments!

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Every time I cancel an MMO subscription nowadays, I'm asked to take an exit survey. Help us make the game a better experience for when you return, they beg. Sure, why not, right? I'd like to give those devs some constructive criticism and/or a piece of my mind. I'll start with a pointed rant about the state of the endgame...

But wait, what's this? The "what other games do you play" question seems to be way out of date, listing games that have closed but none at all from the last few years? The "what features do you want to see" question includes features that have already debuted in the game? And the custom field is barely long enough to type "this game sux" let alone anything poignant? It's enough to make you wonder whether anyone reads these things.

So do you bother with exit surveys? And if so, do you believe that anyone with the ability to improve a game will ever hear your feedback?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

Post-apoc fans will be happy to see Living After War join our closed beta list this week, while bot aficionados can look forward to SteelWar Online, which has joined our alpha list, although it won't remain there for long as the game is launching its open beta this coming Sunday. Seven Souls Online, which joined Betawatch last week, peppered Massively with beta keys for its closed beta event, which began on February 15th. And Jagged Alliance Online received a promotion to our open beta list.

Finally, for those curious about TERA's ongoing closed beta tests, we delivered our official preview.

The full Betawatch roundup beckons you past the break.

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One of the weird parts of roleplaying, at least for me, is the fact that I'm not really in control at all.

I don't mean in the narrative sense, although that's also true. I'm talking about the simple fact that my characters have minds of their own, and that's half of the entertainment value. I see something happening, I know it's going to be bad, and I find myself thinking that the best thing my character can do is keep his or her mouth shut. And then I'm hammering away at the keyboard because even though I think otherwise, he or she has a very different opinion.

Writers are familiar with the idea, of course. Characters wind up talking to you, even when you don't mean for it to happen. But it happens with roleplaying just as surely, and you wind up with a character driving in a totally different direction than you had planned, with your main-line character sitting on the side while some C-list concept takes center stage. And the funny part is that it all feels right, all the way through.

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Non-Force-using healers also have plenty to look forward to as well, as the Q&A reveals that they'll be getting some love in patch 1.2, while Consulars and Inquisitors will have their heals brought back into line so that all healing classes and specs are (theoretically) viable. To get the full details on these subjects and more, just click on through the link below to the community Q&A at SWTOR's official site. Oh, and while we're at it, the game is on sale for $49.99 US on Origin, so if you want to get in the game and see what all the hubbub's about, now's your opportunity to do so while keeping a cool Hamilton to yourself. The sale is only happening for a limited time, though, so be sure to act quickly.

Beginning on March 1st, players will be able to use the site's world transfer application page in order to declare their destination servers. It's worth noting that the early bird gets the worm, and by worm we mean server of choice, due to the fact that once a world reaches its population cap, it will (obviously) no longer be available as a destination. To get the full details on the upcoming server transfers, just click on through the link below to the official Lodestone announcement.

The setup is pretty familiar.

It's an MMO, it takes place entirely in outer space, and your avatar is your spaceship. There's a lot of trading, a lot of missioning, and PvP if you want it -- possibly even if you don't. Crucially, there's freedom to go your own way and precious little hand-holding. It's clearly inspired by Elite, and there's a fair bit of the X series in there as well.

Nope, I'm not talking about EVE Online but rather Vendetta Online, an indie sandbox MMORPG that actually has more in common with classic space-trading sims than it does with CCP's New Eden.

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DUST 514's tagline is "your next shot will topple empires," and if there's been a better marketing slogan for a sci-fi shooter, we'd like to hear it. CCP has just released a new dev blog for its EVE Online sidequel; appropriately, the piece is all about new and interesting tools for frakking up your factional enemies.

While a previous DUST blog entry introduced the heavy, medium, and light weapon classes, this one gets down and dirty with three variants designed for maximum destruction. First up is the Minmatar personal autocannon, followed by the Gallente plasma shotgun and the Caldari Nova knife. What about the Amarr? Sadly EVE's fourth player faction is nowhere to be found, but there's still plenty to read about on the official DUST 514 website.

Last week we continued our discussion about how to make a mobile game, and the Massively readers offered up some great input. I wish I had the space to write up every single comment, but instead I will pick some of my favorites and we can discuss it from there. Unfortunately, real life has pushed development on the game back just a bit. Dave Toulouse, my indie developer partner-in-crime in this series, not only has two games of his own to run, Star Corsairs and Golemizer, but is now dealing with my silly emails. So while last week's column got some great ideas in the comments section, we were really only able to switch out the artwork, name the game, and add a tad bit of lore.

Fear not, fair readers! I will break down the development that is still planned on being pushed into the game over the last week, and it's important to note that Dave and I plan on coming back to the experiment over time. I'd like to update the game and continue discussion since it has been so interesting so far! In the meanwhile, click here to go to the official game page!

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Dungeons and Dragons Online's new Forgotten Realms-themed expansion is on its way, but before it arrives on your desktop, Turbine will be upgrading the game via a prequel patch called Web of Chaos. Update 13 includes three new quests (the Lords of Dust, Servants of the Overlord, and Spinner of Shadows) as well as new veteran status that allows players to start their characters at level seven.

The update features new items too, and we've got a preview of the patch in our DDO gallery below. Check it out for the latest screenshots featuring Lolth and the Drow.

[Source: Turbine press release]

EVE Online is hard, or so goes the conventional wisdom. CCP's sci-fi sandbox has seen a lot of players roll up a spaceship avatar since 2003, and it's also seen quite a few of those players quit on account of the considerable learning curve.

A new dev blog by CCP Legion outlines a broad-stroke plan to mitigate these difficulties, and Legion says that "we want to give the players a chance to experience the coolness of EVE even in the beginning and make them understand all the potential within the game. In short, we want to make the first days, weeks and months in EVE enjoyable and not just something you have to plow through in order to get to the good stuff."

How is CCP going to do that without dumbing it down? That's still up in the air, but Legion says that the changes will focus more on teachable mechanics than step-by-step guides.

In other New Eden news, CCP has released a new video called The Awakening, and it presents the first moments of a new pod pilot as he is born into his new life. View it in full after the break.

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Welcome to a special interview edition of The Firing Line, folks. True MMOFPS titles are few and far between these days, though 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year for the genre thanks to games like PlanetSide 2, DUST 514, and possibly even Firefall. There's another massive FPS on its way, too, and even though it hasn't had quite as much press coverage as the aforementioned titles, 3000AD's Line of Defense project is worth a look.

Join me after the break for a conversation with lead designer Derek Smart as he talks about what makes the game massive as well as what sets it apart from its competitors.

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I've played more MMOs than I can remember over the years, and nearly all of them have failed to capture my long-term interest. Most of the games in my also-ran box got a first look because of some quirky feature. Most of them didn't get a second look because -- aside from said feature -- they sucked.

Every once in a while I'll regret leaving an MMO, though, and none moreso than Fallen Earth. Though I played extensively at launch and for a month or so after, I inexplicably forsook the wastelands for the world of Atreia. Upon returning to the game a few weeks ago and reconnecting with some old friends, I had to stop and take a moment to wonder what the heck I was thinking back in 2009. What about you, Massively crew? Have you had any similar head-scratching moments after rediscovering a previous title, and do you regret leaving it?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!