A whole weekend lost in a Rift, but I think what I’ll remember most about this last weekend was this jerk in General chat – named, ironically, Karana – who was going on and on about how the quests and everything else about the game was a copy of WoW.

Well, heck, I didn’t know Thomas Edison was resurrected just to offer his genius insights. But some people just can’t see past their own experiences with WoW. Like, the people complaining that every one of the classes will have a 50/16/0 point spec, as if the class-defining abilities of each ‘soul’ only happen once 50 points are spent on it, similar to WoW’s talent trees. ACTUALLY, the class-defining skill is usually given for free, at zero points. Smart players will have a synergistic three soul mix. Anyway, already went on about that, and though I’m loving Rift and have applied to a guild, I’m really tired of reading about it.

Well, let’s see if there’s some stories from the weekend that aren’t about Rift, shall we?

Star Trek Online

Just second to the Foundry in Star Trek Online’s most anticipated feature list is the return, this weekend, of the weekly Featured Episodes. The first arc dealt with the icy Breen, the villains of the Dominion War that razed Earth. That was followed by the battle against the vampiric Devidians. This third arc starts with Romulan trouble. With hints of a connection to earlier episodes, does this continue the deadly marriage of Romulan and Borg technology? We’ll find out Saturday. Thanks to Blue Kae for the heads-up!

DC Universe Online

With today’s launch of SOE’s PC/console superhero MMO tearing up the interwebs, Slurms of Multiplaying had a quick poll to gauge the excitement. Sounds like SOE should have given the title a little more publicity. Though with it plastered over every gaming site, I have o idea how anyone could not have known it was launching…

Champions Online

On the very day that superhero rumbler DC Universe Online launches, Cryptic announces that their own cape-and-spandex offering, Champions Online, will go cash shop powered on the 27th of this month. I find the two games very similar in feel, but only one of them is playable on the PS3.

Anjin of Bullet Points goes into some detail on what you will and will not get for your free play in Champions Online.

Dark Age of Camelot

You almost never hear anything good about “zerging” – throwing players at a problem, replacing strategy with sheer numbers. Maybe it’s gotten a bad rap; Keen makes some excellent arguments as to why you should love the zerg and how it made DAoC the premier PvP MMO of the decade.

EverQuest

EQ means a lot to us old MMO gamers. I played way too much, but I did come away with some great memories and good friends. Kaozz reminisces about the game a bit and points out that EverQuest will be opening a new progression server later this March. The server will open with no expansions available, then slowly open up expansions as time goes on.

This would be a PERFECT opportunity for gamers to take up the MMO Challenge and dive into the game that shaped modern MMO gaming.

By the way, I was thrilled and humbled to be asked to share my own EQ memories in Justin Olivetti’s “Game Archaeologist” column on Massively. I hope some of my old Crimson Eternity guildies recognize their characters in those screenshots :)

Pirates of the Burning Sea

Zoso at KiaSA writes about his adventures in Flying Lab’s “Pirates of the Burning Sea”. He loved the naval battles and was not so wild about the avatar combat… pretty much the same player verdicts since the game’s launch.

Mythos

Thanks to Jef Reahard, who’s become a regular link on this blog, news that Frogster is ramping up its coming launch of the embattled action MMO across Europe.

I wrote last week that the North American release of Mythos seemed to have fallen off a cliff. That silence was broken Monday with a post from community manager Mundo on the Redbana forums about the state of the NA beta. Seems Hanbitsoft is totally focused on the European launch, and has no dates for its introduction to the states.

At least they allow people to discuss the European release on the forums, now.

LEGO Universe

Speaking of games that seem to have dropped off a cliff; when NetDevil’s LEGO Universe launched last fall, everyone was shedding ink talking about its wonders. Since then, silence. Oz of Kill Ten Rats explains what’s been going on inside the game all this time and – not very much. Not the amount of new content promised, not by a long shot.

Real question: Are 8 year old kids noticing?

EverQuest 2 Extended

After her break-up with EverQuest 2 over the intrusiveness of its cash shop and other issues a few weeks ago, MMOQuest’s Stargrace finds that EQ2X’s housing may just possibly be enough to bring her back to the game in some (free) capacity. Well, the EQ2 “live” game isn’t doing that well; maybe it’s time to get with the program and join the F2P side.

Rift

No getting around it, the blogerati have been drinking in the Rift betas. This last weekend focused on instanced battlegrounds – “warfronts” – and the level 20-27 adventure zones for the two factions.

Tramell of Steel Harmony tried out both warfronts and the Stonefields, a Defiant-controlled zone under attack from the Plane of Earth. I think he got Black Garden and Codex mixed up.

Is Rift a throwback to an earlier era when MMOs required grouping to progress? Pete of Dragonchasers admits that there are many things you will need other players for; but you don’t really need to be grouped for most of them.

Is Blogging Journalism?

Massively’s Jef Reahard, who stirred some controversy last week with his dismissive summary of Rift, is back to address those readers who played the “journalist” card. TL;DR version: Bloggers are not journalists, and GAME bloggers are far too cozy with game developers to get the necessary distance to allow real reporting. Particularly ironic is his condemnation of pro blogs that happily retype game company press releases and call it news. The irony being that Massively.com would be a far slimmer site if reworded press releases were removed.

Oh, I think that’s enough for now. No big Lucent Heart news on the horizon.