Each week, Chris "Syeric" Coke gives his unfiltered thoughts on the MMO industry. Taking on the news and hottest topics, Chris brings his extensive experience as a player and blogger to bear in Experience Points. This week he looks at Guild Wars 2 and what it means to really offer a living world in an MMORPG.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when “MMORPG” was synonymous with Virtual World. Players approached these games as they would a looming mountain; mysterious silhouettes growing larger with each passing footstep, things that existed before and would exist after and promised adventure deep in its hidden recesses. But somewhere along the line that mountain shrank. MMOs became slaves to their own accessibility, cannibalizing the very intrigue that catapulted them to success. The virtual world faded before cardboard sets and theme park rides. ArenaNet wants to change that. Its goal is, as Chris Whiteside explained, to push Guild Wars 2 as close to a living, breathing world as any MMO has yet come. I’m not sure that’s possible.

After returning from a convention like SOE Live, I imagine that it is customary to talk about your personal highlight of the show – I can only imagine due to it being my first, I’m so naïve.

There are a lot of things that stand out; interviewing John Smedley, Matt Higby, Tramell Ray Isaac and others. Chatting with Margaret Krohn – yes, she’s just as ridiculously nice in person -- and finally getting to meet a bunch of folks who I only previously knew through email. Add to all that, making new friends, having a good time at the Pool Party and so on.

Yet for me, the memory that raises the hair on my neck began at the costume judging contest. I stood behind the judges, taking pictures on my dying iPhone – I was plagued by tech issues all week – when a noble lady dressed as a caster was brought near the judging circle in a wheelchair. With the help of a friend, in obvious pain but showing supreme determination, she stood up and walked forward to be seen by the judges.

Change has been rumbling through the online gaming industry for some time now, and no company better represents this shift than Sony Online Entertainment. In the past year alone, two flagship SOE titles have made the transition from the traditional subscription-based revenue model to the more flexible microtransaction-based free-to-play model: DC Universe Online and EverQuest II. Of course, these two weren't the first to make the big shift for SOE, as their popular children's MMORPG, Free Realms, has already been pushing its popular microtransaction goodies for close to three years now.

Regardless, it seems like change is here to stay, and with SOE experiencing some phenomenal success with their free-to-play transitions, I decided to sit down with SOE's Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Laura Naviaux, to talk about the future of online gaming microtransaction models, SOE's vision for 2012, and much more. If you're at all interested in what's going on with the online gaming industry and the revenue models that govern it, take a read!

Rich "Greeblen" Schmelter, SOE's Director of Global Community Relations, announced today in a series of posts across several SOE forums that many of the Community Relations staff are changing games.

Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence is picking up the reins of the EverQuest II community.  Christie "Kiara" Renzetti, formerly the EQII CM, will move to EverQuest.  Lydia "Zatozia" Pope is moving from EverQuest to Star Wars Galaxies.  Roger "Draakull" Pilney, formerly of SWG, "will still be around," according to Greeblen.

We welcome all the Community Relations Managers to their new positions!