Not everyone’s cut out to be an Ark Hunter. For some, the idea of working for the likes of Von Bach is too much to stomach. Like working for The Man, and there are plenty folks round here who’ve had their fill. Others, well, they wouldn’t last ten minutes outside of town.

The world has changed. I’m not sure what history you’ve been watching, but the Arkfall, the wars and the terraforming changed everything. Now we’ve got aliens, both friendly and not, giant bugs, and who knows what else out there. Not exactly an easy place to make some scrip.

Me? I’ve never been too worried about where I get my scrip from, and at least Von Bach is paying for my time. It’s why I went through all that Ark Hunter Induction business, where they sign you up and jab you full of needles. Sure, it looks mighty pretty on the outside, but that place is full of sharps.

It started, innocently enough, with a snowball fight. I was casually wandering through Lion's Arch, admiring the hovering Asuran snow-making machines, when I was pelted by something soft and cold. Another followed the first, itself followed by barely concealed giggling. But this wasn't a player picking on my diminutive Engineer. Instead, NPCs and players were making the most of the snow, in a way that made it difficult to tell which was which.

And this is just the surface. Putting aside some snowball-fight based Turing Test; ArenaNet has packed so much into their Wintersday event for Guild Wars 2 that it'll survive even the deepest winter. 

Defiance is about more than a game. For Trion Worlds, it’s about building a universe where a deep cross-platform MMO and big-budget TV series can co-exist and interact. Senior producer Rob Hill has been there from the start, helping to shape the idea of the game, and working with SyFy to grow it into something more.

I recently got the chance to try Defiance for myself (more on that later), getting stuck in with the post-apocalyptic third-person shooter, set in a sprawling MMO-ready landscape. Taking a break from mowing down Hellbug skitterings on my quad buggy, I asked Hill about what it’s taken to get this far, some of the nuances of the Defiance universe, and meeting that April 2013 launch date.

Each day from today, December 13, through December 24  players can participate in a new challenge to earn presents! Speak to Trina Turtledove near the Gifting Tree in Snowhill for daily quests and to check your progress. Completing 4, 8, or 12 daily presents will allow you to open up "big" presents on December 25. You'll also be able to open up your individual small presents on the 25th!

If you miss a day, don't fret! You can still complete the challenge and buy a bow in order to open the present you missed. They're free if you are able to visit every day, though!

During the 12 Days of Presents you can also celebrate with a special daily deal in the Marketplace. Each daily special is unveiled in the morning Pacific time and is only available on that day. Check the Sale Items category on the Station Cash Marketplace for these deals through 11:59pm PST on December 24.

Have a Merry Snow Days!

It's that time of the year again.. for Atrophinius to demand more wassail and Grandfather Frost to bestow gifts upon the Ascended. Fae Yule will make its return at 3:30pm PST on Thursday, December 13 and features new quests, dimension items and more! Players can enjoy sledding in Iron Pine Peak, holiday-themed Instant Adventure and a Fae Yule Warfront. Deck out your dimension with new items found on event merchants (one of which has limited availability at IA locations) and go dashing through the snow-filled cities to earn a mount.

Fae Yule is expected to run through early January. Check out our video featuring the new sledding quest after the jump!

It's that time of year again: Santa Glug is coming to town!  Frostfell returns to Norrath on the 13th with new craftables, a new quest featuring goodies running amok, and new token rewards including wings that are a flying mount!  Be sure to stop by and see Santa Glug in Frostfell Wonderland Village, as he has seven new presents this year.

Frostfell is planned to start after the morning hotfix. If you want a peek or need a hand, check out our Frostfell Guide and the altaholics out there should print a copy of our Frostfell Quest Tracker!

I’m not sure which is tougher: building a haven from the End of the World, or battling against hordes of Funcom executives. Either way, game director Joel Bylos can claim victory. Starting today, The Secret World no longer requires a subscription. Just buy a copy to get access to everything the modern-day MMO has to offer.

Replacing the subscription is an optional membership, granting unique items, a $10 monthly stipend of Bonus Points to spend in the Item Store, plus a 10% discount off almost everything except content packs. You can find the full details on membership in Funcom’s FAQ. We’ve also managed to pull Joel Bylos away from bunker-building long enough to answer our questions on why they decided to switch, and what it means for The Secret World’s future.

Non-members are likely to be surprised by the level of restrictions they face: simply put, there aren’t any. The entire current game, with all the dungeons, lairs and PVP, is there to experience as much as you want.

Since launching in July this year, the Norwegian developer has released four major content updates, including a barbershop and plastic surgeon, rocket launchers and chainsaw auxiliary weapons, and the New York raid. Although these updates will continue, we’re told that some content will be sold as DLC. This will start with Issue #5 next January, although this will be free for anyone registering a copy of the game before the New Year.

In my own one-month-in review, I’ve previously talked about the brilliant storytelling, well-paced dungeons and clever server architecture that makes group-finding easy. I even declared the fiendish investigation missions “some of the most rewarding questing experiences I’ve ever had in MMOs.” If you’ve been on the fence about Funcom’s latest, now’s a great time to dive in.

After all, if the Mayans are right, you’ll only have 9 days left before Armageddon envelops us.

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Senior Contributing Editor

Other people reckon it’ll be zombies, but I’ve always thought that the Earth would be swallowed in a fiery nova, leaving nothing behind but a lifeless husk. I’m not sure why, it just seemed neater than hordes of brain-hunting undead shambling through the decaying hallmarks of our civilization. Besides, a global inferno that tears the land asunder has a kind of glorious finality to it.

Either way, for Funcom game director Joel Bylos, the argument has been won. Starting today, The Secret World no longer requires a subscription. Just pick up a copy and you can experience the entire game until the Mayan Calendar runs out, or even longer if the predictions of doomsday turn out to be inaccurate.

We asked Bylos if he’d take a break from building his apocalypse-proof bunker to tell us more about his decision to drop the subscription. During the interview, he explained why having no restrictions is the best for gamers, and what the future holds should we survive beyond the 21st.

It’s been a busy year for CCP Games. The Icelandic developer’s been hard at work preparing Dust 514 for launch next year, expanding the EVE Online universe to the PlayStation 3. New Eden Open – their first eSports tournament – attracted a $10,000 prize fund from Own3d and sponsorship from Razer. EVE has even been inducted into the Museum of Modern Art, with CCP now recruiting players to help document a day in the spacefaring MMO.

With further eSports tournaments promised for next year, and plans for their tenth anniversary FanFest well underway, the team hasn’t lost focus on providing regular expansions for their core game. Launched this week, Retribution is the eighteenth in a series of continual updates and improvements. For Lead Game Designer Kristoffer Touborg, much of the year has been spent addressing the core issues that come with a ten-year legacy.

I’m honestly surprised. I’ve seen Google Chrome pull clever stunts, like music videos rendered in 3D using HTML5, or multi-player Facebook games powered with Flash; but a full-fledged MMO? I’d argue that it couldn’t be done.

It’s taken Mechanist Games to prove me wrong. Their current endeavor, City of Steam, looks and behaves just like any other MMORPG I’ve played. Sure, the character models are a little simplistic and the color palette is a little brown, but it works. The beauty is in accessibility; I can be logged in and exploring this industrial-era fantasy world in under ten seconds.

As the introductory cinematic explained how the World Machine is built from continent-sized cogs and gears, Communications Manager Gabriel Laforge agreed to guide me through the first few stages of City of Steam’s Closed Beta.