When I met Jeff Hickman at Gamescom earlier this month, I got the impression that the look of focused determination he wore would be more suited to a battle cruiser captain. But for BioWare’s Executive Producer for Live Services, and the man at the helm of Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR), such attention is warranted. In navigating his team through the rapidly shifting MMO landscape, Hickman hopes to attract newcomers to the game while offering subscribers a premium experience.

Besides a long look at payment models, Hickman and the team have also reassessed their approach to new content. While content updates will be slimmer than the large patches we’ve experienced previously, BioWare now hopes to deliver fresh gaming fun every six weeks. He also suggests that players should look closely at these updates if they want a hint of where the SWTOR story is heading.

I started off by asking about where the idea for SWTOR’s free-to-play option came from, and what influenced the team in deciding to offer it alongside the existing subscription. Hickman explained that, while they’ve been aware of what other MMOs were doing, it was player feedback that encouraged them to choose this route.

Where is the Guild Wars 2 Hall of Monuments? And how do you get there? Just what is it anyway? 

This new video guides you through reaching your Hall of Monuments to get your lovely legacy loot.

The race is over apparently - for those people who were in a rush.

After a total of 32 hours of gameplay, the first Guild Wars 2 max level character exists.

In predictable scenes this morning, Guild Wars 2 demonstrated that it was just like almost every other MMO on launch day, with login servers struggling to stay online against a rampaging horde of gamers eager to get in-game. 

Problems started shortly after 9PM PST, with Arenanet’s game opening three hours early, ahead of an official midnight launch. Although many gamers have since managed to log in, others have reported continual problems, ranging from launcher issues through to being unable to complete character creation. 

Being able to log in successfully is no sanctuary either, with isolated reports coming in of players being kicked mid-game with an “invalid password” error. 

Potential new residents of Tyria have been largely understanding about the login server issues, with users on both unofficial forums and Twitter drawing comparisons between Guild Wars 2 and other recent MMO and online game launches. 

Arenanet has commented on Twitter, stating that the team is hoping to resolve issues as soon as possible:

At present our server team are working on the underlying problems that are causing login issues, thank you for your continued patience ^AT

— Guild Wars 2 (@GuildWars2) August 25, 2012

Gareth “Gazimoff” Harmer, Staff Writer

The new ZAM site dedicated to assisting Guild Wars 2 fans goes live.

Alas, Gamescom is over for another year. If you didn’t manage to make it to the world’s biggest gaming expo this year then fear not. In between racing around the Koelnmesse, playing some incredible games and interviewing some fantastic developers, I also managed to snap a few shots of the impressive booths. Over the next few pages, I’m going to take you through a selection of the best booths on the show floor.

Developers of EverQuest II headed to Twitter today for their first "TweetChat" session. Players were asked to submit questions on Facebook, some of which were posted throughout the chat and answered by devs and producers. Throughout the chat additional spur-of-the-moment player questions were also addressed. We followed the chat and gathered all the information in one place for you to look over.

Read the full Q&A session after the jump!

I stand at a subway station, the grey tile and fluorescent lighting providing a pale backdrop for a small handful of commuters stranded at Hantell Street Station. A news report echoes around the entrance hall, streamed to a huddle of sorry faces crouched around an iPad. The reporter has no idea what’s going on. But then again, no one does. 

The ground shakes, dislodging streams of grit and dust from the ceiling. I decide to press on; ignoring the half-hearted pleas from one of NYPD’s finest, heading down the steps to the Seventh Avenue Line. There’s no service today, not any more. The loudest noise on the platform is coming from two German tourists arguing with each other. Something about Dusseldorf.

One of the subway trains has made a mess of the Downtown end of the platform, bursting through the roof and into the daylight above. Sensing an exit, I dash through the middle of the mangled train car. Emerging above ground, I’m just in time to see Air Force jets scream above. Sounds of the military are all around, with tanks rolling through the city streets and helicopter gunships circling nearby. Whatever’s going on, it’s big. It’s going to take a big team to take it down.

When was the last time you really looked at your keyboard? Sure, you might glare at it angrily when you fail to stab that crucial hotkey or mess up an infuriating jumping puzzle. But most of the time it remains largely ignored, an invisible slab of plastic protrusions that act as an interface into our virtual worlds.

In order to make our keyboards more useful, there’s been a growing trend to attach small displays, providing anything from health and mana in MMOs, to a running count of the number of unopened emails residing in our inboxes. These tiny LCD screens can be a real boon to those of us without a second monitor perched on their desk.

Entering this arena of beefed up button boxes is the Deathstalker Ultimate. Representing the top of Razer’s range of keyboards, this sleek, low-profile keyboard sports a whopping 4” LCD display, which also doubles up as a digital trackpad. Using the Switchblade technology unveiled at CES last year, there are ten LED keys supplementing this micro-monitor, each of which has a tiny screen sitting beneath it. Your fireball key can finally have a picture of a fireball underneath it.

Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Traversing Telara #16: Iron Fortress!

                          Catch up on all the past issues of Traversing Telara here!

Guardian

Anmar is questing around Quicksilver College and the North West of Silverwood this week. Apparently there has been a lot of trouble with goblins on this side of the wood. There are a number of quests that deal with those creatures, but at the moment Anmar is caught up in unraveling more of the mystery of Prince Hylas and House Aelfwar.