EverQuest II takes part in the celebration of 13 years of EverQuest with the Chronoportals live event. Ancient portals take players back in time to battle creatures of a distant past. Several of these encounters have memorable dialogues that any former EverQuest player can appreciate.

Whether you're looking for the chronoportal that Quillmane dwells within or need some help defeating the Nagafen's Lair encounter, our Chronoportals guide has it all. The event begins at 12:01am PDT on March 20, 2012 and will run until 11:59pm PDT on March 28, 2012.

Phase 3 of Carnival of the Ascended is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, March 14. During this phase the revelers start to get rowdy and the factions begin to vandalize each other's dragon parades. Assist with rooting out saboteurs, stopping your opposition in its tracks and arresting drunken revelers to earn your Pyrite Doubloon and progress the goal for this phase.

Crafters and harvesters can help their local medics in gathering and preparing supplies for those who have become injured during the celebrations. Visit the Herald of Heroes in Shimmersand to hear his latest story during the Tales of the Ascended raid quests.

As tensions begin to rise a merchant with some shady goods opens up for business. Grab your pitchfork and head for the carnival!

Nearly two years ago, just after the release date for Final Fantasy XIV was announced, I knew right away that I wanted to be a paladin in Eorzea. When the game’s starting classes were finally unveiled, the gladiator job seemed like the natural choice for playing a paladin-style role.

So imagine my disappointment when axe-wielding marauders were more highly regarded for tanking than sword-and-shield gladiators. You can also imagine all the confused mages who couldn’t discern between thaumaturges and conjurers, or the various damage dealers who shared from the same pool of marginally effective abilities. After years of playing specialized, meaningful roles in Final Fantasy XI, we arrived in Eorzea to find the various classes mired in mediocrity.

That’s all changing with the implementation of the game’s new job system introduced by Patch 1.21. With one fell swoop, the job system -- which is in addition to the original class system -- has infused the game with lore, purpose and progression.

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Check out Part I of our Smooth Operations Guide here!

It's been almost a month since I published Part I of my Smooth Operations guide to getting into Star Wars: The Old Republic's endgame content, so I apologize for the delay. That said, there weren't too many changes that affected endgame SWTOR over the past month with three exceptions: a small nerf to Biochem (which was entirely expected), a very nice bonus for SWTOR pre-orderers, and one sad nerf for fans of the flashpoint Siege of Kaon.

So without further ado, let's get into the guide!

Brewday kicks off on March 8th and your faithful ZAM staff has been working hard to bring you all the help you need. While drunkenly stumbling through Norrath we assisted Tellar Blackswell and Steinsister Daglara for this year's new quests. In the Butcherblock Mountains the pesky goblins trying to ruin the locals Brewday festivities were gleefully knocked over by carpets made of clovers. The event also features a new crafting scroll: Brewday Accoutrements to Craft III.

Back by popular demand we also offer you our updated Brewday Quest Tracker! Happy drinking!

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 Issue #4: Regulos and Maelforge!

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

Phase 2 of Carnival of the Ascended is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, March 7. During this phase the carnival will grow as new games like Place Your Bets, Drinking Contest and Fashion Show are added to the party in Shimmersand. Play these games to earn Prize Tickets to spend on merchant goods such as the balloon companions!

Dragon Parades will commence during this phase and the goal centers around upgrading the parade balloons. The parades will march through several zones as they follow their route. A title awaits those factions that are dedicated enough to meet their goals!

A bit of trouble has cropped up at the carnival in Shimmersand as Monte and his crew refuse to leave the party! Grab some friends and help clear them out to earn your Pyrite Doubloon for this phase. The Herald of Heroes is prepared to tell the story of Prince Hylas in the newest addition to the daily raid quests, Tales of the Ascended II.

On Thursday, March 8th the Return to Telara promotion kicks off, allowing previous subscribers to enjoy RIFT during a full week of unrestricted gameplay. Have fun at the carnival!

It's no secret that I've been a huge proponent of competitive PvP in MMORPGs from the very beginning, and even though many attempts have been made to generate a robust tournament-friendly MMO (Fury, World of Warcraft 3v3 arena, the original Guild Wars), the results have been less than stellar. That being said, Guild Wars 2 probably has the highest chance of any MMORPG to break into the mainstream competitive light and I, for one, could not be more excited. Throughout my experiences in the press beta two weeks ago, I spent much of it testing out all sorts of PvP builds. Near the end of the testing window, I also got the opportunity to grill ArenaNet Game Designer Jon Peters about the various design choices made to help GW2 succeed as a competitive MMORPG.

Of course, I didn't record any of it.

Regardless, I did manage to catch up with Jon once again to get his thoughts in a more formal manner, so without further ado, check out our interview with Game Designer Jon Peters on Guild Wars 2's combat, PvP, and eSports aspirations! 

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE!

This recent weekend was RIFT's big anniversary throughout North America, Europe, and Australia! We got in on the celebrations with an exclusive interview with Trion Worlds' CCO and RIFT's Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, and we're following up with a huge Rift giveaway! If you enter now, you can win anything from an Astro A40 Gaming Headset to a Logitech G500 Gaming Mouse, all the way to a free copy of RIFT, a RIFT t-shirt, or 30-day RIFT game time cards! ZAM is also throwing in a full year of premium membership access for our lucky winners so you can keep up on all your RIFT news and information.

Remember that Phase Two of the Carnival of the Ascended is scheduled to start on Wednesday, March 7th. ZAM's got you covered with our guide to the Carnival of the Ascended festivities, including a breakdown of each phase!

In addition to ZAM's Anniversary celebrations, Trion Worlds has also released a brand new RIFT Anniversary Trailer, and it's packed with all sorts of upcoming plans for 2012! It sounds like we're getting some new mechanically-themed content in the pipeline. Also, did anyone catch that whiteboard? It looks like there will be more than a new zone on the way. Check out the trailer after the jump!

This month the City Festival is hosted by the city of Neriak, featuring several new local specialties such as building blocks and a roof tile. The Aether Race in Darklight Wood will reward the prefix title of Fearless Flyer to players who complete the course in 89 seconds or less. Both events run concurrently and will end at 11:59pm PST on March 7th.

Patrons of Norrath's pubs will be heartened to hear that Brewday will be returning! This year features three new quests, several new rewards and ten new craftable items. The Bar of Brell is expected to open its portal around 12:01am PST on March 8th and should remain in business until 11:59pm PDT on March 19th.

Later in the month the denizens of the enchanted grottos will welcome assistance from those who seek them out. Players can search for those elusive pieces to their Moonlight collections and earn tokens toward purchasing house items or mounts. Moonlight Enchantments will run from 1am PDT on March 20th until 11:59pm PDT on March 21st.

EverQuest II takes part in the celebration of 13 years of EverQuest with the Chronoportals live event. Ancient portals take players back in time to battle creatures of a distant past. Several of these encounters have memorable dialogues that any former EverQuest player can appreciate. Portals are expected to coalesce throughout Norrath at 12am PDT on March 20th and will disappear again at 11:59pm PDT on March 28th.

Just as April is peeking around the corner, pranks will be running wild! The Bristlebane Day celebration is set to begin on March 27th and will run through 11:59pm PDT on April 9th. The "Highest of Silly Days" will be celebrated only on April 1st. We'll have more details on this event as it gets closer.