To celebrate RIFT's new wedding features, and with Valentine's Day just a few short days away, we've decided to host a RIFT Valentine's Day Giveaway! We're giving away some fantastic prizes this Valentine's Day, including a Sharkoon X-Tactic SP Gaming Headset, and a Sharkoon X-Tactic True 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset!

But that's not all! No Valentine's Day Sweepstakes would be complete without a little love, so we've also got a unique prize addition: an arrangement of flowers to be sent to a recipient of your choice! Surprise your Valentine this year with some pretty posies, or just send them to someone you think deserves a sweet surprise on this romantic day! The contest ends on February 14th, 2011, so get entering!

Also remember that from February 14th, 2012 to February 15th, 2012, Trion Worlds will also be making a push for a world-record for "Most In-Game Marriages in a 24-Hour Period," so spend some time in Telara on those days and make MMORPG history!

Be a part of MMORPG history! In exactly one week from today, Trion Worlds will be making its big push for a Guinness World Record, and they need your help to achieve it! Any players who get married between 9am PST on February 14, 2012 to 9am PST on February 15, 2012 will help Rift get one step closer to achieving its world record goal of Most In-Game Marriages in a 24-Hour Period. For the entire duration of the event, Rift GMs will be conducting impromptu wedding ceremonies throughout all of Telara, so if you've got a special place to celebrate, be sure to put in that petition soon. If you got married before February 14th, but still want to take part in the attempt, remember that you can purchase Divorce Papers from the Marriage Coordinator so that you can re-live those memories all over again! Finally, anyone who participates will receive an exclusive in-game title, "Tier of Knots," to commemorate the day. 

At the end of this week, Trion will also be announcing the winners of its Grand Wedding Package Giveaway! Last week, Trion got their players to write, in 300 words or less, about how online games played a role in their relationship. Five grand prize winners will walking away with a custom-tailored in-game wedding officiated by Rift's Community Manager, Elrar. Keep your eyes on the official forums for that announcement!

So if you want to take part in this romantic moment in MMORPG history, be sure to spend a little bit of your Valentine's Day in Telara, and help Rift set a world record!

Check out Part II of our Smooth Operations Guide here!

Leveling up in Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is one of the smoothest, most well-directed experiences I've had thus far, but when it comes to pursuing endgame content at level 50, it's surprising how little direction there is for aspiring endgame raiders. Some would argue that so much hand-holding isn't needed, but given that SWTOR might be the first MMORPG for many players, I've decided to compile a handy guide for getting geared and prepared for endgame raiding.

One comment I would like to make before I get started is that endgame progression in Star Wars: The Old Republic is surprisingly accessible for even the most heavily time-constrained player. At some points, it does seem like BioWare has made it too easy to get the very best gear in the game, but my main point is this: even if you hate endgame raiding in other MMORPGs, I would highly advise you to try out SWTOR's 8-person operations at least once. Both Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace - in spite of all their bugs - are fun and it's worth the experience to try them out. Now let's get on with Part I of the guide!

Lovers around the world rejoiced at the recent news of Erollisi Marr's reviviscence during the Goddess Risen event. To further celebrate the Goddess of Love and the Hunt, the Sisterhood of Erollisi, along with Aaronolis Swornlove, will be seeking assistance in New Halas throughout Erollisi Day. Dalron Pinot and his cheesy love lines makes a return while Diana Heartstrings and David Torchsong are hopeful that some adventurers will help them play matchmaker.

There are a couple of new quests available this year at the Cairn of the Huntress in New Halas. Players who haven't played matchmaker before should complete that task first before visiting Aaronolis and the Sisterhood of Erollisi. The Hearts a'Flutter contests in Antonica and the Commonlands have been revamped and a new grand prize has been added.

Creatures around Norrath will be dropping hard candies and love notes again, which can be used in crafting, consolidated into a single type or exchanged for event currency. Spend your Erollisi Coins at Steven and Douglas, who are found in East Freeport or Qeynos Harbor. Douglas offers 13 new merchant goodies this year which include Dungeon Maker spawners and activators. Steven's newest recipe scroll has 15 additional holiday themed items to craft.

Get in the mood of Erollisi Day this year with ZAM's YouTube playlists, featuring the songs that are the namesake of many of the Erollisi Day quests! We have compiled a full playlist of most possible (non-explicit) variations and a lite playlist that has only one variation of each song title.

Erollisi Day will begin at 12:01am PST on February 7th and end at 11:59pm PST on February 20th. Don't forget to keep your alts in order with our Erollisi Day Quest Tracker! Happy Erollisi Day!

Love PvP? Come to the player-organized* weekly tournament on the Test server!  The third weekly tournament is this coming Monday.  Check out some of last week's fast-paced action: participant videos are below the jump!

• When: Monday, February 6th at 7PM Eastern Time.  Here's our handy Time Zone Conversion Tool!
• Where: South of Ember Watch on Alpha PTS
• Events:  Best in Class title take away!!! 
• Rules: Matches will be best 2:3 you can only challenge the title holder once, you lose, better luck next week!
  Rules will be determined by both sides prior to the match!
• Conduct: Gentleman rules apply.

For more information or to sign up, see this thread in the PvP & Warfronts section of the official forums.   

The Swornlove siblings have been drawn to Erollisi Marr since childhood and were heartbroken when they heard news of her death. Annalisa took her loss especially hard and was unable to come to grips with her grief, and now Aaronolis fears for his sister. Seek out Aaronolis near the Cairn of the Huntress in Frostfang Sea to begin an adventure that will affect a change in Norrath's pantheon during the Goddess Risen event! This event will continue to run until 11:59pm PST on February 6th.

The Far Seas Caravan toted their goods across the lush lands of Greater Faydark, setting up their tents on the Green Knoll for the Kelethin City Festival. Nine new specialty items are available this month and can be purchased from Chris Weathers. The Flying Freebooters have joined the festivities and the Aether Racing course is once again available this month. The Aether Race and City Festival run concurrently and both end at 11:59pm PST on February 7th.

Spreading the word of love is what the Sisterhood of Erollisi, along with Aaronolis Swornlove, has dedicated their lives to. Players can help out the followers of the Goddess of Love during the annual holiday, Erollisi Day. New quests are available in New Halas and the Hearts a'Flutter contests have been revamped.

Spend your Erollisi Coins on the 13 new merchant goodies that Douglas offers, which include Dungeon Maker spawners and activators. Steven's newest recipe scroll has 15 additional holiday themed items to craft. Erollisi Day will begin at 12:01am PST on February 7th and end at 11:59pm PST on February 20th.

The phases of the moon will reveal the mysterious grottos again later in the month and their denizens will gladly offer you some tasks to perform. Moonlight Enchantments will run from 12:01am PST on February 20th until 11:59pm PST on February 21st.

This evening Scott Hartsman released his first Producer's Letter of 2012. It starts off with a recap of Rift's first year and all of the features and content that the various patches have brought to the game. He later talks about Trion's thoughts that have influenced the coming year's development plans.

Hello, Ascended!

What an amazing year it has been. As we approach RIFT’s first full birthday, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the things that have happened since launch and discuss the thinking that will shape the year to come.

If you’re reading this, chances are you already know that we think about MMOs a little bit differently than everyone else.  To us, everything is about the quality of the service, the speed of meaningful updates, and the relationship that combination creates with you.  We never forget that you are the reason we do everything we do.

In our last big Producer’s Letter, we talked about the kinds of themes we were aiming for.  We talked about making more story-based adventure available to more people (which surfaced in the form of Chronicles and Slivers), unique and better ways to play with others as easily as possible (which took the form of Instant Adventures, Onslaughts that added new build-and-defend gameplay to Ember Isle, and the largest zone events we’ve ever created), and ongoing advancement that occurs even after you hit level 50 (which then arrived in the form of Planar Attunement).

Continue reading after the jump for the rest of the Producer's Letter!

It's only been a month since 2012 landed and Trion Worlds has already been churning away, bringing us all sorts of lovely features to make our adventures in Telara that much more pleasant.

We've decided to round up the big additions to Rift that took place in January, all in one convenient little spot! So whether you're making a triumphant return to Telara and want to know what's going on, or if you've heard about Rift Lite and want to get your free adventuring on, check out our Rift content roundup bonanza - now with fancy 1.7 content pages from ZAM!

• Last week, Rift launched their Rift Mobile App on Android! Earn in-game loot by using the app, or just hop on to chat with guildmates while changing the guild message of the day to a hilarious - if uninformative - joke about Regulos. You can do all of that with the Rift Mobile App!

• Just recently, Rift launched patch 1.7! Complete with some huge PvP changes and itemization facelifts, patch 1.7 really upped the quality of life for Rift players around the world. It also included weddings, which you can find out more about on ZAM's Rift Site!

• Speaking of quality of life, with patch 1.7 also came Rift Lite. If you've been considering trying out Rift, there's absolutely no reason not to give Rift Lite a whirl.

And if all of that has got you inteterested in checking out Rift, be sure to head over to ZAM's Rift Site, where we've got content pages on all of your 1.7 additions:

• Chronicle: River of Souls, Chains of Death
• Master-Mode Caduceus Rise
• Weddings

Amanda 'Amary' Fry posted on the official forums that the NA region shards will be coming offline at 8:00am PST on February 1 for the update to 1.7. To allow for additional shard verifications, the estimated downtime window is two hours.

Compiled patch notes will be updated and posted in the morning, but you can check out all the patch notes from the Public Test Server here on our forums.  UPDATE:  Find the complete patch notes after the jump.

While patch 1.7 is largely re-itemization and PvP changes, there is some new content to check out.  Take a look at ZAM's pages for:

• Chronicle: River of Souls, Chains of Death
• Master-Mode Caduceus Rise
• Weddings

We've also got the skinny on the new Porticulums. Be sure to upload your Discovery.Log to keep NPC locations, loot tables, and drop rates info coming in in to the database! 

Qho Augren has made a permanent impression upon many of being the brattiest child that Norrath has ever seen. Hailing from the Village of Shin, he nagged us time and time again to bring him back a multitude of harvests whenever we returned to him. The most recent Gathering Obsession quest had a unique twist however: Qho became a pet that follows us around!

I'm sure many people had fun jumping off of cliffs or battling the nastiest of beasts with him in tow, but I saw the opportunity to teach Qho more about harvesting... and the world beyond. Qho has now visited a wide variety of places with me, posed for many pictures and even provided a point of amusement as unsuspecting players on my server have hailed my Qho pet over and over, likely wondering why he didn't give them a quest.

I've had Qho as a pet since March 2011 and have taken him out for several unique adventures in that time. In the months that have passed since then Qho has stood steadfastly by my side throughout it all. Continue reading for more tales of Qho's exciting adventures!