Final Fantasy XIV producer/director Naoki Yoshida met with several members of the gaming media on Monday at Square Enix's North American headquarters in El Segundo, CA. The purpose of the media blitz was to discuss the growth of the game, including SE's plans to release an updated version of FFXIV by the end of 2012.

Yoshida's busy afternoon included an hour-long interview with the ZAM Network. All questions and answers were translated by Michael-Christopher Koji Fox of SE's localization division.

Before taking questions, Yoshida delivered an opening statement: "We believe that we have some of the best fans in the world, and that for the past year, the reason that we've been able to continue is because we have this great fan base that has supported us through the tough times. We'd like to believe that everything we're doing now, and the version 2.0 we're heading for, is for our fans, and we're making it for them."

Discuss this in the ZAM forums.

And now, the Q&A:

Starting at 12:01am PDT on Thursday, October 13, ghouls and goblins can be seen creeping around the city streets in Norrath as Nights of the Dead returns once again. Put on your favorite costume or illusion and join in the festivities with your fellow players!

Familiar faces from years past have returned offering their quests, games and wares. Repeatable quests from prior years now have a new reward choice along with a couple of bonus plushies in the original Haunted House. New this year is a Flora vs. Undead themed quest as well as an updated version of last year's Devotee challenge. Crafters will be pleased to hear that the new Celebrations of the Dead IV scroll offers 19 additional recipes that are sure to make your home scream in delight.

Players wanting to consolidate their candy into one type can use the candy exchange Gigglegibber, who can be found in all player cities. Trick-or-Treating in Qeynos and Freeport features one new grand prize this year and the Headless Horseman epic encounter will once again make a return.

Nights of the Dead will run until 11:59pm PST on November 7th. For those of your with far too many alts, check out our Nights of the Dead Quest Tracker!

UPDATE: Extra Life is over and gamers around the world raised more than $1.1 million! The Trion Worlds team raised more than $34,000.

On Saturday, October 15, gamers across the world will participate in the Extra Life 24-hour marathon event to raise money to help kids at Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Sounds like a great cause, right? Trion Worlds agreed, which is why they'll be giving out Rift awards like titles and items to players who register for the event and venture into Telara this weekend alongside members of Trion's community and development teams!

Cindy "Abigale" Bowens, Trion's director of community for North America, was kind enough to talk with us about the Rift Extra Life event that kicks off on October 15 at 8 a.m. PDT. You can read the full interview after the jump. If you'd like to join the 2,500 Rift players who have already signed up to help children by playing the game (including yours truly), head over to the Extra Life site and register!

Beastlords disappeared from Norrath as the Truespirit, powerful spirit guides, retreated along with the gods. Since the Age of Cataclysm, their power has been slowly re-entering the world, but their very existence was in danger from a corruption called the Blight. In the first half of the Beastlord Prelude event adventurers assisted the wise spirits Ilfanul and Ravinus with eliminating the Blight through a ritual cleansing.

The Truespirit calls forth those brave adventurers again to further assist with the Third Awakening of the Beastlords. Harbingers of this Awakening will test whether or not these people are are worthy of introducing the teachings of the Bonding rituals between Beastlord and Warder to Norrath.

Evil aligned players may continue their journey with Olgen at the Temple of War in North Freeport. Good aligned players can speak to Meli outside the Temple of Life in North Qeynos. Adventurers who have not assisted with the first half of this event should seek out Caalina in Antonica or Elmin in Commonlands.

The final chapter in the Beastlord Prelude Event begins with today's update and should run until the launch of Age of Discovery.

Many of you are familiar with our Soul Tree Calculator, which allows you to explore the abilities of all of Rift's souls and link to your favorite builds for each calling. With the release of the Planar Attunement post-50 advancement system in Update 1.5, we immediately knew we wanted to release a calculator for it. That day has arrived.

Click here to use our new Rift Planar Attunement Calculator!

If you're not familiar with Planar Attunement, it's an alternative advancement system that is activated when a player reaches level 50. Players can earn experience points by killing mobs and completing quests. Planar Attunement points are granted when you earn a post-50 "level" and can be spent in one of the six attunement trees (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Life, and Death) to enhance your character.

Our Planar Attunement Calculator lets you play around with the trees of all four callings. Wonder what the Air tree for mages looks like? Want to know which abilities are available in the Earth tree for warriors? Using our calculator, you can now explore all of your post-50 leveling options before making your final choice in-game! And just like our Soul Tree Calculator, you can link to your build to share it with friends and other players.  Our PAC also includes:

• A listing of all stat increases gained by Planar Attunement.
• The ability to lock your build when you're happy with it and unlock it later.
• Links to your Attunement build presented in several handy formats.
• The ability to reset your entire build or reset individual planes.

Antonica found itself bustling with activity early on October 1st as the Far Seas caravans arrived to celebrate the Qeynos City Festival. 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 PDT on October 7th.

Next week the Nights of the Dead will be upon us, bringing with it many spooky tricks and treats. All of the quests introduced in prior years will make a return along with a new flora versus undead quest. New crafts and decorations will keep your home screaming with glee. Nights of the Dead will run from October 13th through November 7th.

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 begin on 12:01am PDT on October 20th and will conclude at 11:59pm PDT on October 21st.
 
Beastlords disappeared from Norrath as the Truespirit retreated along with the gods. The Truespirit seeks help from adventurers to cleanse a corruption and re-enter the world. Find out the lore of why and how the Beastlords are returning to Norrath in Part 1 of the Beastlord Prelude Event. The second half of this event is anticipated to go live by mid-October.

Rift Update 1.5: Ashes of History is now live! This update boasts a ton of new content, including the Planar Attunement post-50 advancement system, the duo Chronicles instances, the new Library of the Runemasters Warfront, Veteran Rewards, a new Master Dungeon mode for Darkening Deeps, Warfont Accolades, the beta version of the AddOns system and more! The upcoming world event will require players to repair the ancient Travel Stones and stop two dragon cults before they overwhelm Telara.

Check out the 1.5 patch notes for all of the details, and look through our recent interview with Executive Producer Scott Hartsman and Design Producer Hal Hanlin to hear their thoughts on the update. And to top things off, watch the Ashes of History launch trailer below!

BioWare just announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch on December 20 in North America and on December 22 in Europe! BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk revealed the dates during their keynote address at the 2011 Eurogamer Expo in London, England.

UPDATE, 10/14: The global launch date is now December 20, which means European players will get the game on the same day as North American players.

Each copy of Star Wars: The Old Republic will come with 30 days of subscription time, after which you have the option to continue playing with one of the following monthly subscription fees:

• 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99)
• 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97)
• 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94)

There's still time to pre-order the game to get early access before the official launch, as well as exclusive items. You can choose between three different versions of Star Wars: The Old Republic: the Standard Edition for $59.99, the Digital Deluxe Edition for $79.99, and the physical Collector's Edition for  $149.99.

SOE is getting ready to clear out some Marketplace items.  These items have been placed in a special Marketplace category, Vault of Serilis, and will be removed from the Marketplace on October 2, 2011.  This is your last chance to get these items until at least next year!

See a complete list of items to be discontinued after the jump.

The Consignment (Broker) System is the means by which EverQuest II players buy from and sell to each other. It is also referred to as the Market, Broker, Auction House or Bazaar due to the influence of other games.

Using the Broker System when you're a new or returning player can be quite overwhelming. It helps to find the right kind of Sales Crate to maximize your profits and selling capacity. It's also important to be aware of the markup fees when buying directly from the broker. Some Extended players may also be limited with how they can interact with this feature.

We have all of this and more covered in our featured guide, Buying and Selling on the Market!