Can you believe it's already been six months since the launch of Rift? To mark the occasion, Trion Worlds decided to host a Rift Half-Birthday Celebration from August 25 to September 1 that will give old and new players alike ample reason to log in and enjoy the festivities.

We had the opportunity to join other members of the press in a roundtable interview with Executive Producer Scott Hartsman to find out exactly what players will be getting during the birthday week. Keep reading after the jump for all the details!

Qho Augren, the perennial swimmer of the Village of Shin, is well-known among the many who have had the misfortune of crossing his path. He has 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 battled 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 and have taken him out for several unique adventures since that time. This time around I created a new twist, taking Qho out for a spin and, after careful printing and trimming, took his "real-life persona" with me to the 2011 SOE Las Vegas Fan Faire.

Continue reading after the jump for the full story of his most recent adventure!

It's day three of Guild Wars 2's Sylvari Week and ArenaNet has posted an interesting video that looks at the background of the plant race. Continuity and Lore Designer Ree Soesbee and Character Artist Kristen Perry explain how the sylvari grew from the initial designs into the race they are today. Soesbee even explains what sets the sylvari apart in the fantasy genre:

"There are a lot of poeple out there who say that they've seen everything fantasy games have to offer. But the sylvari are entirely unique. They are new to our world, they are new to every world. There's never been a creature like this in the fantasy genre. People try to match it and say, "is it an elf?" "Is it a dryad?" It's a sylvari. That's what it is. Trust me, you have not seen every story that a fantasy world can tell. Sylvari are new."

Watch the video below to learn all about the sylvari and see some in-game footage.

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. Three new specialty items are available and can be purchased from Chris Weathers. The Flying Freebooters have joined the festivities and a new Aether Racing course is also available this month. The aether race and city festival run concurrently and both end at 11:59pm PDT on August 7th.

A celebration of gnomish gizmos and gadgets is in full swing at Gnomeland Security Headquarters in Steamfont Mountains. New rewards, recipes, merchant items and a quest highlight the festivities this year. Tinkerfest will conclude at 11:59pm PDT on August 8th. For those of you with far too many alts check out our Tinkerfest Quest Tracker!

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 PDT on August 20th until 11:59pm PDT on August 21st.

The Velious Transportation Event, which focuses on the reactivation of the Dragon Ring in Great Divide and the Wizard Spires in Eastern Wastes, is still underway. Many servers have already completed the rebuilding efforts in both locations. UPDATE Aug. 9: This event will be extended past GU61. The merchants will remain on all servers past the GU61 launch, but tokens will only continue to spawn while a site is incomplete.

Today's update to the Star Wars: The Old Republic site is a video walkthrough of The Esseles Flashpoint, an early instance that Republic players will enter around level 9. In the Flashpoint, players must group together to protect a high-ranking diplomat and fend off Imperial boarding parties.

The walkthrough clocks in around 13 minutes, so grab a glass of blue milk and enjoy!

It's time for Tinkerfest, the Norrathian celebration of all things Gnomish! Your EQII ZAM staff has gotten the scoop on all the new additions to this popular live event. This year features new recipes, a new quest, more goodies and new rewards. Don't forget to hone your skills in the Gnomish language!

Tinkerfest will run from 12:01am PDT on July 29th through 11:59pm PDT on August 8th.

If you need a hint or just want a sneak peak before the festivities explode upon us on Friday, see our Tinkerfest Guide! For those of your with far too many alts, check out our Tinkerfest Quest Tracker.

Now you can proudly display your Rift achievements all over the interwebs!  Head over to our Rift Profile Tools page, where you can make character signatures and character and guild embeds to use wherever you have posting privileges.  You can find the Profile pages on the Tools menu at http://rift.zam.com.

Character signatures and Character and Guild embeds are generated using information from our Leaderboard database; leaderboard information on your signature will automatically update when our database does.  Other information, like server and level, has to be manually updated on the Profile Tools page. 

If your character is not in the Leaderboard database because it doesn't yet have a discovery, you can still use the Character Signature Generator to make a signature image.  When your character does get a discovery the signature and profile will be automatically synched the next time our data updates.

Share your thoughts on this new feature in our feedback thread!

UPDATE, July 25: Issues continue to cling to this event, the latest being that the Dragon Ring finale is not completing its quest for many people. If this affects you, DO NOT delete the quest from your journal and wait for a hotfix on July 27th that will offer an alternative way to complete it.

The Velious Transportation Event will see the activation of the Dragon Ring (druid ring) in Great Divide and the Wizard Spires in Eastern Wastes. Once they are complete players will be able to use them for a method of transporation.

The re-activation of this event will begin around 5pm PDT on Friday, July 22, 2011. The duration of the event will largely depend on how much each server contributes to their rebuilding process, but is expected to last anywhere from one to three weeks. Players can contribute by completing adventuring or errand quests!

This is a limited time event and once a transporation spot is fully completed on a server the quests will no longer be available. Take advantage of it while it lasts!

Check out our Velious Transportation Event guide for more information and a list of rewards. Continue after the jump for a list of changes included in the re-activation.

Click the above image for a larger look at the Collector's Edition.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is now available for pre-order! Supplies are limited, so act fast. All players who pre-order will get early game access and a Color Stone to change your weapon effect. If you want the earliest access to the game, pre-order as soon as possible because players will be given early access in the order they redeem their codes. No release date has been announced.

You can pre-order three different versions of the game, all of which come with 30 days of game time.

• Standard Edition, $59.99: Available in digital and physical copies.
• Digital Deluxe Edition, $79.99: Available exclusively through Origin.com, it comes with the following in-game items: Flare Gun, Training Droid, HoloDancer, HoloCam and STAP (Single Trooper Aerial Platform) vehicle.
• Collector's Edition, $149.99: Can only be purchased physically. Comes with all of the Digital Deluxe Edition's in-game items, as well as a Mouse Droid and access to the exclusive Collector's Edition Store. It also comes with a number of physical items, including The Journal of Master Gnost-Dural book, a Darth Malgus statue, a galaxy map, a security authentication key fob, a music CD, and a collectible metal case.

The Collector's Edition has sold out on Origin.com, but Community Manager Stephen Reid has tweeted that there will be many more CEs available in retail stores. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman made a similar announcement on the official forums, stating that "you can still pre-order the Collector’s Edition from the retailers on the pre-order landing page."

For more details, check out the FAQ. Will you be pre-ordering the game? Which version are you getting? You can discuss the topic with other ZAM users in the forum on our new Star Wars: The Old Republic site!

Have you ever wondered what exactly goes into being a community manager for a game like Rift? Then you'll definitely want to check out our latest exclusive Rift dev blog entry from Community Manager James "Elrar" Nichols. He explains how he is able to collect your feedback and bring it directly to the developers in an attempt to "close the rift between you and the game."

Keep reading after the jump to learn more about Elrar's role at Trion Worlds. Speaking of the Rift community, feel free to join our users in our ZAM Rift forums!