Hello and welcome to the 25th edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, we're going to be talking about the player's impact on the world around them. As with all MMOs there's a constant struggle between the RPG need for a world that evolves with the player's actions and deeds, versus the MMO need for a persistent world where you can interact with other players, help them with quests you've already completed, rerun dungeons, etc. However, FFXIV is unique for an MMO in that it's placed such an emphasis on its main storyline, tying it to most aspects of the game from unlocking features of the game to connecting the various dungeons to it in some fashion. How do we reconcile the need to have some lasting impact on the world with the other thousands of people playing alongside you, all wanting that same sense of progress?

Nights of the Dead, the annual EverQuest II celebration of all things spooky, is slated to start October 9th on live servers. Your faithful ZAM staff have been risking their lives on Test to bring you dire warnings!

This year brings back all your favorites, from the Haunted Mansion to the Hedge Hollow. New this time around is a quest from Setri Lur'eth in Nektulos Forest, two achievements, and pumpkin bombs with prizes inside! See if you can get all the new collections and earn the right to be titled "The Pumpkin King!"

Should you need a hand to hold in the dark (or just want to know where gumdrops drop), ZAM's got it all. Start with our Nights Of the Dead Guide, and keep track of all your alts with our popular Nights of the Dead Quest Tracker!

2014 marks ZAM's 15th anniversary, and the site has surely come a long way since then. Our President, Cody Bye, and Director of Content, Micheal Bailey (Mike B), sat down recently with [a]listdaily's Senior Editor, Steve Peterson, to briefly chat about ZAM's history, the changing MMO community and the future of MMOs.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced a "Get Ready for 100" bonus program to ramp up for the next EverQuest II expansion, Altar of Malice! Beginning Tuesday, October 7 at 12:00pm PDT and running through Monday, November 10 at 11:59pm PDT, players can receive bonus experience, double Etyma, and a chance to obtain some awesome items in game!

Hello and welcome to the 24th edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM's column on Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week's column, we're looking at FFXIV's mobile extensions: smartphone applications. Unfortunately for all of us, there comes a time when we must step away from our PC or console and venture into the real world, be it for work, school or just to grab food. This may have been a problem with early MMOs, but these days many MMO players have a smartphone at their side. These mini-computers have the power to keep you connected to your friends both in the real world as well as your friends in Eorzea through web access and dedicated applications. The options available from Square Enix right now are a step in the right direction, but there's plenty of room for improvement.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is chugging along wonderfully. To keep up momentum, Square Enix has showcased the upcoming content of Dreams of Ice Patch 2.4. With new classes – the Rogue and Ninja – and several places to explore, it's a solid update.

To see what's coming your way, check out the seven minutes of video below:

Note: Yes, all the videos are in Japanese. Definitely still worth a watch!

EverQuest II: Altar of Malice is slated to launch on November 11th for All Access players and November 25th for F2P players. Following the wake of the Ages End saga, players will enter the Shattered Seas to discover what has befallen the Far Seas Trading Company and what mysteries lie in the turmoil waters.

Hello and welcome to the 23rd edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, we’re taking a look at another class from the Final Fantasy series. In the previous columns where we played armchair class designer, we were always starting off with a simple base. There was always work to do with differentiating the class from others and choosing resource systems, but at their core the classes always had a solid base. At their core an Engineer or a Thief fits into an MMO just as easily as a White Mage or a Warrior – they fill a Holy Trinity role and their skills are all built around actions taken in combat. Not all Final Fantasy classes are that easy of a fit though. Adding an Engineer is simple enough, but how does one make a Chemist work in an MMO?

Holly "Windstalker" Longdale, EverQuest II's Senior Producer, posted a Producer's Letter which itemilzes not only the update schedule for September through November, 2014, but the entire timeline for the launch of Altar of Malice, EverQuest II's 11th expansion!

Here's the important dates for Altar of Malice:

• Limited Beta (All Access Members): October 7
• Open Beta: October 14
• Preoder dates: none
• All Access member purchase and play date: November 11
• Launch date for everyone: November 25

For more details about the expansion and the complete update schedule for the next three months, see the entire letter below or check it out on the official forums.

Hello and welcome to the 22nd edition of the Eorzea Examiner, ZAM’s column on Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. For this week’s column, I’m going to be looking at that most common of complaints/suggestions for modern MMOs: going Free to Play. If you read articles about nearly any MMO, watch YouTube videos, etc, there’s a couple of comments that keep showing up on those posts. “I’ll check it out once it goes F2P.” “They’re crazy to use subscriptions! No one pays a monthly fee these days!” “I give it two months tops before it goes F2P.” All of these commenters see the F2P model as either the savior of the modern MMO/gaming industry or this absolute final destination for all of those games once they’ve gotten that silly “asking for money regularly” thing out of their systems. The question is: are they right or is there room in the MMO world to ask for a subscription fee?