It's Saturday, which means it's time to take a look at some of the most noteworthy news items of the week here at ZAM. EverQuest celebrated its 10th anniversary on March 16, so we've been busy conducting numerous interviews with EQ team members, and many of you participated by asking questions for our IRC chat with EQ developers. Keep reading below and after the jump for all the links.

ZAM Features

The Rise and Fall of AoC: Editor Christopher "Pwyff" Tom talks with Age of Conan Producer/Director Craig Morrison about the game's declining subscriptions, as well as what's changed since its launch.

Paying to Play: Associate Editor Sam "azerian" Maxted takes a closer look at how companies compensate for rising production costs.

Runes of Magic Preview: azerian got the chance to play Runes of Magic before its launch on March 19, and he feels the free price tag makes it worth a try, despite the fact it's similar to World of Warcraft.

Exploring LOTRO's Book 7 Update with Turbine: Pwyff toured the newest free update for Lord of the Rings Online before its launch on March 17 and asked Turbine some questions about what he saw.

EverQuest 10th Anniversary IRC Dev Chat: We hosted an IRC chat this week in honor of EQ's birthday. In case you missed it, we have the entire transcript right here.

Ten Years of EverQuest Interviews: We've spoken with members of the EQ team, both new and old, about their experiences with the game: David Ford, Adam Bell, Ed Hardin and Harvey Burgess.

Enter Allakhazam's Egg Fight!: You have until tomorrow, March 22, to decorate an Final Fantasy XI-themed egg and submit a photo to us for a chance at some prizes.

Noteworthy News

EverQuest Celebrates 10th Anniversary: The title says it all. Happy birthday, EQ! Here's to another 10 years.

Blizzard Updates UI Add-On Development Policy: Blizzard has formalized design and distribution guidelines for add-ons. There's numerous changes, including the fact that developers can no longer sell their add-ons.

Blizzard Adds Battle.net to WoW: Blizzard has added the Battle.net account option to all games they offer, including World of Warcraft and the Blizzard store, as a way to access all your favorite Blizzard titles.

First Class Announced: BioWare has announced the first class for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it's the Bounty Hunter. Keep reading for more information on the class.

Runes of Magic Officially Launches Today: Runes of Magic, a free-to-play 3D MMORPG, is up and running. Nearly 700,000 players registered to play the first day alone.

Gazillion Announces Plans to Develop Marvel MMOs: A new MMO producer/developer has announced a partnership with Marvel Entertainment to create games based in the famous comic universe.

SOE Fan Faire Returning to Las Vegas June 25-28: If you'd like to attend this year's Fan Faire, it may be a good idea to start planning now. Bally's Las Vegas is offering special rates, but they will probably sell out quickly.

Issue 14 Open Beta has Begun: Jump onto the test server in City of Heroes to try out the new Mission Architect feature before it hits the live servers.