While it’s sort of meta for us to report on awards given out by our fellow news site MMORPG.com, it nevertheless warms our heart to see the hardworking RIFT and ambitious Star Wars the Old Republic get full nods from the industry.

“Rift had an incredibly smooth launch, a stellar sales record, and oh yeah… it actually was good too.  Like, really good,” MMORPG.com said in its awards announcement.

“On top of a complete and polished piece of MMORPG goodness, Trion has continually improved the game and added heaps of content in the nine months since it was birthed in a manner heretofore unheard of in the industry.  It may have some stiff competition in 2012, but there’s no doubt for us: Rift is the game of 2011,” it added for good measure to appease dissidents.

Of course SWTOR and Guild Wars 2 weren’t far behind from the podium stand, with both nabbing a shared spot as Most Anticipated. MMORPG.com gamely explains that even though SWTOR may have been dominating coverage everywhere and set to launch tomorrow, “eleven days of service doesn’t exactly cut it” for GoTY eligibility.

Still, it’s a fair bet of SWTOR credits that the sci-fi opus will be the contender to beat in 2012, should Guild Wars 2 fail to amass the same hype and critical back patting.

Here’s the full list of awardees:

• Game of the Year: RIFT (Winner), Eve Online (Runner-up)

• Most Anticipated: SWTOR and GW2 (Co-winners), TERA (RU)

• Most Innovative: DC Universe Online (W), Final Fantasy XIV (RU)

• Rising Star: Secret World (W), Glitch (RU)

• Best Hybrid MMO: League of Legends (W), World of Tanks (RU)

Final Fantasy XIV will start charging subscription fees by January 6, 2012 at a “special discounted rate” of $9.99 a month, said Square Enix.

It was supposed to be $12.99, but this full price will only be charged once the a planned revamp of FFXIV dubbed as Version 2.0, comes out on the PC and PS3 next year.

Paying the monthly fee will include a save slot for one character and 30 days access. There will also be cheaper rates for 90-day and 180-day subscriptions. Refer to the comparison charts below:

Learn more about the subscription billing

This will be the first time Square Enix will commence billing after it made the game temporarily free to play, as an apology for the game’s shortcomings.

But the game has been making strong strides under the leadership of Naoki Yoshida. FFXIV Gil is now easier to earn via questing and crafting, and lacking features like auto-combat and an auction house have been addressed.

Overall, it’s great to see FFXIV gain enough confidence to start charging fees, because it’s become quite a decent, if still a bit clunky, game. Will you be paying the new subs, Tooners, or are you already looking for another free-to-play MMO?

Almost a whole week of doing nothing but eating and playing your favorite MMOs – it’s no wonder Thanksgiving is one of gamers’ most favorite holidays.

But it gets doubly fun with the incredible deals, events and perks that crop up during this long, free play weekend. Here’s our yearly round-up that makes it slightly easier for you to decide where to spend your Thanksgiving in-game.

AION

Deals:

• Cuts the price on a game box to just $4.99. From November 23 to 28 at the Aion Store.

Events & Perks:

• Shugo Event showcase features Double XP on Weekends, Daru Days fur costumes and free gifts for logging in.

Buy Aion Kinah

EVERQUEST II

Deals:

• Loads of discounted Marketplace items “most of them at half-price or more.” Only on November 25 at the EQII Marketplace.

Events & Perks:

• Double XP Weekend for AA, tradeskill and adventure XP from November 24 to 27.

Buy EQII Plat

RIFT

Deals:

• Free game boxes for everyone, but no complimentary game time. The Ashes of History edition which comes with a Spindrel mount, personal banker and faction tabard is also down to $10. Available until further notice at RIFT trial upgrade page.

Events & Perks:

• Fae Yule world event as part of Patch 1.6
• 30% weekend bonuses, including XP, Favor, Prestige, dungeon currency and planarite.

Buy RIFT Platinum

RUNESCAPE

Deals:

• Purchase a 90-day RuneScape Membership card from Target ($22.50 in US) and GAME (£12.99 in UK) to receive a non-tradable turkey hat. Redemption must be from between November 18 to December 8.

Buy Runescape Gold

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

Deals:

• World of Warcraft per se has no sale, but its sister franchise StarCraft II is slashing its box price by half to $30. Until November 28 at Blizzard Store.

Events & Perks:

• Pilgrim’s Bounty is in full swing, bringing free food, buffs and holiday quests to players. Runs from November 20 to 26.

Buy WoW Gold

STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC

Events & Perks:

• Mega beta test weekend is coming up from November 25 to 28 and will be the playtest equivalent of turkey stuffing, packed tight and irresistibly good!

Buy SWTOR Credits Soon

You will notice that a few of our favorite titles skipped the Thanksgiving bash, with many like FINAL FANTASY XI, FINAL FANTASY XIV and DC UNIVERSE ONLINE focusing on new patches and content instead.

In the end, it shouldn’t matter which MMO you end up spending the next week or two in. What should matter more is if you have fun and be with virtual friends you can be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving, tooners!

MMO players always get a do-over: Roll another character, reset stats, rerun the dungeon.

But for MMO developers, it’s not such a good idea. Unless you’re Final Fantasy XIV.

FFXIV Version 2.0

Square Enix announced that in late 2012, it will relaunch Final Fantasy XIV as Version 2.0 on both the PC and the PlayStation 3 console.

“Between October and December of 2012, we plan to integrate the current service and the coming PlayStation®3 version into the all-new Final Fantasy XIV. At this time, a second free trial period will also be offered,” said producer and director Naoki Yoshida.

FFXIV had a botched release that forced Square Enix to replace its former producer Hiromichi Tanaka with Yoshida, revamp the game’s core mechanics in almost monthly patches, and offer free subscriptions to prevent a complete fan exodus.

These measures, implemented under the stewardship of Yoshida, have staunched the defections somewhat and have made the game deserving of a monthly fee — at least for some players who didn’t bristle at the announced resumption of subscription billing.

Billing Resumes

Together with the Version 2.0 announcement, Yoshida confirmed that billing will resume when Patch 1.20 is released in early December 2011.

“I feel that the game starts to feel like a Final Fantasy in 1.19 and in the future this will continue to become even more apparent. On this basis, we would like billing to start after patch 1.20 has been released, around the beginning of December,” said Yoshida, who has previously explained that the free subscriptions were being given as Square Enix works to make the MMO worthy of the Final Fantasy name.

Patch 1.20 will implement two of the most requested conveniences currently missing in FFXIV Player Character and Market search, which are the approximate equivalents of a party finder and auction house found in most every modern MMO.

In his latest forum post, he discusses the basic essentials of these features. Players will be able to directly purchase using the item search feature, for example, and they will also be able to search for specific party members based on class, job and even PT request.

What’s Coming?

Yoshida reassured that the resumption of subscriptions will be more than worth it for FFXIV players. More features are slated to be implemented in the lead-up to Version 2.0, including achievement and job systems, and new raids, recipes and battle content.

FFXIV Gil sinks will also be rolled out in the coming patches that range from player housing to salons and other appearance- and gear-changing systems. Yoshida also runs down a wishlist being considered that should please a large cross-section of the fanbase:

• Content Finder
• Language Servers (language servers and global servers)
• PvP/Large Scale PvP
• Free Company
• Primal Summoning
• Crystal Tower

While we personally admire Square Enix for channeling the Comeback Kid with its FFXIV Version 2.0 plans, not everyone will give this tenacious MMO a chance. Will you give it a second go or will you be too busy trying out the new kids on the block like Star Wars the Old Republic and Guild Wars 2?

Clear your schedules this weekend because Star Wars: the Old Republic might ask you to swing a lightsaber with game testing gusto.

The space saga MMO resumes its Beta Testing Weekends this October 7 to 10, with a promise that “with increased invite numbers from the first weekend, even more of you will get to play The Old Republic.”

Invites will be sent out via e-mail, but don’t expect the courtesy to be extended if you haven’t signed up and flagged yourself as a willing guinea pig game tester.

SWTOR Beta Testing Weekends began last month, inviting thousands to take a sneak peek and test run of the multi-world game universe. The beta tests came to a halt as developers hemmed and hawed on a release. But with a December 20 SWTOR launch now set in place, beta tests are expected to fire on all cylinders.

SWTOR senior online community manager Stepehen Reid has said before that Beta Testing Weekends are a “small scale simulation of a launch scenario” and will function as a stress test on the game’s servers, which will be swarmed with players come worldwide release.

Beta testers will be expected to try out all the available features — character creation, beginner zone exploration, lightsaber and space combat, SWTOR Credits looting – that will help developers catch bugs, work out kinks, and avoid the kind of wonky release that has hobbled MMOs (see: Final Fantasy XIV) right out of the gate.

It’s patch day in Final Fantasy XIV, and all manners of fiery and furry creatures have escaped into the Eorzean wilds!

Among the more hostile new fiends released in today’s Patch 1.19 is the fire primal Ifrit, a mainstay in most Final Fantasy games, who will singe every group of challengers, be it level 30 four-mans or level 50 eight-mans.

“Known also as the Lord of the Inferno, Ifrit is dreaded as a demon spawned of the seven hells by those who keep faith in the Twelve,” said the Square Enix hype machine. “Tales hold that in the mere act of exhalation, Ifrit produces heat of such torridity as to reduce iron to pools of white-hot liquid.”

An extra Hard version of the Ifrit fight will be available, and it promises to be one dizzyingly intense fight. The Japanese preview trailer shows the primal lighting up a ring of fire and dishing out cleave attacks, ground detonations and a triple clone illusion. But the cuts and burns will all be worth it when you claim the primal weapon rewards after.

Kweh! Chocobos Unleashed!

Welcome the lovable chocobos! Starting Patch 1.19, the iconic flightless birds will carry adventurers across the land as personal and rental mounts, and will surely become the most preferred method of travel. (What Airships?)

Personal mount chocobos can be summoned outdoors using a chocobo whistle, and will have a speed that matches the rental ones. How much FFXIV Gil, you ask to own one?

More like 3,000 company seals. This will probably be lowered in the future if players find the price too steep to bother. And oh riders, you need a rank of recruit or higher in a Grand Company to corral the feathery bipeds.

Rounding out the grotesque menagerie are the beastmen hordes whose strongholds are now wide open for dungeon farming. Treasure chests have been scattered deep in the Amal’jaa bases in Zahar’ak and it will be up to you to cut through the mobs to claim the loot.

Live from Japan… it’s Naoki Yoshida!

Tomorrow, the producer-cum-director for Final Fantasy XIV will be hosting the game’s anniversary telecast on YouTube where he “will be answering various questions sent by players around the globe.”

It’s unclear whether the quirky personality of Yoshi-P will translate on-screen, but Square Enix is betting that its closest thing to a Shigeru Miyamoto can convey an upbeat outlook for the still free-to-play MMO.

Final Fantasy XIV hasn’t exactly had a spectacular year. It had a dismal launch, but has been pushing for a rebound if recent patches are an indication. Almost all the systems that proved unplayable, including the FFXIV Gil economy, have either been revamped or removed entirely based on fan feedback.

Yoshi-P will mention all that, a few bits about patches 1.19 and 1.20, and a few roadmap reveals for what’s coming for the next year or so. If he stays as candid as he has been with his usual written Letter from the Producer – which won’t be hard because he’s planned to answer some personal questions – then this two-part YouTube broadcast should be a blast.

Here are the details if you plan to catch him live.

Date & Time

• First Broadcast : From Oct. 4, 2011 5:00 a.m. PDT
• Second Broadcast : Somewhere between end of October and early November

How to view the live broadcast

• Please access the following page on YouTube Live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sDJD23dIqw

How to submit questions

• Please follow the official FFXIV Twitter account (@FF_XIV_EN) and send a tweet with #XIVLive hash tag during the live broadcast.

First Broadcast(Oct. 4, 2011)

• Questions on patch 1.19 and a patch in the near future
• Questions about Naoki Yoshida himself

Second Broadcast(Sometime between October to early November)

• Questions on patch 1.19 that have surfaced after the implementation
• Questions on patch 1.20 and beyond and the future of FINAL FANTASY XIV

“Wait, but I can’t understand Japanese!”

Don’t let that stop you. An English translator is expected to post Twitter blasts for us stateside fans. If you can’t catch the live feed, the official forums will host a recap, presumably with stills of the FFXIV commander-in-chief gesturing in hilariously awkward ways. Because we already know he’s game for anything, right?

Meet your next overlords, Eorzeans.

Square Enix unveiled new intel on the Garlean Empire commanders leading the invasion of the free city-states, and who will most likely serve as endgame bosses in Final Fantasy XIV.

Out east, in the fallen city-state of Ala Mhigo, sits Gaius van Baelsar aka The Black Wolf who wields the gunblade Heirsbane (Left in black armor). His successful siege allowed the Empire to establish a foothold in the continent.

Leading the assault westward to Gridania is fellow legatus Nael van Darnus aka The White Raven (Right in white armor). With his deadly use of the gunhalberd Bradamante, the war-tempered veteran has secured countless victories for the Empire and is eager to win more.

This latest reveal via the Grand Companies of Eorzea page is one of our first detailed glimpses of the northern invaders, and we were immediately reminded of the powerful judges that have appeared and served as antagonists in previous Final Fantasy worlds.

For comparison, note the head-to-toe armor and distinctive headgear that covers the whole face of Archadian judges in Final Fantasy XII.

The similarities aren’t the least bit surprising. Akihiko Yoshida, who is overseeing art direction for Final Fantasy XIV, was the main character designer for Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance where the judges initially appeared.

But the Garleans look nowhere near as untouchable as the judges. Their scuffed, misshapen armor and blood-red cloth suggest a life spent in constant battle.

What special powers do the Black Wolf and White Raven have? Will we get to fight them? What special gear and FFXIV Gil rewards do they drop? Hopefully, we’ll get more info soon!

Square Enix has published a layman’s guide to the extremely anticipated Materia system in Final Fantasy XIV. No surprise deviations from the announced plans; but new details make the item-imbuing process sound less complicated this time around.

Materia Creation

Materia, which provide bonus abilities when attached to weapons, can be created from spare weapons via the simple process known as materia assimilation below.

All weapons eligible for materia assimilation need to have reached a 100% spiritbond with the user. Each weapon, when converted into materia, provides varying bonuses including stats and element affinities.

Materia Melding

After materia has been created, it will have to be attached through the materia melding process initiated by the Disciples of the Hand, with advanced melders being able to attach up to five materia in one piece of equipment.

Catalyst items for the said process will have to be farmed by Disciples of the Land gatherers.

Materia Purging

Materia can be removed from items via the materia purging process, which will cost FFXIV Gil from designated vendors, and will permanently destroy the detached materia.

Square Enix also added a few teaser lines at the end of the Lodestone Materia guide that foreshadows a “forbidden branch of the craft that leads to power beyond imagining… but only at great cost.”

A riskier but more rewarding materia creation process? I know plenty of Eorzeans who’ll sign up for that.

Farming isn’t point-and-click easy in Final Fantasy XIV, what with aggressive monsters lurking around node points, promising quick death for unwary harvesters.

But enter the ultimate side step: A land stealth ability coming in Patch 1.19.

Square Enix announced that the Coeurl Step stealth ability, which lets Disciples of the Land gather mats in undetected peace, will finally arrive in the end-September patch.

Once activated, this Solid Snake-like stealth trick remains indefinitely activated unless cancelled by certain unspecified enemies that can still pierce through the stealth, or by entering no-stealth areas like city-states, dungeons and instanced raids. Class changes and initiating aggro also remove the invisibility cloak.

Based on the progression levels detailed in the announcement post, players are expected to avoid enemies up to 12 levels higher. The stealth ability can be upgraded four times up to Coeurl Step IV, which is learned at level 38 and renders you undetectable by enemies level 50 down. The lower levels scale decreasingly in increments of ten.

Many expect the new stealth ability to boost FFXIV Gil profits for Disciples of the Land who can now plan more straightforward farming routes, instead of the “the coast is clear” approach that many have been using now.