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)

A year ago, World of Warcraft reached 12 million current subscribers, cementing its place as the undisputed number one MMO in the world. But with the game losing close to a million players over the past two quarters, its continued dominance is now being questioned.

Of course, publisher Blizzard isn’t taking this sitting down. Bold new features like its “forever” trial and plans for faster content development are said to reinvigorate the game – but will they be enough? Russ and Mick discuss.

Mick’s Schtick

I’m calling it now: This is the beginning of the end for the WoW Empire – at least as we know it in the Western world.

The latest conference call shows that Blizzard (or more conspiratorially, Kotick and the Activision overlords) are looking to expand to emerging markets like Brazil, Russia and China to offset the overall decline, presumably in the US and EU regions.

Because you know, cash in any other currency is still cash.

As I see it, Western players are barely hanging onto Azeroth for lack of alternatives. I personally un-sub from WoW after finishing the current content, then jump to flavor-of-the-month MMOs like RIFT in between patches.

The danger is when we “straddlers” decide to stop re-visiting WoW for good. I see more of this happening as more of the heavy hitter alternatives become available like Star Wars: the Old Republic and Guild Wars 2. But of course, Blizzard won’t be too sad to see us go. They have fresh meat lined up anyway.

So to answer the question. Yes, Blizzard is planning to reinvigorate the game – but for new emerging market players first, and to us veteran Western players a far second.

Russ’ Rant

Much as I want to predict doomsday for the aging dinosaur in the room, I really think the decline of WoW this quarter part of a seasonal lull.

It’s summer and even other MMOs seem to be feeling the pinch. My main indicator: The growing desperation of promos in my e-mail inbox *cough RIFT and EVE Online*.

Now, I’m not a WoW cheerleader or anything. I just think that the game has more gas to it than people are giving it credit for. Its last expansion broke record numbers, selling 3.3 million copies in 24 hours.

Mick is right on the money that the demographics are shifting more to non-US and non-EU markets. And I think Blizzard has accepted this inevitable trend. But they will try to prevent a total exodus.

When the Western player base becomes too small, the community dynamics will make the game unplayable. Imagine fewer servers, longer random dungeon queues, less variety of Arena and Battlegrounds opponents, and fewer friends to play with. Yup, all the things we complain about “lesser” MMOs.

So WoW won’t be dying anytime soon, not if Blizzard can help it. All the stops will be pushed out to keep the cash cow running until Project Titan releases, and only then will the game go the dogs (aka go free-to-play).

The first day of E3 2011 gave us little in the way of MMO news, but hey, we take ‘em where we can get ‘em — from a “new” Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer to spectacular booths from RIFT and TERA.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

EA showed off nine games during its presentation, one of which was the Star Wars: The Old Republic. No, there was no mention of a confirmed release date, but at least there was eye candy to be had.

The “Choose” trailer draws you in, but for fans who’ve watched every single CGI video connected to SWTOR, watching it might be the equivalent of eating day-old bread. Footage from previous trailers were simply pieced together to form the new trailer, but with compelling new voice acting that plays up the faction conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire.

Overall, a great bit of cinema for the uninitiated. Watch the video below:

Dust 514

Later at the Sony conference, CCP previewed Dust 514, their PS3-exclusive title that ties in to the EVE Online universe. Beta testing is expected by the end of the year, with a spring 2012 release scheduled.

RIFT

From the looks of the slightly blurry sneak peek picture below, Trion Worlds has re-created a Life rift to serve as the centerpiece of the RIFT booth in E3.

For those who’re swinging by hoping to score a Scott Hartsman sighting or quick RIFT Platinum run at the demo display units, the Trion Worlds booth is number 4432 in the West Hall.

TERA

Not to be outshined, En Masse Entertainment took to Twitter where they plan to host a live developer chat led with producer Brian Knox later at around 4:30-5:30 PST.

The action combat MMO is scheduled to open its E3 booth on June 8, but based on the leaked video teasers, they’ve pulled out all the stops to make it impressive-looking.

Guild Wars 2

And if you’re wondering when ArenaNet’s sequel is going to make a splash, well, it won’t.

The developer had announced that it won’t be attending E3 2011, and “will focus on shows that allow us to share Guild Wars 2 directly with gamers,” meaning conventions like San Diego Comic-Con, Gamescom and PAX Prime all scheduled from July to August.

That’s it for Day 1 in E3 2011. We’ll be sure to post major trailers and reveals as soon as they crop up from the floor show.

Millions of dollars changed hands this week as Blizzard fans emptied their wallets for another cash shop mount, while Perfect World paid roughly $50M to become the new majority owner of Cryptic Studios.

Winged Guardian Flies Off the Digital Shelves

When the Winged Guardian flying mount went on sale at the Blizzard Store a few days ago, a vocal few proclaimed the $25 ride to be a recycled hippogryph with a slightly better graphics skin.

But this diss didn’t stop World of Warcraft players from lining up in the thousands, making Blizzard some nice chump change. It was roughly a year ago when the company also began selling the Celestial Steed, which managed to bring in an estimated $2.5 million on its first sale day alone.

There’s been no word yet on how many lion-eagle rides have sold, but a casual stroll in the forums shows that the new cash shop exclusive is quite the roaring charmer. And of course, there’s the usual groaning on why WoW Gold-bought mounts can’t look half as awesome as the Winged Guardian.

Perfect World Now Made More Cryptic

Atari wasted no time unloading Cryptic Studios off its balance sheet, inking a roughly $50-million deal with Perfect World for all equity interest in the MMO developer.

It’s an East-meets-West takeover. China-based publisher Perfect World has said that it purchased the US-based Cryptic Studios to extend its presence in the US, Europe and other western markets.

But the biggest question now is whether the acquisition will push all Cryptic Studios games like Champions Online, Star Trek Online and City of Heroes to become free-to-play. Perfect World has a full stable of free-to-play MMOs with prominent cash shops, so there’s an expectation that the subscription model will be chucked out the window.

OK This Time, Let’s Make It More Than An Hour…

Trion Worlds takes the first crucial steps to testing RIFT Patch 1.3, with the world event now on the Public Test Shard for what seems to be a one-day run-through. You can still catch the testing event – and don’t worry about RIFT Platinum or hitting max level. All your needs will be provided by gearing and leveling merchants on site.

The Children of War, Emphasis on Children

EverQuest II brushed off the delay woes caused by the SOE server outage and launched The Children of War patch as (revised) planned. This marks the 60^th game update for the fantasy MMO, and focuses on sprawling PvP changes plus a few new instances and raids about supernatural kids with a serious case of the Bad Daddy complex.

E3 Showdown

And lastly, the big E3 conference commences next week, but there’s already been confirmation of who among the big guns are attending.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is sure to make a splash in the EA conference, while TERA and Guild Wars 2 are expected to blow people away with their preview reveals. RIFT is also opening a booth, although its big message might only be to try out the Ascend-a-Friend and Free Trial programs.

We’ll fill you in on what goes down there in LA as it happens. Till then, knock yourself out in the comments section. Did you buy the Winged Guardian? Why not? And did Cryptic Studios luck out with their new Perfect World owners?

I’m so stuffed. I just got done with a tres massive helping of baked beans, sausages, bacon and eggs. Is there a better way to start the day? Well other than logging on and find out your WoW traveling partner has decided to go on a gaming hiatus and left you with a couple o’ hundred in wow gold and the keys to the guild. Also, I’d just like everyone to know that Gremlins 2: The New Batch, is the greatest movie ever.

Anyway, so we’re inching closer to the PSPGo’s October 1st launch date and personally I’m really excited, however, some retailers appear to be much less so. Apparently they’re not pleased that the price of the device is so high, and that the system doesn’t have a UMD drive so they can’t sell physical games in stores and thus make a healthy profit. Some of them are so angry they’re refusing to stock the device. Frankly, I’m with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter on this when he says;

It’s just silly for a retailer to say they won’t sell a big ticket gaming device because they can’t sell the games. Consumer electronics store sell refrigerators and not food, everyone sells iPods and not the music for them; this position is just ridiculous.

Couldn’t have said it better myself Mike. The bigger retail stores like Gamestop and er… Gamestop, seem to have grudgingly accepted the device, probably because they understand this is the way games delivery is going and there’s little they can do to stop it. As for those retailers proclaiming the device “a flop” before it even launches, I think they’re going to end up eating their words, or possibly some sort of cake like confection.

I have to admit I never truly got on board the Guild Wars bandwagon. It looked like a pretty game, I heard great things, it was free to play (after initial purchase) and I distinctly remember downloading and even installing the demo, getting as far as character creation… and then just not playing it. Whatever the case, I’m pretty excited about Guild Wars . All the concept art we’ve seen so far has looked monumentally epic in scale. If you’d like to see what I’m talking about have a gander at the recently released trailer, and after that head on over to read Massively’s interview with Eric Flannum, Lead Designer, Ree Soesbee, World Designer/Writer and Will McDermott, Writer.  Here are some snippets to whet your appetite:

Massively: 250 years is a long time, if you consider how far a country like the US has progressed in that same amount of time. Some of the concept art shows a “colonial” feel to the game. Is it safe to say that Guild Wars 2 will not be a traditional medieval-fantasy setting?

Eric Flannum: While we’ve never considered Guild Wars to take place in a traditional medieval setting it is especially true of Guild Wars 2. We have advanced the world both technically and culturally to a point that we thought was fitting for 250 years. Humanity for example has a parliamentary form of government while the Charr are on the verge of some very significant technological breakthroughs. Some of the more obvious gameplay impact [sic]  will have are in the use of rifles and pistols by some of our professions. We have also tried to reflect these advances in a lot of our clothing and armor designs as well.

Massively: Will we have mounts in Guild Wars 2? Flying Mounts, perhaps?

Eric Flannum: Unfortunately, we aren’t speaking about specific game mechanics until some time next year.

Would you like to know more? Check out ArenaNet’s official Youtube Channel, there’s a bunch of video content including every one of their PAX panels. It’s a shame it seems to be so far off though, I want it now.

In the mean time I suppose I’ll have to “make do” with another NCsoft MMO, yes, Aion: Tower of Eternity is just around the corner and it looks as if it’s going to do rather nicely for itself. The latest pre-order figures from Aion are impressive to say the least, with NCsoft claiming 400,000 preorders. That ladies and gents, is the sound of clinking champagne glasses and the smell of expensive cigars being lit.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, I seem to remember Age of Conan and even Warhammer Online launching with similarly impressive numbers and we all know how that turned out. That said, Aion has had a year of Korean dev time behind it to smooth out any kinks and make sure there’s more than enough content to keep players happy post launch. While things dried up fairly quickly once you left the Barachan Isles in AoC, and folks eventually migrated back to WoW from Warhammer, I’m not so sure either of those issues will plague Aion’s launch.

Speaking of the launch, NCsoft recently let us know you can stop sending cans of tuna and pickled onions, they’ve heard your protests and there will in fact be an Oceanic server online in time for launch, this server will be called Nezekan (bless you!). In addition, they’re also gearing up for an update to the official Aion website that will allow players to view  their characters as well as all items and weapons they’ve got on their person, kind of like the World of Warcraft Armory, only not called the World of Wacraft Armory because then that would be silly.

There’s not a whole lot of Blizzard or WoW news at the moment, they’ve updated their Blizzcon 09 photo page with some group photos, have a look, and don’t ogle the Blood Elf females! It’s creepy. Other than that there’s the usual Vader-esque quote from Bobby Kotick about flushing the fun out of gaming and eating baby seals for dinner, but you don’t want to hear about that. Oh yeah, faction change is now live for Europe, rejoice!

You know, I don’t think Blizzard really need to start looking over their shoulders just yet, but  crikey! SOE’s Free Realms has already hit five million users. I logged on when it first launched and fooled around for a wee bit, but then forgot about it. I have to admit I’ve been playing it a lot more than I expected the past couple of weeks, how long do you think before Blizzard starts looking seriously at their success and wanting a piece of that free-to-play pie? Mmm, pie *homer drool*

Welp, I’m off. Going to see if I can sucker one of the EpicToon guys into dueling my uber-assassin in Age of Conan. I might even put a little friendly wager on the outcome. I’ll let you know how it pans out!

Dessert:

- Did you know Blizzard is tracking 180,000 bugs in Wow? No, that’s no typo.

- If videogames were realistic.