Tomorrow is the second anniversary of the release of Prophecies, and the first anniversary for Factions. As such, there’s going to be birthday-stuff all weekend long. Yay cake!

What better way to celebrate a birthday than with an outdoor party complete with games, races, and contests to reward both the lucky and skilled among us. Back by popular request, the good citizens of Shing Jea Monastery will re-open their ever-enjoyable Boardwalk—to those who have access to Shing Jea, of course—for the birthday celebration. Whether you seek to increase your Luck or just kick back and have a good time, the games of chance along the Shing Jea Boardwalk will certainly have what you’re looking for.

In addition to the mini-games on the Shing Jea Boardwalk, you will also be able to compete at the Dragon Arena and race at the Rollerbeetle Track. These special PvP events will be accessible from Shing Jea Monastery and from the Great Temple of Balthazar. They’re sure to be fun for your whole family… of characters.

This time of year must be good for MMOGs, because City of Heroes’ third anniversary is right around now too. NCSoft’s Mike Crouch sent over some interesting stats about the game:

During the first three years of the game, more than 24 million characters have been created in City of Heroes and City of Villains with more than 102,000 of those characters reaching level 50, the game’s top tier. The game is also renowned for its ease of cooperative role-playing, resulting in the creation of more than 654,000 super groups, and the building of more than 66,000 super group bases.

Additionally, NCsoft has determined that of the 24 million characters created:

* 27 percent of the hero characters created were blasters, making it the most popular hero archetype.
* 26 percent of the villain characters created were Masterminds, making it the most popular villain.
* 32 percent of the characters with travel powers chose flight, followed by super jump at 28 percent, super speed at 25 percent and teleport at 14 percent.

Fueling the game’s economy is the more than 3 trillion influence (the game’s currency) in circulation, which will play an important part of the new crafting system and auction houses being added with the upcoming release of “Issue 9: Breakthrough,” the game’s next content expansion.