Finally, all the games are offering a ‘welcome back’ program of one kind or another. The complete list of what’s being handed out is extensive.

See you online.

Dust off your cape: DC Universe Online has a release date. Yes, after a last minute delay pushed the MMO from Sony Online Entertainment past its original November launch, the company announced DC Universe Online is coming Jan. 11, 2011 for both PC and the PlayStation 3. If you live in the UK, look for the game on Jan. 14, 2011.

We’re gold, baby. Can’t even describe how good that feels. No promises about an increase in activity here anytime soon, but just had to pop up to mention it. Everybody go grab a pre-order so you can play as Batman in Legends. He’s crazy good. See you online!

Sanya clarifies exactly what that collaboration is likely to look like, using a fantastic fruit metaphor.

If EA sold fruit, they would have a Vice President of Citrus, and bananas would have their own VP. If the fruit selling version of EA acquired a studio that sold kumquats, that studio would be assigned to the VP of Citrus, even though there is room for debate as to whether or not kumquats are “citrus” or something else entirely.

While my personal view of the industry differs pretty significantly with Mark’s, it’s hard not to appreciate the dedication and enthusiasm the man had for online gaming, Mythic as a company, and Warhammer as a game.

Good luck, sir, in your next endeavor. A big good luck and congratulations on what I hope is great, amazing things for the Mythic Entertainment crew.

If you want to be a blogger, do it. Blog. Podcast. Write. Don’t let your impressions of what other people do keep  you from doing something on your own. Don’t let your impressions of what other people think of what you do keep you from doing something. Life may be “what happens when you’re not paying attention”, but some things are worth stopping to really consider. As hard as it is to get into certain feilds, the world is much flatter nowadays. If there ever really was a barrier between people making content and people appreciating it, it’s long gone now. We, as observers, are just as much a part of the process as everyone inside the fence. If you want to hop that fence, whatever field you’re passionate about, I guarantee you can work to find a path there. It might be long, and it might be hard, but there it is.

For the time being I’m just going to stop posting here on MMOG Nation. I’m still very new in my gig, I’m still trying to figure out what it means to not be a professional blogger. While I’m figuring those things out, I’d rather not offer up half-formed thoughts or frustrating non-posts. I promise, honest and for true, that I’ll get back to this site. I just don’t know when or in what form that might take, so I want to be upfront about it. This RSS feed is going to be dark for a while.

That said, I’m definitely not going to stop writing. If you’d like to hear thoughts from me, as well as links and other various and sundry, I’d love for you to follow me over at whoisdialogue.com. It’s the newest, Tumblr-based incarnation of a website I’ve been running since I was in college. It’s a lot less focused, but I hope it’s still somewhat amusing.

Thanks for reading along, and we’ll catch up at some time in the future. Take care.

I also recommend you listen to a recent episode of the Penny Arcade “Downloadable Content” podcast in which they do nothing but talk about D&D. Honestly, I got really excited listening to them talk about Gabe’s game, because their enthusiasm for the experience is something I and many of my tabletop friends feel regularly. It was more than a bit engaging to hear that enthusiasm on a podcast from guys I respect.

The podcasts dovetail nicely with Wil Wheaton’s series of posts to his site this week all about DMing a first session for his son and friends. It’s broken up into five parts, with the final part offering up some really very sound DMing advice for folks who may not have tackled the noble pursuit all that often in the past. He and Gabe (in posts to the PA site) are doing a great job of demystifying a hobby that I fear has a lot of weird baggage and miscommunication associated with it.

All this is a lengthy way of saying that I’m really very enthused with the reaction 4E is getting among these nerd culture icons. It’s my fervent hope that Scott, Jerry, Mike, and Wil talking so fervently about the hobby will get more people involved, more people interested, and maybe make this fantastic new edition of the rules a bit higher profile in the domain of general geekery.

If you want to play and haven’t yet, tomorrow’s actually a great day to start. It’s one of a number of Worldwide D&D game days happening this year! Just head over to the official Wizards of the Coast website to find information and locations near you. They’ve got a great event tracker on the site that will be able to set you straight on what’s happening in your area.

– Left to right, top to bottom -

1.) BioShock. A momentous moment in the game, that thankfully I could take a snap of without spoiling anything. I took a snap right after this that was a spoiler, of course.

2.) This is the strange non-crazy illithid in one of the House areas. I think his name is ‘Bob’ or something.

3.) The special ’social’ area behind the scenes in EverQuest II has a piano with its own built-in dancers.They’re wacky haflings named after some of the community folks, lest I’m mistaken.

4.) I dunno why I took this screencap; I just really liked the way this lizard was dressed.

5.) From one of the test houses, this great tent and a pair of animated-pet decorated bed was quite a treat. Along the walls were pretty much every one of the heritage quest weapons. Awesome, amazing example of EQ2’s housing.

6.) I really really have wanted to like the offerings in the EQ2 marketplace, and until this awesome spellcasting outfit dropped in I hadn’t. Want. Want want want. Not want at $10. But want.

7.) Err. Sometimes when I’m watching stuff on iTunes I catch snapshots because my cap button is a weird one. What can I say, I actually like Clone Wars.

8.) One of the early moments in the dwarf starting quest in LotRO. Gandalf kicks a cave troll to the curb, and looks really hawt doing it.

9.) The amazing-fantastico Podcasters of Bree! L to R, Back to front. Brent, Darren, Jonathan, Adam, Michael, Craig.

10.) This is what it looks like to podcast with the guys from the Gamers with Jobs crew. This is another of those accidental screencaps that turned out so nicely I kept it.

11.) This is me as Amak sitting in the Theed square during the SWG Fifth Anniversary celebration.

12.) I think this is from the second hub in the High Elf area in Warhammer Online. I love the ‘destroyed beauty’ look that WAR goes with in a lot of places. Very effective.

13.) And yet, the regalness of the intact bits are pretty awesome too. This is from the Imperial City, near the library.

14.) I love this graphical bug. Huge pets are just so awesome. This Rex is enormous compared to the little peeps.

15.) I love the theme in the Nethers. Amazing, amazing zone. I don’t understand why most folks don’t like this one.

16.) The, um, Dark Lady’s new skin. A lot to like, and not just for the obvious reasons. Check out that bow!

17.) I actually really like the WoW comic. It’s popcorn fun, and awesome to see events from the comic show up in game.

18.) A quick cap from the world event that presaged Wrath of the Lich King’s release.

19.) My favorite place in the whole wide game! Gjalerbron all the way. Howling Fjord or bust.

20.) Speaking of which, this central area is majestically amazing no matter where you’re standing.

21.) I … just like penguins. Especially these penguin models. Squak!

• LotRO Book 7 sounds a-maze-ing. The new player experience and the release notes are some of the finest work yet out of an amazing group of devs. Great work all around.
• Eurogamer’s “Ten Level Test” is some of the best MMO writing I think I’ve ever seen. No joke. Oli Welsh has a fantastic take on this. Check out the editorial laying the groundwork, then the first two rounds: EQ2 vs. Vanguard, Lineage 2 vs. FFXI.
• The new WoW TCG Loot cards continue to impress. I love how the ultra-rares continue to add alternate game mechanic elements.
• The end of Tabula Rasa in a nutshell. Same day as my first at SOE. Weird world.
• Lauren revisits ‘bring the player’ vs. ‘bring the class’ with a look at Runes of Magic.
• Scott Brown proves NetDevil has a good grasp on reality: “We built this so that no matter how big it is, it doesn’t have to be a million-user game for it to be successful for us to run it for a long, long time.”