More keys! That's right, we've given away hundreds already, but we've got hundreds left to go, now's your chance to get in on MGames' charming MMO. If you'd like to take part in the 3rd closed beta, all you have to do is follow these steps:

-Send an email requesting a Beta Key to contest@qj.net with the subject title "Scions of Fate Beta".

- You'll receive your key in the mail shortly, after that all you have to do is register a free Netgame account and activate your beta key! Nuthin' to it!

Additionally, if you already got a key during the 1st or 2nd closed beta, you don't have to try to get in on this one as well, you'll still be allowed to play with that same key in this third closed beta. Also, please note that if you've already sent an email requesting a beta key in, you don't need to request another one, your request is being processed and you'll be sent one shortly.

Be sure to read the rest of the article after the jump for a word from MGame!

UPDATE 1: All the keys for this first closed beta have been exhausted. Many thanks to everyone who emailed, we hope you guys who got in enjoy the game and head on over to our newly created Scions of Fate forums to talk about your experiences. If you don't get an email within the next thirty minutes or so it means you unfortunately didn't get in. Don't be disappointed however, come January 19th, we'll be giving out a further 200 keys for the second closed beta. See you then!

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

You just know QJ's always got your back. Right now we're giving away 100 FREE Beta Keys for you guys to try out MGame's comic-book inspired action MMO, Scions of Fate.

As usual, we're going to try and make this as easy and as pain free as possible for you. All you have to do is follow these simple steps:

- Send an email requesting a Beta Key to contest@qj.net with the subject title "Scions of Fate Beta".

- You'll receive your key in the mail shortly, after that all you have to do is register a free Netgame account and activate your beta key! It's so easy even a muggle could do it!

-The first 100 emails I get will have beta keys sent to them, so get crackin! If you don't get a key in the email, it means your fingers unfortunately didn't possess the crazy quick speeds needed to survive on "teh internets". If that's the case, don't despair, you'll get another chance, read on for deets.

As stated there are 100 keys available in this first closed beta, so be sure to act quick and get yours now! The first closed beta runs from the 15th-19th of January. A second closed beta starts on the 22nd, and we'll be giving away 200 more keys for that. The cool thing is that if you participate in the 1st closed beta, you don't need to re-apply for the second! But don't worry your wee liittle noggins about that just yet, send your email request for a beta key now, and be sure to read the rest of the giveaway details after the jump!

Read the rest after the jump!

Avast there mateys! As promised yesterday here's the entire interview with Flying Lab Software, the guys and gals behind Pirates of the Burning Sea, enjoy!

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QJ: Pirates of the Burning Sea has been in development for quite a while, since before even the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out. What spurred you to begin work on a pirate game back then, and are there any pirate movies you look at as sort of inspiration?

Flying Labs: Our love of everything to do with pirates and the age of sail. There’s so much romance to the swashbuckling era, from dashing pirates wooing the governor’s daughter, to the stalwart naval captains leading their fleets into battle. It was a time of adventure, style and derring-do!

Of course, we look to a huge number of pirate, naval and swashbuckling movies as inspiration, from blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean series, Master and Commander, and The Mask of Zorro, to less known offerings, like A&E’s Horatio Hornblower, Sharpe’s Rifles and On Guard.

       

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Read the entire interview after the jump!

Arrr, ahoy there ya scurvy landlubbers! We be seein' it fit ta be warnin' ya that thar be a fair bit o' excitement on the horizon, so batten down the hatches, hoist the mainsail and prepare ta be boarded!

Ok, enough pirate talk, it kinda gets old real quick. What that little blurb means is that we've got an exclusive interview on Pirates of the Burning Sea lined up for you guys. If you ever yearned for a pirates life, longed for your own command or simply wished to set sail upon the blue rolling waves of the open sea then look no further than Flying Labs upcoming MMORPG, and we got the goods, here's a little snippet to whet your appetites!

"QJ: Can you tell us a bit about the naval, adventurer, and pirate careers players will be able to pursue?

Flying Labs: When you create your character, you can choose to be a member of one of the three major Caribbean powers, or you can choose to be a pirate. From that point on, your “career” is what you choose to develop.

As a citizen, you can choose to work for the Navy and gain access to the biggest, toughest ships, or you can stay an independent captain and make your way in the world by way of your guns, and your keen sense for business opportunities.

As a pirate, you have the fewest rules governing your behavior, but other people generally don’t like you very much. That’s ok, though, since you can steal and use their ships!

QJ: Can a group of players come together to Captain and crew a ship?

Flying Labs: Nope! We realize that people really want to do this, but we want to make sure that we only implement this ability if everyone aboard a ship has something fun to do. We really don’t want someone to have to play the “bilge pumping game” down in the hold, unable to see anything going on around them, their entire gameplay being “click on the pump handle repeatedly”.

Instead, everyone is the proud captain of their very own ship. If you want to get together with your friends, you will be a powerful squadron of ships, rather than just a bunch of guys looking for something to do on one little boat."

       

Arr! Look for the interview to hit at 9am Tuesday the 5th... woah that's tomorrow, I better get started!

Alright you creative types, time to think big to win big. Whether your skills lie with the pencil and paper, or in the 3D realm, Blizzard is calling out to you guys to produce the most kick arse fan art you can dream up for any one of their universes including Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft.

Prizes will be awarded in the following categories:

• Best Diablo Art
• Best Cinematics Art
• Best StarCraft Art
• Best Warcraft Art

Prizes include the following:

-Four Grand Prize Packages valued at over $10,000 each! Each Grand Prize Package include the following 5 items:

1. Trip for 2 to Los Angeles/Newport Beach & lunch or dinner with the Blizzard art team
2. Wacom Cintiq tablet display
3. Alienware Area-51® 7500 PC
4. Framed and signed Blizzard print
5. $220 Gift Certificate to the online Blizzard Store

OR CASH!

Even if you don't win the grand prize, you could still win big!

-Fourteen Secondary Prize Packages valued at over $1,400 each! Each Secondary Prize Package include the following 3 items:

1. $1000 CASH!
2. $220 Gift Certificate to the online Blizzard
3. Framed and signed Blizzard print

Stay tuned for more details on the official website when the Blizzard Art Contest 2006 opens on July 31st Midnight PST!

As part of QJ's continuing coverage of the martial arts epic Hero Online, we managed to snag an exclusive interview with the guys behind the magic, Netgame. We're also teaming up with publishers mGame to  offer QJ readers beta keys to try out Hero Online's current beta program. If you are interested in getting in on the Hero Online beta, just do the following:

1. Email QJ.NET for a Beta Activation Key
2. Register at Netgame for your free account*
3. After registering, Activate your Digital Key
4. Stay tuned to QJ.NET and NetGame for news on when the Client will be available for download!
5. Discuss the Hero Online beta in the QJ.NET Forums!

*Note: Some browsers such as FireFox may not be supported

Now feast your eyes on the exclusive interview with the makers of Hero Online by checking out the Full Article!

Yeah, so I have a big problem with RPG's, I want to love them, I really, really do, but I think they kind of suck. Now cool down a bit and hear me out first, I know that's a sweeping generalisation so let me state that not all of them suck, but even the ones that don't are guilty of a crime in my court. What's this crime that so many RPG's have committed then? It's the fact that they're the only genre where the core experience and gameplay mechanics can be replicated exactly on another medium... pen and paper. Why not just pick up a literary copy of Dungeons and Dragons and play that instead? The only thing missing is the graphical presentation, and while that enhances the experience does it really truly enrich the gameplay?  Think about it for a moment, the first person shooter experience can't be replicated by any other entertainment medium, neither can the platformer, or the action adventure, sports and simulations are just what they claim to be... simulations.

So what needs to happen then, how can the RPG become a true videogame genre and not merely an almost direct adaptation of an already existing medium? Simple, they need to better take advantage of the interactive nature of videogames. The basic formula of stat tracking, random battles, turn based combat and level grind is archaic and truly belongs in the pen and paper realm. These systems were developed with the limitations of pen and paper games in mind, and they continue to hold back the RPG. The shortcomings of the videogame RPG become all the more apparent when you consider just how non-interactive they are. Most of the game unfolds through a series of long FMV's or dialogue, and is strung together by often random battles with combat systems that nine times out of ten require the player to click the same button over and over in order to unleash a sequence of attacks. Don't get me wrong, some RPG's have made significant headway in this area, games like Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story and the upcoming Final Fantasy XII spring to mind.

If you disagree with my viewpoint that's perfectly fine, I expect a lot of people will, but ask yourself why we are still tied to all the limitations inherent in the pen and paper RPG's, is there anything other than the visuals that the videogame counterpart provides us, anything at all that can be done in a videogame RPG and not on the pen and paper? If your answer is no, then yeah, there is a problem with RPG's, unless you don't mind getting essentially the same experience across multiple media, and really where's the fun in that? If you do think videogame RPG's provide something that their pen and paper counterparts can't or don't, please let me know in the comments section, I'd love to debate it!

Yes, yes, it looks a whole lot like um, what's the name of that little game Nintendo makes? Oh yeah, it looks a lot like Windwaker... a whole lot. Now that that's out of the way we can concentrate more on what makes Project Wiki so unique and intriguing, and one of my most anticipated MMO's.

       

Find out all there is to know about this charming and promising MMO after the jump!

One question, where is it? With the recent explosion of the MMO market, it strikes me as odd that not a single developer/publisher has as yet stepped forward and announced their intentions to bring the burgeoning genre to Sony's handheld wonder.

The first thing I thought after picking up and playing Daxter for a few minutes (apart from z0mG! Great Game!) was "wow, this looks a lot like World Of Warcraft". As I continued to make my way through the game I found myself wishing that I could get online and experience some sort of interactive community. Can you even begin to imagine how awesome it would be to play through a Monster Hunter Portable MMO!? How great would it be to be able to hop into Middle earth for a quick quest on the way to work, or perhaps simply purchase some new parts for that spaceship you're building?

       

       

Read the full article, and find out about an exciting PSP MMO homebrew project.

Korean publisher/developer Webzen is going to be pretty darn huge in a little while. They've got an envious slate of MMO's lined up that include Project Wiki, Soul Of The Ultimate Nation, an unnamed Red 5 project, and the highly anticipated MMOFPS Huxley, and yeah, that stands for Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter.

Now stop me if you've heard this one before, but it's the future and it's a post apocalyptic landscape, earthquakes, tidal waves and massive climate changes have ravaged the earth, cutting continents off from one another and throwing human civilisation into chaos.

       

The survivors of these catastrophes dream of the days when things were better and life was simpler, the sudden appearance of mutants among the population causes further anarchy, racism and oppression rear their ugly heads and a human civil war breaks out. The Alternatives and The Sapiens wage bloody war and battle for control of a powerful energy source, the Lunarites, created by scientist and possible savior, the titular Huxley!

Get the skinny on Webzen's epic sci fi fantasy MMO after the jump!