Codemasters has just announced that it is currently celebrating the first year of its MMO game Rising Force Online. First launched in North America back in February 21, 2006, the game has undergone many changes and developments during its first 12-month run. Among these improvements, the most notable would be the release of the game's expansion Giga Final Part 1 back in July, which offered new battle dungeons as well as other high-level content to the players of RF Online.

The first expansion was then quickly followed by Giga Final Part 2 in September of last year, which opened up the Elan Plateau to players. Part 2 also allowed players to participate in Guild Vs. Guild combat for the first time.

In the meantime, now that RF Online is launching into its second year, the crew from Codemasters promises a whole parade of new content which should keep the Bellato, Cora, and Accretia populace happy and occupied, all the way until 2008.

Wanna know what'll happen when all of the little cliques and social circles in a school are thrown together into one huge house where they have to either coexist or fight like hell to exterminate everyone else? No, we don't know either (although we do have an idea). What we do know though is that when the RF Online server merge hits later today, everyone in Novus is going to see one hell of a party.

That's right folks, Codemasters is going to merge all of the current RF Online servers - Spirit, Fire, Earth, Water and Wind - into one huge super-server known as Novus. Thanks to this stroke of genius, players will now be able to play RF Online as it was meant to be played: with lots of mass PvP and insanely intense Chip Wars action.

Mark down your calendar folks. Worlds will collide today, January 24, at 9pm NST (GMT). In order to make way for this epic milestone in RF Online history, the servers will be going offline at 9am NST (GMT) for 12 hours to enable the live merge to take place. Happy hunting.

Whenever an MMO title gets flamed by its players because of problems and issues, it is always the Community Managers or CMs who try to appease the public and answer their queries. Don't get the idea though that these guys are freaks who are forever online just waiting for emails. As RF Online CM Kyle Rowley recently pointed out, a day of a CM is always full and busy.

For starters, Rowley is known around RF Online universe as Laeth. He has handled the reins of RF's community relations for 10 months now and considers himself relatively new to the industry. Despite this, the CM has already learned the ropes and adapted an approach of his own. He explained:

Depending on the company, some community managers are a lot more active on the forums than others. I personally like to keep a persistent presence on the forums. Community members like to know that someone is there reading their feedback, comments, praises or complaints. That's not to say it's always necessarily a pleasant experience.

Aside from the endless forums browsing, Rowley shared that he also often meet with several personalities including the game's developers. Of all these meetings, the official considers the conference call as the most important one:

The purpose of the conference call is to ensure that we as operators and publishers are kept up to date on the latest goings on within the game. Bug fixes, updates, design changes etc. are all on the agenda, so it's important for the community manager to pay close attention.

Rowley finally revealed that there are "moments of repose" in a CM's day, especially during the times when the game is stable and no major patch or updates are being planned. He explained that during these times, he mostly spend his time writing:

My time is spent writing the bi-monthly community newsletter, writing features like this one, checking the Codemasters Code M email inbox, taking additional screenshots, working on new website content, events and whatever else I can do to help boost the game’s awareness and improve the mood within the community.

To know a little more about Kyle Rowley and his position as RF Online's community manager, click on the Read link below.

Santa Chooty. Codemasters has a whole bunch of Christmas events scheduled for all RF Online players this month. First up is the search for Santa Chooty, which is open to all players of all levels. See, Santa Chooty's been kidnapped, and you have to help his young right hand man Helper in his search for his master.

Helper. Helper will be making five appearances on each server on December 19, and the first individual to touch Helper at each location will be rewarded a temporary, no trade, no drop Christmas Elemental sword, which will vanish on January 5th.

Calliana Queen. Next, we've got some heavier stuff. If there's one person that can put a stop to the violent war between the Cora, Bellato, and Accretia it's the Calliana Queen. Yeah, she can halt the war - albeit temporarily - but it ain't because she's an altruistic saint or something. In fact, the Calliana Queen wants to encase Novus in a thick layer of ice, and everybody must band together to take her army down. The Calliana Queen's invasion forces will make their presence felt on three occassions: December 20, 22, and 24.

Since we know you guys love free stuff, here's something you might like if you're into Sci-Fi styled MMOs and EVE online is a bit too expensive for your wallet. We've just found out that MMO Site and Stratics have teamed up to give you 1,000 free 7-day trial keys to RF Online.

All you have to do is go to the contest site at MMO Site. Don't worry about the link not being here in the post, 'cause it's over at the Read link below. Then go to the Codemaster's Website and fill in your account information. After that, all you need is the client and you're good to go for seven days. If you end up enjoying the game, hopefully. after the seven days are over, you've saved up enough to actually buy the game.

Enjoy folks!

Codemasters have released another free Giga Expansion for the pleasure of RF Online players all across the world. The last RF Online Giga expansion was released back in July and offered gamers a whole host of new features, including the much-loved battle dungeon "Dark Hole", and this Giga expansion which updates RF Online to Giga 4.2 is no slacker either. The second Giga update is now available for free and is already online across all RF Online servers, but if you haven't come across a list of the new features included in this update, here it is:

Increased XP and PT Rates

That’s right RF Online players; the XP and PT rates have been increased in Giga Final Part 2. Now that Giga Final Part 2 has gone live the XP rate will change depending on the level of the monster that you are fighting and players can gain anything up to seven times more XP per monster!

Guild vs. Guild Combat - Circle Zone Scramble

Circle Zone Scramble is RF Online’s very own unique Guild vs. Guild system, which enables guilds to challenge each other in an intense sports battle to the death! If you are the competitive type and fancy bringing a group of friends together and declaring all-out warfare on another guild then this is for you!

The full article awaits after the jump!

Buy: [RF Online]

Here's an irresistible treat for gamers who want to know what RF Online has to offer. MMORPG.com lets you play for free in their exclusive 7-day trial offer. If you can't decide which game to get from the long list of MMOs, a free trial is almost always a good start off point. All you have to do is register at MMORPG.com.

RF Online is centered on the conflict between three races in a bid to control precious resources, and their desire to advance their respective agenda by any means. A player can choose any of the three different races: Accretia, Bellato, and Cora.

Accretia is the cyborg race. They possess metallic bodies and acquire superior technology. On the other hand, the Bellato is race filled with great inventors. They are able to combine tools and weapons with the Light form of universal magic called the Force. Lastly, the race of Cora is highly spiritual and gifted with natural magical abilities.

Whatever race you choose, your goal is to take over the Novus galaxy and subdue other races. You can also join Chip Wars where a band from a single race come together to fight another race.

Buy: [RF Online]

Software distributor Soft-World International, the largest in the Chinese market, has filed a lawsuit worth US$3.78 against popular games-maker Square-Enix. Demanding the return of a royalty payment, Soft-World alleges that Square-Enix failed to fulfill its obligation as stipulated in a 2004 contract regarding the distribution of one of the latter's MMORPGs in Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

According to the contract, Square-Enix was supposed to supply the company with the relevant source code for the MMORPG. Having failed to do so, the distribution of the game became problematic, thereby incurring losses for Soft-World.

Soft-World International currently handles Chinese language versions of popular MMO's RF Online, WoW and Ragnarok Online amongst others. Square-Enix, on the other hand, is a  Japanese producer of video games and manga, and is best known for its console role-playing game franchises, including the Final Fantasy series and the Dragon Quest series.

Square-Enix is yet to issue a comment regarding the lawsuit as of press time.

You can now get constant updates on the goings-on in the MMORPG community, thanks to COGcast. What is Cogcast exactly? Well, it's a monthly show that covers anything and everything even remotely related to Codemasters Online Gaming's MMO titles which include ArchLord, Dungeons & Dragons Online: STORMREACH, RF Online and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.

The show will be very light humored and casual, making it easy on the ears, but still nonetheless "official" and gives users exclusive content about the MMO titles including the news stories, contests, community topics, interviews, etc. Cogcasts will be hosted by the COG team; Ed Relf, Ed Blincoe, and Kyle Rowley, who will bring you exclusive interviews, competitions, and news, and even take you behind the scenes of MMO production.

Download: [CogCast Episode 1]

We recently read an interview with Kyle Rowley, Liaison Officer of RF Online. Here are the juicy parts just for you.

RF Online is an MMORPG like no other. If you're unfamiliar with this title, let us brief you on a bit of a backgrounder before we start. The game is set in a distant galaxy, Sector Novus. On planet Novus, there are three distinct factions that has been at war for generations.

Accretia Empire are made up of cyborgs. Conquest and destruction is their motivation. They have the most destructive weapons in the game. Expect the Terminator on steroids with this group. Bellato Union. Exceptional engineering skills. Builders of the most advanced weaponry and buildings in the sector. They're mainly a merchant and engineering class. Good for gamers with a penchant of making money. Holy Cora Alliance. The spiritual race. Basically, magicians and the lot comes from this group. The characters that make this more than just another scifi game.

With all the scifi MMOs going around, RF Online has the cool mix of traditional fantasy and sci-fi, combined with the biggest PvP systems in the MMO. These happen every 8 hours. The community love seems to be another experience everyone should enjoy.

So far, the game developers have been pleased with the UK market and have been adapting the game to suit their needs. Since the game was originally created for Asia, Western gamers had to adapt to a new style in MMORPGs like evolving characters to their personal taste. There's also a slight change of gameplay aspect as there are some aspects allowed in this game that is currently frowned upon by other games.

However, there seems to be an issue with  Realm balancing. It's something that the developers are working on right now. They're in the process of getting feedback from the players and will be doing something about really soon. Unfortunately, the physics engine of RF Online will still remain as it is. Come on, this takes place in another galaxy, with different physics, right?

For the future, they're looking to hook up with some Manga events. They're also expecting a Giga4/Final Update. It'll have new content, 24 new battle dungeons, the "Dark Hole" - a multizones battle dungeon with 12 stages, guild vs. guild, guild town sieges, high level content for level 45+, a new area called Elan Plateu, and a new in-game sport called Circle Zone Scramble. Digital Distribution is already available for gamers through RF Online keys via the Codemasters website. They're also looking forward to connecting with Direct2Drive for future patches and expansions.

With all these new expansions coming to RF Online, it's time to try it out and be part of a great MMORPG.