Some saddening news today for Warhammer Online fans. We've just learned that four classes and four racial capital cities have been removed from the game. Learn why this change occurred after the jump.

Dark Age of Camelot gamers, now is the time to log in for some grinding! Several zones are getting 200% bonus to BP and XP for this weekend, and a new quest is now available for adventurers over level 30. Details on both events in the full article.

For fear of having Dark Alex *ahem* Dark Age of Camelot fully exploited by hackers, Housing Deeds available for purchase with Bounty Points have been temporarily removed. Unfortunately, specific details about the hack weren't given by Mythic Entertainment's Missy Hatch, who made the announcement today. We are, however, treated to some form of vague description of what happened:

Bounty Points are intended as an alternative method to obtain some items and services in game, but are not designed as a method to obtain currency. Some players figured out a way to abuse the housing system in order to obtain gold via bounty points.

Safe to say, they are currently on the move to squash this threat. From what we could gather, they're fixing the problem with the Housing Upgrade process and that once it's done, Housing Deeds will be made available for purchase again by Bounty Points.

Here's a quick Halloween-y update for all the Dark Age of Camelot players out there. This update lists two changes to the game.

First off, Book of Illusion, Cotrus' Journal and Poem for Ramia will now properly display their text thanks to a recent bugfix. Several of the monsters involved in the Ghostly Harvest quest have also been given reduced aggro so players can speak to them.

The Ghostly Harvest quest is part of the Halloween celebrations in Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot. Players can access the quest by speaking with John Tobin on the Cotswold Bridge, Foa Muldisson outside the Jordheim North Gates, or Nera by the road in Mag Mell.

Halloween is just around the corner and our favorite MMO video games will be rolling out events specific to this occasion once again. Mythic Entertainment (EA Mythic) Community Coordinator Missy Hatch posted an article over at the official Dark Age of Camelot website to discuss the the same.

Without any ado, here are the different things you will be seeing inside your favorite realm in this time of the year as enumerated by Missy Hatch:

• The Ghostly Harvest Quest offers players level 45 and up a dangerous adventure in the frontiers. Speak with John Tobin on the Cotswold Bridge, Foa Muldisson outside the Jordheim North Gates, or Nera by the road in Mag Mell to begin the quest.
• Treat sellers have been spotted selling sugary confections inside Meath, Erikstaad, and Caerwent.
• The consignment merchants would like to show you their Halloween spirit! Pick up the merchant and place it back down on your house porch and he will change into a Halloween outfit for you!
• Be aware adventurers! Ghosts haunt the streets of your capital cities as the pumpkin moon rises!
• The horses you once rode have joined the spirit realm. (This affects stable and merchant horses only - not player controlled horses.)
• Something strange has happened to all of the puppies.
• The pumpkins have been carved into jack o' lanterns!
• A trio of crazy old women have been spotted selling costume potions inside Camelot, Jordheim, and Tir na Nog.
• The costume potions last 15 minutes each and come in a variety of flavors.
• They work best if you remove your helm and armor.
• You cannot digest another costume potion if you are transformed into any of the monster forms.
• The potions' magics are short-lived and the potions will be useless after the festivities end so don't horde them.
• Some of the potions allow you to take the form of the enemy, so don't be scared if you see some in your capital city or housing zones, it's just your realm mates playing dress up!
• The costumes and potions only work while you are in the capital cities or housing zones. You cannot use them outside of these zones and if you leave the zone while in costume, you will lose the effect.

EA Mythic (Electronic Arts, Mythic Entertainment) has revealed that MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (or more affectionately called WAR) will feature a leveling mechanic that automates the statistic distribution, depending on what class was selected for the leveled character. "Stats automatically rise as you level based on their importance to your class," replied the WAR team in a short Q&A.

In addition, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning won't have a pool of stats to add when you start a new character. In fact, all characters will start out with the same stats. If this may have downplayed your love of hybrid specializing in MMORPGs, EA Mythic may have something more in store in the near future. "We are looking at a couple different options for respecing your character down the road, since no one wants to be locked into a character they are not happy with," said the WAR team.

As for the progress in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's beta phase (before the shutdown), it seems that user-created quests have been received with positive acclaim. Specifics were not nailed but the WAR team was left in a good impression that the beta phase went quite well, even with a few hiccups experienced here and there. The game's release date has yet to be officially announced, but the beta should kick up again in December.

A new grab bag for Dark Age of Camelot has just been released, with various updates on game content. It looks like Mythic Entertainment's Community Coordinator Missy Hatch has been pretty busy considering this particular grab bag seems longer than any of the previous ones.

Hatch gave word that Age of Camelot recently celebrated its sixth year anniversary recently. To celebrate, the developers saw fit to introduce a few new bonuses in both classic and NF Zones that will be in effect next week. She also gave word that they've added a new gear guide in their Camelot Campaign sessions and have launched a new Guild Website Contest.

It is a great time to be a member of the Dark Age of Camelot community considering all of the events that are happening right now. In case you want to check out the Grab Bag for yourself, click on our Read Link.

Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot MMORPG has recently recently celebrated its sixth birthday, folks. We've also picked up word that DAoC producer Chris Rabideau has written up a letter just for this occasion.

The letter, among other things, explains Rabideau's recent appointment to his current position last January 2007. Rabideau also hinted at some new content that's expected to appear.

The first is an improved housing system that should improve storage, and will add value to to higher tier houses. The second is new player mounts. No details are available yet, although the producer did hint they're not going to be horses.

Moving along, Rabideau also provided for details DAoC's upcoming test server:

This new server will house code changes to highly complex game systems, which will typically require more than one patch cycle to implement. Changes to or additions of major systems, such as the UI, in-game mail and auction house (to name a few) will be deployed out to this new server ahead of all other servers, including Pendragon.

This will allow the community to log in and see what we’re up to, as well as allow more time for the community to react to and make suggestions about whatever major systems we’re working on. This will also provide us more time to consider community feedback, and make adjustments where best for the game and its players.

The letter concludes with a reaffirmation of Mythic's support for DAoC. We wish the MMORPG a hearty happy birthday and hope the players do enjoy themselves when they resume their online adventuring.

The latest hotfixes for Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot have come out and it looks pretty good. The changes deal with inventory and content problems players have been complaining about over the recent weeks.

You may have noticed that Draconic Essence Stones are auto assigned to other party members if the inventory of the one picking it up is full. The system will no longer do this, giving the party a chance to choose who gets the item.

With regard to content fixes, the Stealing Supplies Quest now displays the correct waypoint in the map. This removes any confusion regarding the location of the instance and should allow newer players to complete it with minimal problems unlike before.

The biggest change, and one veteran players will undoubtedly be happy about, is the transfer of the location where Gerik Morrow's Sword is used. It has been moved north of Golestandt's Lair which should prevent players from drawing aggro (and casualties) from the dragon before they're ready.

This is a pretty solid update from Mythic and should keep players happy until patch 1.90k leaves the test servers.

No one likes it when their favorite MMORPGs server shuts down for two months; closing servers fuels much negative speculation. That is why Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic Entertainment, took the time to address player concerns and to explain the company's reasons for the announced October 10 shutdown of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

Mr. Jacobs summed up his reasons in three major points. First, he admitted that the current version of the game itself was imbalanced, and that the very purpose of the shutdown was to address the issues that beta testers had with the game.  Second, the development team knew early on that they would eventually have to shut down the servers at some point. Lastly, they wanted everyone, beta testers included, to be able return to the game with a fresh perspective, and not just report the same old bugs and issues to them over and over again.

Mr. Jacobs also responded to various players' comments about WAR development possibly grinding to a halt, something that has already happened once before. He reassured players that the key members of the WAR development team were still there, that the team wasn't yanking out whole systems, that the shutdown was not induced by Electronic Arts (EA), and that they weren't shutting the servers down in order to make WAR more like World of Warcraft. If WAR were really in danger of being shut down for good, Jacobs argued, then Mythic would simply have announced that the servers would be closed until further notice.

Furthermore, Mr. Jacobs mentioned that they deliberately limited the hiatus to two months because they know exactly what needs to be done, and exactly how long it will take them to do it. According to him, the game is now at a critical point in its development, and they would like to focus on making the game even better than it already is without being distracted. As it is, the WAR development team already has a wealth of data with which to keep themselves busy during the two-month break.

Game developers like Mythic Entertainment sometimes receive criticism no matter what they do, and Mark Jacobs knows this. Nevertheless, the important thing for him, at least as far as WAR is concerned, is for everyone to take one step back in order to take two steps forward.