In most MMOs I’ve played, the gallant hero is asked by a desperate kingdom to slay the wicked dragon. Not so for upcoming MMO Dragon’s Prophet. In this latest free-to-play creation from Runewaker and published by Sony Online Entertainment, you get the chance to tame, train and ride dragons of your very own.

For all those eagerly anticipating raising a clutch of magical reptiles, the good news is that open beta starts in North America on May 30. Founders with VIP access will get a 24 hour head start, giving them early access into the world of Auratia. Closed Beta testers will also be pleased to know that the NDA has been lifted from today, freeing them to share their tales of daring draconic deeds with friends.

During the weekend I dived back in, mainly to see how development had progressed since my first look last month. Joined by ZAM regular Chris Rainey, we livestreamed our progress (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) from character creation to the giddy heights of level 20. As an extra bonus, I’ll be streaming a special session on ZAM's Twitch.TV channel from 4pm Pacific on Thursday May 23, where I’ll be joined by senior producer Todd Carson to answer all your Dragon’s Prophet questions.

How do you beat the beta leakers and NDA breakers at their own game? According to the folks at Carbine it’s simple – release the patch notes before they do. Timed to coincide with the start of WildStar's Closed Beta Test 2, the team is being incredibly open about what the new wave of testers can look forward to.

In a mammoth WildStar Wednesday update fans can now dig into a stack of tradeskill information, theorycraft over the latest class changes and delve into new dungeon and battleground information. Milestone 31 contains over nineteen pages of patch notes (you can read them in full on the official site) covering every aspect of the game, from the new Mentoring and Rallying systems to the many UI enhancements.

Carbine's had that "Sign up for Beta!" link on the WildStar front page for quite some time now. We've mentioned it in more than a few of these posts and I'm guessing most of you reading this have long since signed up and are wondering, "When can I play?!" Well, this week's WildStar Wednesday is here to give you some good news... sort of.

What does it feel like when a developer rolls out the red carpet? WildStar’s European fans were treated to their own Arkship-style fan gathering down in Brighton, UK recently, and I was incredibly lucky to snag an invite of my own. With the promise of plenty of hands-on playtime, some in-depth Q&A panels and a first look at both PvP arenas and instanced dungeons, I was drooling with anticipation from the moment it hit my inbox.

The world of Auratia is crammed with dragons. Legend has it that Elder dragons arrived many years ago, breeding with other creatures and creating hundreds of new species. From soaring fliers to graceful swimmers, each of them is blessed with a unique set of abilities that adventurers will be eager to make use of.

Dragon’s Prophet has a slogan: “Their Strength is Your Power”. But, as Senior Producer Todd Carson explained, this is about more than just a fighting companion or convenient steed. In this upcoming MMO from Taiwanese developer Runewaker and published by Sony Online Entertainment, dragons impact every aspect of the game, from questing to crafting.

It's been a full week now since Carbine opened the gates to the first wave of WildStar Closed Beta testers. We've seen some hints of what the testers have experienced during that week, but a single set of patch notes don't really tell us much about how testing is going. In order to clear things up for those who haven't been lucky enough to get into the testing, this week's WildStar Wednesday brings us a report from the beta: what the players have seen, how Carbine is reacting, as well as their plans for the future.

The floodgates are now open as the anticipated Sci-Fi, cooperative action game, Warframe, has announced that it's open beta phase has begun! Warframes Chief Creative Director, Steve Sinclair, expressed his thanks to all of the closed beta testers who helped make this possible.

"The road has been wild, but through the fixing, the breaking, the smashing, and the rebuilding, the Warframe community has supported us and it’s heartwarming to see their love for the game matches our own” says Sinclair.

“Free-to-Play has reached a level of acknowledgement within the gaming community that now demands higher level production values and in-depth gaming experiences.  We’re delivering that with Warframe and if the success of the Closed Beta is any indication, it’s well on its way to pushing the Free-to-Play frontier into the next generation.”

If you’ve been eager to experience the world of Neverwinter, here is your chance! Thanks to our good friends over at Cryptic and Perfect World, we have a limited number of beta keys to give away. Act quickly though, as the third beta weekend starts at 12 Noon Pacific on Friday, March 22.

I'm a bit of a D&D nerd. I may not have quite as many years of experience with the game as some other folks reading this site (my first pen-and-paper game was a 3rd Edition campaign in college), but I love the game all the same. When Dungeons and Dragons Online came out, I thought it would be a perfect match for me, since it was an MMO set in Eberron and I'm a sucker for Warforged. Unfortunately, the game failed to grab me - the mechanics didn't click with me enough to switch from World of Warcraft and I didn't care for the art style. Fast-forward seven years and we have another D&D-based MMO in front of us, this one set in Neverwinter and the Forgotten Realms. Will this game fix the issues I had with DDO? Will it do justice to the setting and provide some of that world-building aspect that people love from the pen-and-paper game? Will it be filled with four million Drow named XxDrizztxX or some variant of that? After two beta weekends, I'll say yes, yes, and yes unless they (hopefully) ban those upfront.

Defiance is an MMO that is eagerly anticipated for a number of reasons, including its close ties to the SyFy television program that takes place in the same world.

As the game ramps up towards its April launch, this weekend, February 8 (8am PST) to February 10 (9pm PST), will be the first opportunity for many players to jump into the closed beta and test the action packed shooter. If you played in the first Advanced Mission Beta, you'd better go tell your friends as it's their chance to join you for AMB 2.

To help get as many Ark Hunters in-game as possible, Trion Worlds has teamed up with ZAM for our second Defiance beta key giveaway.