It's no secret that the eSports scene is on the rise and, with strong titles like Riot Games' League of Legends and Hi-Rez Studios' Tribes: Ascend paving the way, the future certainly looks bright for all. But while we've made large strides in most gaming genres (FPSs, RTSs, MOBAs), competitive PvP in MMORPGs has largely remained in the shadows. In March, I had the opportunity to chat with ArenaNet's Jon Peters on Guild Wars 2's competitive PvP and, while most were delighted to hear Jon call eSports one of their "primary goals" with competitive PvP, there were others who were curious as to how ArenaNet planned to achieve these lofty goals. I decided to spend most of my weekend in Guild Wars 2's instanced PvP to get some insight.

In an MMO all about secrets, knowing the answers to some of the riddles and puzzles can make you a very useful person to know. When you consider the meta-game that Funcom has created around The Secret World (TSW), getting a chance to speak to those in the know is like finding a hidden cache full of classified information, just waiting to be unlocked.

After our hands-on with The Secret World’s Atlantic Island Park, I had an opportunity to chat with just such a person. Funcom’s Tor Egil Anderson kindly spent some time with me. We discussed the depth of the ability wheel, player created content and the general direction of development. We also talked briefly about The Secret War, Funcom’s web based warm-up to the MMO’s launch on June 19th.

It's time for another BFF Report! This week, in ZAM's BFF Report #106, Mike B. jumped into TERA Online to share all of his thoughts on TERA's early quest content, PvP, game mechanics, UI design, and much more. In fact, Mike had so much to say about TERA that this might very well be his longest BFF Report ever! That's a lot of TERA talk!

You can go check out the latest BFF Report right here at ZAM.

Happy 5th Anniversary, Lord of the Rings Online! Turbine is celebrating LOTRO's anniversary today and, to celebrate, ZAM has joined in on the festivities! We've partnered up with Turbine to give away some fantastic prizes to all of our readers, so if winning free swag and celebrating Lord of the Rings Online is on your list of things you enjoy, then our big giveaway event will be right up your alley!

Enter our LOTRO Giveaway here!

First, be sure to enter in the ZAM giveaway by heading over to our contest page and entering your name. You'll be eligible to win 1000 Turbine Points, a Creative Labs HS-800 Headset, a lifetime membership for LOTRO, or even a SteelSeries Siberia V2 Headset. All you need to do is register for a free ZAM account, and then click "Enter Now!"

In addition to our giveaway, we will also be giving away a Lifetime Membership to LOTRO, a Mithril Edition of LOTRO, and 5000 Turbine Points. We'll be giving them away in a contest in the ZAM comments below! We're looking for two things from you (one sentence each):

Your first memory in LOTRO - A random draw will take place to award this winner 5000 Turbine points.

Your favorite memory in LOTRO - The top two entries will be awarded a Mithril Edition of LOTRO for the second place, with first place winning a Lifetime Membership to LOTRO.

The contest ends and prizes will be given out on Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST.

What's that? Feeling a little unlucky, or maybe suffering from LOTRO memory loss? Throughout today we'll also be giving away PAX EAST 2012 Perlino Horse Codes via Twitter. Just follow @ZAMOfficial or @Pwyff and fire us a tweet with the hashtag #zamlotro and we'll be randomly awarding out these Perlino Horse codes throughout the day! Good luck to everyone!

In less than two months, the ranks of Illuminati, Templars and Dragons will be bolstered with a flood of new members, all eager to explore The Secret World. From June 19th this year, we'll be able to explore an incredible mirror world, where all the myths, legends and superstitions are real. For those of us fed up with fantasy and sick of sci-fi, this is the MMO we've been waiting for.

We've been tracking the development of this mysterious new MMO, from our initial hands on with the game, to a closer look at PvP. It's been fascinating to watch the team at Funcom hammer out the Ability Wheel, evolving the initial concept into the most potent form of character customization we've seen. In this latest hands-on, junior communications manager Tor Anderson took us through Atlantic Island Park, an abandoned amusement park fairly dripping the paranormal.

As The Secret World makes the transition from a low-key closed beta to Open Beta on May 11th, Funcom has launched a web-based game where players can fight for world domination on behalf of their chosen Secret Society. Participants can win big prizes for taking part, including in-game items, beta access, their name being used in the game and even being flown to Montreal to meet the development team.

There's an aspect of alchemy when it comes to making videogames. An attempt to discover the fragments of gameplay that, when combined, create fun in its purest form. It's this process that's spawned some of the most instantly gratifying games we enjoy. 

For producer Carrie Gouskos and the team behind Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes (WOH), it's a mission that's seen them mine through layers of MMORPG, digging up the familiar gems of PvP combat and cutting them to fit into a new, easily accessible and lightweight game. Currently in Open Beta, the development team at BioWare Mythic is honing and polishing the kernel of their creation.

As well as being able to explore the game, I recently had the chance to sit down with Carrie Gouskos and discuss how Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes came into being. As well as sharing some of the choices that influenced the game's early development, Gouskos also explained how the team is learning from the current beta, as well as how the player community helps to drive future development.

"Capture, Train, and Morph any of the unique creatures you encounter while exploring the vast and spectacular world of Spirit Tales. Strive for victory!" So begins the tagline for Koramgames "cutest fantasy game ever!" Hey, cute and cuddly doesn't necessarily mean kiddie content; and we put some questions to David Hu and the Spirit Tales team about what this new Taiwan-based MMO brings to the table.

In this week's BFF Report, Mike B. aka Fony steps through Legend of Grimrock, a modern remake of the classic dungeon crawler. Inspired by gaming legends such as Might and Magic, Scarab of Ra and Eye of the Beholder, this budget-priced release has you solving fiendish puzzles and defeating the dungeon denizens in your bid for freedom.

What did Mike B. make of this challenging new take on an old classic? You'll have to watch the video to find out!

Check out this week's BFF Report here!

There’s a strange new MMO that’s hitting the streets later this year, and it’s like nothing else we’ve played before. There’s no dedicated tanking or healing, so combat looks completely different. It doesn’t have any endgame raiding, with everything revolving around PvP combat. It doesn’t even require a monthly subscription in order to play.

You’ve probably heard us talking about how Guild Wars 2 breaks the traditional MMO rule set, but doesn’t that mean it’s setting itself up to fail? ArenaNet doesn’t believe so, and for once we’re inclined to agree with them. The choices they’ve made actually make sense for the game that they’ve built, even though sometimes it’s not immediately obvious. I mean, why does end-game begin at level one?

We’ve done a bit of a thought experiment here at ZAM, collecting the top five most common arguments against Guild Wars 2. We’ve then applied intense scrutiny to these arguments before pulling them apart like delicious cake, all for your pleasure. See which ones stand up to our analysis and which ones crumble like the finest chocolate sponge. Grab yourself a plate as we dig in but remember: no leaving crumbs.

Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Issue #7: Sanctum and Eliam Fields!

• Issue #1: Epic from the Beginning
• Issue #2: A Starting Zone Like No Other
• Issue #3: New Beginnings
• Issue #4: Regulos and Maelforge
• Issue #5: Silverwood and Kelari
• Issue #6: Life Rifts & Helping Kelari
• Issue #7: Sanctum and Eliam Fields
• Issue #8: Akylios

Hello and welcome to the next installment of ZAM's weekly leveling and lore guide for RIFT, Traversing Telara. 

Valnyr is still knee deep in Silverwood quests this week, but I decided I would strike out for Sanctum anyway, the temptation of all the Carnival announcements too much to resist. But I finish up one of my quests before I head west.  Colten Feddel has asked me to cleanse three Shrines of Tavril in SIlverwood - the Tribute of Stone, Tribute of Soil, and Tribute of Wood. As the goblins spread the fire of Maelforge through the forest, they have been defiling these holy shrines. Colten is afraid that if this carries on, Tavril will grow weak and be unable to keep her part in maintaining the Ward, the magical barrier that protects Telara from the elemental planes.