My American sources tell me this is a long weekend for you folks across the pond. Something about independence from Blighty a few hundred years ago. Essentially an excuse to let off fireworks, have BBQs, enjoy the fine weather and skive off work. Good on you. It seems like lots of MMOs are using it as an excuse to take the real celebrations in-game. For example, World of Warcraft has the Midsummer Fire Festival which concludes tomorrow with a bunch of snoozing goblin guards and a whopping fireworks display. Likewise, Lord of the Rings Online has one festival with four different names.

Given the fact the games are created by humans, it's no surprise the in-game festivals of all our favourite MMOs share a little in common with actual celebrations in real life. However they can also be handy for people too far away to meet up this 4th of July, most often troops on active duty or family members and friends separated by thousands of miles or even continents. So are any of you out there planning to eschew real celebrations in favour of meeting up with your guildies in-game? Are you going to travel around to see the fireworks or, if you play, WoW raid an enemy city. Do you prefer celebrating such events in-game? Do you mark them on your calendar and anticipate them as much as their real world counterparts? Do you wish the developers would expand world festivals to take account of more important holidays?

You may have noticed that Massively doesn't talk very much about World of Warcraft. Even though it's the biggest MMO on the block, our friends at WoW.com cover it so comprehensively that it seems silly for us to duplicate their efforts. But WoW is an MMO too, and it only makes sense to talk about it when there's news. So, from here on out, we'll be co-opting WoW.com's coverage when appropriate. When you see a post on Massively that says "WoW.com" in the upper left (as in the image above) with an unfamiliar writer's name -- that means you're seeing a post directly from our WoW-centric sister site! It should look and feel the same to you, dear reader, but if you head off to comment, be advised that you'll be leaving Massively for WoW.com, where the WoW fans outnumber the rest of us. You'll be able to comment with your existing Massively account, but tread with caution!

Gaikai is a new game streaming service that's currently in development, which was first announced at GDC 2009 (and later was apparently previewed by game publishers at E3 2009.) We've since mentioned Gaikai a few times at Massively, and how the service could bring MMOs (and other games) to devices like netbooks that don't have adequate graphics capabilities to run these titles. Gaikai will use "Streaming Worlds" technology to do all the graphics crunching on remote servers and then stream games to your computer via a web browser. In effect, you're playing the game as a video stream. No client install required, no patching needed.

Given the reactions we've seen from gamers in our own comments and elsewhere on the web, skepticism abounds. Perhaps seeing is believing though, as Gaikai's David Perry has put out a video demo of the service today, explaining Gaikai to viewers as he plays several games, namely World of Warcraft and EVE Online. No doubt there will still be skepticism, but it's good to get a first look at the service. Perry makes a few details about the demo and the service itself clear on his blog: the data travel distance in the demo is 800 miles; this is a (non-fiber) home cable connection; it works over wi-fi and with netbooks lacking 3D graphics cards; any clicking sounds heard are only from Perry's wireless headset mic.

We've got a video embed of the Gaikai technology demo for you below, where you can see World of Warcraft and EVE Online played via a browser:

There are always going to be times when, due to real life commitments, you can't play your favourite MMO, whether it's a month of exams or an important week at work. I started playing WoW in November 2006 and was on the cusp of getting the game when my first month ran out and I had to fly back to Norfolk from Exeter for Christmas. My mother doesn't have broadband and is a little scared by technology (it's taken me two years to show her how to use a DVD player) so I didn't bother bringing my laptop. This meant over a month without the internet or WoW. It was during this time that I realised how much the game had gotten its claws into me. When I got back, a couple of days before The Burning Crusade was released, I re-rolled to my current main and haven't looked back since.

During that month I started to take an interest in the game. I hit the library and devoured WoWWiki, I researched the lore of my chosen class and that of Azeroth itself. Then I started reading the novels and finally, I was reduced to watching YouTube videos to get a better idea of how the game had evolved as well as a peek at the endgame. So, constant readers, let's say something in real life has meant you can't play your MMO of choice for a couple of weeks, how do you cope? Do you do something totally different? Do you use other media about said MMO (like YouTube or novels) to get your fix?

While the Borean Tundra in World of Warcraft's Wrath of the Lich King expansion is generally a cold and unwelcoming place, there are occasional bastions of warmth and fellowship across the landscape. Today, we bring you one such Alliance town, situated on the coast, surrounded by steep cliffs and some fairly nasty monsters (despite the fact that they don't show up here). This image, sent in to us by Soulbreeze, Level 80 Human Rogue from the guild Crimson Alliance, shows off a land many of us who leveled through Northrend saw. He writes in:
I've ran through this town a million times while leveling up my character, but it wasn't until I got a look at it from a nearby cliff that I truly appreciated all the work that went into it. Perspective is an amazing thing.

Do you have screenshots from a bit of cliffwalking adventure? If so, you should send those in to us -- after all, vistas like this are better when you share the experience! Just pop them in an email to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description.

Lore is the keystone of every good MMO, it crafts the raid instances and pushes the game to new heights in the form of expansions and patches. For many it is the lure of the lore -- and by extension the playable races -- which pulls them into the game. When I was a little younger than I am now, I studied classics and religious studies and theology at a uni in London for almost four years. I dig religion, I adore translations of ancient texts and I really, really like mythology. As a result fantasy games are especially fascinating for me to me. When everyone else sees Titans, I see a mishmash of the actual Titans and the Olympians given new life, where you see Anubisath I see the ancient Egyptian protector of the dead. Where you see Val'kyr, I see Odin's barmaidens.

So come on readers, how important is lore to you? Do you dig finding all the references in game? Does the lore make a game more rich and appealing? Does it make it feel more real? Do you not give a fig? Are you more interested in just killing things? Do you play titles like AoC or LotRO just because of the books they were inspired by?

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the development budgets of new MMOs. To stay ahead of the technological curve, a large portion of the budget invariably goes toward the graphics department. Studios produce impressive graphics engines and mountains of art assets in an effort to make their game one of the most visually impressive out there. Amidst all the fuss over graphics and gameplay, audio is often overlooked and underfunded. It's been shown that good music and sound effects can have a significant impact on the perceived quality of a game. This is something that some development studios recognise and support but many continue to neglect this vital part of the gaming experience.

In this article, I examine the importance of good audio in an MMO and explain the underlying psychology involved.

Blizzard community manager Nethaera has announced some more details of the new battleground coming to World of Warcraft with Patch 3.2, Call of the Crusade.The "Isle of Conquest" will be a new place for Horde and Alliance to face off in forty-vs.-forty PvP across different locations offering their own unique challenges and rewards.

Blizzard has put together a preview site for the Isle of Conquest explaining about the battleground and its objectives and resources that the Horde and Alliance will struggle over. Each location will have a certain advantage, ranging from Glaive Throwers and Catapults to an airship that allows players to parachute into the enemy keep. Have a look at the Isle of Conquest preview site for more on what to expect from Call of the Crusade's battleground.

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	One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into? Comparing one of the largest and most popular MMOs with the current fastest-growing MMO? Do I have a deathwish? Well, it turns out World of Warcraft and Free Realms actually do have a few things in common, but a straight comparison isn't the point of this article. We at Massively have decided to compile a guide for World of Warcraft players who may be interested in checking out what Free Realms has to offer. Even better, for those WoW players out there with children, this guide could be valuable for some alternatives to your usual family gaming choices.

"But why would you want to play in a children's game? And isn't Free Realms all instanced anyway? I've heard it's not even really an MMO!"

These are the types of concerns and questions we hope to answer with this article, so follow along below as we take you through our WoW Player's Guide to Free Realms.

From movies and books to computer games, the concept of the sequel is firmly embedded in the entertainment industry. It's usually a much safer bet to make a new part to an existing successful intellectual property than it is to back an untested product. In the games industry, sequels are a great way to make more money from the same game concept but as usual MMOs have proven to be something of a different animal. Subscription MMOs don't conform to the same rules as non-subscription games, favouring recurring orders and longer-term customer commitment over single purchases. While development studios often take sequels for granted, I'm forced to ask whether MMOs should have sequels at all or if a different paradigm is more appropriate.

In this article, I explore the games industry's obsession with repetition as I ask the question "Should MMOs have sequels?"

Robin Torres, a columnist over at our sister site WoW.com has posted a fascinating piece trying to define casual. While it's WoW-themed, it could easily be adapted for any -- and every -- MMO out there and is well worth a read.

Given the addictive nature of MMOs, the word 'casual' might well seem an odd word to be attached to this genre of games. However Robin's definitions encompass every kind of gamer. Personally I find myself in the 'players with lives' section and I'm glad to be there. Head on over and check it out to find out where you belong.

It feels like a new MMO is being released every month these days and the market for persistent online games is certainly expanding. At the head of this market is a set of games commonly referred to "triple A" titles. These are popular games from big name studios or games using popular intellectual properties. New games that are considered "triple A" have a unique ability to build unparalleled levels of anticipation and hype around themselves prior to release. In order to draw in as many players as possible, an obscene amount of cash is often spent on advertising to hype these games up for release. But is this appropriate and cost-effective or does it show a fundamental misunderstanding of of the MMO market?

In this article, we look at what can go wrong with over-hyped MMO launches and what happens when the subscriber bubble bursts.

MMOs fall into two main categories: eastern (titles like Aion and Perfect World International) and western (AoC, WoW and EVE Online). I've noticed over the past week's Daily Grind columns and a piece I did on Perfect World International that a lot of our readers seem naturally wary of any MMOs not made in the west, barring familiar franchises like Final Fantasy.

Now part of this I can understand, eastern MMOs usually have very anime-like visuals and often borrow from unfamiliar Asian mythologies. This can often scare off western players. At the same time, players in Asia seem to lap up western MMOs like WoW. I'm curious, readers, do you judge an MMO the location of the company which made it? Do you prefer western MMOs or are you just as curious to try eastern games which other players just don't get?