Kingdoms of Amalur developer 38 Studios made its first payment for the $49 million loan it received from the state of Rhode Island, and will seek private funding to continue operations. The developer's financial difficulties came under increased scrutiny this week after it came to light that 38 Studios failed to make its first scheduled $1.125 million loan repayment, and could not pay its nearly 400 full-time employees.

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The main story in The Elder Scrolls Online will be "100 per cent solo" so that you feel like "you're awesome, you're the hero", game director Matt Firor has revealed. "The part of the IP we worked with the most to ensure it was the closest we could get it in an MMO to what it would be to a console, solo game, was, I'm a hero," he told GameInformer in a video interview.

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This story caught my attention earlier this week when it was reported that Curt Schilling’s gaming studio, 38 Studios, could not make pay their employees this week and defaulted on their tax-payer funded load to Rhode Island. The more I read about this story, the more it inflames my nerd rage. First of all, where does the line start to receive a $75 million guaranteed load to fund a video game company?

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In a rather ironic twist, today's Devil's Advocate takes a look at Diablo III and the rather difficult launch that players have been enduring since Tuesday and, just maybe, difficulties that will arrive down the road apiece. See what we have to say about the whole thing and then weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

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In the real world, not everybody is for free trade. Many people believe that a country, let's say the USA, would be better off without trade, with protectionism, with erecting trade barriers against other countries like China. But if you are a gamer, this week brought a very powerful demonstration of the power of free trade in the form of Diablo III.

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With the release of the 1.2 Legacy patch, all of the PvP commendations you spent hours collecting BioWare swept aside. In their place, a new commendation system has been introduced. Of the old system, only Warzone Commendations remain. Mercenary, Centurion, Champion and Battlemaster Commendations have all been phased out. Furthermore, a new type, Ranked Warzone Commendation, was introduced

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Not everyone knows all things about all MMOs. Once in awhile, a rank amateur joins the legion fans surrounding the MMO-niverse. In our latest look at The Secret World, we check out the game through the eyes of a n00b. See what she thinks and then leave your thoughts in the comments.

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We were told by developers and publishers over the years that real-money-trading was a scourge on online gaming and ruined the experience for everyone. Rules were added to the term and conditions for just about every game to make sure that everyone knew it was not allowed and wouldn’t be tolerated. Those that did not heed the warning would risk their account being banned forever. It seems that in the end, money rules and no one really cares whether or not real-money-trading ruins games or not.

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Is it possible for a top-tier MMO to come out of nowhere and bowl you over? Considering that I follow these games not only for a hobby but as a writer for Massively, I always assumed the answer to that was "no." Until it happened, that is. Until RIFT.

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Every item you find or buy, you can sell back on the AH later, even those that you used and replaced by something better. That means that each players every day is producing a constant stream of blue and better gear to feed into the economy, far more than there could possibly be demand for. Thus prices are quickly converging towards rock bottom. The gold you collect in an hour buys you a complete set of the best possible blue gear for your level for every slot. The value of blue gear is so low, that it won't even be traded on the real money AH, being worth much less than the minimum price.

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