EVE Online is as much a setting as it is a massively multiplayer online game. EVE's galaxy of New Eden spans thousands of charted solar systems, with thousands more waiting to be discovered in the uncharted frontiers reachable only through wormholes. For all the myriad opportunities New Eden offers players to explore and create, there are just as many risks. The dangers that other pilots can pose also provide memorable stories that few other MMOs can match. The outlaws of EVE Online halt the calming lull of mining lasers, inject some thrills into otherwise routine trade runs, and disrupt the rote completion of mission objectives. More often than not, encounters with New Eden's pirates will leave you with a pounding heart and surge of adrenaline to go along with the flaming wreckage of your ship, if not a one-way trip back to the cloning facility. They create that fear of what threats lie on the other side of the next star gate and ultimately set the tone for New Eden. But even among these criminals there are a few whose accomplishments truly stand out.

The capsuleer called Mynxee is a well-known pirate in New Eden's underworld. Hers is a name remembered well by the many victims who've met their end under rapid fire from her autocannons. She is the founder and CEO of Hellcats, an all-women pirate corporation in EVE Online, and a central figure in EVE's criminal society. Outside of New Eden, Mynxee has built up quite a following through her Life in Low Sec blog and is one of EVE's more active pilots on Twitter as well. If there is such an individual in New Eden that can be viewed as its pirate king, Mynxee is undoubtedly its queen. She first caught Massively's attention years ago with her flashy red dress (size -10), but she's since become a pivotal figure in New Eden, popular with players from all walks of life in EVE.

Massively recently spoke with Mynxee about the allure of being an outlaw, and how she has expanded the scope of her piracy -- bringing it out of the shadows of low security space and into the light, where players feel they are safest.

Massively has been following the development of the sci-fi MMO Black Prophecy very closely, and was pleased that the title's developer Reakktor Media wanted to do a series of focused Q&As with us on several aspects of the game. Our last such Q&A started at the beginning with character creation, but in our second installment of the Black Prophecy interview series we discussed the game's mission design. To that end, we posed some questions to Lorenz Dames, the Lead Game Designer on Black Prophecy.

Lorenz explained a great deal about how Reakktor is approaching solo content vs. group-oriented gameplay. He also told us how Reakktor Media is merging the completion of mission objectives with dogfighting your fellow players through PvP missions, where other players will try to counter your efforts to complete goals. Our interview should provide Black Prophecy fans with a solid overview of the game's mission design, which will be an essential aspect of the sci-fi MMO's gameplay.

The latest info about the sci-fi MMO Black Prophecy, currently in development at Reakktor Media, comes in the form of a series of dev blogs from the game's Technical Director, Cyrus Preuss. As with his two previous blogs, Cyrus gets down into the nuts and bolts of how the game's physics work, which may be of interest to those who'd like to know more about the underlying systems that will govern Black Prophecy's space combat.

His rather technical dev blog is all about interaction with the physics engine. It especially deals with balancing the realism that some players want with the need to throw aspects of that realism to the wind, in favor of game mechanics that are simply more fun. He also discusses how the physics engine will relate to space stations, capital ships, and weapon physics. Black Prophecy fans interested in this kind of a look at the game can read all about it in "Interaction with the Physics Engine" on the game's official site.

Hellgate: London is one of those games that has really divided opinion from our readers. Some brand it as a deeply-flawed game, or were burned by that costly Founder's lifetime subscription when the game shut down after a rather short life. Others -- like some of us on the Massively staff -- truly miss the game's blend of horror and sci-fi elements and have been hoping that Hellgate: London would one day return in some form or another.

Although the future of the game has been murky, the most recent (and most straightforward) announcement is that Hellgate: London is slated to return to Western shores. HanbitSoft has secured the worldwide publishing rights to the game from Namco-Bandai, so now it's just a matter of time before it returns. We're interested to hear what you think about this. Would you welcome the return of Hellgate: London? For that matter, how would you feel about playing the game in its current free-to-play incarnation, Hellgate: Resurrection?

MAG is a PlayStation 3-exclusive MMOFPS title we've been keeping our eyes on at Massively. The inevitable debate aside about whether Zipper Interactive's title is an MMO or not -- yes, tanks and guns replace dragons and magic spells -- the game accommodates up to 256 players in a zone at a time. The idea of FPS gameplay with that many people at such a high degree of graphical detail is pretty mind-boggling, and it's something we've explored a bit in the MAG beta. Our parent site Joystiq recently sat down with the game now that it's officially launched and wrote a short MAG review.

Joystiq's Griffin McElroy gives a brief overview of MAG's gameplay and his assessment of the title's merits and flaws. That idea of 128 players per side doesn't mean you'll all be charging towards your opponents in one awesome wave, he notes. Rather, you'll typically be interacting with your fellow soldiers on a squad level (4-8 people) to achieve objectives, with multiple squads comprising platoons, and four such platoons forming an army.

The EVE Online-focused Planet Risk Show returned this week after a planned holiday hiatus. For those who've never heard of Planet Risk, it's a live weekly Split Infinity Radio program that's also released as a podcast. Planet Risk differs from most EVE podcasts in that it's largely focused on wormhole colonization, which only became possible after the Apocrypha expansion was released, allowing players to pull back the curtain of known space and head into uncharted expanses. Hosts Luminus Aardokay and Quivering Palm spend most of their EVE time in wormhole space, so they're fast becoming experts on the subject. Indeed, they broadcast The Planet Risk Show from within their colonized wormhole system, which is a rather unique one in the game.

Their home is one of the most hostile types of wormholes in New Eden -- a Class 6 -- where the Sleeper NPCs are especially deadly. The ship setups and tactics used against the Sleepers in such a solar system differ greatly from how it's done in lower class wormholes. They explain some of the tricks that allow them to overcome the Sleepers in their Class 6 wormhole this week in Episode 13 -- right around the 1 hour 11 second mark. It's a good listen, particularly as there isn't a great deal of information available on such high level encounters in the game.

MAG's official launch was only a few days ago, but developer Zipper Interactive is already explaining some of the benefits to having a high level character in the MMOFPS. Players who hit the level cap of 60 can enable "Veteran Mode", which Zipper Interactive has mentioned in the past. Now, they've clarified what exactly the advantages to doing so are in a blog post -- essentially it's an incentive to reroll once you've maxed out your character, and experience more of the game.

If you're looking to try something new, you'll be able to keep your past accomplishments (medals, ribbons, and related stats) when you reset your character to level 1. Even though your experience counter resets to zero, your lifetime experience will show everything you've ever earned -- a permanent record viewable on the stats page of your barracks. Players after trophies for hitting max level in all private military companies (PMCs) in MAG will want to take advantage of Veteran Mode and the experience boost it imparts. Veteran Mode gives players a permanent 10% bonus added to the experience total for each match, provided that players sticks through the entire round. Other players can easily recognize a Veteran by the gold insignia displayed beneath that character's rank. While we suspect it'll be a while before most players hit that level cap, Zipper Interactive detailed MAG's Veteran Mode on the game's official blog.

The devastating January 12 earthquake which struck the Republic of Haiti claimed many lives, and has left even more people homeless. It's a terrible situation, but at the very least there are numerous aid efforts underway, and some companies in the MMO industry are finding ways to help as well. CCP Games now ranks among them, with their PLEX Aid for Haiti initiative. The company is offering a way for the EVE Online playerbase to get involved and help with donations.

Here is the message from Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, in its entirety: