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Most of the AAA MMOs we play right now charge about the same price: $14.99 a month. Some titles offer discounts for multiple months purchased in advance, and Turbine offers a unique offering in their lifetime subscription to Lord of the Rings Online. Most MMO gamers, though, are paying that $15 fee every month for the game or games of their choice. Our question this morning is simple: is that a good value for your game?

Now, obviously nobody would turn down something for free. The microtransactional business model has made big inroads into the US by allowing players the opportunity to hop online with their friends without an up-front cost. Blizzard recently announced they have no intention of changing their pricing any time soon, and seems to think that they offer a great deal for the cost. Most AAA developers don't look like they'll be moving away from monthly fees any time soon. Do you agree that's a fair value? Or, alternatively, do you wish that every game offered a free-to-pay model? Let us know.

You may remember the announcement this summer from the cable channel SCI FI about their collaboration with Trion World Network to create the first-ever television series connected with an MMO. While this news perked the interest of many gamers and SCI FI fans, we have only heard sprinkles of news here and there about the project.

Today, both companies announced the hiring of two new top industry talents for this MMO/TV show project. One is Kevin Beardslee, who you may know as a founder of Carbine Studios and a former developer on Blizzard's World of Wacraft. He will act as the Senior Development Director for the game half of the project. For the television side, Peter Egan (no relation to our own James Egan) will be writing the pilot episode on SCI FI. His previous work includes Playmakers (ESPN), Over There (FX Network), Medium, Medical Investigation (both on NBC) and SCI FI's own The Dresden Files. We wish both men the best of luck in their roles with this new innovative project.

The numbers are in and Blizzard has broken their own record once again. After selling 2.8 million copies in 24 hours, World of Warcraft's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has set the record as the fastest-selling PC game of all time, according to Blizzard. The irony is that the previous record holder was also Blizzard with their first WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million on the January 2007 launch day.

Blizzard's CEO and co-founder, Mike Morhaime, commented on the occasion, "We're grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft." Now the company is setting its sights on breaking the next record of 3.5 million copies sold in the first month; a record also set by The Burning Crusade. At this pace, they should easily break that next week.

China's State Administration of Taxation recently imposed a 20 percent income tax rate on profits made from virtual currency and virtual items, sparking price increases for virtual goods. While this tax rate (if actually enforced) clearly impacts the virtual space, it also affects transactions happening outside of MMO servers and virtual world grids. The taxation policy could ultimately extend to the virtual currencies linked to the largest IM providers in China such as Tencent, drastically increasing the percentage of the population affected by the new laws. Despite this, the positive benefits of eliminating gray and black markets for virtual items and currency may outweigh the drawbacks for gamers and users of the various digital services in China.

Questions remain about what will and will not be taxed in the virtual space, but it's clear that individuals who gain virtual income are expected to declare their profits and pay taxes on this, and do so within seven days of having earned the profit, according to Shanghai Daily.Taxpayers who can provide proof of the value of this property or the value of the transaction are taxed at 20 percent on their profits, while those who cannot provide sufficient verification are taxed at three percent of the total transaction value. But how many people are affected by this new system?

If you're in the market for a great MMO deal this holiday season, ArenaNet has just announced their 2008 holiday promotion for Guild Wars. From now until January 5, 2009, when you purchase the Guild Wars Game of the Year Edition, Factions or Nightfall from PlayNC.com or the Guild Wars in-game store, you will get a second campaign for 50% off.

This may just be the promotion you've needed to complete your Guild Wars trilogy, with the added bonus of unlocking the M.O.X. hero on your account. What more could you want? For more information and complete rules, check out the FAQ at the main site.

As probably one of the most vocal supporters of KingsIsle Entertainment's Wizard101, Tipa over at West Karana certainly has shown us the beauty of this new free-to-play children's MMO. Her blog posts have covered several months of experiences progressing through the game, and have probably had a hand in getting many others into it as well.

In a recent post, Tipa takes a retrospective look back at the game and what she thinks was done right or wrong in its development so far. One particularly interesting part is her analysis of the security measures taken to prevent children from talking to random strangers in the game. "W101 is a great game," she writes. "It's a fun game, it's an innovative game, but it's a game that has bought into the hysteria that every adult is a real or potential child abuser, completely disregarding that children are in considerably more danger from people they know in real life than from anyone they might meet playing a video game." It's certainly an interesting point on an innovation that has been showcased as a main family-friendly feature. Check out Tipa's complete blog for more of her thoughts on Wizard101.

It was just the other day that we noted a 21-day trial for EVE Online through Steam. CCP Games is following suit and offering their own 21-day EVE trial (a jump up from their standard 14-days). But more significant is the new incentive to bring your friends into New Eden: Active subscribers who bring their friends into the game through the Buddy Program (login required) will receive 30 days of game time for each of those trial accounts that become subscribers as well.

There are some rules and conditions that apply to the Buddy Program offer, so if this is of interest to you, check out the full announcement from EVE developer CCP Loktofeit, and be advised that this offer will expire on December 1st.

In many respects, watching the MMO industry in Asia is a litmus test of sorts for the western markets. While the preferred game mechanics of your average Korean MMO, for instance, differ markedly from what a North American MMO gamer expects from a title, the broader ideas -- in terms of business models -- represent what may yet be for those of us in North America, Europe, and Australia. So when industry leaders aren't doing well in their primary market, it may not bode well for their smaller titles running in other regions of the world.

We've come across an interesting piece in The Korea Times about some sea changes in Korea's MMO industry, focusing on NCsoft as well as its competitors -- Nexon, Webzen, and Hanbitsoft. We've previously reported that the Aion: The Tower of Eternity beta has, thus far, been quite a success in Korea and is perhaps a ray of hope for NCsoft in some troubled times. NCsoft's fiscal health is a big issue for fans of City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Tabula Rasa, and Lineage II, among others. So it comes as good news that NCsoft has nearly 200,000 concurrent users playing Aion: The Tower of Eternity in beta. The Korea Times, however, describes the country's MMO industry as being in a state of flux.

In another chat with MTV's Tracey John, this time held in an NYC Best Buy during the Wrath of the Lich King launch, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime had some interesting things to say about the economics behind World of Warcraft. Despite the game's towering success, 11 million players and a thriving community, the Blizzard folk have no plans to change the way they charge US customers. John ties this in with the recent announcement of plans for a subscription-based Guitar Hero series, something Morhaime says Blizzard had nothing to do with.

He goes on to note something MMO players have long used as a talking point for their hobby: the extremely low rate of cost for content. "If you look at other choices that you can make - like going to a movie with a date - you've already over 15 dollars for two hours. I think that players really see that in terms of value for their entertainment, that this the best value that they can find right now." The CEO states that so far the company hasn't been affected by the country's economic downturn, and they have hopes they won't see any problems moving into the winter months. Click through to read the full interview, which touches on the company's enthusiasm for their new expansion and their plans for future content expansions to WoW.

When it comes to virtual worlds, Massively's main focus to date has clearly been on Second Life, but we're also interested in some of the other choices that are becoming available to residents in virtual spaces. Blue Mars from Avatar Reality is one that's caught our eye -- it's a sci-fi themed virtual world, set on a terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD. The potential is there to have some stunning visuals, as Blue Mars is built on CryEngine2, best known for giving Crysis its look.

The official Avatar Reality site lists a beta release for the end of 2008, but they've told Eurogamer that Blue Mars enters beta in January 2009. "The first-time developer expects this to last for around three months, before the full game launches in April," Eurogamer's Rob Purchese reports.

Subscriptions have been the bread and butter of MMOs since the days of Ultima Online, but subs may be coming to some popular standalone PC titles from Take-Two Interactive, presumably the Grand Theft Auto franchise and BioShock. Brian Crecente of Kotaku reports that "at the BMO Capital Markets conference, Take-Two head honcho Strauss Zelnick seemed very up on the idea of downloadable content, micro-transactions and even... subscriptions."

This falls in line with their business model of periodically offering downloadable content to either extend the storyline of a game, or to simply offer varied gameplay experiences. Downloadable content and microtransactions could solve some of the issues game publishers have with their titles being re-sold, allowing them to have a continuous revenue stream, and perhaps dissuading many consumers from reselling that game in the first place. Regular content refreshes could ensure that these games don't go stale and end up relegated to a dusty bookshelf. Zelnick implied that this business model, should it come to be, would likely only affect Take-Two's biggest titles. This implies changes to the business models for Grand Theft Auto and BioShock, although the words "Midnight Club Online" also seem apt.

But do you feel that adding the trappings of the MMO business model, namely subs and microtransactions, would enhance your experience with a standalone title, both as a gamer and as a consumer? Are more MMO-like PC games a good thing, or are you more of an MMO purist?

Apparently, folks aren't too pleased with the way GOA is handling Warhammer Online over in Europe. If this is news to you, welcome to two months ago. Yet, in their defense, GOA has been working to remedy these concerns and address many of the issues that have been alienating European WAR players since before launch.

In a recent forum post, GOA's Community Manager, Magnus, confronted these problems and let players know that they're not only aware of what's going on, but they're working to fix it. This wasn't quite enough for one blogger at Books of Grudges who described their frustration at what they say "smacks of PR." If the on-going issues with GOA have been affecting you lately, check out the Magnus post and the Book of Grudges response. You may find that you share their opinion.

Much has been made of a statement recently by Linden Lab's new CEO, Mark Kingdon, that 'Premium subscriptions are immaterial in our overall business.' You see, in a sense that's pretty much spot-on. Unless a premium account owns more than 512 square metres of the Linden Estate (colloquially known as the Second Life Mainland), that account is either only very small revenue for the Lab, or actually represents an ongoing cost to them.

Linden Lab's CFO, John Zdanowski said, 'The revenue we generate from premium subscriptions is largely offset by the stipends we pay out to these account holders, so this decline doesn't have a material impact on our business.'

Either you're on an older premium account with a 500 Linden Dollar per week stipend grandfathered in, or you're on a newer premium account with 300/week. There's also a choice of plans, ranging from monthly to annual. Let's take a look at the relative values.

MMO industry giant NCsoft has seen better weeks than this. First there was Richard Garriott's announcement that he's leaving the company for new horizons. Then came the news that NCsoft's third quarter profits fell by 50 percent.

Gamasutra reported today: "In the three months ending September 30th, the South Korean company's profit was down from 10 billion won ($7.2m) in 2007 to just 5 billion ($3.6m) in this year's third quarter." Gamasutra goes on to cite some additional figures in regards to NCsoft's operations, namely that its Korean titles are still the big earners, with Lineage and Lineage II comprising roughly 84 percent of its overall revenues. MMO titles popular in North America and EU account for roughly 15 percent of NCsoft's revenues. For further details, be sure to check out Gamasutra's piece on NCsoft's third quarter revenues for more statistics linked to the company's revenue dip.

There was a time when the western MMO market was flooded with imports of popular Korean titles. While there's still a steady influx of Asian games reworked to fit western playstyles, there's also a growing number of western MMOs being exported to Asia, particularly Korea. The obvious title that succeeds anywhere it goes is World of Warcraft, whose Asian following is legion. But smaller games have also been making inroads. EVE Online has been operating in China for years and Hellgate: London gained a new lease on life in Korea. They're not alone in this. Turbine has its eyes set on expanding into Korea with Lord of the Rings Online, and we know that Age of Conan is marching eastward, too. The latest successful western title to look east is Warhammer Online, which will soon be played in Korea as well.

Electronic Arts and Hangame are partnering to bring WAR to South Korea. In a related press statement, Mythic's Mark Jacobs said, "By partnering with Hangame, we hope to provide Korean gamers with a fresh, new fantasy experience and years' worth of Realm vs. Realm adventures on the frontlines of WAR." You can see the full announcement about WAR's attempt to capture Korean gamers over at The Earth Times. Given how PvP-centric Korean MMOs tend to be, do you think Warhammer Online would be a natural fit for gamers in this market?

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	Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!