EA has gone off the deep end. They've laid off most of their Ultima Online team and pissed off a bunch of employees. Yikes! Apparently things in the EA Mythic household are much worse than they appear. Here's what Tensor, a former EA employee has to say:

Alot of the UO team was laid off today including me and all of QA. We were escorted out of the building and not even allowed to email our goodbye email to everyone else. They even had managers watching us the whole time like we had done something wrong.

Dest

it's a test~

Lord of the Rings Online just got it's latest update, known as Book 11, earlier today. This was one big freakin' update, folks. Of couse, with an update this big, some significant changes are afoot (and no, that's not a hobbit pun), so this is mostly good news. Among the most significant new aspects of the game? Consider:

• Player Housing (this is huuuuuge for many MMOers)
  
• Some very significant Loremaster changes
• Equally significant Minstrel updates

There's also new epic quests, new areas, new raid content...oh, hell, going through this update line by line would require a news post the size of The Silmarillion. If you've got 6 or 7 hours with nothing better to do, you can read it all, in detail, right here.

Will this update cure the "I use a sword to play my lute" animation? 

[Pic:  Some political blogger] 

Ooooh, put uber super powers together with yummy weapon customization features and you get an all new game update for City of Heroes. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then hit the jump to check out a new video over on the community site. Floyd "Castle" Grubb narrates and the trailer spotlights the power sets that will be introduced in Issue 11: A Stitch In Time. In the video you will also see a bit about the new Weapon Customization feature.

There's a whole page dedicated to the new coolness that is to be CoH. So check it out, you'd be crazy not to. Here's what you can read more about:

• Ouroboros System
• Weapon Customization
• 2 new power sets
• New Inventions
  

Judge Judy: The Perfect Person to Rule on a Case Involving Video Games.

You don't see this every day: Judge Judy, self-important TV small claims arbiter, rules on a World of Warcraft case.  Note:  she doesn't know jack about WoW, MMOs, video games, or anything that's happened in American culture since the 1950s.

I'd really like to come up with some ironic commentary to add at this point, but the bottom line is that there is nothing, nothing more ironic than Judge Judy ruling on a World of Warcraft small claims case.

Check the video right here in our own Theatre of Doom.

...but not in a good way. Right now half of California is on fire and one company that depends on service for it's MMOs (Sony Online Entertainment) is making a statement and it goes something like this....

"Technical, In-Game and Account support will be in limited operation on Monday, October 22nd 2007 due to wildfires in the San Diego area. During this time, support will be available but response time may be delayed. We will keep you updated with any changes in the situation.

For your convenience our Self-help knowledgebase is also available at www.station.sony.com/kb with answers to your questions. E-mail support is also available any time at www.station.sony.com/kb."

SOE posted on their website today. SOE, all I have to say to you is this:

Keep up with SOE on this one by hitting their site for updates.