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With WWI past us, BlizzCon not due for several more months, and no more major patches due until the expansion hits, now is the time for discontent among World of Warcraft players. While accounts will surge back to life with the arrival of Arthus and Northrend, from now until then it's going to be increasingly hard to get your guildmates in-game. Raids will flag, Arena teams will disband, and /gquit will be a common 4am turn of phrase.

What about you? Are you sticking with Azeroth through to the new expansion content? Or are you going to give Blizzard's behemoth a break until then, and let visions of snowdrifts in the North carry you happily through the summer months? What's your account look like for next month, faithful readers?

There are many races within the Star Trek universe to choose from when it comes to your favorites -- and we say that in plural form because lets be honest, you can't pick just one -- so of course we're curious about your personal choices. If you had the power to choose four or five races for Star Trek Online, what would they be? Vulcan? Cardassian, Bajoran, Ferengi, Klingon, or Romulan? Or maybe something less expected like the Voth? We'd totally roll some bipedal hyper-dinosaur characters. Obviously we're assuming that Humans are included in this list, but hey if you want to exclude them feel free.

There's certainly a lot of room for discussion on this topic, seeing as there have been six Star Trek series (if you count the animated series) and ten -- but soon to be eleven -- movies. One thing we personally thing is that all Game Masters should be forced to be the Q race, because come on... that just makes too much sense!

To the eternal lament of some players, roleplaying is a dying art in MMOs. Players interested purely in socializing, exploring, and roleplaying have largely yielded to achievers, who thirst for the high levels, the best gear, and the world-first accomplishments. That's all well and good for your warriors, rogues, and mages, but where does your friendly neighborhood spoony bard fit into the equation? They're a class that a big company like Blizzard only jokes about including.

It's a question asked elsewhere in the MMO blogosphere, but it's one we're curious about as well. Is there still room in modern MMOs for a Bard class, or are they destined for the dustbin of gaming history?

Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational just wrapped up, and aside from the highly anticipated announcement about Diablo III, there were also a huge amount of changes announced for World of Warcraft. From Shamans getting the ability to have their totems cover the entire raid as opposed to just their party, to the confirmation that you will be able to make a Death Knight of every playable race. Many players are buzzing about the upcoming changes.

This morning we thought we'd ask you what you thought the most interesting World of Warcraft news was from the Paris Worldwide Invitational? This blogger thinks that her favorite thing (aside from Diablo III, which really isn't WoW news) is the unveiling of the Blizzard authenticator encryption keychain. It will be interesting to see if other MMOG companies follow this step or not.

Loot. As a raider, it is both boon and bane to us. If you're in a guild that has a system you can agree with, then loot can be a wonderful thing. However, if not, loot can often destroy morale and even take entire raiding guilds under. We've all heard stories of the inevitable blow-up that occurs after the piece someone's been after forever goes to someone who just joined the guild.

That said, as we know we have lots and lots of people with quite a bit of MMOG experience out there, we thought we'd ask you what loot systems you prefer for raiding? Do you still think the oldest is best, and like to run with DKP (Dragon Kill Points), or are you all about the roll and distribute. Perhaps you prefer one of the other systems like Suicide Kings, which goes down a list that moves based on who attends and doesn't loot (thus heading for the top) versus those who attend and loot (who land at the bottom). We're curious what you think is best for keeping raid looting "fair."

Now that Blizzard's finally announced Diablo 3, ending a feverish period of second guessing and rampant speculation, one thing is clear: Despite how you may feel about the big reveal, the specter of Diablo 3 can finally be laid to rest. Waiting in the wings, however, is ... what?

Starcraft 2 is in process, so it's extremely unlikely that Blizzard would dilute that audience by announcing a Starcraft MMO. Ditto with a Diablo MMO, and we don't even know what its release date might be. World of Warcraft has Wrath of the Lich King coming (probably) next year. Can we assume that the next announcement will concern their "next-gen MMO"? Is that project the oft-mentioned "Hydra"? With two active fantasy titles and one science fiction game, what could the next big thing possibly be?

One of the things we really like here at Massively are giant monsters. Hence our love for Champions Online's Monster Island zone. As we thought about the coolness of giant monsters battling it out across cityscapes and countrysides, we suddenly realized that making an MMO-style giant monster game would be a very cool thing to do. Who wouldn't want to design, name and play their very own giant multi-headed monster? In fact, we could see there being two factions in the game: giant monsters and giant robots. That way you've got a PvP element and even more classic film campyness to draw from. Oh, how we would swoon for such a thing!

So would you be interested in playing something like that and if so, what would your giant monster and the game it's in be like?

In the never-ending cycle of patching, class-tweaking, and talent overhauls, most classes in any given game get their time in the spotlight as the flavor of the month. There has always been a certain sub-culture of lemmings within any given player base who flock to the most powerful classes simply because they represent the path of least resistance to the end-game. While these bandwagon riders are usually acknowledged for what they are, its difficult sorting out who is playing for power and who is playing for more sincere motives.

At the same time, it's ostensibly a lot more fun behind at the top of this never-ending cycle than the bottom, so shouldn't players enjoy their moment in the sun, no matter how temporary? And so we ask you, dear Massively readers: Are the benefits of kicking butt in PvP or getting that coveted raid spot worth the cost of being lumped in with the power-hungry lemmings?

The folks that picked up Age of Conan around the time of its release are nearing the one-month milestone of their accounts. The game's launch was fairly smooth as far as MMO launches go, with people actually able to log on and play for the most part. Many patches have been made, for better or worse, documented and undocumented. People's opinions have been varied and divided, some loving the game, and others just not digging it.

This one-month mark also means that some payment is in order if you wish to continue exploring Funcom's Hyboria. The question we ask of you this morning, is: will you be continuing your subscription to AoC, will you be canceling, or have you already jumped ship?

One of the complaints we hear rather frequently of Age of Conan is that the game's scattered zones have the effect of discouraging exploration amongst players. Those accustomed to traversing World of Warcraft's (mostly) seamless world have levied their displeasure at the fact that Age of Conan feels like a series of disparate maps instead of a single unified world.

The explanation in terms of lore is rather obvious -- the universe created by Robert E. Howard's fiction is simply too large to contain within a single MMO world. But is that just hiding behind a convenient excuse? What would you rather have, a zoned game that fits more closely with the game's lore, or a seamless world that allows you to explore from one area to the next?

You may or may not have noticed, depending on whether or not you actually visit the site (hi RSS readers!) but we have a new Tip of the Day feature on the sidebar. Over to your right. Down a bit. There it is! We're going to be plumbing the depths of topical MMO information to bring back relevant goodies for you. We'll also jump right into the minutea from MMO events past, and dive into the depths of some of the evergreen content on Massively and sister sites Big Download/WoW Insider.

We have lots of information at our fingertips and locked in our massive cortexes, but we want to know what you want to know. What tricks/games/events should we be sure to address in future tips? Do you have a unique bit of info you'd be willing to share with us? Drop either on us below in the comments. Remember, only YOU can prevent uninformed MMO players.

If you play a particular game a lot, you're bound to get good at it after a while. If you get really good, you may start to find patterns that make gameplay easier. If you refine these patterns, you could become a master. If you've become a master, you may start to see redundancy of experience, where, say, leveling alt after alt becomes repetitive and humdrum. If this happens, you may start to look for the truly novel places, the unique situations, the unusual character builds -- you may quest for something specific.

Sometimes, it's that ridiculously rare piece of armor that only drops once every thousand encounters. Sometimes it's that spell waaaay down on the ability tree that requires an exhaustive amount of time to unlock. Sometimes it's an in-game event that occurs randomly, when you've collected the proper sequence of items -- and you don't know exactly what those items are, but you saw someone do it once, and you're damned if he's going to be the only one. When you're so good at a game that the standard challenges no longer entice, do you go looking for something specific?

The EverQuest 2 forums are playing host to a darned interesting poll right now. Lindsay Lockhart, a designer on the game, wants to know what type of quests the players inhabiting the official boards like. She calls it a "Survey of Overland Quest Preferences", and offers up the following options:

• Kill quest - Kill me X orcs because I want to blood spillllled!
• Gather quest - I need X samples of relics from those ruins, STAT!
• Bauble quest - Spray X burynai with these raptor pheramones and see what happens!
• Story/Diplomatic quest - Negotiate with X and Y to achieve a treaty and bring a signed document to Z.
• Exploration quest - Run around scouting a new area and get updates as you pass different points.
• I love 'em all!
• I don't like... quests.

Right now "I love 'em all" is winning by a landslide, but that seems like a cop out. So we want to know: what's your favorite type of quest out there? Do you like whack-the-foozles, Fedexers, or maybe your run-of-the-mill yackity-yack? Let us know!

The checkered past of Star Trek Online is well-known to both fans and detractors of that universe. As with so many things, the longer one has to wait for something, the greater the expectation accrued, until at last there comes a point at which nothing can possibly live up to its own hype.

However, there are indications that point toward Cryptic Studios picking up the license to have a go, and given their track record, there is room for hope. Will any of the cool concepts from the previous iteration remain? Will Cryptic be able to innovate in a genre they haven't tried before? What would make STO worth playing?