If you've spent any time at all carousing in MMO circles, you’ve no doubt heard Brad McQuaid’s name mentioned at some point.

Can't wait to see more of Black Gold Online? Well, you're in luck today because we have 14 exclusive pictures to share! Click any of the thumbnails below to enlarge the image.

About a dozen fansite folks milled around excitedly in the Moors of Ykesha as Christine “Kiara” Renzetti summoned us in from all over Norrath for the Beta tour of The Shadow Odyssey.  Moors of Ykesha is the (very) large overland solo-content zone for the expansion.  Current estimates give the number of quests available around 400.  We were greeted by Lindsay Morgan  “Miss Doomcookie” Lockhart, the zone designer and the developer responsible for all the pre-TSO lore at EQII Players.  She told us that the Ykeshan landmass is about the same size as Fens of Nathsar, but there's action in the waters, making it actually larger.  The continent was once attached to the south east of the Desert of Ro, and is where Grobb and Gutka used to be.  It's home to Clan Ykesha and the Rellosian Ogres, who turned from Rallos Zek to Cazic Thule to survive the Greenmist.  It's also home to the Gunthak pirates.  

Morgan also worked on the Signature quest, and tells us it involves some of the toughest zones in the expansion.  At launch there will also be six new Heritage Quests which tie in EverQuest lore, and of course two new Diety quest lines. 

We were joined by Brett “Breb” Schienert as Kiara began taking us through the exciting new group content.  These zones all scale to the level of the first person zoning in (most start at level 50), so remember to mentor down before you zone.  There are a ton of new collection quests, and it was fun watching Niami Denmother scamper from shiny to shiny. 

On the heels of EverQuest's newest expansion launch, we are giving away 10 keys to Seeds of Destruction All-In-One Compilation Packs. These All-In-One Packs feature the base game and all 15 expansion packs, including the all-new Seeds of Destruction (thirty (30) days game time included for new accounts only).

This contest is open to any premium Allakhazam member. Here is how to enter: 

• Go to your Allakhazam user control page .
• Under "Premium Giveaway Options", uncheck the "Opt Out" box.
• Under "Games You Play", check off "EverQuest".
• Click "Save User Settings" and that's it.
  • If you've previously opted into contests, you are already entered for this one.

If you are not a premium member but wish to enter, you can click here to go to our sign-up page and sign up. As a premium member, you not only get access to Allakhazam contests and giveaways, but also features such as advanced item, quest, and bestiary searches; the elimination of ads; as well as a host of other features listed here .

We will draw 10 random winners on Friday, November 7, 2008. Good luck!

If you've played an MMO at all, you're familiar with subscription fees. It's the service cost associated with the game. If you've played MMOs for any length of time, you'll be familiar with the expansion features that many MMO companies throw at players, often faster than we can chew through the content. In contrast, one of the biggest pushes in MMO delivery in the last few years is the content update. This occurs when studios update content and features in game without making you pay extra for the content.

When MMOs first came onto the scene we had patches and hot fixes that were more emergency maintenance than updates to content offerings. Now though, few games choose not to recognize what a huge boon to their community content updates are. There are even some studios that offer updates to their games exclusively via complimentary expansions. A game such as CCP's EVE Online has offered their content updates for free to paying subscribers.

The NDOORS team has gracefully sent us five new exclusive screenshots for their upcoming MMORPG "Atlantica Online". These shots are very exciting as they show parts of the game that we haven't yet seen.

You can see our entire gallery, including the exclusive shots, right here !