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Have you ever hoped to play a massively multiplayer online game set in the ancient world? What about playing a Carthaginian soldier fighting the Romans in the Punic Wars, circa 200 B.C.? Action film star Vin Diesel certainly has, it's his dream game. In fact, he's so taken with the idea that his game company Tigon Studios is developing the Punic Wars MMO, titled Barca B.C., which he announced in an interview with Destructoid's Brad Nicholson.

Diesel didn't give many details about the upcoming title, and it's still in an early stage of development. Destructoid reports that Tigon Studios has been working on Barca B.C. for roughly three years, and it could take up to another four years before release, according to Diesel.

[Via Kotaku]

Grinders is a new weekly cartoon here at Massively devoted to chronicling your adventures in your favorite MMOs! If you have a funny story or just a funny character, submit your tale complete with a screenshot to lemuel.pew@weblogsinc.com. The best will be etched in stone and displayed in the town square for all to see. Or just put in the comic.

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Lemuel Pew is a webcomic artist and MMO player with the attention span of a guppy. Between sketching gamers in cartoon form and making too many alts in City of Heroes, he draws an online comic called Blank It. Feel free to watch his Twitter at your own risk.

You've heard from the original EverQuest developers, you've seen some nostalgic artwork (with all expansion artwork in our gallery today!) to keep those memories alive, and now we're ready to bring you some thoughts from our own staff here at Massively, as well as our sister site, WoW Insider. It's probably safe to say that most of us have been influenced by EverQuest in some way or another, so who better to give us their fondest memories than those of us who write about MMOs for a living? Follow along below the cut for some memories of EQ from WoW Insider's Lisa Poisso and Daniel Whitcomb, plus one from our very own Brooke Pilley.

For Monday's finale celebrations, we're holding a giveaway where three lucky winners will have the chance to win a 90-day SOE game card to be used towards EverQuest, EverQuest 2, PlanetSide, EverQuest Online Adventures, Star Wars Galaxies or The Matrix Online. This giveaway will incorporate a special screenshot for you to adorn with your wittiest or funniest caption. The hardest part? Trying to be funny on a Monday. Full instructions and restrictions can be found here, and will be posted again on Monday's post.

Paragus put together a comprehensive guide to Darkfall's city construction on MMORPG.com. Darkfall seems to be following the Shadowbane school of urban planning: Every city exists in the open world, and each building demands a substantial monetary investment from the city's future inhabitants.

Just to get up and running, the average Hamlet-sized city, which Paragus owns, will run about 38,000 gold, not including the wood and stone players need to harvest. The majority of the cost goes toward modules, which act as building blocks for new structures.

Here's a cost rundown for a basic Hamlet:

• A Clanstone, which allows you to claim land: 10,000 gold.

• The Construction skill, which one person in the guild must have in order to build cities: 5,000 gold.

• Ten modules for the Bank,which must be erected before anything else can be built: 2,500 gold.

• Thirteen modules for walls, which Paragus claims don't actually protect the city from invaders: 3,250 gold.

• Twenty modules for two buildings of your choice, which increase the member limit on guild rosters: 5,000 gold.

• Fifty modules for your first resource unit, like a farm: 12,500 gold.

What's more, the modules weigh quite a bit; most player's can't carry more than two at a time. Paragus goes deeper into the entire process at MMORPG.com, but Darkfall is keeping its hardcore promise when it comes to putting down stakes.

Writing for Examiner.com, Daniel Nations recently interviewed Champions Online lead designer Randy Mosiondz about the balancing act between providing guided gameplay and exploration. The interview also touches upon Champions Online's gameplay across different environments. Namely, Mosiondz explains a bit about the challenges that players will face in the underwater area of Lemuria with its full 3-D movement capabilities, and how some player powers will be modified for use underwater.

Also a nice touch is that the discussion heads into his roots as a writer for pen and paper games. Mosiondz explains the differences in storytelling between pen and paper games and MMOs, and why it can be tricky to bring a story with lasting consequences to a massively multiplayer online game. Check out the Champions Online developer interview over at Examiner for more about what the Cryptic Studios super-hero title will offer.

In the third installment of the City of Heroes-based Captain Dynamic series created by Rooster Teeth, the good old Cap'n must deal with the villainous, uh, villainy of his arch-nemesis the Great Face! We'd tell you how it ends, but that'd be a form of cruelty too high even for the likes of GF, as Cap'n D calls him. So, instead, we'll simply tell you how awesome this episode (and series) is and how you should really go check it out below the cut.

We really mean it, like... right now. Not tomorrow, or after lunch -- unless you've got a burrito, because those turn pretty nasty once they're cold.

Ahem. Just check it out.

Does this Shark cannon shoot sharks, or does it shoot a deadly laser? Or... does it shoot sharks with lasers attached to their heads? It's deep questions like these that permeate our thoughts each and every day here at Massively. Well that and, "When's the beta?" which is almost as important as shark gun related inquiries. Truly, these are questions for the ages.

For Championites who love to devour every little bit of lore and information regarding Champions Online, Cryptic has gone and posted a nice piece on the history and people of Lemuria. Take a look at our gallery for a peek at a few environments, including what we can only assume is a temple to a fishy god of the old world.

The folks over at LotRO Follower have posted the transcript from the March 11 Lord of the Rings Online dev chat at Stratics. Floon, LotRO's Art Director; Amlug, an instance designer; Sapience, a Community Manager at Turbine; Jalessa, a Turbine regular; and Rowan, LoTRO's Live Producer, were all in attendance.

The group covered a lot of ground, but one question that kept popping up was about the In Harm's Way nerf. In Harm's Way is a Captain skill that until last month redirected all damage the Captains group took to the Captain; it now only redirects 50 percent of any damage the group takes. The change forced most raiding guilds to rethink their strategy and has bred a lot of discord on the LotRO official forums.

Jalessa tackled the issue first, and said, "There were cases where the In Harms Way skill was being used with other skills that trivialized or completely negated content in the game. Our content team did not have any reasonable way to address this - doing so on their end would have meant a severe reduction in the amount of content they could produce over time, due to having to compensate for every 'scenario' that would occur. ... We do not believe there is a place in the game for a 100% fellowship wide damage bubble at this time, so we changed the skill. "

Check out the rest of the LotRO dev chat transcript at LotRO Follower.

We're keeping our eyes open for information dealing with the post-apocalyptic MMO title Fallen Earth in development at Icarus Studios. Netherlands-based gaming site MMOZONE got a hold of Fallen Earth systems designer Brandes Stoddard, asking questions ranging from the game's PvP system to design decisions as they relate to the title's ESRB rating.

Since there will be no classes in Fallen Earth, Stoddard explains what a typical group will look like -- a mix of melee and ranged combatants, he says, with others using their mutations to heal and buff. Stoddard also goes into how gear specialization will impart advantages tempered with drawbacks specific to those items in question. Mounts will also be a key aspect of Fallen Earth's gameplay. Since teleportation of any sort won't exist, characters will actually have to travel to visit other locations in the game's world. Despite the importance of these means of transportation (or perhaps because of it), it looks like it won't be possible to steal them from other players. Mounts, whether vehicles or animals, will be bound to their owners, and will require either energy or food to maintain. Fallen Earth's vehicles, in general, will only be available through player-crafting efforts.

If you're interested in hearing what else Fallen Earth's system designer has to say about the game, check out the MMOZONE interview with Brandes Stoddard.

Were you one of the 450,000 or so players that didn't stick with Warhammer Online after release? If so, you might not want to pass up this deal! Mythic is inviting all subscribers who quit WAR more than 30-days ago to give the game another shot for free. This isn't a new trial account either; you will get to play your old account.

This is a great deal on many levels. Mythic recently consolidated 40 low-population servers into 16 stronger ones and launched a free trial (meaning you will have people to play with). They have also made huge game improvements since you left. The early tiers are reinvigorated with the release of the Slayer and Choppa careers. As if the conditions weren't ideal enough, you will also receive special buffs that increase your XP, renown, and gold, a few new quests, and a special item.

To allow you to meet up with friends, you will receive one free transfer to any server of your choosing. All you need to do is reactivate your account and you're all set. Mythic put together a special FAQ that tells you everything you need to know. There has really never been a better time to give WAR another shot.

Hark! New screenshots for Lord of the Rings Online's free Volume II: Book 7 update have, uh, revealed themselves! Okay, we won't expose you -- our dear readers -- to any further torture. We realize that sometimes our diatribes can go a bit deep into the nerdy lore of J.R.R. Tolkien's world.

These six new screens are focused on the new player experience overhaul that Turbine has given to each of the starting zones within the game. We're really digging this goblin dude, who looks pretty devious. Although the caterpillar/butterfly guy being attacked by a Human Warden is also quite a nice shot, as well. We've got all six in our gallery, so feel free to pick your own favorites!

Mark Jacobs just released his WAR State of the Game announcement. I think this is a pretty important one because next week marks WAR's 6-month anniversary. Here are my thoughts about it.

I found the intro paragraphs to be pretty standard for this type of announcement. On the plus side he's admitting that WAR isn't where they'd like it to be but he balances that by patting his own back. I realize he needs to say these things for shareholders, but comments like this always make me roll my eyes: "Given the proximity of these two releases, I think it is pretty safe to say that these represent one of the largest (if not the largest) amount of new content, tweaks, adjustments, etc. to any MMO over the course of several months." I simply love how someone can spin nearly 1,000 bug and polish fixes into a good thing (especially at the six-month point in the game's life cycle). It is and it isn't, y'know?

Anyway, on to the meat and potatoes of the SotG. Mark mentioned 11 key areas of focus for the next few months. Here are my impressions of these sections (find his original text in the official SotG letter).

The lands in Age of Conan are a strange place, populated with tribal folk who seem to love to run about in skimpy outfits and attack you when you're least expecting it - and that's not even talking about the NPCs! Today's One Shots shows off one of our Massively readers, The Platypus, who decided to snag a quick shot with a couple of scantily-clad, painted up NPCs from the early levels. He writes in: Took this in the first few days of playing Age of Conan. This is my ranger, Lysandus, in a Kodak moment with a few new friends. No hard feelings, guys!

If you've returned to a game and are enjoying playing through it again, we'd love to see some of your screenshots of new adventure - especially if it's a game we don't get to see that often. Email 'em to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game it's from, and a quick description. We'll post your screens and give you credit for sending it in.

Linden Lab is making an announcement today about a key change in the way content will be handled on the Second Life virtual environment in future. (There isn't a link to their announcement quite yet, but we'll fill it in when there is). [update: Linden Lab's announcement is now available]

What we seem to be seeing at the moment is a segregation of Linden Lab's adult virtual environment that goes beyond the simplistic systems of the past where regions were divided into 'PG' (the equivalent of a film-and-television G rating) and 'Mature' (F&TV PG ratings or higher). We're talking about the formation of an actual adult-content continent and the wholesale relocation of content.