If you're a denizen of one of the more popular MMOs out there like World of Warcraft or Tabula Rasa, chances are you've visited their respective wikis for information. Useful tomes aren't they? This subject was actually a point of interest at this year's SXSW Interactive, where notable members of the gaming community talked about the symbiotic relationship between gamers and wikis. Read about it in the full article.

Do you play more than two MMORPGs at the same time? Ever wish one of them had one of the features of the other? Well, according to Blizzard poster Tigole, we might see a feature from Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa make it to World of Warcraft (well, sort of). Details in the full article.

The virtual world of MMOs is proving to be a profitable investment, and even Harvard Business School is taking notice. The Ivy League institution recently held a panel with six of the industry's most influential members to discuss the status quo, and just as important, the future of the virtual realms in gaming as a business market. Check out what they deem to be the biggest barrier to overcome, and for some more analysis on how money culture is making even the virtual world go spinning 'round.

It's no secret that millions of online gamers get too involved with their business. Normally, uninformed people would look at these time-consuming games as evil and even blame them for their problems. Philadelphia's 6-ABC had something about MMORPGs on the news, but it was pretty fair.

The feature was about Greg Straff, a WoW player that spends much time with grinding and raids like other regular players. His mom Lori Straff, who now regulates his playing time, said "it's really not healthy just to focus on this computer game and not socialize with your friends and on your schoolwork."

Another mother, Elizabeth Woolley, believes that EverQuest caused her son to commit suicide. After skipping his ADD and epilepsy pills, quitting his job, and cutting off his phone along with any communications with friends and family, Shawn was found dead with a rifle in front of his computer with EverQuest on it.

Woolley thinks that companies are using gaming as drugs to get customers addicted for their own money. She created Online Gamers Anonymous to help gamers who get addicted to MMORPGs and "save" them. There, they share their experiences and help each other.

While psychologist Kristen Dudley believes that online games can draw you in to a life of isolation, she's skeptic about those games causing someone to commit suicide. "Millions of people play these games every day and they don't have a problem, but some are missing that connection with real life," said Dudley.

According to Dudley, games are just catalysts like drugs, alcohol or gambling. Those who get obsessed had problems with depression or anxiety before and they just put it out on video games. She advises parents to limit the playing time of their children and time spent on the TV.

Now, how long will it take before Jack Thompson or other lawyers come up on TV and say violent games taught Shawn how to use a rifle?

Information Week's Cary Doctorow muses in his lengthy article if it is indeed possible for a complete democracy to exist in MMOs. It's not just that namby-pamby "what the masses say goes in terms of game-rules" and what not, but a game where in-world property is really yours.

In his effort to highlight that difference - the difference between being a citizen in a world, and being a customer, Doctorow notes several in-world incidents in MMORPG worlds, and how people are treated as entities in the opposite end of a business deal instead of a citizen with rights and co-ownership of the a game world.

The Gay/Bi/Lesbian/Transgendered-friendly guild shut-down in World of Warcraft was noted, the "Dentara Rask pro-piracy anti-merchant EVE Online economy crash" was detailed, and most amusingly he notes that even Second Life isn't safe from this phenomenon. Yes, you can get rich in SL but, if you lose an argument with the company running Second Life, your Linden Dollars are gone. The only stable wealth in Second Life, is the wealth you take OUT of the game.

But would a democratic virtual world be the solution to the possibility of poor treatment from game owners? Doctorow thinks that while it can solve that problem he doesn't believe that it would be plausible. The reason? Running things yourselves, the responsibility, sort of takes out the FUN of it all, which is the point of getting into all these MMO worlds.

Personally, I'm thinking that maybe it's like communism: people have to go against human nature to make the utopian dream of a true democratic MMO work. But that's just me, and I'm just a nobody who's overdosed on caffeine.

Anyhow, Doctorow's piece, while lengthy is an awesome read, and if you feel like getting more detail about his musings, feel free to head to it via our "read" link below.

Analyst Rhian Hibner was on gaming news the other day and he brings with him some unfriendly comments for the upcoming PSP title Family Guy and the rest of the industry. We are not quite familiar with this guy Hibner but fortunately, stalwarts of the industry are just around the corner and are ready to defend the kingdom.

Accordingly, Hibner had seen the PSP title and thought it was poorly produced. He then made some rants and uttered baseless and hasty generalizations. NCSoft former employee Brian Plauche couldn't agree less with Hibner as he wrote: "To use one game to make blanket comments regarding the industry displays ignorance regarding modern games. I can say with confidence that he is completely out of touch with the industry."

Plauche then reiterated that graphics is not just as simple as 1-2-3. It is actually composed of entwined features such as dynamic lighting, world size, sound, musical score, story line, artificial intelligence, environment interaction and physics. Plauche even went further by saying: "Physics and interaction with artificial environments are such important developments that soon players will have to add a physics card to their computers just to ensure the game can be played properly."

In the end, the former NCSoft employee couldn't help but praise the Splinter Cell franchise and Halo on X360 and upcoming MMO Tabula Rasa. The X360 titles according to him have penetrated unprecedented levels and are only possible with the hardware in next-generation consoles. Lastly, Tabula Rasa was given the thumbs up for revolutionizing MMORPG titles by skipping grinding and just enjoy game play.

"DarkAge of the WarcraftStrike". That's a fictional MMO that Turbine Entertainment executive producer and creative director Jessica Mulligan used as an example during her rant at the Austin Game Conference. According to her, there are some MMOs that use the WoW formula, and end up as nothing but WoW copycats.

Which brings us to our question: Are all MMOs the same? Tobold asks the same question in his blog. And with the proliferation of WoW copycats out in the market today, you can't help but wonder the same thing. After all, there's a nugget of truth in Mulligan's claim.

According to Tobold, there's a general flow to MMO gameplay: start in a city, take quests and missions, slay some monsters, gather loot and eventually sell them. However, Tobold adds that even though most MMOs subscribe to this structure, each MMO game focuses on particular details, which makes them different from one another.

For example, WoW is known for being PvE-centric, while games such as Lineage and EVE are known for their excellent PvP features. Then there's the gameplay: Does this MMO have a more difficult gameplay than the other? More importantly, there's the question of the setting, which I believe lies most of the game's appeal. After all, we have sci-fi MMOs, "historical MMOs" (remember the upcoming "Shakespeare MMO"?), and the more popular fantasy MMO. Of course, each world offers something different (the "Matrix world" is different from the one in "Star Wars"), which makes more games appealing, and more addictive, depending on your taste.

So, according to our source, "in the end, no two MMORPG are really the same". And we here at QJ definitely agree with him. What do you think?