If you ask the average gamer to tell you the name of a MMORPG today they are likely to say World of Warcraft. Ten years ago if you asked that same question EverQuest would have been the name uttered. EverQuest was among the first of the successful and popular MMORPG titles to hit the gaming world.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that it is celebrating the tenth birthday of EverQuest. The game launched in 1999 and has to date spawned 15 expansion packs and franchise titles. Sony will be hosting events in game and in the real world to celebrate the anniversary of the game.

If you are a PC gamer odds are you have played or are still playing the most successful MMORPG title ever offered — World of Warcraft. To many gamers this game is more addicting than all of the Coke and pizza in the land.

Back in October, I reported that WoW had hit an astounding 11 million subscribers worldwide. This week Blizzard has announced that WoW now boasts 11.5 million subscribers thanks in part to the very successful launch of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack.

Ask your average gamer to name a MMORPG and odds are the name World of Warcraft will be blurted out. WoW is and has been the most popular MMORPG around for years and it continues to gain popularity as new expansion packs are released.

The second expansion pack for WoW is launching next month and is called Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard Entertainment says that WoW has now reached 11 million subscribers worldwide just as the beta for the next expansion pack is ending.

Turbine, a computer game developer, announced today plans to bring a retail expansion to its popular Lord of the Rings Online multi-player online role-playing game. This sequel is called Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria and it will be available in several different physical retail and download choices.

Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is described by Turbine as expanding “the online world of Middle-earth to let players continue the ultimate interactive adventure in the largest and most dangerous online underground environment ever created. Players will be able to explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin’s Bane and more. In addition to the Legendary Item system, The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria features groundbreaking dual height map technology that creates a seamless, vast, and epic environment that brings Moria to life like never before. The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria extends the challenge to new heights with two new classes, ten additional levels and hundreds of new quests.”

If you are a PC gamer chances are that you have probably played World of Warcraft or at least know one or ten people who do. WoW is one of the most popular PC games ever and currently has about 10 million players around the world.

Blizzard is looking to add to that 10 million subscriber number and announced today that it will be producing a version of the game for Latin America. The new version should begin shipping in mid 2008. The new version of WoW is said to be based on the European Spanish version of the game that is already available.

Earlier this year Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of the world’s most popular MMO game “World of Warcraft”, sent their fans into overdrive by announcing that a new game project would be revealed at a Korean “Starcraft” gaming convention. This lead to much speculation that the game would be a new MMO, possibly even a “Starcraft” themed massive multiplayer game. Job postings by Blizzard looking for programmers for a next gen MMO only helped to fuel the fire but when the day arrived the mystery game in question turned out to simply be “Starcraft II”.

Now that several months have slipped by and the hype has dissipated it appears that a Blizzard representative has confirmed that there is a secret MMO game in development at the company. In a discussion thread on the Blizzard forums about the merger between Activision and Vivendi (which owns Blizzard) a Blizzard rep let loose the first official comment about the rumored MMO by saying “It is an unannounced next-gen MMO and that doesn’t mean an expansion for World of Warcraft either.”

Former Microsoft Game Studios VP Ed Fries sees dollar signs when he thinks about World of Warcraft. The reason? He’s partnered with WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment to create 3D statues of individual characters played in the game.

Fries’ new service, called FigurePrints, is a premium service which will run gamers around $100. The service uses 3D modeling techniques developed by professionals to model your character as seen in the World of Warcraft game. You can tell FigurePrints what gear you want your statue outfitted in and it will, after ordering, appear at your door in a protective glass dome.

Is selling a 100,000 copies of an expansion pack every hour good? We think so. Its especially good for the bottom line of Blizzard Entertainment. The Burning Crusade expansion retails for about $40 in the US, the same price as some brand new games, let alone an expansion pack. So a little under $10 million in revenue in one day is not a bad day by any stretch of the imagination.

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has been a huge hit for the company. Blizzard announced that they had over 8 million subscribers world wide a few weeks ago. Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard said, “The Burning Crusade has already exceeded even our most ambitious expectations.”

We are curious how many of our readers have either already purchased the expansion …

The long awaited World of Warcraft expansion “The Burning Crusade” hits store shelves today. What can fans expect? Two more races, a new profession, a new continent, new mounts and a load of other stuff. Not to mention the fact that a player can now achieve level 70.

They can also expect long queue times and server crashes if history is any indication. With 8 million subscribers already online world wide, the infrastructure may be a little strained.

Blizzard originally delayed the expansion in October in order to further refine the content.

The game is on sale for $39.99 US nationwide. There is a collector’s edition available for for $69.99. The collector’s edition contains the game on CD and DVD, a coffee table book (won’t your wife be impressed?), an …