Warhammer Online has published the latest Grab Bag, a plethora of questions from the community on a wide variety of topics. Most prominently this week is the topic of guilds:

Q: What are the requirements to form a guild?

A: You have to be in a party of six, travel to the capital city and have a little money to spare.

Q: Aside from a start-up cost, will guilds have any sort of maintenance costs?

A: While there is no fee associated with maintaining a guild, there may be other features that require a monetary investment from the Guild or members, such as dues/tithes, guild store purchases, and keep maintenance fees associated with a claimed keep.

Q: How many titles can exist in a guild?

A: There are ten titles are available within the guild structure - these are fully customizable by the guild's leadership so you can tailor your guild's titles to your own specific attitudes and purposes.

Q: Is there a maximum number of characters allowable in a guild?

A: Nope! You can invite any number from six on up. The sky is the limit!

Check out the rest after the jump.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

Crispy Gamer has kicked up a preview of Warhammer Online. The article came via a conference call between editors and developers. Here's a snippet:

Finally, Jeff Hickman ended the call. "Since we are focusing on certain areas, it is very rare that anyone sees the entirety of our game. People don't understand the real depth of what we're doing. There are so many layers of things to do, places to see, rewards, advancement... People often ask us, 'Well, you level from 1 to 40 and then what?' And I just laugh. Our game is not about leveling from 1 to 40. It's about leveling up your guild, going through the campaign, getting one of 20-plus armor sets ... it's a total hobby experience."

"It's very difficult to try to explain because we talk about things like guilds, and people say, 'Yeah we have guilds,' and I say no, no you don't understand, you can level up your guild, assign standard bearers, claim keeps, and we have many other special things we haven't even talked about, yet. There is just so much depth, I wish everybody could see all of the great stuff that we're doing."

Well, Mr. Hickman, we'll all get a chance to see it soon enough -- in fact, in the fall of 2008.

There are literally tons of nuggets of information in the rest of this article so be sure to head out and read the rest at Crispy Gamer.

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.

EA Mythic announced several stops for Warhammer devs this summer. In addition to allowing visitors to play the game, folks will also be able to enter to win a beta slot:

Gamers Can Get Their Hands on WAR and Win a Spot in the Closed Beta

Fans looking forward to Warhammer® Online: Age of ReckoningTM (WAR), EA Mythic's highly anticipated MMORPG, can get hands-on time with the game at events throughout the US this summer. Gamers, including the over 600,000 fanatics eagerly awaiting a spot in WAR's closed beta test, will have the chance to experience WAR's Realm vs. RealmTM gameplay at several upcoming events. Attendees will also have the opportunity to win access to the closed beta, and meet the developers, including Creative Director Paul Barnett and Senior Producer Jeff Hickman.

Click through to see the dates and locations of the various conventions.

Recently, Warhammer Online auctioned off two staff shirts. They raised over $300 and EA Mythic, matching the funds, donated over $700 to the Multiple Sclerosis Society:

Recently, we agreed to match whatever donations were made via two auctions for official Warhammer Online Staff Shirts donated by Sanya Weathers (Thomas) of Guild Café. We'd like to congratulate Gamers For a Cure, who raised over $330 for the National MS Society! In keeping with our word, EA Mythic has donated $400.00 to the cause. If you find yourself inspired by all of the generosity, then we urge you to read more about how you can get involved HERE. Good luck to those who are walking, and here's to finding a cure!

Kudos to all of the above for their generosity in the support of this worthy organization.

Jim Moreno looks at the biggest question for the modern MMO roleplayer: how do you keep in character in an instance? They're here to stay, so it's time to learn how to deal with them.

Hear me now and believe me later, there is no reason why roleplayers cannot and should not engage in the same high quality RP within an instance as without. Personally, I'm not at all knowledgeable as to where the notion started from, but I absolutely aim to crush it here and henceforth. More than that, I want to share with fellow roleplayers why I think instances are the best places for RP, and provide some tips on how to take on these adventures with RP in mind. I hope they help!

Read more after the leap.

EA Mythic has a Q&A article posted on the official site that, hopefully, answers many of the questions fans have about the upcoming beta and release of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Mark Jacobs starts it off with a letter of sorts:

Folks,

It's been, ahem, a rather interesting couple of months here in Mythic-land hasn't it? Fortunately, I'm not here to announce anything nearly as interesting as our recent news. I'm here to talk about good things, some changes and as always to give the community the facts straight from the horse's (wait for it, wait for it) head.

First, we are finishing up the initial stage of our first major RvR testing and it has gone really well. Our server is almost full nightly and the beta testers are having a great time. The kudos are flying fast and furious and while nothing is perfect, it is safe to say that this stage is exceeding our expectations.

Second, over the last few months there have been a few questions and concerns about our beta program in regards to system requirements, eligibility requirements, admittance dates, general policies and procedures for our Beta Test in North America. While we have tried to be really clear I want to take this opportunity to be even clearer. So, here's a lengthy Q&A that will hopefully answer many of the questions I've seen posted on various fan sites:

Click below to read the questions and answers.

Ten Ton Hammer scored an exclusive look at the 'how to conduct a siege' aspect of Age of Reckoning. Additionally, Designer Brian Wheeler and Deputy content Director Yvonne Bridges gave a detailed explanation of the siege mentality and how to use keeps once they are taken.

What is cooler in a fantasy world than storming a castle? To add to the excitement of Realm vs Realm content in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, EA Mythic has given players the opportunity to defend and assault enemy fortresses. Using not only their skills but siege equipment such as Ballista's and Battering Ram's, players will determine the fate of their lands by controlling these strongholds.

Check it out at TTH.