Ahh, the MMO expansion. That lovely thing that most MMO-players long for in their current MMO, or the thing that they were waiting for to entice them back to a past favorite MMO. This month we look at recently announced RIFT expansion, Storm Legion, and LOTRO's expansion Riders of Rohan.

Nope, I’m not referring to Andrew’s adorable dogs, sadly. I continue our TWIC play-with-randoms assignment series and take it into the MMO waters. We joke about the hell of public lobbies and matchmaking over XBL and Steam and whatnot (though it sounds like everyone so far on this assignment has had either positive or apathetic experiences - no outright negative ones, interestingly enough), but MMOs have their own special flavor of this hell known as Pick-Up Groups (or PUGs, for short). PUGs are most commonly used for dungeon groups but can be used for more difficult quests or anything that requires a group of people. A lot of MMO players actually play on their own a lot of the time, so they’ll need to hook up with strangers to complete the more difficult stuff.

This edition of MMOCO introduces a new structure for the column. The old structure will still make an appearance from time to time, but we'll mostly be focusing on updates to existing MMOs that improve upon or provide more co-opportunities and news about upcoming MMOs that hint at co-opportunities.

Those of you who have been following some of the things I've said about RIFT already know that the game has some unique co-opportunities (e.g. a unique class-building system and group dynamic events). This month in MMOCO we explore the endgame co-opportunities as well as the new World Events.

Our request for guest entries did not go unheeded! First up is the energetic account of a marriage dragged through three MMOs and still kicking.

New MMORPG launches are usually a pretty big deal, especially when there's a lot of people excited about it.  With over 1 million registered accounts already -  RIFT is looking to make a name for itself in the MMORPG space.   Developed Trion the game is out on PCs today.  We had an extensive preview of the game a few weeks back and now you can get your hands on the title too.  

RIFT is an upcoming MMORPG from developer Trion. Take a look at some of the unique cooperative aspects this game has to offer which include the Soul System and Dynamic Events (rifts and invasions).

Since this is the first MMO Co-Opportunities of the new year, we'll be looking at some of the anticipated MMOs of 2011 as well as their potential co-opportunities.