It's time to fire up the speculation engine boys and girls, as a pair of developments at Lord of the Rings Online developer Turbine indicate that MMO studio may have aspirations to bring Dungeons & Dragons Online to the living room. The Westwood-based company has posted a job opening for a senior console engineer with a MMO background as well as experience developing on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. Additionally, Turbine made public on its DDO community forum that the game's developers are "working full-tilt on several things that are still under tight wraps," and that "DDO will be getting more and more focus from Turbine's marketing and PR teams over the coming months."

While far from conclusive, together this information makes a convincing argument for Turbine prepping its pen-and-paper inspired MMO for the console market. It makes sense, particularly given the company's recent financial investments, part of which Turbine CEO Jim Crowley admitted will go towards expanding the dev's supported platforms. For now, however, we continue to wait for any official word while making saving throws vs. patience and taking all of this with 1D6 grains of salt.

With only so much time left in the day, we thought we'd fit in a handful of the gros amount of April Fools' pranks found in the various MMOs today.

• Age of Conan announces the Elf class (If you think this is real, check out the creation video)
• Guild War turns everyone into stick figures, making us pine for a Xiao Xiao MMO
• Dungeons & Dragons Online introduces Pimp My Warforged
• The Battle for Middle Earth gets their chicken on
• World of Warcraft developer Blizzard does their usual thing

Speaking of WoW, our Azeroth-obsessed sister site converted to Hello Kitty Insider for a day of mass coverage (30+ posts!). Here's what their front page looked like today.

Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens went full-out lady of the night in an MCV interview speaking about industry consolidation, saying his company should be considered attractive to potential suiters. Cousens believes Codemasters is "the fastest growing company in the fastest growing entertainment sector" and believes it is "unrivaled" as a privately-owned company.

Well then, wow, that's coming on strong. Codemasters did have an admittedly strong 2007 despite the mixed quality of games like Overlord, Dirt and Jericho. The company is also planning its Codemasters Online convention for Birmingham, England in March. We'll keep an eye on who is checking out Codemasters from the streets and certainly report if anybody puts money down for a good time.

Codemasters Online is producing a Blizzcon style event called Codemasters Online Connect 2008 (that's just not a sexy name) featuring its lineup of MMO games. Attendees will log into the real world at Omega Sektor in Birmingham, England on March 14 and 15 to log right back out again on 400 PCs running various Codemaster Online games. Alternatively, they can stick around the real world a little bit for round-table discussions and pose questions to the "Codemasters Online team." Ticket prices have yet to be announced.

The event will showcase games already out like Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons & Dragons Online, and will apparently offer some game announcements. So, if you're looking for a Blizzcon featuring the second tier MMOs currently on the market, get ready to pack your bags for Birmingham.

According to a press release from Turbine Entertainment, the MMO maker is partnering with China's CDC Games to bring Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar to Chinese gamers -- a market with a strong affinity for online fantasy games. Turbine has already experienced success with Dungeons & Dragons Online in China and Japan, thanks to some effective content localization, and CDC will use a similar strategy by giving Middle-earth a distinctly Asian makeover. I hope this just means substituting tofu and rice for lembas bread, and not giving Gandalf a Fu Manchu moustache.

See also: LOTR Online gameplay footage

Sakura Internet and Turbine Entertainment are launching Dungeons & Dragons Online in Japan this week, and both organizations are banking on localized content to help attract fickle Japanese gamers. Like the popular Chinese version, DDO Japan features Asian-themed armor and weapons, although you would never know this after poking around the game's web site (essentially a clone of its western counterpart). DDO retails for ¥5,040 (US$43).

See also: DDO: Litany of the Dead previewed

Turbine Entertainment has posted a preview of the next Dungeons & Dragons Online module, to be released this month. The appropriately titled Litany of the Dead will have players exploring various tombs and forming unholy alliances to combat the rise of a dangerous lich.

Now that solo play has been added, do Joystiqers find this MMO more appealing? It's pretty big in China these days.

BusinessWeek online recently ran an article that effectively summarizes major issues in the burgeoning Chinese gaming industry, including MMO addiction, Internet population growth, and the increasing quality of China's homegrown titles. Also, the horse armor debate may soon find new life overseas, as there are plans for several Chinese game operators to switch from a subscription-based revenue model to the sale of virtual goods and other downloadable content "needed to advance various games".

The article is supplemented by a slideshow that showcases China's hottest online games, one of which hails from the States -- Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. This is consistent with vendors I visited during a recent trip to Shanghai who claimed that DDO was among their bestsellers.

See also:

• More chaperones in China's Internet cafes
• SUN is most anticipated game in China
• Take-Two announces 2K Shanghai

Dungeons & Dragons Online fans who are curious to learn more about the city of Stormreach and its mysterious inhabitants should read Eberron creator Keith Baker's new online novella. Shadows of Stormreach is available at the DDO web site, and tells the tale of a halfling thief and her companions. A good read after the first two chapters. Anyone care to make a Neverwinter Nights module out of this?

Are you getting enough role-playing elements out of your MMO? Cari Davidson over at MMORPG.com thinks we could use a lot more, and feels that a true MMORPG with an engaging storyline has yet to be created. She refers to the current crop of online time sinks as "glorified chat rooms" that are big on player interaction, but void of entertaining narrative or character development. The type of experience Davidson longs for may not be possible in today's MMOs, and she acknowledges this, sort of. Initially, she claims "it's really not that hard" to create player interactions that blend well with role-playing, character development, and storytelling. But then she recants, "telling a story in a world populated by thousands of players is a big challenge."

I would subscribe to the latter train of thought, and I suspect Dungeons & Dragons Online developer Turbine would as well. DDO favors the "meet and greet" party formation, and the system creates an instance of each dungeon for you and your co-players. This type of controlled gameplay experience allows for the possibility of more immersive storytelling, but its execution has met with little success. As a result, Turbine has added solo play to DDO, and PvP is on the way. Which means more lifeless, formulaic quests for those gamers who prefer a little more depth to their adventures.

A happy medium has been around for the past four years in the form of Neverwinter Nights. It supports dozens of party members and, while not quite massive, is considerably larger than a typical Baldur's Gate or Diablo II session. Skilled modders have succeeded in prolonging NWN so successfully that BioWare has even hired some of them on -- maybe to work on the Canadian developer's new MMORPG.

What are your thoughts on the current state of MMORPGs?

Last month at E3, Turbine announced they would be adding solo play to Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach -- a decision based on user feedback (and most likely, to bring the game a step closer to World of Warcraft). According to the company's web site, a "Solo" option is now available to players at the earliest levels, and dungeon difficulty is adjusted accordingly, although there are certain maps that still require team play. PvP functionality will also be added in the future.

[via RPGPlanet]

Turbine is making its presence felt at E3 with the announcement of Twilight Forge, the next Dungeons & Dragons Online expansion module. D&D aficionados can look forward to the addition of eight new monsters and the ability to create characters based on the popular Drow race of dark elves. However, the most significant enhancement is an improved single player experience, which was absent in the core game.

Turbine head dungeon master Jeffrey Anderson said DDO subscribers can expect additional character levels and PvP battles in future modules. The game's first expansion, Dragon's Vault, was free of charge, although no pricing information has been announced for Twilight.

Check out GameSpot's updated image gallery.

If you're still on the fence about Dungeons & Dragons Online, Turbine is offering a free seven-day trial so you can build a character and experience the world of Eberron. Should you decide to buy the game after this period, you can continue with your trial character. Many MMO enthusiasts have been hesitant to purchase DDO because it isn't single player-friendly, and some initial reviews mentioned the difficulty in forming parties and keeping them together. However, the game has been out for over a month now, and if you're looking for an alternative to your current MMO, it might be worthwhile to give DDO a free spin.

See also: Metareview - Dungeons & Dragons Online

[via Eurogamer]