San Francisco — If you’re an MMO gamer who buys his/her virtual in-game goods on the black market, your days of shady dealings may be numbered.

A panel I attended earlier this week at the Game Developers Conference’s “World in Motions” series suggests that player-to-player item selling is going to be increasingly legit — whether many MMO players like it or not.

The session was called “Learning to Love Virtual Item Sales.” The half-hour presentation was led by Andy Schneider, president and co-founder of Live Gamer, “a legitimate market for virtual trading,” and Steve Goldstein, co-founder and president of Ping0, a Live Gamer partner and distributor of Flagship Studios‘ “Hellgate: London.”

Legitimate virtual item sales are common, particularly in free-to-play games, and especially in Korea, where micro-transactions — the buying and selling of in-game assets and content — are rampant. But for games that don’t offer real-money transactions, like “World of Warcraft” for example, websites like IGE and ItemBay have transformed illicit virtual item sales into a billion-dollar business — over $1.8 billion according to analysts’ estimates given in the session — and game publishers aren’t getting a cent.

Schneider and Goldstein want to change that.

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Last week at the DICE summit in Las Vegas I interviewed Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce about many things going on in his company. Most of our conversation will appear on MTVNews.com.

But here’s a notable extra for you blog-readers out there.

Did you hear about that list of canceled games Pearce, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, and company lead designer Rob Pardo presented at DICE? A list of games they said they started making but never finished?

This list, snapped as a photo by Kotaku.

I had some questions for Pearce about it, including why “StarCraft Ghost” wasn’t on it. But first, I asked, which of the game on the list came closest to release?

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Today on a conference call at 4:30 PM EST, the bigwigs at Activision released the company’s Third Quarter Fiscal 2008 results.

America’s top third-party game publisher revealed details about last year’s earnings as well as its future plans for the 2008 calendar year and beyond.

Activision CEO and Chairman Robert Kotick stated that 2007 was Activision’s “best year ever” with record financial and market share results, making it the #1 U.S. console and hand-held publisher for the first time ever. Net revenues for the third quarter were reported at an unprecedented $1.48 billion, an 80% increase from $824.3 million reported for the same quarter last fiscal year. He saw this trend as “a validation of our belief that our audience is expanding… taking mindshare from traditional forms of entertainment, like movies and television.” He also credited the company’s “Guitar Hero” franchise for contributing to the rise of female and first-time gamers.

Most of the call focused on the company’s record earnings and sales as well the growth of the industry in general. “The market continues to reward proven properties further widening the gap between first- and second-tier publishers,” Kotick said. Translation: Expect more “Call of Duty,” “Guitar Hero,” “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” and even another “Tony Hawk” and “Spider-Man.”

Read on for more highlights, including what’s going on with the Activision-Blizzard merger and what to expect for the aforementioned franchises…

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The new “World of Warcraft” comic debuted last November, and we learned that writing it isn’t so easy.

But for the comic’s penciller Ludo Lullabi, drawing “World of Warcraft” was a dream come true. The 29 year-old French artist (”Eternal Midnight,” “Kookaburra Universe,” “Lilian Cortez,” “Lanfeust Quest”) was such a huge fan of the game, he submitted original “Warcraft”-inspired illustrations to Blizzard, who eventually offered him the project. Here’s an excerpt from my e-mail exchange with Lullabi, translated from French:

“The fact that I am really familiar with ‘WoW’ helped me capture the essence of the universe so I could translate it to the comic. Often, I am even doing in-game location reconnaissance. I am riding my sabertooth tiger or I am traveling in Azeroth to do some screen captures or I am simply sitting down in a quiet spot to draw.”

Read on to see how Lullabi works with Blizzard and if he’s worried at all about appeasing the millions of players. (You can also check out his work firsthand in our previews of Issue #0, Issue #1, Issue #2 and most recently Issue #3.)

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Today is a special day for about nine million people.

January 16 marks the one-year anniversary of the release of “The Burning Crusade,” the long-awaited expansion to “The World of Warcraft.” I started playing “WoW” in January 2006 after witnessing my boyfriend sit at his laptop for hours and hours, and I’d make fun of him for it… Then one day I tried it, and I was hooked (it’s similar to Corpsegrinder’s story — only I’m not the singer of a death metal band).

So during the summer of 2006, I spent much of my time (much more than I’d like to admit), playing a Night Elf Druid. But after nine months of spending all of my free time playing my Druid and a slew of other characters, I decided to stop. Why? I chose life — “life” meaning other games that I was neglecting.

In 2007, they got me back. When “The Burning Crusade” came out on January 16 of last year, I couldn’t resist. A whole new continent? Flying mounts? New races? I had to experience all of this stuff firsthand. So what follows is my year in Outland, as seen through a few randomly taken screenshots I captured while playing throughout the year (I wasn’t planning on writing this feature back then).

JANUARY

I was at Level 55 when I took a hiatus from “WoW,” so I needed to make my way to Level 58 in order to enter Outland through the Dark Portal (seen above). That meant finally finishing old quests and killing everything in sight. I think this particular screen is of my character clapping for joy because my boyfriend’s character leveled to 58.

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We just can’t seem to get enough of the “World of Warcraft” comic.

First, we brought you the entire, online-only Issue #0 of the new “World of Warcraft” comic that debuted last year, as well as a preview of Issue #1. Last month, we also gave you a taste of Issue #2.

And now we’ve got the first few pages of the third book (or is it the fourth?). Written by Walter Simonson (”Orion,” “Thor”), with pencils by Ludo Lullabi and ink by Sandra Hope, Issue #3 continues the story of an amnesic human named Lo’Gosh.

Check out the first five pages to see what’s in store for Lo’Gosh as well as Rehgar Earthfury and Broll Bearmantle…
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Last month, we posted the entire, online-only Issue #0 of the new “World of Warcraft” comic.

Prior to that, we also previewed the first five pages of the first issue.

The series is written by veteran scribe Walter Simonson (”Orion,” “Thor”) with art by Ludo Lullabi and Sandra Hope.

If you’ve been following the comic and want to see more of the expanded adventures in Azeroth, Multiplayer now has an exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming second issue, in stores on December 19th. It will come in two covers: one by Jim Lee and the other, shown here, by Blizzard Art Director Samwise Didier.

Make the jump to see the cover and the first five pages.

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Last month, we posted the first five pages of the brand-new “World of Warcraft” comic, which will be out in stores next week.

The first storyline follows a human who has no memory of his past and becomes enslaved by an orc shaman named Rehgar Earthfury. Writer Walter Simonson told me last month that the book will remain true to the game and appease both longtime “Warcraft” fans as well as newcomers:

“If you’re a longtime player, I think the comic is a revelation about some of the mysteries. There are mysteries from the past that have never been totally addressed within the game, or at least we’re able to address them in the comic in a way that the game hasn’t been able to. … If you know ‘Warcraft,’ I’m hoping it will be really cool to find this stuff out. At the same time, as complex as the world is, if you haven’t really played the game, you’ll learn as much as you need to know to enjoy the story on its own level.”

Not convinced? See for yourself with the entire six pages of the online-only “World of Warcraft” Issue #0, exclusive to Multiplayer. You’ll also get a little more backstory on the roots of Rehgar Earthfury…

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He’s possibly the most hated man in gaming.

But love him or hate him, video game movie director Uwe Boll is here to stay.

Notorious for lashing out against critics of his video game adaptations (like “House of the Dead,” “Alone in the Dark,” “BloodRayne” and “Postal“), the German director somehow manages to keep making movies. His film renditions of “Far Cry” and “Dungeon Siege” are coming out next year, and recently Boll garnered the rights for independent games “Sabotage 1943” (Replay Studios), “Legend: Hand of God” (Master Creating) and “Zombie Massacre” (1988 Games). Last week, when I called the director to talk about how he acquired the movie rights to “Zombie Massacre” (as well as how the hell to say his name), I also wanted to learn what makes the man tick. Here’s a sampling of what he had to say:

“Grand Theft Auto” I think is a great game, but it’s also a little old-fashioned now, and the question is “Do we already have movies like this?” So even though it’s a fun game and original, we need to question what would you gain if you made a movie out of it. Like with “Halo,” it’s a sensational game, but I don’t think that the materials are perfect to make a movie. It could be very technical but not necessarily an emotionally- grabbing movie, and I think it’s always important to have lead characters you can go with through a story. Like Jack Carver in “Far Cry” is a funny guy but he is also tough; he’s a little like a Bruce Willis type so you want to follow him. You want to know if he’s surviving the adventure. … And I don’t think that in “Halo” a character like this really exists.

Um… Master Chief, anyone? Read on to find out what he thinks makes a good video game movie, his side of what happened with “Metal Gear Solid” and how Blizzard rejected him for “World of Warcraft.”

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Welcome to “Ask Multiplayer,” our new weekly advice column.

In this column, we’ll answer a variety of gaming-related questions from “Is it cheating on my friend if I play ‘Crackdown‘ with someone else?” to “How low should the neckline be in my cosplay costume?” as well as “How do I tell my girlfriend I’d rather play ‘Halo 3‘ than go to her cousin’s wedding?”

We’re taking questions, so ask away. But since this is a new feature and nobody has ever asked us any questions yet, we tackle one of our co-worker’s burning queries about MMORPGs. He writes:

Dear Multiplayer,

For some years now, I’ve managed to avoid the MMORPG craze that seems to run rampant throughout all my gamer friends. I’ve basically stayed away from MMORPGs for fear my girlfriend will leave me if I got a little too involved (which I’ve noticed tends to happen). I was hoping you could explain what makes MMORPGs so awesome? I just can’t seem to get into it; I think the intimidation factor of the servers has kept me away. Can you explain them to me? Also, is “World of Warcraft” the best MMO to start with?

Sincerely,
Massively Single Player

Dear Massively Single Player,

First off, just like ketchup-and-banana sandwiches, MMORPGs, or massively multiplayer online role-playing games, aren’t for everyone. Not only is there the repetitive and strategic gameplay typical of RPGs, but also the MMO aspect that requires you to interact with other players on a “massive” scale (hence the name).

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