Around 10,940 accounts in violation of the FINAL FANTASY XI user agreement were suspended or banned today.

We would like to report the termination today of multiple accounts held by players involved in the usage of third-party tools or cheats, or engaged in RMT (Real Money Trading) activities.

Based on the results of our investigation, around 10,660 PlayOnline accounts were terminated while around 280 accounts were temporarily suspended.
Additionally, we have increased the number of mass bannings against certain PlayOnline violations in order to prevent illegal acts.

Allakhazam has been selected as the Top Informational Site in the multi-game fansite category of the MMOFury Fansite Awards!

"There is no other site that has been so consistantly putting out helpful information on online games. There was also no other site that received more nominations from its users than Allakhazam. Their World of Warcraft database is gigantic, possibly the largest. If you need information on the biggest games out there (WoW, EQ, EQ2, EVE, Star Wars, etc.) look no further, you have found your intel source."

We'd like to thank MMOFury and everyone who voted for Allakhazam.com as their top gaming information source. You can read the announcement here and see the list of all winners here.

After a week of voting in what was without a doubt our most competitive pumpkin carving contest yet, the votes have been counted and examined and we now have our list of winners!

Before we get to that, Allakhazam is very happy to announce that the development team and the community team looked over the entries and provided us with the following excerpt for the winners:

"The entries this year are really impressive! We’re particularly amazed at how many people know how to carve into a pumpkin without going all the way through to create different shades and levels of depth. We loved how so many different entries this year focused on recent additions and changes to the game. 

The winners this year are far and away the most amazing pumpkins we’ve ever seen. It is clear the artists paid great attention to detail. The winning entries are so imaginative too! Each winner took interesting concepts and made them their own by thinking in very creative ways.

Congratulations to all the winners!"

-- Final Fantasy XI Development Team and Community Team

See the full story for the list of winners.

The Child's Play 2008 charity drive has officially launched, and the Web site has been updated so you can donate toys and games to children in hospitals worldwide. The charity was organized in 2003 by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.

We ended our 2007 drive with over 1.3 million dollars in donations, thanks to gamers all over the globe. We’re welcoming ten new hospitals in Canada and the US to the Child’s Play network, so please have a look at the map to see if your local children’s hospital has come on board. Every hospital has a wish list full of gifts, and is hoping for your support.

We hope you'll visit the Child's Play site and consider purchasing some gifts. All you have to do is click on a hospital on the map and you'll be sent to the hospital's wish list on Amazon.com. It's that simple. For more information, check out Mike's recent post on the Penny Arcade site. The "thank you" letter they received from a hospital in Connecticut says it all. The full post is also below.

We're pleased to announce that the next FINAL FANTASY XI version update is on track for an early December release. In addition to the long-awaited continuation of the epic Wings of the Goddess mission arc, this patch will also feature new content designed with low-level players in mind, brand-new systems unlike anything you've seen in Vana'diel before, and much, much more!

All the exciting details will be announced here as they become available, so be sure to check back on a regular basis!