These are definitely must read articles.

First, two articles about Tabula Rasa:

History, Timeline and Post Mortem of Tabula Rasa

The End of Tabula Rasa - Server Shutdown Event

Second, a very entertaining list of some great WOW Videos:

Best World of Warcraft Videos on YouTube: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Finally, a review of a unique, free browser based MMO:

Renaissance Kingdoms - One of the Best Browser Based MMOs Online? 

Check them out, give them a read, and report back!

The Threshold RPG forums currently have a serious debate over the in game ethos system. It is a system that has evolved over the years and changed along with many changes to the religion system. You can read the discussion here:

Threshold RPG ethos and religion discussion.

Aristotle, the head admin and developer of the game wrote:

Dalaena and I discuss this topic occasionally, and interestingly enough we were recently discussing affinity. It seems like affinity, while interesting, is overly complex and does not seem to accomplish much. If we are wrong about that, we’d love to hear people tell us why.

This system has been tweaked and overhauled many times over the years. It has never really accomplished its goals. The core problem is we are trying to codify behavior that should be natural through RP. Unfortunately, if we leave it totally through RP, you’ll have the gear and friend “whores” who ignore it all to be buddies with everyone.

It definitely ain’t easy.