To followers of our forums, no three letters send a sharper chill up your spine than "MMO". Usually paired with the suffix "RPG", MMO's thus far on the iPhone have largely been fairly bland and focus more on friend code trading, point buying, and recruiting other players instead of actual content. Thankfully, Ironwill Studios is about to change all of that with their soon to be released space MMO Outer Empires.

Outer Empires takes place in a persistent galaxy where players can choose from a variety of different activities as you play in the intergalactic sandbox. There are tons of quests (or "Missions" as they're called in game) to complete that range from simple transport jobs to exploring and bounty hunting. Once you establish yourself in the world, you can set up colonies as well as run or join a guild (or "Factions" in Outer Empires).

Of course you have access to a wide variety of ships and upgrades to those ships which can all be purchased from player-created manufacturing plants. Having only clocked a few hours in to the beta so far, I'm reluctant to compare it to EVE Online, but there's not much else to compare it to.

The cool part about Outer Empires is that the game runs both in a browser on your computer, as well as in the app on your iPhone. Accounts are shared between both versions of the game, and you can literally log out in your browser, log in with your iPhone, and be exactly where you left off with all the same functionality of the desktop client on the go.

Ironwill Studios has an ambitious update cycle planned to patch in additional ships, player races, and other content supported by monthly subscriptions. Talking to Producer and Development Lead Paul Hutson via Skype we were told the monthly subscription fee would be "Around £2.50" which at current exchange rates is in the neighborhood of $4.00 per month. Initially subscriptions will be managed via PayPal, but Hutson has hopes to implement 3.0 in-game purchases for subscriptions soon.

Overall the concept of Outer Empires is really neat, and I've enjoyed playing both the browser and iPhone versions of the game, although once you get used to playing in the browser the iPhone client seems cramped in comparison. It remains to be seen how the community will react to a monthly subscription based game, but don't worry, you can try it for free without any time limits.

Free players can only reach a maximum level of 10, which will allow you to get a good feel for the game to decide if you want to bite on a paid membership or not. If you decide not to, you can still log in, chat, and do anything you want including completing all the missions for players level 10 and under.

If you decide to take the plunge on a subscription, all the experience you gained from doing extra missions after you hit the level 10 cap is applied. This is a unique approach on MMO trials, as they're usually based on a firm time limits before forcing you to pay up. If you play at a leisurely pace, it could take you quite a while to reach level 10 and if you just prefer the social aspect of chatting in Outer Empires you may never have to pay at all.

Outer Empires is currently under development, and according to my chat with Paul Hutson, they hope to submit the game to Apple later this month. If you want to know more, check out the Outer Empires web site which is absolutely packed with all kinds of information.

Sure, you might still have your full tier 1 set in your bank from Molten Core, and you may be lucky enough to wield [Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings] but in leaving the comfort of your basement, all of your phat loot and sick achievements are left behind. Or rather, they were left behind, before Blizzard released the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory [App Store] for the iPhone.

That's right citizens of the Horde and defenders of the Alliance, Blizzard's recently released app allows you to keep track of all your World of Warcraft characters, along with their stats, equipment, achievements and more. You can access your guild's stats and calendar, as well as other informational and planning tools. Experiment with talent trees or search for items, the World of Warcraft Mobile Armory can do it all.

Blizzard released this fairly impressive trailer walking users through the various functions of the app:

The World of Warcraft Mobile Armory is available as a free download, but requires a World of Warcraft or Battle.net account to use.

App Store Link: World of Warcraft Mobile Armory, Free

Warner Bros has released their online multiplayer Watchmen: Justice is Coming game [App Store]. The $0.99 release is described as an "advanced release edition" with promises for "more updates to come".

WATCHMEN: Justice is Coming is an online role playing game developed exclusively for the iPhone and iPod touch and inspired by the highly anticipated WATCHMEN film.

Explore the incredible Watchmen universe in the year 1975, where crime is rampant and average citizens take matters into their own hands. Create your own unique character and begin adventuring through the dark and gritty streets of New York City while following an original Watchmen inspired storyline through a real-time 3D world. Discover hidden artifacts and level up your character by completing story objectives, defeating criminals and challenging other players to battle in a dynamic strategy fighting game.

Our forum users have had mixed experiences with the game. Those who have been able to log-on seem to be happy with the game:

You start out by creating a new character with a name, gender, skin color, and personality type(chosen by looking at an ink blot and choosing "what you see"). You're then thrown into a 3D "New York" where the story is set for you.

The load time for this true MMO is great for an iPod/Phone. Like others have said, you touch the screen to where you want to go in the fully 3D environment. You collect costume parts, follow a story, fight RL players and in game bots. All of this gains you EXP so you can level up. When you level, you gain ability points when you level that can go into health, attack, defense, and movement.

However, some users have been unable to login — instead, seeing server-timeouts and crashes. In fact, we've also seen some timeouts and crashes, so we can't really recommend paying for this title yet.

App Store Link: Watchmen: Justice is Coming, $0.99

PerBlue has launched Parallel Kingdom [App Store] this morning for free. Parallel Kingdom is a location-based role playing game that we've previously discussed. The game is a unique in that it uses your geographic location as the game's landscape:

Parallel Kingdom is a role playing game that uses GPS (or WiFi locate) to overlay the virtual world on top of the real world. In the Age of Exploration, there will be items, creatures, and other players in the world to use and fight with. Enjoy unique creature personalities, items to upgrade, players to chat and team with, and a global player ranking list to see how you compare to your friends.

The first version of the app is being distributed for free.

App Store Link: Parallel Kingdom, Free

PerBlue recently updated their Parallel Kingdom Age of Exploration website, providing updated screenshots as well as a release date: October 31.

A recent blog post by PerBlue CEO Justin Beck tells the latest:

Today we have some exciting news. On October 31st, 2008 the Parallel Kingdom Age of Exploration will be released! This is the first of many ages to come. This age will be a free beta that will run on any iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android Handset device. Parallel Kingdom uses location-based features to place the virtual world over the real world, where you can kill creatures, collect gold, and destroy your friends. We hope you enjoy this age, and look forward to many ages to come.

Parallel Kingdom is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)–or as PerBlue describes it, a mobile multiplayer trans-reality game (MMTRG)–that overlays the real world with a location-based game world, allowing the most humble neighborhood street to host the mightiest of towered citadels that must be breached for loot.  It holds the promise of turning the daily commute into a bold adventure and we expect it to be a hot download when it appears in the App Store.

More screenshots can be seen at the Parallel Kingdom website.

Stay tuned for more information on this title as well as a full review once it makes its debut in the App Store.

Graal Online has released an iPhone version of their Graal Game Client. The game comes in two flavors, a free version called Graal Zone [App Store] and a $5.99 version called Graal Zone+ [App Store]. Graal Zone is described:

Graal Zone is the first massively multiplayer arcade battle game for iPhone/iPod. 

Play alone or with a team and enter battlefield joining hundreds of other player[s] for a unique game play experience.

Both versions claim to offer the use numerous "futuristic weapons" such as laser guns, pistols, grenades to overthrow your enemy. Graal Zone+ offers access to more powerful weapons and the ability to drive vehicles such as hover bikes along with special access to other maps.

The game is a quite spotty at the moment with numerous complaints about poor controls. Your character movement is controlled entirely using the accelerometer. According to lockergnome online levels will open on Friday, but it seems there's a lot of work to be done.

Graal Zone is available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows so you can try a fuller version on your desktop computer.