Weekly MMO news round up: Patches, betasm and Mines of Moria preparing for Book 7

It's that time once again, kiddos. Here's your weekly all-in-one spot for the goings-on in the world of MMOs that didn't get its own post.

'Fraid there's nothing too earth shattering this week -- but who knows: you may find the bits below interesting after all.

Read on.

• Turbine has published two new Mines of Moria Developer Diaries. One delves into upcoming Book 7, which puts you in the golden land of Lothlórien, and the other talks about new player experience. The game is expected to patch Monday, so get ready. Also, MMORPG has an interesting Q&A posted with the game's developers.
• Warhammer Online has posted a Witch Hunter profile, telling you everything you ever wanted to know about, unsurprisingly, being a Witch Hunter.
• TQ Digital will release The Warlords, NetDragon's free-to-play browse-based MMO, in April. The game will feature an entourage system, brotherhoods and sisterhoods, a nobility system and voyage campaigns.
• Also, TQ has put out new patches for Zero Online and Conquer Online.
• Speaking of patches, IGG has put one out for Voyage Century Online -- get it here.
• NEOSteam's closed beta has launched, and those who signed up for the 3D-Steampunk MMO's beta may now "choose a side and help your nation win control over the most precious resource of this world". Sounds epic. If you haven't registered, do so quickly -- you may still get a chance to play. An open beta is expected later on just in case you miss out on this one.
• Reakktor has released three new screenshots for upcoming combat space MMO, Black Prophecy. The game's set in real-time with PvP elements and a storyline set in some wacky universe. The beta will be going live soon, so if you want to try your hand at it, go sign up.
• Reuters was suppose to close up shop in Second Life, but apparently not. Or maybe it has. It's too confusing, so we'll let Massively explain it to you: "Thomson Reuters, you may recall, yesterday announced the closure of their Second Life bureau, which actually closed up shop five months ago. Technically that was actually their second announcement, having already announced it elsewhere some months ago. Now the old island is still there, and nobody's turned the lights off yet, but what's really odd is that Thomson Reuters appears to be in the throes of preparing a new Thomson Reuters island in Linden Lab's virtual environment." Alrighty then.
• Finally, we'll leave you with some pretty screenshots from Earthrise, Masthead's upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO. Each one depicts part of the Nathura zone, and they're quite lovely to look at.

That's it for this week. See you next Sunday!