We're kicking off a new segment here on MxOS: Beta Redpill Diaries. In it, our Content Contributor Nucleus writes about his experiences in The Matrix Online as a newly awakened red pill. While there will be a slightly fictional slant to the articles, you can expect that reading them will give you an inside look at MxO from the moment you first arrive.

Check out Chapter 1: Awakened, and keep checking back with us for more!

WBIE and Monolith have posted two new FAQs to the new official site, Data Node One:

• The Mission System FAQ addresses The Matrix Online's system of procuring missions, touching on topics like story missions, neighborhood missions, why to do missions and more.
• The NPC FAQ deals with Neighborhood Contacts, Collectors, vendors and more.

Lots of news from here at Matrix Online Stratics and around the world of MxO:

• In our Disciplines Gallery, we've added the new Abilities and Disciplines Overview and Coder articles.
• Over at IGN's MxO Vault, there's a great two-parter with Toby Ragiani up. Read Part 1 and Part 2! These are a bit old and we're sorry we didn't link them sooner.
• Over at FilePlanet, they're hinting at another round of beta key giveaways: ...Also make sure you stay tuned for the Beta Stress Test coming to FilePlanet!
• We here at MxOS have quite a bit of stuff we're planning to roll out in the near future, so stay tuned!

This just in, from the WBIE PR department:

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is pleased to announce the launch of Data Node One, the official The Matrix Online Community website. Data Node One will provide the very latest in news, features, and game information for The Matrix Online, the Massively Multiplayer Online Game launching this spring.

Before the launch of The Matrix Online, Data Node One will focus primarily on the internal and beta testing communities by providing extensive coverage of player - organized events, player organizations, and exclusive interviews with the development team.

"The Matrix Online community has really taken on a life of its own that is quite different from any other MMO out there. As covered in The Official Magazine of The Matrix Online (launched this month by DC Comics), the community has been distinguishing itself by putting on Duel Tournaments, Fashion Shows, and even player DJ'd after hours parties at nightclubs in the game.," said William Westwater, Director of Online Development, Monolith Productions. "Data Node One will add a great deal of value and enjoyment to the in-game experiences our fans are already participating in. This web destination will be expanding and diversifying a great deal in the weeks and months to come."

Jack in to Data Node One at: http://thematrixonline.com/live

We have added a new Discipline overview, for Virologist.

Also, we've improved the organization of our Guides section. They have been split into the Disciplines and Strategy Guides areas. The Disciplines section has been reorganized so that you can more easily follow the different Disciplines as they diverge from their roots. Enjoy. And again, thanks to Monolith for their permission to organize and reprint their wonderful overviews.

A couple items of news today in the world of The Matrix Online, so without further ado...

Meduna has replaced yours truly as Beta Player of the Week. Congrats to Meduna on her recognition!

We have added a Hacker Discipline Overview and a Crews Guide to our Game Guides Gallery. As promised, as these are put up on the official site, we will update them in our section.

I opened an e-mail a few moments ago, containing merely a link. When I checked it out, WOW. It turns out that vigilant reader Mike C. found a pre-live version of a facelifted official site. Check it out here: http://thematrixonline.warnerbros.com/web/live/index.jsp.

We find this to be a much improved version of the original official site, and hope more is coming (forums too, anyone?)!

Today we're launching our Game Guides section. In this new section, we organize and reprint (with permission of course) the guides published on the official site. Right now, we have the Awakened, Operative and Spy discipline overviews, along with The Art of the Duel for PvP types. As Monolith releases new guides, we will add them to the section. Check it out!

We've also updated the Developer Interviews index. Now, you can find (we hope) any interview the developers have ever done with any outlet in one well-organized place. Enjoy, and as always, keep it right here for the latest MxO news!

MxOS' GreyPawn caught up with Zion mission controller Tyndall earlier today. In this first ever exclusive interview, she discusses many things with us, including where her name came from, her life as a bluepill, and so much more! Here's a sampling:

GP: Ahh. What does it mean?
T: It’s a reference to the patterns that form in melting ice. I didn’t select it for myself, but it fits me well now.

News from the MxO universe has really picked up lately! Here are some recent items of interest:

• The official site posted an article concerning effective event planning. You can find that here.
• The official site posted yet another in-depth article, called Art of the Duel. It discusses strategies for dueling and PvP in extreme detail, and is a must read for any PvPer.
• Here at MxOS, we will be mailing our second batch of 500 beta keys out to those who signed up tonight. We apologize for the delay, but WBIE and Monolith wanted to ensure that the game experience for this group would be smooth and enjoyable before allowing them into the test.
• GameSpot is also giving away 500 beta keys.

IGN PC interviewed Jason Hall in detail about The Matrix Online's upcoming fanzine. Here's a snippet:

IGN: So this is kind of a new thing for the industry. Why don't you lay out the basic concepts behind the new fanzine.

Jason Hall: Essentially, the fanzine is really all about the users, the players of The Matrix Online, and the events that transpire within the Matrix and the exploits and adventures they've done. One of the things that we know about online games is that the interaction and the communication and community things happen inside of these games but it's never really captured outside of some forum discussions on websites. We've basically partnered with DC Comics to create an official fanzine. It's a magazine that's comic book size.

Continuing their series of articles providing overviews of the different Ability Diciplines, MxO's official website today unveiled an overview of the Spy Discipline. Spies specialize in stealth attacks, concealing themselves using Sneak and using Disguise to change their appearance. They have the Disable Security Devices ability, to lessen resistance on missions, and the Locate/Tap Data Node abilities to mine the Matrix for $information.

The new Beta Player of the Week has been announced on the official website of The Matrix Online, and it's... me! Yep, Monolith has bestowed their Beta Player of the Week honor upon me. Go check out my interview with them, where I explain what's unique about MxO, what's cool about being a beta tester, and more!

I'll be replaced by a new Tester of the Week on Friday, January 21. Who knows, it might just be you!

Friday, MxO's official site reviewed the Operative dicipline on their news page. While not quite as in-depth as the Awakened overview done a short time ago (simply because Awakened is much larger than the Operative core), this is still a decent article worth a look.

Also on the official news page is a preview of the game over at Gamesdomain. Since it's just high-level summary preview, we really didn't see this as newsworthy at first glance. However, the very end of the article contains an interesting tidbit:

...when the game ships in March.

Our message forums are being brought down for emergency maintenance. Please anticipate that the forums will be down at least twenty-four to fourty-eight hours. We apologize for the inconvenience this may provide.

Regards,

Jhariden

The official Matrix Online website has posted the first in a promised series of in-depth overviews of the differing ability trees. To open, they have posted an excellent overview of the Awakened dicipline. Here's the announcement they sent us:

Introducing the Awakened Discipline

The Matrix Online just released a new feature article on their official site outlining the Awakened Discipline. One of the great features of The Matrix Online is that players have the ability to upload and download multiple skill sets of disciplines and abilities during the normal course of play. The Awakened discipline is the first such major ability tree when players enter the world for the first time. This is the first of nearly 70 articles about The Matrix Online Discipline tree that you will see in the coming weeks and months.

While a beta tester’s primary charge is to track down bugs in The Matrix Online, they also manage to have a really good time between filing their bug reports. What is unusual about The Matrix Online beta community is the way in which they are having their fun.

Over the last couple of months The Matrix Online community has delivered 3 or 4 well-organized, oftentimes original, and always entertaining live in-game events a week. These events include such concepts as “guided tours” of Mega City, club nights hosted by a live DJ, scavenger hunts, fashion shows, pageants, parties, dueling tournaments, and unbelievably, even a 24/7 live radio station. These special player-run events have, understandably, generated a lot of excitement in beta community, often times playing to standing room only capacity crowds.

Some beta testers who have explored The Matrix Online have probably noticed the clever advertisements in the game world. One we noticed a lot and chuckled at was for Slumberil, a "little blue pill... so you can stay where you want to be... Asleep!"

Well, we caught the Screenshot of the Day on the official MxO website and we noticed something: a link. Slumberil has its own product website too! There also appears to be a web puzzle to solve there as well.

Our hats off to the MxO team, and we hope to see more immersive content like this in the future!