When we reported EA's unveiling of its Need For Speed World racing-sim MMO in London earlier this week, the news received little fanfare from our readers, and they weren't alone. Most MMO fans weren't exactly frothing at the mouth in anticipation of a new "massively-multiplayer online racing game," with the exception of Need For Speed's established community and the usual racing-sim fans. We're not specifically picking on Need For Speed World here; it's just another sign of the times. The unrelenting emergence of online multiplayer games branded as MMOs has watered-down the market. Today's new MMO announcements (which surface weekly) just don't carry the weight they once did, even those with relatively-unique gameplay based outside the usual RPG fantasy and sci-fi genres.

One problem is that today's market is bursting at the seams with games that tried to ride the coattails of the MMO craze. As the success of games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft rose, video game publishers ran wild with the "MMO" tag, often branding it on multiplayer games that don't even feature a persistent world. Today, the line that actually defines an MMO has become blurrier than ever. However, a lot of video games that teeter on that line have benefited from the influence of "traditional" MMOs. The first-person shooter and real-time strategy genres, for example, are taking cues from the progression-based gameplay and social/co-op aspects of MMOs that made them famous.

Riot Games has unveiled the newest champion coming for the game: Akali, the Fist of Shadow. Her addition will bring the total number of champions to 51. She is tentatively scheduled for release next week.

Yesterday in our Q&A with Richard Hough, Associate Technical Director at Riot Games, ZAM learned about League of Legends' new map, "Twisted Treeline." Hough explained Riot's motivation for introducing the new 3v3 map; it's a faster-paced, action-oriented map with less emphasis on distinct "laning" than the original 5v5 map. In today's second part of our Twisted Treeline feature, ZAM offers a first-hand preview of the new map, which just moved out of "Practice"-only mode to "Matchmaking" mode a few days ago.

We also take a quick look at some of the popular promotions that Riot Games has launched recently, like the "Riot Girl Tristana" Facebook promo, which attracted 20,000 fans in about 24 hours. Although League of Legends is free-to-play game that relies on micro-transactions to generate revenue, the Riot team is pretty liberal with its promos and other contests, which award in-game Champions, new Skins and other perks to its player base. Click past the jump to learn more about these promos, following our Twisted Treeline preview.

Last September, in our original League of Legends closed-beta preview, we praised the MMORTS hybrid as a particularly bright shining star in the burgeoning MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game genre. Influenced by the cult-classic DotA (Defense of the Ancients) gameplay, the free-to-play League of Legends is still maintaining its post-launch momentum, as we explained in our retrospective "Growing Up All On Its Own" feature story. Since then, the developers at Riot Games finally unveiled the long-awaited "Twisted Treeline" map, which introduced 3v3 teaming and facilitates new gameplay strategies.

Lately, players could only access the Twisted Treeline map in "Practice" mode, but as you're about to discover in our following Q&A with Richard Hough, Associate Technical Director at Riot Games, the wait is finally over…the new map, for "Matchmaking" mode, was released just yesterday! In our Q&A, we ask Hough about the new gameplay and Champion strategies that Twisted Treeline brings to the table, and the ongoing "balancing act" to maintain it. We also sneak in a few commonly-asked questions raised by the player community about future maps, additional game modes and extra Rune/Mastery pages. In this special two-part feature, we decided to play a few Twisted Treeline matches to get a first-hand impression of the new 3v3 gameplay. Click past the jump to read our Q&A with Hough, and check back tomorrow for ZAM's Twisted Treeline gameplay preview.

It seems as though February may be a month of looking back, as we just recently took another look at NCsoft's Aion to see what they were (or were not!) doing almost five months after their launch in September. Riot Games' League of Legends was also launched within a similar time frame, but their story (and update schedule) is a much happier tale. In fact, no other game, MMO or otherwise, has ever undergone such immense changes over the past few months as Riot Games' fantastically popular free-to-play MMO-RTS hybrid, League of Legends.

We originally took a peek at League of Legends a few months back, and it was there that we deemed this game to be the next step in DotA / MOBA genre. It's been a very quick five and a half months since we wrote that article and, after our revisit to the land of LoL, we know for certain that this particular gaming genre is in some very, very capable hands.

Riot Games has given us an exclusive first look at Mordekaiser, the next champion who will be entering battle in League of Legends. This sinister fighter is known as the Master of Metal, and with good cause; he can smash multiple enemies with his Mace of Spades attack, and his Iron Man passive ability makes him a tough adversary.

You can read more about Mordekaiser's background and abilities after the jump.We've also added four screenshots of Mordekaiser in action to our League of Legends gallery.

While most MMOs are currently celebrating Valentine's Day with in-game events, Riot Games has decided to honor the 2010 Winter Olympics with all sorts of new content. The games are scheduled to kick off in Vancouver on Feb. 12, which is also when the festivities will begin in League of Legends.

Eight new skins and six special Winter Games runes will be available in League of Legends from Feb. 12 to March 2, and the winter map will be replaced with the Winter Games map on the second weekend of the event. You can read all the details after the jump.

League of Legends may have officially launched only three months ago, but Riot Games is already celebrating more than one million downloads by gamers in North America and Europe. These players have already logged more than 18 million hours in the game, and more than 150,000 of them compete in battles each day.

We'd like to congratulate Riot Games on hitting the one million mark. Have you tried out League of Legends yet?

Riot Games has given us an exclusive first look at Pantheon, the next champion who will be entering battle in League of Legends. This vicious warrior lives for the glory of combat, and he promises to vanquish his enemies using his spear and shield.

You can read about Pantehon's background and abilities after the jump. We've also added three screenshots of Pantheon in action to our League of Legends gallery.

Riot Games has launched a referral program for League of Legends that offers some fun rewards for getting your friends into the game. To start things off, every fifth friend you refer that reaches level 10 will net you an IP boost that you can redeem whenever you want. The more friends you refer, the greater the reward.

Ten referrals gets you a Tier 3 Champion. If you get 500 people to play the game, your name will be added to the "Wall of Fame" in the Riot Games office. So what do you get for 10,000 referrals? An all expenses paid trip to visit Riot Games and develop a Champion with the design team!

You can read the full list of rewards after the jump. Do you think anyone will be able to claim the top prize?