It's springtime in Taborea! The latest Runes of Magic patch is now live and with it comes the Flower Festival. Players can receive the Flower God’s Blessing, plant magical roses, eat delicious Flower Festival Pie and obtain the Lily of Love! There will also be lots of bonus rewards to earn.

For more details about the Flower Festival check out the official Patch 3.0.9 patch notes.

Frogster has released the fifth episode of RoMCast, the official podcast of Runes of Magic. The series is hosted by Swag, the community manager at Frogster America. Here are the details:

"In this episode, we have an announcement of a new YouTube contest, an introduction to the features of the new blog, special guest Sunspots gives his impressions on end-game for the mage class, Swag reads and answers your mail, and much more!"

You can listen to the podcast on the official Runes of Magic blog or through iTunes.

Looking for eternal glory? Want to showcase your guild's amazing ability to down bosses? Runes of Magic is giving you the chance with the Boss Rush video contest. All you have to do is record video footage of your guild fighting any instance boss or world boss in the game. Then, upload the footage to YouTube and send the URL of the video to cmswag@gmail.com. Frogster America will pick the five best videos, which will be featured on a flat-screen TV at GDC 2011 in San Francisco.

All entries must be received by Feb. 28. Guilds eligible to win first place must play on North American servers.

CEO of Frogster, Andreas Weidenhaupt, has announced his impending resignation from the company. He will be stepping down in April of this year to focus on other projects but will remain a consultant with Frogster afterward. Weidenhaupt has been the face of many of the company's projects, including Runes of Magic and TERA (EU).

Christoph Gerlinger, chairman of the executive board of Frogster, said:

"We thank Andreas kindly for his job performance of the past years, the amicable co-operation with the executive board colleagues and for his significant contribution to the success of Frogster. In the course of last year, Andreas managed to fill the Frogster product pipeline with excellent titles for the next years in advance."

Weidenhaupt's responsibilities will be allocated to his executive board colleagues.

Frogster has released Runes of Magic patch 3.0.8 and with it comes the Festival of Fire. Help the townsfolk of Varanas in various quests and receive gifts for your work, like special runes for your equipment or even a mount to get from place to place faster.

Players can also join forces with other players and visit the reworked version of "Varanas Nightmare," now fit to challenge players level 62 and above. Plus the bosses inside await you with better loot than before!

The patch also brings with it new improvements for the account security of the community. Check out the full patch notes over at the Runes of Magic official site.

The Queensland, Australia based games developer and publisher N3V Games has raised over $2,000 through the sale of mounts in Runes of Magic. Players purchased 413 mounts to help aid in the Australia Flood Relief efforts. The total amount raised tops off at $2,478 to donate to the Queensland Premiers Flood Appeal. CEO os N2V Games Graham Edelsten said:

"Australians have a long history of helping each other out through difficult times and this is no exception. N3V Games, Frogster and the players of Runes of Magic are proud that that we could help out in this way."

Job well done RoM players!

Frogster has released the fourth episode of RoMCast, the official podcast of Runes of Magic. The series is hosted by Swag, the community manager at Frogster America. Here are the details:

"In this episode, we announce the winners from the iTunes Contest, special guest Specs gives a scout's perspective whether or not the class is overpowered, Swag reads and answers your mail, and much more!"

You can listen to the podcast on the official Runes of Magic blog or through iTunes.

Following a recent attack on the Runes of Magic database, Frogster has issued an official response that states it has introduced comprehensive protection measures and filed criminal charges against the hacker.

According to Kotaku, user augustus87 claims to have access to the account names and passwords of 3.5 million Runes of Magic players. He is threatening to release the information gradually until his demands are met, which include changes to forum policy and better online security. He has already publicly posted the login details of around 2,000 players, but Frogster quickly deleted the post and stated that the data was outdated information from 2007.

Regardless, Frogster temporarily blocked the compromised accounts and is asking all players to change their passwords. More details can be found in the official response after the jump.

The Queensland, Australia based games developer and publisher N3V Games is donating 50% of sales from new mounts in Runes of Magic to help aid in the terrible flooding disaster in Australia.

The new Star and Flame mounts are available to players for 225 Diamonds (about $12) and are available on Saturday, January 15 at 12 a.m. through Sunday, January 23 at midnight. The money raised will go to the Queensland Premiers Flood Relief Appeal.

Frogster has released the third episode of RoMCast, the official podcast of Runes of Magic. The series is hosted by Swag, the community manager at Frogster America. Here are the details:

"In this episode, we announce the winners from the Suggest a Contest Contest, special guest Seracles gives you the 411 on the Knight class and find out how you can win a Small Purified Package."

You can listen to the podcast on the official Runes of Magic blog or through iTunes.