We've concluded our inaugural end of the year awards, which featured the best-of-the-best in massively multiplayer online gaming. Read more to find out which title won our Game of the Year!

FIRST PLACE: Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood

As ZAM’s expansion of the year, Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood is an exceptional example of a client upgrade that not only increases the amount of content available for veteran players, but also enhances and upgrades the existing content within the game and provides supplemental material for middle-of-the-journey players to make the title feel fresh and lively for every type of LOTRO player.

From the Skirmish system to “Mounts 2.0” to the inclusion of all new Fortress of the Nazgul, players have been tinkering with all the new elements for nearly a month. On top of all the original pieces that were tossed into the game, the developers had a whole range of updates and tweaks meant to make every part of Lord of the Rings Online a more all-inclusive experience rather than a simple race to the level cap.

Finally, Mirkwood is the first real step into the real War of the Ring, something that has only been tentatively approached by the LOTRO devs until this point. While players have been encountering each other on the PvMP (Player vs. Monster Player) fields for years, they are now beginning to feel the true depth of the darkness that surrounded Middle-earth during this tumultuous age, and this expansion has begun to pull back the velvet curtain, to reveal the gritty darkness that was hiding in the shadows.

SECOND PLACE: EVE Online: Dominion

In many ways, EVE Online represents what numerous gamers wish they could find in an MMO: Full freedom to operate in any way they please. While a vast amount of EVE Online is created by the players, the developers are still required to create the sandbox that the gamers play in.

And with the Dominion expansion, CCP made major adjustments to that sandbox, adding its own castles (pirate faction missions arcs) and providing players with new molds to adjust their sovereignty. Capital ships and doomsday devices received some major overhauls to freshen the strategies needed in alliance warfare, and fleet tools are now available to commanders to help control their epic fracases. New tutorials, enhanced mailing systems, and brand new star map and planet graphics continue to improve this ever-evolving game and keep it on the top of many gamers’ play lists.

THIRD PLACE: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: Call to Arms

One of the biggest MMO news stories from 2008 was the removal of the Orc Choppa and the Dwarf Slayer, and Warhammer Online’s first expansion in 2009 finally brought these two iconic classes to WAR. Along with the Choppa and Slayer, the WAR team also introduced the concept of a “live” expansion; a gradual release of content over the course of four months. The Call to Arms expansion ran from March to June and included a brand new PvP dungeon, a new PvE zone, and a collection of new content for WAR fans.

Unfortunately, many gamers thought that much of the content in this expansion should have been included in the release version of the game – especially the Choppa and Slayer – and so WAR’s first expansion falls to third place.