Champions Online Executive Producer Bill "Chronomancer" Roper said in his recent State of the Game address that the official Revelation page was going to launch this week, and he was right! The informational page for the free expansion is now live, and players can expect to try out the new level 37-40 content in mid-March.

Revelation will let you venture into Vibora Bay and try out six new Tier 4 meta-powers, fight through the Therakiel's Temple lair, battle five new enemy groups, and enjoy more than 30 new perks. You can read all the details after the jump.

Executive Producer Bill "Chronomancer" Roper has written a new State of the Game address for Champions Online, and a big chunk of it is devoted to the upcoming free Revelation expansion. Roper said some exciting things are going to happen this week; the official Revelation page is going to launch, and the expansion will be put up for first testing.

In addition, Roper mentioned that the team's focus in the near term will be on creating adventure packs that can be experienced by heroes at nearly any level. More monthly in-game events are also planned for the future. You can read Roper's letter after the jump.

And the gauntlet has been thrown down! Just yesterday, the Champions Online Development Team announced on their website that on Friday, February 26th, from 4 PM to 7 PM PST, they will be in-game on the Liver server and ready to whoop some superhero PvP butt. The team notes that at 4 PM they will announce which queue they will be joining, and then they will continue to queue for that map until they announce a change. As well, all members of the development team will be playing at Level 40.

So if you think that you have what it takes to smash the guys who made the game, then start getting prepared for Friday, February 26th! As well, for players who have been grumbling about overpowered (or underpowered) abilities, maybe you should suit yourself up with them and show the devs what you're talking about! Good luck everyone!

GM Maruader, the director of Champions Online customer service, has brought back the GM Blog in an attempt to ehance communication with the game's community. The purpose of the blog is to fill players in on the state of of issues that they've submitted to customer service.

The first issue of the GM Blog lists seven fixes that are planned for the PTS that are are a direct result of player input. GM Marauder also encourages players "to use the search function within the in-game ticketing system and use the 'subscribe' button if you see your issue listed." This will help give these issues top priority when the customer service team brings them up to the developers.

You can read the entire blog entry after the jump.

When Cryptic announced that players would have to pay for the upcoming Champions Online expansion, the backlash from the community was noticeable. It was so noticeable, in fact, that Executive Director Bill Roper revealed in this week's State of the Game address that the expansion will now be free for all players.

Champions Online: Revelation, which was formerly known as Vibora Bay, is scheduled to launch in mid-March. Roper said it is designed for levels 37–40 and will have a new level 40 repeatable Lair with all new high-end rewards for experienced players.

Roper admits in his letter that Cryptic has "had a real failure with communicating to our community over the past couple of months." He lists a number of ways the company plans to fix this problem, and one of them is the return of bi-weekly Ask Cryptic segments. The newest one contains answers to some hard-hitting questions, such as how the game can succeed considering its "current lackluster performance."

Roper's State of the Game address and the Ask Cryptic segment are posted after the jump.

Do you have what it takes to defeat members of the Cryptic team in Champions Online? The Cryptic Corps will be queuing for PvP in-game on Friday, Feb. 5, from 3-5 p.m. PST, and they're asking you to bring your best level 40 characters for a shot at a special forum title.

Cryptic is also reaching out to the community by relaunching its regular Ask Cryptic feature. There are only two rules: any topic is fair game and questions must be written in a respectful tone. Head over to this thread to submit your queries to the Champions Online team.

Executive Director Bill Roper revealed in his first State of the Game address of 2010 that the first Champions Online expansion will focus on the city of Vibora Bay. "The apocalypse has come, and it rides upon the half angelic / half demonic wings of Therakiel," Roper said. The mega-adventure pack will feature content for levels 37-40, and a Web page full of details is currently in the works.

As far as other Champions Online updates are concerned, the Blood Moon Halloween event will be making a return appearance every month around the real-world full moon. Cryptic is introducing new difficulty levels for both individual heroes and teams, and players will get the ability to travel back in time to moments in their characters' history.

The rest of the letter focuses on the "kitchen sink" patch that went live today and features over two months worth of fixes and changes to the game. You can read the full State of the Game address after the jump.

According to a forum post on the Champions Online website, Cryptic is asking players to list our the top 3 things they liked and didn't like about the "Misfit Toys" event that just recently occurred in Champions Online. The team is also asking players to talk about gameplay features they would like to see in future events. Thus far, the forum post has received about 11 pages of feedback, with many players expressing annoyance over the fight with "Clarence," one of the big baddies of the Misfit Toys event. As well, the somewhat low drop rate of costumes has topped many a players' dislike list.

Whether you like Champions Online or hate it, you certainly have to give Cryptic credit for reaching out to their community time and time again to get valuable feedback. If you have feedback of your own to give, head on over to the Champions Online forums to speak your mind!

Did you participate in the Attack of the Misfit Toys holiday event in Champions Online? If so, what did you think of it? That's the question Lead Designer Randy "Arkayne" Mosiondz is asking players so Cryptic can take the feedback into account when planning future events.

Mosiondz is asking players to list their top three likes and dislikes from the Misfit Toys event in this thread on the official forums. In addition, you have the option to explain the gameplay features you'd like to see in future events. This is a great opportunity for Champions Online players to have some say in the design process.

Cryptic has announced the winners of its Champions Online Winter Screenshot competition, and the chosen players will be receiving Retro Destroyer action figure codes for their submissions.

As you can see from the above screenshot by Pandemie, the submissions are festive while still capturing the spirit of the game. You can view all five of the winning entries in this post on the Champions Online site.