If you’ve ever dabbled in one of the many free-to-play massive multiplayer online games, you’ll know that each one celebrates real world holidays in their own way. Halloween is no exception, with many different games from Nexon, Aeria, Joymax, IGG, GameMasters.com, GamesCampus, Outspark, Gametribe.com, Ntreev and OGPlanet all hosting special events to coincide with the holiday season.

So, to make things easier on you, Gamertell has looked throughthe MMOs from the above publishers and compiled a list of the spooky happenings in select MMOs. Most of these events last until shortly after October 31, 2008, but many MMOs are hosting multiple Halloween events with multiple expiration dates…

In honor of the 2008 Olympic Games being held in Beijing, Aeria Games is holding Olympic style events in two of its free massive multiplayer online (MMO) games, Pi Story and Last Chaos. However, while the official Olympic games opening ceremony was today (August 8, 2008), only the Pi Story events begin today. Last Chaos’ Olympic events will begin August 11, 2008.

Both Last Chaos and Pi Story will have special events running during the Olympic period – mainly races or timed events. Players will be able to compete to win gold, silver and bronze medals, prizes and a place in the events’ record books. An end date for the events has not been revealed.

If you’re an Aeria Games member who signed up for the free, MMO Pi Story‘s closed beta, then you probably received a special announcement email on June 24, 2008. (I know I did.) The closed beta is only open to people who are Aeria Games members and received the email invitation – so if you didn’t get it, you’ll have to wait until the open beta to play.

The lucky ones who did receive closed beta invitations can head over to the official Aeria Games site to RSVP. Just log in, and if you’re eligible for any of the current betas (Stone Age and Richman Online are also in beta periods), you’ll automatically be approved. You can then head to File Front or Gamershell.com to download the 355.03 MB game client. You’ll only be able to play if you’re on a computer running Windows 2000 or higher with DirectX 9.0 or later, so wait until you have access to a computer or laptop that meets the requirement to download.

It seems like just yesterday I was writing about Pi Story, well okay, it was almost two weeks ago. I just didn’t expect more news this quickly. It turns out that Aeria Games, responsible for the MMOs Dream of Mirror, Twelve Sky, Shaiya and Project Torque, have acquired Pi Story and will now be handling the North American distribution and day-to-day activities of the NCONY developed game.

If you’d like to get in on the Pi Story beta testing set for June 2008, then you better sign up for Viz’s Shojo Beat newsletter. Newsletter subscribers will receive a special invitation to participate through the newsletter, as well as a special in-game item once the commercial period of the game begins. The July 2008 issue of Shojo Beat (which arrived in my mailbox yesterday) first announced this gaming opportunity.

Pi Story is a 2D MMORPG from NCONY. In it, you do the typical MMORPG things – interact with other players, fight enemies, collect items, customize an avatar, decorate a home and travel to other lands by collecting Pi pieces. A lot of information about the game isn’t available yet, as its still in the works. For example only two job classes (fighter and cleric) are available so far.

Click through to see a game play trailer…