All Posts by Stradden

Originally posted by Jrod

228 years? That's an accomplishment John.

Happy Fourth of July.

It's actually 28 and thanks. I noticed the typo and thought it was amusing :)

Yes. It takes some time between the creation of the news item and the creation of the feature that allows me to add the link. You were just too speedy for me.

For the second time now, we've scoured the internet to find a few outside links that we thought might tickle your funny bones. This time, we've found comedy MMORPG gold in the publications of The Onion.

In this hilarious spoof article from Kevin Spivey written back in April of ‘06, he pines away for the love that he met in World of Warcraft as the carefully forged relationship begins to crumble.

The article doesn’t seem written to offend, but merely to amuse.

***

This second parody from the fine folks at The Onion comes in the form of a video announcing the newest World of Warcraft sequel: World of World of Warcraft. The video features mock interviews with World of World of Warcraft developers speaking about the fantastic new features and technology that allow players to play players of World of Warcraft.

Grab the links for both here.

The developers of Atlantica Online have provided us with this exclusive developer journal discussing the unique combat system in their upcoming MMORPG. Atlantica breaks with MMORPG tradition to bring players a turn-based combat system that the developers hope will set their game apart from other MMOs.

Unravelling the ancient legend of Atlantis is at the heart of Atlantica Online, a new massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by NDOORS. Atlantica, which will launch its closed beta this July, followed by its commercial launch, takes players on a globe-hopping adventure to save the human race, while providing them a rich, strategic RPG environment combined with classic turn-based gameplay.

Life on Earth is threatened when remnants of the fabled lost civilization begins to poison the world’s population. Humanity needs a hero to find and destroy these artifacts. Players must traverse the globe to uncover the clues that will ultimately lead them to Atlantis. During their journey, which will take them to landmarks such as the Taj Mahal in India and Germany’s Marksburg Castle, players will encounter all manner of monsters taken from the myths and legends of cultures throughout human history. Dragons in China and vampires in Romania are just a few of the enemies players must defeat to reach Atlantis.

Read the whole thing here.

Our apologies to the dev team over at Funcom's Anarchy Online as we wish their game a belated happy birthday.

On June 27th, Anarchy Online officially turned the ripe old age of 7. Congratulations to the past and present dev team of the game on reaching this milestone.

On June 27th, Anarchy Online turns 7 years old, and we have prepared several great offers and fun, in-game surprises for the players. We look very much forward to celebrating the anniversary of the game together with you!

Keeping in the theme of “7”, we’re delighted to present several great offers to all of you, both the old and the new, and the free players.

Anniversary gifts and offers

Active Anarchy Online players will receive 700 paid points for free. You can use these on whatever in-game items you want, ranging from jet bikes and hover boards, Jobe Luxury Apartment and pet leets, to social clothing to add a dash of color to the game world! We are also giving you 7 buddy keys to invite friends to try the game. With these buddy keys your friends will be able to discover and enjoy the wonders of Rubi-Ka! These keys give a full 30 days of free play with all expansions enabled.

Previous subscribers should keep an eye on their e-mail inboxes for a very special offer giving them the opportunity to return to Rubi-Ka. 

Finally, we have a special offer to our free players. For only $7/€7, you can upgrade to the full game experience, including all expansion content. This offer also includes 7 days of free play time!

All of these special offers are only available until July 4th, so be sure not to miss the opportunity, and join us in celebrating the wonderful history of Anarchy Online!

In-game surprises

Like we have done previous years, we have prepared some in-game surprises and gifts for our players. From June 27th and one week forward, you will be able to find a special party planner NPC, who is happily giving away gifts to anyone who asks her, plus she has a fun little stock of party treats!

Among the items players can get for the birthday celebrations are a special birthday placard, a leetzilla doll, a cake fixture, XP buff items, a couple of clothing pieces suited for partying, a beautiful painting of a familiar place on Rubi-Ka, and finally a small item to tribute a certain barbarian and the story about his world.

Players will also have access to some classic party effects, like the monster sunglasses, the funny arrow and the propeller hat!

Want to party the night away?

Ever helpful and present, ARK has planned parties the entire birthday weekend. Lots of fun, good music and all sorts of unexpected surprises are on the agenda. Find details on when and where here! There will be plenty of available activities for the players who find themselves online this weekend!

Win amazing custom gaming PC from GameRigs!

The power that engulfs us all takes us into the heat of battle on Rubi-Ka. Beyond the simple and meek comes a brave warrior that will defeat all others in a quest for global supremacy.

Enter in the sweepstakes for your chance to win a tweaked, custom gaming PC from GameRigs complete with a decorated Anarchy Online case and mouse pad! Click here to read all about it!

More on AO here.

The folks over at CCP have started a series of stories chronicling the leaders of each of the four faction heads that made their appearance with the launch of the Empyrean Age expansion. This is the second in the series, looking at Souro Foiritan, president of the Gallente Federation.

The Garden was a man-made construct through and through, several acres of carefully tended flora and woodland encased in a massive transparent dome. Souro Foiritan, president of the Gallente Federation, had it constructed long ago as a meeting place between dignitaries of the various empire factions.

In this it served its function admirably, for a twofold reason. First, a peaceful garden was much more conducive to a genial atmosphere and agreeable spirits than a meeting room ever could be. A visiting diplomat, weighted by worries and demands, would feel so much more calm sitting by a babbling brook or a tree in budding bloom than he ever could on the top floor of a high-rise, no matter how good its view. And second, it was so well secured with anti-eavesdropping technology that visitors could discuss the darkest topics of their hearts' desires without so much as a glance over their shoulders.

Read it all here.

The folks over at Darkfall have released a new internal Q&A where the developers answer some of the fans' questions.

Here’s the QA…we worked with lists sent to us by community members and tried to answer as many as possible without too much embellishing. There was an effort to answer question categories that weren’t addressed in the previous Q&A’s. We didn’t address the questions having to do with beta and publishing due to recent developments, we would like more time before we get into that.

Do different weapon types damage them (mobs) easier, like a spear, mace, etc.?

Different monsters are vulnerable to different types of attack. In some cases they could be nearly immune to certain attacks like a fire elemental may not take fire damage. This applies to various armors and protections as well, the varying degrees in which they could protect the player against specific types of damage. There’s a whole system in place behind this, and players will learn from experience and through various information sources within the game.

Read it all here.

MMORPG.com's own Joe Iuliani provides the questions for this interview with Jadefox Hu of IGG's Myth War II. In the interview, Hu introduces us to this follow up to Myth War.

In your opinion, what makes Myth War II stand apart from all the other free to play games on the market today?

Jadefox Hu

Myth War II (http://mw2.igg.com) is a free 2D online game. Its classic feel makes it comfortable and relaxing for experienced players who have grown up with similar styles. One of the highlights of this game is its unique ATB combat system. The ATB combat system means players should be familiar with turn-based strategy combat while also giving players the sense of tension that they expect from modern games. The distinct “Rumor” system will keep players guessing.

Read the whole interview here.

The folks at Codemasters have been kind enough to provide us with these new pieces of concept art from Episode 3 of their MMORPG, ArchLord.

Check out all four here.

MMORPG.com would like to wish all of our Canadian members a happy Canada Day on this 1st day of July, 2008.

As a point of trivia, Canada was formed on July 1st, 1867 making it 141 years old today!

The folks at CCP have released a new patch for the Empyrean Age expansion for their hit game EVE Online.

The EVE Online: Empyrean Age 1.0.1 patch will be deployed on Tuesday, 1 July. We estimate that this patch will only add approximately 30 minutes to the regular downtime. Tranquility will be down from 11:00 to 12:30 GMT. This patch consists mainly of fixes to EVE Voice and it will also include the previous optional patches.

Patch Notes will be made available later.

Read more here.

This morning, the folks at Pirates of the Burning Sea rolled out build 1.5.46.0 without incident. The servers are now live again after the update.

We will be upgrading our live servers to build 1.5.46.0 during the usual maintenance window (1:30am-5:00am Pacific / 9.30am-1.00pm British Summer Time) on Tuesday, July 1st.

You can find information on the exciting changes in 1.5, including our new epic mission Fortaleza da Luz, in our Developer Logs section.

We appreciate your patience, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new patch. Release notes for the new build can be found here.

Update: All servers are now back online. Enjoy 1.5!

Read more here.

Navyfield has announced that they will be adding a new server to their game in the month of July. They will also be joining the Game&Game world Championship.

NavyField Europe (Company: eFusion MMOG) announced today they will add a 2nd server at the end of July.
The 2nd server will be an English server and many events will be started on server launch day.
 
They also announced they are joining the GNGWC (Game&Game World Championship) and they will start a European local league in the middle of July.
NavyField Europe fleets will join in the local league finals and 2 teams will join in the final in Korea in November with one representative of each team on location for the prize of 10,000 $ and many other presents.
European local finals will be held at Games Convention in Leipzig on 21st of August.
 
For more information, you can check www.navyfield.eu, the official site of NavyField Europe.
 
NavyField Europe also opened the “party weekend” event on the 28th  and 29th of June where the players got a 30% increase in EXP, credits, points and veteran gain for the duration of the weekend. At the end of July this Event will be repeated.

In middle of July NavyField Europe plans to have a special patch including CV EXP boosting, a host wake-up function and other good content that came from the requests of users.
 
The submarine patch is in development at the moment, and this big patch will be implemented around September. Many NavyField users are waiting for this new ship line and will really enjoy this new content.

NavyField Europe is also planning on implementing new sounds, a new interface and many new community functions in the 3rd quarter of this year.

Read more here.

Square Enix and Gamescampus are teaming up to bring out a new item-based MMORPG called Concerto Gate and have announced that the game is now in closed beta.

San Jose, CA (July 1, 2008) - Concerto Gate(tm), an item-based MMORPG produced by Square Enix Co., Ltd., is finally ready to launch in North America. Square Enix fans and MMORPG players alike have long waited to play this exciting title in America and will soon have a chance to participate in Concerto Gate's closed beta test to be held from July 1 to 14. Users can go to Filefront.com to download the client software.

Concerto Gate, published at Gamescampus.com (run by OnNet USA), is the sequel to Cross Gate, an MMORPG launched in Japan back in 2001. In the game, players are summoned to the Kingdom of Fahren, a fantasy world of magic and sorcery, in hopes of becoming the legendary hero that has been foretold to save the world.

Concerto Gate boasts new and interesting features that every MMORPG player can look forward to, including the innovative "terra generating" system which allows players to change the environment's topography. For example, players can shape mountains and destroy or grow forests over a several week period of time.

"I am thrilled and excited to introduce Concerto Gate to American players. Square Enix is, without doubt, one of the most famous developers in the world, and I believe the features of this game surely live up to their reputation. Concerto Gate is a terrific addition to Gamescampus.com, the leader in item-based games" says Kevin Kim, CEO of OnNet USA.

"It is our pleasure to introduce Concerto Gate to American audiences through Gamescampus.com. We hope now that even more players can experience our game's revolutionary world and its exciting, new features such as 'Terra Generating'," says Mr. Noriaki Watanabe, producer of Concerto Gate at Square Enix Co., Ltd.

Read more here.

Ever wish you could use your cell phone to keep up to date on your favorite MMO, see which of your friends is online, or when your next raid is? Those and more are the possible uses of cell phones for MMORPGs according to Tom Sperry of Exit Games.

What practical application does your technology have for today’s MMORPGs in terms of new features and / or functionality?

Tom Sperry

Our platform’s service, called “Neutron”, enables PC-based MMORPG developers to extend in-game features to a mobile device in real-time. The most important thing about an MMORPG is the community (besides the quality of the game of course) and all of the social interaction features that go with it. Players are not able to sit in front of the computer 24/7 – at least, not in a healthy way – and so a natural way to access the game while on the run is via your mobile phone.

In the US, mobile devices and networks are not “ready” today to be gaming systems capable of realtime gameplay of MMORPGs, so we’re not trying to replicate the actual game onto the mobile. Instead, we’re using what it’s best at doing – communication. What Neutron can do for MMORPGs is tie the mobile phone to the game’s back end so that the player can stay plugged in to the virtual world, through various forms of social communication features. These features may include seeing which friends are currently logged into the game, chatting with a friend or your guild mates, checking the raid calendar, searching the auction house to see if the weapon upgrade you’ve wanted is up, etc. The mobile device is the perfect channel to stay in touch with the game while away from the computer, and Neutron allows developers to make this happen without having to allocate too much in dedicated resources.

Read it all here.

Funcom, the company behind the new MMORPG, Age of Conan, has issued a press release stating that more than 700,000 players have created accounts for the game.

Durham, USA – June 30, 2008 – Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan continues to dominate the PC sales charts in all markets where the game is available. Over the last few weeks it has remained the overall #1 PC game in most European markets, while also performing tremendously well on several all-format charts. In the US, Age of Conan impressively conquered the #1 PC spot for the first two weeks of available NPD data. Due to the amazing interest surrounding the game, more than 700.000 gamers have now signed up for an Age of Conan account. In the second month after release it is also clear that Age of Conan has taken the position as the undisputed #2 subscription MMO in the western world. 

When Age of Conan stormed into retail stores as the most pre-ordered original PC game in history, it instantly became the best selling PC game of May. The pace at which Age of Conan sold made it one of the fastest selling PC games of all times, and Funcom is therefore very satisfied to see the positive sales trend continue. As all countries report sales differently, it is not possible to get a complete overview of the exact box sales at the time of writing, but Age of Conan remains the top selling PC game in most all released markets. This includes being the #1 overall PC game in June in the Nordic countries, Oceania, Germany, France and Spain, as well a top three contender in all other markets where the game is out. No substantial sales data for June is yet available from the US market, but Age of Conan was the #1 PC game in the latest official NPD update.

“That Age of Conan remains #1 in retail stores several weeks after release is of incredible importance to us, and proves that the game has a large potential beyond the early adopters,” said Morten Larssen, VP of Sales & Marketing in Funcom. “With more than 700.000 accounts created so far we have a fantastic platform to build from, and we will continue our marketing spend to further drive numbers in the months to come. It also means that Funcom can dedicate significant development resources on evolving the game even further, naturally giving us a great hope for the future of Age of Conan.”

“We are incredibly pleased to see Age of Conan turning into an MMO phenomena,” said Gaute Godager, Game Director on Age of Conan. “As a MMO company we know that a good start is but the beginning for a virtual world. All we care about now is to make Age of Conan into an even better game, and we have extensive plans to ensure that Age of Conan remains a top MMO alternative for many years to come.”

For more information about the game or to sign up for the community, please visit www.ageofconan.com

Read more here.

The folks at Codemasters have been kind enough to provide us with these six new screenshots from their upcoming MMORPG Jumpgate Evolution.

Check out all six here.

The folks at NCsoft released a greatly informative Feedback Friday on the 27th, including information on some new equipment and other things making their way into the game.

Two new incendiary shotguns will be making their way to you in Deployment 10. These aren’t your grandpa’s shotguns - they are equipped with not one, but two and three barrels for the ultimate Bane killing experience.

• Double-barrel shotguns: Will appear at Level 23. These shotguns do more damage that standard shot guns, but don’t get too trigger happy just yet. These shotguns fire slower, consume twice the ammo, and gain heat faster.
• Tri-barrel shotguns: Will appear at Level 34. These shotguns do more damage as well, and have a wider arc. And just like the double-barrel shotguns, you must be wise with your shots, because in addition to their awesome fire power, these shotguns fire slower, consume triple the ammo, and gain heat faster than standard shotguns.

  Check out our model below with the latest in AFS technology!

Read more here.

Well, the weekend is behind us, meaning that we would like to point you toward the Grab Bag over at EA Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot.

Q. Is Quillan Muire in Muire's tomb supposed to drop any loot?  It seems like he is the "boss" of the dungeon but she drops nothing different from his surrounding guards.  I know he has a quest associated with her, but the other named Muires along that quest can drop items.  Thanks!

A. With a quick check to the bags o’loot the Lady of the Jewels has good news for you: Quillan Muire does have a chance to drop a small amount of unique loot, but it is very rare.

Read it all here.

Flying Lab Software has announced that they will be upgrading their servers to build 1.5.46.0 on Tuesday July 1st.

We will be upgrading our live servers to build 1.5.46.0 during the usual maintenance window (1:30am-4:00am Pacific / 9.30am-11.30am British Summer Time) on Tuesday, July 1st.

You can find information on the exciting changes in 1.5, including our new epic mission Fortaleza da Luz, in our Developer Logs section.

We appreciate your patience, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new patch.

Read more here.