All Posts by Szark

The latest edition of Game/On, MMORPG.com's weekly podcast is now available for your listening pleasure.

This week on Game/On, MMORPG.com's weekly podcast, co-hosts Jon Wood and Keith Cross talk about their recent trip to Austin, Texas to cover the Austin Game Developer's Conference, and the rise in the number of quality sci-fi MMO titles that are currently in Development.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Auran has announced that the prize pool for the Fury Challenge is now over $2 million. The event has also been extended to cover the weekends from now until October 7th.

Brisbane, Australia - September 14, 2007 - Auran Games today announced that the prize pool for "Fury Challenge" has now officially topped $2 million dollars. The Open Beta event has been extended to run over 4 weekends from September 14 to October 7, and will provide players from all over the world the chance to test their skills playing "FURY", the 100% Player versus Player MMO which will be released in October.

"We want to put players on notice that FURY is serious fun and we have set our goal at nothing less than being the Number one PvP game in the world," said Tony Hilliam, Auran CEO and Executive Producer on FURY. "By putting together over $2M in prizes for our Open Beta event, I think we've started to show that we're already a contender for the title."

"In a market where the big names and big publishers get most of the attention, we figured we had to do something a bit different to be noticed," said Brian Cooke, Auran Director of Marketing. "Fury is a competitive game, and so putting together this amazing prize pool for our players should start to turn a few heads in our direction. From there, we're confident our game will keep them excited."

"During Fury Challenge we're capping player Ranks at an easily obtainable level," said Adam Carpenter, Fury Creative Director. "Since this is an Open Beta event, it is critical that new players become competitive quickly while avoiding the complexities that a max level, fully unlocked character would bring. This ensures the Challenge is all about player skill and teamwork, not time played, and this is what Fury's gameplay and design is all about."

Fury Challenge is a ladder based competition where players compete in 3 different game types either solo or as part of a Clan. There will be 2 practice weekends (Sept 14-16 and Sept 21-23) and the Ladders will be reset in preparation for the two competition weekends (Sept 28-30 and Oct 5-7). Players can either download the client from one of our sponsors or pick up a pre-order disk from participating retailers.

Prize sponsors include Dell, Nvidia, Logitech, Ideazon, IGN/Fileplanet, GameStop, Gamerail, Harvey Norman, Bigpond, FHM, and CybershotsZ. Prizes include PC's, graphics cards, keyboards, subscriptions, vouchers, FURY Gamecards and even a years' supply of energy drinks. Some prizes are available for regional winners only.

"GameStop is proud to sponsor the Fury Challenge with great prizes," said John Brittell, GameStop's Vice President of E-commerce and Direct Marketing. "We encourage everyone to take the challenge and also pre-order at GameStop to receive extra play time in the beta and an exclusive armor set for the final game."

Read more about the Fury Challenge here.

IGG has released new information about the evil bosses in their upcoming martial arts MMO, Zu Online.

IGG announce the feature of evil boss in Far-East Martial Arts MMORPG - ZU Online.

Shadow Taoist

We begin with this foul creature, as implied by the name, appears shadow-like, drifting from place to place, menacing and ruthless. When fighting against him, players will be deceived by the confusing array of shadows he produces. After taking up Sky Lake, He made use of the water in Sky Lake to realize his plot to control Holy City. The Shadow Taoist has killed numerous Players. If you want to challenge him, you have to make sure that your level is up to the requirement. Or both your body and your spirit are waiting to be ruthlessly destroyed.

Brute Marshal

He was once a loyal General. When escorting the Princess Minye who was the victim of a political marriage to his country, he was slandered by treacherous court officials and sentenced to death. Because of that, his spirit continues to linger in and around the mortal world. He just had no way to forget this virulent hatred and the Princess Minye whom he loved so much. The High Summoner of Desert City found his spirit, and then buried his spirit at Burial Hill of Miracleblade Peak. Can he forget his hatred and rest peacefully?

Read more here.

Adam Carpenter, Lead Designer for Fury has posted a message in the Fury forums stating that they will no longer be using the term "Realm vs. Realm" to describe their Server vs. Server vs. Server competitive game-play, as "Realm vs. Realm" is trademarked by another company. A quick search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office database shows that the trademark is held by Mythic Entertainment.

I wanted to let everyone know we have been informed that the term "REALM vs. REALM" is trademarked and we need to stop using it to describe Fury's Server vs. Server vs. Server competitive gameplay. Apparently using the term may confuse gamers. We don't think it will and believe our use of the term is purely descriptive. Nonetheless, we've decided not to use the term any more as, basically, we don't like lawyers and don't want to deal with them - we just want to concentrate on making this great game! To assist us, we'd appreciate it if you could stop using the term on the forums.

As a related note, we will continue to refer to each of Fury's unique 'servers' as "Realms" as that is ingrained in Fury's backstory and is an industry standard term for a server.

Read the forum post here.

Read more about the trademark here.

IRVINE, Calif. - September 13, 2007 - K2 Network, Inc. (K2network.net), a premier online game publisher, today announced that the new Moradon Expansion patch for Knight Online is now live. This newest and largest content expansion includes a host of new features, including a revamped and totally redesigned Moradon Castle, and new hunting areas to adventure, trade and meet fellow Knights.

"We are proud to announce the release of Moradon: The Resurrection," said Gokhan Kazar, Associate producer of the Knight Online Team. "The Moradon patch is something we have been gearing towards for many months now and we think the Knight Online players will be happy with what it has to offer."

Bigger and Better Moradon

There is more area to explore and hunt in the new Moradon. The actual size of the town and the area to hunt monsters has been greatly increased! In order to leave Moradon though, you will have to attain level 35. This will allow players to join clans and learn more about teamwork earlier in the game.

New Quests to Complete

There are new quests to train players how to upgrade weapons and armor! Check with [Blacksmith] Heppa in Moradon to learn more. There are also quests to acquire new ranks of Knighthood and to obtain a pet to fight alongside you!

Pets

By completing a quest from [Familiar Trainer] Kate in Moradon, players can receive a pet egg that will hatch their new companion! Pets can fight alongside their masters, transform into other monsters, use skills to increase their master's statistics, and even help gather treasure from fallen monsters!

The New Knight System

There are now 3 levels of knighthood in this new expansion. Once a clan has reached rank 3, they will be able to complete a quest in order to attain the rank of Squire. After reaching 252,000 Clan Points and completing the next quest, they will be able to become Knights. Finally, after amassing 1,080,000 Clan Points and defeating a very difficult foe, they can reach Royal Knighthood.

Each Knighthood level has 5 ranks and depending on how many Clan Points the clan has acquired, the clan will rise from rank 5 to rank 1 in each level. Once they have become rank 1, they can complete the quests listed above to advance their Knighthood level.

Read more about the Moradon Expansion here.

WEBZEN has announced that hey have begun the closed beta testing phase on their twitch based MMO, Huxley.

SEOUL, South Korea - Sept. 13, 2007 - Global online entertainment company WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ: WZEN) announced today that closed beta testing has started in Korea for Huxley™, the highly-anticipated twitch-action massively multiplayer online first-person shooting (MMOFPS) game.

Beginning today and running for five days, Korean beta players will have access to Huxley for the first time daily from 2 p.m. until midnight. The 999 lucky beta testers were selected after a web-based sign up that took place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6, 2007. For the first time ever, testers will get a chance to enter the city where the characters live and breathe. They will also be treated to a variety of thrilling player-versus-player (PvP) battle modes such as team death match and radar domination, as well as the core systems, including Huxley's unique quest mode, not seen before in standard online first-person shooter (FPS) games.

Unlike the standard closed beta testing where gamers get limited gameplay starting at level 1, Huxley closed beta test allows the 999 testers to experience the game's unmatched excitement by entering the game at level 19. Players can wield high-level weaponry and defense systems as well as obtain and use a variety of supplementary skills and licenses unique to an online first-person shooter.

Read more about Huxley here.

CCP and TransGaming Inc. announced earlier this week that they would be partnering to make EVE Online available on Mac and Linux platforms.

Reykjavík, Iceland, Toronto, Canada - September 11, 2007 - CCP Games, one of the world's largest independent game developers, today announced a partnership with TransGaming Inc. (TSX-V: TNG), a leading developer of software portability products for the electronic entertainment industry. The strategic relationship will enable CCP to deliver its popular massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), EVE Online, to Linux and Macintosh platforms later this year.

TransGaming provides technology and expertise to deploy games across a range of platforms without the need for redevelopment, while maintaining a high quality of gameplay. As a result of this partnership, CCP will be able to expand the reach of its Sci-Fi MMOG to new groups around the world and allow users of different platforms to play in the same perpetual online universe.

As an element of the partnership, EVE Online and TransGaming will share quality assurance as well as technical support responsibilities, but TransGaming will lead partnership and OEM opportunities for the Linux version of EVE Online. The two companies will work hand-in-hand to ensure all releases go smoothly, creating a transparent integration of the original EVE Online code with each platform.

TransGaming first introduced Linux users to EVE Online through Cedega, a software product that allows Windows games to run on the Linux operating system completely transparently and seamlessly. It was the popularity of this solution that indicated the strong demand for further integration between CCP Games and TransGaming. Later this year, EVE Online will be released for Linux with Cedega directly integrated into the game, and on Mac through TransGaming's Cider portability engine.

"We're pleased to extend our relationship with TransGaming, as the company's expertise allows us to deliver the most innovative MMOG to more platforms," said Halldor Fannar, CTO of CCP Games. "By integrating TransGaming's excellent technology, we are able to keep our laser-focus on evolving EVE Online, while simultaneously expanding the EVE universe to even more players."

"EVE Online has always ranked highly with our Linux users and there is significant demand for it among other platforms, including the rapidly growing Mac base," said Vikas Gupta, CEO of TransGaming Technologies. "As EVE takes place within a single-server persistent universe, it's vital that the game is identical in every way across different platforms. This challenge is what makes the partnership with CCP both important and rewarding."

Read more about EVE here.

SOE has announced that Legends of Norrath, the EverQuest based online trading card game can now be played as a stand alone game out side of EverQuest and EverQuest II.

DENVER, CO - September 12, 2007 - On the heels of a successful release to the EverQuest® and EverQuest® II player communities, Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE), a global leader in the online entertainment industry, has released a free stand-alone version of the client for Legends of Norrath™, the online trading card game based on its well-known and popular EverQuest Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game franchises.

Developed at SOE's Denver, CO studio, Oathbound is the first release in the Legends of Norrath storyline. Oathbound features more than 375 digital cards and is available in both 55-card digital starter decks and 15-card digital booster packs. In this first release, players become part of a clandestine, secret war between the forces of Order and Chaos. Once jailed on the Plane of Justice, a mysterious tribunal offers them a chance for freedom and redemption. In swearing allegiance to the side of Order, players become Oathbound, and fight against the forces of Chaos to prevent Norrath from being plunged into a bloody and eternal war.

"When we showed Legends of Norrath at GenCon last month, it was just as big a hit with hobby and strategy gamers as it has been with our EQ and EQII players," said Scott Martins, Director of Development for SOE-Denver. "We've had a great run so far with the exclusive access we've provided for our existing fans, and can't wait to bring it to a much wider audience with today's release. New players will be able to enjoy the game in a single worldwide community with thousands of people that span its own client as well as both of our EverQuest MMOs."

In addition to player vs. player combat, Legends of Norrath is provides several modes of gameplay and a variety of activities, including a sophisticated, re-playable AI system for single-player campaigns, easy to use management tools and numerous Casual and Tournament game lobbies. Victory can be achieved by completing quests or defeating your opponent's avatar, enabling players to employ their own unique strategies for victory. The game also features a robust loot system; more than 30 loot items each for EQ and EQII are available, including player mounts, potions, clothing and spells.

The digital starter decks (55 cards) are available for $9.99 (plus any applicable taxes), with digital booster packs (15 cards) selling for $2.99 (plus any applicable taxes). For more information on Legends of Norrath, visit the website at www.legendsofnorrath.com.

Find out more here.

Four new images depicting the scenery and corruption of Garth Agarwen have been added to our Lord of the Rings Online screenshot gallery.

To view the full size images, and to see the rest of the new screens, visit our gallery here.

The Lord of the Rings official site has been updated with a look at Garth Agarwen, an ancient fortress situated in a marshland corrupted by the blood of war.

Deep in the Lone-lands, a vast marshland stretches across the land, red as the blood that was spilled into its waters during the wars between Arthedain and Rhudaur. The Eglain of Ost Guruth call it the Red Swamp. In the northern reaches of the bog called Agamaur, lie the ruins of an ancient Rhudaurian fortress, now known as Garth Agarwen. Garth Agarwen was one of the chief bastions of the Hill-men of Rhudaur before it fell into decay.

What no one knew -- until it was too late -- was that the streams and rivers of the once-beautiful land were inhabited by a River-maiden akin to Goldberry, daughter of the Withywindle in the Old Forest. Blood spilled during the wars poured into her abode, corrupting the water, the land, and finally the River-maiden herself. From this corruption spread the expanse of the Red Swamp, and the River-maiden arose as a dread and dark presence, taking possession of Garth Agarwen.

Garth Agarwen and the corrupted River-maiden play a major role in the epic story of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. These ruins and the story told there tie in closely with themes, events, and characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's books. Players of LOTRO should gather some friends if they wish to brave Garth Agarwen - and survive.

Read more about Garth Agarwen here.

It turns out that "The Defuser" who recently won the reality program "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" is also a long time player of City of Heroes. Who would have thought that a contestant on a superhero reality show would also be a fan of a super hero MMO.

The City of Heroes Development Team wants to extend their congratulations to "The Defuser" for his victory in winning the reality TV show "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" The Defuser is also known on the City of Heroes community forums as Detective2416 and has been a long time player of the game.

Read more about "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" here.

Or, congratulate "The Defuser" on the CoH forums here.

The folks over at Lineage II have announced that they will be holding a Lineage II Comic Contest, where entrants will be able to work in a variety of different mediums including hand drawn and computer graphics, as well as in-game screenshots and real world photographs.

We're pleased to announce the very first Lineage® II Comic Contest! Turn your Lineage® II adventures and follies into an entertaining comic for your chance to win some fantastic prizes. Are your drawing skills limited to stick figures? No problem! We'll be accepting Lineage® II comics featuring every medium, from hand-drawn to computer graphics to in-game screen-shots, and even photos! Remember that the comic should be fun to read, first and foremost. Enter your best creation for your chance to win rare Lineage® II items, such as a beautiful Lineage® II dark elf statue, a Lineage® II art book that includes gorgeous concept art of the Kamael!

You can use the following to create your own unique Lineage® II Comic:

• Logos and images from the official Lineage® II web site and fan site kit
• In-game Lineage® II images that you capture yourself
• Your own original work or photos

The winners will be broken up into the following two categories: entries created using drawing, painting, or computer graphics, and entries created using in-game Lineage® II screen-shots or real-life photos. One first place winner and one runner-up winner will be chosen for each category, resulting in a total of four (4) winners.

Get the full contest details here.

The Chronicles of Spellborn official site has been updated with another installment of their Artistic Developer Journal series. The focus this time is on how they create structures in the world.

In this weeks Journal I'm going to give you a small insight in how we create world assets in a 3d application, which is in our case 3ds Max, and a quick look at how we create textures in Photoshop. I'll be using a large Demon Wall, very recently made by Erik Bakker. This week some production insights, something for you think about... and a small sneak peak!

Right, so let's start with a peak in the kitchen of modeling and texturing. I'm going to use a large Demon Wall as an example. We wanted to add some extra flavor to the world, by adding more ancestral remains. Remnants that hint back to times long gone and which give the player a better sense of the history of the world. It can also help placing things in perspective or act as points of recognition after... an Ancestral Quest for example.

Read the Artistic Dev Journal here.

The folks over at Dark Age of Camelot have announced that they have made changes to their Bring a Friend referral program. Now, instead of earning a free month of play by referring 3 friends, players only have to refer one friend for a free month of play.

The Bring a Friend Bonus Program has been reduced from three to one! Now, you can earn a free month of play for every ONE friend you refer. If you are an active player and have already referred at least one friend, then you will receive a free month of Dark Age of Camelot automatically. Read on for more details.

The Bring a Friend Bonus program allows you to earn free one month extensions to your existing subscription simply by referring a friend who becomes a subscriber to the game. For every friend that you refer to the game, you will receive a one month free extension to your paid subscription.

Ready To Sign Up To Earn Free Months?

I want to earn free months where do I sign-up?

During your log-in you will see a pop-up that will ask you if you want to join the program. If you don't decide to sign-up at that time, you can go to the account options in the game and opt-in.

How do I earn free months?

Tell your friends the name you used when you opted into the program. They can use this when they sign up and set up their account. They have to do this when they first set up their account. You will earn a referral point once your friend has become a subscriber to the game.

Get full details here, or in the Camelot Herald here

The Pirates of the Burning Sea official site has been updated with an announcement about the integration of PotBS services with those of Sony Station, and the changes to their forums that will follow.

As many of you know, we've been working in the last few weeks to integrate our services with the Sony Station account. Part of this process involves the migration of the Pirates of the Burning Sea forums to the Sony Station authentication system. The current forum software remains the same and existing posts and threads will be preserved in the transition. However, when the migration process is complete, it will change the way forum members access our message boards - they will log in with Sony Station accounts.

However, we are temporarily suspending new account creation through the forum software until this process is complete.

Linking Your Forum Accounts via the Account Migration Page

When you aren't logged in to our forums, you can still read them. If you wish to post, however, you need to be logged in. Once we've made the switch, you will need to log in with your Sony Station account. Your Station account will have to be linked to a forum account.

We've created an Account Migration resource to assist you in linking your forum account to your Sony Station account (and creating either or both if you need). You only need to do this once. You can learn more by visiting the following link: http://www.burningsea.com/pages/page.php?pageKey=migration

Read more here.

For the past two years, SOE has kept the accounts of approximately 13,000 players who were affected by hurricane Katrina active without billing those accounts. They have posted announcements across their gaming sites stating that on September 17th, these accounts will resume billing as usual.

Important Message For Subscribers Impacted By Hurricane Katrina!

In the summer of 2005 Hurricane Katrina left an incredible wake of destruction across the Gulf Coast of the United States. The damage done by the hurricane was unprecedented and impacted countless lives. In response to the hurricane, SOE suspended billing for o