All Posts by Szark

The folks over at Vanguard: Saga of Heroes have posted a short tour showcasing the new Guild Halls in the lands of Telon.

Take a Tour of Telon's Guild Halls!

Guild Halls have been added to Vanguard, and no time was wasted in their construction! Although the quests have been active in-game for players to conquer, it wasn't until just a few days ago that plots to build on were available for purchase. After many hours of non-stop labor, quite a few determined guilds within the lands of Telon became proud owners of a grand Guild Hall! It was my pleasure to visit a few of these distinguished dwellings, and be given a guided tour through what is now home to many dedicated guild members.

Read more about Vanguard's Guild Halls here.

The Grab Bag returns this week to once again answer a myriad of miscellaneous questions from the Dark Age of Camelot community.

Q: I opened by account in 2001, why won't the Census Overseet NPCs give me my rewards?

A: The loyalty rewards are not based on the date the account was opened. They're based on having five years of cumulative active (paid) account time. If your account was closed for a while, that time does not count towards the five year mark. But, hey, we are glad you are back!

Q. I've seen a lot of the new Labby horses and some seem ALOT faster than the normal ones. So I bought a Kelpie one, but it's the same speed. How do I make it faster?

A. All horses run at the same speed. It could be that you're seeing players on horses while using speed song or a Speed of the Realms buff. Speed buffs and speed songs do affect horses. Keep in mind that the highest speed takes precedence. So, someone running with a speed buff will go the same speed as someone on a horse with the same speed buff. All horses go the same speed, unless they have a speed buff on. Then they will run at the buff's speed.

Read the Grab Bag here.

Last week at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, SOE donated $10,000 to the local Habitat for Humanity, with the funds being gathered from in-game events during the recent demolition of unused player housing in Star Wars Galaxies.

At a cocktail reception during the Austin Game Developers Conference, Sony Online Entertainment's (SOE) Austin studio presented the local Habitat for Humanity (HfH) with a $10,000 donation to their efforts to end poverty housing in the area. The funds were raised as part of an in-game event for the company's Star Wars Galaxies Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) video game, where players were allowed to demolish abandoned or unoccupied player-created houses and buildings. Fighters from the Galactic Demolitions Crew swooped down from the stars and bombed the buildings.

A crowd of more than 150 was on hand at the Speakeasy in Austin to see SOE Austin VP of Development John Blakely present Austin HfH Executive Director Michael Willard with an oversized photo check for the donation.

Read more here.

The EverQuest II official site has been updated with a look at some of the new features that will be added to the game with Game Update 38, including the ability to equip gear separately for function and appearance.

Game Update 38 is slated to the live servers on September 12th, so it's time to get a peek at some of the content headed your way! The additions below are just a few of the changes headed toward EverQuest II on the 12th, you can learn more by reading the Game Update 38 Preview, and watching for the Update Notes when the patch goes live!

Function, Fashion - You Can't Lose!

Gone are the days in which you have to store, transmute, or sell that piece of armor that looked great but no longer provides the protection your character needs. An "Appearance" tab is being introduced to your inventory window in Game Update 38 which will allow you to equip your character for function on the "Equipment" tab, and for fashion on the "Appearance" tab. This new feature will be activated on the PvP servers as well as the non-PvP servers. The benefits conveyed by wearing equipment will only apply to items worn in the Equipment tab. Appearance tab items will only alter your look.

Read more about Game Update 38 here.

Last week at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, Jeff Strain, a co-founder of ArenaNet, gave a talk about how to make a successful MMO. The Guild Wars official site has been updated with highlights from that speech.

Don't be fooled by the much-hyped success of the top MMOs on the market. The game industry is littered with the carnage of MMOs that have failed over the past few years. Due largely to the social nature of MMOs, gamers rarely commit to more than one or two MMOs at a time. This is in contrast to the traditional game market, in which there is room for many games to be successful, even within the same genre. You may play ten different action games this year, but you are very unlikely to play more than one or two MMOs. This means that it is not enough to make a great game - instead you must make a game that is so overwhelmingly superior that it can actively break apart an established community and bring that community to your game. In today's market, that is a tall order.

Regardless of the business model, the primary factor that determines whether an MMO lives or dies is the size of its active player base. There appears to be a tipping point at around 150,000 players. MMOs that reach this critical mass within a few months of release tend to continue to grow and thrive, and those that do not tend to shrink and ultimately die. The majority of MMOs that are released into the market never reach this threshold.

Read more here.

IGG has released a brief overview of their Talent System in Zu Online.

This is a brief introduction of Talent System in Zu Online released.

When player reach LVL 30, you will get ten points of talent and get one point every three years. The points can be distributed on the following four abilities:

Trinket: Influence your little trinket number. Every ten talent points for a trinket slot. The more trinket slots player get, the stronger the character will be.

Tradeskill: Influence player's ability of refining. The more tradeskill points, the higher success rate and the more experience the player will get.

Ability: Influence your own abilities, such as attack power and defense.

Summon: influence your ability to summon gods.

Well, you can distribute your Talent Points in the Talent Point Setting Interface. Of course, you may also ask the Gear Master for help to reset your talent points at the cost of one body-change pellet.

Read more here.

Acclaim Games has announced that they will be offering a prize package of up to $1 million plus royalties to the winning development team on their "Top Secret" MMO project.

Los Angeles (September 7, 2007) -- Acclaim Games is pleased to present the biggest gaming prize ever in a $1 million game development competition for the "Top Secret" Project, directed by superstar game director David Perry. Teams of indie, mod, professional, amateur & student game developers can enter a once-in-a-lifetime competition to develop a real MMO game, get an industry standard development deal, and earn royalties on the title. Teams will manage their projects and resources at ModCenter (http://www.modcenter.com), a developer site recently launched by IGN Entertainment. ModCenter, will provide free tools for the teams participating in the "Top Secret" $1 million game development competition.

The total prize package is worth up to $1 million, plus royalties, to the winning development team. As part of this cash prize, Acclaim will pay the licensing fees for any commercially available video game engine in the world, thereby removing one of the biggest obstacles preventing many talented developers from releasing professional products.

"The 'Top Secret' team is where the concept of Web 2.0 meets the video game industry. We've had close to 50,000 people sign up to help design this game. The best participant will win a future Acclaim title to direct," says David Perry, Game's Director. "With so many people involved, this is already the biggest team in history. I am directing the project, but this game is going to be designed by the community, produced by the community and developed by the community."

The basic core of the game has already been designed and is a ground-breaking new kind of beast racing game that doesn’t stop at racing alone. The “Top Secret” design includes the ability to breed and collect beasts, fight in player versus player battles, and explore an expanding world.

IGN’s ModCenter will provide online project management and tracking tools for all “Top Secret” development teams for free.  Teams will manage their projects at www.modcenter.com where they can organize tasks, track bugs, store source code, and communicate with team members.  This also allows teams to become “virtual,” meaning that individuals around the world can join together to form new virtual teams and still work on the same project.

“Giving users the power and tools to create one-of-a-kind development projects aligns directly with why IGN created ModCenter in the first place,” said Jamie Berger, SVP Consumer Products & Technology for IGN Entertainment.  “Joining with Acclaim and David Perry on this groundbreaking project builds on IGN‘s commitment with ModCenter to support the creation of new and unique game concepts from within the gaming community.” 

ModCenter was built by IGN around the SourceForge toolset by CollabNet (http://www.collab.net) and is completely free to use. ModCenter is aimed specifically at modification and independent game development. The new site provides project management utilities, industry educational resources and promotional services to the development community.  Utilities include a bug-tracking system, project discussion forums, source code repositories, a wiki system, document storage and an internal file release system, all controlled via a project administration area.
 
The competition is open to any developer worldwide who is technically qualified to create the game. It will be published by Acclaim. 

Users can sign up to participate in the “Top Secret” Project for free by visiting http://topsecret.acclaim.com.  Go to www.modcenter.com to start your team’s project now.

Read the full release here.

The City of Heroes official site has been updated with a profile of The Warriors, one of the gangs that populates the streets of Paragon City.

The Warriors are a fierce street gang in Paragon City. They operate primarily out of the Talos Island and Striga Isle zones. Their membership is wide and varied, and they don't seem to discriminate based on ethnicity, race, or religion. The one common trait that all members share is the ability to fight and to fight well.

The Warriors take their inspiration and colors from ancient Greek soldiers, emblazing their jackets with the image of a crested hoplite helm. They also wear ornate bracers, and many sport detailed tattoos depicting ancient battles. However, their camouflage pants, torn vests, and combat boots are all trappings of modern urban warfare. As a final touch, perhaps symbolizing the glorious crests of their heroes, they all wear red headbands.

The rank-and-file street soldiers of the Warriors consist of Bruisers, Slicers, Slammers, and Choppers. The Warriors train exhaustively in the use of archaic weapons, such as one-handed crossbows, broad swords, and battle axes. This intensive training regime has made them tougher than most street gangs, and they dominate any encounter with the Hellions or Skulls.

Read more abot the Warriors here.

...of Warcraft. On Wednesday morning, Managing Editor Jon Wood attending the opening keynote address at the Austin Game Developers Conference, where Blizzard co-founder and president Mike Morhaime discussed the secrets of Blizzards success.

Day one of the Austin Game Developers Conference kicked off with a keynote speech from Mike Morhaime, the President and Co-Founder of Blizzard. If you've been living under a rock in the MMO world for the last few years, Blizzard is the company that brought World of Warcraft to the market, and paved the way for an expansion in the MMORPG industry.

"Our industry is young, and moving fast."

Morhaime led off by talking about the major leaps that have been made by way of communication in the 20th century.

The world has become a smaller place," he said. He's right. Online communication has made it possible for people who may never have had the opportunity to communicate with one another to meet, share ideas and become friends. Online games were a logical consequence of that change.

Read the full article here.

Yesterday Managing Editor Jon Wood attended an event at Richard Garriot's home where he learned that Tabula Rasa would be released on October 19th. Today, NCsoft has sent out the official announcement.

Austin, Texas, September 6, 2007-- NCsoft®, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announced today that Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa® has reached gold master status and will launch commercial service in North America and Europe on October 19, 2007. Pre-order customers will begin their three-day head start on October 16.

One of the most anticipated PC games of the year, Tabula Rasa is gaming legend Richard Garriott's newest title, which combines a vast, persistent game world and rich storyline with fast paced action. Set in a near-future science fiction storyline, players create characters that must fight to save humanity against hostile alien enemies while trying to gain control of the universe. The game introduces several innovative elements to massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, including a Character Cloning System™ that allows players to explore different character classes without having to create a new character, and dynamic battlefields where players experience the frenetic action of combat in an ongoing war.

"It has been a heck of a journey," said Richard Garriott, the game's executive producer. "The fact that we are getting ready for the final stretch towards launch feels great, but it is also just the beginning. I think we've managed to do something truly unique and I hope that the gaming community likes it as much as we do. Now, I am looking forward to a really fun 'end of beta event' for our incredible testers, and focusing development on new planets and innovations for future expansions of Tabula Rasa."

The standard edition box of Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa will be available at major online retailers at an expected retail price of $49.99 and at the PlayNC® store (https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/Store.pl). Customers will be able to purchase the recently announced Limited Collector's Edition box from major retailers at an expected retail price of $69.99. Both products include the first month of online game play. After the first month, players will be charged a monthly subscription fee of US$14.99. Sixty-day game time cards will also be available at many North American retailers for an expected retail price of US$29.99. The game is rated Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Read more about Richard Garriot's Tabula Rasa here.

Read more about the Limited Collector's Edition here.

Icarus Studios and Vivox have announced that Vivox will provide the in game voice communication Icarus's upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO, Fallen Earth.

FRAMINGHAM, MA - September 5, 2006 - Icarus Studios and Vivox, Inc. announced today that Icarus' highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) Fallen Earth will include on-demand, in-game voice communication as the result of a technology integration agreement between the two companies. Vivox will provide Icarus with game-embedded voice communication services customized for and integrated into Fallen Earth. The MMOG is set in a near future post-apocalyptic world struggling to emerge from the collapse of civilization brought on by viruses and environmental disaster.

Fallen Earth players are able to speak at will with other players in-game, create discreet team audio conference channels and join, leave and rejoin voice channels during game play without impacting game performance. All voice communication is hosted and mixed on Vivox servers in order to ensure no lag in game play and minimal drain on CPU resources. On-screen indicators show players which channels are monitoring audio communications and which player within a channel is speaking. Players will also have moderator privileges to kick, mute, ban and un-ban other players, all synchronized with the team and raid privileges of the in-game group leader.

Read more the full release here.

The Lord of the Rings online official site has been update with another edition of their Exploring Middle Earth series, where they take a look at some of the interesting locations in LotRO. This time around it's the Greenway.

In the days of Elendil and his descendents, the North Road ran from Fornost down through Andrath until it became the South Road at Tharbad. From there it continued all the way to Minas Tirith in Gondor as the primary trade-route between the North and South Kingdoms. The wars with Angmar and Rhudaur that brought the North-kingdom to an end also caused trade between north and south to fail.

Disused for a thousand years, particularly north of Bree, the Greenway is overgrown with grass and is little travelled except by refugees from the war-torn south. Brigands and ruffians lie in wait alongside the ancient highway waiting to prey on the weak and unguarded. Few now dare the treacherous wilds through which the Road runs.

The Greenway is a well-known road in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is the one Tom Bombadil took Frodo and his companions to after their narrow escape from the barrow of the last prince of Cardolan. In The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Shadows of AngmarTM, many dangers lie along the Greenway, as well as many opportunities for adventure.

Read more here.

Sorry about that folks.  The error has been remedied.

The tenth season of South Park, which includes the Emmy nominated episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" is now available for sale, and as a special offer WoW players will receive a 15% discount.

Season 10 of South Park is now available on DVD! Join the boys as they witness the death of their beloved Chef, unearth the true culprit behind the world's biggest conspiracy and band together to defeat a virtual villain who is out to destroy the world in the Emmy-nominated episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft."

World of Warcraft players can take advantage of a special offer when ordering the Season 10 DVD set from the Comedy Central Shop. By using the gift code WARCRAFT, you will receive a 15% discount and free shipping.

Get more details here.

Today at the Austin Game Developers Convention, Community Manager Laura Genender attended a panel with a number of prominent community mangers, where they discussed strategies for building a strong community and rewarding community influencers.

Take a look at forums, blogs, fansites, in-game - the gaming industry is full of outspoken individuals, and I'm not talking developers and community managers. Many of our most important community members are people just like you: guild leaders, bloggers, tireless fansite workers, and just friendly, charismatic in-game chatters. And lately, the gaming industry (now I am talking developers and community managers) is starting to notice and appreciate the importance of those community influencers.

Today at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, EM Stock (Senior Community Manager, SOE Austin) moderated the Identifying Engaging and Empowering Community Influencers panel. Panel members Sonya Weathers (Director of Community, Guild Café), Charles Dane (Community Manger, CCP Games), Troy Hewitt (Director of Community Relations, Flying Lab Software), Sean Dahlberg (Community Manager, Shadowbane), Paul Della Bitta (Sr. Community Manager, Blizzard Entertainment), and Alan Crosby (Director of Global Community Relations, SOE) discussed the topic of community influencers, and methods they use to identify, engage, and empower them.

Read the entire article here.

"Ben X" the Belgian film which features scenes from Archlord has won several awards at the Montreal Film Festival, including the Public Award for the most popular film of the Festival.

Ben X has scooped 3 top prizes at the Montreal Film Festival

Ben X, produced by Belgian Film studio MMG, has taken three top prizes at the Montreal International Film festival. This Dutch language film managed to secure nominations in seven categories including Best Film of Show category.

It went on to win:

Grand Prix of the Americas: (Best Film of Show category)

BEN X by Nic Balthazar (Belgium / Netherlands) along side A SECRET by Claude Miller (France)

PUBLIC AWARDS (The public was invited to vote for the most popular films among the feature films presented during the 2007 Montreal World Film Festival.)

Public Award for the most popular film of the Festival : BEN X by Nic Balthazar (Belgium / Netherlands)

ECUMENICAL PRIZE: BEN X by Nic Balthazar (Belgium / Netherlands)

Codemasters Online is extremely pleased to have been involved with MMG on this and to see ArchLord so centrally featured in the movie.

For more information and to view a trailer, click here.

The Folks over at Xiah have made several announcements today, including word of two in game events and a new patch for Widows Vista.

Xiah announced today that it will be have a double mining event beginning today and lasting until September 17th, 2007. This event gives Xiah players double experience points, double the resources and Five Elements experience points when they engage in mining activities.

Xiah announced today that it will have a special coin drop event beginning today and lasting until September 17th, 2007. Players during this event who defeat any monster in Xiah will have the chance of getting a random gift box. These boxes may contain "Lucky Coins" which players collect and then bring to