All Posts by Szark

Sony Online Entertainment has announced at the Leipzig Games Convention that they are looking at a free to play business model for their upcoming action-espionage MMO, The Agency.

At this week's Leipzig Games Convention, the president of Sony Online Entertainment John Smedley held a talk on "Subscriptions vs Micro-transactions" in regards to MMO games. During the briefing, he indicated that Sony was looking at making their upcoming pc/ps3 spy-themed MMO a free play title, meaning there would be no subscription fee (unlike World of Warcraft). Instead, SOE would fund the title via micro-transactions and a 'velvet-rope policy' where certain area are only available if people pay for access.

Smedley acknowledged that consumers are used to the subscription based model (as is SOE, considering their long history of subscription based MMOs), but said that they "believe very strongly that this is the future of MMO gaming, but we also know that it is something that players have an issue with... There's going to be an aftermarket, and we want to control it so that players don't get duped into having something switched out from them."

Read more here.

Congratulations to Funcom who announced today that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures has won 'Best Online Game of the Show' at the Games Convention in Leipzig.

Durham, USA - August 24th, 2007 - Funcom and Eidos' highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game 'Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures' has been awarded the prestigious, official 'Best Online Game of the Show' award at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. The trade show is one of the largest gaming conventions in the world and by far the largest in Europe, with all of the major upcoming game titles represented.

The award was won in competition with online games from all genres and across all platforms, and was presented by a jury consisting of gaming industry press and mainstream press.

Funcom and Eidos are also very proud to have won the OMEGA award for "Best Online Game", presented by a German online games magazine association made up of the most important gaming media in Germany; including two of the largest gaming web sites. Other nominees for this award included: 'Warhammer Online', 'Hellgate: London' and 'Unreal Tournament 3'.

"This is a great honor to everyone working on 'Age of Conan'," says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. "These awards really show that our massive efforts are paying off and that the public, the press and the industry are recognizing the very strong qualities of the game."

Read the full article here.

Ten new images have been added to our Guild Wars screenshot gallery.

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

Games Workshop has announced in the WAR Herald that they will be hosting a number contests to give away beta cards for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

September 12th - 16th, Games Workshop will be raffling off 50 beta cards for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning! Every hour will be your chance to win, just show up and enter at the Games Workshop Hobby Center for the Hobby Festival located at:

• Yorkridge Shopping Center
• 1810 York Road
• Lutherville, Maryland 21093

There will be plenty of games, prizes, give-a-ways and entertainment, including a chance to play the yet to be released, Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse game, not officially due out until October! For hours and more information, please call (410) 252-7233.

Midnight October 12th - 14th, be sure to show up at the Games Workshop Battle Bunkers located in the cities of Baltimore, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles for the release of the new Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse game. There will be games, prizes, and a chance to win 1 of the 100 beta cards for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning! Every hour will be your chance to win just for showing up. Be sure to participate in this weekend long extravaganza!

Read more here.

In this week's Friday Feature on the Star Wars Galaxies official site they give advice to players on running a player association and for finding groups.

Player associations, commonly referred to as guilds, create an instant connection between you and many like-minded adventurers. With a player association you can quickly form groups with trusted friends, gather a large number of powerful allies for a raid or role-playing adventure, and chat with all of your guildmates simultaneously.

A player association can hold 5 to 500 members; if a guild falls to less than five members, it will be automatically disbanded. You can choose to join an existing guild or become the leader of an association of your own.

The leader or officer of an established player association will send you an invitation to join the guild. Once you accept, your new guild abbreviation is displayed over the head of your character, and you can now use guild chat. Use the /guild command to begin speaking with your new guildmates.

Read more here.

The New York Times has published an article discussing recent attempts by various law makers to restrict access to violent video games. The article describes the fate of these laws in the U.S. and attempts to explain why these laws keep popping up if they are continually found unconstitutional.

As video games have surged in popularity in recent years, politicians around the country have tried to outlaw the sale of some violent games to children. So far all such efforts have failed.

Citing the Constitution's protection of free speech, federal judges have rejected attempts to regulate video games in eight cities and states since 2001. The judge in a ninth place, Oklahoma, has temporarily blocked a law pending a final decision. No such laws have been upheld.

The latest state to have its tentative game regulations stymied by a judge's interpretation of the First Amendment is California. This month a federal judge in San Jose, Ronald M. Whyte, declared unconstitutional a 2005 bill that would have made it a crime to sell or rent certain violent games to minors in that state.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has said he plans to appeal the ruling, but he is merely the latest in a line of politicians whose attempts to regulate video games have been frustrated by federal courts. "It's more than a trend," said Ronald Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington. "It seems the cases are moving uniformly down the same track, and that is that such laws are unconstitutional. Such uniformity in declaring a category of laws unconstitutional is very rare."

Read the full article here.

The folks over at Dark Age of Camelot have announced that they will be holding a contest where the winning players will have an NPC named after them.

Have you ever wished to have your name forever immortalized within Camelot? Did you enjoy the Dragon Campaign? Well our latest contest will tickle your medieval toes, read on:

Contest Details:

Welcome to the "Put your name in Camelot contest". We will be selecting 3 lucky winners (one from each realm) who will have their character's name become the name of a NPC in the game. This could be you!

To qualify you will need to include all of the following:

• Character Name, Class, Race, Server, (Guild if applicable)
• Name for the submission * (if different, see information below)
• Screenshot of your character in their Dragon Campaign armor in action
• A short story of no more then 300 words, about the Dragon Campaign and your character's role in it.

Once you have gathered all of the above, send it in an e-mail to daoc-contests@mythic.ea.com

Get all the details here.

Blizzard has updated their World of Warcraft Guide with a new page on the Netherwing dragonflight and how to gain reputation with them.

When Ner'zhul recklessly opened multiple new portals on Draenor, the resulting magical stress tore the planet apart. The energies released in this catastrophe altered Deathwing's eggs, resulting in the nether drakes: ethereal dragons whose bodies are composed of energies from the Twisting Nether. Without Deathwing's guidance, these otherworldly nether drakes are just now finding their own way among the blasted ruins of Outland.

Players earn reputation and complete quests for the Netherwing to earn experience, gold, and to ultimately receive a nether drake flying mount. This epic mount can best be described as "extremely cool." Once you reach exalted reputation with Netherwing, you receive a free nether drake mount after completing some quests. Additional nether drakes of different colors can thereafter be purchased for 200 gold each.

Every player begins at hated reputation. If you want to win over the Netherwing brood you will first need to talk to Mordenai, a NPC who travels around the Netherwing Fields in Shadowmoon Valley. He will offer you a questline that take you all the way to neutral reputation. Some of these quests require groups to complete.

Read more here.

Ankama Games have announced the release of episode 11 for Dofus. The new episode will contain a new area, a new dungeon, new monsters and weapons and more.

The MMORPG DOFUS is releasing today Episode 11 on server Shika: MoonWatch

Our story starts at sea... a perilous voyage to an unknown land... a shipwreck. The vessel is dashed to pieces and all the helpless souls within her drowned. All saved one... Not for you a watery end... but a new life beginning on stranger shores.

This new episode will contain:

• A new area: the Moon Island
• A new dungeon: the Moon Dungeon
• News monsters including Canon Dorf, Kanniboul Sarbak and Tikokoko.
• New weapons, armors and sets including the Turtle set
• A new spell: the Moon Hammer Spell
• A new pet: the Nomoon

In order to celebrate the release of Episode 11: MoonWatch, a prerelease event - The four fantastic swords- was organized on Wednesday in the afternoon.

Read more about Dofus here.

IGG has released 4 more samples of the music from their Greek mythology themed MMO, GodsWar Online.

There is a variety of background music in Gods War online (http://gw.igg.com). Soft, classical, romantic and passionate...... Each melody features its own unique charms, with the background music changing automatically to match the gameplay in the scenes.

You may still remember the Soundtrack Samples #1 which were released one month ago. Here you have the second release of soundtrack samples, which contains another four music tracks for you to savor:

Listen to The Commercial City here.

Listen to The Goddess Artemis here.

Listen to The Snow-covered Mountain here.

Listen to To Give Praise To Forest here.

The Lord of the Rings Online official site has been updated with an overview of their pedigree and notary systems, which allow players to create family lines.

Throughout the course of your adventures in The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Shadows of AngmarTM (LOTRO), the people you play with often come to feel like family, whether they are members of a closely-knit kinship, a group of your real-life friends, or even members of your actual family. You can recognize such bonds by creating your own in-game family tree with the LOTRO Pedigree System!

If you want to start a family, you can, like old Willem Haverford, adopt children of your own. The first step is to assign your character a generation (in Willem's case, the first generation). Using the drop-down box next to Change Generation, choose 1, then select "Change Generation."

In this example, Adney selected Generation 2 to prepare to be Willem's son. Willem then adopted Adney by targeting him and typing "/adopt." A confirmation window appeared for Adney, and after he accepted the adoption, Willem saw him listed as a "child" in the family tree, and Adney saw Willem as his "parent."

Game System: Pedigree 3rd Generation Family Tree - Click for larger image! Let's examine the story, and see how the Haverford's full family tree was created:

Willem is 1st generation; he adopted Adney and Elodee, both 2nd generation. Elodee then left, and Willem went to the local Notary to disown her (we'll discuss the Notary below). Elodee is no longer in the Haverford family tree after being disowned.

Read the full article here.

ArenaNet has announced that they will be holding a sneak peak weekend of Guild Wars: Eye of the North, for players who pre-order the first official expansion to Guild Wars. The 72 hours of early access begins August 24th.

72 Hours of Early Access!

Immerse yourself in three whole days of exclusive action-packed early access to the entire Far Shiverpeaks region. North of the so-called civilized lands lies a region blanketed in snow and ice, rife with adventure. Home to the legendary Eye of the North and the fiercely independent Norn, this mountainous tract hosts untold challenges and riches.

Keep Everything!

Everything you acquire during the Sneak Peek Weekend, including items, XP, Heroes, and loot, will be available to you when the game goes live on August 31.

Get the details here.

Blizzard has announced phase one of their efforts to improve the Armory, their searchable database of World of Warcraft information.

The first phase of our comprehensive Armory optimization is now live. The goal of this ongoing optimization is to increase performance, functionality, and intuitiveness across the board.

The first phase includes the following specific improvements:

Smarter, faster results pages

The Armory's various search results pages respond more quickly when changing pages or sorting within the results. The Armory's right hand panel also takes advantage of this new speed and now remembers what page you were last viewing as well.

Open Armory links in new windows/tabs

Now you can open links from the Armory in their own tabs or windows for quick comparisons between profiles, items, search results, and more.

Visit the Armory here.

Read more here.

Electronic Arts has announced today that they will be the distributor of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning in Europe.

Geneva, Switzerland, August 22, 2007 - Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced the signature of a distribution deal with GOA for the highly anticipated massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game, Warhammer(R) Online: Age of Reckoning(TM) (WAR). Effective immediately, EA will be the exclusive distributor of the boxed product to stores across Europe.

GOA, the France Telecom-owned publisher of online games, previously held distribution rights for WAR and will continue to act as the exclusive publisher and operator of the game in Europe. Since 2001, GOA has published and operated Dark Age of Camelot(TM) in Europe.

"WAR is one of the most anticipated MMOs in the world with a particularly strong following in Europe," said Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager, EA Mythic. "GOA has been an outstanding partner with Dark Age of Camelot and by pairing them with EA's top sales and distributions teams in Europe, we now have an unbeatable combination."

Ghislaine LeRhun, Senior Vice President of GOA, said "EA's unrivaled distribution reach in Europe will help make WAR the success we anticipate. We couldn't have wished for a better partnership".

Based on Games Workshop's epic and longstanding tabletop fantasy war game, Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Real(TM) (RvR) gameplay that immerses players in a world of perpetual conflict.

Scheduled for launch on the PC in the first quarter of 2008, the game will be available in retail outlets and via download through EA's digital distribution channel.

Read more about Warhammer Online here.

K2 Network has announced that they are changing Sword of the New World to a free to play buisness model.

IRVINE, Calif. - (August 22, 2007) - K2 Network, Inc. (www.k2network.net), an online game publisher, announced today that it has expanded its Free2Play model for the epic Age of Exploration MMORPG Sword of the New World: Granado Espada. The game is available for download in North America and Europe at www.swordofthenewworld.com. Sword of the New World initially launched as Free2play up to level 20, after which players purchased a monthly subscription to level characters beyond 20. All of that has changed, with no limitations on content, levels or areas to explore. For those players still seeking the premium experience, K2 has kept the Cash Merchant, which offers rare and sought after items to be purchased in-game.

"K2 Network's Free2play model is the heart of our business," said Joshua Hong, CEO and Founder of K2 Network. "We launched Sword of the New World as a Free2Play title - free to download, free to try, and free to play up to level 20. We are extremely excited about this title, especially with such gorgeous graphics and the ability to play up to three characters at once, but Free2Play up to level 20 just isn't enough! At K2 Network, we put Gamers First, and thanks to the community supporting this game, we are now able to offer the same Free2Play model as all of our other titles. It's Free2play all the way!"

Sword of the New World: Granado Espada's expanded Free2Play offer does not adversely affect paying subscribers in any way. Current subscribers who have an un-used paid month will receive 1,000 Cash Shop Gold in addition to all three web unique player characters: Adelina Esperanza, Lisa Lynway, and M'boma (a total value of 40 dollars US).

Get all the details here.

Five new images from Guild Wars: Eye of the North have been added to our screenshot gallery.

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

The folks over at The Chronicles of Spellborn have posted the latest edition of their Game Design developer journal. This time the focus is on designing the environment and the placement of flora and fauna.

A big part of the Spellborn view on what an MMO should be, is that the world should look like it's alive. This doesn't mean we're a bunch of Gaja loving tree-huggers, but it does mean we want the player to feel he's part of a world where he is not the only one with a purpose. Most of all we don't want to make him feel like he's just "playing a game" in a fake-world. To reach this goal, all the departments must closely work together. Environment does their best to provide us with atmospheric, richly detailed worlds that give a sense of wonder about what went on here and what we might encounter on our adventures. Sound gives the world it's "clothes" so to speak, as it's being covered in ambient noises and music. This alone would give a great result, but then there would still be one element missing, the life itself.

In the "real" world, most living creatures on this planet are animals so naturally they should form a large part of any virtual world as well (let's ignore the 99 percent of animals that are almost too small to see for the sake of this article).

Having established that we need a bunch of creatures to fill our world, the next step is to determine what kind of creatures and where to put them.

Read the full article here.