Xbox Reveal Event Coverage

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  • Erotic MMO Targets Female Audience

    Because women are all over this virtual sex thing.
    Next Generation has posted a preview of Spend The Night, billed as an erotic MMO that targets the female audience. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Hello Kitty Online or ToonTown Online are going to have a larger female population than a pixel-sex game. Pornography and virtual sex expert Peewee Herman was contacted for comment, but was too busy watching Japanese escalator movies to say anything more than this:

    "
    Republik's Spend The Night is about sex. It's an online multiplayer
    game in which adults can meet other adults and act out their fantasies
    through graphically rich avatars. Next Generation spoke to company CEO
    Robert Coshland.
    " 

    You can read the entire Spend The Night Preview at Next Generation.
     

    Features, Previews
    Wed, Oct 05, 2005
    Boomjack
  • 1UP.com Helps Celebrate 6 mos. of Guild Wars

    And what better way to celebrate a half-year anniversary than with a gritty interview?
    1-up.com walks through the many highs a few lows of Arena.net's subscription-free MMO, Guild Wars, with PR manager Gaile Gray. There's also a snazzy sidebar detailing some popular builds. My personal favorite build? Pizza / beer.

    "Offering 450 skills is bound to cause a lot of concerns about balance and fair play. Players have seen the "überbuild" in enough games to be somewhat wary of elaborate progression systems. But balance has been our first and main focus from day one, and it continues to remain our primary objective even now. We've been able to stream modest changes, and we've held major events such as our PVP Extreme Weekend (PVPX) in late August to verify necessary changes. "

    The Guild Wars: Post Mortem article at 1up.com.
    Other links you might enjoy:

    Features, Interviews
    Tue, Oct 04, 2005
    Ethec
  • New Star Trek Online Blogs

    Developer's Blog, Stardate 9302005
    Since we haven't covered the Star Trek Online blog entries in a little while, I thought I ought to see what's going on with every Trekkie's dream. Comments on game economy hint at a very deep and varied player "things to do" palette, and the Perpetual team is building its first starship. Oh, and if the internet feels a little slow this morning, it might be because of a nerd stampede: Perpetual just announced that they're looking for someone to "compile and catalog visual reference material from the web and other sources."

    "Ian is making great progress on our client engine and we're starting to
    see early examples of our real-time graphics. My short remark here
    doesn't begin to pay tribute to the significance of this piece of
    progress. We should be flying a camera around some sample interiors
    soon and having a character walking around is not too far off either."

    View the full Star Trek Online blog entries at the STO official site.
    Other links you might enjoy:

    • Past Star Trek Online News - When a game is still two years out, there's no such thing as stale news.
    • Star Trek Humour - Yea, I used the English spelling, but only under protest! When in Rome, do as the Romulans do.
    News
    Tue, Oct 04, 2005
    Ethec
  • DAoC's "Darkness Rising" Goes Gold

    Because we all could use a little more "unspeakable evil"
    Mythic Entertainment simultaneously lifted the non-disclosure agreement for Dark Age of Camelot's latest expansion and announced that the expansion will go live October 11th, and there's no doubt it will be more fun than being ganked by a leprechaun in the frontier zones. Who isn't coming out with an expansion for late 2005? Oh, yea... World of Warcraft.

    " Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games, today announced that Darkness Rising™, the sixth expansion pack for the critically-acclaimed Dark Age of Camelot(R), has "gone gold" and will be available on October 11th.

    The expansion will be available as a stand alone product via Mythic's new integrated digital distribution system and as part of the upcoming Dark Age of Camelot: Epic Edition.



    Dark Age of Camelot subscribers can now pre-order Darkness Rising for $19.99 through a new in-game menu option. Anyone ordering before October 10th will receive an exclusive suit of armor for their new in-game mount. For more information about pre-ordering Darkness Rising, visit: www.darkageofcamelot.com/DarknessRising/preorder.php."

    View the full Dark Age of Camelot: Darkness Rising press release is available on the Mythic site.
    Other links you might enjoy:

    News
    Tue, Oct 04, 2005
    Ethec
  • Horizons Interview at GamersInfo

    Dragon them in for interviews.
    GamersInfo has posted another Horizons interview, this time featuring Jason "Amon Gwareth" Murdick. Sean Connery once played a dragon in the movie Dragonheart, which is funny when you consider he is a real-life knight. When pressed on this conundrum he gave us the finger, screamed, "There can be only one!" and then mumbled the following:

    "
    Content and Systems Designer Jason "Amon Gwareth" Murdick is perhaps the second most well-known member of the Horizons development team. He is certainly the most active on the forums throughout the internet. A self-described "jack-of-all-trades", Jason has his hands in nearly every system of the game. He fixes, designs, upgrades and manages whatever is handed to him. " 

    You can read the entire Horizons Interview at GamersInfo.
    Related Links:

    Features, Interviews
    Tue, Oct 04, 2005
    Boomjack
  • EQ Nominated for the "Walk of Game"

    A San Francisco treat for developers
    EverQuest is the sole MMO representative in a vote to see which developers see their name in the stars at San Francisco's monument to videogame entertainment. Strangely, "hot coffee" isn't among the nominees.

    "Walk of Game is located inside Metreon, a 350,000 square-foot entertainment
    complex at Fourth and Mission Streets in the heart of downtown San
    Francisco.
    Every year, gamers worldwide cast their vote on www.WalkOfGame.com to induct the next set of honorees to receive a permanent 24"x 24", customized steel star on the Walk of Game. From the list of nominees, the top four in the category of Games/Characters and the top two in Lifetime Achievement will be inducted. Inductees to date are: Nolan Bushnell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Halo, Link (The Legend of Zelda), Mario, and Sonic The Hedgehog."

    Want to vote or see the current results? Head to the Metreon "Walk of Game" official page.
    Other links you might enjoy:

     

    News
    Tue, Oct 04, 2005
    Ethec
  • Ragnarok Online Review at GamerGod

    Thor, where are you when we need you?
    GamerGod has reviewed Ragnarok Online, taking a long look at a game some say is long in the tooth. We're sure some celebrity has named their child Odin, but we can't figure out who, so let's pretend we found them and that they said this:

    "
    First, if you are a gamer who can only find happiness in crisp, surreal
    graphics with fully realized 3-D characters, environments you can
    practically smell the grass in, weather effects that make you check
    your windows, and sounds so real you hear the trees rustle at your
    passing, Ragnarok Online (RO) is not for you. If, however, you are of
    the breed of MMORPG players who cares more about game playability and
    community, you may want to give Ragnarok Online a try. From extreme
    template customization through the ability to acquire and combine a
    nearly limitless amount of weapon upgrade combinations, Ragnarok Online
    delivers an open-ended game experience suitable for all types of
    players.
    " 

    You can read the entire Ragnarok Online Review at GamerGod.
    Related Links:

    Reviews
    Tue, Oct 04, 2005
    Boomjack
  • Guild Wars Review at ReWiredMind

    One million copies sold and one more review written.
    ReWiredMind has posted their review of Guild Wars. Martha Stewart asked to call her back at a more convenient time, but we prefer to pretend that she said this:

    "
    My quest for a free and quality MUD or MMORPG has been long and, so I
    thought, fruitless. A couple of years ago I was able to find Achaea, a text-based MUD populated by people that not only wanted to roleplay, but who were also more than happy to indulge in gratuitous (but relevant) PVP on continental scales. To become skilled in this game required a knowledge of programming for the various MUD programs used, plus there were no graphics which proved to be a big downer for me towards the end. " 

    You can read the entire Guild Wars Review at ReWiredMind.
    Related Links:

    Reviews
    Mon, Oct 03, 2005
    Boomjack
  • Class Balancing Op/Ed

    Class balance a slippery slope of nerf bats and uber buffs.
    GamerGod has taken a shot at deciphering the magic that is class balancing in their Op/Ed titled, A Class Balance Manifesto for Virtual Worlds. Shannon Doherty talked to us because we are the first press to call her in three years. She did not have this to say about that:

    "
    After playing traditional fantasy MMORPG's for over 6 years, I have
    come to believe that the class system is an important foundation for
    how we classify and organize the players that inhabit virtual worlds.
    Without player classes you have the chaos and uncertainty of an
    unordered world. I also subscribe to the notion of class
    interdependency which is enabled by a properly designed class system.
    Interdependency in an activity such as combat helps to create sense of
    community which is indeed the whole point of online games. Without the
    need to meet other players and combine your resources to defeat
    encounters you have very little reason to play a "massively multiplayer" game. " 

    You can read the entire Class Balancine Op/Ed at GamerGod.
    Related Links:

    News
    Mon, Oct 03, 2005
    Boomjack
  • Huxley Preview

    FPS, let me introduce you to MMOG.
    ArmChairEmpire has posted a preview of Webzen's upcoming FPS/MMOG hybrid, Huxley. We have been informed by untrustworthy sources that Bill Cosby will be filing suit against Webzen, claiming that Huxley is too close to Huxtable the family name he created for the Cosby Show. We have this statement from nobody in particular:

    "
    Bringing the first person shooter into massively multiplayer online gaming is something that game developers have been fiddling around with for a while now.  Up to this point, the most popular attempt at such fusion of genres has been Planetside from Sony Online Entertainment.  The game never shattered any sales or subscription records, but it has managed to find itself a respectable number of dedicated players since its release.  Looking a the Planetside model, there are definite signs that an MMOFPS can work, and Webzen is currently in the process of developing their own title in the genre for the PC and Xbox 360 with Huxley. " 

    You can read the entire Huxley Preview at ArmChairEmpire.
    Related Links:

    Features, Previews
    Mon, Oct 03, 2005
    Boomjack
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