GameZig

Runes of Magic: Dragonfang Ridge

Blackwings — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:59:23 +0000

Just in time for the upcoming season, Frogster publishes details about the seventh region of Runes of Magic. Dragonfang Ridge is covered mostly with ice and was the location of numerous conflicts over the years. For many decades, Humans, Ice Dwarfs, Gnolls and Cyclops were fighting for dominance in this area. Their armed conflicts are still leaving a lasting mark on the game world of Taborea.

Despite resource shortages and biting winds, Humans have created settlements in different locations of Dragonfang Ridge, only to lose them just a little later to the Ice Dwarfs and Cyclops. Eventually, even Bors Ironwall?s military finesse couldn’t oppose the threat and the few remaining Human outposts are far-scattered and mostly isolated. Because of that, they are losing more and more of their importance. Numerous ruins in Dragonfang Ridge are evidence of the fact that the conflicts in the region are lasting for eons already. The most prominent ruins in Dragonfang Ridge are the mysterious Rune Throne and the large mountain gate, but today nobody knows anymore what they were once used for.

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed..

Detailed information about the conflicts, the geographical locations and the diverse myths of the region can be found in a new game design document, which is available here.

Runes of Magic is currently in closed beta. Interested players can still apply for access to the beta test on www.runesofmagic.com. The ambitious MMORPG project is scheduled to go into open beta with further polishing and completely localized in the course of December.

Social Networking in Your MMO

Blackwings — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:31:21 +0000

I attended a Realtor conference a couple of weeks ago - which is partially why I’ve been fairly silent on the site over the past few days…busy. But anyway, back to the point: At the conference there are a lot of sessions to help Realtors and Brokers improve their business. As an I.T. professional for a Real Estate firm, I am sent to try to pickup on any new technologies and see if I can bring back some good advice for our agents. I decided to attend a class on social networking expecting to hear all about Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and the like. What I was a little surprised to find out is those weren’t the main subject of social networking. Games were.

The session started out with some info about social networking in Second Life. As SL is a social style platform to begin with, I wasn’t all to surprised really. Okay, maybe a little surprised that they were telling agents to spend their working hours playing a game looking for contacts to buy or sell something to. But it didn’t end there, they had games up on the screen like World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, etc., etc. Anything with a huge audience of people in one place was making these social networkers druel with anticipation of closing another deal.

I came out of that session feeling honestly a little dirty. Business was creeping into my pleasure realm and I’ve never seen that as a good idea. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought it wasn’t really such a big deal. The fundamental principle of social networking is building contacts through building relationships. So these would be people trying to make many friends in an MMO just in case they ever decided they needed to move. Not really what I pictured when I first walked out of the session. I kind of had in mind an image of walking through my favorite capital city and watching a shouting match of Gold Farmers and Realtors trying to peddle their services like some guy on a New York street corner trying to sell a fake watch.

So this started to make me wonder, have any of you ever used contacts you’ve met in game to help influence your business agenda? Is this really something that is a viable idea of a time sink?

When Does Life in SecondLife Go to Far?

Blackwings — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:33:11 +0000

It’s unreal to me some of the things I read in the news these days. Especially when it pertains to SecondLife. Admittedly I’ve never tried the game before, I think I got as far as downloading half the client before I got bored and decided to go play WoW. But lately I’ve been hearing a lot of press about SecondLife that’s making me re-think seeing what all the hype is about.

The latest stories are from people taking things from SecondLife a bit to serious and repercussions carrying over to their real lives. First was some crazy story about a woman getting arrested in Japan for committing virtual murder by deleting a man’s avatar in SecondLife because their virtual characters were married and got a divorce. She went to freakin’ jail over a video game! I can understand what she did was wrong but I think it goes a bit to far.

Today I just read another SecondLife news story about a man and woman who initially met in SecondLife and fell in love. Aww how sweet, they ended up getting married and had a virtual wedding to match their wedding in real life. Fast forward to the current day, a mere five months later and they are ending their real life marriage. Why? Because she hired a private detective to follow her husband in his virtual life and found out his avatar was having virtual sex with another woman. Virtually of course.

They got divorced in real life because his avatar was cheating on her avatar in a game. How ridiculous is that? You know when something happens in a virtual world, a world where you are supposed to lead a different life, and it hurts you enough to want to divorce your spouse. Can you say ‘gamers annonymous’? Someone needs some rehab and judging by the frequency of the SecondLife horror stories I keep reading I’m going to guess that there are a lot of the needy someones out there needing a good dose of reality.

My 2 cents.

Ymir’s Pass Opens Up to Age of Conan

Blackwings — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:40:59 +0000

This week Funcom updated the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures‘ live servers with the largest gameplay content addition since launch. By visiting the vast, new outdoor area of Ymir’s Pass players will now be able to find new quests to solve, new characters to meet, new monsters to slay and a dramatic new storyline to unravel. The update also includes a new dungeon - The Amphitheater - that holds one of the most epic and memorable monster encounters ever created for the game.

“This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark,” says Game Director Craig Morrison. “In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!”

This free update is available to all ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ subscribers and the content will be downloaded automatically when launching the game. In the months following the launch of the game, Funcom has addressed several of the key concerns voiced by the players and have also added a series of new content and features. Recently the live servers received a major update to the player-versus-player part of the game, allowing players to become criminals based on their actions when battling other players. New armor, weapons and other content have also been added, and from a technical perspective the game has also seen major improvements in terms of stability and performance. Funcom remains determined to keep updating and improving the game, and will keep players posted on the updates that are planned in the months ahead.

‘Age of Conan’ launched in May this year and immediately topped sales charts around the world. It has received more than thirty magazine covers and more than fifteen major awards, including numerous “Best MMO of E3″ awards and the “Best Online Game of Show” award at GC 2007. The game has received numerous glowing reviews, including a 9.4 score from US website GameZone. ‘Age of Conan’ is a key title in Microsoft’s Games for Windows line-up, as well as a showcase title for nVidia thanks to its jaw-dropping graphics.

For more information on the game and instructions on how to order your copy today, visit www.ageofconan.com. Don’t miss the teaser trailer below of Ymir’s Pass!

1280×720 HD 640×360

Cape Design for Runes of Magic Wanted

Blackwings — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:16:12 +0000

Leaves are falling and winter is coming. To avoid the characters in Runes of Magic catching a chill, Frogster is searching for a beautiful cape design in a community contest. Graphically talented fans are called on to create their personal cape for the upcoming fantasy online-roleplaying game on the basis of a template. They can submit their creative ideas until November 25th to event@runesofmagic.com.

The winning cape is going to be integrated into Runes of Magic by developer Runewaker. Players can then find it in the game to equip their characters. Further details about the contest and the template can be found here.

Runes of Magic is currently in closed beta. Interested players can still apply for access to the beta test on www.RunesofMagic.com. The ambitious MMORPG project is scheduled to go into open beta with further polishing and completely localized in the course of December.

Skill Weeks on the Seven Seas

Blackwings — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:54:17 +0000

Skill Brochures 25 percent off in Bounty Bay Online

The life of a pirate is tough, to gain experience even tougher. This is true in the world of online role-playing games as well as in real life. To gain respect you have to improve your skills constantly in order to develop yourself. Only those who work steadily will become a respected online adventurer. But there is light at the horizon: Thanks to the integrated item-shop, players with a Free-2-Play account can boost their personal development slightly. Until November 26th, players of Bounty Bay Online on the Free2Play server “Mary Read” can buy all skill brochures with a 25 percent discount.

With the help of skill brochures, players can choose to boost certain skills temporarily. This option won?t render your character the most famous buccaneer, adventurer or merchant over night, but Columbus didn’t find America without some personal effort neither. A complete overview of all skill brochures and more information about Bounty Bay Online is available on the official website:

http://www.bountybayonline.com/index.php?content=News&news_id=168.

Wage Medieval War on the iPhone

Blackwings — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:12:35 +0000

Now the largest text based MMO on the iPhone - thousands of virtual rules enjoy a battle of wits to see who’s Kingdom will reign supreme.

It’s being played from the stages of Broadway to the rural English Countryside, by players including top businessmen, entire fire watches, game-addicted teenagers and stay at home mums.

So what is KingdomGame? Set in a virtual medieval world, every player gets a plot of land to expand their small estate into a thriving Kingdom. It’s a text based MMO game, designed with the iPhone in mind, but playable on anything with an internet connection. You’re playing against real people in real time?

First you need to expand your Kingdom - will you explore or just fight for more land? Decide what to build and how to train your troops - do you want troops specialising in attack or defence - the number of archers in your Kingdom could tip the balance of a battle? Maybe you’ll opt for a large community of priests to help ensure good luck? Keep your rivals in check by attacking them - but beware, the might of their alliance could come tumbling down on top of you.

“The beauty of the game is that you can spend as little or as much time as you want” says KingdomGame founder Paul Hutson (27) ” you can catch up with your Kingdom during a five minute break from work, or immerse yourself in the forums and the online community that’s built up around KingdomGame.”

“I’m amazed at how the game has taken off, it began as a bit of fun for some friends but has expanded into a massive game played in 122 countries.

And what’s helped make it really different is that the players themselves have as much influence over the way the game develops as I do” Paul added.

KingdomGame has featured on the apple.com apps website as a staff pick for much of this year - find out why they, and thousands of players enjoy it so much, by visiting www.kingdomgame.net .

Here’s what some of the players have to say about it:

“There are many things that I enjoy about KingdomGame. The real-time aspect is great, even though many of us still spend waaaaayyyyyyy too much time. The friendships made and loyalties that are made, and sometimes broken, has been captivating. A dev team that is actually trying to make things better! Kudos to you guys! Thanks for a great game!” Brian White aka ‘Corbin’

“What draws me to Kingdomgame is the fact that it doesn’t just involve YOUR strategy, but it pits your strategy vs. every other person’s strategy to see which one is best. And that in alliances, you have to put your strategy into a larger strategy, making even greater complications or successes. The fact that when you attack someone, they will get that message wherever they are and you have successfully p***ed off someone around the world, all without a single picture. This is truly a great game and is going to be huge! And I’m glad to say I was here in the near beginning.” Chris Waters aka ‘Battlefield’

“I like the social interaction and real time gaming experience.” Cameron McSweeney aka ‘The Fortress’

MMO Travel - Is Instant Gratification a Good Thing?

Blackwings — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:59:16 +0000

The general consensus among MMO developers these days seems to center around instant gratification for the player base. One of the biggest forms of instant gratification is near instantaneous travel across long distances in the game world. Given the size of the game worlds growing at an ever increasing rate in most AAA MMO’s, it isn’t hard to understand why. But what effect does that have on our perception of the world and more importantly the immersion factor?

In some of the larger titles, traveling from one corner of the world to the other could take hours on foot. Most games offer some sort of faster travel mount to help ease the pain, but almost all offer a way to teleport from area to area quickly. On one hand, this is handy if you just need to make a quick trip across the world to complete a quest or meet up with friends. On the other hand, this seems like a massive waste of good game world and pulls players back out to reality. What’s the purpose of an enormous map if you don’t ever have to cross it?

There has to be some kind of happy medium that will allow faster forms of travel than mounting up your favorite stead and galloping toward the horizon yet slower than speaking to some NPC vendor and instantly appearing at your destination. Blizzard being the mac daddy of MMO’s with their World of Warcraft came close to meeting in the middle with their flying mounts, the only down side being that you had to visit the flight master at your destination first before you could use it. Then they went and ruined the whole idea of making travel a part of the game by introducing hearth stones, ships and zeppelins. Not to mention mages who could just cast a spell and open up a magic portal.

Traveling in the world just makes the world feel bigger. It makes the world feel more real and gives players opportunities to make discoveries they otherwise would have just ported past. Ships and zeppelins start out with the feeling of making a journey by moving across the game world with good speed but they don’t make the entire journey, they just get to an end point and you get a loading screen. What do you think about traveling fast in your particular game world? Be honest, do you find it useful yet find it leaves you feeling unfulfilled? Would you be happy if traveling was a feature built in as part of the adventure of playing the game?

Warrior Epic Feature Details

Blackwings — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:29:30 +0000

True Games Interactive, an international publisher of multi-player online games, has revealed the first key features and game details for its highly anticipated Online action MMORPG, Warrior Epic (www.warriorepic.com). Developed by Austin-based studio Possibility Space, the game has already developed a growing community since the developer launched the Warrior Epic website earlier this year. With the new publishing partnership, True Games Interactive is now sharing new features, screen shots and game details as it gears up for the game’s spring 2009 launch.

The Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed..

Warrior Epic is an online, action role-playing game set in an original fantasy universe. In the game, players will assume command of a Warrior Hall from which they manage their characters’ adventures. They can recruit from a wide array of Warrior Classes, each with its own style of play. The Classes and the Hall itself can be upgraded visually as well as functionally. Players adventure together in multiplayer campaigns, adventure mode, solo quests and PVP.

One of the most unique aspects of Warrior Epic is that death does not mean the end of a warrior. Instead, it opens totally new and strategic options for players. The game’s unique Warrior Spirits System enables fallen warriors to not only be revived at any time at their hall, but also to be transformed into Spirits that can be bound to weapons to increase and open weapon abilities and skills, or they can be called out to inflict massive damage depending on player needs.

“Possibility Space and True Games are doing an incredible job building the Warrior Epic universe,” said Jeff Lujan, Founder and Chairman of True Games Interactive. “The game creates this totally new genre of session-based MMO’s with incredibly innovative gameplay features that have been fine-tuned and are sure to offer global appeal. Gage Galinger and Feng Zhu, the founders of Possibility Space, are highly talented video game veterans.”

Lujan continued; “their game design and creative talent combined with the amazing technical and publishing background of our team at True Games makes for the perfect development relationship.”

Unlike most MMO’s today, Warrior Epic will offer players a satisfying online experience even if they have only a few hours a week to play. One of the ways Warrior Epic achieves this is by putting a heavy emphasis on focused, session-based missions. These 20-30 minute sessions allow a player to make significant progress in regards to leveling their Warrior, gaining loot, and accomplishing more in a much shorter timeframe than other existing games.

Don’t miss the teaser trailer for Warrior Epic below!

1024×576 HD 682×384 SD

Traveling in The Chronicles of Spellborn

Blackwings — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:57:59 +0000

Discover new shards and encounter dangerous enemies on your journey through the Deadspell Storm

Travelling and discovering new areas is done quite differently to other MMORPGs in The Chronicles of Spellborn. Since the world of Spellborn is divided in different shard realms floating through the Deadspell Storm, other means of transport are necessary than just walking or riding. In order to travel to the different rock realms, the fantasy online-roleplaying game offers impressive journeys on so-called shard ships. Similar to sailing boats these massive vehicles are able to fly from one shard to another through the magical Deadspell Storm.

To use the shard ships, players will need to be fame level 10 minimum and interact with specific NPCs to join the crew. Departing from the docks of Hawk’s Landing they will then experience a real-time journey together with other players and NPCs. Yet, they should be wary of the menaces lurking in the Storm and be ready to defend the ship. Hostile humanoids or even monsters could attack without warning during the travel. If a player fears these encounters and needs to travel quickly, he or she can also rent a cabin, which works like a teleport. To showcase what travelling is like in The Chronicles of Spellborn we have an in-game trailer available below.

1280×720 HD 640×360