Funtime from FunCom: FunCom sent out a press release (attached below) telling us they have some fun-times instore for us as gamers. Not only is the expansion to Anarchy Online the Shadowlands well on track, they also have started the next "Booster Pack," as well as a new online game world in production: "Our main focus for Anarchy Online is still obviously our expansion, Shadowlands, but we have started conceptualizing another booster pack," Aas continues. "With the success we had with the introduction of the booster pack concept, we're certain we will expand and improve on that with a second product." "One of the main features in the next booster pack will be social aspects, like player-made towns and gardens," says Game Director Gaute Godager. The working title is "Towns of Rubi-Ka", a project that will further expand the depth and possibilities in the most advanced Persistent Online World to date. Funcom can also reveal that a new Persistent Online World has been in the works for the last nine months. The first impressive looking demo is already up and running. With the new title Funcom aims to take the genre to a new level, both in terms of setting, graphics and player immersion. "With the invaluable experiences gained from Anarchy Online we are in a better position than ever to create a brand new and fantastic Persistent Online World" says Aas. One hopes we are going to see World of Midgard, which was reported halted last year? Expect to see much in the months ahead, if not starting after next week. Full Story Posted February 28 2003 by Div Devlin

EA and Microsoft fighting for Sega: Hot news is how Electronic Arts and Microsoft are vying to purchase Sega. The two U.S. companies are separately exploring the possibility of buying all or parts of Sega, according to people familiar with the situation. These people stressed that the two potential suitors have yet to hold formal talks with Sega, and no deal appears imminent. Wonder who will win this one. It would be funny if Sony won. Posted February 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Jessica Mulligan, Author! Jessica Mulligan, whom needs no introduction within the gaming community has become an Author! Her book which (barring any problems) went off to the pulisher this week is titled "Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide." She wrote it with Bridgette Patrovsky where they tell us that: Developing Online Games provides insight into designing, developing and managing online games that is available nowhere else. Online game programming guru Jessica Mulligan and seasoned exec Bridgette Patrovsky provide insights into the industry that will allow others entering this market to avoid the mistakes of the past. In addition to their own experiences, the authors provide interviews, insight and anecdotes from over twenty of the most well-known and experienced online game insiders. The book includes case studies of the successes and failures of today's most well-known online games. There is also a special section for senior executives on how to budget an online game and how to assemble the right development and management teams. It's onsale now for pre-orders! Amazon.com With reduced price! Barnes and Noble Even lower price! Posted February 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond Updates: Earth and Beyond has added some new toys. Now they have "Push Missions" and have added highlevel content, changing a few of the lowbie sectors that were underfarmed. Check it: Push Missions Imagine flying around, minding your own business, when suddenly you get a distress call from a cargo ship under attack by pirates. Do you rush to help them or flee? This is an example of a new mission system called “push missions.” Essentially, this new feature presents missions to you unannounced, rather than you getting them from NPCs or a terminal (though of course you can still get missions that way as well). We’re really excited about this ground-breaking idea, and we’re sure you’ll like it as well. More High-Level Content We’ve reworked two of the lesser-utilized sectors (Vishao’s Cove and Antares) so that they now contain more high-level content. Vishao’s Cove is now home to mobs that are levels 75-130, while Antares holds mobs from level 135 to 175. In addition to those changes, we also removed the cloned newbie sectors to allow us room for new sectors in future updates. As long as the push mission's are not spammed on ya, this actually seems pretty cool! Posted February 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Iritor Online Coolness Factor: Iritor Online get's points for coolest contest of a game in development. Recently they were running a contest for fans which incorporates the contest Grand Prize winner by name and by some physical characteristics into its upcoming online game. The Grand Prize Winner is Justin Edmond of Penticton, Canada, who has also won a year's free subscription to Iritor Online plus the incorporation of his likeness into Iritor Online. The Second Prize Winner, Angela M. from Great Britain, and the Third Prize Winner, Charlie Payne from Cleveland, Ohio, have both won a year's free subscription to the game. Honorable mentions go to Janel Hackney in New York City, and Michaela Slovickova in the Czech Republic. Over 30,000 people worldwide entered the free contest that ran from November 23, 2002 through December 1, 2003. Winners were randomly selected last week, and winners were notified. “Justin Edmond, our Grand Prize winner, will have his likeness and other physical characteristics incorporated into the public Beta of Iritor Online and the final product as well,” said Markus Fuhrmann, President of Wootsoft Entertainment. “He is now going to be the first 'civilian' to be put into an MMOG, and will remain in Iritor Online for the life of the game.” Correction: In the press release it stated that the contest ran from November 23, 2002 through December 1, 2003. The correct dates of the contest were listed incorrect as it actually took place from November 23, 2002 through December 1, 2002. A Congrats to the winners all the same, no matter what year it was! Posted February 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Asheron's Call 2 Skill Reset: Asheron's Call 2 announced on that with the sweeping changes to the skill set's and rules players will have the option upon logging in to reset their skills: Because of the sheer number of changes made to skills in March, we've decided to offer players a one-time opportunity to remake their skill choices. When you login after our March episode has gone live, you will have one-time access to a "/skills reset" command. Typing this command will untrain all of a character's skills and return the skill credits and experience spent on those skills. You can then choose to spend those credits and experience again on a new skill set. This command will only be available during the March episode, so if you want to make use of it, you must do so during this episode. We want to stress that while we may offer this command again when we make sweeping changes to the game's skill set, it may not be available again for a few months or it may be limited to specific character classes. So remember, ya can only do it once, and only during March, so make sure you take advantage of it. Posted February 27 2003 by Div Devlin

As The Market Turns: Childhood icon of adults everywhere, Mr. Rogers passes away. Goodbye nieghbor. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is slain, as the series is not being renewed for a seventh season according to a March 7th article appearing in Entertainment Weekly. Meanwhile Sci-Fi Wire has a conflicting report that Sarah Michelle Gellar actually decided to not return for a seventh season forcing the season to be cancelled. State Farm Insurance changes policies regarding auto insurance. No longer will cover nuclear explosions or radioactive fallout since it is "not a natural road hazard." Phantagram Games, the folks who were going to give us the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" MMO a few years ago were aquired by NCSoft according to this report on Adrenaline Vault. Speaking of NCSoft, they have an opening for a client programmer to work building a medieval fantasy MMORPG using thier proprietary 3D engine down in Austin, Texas. Posted February 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Homelan M.O.S. Interview: Homelan Fed has an interview up with Carlos Sandoval from Sharkbyte about their new FPS/RTS/MMO Military Occupation Specialty -M.O.S. in which they ask one of the most important fundemental questions: HomeLAN - There are a large number of massively multiplayet titles coming out in the next few years. How will M.O.S. separate themselves from this crowd of games? Carlos Sandoval - It's hard to say how one can separate themselves from the crowd. We have integrated a few genre's that logically seem to go together and game play wise, create a nice environment. We feel that if we create the game we envisioned and balanced it so that the hardcore RPG players and die hard FPS guys can meet in the middle, we would have a definite winner. Check the interview. Posted February 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Motor City Online Cancelled: Motor City Online announced yesterday that they have run out of gas, and will be shutting the game down this August due to slow sales growth. Unfortunately, the product was losing steam. By the time these features were released, the sales of MCO already began to slow down. In the world of computer games, retailers promote and sell the latest and greatest. MCO no longer fit that category. As our shelf space shrunk, so did the inflow of new players. The MCO community stopped growing. While they offer players a chance to get a free copy of either Ultima Online or The Sims Online, reading between the lines take note that no copy of Earth and Beyond is offered. First UO2, then Mech Commander, followed by Majestic, now Motor City Online, bets on if it will be Earth and Beyond or The Sims Online next? Posted February 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Community Updates: The latest war journal telling of events within beta for Shadowbane has been released. "The Battle for the Southland: The Enemy of My Enemy" covers several sieges between major player guilds in the last two weeks. The journal contains over 18 screenshots featuring the new siege system, large scale battles, and political intrigue. A little late for Valentine's Day there is also a very humorous installment to the Shadowbane Tales comic from artist WidhyLesmana worth a laugh. da_slog a veteran of the Online Gaming Community posted on WaterThread Forums his "Top 10 signs that SB is heading to a WWIIOL/AO type launch." Some highlights include: 10) Casting a spell causes your PC to reboot. 7) You go Exping and your group works out a relogging schedule to deal with memory leaks. 6) "Unable to connect to the Login server." 2) You finally connect to the patch server and it starts downloading files that start with the word MAC and you use windows. A good chuckle. Stop by and see the full thread. Posted February 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Developers to be: News from Brisbane, Australia is that Auran is hosting a contest where would be developers can win $100,000 to develop a winning game for them. As they write: Competition entrants use the Auran Jet game development engine from Australian-based Auran (www.auran.com), to create a game demo or prototype of their dream game. Auran supplies a free non-commercial license to all entrants. The competition is open for individual developers and development teams of up to 25 people. Entry forms can be found at www.nextyearsgame.com, and the final submission date for entries of games and game prototypes is July 27, 2003. Prize winners will be announced at ECTS in August. A copy of the full Press Release is below. Full Story Posted February 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Q&A & the Kittah! RPG Vault has the 19th Q&A session up on their site for Dragon Empires http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/386/386760p1.html talking about challenges the team has faced. Also, the great Kittah hunt has begun! Read here http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14444 for the details! Posted February 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Eve Online Beta Journal: There is a new Beta Journal for Eve Online hosted by the writers of fansite Eve Gate, in which they talk about the beta testing inside this upcoming, highly anticipated space genre MMOG. It looks damn good. Give it a read. Posted February 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Planetside delayed to summer: Gamespot has a story running about Planetside with some new screenshots, within the article it mentions that the game is "on track for release early this summer." Which possibly means they have some kewl inside info and the game has been delayed from the original release date of the 21st of next month. Posted February 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Races and Beta Notes: Shadowbane Chronicle (note the new name for Ubi Soft news on N. America's v. of Shadowbane) has released the latest lore for it's player race The Centaur, detailing thier history, lore and people as well as providing a general overview of the race. It's great reading once again. Also, the beta patch notes for Ubi Soft have been released with the upcoming changes that will affect players within the beta test. For those playing within Shadowbane, Ashen Temper has released a new in game client skin for the interface of the game, currently being hosted by SBVault. UnknownPlayer is currently running the first part of a ten-part feature from within the Shadowbane Beta. The first article in the series details creating a character. Posted February 26 2003 by Div Devlin

UO to lose 100k Accts. In a major billing snafu, Ultima Online just shot themselves in the foot, and are about to lose their entire cutomer base if a revert and correction is not made. The problem it appears is with the billing system, in which currently all alternate accounts which are on the same credit card have just been marked to expire. Normally this would not be a bad thing, however, reasoning behind the customer base having alternate account's is to maintain housing. The kicker: With accounts expired, housing decay timers have just kicked in, where houses residing on account's set to expire will not be auto refreshed. Players in a mad and frantic rush have accessed their account information to re-enter their billing information and credit cards only to get an error and told to contact support. As Queen Zen posted on Stratics boards: The reason we all are upset about this is simple..EA UO set into motion that the minute accounts become INACTIVE the homes begin to deteriorate. SINCE it was NOT US who set our accounts into motion to become deactivated, but they may be showing us as EXPIRED ..our homes are already set into motion to FALL ! What does this mean? If it's not fixed, and people lose homes, expect EA to lose a ton of customers. Update: Cynthe, Community Relations manager for Ultima Online is aware of the problem, not one but two departments are actively working on fixing the problem and players have nothing to fear as posted on the Official UO Boards (Need an Acount to Read): We're seeing lots of reports of accounts that are set to expire within the next couple weeks - accounts that should not be expiring. We're also seeing a related issue, where some accounts are not shoing the correct account age (especially young accounts). We're on both of these problems right now, and we'll get it fixed asap. As of right now, please don't do anything until we tell you... you do not need to go re-enter your information in registration. We'll let you know if there is anything you need to do, but for right now, don't worry about it. The housing changes that would make your house inactive once your account expires are not in the game yet, so your houses, items and characters will be fine even if - in the worst case scenario - your account did lapse for a day or two. However, our engineering and billing depts are working on it, and we don't think that will happen. I'll get back to you guys once I have more info! All is righteous once more, if the problem is resolved. Currently some players, whose accounts have already expired due to this 'glicth' get the "Your Account is Blocked" message when attempting to log into game. What can ya say, it is Ultima after all. Posted February 25 2003 by Div Devlin

AO Basher Call's it Quits: AO-Basher, one of the top 'remaining' fansites dedicated to Anarchy Online is shutting down. After eighteen months of driving the site single-handedly to be one of the best AO fansites around, Solarax has decided that the train he has been riding has finally run out of tracks. AO-Basher has been a part of my life for a long time now and as much as it will disappoint a lot of readers out there, the site will be retired with my departure and not handed over to anyone else. As most regulars will know, I have more or less single handedly updated the fansite every single day for the last eighteen months, in the process creating a wonderful archive of the events occurring in Anarchy Online. It is my hope that Funcom, who host AO-Basher, will allow these archives to remain in some way so that people can look back on certain happenings and reminisce about old times together. After announcing that they were going to become more fan site orientated, this definetly hurts the Anarchy Online community. AO Basher will be missed. Posted February 25 2003 by Div Devlin

DSL prices going up: Pricewars look like they are about to erupt painfully for broadband users who rely on DSL according to this article from News.com:It's going to get expensive as they start shutting down our IPS providers for DSL. Posted February 25 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Screens: We got passed along two new sceenies from Dragon Empires showing off the concept art for swords and axes. The axes are looking good, while I've never been a fan of swords opinions may vary. Concept Art for an Axe Concept Art for a Sword Posted February 25 2003 by Div Devlin

EverQuest: LoY Launches... EverQuest's newest expansion Legacy of Ykesha, a downloadable expansion to the ever-popular ever-crack addicting game went live yesterday. You can play frogmen or some such thing within it now. The expansion which sells for $21.99U.S. comes with new zones, new spells, new quests, and new items. Posted February 25 2003 by Div Devlin

MEO: A Developer w/a Clue? In something rather unheard of, Chris Taylor for Middle-earth Online hits a thread over on the Official Middle-earth boards addressing some issues brought up by one of the residents seeking game info on a wide variety of topics. When asked why not release what is going to be in the game, this kind of jumped up and slapped me in the face. d) And, finally, there is the issue about prematurely announcing features that won't make it into the game. Caella's list contains items that we will have to deal with before launch, but there are many other items that may or may not be included. If we start talking about them now, and then have to pull them before launch it's actually worse than not committing to them early and holding them off until later. Hope that makes sense. Everyone knows not to announce what they are not going to deliver, eh? Makes sense to me. Read the full thread. Posted February 25 2003 by Div Devlin

The GamRifts MMOG List: At the request of many people and having a night of complete boredom, we have created one of the most comprehsive list's of Massively Multi-player Online games after hours of scouring our archives. Not many sites on the net list all the games which have come, gone, and are yet still to come. If you are a developler of a game, or one of our readers who knows about a game we did not list drop us a line. Currently there are over 100 games listed which cater specifically to MMOG's. Check it. Where will you play today? Posted February 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Revisit EverQuest: EverQuest is running a promotional offer which kicked off on 2/20 and lasts until 3/21 in which you can revisit EverQuest for a 30 day free trial. For those who have never explored EQ they are making the Classic version available for download. Area's that were only available via expansion packs still need to have the expansion. Play for free for 30 days. (Cheap publicity plug, my man Salty is looking to re-establish a guild chapter on Cazic-Thule if anyone is interested. Thanks for the word Salty!) Posted February 24 2003 by Div Devlin

MMO Magazine Returns! Late last year, we saw the first massively multi-player online gaming magazine, named MOG Magazine. It was to be released every 3 months, and anxiously reader's awaited issue number two which never appeared. Turns out, that the publisher went for broke. Now, MOG Magazine is being self-published and returning in a monthly format. You can subscribe to it with a recurring charge (you are billed when each issue is shipped) at a discount price. About time someone got around to doing this. The competition whomever they will be with the second magazine covering the genre will have alot to do. Posted February 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Planetside Beta Starts: Saturday saw the first beta test with external testers for Planetside after sending out the first wave of notifications via email to testers that signed up according this producer letter by Dave Georgeson: We just sent out the Exclusive Beta download emails. There's a whole group of players downloading the game for the very first time right now...people just like you. We (the dev team) are extremely excited to finally be debuting the game, albeit in a limited fashion for the moment. Saturday is our first test with "real people" (folks outside of SOE). After that test is completed, we'll start authorizing even more beta testers to enter the fray and continue to do so each week until we launch the Open Beta later on...with something like 20,000 players! Word has it they plan on releasing March 21st. If you are not in the beta yet, sign up. Posted February 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Added Server, More Testers! Shadowbane announced over the weekend that they were including another 10k in testers for Shadowbane, while adding a second server for the community aptly named "Carnage" to help in testing. This should bring the beta population to 30k in testers after the past month? Posted February 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Looters Inc. Does Shadowbane: Even more coverage of Shadowbane from the closed beta. The first episode of Looters Inc. from within Shadowbane emerged. Taken a month ago, with the removal of the NDA, is can be released for the viewing public! Finster and Regulus have been found. You know these nefarious and heroic villains from Ultima Online fame, in which you no doubt were a victim of their shame. Now, they have moved to Shadowbane, and are doing what they do best. Looting! We are pleased to present their episode within the lands of Aerynth! Looters Inc. does Shadowbane! Posted February 21 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC Fancy New Look! The Dark Age of Camelot website has a fresh new look as it had a make over done to it. Sanya says they like it, and hope you do too. While they were at it, they also added a Shrouded Isle fix in for Ogre's Might. The Scureol Hyrde encounter in the Ogre's Might quest is now working properly. Players will have to kill Scureol Hyrde, and will no longer be able to finish the quest without killing Hyrde. Posted February 21 2003 by Div Devlin

Eve Online Release Date: Eve Online has committed to a release date. Taken from this interview with Mike "Campion" Wallis over on Worthplaying he lets them know: What is the expected launch date for Eve: Online? Our street date at retail is scheduled for March 25. This should prove very interesting for PvP gamer's all over! Sci-Fi, or Fantasy. Which way to go! Posted February 21 2003 by Div Devlin

Pop's Take On Shadowbane: Popinfresh over on Waterthread has posted his take on the beta experience within Shadowbane, with another positive article about this awaited game which has been the anxiously awaited Holy Grail of PvP'ers everywhere. A snippit: The "polite society" theory is in full effect; people are thoroughly considerate unless they are looking for a fight, and many wars have been started by the simple mistake of a warrior-cum-diplomat dropping into War Mode at the wrong time. Another thumbs up from beta. Check his write. Posted February 21 2003 by Div Devlin

G4TV Tonight: Don't forget about tonight if you have G4TV on your cable network. G4TV's next episode of Cinematch in which they take a look at massive online gaming. In this episode they take on City of Heroes, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies and World of WarCraft. Posted February 21 2003 by Div Devlin

Asheron's Call 2 Mounts: The Insider for Asheron's Call 2 has posted up that this month they will be getting mounts added within the games ongoing content updates: Expect the gameplay for mounts to evolve continually throughout the next six to nine months, including a broader variety with different speed, cost, and duration trade-offs, terrain sensitivity, and other creative uses! The AC2 Team has a great deal of experience rolling out new features and believes the best method is to release small segments of a feature over the course of several months, rather than one large release in a single month. This ensures the feature rolls out the best possible way for players—and gives us a chance to hear your thoughts. Hopefuuly it will be implemented to be more then just a Taxi Service. Posted February 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Dark Sun Online: Word has it in the galdiator pits is that AvatarPatch has started open testing for for the remake of DarkSun Online! Currently you can join in the development talks and reunite with the former DSO players at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DSOAgeofHeroes/ and also get the latest news on the newest updates! (Note: At time of this write we are told the main site has been under a dos attack.) Posted February 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Glympse using Mojoworld Tech: Soujourn Development released the following press release about their upcoming massively multiplayer online game called Glympse, scheduled for release in 2004, will be using Pandromeda’s (www.pandromeda.com) MojoWorld technology to create a virtual spherical world roughly the size of Mars. "Pandromeda’s fractal algorithms allow us to create an immense spherical world with a file weight of a couple hundred kilobytes. This is excellent news for gamers, as it creates incredible gameplay opportunities," said Dave Cerra, CCO of Sojourn Development, LLC. "Sojourn is now free to include unlimited modes of transportation for players such as flight and water-based vehicles, as there is no ‘edge of the world’ to resolve. Players will be able to use the planet's curvature to intelligently plot trade or invasion routes. Additionally, the sheer size of the planet allows players to enter into the excitement of player-vs-player combat or to simply avoid it all together without having to impose artificial PvP zones or ‘toggle’ options. And most importantly, the incredibly small size (in kilobytes) of the planet allows us to make drastic modifications and additions to the ‘physical’ world of the game while negligibly affecting our players’ download rates." Read the full story below for the full release! Full Story Posted February 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Military Occupation Specialty: New game in development by SharkByte Software Inc. called, M.O.S. - Military Occupation Specialty a Massively Multiplayer Tactical Role Playing Shooter (M.M.T.R.P.S.). CEO Carlos Sandoval introduces the game to those who have asked, "We are incorporating the popular features of role playing games and first person shooter games with our own unique features to create what will become the next genre of online gaming." Check the full press release. Check out the website. Some concept art up. Posted February 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Beta Review: With the announcement of Shadowbane's NDA being removed, many are the inquiring minds who want to know more about what has been happening inside one of the most eagerly awaited games in history. It has been a long history. Harendiel, guild master for The Seraphim has submitted a well written non-biased pre-review of what has come to pass, and what is yet to come. Read on, and form your own thoughts! Shadowbane Beta Review Posted February 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane NDA Dropped: In a suprise move that already has the Shadowbane Community up in flames, with valiant defenders and avid nay-sayers doing battle across the gaming communities, the Non-Disclosure Agreements, that said players within the beta-test can not talk about issues, mechanics or enjoyment of the game have been dropped! The North American and Asian publishers of Shadowbane, Ubi Soft (http://www.shadowbane.ubi.com) and En-Tranz (http://shadowbane.en-tranz.com/) are announcing the official end of the Non-Disclosure Agreement binding testers in the closed beta. The Shadowbane NDA prohibits the release of privileged screenshots and game information to the general public by testers, this agreement will end today. During the next several days, new testers to the North American beta test could still be required to accept the electronic NDA, even though the legal agreement is no longer binding. Ubi Soft is currently in the process of removing the NDA from all beta acceptance procedures and documentation. Ubi Soft also expects to admit 20,000 new applicants to the Shadowbane beta during the next several weeks of testing. Hong Kong based En-Tranz will also begin accepting tens of thousands of new testers to Shadowbane in Asia starting this week. We've a few things instore for you here as well! Stay tuned. Posted February 19 2003 by Div Devlin

GameRifts Survey Says: Word got out about our last poll and alot of people came out to vote on game are they are most looking forward to in 2003. The top three picks were very close, and all three of them look like they are going to be great games. I know enuff' talk. You can check the results for yourself. We've recently noticed that games are now outpacing operating systems. The newest collection to my gaming library happens to be Command and Conquer: Generals by Westwood Studios which states on the system requirements that "Windows95/NT Not Supported." Our new survey asks, "What OS are you running." Sorry Mac gamers, no love for you. I'm using WIn98SE and everyone insist's that I upgrade. Let's see what the Community has to say. Posted February 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Dev Diary: Dragon Empires released a new Dev Diary on the main site. This diary consists of the six newest developers on the DE team. Be sure to give it a read. Posted February 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Cinematch Massive Episode 204: If you got no plans on 2/21 be sure to catch G4TV's next episode of Cinematch in which they take a look at massive online gaming. In this episode they take on City of Heroes, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies and World of WarCraft. Posted February 19 2003 by Div Devlin

That Magazine Contest: We've always wondered what this site would look like, if we were to shut-down and convert it to a monthly magazine dedicated to massively-multiplayer online games, kind of like MOG Magazine. Thanks to Valkyrie of SBSanctum we found out when she launched a community contest for the Shadowbane fans in which they put to use their artistic talents and designed a cover dedicated to the release of one of the most anxiously awaited MMO games to be in development. We even kicked in a prize, and Chris "Vosx" Mancil awarded the runner-ups not with ten beta accounts, but twenty. That rocked! We've archived the entries locally for your viewing pleasure. Posted February 19 2003 by Div Devlin

A Tale in the Desert Live: A Tale in the Desert a very different blend of MMOG by eGenesis has officially gone live. The first of it's kind in that is it supporting both Windows and Linux clients, you adventure in a game that is a blend between city-building games and games of guile like Diplomacy and Illuminati. There's no combat - you must win by smart management and sharp-witted negotiation, not by weapons. The game has a plot that unfolds in response to player actions, and when the story is over, the game ends according to thier site. Posted February 18 2003 by Div Devlin

CoH Beta Test On hold: Cryptic Studios announced that the much anticapted closed beta testing for City of Heroes, the super-hero based MMOG that was due to start this March, has been pushed back to an unspecified date. Rumor has it that everyone is so entranced with Jennifer Garner as Elektra, they have closed the studio down, and are now living within movie theatre's to watch Daredevil over, and over, and over... Posted February 18 2003 by Div Devlin

Melantus, "I'm outta here!" Last week, Melantus (of Ultima Online fame) the Community Coordinator of Lineage left NCSoft, and his role therein. Reason for his departure is unknown, and no official comments have been issued... Does this mean something dark and sinister is afoot? Could he be joining Garriot on work for Tabula Rasa... Time Will Tell. Posted February 18 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Expands, New Journal: Shadowbane over the weekend added another 10k in testers to the closed beta testing on Ubi Soft's servers, meanwhile releasing part two of the ongoing event's journal, "The Vanishing Fortress" in which the player guilds of the Shadowbane beta test gather to defend and destroy the mythical threat posed by the ancient Deathless Empire. This latest journal describes how these powerful forces met and did battle outside the walls of Tir Telentheril, known as the vanishing fortress. Posted February 18 2003 by Div Devlin

UO: Age of Shadows, Bugs a plenty.... Last week saw the debut Ultima Online's newest expansion Age of Shadows, and in typical UO fashion, they did infact, dissapoint with a another shoddy release of hyped features that just did not work. To begin with: - Registration to upgrade an acount, sucks. Plan on spending alot of time. - Housing area's went fast. No place left for you, if you had to work. - Housing decay, now faster then ever. Lose a home in two days. - Design your own home, and be unable to hang any eyecandy. - Vendors have changed, and now items are considered lockdowns towards a home's capacity. - Pet changes were installed, much to the outrage of many a player. - Factions just became more horribly broken. - Server's up and down. - And if your stillusing the 2d CLient, becuase the 3d sucks, you can be killed by invisble mobs. And that's just of a small sampling of a few list's. Suprised? Posted February 18 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market Burns... Comdex the industry trade-show for consumer electronics held in Vegas each year, has filed for bankruptcy. It's been slowly declining for the past two-years. Everyone grew up with an Atari system! Midway after taking over Atari and renaming it 'Midway Games West' is shutting it down and laying off the last 30 folks who work there. -sigh- Evil Mega-Corp Electronic Arts has purchased Swedish game developer Digital Illusions AB for $9 million securing the rights to sell future titles, as well as publish games developed by Digital Illusions for the next 10 years. Quoteth EA spokesman Jeff Brown, "Digital Illusions has become one of the hottest independant game studios in the world." Must be an X-box thing. Posted February 14 2003 by Div Devlin

DE on the t.v. Ok, sad to say this is most likely a day late. Which in-turn makes me a dolloar short. Peter Tyson (Community Liaison Manager) and Georgina Stephen (World Builder) from Dragon Empires will be on UK TV tomorrow (Last night?) on Channel 4 between 5 and 6pm on the Richard and Judy show. Those able can tune in to hear a discussion on MMORPGs, their communities and so on. Posted February 14 2003 by Div Devlin

Project Entropia goes gold! The virtual universe of Project Entropia has gone gold with the release of its latest version update 4.2. The implementation has brought exciting new features into the ever-evolving universe of PE as well as several technical updates. Here are the highlights: PVP Introduced Personal Storage Facilities Present Hall of Fame Expanded PE Exchange Enhanced Download Resume Newbie Guide Online Exploit Info Reward System Check em and let me know how the PvP system is, I find the "Exploit Reward System" feature a little disheartening. Posted February 14 2003 by Div Devlin

The Shadowbane City Tour: The Official Shadowbane website just released a new Herald journal detailing the latest events inside of the closed Ubi Soft beta test. This journal is called "Avarice: The Jewel of Southern Tyrranth" which is a guided tour of one of the most successful player cities inside of the Shadowbane beta test. The guided player-city tour contains 23 new screenshots of buildings and hirelings at work, and two interviews with beta testers who manage the town. Posted February 14 2003 by Div Devlin

Sovereign Axed: Can't say I remember printing this or not, but an article on Four Below Zero quotes another article in which Sony has axed Sovereign. "Work on "Sovereign," a massively multiplayer real time strategy game, has been terminated after more than four-and-a-half years of development. Ambitious in nature, the game had hoped to replicate a continuous global war that supported up to 500 players. Diplomacy would have played as significant a role as the player's tactical abilities. "We came to a decision that it was not going to be what we wanted it to be," said McDaniel. "It never really had the magic." I'm really to lazy to check my logs and see if I reported this already, but after four-and-a-half years, why the hell would ya axe the game? Sounds like EA. Posted February 14 2003 by Div Devlin

Shout out to VeXed! Shout out to my gaming bro VeXed who is not only a year older today, but a year wiser, and still not getting lucky with any of the guildgrrls! Enjoy yer day bro! Posted February 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Swing! Cancel's Shadowbane Beta... With the Insolvency Issues pending (See below), Swing! has announced today, they are shutting down Beta: European Beta suspended Due to the current company situation, the Shadowbane Beta will be suspended from today 14.30 (GMT+1). The european Beta will most likely restarted as soon as internal decisions are made about the progress of shadowbane in europe. We are very sorry, but we have to make this step until things clear up. When a decision is made all acounts will still be valid and most likely the characters and the world will be used again. The Beta Board will remain open for further discussions and announcements. We will keep you informed about the progress. Hengsen Discuss: It is a sad day for Shadowbane in Europe. Posted February 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond Glimpse: Earth and Beyond has released their newest "Glimpse Inside" article, this chapter detailing the upcoming "push mission" system. This new system will allow the game to initiate contact with players to offer missions, rather than forcing players to initiate missions. Posted February 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Neocron Nekkid for U.S. Now you can Boo-Boo Kitty-Fuck (I actually like J and Silent Bob's movie!) and her Red Light District co-horts if you have the stalinized (err.. sanitized) U.S. version in which clothing was added to them in this un-supported patch for Neocron. Wheee! Pixallated boobies! Posted February 12 2003 by Div Devlin

U.S. Shadowbane War Report: With all the news running around with En-Tranz and Swing! we almost missed this update from Shadowbane Ubi Soft, in which my guildmates get highlighted in the latest war journal titled "The Power of Gold." Val from Aerynth Sanctum is also a star now! This has a pretty huge focus on a major war that erupted within the U.S. version of Shadowbane, and what can happen when Merc's enter the fray siding with the poltical factions for money. -<>- Posted February 12 2003 by Div Devlin

UO: Age of Shadows Ship's... Official word is that Ultima's latest expansion, the "Age of Shadows" has shipped. This is supposed to bring back the glory days of UO and the much anticpated Necromancy and Paladin kits. Posted February 12 2003 by Div Devlin

No Shadowbane 4 j00, EU! Swing Entertainment! the EU publisher of Shadowbane has declared itself insolvent (that means no cash on hand) and has had their shares for trading suspended according to this German-language article (Babel Fish Translation). What this means for the fate of Shadowbane players across the big blue, is yet unknown. (Thanks BluesNews) Update: Swing! has posted a press release regarding insolvency hearings: Due to insolvency, the company’s executive board has applied today at the Local Court in Düsseldorf for the opening of insolvency proceedings on the assets of Swing! Entertainment Media AG. Update 2: Ubi Soft regarding the fate of Shadowbane to N.American users: "Ubi Soft remains excited and very enthusiastic about the upcoming release of Shadowbane in North America, and our players will not be impacted in any way. As with other MMOs which run in different countries, Shadowbane in North America is a completely separate network, and our launch date and service will not be impacted." -Chris "Vosx" Mancil Update 3: J from SBwarcy talks to Kilmore of SB Mystics fansite, explaining what an insolvency hearing means in Europe: "Under German law it's like in the states, they are "under protection" now. What kind of measures will be taken is up to a new CEO that employed in by court. This guy might sell off parts to save the whole or might just sell it all wholesale or piecemeal. Depends on the state they are really in." Update 4: And in a continuing day of bad news for the Shadowbane Community, it appears that the message boards for En-Tranz have been hacked (local archive), which really has no bearing on the Swing! issue. (Thanks Kitten!) Discuss: Maybe they should of sold the restrcited races after all? Posted February 11 2003 by Div Devlin

AC2 Best Game of 2002? People are wondering, what kind of crack the guys at PCGamer Magazine were smoking at the end of the year. They nominated Asheron's Call 2, the best game of release, based on it being pretty, simple, and intuitive. They failed to mention how the game is prety boring, has no content, and is very limited. Numbers dwindle daily for the game. I've yet to install it on my PC. Could also explain why I no longer subscribe to PCGamer, did'nt they do a shotty nomination last year also? Posted February 11 2003 by Div Devlin

Tradespot splits: Venerable game trading site TradeSpot whom everyone knows and relies upon for their UO needs, seems to of had a falling out between owners and staff. Now, I know Jekyll and I know Centurio. So, when I heard about this I was in the WTF category. Apparently, the folks at Tradespot (The Staffers) wanted more. But, Jekyll (The Admin) was unavailable for the most part to provide more. So, Centurio and the whole gang jumped ship. They have a new site running, and have already branched out into a couple other games. So, if your looking for the guys you know and trust, they can be found at RPGTradeSpot, or ya can go to the old site ya know and trust TradeSpot with new faces. Or something. Posted February 11 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC Housing Update: So, no sooner then I post about this thread last Friday regarding the possibility of housing finally coming in Dark Age of Camelot, then over on the Camelot Herald, Matt Frior posts about the "Dreaded "H" Word" and their plans of incorporating housing into Camelot. Some cool screenshots are included. Oh, and they have Hats now in-game too. Posted February 11 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Preview: U.K gaming site Boomtown has a pretty well done and detailed preview up and running regarding Shadowbane. Gives a good look inside the game, with accompanying screenshots. Give it a look. Also new in Shadowbane news, the latest event journal was released last Friday. This detailing the "Vanishing Castle" an in game even that occured. The Official Shadowbane website (http://shadowbane.ubi.com) just released a new event journal detailing the latest episode in the ongoing storyline of the closed beta test (http://shadowbane.ubi.com/Community/Heralds/ej020503.htm). The journal describes the return of an ancient foe to Aerynth known as the Deathless Empire, a group of Elves who are as powerful as they are ruthless. The journal describes how these forces arrived on the beta world, contacted player guilds for possible alliances, and set out to conquer the land known as Tyrranth. The journal contains 15 new Shadowbane screenshots and delivers a working example of Wolfpack Studios' feature character program in action. Like those cut-and-paste skills don'cha! Posted February 11 2003 by Div Devlin

UO2 Rumor Mill: With the financial woes Electronic Art's has experienced of late, with The Sims Online and Earth and Beyond, as well as a refocus on titles, would it surprise anyone if they were to bring back work on Ultima Online 2, a title which could have been a major contender. Word is, it's a possibility. We've been unable to hear any 'official' rumblings. One never knows though. Posted February 11 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market turns... Rumored sale of Vivendi to Microsoft as reported by many sites, has been proven to be false. Word is, is that a couple of college kids faked the entire thing as reported by U.S.A. Today. (Thanks J.) I spend 10 hours a day for work. I get home, and I want to escape reality for a few hours everynight. In some cases, entire weekends. I work to support my indulgence in gaming. Everyone know's there are folks who work in gaming. Here these people make more a week then I do with my job, in the "Unreal Estate Boom" on Wired. (Thanks Lorri!) Is Mythic thinking of allowing player housing in Dark Age of Camelot? Posted February 7 2003 by Div Devlin

CoH Breaks out Ban-Stick City of Heroes fans get restless. Zow! Bonk! Pow! Mod's ban offending villians. It had to start eventually. Posted February 7 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Rumor Mill... From Fatbabies.com Shadowbane is looking to slip their March 15 ship date again to sometime during the summer. UbiSoft, the publisher, has distanced itself from the game for sometime now, citing a shaky beta test, underwhemling server performance, and a dated graphics engine. From Chris "Vosx" Mancil, of Ubi Soft That is complete bull, and actually really quite laughable. The rumor is totally without merit, and patently untrue. We are still on schedule for March 25. Heh? Posted February 7 2003 by Div Devlin

SWG: What's Not Gunna make it... In an effort to release a game, that needs not be rushed for a release, Star Wars Galaxies has decided to release a list of features that will not be in the release of the game. Player run cities Player-owned vehicles Player-generated missions Dark Jedi Prolly when space-ships come out in an expansion? The fullskinny. Posted February 7 2003 by Div Devlin

The Sims Online a flop... Short article on Slashdot related to The Sims Online and the mega-flop it has become, which adds to why EA closed Westwood. Ya gotta make the money someplace. In it, it reveals about 100,000 units being shipped for the holidays, with 80,000 units sold, then after the first month of release only having 40,000 subscribers. Read. Hyperinks all over. Posted February 7 2003 by Div Devlin

Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbing Down... Over on UnknownPlayer.com, Dionysis has an editorial about how the gaming industry is dumbing down the games and the players who play them. It's a really hard read. Somewhere towards the middle is a point: It all boils down to the fact is that developers are treating Gaming more like a business and less like an art. So, like any good business you make a product which appeals to the most amount of people. But ultimately, this means the dumbing down of games. Who woulda thunk? Check it? Posted February 5 2003 by Div Devlin

EnB Glimpse into EU... While Westwood continues to deal with the emotional challenges of being shutdown, support of Earth and Beyond does conintue on, with the newest "Glimpse Inside" being released. This glimpse gives us a look at at the Electronic Arts Network Operations Center (NOC). The NOC oversees Earth & Beyond and other EA games. As for folks across the pond, Buddy Registration Codes are now available to European players, as well as Upgrade Codes (for demo players) and Game Time codes. Posted February 5 2003 by Div Devlin

Imperator Online Site Online: The newest addition to Mythic's stable of games has officially launched their website for the MMOG Imperator. So far, just he logo, press release and some basic art are available. Stay tuned for more no doubt during and after E3 in the next couple of months. Posted February 5 2003 by Div Devlin

NwN gets like, 5 Awards! BioWare was recognized for the development of Neverwinter Nights with five nominations for Interactive Achievement Awards by The Academy of I