City of Heroes Public Beta: NCSoft has announced that open beta is coming for City of Heroes. So you didn’t get (or find) a pre-order box and you didn’t register on the forums until after Nov. 1st, 2003, and you’ve also struck out on the various CoH beta giveaway contests on the web… what’s a beta-less super-powered hero to do? Well, take heart, the beta train for Paragon City hasn’t quite left the station! This is your last best chance for getting into beta! Read on… Sign Up Posted March 31 2004 by Div Devlin

Darkfall Website Redone: The folks over at Razorwax have relaunched the official website for Darkfall Online, the Player versus Player, Realm vs. Realm, Kingdom vs. Kindoms game in which players create the empires. Posted March 31 2004 by Div Devlin

EQ Reactivates Accounts: Sony has reactivated all accounts for EverQuest that were in good standing before 02/16/04 in celebration of their 5th anniversary. Free play lasts until April 16th. Posted March 31 2004 by Div Devlin

Face of Mankind Begins Beta: Duplex systems announced on the official community boards that beta for Face of Mankind is starting, with invites going out this upcoming Saturday, for the chosen lucky ones. Posted March 31 2004 by Div Devlin

Saga of Ryzom Website Redone: It's all the rage! The folks over at Nevrax along with Themis have relaunched the official website for Saga of Ryzom, thier upcmoming MMO game which includes Swords and Rocket Launchers. Parts of the site are still down for maintenance. Posted March 31 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Dev Diary: The Dragon Empires website is sporting a new DevDiary from an artist who is leaving the team to travel the world. My name is Trevor Walsh and today is my last day on the Dragon Empires team as I’m off to travel the world. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it! I have been at Codemasters for two and a half years, before I joined the Dragon Empires development team I worked on the cut scenes for Pro Race Driver. But before I go I thought I would tell you which aspects of Dragon Empires I have worked on. Included within are concept works for weapons. Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

Final Fantasy XI Adds to PvP: Final Fantasy XI now has PvP dueling? Resurrecting an ancient form of combat within the lands of Vana'diel, the four great nations have now institued Realm vs. Realm dueling? Details are sketchy, and they tell us to stay tuned. (No! I won't change the icon!) Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

Lineage II Beta Started: Wondering where everyone is? Well, if they are not in the World of Warcraft beta, then they have found their way into open beta for Lineage II by NCSoft which opened the floodgates Saturday night. Those who particpate in open beta, get to take their characters into open release. Folks are leveling hard to be the first to get that PC. Some already have let level 15+. I know what they did this weekend. Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle-Earth Online Update: So we've been lax on Middle-Earth Online news through no fault of our own. Now, after waiting for more, they hit us with three new articles, starting with a Dev Dairy from Superscooper, a new monster added, The Men of Agmar, and a description of a new area, The Tower Hills. Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

PotBS Dev Log From GDC: Pirates of the Burning Sea released another DevLog, this one from the executive producer, Rusty. He reports directly from GDC last Friday reporting on all that was going on with the team, as well as his own goals for attending: I should mention that I have a different set of goals for the conference than the other FLS folks attending GDC. Heidi, Joe, and Rick are out learning new programming techniques. Taylor is learning new ideas for game design and art. Me, I’m bizdev, short for business development. That means I’m the one who gets us new deals, third party relationships, developer support, and basically anything else that comes to us from the outside. I came to GDC with a number of meetings scheduled, and made quite a few more happen when I ran into friends or hit the Expo center. Check it. Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

SW:G Goes w/Instancing! The Star Wars: Galaxies site has word of the new Corellian Corvette adventure, consisting of event driven quests which add private adventure area's into the game for groups to take part of, going with are a details of each mission and screenies. This is all the rage! Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft Updates: The World of Warcraft site is boasting a new page for the Rogue class in game. It's a primer which also includes skills, tradeskill options, and equipment. Also, word has it Rob Pardo (possibly) posted that beta could last for another five months, which means no summer release, and no beta for j00 this week. Posted March 29 2004 by Div Devlin

AC Treasure Changes: Turbine has announced they will be making changes to treasure within Asheron's Call: The treasure system is perhaps one of the best gameplay systems in AC. It’s exciting, it’s flexible, it’s addictive, and it integrates well with other aspects of the game. But after four years and a lot of plastering, patching and mending, it was beginning to show its age. So recently we started on a multi-month project to reinvigorate the treasure system. Check it out. Posted March 26 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Screens: NCSoft released ten new screenshots yesterday for their upcoming, due for release, not in beta yet, game, City of Heroes. Included in the set are characters, cityscapes and a combat shot. All ten are found in our Gallery. Aura Manning sends a reminder to read this page, in which those who pre-order are also gauranteed a spot within beta. Posted March 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Changes Coming to DAoC: Mythic announced that they are going use the EMotion FX 2 Engine to emotionally enhance future characters within all their games. Our clients use EMotion FX 2 to improve the realism and believability of their game characters to a level that gamers have never experienced before," said John van der Burg, President of Mystic Game Development. "Since the recent release of EMotion FX 2, we have had a growing number of game developer and software tool companies license our product. In this case, we are delighted to announce that Mythic Entertainment will be using Emotion FX 2 to bring gamers an enhanced gaming experience." Check out the b00bies on the renders for the software. Meanwhile the Realm Abilites have been updated for the upcoming revamp for the the Dark Age of Camelot: Frontiers expansion. The time has come for us to unveil our proposed game plan for the new Realm Ability System. We understand that this is very important to the Camelot community and we realize that we're making some very large changes here. We welcome feedback (please consider this part of New Frontiers when you send your Herald Feedback Form), and anticipate making changes based on your analysis and your beta testing. Please, read carefully - and understand that this is just a proposal, released several weeks early for you to examine and comment upon. It's not the final document. Some of these are pretty good. Posted March 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Fallen Destiny Interview: GameBunny, who keeps going and going and... Oh, wrong bunny, but still a great read has one of the very first interviews for Spiral Game Studios' new superhero MMO - FALLEN DESTINY! I see CoH as setting the standard or laying the groundwork to bring attention to this genre and having FD come and steal the show is something I look forward to doing ...in all due respect. :) Ouch. Wonder if they will have PvP? Check it. Posted March 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment - Heavy Horses: Err... We mean Mourning. The heavy horse has made his appearance in the world of krel! Larger and able to carry greater loads than their smaller sleeker brothers , these heavy mounts will transport warriors decked out in full armor with ease! Check out your future riding companion. Posted March 26 2004 by Div Devlin

GameExpo East Coast: A new GameExpo is coming to town, over on the East Coast. GameOn NY announced their official launch set for November 11th to the 14th in which gamers can come, check out the latest games, meet with the dev's, hang with he publishers, party with the babes, get caught on TV, compete in games, and win prizes. It's going to be a big blast: Acknowledging the huge consumer appetite for interactive entertainment, GameOn NY, a division of Expo International, today announced the launch of the first-ever video game consumer show. Scheduled for November 12-14 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the show promises unprecedented consumer exposure for its sponsors and exhibitors. "With more than $11 billion in revenues in 2003(1), the interactive entertainment industry has become the entertainment choice of America. The response from high-level sponsors and publishers has been overwhelmingly positive." said Martin Currie, Director of Business Development for GameOn NY. "This event will not only allow fans to get hands on exposure to games before they hit the stores, but will also give the publishers national media exposure during the crucial holiday selling season." The expo will allow attendees to try new and unreleased video game products, engage in exciting cash and prize-based tournaments, and enjoy live music and celebrity appearances. GameOn NY is currently speaking with several broadcast media partners, as well as sponsors from the soft drink, urban apparel and music industries. Its about time we had something on the east coast! Posted March 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Lineage 2 Open Beta: NCSoft announces that open beta begins this Sunday for Lineage 2 and with a plus! NCsoft® Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games announces plans to begin open beta testing for its soon to be released online game, Lineage® II: The Chaotic Chronicle. The free open beta period will begin at 12:00 AM Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, March 28 and last approximately one month. The game is scheduled for commercial release on April 28. Here is the best part, something other MMO Games should mimic: NCsoft also announces that characters created during the open beta phase of the game will not be deleted at launch. Players can create their Lineage II characters with the assurance that they will be able to carry those characters into the commercial version of the game. Prior to launching open beta on March 28, NCsoft will delete all characters created during the initial closed beta phase of the game. This reset will allow all players to begin the open beta period on a level playing field, and to experience the game with thousands of new players in North America for the first time. Sweet. Grinding those levels have reason now. But there is more! A Contest: Those participating in the beta will also be eligible to compete in several challenges created just for the beta test. Free gaming systems, gift certificates, LCD monitors and video cards are among the prizes to be given away. Drawings and prizes will be awarded to the top 10 clans (based on clan level plus total clan member levels), the first players to reach level 20 and level 40, screenshot of the week winners and players who create the best game trailers. Become the ultimate warrior! One of the prizes they are offering is to the first player to achieve level 40 will win a gaming system from Alienware! Posted March 25 2004 by Div Devlin

UX:O Begins Beta One! A small handful (hundred) of specially invited members of the MMO Community awoke today to a suprise in their e-mail boxes, as they recieved invitations to begin outside testing for Ultima X: Odyssey. The program that I am putting together is focused on bringing together influential people, such as you, who want to play UXO, but can't stand to wait. This is a by invitation program only, and limited to a very small group of individuals. This is NOT a newsletter, there will be no canned content here. This program will present you with information in the raw, and ask for your critical feedback and opinions. If you are interested in this opportunity than please read on, otherwise please accept my apologies for this intrusion and discard this email. The insider program that I am putting together is focused on evangelists of the MMOG genre (which we've identified you being one). Attached to this email is a short survey to match you against our criteria. Since this program aims to be very hands-on we have to limit the program. The focus of this program is two-fold: 1) Gather opinions from influential members of the MMOG community & 2) Spread the word about UXO. Looks like the game will be ramping up, once they finish the move to Redwood. No email for me by the way. EDIT: I've confirmed with an EA Rep, that there were legit emails sent out to members of the MMO Community. /drool Posted March 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online Screens: The Warhammer Online site is boasting 10 new screenshots within the gallery. Over at PKer.org, Mort has chosen to nolonger follow Warhammer Online, as after all this time, nothing new is being reported on the game, other than screenshots. Are you also losing interest? Posted March 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Insanity on the WoW Forums... Interesting read from the newsgroups at comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.rpg concerning the World of Warcraft Community: Subject: Insanity on the World of Warcraft forums... I don't know how many people here may happen to read the official WoW forums: http://www.battle.net/forums/wow/board.aspx?ForumName=wow-general There is something going on there that is so insane...so RIDICULOUS, I don't know where to even start. Basically, we have a ton of spoiled kids who are practically RIOTING over the fact the Blizzard gave a beta spot to a guy who was a longstanding forum member who was very helpful to the community. Yes, I'm serious. But there is actually a TON more to it than that. This is a LONG message, but there is alot to tell you about.. And I wouldn't even be posting about it if it was just some little thing. I bring it up because it's out of control there, and I thought some people may find it interesting, or humorous, or maybe a sign of how rabid die hard Blizzard fans can be. [Read More] Full Story Posted March 25 2004 by Div Devlin

The Many Faces of Multiplayer Games. When it comes to Multiplayer Gaming, there are several varied styles of play. Everyone falls into a certain niche when in their game of choice, but just what are those play styles comprised of? There is almost no such thing today as a purely single player game, and Raidur tells us why, in this article "The Many Faces of Multiplayer Games." What are your thoughts? Posted March 24 2004 by Div Devlin

Anarchy Online Contest: Funcom is holding a contest for Anarchy Online players, in the form of Voice Packs, where you can have your voice immortalized in game as an NPC. Your chance to have your original creative voice pack become part of the game! This will be a unique opportunity to have content created by you become an official part of Anarchy Online. 13 different phrases and 7 categories increase your chances of winning. Grab a microphone and enter today! Prizes will be awarded for Winners and runner ups. Prizes include a Jobe Deluxe Apartment, a boxed set of the next Expansion for Anarchy Online, Alien Invasion poster , a limited edition new AO soundtrack and an Alien Invasion T shirt (Runner ups will also receive prizes of Jobe Deluxe Apartments). More games should do this instead of hiring our for professional voice talen, which costs money. It's a great start for broadcasters to add to their resume. Check the Rules. Posted March 24 2004 by Div Devlin

Farewell Waterthread.org The dust has settled and the fallout from another LumTheMad Legacy site, in which the community is torn asunder has come to a close. Waterthread.org is now more, after the site merged with f13.net. The community of veteran (jaded) gamers have moved on, and are now nesting over on Galt and Pops old site, CorpNews. If your looking for everyone, that's the place to be. Maybe I should just reopen the boards here? Posted March 24 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Becomes Mourning: Limitless Horizons have rebranded their game, Realms of Torment, to Mourning and have launched a new website for the game at http://www.realmsofkrel.com, which is going to be hard to remember in the future. Included are sixty screenshots from the game. Posted March 24 2004 by Div Devlin

WoW Naming Rules: Blizzard has announced their naming policy which spells dh00m for players used to Battle.Net naming conventions in World of Warcraft. So far, almost everything is common sense. Nothing on special characteristics and numbers. Posted March 24 2004 by Div Devlin

CoH Pre-Order Beta Opens: City of Heroes has an update on thier front page announcing that those who pre-orderd the game, are being activated for beta. Beginning today, the beta doors to City of Heroes are swinging open for those who've purchased pre-order boxes. Those of you who haven't snatched up your copy yet - what are you waiting for? Supplies are limited! For more information about the pre-order and a list of retailers, please check out our pre-order page, and the press release. Remember - all Pre-order customers who have registered their accounts will be invited into the beta by April 7th - so if you don't get an invite today, don't despair! So, go grab a box. Posted March 23 2004 by Div Devlin

DarkSpace EnB Refuge: Palestar is the latest (and last?) space based MMO game to offer subscribers of Earth and Beyond refuge in their game DarkSpace with a free trial. Due to the closure of Earth & Beyond, we are now extending another free trial for DarkSpace for another 2 weeks. All accounts will have full access to the game for the next two weeks starting today March 21st, until April 4th. Check em. Posted March 23 2004 by Div Devlin

Dreadflame Joins PotBS: Those of you from the Shadowbane Community, may recall Thomas "Dreadflame" Sitch, who used to be part of the team at Wolfpack Studios. Well, he has a new home over at FLying Labs, working on Pirates of the Burning Sea. He introduces himself as "Grogbeard" in his first DevLog: I've only just completed the move from Austin to Seattle, and will shortly be attempting to fill the gap in my life left by Tex-Mex and tornado chasing. The Cascades are beautiful, however, and I'm looking forward to catching up on my skiing and taking advantage of the many Bohemian aspects of the Seattle area. The great privilege, of course, is joining the august company of the folks here at Flying Lab. I'll be lending my skills, (and probably falling off the wagon on my workaholic recovery program), to one of the finest teams and most impressive studios I've ever encountered. And of course, there are PIRATES! Read More, and Give him Shout Outs! Posted March 23 2004 by Div Devlin

URU Addon: After cancelling the live portion of their game, URU: Ages Beyond Myst have announced that a new free add-on has become available for download. The URU: To D'ni expansion provides additional areas to explore, an extended storyline, bonus puzzles to solve, and added gameplay features. Posted March 23 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Island: City of Heroes has introduced a new zone to the game, based on an island. Learn more about the mysterious "Terrific Titan" and the legendary origin of Talos Island. From a grand heroic sacrifice to today’s escalating gang war, Talos Island’s history is rich in myth, financial opportunity and conflict. Check it. Posted March 22 2004 by Div Devlin

E3Expo Conference Line-Up: E3Expo for 2004 has revealed their Conference line-up which takes place May 12 to the 14th. For MMO Games: Social Systems in Online Games: Don't Build One Without It Participants: Raph Koster, Chief Creative Officer, Sony Online Entertainment; Toby Ragaini, Online Creative Director, Monolith Productions; Philip Rosedale, President and CEO, Linden Lab; Carly Staehlin, Lead Designer, Tabula Rasa, Ncsoft; Dan Scherlis, CEO, Etherplay Mapping the Future of Mass Market Online Worlds: From Niche to Mass Market Participants: Richard Garriott, Executive Producer, NCsoft; Will Harvey, Founder, There, Inc.; Won Il Suh, CEO, Nexon; Greg Thomas, President, Visual Concepts; Jessica Mulligan, Executive Producer, Turbine Entertainment Four MMOL Markets, Four Opportunities. North America, China, Europe, Japan Participants: Mickael Ivorra, Head of Business Development, Wanadoo/GOA; Mark Jacobs, President and CEO, Mythic Entertainment; Tan Junzhao, Chief Technology Officer, Shanda Network; Yooshin Park, Chief of International Business Development, WebZen; Greg Costikyan, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Unplugged, Inc Sustaining a Virtual World: What it Takes to Launch and Sustain a Profitable and Fun Persistent World Game Participants: Jeff Anderson, President and CEO, Turbine Entertainment; Daniel James, CEO, Three Rings; Starr Long, Producer, NCsoft; Rich Vogel, Vice President of Production, Sony Online Entertainment; John Welch, Vice President, Games, shockwave.com Register to attend. This week also marks the start of GDC, which none of us here are attending. Were told that for MMO Games last year was lacking, so were planning instead to do Austin in the fall. We'll be watching what other's have to say about GDC with you. Posted March 22 2004 by Div Devlin

Eve Online Offers EnB Refuge: Joining NetDevil with their announcement last week offering refuge to players of "Earth and Beyond," which EA announced was shutting down, CCP is offering players a place to keep their community intave in Eve Online, with a special. REYKJAVIK, ICELAND - CCP, in cooperation with IGN/GameSpy, is offering Earth and Beyond users an upgrade to EVE Online. This is a response to the high number of inquires and downloads CCP has received during the last 48 hours from Earth and Beyond users. These users have been forced to look elsewhere for an alternative Science Fiction Online Game after Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced it would close down Earth and Beyond at the end of summer. "We were surprised by the strong reaction this announcement has made, and the number of downloads we have received", says Magnus Bergsson, Marketing Manager at CCP. "To meet this demand we have created a special upgrade program to make it easier for these users to explore EVE Online." The upgrade program will include a no-obligation free trial of EVE Online and a walkthrough of the game by a member of the EVE volunteer group. The EVE volunteer will explain to the user the differences between the two games and ease the transition into EVE from Earth and Beyond. For more information please visit http://www.eve-online.com/enb Where will you play? Posted March 22 2004 by Div Devlin

PotBS New Ship, The Sloop: Flying Lab answers the community in Pirates of the Burning Sea, giving forum readers what they have have been asking for. A new article based on the ship, The Sloop, as it will be in game. To go along with the details are also six new screenshots from the game engine (and a desk top wallpaper, if you enjoy that!). Check it. Posted March 22 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Offers Screens: Realms of Torment, which is going to be rebranded to Realms of Krel by Limitless Horizons, offers up twenty new screenshots from the latest build within game. Everyone is falling in awe to the cave shots. Check them. Posted March 22 2004 by Div Devlin

Sigil Games Tour: Warcry goes behind the scenes at Sigil Games as they tour the studio with Brad and company, bringing Vangaurd: Saga of Heroes. When Brad logged in, the first thing he did was show me around the immediate area. He duked it out with a couple skeletons, to show me what combat was like, and ran around a bit. But that wasn't what really amazed me. What I saw was something that far out shadows anything I have seen yet. The graphics for this world are not overly-realistic, but at the same time they are more beautiful than any of the games I have seen yet. EQ2, Final Fantasy Online, and WoW don't hold a candle to Vanguard graphically in my eyes. But again, this is something you will just have to see to really understand at all. Read More. Posted March 22 2004 by Div Devlin

Bioware Hiring at GDC: Heading down to GDC, and looking for a job in the industry. Or, already have a job in the industry and looking for a new home? Be sure to check out the booth for Bioware and let them know, your exploring emplyment oppurtunites. BioWare Corp., the developer of award winning games including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and Baldur's Gate, as well as the upcoming Jade Empire, will be at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose looking for top-notch talent to join our development team! BioWare is continuing to grow, and is currently hiring for a number of new positions across a wide range of disciplines and levels including graphics programming, technical art and level/environmental art (for more information see BioWare’s webpage at http://jobs.bioware.com ). If you're interested in working on great games in a great work environment, stop by booth # 2021 at the GDC Job Fair to drop off your resume/portfolio or to discuss available positions. We look forward to seeing you there! Good Luck! Posted March 19 2004 by Div Devlin

Waterthread Assimilated: Veteran site for MMO gamers, going back to the day's of Lum the Mad with a community of jaded and cyniocal gamers who want more is dead. Borged by the F13 Network, Waterthread.org is going to become a subsite as they refocus on more than just MMO Games. Joe has made an announcment as to the changes here. The new boards for the community have already been launched. The days of old are now officially gone. The new era has begun. Posted March 19 2004 by Div Devlin

JumpGate Offers EnB Refuge: NetDevil announced their trade in program offering a refuge for folks who were part of the Earth and Beyond community who are losing thier home game this Spetember when EA shuts the game down. Trade in your Earth and Beyond disk for a free 30 day trial within the JumpGate Universe. As they write: "We are troubled to see the small online space genre losing another excellent game. At NetDevil, we're hoping that players are still looking for something different in a market saturated with fantasy games. If players want to fly a spaceship, we obviously welcome them to check out Jumpgate," commented lead programmer Josh Johnston. This offer only applies to accounts created between March 17, 2004 and October 31, 2004. For more information, see details at http://www.jossh.com/sswap. Posted March 19 2004 by Div Devlin

Saga of Ryzom Interview on Warcry: Warcry chats it up with with David Cohen Corval, CEO of Nevrax about the upcoming French MMO game, Saga of Ryzom. A snippet: #6.35 Do you foresee a struggle between the hard-core gamers and the casual players? Actually, the two will compliment each other in Ryzom. The hard core will need the casual players and the casual will need the hard core. Check it. Posted March 19 2004 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft Begins Beta: Blizzard announces that beta for World of Warcraft has begun! Emails for those who have been accepted to download the client for Phase One have been sent with download instructions. Last count to download the 2gig file was up to ten hours on DSL. Phase Two testers have also been sent an email announcing they have been picked to take part in the next stage of testing which is to begin at a later time. The folks over at Warbucket have some screenshots from the Alpha Tsting, which they took part in hosted by Blizzard. Not in beta yet? Go to Ebay and pick yourself a Beta account, going price is $100 Million. It's closed. Posted March 19 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Launch Info: To go with a nice new layout, which cause pain to those using 800x600 settings on their little 17' monitors, City of Heroes has revamped their website and released info regarding the stages of beta and how everything will occur leading up to launch: * March 22nd – Begin Adding Pre-order Customers to Beta * March 29th – Host Public Beta Sign-up * April 7th – All Pre-Order Customers Invited to Beta * April 14th – Randomly Selected Public Beta Invites Sent Out * April 22nd – Beta shutdown to prepare for Launch * April 25th – 3-Day Pre-order only Head Start * April 28th – Launch! What's pretty cool is they will allow name reservations for launch! Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Dark and Light Beta Screenies: The folks behind Dark and Light, the largest MMO Game ever, have released new screenshots from within game taken by Beta Testers, as part of a contest. Some of the shots, actually are rather awe inspring. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond Closing: Electronic Arts, after moving the Westwood team out to California last year, and with the recent announcment to close EA Austin (which was the home base for Origin/Ultima Online) has announced they are closing Earth And Beyond. From the Main Site: Earth & Beyond Says Goodbye Starting September 22, 2004, Earth & Beyond will no longer be in service. After an amazing two years of galactic adventure, Electronic Arts has made the decision to close Earth & Beyond in order to focus resources on future games. Please check your email associated with your Earth & Beyond game account for updates and more information on what this closure means to you. We hope you've enjoyed the game as much as we have and that we'll see you again in another great EA game! For more information, please visit www.enb.com. Thank you, The Earth & Beyond Team That sucks. Earth and Beyond not only has a great team behind the game, but an awesome community who we here met at GenCon Indy last year. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

EverQuest 2 Boards Live: EverQuest 2 players now have an official place to meet and discuss aspects of the game on the main site as Sony opened up the official message boards for EQ2. Actually a few good discussions taking place. Be sute to check out the new Big Movie on FilePlanet. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragons Fly In Horizons: Finally! Dragons, which were the huge point of interest before launch of Horizons from Artifact can fly! Big background story, check the update. New features for Armor dye also. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Project Entropia Land Grab: MindArk is trying something new with the first ever Virtual Land Grab within Project Entropia, that will make the UO days pale in comparison. From the press announcment: Jan Welter Timkrans, CEO of MindArk PE AB, the company responsible for the development of the three dimensional universe of Project Entropia says: "This is the first land grab since back in the "wild west" era in the United States. Everyone is invited to participate in this historic event free of charge." Anyone participating will have the chance of becoming one of the first virtual landowners in cyberspace. The land lots will vary in size from a few acres up to hundreds of acres. A landowner will have the same privileges as a landowner in the real world. He will for example be able to sell hunting and mining rights, sell lots for private houses, etc. The new land is pristine and untamed and your survival will depend on your avatar's skills, attributes and gear. So get prepared. Acres? Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Melee Combat: IGN has the latest peek up for Realms of Torment's Melee Combat System in this second part of their continued look at the game. The second thing we designed our melee combat system around was the tactical fighting concept. We wanted players to carefully plan their next combat moves. Of course, this leads to somewhat slower and longer lasting one vs. one fights, and some part of the thrill that comes from high-speed swings may have been lost, but we gladly accepted that in exchange for the fact that these tactical fights allow you to prevail even against much stronger opponents who don't know how to use their fighting skills in the proper way. Answers some of the questions about combat. Check it. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Vangaurd Saga Site Live: /snap On the fifth anniversay on EverQuest, Sigil Games officially launched their community site for Vangaurd: Saga of Heroes. The site has content as well! Some items to be found include; Game Overview (intro), Wallpapers, FAQ, Concept Art, Lore, and Message boards. Ain't that a slap in the face. Warning, site not 800x600 friendly, but you can't expect designers to code for everyone not on 10x24 19' monitors. Upgrade bastage! Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

SW:G Says, Come Back! Read Me! Sony Online wants people to come back! Back to Star Wars: Galaxies to read how things are improving within game, and what people are saying on the boards. Yes, after closing the boards last year to non-subcribers, they have reopened them to the general public. We are pleased to announce that our forums are now readable by the public. This means you shouldn't have to log in just to read the forums anymore. You will still have to log in to post as the forums are intended for the active Star Wars Galaxies community. Enjoy! Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara SWG Community Relations Manager Is this in preperation for the competetion getting ready to enter the market? While there, be sure to check out the details for the first SW:G Fan Fest. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Time of Defiance 10 Day Trial: Strategy First and Nicely Crafted Entertainment are giving folks 10 days to check out Time of Defiance, their Massively Multiplayer Online-only RTS title. The demo if a fully featured version too! Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

UO Transfer Service Live: EA has announced that their character transfer service (something they calimed for years could not be done) within Ultima Online has gone live. Moving Day has Arrived…Character Transfer Now Available! Character Transfer is now available on four shards! We’ve started the test roll-out of Character Transfer on four shards: Atlantic, Lake Superior, Napa Valley, and Pacific. At the successful conclusion of the testing period (in about two weeks), the program will expand to all shards worldwide, excluding Siege Perilous and Mugen. Visit http://www.uogamecodes.com/ to learn how you can move one or more characters from one of the initial test shards listed above to another of the chosen shards for only $19.99. Too late now though for me, and many others. Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft Community Site: Moving away from the /wow site under Blizzard, the World of Warcraft community finally has a site of their own, worthy of a being considered an MMO game. Kat has also posted about the prep for Beta, which is... "right around the corner." Posted March 17 2004 by Div Devlin

Anarchy Online and Alienware: Funcom announces a partnership with Alienware for Anarchy Online. Mega Gaming begins@ Funcom and Alienware Corporation have agreed to form a strategic partnership, benefiting both companies in their aim to be market leaders in their respective fields. Alienware PCs are known amongst gamers as the "Ultimate Gaming Machines" and Anarchy Online has been called "The Greatest MMORPG on the market". The synergy between the companies is obvious, and both companies foresee a longer term relationship developing. The first step of the partnership will see mutually beneficial marketing activities running through September of 2004. ... The first effects of the newly formed partnership will be seen with the critically acclaimed and award-winning Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) 'Anarchy Online'. Under terms of the deal, "Anarchy Online - Alien Invasion", which is set for release this summer, will be developed and presented on Alienware PCs. This enables Funcom to further increase the quality of their multi award-winning sci-fi saga. Additionally Funcom will for the first time introduce product placement in Anarchy Online, as well as sporting "Developed on Alienware" on the retail box and on various marketing material. Further aspects of the partnership will be seen throughout the year. Of note in the press release is that Funcom will begin in game advertising of Alienware products: Additionally Funcom will for the first time introduce product placement in Anarchy Online This would be the first comercially available game advertising in such a way. Ultimate Baseball Online, another MMO game is setting up their game to support product placement also. Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

As The Market Turns: On a Friday! I'll Give You One Million Dollars A Gal over in Georgia, shopping at Wal-Mart was arrested for passing the cashier a One Million Dollar bill to purchase her goods. Activision Sued Activision is being hit with a Class Action Lawsuit. "The complaint alleges that as part of their effort to boost the price of Activision stock, defendants misrepresented Activision's true prospects in an effort to conceal Activision's improper acts until they were able to sell at least $483 million worth of their own Activision stock, including a $250 million secondary offering by the Company." Activisons response. Climax Hiring Climax, the folks behind Warhammer Online are currently hiring folks for thier LA Studio which opened earlier this year. Interplay Sues BattleBorne Interplay has filed a lawsuit against BattleBorne for terminating a contract, "without cause," for the game Airborne that they were going to develop jointly. PayPal Gets Fined Expect PayPal to be increasing their rates soon as they get fined $150,000 by the State of New York, after misrepresenting to consumers its policy on repayment when merchandise doesn't arrive, the state attorney general said. Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Dev Diary: Dragon Empires has a new Dev Diary up about "Quest Making." Questing is not just about camping a mob for the uber drop, it's so much more. For example one of the simple quests we have created sees the player trying to collect tax off three old ladies in three different houses. The quest gives you many choices in how you complete it. One old lady tries to bribe you, another to blackmail you, and all of this is just within one town with a minimum of travelling. Check it. Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Logan's Run Remake/WoT Movie! First they screwed up Planet of the Apes. Then they changed the story for BattleStar Galactica. Now, they are doing a remake of another classic, Logan's Run. X-MEN director Bryan Singer has agreed to helm a remake of LOGAN'S RUN, with MATRIX producer Joel Silver collaborating with Singer. Singer is going back to the original source material, that being the novel by William Nolan, for a new take on the concept of a future uptopia society where no one ever grows old because they are killed. In other film news, Red Eagle Entertainment has optioned worldwide feature-film rights to Robert Jordan's 11-book fantasy series The Wheel of Time. Red Eagle will work on producing an adaptation of the first novel, The Eye of the World, with others to follow. Eye of the World begins when villagers of Emond's Field are attacked by minions of a force known as the Dark One, forcing three young men to confront their destiny and begin a quest. So, it begins. Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle-Earth Online Team Letter: Middle-Earth Online has a new letter from the team for March. Inside they talk about those nasty mobs that others call "monsters." Each monster is either drawn directly from the books or is inspired by The Lord of the Rings™ lore. The art team has lavished attention on every phase of the monster design, from the initial concept art to the final animations. At each stage the designs are reviewed by our dedicated Tolkien experts, and the result is a menagerie of beautifully ugly, scary, and above all, Tolkien monsters. Give it a read. Three new screenshots also appear on the site, to show you around the towns. Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Sigil Teases Us With Website: Old news already. Sigil Games has put up a website which has a teaser intro trailer to something for their upcoming game, Vanguard Saga. I don't get it. An immortal vampire who is quested by a god to become a hero and saviour? Tell me what you think! Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Evocare Leaves Ultima for WoW? Another person has left the house of EA in Austin. This time it's Tom "Evocare" Chilton whom all vet's of Ultima Online remember. Word has it that he has joined the World of Warcraft team working as a Senior Level Designer. With Evocare in the house, it maybe worth revisiting the PvP aspects to WoW. Posted March 12 2004 by Div Devlin

Dransik Now Closed: Jacob Hawley, CEO of TKO Software, Inc. announced on the Ashen Empires site, that Dransik is now officially gone. During the past few years Dransik Classic has engaged your senses and enriched your fun on the internet. Dransik Classic's founders, led by Jason Ely and Doug Gessler, have worked very hard with us here at TKO Software to make the Dransik Classic game available, but with great difficulty we relay the following decision. TKO Software, publishers of Dransik Classic, have decided to discontinue Dransik Classic, effective today. We came to this decision after much consideration and with great reluctance, as the Dransik Classic game is our original MMORPG. However, for the past couple of years, AsylumSoft has worked very hard to make the subscriber base grow and unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, it has not. We recognize that MMORPGs have changed over the years, and we know that there are other good games out there to play. We invite Dransik Classic users to Ashen Empires. All of us at TKO Software greatly appreciate your support and participation in the Dransik Classic community. In addition, we are grateful for the kindness and enthusiasm that has been extended to all of us by so many of you. Jason Ely joins me along with the rest of the TKO team in wishing you well in your online adventures. Ashen Empires is still free to Beta Test with a downloadable client. Posted March 9 2004 by Div Devlin

Horizons State of the Game: Steve Snow, the Producer for Horizons: Empire of Istaria has a new "State of the Game" address up on the main site. It's a pretty detailed page worth of info talking about current and future plans. We have been drilling into the client and locating high impact issues within the code. We've managed to locate a few optimizations that have really increased client performance significantly, especially in combat situations. One of these fixes adjusts the way floating numbers look. Players will start to see a better feedback loop on floating numbers and they will draw every time as opposed to occasionally getting backlogged. It's important to note that we are not stopping there. We have set aside a large block of time, extending out to May, to correct a lot of the idiosyncrasies in some of the existing systems in the client. Two systems that are currently being focused on are Combat and Community Building. As the next three months go by, players will start to see fixes and optimizations rolled out two these two systems on a technical side. Check it. Posted March 9 2004 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Updates: Ubi Soft has placed several new updates on the Chronicle of Strife for Shadowbane, which has mades it's way to the test servers. Of note, in the upcoming patch are the "Divine Favor" features and race/class adjustments for the storyline of the gods. New lore from Meridian, A New Zone, and New Disciplines. Besure to check out the latest edition of the Shadowbane comic as well. These just keep getting better all the time. The artist rocks. Posted March 9 2004 by Div Devlin

Sigil Games Adds Another: Sigil Games is beginning to look like 989 Studios. Another original team member from EverQuest has joined Brad McQuaid to Work on Sigil's Next Generation Massively Multiplayer Game for Microsoft. Sigil Games Online, Inc. today announced that Mike Hutchins, one of the first game designers/level builders assigned to the original "EverQuest" team and builder of zones like Solusek A& B, Mistmoore, Neriak, and the Hole, has accepted the position of Senior Designer with the company. "It's great to be working with Hutch again," said Brad McQuaid, President and CEO of Sigil Games Online. "With all of these old school EQ team members joining Sigil, this place feels more and more like home everyday." Mike began his career as a World Builder for the original "EverQuest" in 1997. Over the course of his career, he has held the positions Senior Game Designer, Assistant Producer and Lead Systems Designer on games such as "EverQuest," "EQ: Ruins of Kunark," "EverQuest 2," "Earth & Beyond" and "Ultima X: Odyssey." "I am looking forward to working on this project with Brad and the rest of the team," said Hutchins. Another UX:O Team Member Gone? Welcome "home" to Mike! Posted March 9 2004 by Div Devlin

WoW's New Movie: Released last Friday night, Blizzard unleashed the anxiously awaited new movie for World of Warcraft, which is a four minute sneak peek showcasing some of the work-in-progress, giving folks the chance to see the stages of a movie in development. Requires the DivX Codec. Posted March 9 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Power Update: Three new powers made their way onto the City of Heroes website for the Defender, Scrapper, and Blaster arch-types. Screenshots to go along. Also, be sure to check out the Contest Page, for a chance to get into beta. Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

Community News: Beyond Divinity Demo The demo of Beyond Divinity is publicly available in both German and English. The demo's size is 168 Mb and is available from a list of mirrors. Check the main site for more! Fallen Earth GameBunny and MMOWorlds/Mondes Persisants both have interviews> with James Hettinger, the CEO of Icarus Studios on the "post-collapse" MMO in-the-making. Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Newsletter: Codemasters released their latest issue of the weekly newsletter for Dragon Empires, in which they tell readers that the game is progressing nicely. New content is being added almost daily. The new interface is in and working and it is a real treat to use, monsters are more active, quest NPCs and the first test quests are in and working and market NPCs are being created and placed. Another letter from Gadsolme is presented in which is presented a recording of his first time hunting in the wilds of Fortitude. Moving through the temperate forests of the Redwing Empire we stalked a creature that I had never seen before the event and one I have never seen since... Check it. Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

Horizons Players Unlock Race: Players within Artifact Entertainment's MMO Game, Horizons: Empires of Istaria have made a gaming first, in which players unlocked a new race through their actions. In a first for a Massively Multiplayer online game, the actions of players have resulted in an entirely new playable race for Horizons: Empire of Istaria. The event, which was started upon release of the game in December, was an epic achievement to free the race from their subjugation from the undead hordes of the Withered Aegis. Through questing and battling mobs, players unlocked the Satyr race. Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment To Change Name: Limitless Horizons announced on their message boards that they will be changing the name for "Realms of Torment" due to trademark issues. A new website and a new name will be launching in the next couple of weeks. The new name has yet to be revealed, while speculation mounts. Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

The Matrix Online Spies: The Matrix Online released new info about Spy Abilities. Spy Abilities "I think I'd like a stealth ability where you can hide yourself in code, if you will. Makes it harder for agents to track you and easier to sneak up on people." --LohanCrossSubterfuge, misdirection, espionage...this is the focus of the Spy Ability Tree. A character with Spy abilities can sneak past the guards, disable the security system, crack open the vault, disguise themselves as an office worker, and then walk out the front door. Oh and if they need to, they can perform devastating sneak attacks. As if this wasn't enough, the Spy abilities also include "Tap Data Node." Some of you might recall reading about this in my previous article on non-combat game play options. Spies are the masters of Information gathering, and tapping Data Nodes is the single fastest way to acquire it. Lets take a look at some specific Spy abilities... Full Story Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: IGN/GameSpy Merger Creates One of the Internet's Largest Game and Entertainment-Focused Media and Services Companies IGN/GameSpy announced completion of the merger of IGN Entertainment and GameSpy Industries, creating one of the Internet's largest game and entertainment-focused media and services companies. The combined properties of the new company offer advertisers access to the highest concentrations of 18-24 and 18-34 year-old males online(1), providing a solution to reaching these key demographic constituencies whose use of television has declined sharply in recent years. Full Story Posted March 7 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultima X: Odyssey Team Leaves! Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna, Lead Designer for Ultima X: Odyssey has left the building, and employ of Origin. With the recent announcment that EA was shutting down the Austin Offices and relocating the teams to California, Calandryll has posted his farewell letter on Stratics: Over the past five years I've written countless posts, but this one is by far the most difficult as it will be my last as a developer for UXO. Today was my last day at Origin Systems. It's been a great ride filled with wonderful memories and unforgettable experiences, but all good things must come to an end. While the decision to close OSI certainly pains me, my reasons for deciding to stay in Austin are mostly of the personal kind and I leave happy to know that UXO's development will continue. I know for the most part that I have written the majority of developer posts here, but I want you all to know that there is a great team of designers, programmers, artists, world builders, marketing professionals, and executives behind UXO. Without their tireless work I literally wouldn't have anything to post about. I've had the privilege to work alongside some of the most talented people in the industry and I hope wherever my travels take me next I get the chance to work with them again someday. I don't really have much else to say, other than I'm sorry, and to say thank you. Thank you for all of your support over the years, both towards UO and UXO. Thank you for letting us into your lives and for believing in us. Thank you for taking the time to read our posts, designer diaries, and interviews. And most importantly, thank you for your participation on the boards, e-mails, and IRC chats helping us create and improve these games. I also want to say thank you to the website operators and moderators for all of their wonderful support for UXO. I consider myself truly blessed to have had the opportunity to share UXO's development with all of you. I look forward to the time when I can share whatever I work on next. Until then, take care and thank you again. -Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna Joining Calandryll in his departure from Origin's is, Senior Producer, Rick "Stellerx" Hall, and Amy "Morgaine" Sage. We wish them all well, in look forward to their next role where ever it may be. Posted March 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Turbine's AC and AC2 Changes: Turbine announces that they have officially taken over complete responsibilty for for customer, in-game and technical support for Asheron's Call. "Taking over customer service for the Asheron's Call games is a big step in Turbine's transition from a game developer to a provider of online subscription entertainment. However, it is not just a great move for Turbine, but for the players who subscribe to our games as well," said Mike Hogan, executive director of the Online Services Group, Turbine Entertainment Software. "We're excited to begin providing in-game support for the multitude of AC subscribers. It's a testament to Turbine's commitment to the franchise and our fans." Asheron's Call 2 will be offering a download for those who have not seen the latest changes and fixes to the game via FilePlanet, shortly. Announced early, the paperwork between Turbine and FilePlanet has not been finalized yet. Posted March 5 2004 by Div Devlin

EB Games Enters Hall of Shame: This is an old article I missed which appeared in Feburary on ABC Action News. According to the report, EBGames purchased stolen games, got caught breaking a state law which requires them to hold any products they purchase for 15 days before reselling. A thief stole games from his neighbor, sold them to EBGames, confessed he stole them, and was arrested. The victim attempted to gain her possesions back, but EBGames could only sell them back, at a higher cost for what they paid the thief. Check it. Posted March 5 2004 by Div Devlin

DAoC Andred Server Closed: Today marks the day that the Andred server is no more within Dark Age of Camelot. As announced on the Herald, if characters were not moved to other servers prior to today, it's too late as the data is gone. Don't send in appeals to the CSR folks, there is nada they can do. Posted March 5 2004 by Div Devlin

PotBS Updates! Several updates from FlyingLabs on Pirates of the Burning Sea. Kikcing it off, is a new article on the Longboat, with screenshots to go with. And, Misha tossed out a Dev Log on how automation is used to test the game. Posted March 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultimate Baseball Online Open Beta: Netamin announced that they are getting ready to launch open beta for Ultimate Baseball Online, which brings one of the great American past-times to your PC. Playing Baseball. U.S.-based Netamin Corp. announced a limited one-time open enrollment opportunity for this year's hottest and most anticipated Massive Multiplayer Online Sports Game (MMOSG) of its kind -- Ultimate Baseball Online (UBO) Beta Player Program. As part of this program, Netamin is offering free large-scale sneak peeks and trials of the beta version of UBO. This penultimate phase of the game's development marks the culmination of several years of gaming technology development. Once the UBO Beta Player Program is complete, UBO will roll-out in its full commercial format, anticipated to launch concurrently with this year's Major League Baseball season. I've messed around with the game, and it's addictive. Instead of fragging other guilds, I can see Guild Vs. Guild Baseball Games taking off. Never Know. Posted March 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Valkyrie Becomes CoverGirl: You know her from the Shadowbane Community. She has been named the Sexiest Gamer in the US, by GamerTV. Now she's making her appearance in this months issue of EGM Magazine. Electronic Gaming Monthly has a twelve question interview with her and what it took to become named the sexiest gamer grll. Cover Pic. Article Pic. Were going to interview her, on the interview! And I still remember when she was just a fan grrl. Posted March 2 2004 by Div Devlin

YummiSoft Launches: TerraForge, Inc., creators of the platform-independent Asgard Gaming Community (AGC), is inviting the public to test its new web portal called Yummisoft.com which is scheduled to go live on April 1, 2004. The Yummisoft.com web portal offers a wide range of functionality including a searchable gaming magazine (articles, reviews, comics), a searchable database of thousands of video games (information, downloads, walkthroughs, maps, hints), playable MMO games, real-time live industry news feeds, email, forums, guilds, personal pages, chat, and a shopping system for all gaming needs - all with the security of a Parental Control System. They already have a two-part audio interview with Gabe and Tycho from Penny-Arcade up. Check em! Posted March 2 2004 by Div Devlin

GamerTV Seeks TV Personalites: Gamer.tv announced the launch of a nationwide search for two new TV presenters to front an all-new computer and videogames TV show. The TV presenters - one male and one female - will need to be all-round gaming superstars, know their Lara Crofts from their Solid Snakes and be able to hold their own under the hot lights and high pressure of a lively TV studio. Applicants for this opportunity of a lifetime will have naturally effervescent personalities and an enthusiastic greed for all things computer and video gaming. Previous TV presenting experience is not necessarily needed. The new computer and video games TV show will be both entertaining and totally credible. Full details of the format will be released in due course. If you think you have what it takes to become a Gamer.tv star, or you know someone who you think has the talent, please contact presenters@gamer.tv. Posted March 2 2004 by Div Devlin

Lineage 2 Beta Accts Active: Still not in the beta for Lineage II? Well now is your chance. Run over to Best Buy or EBGames, pre-order the game, get the pre-order key from the disk, and download the game! From the official website: On Friday, Feb. 27th at 6:00pm PST, Bonus CD purchasers who have created PlayNC accounts will be allowed access into the Lineage II Closed Beta test program! If you have purchased a Bonus CD, you will need to find the serial key provided to you on the back of the Bonus CD case and create a Lineage II account at PlayNC.com. After you have successfully created an account and downloaded the game from our website, you will be able to access the game. Congrats to all the Bonus CD owners and have fun! If the game sucks, you can always cancel the pre-order before the game goes live! Posted March 2 2004 by Div Devlin

UBI pwns Wolfpack Studios: The Press Release: Ubisoft, one of the world's largest videogame publishers, today announced the acquisition of Austin-based Wolfpack Studios, the developer of Shadowbane. The critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online (MMO) game for the PC and Mac platforms and its recently launched expansion pack, Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos, are operated and supported by Ubisoft's online gaming division, ubi.com, which is among the top five gaming portals in the world. "We are one of the few publishers to operate MMOs in the US, Europe and Asia," said Gilles Langourieux, Managing Director of Ubi.com. "The acquisition of Wolfpack takes our strategy in the MMO segment one step further as it strengthens our internal expertise and it will allow us to develop quality content under our own brands, which we feel is critical to succeed in the long run." "Shadowbane was the first online game of its kind to combine immersive role-playing with deep strategic elements such as city management, army creation, siege warfare, and economic development," said Frank Lucero, Shadowbane's producer. "We're thrilled to have the opportunity to join Ubisoft's renowned studios and evolve Shadowbane's compelling gameplay into the future." The Wolfpack team will continue to create ongoing content for Shadowbane: The Rise of Chaos from their Austin studio. Much of the game's critical acclaim is for having expanded the MMO category into uncharted territory. Shadowbane is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB and more information can be found on Shadowbane.com and on the official community site, The Chronicle of Strife: chronicle.ubi.com. Posted March 2 2004 by Div Devlin