Shadowbane Round Up: Our contest continues. It end's tommorrow be sure you are aware of the rules and then submit your entry. Good Luck! There is a new journal up on the Official Site, a Bards Tale titled "The Ballad of Grimward!" For those who did the pre-order thang, the Promo CD's are available, Vosx clarified that Beta Clients were not included.! (Thanks SBWarCry) Posted August 31 2002 by Div Devlin

NwN blossoms with stuph: NwN sends word that BioWare Corp. is pleased to announce gamers can now download over 1000 user-created modules for the hit PC game, Neverwinter Nights. These custom modules are available through the title’s various fan websites, and a listing of the top-rated modules and fan websites can be found at BioWare Corp.’s Neverwinter Nights Community Site at http://nwn.bioware.com. In an effort to further support the massive community behind Neverwinter Nights, the BioWare Live Team has begun profiling many of the best user-created modules on the Neverwinter Nights Community Site. Just when I think I'm about to finish this game, there is more! They also are starting a beta test for guild registries: NWN Guilds and Registry System BETA An upcoming Guilds and Registry section of the Neverwinter Nights site will allow registered players to find other like-minded players, find servers to play on, create and join guilds complete with your own private guild forums, news, and more! The first 500 registered NWN game owners to visit the Guilds and Registry page will be entered in the BETA to test this new system. The End. Thank you for reading. Go play. Posted August 31 2002 by Div Devlin

Ballerium Interview: Gamerz brain sends word they have an interview up with Eyal Netanel. A snippit: Keeping players from dying when offline is only one of the many problems Artificial Intelligence solves. In fact, it is there to solve a much larger problem that players of MMP(Massively Multiplayer Persistent) games keep complaining about, and I’m talking about situations like sudden disconnections from the game that are still happening from time to time. In some MMP RPGs the player’s character simply disappears from the world causing frustration to at least one side. In other games the character freezes and becomes vulnerable to death. Check it. Posted August 31 2002 by Div Devlin

EnB at GameCenters around town: Westwood Studios(tm) announced today it's teamed with iGames(tm), a national organization of PC game centers, to open the public test of Earth & Beyond(tm) to more than 50 centers around the country. Earth & Beyond, the first online role-playing galaxy, will be published by Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) under the EA GAMES(tm) brand this fall. Today, more than 50 iGames centers will host simultaneous preview parties of Earth & Beyond, giving all attendees a chance to play in the public test before the game is released. For a full listing of the iGames centers that will be hosting the events, and to register to attend one of the parties, visit: http://www.igames.org/Events.asp?Event=608 Discuss: If anyone made it, fill us in. Posted August 31 2002 by Div Devlin

UO Housing Update Postponed: Cut and Pasted: The updating of houses owned by single-house owning accounts to Primary House status (previously mentioned here) has been postponed. Barring any issues, our current plan is to instead initiate this automated change beginning on Saturday. Over the course of the day, accounts that only own one house will have those houses automatically set as "Primary Houses." One-house owning players should begin to see this change following each shard's respective morning maintenance periods, local server time, beginning Saturday, August 31, 2002 CDT.(Please note that this does not also delay the implementation of Housing's Phase 3, still scheduled for Tuesday, September 3, 2002 CDT.) The End. Posted August 31 2002 by Div Devlin

Developers Blow Gaming Sites? According to Unknown Player staff writers, that's how it appears. All developers need to do, to stay within the good graces of the UnknownPlayer gaming site is give blow jobs according to this chat log posted by Rokin on Aerynth.com. I do have to toss in this quote that was stated several times: "yea, unless we are trying to bribe them into blowing us some more..." - Sarcerok The log details the discussions on the forcing of Ubi Soft's Chris "Vosx" Mancil to play ball with UP or they would go public with a hissy fit regarding the recent dead horse article about independent site writers being in a closed Beta Program for Shadowbane. Publishing game reports and getting paid for it, or some such thing. Hedron placed a rebuttal to the article that I still agree with where he issued the proclamation that "You are all Idiots." Meanwhile, Simeron has an article up on SBV worth a read. Oh, and UnknownPlayer.com is going to hold a developer chat today. The subject being, "Supporting Online Communities with out Showing Favoritism". Guest's to include: Sanya Thomas from Mythic, Sean Dahlberg from Wolfpack, Brian Crowder from Sony, and Amy Sage from Origin. No mention of blowjobs as of yet. Update: In an uncanny twist of fate, after a battle of chest thumping between UnknownPlayer.com and Aerynth.com, the latter site removed the original log of a private chat meeting that occurred between UnknownPlayer.com staff members and issued an apology, shortly after incorrect interpretations of Unknown Player threatening a lawsuit. Meanwhile, after several email exchanges between this site and UnknownPlayer.com, Unknown Player himself defended the actions of the staff writer in question quoted above in this article. UP.com has since removed the original threat from their front page with the explanation of said staff member being, "these chats are not "politically correct" and we never tried to make/enforce any rules." End of story? It probably couldn't have got lamer. Let's hope so. Discuss: Kidnap this 'NEW' thread on Aerynth.com Posted August 29 2002 by Div Devlin

DE Reverse Q&A: Dragon Empires' Peter Tyson bug's the hell out of Mystery from Massive MultiPlayer.org in a reverse Q&A session in which, like.. Questions are asked, and answered. There are no, "No comments at this time," within. Check it. Posted August 29 2002 by Div Devlin

UO Housing Phases: Phase 2 of Publish 16's new housing rules is nearing completion and Phase 3, the final phase of the housing changes, will soon become active on all shards. Some includes: - House Claiming: As Phase 3 begins, on Tuesday, September 3, 2002 CDT, players will no longer be able to claim houses owned by inactive accounts. - Inactive Accounts & Condemned Houses: Also as Phase 3 begins, any house owned by an inactive account will become listed as Condemned, will not be able to be refreshed, and will decay within about 5 days. Note: The 10-day "not yet Condemned" grace period for houses of inactive accounts will be implemented at the start of Phase 3. Check the full changes on the FYI page. Posted August 29 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Round-Up: The contest we are hosting continues. A new War Journal has been posted by Waylander. The Shadowbane Pre-Order CD's have shipped. Did you pre-order your's? Posted August 29 2002 by Div Devlin

AC2 Beta Site Opens: The new AC2 beta site has opened. Much whine and grief can be heard from the testing community in recent days. Not that it matters the game is in beta after all. Posted August 29 2002 by Div Devlin

We are running a contest? I guess we are. They say that Shadowbane consists of players that only know how to PvP. Some of the best role-players who enjoy PvP are going to be part of Shadowbane. They can prove it. Not that they have to. So, we are holding a role-play contest just to prove everyone wrong. We are even going to give out prizes! Rules and Stuff. Entries Only G'Luck. Posted August 27 2002 by Div Devlin

Week Inside: Earth and Beyond released the new "Glimpse Inside Article." This week's article features another winner from the recent fan fiction contest. Posted August 27 2002 by Div Devlin

A New Survey: Ok, we have a new survey up. Top five answers on the board. We want to know what the general feelings in the community are when it comes to sci-fi spaced games. With the upcoming themed games breaking away from traditional fantasy focus, if you go which of these big hitters are you going to call home? Note, that this survey is just for a feel of our readers and their view. Results from our last survey in which we asked, "What was your most enjoyable moment in DAoC?" are: - Exploring new lands! 10 votes 4.50 % - Reaching 10th Level! 2 votes 0.90% - Reaching 20th Level! 2 votes 0.90% - Entering into RvR! 39 votes 17.57% - Reaching 40th Level! 6 votes 2.70% - I'm still enjoying it! 17 votes 7.66% - When I canceled my account! 146 votes 65.77% For a TOTAL of 222 votes A lot people quit, that I know of with returns to UO or heading off to AC Beta II. That hurts. Posted August 27 2002 by Div Devlin

NwN does the patch thing: Word came down yesterday (Sorry I was busy playing NwN) that NwN has a new patch. In this patch we've addressed a number of significant concerns that user's have reported to us over the past few weeks, including: - We have removed SecureROM disk checking. - Optimized some multiplayer code for modem/high-ping users. - Added new Toolset Wizards. See below for details. - Improved overall game stability. - Added the option "Supress Base Servervault" to prevent listing characters in the root of a Server Vault - Added code to handle bad save game data properly. - Invalid Character bug in Server Vault is fixed (ICB Bug). - More DM Client fixes for possesion, factions, and crashes. As they tell, there is more to this patch with full disclosure (spy theme music) in the patch notes. Posted August 27 2002 by Div Devlin

A Free Castle! Ok, this is sure to piss everyone off who ever played or does play UO. It's been going on for a few weeks now, and I just missed it. Your chance to win a castle in UO is quickly coming to an end! Every friend you refer to UO who lists you as their buddy earns both of you an entry into the UO Buddy Castle Promotion. But hurry, this promotion ends October 21st! They really are giving away a castle to each shard in random drawings if you can convince someone you know to join (rejoin?) Ultima Online. Read about it. Discuss: Where are they going to place these castles? Posted August 27 2002 by Div Devlin

When Boredom Set's in... So this weekend I was bored out of mind. I decided I would load up this AC2 Beta disk I have sitting here. I thought I was running a Pentium 800 system. The minimum system requirements are a Pentium 733. I have a Pentium 600 it turns out. I decided to teach my daughter how to play Risk. She is eleven. She will be twelve. That's about the right age? I spent twenty minutes going over strategies so as not to bore her. Cover how important it is to grab control of a continent early. Create buffer zones. Ensure you get a card each turn. Block other countries. We played for an hour. She had Australia. She won. Good game. Discuss: Sucks to be me! Posted August 26 2002 by Div Devlin

An open letter to Wolfpack... ... and the rest of the PvP Community, can be found over on WaterThread where Joe has decided to post his, "long time and semi-official opinion and view on the topic of a PvP centered game." In which he writes: PvP suffers in American markets because PvP doesn't work in games where character building is a long process. It took me about six months to get my character in UO to a point where he could combat with people on an even playing field, and another two or three to learn all the tricks and intricacies of the playstyle. Most people aren't willing to dedicate that amount of time to a game. Shit, even I'm not anymore. Read his mini-rant or invade his forums and talk about it. Posted August 26 2002 by Div Devlin

Faction Earth News: Kyleron Barons from Faction Earth, the near-future MMORPG, has announced the conclusion of Beta 2 and that the public release will take place the week of August 26th. For more information please visit www.FactionEarth.com Faction Earth is a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in the corporate mega-cities of Earth in the year 2125. This world, behind the sanitized corporate façade, is one of corporate wars, industrial espionage, super-hackers, mastery of newly discovered magic, battling factions, and a constant struggle of humanity against its own genetic creations gone awry. Posted August 26 2002 by Div Devlin

Ballerium Updates: Arcadian DelSol (The Man with the Hat) has posted a DEV-Speak article featuring Eyal Netanel, Lead Designer for the upcoming online strategy game 'Ballerium'. In the article, Eyal discusses the forming of Majorem Ltd. and the process of working to bring Ballerium to the market. You can read that here. Meanwhile, A sampling of musical pieces from Majorem's upcoming massively multiplayer strategy game 'Ballerium' is now available for download on the official Ballerium website. To have a listen, please visit http://www.ballerium.com and click on the Download section of the website. Discuss: Does anyone know anything about this game? Posted August 26 2002 by Div Devlin

Earth & Beyond Mega Patch! Earth and Beyond unleashed a mega patch as well as a Press Release to go with it. Highlights include: - A major expansion to the game's audio and dialogue library with new character voices, music, ambient space effects, radio chatter, and sounds inside the starbases. - Group interface improvements, including more robust cooperative targeting features. - New in-game characters, along with new dialogue for many existing in-game characters. - New in-game enemies and items. - Enhanced tool tips for many of the interface buttons. - Graphical enhancements throughout the galaxy. - Phase one of a new guild interface. - Several bug fixes and balancing tweaks. Earth & Beyond is the world's first online role-playing galaxy. Players star in their own sci-fi epic as they become the captains of their own starships, and explore, trade and fight with thousands of others. As the struggle to colonize the stars unfolds, players will determine the fate of humanity and the course of the galaxy. Posted August 26 2002 by Div Devlin

That Bane Thing! Continuing in our Post GenCon '02 coverage we take a break from the norm as we await the submission's from our other writers (send me in your stuph) we move to that game Shadowbane! Zelnik from Ubi Soft promised me last year that this GenCon Shadowbane would have a huge showing, and he did not disappoint. Armed with a Vosx and two Wolfpacker's they had a huge showing for Shadowbane. We looked, we liked and as if it was the 4th of July with fireworks overhead we went “Ohh, Ahhh!” Here is our GenCon '02 at Shadowbane as well as a two-part interview with Chris “Vosx” Mancil on the game today. Check it. Posted August 23 2002 by Div Devlin

World release or not? Confusion arises on just where the servers and game will be for those of Eve-Online. Campion posted the following on the Eve boards: Now about the servers. The plan is for the initial server cluster to be based in London, England, on the backbone of the internet there. There is a very new fiber optic pipeline laid from the east coast of the US to London (thanks Global Crossing!) which is 1 hop. The beta will be run off these servers. During the beta/stress test phase, we will test the connection to ensure in-game performance is adequate. Should performance fall under what we consider acceptable, we have a backup plan to locate the server cluster on the east coast of the US. That should settle that! Read the full message. (Thanks EveGate) Posted August 23 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane updates galore: Take a day off, and all kinds of updates occur. - Meridian speaks on Church Symbolism - Guide Zoe returns with comics - Waylander gives a new War Journal - Ren Keenblade answers "The Call of Saedron" generating a Priest character. All of it great reading material! Posted August 23 2002 by Div Devlin

Role-Reversal: Steve Jackson Games, the makers of the generic role-playing game system G.U.R.P.S (which is an old time love/hate game with guides for any gaming genre) system announced they were bringing the G.U.R.P's universe to the MMO market. Similar in the way EQ invaded the D20 market. I knew there were people I missed at GenCon! This press release gives the full skinny. Posted August 23 2002 by Div Devlin

Let's break a few laws! By now everyone has heard that UnknownPlayer is running a contest that is giving away a Free Computer in a Random drawing, where the only thing the winner needs to do is, pay for shipping. The contest is also open to anyone in the world. I've asked around, and it turns out that this contest is illegal as, "the illegal part is that they require the winner to pay shipping and handling to claim the prize. That's a no-no." It's not just laws in the United States they are breaking, but they are breaking International Laws as well. You can not have a Fee. By having the winner cover shipping, that makes it fee based even if it is a random drawing. Then, in some countries winners need to pay a tax (or so I'm told). But, I'm not a laywer so good luck to all. Posted August 23 2002 by Div Devlin

AC2 Beta Signup's If you missed your chance to get an AC2 beta account at GenCon, you have another chance as this announcement released Monday on the AC site says, for 1000 lucky players, "Here is your chance!" The AC2 Beta is currently underway! AC2 has not yet entered the Open Beta public phase, so the vast majority of Beta participants remain AC1 and AC Dark Majesty players. However, we wanted to offer 1000 other lucky gamers the chance to join now. The world of AC2 is an exciting place, and here's your chance to take part! From August 19 to September 3rd, 2002, you can enter the AC2 Beta CD Sign-up for your chance to join the AC2 Beta. Note that this is an open contest--anyone may enter, anyone may win! To enter, go to the CD Sign-Up page, and sign in using your Microsoft Passport information. Winners will be announced on September 6th. G'luck! Posted August 21 2002 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Beta info: City of Heroes has released info on when to expect beta. We are going to ruin it for you. Not until next year. As they write: Opportunities will begin appearing in the next 5-7 months! While internal testing on City of Heroes has already begun, the game’s ‘open beta’ period is currently scheduled to begin at some point during First Quarter 2003 (January - March). In the event we require public participation prior to 2003, involvement will be limited and invitation-only. We’ll begin announcing participation details closer to 2003, and in the meantime we want to thank everyone for their enthusiasm and excitement as we move forward into the final development stages of the game. You are invited to hang out on their boards while you wait. Did they change the name and logo so it's correct now? Posted August 21 2002 by Div Devlin

Ebay purchase of Paypal (cont.) The purchase of Paypal by Ebay was has cleared it's first major hurdle as regulators passed on it. Though the $1.4 billion deal has cleared one hurdle, it still must be approved by PayPal shareholders and other regulators, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove said Tuesday. Since the shareholders are going to get a lot of cash out of this deal, there seems to be no obstacles left. Meanwhile, read why PayPal sucks. Posted August 21 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Sanctum! My good friend Valkyrie (it has nothing to do w/her being a grrl!) has launched her Shadowbane dedicated fansite after waiting almost two years to join the community as an indie. Originally part of the Eclipse Network that host's the top Alice site "Alice's Asylum" she joins the insane fanbase with SBSanctum. The site rocks! Check her out and tell her we said "HI!" (Rumor has it there may be a suprise coming up on her site, so be sure to keep a watch!) Posted August 21 2002 by Div Devlin

Noise is as Noise Does- Eve Retouched It seems with all the noise of GenCon and trying to pull an interview off of tape, we had a few goofs in our recent interview with Mike "Campion" Wallis from Simon and Schuster. So as an apology to our readers and to Mike for taking the time to answer our questions, we have a few corrections to make that will go a long way to clarifying some goofs on our part. Graciously Mike was kind enough to not only be understanding that some things don’t translate well at a con with a ton of fan noise, but he also was understanding enough to correct us where we went off. Full Story Posted August 20 2002 by Whitewolf

The Invasion begins! Our third part of our post GenCon '02 journals are up. Part Three (three pages) takes a glimpse into some of the games such as AC2, The EQ Event, and ends with an Eve Online Interview with Mike "Campion" Wallis from Simon and Schuster. Check it! Posted August 19 2002 by Div Devlin

EnB Glimpse Inside! EnB has posted their weekly Glimpse Inside article. This week's article features one of the winners of the recent fan fiction contest. They are also encouraging players to sign up for the ongoing stress testing and upcoming beta testing, if you haven't done so already. The sign-up for for testing is located here. Do it now. Posted August 19 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Community takes hit… In the latest hit to the Shadowbane Community, J the Damned Vulpine from SB WarCry say's he is going on a nice long vacation and may not want to have anything remotely to do with Shadowbane. J, one of the first fan site writers for Shadowbane who started on the defunct Dr.TwisTer network, moving to Crossroads before it exploded, and finally roosting at WarCry has to be the oldest of the remaining writers left in the community. J's voice is going to be, well, missed for a lot of people with his news updates and willingness to not hold back any punches. We wonder if the UnkownPlayer article last week had a role to play in this choice though, although I can fully understand burn-out from running a site for a game that is not out as of yet. Mayhaps, J will be back. G'luck J, and have a good vacation. Posted August 19 2002 by Div Devlin

Money, Money, Money! Vivendi Universal who has been having financial woes disclosed that it is going to sell off parts of it's publishing assets including Blizzard Entertainment in a combined deal worth at least $442 million according to this newswire report. Meanwhile Adrenaline Vault reported that Reuters had a story that the new CFO for EA is being given $4 million to relocate to the U.S. In a really slick move, these guys have beat the system for MP3 downloads by going overseas. Record conglomerates not happy and sue ISP companies instead. Thanks to Pud for that laugh! He listed it as a luck! Posted August 19 2002 by Div Devlin

GameBunny Interview: No, it has nothing to do with grrls or playboy bunnies. GameBunny a gaming site (like us!) has an interview up with Mike Snyder of Prowler productions, previewing their upcoming sci fi massively multiplayer BBG – StarLock. The interview has just been posted (Aug.19th –Monday) and is a pretty meaty, informative read for multiplayer gamers and aspiring programmers. Scope it. Posted August 19 2002 by Div Devlin

Hittin' It: GenCon Journal II The second part of our GenCon journal that took place August 8th to the 11th in Milwaukee Wisconsin. After the events which took place on our Road Trip we are set and ready to game! Not only are there over 3000 events going on, but the major players of the MMO industry are going to be showing off their games. We are ready! Check out us Hittin' It Posted August 18 2002 by Div Devlin

Road Trip! One of the best parts of heading out of town to a convention is the telling of all the misadventures that can occur. Boy, do we have some misadventures to share with you. What started out easy enough was that a bunch of us got a hotel room where we were all going to meet up and then we would hit "TheCon" as regulars know it. Nothing is ever easy. Check out the first part of our trip to GenCon, in this Road Trip. Posted August 17 2002 by Div Devlin

Eve at GenCon, Part One While at GenCon I was able to sit down with Mike Wallis, Senior Producer for Simon & Schuster Interactive who is publishing sci-fi space MMO Eve. Also present was an in house play tester by the name of Jo-el who was doing the demo and was kind enough to put up with my newbie questions. Correction added to 'turn based' comment. Full Story Posted August 16 2002 by Rokin

UO: House Campers Unite! Ahh, the good old days. Yes, today is when hundreds of players will camping the abandoned homes of Brit hoping to be one of the elite and grab a home. At least thats how I read it: The ability to claim an "ownerless house" (defined as a house owned by an inactive account) will become active after each shard's Friday morning maintenance period, local server time. Barring any issues, all remaining shards should see the changes noted below active following their morning maintenance periods, local server time, as per the schedule at the bottom of this announcement. There are rules though. Just be ready for the gank fests. Discuss: Anyone remember those days? Posted August 16 2002 by Div Devlin

DAoC Respec not up to Spec? Uh, stuph here. Customer Service has seen many appeals over the last 5 days regarding the new Skill Respec, and mistakes being made. Please take a moment to read through some of the common mistakes below. We urge you to use caution when respecing your character as you only receive one opportunity to do so. Now if only Sanya would call us all idiots! Posted August 16 2002 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft GM's Wanted: If you live near or are willing to relocate (at your own expense), Blizzard has a call out that they are looking for GM's for the World of Warcraft: Blizzard Entertainment is looking for experienced Game Masters to work with our upcoming game World of Warcraft. Game Masters will be responsible for in-game customer support, helping manage our online community, and assisting with the creation of content during the development of the game. They even have some requirements. So what if it's old news! I was out of town. Posted August 16 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Consolidated: Rokin has both of his GenCon report up on Aerynth which has some questions from the community answered by the Shadowbane reps. Part One and Part Two. Meanwhile, If I have not said this then I'm saying it now. If he is paid or not Waylander is a great writer as the newest War Journal is up on the Shadowbane site. It's a great read and look's like a mini novel. If you have not read this, do so. Even if you are not going to play the game. They also have added a FAQ for the Herald Program. Posted August 16 2002 by Div Devlin

WWII0: The Development Road World War II Online announced that is getting ready for more, they talk about the goals they have in place, what to expect, what not to expect and a date to not expect, what you do expect to expect to get. We are in a position now to move the WWIIOL vehicle set into 1941. The set we have planned includes aircraft, tanks, and armored cars for all three combatant nations. They say that, "This comprehensive 1941 vehicle set is planned for released this Fall and Winter." Check it. Posted August 16 2002 by Div Devlin

Astonia Patched! Here is something that got totally missed by us! There is a new patch in over at Astonia, that went in MONDAY; from what we were told: The patch consists of an extension to the Astonia 3 universe. The new area, a tundra-like landscape, is inhabited by nomads and provides the backdrop for many new quests. One of these quests will lead the adventurers to the mysterious monastery of Kir Laka, which they have to defend against vicious harpies. The patch also includes some bug fixes. Sorry for dropping that guys. Posted August 16 2002 by Div Devlin

THE GLORIOUS DAGGERS OF JOURNALISTIC GUT STABBING SLASH OUT AT INTERNAL ORGANS! WHEEE!!! There's nothing like a good blood letting to actually get me to poke my head out and have something to say. And the recent Unknown Player article qualifies, I guess. Maybe. I mean, it's a little sissy for an EPIC BATTLE! But I, as a paid employee of Gamerifts, Warcry, Unknown Player, Wolf Pack, Ubi, Boobi, Swing, Jazz, Salsa, Larry, Moe, Curly and Enron will now do my solemn duty as the first member of the sooper sekrit "Heralds of Ninja Journalist Conflicts" Program, and report on this conflict in a wholly impartial, completely biased, thoroughly independent and totally partisan way. And I'll try to make it sound exciting. But first, let me finish my Margarita. On the rocks. No ice. Aaaaahhhhh.... it's nice... But it's no Del Guapo. On the other hand... what is? Full Story Posted August 14 2002 by Hedron

Dragon Empires blurp This came down the pipe today from Peter Tyson, Community Liaison Manager for Dragon Empires. "The second Dragon Empires reverse Q&A is up with Blackguard of Gamewatchers.net." Which you can find here. "Also, this Friday we will see another Newsletter and the announcing of the competition winners for the Polygon and Story competitions." Be sure to check it out. Posted August 13 2002 by Rokin

GenCon02: Donelle's Gallery Regardless of what others or my self had to say about GenCon being "All about me!" and the fun we had, I've had a few requests for Donelle's gallery to be put up. For those not in the know, Donelle has been a long time personality of the GenCon game fair, one who is known by all. We met her last year in one of her hand made costumes that she was wearing in the contest. She looked great! Again, this year she made her costume and came as a gold dragon in human form. She has become our sites official spokesperson and model for us this year at GenCon. Check her out! Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

Buy you up some land boi! Yes, it's true. Anarchy Online announced yesterday that with their upcoming expansion pack (they are calling it a booster pack) "Shadowlands" you can control land! Full Story Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

CNet Again: Rumor (again) has it that CNet is on its way to file for Chapter 11, or going with huge layoffs. Safe to assume that if this in fact does come to pass, we probably will see the break or closure of GameSpot in the U.S. who also due to CNet closed their U.K. version of the site last month. Discuss: Anyone wish to place bets? Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

DAoC Happenings... Going by our current poll, who really cares at this point. But, these guys are teh funnei! It's only a parady! Ok, real news is that respec is now in as of patch 1.52: We have decided to give all current players of the game the ability to respec fully - not just select one specialization at two different levels (although we will support that as well) as we previously announced. We are giving all current characters the chance to fully respec as a way of thanking all current players for being with us over the last eight months, and to allow all of them to take advantage of skills and abilities that were not available to them when they started playing and speccing their characters. Better late, then never! Discuss: It's a little too late no? Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

The E3 Expo announced: While the site has yet to be updated for E3, the new 2003 schedule has been announced keeping the same format as they did last year moving it from a weekend event to the weekday event. Confirmation was given to GameSpot that E32003 will take place May 14th through the 16th in L.A. We just got back from GenCon and have to start planning for E3 already! E3 is a closed event to the public, open only to industry and media representatives where everything and anything having to do with gaming is done. All the MMO titles usually make their debut with expansions or new products at E3. It is the place to be. Discuss: Roomies wanted! Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

EnB Consolidated: Pricing is in: The monthly fee for Earth & Beyond will be $12.99 per month, and players will have the option to purchase packages of playtime for a reduced price. Players can pay month-to-month, or buy three months for $11.99 a month ($35.97) or six months for $10.99 a month ($65.94). These packages will be available to the players when they register the retail version of the game. All major credit cards will be accepted. Also, the much asked about answers for the Founders Program were announced last week in this FAQ found on their boards. Not sure about this, but I hear Claudia Christian from B5 is doing the voice overs in EnB? Discuss: Billing, Founders, Pre-Orders. What to do?" Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

GenCon Recaps: How the hell these guy's recovered from their hangovers so fast escapes me, but there are a few reports up from GenCon and about Shadowbane at GenCon. - Zalaster at SBV gives a breakdown of Shadowbane - UbiSoft interviews the fans with J from SBWarcry - UbiSoft interviews the fans with Rokin from Aerynth.com - UbiSoft interviews the fans with Zalaster from SBV - UbiSoft interviews the fans with Div Devlin from GameRifts.com (Hey, thats me!) Our report should be up by the end of the week now that we are almost recovered from this Woodcut Cider drink. It rocks. Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

Uh... Uhmm... Not! Ok, not to sure about this but with this new program, for a small fee you can buy a name change for your character. Maybe you never thought your crafter mule would become one of your favorite characters, but now his embarrassing name is being plastered all over Britannia thanks to your Maker's Mark. Perhaps you've inherited your characters from your mother, and in your humble opinion she made up some of the worst names ever in the history of RPGs. But you like these characters a lot - if only there was some way to give them a little dignity, some opportunity for respect.... And now for $29.99, you can do just that! The new Character Name Change service is here! That's right, by using this service we will now change your character's name for you! A warrior named "Girlface" no longer need worry about the taunts of his peers as he takes on a heroic new name like "Uther Daemonbane," "lAmEdAmE" can raise her head as a dignified member of society as she becomes "Mordella the Wise," and "mule 1" no longer needs to take a back seat to your "main" because of his generic or uninspired name! I'm just not into it. If you had an account for this long, you probably already deleted the name or it was offensive by GM standards and was forcibly changed. Name change deeds were going to be a money sink originally. Now this just looks like a way for EA to pad their pockets. Discuss: Explain to me how wrong I am. Posted August 13 2002 by Div Devlin

Kinda back... Ok... we are kind of back from GenCon, had a blast met a lot of folks. Have a 4 day hangover I'm still trying to recover from and ton's of stories to tell. Give us a few to get back up to speed and we will talk about a good majority of what we have seen, and what we did at 'The Con'. We have a few interviews, lots of pictures, and some reports to file. Discuss: Start comparing notes! Posted August 12 2002 by Div Devlin

GenCon Pre-Game Lineup In what is becoming the every-players E3 this year marks the 35th anniversary of the GenCon game fair in Milwaukee Wisconsin, where gamers from all over descend upon the town for four days of gaming! You have your paper games, you have you tabletop games, and you have your card games. Painting Contests, Costume Contests, World renown artists (with awesome booth-babes -Maestro), Guests of Honor, plays, parties, LARP's (Don't forget to mention booth babes! -Maestro) , and what we all enjoy, MMO Gaming! We grabbed a few folks that were heading out so check out our pre-game lineup, see what they have in-store for us, and check out what they have to say! Full Story Posted August 7 2002 by Div Devlin

Preorder! Welp! Damnit, I did it. I'm one who is usually very against preorders but I could not help it. I tried to resist but there was soo much pain! If you have not yet, head over to your local EB and preorder both: Earth and Beyond    and Shadowbane With EnB you get included into the founders program with cool features that no other company has done before, and with Shadowbane even though it has been frowned upon, you get the three restricted races (I doubt I'll even play those). Do it, do it now! Discuss: I'm a sap when it comes to games Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

DAoC Expansion: New info has been released regarding the Shrouded Isle expansion for Dark Age of Camelot. Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles enriches and expands the mythological fantasy world of the original game by adding stunning new graphics and whole new areas to explore for each Realm. Players of Dark Age of Camelot: Shrouded Isles will also discover that the Realms will be populated with three new races and new character classes. As previously announced, the expansion will include a significant graphical upgrade to the game by utilizing DirectX 8.1 and the new NetImmerse 3D engine version 4.0 from Numerical Design Limited. This new technology will greatly improve overall graphical performance as well as provide support for advanced graphical features such as shadowing, more spectacular spell effects/animations, reflective surfaces, and much more. It's due out towards the end of this year. WorthPlaying has some info up regarding it. Discuss: Talk about it here. Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

Housing Rules are going in... The FYI page has been updated to tell us that the Phase 2 of the Housing plans are going in. Phase 1 of Publish 16's new housing rules has been completed, and all shards are being prepared today to begin implementing the rules for Phase 2, to be active after each shard's Tuesday morning maintenance period, local server time. Barring any issues, all remaining shards should see the changes noted below active following their morning maintenance periods, local server time, as per the schedule at the bottom of this announcement. To much info to post here, so read it there. Discuss: I think I'm losing a ton of homes. Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

EnB Glimpse Inside: Earth and Beyond has posted it's Glimpse Inside article. This week's article takes a look at our Community team. Now that you've met some of our gamemasters and customer support staff, you may be wondering how that team differs from the Community team. In a nutshell, the Customer Support staff is mainly focused on solving the problems players may have that limit their fun; the Community team is dedicated to enhancing players' fun. Check it. Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

UO Hot Topics: Someone new must be in charge for Ultima Online, as they now want to know what you think with the recent introduction of Hot Topics. Veterans of the game have long since departed UO message boards, fearing that a mod on a bad day would ban them. The old rule was a ban on boards, meant a ban on your game account. Risk vs. Reward Baby! All that seems to have changed now, with the following information from the FYI section: Last Friday we introduced our Daily Hot Topic forum. Our very first question generated 195 responses over the weekend - an incredible response for such a new forum! We've started on a new series of questions asking players for their comments on holidays in Ultima Online. Why not get in on the discussion today? Today's Questions: Do you like having holidays celebrated in Ultima Online? Do you feel that the holidays celebrated in the game should be real life holidays or only game related? Reminder! You need to be logged into an active message board account to read or post on the official MyUO forums. Don't have an account? Go here to register. Back in the old days, when they gave Holiday Gift bags out for Christmas and Valentine's Day, that rocked. Could/Would they bring that back? Go talk about it there. Discuss: Or talk about it here. Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

Begorrah, Browser based games! Here is something outside the norm of our coverage that's lacking. Browser based games. We have all played them after getting bored to tears with our current game, or as we anxiously wait for that email saying we have been chosen to beta test the next upcoming title. Perhaps at work, you're behind a firewall that prevents you from logging into your favorite MMO. Lunatix Online a browser based game sends word of an update to their game by Prowler Productions. Prowler Productions is pleased to announce a new feature has been added to their Massively-Multiplayer Roleplaying Game "Lunatix Online". Known as the "Paddy Wagon" this new feature is designed to teach new players important aspects of Lunatix Online in an exciting way and in keeping with the game's wacky asylum theme. The feature is now available at any time during during the course of gameplay should those wishing to try this unique game require assistance. With Lunatix Online's player base constantly expanding, Prowler Productions hopes both new and old players alike will appreciate the addition. About Lunatix Online Lunatix Online is a a browser-based online roleplaying game developed and published by Prowler Productions. Players find themselves trapped as patients in a twisted asylum known as Imenz Aine with one goal above all... Not going to ruin it for you! Go check the game out during lunch at work. Discuss: Your all a bunch of loonies! Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

SWG Updated FAQ: Star Wars: Galaxies has an updated FAQ dealing with Professions in the game. The update deals with the Gunsmith profession and the Melee Weaponsmith telling us what it is they do. 4.48 What is the Gunsmith profession? This profession combines skills from the ranged weapons design and general crafting disciplines. A player in this profession can design ranged weapons and their components. 4.49 What is the Melee Weaponsmith profession? This profession combines skills from the melee weapon design and general crafting disciplines. A player in this profession can design melee weapons and their components. Pretty cool. Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

AO kills bug! Anarchy Online found a bug and sqaushed it. Orkin was not needed. This bug had a rather nasty exploit involving in-game credits which was found and disabled. However, we were saddened to discover that this exploit was very actively used by many organisation leaders to produce massive amounts of credits within the game.Lot's of folks were using it appears. One wonders how long it has been known if so many people were using it. Bugs kill. Kill bugs. Posted August 6 2002 by Div Devlin

EnB breaks w/industry standard! Earth and Beyond the upcoming space genre MMO in development by Westwood Studios and due out for release this year breaks the standard rules of the industry in one of the coolest moves by any MMO game to date. Over the past couple of weeks they have sent out personal invites to players in the community saying, "Hey, We want you to come to our house and play our game!" Update: Cerdith add's more info! Full Story Posted August 3 2002 by Div Devlin

New NwN Module: BioWare has released a new NeverWinterNights released a brand new competitive play module titled War Wizards! In this new War Wizards competitive play module by BioWare's Rob Bartel, members of an arcane spellcasters' guild, The Enclave, test their wits and strategies against each other in 3 different arenas! The module can be found on the official Neverwinter Nights community site here: http://nwn.bioware.com/downloads/module_warwizards.html And there's funky new screen shots of the module also available on that page. Brad tells us that the weather forecast this weekend in Edmonton shows rain, guess what everyone at BioWare will be playing? Sounds like a plan! Posted August 3 2002 by Div Devlin

XGR Presents! Paligap at Extreme Gaming Radio sends word that tonight on XGR they will be having a live show with DAoC's own Matt Firor Producer at Mythic Entertainment. Matt has been at Mythic for all 14 of their titles so he knows Dark Age Of Camelot just a bit, no? Well, tonight we are giving you the chance to call in and ask anything you want about the game, upcoming expansion, or the just-announced Imperator. Be sure to head over to XGR to learn how to call in your questions at least 15 minutes before the show starts! Update: We just learned that this was last night, on Friday. Sorry. While over on XGR be sure to check out the new exclusive screenshots of two new MMO's in the making! XGR has posted a dozen exclusive screenshots from Egenesis' upcoming MMORPG, A Tale In The Desert. Accompanying the shots are descriptions from the creator and programmer of the game, Andrew Tepper. Please use the following link: http://www.xgr.com/index.php?id=3065 XGR posted a set of exclusive screenshots showing off different environments from Duplex System's Face of Mankind. This is a MMO that takes place in the 24th century. Please use the following link: http://www.xgr.com/index.php?id=3064 Take a gander at those and be sure to tune in to the show! Posted August 3 2002 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Newsletter: Peter Tyson the Community Liaison Manager for Dragon Empires who we just interviewed this week sends word that the new DE Newsletter has been released! Check out the full story below to read a local copy. $.35 fee not required. Full Story Posted August 3 2002 by Div Devlin

Marvel Super Heroes MMO! Sony Online Entertainment continues to ensure their dominance in the MMO market with the announcement of the Marvel Superhero's MMO. As reposted everywhere, and sent in to us (thanks everyone), this article appeared on "The Hollywood Reporter" that says: Sony Online Entertainment has been in negotiations with Marvel Entertainment, intent on creating an MMO universe filled with some of Marvel's 4,700 superheroes, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, Daredevil, the Hulk and Blade. City of Heros will have some major competition if this deal comes together. Posted August 3 2002 by Div Devlin

In Shadowbane news… UbiSoft recieve's another slap to the face of their marketing department as Swing's (The EU Publisher for Shadowbane) Tegatana posted on their re-opened message boards that they as well will not be unlocking the Restricted Races for pre-order, but they will have a Super Special Edition: While there will be a way to "buy" the restricted races in a "super special edition" (note, not the special edition you can pre-order at amazon.de), we want to stick with the initial design that the restricted races are somewhat special and a "reward" for good gameplay, roleplaying etc... we feel the restricted races on the UBI-Server just lost their "magic" now... Thanks goes out to SBVault for bringing this to our attention. Meanwhile to wet your thirst for more Beta Crushing news, UbiSoft unleashed the newest War Journal report, titled "The Shackles of Conquest." Sounds like a pr0n movie. This installment deals with the follow-up of the treachery within the city of Semujin and it's destruction. J at SBWarCry tells everyone that, "As before, this is from Waylander and myself. No one can do it better." Which leads me to think that perhaps some other Correspondents are needed. Looking back all six journals have been done by the same two people. Perhaps, "none can do it better" because there is, No One Else. It's about time for alternative voices to be heard! There are only 20+ something fansites. Posted August 3 2002 by Div Devlin

Planetside Team Comments... New "Team Comments" are up on Planetside from Dave Georgeson talking about what they have instore next: The Battle Experience and Certification system is going in this week. The orbital drop pods are functioning now and will be in this week's internal playtest. Hacking is going in this week, so doors and terminals will no longer be open to all comers. We got Revive and all the healing/repairing functions working last week and the week before, so Medics are working correctly now. All the weapons, all the vehicles, and all the bases are now in the game also. All 10 continents have been constructed (but are being tweaked ferociously now), and the Warp Gates will interconnect all the continents soon. The Grief system is fully in now and we're starting work on Squads and Outfits soon. Oh yeah...and the individual Empire abilities for the Heavy Armors are in now also. It's a short read.<