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GodsWar Online takes the battle to a whole new level
GodsWar Online is on the verge of another major content update, and it's never our wish at Massively that players be caught unaware, just in case you want to plan ahead and move laundry night to a different day or something. The Grecian title will be throwing a gob -- which is made up of 10 goblets -- of additional features and content our way, including a level cap increase and a new storyline for players to enjoy. As the conflict between the three factions rises to an even higher level, elite warriors will be glad to get their hands on Class Suit III gear, not to mention to be able to upgrade said gear with collected medals. GodsWar will be tweaking Wonderland somewhat, particularly in regard to tougher BOSS fights (although there will be new weaknesses that players can exploit). The update will also allow you to swap out your character's gender for a modest fee, just in case you choose poorly in the beginning or are discontented with your current anatomical features. [Source: IGG press release]
Wonderland Online tames the wild St. Joan of Arc
She's a spitfire military commander and was played by Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go's in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but that doesn't mean Joan of Arc works alone. On the contrary: The good folks at Wonderland Online are pleased to announce that St. Joan is a "new human pet" for players to add to their team. We've heard that historical figures make the best pets, really. Joan will be kicking butt with her Running Strike and Water Explode skills, as her enemies discovered in the 15th century. As an immortal saint and human pet, St. Joan is but a part of the content that IGG has added to this title. With version 6.0 of Wonderland Online, two new player characters are now available to test drive. If the cushy princess life is for you, then Karin is right up your alley. She can even summon a butler to fight on her behalf (don't want to break those nails, after all). Or if you like getting your hands dirty, then pick up Juzo, a hammerer who "doesn't like talking with others" but helps out anyway. It's what he does. He's spiffy. You can download the updated 6.0 version of the game over at Wonderland Online's site. Just be sure to tell Joan that we sent you.
Ex-Lionhead devs form Wonderland Software, announce 'GodFinger'
Venturing forth from Peter Molyneux's famous dev house, Lionhead Studio veterans Mark Rose, Al Harding and Matthew Wiggins recently announced their new mobile game startup Wonderland Software. In addition to the studio's unveiling, the trio has also offered up information on the their first project: GodFinger. "We're collaborating with some awesome freelancers, along with the super-talented girls and guys over at ngmoco, to bring the god game back to your fingers," the announcement post reads. According to ngmoco's description of the game, GodFinger puts you in the position of a "fledgling deity" trying to "make a name for yourself amongst the pantheon of gods in this universe." Given the fact that GodFinger is planned for release on iPhone and iPod Touch, there's no solid release date (Apple decides that), but both the devs and the publisher note we'll see a release "very, very soon." So get out that God Hand and chop off a digit, you'll need it soon! [Via Develop]
15 Minutes of Fame: Alice in Warcraftland
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.Who's on your list of the proverbial 10 People to Invite to My Dream Dinner Party? Leave a spot for Alice Taylor. When it comes to gaming and geekery, there's nowhere you won't find traces of Alice and her self-mocking, good-natured humor. She's the face behind the popular social media and gaming blog Wonderland Blog. She commissions cross-platform education content for teens for Channel 4. As a gaming writer, she's been seen at BBC News, Kotaku, The Guardian and Paste. She was a semi-pro Quake player on the UK's first Quake team. She's an indie crafts maven. You may have heard of her husband, Cory Doctorow. Oh -- and of course, she's a WoW player.
Evolve your 3D avatar
Evolver (currently in alpha) is an interesting service. It allows you to build a 3D avatar either from scratch and components or from a photograph of yourself, and export that avatar as an image, a functional 3D model in a couple of different formats (presently Maya [MA] or Kaydara 3D Data Exchange Format [FDX]), or a ready-made avatar for a number of 3D virtual environments. They've got more planned it seems, like the ability to potentially embed a little animated 3D avatar in places where you might today be using a 2D image. Think Gravatars only in 3D.
The Daily Quest: Cake is delicious
We here at WoW Insider are on a Daily Quest to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Vodka, currently one of the top raiding guilds in North America, has put out their Ulduar preview video. Give it a watch, then just try and tell me it doesn't excite you Children's Week is quickly approaching, and the Hunting Lodge wants to bring the holiday into the real world. Head on over to the Hunting Lodge and give Child's Play a helping hand! Of Teeth and Claws talks Druid DoTs in Patch 3.1. DoTs of the Feral persuasion, mind. You Moonkin are out of luck on this one. Wonderland has some sweet, sweet baked goods for all of you to salivate over. If you want more cakey goodness, don't forget that we have our own World of Warcraft cake gallery. Click here to submit a link to TDQ
Cinemassively: Wonderland documentary focuses on virtual adultery in cyberspace
The BBC recently aired a documentary about Second Life that focuses on a much darker side of it. A husband, Lee, starts to notice that his wife of nine years, Caroline, is spending more time online and less time with the kids. When he tries to come into their bedroom, she'll shove him out and dodge questions about what she was doing.This leads to heartbreaking revelations by her kids, who feel that she doesn't care as much about them as she does SL. Caroline ends up risking everything to meet her lover, who lives on another continent! Will she come to her senses and realize that she has a family at home? You'll just have to watch this sad tale to find out.[Thanks, Fenlock!]
Hello Kitty FOR THE HORDE!
Actually, the Hello Kitty UI interface is faction-agnostic. And I'm not sure how HK would voice her allegiance anyway -- she has no mouth and she must scream. Regardless, Alice over at Wonderland links to two separate instances of a Hello Kitty-themed interface for WoW, one of them from famed virtual worlder Joi Ito. As she says, "Bloody hell ... it's horrible :o)"If Blizzard released an epic set of Hello Kitty armor tomorrow, how many of you would jump at it?
Second Life "Wonderland" scandal hits mainstream media
UK media outlets are blowing up with stories of "Wonderland", a virtual playground in Second Life where Ageplay is the go. Sister-site Second Life Insider has been following the various stages of this story over the last day, including its growing coverage by mainstream press and the reply from SL developers Linden Lab.For those who need a little background, Ageplay is when an adult roleplays a child. This need not be for sexual purposes, but to use the quote from SL Insider of Sky News reporter Jason Farrell, "Wonderland is a virtual children's playground where paedophiles cruise and kids are solicited." Even though there probably aren't real children controlling the characters, it is still an offensive community for others within SL, and a Kid Avs community representative has already spoken out about it. It is also something that SL fans wouldn't want to be mistakenly associated with -- now that it has hit the mainstream, it may be one of the first things that people remember about Second Life, akin to "Oh, wasn't that the computer game for pedophiles?".The response Linden Lab provided to SL Insider essentially says that they have found no wrongdoing after investigating the Wonderland community. I'm not sure how well the rest of the media will take this answer. Provided below is a link to SL Insider's on-going coverage of this story as it develops.
Next stop Wonderland
So I admit it. When I first heard of an MMO called Wonderland Online, I rather expected to be running around an American McGee's Alice sort of world, full of Escher-like puzzles and creepy caterpillars. Boy was I off. Wonderland is a teeth-rottingly cute MMO, and the most recent game to be added to the IGG roster. You play as one adorable character from a pre-created selection (perhaps like a chibi Soul Caliber), and romp around fighting dancing pudding and mushrooms.If cute is your thing, you will definitely love this. No announcement has yet been made on a release date, but you can bet your fairy wings we'll be on top of it to let you know as soon as more information is available.
BlizzCon: interview with Alice Taylor of Wonderland
It's pretty impressive when you meet someone who writes extensively about video games, handles digital content and video game R&D for the BBC, and finds time to maintain an extremely popular blog, only to find out that they also rock some high level characters inside of World of Warcraft. Seriously, where do they find the time? By the end of the day, if I've managed to finish at least a third of the items on my to-do list, I feel like I've accomplished a lot. Alice Taylor does all of the above and manages to make me feel damn lazy.Anyhow, I caught up with her during BlizzCon, and asked her a few questions about her experiences. She asked what my highest level character was, and when I told her a Level 42 Human Warlock, I think her look of scorn was burned into my brain. Forever. Check out the interview after the break, and be sure to venture over to Wonderland, which is filled with video gaming goodness. Blizzard, take special note: her suggestions for improvements are spot-on. It would be nice to see BlizzCon 2.0 next year with some of these things implemented. Plus, free passes to Disneyland. Although that's just my little addendum.
Rob Pardo at the Hollywood and Games Summit
The always awesome Alice Taylor from Wonderland was at the Hollywood and Games Summit this past week, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo made an appearance in a panel about creating a "parallel experience" between entertainment media and MMOs. Alice put up summaries of the various points made, and the result is a pretty interesting read into how Blizzard is working on their upcoming Warcraft movie.The whole panel is a good read (reps from MTV and Sony also make appearances to talk about how they're taking audiences across media), but Pardo specifically makes the point that in whatever media you're in, you have to balance how you're using that media against how you're using the intellectual property the media is based on. "Demographics," he says, "follow the IP," so Blizzard clearly thinks that if a Warcraft movie is released, that Warcraft players will run to see it in droves. But at the same time, he says the media must define how you use the IP-- Warcraft RTS is a different experience than WoW, and WoW will be (supposedly) a different experience than a Warcraft movie. He does want to make sure "the epic scale of the IP shows up in that movie."He also speaks to Blizzard's plans to make "episodic content" for WoW rather than "boxed content," and says that they haven't delivered content as fast as they've wanted to yet. But he also claims, "We've got our head round it now." So maybe they really will have a new expansion for us ready on time next year.
Uber apron and other WoW crafts
Alice from Wonderland posted this great apron Craftster dishwasher182 (I guess we know what she does after the pizza is eaten) made for her significant other for Valentine's Day. That's a great on-equip buff. Too bad it's soulbound, though-- if you want one, I guess you'll have to make your own custom printed iron-on. And bonus points to another Craftster for pointing out that the apron itself is in fact a blue item. Ha!There's also this knitted Tauren hat, which looks great, but I can't quite see how it's supposed to be worn. How can you see wearing it with that big bullsnout hanging in your face? Also Tauren-related, this hilarious sketch currently for sale on Etsy. And there's also these handmade (not by the same Alice, though) Ankh earrings-- perfect for the shaman in your life who occasionally needs some resurrecting (see #5 in the description).It's probably because I have no craftmaking talent whatsoever, but all this great fanmade craft stuff continues to amaze me. Keep up the good work, guys.
The problem of "sharding" in WoW
Alice from the great gameblog Wonderland loves playing WoW, and posts about it all the time-- I especially like the "The other me is Epic, I'm just an alt" shirt from her latest post. But, she says, "the problem with WoW" is those darn servers it seems we're all dealing with. She's got friends across almost all the servers, including US, EU, and even Oceanic, and yet she can't visit them without paying a fee again and again. In fact, she says Blizzard just changed the client software on the US and UK clients, so that you can no longer access one server from a different client-- you have to buy two seperate clients to access the US and EU servers. For players like me, who only play in one country, it's not really an issue, but for Alice, who just moved to California from England, it's, as she says, "rubbish."But that doesn't mean I don't have my own problems with Blizzards' (and MMORPGs in general, since most of them are "sharded" in some way) servers-- my friend started his characters on different server than I was on, and so since I joined him, I've now got sixties spread across different servers, and I've got to pay $25 to transfer each character-- if and when Blizzard opens transfers to my already overpopulated server. And then there's the problem of queues in general, which everyone, it seems, is dealing with in larger quantities.So what's the solution? There may not be one. Free transfers from server to server would keep players happy, but would also freak out in-game economies, bunch populations up (more queues), and cost Blizzard even more time and staff hours to do (which means less spent on development and keeping servers up). It might be nice, as Alice suggests, to put everyone on one big server, but I doubt Blizzard has the technology to do so at this point-- even if it was technologically possible to put all seven million players in a world where they could interact with each other, doing so would require much more of a code overhaul than letting flying mounts run free, and that's not happening either. For the world of Azeroth as we know it, it's unlikely Alice's problem will ever really get solved.Which leaves room for competitors to step up, I guess-- EVE, Guild Wars, and even MySpace are all listed as alternatives to this problem of "sharding". If an upcoming MMORPG has a great solution to these problems (and a match to the cool style and gameplay of WoW), I'd like to hear it.
Gaming by introverts, for introverts
An interesting tidbit dredged up from Raph Koster's presentation at the Austin Game Conference comes via Wonderland: most gamers are introverts. Pardon us while we gasp in disbelief for a few minutes. Koster claims that most gamers fall into the Myers-Briggs types INTJ, INTP, ISTJ and ISTP. With INTJ being a classic scientist, and INTP a classic programmer, it seems as if games really are designed by nerds, for nerds.As Alice points out, what would a game designed by an extrovert look like? How are those of us who have Myers-Briggs types beginning with E catered for by modern games? Perhaps we're more likely to head off to the pub and pay someone else to level our MMO characters -- perhaps we're more drawn to social or casual games -- or perhaps we just don't play at all.
Ninty NES mints box; retro fresh breath
Continuing the trend of placing the iconic NES controller design on practically everything you can imagine, here's a packet of NINTENDO POWER MINTS for your bad gamers breath. C'mon, just because Contra is addictive doesn't mean you have to go in for the whole "we're men with guns, we don't care about our dental health" thing.[Via Wonderland]
Street Fighter comes indoors and picks up some chalk
Need I say more? A couple of college kids decided to apply their Street Fighter obsessed brains to an available blackboard. It's the kind of thing you look at and say to yourself "why didn't I think of that?" I'm sure that a lot of copycat examples will be popping up in the next few days: I can't wait to see someone attempt to capture a Mario level up, or a sticky grenade from Halo, or a terrorist facing off a counter terrorist à la Counter-Strike or... you get the point.[Via Wonderland]
Brain Age owners flaunt their art [update 1]
One part of the popular DS game Brain Age is the drawing mini-game where players are required to draw a picture of, to name a few examples, Mona Lisa, Henry VIII or a bulldozer entirely from memory. As the above examples demonstrate, results may vary! Check out the Flickr pool of Brain Age drawings and don't forget to add your own "creations".[Via Wonderland]Update: I misspelled "Brain" in the title. What? It's early!
Overheard after E3: Childbirth
With E3 over, Jen from Wonderland and NCsoft had this to say about her experiences:"E3 is like childbirth. You can't possibly imagine what it's like until you've done it."Hours to days of unending pain? Pass the sedatives.
MySpace and gaming: the power of social networks
The social world of MySpace seems a far cry from gaming, but as games become more socially focused, the two are converging--Alice, at Wonderland, muses on a MMO that would combine the social power of MySpace with MMO dynamics. A lot of the emerging social technologies on the Web--from social bookmarking to photo sharing--could easily translate into a game world, and as a commenter on Alice's post points out, Second Life already achieves some of the same goals as the MySpace network.With games and MySpace intertwining in new and unusual ways, perhaps MyMMOG isn't as far off as it sounds.
