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Grey Area announces Shadow Cities, first location-based iPhone MMO
Searching for a new MMORPG for your iPhone? Look no further than the platform's first location-based massively multiplayer title, Shadow Cities, courtesy of Finnish developer Grey Area. Virtual World News checks in with some interesting information about the game, including the fact that the it tracks your location via OpenStreetMap and creates a game world based on your city before populating it with various enemies. Gameplay consists of exploring, hunting down rogue spirits, and obtaining new spells as you level. Casting spells is accomplished by drawing rune-like shapes on the iPhone's screen, and players can also join one of two factions and battle other players in the same area of the game world. The game is slated to be released in late 2010, and you can sign up for an email notification on the official Grey Area website. You can also view a brief teaser trailer after the cut.
Jolt Online Gaming announce Playboy MMO
Yes, you read that right. Jolt Online, who are probably better known for Legends of Zork and Utopia Kingdoms, have announced they're partnering up with Playboy to produce a 'massively casual online game set in the world of Playboy' called Playboy Manager.While we're sure scantily-clad ladies in see-through underwear is the name of the day, Virtual World News is reporting that the game will see the player in the shoes of a Playboy manager who has to look after hordes of (probably scantily-clad) models and also include content from various Playboy brands and the trading card game. Until then you can visit the official site or follow Playboy Manager on Twitter.
Virtual World ad agency already at home on Home
According to a recent report from the Virtual Worlds 2008 conference, Millions of Us, an advertising agency specializing in the production of marketing campaigns in virtual worlds, is already hard at work developing projects for Sony's Playstation 3-based Home. According to Millions of Us president and co-founder Christian Lassonde, "Certainly I think in the future, console manufacturers will get into user-generated content." We weren't aware that advertising for Pontiac was considered user-generated content these days, but we'll give them a free pass because we're probably taking that quote out of context.In any case, it may be telling that advertisers are getting early access to Sony's anticipated new virtual world while the would-be customers and fanboys are still waiting outside the gate trying to sneak a peak where we can, in the cold. It may also be raining, it's hard to tell. Home is seeming more and more like a transparently corporate tool for selling us on the next big product and less like the free-wheeling virtual wild west we're used to seeing from this category. We're OK with that, at least for now, just let us play the damn thing already!
