Joe Blancato

Gaming By Joe Blancato

More IPs than you can shake a lightsaber at: Five sci-fi intellectual properties that just scream "MMOG"

Science fiction isn't exactly new to the MMOG scene. In addition to the obvious - Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online and the defunct Tabula Rasa - there's Neocron, Anarchy Online, Earth & Beyond and Planetside. But with the exception of SWG and the upcoming Star Trek Online, some of sci-fi's best intellectual properties haven't yet been tapped to invite users into their world. What follows are a few franchises that lend themselves perfectly to what MMOGs are, and what they could be.UplinkRemember, back when you were a little nerd, what you used to think hacking was like? Remember the virtual world you conjured in your head, with stealthy rogues zooming around the internet, stealing millions from banks and pilfering government secrets? Remember the awful movies Hackers and Swordfish? OK, so maybe real hacking doesn't work that way. Maybe real hacking involves an encyclopedic knowledge of Unix, PHP exploits and hanging out in IRC with people who tell you to RTFM if you ask them what time it is. Real hacking may be a lot of things, but "fun to a lot of people" isn't one of them.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

Better know a gold farmer

Nick Ryan at Eurogamer tracked down gold farmers from all walks of life and has profiled them in his ongoing series "Gold Trading Exposed." In this second installment of four, Ryan speaks directly with four different gold farmers, each from different parts of the process.He first introduces "Paul," a British farmer who began farming as a side business in Ultima Online, then moved to EVE and was eventually ran out by the Chinese farming industry. Ryan then moves on to "Mr. Li," a Chinese farmer who works toward the lower rungs of a large-scale operation spanning almost 10,000 World of Warcraft accounts. Finally, Ryan speaks to "Sophia," a marketer who works for SwagVault, a gold re-seller, and her colleague "Benjamin." Benjamin in particular offers a poignant analysis of just how much money makes its way to Blizzard: "Each time Blizzard massively bans the farming accounts and trading accounts, the gold sellers and farmers suffer great losses. They have paid for the Classic CD-Key, the Burnfing Crusade CD-Key, Wrath of the Lich King CD-key and 60 days Time Cards. The total cost is over 100 USD. ... I estimate that Blizzard itself has got millions of US dollars from the farmers." Ryan's investigative journalism is by far the most comprehensive since Julian Dibbell actually went to China for his book Play Money, which covered gold farming in great detail.

By Joe Blancato Read More

PlayStation

PlayStation By Joe Blancato

Checking in on PlayStation Home

Eurogamer attended Jack Buser's GDC talk "Developer opportunities in PlayStation Home" and came back with some pretty interesting stats on Sony's virtual world. While early reviews of the service were negative, Home seems to be enjoying a pretty large user base, if only due to its ubiquity.Buser, Director of PlayStation Home in the U.S., claims that over 5 million people are using the service worldwide, with 2.2 million in North America. Additionally, visitors spend over 40 minutes per session in the world. He went on to say Sony plans to create, at minimum, three new "spaces" - Sony-built areas often used for promotional purposes - for inhabitants to explore each month. Whether or not critics like the service, it appears Sony is invested in Home, at least for the medium term.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Reviews

Reviews By Joe Blancato

Quick Mortal Online preview

Mike at MMOCrunch has a short look at Star Vault's Mortal Online, a Swedish MMOG still in development. He doesn't get in depth, but does a good job of summarizing the game's selling points. The game appears to hail from the open world school of design, offering open looting; real-time, Elder Scrolls-esque combat; and level-free advancement (it's still a class-based game). What sticks out here is the Deva system: "There is a third type called Deva Skills," he says, "which is a skill that links all your created players. For instance, if you learned "Poison Making" and made this your Deva skill, any future characters you create will automatically have this skill so you don't need to retrain them."Mortal Online is due out sometime this summer, but given how quiet the official site is - and the fact the game isn't yet in beta (sign up here)- a summer release likely isn't in the cards.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

Hartman: Questing's just another word for "grind"

Bright Hub's Michael Hartman has a bone to pick with quest-heavy games like WoW and EQII. He takes an extensive look at how quest-based advancement replaced the original Diku/EQ-style monster-killing grind, but finds a whole new set of problems with the new method. Hartman's main beef with the quest-based model is it's detrimental to grouping. "Forced grouping is bad, but anti-grouping is even worse," he says. "If people would LIKE to group with people, but the game discourages it, that is an absolutely terrible condition."He also goes into other issues, like the reality of killing a supposedly unique foe, only to have it respawn for the next adventurer to take down; the lack of engaging story lines in most quests; and the fact most UIs assemble quest objectives like long to-do lists, making games that demand a lot of your time seem even more like a job. It's a thorough read for those interested in a contrary opinion of the way game design is moving.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

Majority of buyers use game "gift cards" for themselves

PlaySpan, creators of the Ultimate Game Card, released findings on March 20 that nearly 80 percent of those purchasing the gift cards are using them for themselves. The UGC, which sells alongside other gift cards on store shelves, has a special code redeemable online at the company's website that can be applied toward over 200 online games. The games supported range from triple-A MMOGs to casual, browser-based games. PlaySpan's research notes that nearly 50 percent of their customers are age 14-18, and they likely purchase the cards because they're too young to have credit cards of their own. Virtual Goods News has crunched the numbers further.

By Joe Blancato Read More

PC Gaming By Joe Blancato

Aion: Ishalgen zone trailer

The folks at IGN tossed up a trailer of the Ishalgen zone in Aion this past Friday. It's some pretty wild stuff; a flyby of the zone to a techno-styled string arrangement, showing off the impressive color scheme and varied landscape within the game. Not much action here, but it's quite the visual smorgasbord. Check out the video after the jump.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

Darkfall's March 21 update addresses lag, macroing and game availability

Tasos, Darkfall's community guy, posted an update on the official boards on Saturday addressing a litany of concerns that have been plaguing the user base since the game's launch.While he did include patch notes in the update, the majority of his message dealt with issues beyond the game's live design. Tasos claims server queuing has been resolved, as have lag and random crash issues that have been popping up since release. He also says Aventurine, Darkfall's developer, will credit players with 34 days of free play time to compensate for the problems they've been experiencing. Since Aventurine only made the game available to a limited number of subscribers, North American fans of the game haven't yet been able to actually buy the game. The company is hoping to make the game available for sale again "sometime this coming week; again it will have to be a limited amount of copies to allow a smooth integration of new players into the game." But no news on which regions will have access to Darkfall yet. In addition to availability issues, Tasos specifically mentioned unattended macroing as a problem Aventurine wants to address. The practice of using third-party programs to improve a character while the player doesn't monitor the character's progress is as old as MMOGs; it was particularly popular in another skill-based game, Ultima Online. The company as yet doesn't have a hard-coded solution to deal with macroers, but Tasos included this note in the update: "we will appeal to players not actually playing the game to log off rather than leaving their character in-game. This will allow more people to be able to enjoy Darkfall instead of unmanned characters taking up server space. If you're skilling up by not playing the game as it was intended, you will be kicked and repeated offenses will result in a ban."

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

All Points Bulletin developer hiring 40 at GDC

Realtime Worlds, the folks behind GTA-inspired All Points Bulletin, have announced their intention to add 40 people to their team at this year's GDC in San Francisco. The Dundee, Scotland, based company is offering unique, year-long contracts to anyone they hire, so it's not technically a permanent gig, but in this economy, what is?The contract package isn't all that shabby, either. According to a press release, new employees receive: "a competitive package, 12 month contract, Visa costs paid, return flights paid, free quality accommodation, free healthcare, paid overtime, and paid holiday." Realtime sees this as a good time to scoop up talent on the outs. "Many companies have laid off large numbers of talented staff in recent months," said John Duthie, head of Realtime's HR department, "and we see GDC as a great chance to tap into that talent pool. With the economy the way it is, many people don't want to think about committing to a permanent move, so what we're offering is a number of contract positions for folk to come to Scotland, help us to a successful launch of APB, and then reassess their options when the economy is hopefully in better shape."

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

NCsoft Europe hiring after massive layoffs

Brighton, U.K., based NCsoft Europe is hiring people to fill five positions just a month after cutting 70 jobs in a move representatives from the company called a transition to "have a stronger focus in marketing in sales." The new openings seem to confirm NCsoft EU's new direction, as all five jobs are either in or related to marketing. The available jobs are: Creative Services Coordinator EU Territory Marketing Assistant European Territory Brand Manager Online Sales Manager Sales Account Representative Not a bad line, but if you're not already able to work in the E.U., you may be out of luck. The site bears this disclaimer: "All of NCsoft Europe's job openings are for full time, on-site employees. We do not employ 'remote' staff. Potential employees must be able to work legally in the United Kingdom, and must either reside near Brighton, England or be willing to relocate. Relocation assistance is potentially available."

By Joe Blancato Read More

By Joe Blancato

The social game roundup

As web technology improves, games are spreading into places you'd expect, as well as places you wouldn't. Facebook is practically a console, the definition of MMOG is changing and Raph Koster's Metaplace may very well turn everything on the web into a play space. Tadgh Kelly at Simple Lifeforms was good enough to take inventory of the social games enjoying popularity today. He breaks the scene into eight categories: Social RPGs Sports RPGs Casual games Word games Virtual villages, or mini virtual worlds Casino games Just for laughs, or silly games like the versus games on Facebook Ownership games Kelly provides a bunch of examples for each category, and definitely makes for good reading, especially as the media through which games can be played evolve.

By Joe Blancato Read More

PC Gaming By Joe Blancato

EQ II March Producer's Letter gets technical, talks test server

This month's EverQuest II Producer's Letter is all about the test server, and the multiple changes affecting the fighter classes. The team wants fighters to revert back to a more traditional tanking role and alter their damage figures, because they're starting to horn in on DPS classes' territory. This initially meant tanks would deal less damage but manage aggro better, but response from players on the test server has caused the dev team to "re-examine the structure of the fighter revamp."And if you've been on the fence about rolling a character on the test server, the team is working on new incentives to get people playing new, unfinished builds. No word yet on what they're planning, but stay tuned on the forums to hear what the team is planning.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

NASA MMOG Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond announced

Talk of NASA's upcoming MMOG has been circulating since last year, but it wasn't until March 20 that the agency formally announced its plans for Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond. They're going to partner with developers Information Place, Virtual Heroes and Project Whitecard to create the virtual world, which NASA hopes will build interest in space exploration among students.Financially, the game won't demand much taxpayer dollars; most money is coming from individual investors and sponsors, although NASA will be lending its experts to the game's development.Virtual Worlds News has dissected the announcement further. No word from beloved space explorer Buzz Lightyear just yet, but we'll keep an eye out.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

Sanya Weathers on admitting you're an MMOG gamer

Sanya Weathers, a.k.a. Tweety, recently published a guide to breaking the news to your loved ones about your MMOG habit. She keeps her advice lighthearted throughout, but her tips are good ones. For instance, here's how she disarms those who outright scoff at the hobby: "If the person you're talking to gets dismissive, keep your cool. Ask how much television they watch. Ask if television is active or passive. Ask how many people a television viewer is interacting with, or working with towards common goals." Weathers has made her rounds in the MMOG industry before. She originally got her start at Mythic Entertainment after a blogging stint on the famed Lum the Mad MMOG rant site her rant site, as well as venerable rant site Corpnews.com. While she does freelance work, her current home is Eating Bees, where she blogs about community management issues.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

Co-Chairman of Activision Blizzard cashes in stock for $20 million

Just in time for Activision Blizzard's earnings report, Co-Chairman Brian Kelly liquidated 2 million shares of his stock in the company on March 12, earning over $20 million in the process. The move has caused some speculation that the trade spells bad news for the company's forthcoming report. Given that Rock Band Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft haven't showed signs of slowing even during the recession, it's a safe guess that the report won't trigger a massive sell-off. Kelly was the only director-level employee reported by the SEC to have traded large volumes of his stock, so it's unlikely his stock trade is related to Activision Blizzard's performance. When 30 percent of the board of directors begins selling off their assets, it'll be time to panic.

By Joe Blancato Read More

Gaming By Joe Blancato

LotRO dev diary, "Solving Problems and Making Friends, Part II" live

Earlier this week Matt "Scenario" Elliott posted part 2 of his "Solving Problems and Making Friends" dev diary on the Lord of the Rings Online official site. Right after Mines of Moria released, Elliott took a break from management and returned to the design trenches for a month. The second installment picks up in the fourth week of his life as a live designer.It's a short read, but an interesting one for anyone interested in how a design goes from concept to execution on a live MMOG. At one point, Elliot admits that time management is as important as the idea itself: "Nearly everything we dream up has to be scaled down to fit realistically within our schedules," he wrote. "In my case, I had a couple of ideas that either fell on the floor during planning or were cut due to the unnecessary complexity they added."

By Joe Blancato Read More

PC Gaming By Joe Blancato

EverQuest 2's Brewday is underway this week

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, SOE has announced that EverQuest 2's Brewday 2009 will run from March 12 through 19. The in-game holiday features quests with special rewards, including lizard plushies to display in your houses, as well as my favorite: the Stone Jug of Kaladim, great for holding "Luclinshine," since the highly potent drink would eat through any weaker material. (Note from Massively staff: Please enjoy Luclinshine responsibly. Don't drink and ride your mount.) This year's quest tasks players with helping Gilin Rockbreath, a drunk dwarf, determine if his gnomish goggles are broken or not. The quests from previous Brewdays are also available for anyone who wishes to run through them. Just remember, on Brewday, everybody's dwarven!

By Joe Blancato Read More

PC Gaming By Joe Blancato

SOE brings real money transactions to Vanguard [Updated]

Yesterday Joel "Raijinn" Sasaki announced on the official Vanguard forums that players will soon be able to use Live Gamer Exchange to sell their virtual items for money in the real world. Sony Online Entertainment, the developer behind Vanguard, already works with Live Gamer on EverQuest 2 to provide users a way to trade their in-game loot for cash in the real world. The ethics of RMT aside, the addition of Live Gamer to Vanguard gives players interested in participating in the service a sanctioned, safer means of doing virtual-to-real-world business, forcing the deals through official channels rather than leaving players at the mercy of eBay, PayPal and other third-party sites to resolve disputes. Live Gamer's pending arrival in Vanguard has been announced a little over a month after John Smedley, President of SOE, said in an interview with Virtual Goods News that the RMT service wouldn't make an appearance in the game. We reached out to SOE for clarification yesterday but as of this writing have not received a response. [Thanks, Chris!] EDIT: We were contacted by Mr. Smedley after this article went live to clarify that in the interview he gave last month he said that StationCash wouldn't make it into Vanguard, not that no RMT service would ever appear in the game.

By Joe Blancato Read More

PC Gaming By Joe Blancato

Darkfall city construction guide at MMORPG

Paragus put together a comprehensive guide to Darkfall's city construction on MMORPG.com. Darkfall seems to be following the Shadowbane school of urban planning: Every city exists in the open world, and each building demands a substantial monetary investment from the city's future inhabitants. Just to get up and running, the average Hamlet-sized city, which Paragus owns, will run about 38,000 gold, not including the wood and stone players need to harvest. The majority of the cost goes toward modules, which act as building blocks for new structures. Here's a cost rundown for a basic Hamlet: A Clanstone, which allows you to claim land: 10,000 gold. The Construction skill, which one person in the guild must have in order to build cities: 5,000 gold. Ten modules for the Bank,which must be erected before anything else can be built: 2,500 gold. Thirteen modules for walls, which Paragus claims don't actually protect the city from invaders: 3,250 gold. Twenty modules for two buildings of your choice, which increase the member limit on guild rosters: 5,000 gold. Fifty modules for your first resource unit, like a farm: 12,500 gold. What's more, the modules weigh quite a bit; most player's can't carry more than two at a time. Paragus goes deeper into the entire process at MMORPG.com, but Darkfall is keeping its hardcore promise when it comes to putting down stakes.

By Joe Blancato Read More