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The Digital Continuum: What's up with APB?
I'm not entirely sure what's going on with All Points Bulletin and the only reason I'm bothered enough to consider worrying about a game that we know only fractions of is because those fractions are amazingly potent pieces of excitement. The depth of customization, the level-less progression wrapped around a GTA style game make for powerful appeal.I was hoping that because it'd been a year since the last GDC, when All Points Bulletin was first revealed to a dumbstruck media, we would be treated with a delightful updated look at the game. That just wasn't the case at GDC 2009, and frankly it has me slightly worried.
GC 2008: Details for House of the Dead: Overkill escape Leipzig
Apparently, one Bradley Crooks, developer at Headstrong Games, revealed to Gamekyo a few details about the upcoming Sega game on every Wii gamers' mind (if it isn't on your brain, then you should get your head checked) during an event at Leipzig. The list is fairly long, so head past the break, where it's all been organized with helpful bullet points.%Gallery-29952%
GC 2008: Activision demonstrates music creation in Guitar Hero: World Tour
To say that Guitar Hero: World Tour has a lot of content is now an understatement. The game is so ridiculously full of goodies, fans are likely going to explogasm when they watch the video above. It goes into incredible detail, showing off the music creation fun you can have in Activision's latest installment in its popular franchise. Whether you're mixing drum loops for your tracks or turning your guitar into a keyboard (could this confirm a keyboard peripheral is inbound?), it looks like you won't be bored with Guitar Hero: World Tour anytime soon after its release.%Gallery-23491% There's been a lot of Guitar Hero news lately. Like the confirmation that Miis will be included in the Wii game (as well as an explanation of how they'll be incorporated). Also, don't forget to check out which tracks have been confirmed for the game so far!
Rob Pardo talks about free WoW, Starcraft, Activision
Rob Pardo, SVP of game design at Blizzard, gave the keynote speech at the Game Developer's Conference held in Paris this week. Here are some WoW-related tidbits from his talk and the Q&A session held afterward.About WoW WoW was first conceived as free to play, being supported by advertising. However, the non-subscription business model couldn't support Blizzard's goals for the game. Pardo suggested that Blizzard approached the MMO genre "very naively, or else we might not have done it." He once hired a WoW player who sent him a 16-page diatribe about the game because, even though the guy was wrong, "he was passionate" about improving the game. About Starcraft 2 Blizzard has no problem putting intellectual properties on hold for a while, hence the wait for a Starcraft game. Pardo says that they wanted to make a real-time strategy game but were "tired of green-skinned orcs" so they moved away from Warcraft to Starcraft. Starcraft 2 is at a playable stage in its development and he's having a lot of fun with it. Read more about Rob Pardo's keynote speech.
Fully public APB beta on its way
We haven't heard too much in the past month about the cops and robbers MMO All Points Bulletin from developer Realtime Worlds. At least not until recently, we haven't. While gameplay information may still be scare at least we now know that APB is entering its Alpha stage with an eventual fully public beta on the horizon. This information all comes from Mario Rizzo, Realtime Worlds' business development manager. While it's no official announcement, it is the next best thing. We can certainly understand why a public beta would do a game like All Points Bulletin a lot of good -- it's not exactly your typical MMO or sandbox action game. Heck, it's very likely that many players will simply be enamored with the character creation process that was such a smash hit at GDC this year. You can count on us spending the first hour or two of our time with the game's beta making an awesome character.
Go! Go! Break Steady site update and video
We haven't seen much of the XBLA rhythm game from new studio Little Boy Games since its announcement around GDC. From the video the game seems to borrow heavily from many other rhythm games, but tries to do its own thing by incorporating characters, style, and slightly more varied mechanics. Since the game looks relatively deep, our main concern at this point is the games ability to find and hold an audience. With the production value of the trailer and the new site, it would be a shame to see such an enthusiastic effort fail. Supposedly a summer release title, Go! Go! Break Steady looks to be well on track, and should with luck find its niche in the untapped Live Arcade rhythm game market.[Via GamerBytes]
Freaky Creatures gets a new video
Ever since we first talked about seeing Freaky Creatures at GDC08, we've wanted to provide gameplay video that shows off the slickness of the game itself, and now there's finally something for hungry minds to consume.The video is offered in three formats, high, medium, and low. There's some great footage of creature customization, a look at most of the creature types, and of course the gameplay which is much as we remember it being at the GDC event. Go ahead, whet your appetite for destruction!
Cryptic is hiring ... but for what?
Cryptic Studios has announced that they're hiring people "to work on our upcoming next-gen MMOGs." This alludes to Jack Emmert's earlier remark at GDC 08, when he mentioned a "secret sci-fi project". And now that it's clear that Cryptic is growing, it just adds delicious fuel to the fire.A look at their Current Openings page reveals that every department has openings, which is good for would-be respondents, but reveals nothing for clue-seekers. As always, we'll let you know as soon as anything leaks, but this blogger dares to hope for the official resurrection of Star Trek Online. [Thanks, Christine!]
Rob Pardo to keynote at the Paris Game Developers Conference
Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Senior Vice President of Game Design, has been recruited to keynote the Paris GDC this summer, which will take place on June 23rd and 24th at the at the Coeur Défense Convention Centre in Paris. He'll participate in a Q&A session in which he will discuss his inspirations and challenges, as well as Blizzard's future plans. The official press release should appear soon on the Paris GDC site. The Paris GDC will be taking place a few days before Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in the same city. We're expecting a lot of choice WoTLK news to drop there, but certainly, Pardo may say something juicy ahead of time at the Paris GDC, and we'll be sure to find out if he does.
New All Points Bulletin preview refreshes memories
If you somehow missed All Points Bulletin back when it made some serious waves at GDC '08, then here is your chance to get all caught up. GamesRadar has a preview up that pretty much sums up what we know so far about the title. While the preview is short, it only serves as a reminder to why we're prepared to give a pinky finger or two for this title. Well, the pinky finger offer is only good if the game is able to deliver on its promises, as we're somewhat attached to them.We're pretty excited to see how development of the game will progress now that developer Realtime Worlds has secured $50 million in funding. Our imaginations are going fairly wild thinking about what new features could make it into the game now.[via WarCry]
Tokyo content developer offers a mobile future for MMOs
Gamasutra just recently put up notes from a unique lecture given at this year's Game Developer's Conference. David Collier, president of the Japanese group Pikkle KK, offered up a Tokyo-focused vision of the future of MMOs. For millions of players in Asia, a series of casual flash games played mutliplayer via cellphones are all the MMO they need or want. Collier explained the sheer appeal of these titles, which cross age- and gender-boundaries; some 40% of male teens are playing one of these titles, called Mobile Game Town.The Flash Lite format is part of the reason behind these services' success. Quick, simple downloads allow for instant action, and the portability of the Flash experience ensures there is minimal need to tweak titles for specific platforms. These games are also very lucrative, offering easy access to customers for advertisers. Collier's comments on the future of the medium are fascinating, as bigger players and high-profile developers step into the ring.
The architects of EVE society talk player elections
The Game Developer's Conference is a fantastic time to get under the surface of new announcements and game concepts. At GDC, the newest and greatest element in CCP's EVE Online – the one everyone wanted to talk about – was the ambulation system coming soon to a space station near you. Unfortunately the only place the developers of the unique single-server space title were willing to talk about that was 'on-stage' during a session. We covered that session and so we knew there was no way we were getting it any better than that ... but with some time free in the busy CCP schedule we still had the chance to ask some questions. So instead CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson, EVE Online's very own in-house economist Dr. Eyjólfur "Eyjo" Guðmundsson, and Community Researcher/Developer Petur Oskarsson gathered around a small table in their jet-black show booth to answer some questions about a slightly more esoteric subject: the Council of Stellar Management. Earlier today we brought you the general details, but this afternoon we have the word straight from the researcher's mouth. Why set up a governing body? What are the benefits? How does this tie into CCP's economic research mandate? And ultimately ... what does it mean for you as a player? Read on to find out.
The marriage of mobile gaming and MMOs
The convergence of mobile phones and Massively Multiplayer games is something we've been talking about since the site launched. Whether it's a mobile tie-in to World of Warcraft or the possibilities of the iPhone SDK, it seems to be a goal of many developers to tie the virtual and real worlds together via your cell. A discussion held at last month's Game Developer's conference went over a number of different MMO-appropriate elements from mobile gaming, and might give you some idea of what the MMOmobile future might look like.Game designer Dan Roy was the speaker at that particular event, and ran down the numerous ways that mobile communications can hook into MMO worlds. He cited the 'show off' factor of having a max level character, and offered that socializing with fellow players would be enhanced by a cell-connected virtual world application. He spent some time describing a few games that go whole-hog, putting an entire virtual experience onto a mobile platform. He seemed somewhat dismissive of several of these games, saying of Ragnarok Mobile Mage, "It sucks. It's terribly designed." His closing thoughts surround the possibility of even tying combat into a mobile app - weighty thoughts for future designers. Are any of these ideas at all interesting to you? Would you use a mobile client to check your in-game mail, for example? Or how your auction house bids are going?
Spend a virtual evening with Will Wright
Do you love Will Wright? Like, really love Will Wright? Do you love Will Wright so much that you could listen to him talk for a half hour about things that are only tangentially video game related? It's for the special fan like you that we present "An Evening With Will Wright," a talk held at an off-site bar during last month's Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco.We were there, so here are some simple instructions if you want the full virtual experience: get yourself some mini hot dogs and french fries (the victuals at the event) and some free booze. You'll probably find yourself irritated at the people talking over Will Wright and wanting nothing more than to have fists so large that you could simultaneously punch all of them in the face. Trust us, that's part of the experience too. Part 2 is right after the break.
GDC08: Are virtual item sales the way of the future?
With the stigma associated with the term RMT -- or "real money trading" -- companies such as Live Gamer and Ping0 have an uphill battle when selling their legitimized RMT services to many gamers. At GDC recently, Live Gamer's Andrew Schneider and ping0's Steve Goldstein tried to explain to a skeptical crowd why their forms of RMT trading are the future of gaming.Though you hear a lot about WoW gold, all online games have a large secondary market for currency. These services are all operated outside of the publisher's terms of service or EULA and are very inefficient, both for the player and the company. The RMT industry is littered with account and credit card theft -- and when a customer's account has been compromised, they don't call the RMT traders: they call the game's customer support line. It's an immense waste of resources for the game company and a huge hassle for the player involved. (Has your World of Warcraft account ever been stolen? If so, you know it can take weeks to get everything restored.) If game companies don't address RMT issues themselves, they're just going to have problems with black market RMT. Live Gamer seems to offer a, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach with their attempts to run a legitimate RMT business.
Learn to make Uncharted at home!
Okay, so you won't actually be able to recreate Uncharted without thousands of dollars worth of software, a PlayStation 3 dev kit and a considerable amount of talent. However, for anyone who is interested in various aspects of how the game was put together, Naughty Dog has very kindly placed their GDC powerpoint presentations up on their website for anyone to take a peek at. Topics covered include a post-mortem of the game (which everyone should see), a look at Uncharted's animation pipeline and Naughty Dog's use of the high-detail modeling package, Mudbox, and how it integrates into other modeling software. Some of these will be very technical and might not be particularly interesting to everyone. Animation and 3D modeling students, however, have some new game-specific reading material to sift through. Get stuck in![Via PlayStation.Blog]
Chronicles of Spellborn: demo video good, another big delay bad
Good idea: Show off your Massively Multiplayer game at Game Developer's conference! The long-in-development title Chronicles of Spellborn showed off gameplay and core features to the site OnlineWelten. The Germans had a camera on-hand, and you can enjoy the lengthy resulting video either on their site, or embedded below the cut.Bad idea: Postpone the launch of your already long-delayed title well into 2008. The official site notes that the developers now plan to release Spellborn sometime in Q2 of this year - right into the timeframe of Warhammer Online and (possibly) Wrath of the Lich King. This already incredibly niche title is going to have a stiff fight on its hands, and it's a real shame that they're postponing it right into the path of these mass-market behemoths. Some of the features are definitely worth checking out, though; check below the cut for that great OnlineWelten video.
We built this city: Age of Conan's constructible PvP city system previewed
During the week of GDC we talked briefly about the mounted combat in Age of Conan, part of the demo run for us by Gaute Godager. There was a great deal more to the demo, though, content very much worth talking about. The event started by reshashing the game's starting point, your rise from slave to adventurer in the wake of a ship wreck. We've discussed that experience, both in our own coverage of the game and in reference to work done by other sites. Probably the most interesting element of the demo, though, was the so-far little seen guild and guild city elements. Essentially a sort of RTS-lite element plopped down in the dead center of the game's endgame PvP, Age of Conan's city construction takes the crafting and housing elements we've seen in other games and explodes them out in some interesting directions. Read on for details on this new way of tackling a well-known game system.%Gallery-16341%
GDC also ponders invite-only model
At the close of the 2008 Game Developers Conference (GDC) this year we heard rumblings that change was in store for the industry event. After achieving a record setting 18,000 attendees, about 1,000 of which were press, event coordinators are contemplating an invite only stance to the media.Speaking with Kotaku, GDC event director Jamil Moledina expressed his fear for the industry learning event, "I am concerned that if we don't focus on what makes GDC work we will face some complications down the road." To alleviate those fears, GDC is considering changes to who will be allowed to cover the 2009 event from the show floor.While other industry professionals lineup to question the validity of press presence, we're reminded of the invite changes made to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) and Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) to streamline the event coverage.
Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories
This week's round up of WoW-related posts on our sister site Massively covers many different angles of the MMO universe dominated by World of Warcraft. You can click on the links below or subscribe to a special WoW-only Massively feed.As the Worlds Turn: Get your fixWith so many games out there, presenting different worlds, different rules, different ways to play, what is it that grabs hold of players and, for some, doesn't let go?Does WoW really need to be 'beaten'?When will the constant cries of 'Will this be the WoW-killer?' be stifled once and for all? Let's instead concentrate on the far more interesting question: 'Why does there need to be a WoW-killer?'Pong creator Nolan Bushnell to enter MMO spaceThe man many call 'the Father of Videogames' -- as he is responsible for founding Atari and creating Pong -- Nolan Bushnell was recently interviewed by GameSpot at this year's GDC.Behind the Curtain: Should raiders get special treatment?Loot should always be a secondary concern in MMOs. I've been seeing more and more, the idea that developers should put the concerns of those players whose sole or primary concern is the acquisition of loot above the concerns of other players.Clan Gear: guild clothing for the massesAdam and Freya Chapman have run Threadsafe, a direct-to-garment printing business, for the last two years. Now, in conjunction with Adam's brother Keith, they're opening Clan Gear, a direct-to-garment printing outlet for gamers, where the focus on the printing is your artwork, your character, and your designs.Investment of $1 billion+ wouldn't dethrone WoW, exec saysAccording to a report, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick stated in an investor meeting that his company had done extensive research on the MMO category, and came to the conclusion that even a game bolstered by an initial investment of $500 million to $1 billion would still probably have a hell of a time competing in the same space as the Blizzard juggernaut.
