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MMO Family: Clone Wars Adventures' tale of two card games
Even though Clone Wars Adventures is a kid-friendly MMO, I've always been a fan of the title, partially because it sort of came out of nowhere and launched soon after it was revealed and partially because it's done a terrific job of matching content and itemization with the TV series. The Darth Maul content update was a household favorite, particularly because the pint-sized players in the family got a chance at going face to face with one of Star Wars' major baddies after seeing him on the animated show. Talk about an epic moment for a CWA fan! The most recent update, though, left me scratching my head a bit. Clone Wars Adventures has had a trading card game called Card Commander for quite a while. Recently, though, SOE added a completely new trading card game called Card Assault. What's the new game like, and why would an MMO have not one but two card games? This week's MMO Family will take a look at the new game and theorycraft on why we're neck deep in cards!
Internet Association to lobby Washington, may tout Amazon, Facebook, Google among its ranks
Political lobbying is often a mixed bag at best. Still, there's a cautious amount of optimism surrounding the Internet Association, a soon-to-start lobbying group that plans to advocate for an "open, innovative and free" internet among US politicians. The unsurprising (if well-intentioned) aim is to prevent another SOPA or PIPA with more formal opposition than even the Internet Defense League can manage. Who'll be pulling the strings is nebulous -- officially, the Association will only say that former Congressional staff director Michael Beckerman is at the helm until a formal September 19th launch. That internet openness must extend to some very leaky representatives, however, as the National Journal, AFP and Reuters all claim that Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google are charter members. None of them are talking on the record; we certainly wouldn't be shocked if the roster is real, knowing how much Google and other partners have fought takedown laws that would bypass much of the normal legal system. We're hoping that whatever manifests a genuinely rational counterbalance to media and telecom influences that often aren't very interested in protecting internet-only business models or due process.
Clone Wars Adventures celebrates Star Wars Day with special deals
Did you know that May 4th is Star Wars Day? Yeah, neither did I, which apparently means my failure as a Star Wars fan is complete. Oh, wait, I get it. May the fourth be with you! Anyway, Sony Online Entertainment is offering free booster points as well as a special code to unlock a rare double-bladed lightsaber, all for logging in to Clone Wars Adventures. And the game has a new introductory offer that includes first-month access to premium Jedi membership levels for only $1.99. More info is yours for the reading at the official CWA site. [Source: SOE press release]
Star Conflict blasts into beta
Star Conflict may not be the MMO on everyone's tongue right now, but give it time -- it might just catch on. The gestating title from Star Gem Inc. has passed through the beta barrier and is looking for testers to help take it to the cosmos and beyond. Star Conflict is a free-to-play PvP-based game in which players team up to launch fully armed spaceships at each other in the hopes of winning a game of galactic chicken. It's set over 3,000 years from now, when factions battle over a discovered planet containing important ancient technology. Players begin their careers as wealthy mercs who have enough money to buy a few ships and outfit them the way they want. From there, players will join one of six factions and engage in instanced PvP maps. Star Conflict has several game modes in which factions look to extend dominion over each other. You can sign up for Star Conflict's beta today, and be sure to check out the first teaser trailer after the jump and let us know what you think! [Thanks to our tipster for the heads-up!]
Clone Wars Adventures hits 10 million player milestone
The Force is strong with Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures -- about 10 million strong, in fact. In a press release today, Sony Online Entertainment announced that its free-to-play, family-friendly Star Wars title has reached 10 million registered players. The studio also includes a list of interesting statistics, such as the number of stages of gameplay available to players (584) and the number of trophies available to earn (96), but really, only one statistic matters. That statistic is this: Players of Clone Wars Adventures' Stunt Gungan minigame have collectively launched Jar Jar Binks over 4.5 billion meters. For reference, that means players have effectively bounced Jar Jar to the moon and back seven times. Let's have a round of applause for these unsung heroes, shall we? But hey, CWA players: Next time, aim for the sun. [Source: Sony Online Entertainment press release]
MMO Family: Kid-friendly MMO roundup, part 1
With all of the buzz centered around "grown-up" MMO titles like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2, it's easy for the kid-friendly games to get lost in the shuffle. There may not be as many kid titles on the horizon, but for the games that are currently out there, there's been an amazing amount of activity going on in these virtual worlds. I decided to take a peek at some of my (and the kids') favorites, along with a few games that we've done first impressions on, to see what they've been up to lately. Since there are too many great kid-friendly MMOs out there to fit into one column, this will be the first of what will probably be many follow-up entries covering other games, so if you don't see your favorite family-friendly game here, fear not!
New Soulcalibur 5 trailer shows online lobby system
Soul Calibur 4's online VS. modes were adequate from a netcode perspective, but like most fighting games they lacked any sort of well-developed lobby or chat system. SoulCalibur 5, on the other hand, will allow spectators to chat about matches as they happen, as seen in this latest trailer.
Apple spending some of its cash in US Capitol
Apple has a large cash reserve and it's using some of the those funds to lobby Congress. Judging by the money that's passing hands, Apple is taking its lobbying efforts seriously. In the second quarter of 2011, Apple spent a whopping US$790,000 on lobbying. This is more than double what the company spent in the same quarter of 2010 and up $230,000 from the first quarter of 2011. Apple is reportedly using this money to influence issues like patent reform, electronic waste, and consumer privacy. You don't need to look too far back in the news cycle to appreciate how these three issues greatly affect Apple and other tech companies. Patent litigation is out of control with both tech companies and patent holding companies suing each other in court. Tech companies are also struggling to providing personalized, location-based services without compromising customer's privacy.
Spiral Knights adds spooky Candlestick Keep content
If you thought steampunk couldn't mate with adorkable, think again. Spiral Knights, Three Rings' lobby-based action-MMO, delivers both in the consummate concoction of clockwork and cute, and the company recently launched an update bringing new dungeon content to the game. The haunted Candlestick Keep, "all that remains of the once prosperous Owlite Academy," is crawling with undead monsters like Grimalkins, but fortunately, players can make use of colored ward candles to protect them from spookats and open pesky locked doors. The update also adds challenging new Danger Rooms, a revamped Crash Site, and cash shop tweaks. Our own free-to-play guru Beau Hindman took a stroll through the game way back in March, deeming it "repetitive but really fun." It is currently available for download on the official site and as part of Steam's F2P offerings.
Apple hired lobbying firm in February
The LA Times says Apple has slowly begun hiring more lobbyists in Washington, D.C. to protect its interests as it has grown from a niche player to one of the tech sector's biggest powerhouses. Apple has traditionally placed little reliance on lobbyists, but in February of this year, Apple contracted the services of the high-powered Washington lobbying firm of Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock. The move comes as Apple has grown from a company worth $2.5 billion in 2003 to a behemoth with $300 billion in market capitalization, and from $37.5 billion in sales in FY2008 to $65.2 billion in FY2010. Accordingly, the company has tripled its lobbying expenses in that time to $1.6 million. The move for more pull in Washington comes as Apple is increasingly coming under the microscope of antitrust issues, primarily regarding the iTunes Music Store, the App Store and the iBooks Store. [Apple's lobbying expenditures are quite small in comparison to US cell carrier partners AT&T and Verizon; each telco spent more than $15 million on lobbying in 2010. The highest lobbying bill for an individual corporation belonged to Pacific Gas & Electric last year, which spent more than $45 million. -Ed.] Last year a clause in Apple's iOS SDK spurred an an antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over anticompetitive measures regarding the banning of the porting of software originally written for Adobe's Flash, Sun's Java or Microsoft's Silverlight/Mono to the iPhone OS. Also, just last month Steve Jobs was ordered to give a deposition relating to monopolistic behavior over the iPod and the iTunes Store back in 2004. Besides Apple, Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock represents other powerful companies, including the NFL Players Association, BP America, UnitedHealth Group and the Recording Industry Association of America.
First Impressions: Spiral Knights
If you were one of the lucky few who grabbed a Spiral Knights beta key recently, then you will appreciate the joy I feel when talking about this game. It's simply a toy -- a ray-gun or a tin robot. It does what it is supposed to do and does it on a variety of machines without many issues. It is mechanized fun, simple and to the point, yet somehow also endearing and even sweet. Perhaps the tiny robots and adorably destructive weaponry implemented by the folks at Three Rings help to bind the game to our hearts, because I found myself worrying that the little robot I was aiding would never find the materials he needed to escape from the dreadful gearworks and steam engines I was forced to investigate. Confused? Well, go log in and try it out or click past the cut to hear my explanation!
E3 2010: Hands-on with Clone Wars Adventures
Arriving at the SOE booth at E3, one is assaulted with the shininess of their latest upcoming titles, DC Universe Online and The Agency. But scattered about the booth were demo stations for many of their other upcoming games including the recently announced Clone Wars Adventures. We haven't heard much about this game since it was announced (and our subsequent interview with the lead designer), but we got to sit down at E3 and find out what's involved. As a quick refresher, CWA is less a traditional MMORPG and more a virtual lobby where players can access a number of minigames. There's no leveling or quests or equipment with stats. It's more Free Realms and less EverQuest. It will be free-to-play as a Flash-based browser title when it arrives this fall. But how does all this actually play? Click past the jump for more info.
Raging Thunder tries online multiplayer
Raging Thunder is one of those games we've been watching since the App Store was first announced, and now it may have reached another milestone. Polarbit says that with version 1.0.3, which is in the App Store now, they've released online, real-time competitive multiplayer. They say it's an App Store first, and I think they're right -- a few games have offered wifi multiplayer before (Apple's Hold'em does, and Raging Thunder did previously), and some games have done some non-real time multiplayer (Loot Wars is interesting in that way) but allowing players to play competitively online in real-time is something that hasn't been done much.It's not quite on the level of Xbox Live yet -- Polarbit is offering a free beta of their server software on the website, so you've apparently got to have your own server running (or sign on to someone else's) to race against your friends online. I just gave it a shot, and it worked well. The lobby system is a little awkward and without voice chat (strange how much I've just taken it for granted in multiplayer nowadays), it's hard to tell whether people are playing or just waiting in a room (or why they're dropping out of the race, as a few players did while I played). But once you get into the game, it's Raging Thunder with other people driving the cars. Well done.It would be nice to see player names above cars. Easier to do trash talking when you know who you're talking about. This is only the beginning, however -- here's to many, many great online multiplayer experiences on the iPhone.Update: Commenters have piped up (thanks!) with some other games that have attempted online multiplayer, including Tap Tap, Galcon, and Adrenaline Pool. Keep in mind that we're not talking about wifi multiplayer here, though that's cool, too -- this is real-time multiplayer with other people who are around the world.
European HD DVD lobbyists claim '74-percent' market share
Nearly 11 months ago to the day, Europe witnessed its very first HD DVD release, and while the battle over format supremacy has been heated and rarely slanted to one corner here in the US, apparently things are vastly different across the pond. According to the (biased?) information spat out by the European HD DVD Promotional Group, "HD DVD players have outsold Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year," and moreover, it claimed to hold a staggering "74-percent" of the market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland for standalone players. So, for those residing in the aforementioned lands, are things really this skewed, or does a certain lobbyist group have their numbers all fuzzed up?
Demon lobbies for lobby ads
Gamers who consider their purgatorial stay in the lobby prior to a multiplayer match a welcome respite from the steady siren call of Burger King may soon experience a whopper of a disappointment. Networking provider DemonWare is touting a solution for delivering personalized advertisements to any game lobby. It's not clear if the product will be aimed at consoles, PCs or both -- or how it squares with Xbox Live -- but DW's current networking customers include Activision, Codemasters, Eidos, Ubisoft, THQ and Sega. Of course, the revenue will be used only to create better games and improve the online experience, or so the champions of progress would have us believe.Are lobby ads a form of in-game advertising you can live with, or should we send this demonic idea back to hell before it starts clogging up our consoles?[Via Xboxic]
