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When your character dies in your favorite MMO, have you ever thought, "Gee, I'd sure like to see an ad right about now"? MMO developer Artix believes that death ads are the way to go, as they've introduced special advertising that will show up only when a character dies in their game AdventureQuest Worlds. According to a recent interview with [a]listdaily, CEO Adam Bohn says that response has been good so far. The game network's 12 to 13 million users are happy with the ads because Artix likes to keep them fun for a younger audience. Despite the fact that this has been done before in games like Shadowbane, and the deceased Dungeon Runners to a lesser extent, Bohn believes the ads are a good idea that they'll eventually build upon. I think if nothing else, it will make us want to die a whole lot less.
Rise and Shiny recap: AdventureQuest Worlds
Each week Rise and Shiny asks you to download and try a different free-to-play game, chosen by me, Beau Hindman. Some of the games will be far out of your gaming comfort zone, and some will pleasantly surprise you. We will meet each Tuesday and Friday night at 8 PM Central time, followed by this column the Sunday after. I welcome any suggestions for games, either in the comments or at beau@massively.com. Making games for younger players has to be a very difficult undertaking. Think about today's informed youth, especially compared to my generation. When I was 13, I made forts and had BB gun fights, but modern 13-year-olds carry cell phones in their pockets and have constant access to the internet. Gaming is winning out, though, by being provided with a massive (and growing) audience of willing players. When you are making a game for this savvy audience, you had better have all your digital ducks in a row. AdventureQuest Worlds is designed well enough to satisfy a large range of age groups and levels of experience, and for that, Artix Entertainment should be proud. Still, there is plenty that could be changed about the game to make it even more friendly.
Artix Entertainment acquires EpicDuel, starts test of master account system
Artix Entertainment (soon to be Battle On Games), the team behind the easily addicting AdventureQuest series of games and the AQ Worlds flash MMO, has recently announced their acquisition of another flash-based pseudo-MMO -- EpicDuel. The EpicDuel team has been completely integrated into the Artix Entertainment staff, keeping them in charge of their own game while still allowing them the expanded resources and technology that drives the Artix Entertainment products. To celebrate, EpicDuel is getting a complete overhaul, including adding hips (which was a whopping 3,500 frames of animation changes alone), a new player housing system, changes to the battle system, and more. All of this comes with the new test of the Artix master account system, which will unify accounts across all Artix Entertainment games with a master login. This will, of course, include AdventureQuest Worlds, our specific title of interest here on Massively.
