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The Tattered Notebook: Gifting -- 'tis the season?
"Mom! Stop driving through the pink lights! Only go through the green ones!" I glanced over at my two kids and bit my tongue. I was in the middle of speeder bike racing and was having a little trouble navigating the course. In the split second that I turned away, my bike steered off the course, ran halfway up the snowy embankment, and lodged itself in a campfire. I was already dead last, but now I had the pleasure of watching the other racers lap me, not once, but twice. I was playing Clone Wars Adventures, the latest free-to-play game from Sony Online Entertainment, and I was experiencing the full effects of the generation gap. I know, you're probably saying, "Wait a second, this is an EverQuest II column!" And you're right, but this week, I'd like to take a look at something that both Clone Wars and EverQuest II now have in common -- gifting. Read on to see why EQII players aren't necessarily viewing this latest game change as much of a gift.
SOE's super offers for super fans
Sony Online Entertainment wants to give the superfans more reasons to log in to their favorite games this Cyber Monday. Most of the SOE titles, like EverQuest, EverQuest II, Everquest II Extended, Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms, and Pox Nora, are offering discounts on Station Cash as well as other special offers starting November 29th and ending December 3rd. Just $37.50 US buys you 5,000 Station Cash, while $65 US buys you 10,000. That means you can finally purchase that sparkle pony cat you always wanted. In addition to these offers, each SOE title has its own daily deal. Free Realms is giving triple member discount on items. EverQuest, EverQuest II, and EverQuest II Extended have 50% off a daily featured item. Clone Wars Adventures is giving away special discounts to members. And PoxNora will not be left behind with offers ranging up to 50% off game items. Log in to your Station account for more information on these offers or visit the games' respective websites.
SOE readies Super Fan Days promotion, Station Cash discounts
Sony Online Entertainment is having a sale and you're invited. Whether you're currently playing Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures, EverQuest, EverQuest II, EverQuest II Extended, or PoxNora, you'll find a number of daily deals on selected items each time you log into the games between November 3rd and November 9th. Each title will also have a special one-day sale on a particular item to celebrate the Super Fan Days promotion. In addition to the item deals, SOE is offering 50% off of selected Station Cash purchases. You can pick up 2000, 2500, 5000, or 10000 Station Cash for half off the normal fee. Check the official game websites, linked above, for the latest info on the daily deals and other promotions. You can also read the official announcement on the SOE forums.
Clone Wars Adventures uses the force to hit one million mark
The force is strong with Clone Wars Adventures! This colorful little virtual world is barely a week out of launch, and Sony Online Entertainment has announced it has managed to pass one million accounts registered in that time. When one considers that SOE's other kid-friendly property, Free Realms, took 18 days to hit the same number of accounts, this is impressive news indeed. To celebrate hitting this first million, all Clone Wars Adventures denizens will be given a special limited-edition in-game Golden Mouse Droid to enjoy. Additionally, the company is throwing a huge party today at 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT), which will kick off a week of in-game events. We'd like to send our congrats out to the entire SOE team on its success with CWA. Hopefully we'll see even more added to this fun little world in the months to come as the television series progresses and the storyline in-game changes to follow it.
Clone Wars Adventures launches with new trailer
Clone Wars Adventures has been in open beta for a little while now, and the big day has arrived. Sony Online Entertainment launched the free-to-play game today in tandem with an exciting new trailer entitled "War Reels." CWA players will fight alongside characters they know from the TV series, including Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Ahsoka. Sony Online Entertainment is pleased with the way development has gone until now: "We are incredibly proud of Clone Wars Adventures. LucasArts and Lucasfilm have been great partners throughout this entire project, so the game is seamlessly integrated with the TV series," says SOE president John Smedley. Follow along after the jump for a look at the trailer.
Free for All: Three games to keep an eye on
There is so much to be excited about in the MMORPG world that I am always perplexed when someone claims lack of innovation in the market. I tend to think that this comes from an inability to play more than one game, or to support more than one idea in gaming, rather than from the actual state of the market. The fact is that there is so much happening in the world of gaming, and specifically free-to-play gaming, a player should feel almost overwhelmed. I wanted to point out three games now in development (or very close to release) that I believe will do very well. Think of this as a list of predictions -- in fact I am going to have some fun with it and predict just how well these games will do. I have always enjoyed testing my gut. Concerning these three games, my gut is very, very excited. So, let's get right to the list.
Hyperspace Beacon: We hope this never makes it into SWTOR, but knowing our luck, it probably will, again
Tweet var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Hyperspace_Beacon_We_hope_this_never_makes_it_into_SWTOR'; Like a kowakian monkey-lizard in heat, Larry Everett is back again with another edition of your guide to EA-BioWare's yet-to-be-released game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Welcome to the Hyperspace Beacon. Every once in awhile, the Star Wars universe produces the strangest plot devices or game items. Some of these concoctions should never see the light of day, but unfortunately, they do. I like to highlight these malformed ideas in a segment of the Hyperspace Beacon called "We hope this never makes it into SWTOR, but, knowing our luck, it probably will" or WHTNMIISWTORBKOLIPW, for short. This week's column revolves around the prequels. Although there are many, many, many things wrong with the prequels, I would like to take a look at some of the highlights. To help those who may not know what is being discussed, I will give you a brief explanation of what each item is, then explain what is wrong with it, and follow that with a humorous explanation of how BioWare will ruin SWTOR by implementing it in our beloved game. Let's see what creative blunders we have in store this week.
Clone Wars Adventures open beta begins
Tweet var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Star_Wars_Clone_Wars_Adventures_goes_into_open_beta'; Sony Online Entertainment's Clone Wars Adventures MMO snuck up on us last night, steathily going into open beta and allowing interested parties to Force-jump in, kick the tires (sorry, repulsor-lifts), and light the fires. Clicking the hard-to-miss "beta" tab on the official website will get you started, and from there it's a quick ride through account and character creation to the game proper. The title will officially launch on September 15th, two days prior to the Season Three premiere of the television series on which it's based. The game is free-to-play, features microtransactions, and can be downloaded from the official website. Alternatively, you can check out a special retail box that goes on sale October 5th and includes a 90-day membership, Station Cash, and a Togruta player character. Check out our previous CWA coverage for more information.
SOE announces launch date and more for Clone Wars Adventures
Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming Clone Wars Adventures has garnered a fair amount of interest among both the younger target audience and older fans as well. As with any upcoming game, the question of a launch date is always at the top of everyone's need-to-know list. SOE answered that question today, giving us plenty of extra information in the process. Clone Wars Adventures will launch on September 15th, the same day as the premiere of the third season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, making for an exciting day for fans. Launch is still a little over a month away, but there is already the promise of more to come. We've known for a while that the game will be free-to-play with microtransactions, but SOE has a special retail box planned for release on October 5th. The Clone Wars Adventures Galactic Passport will be sold in stores throughout North America, and will contain a 90-day membership, 500 Station Cash, the ability to unlock the Togruta playable character, a Yoda monitor topper, and more. This announcement comes with a closer look at minigames, one of the game's main features. Check out the gallery below for new screenshots (including a peek at housing), and a brand new "Inside the Game" video after the jump. %Gallery-99139%
SOE suffers cutbacks as 35 employees are laid off
Four percent doesn't sound like a lot, but when it comes to Sony Online Entertainment, it represents nearly three dozen employees who no longer have a job. G4 reports that the company has let 35 people go from its full-time workforce in an effort to "better align the company's resources against areas of growth that meet consumer demand in today's online market as well as improve operational efficiency." The company is being tight-lipped as to the specifics of the cuts, including who was let go and from which development teams. This may come as a surprise to some, especially when you consider that SOE is riding high off of its Free Realms mega-success and is poised to launch several new titles including The Agency, DC Universe Online and Clone Wars Adventures. Hopefully we'll hear more details soon, but in the meantime you can read the full announcement over at G4.
E3 2010: Your complete Massively coverage roundup
The 2010 edition of the gaming nirvana known as E3 has come and gone, and Massively was there to bring you three days of exclusives, firsts, and hands-on impressions for all your favorite MMORPG titles, studios, and developers. This year's Expo saw plenty of news and announcements regarding highly anticipated games, as well as plenty of information on assorted titles large and small. We thought it best to collate our coverage into a complete and concise roundup post for your viewing pleasure, so read along after the cut to make sure you didn't miss anything. You can also check out all of our E3 galleries along the way.
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.
Exclusive: SOE talks Clone Wars Adventures
Last Tuesday, we gleefully reported on Sony Online Entertainment's brand-new, upcoming Star Wars game: Clone Wars Adventures. We'd heard the rumors, but confirmation sent us into pure fan-frenzy! This kid-friendly virtual world promises a free-to-play romp through the Clone Wars era, allowing players to jump into Star Wars minigames and join the storied heroes of the Republic in the fight against the Separatist armies. That's what we could dig up on the official site, anyway -- but don't you want to know more? Well, Star Wars fans, you're in luck, because we've landed a juicy interview with the Lead Designer of CWA, Matt Higby. Join us after the break as Matt graciously answers all our eager questions about purple lightsabers and parental tools, cartoons and cash shops, and why adult fans (not just kids) will want to check it out!
This Week on The MMO Report
Last week was a busy one in the MMO news world, and Casey Schreiner had his work cut out for him in this week's MMO Report. First on the list was the story of the Dhuum-scythe-bannings in Guild Wars, which Casey rightly called in-game entertainment for those of us who didn't earn a ban. Next up? Bioware's new trailer for SWTOR -- enjoy the Sith puns, we did. Casey then took us back to Tyria for a look at the "pretty darn awesome" revelation regarding Guild Wars 2 personal story. Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, the kid-style MMO from SOE, was next on the list along with a look at the upcoming Need For Speed World. As always, the news was followed by Uncle Casey's Mailbag and a special surprise -- an internet hug. Follow along after the jump for a look at this week's MMO Report, available every Thursday here and at G4TV.
Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures MMO announced by SOE
Sony Online Entertainment plans to launch its "free-to-play" Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures on a non-sentient internet droid near you sometime this autumn. SOE's freemium MMO will be based on Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and will feature such adjective-noun couplings as "exciting minigames, dynamic activities, lively social events" along with "thousands of customization options." If Clone Wars Adventures sounds like Free Realms plus the Star Wars universe, that's because it is. The online game's collection of parsec passing experiences include a droid tower defense game, "droid programming puzzles," speeder bike racing, card battles and other stuff to do not so far in the future in a galaxy far, far away. %Gallery-94096%
New Star Wars online game revealed: Clone Wars Adventures [Update]
While we've heard the rumors of a third Star Wars online title coming our way, today it's confirmed: Clone Wars Adventures will launch this fall! Unlike Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars: The Old Republic, Clone Wars Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic (but may appeal to the older as well), in the vein of what SOE did with Free Realms. Sony is shying away from calling this an "MMO," preferring the term "virtual world" instead as there won't be leveling or quests. Capitalizing on the Clone Wars TV series' popularity, CWA offers a pick of three playable classes (Jedi, Padawan and Clone Trooper) and will be more minigame focused. Players will socialize in hubs, meet iconic Star Wars characters, and head off together or solo for a variety of activities, including spaceship battles, tower defense, card games, droid programming and speeder bike racing. Destructoid is reporting that about 20 minigames will be present at launch. Fun amenities, such as pets and player housing, will be offered as well. Clone Wars Adventures will be free to play with an optional membership, so everyone will be able to sample the goods without worry. The official website is chock-full of info and screenshots, although a lot of the smaller details are obviously forthcoming. We'll be able to get a closer look at this title when we travel to E3 later this month, so stay tuned! [Update: We've gotten our hands on a trailer for the game! Follow along after the break to check it out!]
