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Stargate Worlds level cap to increase every three months
Stargate Worlds France conducted a very substantial interview with Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment/Firesky Studio Head Dan Elggren at the Games Convention in Leipzig. We say it's substantial because it includes a few new revelations about the game.The most notable of those revelations: CME/Firesky will be raising the game's level cap (50 at launch) by two levels every three months to coincide with new content updates and episodes. The second most interesting tidbit is about teams. Teams are a social unit smaller than commands (guilds); think of them as persistently existing and organized groups/parties. Anyway, the big news about teams is that players will be able to name their regular groups. Cool! Other topics included various Stargate inside jokes, Elggren plugging the gas-guzzling Hummer promotion, and some stuff about the Asgard, Archaeologist, Jaffa, and Go'auld classes that has already been floating around for a while. Watch the video for all that. Note that most of the video is in French with English subtitles, while the interview itself is in English with French subtitles.
Games Convention coming to North America
Following up a very successful year in Leipzig, Germany, it looks like those of us in North America can look forward to the Games Convention in the future. CEO Wolfgang Marzin has announced that they're now planning on bringing the show to North America, likely looking to pick up the slack left in the wake of E3 practically going the way of the dodo."The concept is flexible and the network of the global games industry permits us to be active at different locations," said Marzin. "After the Southeast Asian Games Convention, we are now focusing on the North American market." With a record 203,000 attendees this year, it seems like an easy decision to bring the show to one of the largest gaming markets in the world.
GC 2008: Shaun White and company take a road trip
Straight out of Leipzig, a crazy mofo named Shaun White. The latest trailer for Ubisoft's Balance Board-compatible sports title, Shaun White Snowboarding shows off a lot of what you'd expect from a snowboarding game: lots of spinning and big jumps. We're not poking fun, because, to be honest, we think the game looks pretty polished. SSX it may not be, but a fun time it could very well become.%Gallery-29887%
GC 2008: EVE economist says players set the game's course
Speaking at the Games Convention in Leipzig, EVE Online economist Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson suggested that the game's 245,000 players drive its development and innovation even more than the team at CCP does. That could be construed as populist pandering, for sure, but Gudmundsson -- who was addressing a room full of game developers -- dedicated most of his talk to the notion of "unleashing the power of players."He pointed to the Council of Stellar Management -- a democratically-elected group that represents the player-base in meetings with CCP -- and the player-driven open market that manages itself in accordance with real-world principles of economics as examples of the communal direction in action.This is a notably different mentality than that found in World of Warcraft and similar games which dispense carefully constructed experiences to the players from the developers at the top. EVE stirs an open ended pot of players to cook up gameplay experiences. Godmundsson is talking up the open approach, but both methods arguably have their own special strengths and pitfalls.
