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RIFT Extra Life charity event coming in October
If you're feeling charitable this year but don't want to take time to log out of your favorite MMO to make a donation, Trion Worlds is offering you the next best thing. October 15th marks the date of RIFT's Extra Life event, which will feature a 24-hour gaming marathon designed to put a little coin in the pocket of the Children's Miracle Network. How does it all work? First you'll need to register with Extra Life and decide whether you want to play as part of a team or as an individual. Then you'll need to spread the word to family, friends, and anyone else who might be willing to sponsor your 24-hour Telara marathon. Finally, you can join up with Trion staffers in-game on the 15th and do your part for charity. There are a couple of pretty cool rewards on tap too, namely in-game titles like "the Charitable" (for all participants), and "the Insomniac" (for those who manage to last the entire 24 hours). You can find more details on the RIFT forums and at the Extra Life website.
8-year-old MvC3 prodigy Noah Solis lands fighting sponsorship and clothing line
You may remember the story of Noah Solis, the 8-year-old Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 prodigy that captured the minds and hearts of the gaming community by placing in the top 48 at EVO 2011, destroying dozens of grown men in the process. Noah is more than a media darling, however, and his natural aptitude for shaming players with years of experience fighting games hasn't gone unnoticed by the pro set. Pro-gaming sponsorship consortium/clothing line/hip-hop label The Travelling Circus has signed Noah on to contribute to two of those three ventures, sponsoring his future fighting endeavors as well as launching a clothing line designed by the prodigy himself. Who knows, if Noah's fashion sense is anything like his fighting style, this kid may end up more Gucci than Gouken. At the moment, no information is available as to when his clothing line will be available, or when his first sponsored match is set to take place, but we have a feeling we'll be hearing about Noah long before next year's EVO.
Murdoch reveals News Corp iPad app sales numbers at D8
Steve Jobs wasn't the only CEO on stage at the D8 conference this week -- Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, also took the stage this week, and shared some sales figures for his company's iPad news apps. The Financial Times' app is the biggest winner, with 130,000 downloads, although that number is probably so high because the app itself is free. The Guardian Photography app (not part of News Corp, but still a print publication), also free with a sponsorship, has 90,000 downloads, and the Wall Street Journal app (free to subscribers) has 10,000 downloads. Internationally, the numbers are a little lower, though the iPad only went on sale overseas last week. The Times iPad edition has only sold 5,000 copies, and The Australian's app has sold 4,500. Murdoch is just as optimistic about Steve Jobs, though, in believing that where there are iPads, people will want material to read on them. "After all," he told the crowd, "what's an iPod without music? A high-definition television without popular shows? An e-reader without news or books?" And he's got a point, but the question will be if there are enough iPad owners out there who are willing to pay for content for print publishers to make their business profitable again.
MyTown's uncanny success
I posted a few things last year about Booyah, an app that promised a lot, but turned out to be not much more than your standard social networking/check-in app. And despite a little hype around its introduction, Booyah had some trouble finding an audience. But the developers (former Blizzard folks still supported by some execs there) came right back with MyTown [iTunes link], and this time, they appear to have hit gold -- despite the app's low profile, it already boasts more users than the well-known Foursquare and Gowalla apps. That's probably because it's more of an actual game; rather than just checking-in, the app has a currency to it, where you can "buy" places you check-in from, and then charge money to the next person that stops by. Imagine Foursquare mixed up with Monopoly -- instead of meaninglessly becoming the mayor of some place you visit, you can actually own and make money off of other people showing up there. It's an interesting idea, and it seems to be working. MyTown has just reached version 2.0, increasing the number of levels you can earn and items you can buy with the virtual cash. It's still a free app, and originally, we heard that Booyah was going to earn money by teaming up with retail and business partners -- Taco Bell would pay them, and then they'd attach some promotion to checking in from a Taco Bell. But they haven't moved on to that point yet, apparently; right now it's just about building up a userbase and setting up a solid formula. And so far, while the original Booyah app may not have been able to do that, MyTown seems to be rolling right along.
A chat with Check Six, WoW Arena team
The official Microsoft Sync blog (apparently the blog isn't official -- they fooled me) has posted a video interview (which you can see above) with Check Six, one of the high level World of Warcraft Arena teams showing up in tournaments lately. The video is somewhat tame, but that actually works in its favor -- this high-level Arena play can be complicated and hard to follow, and so simplifying it a little bit actually makes it more palatable. You high level Arena players won't get to hear their opinions on the latest builds or balance tweaks, unfortunately (for that, you can check out our Coliseum column), but the rest of us can at least put some faces to one of these team names floating around, and hear a little bit more about how these guys run these tournaments. They've been playing together for about two or three months, and they practice quite a bit: together, they do about ten or twelve hours a week, but I'd assume they play outside of the team as well. They say that WoW has a pretty "easy skill cap to reach," but after that, it's a matter of getting the right team members together, because they say teamwork is more important in Arenas than even a game like Counter-Strike ("CS"). And they kind of surprised me with how young they are -- it's a big deal to go running around the world and playing in tournaments when you're probably dealing with school and an early career at the same time. It's not the most well produced Arena interview you'll ever see, but I liked the frank look at the guys and what they're like away from their computers.
EVE Evolved: Organising your own PvP tournament, part 2
Many tournaments have been started up and run for short periods of time, only for players to begin losing interest. This is a chronic problem as with less ISK from entry fees the prize levels will drop and you'll get less interest. Things that can turn people off entering include not being able to use their favourite size class, entry fees being out of their price range or other competitors being notorious for winning.
EVE Evolved: Organising your own PvP tournament
If you've been following the latest official Alliance Tournament in EVE Online, you've probably been glued to the match videos being posted on Youtube. Every year as I watch the matches, I find myself wishing I'd entered even though my rag-tag group of pilots would probably get knocked out in the qualifying rounds. What you might not know is that the official Alliance Tournament wasn't the first PvP tournament on the block and it's certainly not the only one running. Players have been taking advantage of EVE's open-ended sandbox design to set up their own competitions and arenas for years. They routinely organise successful lotteries, industrial ship destruction derbies, space races, full on PvP tournaments and even poker championships by themselves. Some, such as the BIG lottery, have become long-standing and respected institutions. Organisers of these types of event also have the option of taking a percentage cut for themselves, which can build up to a huge amount of ISK for all the organisation effort they put in.Have you ever wanted to set up your own PvP tournament complete with prizes and your own unique set of rules? Whether you want to start a new popular competition tradition in EVE or just want to make some ISK off the entry fees, events organising is certainly one of EVE's most rewarding freeform professions. In this article, I dish out some handy information on how to organise and set up a trustworthy tournament without putting any of your own ISK on the line.
SCEE renews UEFA sponsorship to last until 2012
According to MCV, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has renewed its contract to continue sponsoring the UEFA Champions League until 2012. SCEE has been with the European football league for over nine years, bringing PlayStation products to footy fans.For all the Americans reading this, wondering: wait, they play football in Europe?, here's a little clip to get you up to speed. Oh, that football.[Via VG247]
Activision CEO talks about in-game advertising... is WoW next?
When Vivendi acquired Activision -- or was it Activision acquiring Vivendi? these business deals confuse me -- to form what the soon-to-be Activision-Blizzard late last year, many players were concerned about how this would affect our beloved MMO. Blizzard assured its players with an FAQ on the forums about the merger stating, in no uncertain terms, that it would not affect Blizzard's games in any way (except to improve them, presumably). Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently spoke with Next Generation, however, and talked very much like the businessman, discussing possible revenue models for their stable of games. He mentions how Activision-Blizzard must figure out StarCraft's business model for the future, "with in-game advertising and sponsorship" which he says "presents a tremendous opportunity for the future."He illustrates how StarCraft can actually be "the model for in-game advertising and tournament play", spooking at least one World of Warcraft player, who asks on the forums if WoW could be next. Fortunately, Karune chimes in the same thread assuring StarCraft fans (and by extension, WoW players) that Blizzard has "no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II." He explains that "Bobby (Kotick) was actually referring to Battle.net, which has always included ads." It's very reassuring, but perhaps such speculation would be avoided if Activision-Blizzard's CEO actually words things a little better.
CGS 2v2 Arena information
There were some people out there who thought that since WoW wasn't an FPS or RTS, that it didn't really belong in the world of competitive gaming. Heck, a friend of mine used to like to say that it wouldn't work unless you were "trying to judge one elf dancing on a mailbox compared to another." (This friend, I should add, is anti-WoW) That's why I'm glad to see the Arena competitions becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on. As Drysc recently announced on the forums, World of Warcraft is set to appear in this year's Championship Gaming Series. Players will have a chance to land a spot in the draft at BlizzCon. And for those who thumb their noses at gaming as a possible job -- the winners stand to make between $30k and $100k when you figure in the base salary, bonuses for winning, and prize money. (I just hope it includes good medical, because I sense some carpal tunnel in the mix too. :D )Check out Drysc's full announcement from the forums behind the jump...
360 will sponsor World Cyber Games thru '08
The WCG and Microsoft have announced that the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows will be the "premier sponsor" of the World Cyber games through 2008. Microsoft's sponsorship will include hardware, software and marketing support for all WCG events, including three pan-regional championships, the Korean Championship, the USA Championship and the Grand Finals in Monza, Italy (October 18-22). The Xbox 360 games for this year's series are PGR3 and DOA4. According to the lofty description on their website, the WCG is "not just a world game tournament, but also combines the world to create harmony and enjoyment through the shared emotions." Presumably, they're talking about the emotion you get when you kick a stranger's ass at DOA4. This a good move on MS's part that surely cements the Xbox 360's brand when it comes to the growing world of e-sports. Who will be the first Xbox 360 cyber-athlete to get mainstream press attention like PC poster boy Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel? [Thanks Aaron]
