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Lawsuit claims IGE dug too greedily and too deep
Out of sunny Florida comes a storm ready to rain on the parade of gold sellers everywhere. Gold seller IGE has found itself sinking deeper into a stack of complaints thanks to one concerned gamer. Antonio Hernandez is fed up with the spam, inflation, and annoyance that stems from gold selling and has decided to do something about it. He has filed for a class action lawsuit that claims inflation in the virtual economy, thanks to gold sellers, forces players to spend more time behind their keyboard in an attempt to makes virtual ends meet, thus costing them more money. "This loss of time, conservatively, amounts to hundreds of thousands of hours of subscriber time and causes the irreparable harm of driving subscribers away from World of Warcraft." Since the announcement was made, Antonio has already been flooded with letters of support from the WoW community. The reason for the support is not only because Antonio is trying to end gold selling, but because he is an active member of the virtual community he feels has been wronged. "The lawsuit," says case consultant and professor Greg Lastowka, "has more of a feel of a community trying to enforce its rules rather than a game company trying to enforce its power over the participants." The community is a strong one, and to add to the power players wield, the game companies are taking a stand with them. Blizzard has announced that they support the lawsuit and stated that gold selling is a very serious concern of theirs.The case dives headfirst into a world with no clearly defined boundaries. The Florida justice system, having issued a subpoena to IGE demanding their transaction details, accepts that the subject of virtual law is real enough for concern. This is a good sign for players since their rights are also what are at stake. As Hernandez's lawyer, C. Richard Newsome, asks, "what are the rights of the [virtual world] community members when they go online?" The community members supporting Antonio have made one thing crystal clear concerning that question. They desire a fair game and hope to collapse IGE's virtual gold mine right on top of IGE's head.
SocioTown hits open beta
SocioTown, first mentioned last December, has now gone into open beta, and if you liked the look and sound of it when we first talked about it, then you're likely to want to join right up, as it seems all of those features have remained intact.SocioTown's aesthetic has a kid-friendly, cereal commercial sheen to it that some will find appealing, and others, off-putting. The website makes much of the burgeoning social networking that can be had, as well as ways to graph and quantify that experience, which leads us to ask exactly to whom this game is targeted -- pre-adolescents, or professors? Visit the above link for more of SocioTown's features, as well as our initial take on it all.
Three Rings' Whirled now in open beta
Three Rings, the makers of Puzzle Pirates, has just gone live with the open beta of its browser-based, 2D social space, Whirled. Whirled has all the features that have become de rigeur for a virtual world these days: minigames, a personal page-embeddable room for your avatar, purchasable objects, and basic creation tools.Also, how can you not love a VW where the default avatar is an adorable piece of tofu? Yes, tofu. And it dances. Expect a First Impressions post for Whirled in the near future, boogieing soy critters and all!
First Impressions: PMOG, the passively multiplayer game
We first reported on PMOG here on Massively back at the end of January. It's the product of a videogame startup called GameLayers, Inc., and claims to be a "passively multiplayer game." But unlike most online games, there are no clients or servers -- the game itself is played with just an extension for the Firefox browser, and instead of wandering a vast virtual world with dragons or aliens, you wander around the weirdest virtual landscape out there... the Internet itself.It's an interesting idea, but does it work? I've been playing PMOG for about a month (the game is now in open beta), and I've amassed quite a stash of virtual cash and almost reached level four. Read on to see my impressions of the "passively multiplayer online game," and find out whether it's something worth extending your browser into.
BBC talks to EVE's economist
The good folks over at the BBC have a writeup centered around EVE Online's very own economist, Dr. Eyjo Guðmundsson, also known as the guy CCP has hired to keep an eye on EVE's economy and to make parallels between money movements in the real and virtual worlds. There's not too much new information in there -- the good Doctor talks a little bit about the player council that will soon be introduced in EVE, and lets us in on some of academic ties to his work in the virtual universe, but as an overview of why EVE's economy is so special (even for players playing other games), it's a good read.And it should also relay just how important it is to have someone watch what's happening in the economy of a virtual world. Innovations like the new "Gross User Product" statistic that Dr. Guðmundsson and his colleagues are working on in EVE will not only help other developers learn a lot more about how to stimulate and develop virtual economies, but could very well have applications in real-world economies as well. Could a recession be avoided because of a market tweak that's experimented on in worlds like EVE? Perhaps, and if so, Dr. Guðmundsson will likely be the one to find out.
RocketOn to make the Web an MMO
Or, something like that. According to its press release, RocketOn is a new company that's creating some sort of experience that spans the Web and doesn't reside in a single place. From the release: "What would it be like if people could take a virtual world with them wherever they go on the Internet?" says Steven Hoffman, CEO of ROCKETON. "The answer we came up with is a parallel experience, where players rocket through cyberspace with their avatar and interact with virtual environments on almost every website they visit."What the press release doesn't say, however, is exactly what that means. A look at the website reveals no information other than a group of colorful pictures and an email address to send applications for entering the closed alpha. I'll admit to being a bit intrigued by this, just as I was when I heard about Vastpark and Metaplace. We'll keep our eyes open.[Thanks, Eric!]
Square's next MMO summoned at GDC?
There are so many MMOs coming to the market and announced to be in development these days that sometimes it's hard to keep track of who is doing what. If you you look at Square for instance, there's been a smattering of news over the past couple months, none of it terribly conclusive. Back in December we heard about their Virtual World, a simplistic derivative of Second Life that would operate on ad-revenue. We've also heard briefly about Concerto Gate, a free-to-play game that looks to combine the social aspects of an MMO with the super-deformed characters and battle systems of a console RPG. And lastly, we heard a bit of news last month that indicated that Square's next big MMO is already well along in development, and is currently being tested internally.Now the latest news on the wire is that Square's Taku Murata may talk about their big new MMO at GDC next week. If you look at his personal page on the GDC website, it says that he'll be talking about how they plan to use their new engine not only in the development of the new Final Fantasy for the Playstation 3, but also for a "new MMORPG in development." With the game development climate being what it is in the absence of E3, it's entirely plausible that they'd take the veil off of the game at GDC. We'll just have to sit around and wait another week to see if every Square fanboy's dream comes true.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
This ... is ... trailer! Debut trailer for This is Vegas
If the images released a few days ago weren't enough to whet your appetite for the upcoming action title This Is Vegas, then try this debut trailer on for size. The footage looks early but the Vegas hook is sure to draw people in, especially those who think they can fool Gil Grissom. The open world action is slated to hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this winter from Midway's internal studio Surreal Software, makers of The Suffering and Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. By the way, no one fools Gil Grissom.
This Is Vegas announced, insert Spartan joke here
Ah, reality. It can get pretty boring sometimes. Especially if you live in a place like Tulsa, Oklahoma (sorry Richard). Thankfully Midway knows your life is as boring as clicking refresh on X3F all day and announced This is Vegas. Combining Grand Theft Auto, Second Life and, well, Vegas, This is Vegas allows players to experience the wild desert wonderland and find out what people mean when they say "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." According to the official site, This is Vegas puts players in the role of a business man visiting the strip who will have to rise to the top and create a vast empire by reigniting the adult playground, drive the fastest cars and prove your power with weapons or via fisticuffs. The open world playground is being developed by the in house Midway team at Surreal Software and is slated for a Winter 2008 release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Also, always double-down on 11.[Via Joystiq]%Gallery-15465%
Metaverse U conference
Stanford University and Stanford Humanities Lab are hosting the Metaverse U conference on the weekend of 16th/17th February. They will be discussing Second Life and virtual worlds in general and exploring "the cultural, technological, legal, and economic issues surrounding virtual worlds" according to conference organiser Henry Lowood.If you would like to know more, or to attend, the conference website is up and running, and the conference schedule and registration forms are available online.
Square-Enix's creatively-named Virtual World
The acerbic lads at Kotaku bring the snark once again with their announcement of an announcement over Square-Enix's upcoming virtual world called Virtual World ... virtual world. There, I couldn't resist.The post's comparison to Second Life, however, is slightly off-the-mark, as SL doesn't run on ad revenues, while Sony's Home certainly will. Similarly, Virtual World will feature ads for Square-Enix games, and given that Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon will be a Wii title, there could be other Wii titles on display as well. Besides the ability to have tea with a Chocobo, will there be any reason for people to want to enter Virtual World? And besides, everybody knows Chocobos like Gysahl Greens anyway -- I mean, duh.
How the MMO crawled out of the MUD
Clockwork Gamer has a good juicy post up about how MMOs first learned how to do things from MUDs, and since today is Old School Day, I thought it was appropriate. Wait, you haven't heard of Multi-User Dungeons? If you've never played one, you'll probably be shocked that they used to fascinate people-- imagine an old-school computer, with its green text on a black screen, dialing into another computer and entering a text-based virtual world. As in, you dial up your favorite BBS, and a message greets you "You are in an inn. There are exits north and west," and from there, you type in words telling the computer what to do, while other users play the game with you. You can try the whole thing with the java client here if you want.A far cry from the virtual worlds we know today, yes, but that's where it started. CG actually focuses on the higher level of things (in many MUDs, players could actually form guilds, and wander around the world together-- "go north"-- killing dragons-- "attack dragon with great mace"), but even the most basic of MMO thrills was originated in the MUD world. "Seeing" a virtual character pass through the room you're in ("Kingofworld enters the room. Kingofworld leaves the room.") was a thrill, because you knew that there was someone else, looking at a screen just like you, behind that character. On the other hand, as CG points out, there were a lot of things that MUDs could do that graphical MMOs can't nowadays.
Next Halo game: FPS MMO?
So now that Bungie and Microsoft have parted ways, what's next for the Halo universe? The latest rumor says Master Chief and company are headed to an first person shooter MMO. That... would be spectacular, given that's done right. Halo is already basically an MMO, considering all the persistent stats, customization and tracking that Bungie has put into it. All it really needs is a virtual world for the Covenant (or what's left of it), Earth, and the Flood to fight it out in, and we're off to the rocket races.The rumor, which is actually from the latest EGM, recommends Bungie for such a task, and there has been speculation that Bungie will go to an MMO next also (although, there's been speculation that every big game developer is working on an MMO, so don't hold your breath on that one either). But it's true that while PlanetSide is entertaining, we haven't yet seen a next generation FPS MMO done right. Could be that Bungie are just the ones to do it.[ via X3F ]
Your Second Life as a CSI
Reuters has reported that there will be a collaboration between the popular CBS show CSI and the game Second Life. There will be two episodes of the series (airing October 24th and November 6th) that prompt viewers to continue the investigation themselves by jumping into a virtual world designed around CSI:NY. This isn't the first time that Second Life has been linked with a TV crime series, but this occasion casts a more positive light on the game.The news came from the creator of CSI , Anthony Zuiker, at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo. TechCrunch has since updated the facts, adding that a link from the CBS website will give three options for CSI fans to participate in. The first option for viewers is a series of forensic puzzles to solve. The second involves players visiting a crime scene in Second Life and then attempting to solve a murder. This second option is called "Murder by Zuiker", and Zuiker himself will judge participants solutions to the mystery and award in-game prizes to the top entrants. The last option will be to follow up on the TV episode's murder case as a crime scene investigator, with all their famous gadgetry at your disposal. Also noted in the TechCrunch article is that the airing of the episode coincides with the launching of an independant client for Second Life, OnRez, by the Electric Sheep Company. This is the first independant viewer that has been given the official nod by Second Life creator Linden Labs. Secondlifeinsider.com also has a ton of posts on CSI in Second Life, and the new client, so visit them for some detailed information and on-going coverage.
More worlds than just Second Life
Dan Taylor at Fabric of Folly points out (and quite rightly) that there's a lot more virtual worlds out there than just Second Life. If you follow the mainstream media, you could be forgiven for missing them. There's a wide variety of them out there, and although Second Life is my home, I certainly like to get out and about and see what else there is on offer. Taylor lists 50 virtual worlds - well, some are worlds, some are MMO games, and some are a bit hard to classify, but let's go with worlds for want of a better term - ordered by approximated user numbers. The definitions vary, so don't take the numbers as gospel. It's an area that is growing (ahem) massively, and there's worlds out there that are definitely worth your attention. See Taylor's list and take a peek at what you might be missing out on.
Blue Mars - blurring the boundary between MMOG and virtual world
Does the name Kazuyuki Hashimoto ring a bell? He was Chief Technology Officer for Square USA for five years, was Vice President of New Technology and Platforms at Electronic Arts for 4 years, and spent seven years as the Senior Vice President of R&D at Square where he worked on the CG segments and cutscenes in the legendary Final Fantasy VII. Along with Li-Han Chen - whose background includes Project Manager (Sony Online Entertainment), VP of engineering (AtGames Inc), Senior Programmer (Squaresoft), Senior Programmer (Dreamworks) - Hashimoto heads up the Honolulu-based Avatar Reality Inc, and their new MMOG, Blue Mars.
The Virtual World Boom
Looking for a great escape from reality? Nothing comes close to a Virtual World for a thrill seeking whimsical adventure that doesn't require you to crash your bank account or take some time away from work-- except when an expansion is released or you that long-awaited beta invite shows up, thank you sick leave! It's only natural that people from all walks of life and ages enjoy being entertained by an interactive medium that offers socialization, avatars, items, mini-games and other various shenanigans. Everyone from Webkinz moms, Club Penguin kiddos, the voracious World of Warcraft indulgers and in between is getting in on some Virtual World action. The whole Virtual World genre is going to get a lot more crowded as big media conglomerates take notice and throw staggering piles of cash around in an attempt to attract new visitors. Recent findings by the Virtual World Conference suggest that from October 2006 to October 2007 more than 1 billion dollars was invested in 35 virtual worlds companies. Over at Business Week, there is a great write-up from Paul Heyman of Game Daily about the stirrings from the last Virtual Worlds conference and where some of this money is coming from and where it's going. You won't find any Jeff Kaplan quotes on "welfare epics" but it's still worth a gander if you are interested in an upcoming subset of the genre that will probably prove to be more popular than traditional based fantasy MMORPGS. It isn't the promise land for every Virtual World. Mike Schramm recently reported on the MMO Boom and how it isn't always peaches and cream. This year has been rough on Auto Assault and Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising as both MMOGS shut down permanently while Ryzom is still hanging on for dear life. Despite the pitfalls, MMORPGS will thrive or World of Warcraft will at least, for how long? If Ultima Online has lasted 10 years, WoW will easily top that. 2008 should prove to be a better year for MMORPGS with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures set to hit our desktops. My hope is that these Virtual Worlds, the ones with elves and fireballs and not Hello Kitty, will be just as fun to explore as their predecessors.
The DS Life: Crossing into reality
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at gmail dot com.Sean Foreman mixes his advanced technical abilities as a photographer with post-processing effects to create images that almost seem magical in their composition. Check past the post break for a sample of his creative work and this week's edition of The DS Life.
Disney to expand MMORPG line-up
No stranger to the online landscape, Disney's CES presentation included word on their future plans to create massive worlds based on many of their licenses. With Pirates of the Caribbean already well into production (if not due this year), Disney intends to "build more virtual worlds like "Pirates" based on a broad range of our properties." Disney is quick to throw out Toy Story as an example of this, but when they mean broad, think real broad. This may not mean that every game is going to own up to the standard, online RPG format. A "virtual world" can be anything from an online hack-and-slash like Pirates to something of a visual chatroom like MTV's Virtual Laguna Beach.Disney's first foray into the MMORPG format was a kid friendly action game, Toontown, which is still online to this day and at by last account, fairly competent. Should Disney team-up down the line with some designers worth their chops, we may not insist on groaning when we hear word of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Online.
Live Anywhere could enhance MMOs
With the upcoming Live Anywhere service from Microsoft, various gaming platforms will unite in new ways. For MMOs, this means some exciting scenarios in the realm of pervasive gaming, gameplay that will follow you around, creating a seamless virtual world across your PC, phone and console.Checking in-game auctions from a mobile phone has been on our MMO wishlist for some time -- Live Anywhere will enable that, and other immersive features. Levelling up crafting skills via casual mini-games; chatting with guild leaders via PC or phone-based VoIP; sending in-game mail and IM from normal mail and IM clients. We'll have to wait and see if Live Anywhere will support more unification, such as matching friends lists and clan systems both in-game and outside it, but there are definitely some really cool possibilities that this vision opens up for MMOs. It's up to Microsoft and developers to really deliver on this potential.
