Saturday, June 28, 2008

Fairy Tale MMO Secondhand Lands Announced

[Reposted from Kotaku]

Described as an "eternal struggle between two sisters: Little Bo Peep and Little Red Riding Hood," the new MMO Secondhand Lands has just been announced and is currently in closed beta. The game, developed by Austin-based Callipygian, will be distributed by Pixel Mind and will utilize their microtransaction system. Said Callipygian founder and Secondhand Lands lead, "We chose to work with Pixel Mine because they offered us the best value for our company and our players. As an independent developer it is very difficult to find a distribution deal that gives us a package with everything we need to manage accounts and handle payments. Also, we are excited to be working with another Austin company; this town is rich with talent and services tailored for game creation."

Secondhand Lands is the massively multiplayer online game set in a parody fairytale world. There will be none of those pansy elves or cantankerous dwarves in this land. Our heroes are comprised of the Wolves and the Sheep who have pledged their undying allegiance to Bo Peep or Little Red Riding Hood. Well, perhaps not undying... Both the jaded MMOG veteran and new player will quickly find a place among the followers of the rival sisters (or perhaps as a Black Sheep or one the nefarious Wolves in Sheep's Clothing). Secondhand Lands boasts those features players have come to expect of the "big AAA" games along with a few surprises. Sounds interesting, at the very least. I'm always up for clever parodies.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/322109116/parody-fairy-tale-mmo-secondhand-lands-announced

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IMVU Creating a World From the Avatar Up

[Reposted from Kotaku]

Worlds In Motion sat down to talk about IMVU with CEO and president Cary Rosenzweig; I think we're seeing the second coming of Second Life if the New York Times picks up on this. The interview itself is interesting, with a lot of attention paid to the creative/economic aspects of item transactions and so forth. On how it all works (and how it's working out in IMVU):

"Somebody takes the credits they get from IMVU, and it goes to the item's creator. At the point where the item is sold, IMVU takes some of these credits back. We call it a sink to pull credits out of the economy to prevent inflation.Numerically, the vast majority of people who sell those items take the credit and go back into the catalog themselves to buy more stuff. Within IMVU, there's status with being a creator. Some of them are very successful, as they've created amazing things, and lots of people buy their creations. We allow them to take those credits and trade them for cash from IMVU members, so they're in a competition with us. We have an internal system that creates tremendous incentive, not only social, but creative and now financial, to attract the best creators. Many, many more said that it brings in a little money a month. We're proud of that."

Of course, the IMVU model is nothing new, but they're reportedly now raking in $1 million in revenue a month from their item catalog and associated purchases. We'll see if it manages to really take off (and stay that way).

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/322137500/imvu-on-creating-a-world-from-the-avatar-up

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Friday, June 27, 2008

The Blizzard Authenticator

[Reposted from Kotaku]

Nothing sucks quite as much as logging into your World of Warcraft account to find your carefully cultivated level 70 character naked as the day he was born. Blizzard feels our pain, and has applied the magic of technology to the security issue to create the Blizzard Authenticator, a keychain device that generates a six-digit passcode that you can link to your account via serial number. Once the device is linked you'll have to enter the code from the Authenticator every time you log into the game or access your account settings on the WoW web page. It's so secure that once you've added it to your account you can't remove it without calling Blizzard support directly and verifying your security information.

The Blizzard Authenticator will be available at the 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris this weekend, showing up for purchase at Blizzard's online store for $6.50 in the near future.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/320612798/secure-your-wow-account-with-the-blizzard-authenticator

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

RocketOn Layers Virtual World Onto The Web

[Reposted from TechCrunch]

Last February South San Francisco startup Rocketon planned to release a virtual world that spanned the web. At the time, it appeared as though the company was pursuing an embeddable widget strategy. But instead of integrating virtual worlds into webpages, it has actually placed one on top of them so that avatars can roam the web just as you currently surf it. Comparisons can be drawn to both Weblin and PMOG. Whereas Weblin places a little avatar on the bottom of your browser that can be used to chat with other visitors to a webpage, PMOG turns web surfing</a> into a game with mine laying and loot plundering.

RocketOn was co-founded by two veterans from the gaming industry - Eric Hayashi and Steve Hoffman - so it comes as no surprise that its avatars participate in games with each other (as they do on virtual world sites like Club Penguin). However, like most other virtual worlds, Rocketon is also about chatting with friends and strangers, and dressing up your avatar in fun guises. The basic service is free but users can buy special virtual goods with real money or points that they've earned by performing certain tasks (or simply spending time using RocketOn).

How does one layer a virtual world onto the web? RocketOn has achieved this in two ways: first with a browser plugin, and second with a Flash browser emulator. Newcomers are expected to try out the virtual world by loading up a Flash app that can be used to browse the web with RocketOn superimposed. More committed users can download and install the plugin so that they can navigate the web as they normally would.

In addition to earning revenue from the sale of virtual goods, RocketOn is working to sign sponsorship deals with brands on the web. Say you visit insecticide company Black Flag's website. Were Black Flag to sponsor RocketOn, it could build out its own interactive objects (like a roach motel) and entice avatars to participate in its own branded games (like killing as many roaches as possible with a spray can). Likewise, Gap could roll out a virtual clothing store ontop of its website where avatars buy its clothes and wear them wherever they go on the net.

RocketOn will remain in private beta for at least a few weeks longer

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/319967190/

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Bringing Acclaim Back From The Dead

[from Kotaku]

There's a tidy piece up over on Gamasutra, detailing Howard Marks' plans to resurrect the Acclaim brand name. While the original company went bust in 2006, Marks plans on capitalising on the brand name to leverage titles that are less about cartoony basketball players and more about...pony-based MMOs. Acclaim circa 2008 are all about free-to-play MMOs, nickel-and-diming you with microtransactions, getting into Facebook gaming and capitalising on the rise of the online gaming scene in markets like China. Might not sound like much, but the last time Marks decided to revive the flagging fortunes of a former big name in the industry was in 1991. When he and Bobby Kotick dug Activision out of the grave. That seems to be working out OK

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/318831154/on-bringing-acclaim-back-from-the-dead

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World of Warcraft Originally To Be Ad Supported [Blizzard]

[from Gamasutra via Kotaku]

Blizzard's senior VP of game design Rob Pardo revealed at the Paris Game Developers Conference that World of Warcraft was originally intended to be a free-to-play, advertising supported MMO. Pardo said, reacting to the impact of free MMOs in Asia on WoW's success, that "market conditions" forced them to realize that a subscription based model was the way to go.

While we're certain that Blizzard is enjoying the 10 million or so World of Warcraft subscribers forking over $13 to $15 each month in fees, it would be interesting to peek into the alternate universe where WoW was funded by ads.

While we're on subscriptions, Pardo said that one of the reasons behind MMOs failing to take off on consoles is the bite that console makers want to take out. In addition to a "lack of hard drive space, and difficulty in certifying patches" taking a percentage off the top is, literally, laughable to Pardo. Many more Pardo-isms at the full report.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/319246767/world-of-warcraft-was-originally-going-to-be-ad-supported

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

IMVU Reaches 20M Users, Virtual Economy Still Strong

IMVU's 3D virtual chat world has been around for nearly four years, and has recently reached the 20 million registered user milestone. Launching with avatars that can chat on its IM client in a virtual 3D environment, IMVU began to grow popular at the onset of a swelling interest in web-based virtual communities.

Similar to Second Life, IMVU also has a secondary focus on the people-powered economy where users can buy and sell virtual goods, some of which they've created themselves. It's this virtual market that has grown right alongside IMVU's population, reaching over 1.5 million items to date. IMVU credits viral growth, its economy, and its ability to offer a niche environment for a wide range of users, from Anime fans to Goth and Latino.

Admittedly, the IMVU's often glitter-covered environment is one that I've grown out of for the most part, but I recognize the importance of its virtual world. As we've seen in the past two years or so, the web-based virtual environment has really taken off, with many communities, like Meez and WeeWorld launching virtual worlds from their initial avatar offering.

And as Second Life, which reportedly has about 7 million less users than IMVU, hopes to reverse its growth slump in the coming years with improved technology and networks, the trend towards combining avatars with a recognizable and familiar chat environment is one that works quite well across the board.

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Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:

IMVU Beta - 3D Instant Messaging
MyDataBus Reaches 100,000 Users
Multiply Reaches 5 Million Users
FamilyBuilder Hits 10M Profiles, Links Trees Across Facebook, MySpace, Bebo
Save MySpace with SaveYourSpace - 5 Days Left
Meebo Named Fastest Growing IM Client
Wikipedia Passes Another Milestone: 10 Million Articles

http://mashable.com/2008/06/24/imvu-milestone/

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Warhammer Not Expected to Rival World of Warcraft

[reposted from Joystiq]

Serving as the CEO for a high-profile game publisher means having responsibilities beyond just attending the occasional meeting or PR function. Many gaming industry executives also find themselves moonlighting as Flavor Flav-esque hype men (and women) for their company's blockbuster releases. Then again, some leaders take a different approaching to promoting their big titles, replacing boisterous claims with cautious, realistic optimism. Then there's a third group of leaders, who etch their upcoming games into their flesh.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello fits neatly into group number two, as his comments to a group of investors concerning EA Mythic's upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning demonstrates. Riccitiello plainly stated that "Warhammer Online [will be] a strong entry in the MMORPG space," but will not "rival WoW." We appreciate Riccitiello's candor, but with Warhammer out of the running, we're beginning to wonder what it will take for a title to knock Blizzard's billion-dollar baby from its position atop the crest of the MMO dogpile.

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/317600278/

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Sugar Rush Arena in Closed Beta

[from Kotaku]

Nexon has revealed its very first North American-developed game (for the North American market), Sugar Rush Arena, which is now in closed beta. The game is a casual MMOG like other Nexon titles, but was developed in Vancouver as opposed to South Korea. Like Nexon's other titles, the game is free to play, but will offer virtual items and upgrades for purchase:

The title will allow players to fight against each other while trying to collect virtual coins ....

The development team working on Sugar Rush Arena is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment.

Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

I presume if this is a successful move, we can expect to see more games targeted at the Western market being developed in the West; perhaps this is heralding a new trend?

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/316993690/nexons-sugar-rush-arena-in-closed-beta

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New Media, Stories, and Games: the Essays

First Person electronic book review via Emily Short. See the bottom of this blog's sidebar for a link to the "Second Person" title on Amazon.

I'm still on a semi-enforced vacation from academia, but I couldn't resist reading some of the essays found on electronic book review. The essays are a selection from two MIT Press books, First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game and Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. There are a bunch of interesting essays (and some not-so-interesting ones, I'm sure), on topics ranging from IF to WoW to more general ruminations on narrative, stories, gaming in general:

The First Person thread is a collaboration among electronic book review, MIT Press, and editors Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin. It explores a new model for connection between online publishing and traditional edited books in which printed works are not only reproduced electronically but also substantially expanded via responses to the collection (ripostes) and enriched by incorporation into the ebr database. This thread includes almost all the contents of a trilogy of edited collections published by MIT: First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media, and a not-yet-announced final volume. The material in these volumes and on ebr represents a new level of dialogue between creators and critics about emerging forms of fictional and playable experience.

This is very cool, because books from academic presses are frequently (a) hideously expensive and (b) hard to get. I'm one of those people that likes to purchase my books, so I can underline and bracket and dog ear to my heart's content, but there are a couple of classics that will not be part of my personal collection since they now go for $250+ thanks to small publishing runs. I think it's a great move to offer these sorts of books that do hold interest for a wider audience for free, and in an electronic format. Part of a new trend, perhaps?

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/317017247/new-media-stories-and-games-the-essays

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Thursday, June 19, 2008

Meez Finally Launches Virtual World

[reposted from Mashable]

Meez users have been requesting a virtual world in which their custom avatars can roam around and become more social with each other for some time, and now they finally have what they've always wanted. Meeznation is the brand new virtual world made just for Meez avatars.

The virtual world wasn't entirely under wraps, as Meez has been testing out a few virtual rooms through its Facebook application earlier this year. This testing laid the groundwork for many of the social aspects that were applied to Meeznation. The virtual world hosts games, customizable rooms, various applications like a graffiti wall, and the ability to do things like watch YouTube videos with friends.

Unlike most other virtual worlds that have grown out of an avatar-creation and sharing site, Meez has layered in a good deal of functionality, activity and interaction for the avatars. For instance, there's chat capabilities in every virtual room, and similar to an IM chat client that converts the characters ";" and ")" into Meez avatars will act out certain commands that you type into the chat window. Type in "rofl" and your Meez avatar will roll on the floor laughing.

Some reactions aren't as readily known, and you'll have to learn by experience to figure out what these actions are. During the demo of Meeznation, presented by Director of Marketing Michael Lehman, I noticed some avatars sitting cross-legged, floating in the air. As a newcomer, it's not very obvious that you'll need to type in "Ommm" in order to get your avatar into this meditative position. Having such "secret" reactions and interactions within the virtual world adds more of a gaming quality to Meeznation, and will hold some users' attention longer, especially as Meez intends to continually introduce new actions such as this.

Other actions seem better fitted with certain virtual rooms, which can be branded as part of Meez's advertising options within this virtual world. Just as brands like Nike, Panasonic and Sears have provided gear, objects and backgrounds for avatar customization, some virtual rooms in Meeznation can be presented to offer even more interactive marketing.

One example shown to me during the demo of Meeznation was a listening lounge for the upcoming 50 Cent album. Here users can listen to songs, click on album posters on the wall to purchase those corresponding albums through iTunes, chat with others about the album, and even have rap battles with each other.

Rooms aren't limited to brands and those predefined by Meez–individual users can create their own custom rooms, just as they would an IM chat room. The amount of interaction that can go on in one of these user-launched virtual rooms is enhanced by a "message system" that allows users to communicate with each other even if they're not in the same room at the same time. One thing that Meez learned from testing virtual rooms on Facebook is that real-time chat is fun, but not all-inclusive. Enabling users to leave messages and gifts for each other in a virtual room is like having an inbox in your virtual world chat room.

And most of the behavior that takes place within these virtual rooms can be measured for Meez's purposes, and for branding purposes as well. Metrics will be acquired based on user activity, as an extension of what Meez already provides in terms of stats for user behavior. This will consist of looking at the conscious decisions that users make, such as entering a room, how long they remained in the room, and what types of branding paraphernalia they interacted with.
While Meeznation isn't directly connected with the Meez Facebook application (in terms of visiting back and forth between the two apps), new rooms launched on Meeznation will be available through the Facebook application as well. This too could lead to some interesting behavior analytics that can be accounted for in regards to advertising and branding potential of Meez's virtual world.

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EA Online Reaching For 60% of Asia in 5 Years

[reposted from Joystiq]

After showing considerable interest in conquering Asia, Electronic Arts has been noticeably mum of late regarding its plans for the region, lurking like a rogue in the shadows, as if waiting to club the market on the back of the head with a fat bag of cash. Now EA has admitted as much, with EA Asia's vice president Chris Thompson telling Reuters that the company looks for the region to comprise some 15 to 20 percent of its total business by 2012. Compare this to the meager 5 percent of EA's wallet it's responsible for today. Key to this expected growth is the Asian market's love affair with playing games online. According to Thompson, while online gaming represents a respectable 10-15 percent of the company's Asian footprint today, "five years from now, that the online portion of our business could be representing somewhere plus or minus around 60 pct of our business." Mama always said if you're gonna set a goal, make it lofty, though with Hellgate: London finding some rare success in Korea and Warhammer Online waiting in the wings, maybe there's method to EA's infatuation with Asia after all.

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/314631210/

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Free-To-Play MMORTS Dreamlords Launching Wednesday [Game Launch]

[reposted from Kotaku]

Swedish Developer Lockpick Entertainment have been working on their free-to-play MMORTS Dreamlords: The Reawakening for quite some time now, but now they've dropped us a line to let us know that the game is ready for launch this Wednesday, June 18th. It's a nifty little title that combines an actual, downloaded RTS client with a web-based management system that essentially allows you to manage aspects of play when you generally shouldn't be, say at-work, for instance.

The game features three races, each with different balances between combat and management to allow players to focus on the RTS aspect they're most keen on. You can hit up the official website for more information, or hit up the gallery below for the latest screens of Dreamlords: The Reawakening.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/313110942/free+to+play-mmorts-dreamlords-launching-wednesday

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

More Console MMOs To Come?

[from Kotaku]

Back in April, Dan Rubenfield (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, etc.) ranted, raved, and put MMO developers 'on notice.' And, at the end, admonished developers to "quit making PC games. It's a waste of time and money." Unsurprisingly, people hit back, and now over at GameSetWatch, Joe Ludwig (producer of Pirates of the Burning Sea) has a snappy little response detailing six reasons why MMOs are just plain harder to develop for consoles versus PCs. Does that mean it won't start happening in greater numbers? Of course not:

There is enough money to be made in console games that future MMO releases there are inevitable. It's just a question of when they arrive.

Several console MMOs have already launched. The most successful of these by far is Final Fantasy XI on the PlayStation 2. Everquest Online Adventures and Phantasy Star Universe (and Phantasy Star Online before it) are two more examples. There are probably more that I'm not coming up with. All of these games have seen some modest success, but none of them are either major console hits or major MMO hits.

... Eventually MMOs are going to come to consoles. It's just going to take them a while to get there, and they will probably never emerge in the same numbers as they do on PCs. Buck up, Dan. We'll get there some day.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/312490891/why-arent-there-more-console-mmos

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Casual MMOGs Money Stats

[from Kotaku]

Lightspeed, a venture capital firm, checked out the average revenue per user for some casual, free to play MMOGs (Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Runescape, and Second Life), establishing that other that SL - which pulls in a little over $9 a month in ARPU, thanks mostly to virtual land upkeep - these sorts of casual MMOGs pull in around $1.25 ARPU per month. Which, until one considers the user bases of games like Club Penguin, seems like a damn hard way to make some money:

Second Life: $9.30/mthly user/mth
Club Penguin: $1.62/mthly user/mth
Habbo: $1.30/mthly user/mth
Runescape: $0.84/mthly user/mth

Having spoken to many other MMOGs and virtual worlds on a private basis, this estimate seems to be a good gauge for what a well performing MMOG can aspire to from a free to play business model.

Left out are a number of other popular MMOGs like MapleStory; I'd be curious to see firmer statistics for a wider spread of games, though the comments section does include some speculative numbers for a few other games.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/311919656/how-casual-mmogs-are-making-money

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Friday, June 13, 2008

SOE Real Money Trading, Not Microtransactions

[from Kotaku]

Last month Sony Online Entertainment announced that upcoming titles The Agency and Free Realms would be utilizing the Live Gamer service for real money transactions, which many people took to mean that players would be able to buy weapons and equipment to enchance their gameplay. In an interview published over at Eurogamer, lead designer Hal Milton explains that this isn't the case at all.

"I want to make this very clear," said lead designer Hal Milton. "This is not a microtransaction system within The Agency to allow players to buy weapons, outfits, or operatives to be effective within the game world. That's something that we're absolutely not planning on doing."

Instead, Live Gamer will be implemented as it is in EQII, allowing players to sell their own goods to other players. Milton did add that allowing players to recruit more operatives through a one-time out of game payment was still a possibility.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/311255861/soe-clarifies-the-agencys-real-money-trading

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Square's Free MMO, Concerto Gate

(from Joystiq)

Wow, talk about being of two minds. On the one hand, this first trailer from Square's new free MMORPG Concerto Gate is breathtakingly attractive, though it's gameplay-free. On the other hand, we spent the entire duration of the trailer fighting the urge to give ourselves purple nurples. The game, as you may not know, is the forthcoming sequel to Cross Gate, an MMO that's been kicking around Japan since 2001, and it sports a style that could kindly be described as "whimsical."

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/310669671/

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Turbine hiring details for console MMO development

[from Gamasutra via Joystiq]

Half-confirming earlier rumblings, Turbine has gone on record to state that they are actively developing a console-based MMO. It's not known at this time whether the title is, as rumored, a cross-platform console adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, or whether it is an entirely new title.

According to Turbine Communications Director Adam Mersky, the company intends to fill 100 new positions in 2008, with 60 slots already filled thus far this year. A significant investment from media giant Time Warner is largely the cause of this sudden growth, which proves promising for the MMO developer.

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/310086317/

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Dungeon Runner's New Take On "Dropping" Loot

[from Kotaku]

Starting in June people who pick up the box copy of Dungeon Runners at a store will get an in-game Bling Gnome.

The Bling Gnome is a pet of sort that runs around in the game as you play picking up all of the gold dropped from the baddies you kill while playing the free-to-play massive game. The gnome can also be told to pick up dropped items that aren't rare and eat them. He then poops out gold as a reward... seriously.

I love this idea, it saves all of the hassle of having to go back to town and sell off the crap you horde while out in the wilds adventuring.

Dungeon Runners Bling Gnome: Excreting gold for fun and profit

Exactly what is the Bling Gnome you might ask? Similar to its cousin, the Garden Gnome, the Bling Gnome is a tricked-up helper gnome with a bit of attitude that will follow your character around and pick up all the gold dropped on the ground (that was intended for you to pick up) auto-magically. This way you don't have to go running around and pick it up all the gold yourself, the little gangster will do it for you.

The Bling Gnome also has the ability to pick up dropped items, at the Rare level of availability and below (anything that's not purple- or rainbow-colored), and eat them, converting them into gold. Another time saver! Instead of filling up your inventory with a clutter of items you just want to sell when you get back to Townston, the Bling Gnome will convert them into gold right then and there. That's not all… though honestly, what would Dungeon Runners be without some scatological humor somewhere? Every once in awhile during this "swords-into-goldshares" conversion process, the Bling Gnome can produce amazing items from its rear end in rather spectacular fashion. In other words, it can poop out an ultra-powerful item (along with the gold). The more items you pick up at once, the higher the chance it can happen. How handy is that?

Players won't have to look under a blarney stone to get their own Bling Gnome. By the end of June, players can go to just about any game retailer in North America and purchase a Dungeon Runners game pack that includes the soon-to-be-legendary Bling Gnome as well as six months of premium membership level game time for the price of four.

For more information on Dungeon Runners and the Bling Gnome, go to www.Dungeonrunners.com.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/309970061/dungeon-runners-gold+excreeting-bling-gnome-spotted

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Tabula Rasa Doing Just Fine

[MMORPG Survivor via Kotaku]

Phew! And here we were all worried that Richard Garriott's latest MMO endeavor was doomed to failure! NCsoft has been in touch with Eurogamer to assure them that everything is rosy in the world of TR, with things looking up every day.

"Tabula Rasa offers players a different kind of MMO experience, enhancing our portfolio of game titles. The game play mechanics are very different to that of a typical MMO - those who have experienced the game have recognised these innovative features and applauded them. A recent European trial promotion was met with great demand; we will be doing a similar promotion later in the year."

NCsoft also went on to assure the gaming public that MMOGChart.com's data showing the game hovering at around 75,000 subscribers was not official, though they weren't forthcoming with official numbers.

As I've said before, Tabula Rasa is a solid little niche MMO title that does many things differently than your average game in the genre. It just wasn't my particular cup of space-tea. Good enough to survive, though I doubt it'll ever truly thrive. Yes, that rhymed.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/309713540/tabula-rasa-doing-just-fine-thanks

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Turbine Console-idation In Future

(from Kotaku)

When we heard this morning that Turbine was planning to put part of its $40 million Time Warner-led investment to work doing console MMOs, we wondered if a console version of Dungeons & Dragons Online or Lord of the Rings Online could be in the works.
Alas, when we spoke to Turbine's communications director Adam Mersky today, he confirmed Turbine is "actively developing a title for console," but declined to specify.

"We've hired over 60 people since the beginning of the year," said Mersky, and 40 more job postings for the project are currently waiting to be filled. "The people that invested in us, Time Warner... one of the media giants, getting into the MMO fold, and that's obviously a big deal," he said. "They also have a huge distribution network... that may bear fruit for us."And that investment, Mersky said, makes Turbine "well funded for a good time into the future," and he told Kotaku a bit more about what the company plans to do with that money. GGB capital, another of the recent investors, has a "huge footprint in China," Mersky said. Right now, LotRO is ramping up for a launch in China this year or early next, while its closed beta just finished in Korea. Asia is a huge market for MMOs in general, Mersky said, and "that's a big thing for Turbine."

DDO is doing well too," Mersky said, "It's over two years old which is something to be said for a lot of MMOs." The marketing push we've been hearing about as a possible indicator that DDO may move to consoles partially hinges on new content updates planned for the remainder of the year, he said, both revamps of old content and new content, including new starter experiences.
"It's a good time for that franchise," said Mersky. "Atari has turned itself around, brought in a lot of talented people recently, and we're in active dialog with them to do good things for DDO." DDO is also set to get Direct X 10 by the summer, Mersky said. As for LotRO, the team is ramping up for the Mines of Moria expansion. Another book update in July is coming to close out Volume 1 and pave the way for the new expansion, and Mersky said Turbine will publish a full expansion every year for the game.

For how long? Turbine has the license to make MMOs based on the Tolkien universe until 2012, with options to extend until 2017.

Part of the investment dollars are going into new technology - Mersky points out that new players coming into the game late currently have to tuck in to catch up on a long patching process, but he alluded to proprietary tech in the works that may remove the sort of snafus that often occur in client-based computing.

Turbine has its eye on open worlds and user-generated content, too: "We're working on tech to let people... enable self evolving worlds," he said. "The idea is, we have these immersive, beautiful 3D worlds and they're designed by professional artists - but how can we let people create content in those... without 'suburban sprawl,' allow them to create gameplay environments." Nothing immediate to announce on that front, said Mersky, but that's a direction Turbine is very interested in going, too.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/309124479/interview-turbine-confirms-console-project-talks-future-plans

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Virtual Worlds In Motion

See below from games.ign.com. I met Jim Bower (Numedeon) at the Games for Health conference earlier this year and he is definitely worth hearing.

Sept. 16-17, 2008 will mark the return of the Worlds in Motion Summit, taking place at the Austin Game Developers Conference (www.austingdc.net) in the Austin Convention Center. The event, which saw its successful debut at the Game Developers Conference 2008 (GDC 08) in San Francisco this past spring, will map the broadening of the worldwide business market through the expansive and growing social game networking space. The Worlds in Motion Summit, presented by WorldsinMotion.biz, is of particular value to those looking to successfully leverage their content and brands into interactive online worlds.

In an exciting development, Stephen Andrade, Senior Vice President, Digital Development and General Manager, NBC.com will be joined by Rajat Paharia, Founder and CEO of Bunchball in a first-of-its-kind presentation, titled "Dunder Mifflin Infinity: A Case Study in Using Game Mechanics to Drive Community Behavior." Participants will hear how Bunchball's Nitro meta-gaming platform is being used to drive user behavior and increase engagement on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, a social networking and user-generated content site for fans of NBC's hit TV show, The Office.

Additional confirmed speakers for the upcoming Worlds in Motion Summit include:

- James M. Bower - Founder, Chairman of the Board and Chief Visionary Officer of Numedeon Inc.

- Jonathan Epstein - CEO of Double Fusion

Teemu Huuhtanen - Executive VP, Marketing, Ad Sales and Business Development of Sulake Corporation and President, North America of Sulake Inc.

The conference will examine the results that both independent start-ups and established Fortune 500 companies can derive from actively participating in the virtual world space. The Worlds in Motion Summit will map the intersection of games, business and entertainment in virtual worlds, and provide a look into where these virtual worlds are headed. Beyond traditional notions of linear gameplay experiences, the Worlds in Motion Summit will delve into the increasing socialization of games and online worlds, and the integration of personalization and player-generated content into gameplay.

Additional information on the event and confirmed speakers can be found at: http://www.austingdc.net/wim/index.htm

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World Of World Of Warcraft Launch Coverage From The Onion News Network

[from The Onion via Kotaku]

We admittedly slept on the release of the full-fledged sequel to World Of Warcraft, but The Onion doesn't miss a beat, as its coverage of the World Of World Of Warcraft launch helps get us up to speed. The sequel to Blizzard's megahit lets gamers role-play as someone playing WoW, simulating keystrokes and featuring Hot Pockets eating support. Massively multiplayer online games haven't exactly been my cup of tea, but even I got a little tingle seeing a virtual World Of Warcraft player read through the game's Terms of Service Agreement, which looks to make legally binding software agreements fun again.


http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/308446514/world-of-world-of-warcraft-launch-coverage-from-the-onion-news-network

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Controversial Game Currency Exchange Sparter Going Under

[from TechCrunch]

Looks like you're going to have to earn your phat lootz the hard way. Sparter, an online marketplace for virtual game currencies that launched last year, has effectively shut down. The company has issued a notification stating that no further purchases can be carried out, though transactions currently in progress will be fulfilled.

The site, which is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, allowed gamers to sell gold to other players for real-world money in games including World of Warcraft, Eve, and Everquest. This kind of trading has been commonplace on the internet since the emergence of major massively multiplayer games, but it has always been controversial - eBay banned it in early 2007. Such transactions are against the Terms of Service for nearly every online game, and many players believe that they are dishonest and can ruin a game's economy.

So what led to the shutdown? The site almost certainly folded to pressure from game developers, though it may have also had a hard time gaining traction in a space with countless vendors of virtual gold. The site does still leave some wiggle room for its rebirth in the future, explaining:

"Going forward, we believe the best course for our business is to focus solely on providing marketplaces with the full support of game developers and publishers. "

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Now Is The Winter of Our Virtual Worlds...

[from Kotaku]

While Second Life is still a media darling (though I think the general press is down in number of articles touting this new! and amazing! and wonderful! virtual space since this time last year), Bruce Damer has an interesting piece up over at Terra Nova: are virtual worlds facing a serious downturn in the near future? I suspect the comments section will get more interesting than the body of the post, which goes through eight potential pitfalls.

The key question I would like to pose the community is: are we already seeing the early sign of a Virtual Worlds downturn that may lead to a "winter" as severe as the one in the period 2000-2003? The second logical question is: if this is so, what can we do to head off or reduce the slope of a new downturn? If the infamous "chasm" lies before us, and not back in 2000-2003, then what can we do to sling a rope bridge over it?

A pretty large failure rate is to be expected, since there are more virtual worlds (however you wish to define that) floating around than can be supported by the current market. However, figuring out how to mitigate potential problems for a large swath of virtual worlds would probably be prudent. The post hasn't been up long, but there are already some interesting and thoughtful comments it will probably grow over the next couple of days, if past Terra Nova posts are any indication.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/306921061/are-we-facing-a-winter-of-virtual-worlds

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

EVE Online Now Ruled By Real-World Elected Council

(from Kotaku)

Iceland. It's where all the cool kids go to have a summit. Reagan and Gorbachev rapped about nukes there in 1985; 20 years later, the Supreme Metal Council condemned the overuse of the devil horns hand-signal. And now something billing itself as EVE Online's democratically elected government will meet there.

The Council of Stellar Management — which sounds like something from Dilbert — was formed by EVE developer CCP back in March, and now the two bodies will meet to discuss issues both real- and virtual-world pertaining to the game. The CSM's nine delegates and five alternates serve six month terms and were elected back in March. They rep a gamer community approaching 250,000, according to CCP which bills the stellar managers as "the first democratically-elected governing body in a virtual world."

"The CSM will empower players with a formal communications channel to directly impact the development of their society as it grows more and more advanced," a release says.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/307526816/eve-online-convenes-real+world-elected-council

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War for Profit in Metal Gear Solid 4

(from Kotaku)

Plenty of high praise has flowed to Metal Gear Solid 4, but N'Gai Croal offers a different take in his latest posting over on Level Up. The game, like others, makes timely use of Private Military Corporations (read: mercenaries) to create an environment players want to explore and a story they want to advance. But MGS4's true point lies in its "war economy," which governs or responds to the choices made by players.

Any game must "radically simplify complex systems," and MGS4's gun-launderer character, and fluctuating price of unlockable weapons and equipment does just that as a representation of a mercenary economy. And that, N'Gai reasons, makes a statement about the inherent amorality of war fought for profit just as much as cutscene dialogue, no matter how well written, where gamers are most conditioned to look for what was on the game creator's mind.

That's not to say MGS4 now goes into a pantheon of great allegorical commentaries on war and greed. It's a video game, so whatever message comes out is necessarily refracted through your experience of playing it. And it is a hell of a lot of fun. But N'Gai's point is that the "war economy" with which you, as Snake, must do business make it thought provoking, in addition to being an entertaining game at the top of its genre.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/307426069/war-for-profit-in-mgs4

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Sims Franchise To (Re)Explore, Virtual Worlds?

[from Kotaku]

In a somewhat bizarre interview with The Times Online, Nancy Smith (head of the Sims division at EA) said that " in light of the popularity of virtual worlds ... the Sims may soon become a multi-player game." The article fails to mention the failed experiment of The Sims Online, later rebranded to "EA-Land" and scheduled for closure in August. But Smith talks of potential new (and old) modes for online play:

Ms Smith was adamant, however, that The Sims would not break wholly with its past, and would continue to require players to buy and install software on their machines before being able to play. Some virtual worlds, such as Club Penguin and Habbo Hotel, can be played entirely within a web browser ....

The Sims franchise would also continue to explore new revenue models that have become associated with virtual worlds, she said, including sponsorship and the sale of 'virtual goods', as on the fashion-focused virtual world for teens, Stardoll.com.

It's a really odd interview in light of the online element that already fell flat on its face; maybe second time will be the charm for the Sims?

The Sims prepare for a sociable future [The Times via Worlds In Motion]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/306946984/sims-franchise-to-explore-uh-virtual-worlds

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Business Models

You may want to head on over to this Gamasutra feature by Paul Hyman where the online game market has a battle raging between subscription-based and alternative microtransaction-related business models. Gamasutra examines the matchup with SOE's John Smedley, Three Rings' Daniel James and EA Mythic's Mark Jacobs.

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Saturday, June 07, 2008

Tabula Rasa largely absent from NCSoft financial reports

(from Joystiq)

Wherefore art thou, Tabula Rasa? Though we knew the title's been a bit slow to start, we were still a shocked when Richard Garriott's MMO was largely absent from publisher NCSoft's Q1 financial report. As Massively reports, the title appears only twice throughout the publicly accessible earnings report, and neither time in a particularly favorable light.

In a conference call following the release, CFO Lee Jae-Ho confirmed that the "Tabula Rasa operation" has not yet been profitable for NCSoft. This point, however, was only addressed during the Q&A session, and otherwise entirely ignored during Jae-Ho's formal presentation.

For those interested, Massively presents a more thorough breakdown of the financial standing of Tabula Rasa. We'll summarize here by saying "it ain't good."

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/306515900/

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Your 3D Avatar Is Only A Phone Call Away

[from TechCrunch]

Beema, a 3D animation studio that has been working in the corporate space for the last decade, has released a new platform in beta that allows users to generate 3D speaking avatars with only a phone call.

During signup, users enter their phone numbers and carrier information, which is tied to their account. From then on Beema makes things easy - you simply call their free 800 number which prompts you to leave a voice message. A few minutes after leaving the message, Beema sends you a SMS text and email containing a link to your rendered video, which you can distribute as you see fit.

For the time being Beema's avatar selection is limited to about 40 faces ranging from 3D wizards to Orson Welles. In the future users will be able to upload their own images, and the company hopes to introduce copryrighted characters as an option (for a small fee).

Beema isn't going to win any awards for originality - there are a number of avatar sites that have very similar features, including Vidiator and Oddcast's Voki platform. But the site does win points for its simplicity, forgoing Flash (which is standard for most avatars) for the standard 3GP video format, which gives users much more freedom with their videos (and also works on the iPhone). On the other hand, there's no easy way to embed a video - there is no widget available, so you'll have to upload your video to YouTube yourself.


http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/306475384/

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Friday, June 06, 2008

Economical Gaming

[from Techcrunch]

This guest post is written by Jeremy Liew, a Managing Director at Lightspeed Venture Partners where he focuses on investments in gaming, internet and consumer enabling technology companies. Jeremy is co-producing the Social Gaming Summit next Friday, June 13th, at UCSF Mission Bay. Most of the companies mentioned below will be presenting.

---------------

The last few years have seen a transformation in the consumer internet world as online media has evolved into social media. Many new social media companies have shot to tens of millions of users very quickly, including Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Yelp, YouTube, Slide, RockYou* and Flixster*. The trends that have driven the growth of these Web 2.0 companies include:

- Dramatically reduced development costs and cycle times, which have led to highly iterative product management
- Dramatically reduced marketing and distribution costs as CPC advertising, viral growth and social network platforms have replaced Superbowl ads and distribution deals with portals
- Easier monetization due to the proliferation of ad networks

As the game industry embraces web games, multiplayer games, and social games, we are seeing these same trends emerge. Web games and multiplayer games are well understood. Social games however, are a newer phenomenon.

Social games are not just multiplayer games. In social games, existing social relationships add context and motivation to the gameplay. Social games are more fun to play with people you know than with anonymous strangers. Examples of social games include Friends for Sale*, where you had better buy your girlfriend back from that guy who has been hitting on her at the gym, (fluff) Friends, where if your BFF feeds your pet, you are compelled to reciprocate, and Power Challenge, where you can't let your team's loss to your fraternity brother's team go unavenged.

Even single player games can become social when the right infrastructure for community and social interaction are built around them, including high score leaderboards, achievement badges, challenges and simple message boards, as Kongregate, Addicting Games, MiniClip and MindJolt are demonstrating.

The gaming industry is now starting to experience the same trends that the online media industry has experienced over the last few years:

Dramatically reduced development costs

Lazard estimates that Halo 3 cost $30m to build. Rockstar says that they spent $100m to make Grand Theft Auto 4. While both have been wildly successful games that sold over 10m units each, these are big numbers to spend on development. A new generation of lightweight web games is now being created at a fraction of these budgets, and these games are being played for free by millions of users. Games like Zynga's Scramble, Social Gaming Network's Warbook and Stardoll (originally Paperdoll Heaven) were all originally launched on less than $100k and all have entertained millions of players.

Of course these free games can't compare to the complexity, quality or polygon count of Halo 3 or GTA 4, but they do provide entertainment to their players, and they are all evolving and
improving over time. Because all these games live in the browser, they can be constantly updated and refined as game designers watch their players' usage patterns. They give players more of what they like, and cut out gameplay that players don't like. Teams are small and development is fast and iterative in reaction to player feedback.

In the extreme, users generate the game rules themselves. Some users in online communities and immersive worlds including Dogster, Habbo Hotel, Gaia and IMVU have gone so far as to create games on their own, ranging from dance parties to plays to petting zoos to quiz shows.

Dramatically reduced marketing and distribution costs

Halo 3 spent an additional $30m on marketing, mostly offline. GTA 4 blanketed the billboards of San Francisco as part of its massive launch. These marketing budgets are akin to the Superbowl ads of the early 90s internet companies. Yet CPC and CPA based advertising have been as much a boon for gaming companies as they have for other online businesses. With more games playable inside a browser, or easily downloaded over a broadband connection, games like Go Pets Live, Nexon's Maplestory, and Three Ring's Puzzle Pirates have become experts in success-based online player acquisition.

Furthermore, Games have exploded virally on the social network platforms. On Facebook alone, three games (Texas Hold'em, Zombies and Friends For Sale*) have more than 8 million players (installs). Five of the top ten Facebook apps (by daily active users) are games; Owned, Friends for Sale*, Texas Hold'em, (Lil) Green Patch and Scrabulous. This is a direct consequence of the social games phenomenon. Social games are more fun to play with your friends, and social networks are an ideal environment for killing time with friends. As a result, they have been able to very efficiently ride the distribution channels that the social networks provide.

Easier monetization

The dominant model of monetizing games is still retail - selling crystal cases for $60 a pop. This presents a real barrier to game publishers, who have to convince a prospective player to fork over a substantial amount of money before she has even tried the game. Publishers have to generate demand, which is what led to the high marketing budgets for Halo 3 and GTA IV mentioned previously.

Now more game companies are experimenting with free to play games that make it a lot easier for a prospective player to try before they buy. These games monetize either through advertising or through virtual goods sales. Just as with online media, ad networks like Double Fusion, Massive and Mochi Media have made ad sales much easier for game companies, so that they can focus on their core competencies. Equally, virtual goods business models, well established in Asia, are starting to gain more momentum in the West as well. Habbo Hotel is reportedly doing more than $50m in virtual goods sales (mostly in Europe) and Nexon's Maplestory is doing around $30m in virtual goods sale in the US. Companies like Acclaim, Stardoll and K2 Network are ramping their virtual goods sales in hot pursuit.

Future for social games

The trends outlined above are likely to lead to many new and valuable gaming companies. Let EA, Nintendo, Activision, Ubisoft and the like continue to fight for market share amongst hard core gamers. New social games startups, including free to play MMORPGs, social network games, web based games and single player gaming communities, are busy converting the much larger market of casual players into their customers.

Techcrunch readers interested in learning more about Social Gaming can use the code CRUNCH to get a 10% discount on tickets to the Social Gaming Summit.

* Lightspeed is an investor in Flixster, Rock You and Serious
Business (which publishes Friends For Sale)


http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/305675158/

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Telson may hold the secret to handheld 3D virtual world gaming

And the best news is: no goggles!

(from the good folks at Engadget...)

We've seen companies toss out kit that claims to showcase the third-dimension without requiring a set of those face-consuming spectacles, but we're having an even harder time believing it would go over well (or at all) on a 'roided-up do-it-all handheld. Details are scarce on this one, but the Telson prototype / reference model device looks to be hung somewhere between the land of gaming handhelds and unadulterated UMPCs. Within, you'll find a VIA C7-M processor, 512MB of RAM, a 30/60GB hard drive and a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 resolution panel that's reportedly capable of displaying 3D imagery without special glasses. Can't say we're huge fans of the design / idea / etc., but we'll be keeping an eye out just in case this somehow makes it into production.

[Via SlashGear]
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http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/305403570/

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