MMOs illegal in Australia

State of NSW to clampdown on unlawful sales of unclassified games like WoW and WAR.
Australian game publishers and retailers are risking fines and imprisonment for selling online MMOs which haven't been rated by the country's board of classification.

Click here to read the full article

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=207444?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS

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World Of Warcraft Lead Moves To Blizzard's Next Online Game

Reposted from Kotaku

World of Warcraft lead designer Jeffery Kaplan has announced that he is leaving the team behind the popular massively-multiplayer online game in order to work on Blizzard's next massively-multiplayer project.

In a post on the official World of Warcraft forums, Kaplan, who goes by the forum handle Tigole, thanked the fans and the development team behind the game for their support over the years, frustratingly without revealing any new info about what exactly Blizzard's next massively-multiplayer online roleplaying game would be.

"When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone. If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill. So thank you to everyone who has been so supportive over the years, and likewise, thanks to those who have given us pointed feedback on all areas of the game. Without all of the feedback and participation, WoW would not be the game that it has grown to be. Azeroth truly belongs to you and we're lucky to have shared in your journey."

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/hx_ZWThOTN4/world-of-warcraft-lead-moves-to-blizzards-next-online-game

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Joystiq interview: NCsoft talks about updating City of Heroes, keeping it relevant

Reposted from Joystiq

It's been more than four years since MMO faithful were asked to put on skin-tight suits and defend the bustling metropolis of Paragon City in City of Heroes. Since that time, however, numerous other titles have emerged with their bid for players' massively multiplayer affections, from recent efforts like Warhammer Online to the juggernaut that is Blizzard's World of Warcraft.

Of course, the now wholly NCsoft-owned super powered MMO has released updates of its own to keep from becoming stale, including everything from the libertine City of Villains to this week's latest addition, dubbed Issue 13. We recently caged Matt "Positron" Miller, and spoke to the senior designer for NCsoft NorCal at length about the unluckily numbered update, as well as a number of other topics, including the availability of City of Heroes on the Mac and the superhero MMO's relevancy in today's overcrowded market.

Joystiq interview: NCsoft talks about updating City of Heroes, keeping it relevant originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/0GcihkfYDdo/

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Inmate Sues Warcraft For Eleventeen Zillion Gold

[reposted from Kotaku]

So by now we should all be up to speed on Johnathan Lee Riches, the South Carolina inmate who kills time by filing lawsuits against the likes of Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, and anyone else who happens to be in the news. For a time, mainstream media treated the claims seriously, but now we all have to realize he's just having fun, and showing zero respect for a judicial system that put him in the clink.

His latest salvo is novel, however, in that it's a freaking third-party motion in the courtroom pugilistics involving Blizzard and MDY Industries. Riches' motion, no doubt handwritten on notebook paper, claims World of Warcraft turned his mind "into a living video game" that forced him to live "in a virtual universe, where [I] explored the landscape committing identity theft and fighting cybermonster rival hacker gangs."

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/7vsW-iKDl5Q/inmate-sues-warcraft-for-eleventeen-zillion-gold

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Economic Problem, Blizzard Worry? No.

[reposted from Kotaku]

Have you heard? The economy is cratering! Imploding! Total meltdown! And World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment is impervious. As Blizzard exec Rob Pardo explains, the game industry isn't historically affected by economic troubles like other industries. Here's Pardo's full quote:

Historically for us, the game industry hasn't been affected by recessions like a lot of other businesses. I think the reason for that is [that] games really offer some of the best entertainment value on the market. People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you're staying at home more — and I think that's one of the reasons why you don't see games really go in the same recession as the rest of the economy a lot of times.

What about you? Will the economic pinch curb your game spending?

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/423338131/what-economic-problem-blizzard-worry-no

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Bejeweled Coming to Warcraft. Yes, Really

[Reposted from Wired via Kotaku]

"Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World's Most Addictive Game." No, it's not April Fool's. The puzzle game will be added into WoW next Thursday, allowing players to kill time when they're on long, tedious tasks, like waiting for a raid or gold/item-farming.

What's interesting on top of packing one world-class timesuck inside of another (in real world terms, this would be like snorting bacon-flavored meth), is how it all came to pass. Michael Fromwiller, a student at San Jose State, wrote an add-on he called Besharded, which came reasonably close to mimicking PopCap's hit. But it didn't come close enough for PopCap, which instead of sending out a C&D letter, reached out to Blizzard and offered the real thing. And Blizzard accepted. Wired has the word straight from PopCap itself, but a no-comment from Blizzard.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/09/bejeweled-comin.html

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/398207774/bejeweled-coming-to-warcraft-yes-really

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WoW is a Dirty Word

Most of the Rock, Paper, Shotgun guys recently posted their thoughts on the Warhammer Online closed beta; they were descended upon by WAR supporters (some rabid, some a little more even-tempered) for drawing more comparisons between WoW and WAR. After this little display of MMO chest thumping, Alec Meer put up a thoughtful piece on why it is that WoW has become a dirty word, both in and out of the industry, and why people are so quick to leap to vociferous defense of their games:

MMOs aren't like other games. They're closer to a lifestyle choice, for a lot of people defining how their spare time is spent, how their lives are lived. So if you criticise the game, you criticise the player. God knows there are plenty of non-MMO games that people treat as though they're bound to their very souls - witness the pile-on for Eurogamer's MGS4 review, or even the outrage about various RPS writers being down on Stalker: Clear Sky - but it's even worse with MMOs. Telling a WAR player that his game is similar to WoW is like telling a goth that he's emo. No-one wants to be told they're not unique and interesting, to be dismissed as a stereotype they're not.

WAR is not WoW. But it is a lot like it in a number of crucial ways, and for one essential reason: money. I suspect Mythic and EA aren't too concerned about the comparison themselves - they might disagree with the sweeping generalisation, but if they didn't want to be compared they would have gone for an entirely different interface and art approach. Saying WAR is like WoW is not the same as saying it's a bad or a lazy game, but unfortunately there are guys who do intentionally make the comparison unfavourably, and that's perhaps understandably made a lot of WAR fans very touchy.

Personally, I'm fascinated by the fan communities generated by MMOs, popular ones and not -- not being much of an MMO player, I find 'people watching' to be more entertaining than the game in a lot of cases. I don't have the patience to wade through the original comment thread, but I'm pretty sure I could rattle off the general reaction with little prompting. Meer's thoughts, however, are deserving of a read.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/385290879/wow-is-a-dirty-word

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Can’t Survive The World Of Warcraft? Get A Private Game Tutor

[reposted from TechCrunch]

There are few things more hilariously hopeless than watching someone play a modern video game for the first time: their targeting cursors wobble aimlessly across the screen, unleashing a stream of bullets that manage to hit everything but their target. And amid their cries of frustration and accusations of cheating, they seem to inevitably come to one conclusion: "this game sucks".

Unfortunately, this phenomenon is bad for the industry, as a bad experience can turn off a fledgling gamer from gaming entirely. And while developers do everything they can to make their games as accessible as possible to novices (or newbies, as they're often called), nothing can make up for the years of experience many of today's gamers have under their belts. At least, until now.

Meet GamerTrainer, a new startup that offers in-game tutoring sessions online across a variety of today's most popular games. For $30 an hour (or less if purchased in bulk), you can have a private lesson with one of the site's official GamerTrainers, all of whom have years of experience in the games they're teaching.

At launch supported games include:

• Battlefield: Bad Company™
• Call of Duty 4®: Modern Combat™
• Guitar Hero® III and Rock Band™
• Halo® 2 and 3
• Madden NFL 09
• Rainbow Six® Vegas 1 and 2
• Super Smash Bros.® Brawl
• World of Warcraft

GamerTrainer has a great idea, and could easily be a hit if it can get enough exposure - in fact, it is a business model that the industry may want to consider embracing. In the days before the internet, gaming systems offered dedicated phone "hint lines", which gamers could call whenever they ran into trouble (for only a few dollars a minute). Since then, games have become far more complex - written tips no longer suffice, and the barrier to entry has been raised. It's in the industry's best interest to help prospective gamers as much as possible, and private tutorials could easily be very lucrative way to increase a game's user base.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gcK5LB0Y60g/

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MMORPG Gamers and Social Media Junkies More Alike Than You’d Think

[reposted from Mashable]

There are two major pursuits that lead people to plant their butts in front of computer screens and pound on keyboards for hours without pay. One group of people loves social media in all forms, shapes, and sizes: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, FriendFeed, blogging, etc. The other group loves to play around in massively multiplayer fantasy worlds based in magic and technology. These two groups are more alike than unlike, with one key difference. The second group usually realizes that they are playing a game; the first group usually doesn't.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a popular pastime where people immerse themselves in fantasy worlds. Players spend many hours in games like World of Warcraft (WoW), amassing gold, experience, and property while making an uber-powerful character. Other online games like Everquest, Entropia Universe, and EVE Online project the same allure as WoW, while simpler brethren like Kingdom of Loathing, Gothador, and Adventure Quest have their own loyal players. This isn't a new phenomenon either: MUDs (Multi-User Dimensions) and MOOs (MUD Object Oriented), earlier forms of online games with a heavy reliance on text have been around since the late 1970's.

It's pretty clear that you're in a different world when you're playing a MMORPG. You can explore that world on your own, but it's often profitable to partner with other players to help beat down your foes and become stronger. Sometimes your foes are just products of the game. In other cases you battle other players like yourself in order earn wealth, fame, and bragging rights.

Do you see some parallels with social media?

Social media sites are normally grounded in reality (The Sims and Second Life straddle both pursuits), but everyone's playing a character when they join these communities. Most of the time people try to be themselves, but they may use an alias or avatar to represent themselves. Goal attainment can be a big part of social media as it is part of MMORPGs. Socialization and communities flourish, in different forms, in games and social media.

Let's compare these two pursuits:

Friends/Contacts vs. Allies – some social media users have army-size followings. A number of social media users have attracted thousands of followers, particularly on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and FriendFeed. Similarly, MMORPG players try to build alliances with some of their fellow players. The more famous players may gain followings similar in size to Twitter followings. They're fan clubs by other names. The likelihood of direct interaction with someone with that many followers: minute, unless you already have some kind of connection to them.

Stats and Skills/Experience; – MMORPG players want to make their characters stronger, smarter, tougher, and faster, so they play often to gain skills, while using equipment and performance enhancing stuff to make themselves even stronger. The social media user works on increasing comparable stats. If they are a blogger, they want to increase page views, subscribers, comments, and inbound links. They want to get recommendations and endorsements, get added to blogrolls, or otherwise gain social proof. Followers in social networking is another statistic that seems to show one's strength.

Quests/Deeds vs. Accomplishments - games often require characters to complete a series of tasks in order to win some prize, e.g. go kill fifty goblins to get a pouch of gold, a potion, and a new sword. Similarly, social media users may participate in contests to win social credibility by doing things like:

* Hitting the front page of social news and bookmarking sites
* Winning awards from peers or authority figures
* Compete against other social media users for recognition

Property/Territory vs. Publications – some people like to personalize their stomping grounds in MMORPGs to show ownership. They buy land, put dwellings up, and add distinctive furnishings. Similarly, websites, books, eBooks, articles, online courses, consulting gigs, and more are the ways that social media users can make a more lasting mark on the Web.

Entrepreneurism - both MMORPG players and social media experts can sell their skills to help other users with their goals. They often bend the rules while doing this, but there's as much a market for getting uber-skilled characters and MMORPG wealth as there is to getting Digg front pages and high exposure in other social news and bookmarking sites. Gamers sometimes sell their characters and equipment at a profit while some people sell blogs, websites, and applications to make money.

You might think that these are superficial comparisons that cast both pursuits in negative lights. That's quite understandable, because I've focused on the selfish and materialistic aspects of these games. Both MMORPGs and social media sites do have a number of positive characteristics that they share.

Both pursuits have a social component. They allow people from different cities, countries, ethnic backgrounds, and other demographic categories to interact. You learn a lot by interacting with people, even if it's over the Web. Good friendships have been made through both pursuits, sometimes culminating in real-life friendships and romantic relationships whether it's via Facebook, Twitter, or a Ning group – the same can happen in games. Both games and social media sites also allow us to maintain existing relationships when friends move away. Social media sites have a professional networking and career building component. I can't say for certain that MMORPGs have the same, but who knows? You can also use both types of applications to explore worlds, real or imagined, as a way to satisfy creative, recreational, and social needs.

The bottom line is that MMORPGs and social media site are far more alike than unalike. They can both be used for serious pursuits, but they have a huge recreational component. When taken to competitive extremes, the pursuit of social media goals and MMORPG character power can have damaging effects on the user’s personal life. Moderation is a key survival skill. In both pursuits, if things get too intense or obsessive, it's best to remember that they are mostly recreational pursuits.

In other words, don't forget that they are just games.

Mark Dykeman is a former Everquest, Entropia Universe, Kingdom of Loathing, and Gothador player who (mostly) switched his addictions to social media. You can find him building up his social media character at Broadcasting Brain, on Twitter, and at FriendFeed,

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/MTOpTJ-s6RY/

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Associated Press reveals new Star Trek Online details

[reposter form Joystiq]

We're just hours away from Cryptic's world reveal of Star Trek Online during the Star Trek Experience event in Las Vegas, but those wishing to jump the phaser on all the hubbub would be wise to read http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ikj6V-CYYWISldz8cmkiJ9avC11QD92E92UG0.

In said interview, a number of intriguing details about the MMO are revealed -- chief among these include word that players will be able to choose an alien species to play as, or create their own, in an uncharacteristic show of disregard for Star Trek canon. New players will then captain their own Starfleet or Klingon ship, the size and crew of which will grow as the player progresses. Players will also be able to leave their ships to explore planets in true Trek fashion.

Don't expect to see many familiar, pointy-eared faces on your travels, however -- Emmert explained that the game takes place "a few generations" after the last Star Trek film. It seems your best bet of running into Shatner in an MMO is to continue searching World of Warcraft for a shaman with unusual vocalized pauses.

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/361223267/

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WoW Celebrates Olympics with New Tabard, Pet

I love the"Sooty theDragon" comment! -Haiken

[reposted from Kotaku]

So I am playing World of Warcraft last night and my more PVP-oriented guildies start linking these Competitor's Tabards that are showing up in their mailboxes after they finish playing in the battlegrounds. No one has any idea what is going on, and then this morning I see a story over at MMO Champion explaining that the tabard is part of WoW's Olympic event, which is the only reason I know the Olympics have started.

From now until August 25th, anyone who participates in a full battleground will receive the nifty ring-themed tabard. The pet, modeled after Olympic dragon mascot Sooty the Air Pollution Dragon, who I just made up, is randomly awarded to players who are on the winning team of a battleground. Being a hordie on the Ysera server, I will never, ever get one.

Olympic Tabard & Pet, WotLK Class Changes [MMO Champion - Thanks Kurt!]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/359463515/wow-celebrates-the-olympics-+-new-tabard-pet

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Blizzard Resorts to Bounties for Recruiting

[reposted from Joystiq]

When we try to convince people to play World of Warcraft, it's usually because we despise them and want their real world lives to crumble around them as they try to convince themselves that their new sword is so much better than their last one. But be careful: Thanks to Blizzard's new recruiting push, others' motives for trying to rope you in may not be so pure. Those who invite friends to the game and persuade them to pay for two months up front will get a free Zhevra mount, the ability to summon their referred friends and triple experience when they're questing together, up to level 60.

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/357540311/

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Blizzard's Next Game Could Be More Successful Than WoW [Interview]

[reposted from Kotaku]

Blizzard's team doesn't care for the term "killer app," used to describe a program or product — in this case, a certain MMO - that single-handedly shaped the market around its platform. In fact, when we asked about World of Warcraft's unshakable hold on the massively multiplayer biz, game director Jeffrey Kaplan was humble.
"I don't believe that WoW is untouchable," he said. "I completely believe that a game could come out and be more successful than WoW. I'm hoping that we're working on it right now."
Designing and developing any MMO, Kaplan said, simply distills down to a series of choices. "I think a lot of other companies have had great opportunities to do what WoW has done... usually for whatever reason, they miss the mark."
"I actually feel really bad, a lot of times, when new MMOs come out and don't do really well, because I'm not thinking of it from a business perspective. I know what it's like to be a developer on a team that you believe in on a game that you just love, and for some reason, you don't get enough time, or someone makes a bad decision... everybody's making a lot of small choices, and when those go wrong, your game ends up not successful."
Diablo III lead designer Jay Wilson believes that one can really focus on one MMO at a time, because of the time demand. He said he played Age of Conan for a couple of months, played Lord of the Rings Online a lot, and still goes back to City of Heroes every now and then. He thinks the key to MMO success is "not making choices based upon being different, but making choices based upon what's good for your game."
"If there was an MMO out there that had a tone different from WoW but was executed as well, I actually think there could be a huge audience for that. When I get disappointed, it's because I don't see that level of execution."
Another key factor for global success, said Blizzard's associate PR manager Bob Colayco, is that it takes a lot of time to develop the infrastructure to support a global audience. Players in any country around the world can receive service and support on WoW in their native language and the localizations are meticulous, he said, which contributes to the retention of a broad userbase.
But will Blizzard's next project be the game that finally tops WoW's global success?
"I believe it can be," Kaplan said. "The same challenge is on us. Are we going to make the right decisions? I don't believe that just because we made WoW, we're guaranteed on the next MMO that we make to have the same success." He also said that at launch, WoW was not what it is today- it's taken the game a five to six-year development cycle, plus two years on Burning Crusade and a year and a half on Lich King. Similarly, StarCraft 2 is renowned, he said, for its "perfect game balance" - but it didn't launch that way, the team recalled.
"I really believe you're only as good as your last game. I really think you gave to prove it every time," said Kaplan.
And is the bar especially high for Blizzard? "Yeah, for sure."
Said Wilson, "The only thing we get for free is faith that we'll follow up on any problems. Anything else, we have to earn."

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/352076271/blizzards-next-game-could-be-more-successful-than-wow

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What Activision Can And Can't Change About Blizzard [Interview]

[reposted from Kotaku]

The development talent at Blizzard now has a new publisher and parent in Activision Blizzard. If you ask the developers, they're enthusiastic about the change. "All game development is still completely within our Irvine headquarters," World of Warcraft game director Jeffrey Kaplan told Kotaku during our sit-down today. "There's no outside influence at all in the development of Diablo 3, StarCraft 2 or WoW."

In fact, Blizzard sees an upside to being hitched to the Activision star. "They have a lot of expertise in the console area, where we're very-headed in addition to PC and online," Kaplan said.

"Activision's point of view is, there's a lot of trust in Blizzard and what we do. Activision's just trying to figure out how we work and try to learn from us."

But Activision's an ambitious company. CEO Bobby Kotick has talked in the past about monetizing massively multiplayer environments, competing with iTunes, even evolving pricing models for consoles. Does Activision have the power to change the way Blizzard monetizes WoW, if it wants to?

"Theoretically they could, if they wanted to," Kaplan said.

Blizzard has always staunchly bucked the trend in online games that seems to be considering microtransactions, ad-supported freebies, and other alternate revenue streams as opposed to the subscription model, which many people theorize is going the way of the dinosaur. Blizzard has always said it favors balanced gameplay as opposed to alternate biz models, and according to Kaplan, this is still the case.

"We would always do whatever's coolest for the game," he said. "A great example of this is our paid character transfer service, which in its own way is sort of a microtransaction within WoW. The reason we introduced that service was because we thought it was a benefit that wow players needed, and the pricing model was put there as a barrier to entry, not a source of revenue."

Free transfers for everybody, Kaplan said, would do bad things to the community and realm populations, but Blizzard still wanted to provide the service as an option for legitimate cases where players do need to transfer realms.

"We would look towards other microtransactions, or services we would charge for, but not with the intention of 'oh, here's this great source of revenue,'" he said.

Jay Wilson, lead designer on Diablo III, summed up the developer's policy on the microtransactions issue: "I think we always look to make the game we want to make, and then figure out the kind of financial model that works with that game."

But business-savvy Activision, aiming for top-tier publisher, does have the power to change that financial model. So is Blizzard worried?

"I'm not concerned at this point at all," said Kaplan. "What's important to note about Blizzard is that we've had many owners over the years. Our executive staff, sort of the first thing they do whenever we get bought by somebody else, is to go through this big training process of, 'this is what makes us successful. If you mess with this, you're going to mess with your own revenue at this point.'

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime and COO Paul Sams are "extremely talented," Kaplan said, at working with publishers to communicate Blizzard's philosophy.

"Our track record has been pretty golden over the years," said Kaplan. "With Burning Crusade, we could have put it out in the Fall and gotten all of the Christmas revenue -- who wouldn't have wanted that? But everyone agreed that if we worked on it for two more months... it was a better long term decision."

"And short term decision," added Blizzard associate PR manager Bob Colayco, pointing out that the expansion helped keep WoW at the top of the charts since it launched.

Kaplan said, as someone who's "very much a gamer, and into games first and foremost," he was excited by the Activision news. "I'm excited because of the games they're making right now," he said. "I thought Call of Duty 4 kicked ass. I had that in my top five games of last year. I thought it was brilliant -- the way Infinity Ward executed on CoD4 reminded me of what Blizzard values."

"It wasn't about innovation... it was all about execution, and how well they executed on every single idea, and the level of polish was just awesome. Knowing we're partnered with people who have some of the same values... that's really exciting."

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/351902446/what-activision-can-and-cant-change-about-blizzard

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Virtual Worlds for Fun and Research

[reposted from Kotaku]

We mentioned Arden, the university-design MMO, a few times; a working paper has just been released that looks at economic behavior in MMOs using the game. The interesting thing here isn't so much the fact that people replicate real-world behaviors online (in this case, they purchased less of an item when it was more expensive), but that it's yet another piece of a growing literature explaining the utility of virtual worlds in actual research:

... We tested whether fantasy gamers conform to the Law of Demand, which states that increasing the price of a good, all else equal, will reduce the quantity demanded. We created two exactly equivalent worlds, and randomly assigned players to one or the other. The only difference in the two worlds was that the price of a single good, a health potion, was twice as high in the experimental world than in the control. We allowed players (N = 43) to enter and play the environment for a month. We found that players in the experimental condition purchased 43.1 percent fewer of the potions, implying a demand elasticity of -0.431. This finding is well within the range one expects for normal economic agents. We take this as evidence that the Law of Demand holds in fantasy environments, which suggests in turn that fantasy gamers may well be economically normal. If so, it may be worthwhile to conduct controlled economic and social experiments in virtual worlds at greater scales of both population (thousands of users) and time (many months).

This is kind of a less cool version of the WoW plague research, still my favorite example of academic research utilizing MMOs. As noted by the WoW researchers, virtual worlds may offer the potential to conduct research that would be impossible using real people (like, say, unleashing a plague upon the world).

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/346763323/virtual-worlds-for-fun-and-research

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Study: Gamers not interested in MMO subscriptions

[Reposted from Joystiq]

Market research firm Parks Associate has released a study claiming subscription-based MMOs aren't dropping enough loot for its players. According to the group's Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home II study (via Worlds in Motion) only the hardcore gamers were into the subscription model, whereas the casual gamer showed "significant interest" in the free-to-play, microtransaction model.

Another part of the study found that, of the non-MMO players polled, 14% would be interested to play if they could play for free, whereas only 2% of that group was interested in subscription-based MMOs. As we always caution, studies generally aren't worth more than the pixels they're displayed on (unless it's a nice monitor, then they're probably worth less). In a recent polling at Joystiq HQ, games that are "free to play" were also seven times more likely to grab our attention than games that weren't free.

Said Director of Broadband and Gaming Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai: "World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model." Of course, that's kind of a no-brainer even for WoW's competitors.

[Via Eurogamer]

http://feeds.joystiq.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~3/344625687/

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Blizzard Versus Glider: A Pyrrhic Victory? [Court Cases]

[Reposted from Kotaku]

Lest anyone missed this little gem among the E3 hubbub, Blizzard has scored a victory against WoW bot maker Glider. Don't remember that whole kerfluffle? Blizzard sued Glider over EULA infringement for copying code, as well as the ancillary issue of pissing WoW users up and gobbling up resources. Glider shot back with 'But grinding your way to level 70 is boooooring.' Probably unsurprisingly, this argument did not go over very well in court and Blizzard won its summary judgment motion. All's well that end's well ... or is it? Over at PlayNoEvil, there's some interesting analysis on what this judgment could mean and why it may not be all that it's cracked up to be:

1. This ruling is very dangerous to any third party utility provider. Especially security companies like Symantec, who load programs and "check them out" to see if they are malicious. Ironically, it would seem that Blizzard's own security program, Warden, would be imperiled by this notion of copyright ....

3. What if Blizzard wins? After a long fight, Blizzard defeated the unauthorized Battle.Net server developers, BnetD, which simply drove the system outside the US where it is still available. It is actually surprising that MDY didn't move its business offshore to a country where this suit could not have been effectively tried or did not have a copyright treat with the US.

4. Legal solutions to business and technical problems are terribly inefficient an expensive. While they may be able to shut MDY down and even bankrupt the company (and perhaps its owners), how much will this have cost Blizzard and how long until another equivalent product is made available. Might MDY simply publish the source code to Glider as a "finger in the eye" gesture at Blizzard? (or "leak" it onto the Internet?)

No doubt this case hasn't been put to bed quite yet -- any future developments should be pretty interesting.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/340091851/blizzard-versus-glider-a-pyrrhic-victory

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EA Confirms Next KOTOR Is MMO

[Reposted from Kotaku]

As EA confirmed today, the next Knights of the Old Republic is going to be a MMO. From Portfolio.com: "We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. "And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it."
Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? "Yes," he said.
Watch out World of Warcraft, you just might have some serious competition here.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/338459353/yep-next-kotor-is-mmo

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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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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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