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GDC10: Runes of Magic releases Chapter 3 information

Beau Hindman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0000

This May, Frogster will introduce the third chapter of Runes of Magic which will include a new continent, regions, dungeons to conquer, a new skill system, a level cap increase to 60 and an expansion to guild wars: siege weapons!

An ancient kingdom called Dalanis lies in chaos as adventurers attempt to help the child-king Callaway regain the former glory that once was. The citizens cry out for it and long to return to the older days when their ancient heroes walked the lands.

Adventurers will first walk into Thunderhoof Hills as they venture into the Elder Kingdoms, and will experience varied and surprising landscapes, none like they have seen before. First they will travel through a forest and then pass the waterfalls, only to choose one of three new cities to meet friends, trade and to relax in. Without leaving the zone, players will be able to investigate a graveyard populated by kings from the ancient past. Be sure to grab a reliable group of friends to explore the new dungeon that runs underneath Thunderhoof Hills, the dreadful Dungeon of Dalanis. Join me after the jump for more details as well as a look at new screens, art and a trailer for the expansion!

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Filed under: Screenshots, Trailers, Expansions, Patches, Previews, Massively Event Coverage, Runes of Magic

GDC10: Runes of Magic releases Chapter 3 information originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EQ wants you for St. Patty’s Day

Jef Reahard — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Sony Online Entertainment Project Manager Ashlanne has announced Everquest's 11-year anniversary and St. Patrick's Day party over on the official forums.

The event kicks off on Wednesday March 17, 2010 at 1:00 PM PST and is expected to last approximately two hours. To join in the festivities, head over to the SOE UStream channel and get ready to chat with the Everquest Community Team and other special guests.

In addition to the usual St. Patty's Day carousing, party-goers can expect to watch interviews with various Everquest alumni, assist the Community Team in making special St. Patrick's Day crafts, and chat live (via text) with both the EQ Community and Development Teams.

Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Events, in-game, News items

EQ wants you for St. Patty's Day originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week on The MMO Report

Jef Reahard — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:00:00 +0000

This week's MMO Report finds host Casey Schreiner talking up a host of industry topics including Star Trek Online's new episodic raid content, signs that World of Warcraft may have finally peaked (again), and Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XIV teasers bundled with the newly released Final Fantasy XIII for the Playstation 3.

We know most of you are here to see Casey's customary shout out to Massively.com, and you'll find that around the 2:25 mark. If you want to keep watching, well, don't say we didn't warn you.

Don't forget to check out the complete video embed after the jump, and watch for brand new episodes of The MMO Report every Thursday here at Massively and at G4TV.com.

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Filed under: Video, News items, Opinion, Humor, The MMO Report

This week on The MMO Report originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get your Champions fix on Facebook

Beau Hindman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Recently we spotted an interesting post from Bill Roper, Design Director for Cryptic Studios' MMO Champions Online. On his Facebook page he showed a slightly blurry picture of a developers booth with the simple caption "GDC 2010: The developers of our Facebook Game." Sure enough you can now play a Mafia Wars style Facebook game while wearing your tightest spandex! It runs in your browser and hooks up to your Facebook account so that you can choose to announce level ups and achievements. You can also invite friends to form a superteam, customize your secret base and even attack other players.

Developer Lolapps claims to have "over 40 million active users per month, and has the largest network of social games and applications on Facebook." It looks like they know what they are doing, so it is definitely worth a look. Head over now, make your hero and get to stopping crime!

Filed under: News items, Champions Online

Get your Champions fix on Facebook originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Get your Champions fix on Facebook

Beau Hindman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Filed under: News items, Champions Online

Get your Champions fix on Facebook originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Cryptic fields Champions Online Revelation questions

Kyle Horner — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Champions Online's upcoming Revelation update is coming very soon and Cryptic's answered a bunch of (somewhat random) community questions regarding the substantial free content add-on. We're not sure if there was any kind of theme to this Q&A other than, "Hey, what would you like to know about Revelation?" Perhaps there were a couple people dressed up a vampires, in spirit of the new zone Vibora Bay, but that's a somewhat commonplace thing nowadays -- vampires, we mean.

Before we spin-out into a crazy off-topic rant about kids and their vampire tendencies, we'd like to point out that it sounds as if Cryptic is moving towards a more staggered update approach. Instead of spending six months creating one big update, they're looking to push out smaller chunks of content on a more frequent basis. They haven't specified whether that means every month or every few months, but we do know some new missions with longer storylines are coming -- as is some low-level experience curve smoothing. It sounds good to us, but we'll let you be the judge of that.

Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, News items, Champions Online

Ask Cryptic fields Champions Online Revelation questions originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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February NPD: BioShock 2, Xbox 360 Top the Charts

Chris Kohler — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:49:39 +0000

The Xbox 360 version of BioShock 2 topped the sales charts in February, moving half a million copies in a month packed with big game releases, the NPD Group said Thursday.

Boosted by BioShock, Dante’s Inferno and continued sales of Modern Warfare 2, the Xbox 360 was the best-selling home game console in the U.S. last month. On the software side, Wii hits New Super Mario Bros. and Just Dance continued to sell boatloads, and Sony’s innovative Heavy Rain had a strong showing for such an experimental game. If you look at the charts, you’ll see it actually outsold the PS3 version of BioShock 2.

All in all, it was a $1.26 billion month for the business — down 15% from last year.

“Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month. Nonetheless, strong new releases and Easter gift-buying bodes well for industry performance in March,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in an emailed statement.

Hardware Sales, February 2010

Nintendo DS 613.2K
Xbox 360 422.0K
Wii 397.9K
PlayStation 3 360.1K
PSP 133.4K
PlayStation 2 101.9K

Top 10 Software Sales, February 2010

BIOSHOCK 2* 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE Feb-10 562.9K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 555.6K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 314.3K
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 275.4K
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 272.5K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 252.8K
MASS EFFECT 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jan-10 246.5K
DANTE’S INFERNO: DIVINE EDITION PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS Feb-10 242.5K
DANTE’S INFERNO 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Feb-10 224.7K
HEAVY RAIN PS3 SONY Feb-10 219.3K

Image courtesy 2K Games

Photo: Silent Hill Composer Rocks Out at GDC

Chris Kohler — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:26:06 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — “Audio is my lover,” Akira Yamaoka said as he kicked off his presentation Thursday at Game Developers Conference. Pulling out his guitar, he played some music that he composed over the past day on his trip from Tokyo to San Francisco.

Yamaoka is best known for his years at game publisher Konami, creating the music and sound for the Silent Hill horror game series. He is now working with independent developer Grasshopper Manufacture, composing music and producing sounds for the horror game it is creating for Electronic Arts.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

GDC10: Massively’s interview with Virtual Fairground

Rubi Bayer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:00 +0000

The idea of virtual worlds and MMOs based on established brands is not a new one, and Virtual Fairground is a company that's been in the market for a bit. They've had the time to fine tune the concept and find exactly what they want to offer their audience. We spent some time with Maarten Brands and Ilja Goossens of Virtual Fairground at GDC this week and heard all about what the company is working on and what their goals are.

Follow along after the jump to see what they had to say.

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Filed under: Interviews, News items, Virtual worlds, Kids

GDC10: Massively's interview with Virtual Fairground originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC10: A chat with Cryptic’s Bill Roper and Craig Zinkievich

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:30:00 +0000

As two of the most public figures at Cryptic Studios, Bill Roper (Champions Online) and Craig Zinkievich (Star Trek Online) are typically at the forefront of controversy, adulation and speculation. At GDC 2010, Massively sat down with the pair to discuss what it's like working for Cryptic, how they deal with the ups and downs of being game developers, and the pressure of handling the future of two hot MMORPG franchises.

Massively: How do the Champions and STO teams collaborate between each other?

Bill Roper: I think it's really good the way the company interacts back and forth -- "Hey, this worked for us, you guys should do that too." "This totally didn't work for us, don't do that, do something different."

Craig Zinkievich: "Hey, you know, about three-and-a-half weeks after launch, don't have a free 90-day promo! Don't do that! That didn't work well!" [Laughs]

Continue reading GDC10: A chat with Cryptic's Bill Roper and Craig Zinkievich

Filed under: Events, real-world, Star Trek Online, Champions Online

GDC10: A chat with Cryptic's Bill Roper and Craig Zinkievich originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC10: New playable faction and more coming to Star Trek Online

Rubi Bayer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:55:00 +0000

digg_url = 'http://www.massively.com/2010/03/11/gdc10-new-playable-faction-and-more-coming-to-star-trek-online/'; We spent some time talking with Cryptic's Craig Zinkievich at GDC today, and got some fun new information on Star Trek Online.

The most exciting thing was news of a new playable faction in Star Trek Online. We can expect that sometime "within the year", and we as players get to help decide. Borg, Romulan, it's up to you guys. Zinkievich says: There's a huge amount of the dev team right now interested in doing Romulan. I think the Borg would be really interesting as just something totally different, totally different gameplay. There are a lot of really cool mechanics, a lot of really cool things you can do there. Really, if you're in the MMO for the long haul, there are going to be a lot more playable factions, you can't stop with those two. There's Jem'Hadar, you're going to be going to the Dominion, there's Cardassians [...] so many playable factions that we can and will be releasing with the game.

Cryptic is looking at the next big update to arrive for Star Trek Online around July, with another possibly near November: "We know that we just had a player survey when you first arrive at the site, and, like, ship interiors. [Players] want a whole lot more there, want a whole lot more functionality, why are other players coming to my ship, what's going on there? So we're making sure in July that's one of the things that we do. There's a big huge outcry for first contact missions, diplomacy missions, more non-combat within Star Trek, so we're really making sure with that July update we're really focusing on that."

It sounds like we can look for a lot of new content tailored to what the community wants coming with the July update, so we'll be keeping a very close eye out for more information. (There was brief mention of the Horta being a playable race as well. We can only hope.)

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, News items, Star Trek Online

GDC10: New playable faction and more coming to Star Trek Online originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP: Unreal Engine 3 will power Dust 514

Jef Reahard — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:00:00 +0000

EVE Online developer CCP Games has announced a partnership with Epic Games China that will bring Unreal Engine 3 technology to their forthcoming console MMOFPS known as Dust 514. Set in the same universe as their successful PC MMORPG, Dust 514 is a console-only title that will enable players to interact with EVE pilots as they battle for control of New Eden's resource-rich planets.

"The dynamic large-scale battlefields of DUST 514 presented an interesting challenge for us," said Hilmar Petursson, CEO of CCP. "We determined Unreal Engine 3 to be the perfect solution because its tremendous flexibility allows us to easily integrate new technology and produce stunning results."

Hit the link for the full press release.

[Thanks Amethyst Lynx!]

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, MMO industry, New titles, News items, MMOFPS, DUST 514

CCP: Unreal Engine 3 will power Dust 514 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC: Metroid Creator Inspired by Italian Horror Films

Chris Kohler — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:44:21 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Nintendo’s Metroid games take their creative cues from an unlikely source: Dario Argento, the Italian horror film director.

At his keynote speech during the Game Developers Conference on Thursday, Metroid creator Yoshio Sakamoto said that Argento’s films Susperia and Deep Red, which he discovered in his youth, awoke his creative sensibilities. The horror films were a big influence on the innovative, stylish space adventure Metroid games, he said.

“Deep Red has the greatest inspiration on my creative process,” he said. Sakamoto had always liked scary movies but always thought that there was “something missing” from other films. “I discovered that without a doubt, I wanted to create things in the same manner that Argento did.”

Sakamoto pointed to the director’s use of various tricks to control the “mood, timing, foreshadowing and contrast” to scare the audience, calling out Argento’s use of progressive rock music with its “almost indifferent echo of the stiff and robotic.” Much in the same way, the Metroid games use eerie, sparse music to great effect, heightening the player’s tension and fear.

Sakamoto said that his first “homage” to Argento was the Japan-only 8-bit game Famicom Detective Club II.

Argento’s influence might have touched Metroid in other ways. As I was coming back to the press room to write this, I ran into Game|Life writer and smart person Gus Mastrapa, and mentioned Sakamoto’s affection for Argento.

“Interesting,” he said. “I wonder if that’s why Metroid uses so many yellows and oranges and reds. Have you ever seen a Suspiria poster?” Sure enough, Argento’s visual style is echoed in main character Samus Aran’s suit, although that could just be a coincidence.

The balance of Sakamoto’s speech was a rundown of his creative process, how he used the techniques he gleaned from filmmakers like Argento to create games as diverse as Metroid: Other M, Wario Ware DIY and a Japanese game called Friend Collection, a quirky Nintendo DS game using Mii characters in comedic situations.

The audience loved Sakamoto’s demo of Friend Collection, which put little cartoon versions of Sakamoto, Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime and Samus Aran into a variety of scenarios. Sakamoto didn’t say whether Nintendo had any plans to bring this game outside of Japan. (Full of Japanese humor and digitized speech, it would be a localization nightmare, but since it’s about to pass the 3 million copies sold mark in Japan, it could be another Nintendogs-style moneymaker for the company if it pulls it off.)

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

White House: Ask What Game Developers Can Do For Your Country

Gus Mastrapa — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:31:49 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — Kumar Garg, policy analyst for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wants the game industry to address America’s “national challenges.”

In a keynote entitled “Grand Challenges for Game Developers” delivered at the Game Developers Conference on Wednesday, Garg focused on videogames’ unique ability to engage, immerse and teach.

“We don’t allow kids to fail and iterate,” Kumar Garg said of our country’s current approach towards education. Garg believes that games have much to teach educators, and that gamemakers have many opportunities to contribute to the public interest.

In this spirit, he revealed a new initiative spearheaded by First Lady Michelle Obama to encourage game creators to make games that encourage kids to eat right and exercise. The new Apps For Healthy Kids programs offers cash rewards, in the style of the X-Prize, to encourage developers to participate.

Additionally, Garg suggested that game developers do what they can to make socially impactful games by providing sabbaticals to employees so they can donate their time towards the efforts to make games in the public interest.

Other ways that publishers and developers can contribute to the effort include forming relationships with universities, providing tools and media assets to serious games efforts, offering prizes, funding research and forming partnerships with government agencies, he said.

Photo: Gus Mastrapa/Wired.com

See Also:

Runes of Magic will be heading to Facebook with RoM: The Challenge

Krystalle Voecks — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

When it comes to Facebook games, some MMO players look at them as being a scourge; a strange offshoot of a genre they know and love. To others, it seems the next logical step in gaming. And nobody can doubt the revenues involved are sweet for companies who manage to hook casual gamers into their games. But now, we have a heads-up from the team at Frogster Interactive that they plan on trying to cross their successful Runes of Magic IP into the Facebook casual gaming market.

Dubbed Runes of Magic: The Challenge, this new social media game (currently under development) will use the lore from Runes of Magic in a whole new casual game. The Facebook game is said to use networked gaming and viral communications and will give players "adventure, exploration, and strategy elements." Through playing the casual game, people will gain cards with key codes that work inside Runes of Magic -- thereby potentially drawing some new players off of Facebook and into the full MMO.

Our team at GDC has an interview with the Frogster Interactive and Runewaker Entertainment teams coming up later today, where we're sure we'll hear far more about this interesting new gaming development. We'll bring you all the details as soon as we have them!

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Casual, Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic will be heading to Facebook with RoM: The Challenge originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fallen Earth: Faction Wars set to storm Facebook

Justin Olivetti — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:30:00 +0000

Fallen Earth is having a banner week around these here parts -- first was the in-depth tour into their new iPhone app, then came the news of a Mac client, and now we've received word that Facebook will be getting its very Fallen Earth game entitled Fallen Earth: Faction Wars.

The announcement over on the site promises that this will be an application for those both new to the Fallen Earth universe and for current players of the MMORPG. Although it looks as though this will be separate from the MMO, it will still boast several aspects of its bigger brother, including crafting, PvP and character building.

The core of the game revolves around the struggle for control over nine "conflict towns," each of which will fall under the jurisdiction of one of the six Fallen Earth factions. Whether you choose to be a CHOTA, Tech, Vista, Lightbearer, Enforcer or Traveler, you should find several friends to aid you in this down-and-dirty brawl for supremacy. After building their characters up through missions and crafting, players can duke it out through a simplified combat interface, perhaps similar to the fights of such Facebook apps like Mafia Wars.

As more and more MMO studios are turning to Facebook to promote their titles through fan groups and social gaming, Fallen Earth should get a boost in visibility through this game. Expect to see Fallen Earth: Faction Wars soon, as Icarus Studios is hoping for a Q2 2010 release.

Filed under: Fallen Earth, New titles, PvP, News items

Fallen Earth: Faction Wars set to storm Facebook originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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