With friends like these: What sci-fi has, and doesn't have, going for it
Let's face it: The sci-fi MMOG space is pretty bleak. I want Star Wars: The Old Republic to set the world on fire as much as the next guy, but long and nefarious is the path to massively-multiplayer righteousness, and so far, no one's really gotten the futuristic thing right. Over the 12 or so ...
More IPs than you can shake a lightsaber at: Five sci-fi intellectual properties that just scream "MMOG"
Science fiction isn't exactly new to the MMOG scene. In addition to the obvious - Star Wars Galaxies, EVE Online and the defunct Tabula Rasa - there's Neocron, Anarchy Online, Earth & Beyond and Planetside. But with the exception of SWG and the upcoming Star Trek Online, some of sci-fi's best ...
Better know a gold farmer
Nick Ryan at Eurogamer tracked down gold farmers from all walks of life and has profiled them in his ongoing series "Gold Trading Exposed." In this second installment of four, Ryan speaks directly with four different gold farmers, each from different parts of the process. He first introduces "Paul," ...
Checking in on PlayStation Home
Eurogamer attended Jack Buser's GDC talk "Developer opportunities in PlayStation Home" and came back with some pretty interesting stats on Sony's virtual world. While early reviews of the service were negative, Home seems to be enjoying a pretty large user base, if only due to its ubiquity. Buser, ...
Quick Mortal Online preview
Mike at MMOCrunch has a short look at Star Vault's Mortal Online, a Swedish MMOG still in development. He doesn't get in depth, but does a good job of summarizing the game's selling points. The game appears to hail from the open world school of design, offering open looting; real-time, Elder ...
Hartman: Questing's just another word for "grind"
Bright Hub's Michael Hartman has a bone to pick with quest-heavy games like WoW and EQII. He takes an extensive look at how quest-based advancement replaced the original Diku/EQ-style monster-killing grind, but finds a whole new set of problems with the new method. Hartman's main beef with the ...
Majority of buyers use game "gift cards" for themselves
PlaySpan, creators of the Ultimate Game Card, released findings on March 20 that nearly 80 percent of those purchasing the gift cards are using them for themselves. The UGC, which sells alongside other gift cards on store shelves, has a special code redeemable online at the company's website that ...
Aion: Ishalgen zone trailer
The folks at IGN tossed up a trailer of the Ishalgen zone in Aion this past Friday. It's some pretty wild stuff; a flyby of the zone to a techno-styled string arrangement, showing off the impressive color scheme and varied landscape within the game. Not much action here, but it's quite the visual ...
Darkfall's March 21 update addresses lag, macroing and game availability
Tasos, Darkfall's community guy, posted an update on the official boards on Saturday addressing a litany of concerns that have been plaguing the user base since the game's launch. While he did include patch notes in the update, the majority of his message dealt with issues beyond the game's live ...
All Points Bulletin developer hiring 40 at GDC
Realtime Worlds, the folks behind GTA-inspired All Points Bulletin, have announced their intention to add 40 people to their team at this year's GDC in San Francisco. The Dundee, Scotland, based company is offering unique, year-long contracts to anyone they hire, so it's not technically a permanent ...
