NCSoft do the time warp, again
There's no reason stated, but NCSoft are changing their entire billing department's time zone from Eastern Standard Time (EST, -5 hours GMT) to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, = GMT) starting tomorrow, a difference of about five hours. As it's just a time zone swap, nobody will lose or gain any ...
NYTimes says children's virtual playgrounds are serious business
It's that's time again, gentle reader: the New York Times are taking a look at the financial side of virtual worlds, and analyzing the potential for growth within the market. But instead of focusing on Second Life or World of Warcraft, it's ... WebKinz and Club Penguin. Despite my mental age, until ...
Mythos gets Crunched, levels 1-10
Just in case you missed it earlier this week, MMOCrunch attacked the first 10 levels of the Mythos beta and posted their main thoughts about the game so far -- which seem very positive. My own brief impressions: when people say it's similar to Diablo, they're really not exaggerating! Mythos is ...
WoW mud dolls attack the internet
And now it's time for something ridiculously cute. Behold, World of Warcraft mud dolls! There's grinning Orc Shamans (pictured), Blood Elf Warlocks in cartoon tier 5, and even a Paladin wearing full Lawbringer, which is awesome beyond words. 'W00t' doesn't count. Thousands may have lined up to buy ...
Exodus to the Virtual World review from the other virtual world
As we've previously covered on Massively.com before, virtual worlds researcher Edward Castronova's new book is entitled Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality -- but if you want to know if it's actually worth reading, there's a review over at Rik Santos's personal blog. I'm ...
Holidays of the MMOG universes, past and present
Christmas. Everyone chooses to celebrate it in a different way. The majority of us will be spending the time with our immediate family, some of us will actually get the chance to play these MMOs we've been visiting all year, and one or two of you will be writing on a laptop older than Chuck Norris ...
Gollum wisshes you a merry Christmases
Lord of the Rings Online and Turbine are nearly done for the holidays, but not before a Christmas-themed wallpaper featuring none other than Gollum ... or is it Sméagol? No prizes for guessing what he wants for Christmas. Not that there was Christmas in Middle-earth, it was more Yule-tide, ...
TR beginner's guide to the Spy
IGN's TRVault has the first part up of a new series covering the major classes of Tabula Rasa, and first up is the Spy. It's reasonably concise, as primers go. For those who don't know, Spies are TR's version of the rogue class. They're stealth armored, blade wielding killing machines that can do ...
The Guardian asks: without sci-fi or fantasy, where would MMOGs go?
UK newspaper The Guardian has a good post up on its gaming blog, asking why fantasy is the dominant genre for MMOGs. And if you -- yes, you -- were to design a MMOG without any fantasy or sci-fi elements, where would it be set and how would it work? Sadly, the only MMOG I can think of that isn't ...
Former Auran producer defends staff, management
The entire Auran staff may have been let go earlier this week, but former Producer David Gillespie has a post up on his personal blog that defends Auran's staff, and the decisions made by management. This is the "Game flopped and the entire team was laid off, but the staff were the best!" law -- a ...
