Posts tagged microsoft 
Studios join forces to form Gamer Safety Alliance
This week is Gamer Safety Week, and before you laugh at the thought of getting injured while playing your favorite MMO, we should point out that the safety has more to do with your accounts than your person. Nine major game companies have joined forces to form the Gamer Safety Alliance, an ...
Age of Empires Online readying skirmish mode, new booster pack
Age of Empires Online is getting a skirmish mode courtesy of the upcoming Skirmish Hall booster pack. The new gameplay will allow players to team up and fight AI opponents in pursuit of experience and loot. Skirmish mode will pit you and a friend (or computer ally) against four ...
Fable developer Lionhead seeking experienced MMO programmer
Is the world of Albion coming to an MMO near you? That's up for speculation thanks to a job advertisement on Microsoft's career board. The software giant, which owns Fable developer Lionhead Studios, is seeking a programmer "who enjoys playing MMO games and has significant experience with the ...
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The community
Time machines are expensive, and with gas the price it is today, it's not always viable to fuel up your DeLorean and travel back to the early 2000s just to check out some of those long-gone MMOs. Fortunately, jawing about them with former players and developers is the next best method of ...
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The former dev
I've been a long-time follower of Eric Heimburg on his blog, Elder Game, where he and a friend have spent years delivering insightful commentary about MMOs and supermodels (well, mostly MMOs). Because I'm not that observant a fellow and I assume that most fellow bloggers are mere players like I ...
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The fansite managers
Back when I covered Asheron's Call for The Game Archaeologist, I got an impassioned email from a former fansite operator who made me promise that I'd drop her a line when the time came to talk about Asheron's Call 2, as she was not only a huge fan of the title but still in contact with many ...
The Game Archaeologist answers Asheron's Call 2: The highlights
MMO sequels are funny animals. Sequels (along with prequels and "reimaginings") are ingrained into the entertainment industry so deep that it makes sense that MMO studios would follow suit. And yet these types of games -- with their ever-growing nature and heavy involvement with loyal playerbases ...
Why Microsoft is 'the MMO graveyard'
Anyone who's been following MMOs for any length of time will have come to the astute conclusion that Microsoft is not a fertile ground for the growth of such projects. In fact, in an opinion piece over at CVG, the author labels the company and Xbox Live as an "MMO graveyard" where good titles go ...
The dangers and allure of real money trading in MMOs
It's been one of the longest-running debates in the MMO industry: whether or not real money trading (RMT) helps or hurts players and the game worlds they inhabit. The Ottawa Citizen shed some light on the subject by showing how the games industry at large has dealt with the subject, from players ...
Jagex CEO hints at why RuneScape hasn't come to consoles
Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard is one of the more quotable head honchos in the gaming business, and he didn't disappoint at the recent Edinburgh Interactive conference. Gerhard spoke in no uncertain terms about the difficulties inherent in bringing Jagex's long-running RuneScape browser MMO to game ...
