Shadowbane Vengeance! No it's not a new server, or an expansion pack. Its what occurs after you hack a games client sending a community of gamers into an uproar and costing both the developers and publishers time and money. Vengeance is what was enacted today against those who recently hacked Shadowbane's client this week (story) griefing players across several servers. Announced today after reviewing logs Ubi broke out the ban stick as Chris "Vosx" Mancil wielded it with the full weight of Ubi smashing it into the guild Inviticus and putting the smack down on all of that guilds members as they watched their accounts deactivated. Also found to be responible of expolits is the current leadership of the Rolling 30's guild. (Note: Currently as far as we know the leadership is Baka Yaro who is associated with exploiters.org). Read More! Full Story Posted May 30 2003 by Div Devlin

AO Shadowlands: Tons of info on the Anarchy Online expansion Shadowlands which is set for release on July 22nd. First up is Robert Wood's summary of his daughter's experiences playing AO for 18 months in this piece titled Biowarriors. It's a different type of write and an awesome read, explaining what MMO's (Anarchy Online) can teach to our younger children. Pre-orders for Shadowlands have also begun, which is also currently holding thee number one spot from EBGames on pre-orders, beating Star Wars: Galaxies which ranked third. Posted May 30 2003 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes News Roundup: Even more news following the wake of E3 this time from City of Heroes which was nominated as the Best Online Multiplayer game of E3! Winners will be announced on June 10. Visit http://www.e3awards.com/nom.html for a list of all the categories and nominees. Good luck CoH! On the official web site you can read about the events that have led up to the City's present state of affairs, and why heroes like you are needed more than ever. It's the final chapter in the history of Paragon City - Alien Invasion. City of Heroes is also the featured cover for the July issue of PCGamer and has a 6 page inside spread! They also have a sneak peek of the PCGamer cover. Check it. Looking good. Even though there is no PvP, this is a game I can honestly say, I really have to try. Posted May 30 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires News Roundup: More news following the wake of E3 from Dragon Empires: - programmers interviewed de.talrias.net (yes they can talk/type) - Chat logs up (see site for links) - Gameplay video from E3 up Dark Exodus in zip file (note, characters are placeholders) - Motion capture session at Artem in London. (Report coming soon!) Posted May 30 2003 by Div Devlin

Yet More Shadowbane: If your looking for another take on the recent hacking incidents within Shadowbane, check out GU's take on it in this funny by Woody Hearn. I laughed while eating popcorn. It hurt. (Thanks Squid!) Waylander the Senior Herald of Ubi's Herald Progam was spotted over on Waterthreads seeking advice on how to get the Herald program working. He asks a couple of no brainer questions looking for valued input. Stop by and offer your thoughts. The Herald program is another part of Shadowbane that could and can be a shining aspect of the game, its just had a rough start due to jaded gamers who have become disenchanted. Posted May 30 2003 by Div Devlin

UO Age of Shadows: Ultima Online announced important notes regarding the Age of Shadows expansion launch gifts. Aside from the gifts finally being activated there are some issues regarding the stat increases: Please be aware that only characters that are at least 30 days old are eligible to receive the AOS launch gift. Characters that reach 30 days in age before the launch gift period ends (which currently is slated for Publish 19 sometime in July) will have an opportunity to claim their gift once the character reaches 30 days. Additionally, for anyone considering choosing the +5 skill increase as their AOS gift choice, it’s important to note that if you are wearing skill-enhancing items that bring you to within 5 points of your skill cap, you may not receive the full benefit of the skill increase. For example, if you choose to use the skill increase to raise your Lockpicking skill from 95 to 100, but you’re wearing a +3 item that gives you 98 Lockpicking, you will only receive a +2 bonus from the skill scroll as opposed to the +5 that you should receive. For now, we recommend that anyone planning to use the skill increase as their AOS launch gift please be sure to first remove any items that increase that particular skill – especially if you are near your skill cap! In other UO news they are ready to unleash publish 18. The "Publish 18 Bug Fixes" are listed here, the "Publish 18 Wearables" are detailed here, and the "Age of Shadows Launch Gift" is mentioned here. Posted May 30 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: Now this is funny! Ebay was ordered to pay some guy $35 million becuase he invented selling stuff online according to this article in news.com! (Thanks Pud!) On a gaming related note, The stripper who appears in Outlaw Volleyball has started up her own website named, "Dear Summer" in which fans can interact with their favorite adult entertainer and some of her friends including 'El Suave,' 'Country Clem,' 'Harley,' and 'Ice Trey.' NSFW! When sex and gams collide, Eh! 3DO has now filed for Chapter 11. We reported (scroll down to Cash on the 19th) on the rumors of them laying off 50 people and blaming the war on Iraq in this SEC Filing. PC.IGN is reporting that all of 3DO's employees got axed. It's a sad day for the employees. Voodoo Extreme (V3D) has taken on the look of IGN also, since becoming part of that network. They are officially an IGN site now with a new url: http://ve3d.ign.com/ Maybe we should sell out GameRifts and become a hub for Warcry? Posted May 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond Still Kicking: Earth and Beyond has released a huge patch message for the game. Changes and fixes will be going into the evolving storyline which will impact all players, as well as Guild Management, Balance Changes, and other fixes updated. Check for full notes. The ability to change and rename guild ranks is pretty cool. Glad to see Cerdith is still around, I've not seen that name since they moved. Posted May 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane, Patch, Broke: After the events which transpired recently within Shadowbane, Ubiq posted a note to the general discussion groups annoucning a new patch. Re: the servers. Login server stability and performance has been very good, and the patch you downloaded tonight contained fixes that should help improve login server performance even further. The game servers have been very stable. We are observing these closely now, but are pleased with our initial findings. With our servers being more stable, latency will move to the top of our server programmer's priority list. The patch was broken. SUPRISE! Many of the files have become corrupt on player machines, requiring a reinstall from the original CD. Mac users get left out as they can not see what files are actually broken to reinstall. One player decided to cancel both of his accounts for a second time saying that, there should be no need for players to reinstall files from a CD for a patch to fix files that were supposed to be fixes. Or some stuff. My orginal CD is broken (buggy code!), so trying to copy files from the CD is a task not worth attempting personally. Another day, more users leaving. Posted May 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Hacks (2) As to the issues regarding the "Hacking Incident" Official Statement by Chris "Vosx" Mancil that appears on the Chronicle: There were some incidents in Shadowbane last night that disrupted the game play for a number of players on a few servers. Our preliminary findings indicate that the disruptive actions of a few players were the result of a hacking of the game. This hacking resulted in users having the ability to teleport around the world and summon other players. In respect to the hacking, the Shadowbane team responded immediately and successfully across the entire service. Although several players fell victim, we prevented further exploitation by shutting down the servers and by immediately identifying and removing the source of the exploits. All effected servers have received roll-backs prior to these incidents occurring in order restore the game to its previous state. More information was released by Wolfpack Programmer Rustoleum regarding the concerns players have about their Credit Card info: No personal info like that was hacked guys. The culprits found one flaw with a particlular message, and used it to teleport any person or mob wherever they wanted to on the server. We've fixed the message that was the culprit, and are scrutinizing all other messages to ensure they don't exhibit the same flaw. Meanwhile, as debates continue to rage, PKer.org points out to us (of all places!), that the support of the hacks being a client side as disclosed is in fact what happened, during beta they reported the same situation when they were able to access client side flags bringing up Developer Commands in this screenshot which they reported and may not of been fixed prior to release. The Crow Pie tastes very good Mort, thank you for asking. I pay for this too! Posted May 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Futher news on Shadowbane Hack: It has been brought to my attention that the Shadowbane servers were not compromised in any way. The "hack" was only client side, our fears regarding the security issues for our Credit Cards and accounts have been put at ease. In our story below, I was incorrect regarding the servers and account information being stored on non-encrypted servers. The majority of the reports which have been circulating around the net are infact false. We also fell prey to the "rumor mill," based on available information which was gathered and sent in to us. Our apology to Wolfpack, Ubi Soft and the players whom this may of affected. Posted May 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Hacked, Game Over. UPDATE: It has been brought to my attention that the Shadowbane servers were not compromised in any way. The "hack" was only client side, our fears regarding the security issues for our Credit Cards and accounts have been put at ease. In our story below, I was incorrect regarding the servers and account information being stored on non-encrypted servers. The majority of the reports which have been circulating around the net are infact false. We also fell prey to the "rumor mill," based on available information which was gathered and sent in to us. Our apology to Wolfpack, Ubi Soft and the players whom this may of affected. -Div ---- For those of you still following Ubi Soft and Wolfpack Studios' spiraling first entry into the MMO market, with their blundered release named Shadowbane, the game is officially over. Last night, much fun ensued as Hackers accessed the game client giving themselves god mode and access to the developer tools griefing server, after server. Now, I admit. I was one of the most vocal defenders of all Shadowbane stood for. I was one of the uber fanbois who even created a dedicated fan site for Shadowbane. But at some point, enough is enough. I’ve had enough. Sit back, grab a cup of java and get ready to read this rant. To spare you reading such a long and boring read, the summary is, if you still have an account, you are an idiot. Full Story Posted May 28 2003 by Div Devlin

AC2 Skill Changes: Turbine developer Citan has a listing of proposed skill changes for the Sage, Lugian Mage, Ranger, and Defender in Asherons Call 2. You'll also see some new ideas for skill resets for the June update on the Insider. Posted May 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Eve Online POTW: Eve Online has a new Peek-of-the-Week up and running, taking a looking inside The Serpents Coil" where extrodinary things can be found within the nooks and crannies of normal space travel. Posted May 28 2003 by Div Devlin

He Feel's Like Dancing: Scott "Lum the Mad" Jennings, Mythic Employee for Dark Age of Camelot arrived home and to his very comfortable chair after a road tour at the end of E3. After meeting with him and Sanya Thomas on the upcoming DAoC expansions we get to talking about one of his old jokes. Now up and running again is Lum Assist(2001!) back on BrokenToys. He also reports he is going to have some film of me putting the moves on grrl's at E3. I phear. If you never saw the LumAssist program go download it. Classics like this are hard to find. Posted May 28 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Updates: In the wake of players mass exodus from Shadowbane when major names are quitting the game, updates continue as if it were just another day. New Updated Class Information has appeared on the Chronicle for the Wizard, Scout and Thief. Also a new comic installment of Shadowbane Tales poking fun at players and theives. The comics are on of the shining parts of the site. Heralds have also been busy with new on Mourning, War, and an exclusive Treachery tale titled "The Offer." ALl makes for great reading in an unplayable game. Posted May 28 2003 by Div Devlin

GameRifts E3 Expo Recaps: We've started our coverage of recaps from the E3 Expo that was held in beautiful smog filled Los Angeles this month, where 60,000 plus industry types showcased their games, products and services. Read our recaps on: Our Great E3 Adventure Our Recap of Ballerium Our Recap of City of Heroes Our Recap of Dark Age of Camelot Stay tuned for tommorrow as we take a look at Dark and Light, Dragon Empires, Eve Online and EverQuest 2. Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC SWAG Contest on Warcry: Ophelea from Warcry sends word that she is holding a contest in which they are giving away loot gained by an unlawful and illegal means in a Dark Age of Camelot contest where the winner can get either a T-Shirt, or a Key-Chain by answering five "simple" trivia questions about the upcoming Atlantis Expansion. Want a DAoC T-shirt? How about a very cool keychain? Then head on over to DAoC Warcry and answer 5 simple trivia questions about the upcoming Atlantis expansion. Can you do it? I think the real question is, why would anyone want to do it? (You can probably find most of the answers in our E3 write up below.) Good luck to any who enter to win a T-shirt or a Key-chain. Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Dev Diary: Dragon Empires has a new Dev Diary up and running, this time with Adam Parsons the Lead Artist, describing what each of the art teams are currently working on and a quick introduction of himself. There also will be a chat tonight on Stratics. Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

More E3 MMO Stuff (v2): Continued E3 Coverage about: City of Heroes on IGN on Warcry Dragon Empires on 4Gamer with a video. on Action4Life with a Peter Tyson interview on Daily Game Exarch on Warcry Horizons on Warcry Middle Earth Online on HomelanFed Mythica on Daily Game Ryzom on WorthPlaying Star Wars: Galxies on Warcry(again?) Also a story on BluesNews linking to an article about six French reporters forbidden and deported out of the U.S. as they arrived to attend E3. Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Realms of Torment Societies: Realms of Torment has updated their societies section detailing the storylines behind the societies and what races can belong to the differing societie types. Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

The Combine on Shadowbane: Deyth, Guildmaster for The Combine who announced last week that they have left Shadowbane, originally stating that they pulled out of the game due to it being a piece of shit whose magnitude they would not bother to describe, has elaborated further on why they have quit in a pretty detailed review of the game. They also explain on how they are getting charges reversed on their credit cards due to non perfomance of service by Ubi Soft. Were also told, that Angus the Grim and Bonedancer of the Rolling 30's Beta Empire have also quit Shadowbane (with unrelated reasons to the game). Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Shattered Galaxy Updates: Shattered Galaxy has some major updates coming for the month of June, from their newsletter: Shattered Galaxy prepares for another scorching summer with fierce new features and engaging events. Morganan scientist have all but unlocked the secrets of the super organic units and commanders should be able to tame these gigantic creatures shortly. For the latest information on these tremendous units, visit the unit and item information section at the Warroom. Although Terminus was defeated in the war, their techniques have been adopted by the new governments. Commander can further develop their powers by undergoing the special Terminus Reincarnation event occuring in early June. Finally, expect to see greater flexibilty and control for players as we open up new and improved features in the Warroom. Overlords can change their faction's color, flags, and even the name to match the population's personality. Control the destiny of your faction as we enable new faction creation and even their demise. This summer is about to become even hotter with the new Shattered Galaxy! Would Shattered Galaxy in fact be the first MMORTS game released? Posted May 26 2003 by Div Devlin

UO Price Change, Players Revolt: Someone over at EA really screwed the pooch on this one, opening Ultima Online up possibly for major lawsuits again. This time they surprised users by raising the price from $9.95 per month for subscribers to $12.99 starting after June 25th. Now, granted I'm not really to hip to legal stuff, but do they not need to announce this change to their customers prior to implementing the new charges considering their Terms of Service states the following: General Charges. Current fees for using the Service are published in the billing section of the Web Site. EA.com may change its fees and billing methods at any time effective thirty (30) days after notice of the changes are posted on the Web Site. All changes will be posted on the Web Site and you are responsible for reviewing the billing section of the Web Site to obtain timely notice of such changes. If any such change is unacceptable to you, you may terminate your Membership as provided in Section 9. Your continued use of the Service thirty (30) days after posting of the changes on the Web Site will mean you accept such change. Now, not many people actually check the 'billing portion' of the website each day. Shouldn't this change in policy be listed on the Updates section of the Ultima Online website as well as notifying customers through an announcement, or does this clause change that: THESE RULES MAY BE CHANGED, AND NEW RULES MAY BE ADDED, AT ANY TIME. YOU AGREE TO CHECK THE ULTIMA ONLINE WEB SITE FROM TIME TO TIME TO REVIEW ANY RULE CHANGES THAT EA.COM MAY HAVE MADE. They do have three more days to make this announcement known to stay within the thirty days of their own Terms of Service, but this effectively kills Ultima Online and puts the final nail in the coffin for this venerable game. While they have cited they had "a record number of subscribers" that will now be closing accounts and heading off to other games that are currently doing things right. Sony just recently announced that for the same overall price comparison you can play three of their titles at a reduced rate, and for the same price Mythic will soon offer controllable mounts and player housing that will cause UO customers to quit over. Age of Shadows the latest game expansion, was by all player standards a phenomenal and outstanding flop. Who is going to pay for outdated graphics, numerous bugs, and poor support, when other games coming out or already out are doing things right. After three failed games; Majestic, MotorCity Online and The Sims Online, as well as the reorg of Earth and Beyond someone has to pay. It's always been UO players so why should anyone stop milking this established customer base? Update: Sannio makes the announcment on Stratics and now on UO.com Discuss: Is it really a joke? Discuss: Alternate Thread that's Real Posted May 22 2003 by Div Devlin

SB Problems Worldwide: Shadowbane players in North America rest assured you are not alone! Since the launch of Shadowbane problems have continued to plauge the customer base which has slowly been causing mass migrations like birds changing seasons to quit, even though they really believe in the vision that could-of-been. Login Problems, Server Crashes, and Character's just no longer apperaing. Well, it's not strictly a Ubi Soft issue of not feeding the hamsters to keep the server's running. Players over in Asia are having the exact same problems! They have Network Problems, Issues where city assets are not always shwoing the correct maintenance fees, and login servers being investigated for resolutions as they go up-and-down more than that gal on the corner who gets paid ten bucks per job. The Combine another veteran guild has also left Shadowbane , as they write: We've pulled out of Shadowbane, it's a piece of shit whose magnitude I won't bother to describe in this announcement. So much for this "Holy Grail." Discuss:Todays Game Bashing Thread Posted May 22 2003 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes E3 Stuph: Still playing catch-up. We missed these updates about City of Heroes. Trivia Contest to test what you know about the game. Your wrong. The answers changed! Winners get a T-Shirt. New screenshots taken during E3. Poor quality video that you can't see much of anything on. Links to write-ups from various sites who have already covered the game (I know, were working on it!), and some NCSoft pics of the titles from the convention floor, with booth babes. Posted May 22 2003 by Div Devlin

More E3 Stuph: Booth Babes (Not a game, real grrls) on E3Girls.com Dark and Light has their E3 thoughts up on their site Dragon Empires has tossed up all recent news on their site along with all current E3 previews and news snippets about the game. There is a little bit of something for everyone that you can see from various links on their main page. Includes a quick link to the latest 25 qeustions and answers Peter Tyson had with IGN. Middle Earth Online on Homelan Mythica on Load Inc Star Wars: Galaxies on PC.IGN on SWG.Warcry Mutable Realms the makers of the upcoming Ultra MMO Game titled Wish have their E3 Gallery up and running showcasing the booth, team and folks who dropped by the booth. Rayven the other half of Sachant (as he was known at E3) and I are seen with our backs in one of the pics while we were getting the full skinny on this game. Check it. We know! Stop mailing. Posted May 22 2003 by Div Devlin

Entropia Avatars in Movie: Project Entropia sends word in the form of a Press Release (No linkage today, I'm being lazy) that two of their players virtual avatars from within game will be making their onscreen debut in a dance music movie named "HEY DJ!", starring American indie film icon Jon Jacobs, Charlotte Lewis, and dance music diva Tina Leiu. The Avatars appear in the movie with speaking parts (Never heard of them, I'm not hip). The players: Neverdie and Island Girl, two Avatars who inhabit the massive multiplayer virtual universe Project Entropia, make their real world on-screen debut in the upcoming dance music movie "HEY DJ!". Starring are American indie film icon Jon Jacobs, Charlotte Lewis (Co-star of The Golden Child with Eddie Murphy) and Dance Music Diva Tina Leiu. Not only do the Avatars appear in the movie with speaking parts, dubbed into Japanese, but they also receive on-screen credits. The Avatars belong to the movie stars Jon Jacobs and Tina Leiu (host of HBO's upcoming 2nd series of Hotel Erotica). Jon Jacobs: "Neverdie and Island Girl are very popular figures within the Project Entropia Universe. Between Tina and I, we have spent $100s if not $1000s of dollars building these Avatars. Our Avatars have the coolest equipment, most powerful weapons - and Island Girl has the sexiest outfits. Very often we hire other players to go and hunt for hides, so Tina can craft new clothes for herself ... The funniest part is that other players often get into debates as to whether Island Girl is really Tina's alter ego; they find it hard to believe that a beautiful TV Star really has time to play games." In answer to that question, Tina Leiu: "I love Project Entropia, it's the only computer game I've ever been interested in playing and that's because all the money is real, people can in fact make a living in Project Entropia. Before I started working in movies and TV, I actually worked on the Road Crew in Oregon, driving heavy machinery ... I wish I could have played computer games for a living back then ..." Tina Leiu is currently shooting a new HBO series in Utah called Hotel Erotica. Tina is the host of the show; between scenes she tries to get on the computer as much as possible to play Island Girl. Sometimes I have nothing to say. Posted May 22 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Guild's Quitting: In what is not the first of many, but the largest and loudest so far within Shadowbane as the game continues to tank on that downward spiral in North America one of the largest beta guilds from release has called it quits enmasse, disbanding the guild and watching as the Guild Leader tossed up their account and guild - holdings to the tune of 45 Million Gold in total on Ebay. While some of the guild members were dumbstuck at the revelation their guild leader bailed out on them with a majority of the guild that once housed a thousand members; the reason's for the departure are valid citing: The game is inheritantly flawed. You can not expect to maintain a viable user base based on 24/7 PvP sieging and minimal PvE content. SB is more work than fun! This is a game remember? The Ebonlore guild departing is of the type of player Shadowbane originally marketed to. Cheats, Exploiters, and Griefers who all enjoyed PvP and PK'ing for a reason instead of phat lewt. This follows in the wake of the log-in servers being down for more then ten hours over the weekend where players were unable to play. Chrs "Vosx" Mancil stated that due to the problems on Sunday players would get a credit for the full day, when players are now starting petetions for a full month. Too little too late? Posted May 21 2003 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes' Fans Revolt: With the recent changes from a skill based system to a class (Archtype) based system announced during E3 last week fans for City of Heroes' are to say the least dissappointed. Once such upset base are the fansites who are all pondering following Paragon City Hall, one of the largest established CoH fansites in the community: As the oldest continual City of Heroes fansite it took quiet a bit to come to the decision to close down Paragon City Hall. After continued clear signs that this game is headed in the wrong direction, we can no longer support it in good concience. We want to thank everyone who has supported the site over the years and wish them luck in the future. This happens when you don't talk to your community. Posted May 21 2003 by Div Devlin

E3Expo MMO Stuph: With E3 done and over, tons of sites have tossed up their coverage regarding MMO titles. Sorting through a few hundred email's takes a bit of time, so we have collected a handy list consolidating all the linkage to the various impressions and reviews (how can they be reviews when we only saw demo's?) of the games. Check it below. Full Story Posted May 21 2003 by Div Devlin

PlanetSide Released, Our Winner: PlanetSide officially goes live, retail copies now in stores. From the press release: The first new features planned for release post-launch include three new vehicles: a bomber, an airborne vehicle transport and a four-wheeled anti-aircraft buggy. New game options include the ability to form three squadrons of ten men each into one large platoon and Sanctuary strikes, where empires can strike at previously untouchable bases, and outfit competitions, pitting squads against one another in unique challenges. Also, a congrats to mapper3d who entered our cheesy PlanetSide contest with a make us laugh screenshot in which he told a newb to pick him and his group up on the side of a building, and the pilot did. Congrats to everyone who entered as they were all excellent entries. We wanted to keep this small instead of a few thousand contestants and you entries were great. Wish we could cover prizes for each of you. Posted May 21 2003 by Div Devlin

Quest For Yap Interview: OMGN sends word that they recently went on a Quest for Yap in which they interviewed creator/developer Bryan Krause aka PresBMK? Yap was created in the summer of 2000 by PresBMK when he was 13 years old. Now, its 2003 and the game's nearing its 3rd anniversary having just weathered a hack attack and trying to rebuild its player base in this broswer based game. Posted May 21 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: 3DO is about to layoff 50+ people blaming Iraq on their woes as rumor has it. "Market conditions for us appeared to take a turn for the worse when the war with Iraq began," said Chairman and CEO Trip Hawkins. "In recent weeks sales of our products have not picked up as we had hoped, which is preventing us from being able to fully utilize our new credit facility." If I haven't been laid in the last three days, can I blame it on Iraq also? (Thanks Pud!) 3DO were the original publishers for JumpGate but dumped it. Why so much news from Atari as of late? Infogrames officially announced they have changed their name to Atari in an effort to increase their company profile with consumers by reaching back into gaming history. There is a story to be told here: Over the years, Atari went through many incarnations, and at one point operated as a subsidiary of what was then called Warner Communications and is now known as AOL Time Warner. It ceased to be a stand-alone company in 1996, when it was acquired by JTS Corp., and in early 1998 JTS sold the Atari rights and assets to toymaker Hasbro Inc. Infogrames, founded in France in 1983, acquired the rights to the Atari brand in early 2001 when it bought Hasbro Interactive. In October 2001 the company relaunched the brand and began using it as a games publishing label. So now you know why. Codemasters (Dragon Empires) announced the hiring of a new Exectuive Vice President for U.S. Marketing. Steve Lux will direct Codemasters' marketing, distribution and new business development in the U.S., furthering the company's worldwide growth. From the Press Release: The appointment of Lux is a significant step in Codemasters' initiative to publish more U.S.-centric products. Codemasters recently announced the acquisition of interactive video game publishing rights to the television reality series sensation, "American Idol," and is scheduled to release its IndyCar(TM) Series video game for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system on May 20 -- just in time for the Indianapolis 500 race. Welcome to Codemasters! Dungeons and Dragons Online become's a reality as Atari and Turbine announced their partnership to bring Wizards of the Coasts' game to the MMO market. No word has been released on if they will be developing the Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms world setting. Were thinking that it will be based off of Greyhawk as BioWare does NwN. Who can ever be sure. Turbine is getting way up their now with both AC:DT, AC2, MeO and now D&D Online. The best about this is Turbine needs to do little work as they just need to rip out the MMg and wWorld guides for content. Go Turbine! Were banking on ya as were huge D&D players. Release expected in '05. Rumor has it that "Marvel Super Heroes Online" to be published by Sony Online landed a Developer and is now in the early stages of development. The original announcemnt about this title appeared last year. You would be surprised to know it's not Turbine developing this incarnation of the Marvel Universe for the MMO Market. Were not going to say who has it, even if we did know. Sony Online announced their "All Game Access" in which subscribers to EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and PlanetSide (excluding Star Wars Galaxies) can now play any title for one flat monthly fee of $21.99 instead of the individual prices for each game. A great way to get players playing all games while hiding failing subscription rates for games tanking. Posted May 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Beta Soon: Dragon Empires has their press release out saying they have over 120,000 players ready to go for the beta test of the game which will be starting up this summer. From the Press Release: Dragon Empires’ Beta Test program is scheduled to begin this summer and already over 120,000 online gamers have signed up to take part. Codemasters is eager ensure the Beta Test is thorough and welcomes further Beta Tester applications. To be one of first to sample life in the game world and help shape Dragon Empires, sign up for the Beta Test While at E3 we were able to get a demo of Dragon Empires with Peter Tyson himself, and will be tossing up our impressiosn tommorrow (time permitting to get these notes sorted). While you are waiting, go sign up for beta if you have not. Posted May 19 2003 by Div Devlin

The Matrix Online: As everyone already knows, tied into the release of the movie, Warner Bros. Studios and Ubi Soft, announced they will co-publish The Matrix Online, the first massively multiplayer online game based on Warner Bros. Pictures' vastly influential Matrix property. Originally announced at E3 last year in development by Monolith, we've been eager to say the least about more info. Under the terms of the worldwide exclusive deal, Ubi Soft will distribute and manage the live game operations of The Matrix Online, while Warner Bros. Studios will oversee all story and content development. Both companies will supervise ongoing game development and marketing activities for the game. Following the beta test in 2003, The Matrix Online is expected to launch in 2004. While at E3 we were able to see the Tech Demo for the game which we will have more on in our E3 Coverage. Be sure to check the quote we have also! We find the next bit a little questionable: Already one of the top ten online gaming portals worldwide, ubi.com supports all of Ubi Soft's CD-ROM and subscription-based games, including EverQuest(TM), the recently-released Shadowbane and the latest game in the Myst series, Uru: Ages Beyond MYST. Who are we to reason why! Posted May 19 2003 by Div Devlin

NwN Hordes of the Underdark: BioWare officially announced another addition to the NeverWinter Nights line-up following Tales of Undrentide. This time were going into the realms of the Drow in the Hordes of the Underdark expansion with a vacant website. New classes, new races. More info to come. Posted May 19 2003 by Div Devlin

World of Warcraft MacOS: During the E3 Expo last week, Blizzard suprised the masses announcing that they will support the Mac OS for World of WarCraft as well as several new classes, many forms of transportation, and stunning new lands to explore. For the first time ever, the company also previewed the game's new fully customizable interface, which allows players to adjust the appearance and features of the interface to suit their particular preferences and style of play. Posted May 19 2003 by Div Devlin

eh? There appears to be a problem with our news generator currently. All the news posted by Div yesterday has been pushed off the main page, but never fear! You can find all those posts over at the Archives Section. Some e3 information that you may want to check out. Somebody remind Div when he gets back to give me access to his server. ;> Posted May 15 2003 by Rokin

UO Client Patch A new patch was released this morning for Ultima Online for those of you still playing. It has a little of this and a little of that, standard issue patch. For the complete patch notes continue reading. Enjoy! Full Story Posted May 15 2003 by Rokin

E3: And Were Off! Were off to the big haven for gamers known as E3 or the "Electronic Entertainment Expo" where all things gaming will be showcased. Were really looking forward to talking with the publishers and developers for the games coming out as MMO players! While others have found their virtual home and call a game their own, many want to know what's going to be the next big thing. And we are happy to report on what those will be. We've got about 20+ MMO games which were going to be taking sneak peeks at to bring you our extremely biased news on them. Were sure several of them will be our top picks in the near future. While not our original line-up of Maestro, Rokin, and Zalaster are going to be making it, we will be hooking up with some of our other writers like Sachant and Rayven as well as Valkyrie and qx. Oh, and I'll be there to raise those decibel levels a lot higher. While were away send any news updates to Rokin as he is going to be handling the shop! (Thanks Bro!) (Read More for a list of Games Were Checking Out!) Full Story Posted May 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Atriarch Updates: The folks from Atriarch will be attending E3 in a Wandering Booth which is actually pretty cool. As they write: We will have a "wandering booth" which means I'll have a laptop strapped to my back and ready to whip it out to give a demo. So, if you are an Atriarch fan and will be at E3, then go on up to anyone you see wandering around wearing an Atriarch t-shirt. We'll be happy to give you a look at the game :-) They also have been working on the Natives (NPC's). They now have a brain, as well as putting the pieces back together as they prepare to do demo's. Look out. Posted May 13 2003 by Div Devlin

EQ2 at E3: Sony sent over some announcments regarding EverQuest 2 being part of their line-up at E3 and about incentives on why players should play EQ2. Scheduled to launch in Winter 2003, EverQuest II is a parallel online universe to the hugely successful gaming phenomenon EverQuest. Featuring breathtaking graphics and a vast, beautiful game world to explore, EverQuest II sets new standards in graphical realism as players are immersed in the game's powerful epic storyline with thousands of players online. Not only will current EQ fans enjoy the new game, but players new to both the world of Norrath and MMO games will find the game much easier to navigate and play. Based 500 years after EverQuest, EverQuest II is a new and different game experience in a changed world marred by a fantastic life changing event. Players enter this world by creating their own unique character from 16 races and 48 classes and using a powerful facial customization system for unprecedented player individuality. Why? The incentives will include exclusive crossover quest zones in each game that will be accessible only by subscribers of both games, allowing characters in EverQuest and EverQuest II to gain access to hidden treasures, an EverQuest II in-game reward for loyal fans, and additional features to be disclosed over the coming months for ongoing EverQuest and EverQuest II players. Hmm... Posted May 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Ryzom Updates: A few updates from Ryzom from Nevrax. As the game prepares to enter Beta (Hint: Sign-up) they reopened the site with a fresh look, more info, and announce that they will be on the floor for E3. Yes, The Saga of Ryzom will be on the floor this year! The Beta 1 program is just about to begin, and a demo of the game will be presented on the Wanadoo booth. We'll let you know! Posted May 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Updates: Ok, guilty as charged. We've been negligent in reporting on Shadowbane News and they have had a ton of updates. Some good. Some bad. What can you do? The new patch notes are up which should be published in Ubi's estimate next Tuesday. A couple of highlights: - Players should no longer get disconnected from their accounts when they perform a 'Leave World'. - Construction times on higher ranked assets/hirelings has been reduced - Low level mobs should no longer drop higher level armor - Bandits in Bandit wetland should no longer spawn in the water - Players should no longer get stuck while floating - Players can now ESCAPE from 'Attempting to Login...' - Players should no longer get stuck while teleporting. - We found and fixed a Tree of Life "Disappear" bug - Closed an exploit that allowed thieves to steal in Safeholds - Items with negative durability will no longer deposit millions of gold into a forge strongbox You can check the full list of changes here. There is also a new guide for those who want to play a Fighter/Barbarian written by Gallus. It's a decent primer. The Herlads also unleashed news and happenings as the mover and shakers of the world tear up their servers. Now available are the News Reports for Dread and Treachery if you want to see how the climate is. Posted May 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Ballerium Stuph: Majorem Ltd. announced that the first of their staff for Ballerium arrived safe and sound in Los Angeles to prepare for for the E3Expo. They also inform that the Beta Status of the game has been updated. 1) First chunk of Beta testers was selected. 2) A few more applicants will soon be selected for screening as candidates for the Zero Beta. 3) The game server is going through a last series of tests and debugging during the next couple of more days. Once the internal tests are finished, testing will actually begin. 4) At this stage testers will not be allowed to give any information about the beta. Instead, we will try to update the community if and when something worth mentioning is encountered. 5) Screenshots may be suggested by the testers and then, if approved - published. It's getting there! Posted May 12 2003 by Div Devlin

What does Impossible Mean? Cruising Dark Age of Camelot I saw this update in the Grab Bag for Friday on the Camelot Herald: Browsing one of my favorite forums today, I realized that it's time for the regular reminder of what "impossible" really means to a game company like Mythic. When someone from here uses the word "impossible," what they mean to say is "this cannot be done with the staff we have and/or the time we have available to dedicate to the problem." That's why you'll see someone saying something is impossible… and six months later it appears in patch notes. As a company, we are constantly evolving. Fresh blood often brings fresh thinking, and more help means more time to devote to things we couldn't schedule before. If only other game companies were this honest and willing to be open about telling players stuff like this. (Yes! I actually read updates for all the games!) Posted May 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Stuph: The folks from Dragon Empires are off to E3 and have been rather busy preparing to leave, but before they go they send word out on some recent updates to wet your appetite for more: - RPG vaulted posted a Q&A on the Dragonblood race - We posted more race and class info - Peter Tyson took part in 'industry chatter' on Stratics - More lore released :) Were looking forward to seeing them this week and learning more first hand on Dragon Empires. Posted May 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Eve Online: Don't Delete! Pann the Community Manager for Eve Online the recently released space MMOG from CCP and S&SI is working those post launch critters out of the system, when she posted about Bogus Locations and Corrupt Ships which have come up: We have been experiencing two similiar problems - one, we call 'bogus location' and the other is 'corrupt ship.' Bogus location: You jump from Point A to Point B (or exit station) and the screen freezes. You try logging out and back in to see if that fixes it and all you get is the blue screen with the DNA string and the bald chick (this is also referred to as the Blue Screen of Infinite Irritation.) Corrupt Ship: You try to exit a station and keep getting snapped back into it. If you encounter either of these or a similar problem, don´t delete the character. It is very important that we be able to take a look at it and see where the error occurred and also know what equipment it had so we can replace it for you. Go to the Knowledge Base that is accessible here on the web site from the menu on the left or in-game by pressing the Help icon. Please include the name of the character and as much information as possible about where you were and what you were doing when the problem started. So, don't delete! Posted May 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Horizons Fansite Q&A: The fine, fine folks over at the TemplarGaming Horizons fansite send word that they hosted a Horizons Q&A last week with several of the fansites for the upcoming MMO Game Horizons. They ask eleven questions to the Horizons Community on what it takes to run a fansite. Their intro: Fansites play a major role in getting a game off the ground and we wanted to highlight as many fansites as we can in order to promote and hopefully be a small part of what we expect to be a huge Horizons community. Good read. Check it out.(Thanks IronClaw!) Posted May 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online Publisher: Warhammer Online officially announced Friday that they have a publishing partner. SEGA Europe will be handling the worldwide publishing for the game partnering with GamesWorkshop to bring Warhammer Online across Europe, North America, Canada and Australia/New Zealand. From the Press Release: SEGA Europe Ltd, today announced an agreement with Warhammer Online Ltd, granting SEGA Europe rights to publish 'Warhammer Online' for PC across Europe, North America, Canada and Australia/New Zealand. ... Warhammer Online is due for release across Europe during Spring 2004 closely followed by the other major territories. Release date and distribution partners for North America are still to be confirmed. Hey, whats the deal here for Americans having to wait! I think they are beginning to fight back across the big blue. Posted May 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Our Cheesy Planetside Contest GameRifts.com (us) is holding a cheesy PlanetSide contest on our forums where one lucky winner will get a retail copy of PlanetSide on its release. It's one of the easiest contests to go around. All we want is your humorous PlanetSide screen-cap along with a caption from inside the game (for those in beta) and the best one that makes us laugh will get a copy of PlanetSide sent to their home on release. The contest starts now, and ends on May 17th at 11:59pm Central time. Winner will be announced on Monday May 20th. Only one entry allowed, only residents of North America (Damn Americans!) eligible to participate. We have a couple of other lame rules also, but nothing to major. Good luck! (You have to register on our boards.) Posted May 10 2003 by Rayven

Vivendi + Turbine = MeO It's official! The rumors that Turbine were going to be working on Middle Earth Online from Vivendi Universal have finally been put to rest, which answer's alot of questions about the moves the MMO community has been seeing inside Turbine for the past several months. The Release: Vivendi Universal Games, Inc. (VU Games) announced today that it has entered into a production agreement with Turbine Entertainment Software Corp. to develop "Middle-Earth Online," a massively multiplayer (MMP) game to launch in 2004. The game will be developed as part of VU Games' long-term agreement with Tolkien Enterprises to create interactive entertainment based on J.R.R. Tolkien's epic novel "The Lord of the Rings." The 3D role-playing game (RPG) will immerse players in the Middle-earth world where they will choose their identities from a cast of archetypal Tolkien characters, form kinships, build race-specific dwellings, explore the landscape, craft unique items and weapons, and perform myriad other activities to bring the world-renowned fantasy realm to life. "We are extremely excited to be working with a world-class developer like Turbine. Their track record and proven expertise in building, launching, and supporting massively multiplayer games is exceptional, making them the right partner for a franchise as beloved and well-known as J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings,'" said Jim Wilson, EVP Product Development, Vivendi Universal Games. "Together, our goal will be to bring the vision and spirit of the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien to life in 'Middle-Earth Online.'" We have some screen's as well from Vivendi also! The look good. Check em. Hobbits in the Shire The life of a Hobbit! (Check out the leaves) Sparkling Water! Moria! More information about "Middle-Earth Online" can be found at the new official site! Where more screens, a faq and new message boards can be are up and running! This rocks! Posted May 9 2003 by Div Devlin

Asheron's Call Stuph: Ophelia from Crossroads of Dereth sends in a bunch of links to pics about Asheron's Call which we missed (sorry!) about happenings in game: The Apocolypse Ends The Turbine test of the new server hardware for Asheron's Call was a smashing success. Old nemesis were seen throughout Dereth leaving death in their wake - with the players rejoicing at the death! GM's were in-game for 4 days, levelling characters, granting "wishes" and leading quests. Fun was had by all and at one point we even crashed the server! The images from the event are incredible and can be seen here in several image galleries: The Beginning The Shadow Assault Bael'Zharon Befriends a Young Boy The Olthoi Queen Attacks Marae Lassel The Final Defense The Party at the End of the World You can also views all of these galleries by visiting Warcry's Crossroads of Dereth. They're scattered throughout the weekend news. WOW! It was FUN! ---- Better late... Thanks, It looks like it was fun! Posted May 9 2003 by Div Devlin

EverQuest, Come Back! EverQuest is spamming emails to all past players to come back for a free seven day trial to take a look at their world. The Announcment: Thanks for making EverQuest® the most popular MMORPG of all time! We've reactivated your EverQuest account and invite you to come back and enjoy EverQuest again for free, for 7 days! Now is the best time ever to play EQ. Your friends are here and there are a ton of new features to check out. And best of all, there's no need to re-register; just log in and play! Start a brand new character on our newest server, Stromm, and you'll be off to a fresh start, sharing adventures with new friends (no character moves will be allowed to or from Stromm for at least a year) Rejoin a thriving community of 430,000+ members Experience dynamic new content designed for all levels Continue your adventure in the huge, expanding world of Norrath Plus, check out game enhancements we've made through our recent expansions: Enhanced graphics Increased level cap to 65 New races and a new class New transportation systems to ease travel A brand new interface Mounts Much More! Simply log in your old account and play for free for 7 days. Please note that there's no guarantee your dusty old characters will still be accessible, or that you will be able to access zones or features for which you have not purchased the appropriate software. If this is the case, however, please feel free to enjoy the free 7-day reactivation period by creating a new character. Experiment with different races and classes you may not have tried before.I may take them up on that. It's been three years or more. They have 430,000+ members! Posted May 9 2003 by Div Devlin

Ultima Online Stuph: Ultima Online issued a correction about Artifacts and Stealing in which they say: Well, what’s a Q&A without a small correction? It turns out that one of yesterday’s answers wasn’t quite correct, so here we go with that question again – but with the right answer this time. (Note that we’ve edited the original post to reflect the correct answer, but we’re posting this new notice as well for those who don’t generally re-read posts more than once.) Question: One of the entries says that Doom artifacts will now go into "the appropriate player’s" backpack. What does that mean? (Corrected) Answer: There’s two parts to this. The player who did the most damage to the monster will be considered the "top attacker," and that player’s luck value will influence whether or not an artifact drops. However, the actual player who receives the artifact in their backpack will be randomly chosen from all players who have earned looting rights for that monster.The main reason for the random chance is that some types of characters will naturally have a greater damage output ability than others, despite the fact that other players may be just as crucial to the success of the fight. Sorry for the confusion! Also if you play on Siege yer finally going to get some AoS love. Siege Perilous and Mugen Age of Shadows Publish It’s time for a few Siege ruleset-related announcements! First, we’re getting ready to publish the Age of Shadows code to Siege Perilous and Mugen next week, and you’ll find the schedule for those publishes listed below. But for those of you on Siege Perilous, we have more exciting news: we’re going to be upgrading the hardware for the Siege Perilous shard before the AoS publish, which will ensure that Siege is ready and able to handle the higher demands of the Age of Shadows code!Here are our current plans for Siege Perilous and Mugen receiving the Age of Shadows publish: Mugen: 8:00 AM JST Thursday, May 15th (12:00 AM Thursday, May 15th GMT/UTC) Siege Perilous: 12:00 PM CST Thursday, May 15th (6:00 PM Thursday, May 15th GMT/UTC) We’ll announce any necessary downtimes for the hardware upgrade for Siege Perilous as soon as we have those details, and we’ll keep you updated if this schedule changes! Like you could'nt wait, eh? Posted May 9 2003 by Div Devlin

MeO Rumor Mill: Seems like something is brewing that will be released tommorrow concerning Middle Earth Online. So far, word has it that it is expected to be released in 2004 and will be shown behind closed doors at E3. Also, looks like GameSpy (Don't ya hate how the evil mega-corps get all the love) has an inside scoop they can't say anything about until after the offical news release tommorrow. Stay Tuned. Posted May 8 2003 by Div Devlin

Themis Does Eventide's Ruby: Themis-Group announced yesterday they have signed a deal with CyberWarrior for the game Rubies of Eventide, in which they will handle the PR and Marketing aspects of this MMO game which has been reworked. Rubies of Eventide is a promising example of change in the MMORPG industry. As a second generation massively-multiplayer game, Rubies defies the "Everquest" template by bringing back a the classic strategic RPG turn-based combat, with a twist. Rubies unique combat mode is an "asynchronous real-time turn-based hybrid combat." For players this means planning moves strategically with more attention to tactical rather than split-second decisions. Rubies of Eventide has seven player races and over 90 starting professions to choose from. With this system, no one is ever locked into a stereotypical role based on his or her choice of race and can develop their skills however they please in-game. Savant looks like he will be heading up the charge as the Marketing Manager of The Themis Group from the Press Release. Rubies of Eventide is one of those games that were in the forever cylce of beta which we checked out a few years ago. They recently took alot of time off to upgrade to a new game engine making it competitive with todays games. Oh, and they (CyberWarrior) dislike us. Posted May 8 2003 by Div Devlin

Warcry Launches 3 Subsites: Warcry Network sends word that they have added three new dedicated fansites to their network bringing daily news and updates on some of the upcoming MMO's soon to be or already released as additions to thier family. One of them has been around for a week or two and will focus on the world of Tolkien - Middle Earth Warcry. Designed to support the upcoming Vivendi/Turbine (NOT THEMIS) title LoTR: Middle Earth Online, it will also