There Not There? Rumor has it that There, who just announced that they were changing their focus on development (see: There Changes Service below) just laid off around 50% of their staff. The search begins for validation. Posted May 26 2004 by Div Devlin

Blizzard WoW Beta Contest: The Blizzard Insider is holding an exclusive beta contest in which they are giving away 25 more slots for World of Warcraft! If you missed your chance to sign-up for Beta then check the details for this contest: The Insider managed to squeeze 25 more slots out of the dev team to distribute exclusively among Insider readers. To win one, send an original Warcraft comic strip to us using the link below. The top 25 comics, as determined by Blizzard, will all receive spots in the Beta, and several of our favorites will be published on the Blizzard Web site. The style, medium, story, etc. are all up to you, just make sure that it relates to Warcraft in some way. This contest will remain open for two weeks, from May 19th-June 2nd. To enter, send an e-mail with your Warcraft comic attached (all attachments must be less than 4 MB in size) to wowcontest@blizzard.com That's hard. Good luck to any who enter! Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

AGC For Women: Running in conjucntion with the Austin Game Conference this September 9-10 in Austin Texas will be an all new conference just for Women! The Game Initiative announced the Women's Game Conference (WGC), a new conference focusing on women in the computer and video game industry, will take place September 9-10, 2004 in Austin, Texas. The conference will focus on a variety of women's topics in the computer and video game industry including examining career paths for women in the industry and issues related to working in the industry as women as well as how women are portrayed in games and women and girls as consumers of games. The Women's Game Conference also announced a Steering Committee comprised of leading women in the game industry, representing leading game hardware manufacturers, developers, publishers and educators, who are guiding the creation of a powerful and influential WGC program. The conference is open to anyone interested in the game industry, including existing professionals, industry executives and persons interested in getting into the game business. Learn more at the official site. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

MMO Book Writers: Want to make some cash writing about MMO Games? Here's a chance! Charles River Media, the publisher of Game Programming Gems, is interested in publishing a follow up to the first Massively Multiplayer Games Book. This new book, entitled "More Massively Multiplayer Game Development", will feature roughly 60 Online Game related articles from professional game developers and will debut at the 2005 GDC. If you would like to write a 6-20 page article for this new book, please email the editor at mmpgems@yahoo.com for more details. Each contributor will receive royalties based on sales, estimated to reach between $1000 and $2000 dollars per article. If you have ever wanted to write professionally, this is an easy, painless way to become a published author. The best part is that you can share your hard-earned knowledge, experience, and wisdom with fellow Game Developers. Proposals are due June 6th. You never know. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

CoH Consolidated: Huge congrats to NCSoft with City of Heroes, the game that no one would play. "Who want's to wear tights." NPD Group announced that City of Heroes took the number one sales slot for PC Games released the week ending May 1st. Following in second was Lineage II, creating the first record for a company to release two MMO Games and take both sales slots. To go along with those numbers above, NCsoft also announced that City of Heroes has over 100,000 subscribers followed with 60,000 in Lineage II. From the Press Release: NCsoft Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, today revealed that its two recent releases, City of Heroes and Lineage II, already have reached more than 160,000 subscribers combined since they launched simultaneously in North America on April 28. City of Heroes has more than 100,000 subscribers and the Lineage service has moved past 60,000 subscribers. The numbers were reached in less than two weeks and were attained with what some are calling one of the smoothest commercial service launches in the history of massively multiplayer online games. Ofcourse, life in Paragon City is not all it's cracked up to be according to this comic which tells us how it sucks. And, for those on the Victory server, do you know fear? The Spice Girls made their debut onto the server last week and perfomed a mini-concert attracting everyones attention, even a GM.  It was actually a good show, obviously not the real Spice Girls since these toons were good. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

iEnt Announces New MMOG: iEntertainment Network announced they are bringing a new MMOG into the market titled Civilization's Dawn! Civilization's Dawn takes players back in history to a world that is a difficult and challenging place. Neanderthals, Humanoids, Mystics and Wizards vie for survival and dominance and players represent a new force that has arrived to claim mastery over this Dawn of Civilization. The title contains a variety of features including puzzles and brain teasers to solve when a quest reaches its objectives, special weather effects, unique time of day with sun lighting effects, and extensive exclusive sound effects for the various monsters and events in the game. Civilization's Dawn will combine popular features found in the best-selling role playing and real time strategy games. The title will be launched in retail stores around the world as well as online through the iEntertainment Network (www.IENT.com) and its partners in Europe and Asia. IENT currently operates two successful MMORPG's in North America, Helbreath and Savage Eden, through partnerships in Korea. IENT's Internet environment can manage over 200,000 individuals playing online simultaneously. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

As Camelot Turns: News from within Camelot. Mythic Entertainment registered as a trademark the name Mythica (which was the subject of legal debate earlier this year), the title of the game once in development from Microsoft. Over on the Camelot Herald there has been a new gal posting. Linda Robbins made a suprise appearance when she tossed up someupdates making everyone ask, "Who thehell is she, and what did she do to Sanya!" Linda's been a long standing member of the community and for Camelot she was also the Team Lead Coordinator. Sanya returned and life is good after a three day break. Welcome back lady! Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Newsletter: Peter and all the gang from Codemasters made their way back safe and sound from E3 and tossed out their weekly newsletter for Dragon Empires last week which recapped their trip on thier Live E3 Site. Be sure to check out thier booth babe twins, Kite and Mooneye. Now that thier back they are aiming for the Beta1 release which will see more than 3,000 people invited to join the beta test. This phase is due June/July and will feature quests, monsters and combat and the economic system. As always, be sure to check out the latest letter from Gadsolme as he takes a look at that great and noble empire, The Empire of the Lady, a powerful, wealthy and imposing empire which has played a prominent role in the history of Fortitude. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Endless Ages Evolution! Avaria Corp. announces that Endless Ages is going through an evolution as they go to the next level of PvP and RPG interaction. Coming forth in the 4th quarter will be our release of the latest addition to the world of EA. This addition will introduce the new Kingdom system. Players will be able to battle over control for specific realms. While the battles will be epic so will be the rewards. Screenie!Promise of More News to Come! Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

EverQuest Pricing Change: Sony has announced a new package deal for EverQuest in which subscribers can pay a reduced fee for yearly accounts at $120.00US ($10 p/month) and get access to all the expansions for free. In another offer, they also have dropped the prices for three of the expansions if you do not already have them to add to your library. Lost Dungeons of Norrath and Gates of Discord are now selling at $19.99 and The Legacy of Ykesha is listing at $14.99. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Guild Wars Success: Just about everyone was in awe of ArenaNet and NCsofts new hit in development, Guild Wars and they rocked the house while at E3. The numbers are in for thier E3 For Everyone event in which they made the client available for an open beta demo during the show. The Press Release: The Guild Wars "E3 for Everyone" event, held in conjunction with this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), received a massive response, according to NCsoft and ArenaNet. Gamers worldwide created more than 200,000 accounts to play the demo during its five-day run. The unprecedented experience allowed gamers at home to play the Guild Wars demo with and against people on the E3 show floor. The scale of player response made the Guild Wars demo one of the five largest online games in North America and one of the ten largest online games in the world during the time that "E3 for Everyone" was taking place. Be sure to check out our look at it this week. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Lineage Revolt! Korean players are rising up in revolt over Lineage. From Lum, who links to TerraNova: The JoongAng Daily reports today that NC Soft is being threatened with a class action suit by a group of disgruntled Korean players. More than a thousand players have signed a statement protesting, amongst other things, the high cost of subscriptions for Lineage in South Korea. More interesting perhaps are some of the other grievances which include the failure of the developer to deal with hacks and dupes, and the existence of a market for virtual assets. For the People! Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

SWG 14 Day Trial: Yet to explore the MMO/Ground Game set in the Lucas Arts universe which is Star Wars: Galaxies? If you dare to subject yourself to it, SOE has announced a free 14 Day Trial in which no credit card purchase is required. You can grab the client from FilePlanet once you register. The game originally came on a four disk set, so I imagine the download is going to take days! Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

There Changes Service: There Inc. has announced they are doing some major changes to their service. Moving away from runnning a game, they are now going to focus their efforts on creating games for other companies. Already in the There stable is development for the US Army in which they are creating a MMO to better train soldiers. From the Community VP, Michael Wilson: All of us at There have poured our heart, soul, and in many cases, significant financial investment into There these last few years. We have been inspired watching you, the community, also pour yourselves into making There great and unique and so incredibly fun. We believe that virtual worlds like There will continue to evolve, and want There to continue to play a key role in this evolution. By focusing on There as a platform, we believe it can play a role in any number of virtual worlds, including the one you've helped to build. I've been unable to access the main site, but ThereUniverse has a repost of the entire message, noting that their will be no support for fixing bugs. This is supposed to help them? Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Toontown UK: Disney announced that Toontown Online has opened it's MMO doors to children all across the UK! Disney's Toontown Online throws open its gates to UK gamers today and invites them to head to www.disney.co.uk/toontown and help in the struggle to save Toontown, which is under siege from a band of uptight business robots called the Cogs! Toontown is the world's first 3D massively multiplayer online PC game (MMOG) designed especially for children and their families. And, from today, they can go online to enjoy a quite unique gaming experience. Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultima Online Anniversay: EA announces that this coming summer will see a special 7th Anniversay Edition of Ultima Online. Packaged for the party will be the Original UO Game, all Five Expansions, and one of seven special gifts for the player to use. Also tossed into the mix will be a copy Ultima IX: Ascension. With Ultima Online 7th Anniversary Edition, players will be able to enjoy one of the most immersive online worlds because in addition to the original Ultima Online game, the following five expansion packs will be included: Utlima Online The Second Age, Ultima Online Renaissance, Ultima Online: Third Dawn, Ultima Online: Lord Blackthorn's Revenge and Ultima Online: Age of Shadows. Players will also receive one of seven rare and powerful anniversary gifts, each offering an exclusive benefit to the lucky recipient, and a collector's edition of the Ultima Online Fan Guide, which includes exclusive art from the history of Ultima Online and interviews with the development team and community leaders. As an added bonus, included in the Ultima Online 7th Anniversary Edition package will be a full version of the classic Ultima(TM) IX: Ascension, the last game in the Ultima series that was hailed as one of the greatest fantasy adventures of all time and was the catalyst for Ultima Online. More details will be released this Thursday on the mainsite. Trying to catch up to SOE? Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

Sigil Hires Another: Drowned out from the excitement of the E3Expo, Sigil announced they have brought another former EQ Team Member onboard for Vangaurd: Saga of Hereos. Joining the team is Ryan Palacio who accepted the position of Senior Game Designer and began work immediately. Palacio joined 989/Verant in 1997, worked with the original "EverQuest" team, and is best known for being integral in the population and balancing of early high level content, including Bottom Guk and Solusek B. He also contributed to the expansions "EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark" and "EverQuest: Scars of Velious." He then continued to work with Sony Online Entertainment on "EverQuest 2" and, more recently, shipped "Star Wars: Galaxies." Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

WoW Auction Houses: Blizzard announced that they will have Auction Houses within World of Warcraft for players to buy, sell and trade ingame items. kat, the Community Relations manager for WoW, posts the following: An Auction House will be placed in each major city (Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, Ogrimmar, Thunderbluff and Undercity). These Auction Houses will be faction specific, allowing Alliance to trade with Alliance and Horde to trade with Horde. Additionally, there will be one non-faction based Auction House in Booty Bay. The Booty Bay Auction House will have the same functionality as the aforementioned faction based Auction Houses, with the additional capability of allowing trade between Horde and Alliance characters. Can Blizzard do no wrong, what about Ebay!?!? Posted May 25 2004 by Div Devlin

More News from E3 While the Gamerifts E3 team sits here at the Los Angeles Convention Center awaiting the floor opening to media, I thought I would bring our readers some more updates from the Exposition so far. Electronic Arts has announced it will be offering titles exclusively on X-Box. However, this is a point of confusion for the Gamerifts team as Nintendo also has quite a line up of EA titles announced for their systems. We'll try to get to the bottom of this and find out what the scoop is. Nintendo's DS handheld is targetted for release in America by the end of this year. It will be launched with a different name and "an affordable price". Europe and Australia will see the DS in quarter 1 of 2005. Included will be wireless and wi-fi support making it possible to play against others around the world, voice recognition, and touch screen capabilities. Microsoft gave us a demo of their XNA project in the form of "Crash". I have to say, the demo was spectacular in ways I can't even describe with my limited time. We'll try to get everyone a copy of the demo up on the site. In addition, Microsoft announced a huge lineup of games for X-Box over the next year, all of which offer X-Box Live functionality. Live seems to be the main focus for Microsoft this year, and their line up is indeed impressive with its inclusion of games such as Halo 2, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Knights of the Old Republic II, and many more. In addition, they announced Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be compatible between both PC and X-Box Live users. Included was that users will be able to plug X-Box controllers into their PC for Vanguard play similar to Final Fantasy XI, and there was more than a few hints that X-Box Live subscribers will not need to pay extra for Vanguard. Hopefully we can get an exact answer on this and will post it as soon as we can. Nintendo announced work on a "revolutionary new console that will change the way you play games". No further details were offered, but Nintendo's President was quite specific in stating that Nintendo wanted to change the face of console gaming. Included in the Nintendo press conference were announcements for a line-up of games including a new Legend of Zelda releasing in 2005, Resident Evil 4, and Metroid: Echoes. Sony's PSP handheld is going to have a MSRP of $200. Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to attend their press conference, but we intend on visiting and learning about the PSP in depth today. _____________________________________ Edit: Apparently the news we received at E3 about DOOM3 being an X-Box exclusive was inaccurate. Thanks to Schragnasher for pointing this out. Posted May 12 2004 by Haren

Halo 2 Release Announced The Gamerifts team is hard at work here at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition getting the latest news in online gaming. The biggest story so far is Microsoft at their conference Monday announced an official "set in stone" release date for one of the most highly anticipated games in existence: Halo 2. That date? November 9, 2004. The guys from Bungie gave us a live gameplay preview, and I have to say what we saw is purely amazing. Halo 2 has already proven itself to be much more than a sequel! In addition to having its graphics vastly improve, it has added a lot of customization options for players including emblems. The terrain is highly responsive to ongoing events around it and there are several incredible new features. Vehicles now have different "damage points". For example, you can blow the side wings off a Ghost, you can blow out the tires on a Warthog, and vehicular damage affects the pilot's ability to use the vehicle. In addition, there is a feature where players can dual wield weapons, and multiplayer mode has expanded to include SPARTANs vs. elites. All in all, our entire E3 team had its collective jaws drop when we saw this game. The original Halo was brilliance in gaming design, and Halo 2 looks to be nothing short of one of the best games ever. We look forward to seeing this one on the E3 show floor in the coming days, and we look forward to bringing our readers more news from the expo! Posted May 11 2004 by Haren

As The Market Turns: Scott Jennings points out that Yantis is getting slapped again over on his blog Broken Toys, this time by Robert Cringely who does a PBS Column titled "I, Cringely." The specific event that led to this column was the failed sale of $2,300 in platinum by a group of EverQuest fanatics who wanted to use the money to pay their way to a big EverQuest convention. It is their contention (not mine, I'm just the reporter here, remember) that the bad guy in this deal is either Jonathan Yantis or an associate of his. Jonathan Yantis runs Yantis Enterprises, which was until recently the big competitor to IGE for the buying and selling of this stuff that isn't real. Yantis is in San Diego, IGE is in Florida, and earlier this year they merged with IGE buying Yantis, though the web sites (they are both in this week's links) remain separate. The players who came to me sold their platinum through a game-specific auction site. The deal went forward exactly as described above, and they suddenly had no platinum and no money. Wily hackers that they are, they tracked the mail records of the only trail that did exist, the e-mails arranging the exchange, and claim to have found that the buyer's IP address was from the same range used by Yantis Enterprises. Further, they explored the qualifications of the "PayPal Verified" buyer and claim that most of the positive feedback came from Jonathan Yantis. Finally, they claim that the day after the transaction, the Yantis price to sell platinum on their EverQuest server suddenly dropped as though there was suddenly a larger supply acquired at little or no cost. These players are fervent and angry and they have some real data so what happens now? Not much, and that is probably the real topic of this column. Ouch! That hurt! Check it. Posted May 10 2004 by Div Devlin

WildWestSim Chat: GameBunny is the latest site to hook up with the folks for the upcoming MMO Game, "Wild West Sim" in which they do a pow-wow in an interview on the game. PK'ers will show up on Wanted posters and become missions for bounty seekers. Unless you enjoy living on the run, or finding a defensible fort to hide out in, I suggest you don't make trouble for other players. :-) Check it. Posted May 10 2004 by Div Devlin

PreE3 Expo: With the E3Expo kicking off this week, the MMO Community is already gearing up with their pre-show news and interviews. Kicking things off is MarkeeeDragon with an interview from Valerie "Pann" Massey, formerly of CCP (Eve Online) and now part of NCsoft for Tabula Rasa. Warcry (if you can get them to load) grabs Daniel "Savant" Manachi from Themis group to talk about their show-plans and the Saga of Ryzom. Warcry also jams with from "Middle -Earth Online" in which they discuss the cancellation of showing the game at the show. Then head back to MarkeeDragon to check out their interview with Marc Laukien from Mutable Realms on their Ultra MMO game, "Wish." If it was a contest, MarqueeDragon won! A number of sites are also reporting that they will be bringing news and info daily from the Expo, but also be sure to check the official E3Expo Inisder which goes live today for news and coverage from the show! It already has pre-show pics and coverage for setting up the largest event of the year for Electronic Entertainment. Posted May 10 2004 by Div Devlin

EQ: Omens of War Expansion! Just in time for everyone finishing up the last expansion, Sony announces another expansion for EverQuest titled the "Omens of War." In it, expect to see new high-level Epic weapons while raising the player level cap to level 70. EverQuest players will also enjoy a new visual appearance thanks to the use of the new next-generation graphics engine. EverQuest: Omens of War is scheduled to be available at retail and for digital download from Sony Online Entertainment for $29.99 in July. Follow the text for an overview. Posted May 10 2004 by Div Devlin

Sega Does Matrix Online: Sega announced that they have inked a deal with Warner Bros. to co-publish "The Matrix Online. Sega of America, Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, today announced an agreement to co-publish The Matrix Online, the first massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) based on Warner Bros. Pictures' popular Matrix property. Under the terms of the worldwide exclusive deal, SEGA will manage distribution of The Matrix Online, while Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will oversee content development and manage the live game operations. Both companies will supervise ongoing game development and marketing activities for the game. The Matrix Online is expected to launch in November 2004. I think Warner Bros. may of wanted to announce that at E3, no? Would of made sense. Posted May 10 2004 by Div Devlin

Sigil Game News: Sigil Games Online, Inc. today announced that original "EverQuest" designer Ryan Palacio has accepted the position of Senior Game Designer to begin work immediately on the next generation massively multiplayer game "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes." He joins many of his former teammates already at Sigil, including Milo Cooper, Steve Clover, Mike Hutchins and Brad McQuaid. Also announced is that the company is using the "Unreal Engine" as one of several licensed technologies used in their flagship product for "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes." Posted May 10 2004 by Div Devlin

Preview: Saga of Ryzom! We got a chance to send in our uber seekrit group of elite beta testers to check out the upcoming MMO Game by developers Nevrax, makers of "Saga of Ryzom. Escaping with their covers blown, we bring to you our hands on impression in a preview of the game. A Tease: Most games that are released in today's market have pretty good graphics and all the strings attached. SoR is no different and I must say I am pretty impressed. The scenery is spectacular and a lot of time has been spent on small details. You even have fire flies around lanterns, which further enhances your immersion into the world of Atys. There are even seasonal changes which effect how things look and what resources can be found, and I'm sure I even saw a whole herd of "herbivore" creatures migrating as winter started approaching. At least they were there the one day, and gone the next. Check it here. Posted May 6 2004 by Div Devlin

David Allen Interview@Warcry: Warcry does an interview with David Allen, who recently announced that he is leaving the gaming industry and closed his studio Pharaoh Productions. (See May Archive) In the interview they write: In contrast, I asked David about the crop of games coming out in the online or otherwise platform markets. "The gameplay is all the same," said David, "and after a few weeks or months, you just get plain bored. The key ingredient that on-line game dev houses are missing is creating a design that specifically revolves around the interaction of paid professionals to run portions of the world in one form or another. This is why I created the Deity system in the original HORIZONS. The plan was to hire full-time employees who would go in and use the real-time tools to change the world and interact with the players as a part of the world; so you could be walking along and suddenly your deity appears out of thin air, a 20' tall glowing angel. The next thing you know he's giving you a quest to help save the emperor, and that you must gather your friends to complete the quest. THAT is where games need to be." "This is the key ingredient that makes all current MMOGs plain suck. Companies need to wake up and start putting money into player interaction. Paid people who do nothing but bring a new and innovative life to the on-line worlds through toolsets that allow everything from the creation of mobs to items to structures and even modify the weather or geology." Check it. Posted May 6 2004 by Div Devlin

MtG@E3 Wizards of the Coast is headed to E3Expo with some of the best players for "Magic: The Gathering" in which they will compete in a $500k championship. World's Best MAGIC: THE GATHERING Players Headed To E3 Expo for All-Star Tournament; Game's pro players show their stuff on MAGIC ONLINE May 05, 2004 The world's best MAGIC: THE GATHERING(R) players will gather at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles May 12-13 for the prestigious MAGIC Invitational. The invited players, with combined winnings of more than $500,000 playing in MAGIC tournaments, will duel on MAGIC(R) ONLINE(TM) terminals at the Wizards of the Coast booth (West Hall #2240). Show attendees are invited to watch the pros in action and pick up tips and strategies for their own MAGIC ONLINE game. The Invitational is the MAGIC all-star game, bringing together the very best MAGIC players in the world to compete and share their tips and strategies with more casual players. The Invitational winner will take home a unique, highly coveted prize: the opportunity to design a MAGIC card in his likeness. Wizards of the Coast will fly the sixteen invited players to Los Angeles for live competition May 12-13 during show hours. The 2004 MAGIC Invitational players will be traveling to E3 from across North America, South America, Europe and Asia. MAGIC ONLINE was first introduced at E3 2002 and since then has amassed one of the most active online gaming communities, with more than 150,000 registered players, constant events and close to 1 million matches held monthly. Casual games are available 24 hours a day. Players meet at virtual tables in a range of game rooms for every level of player. In the past year, enhanced tutorials and practice rooms have been added for new players. Got Cards? Posted May 6 2004 by Div Devlin

Mythic@E3: Mythic Entertainment has announced their official line-up for next week at the E3Expo. Imperator will be included! Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the critically-acclaimed massively multiplayer online game "Dark Age of Camelot," today announced their lineup for the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). "New Frontiers" and "Catacombs," two expansions for "Dark Age of Camelot," will be on public display and "Imperator," Mythic’s all-new Sci-Fi MMORPG will be unveiled for the first time behind closed doors. ... "Mythic’s 2004 E3 lineup demonstrates both our ongoing commitment to 'Dark Age of Camelot,' and our new development efforts with Imperator," said Mark Jacobs, president and CEO of Mythic Entertainment. "'New Frontiers' and 'Catacombs' improve the 'Dark Age of Camelot' experience with new content, expanded strategic opportunities and a revised combat system. We’re also looking forward to showing off 'Imperator,' our next-generation MMORPG which will be at the heart of a multi-genre development effort for the property." All titles that are capturing everyones attention! Posted May 6 2004 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Gift Giving: Players to Shadowbane got a nice suprise as they were given "Gifts of Apreciation" by Ubi for those who have been playing. There are four tiers of gifts that will appear throughout the worlds, and they each perform different transformations. The gift levels are determined by the amount of time a player has subscribed to the game. To use the gifts, open up your bank account, place the gift in your inventory. Once you activate or 'use' the gift it will turn into a ring. Once this ring is equipped, a new power will appear in your power window that will allow you to transform into something special. No sales are being shown on Ebay, yet. Posted May 6 2004 by Div Devlin

AutoAssault Website Live: NCSoft and NetDevil announce that their cyberpunk-cars wars game Auto Assault website has gone live! Auto Assault combines vehicular combat with role-playing elements. Players explore a post-apocalyptic future in customizable cars, motorcycles, semis and even tanks. Players battle other players both in arenas and in epic race vs. race wars for control of the regions in a devastated Earth. Auto Assault uses the power of the Havok physics engine to let you make insane jumps, send obstacles flying and even blast bridges, buildings, fences and trees with your car-mounted rockets. Anything you can hit, you can destroy! The new web site has multiple pages of facts, art and information about the game. Visitors can view screenshots and download other pieces of game and concept art, movies and desktop wallpaper images. There also are downloadable music samples from Auto Assault?s professionally composed soundtracks. And for those who want to know about the fiction behind Auto Assault's compelling story, there are special ongoing and updated Recon Reports with detailed information about Auto Assault's characters and universe. Smash! Now I can be a Road Warrior! Check it. Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Casters Realm & Stratics Merge: The rumor pans out. (See Archives for Monday News) The announcment released yesterday says that Casters Realm and Stratics have merged to become the largest Game Network to cover MMO Games. Stratics and Casters Realm, two of the founding pioneers of the Web-based content industry for Massively Multiplayer online games, announced today that they will be merging their two networks in order to create the world’s largest Massively Multiplayer destination on the Internet. The merged networks will trade under the newly formed corporation Stratics Media Group and be headquartered out of San Diego, California. All of the combined properties will be provided under the Stratics brand and domain. Casters Realm comes out as Top Dog. Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Community News: GameTable Online Adds New Game GameTable Online announced they have added a new game to their line-up of classics with "Seasons - The Calendar Rummy Game. Lineage II Review Deyth of the MMO guild "The Combine," does a review of Lineage II, worth a read. The Unwritten MMOWorlds does an interview with Brad Krieger of Remnant Entertainment. Useless Link Thanks to the folks over at KAAOS for the useless link. Oh No! Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

DAoC RvR Beta Begins Today: Mythic announces on the Camelot Herald that open Beta for the "New Frontiers" expansion to Dark Age of Camelot begins today on the Pendragon Server. With a few things to remember: Remember - you CANNOT play in the beta using the Classic client. You must at least be upgraded to Shrouded Isles. Go get them here: http://www.camelotherald.com/betadownload.php Please, please be patient. This will no doubt be a popular download, and we can't open the bandwidth pipe any wider than it is right now. Also, please note that the character copier (that moves characters to Pendragon) is a little slammed right now. If you just submitted the request, you may not be copied over when the open beta starts tomorrow. Again, please be patient - requests are honored in the order they were received. Check it. Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

E3 Insider: Not going to be able to attend the E3Expo next week. No worries as the official E3Insider opens it's virtual doors on Monday, May 10th! The site, now in its second year, delivers an all-access virtual tour of E3Expo that is uniquely available to the official event site. E3Insider will not only provide the most comprehensive coverage available of the trade-only show, but for the first time ever will offer raw and unedited "fan cam" footage unavailable anywhere else. Through the "fan cam," consumers will be able to see the show through the eyes of a gamer who will have unlimited access to the games and products, exhibit floor, backstage and other restricted areas at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC), where the show will be held. Check out the E3Insider. Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Sign Up For Matrix Beta: Warner Brother's has announced they are now accepting applications for Beta Testers to sign up for The Matrix Online. Even though you can not be the one, you can still make a difference, which pill will you take, the red or the blue? Sign Up. Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Mutable Realms Licenses Wish: Mutable Realms announced that they have inked a deal in which they have Licensed their game engine in devlopment for "WISH," their Ultra Massively Multiplayer Online Game. Sui Tang Online is based on a well-known story from Chinese history in which the oppressed subjects of the Sui Emperor revolt to bring about the Tang Dynasty. The story of the game and its characters are licensed from the very popular TV animation series "Sui Tang Ying Xiong Zhuan", created, produced and published by Shanghai Animation Film Studios. Under the agreement, Mutable Realms supplies the game engine that powers Wish's ultra-massive online world, and Shanghai Cartoon develops all artwork and content for the game. Shanghai Cartoon will also distribute and operate Sui Tang Online in Mainland China. Pre-planning? Posted May 5 2004 by Div Devlin

Anarchy Online Spring Campaign: Funcom announces that they have a Spring Campaign running for Anarchy Online. New players can now download and buy the Classic Edition of Anarchy Online for just 4.95 USD/EUR. It includes an updated version of Anarchy Online as well as 30 days of game time. In addition to this great offer for new players, Funcom is inviting hundreds of thousands of previous players to revive existing characters during the campaign period at only 4.95 USD/EUR (regular price 14.95) for a 30 day period. The offer to previous players is open to everyone who ended the game in good standing before 1st January 2004. The offer expires on the 1st of June 2004, 12:00 CET, midday European time. If you have never played Anarchy Online, try it. You may like it. In addition to the Spring Campign announcement is the news that Funcom secured €4.5 million equity investment from a consortium of Northzone Ventures (€3.5 million) and existing investors Teknoinvest and Stelt Holding. The investment enables Funcom to further increase the scope and quality of their future Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG), while expanding Funcom's sales and marketing capabilities globally. Funcom is now developing three MMOGs, one of them being the successful Anarchy Online which is the subject of ongoing development. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

As The Market Turns: Auto Assault Licenses SpeedTreeRT tree-sim technology On the announcment that NCSoft and NetDevil will show "Auto Assault" at the E3Expo next week, is the announcment that the game will use the SpeedTreeRT tree-sim technology for their post-apocalyptic online racer. Car Wars MMO here we come! Founder of Bungie Announces New Company Alexander Seropian, a games industry veteran and the founder of Bungie Studios (the award-winning game developer behind Halo, Myth and Marathon) announced his new company, Wideload Games. This new studio dedicated to making hit video and computer games by injecting a unique blend of their visionary development model, creative gameplay and oddball humor into the computer and video games industry. Game Publisher O~3 Entertainment Launches Former Capcom USA Executives Open Unique Business to Bridge Gap between Development and Retail. Industry veteran Bill Gardner revealed the formation of his new publishing and distribution company, O~3 Entertainment. The company intends to bring high caliber independently developed games to a variety of gaming platforms, including PC, Playstation2, Xbox, GameCube and WiFi/mobile through a unique game publishing model. Midnight Syndicate Score Hollywood Horror Film These guys rock. They have been doing RPG Theme Music for several years, took off with Halloween Music which really set's the mood on Fright Day, and now comes the announcement they [Midnight Syndicate, Duh!] have scored a deal with Warner Brothers-based Snapkick Productions, Inc. to compose the music for the upcoming feature film, SIN-JIN SMYTH - a story about two federal marshals transporting a prisoner who turns out to be the devil. This films looks like it will rock on the premise alone. MMO Sites Merge The big rumor going around is that an announcment tommorrow will tell us two major networks devoted to covering MMO games are going to merge. While nothing official, some speculate that it has something to do with casters and strategy. You figure out the riddle. If you get it, you win a random prize. REALLY! Publisher Playlogic Strengthens its Team The fast growing, platform-independent games publisher and developer Playlogic International reinforced its International Team with three new members. Hans José, Eric Bartelson and Tessa Bouw will be responsible for respectively; Marketing, Content Development and Communications & PR. A welcome to all of them that joined the team. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

David Allen Throws In Towel: David Allen, the original designer for Horizons, who founded his new studio Pharaoh Productions, has tossed in the towel for gaming. From the company site: After a decade of involvement with the gaming industry, I've decided that it's time to move on to something else and shut Pharaoh down. The DEMISE forums will stay up, and Jason will continue to work on future DEMISE patches. This personal decision was made due to a multitude of reasons. Some of which are related to events that have taken place in the past that the public is very aware of, as well as events that the public is not aware of. I thoroughly enjoyed creating MORDOR, DEMISE, the original HORIZONS, and the DOMINION/UNIVERSE design and prototypes. Unfortunately, I have not enjoyed the direction that the industry has taken. My passion is gone; and it has been for quite some time. As I witness the recent games that have come out, and are currently being released, it has quickly become apparent to me that the industry has lost its way; gone is innovation and vision - and to make matters worse, I do not see resolution to the current problems anytime soon. I've been a gamer all of my life, and the amount of copycat boring products that are being released seems to compound every year. This is not what the gaming industry is about. It was founded on the basis of creativity and innovation paired with technical expertise and problem solving; always pushing the envelope with every new product. That was the industry I fell in love with and dedicated a portion of my life to. And now, that industry no longer exists. I have chosen to take an opportunity to work with some great people in a completely unrelated industry. This has generated a massive sense of relief; a sure sign that my decision is the right one. Perhaps in the future when I gain financial independence I will reconsider creating a company to 'do things right', but that won't be for a number of years at least. The Pharaoh Email accounts will still be active, so if you need to get a hold of me for any reason, don't hesitate to use davida@pharaoh-productions.com. To all of you who have supported me, my products, and my companies, I extend sincere thanks and wish you the best. -- David Allen Best of luck David, we know your pain from following your topsy-turvey ride for many years. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Launch Recap: NcSoft and Cryptic Studios launched City of Heroes (and Lineage II below) flawlessly. Be sure to read our review later this week. What suprised everyone was the announcment that Cryptic was already hard at work on an expansion titled "City of Villians" which will be showcased at E3, and allow for PvP combat. The wording of the announcement (see E3 Round-Up below) left some questioning if this expansion would actually allow Player vs. Player Combat, in which Executive Producer Jeremy "Gaffer" Gaffney announced: I'm travelling right now, so no time for a big update, but just as a quickie from a glance at the boards - City of Villains will have PvP but it will NOT force PvP on everyone as a free-for-all. If you want to be a hero who never once sees a player villain, that's perfectly possible. Jack will probably have some more details later. For other details, ya gotta wait for E3 I for one can picture the additions into this expansion aside from villians. Capes, Wings, Pets, Vehicles (Motorcycles, Cars, Vans, Planes) as well as more character powers. One of the titles were looking forward to seeing at E3Expo. The biggest debate which raged during the flawless launch was that within game, the United States Flag atop one of the major buildings within game was not illuminated at night. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Compressed Gaming Report: Ballerium Screenshots Ballerium the MMO-RTS game in development by Majorem that's currently in Beta and still accepting testers has published two new screenshots on their site which appeared Sunday. Check em. Faith... er, FaiTh... no, FaitH! FaitH launches Image Pack and Round 8! The FaitH Image Pack allows players to locally store all the graphics in the commercial web based game, eliminating the load time for all the pictures in the game. Along with the Image Pack, Dragon Claw Studio is pleased to announce that Era 8 has begun on the RPG server. Players can now play both the RPG and the Battle Server for free, using only one of the seven religion options and only one of the five class options. Guild Wars Demo The E3Expo demo for Guild Wars has become available over on the main site. Several mirrors are also available, and you can set up your account to play, now for the May 12th open. Have at it! Massive Assualt Goes to Asia Schanz & Wargaming.net unite forces to bring Massive Assault to Asia. Massive Assault is the 3d Wargame based on the original Secret Allies concept, where two rival sides strugle for domination in a sci-fi setting. Pirates of the Burning Sea Gamebunny took off for the weekend and left us with an interview in which they talk with Flying Labs’ Russell Williams. Be sure to check out the two new Devlog's which also went up. One from Rev talking about his design work and the other from Misha talks about the highs and lows of game testing. Soldner: Secret Wars Demo Available Encore announced that a patch for the Soldner: Secret Wars beta demo is now available. The patch (approx. 12MB), stabilizes server performance as well as fixing all known crash issues on the server and client sides. To learn more check out www.secretwars.net. Yahoo! Puzzle Pirates Hits 5k Three Rings, developer and operator of Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates, the massively multi-player game of Puzzles and Piracy for the casual gamer, announced a number of milestones for their hit online game including hitting over 5,000 paying subscribers signing up for the game, Three Rings has signed partnerships with Gamigo AG in Germany and Pulse Asia in Greater China. Gamigo and Pulse will localize Puzzle Pirates, operate the game servers and market the game in their respective territories. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Darkfall World Journal #2: Darkfall Online gives us a new World Journal in their Episode 2. In it, the journal takes us to visit a minotaur ruin on Cairn. What makes this interesting over-all is not only the great background info, but this episode was chosen by the players to decide after a poll. Anyway, read it. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

E3Expo MMO Lineup: Another year, and another E3Expo! This year has a huge line-up for MMO games, and we have folks on their way down next week to check out all the MMO goodness. Besides the Booth Babes, Console Games, Stars, and Gear, a huge showing of MMO games will also be showcasing their way to victory. We've compiled a listing of the MMO Games we currently know of, that we wiill be checking out. And, if there is anything you want us to cover in detail, be sure to let us know! And, yes, we will bring you as many pictures of booth babes we can get. We figure 80 should do it, no? Last year we had 26 major MMO Games to check out, this year the list changes. Check below for the MMO Game Line-up, that we know of. Full Story Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Eve Online Hits 10k: The big news from CCP is that last week thry broke the online record and have become the first mmo game to hit over 10k in users online to a single server within Eve Online.This evening at 20:10, 10.396 played EVE Online at the same time. This is the fifteenth time this year that EVE Online breaks what is probably a world record for highest number of players together, at the same time, in the same persistent 3D world.Following that is the announcment of a new chronicle added, "Tides of Change" worth a read, which tells of storyline events taking place within game. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

EverQuest II Beta Date: Sony sends the official announcement that beta for EverQuest II has an official sign-up date, set to start beginning May 3rd, of this year! EverQuest II beta testing begins in June! We'll start accepting applications on May 3, 2004 beginning at 10 AM PDT. Be sure to check out our Beta page on May 3rd for an active link to get your application. Get ready, it is coming. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Final Fantasy XI Expansion: PlayOnline announced their expansion titled "Chains of Promathia" for Final Fantasy XI. The next installment in the ever-expanding world of FINAL FANTASY XI is almost here. This fall, experience Vana'diel as it evolves in ways never before imagined. Kinda barren with a small intro for a new continent and an underground city. Check It. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

GenCon '04 GenCon '04 in Indy is begining to heat up, with the announcement of their Guests of Honor who will be making their appearences at the show. All star line-up from Classic Sci-Fi including: ... David Carradine from TV¹s "Kung Fu" and the recent hit movie "Kill Bill" ... Gil Gerard and Erin Gray from TV¹s "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" ... Marc Singer and Tanya Roberts from the movie "Beastmaster" ... Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict and Herbert Jefferson, Jr., from TV's "Battlestar Galactica" ... Linda Blair from the movie "The Exorcist" This is one show you don't want to miss! Attendees must purchase badges to gain entrance to the show. Badge pre-registration runs from February 16 to July 12, 2004, noon PST. A four-day badge is $60 with pre-registration, or $70 on site. A one-day badge is $23 with pre-registration, or $27 on site. Children 8 and under are free with an accompanying adult. Register, and we will see you there! Some guilds are already planning to have their gatherings at GenCon also, a great place to gather! Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Horizons Consigner Changes: Artifact announced they are working on changes for the consigment system in Horizons. Currently, the maximum number of items able to be placed on a single consigner by a player account is five. This was a value introduced during beta to prevent item dumping, and the use of a consigner as a vault replacement -- but was never really intended to be made permanent. Unfortunately, other issues took forefront and the number wasn't brought seriously up for review until recently. There are a few issues with the current limit of five. First, since the introduction of teleport fees, multiple-town shopping is no longer completely free. This isn't so much an issue for the seller, as they can set their prices with this in mind if they wish, but for the buyer can be a source of great frustration, particularly since five isn't even high enough to allow the listing of a full set of armor. Check the full update. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Lineage II Round-Up: Following the launch of Lineage II, winners were announced for their contests during open beta in which random winners in the leveling contest were award an ATI Vid card and an LCD Monitor and top guilds were tossed gift certificates. But, what of the AlienWare PC's? Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Middle-Earth Online New Land: Middle-Earth Online introduces a new land to their world secttion. Now you can learn about the area of Ered Luin! When the great dragon Smaug laid waste to the Kingdom under the Mountain, the Dwarves who survived fled to the Blue Mountains west of the Shire. They founded a lesser kingdom in the mountains called the Ered Luin, building new halls, trading with the folk of Eriador, and even teaching building crafts to the Hobbits. Check out the teaser Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

PE Adds Bank Access Security: MindArk PE AB, the leading online entertainment company, behind the popular Internet 3-D virtual universe "Project Entropia," has added bank level access security to Project Entropia. To further improve the already high security level of Project Entropia an access system up till now only utilized by online banks has been implemented into the virtual universe. This has been achieved through collaboration with Todos AB, a Swedish company specialized in online security systems for banks. The participants will be offered a smart card based membership-card and a portable reader, through which the participant will be able to generate One Time Passwords as a complement to today’s static password. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Mourning Screenies! With the website still under construction for a fresh new look, the folks from Mourning sent word that they have Eleven New Screenshots on the message boards for viewing. Sweet! Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Ultima Online Events: EA announces game events for the month of May with Ultima Online: The FYI pages has April, it must not of had a good start, so they blasyed May to everyone via e-mail. Also, they have reopened the Counselor Halls across all the Shards in Skara Brae: For the past two weeks, Sannio of the Ultima Online Community Relations team and a random assortment of players have been re-decorating fifteen of the Skara Brae Counselor's Guild halls. On the American, European, and Australian shards, you can now find these full-fledged Community Centers, and already these once-empty building have become hubs of social activity! It's about time! Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online News: Warhammer Online is holding a contest! Making available their official fan-site kit, they have also launched a competition with the best fan site each month receiving a very special prize pack of signed Warhammer Online artwork, merchandise and new game materials for upload onto their sites. The best fan site each month will also feature on the Warhammer Online Town Cryer newsletter. The fan site kit contains all the materials, banners, screenshots, logos that you need to launch your very own dedicated Warhammer Online fan site! Want to see what the game is all about? Ophelea (Once of Warcry and now at Casters Realm) checked the game out at the recent Gamesday LA and has her preview up for reading. In related Warhammer Universe news, THQ has announced that they are going to aquire Relic Entertainment, who is developing "Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War." Scheduled to release in fall 2004, "Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War" was named to PC Gamer's Top 10 highly anticipated titles of 2004. Don't worry, Climax is developing Warhammer Online before you read to far into this announcment. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin

WoW News Recap: First up is that Blizzard is once again hiring Community Managers for World of Warcraft. They are looking for folks who speak English, French and German. You can check it out full listing on their employment page. WoW:Warcry has their preview from within game. Posted May 3 2004 by Div Devlin