New ESRB Ratings: The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) announced advances to the computer and video game rating system designed to provide parents and other consumers with a new and unprecedented level of detail about game content. The changes include the addition of four new ESRB content descriptors -- short, standardized phrases printed on the back of game boxes that alert consumers to content elements that may be of interest or concern -- and new, bolder labels intended to draw consumer attention to those content descriptors. The rating system changes were developed in consultation with experts from both inside and outside the interactive entertainment software industry, including child development experts and family advocates. This is a pretty long read, that you should be aware of. Full Story Posted June 30 2003 by Div Devlin

Community News: Talk to Epic's Tim Sweeney, Steve Polge and more... John the sponsors of the "NVIDIA $1,000,000 Make Something Unreal" contest to discuss and ask questions about the contest with one of the largest overall prize purses in the video game industry. This contest rewards and publicly recognizes talented individuals from around the world who can create the ultimate game and entertainment mods based on the best-selling Unreal Tournament 2003 and upcoming Unreal Tournament 2004. Taking part in the chat will be Mark Rein (Epic Games), Tim Sweeney (Epic Games), Steve Polge (Epic Games), Geoff Foulds (Alias/Wavefront), Jason Busby (creator of the Mastering Unreal web site www.masteringunreal.com), Kyle Peschel (moderator -- Atari Games), plus, representatives from the other sponsors (Digital Extremes, AMD, NVIDIA, etc...). It takes place today at 2pm PST on "irc.enterthegame.com" in "#ut2003." The World Technology Network (WTN) announced that John Faltys (President) and Kevin Hannah (Chief Marketing Officer), from PersistentWorldZ, have been selected as nominees in the Entertainment category of this year's World Technology Awards, being held in association with Nasdaq, Accenture, Microsoft, Genencor International, Dupont Textiles and Interiors, TIME magazine, Technology Review magazine, Science magazine, and Business 2.0 magazine. A huge congrats to them! WarCry.com has posted a review of Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide by Jessica Mulligan and Bridgette Petrovsky. An interesting read in that its premise is based in the idea that a Persistent World is not a game, but a service. As any of us who have "lived" in a persistent world, this is a refreshing assessment. I've had the book since release and it's jam packed with information. I've yet to finish it to offer my final thoughts on it, but I will say from what I've read it's a must have that should be on the desk of every developer and publisher in the industry. When Sites Collide: Over on Waterthread is a huge catfight brewing when the gals from GamerGirls.com got a little miffed about Megans rant on grrl gamers. Hilarity ensues as Waterthread reiterates they don't hate anyone specific, be it race, color or gender. They just hate everyone! They also like boobies! Posted June 30 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC Server Shutdown: Following the announcement of the Asheron's Call 2 PvP server shutting down last week, we got word that Dark Age of Camelot also announced they are retiring the Andred PvP server and will be offering a merger for those players that call that server home into Mordred. The whole plan of action is to be announced at a later date. The announcement answered questions as to why players on Andred did not have Foundations available to them. Thanks Craig for telling us about this! Posted June 30 2003 by Div Devlin

Lineage Doing High Level Content! NCSoft sent an announcment out that they are presenting some awesome high level quests, that are the highest ever in game to date. This week, Lineage presents a chance for players to try out their skills in the highest level quest ever offered in the game. For the first time, players can test their mettle in a quest that takes them on an adventure, culminating in a battle against the evil creature Varlok, who threatens to bring the world to ruin. Varlok’s Quest can only be accomplished in a group that includes characters from each of the game’s four classes, and each player in the party must be at least level 50. This difficult trial requires a group effort, individual skill and a creative strategy in order to conquer Varlok. It is by far the most complex quest in the game. The payoff is a unique item that is class specific: a Death Blade for Knights, a Bow of Flames or Sword of Flames for Elves, a Gold Scepter for Princes and Princesses and a Mana Crystal Ball for Mages. NCsoft is introducing other features to Lineage this week including the crafting of fruit juices that rejuvenate a player’s health and new wedding rings, which will expand play options for couples in the game. Also on the table, NCsoft will soon be launching a new series of episodes to the world’s most popular online computer game series. Look for details on that soon. It's about time! Posted June 30 2003 by Div Devlin

SWG Launch Day Impressions: The eagerly awaited, highly anticpated MMO game, Star Wars Galaxies officially launched Thursday, and it was not all peachy keen as many a fanbois would of had you beleive. Numerous problems exist in the game, with rollbacks as they fix issues. Great time sinks! If you log out or go link dead, ferget about yer tool bars. It's the little things that piss people off. The boards are slower than molasses to load also. The biggest problems though were trying to create an account. Here's our impression of that. Meanwhile Mort over at Pker.org has his overall impression of the game up. Meanwhile, something we doubt Sony anticpated was the huge dropoff of EverQuest players that seem to of vanshied from their servers. Wonder where all those people are? Well, while I was at my local GameStop this gal came in and bought four copies of the regaular game, and one copy of the gold edition. I had to ask, and sure enough, it was for her and he family who had all played EQ together. They are huge Star Wars fans. Dicuss: And were just getting started! Wheeee! Posted June 30 2003 by Div Devlin

Star Wars Galaxies Lives! With copies expected to be selling in stores in just a couple hours for those who did not pre-order, Star Wars Galaxies goes live today. To start the commercial release of the game the official website has a new look, a welcome letter from Rich Vogel, a teaser intro for the first months story arc titled "The Cries of Alderaan" starting in July, and a development letter letting everyone know that vehicles, mounts and player cities are on the drawing boards. Posted June 26 2003 by Div Devlin

AC2 Server Shutting Down: Heres something else we missed last week. Asheron's Call 2 announced last Friday in a developer letter from Ken Karl that the Kingdom vs. Kingdom server of Snowreap will be shutting down and rolling into Coldeve sometime between the June and July episodes. This is pretty much a first for MMO gaming in which a server has been shutdown due to a lack of players. While AC2 in the past has said they fully plan to support PvP in their Kingdom vs. Kingdom environment most games add servers. Posted June 26 2003 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Contest: City of Heroes is holding a contest for all you talented writers out there who want to create your own superhero/heroine that will be seen in game as an NPC. In the history of Paragon City, eight heroes survived the ravages of the Rikti War and dedicated themselves to training the next generation of heroes. These surviving eight, play a major role in the story of the city by acting as NPC contacts within the game world. Now fans will get the chance to create one of these eight heroes and describe how they’ll fit within the City of Heroes fiction. The winner’s character will be a permanent fixture in the game. Contestants will have three weeks to design their characters and submit them to NCsoft for judging. The winner and his/her character will be announced shortly after the contest closes. Ya know, City of Heroes will be released in coming months and they are not going to be at GenCon or at the upcoming WizardCon which is a real shame. This would be ideal places to showcase the game to hungry gamers. Anyhoot, go check out the contest. Posted June 26 2003 by Div Devlin

EQ Mac Live: Mac O/S gamers can finally become addicts to EverQuest as Sony announces that the retail version of the game has officially been ported and is available in stores nationwide! From the Press Release: Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE), a worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online gaming, announced today that EverQuest® Macintosh Edition is now available at retail stores nationwide. Now over 25 million Apple Macintosh users everywhere can now experience the leading massively multiplayer online role-playing game on systems running Mac OS X 10.2.5. EverQuest Macintosh Edition carries a suggested retail price of $49.99. So, go see what you have been missing! Posted June 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Final Fantasy Online Beta: Final Fantasy Online is still looking for beta testers for the windows version for the game. To apply they have links to eight different sites in which you can apply or win a chance to get into beta. Posted June 26 2003 by Div Devlin

Jumpgate Re-Evaluation Program: Jumpgate the space MMOG by NetDevil has announced a re-evaluation program, during the next 10 days, from Wednesday the 25th, to Friday the 4th of July, All inactive player accounts will be reactivated, and will be able to play Jumpgate free of charge. With these 10 days we hope that pilots who've been resting will take the opportunity to discover all the great changes and improvements that have been made in Jumpgate. There will be much more to learn and discover about Jumpgate in the future, and we hope you'll all be there to experience it together. Ok? Posted June 26 2003 by Div Devlin

City of Heroes Organizations Update! Somewhere in the world it's always midnight – and on the City of Heroes website, midnight is right now! CoH introduce's the last in the group of four primary hero organizations: the informal, mystical Midnight Squad – where magic and the occult fuel heroic efforts against the forces of evil. Check it. Posted June 24 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC: Foundations Now Live! The much anticipated new expansion for Mythic Entertainment's award-winning game, Dark Age of Camelot: Foundations has been released! Foundations adds player and guild housing, along with many other new features to the game, and is available as a free download to players. From the Press Release: Foundations brings customizable real estate to Mythic's online world by enabling players and guilds to pick the neighborhood they want to live in, choose the perfect lot, and then select a house style that fits their taste - and budget. They then can decorate, and redecorate, the house's interior and exterior. In a first for housing systems in online games, the outside garden and yard of houses can be decorated by the player. Hundreds of objects are being made available for decoration, including hedges, flower gardens and stone walls for the garden; and pictures, torches, stuffed animals and furniture for the interior and even more options will be made available through future expansions. This rocks! I know many a person reactivating their accounts or heading back into the game after checking out some of the other titles released the last few months. Posted June 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Horizons Dev Diary: Sean Carnes, game designer at Artifact Entertainment, sent a dev diary about the process of creating alchemy in Horizons over to fansite Horizons.Warcry! You'd never think tree bark, sap and glass-blowing when you think alchemy?! But, wow, this is amazing. You can read the entire article here. Warcry also sends a HUGE thank you to Sean for taking time out of his day to keep the players informed! Posted June 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Ragnarok Online Hacked: Not sure how we missed this one, but GameSpot is running the story that Ragnarok Online, the MMO game by Gravity Corp. was hacked last week. On the 20th the hacker gained access to the servers and leaked private user information to the public. The following day, a full list of user names and passwords were released to the general public. The list, which apparently had no encryption to begin with, included the login data of all users beginning with the beta test preregistration in April, allowing anybody to gain access to any user account. Gravity Corp clammed up and has not commented officially on if any other private information, such as credit card numbers, was leaked in the attack. English site versions of both Ragnarok Online and Gravity Corp. are down. Posted June 24 2003 by Div Devlin

Second Life Goes Live: Beta for the MMO game Second Life by Linden Labs has ended. If you have not signed up yet for commercial release and want to keep all your beta goodies then you need to do so, now! From the mail: we've extended your deadline to get the special Beta pricing discounts by one week! If you purchase a membership by next Monday, June 30, you will get the Beta charter discounts. Plus, if you convert by June 30th, your in-world objects and land will still be there when you log in, as well as all the items in your inventory. Pricing varies. (Thanks Vash!) Posted June 24 2003 by Div Devlin

AC2 Hints to an AC1 Expansion? The remaining fans in the Asheron's Call 2 community are in a mix, when it comes to questions regarding the upgrades they were promised and have been waiting for since the release of the game. Jessica Mulligan and an assorted cast from Turbine enter the fray saying everything is still on track and alludes to an expansion pack for the original AC. As Jessica replies to Lilly: It seems that quite a few from AC2 have returned to AC1 lately so will AC1 have another expansion pack or will there ever be an AC1.5 or AC3 (AC1 game with AC2 graphics) to keep players in the AC franchise? Under serious consideration, but no details at this time. More as it happens. Don't let me unnecessarily raise expactations here; there is no promise on this one. Eh? Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: J.K. Rowlings newest book in the Harry Potter series titled "The Order of the Phoenix" unleashed itself Friday night to record sales as campers awaited the midnight hour for their preorders. 8 Million copies were released and already sold out in select N. American locations. Sales on Ebay skyrocketed Saturday afternoon with copies going as high as fifty bucks. No new shipments are expected in until this Firday. If you are sitting at work right now, searching for a copy to give to your kid (we really know it's for you) there are still some deals on Ebay. Hey, we have an extra copy, just buy ours. Speaking of J.K. Rowlings about a year back we had reported on a story over in Russia where the Harry Potter books are banned (due to religous undertones and whatnot). To compensate, a Russian author penned the adventures of Tonya Grotter. After release of the novels, the camp for Harry Potter filed an international lawsuit to have them cease and desist, with a payment for infringement. Well, that finally made it's way to court and Harry Potter won, Tonya Grotter is no more. Russians everywhere buried their sorrow in a bottle of vodka. On the subject of lawsuits, Marvel sure is losing a lot of fans in the MMO market. They recently shut down a skinning site which was sharing player created fan skins. In the article itself it makes mention that Marvel Super Heroes Online is due out in 2005 and is being published by Vivendi/Universal. It was earlier reported that Sony Online Entertainment was going to publish the game. No word yet on who the developer is, other than it is progressing slowly. Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

Community News Bits: Scott "Unknown Player" Miller hosted his first live radio show on Friday with special guests David Bowman and Steve Snow from Horizons over on UnknownPlayer.com I have to admit it was a pretty good show. One of the best parts is that you can ask your question direct to the guests by calling in. This week's guest will be Makr Jacobs from Mythic Entertainment. Check it. Arcadian Del Sol wants to know why the hell we bother Beta Testing and follow an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) when games pay no attention to what the beta testers say, and release unfinished products not ready for prime time in this classic style rant titled "non-disclosure disagreement: why are we still beta testing games?" clubbing the industry as a whole. GameBunny.com returns after a six month hiatus to the Massively Multiplayer fray – reporting daily on the tribulations and various goings on in the world of MMOs. When I see the name bunny, I associate it with grrls. Where be the game bunnies! Welcome back guys, hope ya'll are well rested. Be sure to check them out. Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires News Bits: Dragon Empires latest newsletter made it's way out last week with rather disheartening news to the masses. According to the producer Ted "Hatman" Carron, beta is not going to start as planned. I am sure you are all eager to hear news of the beta and while I can give you some news unfortunately it won't be the news a lot of you want. Due to some delays beta will not now start till the end of July/start of August. The reason for this delay is as usual that everything about an MMORPG is harder than you think at first. I think that should go as a new quote! It's ok, take your time as long as you do it right! In other DE news, Beginnings Parts 3 and 4 have been posted, Lead Designer Mark Zechiel talks about immersion in an RPG Vault round table. A full dev diary by Principal Artist Jolyon Webb of the motion capture session is available. Just RPG have posted a E3 Dragon Empires preview, and Lead Artist, Adam Parsons, has been interviewed on Talrias.net. Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

EverQuest's Champions of Norrath: "Dewd Where Is My Guild?" EverQuest has another game coming out, this time for the PlayStation 2 titled "Champions of Norrath," taking the same name as the well known guild from Bristelbane. The guild has a new website. Wonder if any cash changed hands there? Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

Horizons Website Redone: The official site for Horizons had an extreme makeover giving the site a new redesign as well as some new screenshots. While people are bragging about how cool the site looks, I just keep seeing it as a clone of the World of Warcraft site. The similarites are striking in resemblance no? Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

Movie Bits: The Matrix: Reloaded was banned in Egypt. The Egyptian Government cited religous and ecessive violent undertones. In actuality the movie sucked so bad, they did not want to put their people through the dissapointment of watching it. In other Movie News, one of our favorites the Exorcist is having a grand ol' time in the courts. William Peter Blatty who wrote the novel and screenplay along with director William Friedkin claim that Warner Bros. breached it's contract with them for a newer version of the movie. The lawsuit filed alleges that the studio didn't make them enough money! Eh? Making money, The Hulk opened and rocked the house over the weekend, while I did not get out to see it, everyone tells me it smashed! "Hulk Smash Box Office." Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane, Why they Quit? This weekend alone, I have had messages sent from several different people as well as a number of e-Mails sent in on people I've known for years all repeating the running mantra within Shadowbane saying, "I Quit." Even with Yitzhak's latest update they don't care. Especially when it comes to this part: We are currently researching all the specific instances of gold and item dupe exploits in the server logs. When our research is complete, we will be strictly enforcing the Shadowbane Terms of Use and the ubi.com Code of Conduct. What it boils down to is, that the game economy is so FUBAR that no one is interested anymore. Shade Sun, one member of the gaming community whom I've not spoken with in two years gave me a call, and we rehashed all Shadowbane could of been for two hours talking about the problems that should never of happened. He quit too. Another player sent in the following E-Mail in which he quit, everyone he knows quit, and the folks he does not even know which are in his guild are quitting or have quit. It's a good rage filled read detailing his adventures in game, applying for a job with Ubi Soft and meeting the folks from Wolfpack at GDC. Full Story Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

No NDA For SWG: What They Say... With the release of the NDA for Star Wars Galaxies: Empire Divided, jaded and cynical gamers everywhere are shouting why SWG is not ready and the problems that are in game. If your one who is tired of the PR support for whats good with the game, and want to know whats wrong with the game, check out this discussion over on Waterthread and this indepth post over on the old Quarter To Three boards. Darkmoor Dragon gets an exclusive Insider look at the development process for SWG with the 18 steps to create the game on Four Below Zero. Yes, it's being sarcastic! You could always just watch this exclusive movie on SWG Vault and be sucked right in. You won't see our beta review on the game, as we were never invited to Beta. Matter of Fact, we were taken off the newsletter lists even though we were approved like in early 2002. You probably won't see a review from us either on launch until the space expansion comes out. I trust the [SWG] devs more then the 'Beta Testers.' - Jagangi Quote of the Day! Posted June 23 2003 by Div Devlin

VGPA APPLAUDES IDSA's LAWSUIT: The Video Game Players Association (www.vgpa.com) announced its support of the Interactive Digital Software Association's (IDSA) decision to challenge the recently enacted Washington state statute seeking to ban the sale to minors of certain video games. According to the new law, Washington State HB1009, any retail outlet caught selling a video game that depicts violence against law-enforcement officials to anyone under the age of 17 will be fined $500. "The law in Washington State was too vague," said Sean Underwood, president of the VGPA. "Although its intent may have been good, the law's broad language makes it impossible for developers and publishers to know which scenes or depictions will violate it, and for retailers to know what games they can and cannot sell." The IDSA filed the lawsuit along with co-plaintiffs the Washington Retail Association, the Video Dealers Association, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association, the International Game Developers Association, and Hollywood Video. In addition to pointing out that the recent legislation offers no definition of the term "public law-enforcement officers" to which it refers, the lawsuit argues that the Washington statute is a content-based restriction on the dissemination of fully protected expression. "Although we agree with the state's objective to restrict the ability of children to purchase games that might not be appropriate for them, our mission is to protect a gamer's constitutional rights," said Underwood. "The VGPA agrees with the IDSA's assertion that a combination of voluntary enforcement at retail and consumer education about video game ratings are needed." Early last week, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that video games are a constitutionally protected form of expression with the same First Amendment status as art, books, film, and music. Posted June 19 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC Player Walks Across America: In case you have not been keeping up, one of the original stupid guys from "You Guys Are Stupid," has caught up with the trio who left Chicago on foot and are walking across the United States to California. Jason the newest guy to hook had a hard day, and want's his Speed Song spell back from DAoC. Yewp, he's a Dark Age of Camelot player, and he is in need of love! Most of the folks following the stupid guys have been pretty harsh on him, and have not been supporting him, so if you are a DAoC player, any other MMO gamer, Go give him your support and become his 'fans!' Man, I wish I could do what they are doing. Rock on guys! Posted June 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Bits: Updates from Dragon Empires begins with Part 4 of the 'Beginnings' story being posted, then there is an interview with Peter Tyson up on Digital Girl, and finally Mark Zechiel speaks out at an IGN RPG Vault Round Table. All great reads. Posted June 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Bits: Ok, so I noticed I've been a bit negligent in Shadowbane coverage and everyone's been dieing to know whats going on. SO... They instituted a refer a freind program, which I actually find depressing. I invited like 100 players to play Shadowbane, they all quit. That huge patch that everyone was waiting for, well they finally patched. The patch was broken they had to do revert and a hot-fix, like three times. Afterwards, I hear the game has been pretty smooth. I'm also hearing doubts that it will last long. A huge complaint of many people was having the log in names for the boards tied to the account names. They added the option to create alias' to the boards now for those who have accounts. Remember the hacking incident? Well it's one of the greatest events to ever go down in a game, even though is was by players who ended up getting banned, Ubi spin's it into a tale as one of the heralds that fell victim adds it to the journals on Shadowbane's Chronicle site. It ends up actually being a good read. For those of ya playing, we got word from Zhelavar that he is putting together a TimeLine of Events for the Treachery Server that will be available to all players. He needs help: The address is http://www.osmethne.org/timeline. I'm asking those of you of the Treachery server to send in information that would be pertienent to the timeline. - city founded/destroyed - announcement made by guilds/leaders - banes/sieges/attacks - alliances made/broken A lot happens on the server and it would be a shame to leave it unrecorded! Please email Zhelavar@Osmethne.org with the date and info that you would like added. Good luck dewd, that sounds like a duanting task. How come I know the domain name Osmethne.org? Posted June 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Ultima Online Bits: Tons of stuff in the Ultima Online camp. Are the days numbered? A recent reorg phased out the content team, in which Ignatz and Gromm are no longer with the company, as well as other changes with folks shifting roles according to Sunsword. DraconisRex on GM Support posted his tale as part of the UO Live Team. In concept is working on a way to remove all those pesky plants that block movement, and finally they are also working on a way to improve the Bulk Order Deed system, by creating Bulk Order Books! Posted June 19 2003 by Div Devlin

Buy Into Beta For Ballerium: I've been following Ballerium for some time. Even though they think they are going to be the first MMO/RTS, which they are not, it's been shaping up to be a decent game. But, when you start canvassing folks in a poll to pre-purchase the game when it's still in an alpha state does not bode well. They do offer some incentives though. Go cast your vote while expressing your thoughts. Prepurchase does not place you in beta. Posted June 18 2003 by Div Devlin

Things in the Real World: Sometimes the real world can be more enjoyable, due to the humor. Peter Francis Geraci, the guy who does all those bankruptcy infomercials where he tries to get you to order his info tapes has filed lawsuits against other lawfirms for also using "Infotapes." He patented the term "Infotapes." A Candidate for Mayor of Zaporizhia, Ukraine decided to castrate himself after he was defeated in the polls. Ouch. According to one supermarket headline, "Faith Healer Sued for Malpractice." I shit you not. (Thanks QT!) To be young again! Chuck yer job. Leave the wife. Head out on a cross country trek to see the United States. On foot. You Guys are Stupid. This rocks. Posted June 18 2003 by Div Devlin

Dark and Light Beta Starting? It looks like the beta maybe starting up soon for NPCube's MMO Game, Dark and Light. This is going to be the game with the largest world setting to date. If you are not yet on the list for beta, go sign up. Do it! Posted June 18 2003 by Div Devlin

Myst Online... Uru Info: More info was released about Uru: Ages Beyond Myst from creator Rand Miller as he talked to the AP in this KanasasCity.com article: When it hits stores this fall, Uru will include a single-player mode that won't require an Internet connection. For a yet-to-be-determined monthly fee, players will be able to join others in the online version. New content will be available for download on an almost daily basis, ranging from new artifacts and puzzles to completely new ages to explore.The game may be crammed with daily happenstance in its virtual world, but Miller says an overarching story, possibly taking years to unfold, is planned. He won't divulge much about the bigger story yet. "The most exciting, most risky aspect of this -- and that's the part I love to dwell on," says Miller, "is that we've decided that content is what people, what the mass market, responds to." Check the full read. (Thanks EA!) Posted June 18 2003 by Div Devlin

Star Wars Galaxies Release Date: Lucas Arts and Sony Online Entertainment officially announced the release date for Star Wars: Galaxies as June 26th, much to the cries of anguish of beta testers as in unison they shouted with an impassioned cry that "The Game is Not Ready," sending rippling effects which caused a great disturbance in the force. As we hear tell, many of the features within game still do not work. Added to that, a new industry standard has been started in which the monthly subscription price to play the game will be $14.95, excluded from the Sony All Access Pass. Much fun is going to ensue next week, as we just say, "Here we go again!" Another broken game, with 400,000 subscribers no doubt. When beta players say the game is broken, and not ready, well... It's broken and not ready! We enjoyed this post: There will be a lot of very angry, frustrated people next week. Please don't blame the testers. The worst job on the planet this summer will be an SWG CSR. How true. Posted June 18 2003 by Div Devlin

AC2 June Teaser: The Insider for Asheron's Call 2 has tossed up their June Teaser for whats coming in the Episode 7 for the month. Also included in the teaser is a trailer for the Episode titled "Portents". On the official message boards Keth also posted up an extensive list about the June Changes. Posted June 17 2003 by Div Devlin

Atriarch Updates: Atriarch is becoming more persistent with updates. Twice in one month! In the newest update they tell us about the development on combat techniques, shallow versus deep maneuvers, and on the patch server. Accompanied by screenshots on the combat items with descriptions. Hey, it looks pretty cool for an alpha! Posted June 17 2003 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond News: Earth and Beyond tossed up a new developer letter from David Yee for June. In it he talks about upcoming plans for the game, and due to the success of their first fan gathering, planning going into motion for the next fan gathering to coincide with the upcoming GenCon Game Fair. Check it. Posted June 17 2003 by Div Devlin

SEGA Launches Legacy Online: SEGA is the newest publisher to jump into the MMO market for the PC with their debut (Phantasy Star Online does not really count) of "Legacy Online" a SIM City style game developed by Oceanus which officially launched yesterday. From the Press Release: Legacy Online takes players into new worlds of the near future, where they are in full control of their capitalist empires. The game is a persistent world where businesses operate 24/7, online and offline. Players co-exist on one of many planets, attempting to achieve legendary status by expanding their wealth, business portfolio, and prestige through strategic planning, negotiations, purchases and community building. Each player begins their legacy with an initial investment of one hundred million dollars to establish their company on one of the various planets within the game. Players can amass great fortune, power, and personal fame through business acquisitions and community politics. Successful players strategically conquer the rules of supply and demand, and influence the entire economy and politics of their planet. They have plans for the games first tournament scheduled to start July 14th, in which the winner can name the next planet. It's going to run 9.95 per month, with a free download of the client. It actually looks pretty cool. Posted June 17 2003 by Div Devlin

PotBS Roundup: Pirates of the Burning Sea has had a busy time. First up is the announcments for their winners in their Beta Contest. The winners get a beta slot, as well as having their NPC's drafted into the game. Congrats. That was cool. Five new screenshots were added to the gallery. One of the ships gives a first glimpse at a 5th rate ship of the line with a cool Unicorn figurehead. Augustus wrote up a cool devlog about identifying different types of ships complete with diagrams. Rev ranted endlessly about writing all the UI Dialogue for the game and beginning the voice-actor casting process. Joe delivered a glorious demonstration of how 'boss' the 3-D engine is. Finally, they also greatly expanded the "About" page for the game with new info. Posted June 17 2003 by Div Devlin

Ballerium Beta Changes? I don't know. Beta expands? Beta stops. It gets all rather confusing. According to Majorem Ltd., as they write, despite earlier announcement's for Ballerium, the extension of the Zero-stage beta of the game. If all internal tests go well, it is expected that within about a week Majorem will launch a fourth round of the Pre-Beta (Or: Beta-0), while using an upgraded server and client. Confused? So am I. The purpose of this change is the testing of several newly included game features, such as the "Offline AI-Markers" previously discussed on the open developers' chat. Additional testers will be selected to participate in this round, with more accurate details to be announced later this week. It still doesn't make sense. In the end, I guess just wait. Beta will expand soon. Posted June 16 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Updates: Dragon Empires stuff. Were making it short and sweet for ya. New dev diary which talks a lot about the mo cap is up. It's a great read with some nice photos, so check it out Also, Just-RPG have posted their E3 preview of Dragon Empires. DE got an honourable mention. If you haven't seen it already, part 3 of the 'Beginnings' story has been posted. Cool. Posted June 16 2003 by Div Devlin

Face of Mankind Skinning Contest: Duplex Systems is holding a special contest for Face of Mankind. Ever wanted to see an avatar in game that you had some input with? Now ya can. Participate in the "FOM Skinning Contest" and you could have your very own avatar in the game! As they tell us: The winners of the competition will win the 'life' or their creation in the 2004 release of FoMK. Other competition prizes are: · Grand Prize: High-End Graphic Card ASUS GeForce FX 5600 · 2nd Prize: Adobe Photoshop (OEM) · 3rd Prize: 6 months Face of Mankind playing time free of charge Tobias Meyer, Face of Mankind modeler comments: "I am really looking forward to seeing the entries to this competition. There is such a high level of skill, and a huge amount of imagination required for skinning, but I hope as many people as possible register. The brief is very wide so I know that there will be a huge range of subjects covered. I have a few favourite characters in the Face of Mankind universe which I will be looking out for, but I’m not going to tell you those now." The competition opens on the 1st July, closing on the 15th August. All entrants must be pre registered. Members of the Duplex team will short list five entries, with final judging by the game’s community members from 2nd until 15th September, 2003. Check out the full details of the competition! Posted June 16 2003 by Div Devlin

Artifact Shows Signs of Caring: Artifact Entertainment breaks the rules yet again, showing that they are developers WHO CARE when it comes to Horizons. Ripped from the Tazoon site, which has become the official host for the beta boards (in case you did'nt know) is a story that, as they say, shows alot about the Horizons folks. Last week, someone currently in deployment in Kosovo emailed asking if Horizons used a specific port range as there is a range the military closes for security reasons. AC 1 and 2 are examples of games that use these ports. Well, that email was forwarded to AE, which was in turn forwarded to the appropriate people and in a matter of hours the problem was resolved. I think AE deserves some credit for fixing this so quickly. They could have just sat on the problem or ignored it altogether but instead they decided to take action and quickly mind you. Did I mention that this was also on a Sunday?? All I can say is keep up the great work AE. PS. if anyone from AC 1 or 2 is reading this please adjust your port usage! :) Go check out the comment thread there. This is why so many PvE as well as PvP (aware there will be no PvP in game) folks are looking forward to this game. Not to many companies show signs of caring. Thanks Tune for sending this in! Posted June 16 2003 by Div Devlin

GU Comics spins WoW: By now everyone has salivated over the new World of Warcraft screens released last week in which one of the mobs is a succubus wielding a whip. Like all good bois, we dr00led. Woody Hearn over at GU Comics tossed up his spin on it, which gives a turthful chuckle. Check it. This guy rocks. No wonder millions read him. Also, the World of Warhammer site released not a new screenshot, but this time a short movie of toons climbing that they are testing. Posted June 16 2003 by Div Devlin

CoH Wins E3 Award: City of Heroes wins Best Online Multiplayer Game of the E3 2003 show! Congratulations to the uber-talented Cryptic Team for a job well done – and to everyone else associated with making City of Heroes a fantastic success at E3 2003! You can visit www.e3awards.com for a complete list of this year’s E3 Game Critics Award winners as voted on by top industry professionals. Posted June 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Dark and Light Backstory: NPCube released the first part of their backstory for Dark and Light. "The Ganheptameron" (sacred book of Ganareth), Translated from the Elvish chants,and from oral stories told by the peoples of Ganareth by the disciples of Circeliane the bard. You can read the introduction and the whole Genesis. Posted June 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Interview: Dragon Empires' lead artist, Adam Parsons was interviewed over on talrias.net. In the interview the touch upon some of the art direction Adam has had. His feelings and is background. A snippet: Talrias: What feature of the landscape is your favourite, and why? Adam: The variety is my favourite feature. The nine climate zones provide a rich montage of environments to explore, and each village takes on a new lease on life in each environment. A suprise question appears at the end. Check it. Posted June 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Lords of EQ Beta Sign-up: Lords of EverQuest the upcoming RTS/MMO from Sony based on EverQuest is now accepting folks to sign up for beta. If you have questions about the beta, James Parker the Producer address some of the more common ones in his producer letter. So go forth and sign up for beta! Posted June 12 2003 by Div Devlin

PlanetSide .plan PlanetSide has a new .plan up and running that address' several issues in their game, whats in store for both the near and far future as well as letting everyone know what bug fixes are going in now that they have had a few weeks to shake out the launch of the game and watch how the game has been running. Its a long read. Posted June 12 2003 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online, Rutro: UPDATE: So we've learned from inside peep's that this article was a bunch of hogwash. What people will do to create drama. Still an entertaining read nonetheless. So... The story goes like this. Fatbabies (Site dead) reportedly posted up another "Fat Rumor," detailing some internal issues going on behind the scenes with Climax Studio's and the game they are/were/could-be supposed to be working on, Warhammer Online. Matt Sansom, according to Fatbabies has become a disgruntled suit. Climax has been ripping off the funding they are supposed to be using for Warhammer Online for other projects. It get's better. After the rumor was posted on Fatbabies, the site went deader than a doornail with site not found errors, which fuels the fire that Climax shut the site down. So, we spent some time trying to find out what the story was. We attempted to contact the folks at Games Workshop, but after playing telephone tag for a few hours they kept sending us round and round to their mail order department. Can ya belive they have no Public Relations group? So, we went the other route and attempted to Contact the folks who were named in a lawsuit over two years ago, Climax themselves. We sent emails off and called their U.K. office (time differences are not good) to get the jist. Were waiting to hear back from Dawn, James or even Matt himself. I don't think were going to hear anything back at this point, which may even mean the Fatbabies rumor could be, gasp, True? Check out the full story to read the "Gossip." It sure does sound fake, but then again, could it? (Thanks Mort) Full Story Posted June 11 2003 by Div Devlin

E3'03 Coverage (2) So, after running dangerously low on bandwidth last month we had to curb our coverage on the E3 Expo which took place last month already and the games we checked out. Now that the site has had it's share reset, were back on track for sharing our thoughts with the games we checked out. This installment takes us behind the scenes as we check out: Dark and Light Dragon Empires Eve Online EverQuest II Tommorrow we take a look at Exarch, Horizons, Guild Wars, and Lineage II with our E3 Recaps. Posted June 11 2003 by Div Devlin

Ballerium Beta: The folks over at Majorem, Ltd. send word they are about to expand beta with more testers in a limited phase for thier upcoming RTS/MMO, Ballerium: Majorem Ltd., developers of Ballerium - the Massive multiplayer strategy game, announce today the opening of the third and last round of Beta-0, that will take place in the next few days. This round will be shorter than the previous ones, and will include only a couple of takes during this week. About 10 to 15 additional testers will be selected to participate in this round which will be followed by a server update, and a new beta Phase, Beta-1. The next phase will require many more testers and therefore those who wish to participate are hereby invited to register at www.Ballerium.com Coolness. Posted June 11 2003 by Div Devlin

MeO PvP Explained and Interview: A raging debate within the Middle-Earth Online community has been the PvP elements for the game. Like all games that will include PvP, those who are for and against have risen up with all new verbal battles of flaming with the pro's and con's. The Team for MeO sent out their June letter last week to address several issues mostly pertaining to PvP: To make this possible we’re following a few rules. For one, PvP will under no circumstances, be non-consensual. If a player is ever affected by PvP it will be because they made a conscious and clear decision to put themselves in danger of it. For another, it won’t break the immersive nature of Middle-Earth. There will be no sunset duels between the Humans and Hobbits in the streets of Bree. PvP will inhabit its own place in the world and be presented in a manner that is in keeping with Tolkien’s world and its lore. Lastly, PvP will not be required in any way to progress through the content of the game. Frodo didn’t have to kill any Elves to make it to Moria and neither will you. GIGNews also has an interview up with Jeff Anderson from Turbine talking about about how Turbine landed the deal for Middle Earth Online. Worthy of reading. Posted June 11 2003 by Div Devlin

C3PO Breaks SWG NDA: Community Relations Manager, Kevin "C3P0" Ohara for Star Wars: Galaxies violates the NDA after he reposts a from the beta boards to the public boards on the subject of "What's the Point," of playing yet another MMO, this time in the Star Wars Galaxy. For years now the developers have given the cryptic answer "To Live in the Star Wars Universe". Many people get this” and have wanted to do just that for well over 20 years. However "Living" in the universe is too vague for some gamers (heck, most people don’t quite understand what the "point" of living in the real world is – I’ll give you a hint "to be good to one another"). He breaks in down into a point for point lesson. Ok, so technically he did not violate the NDA, but it's still a good read. Posted June 11 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns? Ok, so this is actually pretty cool. T-Shirt Hell sticks to their beliefs when it comes to their products. The recap is that FHM wanted them to change a shirt that was being commissioned based on Kelly Osbourne. T-Shirt Hell already dislikes the Osbournes when they burned them on a previous shirt. T-Shirt hell unleashes the dirt on the new shirt. These guys rock. Posted June 9 2003 by Div Devlin

Community Contests on WarCry: Warcry is running several MMO related contests for some goods and gear they picked up from assorted vendors. Go check out some of these contests and enter a chance to win some stuff by answering a quiz for each game. City of Heroes Comic Book, No. 1: All of you super-heroes get out your super-sleuth powers and find the answers to win one of 10 of these limited edition comic books. Middle Earth Online: Four VERY cool bookmarks and T-Shirts are up for grabs for those that can answers the questions for these prizes. World of Warcraft: Submit Fan art, win prizes. Good luck to those who enter! Also, someone tell me what the songs are for this contest. My best guess was wrong! Posted June 9 2003 by Div Devlin

MOG Magazine Cancelled: IMGS the guys behind MOG Magazine have officially sent the word out that Issue #2 and the Mag as a whole have been canned. This is a sad day for the MMO Community as David Ladyman, the Editor and Chief announced the following letter reporting on the problems which have occurred while attempting to get the Magazine back into the main stream. Personally, I think the market is ready for a MMO dedicated monthly mag. Someone somewhere has to do this, and I'm sorry to see MOG go. They were first, and did an excellent job. I doubt I could do better. Maybe GameRifts should? Instead of FHM we could do a GRMagazine! Read on for the farewell letter from MOG. Full Story Posted June 9 2003 by Div Devlin

Uru Beta Soon: Ubi sends word that the time is fast approaching for additional intrepid explorers to discover this mesmerizing new world in thier MMO Game "Uru: Ages Beyond Myth," once known as Myth Online! We will be selecting a few lucky applicants in the months to come to join us in the exploration. Sign up now for the opportunity to be a "beta tester" and become one of the select few to visit the world of Uru before its public unveiling. Go sign up for beta, if you're willing to give Ubi another chance. Posted June 9 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane State Address: Shadowbane has a new producer over at Ubi who makes his introduction on the Chronicle telling us what is in-store for Shadowbane and the future. He tackle's some of the issues which have already been promised to be fixed during the past two months. Over the past few weeks our development and operations teams have been incredibly busy trying to resolve outstanding high priority service issues. I completely understand the frustrations of players who have been affected by service outages, lag or other problems that deter your enjoyment of Shadowbane. Your petitions, forum threads, and feedback have not been ignored by us and we apologize for not communicating more with the player community. Were gunna wait and see what happens. Welcome to the community "Yitzhak." Posted June 9 2003 by Div Devlin

Ballerium Screenies! Majorem Ltd., released new graphic material (that sounds like pr0n) that was created to showcase the game at E3 for their upcoming RTS/MMO game Ballerium. Included is new screenshots, artwork, designs of new monster races and other graphics available in their gallery. Check it. Posted June 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Pirates, Burning Sea, Developer Logs: Arrr! Four new developer logs from the folks behind Pirates of the Burning Sea. Augustus wrote about what it's like to play a privateer. Rev discussed UI Dialogue, which governs your first mate's audio alerts to you about important game events. Joe covered his recent work in getting the ships to rock and rise with the ocean waves. And finally, Rick popped back up with a great write-up of his work to dramatically improve engine performance by making our oceans smarter . Arrr! Posted June 6 2003 by Div Devlin

More on the BlackSnow/UO Gold Thang: If you want to get some in-depth info on just what exactly may of been going on in the recent article unleashed by UnknownPlayer.com this week, then look no more. Julian Dibbel, whom you may recall from Wired in which was written the "UnReal Estate Boom" has three pieces to the puzzle up on his blog. Read the sordid tales on the "20 Billion GP Man," which may of been the way Ingot Dude was running the show as a front man. How would ya like a computer room like this? Anyways check it. You need to scroll down through the pages. (Thanks Neives!) Posted June 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Camelot Herald's New Herald: Over in Dark Age of Camelot, the Herald got a new Herald as an addition to the team. This actually rocks and is long overdue. As Sanya introduced her, and she explains her role: As you’ve heard I am the new addition to the Herald Team! I’m really pleased to be in this position as it’s something I have a lot passion about – community involvement. Our goals for my portion of the Herald is to help give your heroic deeds and/or mortifying slaughter its due place in the annals of Herald history. We want to hear about your raids and accomplishments, your triumphs, or even your defeat of epic proportions. Basically what I’m saying is WE want to know, and we want to help you let others know!! Use the form link on the Herald to assist you in reporting these wondrous events to me. Now all those battles for the Forts and What-Not will be recorded in a place of history as... Sorry, it got away from me. Welcome to the team Julie, we feel for ya having to go through Vault boards, we look forward to more from ya in the future of Camelot. Check out the full skinny. Posted June 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond Fan Fest Recap: Over in another galaxy, the Earth and Beyond folks made it back from their invasion tour of at the Rivalution in San Jose, California on May 24th. From all reports according to them, "It was a Rousing Success." That's cool. Over 130 pilots showed up. Lotsa prizes handed out. Lotsa talks went on. Lotsa pic's were taken. Is that Arcturus? Scope out the full recap. I'm bummed I missed it. Come to Chy-Town Ya'll! Posted June 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Community Rounds: Dave Rickey who used to be part of Mythic and Dark Age of Camelot has been found. He's over on Skotos doing a biweekly column about Game Design titled "Engines of Creation". Dave Rickey, a well-known online game enthusiast & designer, today began publishing Engines of Creation, a new column on game design. This biweekly column is the newest entry in Skotos Tech's Online Gaming Library, which already includes almost 500 articles on online games, with 2-3 new ones being published every week. You can check his read here.