2008. szeptember 28., vasárnap

Shot Online - New versions



Hamburg, July 30th 2008 - Leading European MMOG publisher gamigo AG is proud to announce the forthcoming launch of the Spanish and French versions of the internationally successful MMO sports title "Shot Online". Both new versions will be available for beta testers in mid August, and will be released commercially later this year. The respective websites can already be reached at www.shot-online.eu

The only realistic MMO golfing simulation - play free online mmorpgs like runescape no download

Shot Online is a comprehensive and realistic golfing experience, offering players over 250 different holes to play. Players can gain experience points for every well-played course, in order to level up and become the ultimate golfing professional. Beyond that, they have the chance to buy hundreds of optional items to improve their abilities even further. Although there is the possibility to buy certain items for real money, Shot Online remains completely free because every object can also be bought with the in-game currency,either from an NPC or in the auction house. While up to four players can compete in a direct match at any time, there will be special events and tournaments for everyone on a regular basis, with great prizes to be won. Of course there are lots of useful community features, which give players the chance to chat with their friends, meet new people and form guilds to play as a team.

Gamigo invites new players from all over the world - best free online mmorpg

After a very successful year for the German version of the game, now with over 150,000 registered players, gamigo is finishing up the French and Spanish versions of the worldwide popular sports MMOG, like 2.4.2 wow servers. These versions will not only be available to players in France and Spain, but every player from around the globe speaking one of these languages can become part of the growing international community. In mid August, players will have the chance to check out the new versions of the game for the first time, in an extensive beta testing period. The final version will commence shortly afterwards. Right now, players can already check out the official website in both new languages and meet up with other golfers in the forums. "We are excited to launch Shot Online in two new languages, so we can give hundreds of thousands of players worldwide the chance to experience this great game", says Sven Ossenbrüggen, CEO gamigo AG. "With the new versions of Shot Online and other great, free games coming up in additional languages, we are showing our commitment to expanding our influence in the European gaming business." Shot Online will be released as a beta version in mid August, with a completely free final version following shortly afterwards later. Players can go to the official website www.shot-online.eu right now, and already register to be one of the first players to check out the new versions.

- Gamigo AG - mmorpg list

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2008. szeptember 15., hétfő

Finally reached level fifty



Hello mates, welcome! I'm very happy to inform that around week ago my first character advanced through all level and now I'm on 50 level :-) (until premiere of Mines of Moria anyway...)

What's new? first of all like other players on my level I'm doing deeds, there are lots of deeds in game but i pick few and all my time im spending on grinding..i don't like this after playing in Lord of the Rings Onlinebut some traits ( when you complete deed you get traits) are very good.

On the screen Mikevorn (me) vs Helchgam, he killed then all my fellowship including me :/

For the example when you reach Valor trait on level 10 you've got:

+ 286 to Morale (something like HP)

+ 10 Mighty

+ 5.8 non-Combat Morale Regeneration (if i remember correctly )

another cool trait for my class is Discipline you can get on level 10:

+30 Might

+5.0% Disease Resistance

-1.5% Melee Vulnerability



You can pick max 5 at the same time traits and when you add each one to your character, you became really strong. I will write something about other traits for combat next time.

I'm playing champion, and if you are player from Gilrain server you can find me under name

Mikevorn :-)

leave a comment if you know me cya mates on Lotro

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2008. szeptember 13., szombat

The Multiplayer Online Gaming Community




Who loves playing online games ? I do. You might decide me as a computer game freak but yes, I am one of those millions of various online gamers from around the world that spends a lot of time playing in front of the computer screen. Anyway, what's the occasion to not get hooked? You get the chance to play the latest and coolest games. You get the occasion to talk and interact to other players. Plus you gain the opportunity to show to the whole online game society of how skillful you are as a gamer. It is true that I have been an online gamer for many years now. It is just that the feeling of winning online matches has never been this sweeter, and the idea of tasting online defeat has never been this worse. Hopping from one online game sites to other is also not new to me, for I am the type of gamer that loves to analysis of what each of those game sites offer. But between my latest online game site expeditions, I just recently found out a golden find: free online games. Don't shrivel in fear now. Keep from being dumbfounded by the stunning name. Instead, be very excited. Fly or die might not be known as of the moment but its rate of membership growth is phenomenal ever since the first day it was formally launched. There's must be a great reason behind that, isn't it? I am definitely serious on saying that this is one of those multiplayer online gaming sites that will get your attention, and will totally deserve your gaming appreciation. And if you are an online gaming fan yourself. What is something not to love about online multiplayer games site? The free online games you can play here will totally bring the best gamer in you. Love strategy games? Try their 8-Ball and 9-Ball pool games. Do you love number puzzles? Then brace yourselves when you play the very innovative Xudoku, their online game version of the most fashionable number puzzle game. Or how about some nice chess matches?

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2008. szeptember 7., vasárnap

BattleField 2 Upgraded




I had registered my game with the company when i first bought it but was amazed to know that i was getting a free upgrade to the game for free. I got it on the email and accepted the offer and i had to fill out my address and so on and said that i should receive a new cd in a week or two with lots more maps and weapons :D Anyways, free stuffs are always fun but i love battle field games. Just the online play tho. I hate to play it offline website link directory as all the challenges i get are computer. human touch to the game is totally different and your playing with someone who can shoot u back , unlike the computer programmed shooters who you can easily fool like the time i went from back of the guy and shot him and he never looked back. Game programmers need to really think about all this.

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2008. augusztus 19., kedd

Midnight Club 3 - Hacked !

As usual, I was playing my favorite game midnight club 3. For those of you who don't know what this game is. Its a nice car racing game. From the first time i bought this game i started to do offline races and won all the nice cars. After that i stopped playing offline and just played online as its more fun playing with real humans than computers . When i used to play Midnight Club 2 on computer, me and my friends used to modify the files of the games and make cars faster and other great stuff on it but i though it was not possible to do it on consoles. Seems some people have edited mc3's files and burned it back on a cd for ps2 and have started to cheat on the game. I was racing as usual and this guy came super fast. And do tricks that were not even available for the game and i asked him to teach me and he told me that that he had modded the game. So i copied my game files to computer and looked over the files and most of the files were same as might night club 2 so i edited few things to make me go faster and ripped the files back to cd and used my magic swap to get online with a ripped files cd and was amazed that it worked flawlessly and then in few minutes. Everyone who saw me started asking me how i am doing it and annoyed me so much and i put my default cd back on to play it the normal way because i don't support cheating on the game. so guys go ahead mod your mc3. Till next time. Source : MMORPG X

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2008. augusztus 8., péntek

GTA Goes Live !

Sales of GTA has been going up in Thailand and seems everyone loves it as much i love GTA but there is a difference between a game and a real life. My friend was telling me he wants another child after his computer been having problem too much since kids now days learn so fast. A teenager in Thailand confessed on robbing and killing a taxi driver. Seems he has been playing GTA just too much. I wouldn't be surprised if some teenager wore armors and went to school and tried to kill his fellow friends. I hope he can reload his life and do a fresh start when he gets out of jail. I also heard in news last night that some kid jumped over 10 story building hoping that superman would come and save him. unfortunately superman was busy playing GTA. For last time there is no real superman but don't be so sure about that regarding batman tho. Well, I am warning all of you guys not to believe too much on these fairly land stuff because they are only good to see on tv and play them but don't ever try to actually do it! or else you will end up as that Thailand Guy! :O But i wonder how it would feel to live such life.. like lets say world of warcraft, It sure would be fun to wear those cool armors and kill monsters and doing what you want without any consequences. That would be a care free wonderful life but unfortunately life is not like that or else i would be killing another goblin in runescape right now and would own 10 cars on GTA. Also guys don't forget to comment on this article telling me of the funny things you know about games taking over real life. I would love to hear the comments from you guys! and did you know you can subscribe to our RSS feed and be update with latest news. Till next time!



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Star Trek Online webcast





"Mr. Leonard Nimoy will be appearing at our event at the Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas."-Cryptic. The event will take place at 1:30 p.m. PDT on Sunday, August 10th in the Gene Roddenberry Theater at the Las Vegas Hilton. The startrek online do not want to leave you out! They will broadcast the event LIVE via webcast. Please visit the Startrek online website for details on how to join the webcast. Join the Star Trek Online community by 11:59 p.m. PDT on Sunday, August 17, for a chance to win a copy of Star Trek Online and a lifetime subscription!(Sounds good!!)

Source : MMORPG-X - Online games news website

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2008. augusztus 5., kedd

Research about gold farming



Via Broken Toys I scholarly most this academic essay on metallic farming. 87 pages of research, with engrossing estimates, same for the sort of metallic farmers (400,000) and metallic buyers (5 to 10 million). The essay covers everything from the statement of what RMT is, to jural aspects, to discussing metallic job as a designate of money from matured to nonindustrial countries.
What it fails to name is that metallic job is a termination of intense mettlesome design. Gold job effectuation that whatever lawful contestant finds whatever portion state in a MMORPG so boring, but necessary, that he is primed to clear somebody added to endeavor the mettlesome for him. And that is pretty exceptional in the earth of entertainment. Nobody pays somebody added to go and check a flick for him, or to go and dispense a pair of hoops for him in a cordial mettlesome of basketball. Nobody buys a highscore for Tetris, or an modern spend mettlesome for Grand Theft Auto. In nearly every forms of recreation and games, the outlay of instance is the *purpose* of the activity.
At whatever saucer in the forthcoming somebody module conceive how to attain a MMORPG in which every parts of the mettlesome are recreation to play, and there are no parts to "grind" to attain whatever termination of realistic nowness or level. And that mettlesome module hit no metallic farming. Not because it would be impossible, or because of existence threatened with bans, but meet because it wouldn't attain significance to clear somebody added to hit every that recreation for you. The ineffectual rages of mettlesome developers against RMT are rattling meet a alikeness of their possess unfortunate to attain their games recreation in every areas.
Original by : Tobold

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2008. június 18., szerda

Ten Signs Of MMORPG Addiction


With the advent of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG), a lot of people have suffered from MMORPG over-addiction, so much so that some of them have slowly confused the real world with the fantasy environment of the games they're playing. I kid you not! This seeming merger of truth and fiction is not restricted to costume plays (or cosplays), sci-fi conventions or game launches. It has extended to everyday life. And if you have been playing a particular MMORPG for hours upon hours, each and every day, you might be suffering from MMORPG over-addiction yourself!

How would you know?

Here are 10 signs that can be observed if ever you have too much MMORPG adrenaline in your system.

1. Whenever you want to buy something, you think in terms of gold instead of dollars. Gold, of course, is the unit of currency in most MMORPG game worlds.

2. Whenever you accomplish a significant deed, you subconsciously expect to level up, coupled with a sound in the background to inform the world of such a feat. MMORPG programs reward players with experience points which can be used to increase their levels.

3. You find yourself speaking in Old English. Quite a number of MMORPG systems require the players to role play their characters as if they're living in a fantastical, medieval world. This includes conversing in Old English. So hear 'ye, hear 'ye, hear 'ye, if thou hath been speaking the tongue of ages yore, thou hath been possessed by the soul of thy machinated character.

4. You start referring to you bag as your inventory. A staple of MMORPG programs is a limited inventory screen that allows your character to carry a certain number of implements.

5. You start describing your irritating acquaintance as a "re-spawning monster." The monsters in all MMORPG systems persistently re-spawn so that players would always have something to kill for some experience points.

6. Whenever an item, like a gadget perhaps or a book, is priced beyond your budget, you start to subconsciously hope that you'll get it soon with a future "drop." In MMORPG programs, monsters drop useful items whenever they're destroyed. Sometimes, they drop some very rare and very valuable items.

7. When ever you need the help of a friend in the real world, you sometimes inform him by screaming "tank!" or "aggro!" The terms tank and aggro are MMORPG-generic words that refer to a variety of support from party members. Tank refers to the act of having someone with higher HP attack a monster first. The monster would focus on such a player, and the other player with lower HP would attack it from behind and claim a majority of the experience points. Aggro refers to a slew of support spells from the magic users of the same adventuring party.

8. At the end of every month, you'd be surprised to discover that you have exhausted all your vacation and sick leaves from work. In South Korea, for example, where MMORPG programs are a huge hit, employers complain of massive employee absences whenever a major game is released. Indeed, an MMORPG has the power to take over your virtual as well as your real life.

9. You spend countless sleepless nights thinking of strategies that would help you build your character, or defeat a seemingly undefeatable boss. FREE MMORPGs programs often require more strategy that what you'd expect, and trying to discover the best tactics that work is part of the fun.

10. Whenever you're planning your monthly budget, you give paramount importance to allotting payment for your MMORPG's subscription. There is no shame here. We're all guilty of the same thing.

Should you start worrying?

Should you begin to consider a change in lifestyle?

Should you consult a therapist?

For as long as the other aspects of your life, which are more important than your need for an MMORPG fix, are not compromised, then your preference for MMORPG programs, whether casual of a product of an addictive tendency, can still be considered as healthy.

But if you start jeopardizing your health, your job, your family and your overall wellbeing, then dude! You have to realize that though an MMORPG offers a world of endless fun, it's just a game, and your life is not.

Source : www.bharatbhasha.com



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2008. június 17., kedd

New Test Server Patches 6/14

General

  • You should no longer do the loot animation while swiming.
  • The flame on the Torch of Eiglophian will now die after a while.
  • Now all spells can be casted with dagger and staff without problems.
  • When you train Basic or Advanced Riding, you will no longer be teleported
  • Fixed an alignment issue with quest indicators over quest NPC’s heads.
  • Transition Quest Goal Markers have been updated to fit where the NPC’s now stand.
  • Locking to raid instances have been fixed. All players participating in a raid will now be locked.
  • Fixed problem that would cause the resource manager to hang indefinitely if the client consistantly fails to download a resource.
  • Bonus spell damage now increases both minimum and maximum damage, instead of just maximum (average damage will remain unchanged).
  • Stat bonuses from items (strength, wisdom, dexterity and constitution) will now properly affect your character (Note that strength now directly affects your DPS, not your attack rating).

GUI

  • All Assassin abilities which stack multiple times now have a stack count in the buff GUI.
  • All Bear Shaman, Priest of Mitra, and Tempest of Set abilities which stack multiple times now have a stack count in the buff GUI.

Items

  • Hood of Jagged Barbs has been revamped.
  • Polearms should now be the intended size.
  • Added new purple rare drops to world loot.
  • Conqueror Spear should now look the right size.
  • Cimmeria hide light wrist should no longer clip with arms
  • Changed reference to Steelsilk to Gossamer Silk in the Full Trade Response.
  • Average, Fair, Fine and Superior Meat will no longer end up in the quest inventory.
  • Crafting Item: Renamed item “Bloodsilver-studded Boots” to “Bloodsilver-mail Boots”
  • The purchase price of vendor-bought alchemy reagents are now one third of what they were.
  • Hek’lar’s Accursed Dagger will now appear with the correct icon in the player’s inventory.
  • Fixed an issue with ‘Darfari Armbands’, they should be visible on female characters and have stats now.
  • Crafting Item: Skymetal-studded Wristbands and Bluesteel-studded Wristbands (rare) And should be different from each other.

NPC

  • Vistrix’ Profanity debuff has been tweaked.
  • Ice Cave: Ice worms should now attack correctly.
  • Field of the dead: Dusk wolf should reset properly.
  • The Acheronian Warlord will drop bossloot armor again.
  • The trader in Lacheish Plains has been removed as intended.
  • Toirdealbach should now be a more fun and playable encounter.
  • The Catacombes: Necromancer Undead should now attack correctly.
  • The Champion of the Honorguard now uses its correct abilities again.
  • Ethi woke up with his height a bit smaller than what it was yesturday.
  • Villa Lentulus: Gurges the Nimble should react normally to players.
  • Yakhmar’s Cave: Yakhmar should no longer get stuck if it cannot reach its target.
  • Kyllikki’s Crypt: Kyllikki should reset properly when noone is in her hate list.
  • Khopshef Province: Freed Rogue Slave should now use his weapons correctly.

Mounts

  • Revamped translation so the blood is displayed relative to horse as well.
  • The targetting arrow should now be positioned correctly when targetting a horse, gorilla and Mtilator
  • You will half your chance of beeing knocked off the horse from the sides. You cannot be knocked off the horse if the attacker is standing in front of you
  • Monsters lower level than you will have a much lower chance of knocking you off the horse. Monsters higher level than you will have a much higher chance of knocking you off the horse.
  • Fixed a problem where advanced mount abilities were being given out by the basic training. Mammoth and Rhino owners - Please use /claim again. This will train the attack abilities associated with these two mount types.

Playfields

  • Purple Lotus Swamp: Ladders should now work correctly.
  • Tarantia Noble: Players should now be able to teleport into the arena by clicking on the door.
  • Tarantia Noble: The Arena in Armsman Tavern has been redone. If you are looking for challenging arena fights, you can do so either alone or as part of a group.

Player Cities

  • Player Cities will now have the Trader NPC now.
  • The stack-size of building materials has been raised to 1000.

Player Characters

Archetype

  • New buff counters were added to a number of mage and soldier effects.
  • All gathering feats should now have the correct proficiency suffix in their name.
  • The Goad ability can be trained and used on a NPC that does not have aggro on you. You must be in combat to use this ability.
  • The buffs from rogue general feats Concealment, Distraction and Mountaineer will now be removed from characters when they untrain feats.
  • You can no longer enter spellweaving when climbing or swimming. If you are hiding or crouching and enter spellweaving, you will leave that state immediately.

Assassin

  • Flesh Rot now applies a separate debuff for each player Lotus Weapons now now applies a separate debuff for each player.

Bear Shaman

  • Wreck Armor I+II+III combos now have improved visuals and sound.

Conqueror

  • You may now use Incite the Ranks if Fire Weave is running.
  • Throat Slash can now only be used with a melee weapon and not a ranged weapon.

Dark Templar

  • Soul Barrier’s cast time has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second.
  • Changed the Cooldown of Unhallowed Blight III to 20s.
  • Changed the Unholy Debuff to be 5% on all combos. - Changed the duration of the debuff to last for 25s.
  • Reduced the Mana cost of the following spells by 50%:
    • Aura of Dread Fury (Ranks 1 - 4)
    • Aura of Infusion (Ranks 1 - 5)
    • Covenant of Pestilence (Ranks 1 - 4)
    • Covenant of War (Ranks 1 - 3)
    • Covenant of Death
    • Covenant of Invulnerability (Ranks 1 - 3)
    • Covenant of Vengeance
    • Drain Life (Ranks 1 - 5)

Demonologist

  • Waves of Flame now inflicts more damage each tick.
  • The animation for the Demonologist-spell Unholy Hate has been slowed down by 25%.
  • Resolved an minor issue with Demonologist spellweaving not affecting stamina potion effects.

Herald of Xotli

  • Resolved a issue with “Blood Pit” so it will always spawn if you successfully kill a minion with the “I Eat Your Heat” combo.

Necromancer

  • You no longer lose the Cannibalism spell when investing the second feat.
  • Vile Insight now gives the intended Unholy Specialization as reflected in the description.
  • Plauged Heart Curse will now correctly increase in damage with more feats trained.
  • Parasitic Soul Swarm now inflicts more damage each tick.
  • Pestilential Blast now has an additional skull visual.

Priest of Mitra

  • Revoled a problem with the priest of mitra spellweaving ability.
  • Repulse has had its base damage lowered slightly and contribution from bonus magic damage increased.
  • Cleansing Fire now has a slightly lower manacost and now scales correctly across all levels.
  • The damage bonus applied to Repulse, Cleansing Fire, and Lance of Mitra from Force of Will has been lowered to the correct amount.
  • The damage bonus from Improved Repulse has been significantly increased

Ranger

  • The buffs from ranger stances Shattering Stance, Piercing Stance, Fire Stance and Sniper Stance will now be removed from characters when they untrain feats.

Tempest of Set

  • Brutal Lightning Strike should no correctly increase the critical strike chance of Lightning Strike.

Tradeskills

  • Obsidian has been renamed to Feldspar.
  • Orichalcum has been renamed to Duskmetal.
  • Tigereye Gems will now end up in the resource inventory.
  • Skinning Trainer will now tell you were to get skins.
  • Your harvesting will no longer get interrupted by someone outside of the resource and building playfields.
  • Resource nodes can now always be harvested while their health is at 10%.
  • The Weaponsmith Trainer now gives the cooldown warning when the cooldown is in effect.
  • The dialogues of the Resource Gatherer Trainers and Crafter Trainers now check if the player has the appropriate feats set on them, in addition to quests. If the player has the quest to gather resources or craft, but has lost the feat that enables him to do so, the feat is now retrained (to the correct tier).

Quests

  • Dealing with Dila: Dila should now attack.
  • Hunting the Spider: Quest can now be completed.
  • The Lost Scouts: Waypoint to Dairmad was fixed.
  • Oasis of Zaara: Waypoints for quest were fixed.
  • In Defense of Beauty: Quest can be completed now.
  • Flowers of the Snow: The flowers way markers were adjusted.
  • Paetus and the Nemedian Crown: Waypoint for Armsman’s Tavern was fixed.
  • Wanted posters should now give proper feedback if the player already has the quest or does not meet the requirements.
  • Rahim & Lord Camillus: had it’s journal text modified, as he doesn’t stand near the Armsman’s Tavern.
  • Death to the Undead: Indicators for minimap were displaying to small. This has been resolved.
  • The Mark of Acheron: Players will now be able to experience the destiny event in the Field of Chiefs.
  • The Mark of Acheron: The Mark of Acheron is permanently removed when performing the Medallion Ritual now.
  • Soul Chamber: If you die in the soul chamber you now lose the tablet in your quest inventory.
  • Destiny Quest: The quest rewards ‘King Conan’s Tribute’ & ‘King Conan’s Esteem’ are no longer tradeable.
  • The Lost Bottles: Wine bottles will now have a blue flame indicating you can interact with them.
  • Tradeskill Quests: You can now delete all tradeskill quests but tradeskill progression quests.
  • Tradeskill Quests: Resolved various level requirement issues with the quests.


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2008. június 15., vasárnap

Age of Conan : One Million Copies Shipped



Funcom is proud to announce that Age of Conan will pass the astounding "One Million Copies Shipped" milestone, in less than three weeks after the launch of the game. Due to overwhelming demand Funcom's retail partner is now re-supplying retail boxes rapidly while also including new markets to the mix. As a result of the tremendous interest from gamers, Age of Conan has for the past few weeks been claiming number one spots on the sales charts across the western world – including the US, Germany, France and the UK – while receiving glowing review scores from gaming media.

"Sales data shows that Age of Conan is the biggest MMORPG launch since World of Warcraft," says Funcom Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Morten Larssen. "The numbers are very promising, and we are very proud to be one of the fastest selling PC games ever in a launch month and the biggest simultaneous Europe/US MMO launch in history."

In the US, Age of Conan has a strong # 1 chart position and is now moving past the 500.000 shipped mark. Meanwhile the attention for the game is growing across the globe, with over 8 million unique visitors from over 200 countries to the Age of Conan websites so far in 2008. The community surrounding the game is also growing fast, with over 800,000 signing up as members of the Clan of Conan fan club.

Age of Conan was launched May 20th in the US and May 23rd in Europe, receiving critical acclaim from media across the globe. "Age of Conan has raised the bar," wrote US gaming website Gamezone, giving the game a score of 94 out of 100. Gamespot, one of the world's leading gaming websites, rewarded Age of Conan a 8,5 score calling it "one of the finest online RPGs available". The game is also receiving acclaim in Europe, where a broad range of early reviews gave an average score of over 90 percent. Funcom is committed to continue to expand and improve on the game by adding more content, features and fixes in order to make Hyboria a favorite place for gamers across the globe, and players can expect some exciting news in the weeks and months ahead.

More information about the game can be found on www.ageofconan.com

About Funcom - Funcom is an independent developer and publisher of online games for PC, consoles and mobile platforms. Funcom has provided outstanding entertainment since 1993 and continues to expand its track-record of more than twenty released games. Recent titles include 'The Longest Journey', 'Anarchy Online' and 'Dreamfall: The Longest Journey'. For corporate information please visit www.funcom.com. For information about Funcom games visit www.anarchy-online.com, www.dreamfall.com, www.darkdaysarecoming.com or www.ageofconan.com. Funcom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker FUNCOM.

Source : mmorpg-x

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Zu Online : Silver Coin Event


IGG will be holding an event in Zu Online on June 14th with the aim of getting as many players online at he same time as possible, with a reward of 10 times the number of players online in silver coins.

Event Duration:
From 1:00pm till 2:00pm on June 14th

Event Contents:
You play the game to win silver coins. We will offer 10 times as many silver coins as there are players online from 1:00pm to 2:00pm on June 14th. So, the more players get online at that time, the more silver coins you may win. Now it is the time to test your popularity and invite as many friends as you can to play our game and enjoy the fun and rewards.

Requirements:
1. Characters level must be above 60+
2. You must be online during the event period
3. If there are two characters at level 60+ in one account, silver coins will be given to the character with the higher level.
4. If there are more than two characters in one account at level 60+ and their levels are the same, silver coins will be given to the character with shorter history.

Rewards:
At 2:00 pm, June 16th, all online players characters meeting the requirements mentioned above will be given 10 times as many silver coins as there are players online from 1:00pm to 2:00pm on June 14th.



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2008. június 10., kedd

World of Warcraft Server Problems

With six million subscribers, keeping World of Warcraft (WoW) private servers up and running is probably the biggest challenge facing Blizzard. WoW has been plagued by server problems that cause the game to crash without warning. Complaints from angry players have been pouring in about long lag times. Blizzard acknowledged that there is a problem and they've been religiously informing customers about system problems, but players contend that Blizzard has been slow to react to their complaints.

The wow private servers problems have been severe after Blizzard implemented its last major patch to WoW in late March. In an interview with CNET News.com, Evgeney Krevets, a WoW player said, Being a system administrator myself, I have some understanding of what goes on in a corporate data center. I don't know Blizzard's system setup. What I do know is that if I kept performing 'urgent maintenance' and taking the service down without warning for eight-hour periods, I would be out of a job.

To diffuse the ire of millions of subscribers, Blizzard blames its network provider AT&T for some of the problems. Blizzard also argues that massive online games like Wow are simply prone to network issues. Blizzard's official stand: "Due to the complex nature of massively multiplayer games like 'World of Warcraft,' technical issues such as the ones some of our players have experienced recently may occur on occasion. Our commitment to our players is to provide effective solutions as quickly and carefully as possible whenever any such situation occurs.

With no real solution in sight, some players have come to accept that private server problems won't go away and they will just keep playing. While some players wait for Blizzard to resolve the server problem, some try to solve it on their own by choosing other private servers . It seemed to work for them.

But what boggles the mind is even with a slew of multiplayer online games, such as Everquest, City of Heroes, Ultima Online and others, WoW players refuse to walk away from WoW. Blizzard is probably banking on the idea that there is no real alternative to WoW. But with the number of unhappy subscribers increasing every time a server goes down, Blizzard should start to take the problems more seriously.

Source : wow.qj.net

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EVE Online meets Half-Life 2 in machinima masterpiece




Clear Skies is a groundbreaking machinima produced by Ian Chisholm, which takes place entirely within the galactic setting of EVE Online, known as New Eden. Any attempt to lump Clear Skies in with your run-of-the-mill machinima would be a disservice to the scope of the work; the film clocks in at just under 40 minutes and was a labor of love for two years in the lives of its creators.

Clear Skies follows a trio of down-and-out misfits who've seen no end of bad luck. John Rourke is the obstinate captain of the Clear Skies, a Tempest class battleship manufactured by the downtrodden Minmatar race of New Eden. Rourke's attitude toward his hazardous chosen lifestyle is cavalier, although this does not sit well with his friends among the crew. Solomon Burke is the pessimistic ship's engineer, while Charlie Fodder -- a gunner with an ironic name -- does his best to keep the crew alive. Typical of life in New Eden, Fodder is doomed to remain a rather busy man.

These likeable dropouts from the entrenched corporate lifestyle of New Eden eke out a meager living on trade runs and the odd courier job here and there. Still, they manage to find humor in their grim lot as they narrowly avoid being blown out of the stars by pirates, hired thugs, or whatever threat awaits them on the other side of the next jump gate. This is life aboard the Clear Skies. It's not a comfortable lifestyle by any means, but the crew is free to live and die by their own terms. Of course, their exploits do make for some good stories.

Just back from their last job gone awry, Rourke and crew are faced with a gargantuan repair bill for what's left of the Clear Skies when they dock in the nearest space station they can reach. They have to choose between parting with the Clear Skies or going broke to fix her. They opt to spend all of their isk to resurrect their ship and home, going back to square one in the process, with no choice but to make more shady deals just to continue getting by. The latest of their exploits is to transport 'an idiot in a shiny suit' a few jumps to the Hek solar system. Their passenger, however, wishes to remain anonymous, is paying too much money, and insists upon being ferried in a battleship. These are all omens of a deathtrap, but the crew has little choice but to accept. And so begins the story -- epic by machinima standards -- that exposes the viewer to the seedier aspects of life on New Eden's fringe.

The execution of the film is brilliant; Clear Skies is a hybrid between Half-Life 2's character design and EVE Online's backstory. The ship that is the film's namesake serves as the primary setting for the story; and in some respects acts as another character in the film -- with its quirky malfunctioning systems, familiar EVE-style interfaces, and its Minmatar heritage of looking like 'an explosion in a girder factory'.

That's a running gag throughout Clear Skies. Many of the Minmatar race's ships resemble scrapheaps somehow imbued with great speed, but they look as if they could shake apart at any moment. The adage familiar to so many EVE players, that duct tape is standard issue on any Minmatar ship, is alive and well in Clear Skies.

The film is punctuated with humor from start to finish, much of which borders on inside jokes for fans of EVE Online -- little rewards for knowing and being part of the system that is the machinima's backdrop.

Clear Skies stands as a significant work in a number of ways. Looking beyond the intense time commitment involved with producing something of this caliber, the film has found nearly universal acceptance among EVE Online's often divisive community. If fact, there's been little but echoes of praise for Clear Skies on the game's forums by Chisholm's newfound fanbase.

This is surprising, since Clear Skies breaks from the established background in EVE by removing the concept of a capsuleer who controls the essential systems onboard the ship, instead turning the reigns over to the crew itself. Chisholm takes the more accessible angle of having the pilots man the bridge, engine room and gunnery station, but this is an altered perspective for anyone accustomed to EVE Online's gameplay. The battleship in Clear Skies is no longer an extension of one's self, which is a core idea in EVE Online. While this would threaten to be sacrilege to some of EVE Online's more dedicated fans of the backstory, the positive reception to Chisholm's project shows that he made the right choices. Even the developers at CCP Games have congratulated Chisholm and his friends on the achievement.

And those friends certainly deserve some mention as well. The character of Solomon Burke is voiced by Richie Powles, while Charlie Fodder's voice is provided by John Guthrie. What's interesting here is that they've now taken roleplay in EVE to new heights; the characters that Chisholm, Powles, and Guthrie portray are also their own characters in-game. The trio of characters are all members of Pure Alliance, and can be found in their respective corporations of The Wild Hunt (Rourke) and Dawn of a New Empire (Powles and Guthrie).

Ian Chisholm has stated that a sequel to Clear Skies is being planned, largely due to the fan response to his effort, which he found simply overwhelming. He never expected interest in his machinima to hit the levels it has so far, thus a website for Clear Skies wasn't in place for the film's release. But this hasn't prevented the film from being seen by thousands of viewers willing to track it down. In lieu of a dedicated website for the project, which Chisholm assures is already in the works, the film is being distributed through a loose network of fansites. The most comprehensive collection of links to date related to Clear Skies was put together by a fan on the EVE forums. The most popular place to download Clear Skies is at the fan-run site EVE Files, which is hosting the film's trailer as well as the full version. An embedded version of the film is currently offered at LivePvP.

Despite the fact that Clear Skies is set in the EVE Online universe, the film is accessible to virtually any fan of machinima or the sci-fi genre as a whole. Check out what all the hype is about; Clear Skies won't disappoint.

Source : massively.com

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The end of the age of the amateur game designer?




NCSoft's first quarter report came out, and they don't want to talk about their space marine-fps-mmo, Tabula Rasa, except to say they are fairly disappointed bu its performance.

I should refer to it by its full name, Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa.

Richard Garriott, if you don't know of him, is "the legendary video game programmer and designer, noted as one of the PC Gamer's "Game Gods". I found this little tidbit on a vanity web site called "Richard in Space", where you can meet Richard Garriott as he prepares for his space tourist flight to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Last year, Game God Brad McQuaid was likewise absent for the disappointment that was Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. I'm sure he was as well paid as Richard Garriott, AKA the sixth Earth human to go to the space station as a tourist. We could be next, gushes the "Richard in Space" site. Maybe if we can get someone to shovel money at us because our Game God status demands it.

I feel sad for the people who did their best to finish these games while the Gods got all the press and the limelight. All the real developers got were schedules, pressure, disappointment and exciting trips to the unemployment office.

Now Brad is in hiding, and Richard Garriott is going up to space (still unknown: did he leave a clone behind in case he wanted to respec? Or in case the Soyuz castle lands just a little *too* hard this time?).

Past success is no indicator of future success in this world. Maybe it makes a difference if you put as much as yourself into the next game as you did in the one that made you a Game God. I think you really have to step back and reassess your life if you find yourself being promoted as a Game God. Hey, you could say, don't call me that. I'm no better than anyone else. I had a hit game but all I have to show for it is that I have to work twice as hard on the next one.

John Romero, American McGee, Brad McQuaid, Richard Garriott and many, many more; Game Gods all.

Source : westkarana.com

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2008. június 9., hétfő

Everything of Free Online Games




When Frooga.com was lunched 3 years ago it only had 50 free online games, as the years passed and free online gaming became more and more popular than ever, they kept adding new games to the site and now it currently has over 600 games. Since 2003 many gaming sites have came out and the only thing you need to do is type in the word "free online games" in Google or Yahoo and you'll find 100s of them. But the unique thing about Frooga.com is that they won't spam your brower with pop-ads or make you sign-up after playing couple of games on their site. No. When you play games at Frooga.com it's only games and nothing else, it's simple as that.

All their free online games are hand selected from different games developers and updated on Frooga.com. So you won't find any boring games there.

They have wide selection of different online games, online action games, online puzzle games, sports, dress them up, online shooting games and many others.

With Frooga.com you don't download any software to play the games you only need to have a good browser like Interent Explorer, FireFox, Safari and many other plus Flash Player 9 or above and you are set.

If you haven't played any online games before it's real easy and most of their online games come with insturction on how to play them. So check them out and leave a comment here for other people about what you think of their free online games.



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2008. június 7., szombat

Fallen Earth: Complete Skills Update


Fallen Earth's lead designer, Lee Hammock, delivered this week an up-to-date skill sets list, covering the Active Skills, Tradeskills, Mutation Paths and the Faction Specialties. Hammock also noted that the team is finishing four major areas in addition to raids and vehicles in preparation for some polish work next week:

As promised last week, I'm going to go through some of the older information and note things that have changed, starting this week with skills. Things have shifted around a bit, mainly with some skills being removed or their purposes switched.

For those who are keeping up on the weekly goings on in the office, this week we're finishing up Boneclaw, Sunshine Corners, Terance, Kingman Prison, and South Burb, in addition to some work on raids, vehicles, etc. Next week is a polish week so we're working on making everything run a bit more smoothly as opposed to implementing more content.

Skills

Currently FE has three categories of skills: Active skills, Tradeskills, and Mutation Paths.

Active Skills

These are skills that are involved in normal, non-mutation based combat, using items, and interacting with the environment. All players have some rating in all the active skills. Active skills start out equal to .75 of one attribute and .25 of a second attribute. For example, a character's base Melee is equal to .75 of their Strength and .25 of their Coordination. Active skills are raised at a cost of 1 AP per point up to double the base value of the skill.

- Animal Training: Allows for the training of horses currently, but other functionality will be added later. Animal Training is based on .75 Charisma and .25 Perception.

- Armor Use: Allows the character to learn defensive special abilities, use a wider selection of armor, and is factored into determining how effective a character's armor is when the character is damaged. Armor Use is based on .75 Strength and .25 Endurance.

- Athletics: Allows the character to learn a variety of self-buff effects, such as increasing movement rates or hit point recovery. Athletics is based on .75 Endurance and .25 Coordination.

- Dodge: When a character is attacked in ranged combat, the target's Dodge skill is compared to the attacker's Rifle or Pistol to determine critical hit chance, damage bonuses, etc. Dodge is determined by .75 Coordination and .25 Perception.

- First Aid: Allows the character to use a number of healing items and special abilities, such as recovering Health over time, restoring Stamina, or removing poison and disease effects. First Aid is based on .75 Intelligence and .25 Perception.

- Group Tactics: Allows the character to use a number of group buffs. Group Tactics is based on .75 Charisma and .25 Perception.

- Melee: Determines effectiveness of melee combat, including chance of critical hits, weapon selection, and special attacks. Melee is based on .75 Strength and .25 Coordination. Melee has a subskill called Melee Defense which is equal to a character's Melee, but may be modified separately by effects, items, etc. When a character is attacked, the character's Melee Defense is compared to the attacker's Melee to determine the chance of critical hit, any damage bonus, etc.

- Pistol: Determines effectiveness of pistols in combat, including chance of critical hits, weapon selection, and special attacks. Pistol is based on .75 Dexterity and .25 Perception. Pistols don't have the range of rifles, but can be used in close combat without penalty.

- Rifle: Determines effectiveness of rifles in combat, including chance of critical hits, weapon selection, and special attacks. Rifle is based on .75 Dexerity and .25 Perception. Rifles have the longest range but characters suffer a penalty to Melee Defense while wielding a rifle.

- Stealth: Determines character's ability to avoid detection via noise and learn a number of effects and special attacks, including the ability to alter your faction ratings (and reveal those alterations in others). Stealth is based on .75 Coordination and .25 Perception.

Tradeskills

These skills allow players to craft items by learning instructions (our new term replacing "recipes"), collecting the appropriate tool kits and components, and spending the required time to make the item. Characters can learn as many tradeskill as they want. All Tradeskills are based on .75 Intelligence and .25 Perception. Tradeskills are raised through use, up to double the base value of the skill.

- Armorcraft: Covers the making of armor and clothes.

- Ballistics: Covers the creation of rifles and pistols, from zip guns and crossbows to sub-machine guns and assault rifles.

- Cooking: Covers the preparation of food, which can provide a number of recovery-oriented buffs.

- Geology: Allows the player to harvest minerals from mining nodes and to refine metals into higher-grade components.

- Medicine: Covers the creation of all manner of medical equipment.

- Mutagenics (formerly Genetics): Covers the creation of mutation injectors and other devices that support the use of mutations, such as gamma restorers.

- Nature: Allows the character to harvest components from animals and plants in addition to producing some items and refine some components.

- Scavenging: Allows the character to harvest scavenging nodes, which can yield a wide variety of items.

- Science: Covers the creation of chemical boosters, special optics, and similarly advanced items. Also allows the refinement of some components.

- Weaponry: Covers the creation of melee weapons.

You may notice the Teaching skill is no longer included. The functionality still exists, but is contained within in each skill instead of a separate skill. So if you learn an advanced Armorcraft knowledge, you can make a book that can teach it to someone else.

Mutation Paths

Each mutation path covers a specific type of mutation and allows the player to learn special abilities within that mutation. Mutation paths are raised with APs, with each AP raising the mutation path 1 point, up to double the base value of the skill.

- Alpha Mutation: Fairly low-power mutations possessed by all characters as part of the cloning process. They provide some basic buffs, recovery abilities, and speed modifiers.

- Empathic: The character can alter the bodies of others, allowing a limited ability to heal or harm others. Empathic is primarily a healing and buffing mutation. Empathic is based on .75 Endurance and .25 Willpower.

- Enhancement: The character can nudge the molecular structure and properties of some common items, exaggerating the already present chemical properties of an item. Enhancement is primarily a crowd-control and damage mutation. Enhancement is based on .75 Intelligence and .25 Willpower.

- Nano-Manipulation: The character can control some of the nanites left on their bodies from the regeneration process, allowing them to increase their own abilities. Nano-Manipulation is primarily a self-buff mutation with a few attack abilities. Nano-Manipulation is based on .75 Intelligence and .25 Willpower.

- Patho-Transmission: The character is a walking plague carrier, and can use these infections to attack others. Patho-Transmission is primarily a debuff and damage-over-time mutation. Patho-Transmission is based on .75 Endurance and .25 Willpower.

- Primal: The character has developed genetic traits he can use to increase his strength, speed, etc. Primal is primarily a self-buff mutation path. Primal is based on .75 Strength and .25 Willpower.

- Sonic Manipulation: The character can control sound waves, reducing or increasing sound. Sonic Manipulation has many facets including buffs, crowd control, and damage abilities, but is not as focused as other mutation paths. Sonic Manipulation is based on .75 Perception and .25 Willpower.

- Suppression: Suppression allows a character to drain gamma energy from other mutations, remove mutation buffs, and increase his own resistance to mutations. Suppression is based on .75 Perception and .25 Willpower.

- Telekinesis: The character can move objects with his mind. Telekinesis is primarily a damage and crowd-control mutation. Telekinesis is based on .75 Intelligence and .25 Willpower.

- Telepathy: The character can affect the minds of others, such as distracting opponents or making himself seem more likable. Telepathy is primarily a crowd-control and self-buffing mutation. Telepathy is based on .75 Charisma and .25 Willpower.

- Thermal Manipulation: The player can control the movement of molecules, increasing or decreasing heat in an area. Thermal Manipulation is primarily a damage, damage-over-time, and self-buff mutation. Thermal Manipulation is based on .75 Perception and .25 Willpower. Faction Skill Specialties

Each faction has nine skills they excel at and ten skills they are average at. To learn skills besides these nineteen skills, faction members must seek out instructors from allied factions or neutral instructors. You'll notice Scavenging isn't on any of these lists; it has no instructions or special abilities associated with it. It only serves to meet requirements for scavenging nodes.

Enforcers:

- Primary Skills: Armor Use, Armorcraft, Ballistics, Dodge, First Aid, Group Tactics, Pistols, Rifles, Suppression

- Secondary Skills: Animal Training, Athletics, Empathic, Geology, Medicine, Melee, Nano-Manipulation, Science, Stealth, Weaponry

Techs:

- Primary Skills: Armorcraft, Ballistics, Enhancement, Mutagenics, Geology, Nano-Manipulation, Pistol, Science, Thermal Manipulation

- Secondary Skills: Armor Use, Dodge, First Aid, Medicine, Rifles, Sonic Manipulation, Suppression, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Weaponry

Travelers:

- Primary Skills: Cooking, Athletics, Dodge, Melee, Pistol, Science, Sonic Manipulation, Stealth, Telepathy

- Secondary Skills: Armor use, Armorcraft, Ballistics, Enhancement, Geology, First Aid, Nano-Manipulation, Nature, Rifle, Weaponry

CHOTA:

- Primary Skills: Armor Use, Athletics, Dodge, Melee, Mutagenics, Patho-Transmission, Primal, Thermal Manipulation, Weaponry

- Secondary Skills: Animal Training, Armorcraft, Cooking, Empathic, Nature, Group Tactics, Pistol, Rifle, Stealth, Suppression

Vista:

- Primary Skills: Animal Training, Athletics, Cooking, Dodge, Nature, Primal, Rifle, Sonic Manipulation, Stealth

- Secondary Skills: Ballistics, Armorcraft, Weaponry, First Aid, Geology, Group Tactics, Medicine, Melee, Pistol, Science

Lightbearers:

- Primary Skills: Dodge, Empathic, First Aid, Mutagenics, Medicine, Melee, Stealth, Telekinesis, Telepathy

- Secondary Skills: Armorcraft, Athletics, Group Tactics, Nature, Primal, Science, Sonic Manipulation, Suppression, Thermal Manipulation, Weaponry

Source : WarCry Network

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Warhammer imbalance fears




When Warhammer Online releases later this year do you think there will be a skewed realm population? The GREENSkin blog seems to think so, but history would disagree with them. Whenever a game has been faction-based the "evil" races tend to be popular during the beta period. This fear of imbalance was a issue in Dark Age of Camelot and in World of Warcraft. During both of those instances beta testers expressed worry that the more evil of the realms would be entirely overpopulated post launch. However, the exact opposite happened to the complete befuddlement of beta testers everywhere.

Everyone was left wondering why this had happened but the truth is that there's no simple explanation. It's not simply a matter of players liking the good guys more than the bad ones, as many would guess. In the case of World of Warcraft, many players would also argue that Alliance 1-60 content was simply paced much better than the Horde side. Of course with WoW there was only one class specific to each side (Paladin and Shaman) until a patch much later. In Warhammer Online each side has a bevy of classes all to their own. While all of these classes share similarities mechanically, they do differ in terms of flavor. So you can see how even these two games have different factors affecting realm balance.

That's only scratching the surface as there are lots of worries to have with any MMO beyond even realm balance. There's even the possibility that players coming from WoW to WAR might decide to break tradition and flood the evil races over the good ones. All we know is that we'll be in the thick of it playing our Gobbos, Orcs, Chaos and Dark Elves.

Source : Massively.com

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2008. június 5., csütörtök

Age of Conan: Upcoming Changes




Demonologists * The duration of Protection of Set will be substantially increased. * The maximum damage absorbed before Protection of Set fails will be increased to be more in line with damage dealt in leveling scenarios. Additional survivability increases are also being evaluated. * Players will gain a visible debuff to indicate when Protection of Set has run out of absorbable damage. * The base splash damage dealt by Fires of Gehenna, Hellfire Stream, Shockstrike, and Shock will be substantially increased. * The amount of damage dealt by most damage sources will be reevaluated. * The cooldown of Inferno of Ahmner and Shockblast will be reduced to 2.5 seconds to match the casting time of Fires of Gehenna and Shockstrike. * The Archmage feat will be moved to tier 2 instead of tier 3 in the Mage general tree to make it more easily accessible to varying builds. * All crowd control will have a significantly reduced chance to break from damage dealt by pets. * Fiery Torment (Rank 1) will be introduced at level 30 instead of level 45. * The casting time of certain long-duration buffs will be reduced. * The run speed of pets will be increased significantly. * Various bugfixes and alterations to existing feats and abilities; for example, decreasing the casting time of Detonation.

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2008. június 1., vasárnap

Online games know-how !



Online gaming is a new era of the evolution of technology and with the rising demand of different ways to spend our leisure time and with the increase in demand for our services in the working environment. Online gaming is among the most interesting and modern way of entertainment according most of the surveys done worldwide. Many people from all age groups indulge themselves in online game to refresh their minds as well as educate themselves at the same time. Online games are the games played on the computers by the means of internet connection. As the number of internet users is increasing the number of online gamers is also increasing. Games range from the simplest to the most complex depending on the type of game that pleases you. One of the most interesting things about online games is use of graphics and virtual worlds populated by many players simultaneously.There are different kinds of game that are found online which include adventure games , castle building, jet fighting, puzzle games , mind games, pools and many more. These are just some of the games mostly found free online what you need to do is clicking your mouse. Fascinatingly all these games target people from all ages and does not leave anyone out of the loop. The rising of its popularity is due to the perfection of the games with the revolution of internet where websites could stream out videos, audio and a whole new set of user interactivity.

Among the benefit of the online gaming is that it broaden and widens the thinking capacity of people with games such as scrabble which involves thinking and being creative. Problem solving has been known to improve the brain function in its speed and function. While spending time on internet multiplayer games and online gaming communities, players get an opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and at the same time meet new and different people online. With this it promotes social interactions with people who might be very far and still play a game of chess together on the internet.

There is also a potential possibility for online games to help people and families to deal with chronic diseases and other illness that involve the mind. Since games are easier to understand than books then most of schools use online gaming as a way to educate people especially children. From fighting cancer cells to managing pain free online games allow families to use imagination and creativity, while also opening doors to the chance of recovery and understanding.

Let us not forget the prizes to be won after winning the games. Some of the website encourage people to place by awarding prizes to the winners of the games. All this is due to the increase of technology that has also helped in lifting the living standards of our lives. This is a new era that has to be exploited and spread all over for more effectiveness on people. Take a step forward and you will never regret.

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Into the depths of EverQuest's most famous dungeons







We've been following along as the official EverQuest site offers up new articles about very old things. They're working through the game's lore, pointing out some of the most important places in all of Norrath. Today the folks at SOE have a pair of writeups on two of the most important dungeons in all of the original continent of Antonica.

The city of Guk is one of those, the swampy ancient home of the Froglok people. Driven from their ancient lower chambers by Trolls, undead, and things even fouler still, the upper reaches of Guk are still home to noble frog warriors. The lower depths, though, are some of the most dangerous areas in all of the older game. Whether you were bashing bones on the 'Dead Side' or ruining your Froglok faction on the 'Live Side', these confusing caverns were home to some great victories and defeats over the years.

The other dungeon covered this week is the gnoll-infested hole of Blackburrow. Given its low level and proximity to the goodly starting city of Qeynos, Blackburrow is a locale almost every EQ players will be familiar with.

It's famed throughout the game as one of the most interesting lore areas in all the game. It's also well known for the endless trains of monsters that typified low-level questing there. From the top of the great pit to the wet-dog smell of the Commanders' room, the place is steeped in EverQuest lore through and through.

Source : massively.com

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Age of Conan dethrones Grand Theft Auto IV in Europe


With the amount of hype, advertising, positive reviews and media attention Grand Theft Auto IV has received over the past few months, we wholly expected it to remain on top of the software sales charts until our video game consoles grew sentient and attempted to purge humanity from the planet. Strangely enough, a dark horse recently overtook Rockstar's well-received crime drama in many European territories -- a horse mounted by a brawny, rippling Cimmerian.

Yes, Funcom's decapitation-rich MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures recently outsold GTA IV in a number of European locations, including Germany and Sweden. Since Rockstar's latest opus is still selling like freshly baked hotcakes in North America, we can't help but wonder if GTA's themes of living the American dream and hooker brutalization got lost in translation as the title crossed the Atlantic -- or whether Age of Conan's musclebound mascot reminds German gamers of a certain pop culture icon who is quite revered in their country.
Source : massively.com

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MMORPG EVE Online targets Battlestar Galactica fandom


EVE Online has made first contact with a whole new group of sci-fi fans, through some carefully chosen TV advertising. EVE's first TV ads were shown during the most recent Battlestar Galactica episode on the SciFi network. If CCP Games wanted to target the viewers who would be the most receptive to checking out EVE, they didn't go wrong by choosing Galactica fans. The TV ads were an unexpected move, and came as a big surprise to many EVE players. Ethic at Kill Ten Rats said: "My jaw hit the floor while watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica on SciFi tonight. There, before my eyes, was a commercial for EVE Online. Amazing. Nice work CCP!"
High visibility TV adverts for an MMO had previously been something only associated with Night Elf mohawks, Shatner, and a company with some rather deep pockets. EVE Online dev CCP Wrangler made a full announcement about the company's leap into prime time advertising.
"For the first time ever, EVE Online can be seen on TV! A revised version of the Empyrean Age teaser trailer will be run during the last few episodes of Battlestar Galactica starting tonight! It will run six times total, four times during "prime time" shows and twice during "late night" shows (after 2300 local time). Check local listings for availability and times."
This is a great move on CCP's part, but no doubt an expensive one. However the steady progression made by CCP Games, seen over the relatively short time since this Massively writer joined the ranks of New Eden's capsuleers, is impressive: A merger with White Wolf Publishing and a second gothic horror MMO in the works; quarterly economic newsletters and E-ON magazine issues; in-world journalism and collaborative fiction; a player-elected representative council; EVE TV; and live broadcasts of PvP tournaments. The Icelandic innovators are clearly willing to take some risks by breaking out of the MMO industry's status quo, and co-opting fans from another sci-fi IP is just one bold move among many by CCP. With any luck, the Empyrean Age teaser trailer will be enough to tempt diehard Galactica fans to put that search for Earth on pause and finally check out this 'New-fracking-Eden.'

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2008. május 31., szombat

The Profitable Dimension of Virtual Business


There is a new industry that has emerged in the 21st century that allows gamers to profit from their passion of MMORPGs. All over the world regular gamers are purchasing online game currencies and filling the pockets of virtual entrepreneurs. The industry spans from New York to Shanghai, with hundreds of thousands of avid customers inbetween. Employing thousands of workers across Asia is necessary to satisfy the growing demand from Western gamers.
Beyond the MMORPG community, little attention is paid to the RMT industry and so it remains an unknown property to the majority of the world's population. Regardless of this, RMT remains most active in games such as World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy XI (FFXI), EVE Online and EverQuest 2. A prime example is in the World of Warcraft where participants progress through numerous dungeons, quests and scenarios in order to amass the game's currency. Many gamers decide to spend their hard-earned currency on themselves, but many decide to sell their precious Gil for real money - others even dedicate themselves (and others) professionally to this task, all in the search of profit.
MMORPG creators rarely agree with or tolerate the practice of in-game trading. Major developers and distributers often cite intellectual property violations as their reason for objection, claiming that participants are selling part of the game which actually belongs to the game's creator. Developers often try to persuade players within the game that the practice is detrimental to game-play or the world's economy. Legally, real-money trading breaks no laws and has led to no convictions within the Western world, but pressure for government intervention grows each day.
Even though some take issue with the ethics or principles of the practices, virtual trading is here to stay. There is certainly money to be made, whether it's by developers or entrepreneurs, and the market shows no sign of slowing. Unreleased titles such as Warhammer Online and Age of Conan will no doubt act as the future venues for this ever expanding industry.
Special thanks to www.MOGS.com - reatailer of FFXI Gil

2008. május 30., péntek

Age of Conan: First Impressions




The character creation screen is more in depth than many MMOs. However, if you're brave enough to admit you've played The Sims, then you've certainly seen better. In the end does it really matter in games where you're likely to be covered head to toe in armor? I think not so much but I sense that people do enjoy the versatility. What I would personally have preferred more than being able to tweak the length of my nose or the size of my boobs, was not to look like a ragamuffin. If you thought your character's gear looked thrown together in LOTRO you ain't seen nothin' yet. To date, Age of Conan and LOTRO are the only games that I've played where I looked like mixed-match mess.

I appreciate the circumstance of a recently escaped/freed slave. I understand they don't plan on making the game as gear dependant as others. However, do I really have to look that bad? Or am I that vain??? I found myself looking through the multiple tops, pants and shoes in my bag trying to find something that at least seemed like it went together. The stats were all the same but the styles, colors and textures didn't jive. I looked a hot mess. It was slightly similar to AC2 in that, there was a lot of variety in the same piece of armor so you can be in a red robe that has +1 Defense and I can be in a black one if I prefer and that's without dying your items. However, Age of Conan hacks made the stuff even at the lower levels look decent and you could easily match your items. Hopefully, I'll get to look better at some point.

AOC has a nice variety of classes within the four archetypes of Soldier, Priest, Mage and Assassin. Only certain classes can be played by certain races, which is a common implementation. However, in AOC whole archetypes are exclusive to certain races. For example, if you want to be a Mage of any kind, then you must be Stygian. On the PVE and PVP servers so what, but I wonder how this plays out on the Culture PVP servers where a race is completely locked out of an archetype?

Even though AOC has the usual suspects for classes, not all of them are the typical fare. Priests and Mages are battle versions of those classes. Everyone gets to have decent offensive skills and from what I've read so far, it appears that HOT and AOE healing spells are more prevalent than the "heal one" scenario. I think this might make playing a healer more pleasurable. If you can heal many more often with a single action, you'll have more opportunity to actual watch the battle – see the instances and bosses.

One of the Mage's has melee as its primary DPS, as does at least one of the Priests. It's little twists like these that add a bit of freshness into the game. I'll discuss the classes in more detail after I've finished testing my would-be mains.

Lastly, the combat system which is VERY different from any MMO I've ever played. At least in terms of PVE, it's not giving me nearly the trouble I expected. I never did well on the console games and don't consider myself adept at FPS style combat but so far, so good. The inclusion of combos which deal more damage when successfully executed is interesting. I do wish that I could move where they displayed. For some reason focusing left side of the screen doesn't work as well for me, as it would if I could place it right side or better yet, closer to my character and my Age of Conan cheats. I want to watch the combat but with the combos slightly off to the left, my eye is focused there. Oh well, definitely not a huge deal. It would just be nice to be able to move it to match my preferred field of view.

That's where I'm at for now. It's pretty, different, combat feels fresh, UI could be better but no deal breaker. I'm on a PVE server at the moment. I'm going to do a Bear Shaman on a PVP or Cultural PVP server at some point. The only pitfall I can foresee at the moment is if I MUST quest. Forced questing for leveling is why I'm not playing LOTRO or EQ2. Grinding XP is a play-style and as much as some people hate it, others enjoy and actually prefer it. I don't mind questing in moderation but when I'm not in the mood, I really do need the freedom to just go whack stuff and still level at a decent rate. This philosophy is one of the major reasons I'm excited about Warhammer Online.

May 29, 2008 in Age of Conan | Permalink



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2008. május 29., csütörtök

MMO MMOnkey: Age of Conan reinvents the early game



Like a damsel in distress, MMO players have been held captive by game openings that have relied heavily, much too heavily, on bounty quests of the "Kill twenty of these and then come back to me" variety. Trapped in chains of tedium, experienced players blitz through early levels to get to the point where something interesting starts to happen while gamers new to the genre often wonder why anyone bothers to play these games before they quit from boredom. At least that's the way it used to be.

Lord of the Rings Online took a giant step toward freeing the damsel when they placed the player in a solo instance at the very beginning that gets the player immediately involved in the story that drives the game while also providing instruction in basic game play. It is a terrific way to begin an MMO and the people at Turbine did a great job with it. LotRO weakened the chains but did not quite free the damsel. Now Age of Conan has arrived and by incorporating LotRO's approach into an extended opening that is innovative, immersive and exceptionally well implemented Conan has rescued the damsel by reinventing the early game.

Your character begins AoC in a solo instance. You've washed up on shore with shackles on your wrists after your slave ship has wrecked at sea. Your first task is to free a damsel in distress named Casilda. She's gorgeous, scantily clad, and provocative, follows you everywhere you go, and never misses an opportunity to tell you you're a stud muffin as she bails your sorry ass out of whatever trouble you've blundered into. In other words, she's a wet dream for 14 year old boys of all ages.

Casilda keeps you alive as you play through the instance learning the basics of game play while picking up starter weapons and armor. If you talk to her, she'll also begin to fill you in on the dire situation that will occupy your efforts through the first part of the game. Talking to her is a good idea for two reasons; she's your introduction to the terrific story that drives AoC's early game, and she has an accent that would make listening to the grocery list enjoyable. (If you enjoy listening to Casilda, just wait until you meet Tina.)

AoC is following in the path blazed by LotRO in its use of a solo instance as an introductory tutorial that puts the player in the story. Once you reach the starter city of Tortage, however, Age of Conan goes where no MMO has gone before.

The early game in AoC is divided into daytime and nighttime segments. The daytime game is a fairly typical shared-world MMO with vendors, quests, several different locations, and lots of other players running around. Some of the quests are of the standard bounty hunter variety that turns the early game into a dreary grind in so many other MMOs. However, there are so many other kinds of quests in both the day and nighttime games that you can skip the bounty quests if you don't want to do them. If you like them, they're there for you; if you don't, you can avoid them without penalty.

The nighttime game is a single-player adventure in which you learn about the evil things that are going on in, around and under Tortage and play your part in trying to put an end to them. It is also the mechanism AoC uses to let you build your character to the point where you are ready to enter the main game world. During character creation you choose one of AoC's twelve character classes but when you wash up on shore your memory is gone and your character doesn't know who or what they are. Both character and story development are carried out through a single series of destiny quests in the night game.

You can go back and forth between the day and nighttime games whenever you please; day and night are not on a timer in the early game. The destiny quest line is designed to take you through approximately twenty levels and you must attain a certain level to unlock the next series of quests in the sequence. Quest mobs are tuned to your level so the destiny quests are always both challenging and doable. Some players are finding the destiny quests difficult but that has not been my experience. When you have finished the destiny quests you can go to the mainland and enter the main part of the game or you can stay on the island; your choice. If you leave, you can come back at any time.

The combination of a single player game and a shared-world MMO is an interesting and innovative game mechanic in and of itself but what makes it work so well in AoC is how well Funcom has combined the two in a coherent whole. The evil that you uncover at night is reflected all around you in the world you see during the day, and the experience of living in the daytime world deeply enriches the adventure you have at night. The day and night games beautifully compliment and reinforce each other in such a way that their whole is greater than the sum of their parts. It's two different games in one seamlessly integrated world and the result is a deeply immersive experience for the player.

The sense of immersion is greatly enhanced by the story line that drives the nighttime destiny quests. No spoilers here, but suffice it to say that the story is a very good one that is very much in tune with Robert E. Howard's classic Conan stories. The night game carries the main story line but several quest sequences in the day game fill out some of the details. As always, there's the big bad guy that you're going to have to deal with in the final confrontation but along the way you'll get up close and personal with his lieutenants, minions and soldiers. In the daytime world you'll witness their depravity and be personally subjected to their arrogance and disdain. They will scorn and demean you and, like the other denizens of Tortage, you will be powerless to do anything about it. Other than pray your paths will cross in the night, that is. If and when your paths do cross, you will understand at a gut level the joy in wreaking physical destruction on your enemies that is so much a part of the Conan stories. You really want these people to die, you really want your friends and allies to survive, and you find yourself this deeply immersed in the game during the first twenty levels. These are the same twenty levels that other games have you grind through before the fun starts.

The day – night mechanic also contributed to my sense of immersion in the game in a way that was completely unexpected. Many MMOs have a day – night cycle that is designed to contribute to the player's sense that the virtual world is a real place that exists independently of the player's actions. At first glance, allowing the player to control when day and night occur appears to be a large step backward from this kind of immersive realism. It didn't work that way for me, however. I found I quickly fell into a rhythm where I would play the day game for awhile, get tired of the daytime quests, switch to the night game, play that for awhile, switch back to the day game, and so on. Alternating the two games like this led me to think that AoC captures the functional difference between night and day like no MMO before it and by doing so draws the player more deeply into the game.

What do I mean by the functional difference between night and day? In the real world, night comes, it gets dark, and there's nothing we can do about it. AoC 's early game utterly fails at depicting this aspect of the day – night cycle. Don't want it to get dark? Don't play the night game. It's that simple. But for most of us, day and night involve much more than a difference between light and dark. We generally do very different things during the day and the night. Day is for work, night is for relaxation and fun. Day and night fulfill different functions in our lives and for many of us this functional difference is much more important and meaningful than the simple difference between light and dark. By splitting the day and night games between a shared-world MMO and a story-driven solo adventure AoC does a wonderful job of capturing this functional difference. Nighttime not only looks different, it feels different because you're doing different things, and that makes it more real and more engaging than the regular application of a dark color scheme on a cyclical timer.

The integrative aspects of AoC's early game are not limited to melding the day and nighttime games into a single fully realized world. There are four class archetypes in AoC, soldier, rogue, priest and mage. The destiny lines for the rogue and soldier archetypes (the two I've played through to the end of the early game thus far) have some quests in common but each also has a number of special quests that are tailored to the archetype. For example, the soldier goes on a rescue mission while the rogue has a sneak and assassination mission. In addition, the differences in the quest lines provide interlocking pieces of the overall story. As the soldier you are told that because X has happened you must now do Y; as the rogue you are the one that did X so that the soldier can do Y. Playing out the different parts of the story with different characters greatly adds to the fullness of the world and the richness of your experience in it.

It also appears to be the case that the adventure you have in the early game is only a small segment of a much larger story that will play out through the rest of AoC. The destiny story line has hooks aplenty for subsequent development in the larger world. Your victory in Tortage may well have brought your character to the attention of much more dangerous foes. You'll just have to keep playing to find out.

Age of Conan opens like no game before it and I expect the changes will not be to everyone's liking. The weary complaints from people who assert that World of Warcraft didn't do anything new because it was just an easier version of Everquest seem to be counterbalanced by the segment of the MMO community that wants every new game to be just like WoW only better. The latter group may find AoC confusing and I've seen some minor pissing and moaning in OOC chat from people who are frustrated by being challenged to do something other than mindlessly grind out the first twenty levels to "get off this damned island" as fast as possible. In many other MMOs the first ten to twenty levels are a chore you need to get through. In AoC, they're an exciting and compelling introduction to the game and the game world. If you can adapt to this difference in the early game, you're in for a treat. If you can't, you're going to blow through an experience that's meant to be savored and miss one of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

With Age of Conan Funcom has melded innovative game design with the centuries-old standby of a good story that is well told and then deeply embedded the combination in a world that is so fully realized it draws you in almost immediately and doesn't let go until you set sail for the mainland. AoC sets new and very high standards for what the early game in an MMO should be. Having played through the adventure in Tortage, grinding out five, ten, or twenty levels at the start of an MMO just to get to the part where the fun begins isn't going to cut it anymore. Age of Conan has come roaring out of the gate and like the mighty Cimmerian for whom it's named has put a boot in the ass of the early game in nearly every other MMO out there. Conan has rescued my damsel from her early-game distress and she's never going to want to go back to the way it used to be.

Source : massively.com

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2008. május 28., szerda

Online Game communities are social in nature



By Cindy Ahuna

Who are the friendly characters that will play with you if you play with them?

In 1969, "SpaceWar", developed by Rick Blomme, was the first two-player game designed to play on PLATO. In 1961, the "Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations" was the first network to run on the Illiac computer system. PLATO was created by Professor Chalmers Sherwin, under the direction of electrical engineering professor Don Bitzer, co-inventor of the plasma display pane at the University of Illinois.

During 1970 through 1977, multiplayer games included "SpaceWar"; a version of "Star Trek"; "Avatar", a Dungeons and Dragons-style game; "Airflight", a flight simulator; and "Empire", which supported 32 players on PLATO. In 1972, PLATO hosted 1,000 simultaneous users. In May 2001, Sony's "EverQuest", a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, hosted 60,000 to 80,000 players daily.

In 1973, David R. Woolley designed "Notes", a communications software for PLATO. Due to the release of this software, "Talkomatic", precursor to IRC with handles and chat rooms, was developed for PLATO. A maximum of five people wrote and read each other's messages on the same screen. Chat rooms were open and uncensored. A player logged on using their real or an anonymous name, and played either gender role.

In various online chat rooms found on AOL's games and in Sony's "EverQuest", text is censored when gamers use brand or offensive words. Role-playing genders, sometimes referred to as gender swapping or multiple representations, is possible when gamers change or hide the genders of their characters using anonymous names.

In "EverQuest", with more than 360,000 subscribers, thousands of gamers play characters of the opposite gender. Gamers are free to explore relationships while in character. Male gamers find that female characters generally get treated better in male-dominated virtual worlds. Sometimes men find it easier to chat with other characters and escape the competition. In free online games list, multiple representations allow players to see how other players solve problems. "There are a lot of rumors and anecdotes about people referring to play games as men or women because they are treated differently," says avid gamer J. MacLean.

In a lecture titled "Programs, Emotions and Common Sense", Marvin Minsky emphasized in his book the idea of multiple representation. "If you understand something very precisely in one way", Minsky claims "you don't understand it at all." "You know it by rote. What does the word understand mean? Understanding means having many different ways to deal with things," said Minsky. Children memorize history by rote, but they usually don't understand it how free online games work. Sometimes gamers falsely assume they are interacting with a person who matches the gender's name. Perhaps on one level, Minsky's definition can be applied as a working analogy for multiplayers who role-play playing games. If multiplayers had more ways of identifying the characters, they might be able to understand who the friendly characters were when they played with them, but then again, that might take all of the fun out of the game.

Artist/curator Anne-Marie Schleiner, describes social developments in gaming: "Multiplayer games can be very social. In the shooter genre, players sometimes band together into "clans", groups who fight against other groups. Sometimes the social bonds developed in these clans extend beyond the game into friendship and players offer each other moral support through personal hardship and help each other find jobs," said Schleiner.

Social environments evolve from online game communities. "A great example is "Air Warrior", a WW2 flight simulation with players are so dedicated, they've held conventions. Massive multiplayer role-playing games are also famous for the strength of their communities "the guilds in "EverQuest" are a great example of this phenomenon," says MacLean. In contrast to single player games, communities are vital depending on the game. For example, "for a game like chess, where skill levels can be critical, many people prefer to play with someone of relatively similar skill," says MacLean.

In a global point of view, the Internet is the living organism that hosts many online games systems. Boundaries of geography, economy, culture, degrees of education and family traditions have disappeared. Gamers are co-authors that take part in the experience. Communities are playing fields for social interaction. When gamers send messages to other gamers, they are free to exchange email addresses and meet beyond the game community. Communities have become an extension, a new medium of human touch.

When communities form, a semantic world of sharing knowledge, solving problems, working as a team, playing, building, quarreling, cooperating, planning and forming relationships develop. Games are formal because they have a set of rules. A game is a system because it has a collection of parts that interact with each other in complex ways. In "EverQuest", the Game Masters hold the most power. Online games run on a '24x7' calendar. Generally, online the role-playing games are maintained by paid subscriptions, whereas, online fighting games are free. Communities exist in time by free and paid subscriptions. Gamers occupy real estate within the online game. Communities live in both space and time. Thus, it is a lifelike system.

Popular game boxes vary from Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2; Nintendo's GameCube projected to ship Nov 5, '01 in the US; and Microsoft's Xbox projected to ship Nov 8, '01 in the US. "Although game boxes offer higher resolution graphics in comparison to PC gaming, they are a closed hardware platform and less amenable to multiplayer social games. Multiplayer gamers cannot insert their own character skins into shooter games in a game box or with a multiplayer game, such as "EverQuest". "EverQuest" can easily receive updates on the game over time that get rewritten over the original game software," says Schleiner. Many gamers develop friendships with other gamers in different countries using the chat session in "EverQuest".

In some ways, there are as many different types of gamers as there are games. General definitions include:

* Generally, casual gamers are people who enjoy simple decision making games and typically play less technical 3D graphic games. * Generally, traditional gamers are people who enjoy a more complex game. * Multiplayers (simultaneous players) are defined as those who play with other gamers in the same game.

What makes an online game exciting, interesting, social or more fun than another game? Motivation evolves from sensory gratification, role-playing, personality, taste, adrenaline, sociology, immersive and engaging environments, and the element of fun. Games in general motivate ideas. Topics include life, survival, strategy, role-playing, and building relationships. In all circumstances, the player learns by playing. "Building colossal virtual worlds are very important. In a virtual world, everything has a purpose. I love games, " said Minsky during his lecture, "Programs, Emotions and Common Sense".

In Star Trek CCG, gamers can buy and sell, trade and collect digital cards, watch or judge games, and attend tournaments. One disadvantage, prior to downloading the plug-in, a high risk is indicated. The risk is associated with the possibility of gamers accessing your computer if you proceed with download. This warning appears with this statement: "JavaScript or a java applet from DigitalDeck, Inc. is requesting additional privileges." This plug-in is required to run the application.

Because game communities are social in nature, knowledge and understanding are more apparent in virtual worlds. "Wouldn't it be nice to connect two thoughts," said Minsky.



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