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Frictionless Insight is reporting that the International Game Developers Association is lowering their membership fees after a split with their former management organization. From the article: "Ordinary memberships now cost roughly half what they previously cost, and other memberships have been discounted somewhat. For example, a standard one-year membership has dropped from $100 to $48." This can only mean good things, as more beginnign developers become a part of the association.

Thanks to Warcry.com for its three-part interview with Playboy: The Mansion lead developer Brenda Brathwaite. She discusses the Sims-like gameplay of the multi-platform title in development at Cyberlore, arguing: "I think I have an advantage as a heterosexual woman in that Playboy just wasn't part of my past: I was able to approach it from a brand-new angle... I can flip through those magazines and not have it effect me in the same way that it would clearly affect a heterosexual male." She concludes: "We go through and take a comparatively high road with this game, and show you a little of what it takes to build the Playboy empire, and what has happened historically. That was the challenge."

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for its article recounting the proceedings of the 2004 Game Developers Choice and Independent Games Festival Awards, which were held last night in San Jose. Multiple GDC Award winners included Call Of Duty and Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time, and Savage: The Battle for Newerth won the IGF independent game award, with Oasis triumphing in the Web/downloadable category. Among the highlights: "When the Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates team moved to the stage to accept the [IGF Web/Downloadable Audience Choice] award, dressed as buccaneers, they basked in the most thunderous applause of the night", and the piece also notes that "...the audience was [almost equally] vocal when HK-47 (from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic) took the award for [GDC] Original Game Character of the Year." There's further coverage of the events over at GameSpy.

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for pointing to a China Daily article discussing Sony Online's moves to introduce its MMO titles into China, as it has "found a Chinese partner to help it run its shooting game PlanetSide", and is "also trying to find partners for the forthcoming EverQuest II." While a Chinese gaming entrepreneur suggested "Western game companies are much superior to their South Korean counterparts in terms of graphic quality and game designs", a Shanghai-based analyst retorted that "...most Chinese game players like fashionable heroes and heroines in games more than picture quality and game plots, the strong point of South Korean and Japanese game developers." Elsewhere, GameScience has a translated article noting Sony's struggles in launching the PlayStation 2 in China, as it's argued, with regards to both imported hardware and pirated software: "There is simply no way for the official goods to compete with the [widely available] pirate versions."

Thanks to GamerFeed for the news that Shigeru Miyamoto's remake of Pac-Man for GameCube/GBA will make it to consumers through a variety of bundle deals. The title, shown at E3 this year, has "...one player onto a Game Boy Advance and three players on the GameCube. The GBA player plays as Pac-Man, and he or she has a view of the maze similar to the one featured in the classic arcade maze game. The three GameCube players control the ghosts. The ghosts can see only their immediate surroundings, which makes tracking down Pac-Man a bit of a mystery." It's been announced that the GameCube exclusive "...will be packaged with Namco's upcoming [budget re-release] Pac-Man World 2... [and given] to gamers who pre-order the game I-Ninja... [and given to those who] buy the game R: Racing Evolution."

Thanks to Adrenaline Vault for their hands-on preview of Final Fantasy XI for PC. This cross-platform MMORPG is due for PC this October in the U.S., several months ahead of the PlayStation 2 version, and features many features to excite the average Final Fantasy fan: "Each player is granted their own Mog house complete with a yellow cherubic Moogle servant... To travel great distances quickly... [a] favorite method of transportation is at near hand: the many splendored horse/chicken hybrid, the Chocobo." Another hands-on preview at Frictionless Insight brings up the interesting problem of control methods that work for both PS2 and PC: "What won't be familiar to PC gamers is the user interface. The system of menus... ties in with the need to be accessible to gamepad-type controllers. With a moderately button-intensive gamepad in hand, PC gamers will zip through menus with a flutter of finger twitching and d-pad action."

Thanks to several readers for pointing out a Reuters/Yahoo story discussing the departure of four key employees from Warcraft and Diablo developers Blizzard Entertainment. The article elaborates: "In a statement, Blizzard Entertainment said Blizzard North co-founders Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer and David Brevik, along with a fourth employee, Bill Roper, 'resigned from the company to pursue other opportunities.'" With Bill Roper often the public face of Blizzard, and the Blizzard North co-founders being the original Diablo developers, this is a big deal for Blizzard owners Vivendi, as well as gamers everywhere, especially as Blizzard "is widely seen in the games industry as one of the most attractive assets of VU Games, which has been languishing on the auction block for months."

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for putting up a review of Jessica Mulligan and Bridgette Patrovsky's new book, Developing Online Games, a New Riders-published title written by two veteran MMO creators. The review mentions, in particular, that "..the central theme, the nail-it-to-your-face, tattoo-it-on-your-forearm message of Developing Online Games is that persistent world (PW) games, like EverQuest, aren't a product, they're a service. It is a failure to understand this unassuming statement that has caused such trouble for the PW genre." There's also an excerpt from the book available on the FI site. Update: 06/26 15:29 GMT by T : Here's Peter Wayner's review of this book from April.

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for putting up a review of Jessica Mulligan and Bridgette Patrovsky's new book, Developing Online Games, a New Riders-published title written by two veteran MMO creators. The review mentions, in particular, that "..the central theme, the nail-it-to-your-face, tattoo-it-on-your-forearm message of Developing Online Games is that persistent world (PW) games, like EverQuest, aren't a product, they're a service. It is a failure to understand this unassuming statement that has caused such trouble for the PW genre." There's also an excerpt from the book available on the FI site. Update: 06/26 15:29 GMT by T : Here's Peter Wayner's review of this book from April.

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for pointing to a St.Louis Today article indicating officials have decided not to give up on trying to outlaw the sale of violent video games to minors, despite a recent tide against their effort. As a CNN article explains, ".. [the original] ordinance, passed by the St. Louis County Council in 2000, requires children under 17 to have parental consent before they can buy violent or sexually explicit video games or play similar arcade games", but this was struck down as unconstitutional on June 4th, with a judge citing the First Amendment and the protection of free speech. The County has now set a petition for review, saying the courts "set too high a standard" for proving a link between videogames and violence. The saga continues..

Thanks to GameGirlAdvance for pointing to an OgreCave.com interview with James Ernest, the founder of noted low-price, high-fun board/card game makers Cheapass Games. As the interview notes, "With a mantra of 'Games: they cost too much, and they are at some level all the same', Cheapass virtually created the cheap games market, selling the boards and cards for their games packaged in white paper bags. Shortly after taking gamers by storm with Kill Doctor Lucky, Spree, and a number of humorous titles, James and Cheapass were being imitated right and left. What did it take to get where Cheapass is now, and how does the company plan to stay on top of the cheap games heap?" The interview also notes Cheapass' diversification into videogame publishing, putting out Digital Eel's titles, including Dr Blob's Organism.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a RPGDot interview with Richard Garriott on his forthcoming MMO title Tabula Rasa. You may know Garriott from his creation of the Ultima series, but he's now hooked up with Korean MMO behemoth NCSoft, and the interview discusses how Tabula Rasa may differ from expectations: "Tabula Rasa is not a 'virtual world' like Ultima Online or Everquest. TR is a compact social hub of activity but game play focuses on instantiated adventures for a party of players. In those instances, scripted quests a la solo-player Ultimas will be the norm."