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Heartless Gamer writes to mention a feature on Grimwell online looking at the great board game of Carcassonne. Yet another terrific title from Rio Grande, the article takes a look at a possible introductory title for someone who might not have played a more serious board game. From the article: "Once you place a farmer, you can't get that follower back. The question thus becomes, do you play it now while the field is empty or do you wait, hoping your opponent won't claim the field the following turn? Farms can mean big points at the end of the game but could also mean missed points during the game if you run out of followers to play. The game plays smoothly once the players are briefed on the rules. Turns fly by and games complete relatively quickly. The only trick area of gameplay is ensuring players placing farmers are not overlapping other farmers. There can be a lot of land tiles between farmers, so a keen eye is required to ensure the rules are followed. Fortunately, the rule book has plenty of examples to help the players out."

Grimwell writes "Mark Jacobs (VP EA) joined a discussion in our forums and shared his personal thoughts about the Mythic/EA merger: 'Another thing that has almost brought a smile to my face is that they are willing to embrace new IP that is not just WoW 2007 but IP that can stand on its own two (or three) feet without having to rely on the WoW userbase for its success.' Included in his hopeful thoughts was a healthy dose of realism: 'As always, I expect people to believe it when they see it.'"

Grimwell writes "Mark Jacobs (VP EA) joined a discussion in our forums and shared his personal thoughts about the Mythic/EA merger: 'Another thing that has almost brought a smile to my face is that they are willing to embrace new IP that is not just WoW 2007 but IP that can stand on its own two (or three) feet without having to rely on the WoW userbase for its success.' Included in his hopeful thoughts was a healthy dose of realism: 'As always, I expect people to believe it when they see it.'"

Grimwell writes NPD reports that the video games industry isn't doing so hot in 2006. Information on a report found at GameSpot indicates that consoles are down, but PC titles are up, led by MMORPG sales. From the article: "Do MMORPG's benefit the industry by bringing in more actively involved gamers? Or do they bleed money away from other companies in the industry as MMORPG players spend their money on subscriptions and skip out on trying other games that hit the shelf because they already have something to go home to?"

Grimwell writes NPD reports that the video games industry isn't doing so hot in 2006. Information on a report found at GameSpot indicates that consoles are down, but PC titles are up, led by MMORPG sales. From the article: "Do MMORPG's benefit the industry by bringing in more actively involved gamers? Or do they bleed money away from other companies in the industry as MMORPG players spend their money on subscriptions and skip out on trying other games that hit the shelf because they already have something to go home to?"

The rumours have been swirling since last night, when MMOG discussion site F13 posted the surprising news that Blizzard plans to make MMOGs of Starcraft and Diablo. Turns out that while the possibility still exists, that's not exactly accurate. The CessPit has some of the slides from Vivendi's presentation, (courtesy of SirBruce). The last of these would seem to show the mere possibility (not confirmation) of expansion into the Massive and console markets for the company's intellectual properties. However, this is coupled with a flat denial by lead designer Rob Pardo: "Nothing in that rumor is true in regards to Blizzard. If I had to guess, there was some confusion between what Vivendi has planned for its game division versus what Blizzard has planned. While Blizzard is owned by Vivendi, their game division operates separately from Blizzard." So, while not out of the question, I find it unlikely we'll be hearing about World of Starcraft any time soon.

Grimwell writes "Like MMOG's? Concerned about their future? You should read Darniaq's article questioning the general approach to these games. From the article: 'I expect invention from Blizzard as I much as I would from the local Top 40 radio station. I'd hate to think that the entire breadth of MMOs is measured by the playing of a few of the hot selling titles. It's great what WoW has done for the genre, but man I hope people don't give up on the genre just because they hit 60 and realized they didn't want to spend 3 hours a night in Molten Core.'"

CTD writes "Grimwell Online notes that IGE has announced a merger of networks involving: Thottbott, Allakhazam, OGaming, and L2Orphus. There is a thread in the Allakhazam forums that brings all the release data together - but still leaves some questions about what is to come. Grimwell raises one in his post about this: 'Even more fun for our friends who work PR for gaming companies. IGE = RMT, which is not the Devil - but is not exactly welcomed at most companies. Will this move help push things past the tipping point and force developers to deal with the new, larger network?'"

CTD writes "Grimwell Online notes that IGE has announced a merger of networks involving: Thottbott, Allakhazam, OGaming, and L2Orphus. There is a thread in the Allakhazam forums that brings all the release data together - but still leaves some questions about what is to come. Grimwell raises one in his post about this: 'Even more fun for our friends who work PR for gaming companies. IGE = RMT, which is not the Devil - but is not exactly welcomed at most companies. Will this move help push things past the tipping point and force developers to deal with the new, larger network?'"

Gamespot reports that Raph Koster, chief creative officer for Sony Online Entertainment, has left the company. While Gamespot seems to confirm this news, there are a number of MMOG-related rumours swirling at GDC. Mythic may be in EA's sights for acquisition, and Sony Online may soon be losing the rights to the Star Wars license. IE: No more SWG. Grimwell online has a rundown on these virulent rumours. Chris Kramer (from SOE) said words to the effect of "We're in it together for the long haul." SWG will be staying with Sony Online for some time to come.

Geldonyetich, at Grimwell.com, has reviewed the pile of games that makes up the SOE All-Access Station Pass. The pass includes SWG, EQ, EQ2, Planetside, and the "Station" games Tanarus, Infantry, and Cosmic Rift. From the article: "In the interest of having a complete review, I installed and took a good look at each of the individual PC game offerings under the Station Access subscription. I didn't have the necessary broadband PS2 hardware to try out EverQuest Online Adventures nor the Apple hardware to run EverQuest: Macintosh Edition. Just because I didn't include them doesn't mean they aren't part of the subscription plan. Chances are if you're considering the Station Access subscription you are a PC gamer anyway, as otherwise you've only access to one or two of the games."

Grimwell has up the first in a series of articles from a Massively Multiplayer game that underwent development but was never published. Entitled The Colonies, the game was intended to provide a massive world space where repercussions from player actions could be felt and maintained. From the article: "'It's been 500 years since 1957.' That phrase is what I've always used when describing where the game was to take place. 1957 was the hopping off point to a future that never happened, one that could be seen then. Today we see post-apocalyptic grunge with worn down leftover implements of civilization or we see high technology sterility. In 1957 technology was still magical and the future was an exciting place to be going to. So imagine 500 years post 1957 as seen in magazines like Astounding or in B-Movies of the period. That one simple phrase hints at the tone and style of the game. The name tells you the rest." Update: 06/11 20:58 GMT by Z : Added link. sigh.

Gamespot's weekly rumour control column discusses the rumor from back in April on Grimwell detailing a mass defection from Blizzard to NCSoft. From the article: "However, seeing how internal NCsoft studio ArenaNet was founded by a group of former Blizzard-ians--the creators of Battle.net, no less--it would come as little surprise if more WOW developers had signed up with the rising publisher." Their final verdict: "Some Blizzard developers have joined NCsoft? Not bogus. But droves? That's not so certain." This week's rumor control also discusses the raise in prices for Xbox 360 Games and the possibility of a no-frills PSP pack.

Last week was so interesting I caught the plague and died for two days. Now that I've gotten a rez and E3 has wrapped up, a look back is in order. Ferrago takes a look at E3 no-shows, like STALKER, while GamesIndustry.biz has a look at statistics. The big three PR conferences were some of the highlights of the Expo, and Gamespot tells us who 'won'. The best way to get a feel for what happened last week, though, is to get it firsthand. The Casual Gamer Experiment is over, with his impressions now available. Personal accounts are available at Press the Buttons, GamersInfo.net, CliffyB.com, Grimwell.com, John Davison's Blog, and Jeremy Parish's Blog. Was there any firsthand E3 coverage that you particularly liked this year? What did you think of G4's live broadcasting, if you caught it? Update: 05/23 18:56 GMT by Z : Obligitory PA link. From the post: "I don't believe there is any such thing as a 'Playstation 3' yet, and I don't believe in the Killzone video. What I do believe is that Sony harnessed the media and then rode it from place to place, one hand on the bridle while the other waved madly in the air."

Grimwell.com has a feature up discussing the content selling that publishers like Sony Online and Microsoft have been announcing of late. Xbox Live micro-sales and the purchasing of in-game items in Everquest II may have an adverse affect on the playing field for the average gamer. From the article: "Games are becoming too much about money. Thats a real no brainer statement and I know it. The video gaming industry is where the money is at these days, besting Hollywood and the record industry without even trying. Nor have they really built up a public industry equivalent to the machines that grind out more traditional forms of entertainment. Oh, that's coming, and EA is quickly becoming the MGM of the old film studio system, but the public recognition of the machine that drives the gaming industry is nothing when compared to film, television, and radio."

NCSoft's newest edition to their ever expanding stable of games, Guild Wars, has launched in North America and Europe. From what I saw while in-game things seem to be working well from a technical standpoint. Commentary from the player base is already available from the fine souls at f13.net and Grimwell.com. More specific commentary comes from AFKGamer, who has commentary about the title a few days ahead of time, and on day one of play.

OMG! writes "In an open letter to the community John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment, announced their new service 'the Station Exchange' which will allow players of Everquest II to trade their items for real live money. Sony Online is the first major player in the MMORPG genre to embrace commercial trading of in-game items." Commentary available from all the usual suspects, including Wired, the Players, Terra Nova, F13, and Grimwell. This would seem to be a total reversal of the policies of certain other MMOGs.

When in-game advertising was announced as a backbone of the new free of charge Anarchy Online, it seemed like this far off concept that we'd see 'someday'. That day is now. Grimwell has a look at Rubi-Ka after the invasion of the marketeers. From the article: "The advertisements were blinking on various billboards, both in cities and in instanced missions. They randomly displayed ads for the upcoming tournament, the "Rubi-Ka rumble", or the above product placements. Obviously, one or the other of them could be existing through time, human cataclysms, and space travel to the future planet of Rubi-ka, but seeing Motley Crue ads did cause me to wonder when I'd see them touring Omni Entertainment." Totally worth it if only for the screenshots.

The ever interesting Grimwell.com has commentary available forecasting doom in the near future for World of Warcraft. Commentator Geldonyetich argues that, by the very nature of the Warcraft game design, the impressive subscription numbers they currently boast are fleeting. From the article: "World of Warcraft is a tremendously successful game. Its subscriber numbers are reaching peaks that threaten even the lofty Korean Internet Café centered Lineage series. Those of you who are stuck behind overloaded servers, don't despair: I can see WoW's success as being a very temporary thing."

Eletido writes "SOE's newest massively online role-playing game has now incorporated the ability to buy Pizza Hut pizza from the in-game command prompt. From the site: 'You're in luck - pizza is just a few key strokes away! While playing EverQuest II just type /pizza and a web browser will launch the online ordering section of pizzahut.com.' Never has gaming been made so easy." Commentary available from Grimwell.com.

The interview on Okratas we mentioned yesterday was mostly funny. Game currency seller IGE responded to the honest (if ham fisted) questions of a reporter with harsh marketroid speak. A reporter at Warcry responded with his own reactions, expressing publicly some of the distaste the average MMOG player has for IGE. Since then threads started last week in various online communities have started to appear on online news sites, shedding some more light on uncomfortable realities about IGE. Namely, that the currency seller apparently owns gaming media outlet OGaming. Read on for more.

Ogaming is a hub site much like Warcry, with a sub-site about most of the major Massively Multiplayer Games out there. Some enterprising /whois work by the original author of the WowCensus thread led him to realize that OGaming was registered with the same street address used for IGE's New York Office. OGaming's registration information was updated on the 10th, and now displays the name and address of a proxy registration service. Further damning is the thought that at one point a page on the Ogaming site claimed to own Thottbot.com, a universally respected and utilized tool for World of Warcraft in-game information.

The page that once claimed this (an advertising page) is now blank, with the words "under construction" displayed there. The Internet Archive's last update for ogaming.com is this time last year, so there is no way to check on the authenticity of that claim. If it is true it's disquieting to say the least. Thottbot is a massive database of in-game quest, item, character, and drop frequency information. Thottbot's information was gained through the goodwill and work of World of Warcraft players. The popular UI enhancement, Cosmos, included a plugin that sent information from the user's playing experience back to Thottbot. This included locations of enemies, the types of loot dropped, items the character had, and other specific details. While Thottbot claims to only keep information that is pertinent to other players, with the revelation that they may be owned by the disreputable IGE their trustworthiness is out the window.

This revelation didn't stay quiet for long, with MMOG sites CorpNews, Grimwell.com, and Allakhazam all creating discussions of their own about this weighty topic.

The authenticity of this story is hard to prove or disprove at this point, with the OGaming.com and Thottbot.com domains having a proxy listed under their contact information. But if it's hard to believe that IGE would go to the trouble of owning a media outlet and a popular plugin, think again. Garthilk writes "Cindy Bowens, community manager for Sigil Games online and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, outlines their stance on secondary market items, and how they deal with IGE. Most interesting is the fact that IGE approached Sigil, and had offered to cut Sigil in on the revenue that IGE might make in the future."

Update: 02/15 20:07 GMT by Z : Drey pointed out in the comments that, at least for the time being, Google still has a cache of the page listing Thottbot as an Ogaming site.

RosethornKB writes "John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, wrote a letter about SOE's look to the future. In it, Smedley asks some questions about virtual children, skill based combat and player created content. KillerBetties.com posts a response to his questions. From the article: "What if you could have families in MMO's? Virtual Children... What if your characters could have children and pass on the family name...This is a very vague idea and I'm not sure if he words it that way on purpose or not. The concept of Virtual Children and passing on the family name isn't new. For example, upcoming Limitless Horizons MMO Mourning has had it in their design since the game first was announced. Their system is actually very interesting in theory."" Grimwell.com has commentary on SOE's recent activities.

New developments this week in a few games, with Cryptic Studio's City of Heroes releasing the much anticipated Issue 3 expansion, which adds new archetypes and power sets to the game. Citing increasing costs for running the game Mythic Entertainment has raised the subscription price for Dark Age of Camelot to $14.95 a month, but with a significant discount for long-term subscriptions. Darniaq wrote in to mention that Sony Online Entertainment announced a new Massive title for the PSP at CES, Untold Legends, in what looks to be direct competition to Pocket Kingdoms. Finally, Tobold of Grimwell Online has a nice recap of MMORPGs in 2004, complete with predictions for this year.

New developments this week in a few games, with Cryptic Studio's City of Heroes releasing the much anticipated Issue 3 expansion, which adds new archetypes and power sets to the game. Citing increasing costs for running the game Mythic Entertainment has raised the subscription price for Dark Age of Camelot to $14.95 a month, but with a significant discount for long-term subscriptions. Darniaq wrote in to mention that Sony Online Entertainment announced a new Massive title for the PSP at CES, Untold Legends, in what looks to be direct competition to Pocket Kingdoms. Finally, Tobold of Grimwell Online has a nice recap of MMORPGs in 2004, complete with predictions for this year.

This Friday you can get in on the Final Beta test for the hack and slash MMOG, Guild Wars. Commentary is available on Grimwell Online. From the article: " The main claim to fame of GuildWars is being the only MMORPG without a monthly fee. It will be interesting to see how that business model works out. Is it really the monthly fee that stops a MMORPG from greatness, or is it the nerdy gameplay?" Update: 01/05 22:26 GMT by H : I spoke with a representative of GuildWars; the above information is false. The beta program will be continuing as currently implemented. As well, GuildWars has not yet stated a final release date other than early 2005; that is still true, and in the meantime, development continues on the game -- and support will be continuing for the beta program.

This Friday you can get in on the Final Beta test for the hack and slash MMOG, Guild Wars. Commentary is available on Grimwell Online. From the article: " The main claim to fame of GuildWars is being the only MMORPG without a monthly fee. It will be interesting to see how that business model works out. Is it really the monthly fee that stops a MMORPG from greatness, or is it the nerdy gameplay?" Update: 01/05 22:26 GMT by H : I spoke with a representative of GuildWars; the above information is false. The beta program will be continuing as currently implemented. As well, GuildWars has not yet stated a final release date other than early 2005; that is still true, and in the meantime, development continues on the game -- and support will be continuing for the beta program.

Grimwell.com has an excellent piece on the past year in the MMORPG scene. It highlights the best, worst, and in-between as regards Massively Multiplayer Online Games. From the article: "I have never played so many different MMORPGs in one year before. This is one of the defining features of 2004: an abundance of choice in the MMORPG market like never before. While a few games, like Earth and Beyond and minor independent ones, closed their servers, most games from previous years are still available."

thebostonblogger wrote in to alert us that Everquest 2 experienced almost 24 hours of downtime this weekend. The development team eventually resorted to hourly updates to keep the players informed and to reduce the number of overturned cars. According to John Smedly's note there will be a period of accelerated xp gain this week to offset the downtime this weekend. Commentary available from usual suspects Terra Nova and Grimwell Online.

Last night SpikeTV aired its second annual Video Game Awards. Commentary is available from the Video Game Ombudsman, who did some live blogging during the event. From his post: "Seven Awards in 50 seconds - And that's including the lame intro. and Bloodrayne's 9 second acceptance "speech" for cyber-vixen of the year. Way to stand there, BloodRayne. The categories and winners aren't even vaguely related. And these are major awards, not the largely immaterial technical awards at the Oscars. Oh well, I guess now they can squeeze in another musical number." Grimwell Online is also available for snarky analysis, as is Buttonmashing.com. For non-flash results, Voodoo Extreme has a list of the winners.

If you already play the Massively Multiplayer Game Star Wars Galaxies, you're undoubtedly already aware that the Jump to Lightspeed space expansion officially launched today. For the rest of us, there are some details on the developer side regarding the ramp up to release available on the official site. Details on the experience of the new expansion is available at Gamespot and PC.IGN. More ... colourful analysis can be found on Grimwell's boards, and N3rfed has a post discussing the fact that the rest of the world has to wait until November 5th for their space-goodies.

Grimwell Online is carrying a story entitled When does an Online Game go too far?. It details a post to a news group about a world event in the newly released A Tale in the Desert 2. The online game, which simulates an ancient Egyptian culture, was full of angry players after a developer-run event used openly discriminatory language against the female gender. Details on the event can be found at the ATITD2 Wiki, and commentary can be found on TerraNova.

According to the Everquest 2 Player Site, the NDA has been lifted on the upcoming Massively Multiplayer Game. If you've been looking forward to detailed information on the game, EQ2 Vault has a special feature on available in-game information. Tobold, of Grimwell Online, has commentary both on game mechanics and on his personal opinion.

Darniaq writes "Today, Codemasters announced they are discontinuing development of their massive online game Dragon Empires. They had this to say about it: 'The decision to close Dragon Empires' development does not impact on Codemasters' long-term ambitions in the massively multiplayer online gaming market and the company remains very active in evaluating future opportunities.' It appears yet another studio has realized a persistent virtual world requires more time and effort than they wish to expend. Regardless of the true reason, I applaud the move. The massive online gaming genre does not need more games from companies unwilling to focus themselves on them."

Darniaq writes "While a relatively small game as defined by player count, A Tale in the Desert was a rather robust experiment into just how much crafting a massive online gamer would like to do. The game is also more evocative of a massive online real-time strategy game than a roleplaying one ala Everquest or City of Heroes. And now there's a sequel. The staff at Grimwell.com has temporarily relocated to Egypt, and provides a live report."

Darniaq writes "While a relatively small game as defined by player count, A Tale in the Desert was a rather robust experiment into just how much crafting a massive online gamer would like to do. The game is also more evocative of a massive online real-time strategy game than a roleplaying one ala Everquest or City of Heroes. And now there's a sequel. The staff at Grimwell.com has temporarily relocated to Egypt, and provides a live report."

Darniaq writes "Sony Online's PC MMO Star Wars Galaxies has been out a year, as of late last month, when the official anniversary celebration occurred. But what's new? What's different? Grimwell Online has a in-depth analysis charting what's changed, what's good, and what's not, in SWG. They argue that, for folks who played it early on and left in despair or disgust, a lot has changed. However, it's still very much a game for roleplayers and those with dreams of moisture farming." Interestingly, the author explicitly suggests: "If [you] previously got burned out or annoyed enough to quit, now's a good time to re-subscribe."

Darniaq writes "Sony Online's PC MMO Star Wars Galaxies has been out a year, as of late last month, when the official anniversary celebration occurred. But what's new? What's different? Grimwell Online has a in-depth analysis charting what's changed, what's good, and what's not, in SWG. They argue that, for folks who played it early on and left in despair or disgust, a lot has changed. However, it's still very much a game for roleplayers and those with dreams of moisture farming." Interestingly, the author explicitly suggests: "If [you] previously got burned out or annoyed enough to quit, now's a good time to re-subscribe."

Thanks to GameSpot for its feature discussing plans to give full-audio speech to non-player characters in PC MMORPG sequel EverQuest II. The article points out this is "a first for online role-playing games, which have previously only featured silent characters that interact with players by sending them text chat messages", and elsewhere, a Grimwell Online article mentions a new PC Gamer magazine article specifying "an expected 130 hours of speech across 70,000 lines of dialogue", and revealing that "EQ2 is a $25 million dollar project." This new information comes as EverQuest celebrates its fifth anniversary with a multitude of developer interviews on the official site, as well as the re-activation of all old accounts until April 15th.