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Quite a few upcoming MMORPGs are using instances, including Everquest II. In fact, the technology exists in Lost Dungeons of Norrath, the latest EQ expansion. Despite popular rumors, Microsoft doesn't sue everyone.

Tell that to my MMORPG-freak friends who would die without Everquest or that starwars stuff.

There's a fairly nice big picture (as well as specs) in the PDF brochure.

Not a bad review, though at that price I think I'll stick with my Sony TR-55 speakers which are much more reasonably priced at $50USD, have a remarkably good sound for their size, and excellent battery life (upwards of 10 hours). Sure, they don't have the bells and whistles of these, but they're 100 bucks cheaper! You may also want to check out the TR-77 speakers if you want to spend a bit extra, think they're around $90USD.

Oh, seeing as I'm commenting on iPods, my fellow Europeans might be somewhat tempted to know that Apple Europe are now offering free iPod engraving, so you can't grumble that Apple keep doing these offers for the US only ;)

There's a fairly nice big picture (as well as specs) in the PDF brochure.

Not a bad review, though at that price I think I'll stick with my Sony TR-55 speakers which are much more reasonably priced at $50USD, have a remarkably good sound for their size, and excellent battery life (upwards of 10 hours). Sure, they don't have the bells and whistles of these, but they're 100 bucks cheaper! You may also want to check out the TR-77 speakers if you want to spend a bit extra, think they're around $90USD.

Oh, seeing as I'm commenting on iPods, my fellow Europeans might be somewhat tempted to know that Apple Europe are now offering free iPod engraving, so you can't grumble that Apple keep doing these offers for the US only ;)

I would also like to see Ubi-Soft and the actual developers of the game Monolith Productions actually work with companies that will do the Macintosh and Linux development so we don't run into the whole deal where one platform is left behind or end up not even having the ability to play with the windows users. If you choose Linux or Mac, I would seriously suggest contacting Monolith and voicing your opinion.

"For those who might actually be interested in what There is, it's a half-finished..."

Funny that they're charging $49.99 a year to play a half-finished game. Even funnier is that you (and many other people) have bought into it.

But I guess that's the state of many online games...

"For those who might actually be interested in what There is, it's a half-finished..."

Funny that they're charging $49.99 a year to play a half-finished game. Even funnier is that you (and many other people) have bought into it.

But I guess that's the state of many online games...

Counterstrike regularly boasts more than 100,000 players at peak times. Live stats can be found here.

It would also be interesting to see simultaneous online numbers from these games: Sony's Everquest having more than half a million players; Lineage has over two million players in South Korea.

However, good for Microsoft. Xbox Live has some really good games on it at the moment, most notably Crimson Skies.

Ever tried to find a decent flight simulator on a console?

That is possibly the only genre that isn't well represented on the consoles (except, of course, the best remote controlled helicopter simulation ever, RC Stunt Copter - it really teaches you how to fly a RC heli).

However, the best car simulator / racing game on any platform is Gran Turismo 3 on the Playstation 2 (GT4 coming soon) - especially when you're playing with a force-feedback racing wheel. Some PC games come close, but in the end they simply can't match the attention to detail and depth.

Some of us older gamers can remember the time when consoles couldn't even save game

Who cares? I've been playing games since before save carts as well. And the Dreamcast has been online since 1999 - four years ago.

Still, try finding a real equivalent of Everquest or even Warcraft III on a PS2/X-Box/GC

Yeah, well the Everquest equivalent is called Everquest Online Adventures, and the Warcraft III equivalent is called Goblin Commander (from the designer of Warcraft 2 and Starcraft).

The trials and tribulations Richard Garriott and his team at Origin underwent in order to bring Ultima Online to the masses.
The article completely fails to mention the fact that Richard Garriott and the Ultima Online team turned the largest and (in my opinion) best MMORPG ever into a waste of time for everyone involved, with players, having played for four years deserting it mere weeks after them bringing out the Age of Shadows expansion pack. For those unaware of what happened with Ultima Online, the Age of Shadows expansion pack irreversibly changed the game for the worse, causing floods of players to leave to other games, such as Everquest, Diablo 2 and Star Wars Galaxies. Leaving Ultima Online left a sour taste in mine, and I'm sure many other fans of the games mouths.

The trials and tribulations Richard Garriott and his team at Origin underwent in order to bring Ultima Online to the masses.
The article completely fails to mention the fact that Richard Garriott and the Ultima Online team turned the largest and (in my opinion) best MMORPG ever into a waste of time for everyone involved, with players, having played for four years deserting it mere weeks after them bringing out the Age of Shadows expansion pack. For those unaware of what happened with Ultima Online, the Age of Shadows expansion pack irreversibly changed the game for the worse, causing floods of players to leave to other games, such as Everquest, Diablo 2 and Star Wars Galaxies. Leaving Ultima Online left a sour taste in mine, and I'm sure many other fans of the games mouths.

Here's the reference for ya. First thing I thought of when I read the headline as well - what are the Vanu doing with cell phone towers?

However, it would be in keeping with the VS "style". TR would get a laser tower, NC a tesla tower or something - VS would get a nifty cell phone tower that looked pretty but was completely worthless in a fight. All Hail The Common Pool Weapons Empire!

(My main character is a high ranking VS on Johari).

You can buy them in Japan for $3000. They're expensive and NO ONE on the block will have one. Heck most people have'nt even heard of them!
Check them out I've seen them in action in Japan and they were pretty cool.

It's been around for years. You can buy one surplus for USD$20K. That's just the library and robot handling, not the tape drive.

sony brochure
more pictures

Of course the growth is still to come.

The growth will come when there are MMO games that do not involve HOURS of doing nothing. Because the devs will finally realize that doing nothing is neither intresting nor excieting.

The growth will come when there are MMO games that have fun things to do that don't get repetative after 2 days, or after 2 months or after 2 years.

The growth will come when there are MMO games that have a strong community of players supporting each other.

The growth will come when there are meaningful interactions between the players. Not "I OWNZ JOO!", not "Lets group up and XP", something deeper.

The growth will come when there are MMO with massive worlds, meaningful means of transportation and player property. The growth will come when the PVP is meaningful and fun. Not something put in just so that highlevels could do "something".

There is currently no MMO that does this.

You got that right! I got all excited about SW:G but it turned out to be overhyped and unfinished. Even without the technical problems AO proved to be really limited. You could say exactly the same for WWII Online and a stack of other big names.

But I can think of a handful of real gems right on the horizon. A Tale in the Desert is a breath of fresh air (although no PvP which kinda sucks) and RV in particular addresses every single one of the thigns you mention. And you're starting to get real diversity instead of just the goblins'n'wands or aliens'n'lasers that we've had to put up with. I mean I'm still not even sure what There is supposed to be all about.

Basically I totally agree with the article. I think MMORPG's have gone through a teething period and are just about to experience big growth. The people that start something off always suffer from the fact that other people just keep coming along and improving on it.

Ah someone else who remembers Q-Link.

Remember Club Caribe? It was probably the first "graphical" MMOG, created in part by LucasArts.

They've come a long way since then. =)

I spent way too much (+)$ on Q-Link. Eventually I found out about local BBSes, which offered most of the same service without the expenses =) Anyone remember the CCGMS dial-up terminal program? Man that little proggy was awesome.

Bugger FFX-whatever, when I read the faq for Champions of Norrath I had a hard time writing up the wishlist to annoy my wifette with (in blood, of course). And you bet your monkey-asses it's on the refrigerator, prominently placed _above_ all the art my wonderful little hellspawn make. Ahahahah! Free online play, random dungeons, shiny things..mmmm..lotsa shiny things to find and use and sell...ahahahah (cavort--cavort), hehehehe, yesss! Yessss!

60 million PS2 consoles worldwide? That is a lot of $$ for a company which the /. crowd has professed to really hate on many occasions. Even averaging say $200 USD for all those sales is an amazing $12 Billion USD in revenue.

Sony will introduce - in Japan only - a Linux based video recorder in early November which can store 342 hours of content with 500GB of hard drive space.

Hmmmmm.. a Linux-based DVR by Sony? Where have I heard of that before? Oh yea, here. Available in the US, too.

Considering that Sony put out the linux kit for PS2, I believe it's highly likely that they will produce one for the ps3 as well.

Several of the Nikon Coolpix cameras, like my 995, have been using CCDs with 4-color CYGM filter mosaics for some time now. In fact, the CP995 uses a Sony chip, the ICX252AK (pdf). This is a 3-year old chip design.

So what's the big deal?

A cross-licensed Gilmore Girls product with no coffee? Don't be absurd. That would be as stupid as a Star Wars game with no space ships.

By the looks of the updates they have made to the Test Center server it looks as if they have started to listen to everyone. Go here to see list of updates on the test center server. Go here to sign up to play on the Test Center server.

By the looks of the updates they have made to the Test Center server it looks as if they have started to listen to everyone. Go here to see list of updates on the test center server. Go here to sign up to play on the Test Center server.

Let me express my cynicism this way:

This appears to be one of two things. Either it is an overpriced gameboy with low-end PDA specs, or an Ipaq for people who think themselves too stupid to figure out how to download native games, or currently available NES, SNES, Gensis and MAME emulators onto their own Ipaq. Its only advantage over the current batch of XScale PDAs, it seems, will be developer support, unless you believe that Compaq's and Palm's engineering and battery life advancements at the time of this device's release will be found inferior to this one's, which seems unlikely. Maybe they'll forgo a modern screen to save power, but then why not just get a gameboy? Will developer support for a gaming platform manufacturer not a major name in the industry, who is furthermore in COMPETITION with major names in the industry, be, itself, competitive? I find it hard to answer that with a yes.

And let's be clear on this: this device is not out NOW. It is not, at least as far as specs go, competing with presently available devices like the 200MHz Ipaq 1910, say, selling for $250 or 400MHz Ipaq 2215 selling for $370. It is not, at least as far as available titles go, in any place to come close to competing with existing platforms like the Gameboy. This device, the existence of which at all is purely speculative, is priced at $299 for a release at best several months to come.

If you want a handheld computer and want to play games on it, buy an Ipaq 1910, also with SDIO, currently available for under $250 depending on where you shop and play Age of Empires, Everquest, PocketQuake, PocketDoom, SNES, NES, Genesis, SMS, MAME and the upcoming titles now.

If you want a handheld gaming system with titles available NOW, go with the Gameboy.

If you want to wait several months to pay a PDA price for your next Gameboy without any certainty as to whether titles will in FACT be available at all, then this is the system for you. Hmm.

And these guys have a lot more money and many more lawyers.

And while we're at it...Hideki "Dick" Komiyama thinks you might like a brand new Sony television. You deserve it! Be good to yourself! The new HDTVs are cool!

:P

sony.com/pcsupport? or vaio.net? While thier javascript menus are kinda slow, it is not hard to navigate. Yes, Sony does not put out updates that grant additional features or performance, only to grant better stability.

You're full of shit. Goto SONY's support site and you will find it broken out for each model (I have an SR subnotebook, here's that page ) with all the drivers needed for W2K or XP (the SR came with ME). The W2K install was a breeze.

Nah. I upgraded my XG-29 from Win98 to Win2k a few years back without any problems. From the looks of it right now, they have drivers available for XP too.

Maybe other models are different.

Seems Slashdotted--Here are some pics from Sony.com

Not so much a comment as a question...

What has really set the Vaio apart from ye olde everyday laptop was the interesting addition of the integrated still/video camera. Are there any other manufacturers out who do this? Also...is it really usable as an integrated camera?

Here ya go. http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/expansion s.jsp?page=Expansions The First Star Wars Galaxies(TM) Expansion: Space

This much-anticipated first add-on for the Star Wars Galaxies series, scheduled for release in 2004, will introduce personal starships and starfighters, which can be used for interplanetary travel or space combat. The expansion also promises additional worlds, playable species, non-player characters, new creatures and more!

"The staggered release schedule of the space component of the Star Wars Galaxies series will benefit players because they will have time to establish their characters and explore different elements of the core game before we add the space layer," says Rich Vogel, director of development at Sony Online Entertainment's Austin studio. "Once the space component becomes available, players who have been with us since the beginning will be ready to buy their own starships and launch into this new arena."

I thought it sounded kind of interesting, until I read the "character naming rules" on the swg website.

Now, I can see disallowing obscene names and profanity, but the other stuff they restrict? Sheesh! What if my real name IS "Bill Clinton", so now I can't use it? I can't use a knock-off name like Look Skywoker? Why not?

It's this kind of Lucas-style control freakery that just turns me off. What next? They don't like the way I'm playing my character and tell me how to do it?

Take a look at the swg message boards some time. There's always somebody whining and crying about "ooh, I saw somebody with a dumb name, how do I report it?!". You know what buddy? Fuck off and mind your own business.

You can play any character you like based on the movies (the proper ones), but you just can't do anything - anything - that you saw those characters do? Dark Tailor of the Sith doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

You know the Alliance grunts that got toasted at the start of Episode IV? Sounds to me like after paying this for a couple of weeks, you'll be wishing you could play one of them. Heck, you'll probably be wishing you could play the guy who maintains their blasters, rather than just making weapons for people to eradicate wildlife with.

"Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided" looks to me like it borders on deceptive advertising. It's not Star Wars, there are no Galaxies, and no Empire to be divided.

I note with interest the very careful wording of this advertising: "The chance to unlock the mysterious Force Sensitive character slot and attempt to master the most exhilarating and dangerous role in the galaxy...the Jedi"

I'll suggest that the "chance" here isn't the chance to become a Jedi, but the chance that they might get around to implementing it at some point. Don't hold your breath.

Spam means, when talking about email, unsolicited bulk email. Enlarge your penis, debt-free now, viagra online - you know the drill.

I believe the Spam Co. will loose this case, due to the fact that "spam" now has become a generic term in the e-mail world, like Sony did over the "walkman" trademark.

Here's a good story, in case you want to read more about earlier trademark disputes.

Where did you get 150k from? I got a count of 66,747 from their list of beta testers here and here...

I got in on a promotional deal, and I was included in the list, so I'd presume that this list is mostly all-inclusive...

Where did you get 150k from? I got a count of 66,747 from their list of beta testers here and here...

I got in on a promotional deal, and I was included in the list, so I'd presume that this list is mostly all-inclusive...

I was looking forward to playing SWG too and have been waiting for a MMORPG to truly immerse myself in since I was too late to join UO and EQ. I had high hopes for SWG and I was surprised Sony lifted the NDA before the game was actually released. Once the NDA was released I checked out the Sony Station boards for SWG which already had some reviews posted by the beta testers.

The beta testers' reviews of SWG weren't complimentary at all. There were a lot of negative posts and the most damaging evidence of that is how Sony has removed access to the old message boards (http://boards2.station.sony.com/ubb/starwars). However, forums at SWG fan sites have preserved some of these original, honest reviews. Check it out: SWG Fan Site with Honest Review Deleted by Sony. My compliments to Stratics.com. And I'm sure other SWG fan sites will have honest reviews too.

They've already considered this. Whether their solution is sufficient remains to be seen.

EQ2 will be a lot more like DAoC than EQ. In fact, the only real difference appears to be the lack of realm-style combat in EQ2. Admittedly, DAoC came out well after original EQ, and so they had ample time to learn from EQ's (and UO's) mistakes, but it really surprises me that SOE isn't making an effort with EQ2 to do DAoC one better. (Maybe they're depending on Star Wars Galaxies for that.)

On a side note, anyone notice that the official EQ2 web site requires Flash 6 to view anything on it? Anyone else find that annoying?

When is RIAA going to sue Sony for producing the net minidisc walkman recorder? It has the "ability to record from multiple sources (PC, Portable CD, Home CD Unit, Radio)", though presumably not copy-protected non-CDs produced by Sony. Does it matter that Sony is an RIAA member?

This is the mantra of every armchair game designer out there. Thanks to Raph everyone thinks they could be a better designer.

Yet every online game that comes out has a hack in the client! I promise you that SWG will have one as well - despite the fact that Raph works on it.

I had a similar thought... till Star Wars Galaxies went beta. It cost me 10 bucks to enter the third beta (which I can't talk about due to NDA, so don't anyone ask). I thought long and hard, but finally decided that I was bored, it was only ten bucks, why not give it a whirl?

Now, I did my fair share of bug reporting for the short amount of time I actually played, and I was stunned when I spoke to several friends who said they have never bothered to submit a bug report on anything. They simply wanted to play the game, and didn't want to wait for it to be released. If something went wrong, well, a simple restart of the application fixed it, so why waste time reporting it?

That opened my eyes a bit. If the beta testers are just in it to have fun, what good does that do Sony? Out of a group of four of us, I was the only one who submitted bug reports.

Given that, I can understand why they charge. My friends are playing a game they're enjoying, and I think it's fair to expect them to pay for it (it does cost Sony resources to allow them into the game). Admittedly, not everyone is like that, but what percentage is?

That aside, I definitely got pissed off when I read about the first expansion. The game's not even out yet and they're already planning an expansion? Money grubbing #$@^%@s.... :)

Station.com - SOE All Access

Subscribing to SOE games will be streamlined through the SOE All Access subscription, giving players a single account to use across all titles.

I guess this will only allow one account per game. But since it's been stated that there will be benefits for Everquest players to play Everquest 2 (inter-related quests?) this will also aid in persuading Everquest players to get Everquest 2.

The new Floyd Dark Side is actually CD+SACD, so you're paying to obtain a DSD encoded recording. This is expensive because it is not as easily fabricated as a traditional audio CD, and IMHO it sounds much better.

I think I'm done buying CD's with so many of these anti-pirate copy protection techniques in play. From now on I plan on buying SACD and LP. While I may be unable to digitally copy my SACD's, at least I am aware of this and will be able to play them back on my SACD players. The cloddishness of the record industry in these matters of protecting CD data is sickening, and they will continue to lose customers in this new "format" war.

Oh well, it can't flop worse then Everquest Online Adventures for the Playstation 2.

Hmm...please check your facts before you start spouting off misinformation. If EQ:OA was such a disaster then why would they already be making an expansion already?

I wouldn't normally go off topic like this, but the parent post is nothing more than a troll to slam Everquest and hype up WOW..nothing to do with the EQ RTS. And personally, after playing the Pocket PC version of Everquest, am looking forward to seeing Lords of Everquest.

You should check out what SWG is planning as far as perma-death. At least they plan on including _some_ form of death: If your character gets far enough in the game, you can become a Jedi, but if you die, you revert back to a plain old plebian with no powers. They are making it very hard to become a Jedi. I realize this is not what you are talking about, but I felt I had to point this out. Otherwise, I salute ya: A correct implementation of perma-death in an MMORPG would be a breath of fresh air in game design!

linkage

That is why you are seeing different types of MMORPGs showing up. No doubt everyone has heard of Everquest and some of us have heard of Dark Age of Camelot. Now I would put these games in the D&D genre, but there are a new crop of games coming out such as Star Wars Galaxies and City of Heros which will appeal to different types of people.

Now you are right that the people who play these games (myself included) can only play one or two at a time, but I know that my interest fluctuates in the games. So I may be playing one game for a few months, but it is refreshing to be able to pick up a different title and immerse myself in that for a few months. This variation keeps me interested with small amount of time that I do spend gaming. It is a nice break from school and work.

That is why you are seeing different types of MMORPGs showing up. No doubt everyone has heard of Everquest and some of us have heard of Dark Age of Camelot. Now I would put these games in the D&D genre, but there are a new crop of games coming out such as Star Wars Galaxies and City of Heros which will appeal to different types of people.

Now you are right that the people who play these games (myself included) can only play one or two at a time, but I know that my interest fluctuates in the games. So I may be playing one game for a few months, but it is refreshing to be able to pick up a different title and immerse myself in that for a few months. This variation keeps me interested with small amount of time that I do spend gaming. It is a nice break from school and work.

I can't believe you forgot the best game of them all...where FPS meets MMORPG!

PlanetSide