Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader writes: "A group of former developers for Ultima Online has created a game company called Citadel Studios, and they're working on a new MMORPG called Shards Online. '[CEO Derek] Brinkmann described the game as a player-run MMO, which means at the highest level they can run their own servers and change the settings of that world, altering how long nighttime lasts or how quickly players can gain skills. On the next level down, server administrators can take the form of god characters, who can spawn monsters in the world, create items and launch live events. And in the level below that, players can modify the gameplay code. ... The game is set in a multiverse, where players can travel through different worlds. While all the worlds are unified by the same rule-set, Cotten told Polygon that they are each themed differently, and these themes will offer players a different experience. There's a world inspired by high fantasy. There's a world that is coming out of a steampunk industrial revolution. There's a world that consists of a coliseum in which players can fight each other in player-versus-player battles.'"

Beginning this weekend is another chance for prospective players to check out Guild Wars, the upcoming free MMOG by ArenaNet and NCSoft. If you're interested you can download the client in preparation for this Friday's event kickoff. Gamerfeed has some details on what to expect in the preview, while Gamespy has details from the first preview and an update since then. Finally, reader Detritus wrote in to tell us about two Stratics guides to prepare you for the event, one on Player vs. Player strategy and the other on Player vs. Environment elements of the game.

Beginning this weekend is another chance for prospective players to check out Guild Wars, the upcoming free MMOG by ArenaNet and NCSoft. If you're interested you can download the client in preparation for this Friday's event kickoff. Gamerfeed has some details on what to expect in the preview, while Gamespy has details from the first preview and an update since then. Finally, reader Detritus wrote in to tell us about two Stratics guides to prepare you for the event, one on Player vs. Player strategy and the other on Player vs. Environment elements of the game.

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting an EA press release announcing the Ultima Online: Samurai Empire add-on, a "new expansion pack" for the long-running PC MMO title. According to the release: "Traveling around a mysterious Asian environment filled with exotic beasts, expansive dungeons and scenic housing areas, players can strive to become a fierce Samurai, dedicated to the art of Bushido and focused on learning new physical combat abilities.... Players also have the choice of joining the elite ranks of the Ninja, where they will concentrate on magical combat and stealth." UO Stratics has both concept art and screenshots from the newly-announced expansion, quite a thematic departure from "the European high fantasy" of the original title, and "scheduled to ship November 2004." We recently covered both Ultima Online's 7th anniversary and the cancellation of Ultima X: Odyssey.

Thanks to Stratics for its interview with the creators of indie PC MMO, A Tale In The Desert, discussing the 'rebooting'/upgrading of the game: "ATITD was never intended to be a single persistent world but a chapter like-story in the development of Egypt and the 'creation' of that perfect society. However, Tale 1 was a large undertaking and lasted longer than originally intended. ATITD2 will have a 6-month life-span before ATITD3 begins the cycle anew." Among topics discussed are better graphics ("We've had a new scaling graphics engine so, if you're using a newer card it will take advantage of fragment shaders for terrain, etc.") and dealing with griefing ("The community has tools to deal with griefers, including inventing laws to permanently exile those people from Egypt.")

Thanks to GameSpy for its hands-on preview of Sony Online's forthcoming PC MMO EverQuest II, as the author discusses the graphics ("EverQuest II is one of the most beautiful games in development... Every square inch begs to be explored"), the play style ("EQ2 has a smaller, more intimate feel, more like tabletop roleplaying games centered on small parties"), and the complexity ("Everyone starts on the same island, then has to choose allegiance to one of two main cities (and belief systems!) From there, more and more options open up, sort of like an inverted gameplay pyramid.") Elsewhere, over at EQ2 Stratics there's further confirmation from devs that: "There are no plans for a PvP [Player vs. Player] server at release. There is no ETA on when or if we will ever have one."

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting an EA press release noting a special 7th Anniversary Edition of Ultima Online has been announced, featuring the game plus the "five [previously released] expansion packs... one of seven rare and powerful anniversary [in-game] gifts... and a collector's edition of the Ultima Online Fan Guide", as well as a "full version of the classic Ultima IX: Ascension." The official UO site has a picture of the box, and over at UO Stratics, they have clarification from UO's lead programmer, part of the California-transplanted Ultima Online team, that "the primary motivation to release the Anniversary Edition is to get UO back on store shelves until the [late 2004-due] expansion is complete. At the same time we were looking for ways to give players some value [also including 'an extra character slot'] that would complement the package."

Thanks to Stratics for publishing its Golden Cog Awards for 2003, honoring "the very best of 2003's Massive Multiplayer titles... chosen through the votes of literally hundreds of Stratics staffers." Interesting or unexpected choices include Codemaster's Dragon Empires as 'Best Beta' ("populated by creatures that thrive in their ecosystem by acts of migration and foraging"), eGenesis' A Tale In The Desert as 'Most Innovative' ("...a difficult game to classify because of its pioneering nature"), and overall, Final Fantasy XI as 'MMOG Of The Year' ("...attention to detail, and a great community.")

Thanks to Stratics for publishing its Golden Cog Awards for 2003, honoring "the very best of 2003's Massive Multiplayer titles... chosen through the votes of literally hundreds of Stratics staffers." Interesting or unexpected choices include Codemaster's Dragon Empires as 'Best Beta' ("populated by creatures that thrive in their ecosystem by acts of migration and foraging"), eGenesis' A Tale In The Desert as 'Most Innovative' ("...a difficult game to classify because of its pioneering nature"), and overall, Final Fantasy XI as 'MMOG Of The Year' ("...attention to detail, and a great community.")

Thanks to Stratics for publishing its Golden Cog Awards for 2003, honoring "the very best of 2003's Massive Multiplayer titles... chosen through the votes of literally hundreds of Stratics staffers." Interesting or unexpected choices include Codemaster's Dragon Empires as 'Best Beta' ("populated by creatures that thrive in their ecosystem by acts of migration and foraging"), eGenesis' A Tale In The Desert as 'Most Innovative' ("...a difficult game to classify because of its pioneering nature"), and overall, Final Fantasy XI as 'MMOG Of The Year' ("...attention to detail, and a great community.")

Thanks to Stratics for publishing its Golden Cog Awards for 2003, honoring "the very best of 2003's Massive Multiplayer titles... chosen through the votes of literally hundreds of Stratics staffers." Interesting or unexpected choices include Codemaster's Dragon Empires as 'Best Beta' ("populated by creatures that thrive in their ecosystem by acts of migration and foraging"), eGenesis' A Tale In The Desert as 'Most Innovative' ("...a difficult game to classify because of its pioneering nature"), and overall, Final Fantasy XI as 'MMOG Of The Year' ("...attention to detail, and a great community.")

Thanks to Stratics for its editorial discussing the problems faced by the licensed massively multiplayer game. The author points out: "Star Wars, The Matrix, Middle Earth - these are just some of the pre-existing worlds that are making the MMOG leap", and goes on to lament: "One of the problems is that you have to create an entire believable, explorable world. This is hard enough as it is, but then you have to cater to pre-existing notions of that world. Fans are your main target group here, and they have that world all locked up tight in their heads. Prepare for Foaming-at-the-Forum disease, my illustrious developers, prepare well." We've previously covered other aspects of this dilemma, but do licenses bring excessive expectations to a persistent world where everyone wants to be the hero?

Decaffeinated Jedi writes "This week, GameSpy is serving up a variety of articles regarding Cryptic Studios' upcoming massively multiplayer superhero PC roleplaying game, City of Heroes (following up on its December 2003 preview). The preview offers hands-on impressions of the game, a look at the origin and ongoing adventures of Kingblade (an in-game character created by one of the editors), a roundtable with the developers, several screenshot galleries, and more. City of Heroes is currently in beta and scheduled for released on April 27, 2004. Will it join the ranks of Freedom Force in breaking the legendary superhero game curse? Only time will tell, true believers!" There's more info on this NCSoft-published game at COH Stratics and the official site.

An anonymous reader writes "Stratics has an editorial discussing MMO market saturation, specifically triggered by the recent closure of Microsoft's massively multiplayer PC game, Mythica. The piece argues: 'But there is a dark realization that is now being considered, just when does it end? When does the genre hit the ceiling and all that ends up happening is [that] companies resort to passing around subscriptions with no real growth. This is a question that is haunting corporations who have potential products laid before senior management - just how long can it continue? When does the opportunity cost grow larger than any potential earning?'"

An anonymous reader writes "Stratics has an editorial discussing MMO market saturation, specifically triggered by the recent closure of Microsoft's massively multiplayer PC game, Mythica. The piece argues: 'But there is a dark realization that is now being considered, just when does it end? When does the genre hit the ceiling and all that ends up happening is [that] companies resort to passing around subscriptions with no real growth. This is a question that is haunting corporations who have potential products laid before senior management - just how long can it continue? When does the opportunity cost grow larger than any potential earning?'"

JasdonLe writes "In a move that significantly changes the game's goals, I just saw on the official Star Wars Galaxies site that plans are in the works to 'revamp' the entire Jedi system, including removing Jedi permadeath." The plan is to "rebuild the Jedi system to be quest-oriented; and to include the familiar elements of Force Sensitivity, Jedi-oriented quests, as well as many other elements the developers and the community feel should make up the process of becoming a Jedi." SWG Stratics also has word that the holocrons, previously needed to be come a Jedi in the PC MMORPG, "won't be in the new system", but may still have value as rare in-game items.

Thanks to Stratics for its messageboard post discussing the publicizing of a fan convention specifically for players of The Sims Online. The Michigan-based International SimCon, being staged from February 20th-22nd, has an agenda "to bring the game experience to real life", according to event director Troy Pruyt. The announcement explains: "For instance, Friday evening will be luau themed, which is a common home decorating theme used in the game. Players will dress as their sims, to compete for prizes, while dancing to a live DJ, which is also common in the game." However, it's not clear whether The Sims Online mafia will also be making a money-extorting appearance in real life.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting abstruse information on Ultima creator Richard Garriott's mysterious new MMORPG, Tabula Rasa, as referenced in a recent Slashdot Games post dealing with Korean MMO behemoth NCSoft, who purchased the nascent game for "$33.4 million in stock and cash" back in 2001. An online chat transcript from early 2003 noted that "many people that worked on [cancelled MMO Ultima Online 2] are now with NCsoft working on Tabula Rasa", and more recently, a Richard Garriott lecture at the Austin Game Conference mentioned that the game "will most likely utilize a massively multiplayer metaworld for player matching and instantiated spaces for smaller groups of matched players", but almost nothing about the game has yet been revealed. The clearest indication yet comes from several recently-posted pieces of concept art, as noted earlier this week, showing an alien planet called Eera as the main setting, and mentioning such oddities as "Eeran Wastelanders [which] will beguile you with psychic hallucinations."

Thanks to RPGDot for pointing to a Battle.net forum post revealing a wealth of new detail regarding Blizzard's upcoming PC MMO title World Of Warcraft. WoW Stratics also has screenshots and brief comments on Blizzard's showing at Gen Con in Los Angeles, including comments that "Blizzard has one thing completely, undeniably wrong: they simply don't know the definition of 'alpha'. Both Anarchy Online and WWII Online were less polished and complete three months after release than WoW is right now." WoW is due out later in 2004, with a closed Beta early next year, and PlanetWarcraft also has some hands-on impressions.

Thanks to PlayMoney for its weblog post revealing a recent Ultima Online patch designed to shore up the economy may have introduced new problems, as "the very same game patch... also [seems] to have introduced a gold-gusher of a bug, allowing some people to conjure themselves up a few hundred million gold pieces in the space of a week." The author references a thread on UO Stratics which includes allegations about "one guy that claimed to have made over 700mil to date on [a particular game server] with this bug", a total of $9947 under current dollar exchange rates if successfully auctioned. Although the other new economic rules "seem otherwise to be working out fine", and this exploit was "fixed last Friday [5th]", the author is concerned that "by the time the new money gets fully circulated, gold will be selling for $7 per million", half of the current $14-per-million auction price.

Talrias writes "The Community Manager of Codemasters' forthcoming PC MMORPG, Dragon Empires, has written an article over at Stratics about whether MMORPGs are designed as societies or as games, and uses the examples of the two big MMORPGs, Ultima Online (which he claims 'embodied this society design philosophy' when it launched) and EverQuest (which, it's suggested, 'most embodies the game design approach')."

Thanks to Stratics for their column discussing the concept of 'planned obsolescence' as it relates to MMORPG expansion packs. The author explains: "Planned obsolescence is, at its root, a strategy to get you to buy more... a design mechanism that would encourage additional purchases by creating the impression that a product had been improved over its early - though still perfectly functional - incarnation." He argues that expansions for MMO titles are controversial because "MMOs are service-based products [and] it is difficult to justify this double charging of the customer for development", and ends on a cautionary note: "While a full sequel... certainly merits an additional purchase, I fear that the practice of planning obsolescence into MMOs by subtly out-moding earlier releases of a given title will ultimately undermine the genre and, therefore, the industry."

Thanks to Stratics Central for hosting an opinion piece discussing whether MMORPG titles will stay segregated by platform, or whether (as in Final Fantasy XI's dual PC/PS2 release) the separate SKUs will "adopt salient features and begin to look alike." The piece points out that in-game controls matter: "In the world of MMOs, the PC is king for two of many reasons: Key binding, and the mouse-keyboard combo", and concludes that "The irony is, for most of the consoles to compete with the PC [in MMO titles] they must become more like the PC."

Thanks to MCO Stratics for pointing to EA's official Motor City Online site, which has a message announcing the closure of this MMO PC racing title: "We at Electronic Arts and MCO Staff both past and present would like to say thank you for being a part of a great online racing game experience. Motor City Online service ends today, but it will live on forever in the hearts of the racers who loved the game." The closing announcement was originally made in February, citing popularity problems after "the game was quickly dominated by skilled players", but the servers finally shut down on August 29th.

Thanks to UXO Stratics for their continuing coverage of Ultima X: Odyssey, following the PC MMORPG's official unveiling on Friday. As well as UXO Stratics' video interview with the title's lead designer, other coverage includes an in-depth preview from GameSpy.com, summarizing: "Gone are bold notions about 'online social experiments' or 'virtual economies' - they've got Ultima Online for that. In their place is a concept for an action-oriented experience... more like Diablo than Ultima Online, but with more depth, character development, and immersion than you'd ever find in a Diablo game." There's also an extremely detailed write-up of UX:O on the Stratics boards, courtesy Bruce 'Sirbruce' Sterling Woodcock, creator of the very useful MMOG subscription chart.

Thanks to UXO Stratics for their continuing coverage of Ultima X: Odyssey, following the PC MMORPG's official unveiling on Friday. As well as UXO Stratics' video interview with the title's lead designer, other coverage includes an in-depth preview from GameSpy.com, summarizing: "Gone are bold notions about 'online social experiments' or 'virtual economies' - they've got Ultima Online for that. In their place is a concept for an action-oriented experience... more like Diablo than Ultima Online, but with more depth, character development, and immersion than you'd ever find in a Diablo game." There's also an extremely detailed write-up of UX:O on the Stratics boards, courtesy Bruce 'Sirbruce' Sterling Woodcock, creator of the very useful MMOG subscription chart.

Thanks to UXO Stratics for their continuing coverage of Ultima X: Odyssey, following the PC MMORPG's official unveiling on Friday. As well as UXO Stratics' video interview with the title's lead designer, other coverage includes an in-depth preview from GameSpy.com, summarizing: "Gone are bold notions about 'online social experiments' or 'virtual economies' - they've got Ultima Online for that. In their place is a concept for an action-oriented experience... more like Diablo than Ultima Online, but with more depth, character development, and immersion than you'd ever find in a Diablo game." There's also an extremely detailed write-up of UX:O on the Stratics boards, courtesy Bruce 'Sirbruce' Sterling Woodcock, creator of the very useful MMOG subscription chart.

An anonymous reader writes "According to a Stratics article, Ragnarok Online, a primarily Asian MMORPG, has been hacked yet again. As many people will remember , Ragnarok was hacked in late June, and a file with every user's passwords/usernames was distributed." Another anonymous reader claims: "Someone logged on as a GM, loaded arbitrary items and distributed them, used the in-game announcement system to announce their accomplishment, and was able to delete all of the official GM accounts." As yet, there's no official statement from the Ragnarok developers on this latest alleged issue.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Stratics.com review discussing Sega's PC MMO strategy title, Legacy Online. This recently launched title is an intriguing online city-based business sim, with futuristic urban visuals reminiscent of the recent Sim City games, and the reviewer recommends the title, formerly known as Star Peace, as good "..for any hard-core competitor who thinks it's cool to engage in cut-throat business dealings, and who is tired of the rudimentary hack-and-slash that most massively multiplayer titles base their businesses on."

Thanks to Stratics for posting an interview with Richard Bartle, the co-creator of the original text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD) environment. This chat with Bartle, who is also renowned for writing Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs, an early exploration of the effects of PKing (player killing) on virtual worlds, discusses the current crop of MMORPGs and their likely longevity: "Sooner or later a major world WILL be closed down, but I think they are far more stable then many players realise." Bartle's website also contains a treasure trove of early writings on MUDs, both by Bartle himself and other pioneers, and it's interesting to contrast this new interview with a 1995-era interview with Bartle, in which he foreshadows this new era of graphical MMORPGs.

Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to EQII Stratics' in-depth interview with the Everquest II development team. This keenly-anticipated PC MMORPG follow-up is due later in 2003, and questions answered include the increased use of teleportation in the sequel, to help ease down on travel time ("travel has always been a tricky thing... too much and it feels tedious, too little and the world feels extremely small."), and interesting changes when the player dies - you can either "..sacrifice an appropriate item.. and return to an appropriate bind point with all other items intact and equipped or.. remain in your corpse until another player or event resurrects you."

An anonymous reader points out this Stratics Central story, which talks to gaming executives about where they see the massively multiplayer genre in ten years time. Respondents, including representatives from Codemasters' Dragon Empires and Majorem's Ballerium, talk about genre changes, different spectator experiences, and, well, virtual knights running around Santa Monica.

An anonymous reader points out this Stratics Central story, which talks to gaming executives about where they see the massively multiplayer genre in ten years time. Respondents, including representatives from Codemasters' Dragon Empires and Majorem's Ballerium, talk about genre changes, different spectator experiences, and, well, virtual knights running around Santa Monica.

According to Ultima Online Stratics, the new issue of GMR Magazine (as found in EB stores) has a column leaking details about "Ultima-X", which is apparently Origin/EA's new MMORPG. A quote from the article goes as follows: "It's going to surprise you. I can't say anything just yet except maybe three quick words: Unreal Warfare engine." The writer of the column has since turned up on online forums indicating that he was told to hold the news, but the magazine had already gone to press. This is a fascinating rumor that initially seems to pass the smell test - stay tuned for more details.

NinjaPablo writes "OSI has started a new service, detailed here which allows you to pay $29.95 to get a decent character premade for you, and bypass the hours of working skills at lower levels. Most of the player community is in an uproar about the whole thing, since it basically means a newbie can pay a little extra and be as good as an average player right off the bat."

Keeper wrote in with the report on Everquest Stratics web site, that Brian Hook, who lately left Id, has officially relocated to Verant Interactive. Click below to read the full release.

BRIAN HOOK JOINS VERANT INTERACTIVE'S POOL OF PROGRAMMING TALENT.

- Highly regarded programmer to work on next generation technology San Diego, June 3rd, 1999 - Hook, formerly of Id Software and programmer on both Quake 2 and Quake 3, is a veteran of the games industry. His credits also include being one of the chief architects of the Glide API during his tenure at 3DFX; development work on the OpenGL code base at Silicon Graphics; and he has written numerous articles for magazines such as Dr. Dobb's Journals and Game Developer. He brings with him seasoned talent and an immense knowledge base.

"Verant is committed to both massively multiplayer gaming as well as cutting-edge 3D technology," said President and CEO of Verant Interactive, John Smedley. "Insuring that we have the talent and expertise to lead the way in both of these fields is critical to our company's goals, and adding someone of Brian's caliber to our already strong programming team is going to help us make the best games out there."

"I'm very excited to have Brian on board," said Brad McQuaid, Verant Vice President . "I believe successful games are made from both great technology and great design, and Brian brings us a lot of talent in both of those areas."

"Verant is the perfect place for me. I'm a huge fan of their games, and the opportunity to work on Verant's future titles is just too good to pass up," said Brian Hook. "I strongly believe in Verant's commitment to making the best Massively Multiplayer games out there, and I'm excited to be able to contribute to a product line that will be the benchmark against which all other Massive Multiplayer games are judged. People are going to be blown away when they see what Verant is working on."

Hook will be involved with programming and technology in both current and future Verant projects. Verant Interactive is an independent development studio that develops cutting-edge online games. Based in San Diego, California, Verant Interactive has a staff of over 70 employees who consist of the development teams responsible for the online games Tanarus and EverQuest. "