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Blizzard's design staff recently, famously lamented: "Our worst mistake was PvP"

Generally when you put quotation marks around a phrase it's meant to signify that someone actually said those words. You're referencing WarCry's 2009 interview with Rob Pardo, wherein he expresses his feeling that adding arenas was their biggest mistake. However, it's not because arenas were a bad idea, but because he felt it was tacked-on.

Blizzard these days is heavy into e-sports, which is why Diablo 3 will have PvP, and why they'll focus as much energy as they need in order to make it competitive.

"Mmmrrrggglll!"
Is five syllables, I think.
I don't speak Nerglish.

My winning haiku in the WarCry haiku competition. :)

No one knows any details for certain (IIRC the game isn't even in development yet, just announced), but it will almost certainly be in the new WoD, as White Wolf is (to my understanding) no longer publishing material for old WoD. Have a look for yourself: facts and rumors.

http://ac.warcry.com/

Was always the best resource for AC related news. It was another gaming site way back in the day before it got bought out by the warcry network, then everyone started using the vnboards at ign.com to talk about the game and the community went way downhill.

That site should still have a content by content recap.

There weren't any reviews of the game. The PR agency responded: http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/breakingnews/2720-Kohnke-Responds-to-Allegations-They-Influenced-Reviews

Maybe, but the implication here is that the review has been successfully influenced (ie: it has been already made) before the game has been released, or is close to release. Therefore, suspicious.

Kohnke say it was a typo in the lawsuit filing and the intended word was 'preview' not 'review': http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/breakingnews/2720-Kohnke-Responds-to-Allegations-They-Influenced-Reviews

I was killing little kids years and years ago in Ultima 6. Read Richard Garriott's answer to the second question on this page:

http://www.warcry.com/news/view/73167-Richard-Garr iott-Interview-Part-2

PS3 controller functional.

It seems the Wii controller is still having problems working in a room with sunlight, or fluorescent or halogen lighting.

I think I'd rather have a controller that worked properly and could be change if desired.

Sure.

Unless, that is the kids are wanting to play it in a room with sunlight, or fluorescent or halogen lighting.

Or they want to play any decent game other than Zelda's Revenge XXVI for that matter.

This story is currently under construction.

Well, here are some real pictures of her:

http://rec.warcry.com/scripts/columns/view_section alt.phtml?site=70&id=314&colid=4212

"Objects inside of a virtual world have value," Professor Castronova began. It's hard to believe the economic phenomenon sparked by eBay and other similar online trading spaces that have taken hold of the gaming community. The statistics alone are staggering, as Professor Castronova explained. His research has uncovered that, in the US alone, the sale of virtual property has reached a staggering 30 million dollars a year. Extrapolating from this data, Professor Castronova postulated that the business would roughly be in the area of 75 million dollars annually on a global scale. How does a market like this grow so vastly in the short amount of time the MMO genre has been around? A mere five years of life has seen a astronomical spike in activity for the online gaming community. Professor Castronova attributes it to a simple supply vs. demand model..."People with lots of money and no time" working with "people with lots of time and no money." The virtual economy created by a seemingly classic necessity is a fascinating proposition to consider. There is no doubt that economic development is a powerful force.

Does Blizzard ever plan on adding some sort of on site Item Database like Thottbot/Allakhazam/WarCry

Thottbot would be one of the largest WoW third party sites out there, but being owned by a disreputable company like IGE can't be good for the community. Even endorsing one of the third party sites that isn't run by pedophiles might be a step forward. :)

"Warcraftmovies.com and RPGfilms.net were both shut down on Monday for violating copyright laws. The Recording Industry Association of America was behind the shut down. The RIAA cited that the music used in many of the videos on the sites violated copyright laws, saying that it's possible that someone could steal the song from the video itself. Warcraftmovies.com simply returns a "site cannot be found" error while RPGfilms.net has the actual letter sent to them by the RIAA on their site.

In my opinion, RIAA is a monopoly, and this is just another example of their greed. I could just as easily "steal" a song from the radio if I really wanted. Most of the WoW community is in an uproar about the matter, and there's a very long post on the official forums about it. Be sure to voice your opinion!"

http://wow.warcry.com/

There's one important (MMORG) exception: Everquest 2. According to Anandtech, a GeForce 7800 GTX will only get you 25fps at 1280x1024 in extreme quality mode.

I wouldn't be surprised if Unfrozen Caveman Baseball Player already ordered a pair. He's on the disabled list and his 2005 salary is $14,500,000.

Curt Schilling cares

After reading the interview earlier today, I ended up banging out an article on WarCry which actually was spurned by that specific response. Bad way to answer a question, I feel, especially when it only serves to disprove your place in the industry as a legitimate market.

Check out this thread Looking for fans outraged by Marvel lawsuit.

It looks like the EFF is getting involved in the lawsuit.

One of the biggest things you can do is to support independent developers. There are a number of smaller developers out there that are trying to push the envelope in gameplay. Of course, with limited resources the smaller developers can't provide the flash and dazzle of the larger games.

I'm part of one of those smaller game development houses; we develop online RPGs. Our current game, Meridian 59, is a classic online RPG with open PvP. Yes, open PvP isn't for everyone, but many people wish to have this in their game. Our game is smaller and not as well-known as the larger online RPGs, but we get by.

Of course, the first reaction of most people is to judge the game by the graphics. Unfortunately for them, the graphics do not indicate the quality of gameplay. The combat is fun, there is not much of the "treadmill" you see in other games, and the PvP has been carefully balanced over the years. Meridian 59's gameplay is very fun, and we even charge less than most other games requiring no box purchase to play the game in the first place. But, people who judge games only on screenshots will never enjoy these finer aspects of Meridian 59.

Really, this is why many games go for the flash instead of substance; it sells more games. We're working on an engine upgrade to Meridian 59, but this is not going to affect the gameplay, it will only make the game look better in screenshots. And, we have many other upgrades in store as the game grows. However, think of the time and effort we could have poured into gameplay....

The point of this ramble is that if you want to see more innovative games, then start searching them out and playing (and paying for!) them. There are a number of great independent online games (I'm more familiar with them given that I work with online games), and there's a good number of quality single-player games out there as well. It's just a question of going a little bit off the beaten path and finding them for yourself.

My thoughts,

Interesting use of the word "independent" in that article. Usually I consider an independent game developer one that doesn't rely on an outside publisher for support. Yet, most of the people there talked about publisher contracts, etc.

Being an independent game developer that does not rely on a publisher and that has been around for three years this month (yay!), I know a thing or two about this topic. I have some stock rants that I like to recite when this topic comes up, too.

Some background, first. My game is Meridian 59, a fantasy online RPG. Our game is a bit unique in that it was previously owned by a larger company, the now defunct 3DO, but we bought the rights to the game from them. I worked on M59 for a few years before starting our company, Near Death Studios, Inc., so I had an emotinoal investment in the game before we bought it. My business partner, Rob "Q" Ellis II, is also one of the original developers of the game.

The biggest problem for a true indie isn't money (although there's plenty of money issues for the independent), it's actually exposure. It's tough to get attention for your game when you're competing with other games that spent a lot of money on production values and marketing. Just being a "good game" is often not enough to get noticed in market saturated with advertising.

For example, we went to the offices of a reasonably sized gaming magazine. The features editor had told us that we would get some good coverage if we showed off the new 3D hardware-accelerated rendering engine from the game. (Note: Warcry is one of the good journalist sites to work with, and not the company in question here.) So, two of my co-workers bought a suitable notebook computer and drove 2 states away to show off this game. Unfortunately, the editor we had talked to wasn't in the office that day (and didn't contact us about it), so we talked to someone else at the offices. End result: we get an unflattering description in a list of other names and no pictures of our new engine. But, you can quickly see the reason why we get ignored: flipping through the magazine to the big story about EverQuest 2, you pass by 3 double-page ads for EQ-based products. (There are plenty of other bad things you can say about games "journalism" as well. But, there are a few bright points to contrast the negative.)

But, let's say that someone does somehow notice my game. They head to our website and sign up for an account. When they log in, they see a graphics engine that's obviously dated. And, at this point, we lose a lot of customers because glitz does matter to many people. They don't care about the gameplay because they instantly equate "bad graphics" to "not fun to play". The big companies don't really help much with this; people that are happy with the game they were playing 10 years ago aren't going to be buying up new games as they come to market. Therefore, they work hard to convince gamers that "better graphics" = "more fun to play".

But, we get to the final reason why being an indie developer sucks: the current business models don't help us. Most people won't buy a downloadable game for nearly the price of a game they could buy at the local store. So, while the larger companies charge $50 for the box, the indie can only expect to sell his or her game for $20-30. Admittedly, a lot of the price tag for the boxed game goes to distribution charges, but there's other factors at work here, too; people, in general, view a $50 item (a game, in this example) as "better" than a $30 item.

This gets worse on the online RPG (MMORPG) side of things. Meridian 59 charges $10.95 per month for a subscription; we could not charge less, otherwise we would operate at a net loss given current expenses. Larger games charge a few dollars more than that. But, most players don't care about that minor price difference; they don't care that one

Ah, we need to update that. :) That was speaking of other international servers that were running the game from the old 3DO days.

There are servers in the US and Germany currently. My company, Near Death Studios, Inc. owns worldwide rights (purchased from 3DO) and runs the U.S. version of the game. We also have a German licensee running a German version of the game.

We've been quite busy with the game lately, updating the old software rendering engine to a more modern hardware rendering engine with neat features like dynamic lighting. You can see some of the screenshots at Warcry News, which show some nice before-and-after shots of the game with the two rendering engines.

My point still stands, however: M59 would be dead today if it were only a console game. It simply does not have the numbers to make it as profitable as larger companies prefer. The game focuses on a niche (hard-core PvP combat) that a core group of people think is lacking in other games; however, this core group is not large enough to be of notice to console publishers.

My further thoughts,

That was a cool interview, albeit short. In the discussion that followed it, I enjoyed the comments about the dragon hoards. Instead of it artificially disappearing after x amount of time, though, it would be cooler if a crapload of other monsters and/or PC/NPC adventurers started showing up to get a piece of the action. Epic battles ensue, and the original dragon killers are already weakened by their first fight -- do they stay and fight it out in their condition or grab what they can and jam? In any case, sounds like D&DO is at least being thought out well.

There is a Yahoo! Group, the Allakhazam forum, SWG Warcry, the Stratics SWG board, and even the Lucasforums boards, among quite a few others. If you're thinking of learning more about the game, don't let Sony stiff-arm you, visit one of the other forums and start reading.

You can read it here with links to the images and their comments section.

Mirror of Story

I really didnt see this one coming but considering how AOL now is going to bundle IE with their aol software

(Funny how the courts tell MS to unbundle it from the os.. so MS goes and gets it bundled into what people consider their pc's os on a huge # of pc's)

Wonder if AOL would warm up to Mozilla if the states sued AOL to unbundle a browser with their software and give people a choice of what to use.

Since netscape is no longer a viable alternative I can only hope that Mozilla and to a lesser degree Opera become a prevalent browser across all forms of operating systems.

However there is still the problem to be fixed where 90% of the webpages out there are IE compatible on a first basis and all other browsers come in second for support.

Course Linux Gaming Warcry I busted my butt to the bone to get it to works across Moz,Opera, and IE. And I'm just a flunky html geek :)

Bruha writes "Lewt [THAT'S ME!!!] over at Warcry News Network has written his [MY] review for Ximian Desktop 2 targeted at the home users that are looking for a good desktop solution. He [I] mentions this is a good product that could be bundled with Redhat or Mandrake to provide a one stop solution for the desktop user where they dont have to install any extra software to fully surf the web. Which you do with KDE/Gnome installs of most distro's. Thanks for reading my crappy so-called review, boosting my site's traffic and increasing my Karma, my pageviews and my ad revenue.''

Bruha writes "Lewt [THAT'S ME!!!] over at Warcry News Network has written his [MY] review for Ximian Desktop 2 targeted at the home users that are looking for a good desktop solution. He [I] mentions this is a good product that could be bundled with Redhat or Mandrake to provide a one stop solution for the desktop user where they dont have to install any extra software to fully surf the web. Which you do with KDE/Gnome installs of most distro's. Thanks for reading my crappy so-called review, boosting my site's traffic and increasing my Karma, my pageviews and my ad revenue.''

Bruha writes "Lewt [THAT'S ME!!!] over at Warcry News Network has written his [MY] review for Ximian Desktop 2 targeted at the home users that are looking for a good desktop solution. He [I] mentions this is a good product that could be bundled with Redhat or Mandrake to provide a one stop solution for the desktop user where they dont have to install any extra software to fully surf the web. Which you do with KDE/Gnome installs of most distro's. Thanks for reading my crappy so-called review, boosting my site's traffic and increasing my Karma, my pageviews and my ad revenue.''

http://lmo.warcry.com/mp3lpd.php Lazy Link to Mirror Enjoy

Jessica was contracted to Turbinegames [website] by the Themis Group [press release] where she is helping bring that game around.

It's interesting in that one chapter in the story says more programmers wont make it go faster becuase AFAIK Asheron's Call 2 the game she's bringing around has only 3 coders working full time on the game in production. It's even to the point that one of the leading websites AC2 Warcry the site manager quit out of disgust of the game's lack of vision into the "Elder" game. While the Site Manager says he still plays the game it's not the only other game with the same issues. It's a too common occurance in many new games and presents a challenge to all future game developers to not have these mistakes.

I guess the old site manager must be a progressive customer. He wants more content!

Asheron's Call 2 faces more and more pressure to perform. Many players still call it playta becuase of some nagging broken features.

However I do find the frog people thing kinda missplaced in the game. It may not turn out too well with established players with something so un LOTR like in the game since EQ is a Middle Earth type based game. I'll play AC2 and wait for Middle Earth Online which Turbinegames is going to make eventually.

We had a devloper Chat over on www.warcry.com You can find the transcript right here.

For the amount of people that attended it they did ask some good questions and the team that's working on SO are a good fun bunch and answered a lot of questions I was surprised they skipped over like other publishers tend to do. Ala Microsoft on any hard question about Asheron's Call or Asheron's Call 2 during their dev chats.

GODGames ran out of money three times, then got borged by Take 2 Interactive. (Gamespot did that story, which at the time I excerpted here.

I think you've got the right idea, but your facts are lacking.