MMO Clerks

You always hear about the good MMOs and the bad MMOs, but there are certainly some MMOs that just seem to hang in the background. They’re always there and omnipresent, they never do exquisitely bad, but somehow they’re just forgotten amongst the sea of hyped games and broken promises.
That’s really the case for Dungeons and Dragons Online, one of the few MMOs to really fly in the face of the traditional MMO model. ZAM.com recently went back and took another look at DDO, giving it the attention that it rightfully deserves regarding its different playstyle and game mechanics.
The article points out the game’s major triumphs — such as the unique atmosphere in every dungeon you dive into, the use of puzzles and traps to keep the player on their toes, and the use of the infamous dungeon master that narrates each of the game’s quests to keep in like with [...]

Original post by Colin Brennan

After the smashing success of some promotional Team Fortress 2 videos, we thought it was time to ‘meet the movie-makers’ at Valve and see how far this thing is going to go.
Valve Software’s fans…

Original post by Stephen Totilo

To: Luke
From: Owen
Re: The Final Countdown
Have a blast at E3, although I’m not sure what you’ll be writing about, since the weekend was slap full of rumors and leaks bigfooting on all the big…

Original post by Owen Good

The aggression mechanics are something that every pilot in EVE Online should learn about. This is a set of rules that determines who you can attack in high security space, who can attack you and whether you can dock or use a stargate. Knowing them inside and out can mean the difference between losing your ship and keeping it in one piece, even if you have no intent of getting into a PvP situation. Nevertheless, it’s a part of the game that a lot of players don’t take the time to properly acquaint themselves with.
In this technical article, I give some important tips that will improve your survival. Can you afford not to learn about EVE’s aggression mechanics?
Continue reading EVE Evolved: EVE Online’s aggression mechanics
Filed under: At a glance, Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, PvP, Tips and tricks, Education, EVE Evolved
EVE Evolved: EVE Online’s aggression mechanics originally appeared on Massively [...]

Original post by Brendan Drain

I’ll give you original Star Trek fans a moment for the mist to clear from your eyes, for your hearts to slink back down your throats… All better? Good, because the newly revealed Excalibur class for Star Trek Online is quite striking. Interestingly the team at Cryptic is using a more angular design for their re-imagined Constitution class, as opposed to the recent Star Trek movie, which employs a sleek and streamlined design philosophy.
Both designs are pretty attractive, but we’re sure plenty of people will prefer one over the other. Either way, we’re really digging the look of the Excalibur class vessel. It makes us wonder what other old designs will feature newer updated versions as well, such as the Klingon Empire’s Bird of Prey.
Having both the original and updated appearances of ships would be the wisest choice, of course. Although we’re not entirely certain many players would want to [...]

Original post by Kyle Horner

Games and fan art go together like mashed potatoes and gravy — you just don’t have one with out the other. But how would you feel if you found a legal disclaimer in your favorite game’s website terms of service that claimed that any fan art you produce, regardless of your intentions, is owned by the game company just because you depicted the IP?
That’s what Woody Hearn from GU Comics found inside of the Bioware Tems of Service on the Star Wars: The Old Republic website. The paragraph in question (found in section 7 of the terms) essentially states that all fan art derived from any intellectual property of LucasArts and/or Bioware is explicitly the property of LucasArts and/or Bioware. So that stormtrooper picture that you drew? Yeah, it belongs to LucasArts.
Hearn has already explicitly stated that GU Comics won’t be featuring any more Star Wars: [...]

Original post by Colin Brennan

The free-to-play game Fiesta from publisher Outspark has announced the game’s “Race for 1,000,000″ contest, which will be held in tandem with the launch of Fiesta’s newest server Cypion on June 3rd. In celebration of the opening, Outspark will give 1,000,000 Spark Cash to the first three players to reach the game’s level cap of 105.
The promotion’s site is counting down to the Cypion launch, at which time more info (namely rules and restrictions) about “Race for 1,000,000″ will be posted.
Filed under: Contests, News items, Free-to-play, Fiesta
Outspark to reward Fiesta’s fastest levelers with 1 million Spark Cash originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 31 May 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Original post by James Egan

We love magazines, because they sometimes feature interviews which reveal information before it’s actually released online — it does happen! Kotaku has discovered that Edge Magazine’s newest issue contains an interview with James Ohlem, director for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and within said interview he reveals the Smuggler classes’ existence. Giving the scanned image featured above, we can only assume Smugglers are a Republic class — that there’s a Trooper standing next to him.
According to the Ohlem, via the scanned image, “Ord Mantell is a war-torn world and it’s where the Smuggler starts off, when his ship gets stolen. He’s pretty angry; imagine what Han Solo would’ve been like if the Millennium Falcon got taken.” Sounds like a good place to start for the law-bending, blaster toting class.
Chances are good this will be a part of next week’s E3 2009 news, so keep a lookout for more official details [...]

Original post by Kyle Horner

Even if some of their more recent console games have been less-than-stellar, one of the things that Sega has always been best known for is creating some cracking arcade titles.  Virtua Tennis became a much loved franchise, with the first three titles seeing success on both the arcade and console systems.
But with Sega and Sumo Digital’s latest instalment to the series, Virtua Tennis 2009 has completely skipped the arcades and gone direct for the living room experience.  So, bearing that in mind, has Sumo Digital managed to keep that arcade fun, while delivering a solid home console experience?  Or has the franchise run its course?
Virtua Tennis 2009 (VT2009 from now) is now the second Virtua Tennis title to feature on the ‘next gen’ systems, with Virtua Tennis 3 (VT3 from now) appearing on both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Game, Set and Mode:
All the usual modes feature in VT2009; Arcade, Exhibition, [...]

Original post by Graham

With only two months of operation under its belt, fantasy game Runes of Magic already seems to be enjoying a great deal of popularity. Runes of Magic uses the free-to-play business model, which is discussed in an interview with community manager Jörg “Kerensky” Koonen. Sam “Azerian” Maxted from ZAM caught up with Koonen to discuss the game’s launch and where the title is headed in future updates, but their talk quickly turned to some of the details of how the game’s economy operates.
Koonen discusses how players have responded to Runes of Magic’s microtransaction system through the in-game Item Shop, and that by design the Item Shop doesn’t sell certain types of items. “We do not sell any weapons or armour or such,” he says. “All of this has to be collected by the players through the game.” However, Runes of Magic also uses non-microtransaction currencies and some players are [...]

Original post by James Egan