MMO Clerks

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Events, real-world, Expansions, Launches, MMO industry, New titles
The numbers are in and Blizzard has broken their own record once again. After selling 2.8 million copies in 24 hours, World of Warcraft’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, has set the record as the fastest-selling PC game of all time, according to Blizzard. The irony is that the previous record holder was also Blizzard with their first WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million on the January 2007 launch day.Blizzard’s CEO and co-founder, Mike Morhaime, commented on the occasion, “We’re grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to…
WoW’s Lich King sells record 2.8 million copies in 24 hours originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
 
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Original post by Shawn Schuster

When we last left our intrepid Florida anti-gaming attorney, he was not only being permanently disbarred, but was also ordered to reimburse legal fees to the bar to the tune of some $43,675.35. Well…

Original post by Mike Fahey

Filed under: New titles, The Agency, Spy, Massively Interviews
As we noted yesterday, The Agency isn’t canceled. Despite that mixup from Gamefly’s automated notification system, the FPS/spy title from the SOE Seattle studio is still going strong. Joystiq spoke with the SOE subsidiary briefly yesterday, and we had the chance to do so as well. Being the MMO nerds that we are, we just had to go a bit outside the scope of this latest mixup - mechanics are far more interesting than drama!Join us as we talk over the current state of The Agency’s development with the animated and always-interesting lead designer Hal Milton. Hal shares with us a bit of insight…
Continue reading Massively checks in on The Agency with Lead Designer Hal Milton
Massively checks in on The Agency with Lead Designer Hal Milton originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms […]

Original post by Michael Zenke

To: Crecente
From: Luke
Re: Paternity
Serious paternity time? I imagine there’s no other kind.
You know, when you don’t have kids, it gets really hard to write these things. I mean, today, I woke…

Original post by Luke Plunkett

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Virtual worlds, Lively
One of the good things about Google is that they try stuff. They can afford to try out projects, and don’t stick with what isn’t working. Well, it appears that their Lively virtual environment chat-rooms haven’t worked out. Google will be shuttering the Lively service on 31 December 2008, less than six months after launching.
Lively’s Web-site — launched to the public on July 9 this year — will remain up, and the images of the rooms preserved, but the rooms themselves will no longer be active. This seems to also end Google’s plans to leverage Lively as a games-platform. It isn’t clear at…
Continue reading End of life for Google’s Lively
End of life for Google’s Lively originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
 
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Original post by Tateru Nino

Waaaay back in 2006, Agere Systems sued Sony. Said that the PSP (and some other Sony devices) infringed on their patent for a “wireless local area network apparatus”. A key difference in this and…

Original post by Luke Plunkett

Filed under: Expansions, Opinion, The Daily Grind
Everyone’s got an expansion out right now — EverQuest II has The Shadow Odyssey, The Lord of the Rings Online has Mines of Moria, World of Warcraft has Wrath of the Lich King, EVE Online has Quantum Rise — there’s no end to it, but then that’s the point, isn’t it?Well, you’d think that, anyway. Word on the street is that there are already Death Knights at level 80, and all the raid content in Wrath has been completed. One player reached level 80 in only 27 hours. Over a year of development for one week of content? Are MMO players just too damned hardcore, or did Blizzard aim too low? How…
The Daily Grind: How much content should an expansion have? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
 
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Original post by Samuel Axon

The Natural Resources Defense Council Have…hey, look, wait. This is interesting. Because it’s about your money. Anyway, like I was saying, the Natural Resources Defense Council have released a…

Original post by Luke Plunkett

Microsoft Europe have today announced that the Xbox 360 - long (and still) the underdog in the European theatre of console conflict - has now sold seven million units across the continent. That’s up…

Original post by Luke Plunkett

My apologies for the on-again/off-again ‘End of day’ thoughts. I have been so busy due to the holiday season, and I’m trying to do final preparations for the live-stream charity event as well (this Saturday, 8 AM to 8 PM EST)! Once that event is over, I should be back to my normal ‘End of day’ routine. Thanks to sticking with me through this busy time! If I am going to keep up, I have to get some rest! I’ll see you guys in a few, short hours. Hope you have a great morning!
I actually squeeze in some time to play Sonic Unleashed during the wee hours of the morning. It was just over an hour’s worth of gameplay, and I’ve been left with some fresh impressions in my mind. We’ve been fed trailer after trailer, screen after screen of Unleashed for […]

Original post by RawmeatCowboy