VirginWorlds Podcast #132

As presented by Robotic Brent.

---

Podcast 132

This is VirginWorlds Podcast #132 for October 19th, 2008.  I am your

host, Robotic Brent, and this is the Massively Multiplayer Gaming news

for the past week.

---

First, you are probably saying, "Hey, that's not Brent, that's a robot

voice."  You are correct.  Brent seems to have contracted a deadly

throat slaying ailment on his recent trip to London, and while he

doesn't sound all that bad, he can barely get two words out without

coughing up a lung, and so, instead you have me, Robotic Brent. 

Interesting isn't it that I have nearly as much emotion in my delivery

as Brent does. Ha Ha Ha.

Yes, Brent flew into the UK this past week for work.  And aside from

enjoying Boddingtons Pub Ale on tap and close to its home, he sampled

very little of London or the surrounding area.  It was one of those in

and out work trips and he didn't get a chance to get away and meet any

of the UK podcast crew.  Brent sucks.  He was particularly taken aback

by that whole, left side of the road thing.  Sure, seems obvious, but

when he climbed into the taxi at the airport, it was strange seeing the

steering wheel on the other side, and he had to admit, every car trip

was a white knuckle adventure because it seemed like every turn would

surely result in death and destruction.  Somehow, he made it.  Also of

note, not every woman that sounds like Elizabeth Hurley, looks like

Elizabeth Hurley.  This was a horrible horrible realization that may

take many months to recover from.  All in all, it looks pretty much

like home, aside from that whole left-side-of-the-road thing and the

peculiar controls on his hotel room shower, which took quite a while to

figure out.

At the top of the show, not much else to say.  No new podcasts have

joined the Collective this week, though there is one in the hopper that

Brent needs to add.  He needs to work harder.  But I'll give him a

break. He isn't a robot, like me, after all.  My ability to process new

data is far superior to his, he is but a one hundred and sixty pound

bag of water, while I am a fine tuned machine.

Also, no new VirginWorlds supporters have been added this week.  We are still hovering just under the mark for goal #2.

And now, here is the M M O news for the week.

Adventure Quest Worlds.

Artix Entertainment, creators of online, browser-based, role-playing games written for Macromedia Flash, today announced the release of AdventureQuest Worlds,

its first 100% browser-based MMORPG.  You may remember that Brent

intereviewed the crew from Artix a few months ago, and they talked at

length about their single player browser based games ... and they

hinted at a possible MMO in the works.  It has now arrived.  The crew

at Artix uses Flash to build eye catching battle-centric titles. Their

previous work includes the Free to play titles, Adventure Quest, Mech

Quest and Dragon Fable, which have had over sixty million players over

the past 5 years.   Now they have announced Adventure Quest Worlds, an

MMO based on their most popular title, Adventure Quest.  Daniel Vasile,

Business Development Manager of Artix Entertainment said: “Our Beta

testers’ positive responses indicate our move into MMOs was the right

decision.  We’re especially excited that AdventureQuest Worlds

may be the first MMO developed by a small, family-owned game

development studio.  Our project shows MMO developers and players

worldwide that a small, truly dedicated team can create a quality

browser-based MMOG without spending millions of dollars.”   The game

play will, of course, involve battling armies of monsters in real time

combat, performing quests, meeting thousands (nay, millions) of other

players and donning customizable armors, capes, helms and weapons. 

Character classes exist, but in the spirit of casual play, the player

can change amongst the different classes at any time and can level

those class up independently, unlocking new skills and gear as they

go.  Artix is commited to weekly updates of new content, just as they

have with their previous titles, so player can expect to have a ton of

material to work through, whether they start playing at launch or later

on.  If you'd like to take a look at Adventure Quest Worlds, please

visit www A Q dot com to sign up for a free account.  It's all browser

based, so no downloads are required.  Congrats to this small

family-owned business. While they're not the first to do this, Maid

Marian Entertainment did it several years ago with a one man team,

still they've launched a big game that will surely be a success, and

they didn't need millions of dollars to do it.

EVE ONLINE.

CCP

announced the next expansion for Eve Online this past week.  It is

called Quantum Rise.  They haven't said much outside the press release

yet, but here are a few things included in this free expansion: In game

Corporations will be able to set their products apart from the rest by

building trust in their goods through customizable storefronts.

Industrial ships are being rebalanced to suit the needs of haulers and

industrialists-including the latest edition to the fleet, a massive

capital industrial ship dubbed the Orca. A new certificate system will

give a quick and verifiable means to discern a pilot's skill level in

trading, gunnery or countless other professions, providing plenty of

bragging rights. Let's face it, ego is a big part of M M O gameplay. 

The release of Quantum Rise, much like previous expansions, will be

done in multiple stages.  The upgrade began with the recent

implementation of technological breakthroughs such as Stackless I O and

EVE 64 which upgraded the server hardware and streamlined communication

between server and client to severely reduce lag. In order to enhance

the ability for hundreds of ships to take place in combat at the same

time, CCP will be making significant hardware and server improvements,

they say, and I quote "to bring the most massive player vs player

experience available, expanding a boundless universe into a limitless

one." End quote. More to be revealed in the coming weeks.  For further

discussion of Quantum Rise, I, Robotic Brent, recommend the EVE Online

Podcasts that you'll find on the VirginWorlds Podcast Collective, such

as Warp Drive Active, The Drone Bay and Micro Warp Cast.  Also be sure

to check out two other Eve Podcasts that have sprung up somewhat

recently, FlyReckless and Titan Weekly, you can find them linked on

VirginWorlds.com.

Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Major avatar combat revisions are in development for Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Kevin Maginn, Lead Designer at Flying Lab Software, has written a dev blog on the subject.

Here is what he said: (Quote)

“Over

the last few months, I’ve been working almost completely off the radar

on just that: a major iteration of the avatar combat system. At the

same time, most of the content team has been doing the same for the

avatar missions; the animation team has been revising all the

swordfighting animations; the UI team has been revising the UI and the

particle effects; and the sound team has been iterating all the sounds

of avatar combat.

In

short, we’ve been stripping avatar combat down to its foundation and

building up again. We’ve learned a lot from the first major iteration

of the system; we know what worked and what didn’t, what was fun and

what was dull. We’ve gathered a lot of feedback from you as well as

feedback from our internal test team. We’ve applied that knowledge to

create a new system that (in my naturally biased opinion) is much more

fun and engaging, as well as easier to learn and easier to use.” (End

Quote)

This

is probably an extremely good idea as most people felt that the avatar

combat system was just 'ok' and somehow, the ship combat, while

effective, didn't seem to carry the title on its own.  Kevin did not

give any details regarding when this content would release, but let's

hope it is soon.

Sword of the New World.

Update 4 is currently launched or mid-launch.

There

was a lengthy blog post on the subject, and I'd tell you about it, but

if you are not a Sword of the New World player, it would not mean

anything to you.  Let's summarize. Sword of the New World is still

getting very active additions, and as Brent has said in the past, this

is a rather solid game for a free to play port from the east, perhaps

the best one he has seen.  I, Robotic Brent, didn't particularly like

it, because, like Darren from Common Sense Gamer, I find ani-may style

graphics emasculating and when you have a dual core processor and 3

gigs of ram, you should be very macho, not playing elfen looking

boy-girls in lace and ribbons. 

One note worthy addition

to this game is the new premium subscription program, with a full

customer support addition. All other players will only get basic

support (game client issues, bugs, etc). That means if you are not

premium but buy gold (via microtransactions), you will not get

support.  They are also working to get name change, gender change and

character restoration options available to all players (these are paid

changes).

The 3 available Premium packs look like this:

Basic Pioneering Pack (Trial Pack) [$4.95 once a month]

Includes:

* 500 gold

* 1 Mystery Box

Veteran Pioneering Pack [30 Days for $8.95, 90 Days for $24.99, 180 Days for $45.99]

the Veteran Pioneering PackIncludes:

* 2000 gold

* 2 Mystery Boxes

* Receive 5% off on additional Gold purchases for the duration of the package.

next is the Expert Pioneering Pack [30 Days for $14.95, 90 Days for $39.99, 180 Days for $74.99]

the Expert Pioneering PackIncludes:

* 4000 gold

* 3 Mystery Boxes

* Receive 10% off on additional Gold purchases for the duration of the package.

and finally, the Master Pioneering Pack [30 Days for $24.95, 90 Days for $69.99, 180 Days for $129.99]

the Master Pioneering Pack Includes:

* 8000 gold

* 6 Mystery Boxes

* Receive 20% off on additional Gold purchases for the duration of the package.

         Thanks to Jay for bringing this news to Brent's attention.

Blizzard's Next MMO.

Surprise

suprise, Michael Mor haim said the next MMO from Blizzard, which was

confirmed as "happening", is not World of Warcraft 2. Well duh.  Even I

could have told you that, and I'm just a bunch of circuits with a

pretty aluminum frame.  I was talking to Human Brent about this a few

days ago and he started to give in to the idea that Blizzard might in

fact be building a Starcraft MMO to follow on the Starcraft 2 release,

just like they did with Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft.  He still

thinks that is lame, but is starting to accept it as a predictable and

boring possibility.

In other, some what related Blizzard

news, the leaders from Blizzard and Mythic have been participating in

some interesting mudslinging about who let who into which beta, game

imbalance, who will win in the long run and so forth.  It is rather

ridiculous.  I am shocked, completely shocked, that Jeff Kaplan from

Blizzard was allowed to say anything to the gaming press about his

expereince with Warhammer online or his thoughts.  Typically Blizzard

just remains silent and stoic as if to silently indicate that their

competitors should, "Bring it".  Mark Jacobs from Mythic, on the other

hand, continues to talk the same way he did when Mythic was independent

and not part of EA.  This means, he pretty much says whatever he

wants.  In this case, I think he would be best served by being silent

as well, and not implying that in the long term, war might beat wow,

because that's crazy talk.  My favorite part was when he said “If you

look at ‘Warhammer,’ there were so many points [where] we

consciously made the decision not to be like wow and to try to push

the envelope. I think you’ll find that if you’re actually going to

compare the two products, I would say wow is certainly a more

polished game now than Warhammer is, of course they’ve had four years

and billions of dollars, but if you look at the innovations in

‘Warhammer,’ you’d be hard-pressed to find as many in wow.”  End Quote.

After reading that, I laughed so hard, I had to reboot and defrag. 

Pushing the envelope?  Innovations?  Uh oh, segmentation fault-

City of Heroes.

Quick bit on City of Heroes and Villians.  Zombies have arrived for the Halloween season. Go kill them.  End of story.

Love.Human

Brent, being completely out of touch with the MMO world (gotcha) hasn't

talked about this one before, but it is billed as a

procedurally-generated moderately-multiplayer online world by one-man

studio, Eskil Steenberg.  As a computer, I took particular interest in

the fact that this game or world or experience or whatever it is, is

supposed to be procedurally generated and was made by a single fellow

with a laptop, not that unlike myself.  Rock Paper Shotgun .com , a

great gaming website, has the first trailer video form this game, and

calls it, quote, "A wondrous, impressionistic MMO world that

facilitates player

creativity and encourages co-operation, that looks incredible and

sounds too ambitious to be true. It’s a bold, brave project of

independent game development." end quote.  And based on the video, this

is true, though I have to admit, I was surprised at the level of

violence depicted in this game called, Love.  Or maybe I should not

have been surprised.  You humans do tend to be a tad ironic. To follow

the development of this one-man MMO, visit: http://www.quelsolaar.com

Wrap Up.Ok,

short show for today, partly because news was light this week and

partly because you're probably tired of listening to Robotic Brent. 

I'm sure Human Brent will surface soon enough.  In the meantime, go

check out some of his favorite sites, Massively.com and Gaxonline.com. 

Be sure to become a supporter of the site and various podcasts if you

are willing and able, several podcasts still are seeking sponsors.  Have a good week gaming, and please be kind to your computer, we're amaziningly sensitive sometimes.Bye.