Da Mythic boyz sez:

We are proud to present the cinematic trailer for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Created by Venice, CA based Blur Studio, the trailer for WAR literally launches the viewer into the heat of battle as mortal enemies clash in hand-to-hand combat. In the shadow of Ekrund's Gates a Dwarf Slayer and gigantic Black Orc struggle in a fight to the death, while a High Elf and a Dark Elf engage in a lethal dance with only one possible outcome. It is the fantasy world of Warhammer brought to life for the first time in cinematic form.

Click dis linkz to seez da filez.

Over on the official DDO forums, the Sorcerer and Bard Spell Exchange that was the subject of much discussion between players, has finally been detailed in its final form.

Therefore we have decided to go with a system close to that originally posted, with some changes to address community feedback. First, we are going to allow only one spell exchange every three days. Secondly we decided to make the gold cost for a spell exchange dependent on both character level and spell level.

Well done, Turbine.

Gamasutra has the story on NCsoft releasing it's first quarter financials:

According to a press release issued by NCsoft, these results "were generally in line with forecasts made at the beginning of the year," and the company anticpates resumed growth in the second quarter of 2006, with the launch of new products, including MMO car combat game Auto Assault, released April 13, and Guild Wars Factions, released April 28.

Q2 2006 should show an increase in sales, and depending on when the games being announced at E3 launch, it will probably end up meaning a over increase in sales for FY 06.

David 'spridal' Moore from gamebunny let us know that the second part of their Q&A is up.

Hello persistent friends,

Quote: "WoW is awesome for the industry, the same way Harry Potter and Peter Jackson opened the floodgates for fantasy in cinema. WoW has made a new wave of MMO players out of people who previously did not play those games. Those players are potential customers and playmates."

Snape killed Boromir? Also, Peter Jackson is a good director and all, but it saddens me to know that a great many of the people who saw the LOTR trilogy think that it was his original story. Reading is FUNdamental. Or something.

If you're on the following 3 WoW servers, you may want to look into that character transfer service, if your characters are still there. The day after the battleplan saying we are upgrading hardware is posted, there is a catastrophic hardware failure.

As you can see from the link, Blizzard worked around the clock to fix the problem with the servers. The problem with the affected players may take a bit more effort, as that wasn't burning electronics you were smelling, it was burning consumer confidence.

When I'm not harrasing bot trains in Lineage II, or blowing up rats in EVE, I play Guitar Hero. A lot. So this really makes me excited that WarCry scored an interview slot with RedOctane for E3:

The top-secret sequel song list remains firmly in the rock domain, with more than 55 songs being featured in the next installment. Confirmed for E3 are seven playable tracks including: "Psychobilly Freakout," "Strutter," "Who Was in My Room Last Night," "You Really Got Me," "War Pigs," "YYZ" and "Arterial Black."

New artists include Reverend Horton Heat, KISS, Butthole Surfers, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Rush, and Drist.

So, the new artists thing was a deduction of who did the 7 new songs. Either way, Generals gathered in their masses got me so I don't know what I'm doin', even though I know a thing or two about her.

Ya, so it's not really a contest then, is it? At least not one worth entering. Here's the info/rules:

We are excited to announce our weekly screenshot contest! Each week we will pick several player-submitted screenshots and post them up for you to vote on. The screenshot with the most votes at the end of the week will be declared the winner.

*Submission of a screenshot constitutes your full and unconditional acknowledgement and agreement that Turbine (and/or its licensors) owns all right, title and interest in and to player-submitted screenshots and that participants will not receive any compensation for their submissions.

Rules Lawyer says: "Nowhere does it state that to enter you have to have an active DDO subscription, although it is implied."

So, I guess I could just pick any forum, game, guild, and server to get the required information to submit. You can click on the picture for this article to see what that submission would be.

This came in the electronic mail system from V for Valiant:

Siliconera today kicked off a fundraising campaign on their site to benefit Get Well Gamers, a charity organization that provides new and used gaming equipment to children's hospitals across North America.

By clicking the Auto Assault link on the Siliconera site and/or adding the link to your own site or blog space, you'll help raise money for this very worthy charity. See Spencer Yip's article at http://www.siliconera.com/2006/05/01/help-us-bring-games-to-children-in-hospitals/ for the full story. To find out more about Get Well Gamers, visit their website at http://www.get-well-gamers.org/ or contact them directly at GetWellGamers@gmail.com.

Between Get Well Gamers, and Child's Play, I feel that the industry is doing a lot. But a lot is never enough, so take the time to check out the links.

Check this out:

EVE @ E3
CCP will be exhibiting at this years E3 which starts on the 9th of May. We will be at booth 2100 in West Hall. If any of you will be there then make sure to stop by and have a beer with us in the (space)bar hosted on the 2nd floor of the booth. People attending from CCP will be: Magnus Bergsson (CMO), Hilmar Petursson (CEO), Reynir Hardason (Creative Director), Halldor Fannar (CTO), Adalsteinn Ottarsson (Senior Web Engineer), Anna Olafsdottir (Partner Manager), Noah C. Ward (Game Designer), Nathan Richardsson (Senior Producer).

Beer?
Sold.

fofofofofo

What I got you gotta give it to your Press Release, give it away, give it away now:

A new Dofus game server has been set up on April 25, 2006 in order to host an increasing number of players.

All these results allow us to be optimistic regarding the future release of the long awaited extension "The Dragoturkey Riders" scheduled for July 2006 which will include the first mounts and the connected breeding professions. Plus, in September 2006, Ankama will be glad to inform you the launching of German, Spanish and Portuguese versions of DOFUS and Dofus-Arena.

And I thought the world knew enough to stop with the Turducken. Madden, what have you done?

As if burning down Lord British wasn't enough, now Brittania herself will be in flames:

Beginning on August 1st, 2006, the grace period for houses on inactive accounts will be changed from 90 days to 30 days. If your account remains inactive for more than 30 days, your house will begin a decay period of about 5 days. If you reactivate your account within the initial 30-day grace period or before your house finishes its 5-day decay period, then it will return to its original status.

- Darkscribe

I really wish SOE would just lay waste to the surface of every planet in SWG like this. 30 days inactive = *poof*

It's been a long time since I posted a Press Release, been a long lonely, lonely, lonely time. Carry me back...:

NCsoft North America launched an updated version of its customer website, PlayNC.com, which reflects a variety of new features, including an updated look-and-feel and the North American web-debut of NCsoft games Aion and Exteel.

Aion, Exteel, Dungeon Runners and Soccer Fury will all be on display at NCsoft's booth at E3 starting May 10.

And she's buying the stairway to E3.

I never realized that there were that many, and some not even on the list. I'd say that at any given time there are 75-100 being worked on. Anyway, here is the hyperlink to the list o' games.

Also this:

East meets West. Nine out of the thirty-one games listed are Korean MMOs hoping to make it in America and Europe, with several companies banking on the success of such a translation.

Razor's 3 simple rules for Korean games to succeed in America:

1) Get rid of the grind. Making people stay logged in for 1000 hours of gameplay to gain 1 level is a good idea when those players are being charged by the hour. Making people who are paying a flat monthly fee do it just pisses them off.

2) Design better interfaces. Every Asian MMO has the same damn crappy interface set up, and very little in each one is adjustable. Also, for the love of God, change the text font that you are all using over there. It makes rounder eyes bleed.

3) Lose the effeminate male character models. Most male players who are playing female characters in Asian MMOs couldn't tell the difference between the boys and the girls, and think they are playing guys.

4) Oops, yes 4. Hire better translators. Dealing with a crappy interface while wondering if your avatar has boobs or not while you are in your 65th hour trying to get to level 1 sucks even more when your quest description tells you to "Makes talk to magicman, in order to be best win super item."

Kentia Hall, here I come.

Press Release anarchy in the UK:

Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), today released the E3 cinematic trailer for Warhammer® Online: Age of ReckoningTM (WAR). A MMORPG based on Games Workshop's popular Warhammer® fantasy war game, WAR features next generation Realm vs. RealmTM (RvR) game play that will immerse players in a world of perpetual conflict. The E3 trailer introduces four of WAR's six playable armies and offers a taste of the grim, yet darkly humorous, world of Warhammer.

To learn more about WAR, visit the game's newly redesigned website: www.warhammeronline.com. Sign up for the monthly newsletter to receive exclusive stories, art, and game information, as well as a chance to take part in the game's beta test.

Get to da trailer!

I'm not sure how many people were aware of what sites IGE owned, but now there's no more secret, or hiding, or denying. Grimwell has the full story:

In their next move toward global domination IGE has announced the formation of the new Zam.com on their existing networks. What will Zam.com be? Let's look at the information from this forum thread at Allakhazam:

The new Zam.com Network will consist of newly expanded and improved versions of Allakhazam.com and Thottbot.com. In addition, the assets and content of OGaming.com (and the interface sites) and L2Orphus.com will be integrated into the existing Allakhazam network. This will add multiple new games to our site, more than double our personnel and give us the flexibility to add more features, better service and expanded coverage.

For anyone who has ever been KS'd, trained, ninjalooted, PK'd, harassed, or forced to deal with gold farmers and bots in whatever game you play, this is a chance to do something about it, and stop going to the above listed sites. Or, you can continue to bitch about them on forums, and your guild's Teamspeak server, while giving them page views, and validating their existence.

It will be interesting to see how many game companies, who have a strict policy of not allowing RMT in their games, currently have E3 appointments with representatives of the above sites. At least Sigil did something good last year, and had OGaming's online media removed from their booth by security. Which was cool to watch.

[Update]

So much can change when you are staring at a suitcase full of money, I guess.

While we do not have a Vanguard site at this time, we have every intention of launching one. The reason we don't have on yet is that we don't really consider ourselves a news site, but instead try to post actual game play information, so we usually don't launch sites before the NDA lifts on the games, (though with Vanguard we may make an exception to that).

So I can assure you there will be at least on major Vanguard site that will have nothing to do with IGE or any other similar company. - Allakhazam, March 1, 2005

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