LoTRO Screens

LoTRO on my old PC 

• AMD Athlon 2000xp (1.73gHz)
• 1gb RAM
• Sapphire Radeon 9800pro, 128mb RAM
• SoundBlaster Audigy
• Win XP Pro SP2 

LoTRO on my new PC

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2×2.4GHz)
• 2gb RAM
• nVidia GeForce 8800, 640mb RAM
• SoundBlaster X-Fi
• Win XP Pro SP2

MTV now also an MMO Importer

According to Gamasutra (by way of Raph), the MTV Networks division of Viacom is going to be the North American publisher for Nexon titles, including the following.

• Maplestory (comments)
• Kart Rider
• Audition

I really don't know anything about Audition beyond what Wikipedia had to say, but the first and second are huge.

Snatching these up for North America while pushing ahead with their alternate-demographic virtual lifestyley games shows a rather impressive degree of diversity for a company new to the game space. Whatever audience Viacom can attract to Laguna Beach, VMTV and LogoWorld will likely be additive to whoever they can attract to the above three, which are already very popular.

This is new? S.U.N. and RMTing

As announced yesterday, Webzen, makers of SUN (and other games), will present "a new payment model".

Trouble is, it doesn't sound new at all.

Continue reading This is new? S.U.N. and RMTing…

Designing for the past

People seem to be talking about Vanguard in the past tense, as if the game were already many years old. I haven't been an ardent follower of the game, as I do not feel I am their target player. However, having followed some of what Sigil Games is doing and saying, the game does feel as though it is looking to refine tradition.

And that got me thinking about designing for the past, or at least, designing an old idea during an age of change.

Continue reading Designing for the past…

The Future: Games to become Worlds?

Or will worlds become to games?

Basically, who will win the future?

Continue reading The Future: Games to become Worlds?…

I have seen a future future

Lum recently posted a report from the Leipzig Gaming Conference panel discussion on the 'Future of MMOs'.

On the one hand, I'm getting worried that I'm getting to the point where I've been around long enough to be seeing new people learn old lessons.

On the other, it was interesting to hear their take on my favorite topic. I think some of the talk was a bit single-minded though, particularly the focus on hardcore gamers.

Continue reading I have seen a future future…

Acclaim getting into the act

In pursuing their vision of free games supported by revenue generated through ingame advertising, PC GameZone has announced that Acclaim is building a new MMORPG called 2Moon.

Continue reading Acclaim getting into the act…

Risky bar raising: TR spec

Not sure who else is following Tabula Rasa, but I like what they're trying to do, both now and what they designed for previously.

But one thing I just got concerned with is the minimum system specs, as posted on Stratics:

Continue reading Risky bar raising: TR spec…

Updated Links Page (again)

I've said this before, but I need to say it again. I love Wordpress. Anyone struggling with a blog spending half their time trying to fight CSS stylesheets or worse, HTML code, needs to move over to something like this. Spend all that time writing!

Anyway, over time I've completely reformatted my Links page, something I never really did in the last iteration of this place. If anyone has any comments on it, please feel free to tell me about it here. I am specifically looking for any game recommendations to add to the longterm radar sections, because, you know, ya just can't have enougn MMORPG!

Continue reading Updated Links Page (again)…

Ingame Advertising and the Future of MMOs

Through an ongoing series tracking the rise of ingame advertising in MMOs (now with Huxley), I had originally thought the trend was to attempt to integrate ingame advertising into games that seemed to have low market potential or are having declinig market success.

However, now I'm wondering if the realities of delivering these games may compel a shift in the sorts of games we play at all, as a way to make ingame advertising successful.

Continue reading Ingame Advertising and the Future of MMOs…