Massive Multiplayer Online Games

You all know about this game, I'm guessing. I'm going to talk more about it later, but I figured you'd want to know (or be reminded) that Tabula Rasa (well.. "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa ", actually) is going live for the non-preorder folks tomorrow, November 2. I just came back from the store where I saw a pile of boxes, so maybe you can get online today. Anyway, the game is very interesting and a lot of fun from what I saw during beta. I'll get into the live version soon to see how it's going and report back later. The buzz has been pretty good overall, so this should be interesting.

[I was going to summarize, but hey... you know I'm lazy, so here's the pasted press release: --Hoza]

Disney Online today announced that Pirates of the Caribbean Online (www.PiratesOnline.com), an immersive massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) and virtual world inspired by the popular film franchise, has launched for the PC and Mac platforms. Pirates of the Caribbean Online allows thousands of players to fully experience the adventures made famous in the films and explore beyond these boundaries in a quest to become the most legendary pirate on the high seas.

[full press info and feature list after the jump...]

I'm a bit out of order on this, but I wanted to point out that Jumpgate Evolution wasn't the only game that NetDevil revealed at their sweet 10th anniversary party last night.  They also let us play an 8-player setup of Warmonger and they showed some great little movies of where the LEGO Universe MMO game is heading.

I'm actually just going to point you guys to the article & liveblog posted by Brian over at Kotaku.  That guy makes me realize how weak I am at updating my site, since he does things like post the video for a game an hour before said video is shown for the first time.  LOL... that's a scoop!  Freak, he is.  ;)

Anyway, he's got some great views on what we saw at NetDevil, and I can't think of why I should try to do any more than that for now.  I'll write up my own thoughts more later... both Warmonger and LEGO Universe have me very excited, but for different reasons, and I need to go outside to enjoy this nice Saturday afternoon for a bit.

Here:

• The LEGO Universe movie clip trailer dealie revealed at NetDevil (Kotaku.com) 
  
• Brian Crescente's liveblog of the NetDevil press announcement meeting thing .
  

Last night, I was happily eating, drinking and chatting at the super-cool new offices of NetDevil in Louisville, CO. I've been talking to the guys over there for a while about the new place, but I was pretty blown away at how sweet it is. I'm so damn stoked for these guys! They've done really well over the years (10th-year anniversary, btw) and I wish all the best for this terrific crew. Regardless of the commercial success of their games up to now (I'm not in a mood to discuss that stuff), the company has grown immensely and has put together a great environment for future development. They've retooled development processes (go Agile!) and gotten much better at evolving their products to be fun and engaging through the development cycle.... ooh, a segue... (read more )

[update 10/17/07: Gods & Heroes has been "shelved indefinitely" so that likely means "cancelled."  I'll add a post elsewhere about this, but I figured people finding this post in the archives might want to know this. --Hoza]

Another closed beta signup today. This time, Perpetual Entertainment is opening up the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising closed beta signup form . There's a lot of buzz about this game so again, I'm sure most of you will already be gone.. off to sign up and read their legal documents instead of keeping me company. Oh well, I don't blame you. The only reason I'm still here is that I already signed up! :P

More info:

Those eager to test their might against the forces of Roman mythology can sign up at: http://community.godsandheroes.com/betasignup

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, the upcoming massively multiplayer online game from Perpetual Entertainment, lets you take on the role of a son or daughter of an Olympian god. Featuring an innovative squad combat system and attack animations that give you control of every move, Gods & Heroes challenges players to overcome and conquer the enemies of Rome. Along the way, players will battle iconic enemies including the Gauls, Greeks, and Samnites, as well as the Cyclops, Minotaur, Hydra, Medusa, and other creatures from Roman mythology. Each player will command the powers of the gods and their own custom squad as they fight to save Rome.

The "biggest expansion yet" to PoxNora has gone live (a couple weeks ago, sorry). Here's the skinny:

Turn-based strategy gem PoxNora boasts a variety of new features in its latest expansion launching today. The Drums of War introduces premium user accounts, two new gameplay modes, three new maps, a spectator mode, 80 new runes (10 per faction) and a faction ranking system where players influence the game's future storyline.

In the world of Pox, the land is divided into eight factions that players can join. With this expansion, points are now awarded to their respective factions as players win battles. PoxNora's storyline will change over time depending on these faction rankings. The Sundered Lands faction are the winners of the first battle.

Catching on to the game's mechanics is easier with the launch of spectator mode. This allows users to watch current matches so they can better grasp how to play before battling it out against experienced PoxNora fans.

Players can also watch PoxNora's new game modes "King of the Hill" and "Capture the Flag" in all their glory. In "King of the Hill," players must capture a strategic point on the map and hold it for a set period of time to triumph. For "Capture the Flag" players fight to reach a flag on the battlefield and bring it back to their shrine to score points.

Premium members will receive a special edition warbanner relic that will greatly enhance their faction-based battlegroup. When the warbanner is in play, all deployed champions for the player's specified faction receive +5 hit points, +2 attack and +2 defense. Premium members also gain access to the individual rune store, giving them an alternate way to complete their collection.

I'm sure only a few thousand (few 10's of thousands? 100's??) of you will be very excited to see that Mythic is opening up the mega sluice gate that is the Warhammer Online beta registration .  Whoa!.. hold on now!  Don't friggin' trample me on your way out to get to that sucker!  

Bah... what am I saying?  None of those thousands of people are still here now.  They've clicked that link and are signing up already.  I guess I'll just keep writing stuff for the other 18 of you who are still reading.... I really don't know what to say to you, though.  I'll go dig up another story real quick so you have something to read.  I'll be right back... 

Just a quick note to send you out for some fun play... Dungeon Runners has launched and it's quite a lot of fun! I haven't gotten time to play it much yet (darn worky gunk!) but what I've seen got me really giddy inside. The humor in the voice-overs and the world in general is a ton of fun that had an interesting effect on my level of acceptance/enjoyment, I think. The art is really nice, the gameplay is generally solid and... well, fun! Fun. Good word, that.

So, I'll leave you to go try the free version of the game instead of reading me say little of consequence about it. Actually "free version" isn't quite right, since you can download the game and play for free... you just don't get all the bells & whistles unless you stoke the fires with a paid membership . Even then, the membership is only $4.99/month which is downright refreshing in its own right.

There really appears to be a ton of fun wrapped up in this puppy... but you risk nothing to find out for yourself. I'll get deeper into it as soon as I can, and not because I have to -- because I want to. That's a Good Thing. The loot system alone makes me want to collect stuff just to see what wacky mad loot I'll find... and then there's Karl. I laughed pretty good at Karl... at first he seemed a bit "off" for inclusion in the game, but soon I was happy to have him as a companion. I realize you have no idea what I'm talking about, so I'll let you go find out. Have fun!

The Aion: The Tower of Eternity teaser website has been launched by NCsoft. There are a bunch of screenshots, concept art pieces and some in-game movie goodies for you to check out. For a "teaser" site, there is quite a lot of info on there.

Quick note about the open beta available for the online soccer/football (whichever term gets you in the right game), United Football . It's not really "massive" in terms of the number of players playing at once, but let's face it, football is huge... and this is an online game, so there's my reasoning for calling this a "massive multiplayer online game". :P Here's a blurb:

United Football is a free to play 5-a-side multiplayer football game where each player on the pitch is controlled by a gamer located anywhere around the world. United Football also includes in-game AI controlled “bots” for those times when there are not enough players around to make up full teams, as well as in-game chatrooms, messaging and a buddy list to keep track of your friends. The game is now in open Beta and Staggan’s ethos is “Release early, update often and be led by the community, since after all, they play the game!”

Many new features are planned including leagues, tournaments, additional game modes and much more.

If you are interested in trying out your soccer skills go to unitedfootball.staggan.com, register and play.