Archive for 'News from Other MMOs'
Is the MMORPG Currency Crash of ’05 Upon Us?
Image source: WOW Gold Price Research According to new (?) virtual economy site Game Money Price Research, the virtual sky may just be falling. GMPR has an alarming set of charts up tracking the dive of almost all major MMORPG currencies against the U.S. dollar in the first half of this year. While GMPR’s methodology [...]
Full StoryWhy the W-Hats *Really* Came to Second Life
Various W-Hats may have been up to something awful in SL lately, but the Something Awful crew, from whose bosom the W-Hats sprang, provided a trenchant critique recently on other online worlds, shedding some light on many of the things that no doubt drove the goons to Second Life. click image for more
Full StoryCommodify Me! Chapter 2
Thanks again to Clickable Culture for reporting on this little gem — A breakdown of the way Massive Incorporated‘s in-game advertising works. Seems that not only are the ads placed in the game, but the marketers collect information about the amount of time the ad is viewed by individual players, the size at which they [...]
Full StoryA Window on the Teen Grid
Teens pour into SL’s new “Teen Grid” As reported by Hammie Linden in New World Notes, the Second Life Teen Grid has its first blog, called Second Age, under he stewardship of Aesop Thatch, who is a fine writer btw. Early stories cover the clubs, a recent influx of noobs, and of course the Young [...]
Full StoryCensoring “Negativity”
Clickable Culture is reporting the latest in the worldwide parade of game company “let’s silence our critics” brain farts. This time it is MindArk‘s Project Entopia, which now has a clause in its terms of service stating that… “‘You cannot spread any rumors about MindArk, Project Entropia, and MindArk Staff or Partners, that can be [...]
Full StoryThere ya go again
Our friend Daniel Terdiman is reporting in wired.com that the parent company of There — Forterra Systems — has spun off the social MMO There. A couple of execs have purchased the IP rights and plan on hiring new tech and customer support staff. Our fearless overlord King Philip says that this is good news, [...]
Full StoryGame Developer Rants burn houses, babies and bridges
If you hadn’t caught them earlier, Cory Ondrejka’s (aka Cory Linden’s) Terra Nova forum threads about the now-infamous Game Developers Rants, were Slashdotted yesterday. The main two Terra Nova threads are called ‘Burning Down the House’ and ‘Burn baby burn’. Some of the things that games developers came out with were beauties like these: “Iwata-san [...]
Full StoryThe Day the Toons Escaped the Grid
By Sheriff Oswald Picklebrains and Pearl Fuzzyswirl Toontown, the MMO by Disney Corporation, seems transgressive on the surface. Players create avatars that have the basic form of 1930’s animated animals and attack evil corporate “cogs” with gag weapons like cream pies, seltzer bottles, and falling pianos. The cogs – bossbots, lawbots, sellbots, and cashbots – [...]
Full StoryA False Economy? Lindens Fight for Economic Stability
by Matthias Zander Bonus decreases. Ratings price hikes. Event support disappearances. These three things that could be seen as catastrophies are the Lindens’ latest solution to the less-than-beautiful economy of Second Life. Robin Linden took the time to speak to a crowd of around 100 SL residents onthe afternoon of January 11.
Full StoryKorea Investigates Poor Customer Service in MMORPGs
Why can’t we have what Korea does? Our sister publication, the Korean Herald (well ok, it does have Herald in the name), is reporting that Korean Fair Trade Commission is looking at online gaming companies that are failing to deliver on promised service. Dan Hunter summarizes its investigation as follows: Korean consumer protection authorities are [...]
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