Filed under: Age of Conan, MMO industry, Endgame, Races, Player vs. Everything

It's going to take you 250 hours to get to level 80 in Age of Conan. That's the big news today, and I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that. On the one hand, that tells us very little about the actual game. Saying you have 250 hours of content means nothing unless that content is fun content. On the other, it does let you know exactly what you're getting into as far as a time commitment goes (on average). It's also important to note that that's pretty close to World of Warcraft's benchmark, too -- most players can get from 1-70 in 6 to 14 days played. I think my first 70 took me about 7 and 1/2 days.

What's a good length of time for the leveling game to be, anyway? If you make it too long and drawn out, won't many players quit in frustration before they ever get to the top (EverQuest was notorious for having players that never capped)? Maybe. Let them level too quickly, though, and they'll quit if there's nothing to do at the top. Even if there is something to do when you're capped, for many people, leveling is the game. I'm probably one of those people. I hate structured PvP (like arenas) and while I dabble in raiding, I really have more fun leveling. So is 250 hours long enough to keep you interested? And why even tell us that in the first place? What does Age of Conan's 250 hours mean to you?

Continue reading Player vs. Everything: Age of Conan's 250 hours

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At the time of its release, Gears of War was arguably the most technically impressive game ever created. Its production values are as high as the very best games have managed, before or since. The developers even managed to distinguish it from the pack, deciding that desaturation controls were put in Photoshop for a reason, and they're bloody well going to use them. So, what's the problem?

Sweeney is Epic's founder and CEO, and in many ways he is the company's Willy Wonka. There are stories of brilliant people locking their doors for months on end and emerging with never-before-seen wonders. Sweeney is one of those people. Much of the Unreal Engine's technology can be traced back directly to him, tinkering away in his office.

I sat down with Cliff Bleszinski in his action figure-adorned office, where he talked about how awesome the new Gears installment will be, the difficulties involved with being one of the last of the rock star designers, the movie Poltergeist, how many developers have ripped him off, why some online gamers are dicks, the importance of not playing games from time to time and his dog. I also tried to make him cry.

The Escapist travels to Epic HQ and captures some of the company's verve in this pictorial.

Sure, we watched a metric ton of cubed meat jostle rhythmically to the beat of a few shotgun blasts and gazed in awe at Cliff Bleszinski's pneumatic pelvic thrusts, but aside from the welcome addition of being able to lock chainsaws with your opponents in a kind of homoerotic lumberjack tango, new information about Gears 2 has been sparse. Nothing is accidental when multimillion dollar franchises are involved, however. When you're developing the biggest 360-exclusive title of the year, you don't ride the wave of hype - you create it.

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Events, real-world, Academic

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Filed under: Business models

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SOE and MMOs Look Long Term.

The Seattle Times interviewed John Smedley as he answers questions on the PotBS, MMO games on the PS3 and the future of MMOs.

Q: Where will MMOs be in 15 years?

A: Right now it's about 85 percent male. I think it's going to be 50-50. You're going to see a lot more big name brands in it, including ones we're building. These games are as big as hit movies are right now.

To read the entire interview, please visit The Seattle Times.

Build Your Favorite Paper-craft Model Jumpgate Ships

Ok what is more fun than this? I mean, how could you irritate your boss anymore then wasting time at work reading news about your favorite games? Build paper-craft ships and throw them around the office that's how!

Creativity is something that our Jumpgate fans are well known for and we are very pleased to share with you, one fan's dedication to the Jumpgate Universe. Bingofuel has created a series of downloadable models of paper-craft Jumpgate Ships. Free downloads are available of various models. They're not only fun but super cool too!

Have fun building ships at Jumpgate Evolution.

The Nexus!

Located in the Borean Tundra this is the home of the Blue Dagonflight and Malygos. Am I the only one who remembers a zone not too long ago called The Nexus from a similar game in this genre? I also could never remember which direction The Bazaar was. Maybe I'm directionally challenged. I don't know. Anyway, The new Nexus webpage has all the information about the Nexus war. What are you waiting for?

The dungeons section of the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King web site has been updated with a new dungeon from the upcoming expansion. Learn more about the blue dragonflight's home base in Northrend, the Nexus.

Check out the new Nexus page at WoW:WotLK.

A Prophet Returns

The latest update for EQ2 is full of goodies. Satisfy your sweet tooth below.

EverQuest® II game update #45, titled "A Prophet Returns," brings a Prophet from The Plane of Power to Norrath to help confront a ravaging plague in a new, story-based live event. In addition to the return of the Prophet, the game update will bring tradeskill revamps and multiple ways for players to obtain achievement experience from quests far beneath their level.

Game Update #45 features:

* Players will receive four more character bank slots to work with, as well as obtaining the ability to see their shared alternate-alignment bank slots.

* Players can exchange coins and items from one character to another, even across good and evil alignments.

* Players can increase their achievement point total as grey quests level 10 and above will now award achievement experience.

* Cures for priests will see changes to help when dealing with diseases, physical ailments, magical afflictions and elemental scourges. All four priest single-target cure spells will funnel to one all-purpose cure.

* Coercers will receive many new changes for their possession spells and abilities. The possession spells will allow Coercers to harness their pet's essence for better control.

A total overhaul to weapon crafting will lead to significant changes for master crafted weapons.

For more details, please visit Everquest 2.

Filed under: Business models, Interviews, New titles, The Agency, News items, Spy

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Filed under: At a glance, Sci-fi, Patches, Star Wars Galaxies

Continue reading Exclusive video detailing Jedi changes in Star Wars Galaxies Update 3

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Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Guild Wars, One Shots

As mentioned the other day, we recieved several fantastic One Shots panoramas from Adrian (aka Asarja) from Guild Wars. Today's screenshot is from Nightfall, although we know very little else of this particular area. If you like looking at lovely scenic shots, you should definitely check out the full-size image. And if you can tell us anything about this area, please be sure to leave a comment!

Do you like to combine lots of different screens into panoramas? Maybe you're a game or content designer who is particularly proud of a specific area that you designed and you'd like to give us back-story on it. (Hey, it could happen!) Whatever your story, we want your screens -- just email them to us at oneshots AT massively.com!

Gallery: One Shots

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ALL POINTS BULLETIN: Realtime Worlds’ Senior VP of Business Development, Walter Kong has spoken with WarCry about ALL POINTS BULLETIN (APB) and let slip that the MMO is expected to ship in 2009. That’s a delay from the generic “2008″ that has been listed for quite some time.

The talk covers RTW’s recent buyback of the crime MMO from Webzen and what the future may hold for the game. It’s a good chat, but what I took away from it was that fact that APB, first slated for 2007, wouldn’t be arriving anytime soon. Seems to be the MMO fan’s lot in life to wait and suffer. Oy vey!

” ‘The original deal with Webzen was signed in 2005 and at the time there were not too many companies as focused as Webzen on the online space,’ explained Kong. He credited Webzen’s global - both Western and Asian - focus as the main thing that brought them together. However, when it became clear that they had the resources to fully control their own destiny, they did not want to pass up the opportunity.

‘I think that philosophy behind our recent fund-raising is to really have a bit more creative freedom with the product,’ he explained. ‘As projects get bigger and bigger, the risk goes up quite significantly for both the developer and publisher.’ “