News

《Age of Conan》Letter from the Game Director - January

Age of Conan Game Director Craig Morrison addresses the community for the first time in 2010 with the January edition of the ongoing Letter from the Game Director series.The letter reveals that 1.06 is set to deploy very shortly, and that further details on the upcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion are forthcoming. Expect to hear more throughout February and March.Beyond 1.06, and following the launch of the expan... read more

《City of Heroes》Holiday Contest Winners Announced; Free Transfers Extended

The City of Heroes Holiday Contest, which challenged players to submit screenshots of their most cheerful costume or base, ran from December 16th, 2009 through to January 3rd, 2010. Today, Paragon Studios has finally revealed the winners and winning submissions of the contest.First place winners for both the base and costume contests will receive: a set of 16 Hero and Villain pins, one limited edition Five Year Anniv... read more

《Global Agenda》Now Live!

Hi-Rez Studios has announced that their spy-fi MMOFPS, Global Agenda, is now live!Global Agenda features co-op and competitive multiplayer features as part of a one time purchase of the game. Alternatively, players can opt for a more MMOG like experience by subscribing to Global Agenda: Conquest, which allows players to get involved in the territory control aspect of the game in a persistent game world.Non-subscriber... read more

《Warhammer Online》The Ups and Downs of the Unlimited Trial

It wasn't long ago that players were chomping at the bit to get into the beta for Mythic's upcoming Warhammer Online. Keys were being sold illegally for hundreds of dollars, any and all leaks of info were being gobbled up like so many marbles by ravenous hippos, and the media and fans alike were preparing themselves for the game that could potentially dethrone (or at least threaten) the reign of World of Warcraft as ... read more

Richard Aihoshi's Free Zone: Virtual Goods Sales 2009 and ChinaJoy 2010

A few days ago, I saw some rather interesting information on virtual goods sales in the United Kingdom last year. According to a report of apparently unknown origin that was published by Asian News International, the market size in 2009 topped 500 million pounds, which is around $800 million US. What's especially intriguing is that the US, with roughly five times the population, totaled only about $1 billion.On a per... read more

《EVE Online》In-Game Cash to Help Haiti

CCP, the development company behind EVE Online is giving players a unique opportunity to use their in-game funds to help the people of Haiti recovering from the recent devastating earthquake.Dear EVE Players,Along with the rest of the world, we at CCP have been following the devastating impact of the earthquake of January 12 on the people of Haiti. The situation is as dire as ever for Haiti's brave population, even w... read more

Hyborian Adventures: Craig Morrison on Quality vs. Profit 《Age of Conan》

One of the biggest complaints that we've heard recently surrounding the MMO genre is the idea that game companies care more about making money than they do about making a genuinely exceptional gaming product.While there are certainly a number of different possible responses to this issue, we thought it might be more productive here at MMORPG.com to ask the developers themselves to answer the question of where the bal... read more

Star Wars: The Old Republic : Fan Friday Debuts "Developer's Corner"

This week's update is a Fan Friday. I know, I know, I can hear the groans already! The update does show off the community's neat creations, such as several bits of fan art and fan fiction, but wait, there's more!This latest Fan Friday also introduces a new feature called the Developer's Corner, which was created to give the community a sneak-peek at some of the assets the development team is working on.To get things ... read more

LEGO Universe: A CES Look at LEGO Universe

Team members of LUPs - Lego Universe Partners were on hand at CES 2010 to show off Lego Universe together with Lego and NetDevil. These are adult volunteers that are assisting Lego and NetDevil to playtest and refine Lego Universe. The team number about 50 adult Lego builders and all were invited by Lego to participate in the LUP program to provide feedback and suggestions. I met Joel Hoornbeck who was happy to show ... read more

Player Perspectives: Those Three Dirty Words

There you are, browsing an MMO site. It's a typical day, and you're looking for something new, or perhaps remembering something from your past. There's the usual news, patch notes, and events plastered along the main page. Then, in big bold letters across the site, those three dirty words appear: "Endless Free Trial."Don't lie to me: those words tease you. They tantalize you and linger like a sultry whisper in your e... read more

The Year that Was《EVE Online》

2009 was a typical year for EVE Online; drama, scandal, the rise and fall of the eternal lag monster, impotent forum raging...and two free expansions. Here are some of the highlights from the year that was:The Death of BoBFebruary saw the downfall of one of EVE's largest and most well known alliances, Band of Brothers, after a turncoat director disbanded the alliance. Shortly after, Goonswarm- who also claimed respon... read more

《Star Trek Online》Lifetime Subscriptions Announced!

Following in the footsteps of Champions Online, Cryptic Studios and Atari have just announced that they will be offering Lifetime and 12 Month (reduced price) subscriptions for a limited time! The offer will end on February 1st, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST, so get 'em while they're hot!So what do you get for your Lifetime subscription other than the pleasure of playing Star Trek Online forever? How about playable Borg as a ... read more

《Fallen Earth》Second Graphics Update Launched

The team at Fallen Earth are eager to enhance the visual experience for their players, and as a result they have launched yet another graphics update to the game, following the graphics update released as part of a patch last week.We'd like to thank MMORPG.com member skinnys for providing the below before-and-after screenshot:This latest update enhances the game's lighting and shadow effects.IG911 exclusive articles,... read more

《World of Warcraft》Armory Updated; Second Dev Chat Tomorrow

The WoW Armory has received a pretty significant update today. The Armory now features a 3D model viewer, replete with robust features such as a fullscreen mode with quality options, background selection, and the ability to view your character performing a variety of emotes and animations. Your interactive character model can even be embedded on your favorite social networking site or guild site forums!You can also u... read more

Earth Eternal Review - Edit

Earth Eternal is a funny beast (pardon the pun). Originally slotted to be released in 2007, Sparkplay Media then obtained a swell of extra funding and decided to put their project back in the oven a bit longer. Now over two years later Earth Eternal is open and ready for anyone to try, with a fully-functional (but not necessary) cash shop. They're calling it Open Beta, but all characters and progress made from here o... read more

Jon Wood: Launch Jitters and the Non-MMO Fan

It's late here on the East Coast. Normally, I'd be writing this column after a good night's sleep but I'm sitting and waiting for another round of maintenance being done on the Star Trek Online servers during its Open Beta. It's a game that I've personally be enjoying. It's not perfect, and probably won't be at launch but for my gaming dollars, I'm going to play it. The maintenance being done is a good thing, and a n... read more

《Entropia Universe》Catching Up With Entropia

We have not heard very much from Entropia Universe in the past year and the reason is that there wasn't that much to talk about besides the work on the new game engine."We've been quiet because we've been hard at work," said David Simmonds, Business Development Director of MindArk. "We rolled out the CryEngine2 in August of 2009 and have been getting all systems up to date."CryEngine2 is the same game engine used for... read more

《Age of Conan》Hyborian Adventures: The Road to Most Improved - Background

Fighting demons is not an uncommon experience in Hyboria from the Barrachan Isles to shadow-haunted Stygia, and soon to the far-eastern realms of Khitai. The remains of Acheron are rising across the continent. The skeleton of ancient Atlantis is clawing forth from its tombs to aid the players against their corrupt foes.Players are not, by far, the only ones that have to fight their demons. Funcom has been plagued wit... read more

Scott Jennings: Western MMOs and China

As I write this, Google's announcement that they will exit the Chinese market, absent the Chinese government allowing them to operate an unfiltered search service (a concession no one expects to happen) is reverberating across the web of technology news sites. The reason, as reported, is almost too incredible to believe - an attack by hackers backed by the Chinese government on source code repositories owned by Googl... read more

General : CES Hardware Roundup, One

The gamer bling that caught my eye & my imaginationThe Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas is a showcase of the latest and greatest in consumer electronics. Some years, there's not so much neat stuff for PC gamers, some years there is. My first stops are always the Pepcom Digital Experience and the ShowStoppers media events which frankly are valuable in that I don't have to traverse the depth and breath of the Las ... read more