MMO Trumors!

A run-down of recent news in the MMO world. Usually this will be from the previous weeks but some news here is a little older.

For news on Age of Conan beta, Lord of the Rings Online, Sword of the New World and Horizons (well kind of) see below.

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Age of Conan beta applications have opened!
Heres a press release because I find them so exciting:

Sign up for the Age of Conan Beta today-Be the first to enter the world of Conan

Durham, USA – April 3, 2007 – Get ready for the most savage, sexy and action-packed MMO ever created as Funcom and Eidos finally open the floodgates to the massive world of Conan. The official Age of Conan Beta sign-up starts today, giving thousands of pioneers a unique chance to play the groundbreaking MMO months before release!

“We have been waiting for this day since we started development on Age of Conan, and it will be an epic moment as we see large waves of players charging into Hyboria,” said Gaute Godager, founder of Funcom and Game Director on ‘Age of Conan’. “As we get ready to unleash the most brutal MMO ever created we will let an increasing amount of players test our creation. With extended Beta testing for months to come we can hone and polish based on large-scale feedback, allowing us to fulfill the potential of the game.”

Just think of it – You – There – On the battlefield. Unleashing devastating damage and death, laughing in the face of danger as you rally forth. Steel and magic, power and war, gods and demons, a barbaric world on the verge of collapse…this is the Age of Conan, this is your chance to shape one of the most anticipated PC games in development.

Go to http://beta2.ageofconan.com/beta_application/ to sign up.

‘Age of Conan’ will release on the 30th of October. The game is consistently listed as one of the most anticipated PC games of 2007, and won ‘Best MMO of E3′ awards from IGN, GameSpot, GameSpy and Yahoo. ‘Age of Conan’ is a key title in Microsoft’s Games for Windows line-up, as well as being a showcase DX10 title for nVidia. More information, Beta sign-up, forums and a welcoming community portal can be found on http://www.ageofconan.com.

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New screens for Sword of the New World: Granado Espada
IGN has posted new screens for Sword of the New World (I was still calling it Granado Espada or whatever it was… I’m so behind). Check them out here .Also see the interview with Peter Casario, producer of Sword of the New World at Ten ton Hammer http://www.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=544

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Lord of The Rings Online “World Tour” has opened!
When is a beta not a beta? When it’s part of some questionable flash site design integration!LOTRO started open beta on the 6th of April. If you’re one of the two people who hasn’t got their key for it yet go here to sign up. . And now for some corporate propaganda:

Turbine, Inc. announced today that the World Tour of Middle-earth has officially begun! Over one million North American gamers are planned to be invited to this unprecedented event where they can experience The Lord of the Rings Online(TM): Shadows of Angmar(TM) for FREE from April 6th until its scheduled launch on April 24th. Even more exciting, the World Tour also serves as a head-start for pre-order customers, allowing them to roll their characters into the launched game.

“The only thing better than adventuring in Middle-earth is being able to adventure for free!” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “The World Tour is a unique opportunity to try The Lord of the Rings Online for yourself before the game launches.”

During the World Tour, players will be able to advance up to level 15 and experience the most authentic online persistent recreation of Middle-earth ever created. Players should visit www.lotro.com/worldtour to get more information on how to obtain a World Tour key.

Players can still pre-order The Lord of the Rings Online at www.lotro.com/preorder or at select retail stores nationwide until April 24th to take advantage of the exciting Founder’s Program. The Founder’s Program is available for a limited time and rewards all players who pre-order the game with the following benefits:

Two special membership options: $199/lifetime or $9.99/month

Unique in-game bonus items

Ability to roll World Tour characters into the launched game

I will eventually get around to writing about my thoughts on the lifetime membership. Gamloading has already written an interesting article about them over at his blog .

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Cancelled Horizons accounts now active
Well probably not on purpose, EI is so incompetent they are have gone from not letting people cancel accounts to allowing cancelled accounts to log in. If you were one of the many people who EI continued to bill months after you cancelled your account you might feel like getting some of those dollars back and reliving some memories of what could have been a good game. Then again you might not.

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New Warhammer Online Screenshots
Some new screenshots were released earlier this week from Warhammer Online. They show for the first time the Chaos Magus, Chaos Zealot, and Empire Warrior Priest classes (well I assume they are classes at least) and some new enviorments.The graphics are looking much better than the when I last saw them some time ago. I haven’t read up on this game much but if I could relive some DAoC glory days that would be great.For more info and screenshots visit http://www.warhammeronline.com.

Just saw this…

I just saw this article:

Designing for Community Grimwell Online – Sunday, 08 April 2007 © Grimwell Online

I think it kind of touches on what I wrote yesterday but from a design perspective. Anyway give it a look if you have a moment.

White Noise

MMORPGs are a funny thing. They are at one time the most immersive, most addictive and the most hated games. With so much going on in the mmorpg world now it seems the community is more splintered and bitter than ever before.

Since I joined the online community in roughly 2000 much has changed (or maybe just I have changed?). There was a time when the only real contenders for the MMORPG audience were Ultima Online and EverQuest, perhaps Asheron’s Call if we are being generous. Outside of that group were many many quality MUDs which still retained a meaningful audience at that time. There were many people who were vocal in the community, obviously Lum being one of the most well known, and a smattering of forums where mmorpgs were passionately discussed. It wasn’t organised and there was still a lot of unneeded whining but the community in some sense have a voice.

I may not have agreed with a lot of what was said back then but I did get the feeling that people were listening. Now it seems that it is more important for developers to appear that they are listening than actually do any listening and who can blame them? There are few rational voices left in the mmorpg community. Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent mmorpg commentators and community leaders out there but the overwhelming feeling I get when I log onto a forum now is that it’s populated by a group of trolls who seem to have higher expectation of MMORPGs than any other consumer product. The communities voice is just white noise now where did those voices which could emerge from the crowd go?

Maybe it’s because MMORPGs have come so far since the early days. WoW has showed us just how successful an mmorpg could be (in terms of subscribers) and others have shown us how quickly they can fail (Horizons, Asheron’s Call 2). Maybe it’s because people woke up to the massive time sink that was EverQuest. The part that has me baffled is when did we become such whining children?

A lot of games offer a lot and really come through with very little so why does the community get so incensed when it’s a mmorpg that is not coming through with the goods?

Many people would respond that the reason is that mmorpgs require so much of our time. I tend to disagree. I think the true crime is that mmorpgs could be so much more than they are today. They have the power to unite people in common causes, allow people to communicate across the world and to relate to people on a non visual level. In many ways they could be the ultimate utopia. No one is judging anyone by how they look in real life, what country they come from, their sexuality or even what gender they are (well I don’t think anyone really assume people are playing a character that is there actual gender any more). Most of all they can unite players in one solid goal, a purpose in which people can unite and eventually overcome.

I do have a point. It’s taking me forever to get to it but I’m new at this so give me a break.

The best part of MMORPGs is not how many different ways you can spec or how many different faces you can make it’s the community. It is also the one thing we have total control over and I feel like we are slowly chipping away at it.