MMO

Games can can adapted into movies, comic books and even prose stories and now CCP has announced that a new novel set in their space-based MMO EVE Online is due for release in November. The book, titled, EVE: The Burning Life, is being written by CCP team member Hjalti Daníelsson, who has written much of the game's storylines.

The plot apparently revolves around a man who is the loan survivor of an attack on deep space mining colony and a woman "agent of death" who leaves her gig on her own personal journey. These two people's lives intersect in a story that will "plunge them into the darkest parts of space where they encounter denizens of the chaotic and dangerous pirate kingdoms." Sounds painful. Anyway, the novel will be published by Tor Books in trade paperback and in hardcover and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com.

Most of the time we really don't care about new trademarks filed by game companies. Quite frankly, filing trademarks is easy; it's making the games that's the hard part. However we will make a small exception for this mention of a new trademark from Blizzard Entertainment who seems to milk its previous IPs (Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo) for all they are worth (which is quite a bit actually).

According to game trademark-hunting web site superannuation, Blizzard has put in a trademark for "Catalysm" that will cover "computer games, paper-based products, and online games". Our sister site WoW.com hints that the name could be used for an upcoming World of Warcraft expansion pack or it could be used for . . . something else. Anyway, as we said, it's not the title that's really important . . is it?

Life imitates art and then imitates life again. That's the lesson for the makers of the Mana Energy Potion, a real energy drink that comes in a small spherical bottle that is supposed to look like similar health boosting items found in RPG and MMO games. This week it was announced that the Mana Energy Potion will actually appear in the anime-themed MMO title Lunia.

You can purchase the fictional version of potion for your characters via Lunia's in-game currency and when you purchase a certain amount of Mana, players will be mailed a four-pack of the real thing for free (yep, they even pay for the shipping and handling). Of course the Mana Energy Potion girls pictured above don't come with the real potion delivery . . at least not yet.

Developer Spellborn International finally released their long-in-development fantasy MMO The Chronicles of Spellborn in February 2009 with Acclaim handling the US launch of the title. The game allowed players to play a portion of the game world for free but then asked them for a monthly subscription fee. This week it was revealed that The Chronicles of Spellborn will be revamped and re-launched with a free-to-play MMO model supported by micro-transactions

The revamped version will be develped in a joint venture between Spellborn International and Frogstar Asia and will include "several enhancements and changes to the current game." Current players can continue to play the game during this process but when the revamp launches (sometime in 2010) any unused subscription money will be credited in some way to player's accounts.

The full game client for the open beta for Red War: Edem's Curse has been released and can now be downloaded right here at Big Download. This is the latest in the long string of free-to-play fantasy MMO games with this particular one coming from publisher Uforia. You can check out more info on the game on it's official web site where a full guide to Red War is available.

Download the Red War: Edem's Curse Open Beta Client (490 MB) at Big Download

Blizzard has said that they are still targeting the release of their sci-fi RTS game StarCraft II for the end of 2009. However Gamasutra is reporting that one analyst believes there are signs that the game could be pushed back to 2010.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey is basing those thoughts on a comment over at Kotaku where StarCraft II's lead designer Dustin Browder stated that the beta for the game will last "four to six months" Since the beta has yet to begin that time table will make a fall/holiday 2009 release for the full game very close indeed for publisher Activision Blizzard. Because of this, Hickey claims, "We find it increasingly probably that the game will be released in [Activision's] fiscal '10 period."

Hickey even sees weakness in Blizzard's huge MMO hit World of Warcraft, saying, "We view looming competition in the West from new MMORPGs as a greater threat to WoW's future."

It looks like once you are a Horde or an Alliance member, you are not one of them "all the way", at least not after Blizzard makes some changes to their hit MMO World of Warcraft. Our sister site WoW.com has posted up word that Blizzard is planning to offer a service in the future that will allow players to have their characters switch factions.

Blizzard is giving players an early heads-up on this new feature because "you may be seeing bits and pieces of the service in the test builds we use for the public test realms moving forward." However Blizzard admits that this feature may be a ways off from being implemented because "we plan to take the time needed to ensure that it lives up to expectations before officially rolling it out." We are betting that this feature will also cost some extra cash but so far there's been no official word on that from Blizzard.

This apparently sneaked up on us (NCsoft usually sends over a press release) but a few days ago the latest content update for their super hero MMO City of Heroes was released. Titled Issue 15: Anniversary, the update adds five new missions each for Heroes and Villains. It also has new costume choices, new costume emotes, new character faces and new features and changes to the recently released Mission Architect tool.

NCsoft also announced that there will be a Double XP weekend coming up next month; specifically from July 31-August 4. Of course we are still waiting for more info on the upcoming new commercial expansion pack Going Rogue.

Blizzard's annual BlizzCon event sold out quickly but if you are not one of those heading to Anaheim, CA on August 21-22 you can still get some of the feeling of the event from the confort of your office chair or couch. This week pre-orders are being taken for the live Internet streaming video for BlizzCon 2009.

The video will come from the DirecTV coverage of BlizzCon which will have 16 hours of coverage of the event for its subscribers. While DirecTV owners will get that video in HD, those of us that don't have the satillete TV service will still be able to see the event via the$39.95 Internet streaming coverage. World of Warcraft players will even get the BlizzCon in-game Murloc Marine pet when they purchase the BlizzCon streaming services.

With Champions Online now set for release on September 1, many are asking, "when will the open beta begin for the game?" A good question and one which a fan site said it has learned during a visit to the game's developer Cryptic Studios.

According to the Champions Online Daily News site, "I can say that a firm date has been penciled in and although it's not 100% confirmed it is slap bang in the middle of August." While we are putting this in the rumor column since Cryptic itself is not the source of the info this date seems like a very good guess considering that the actual launch date is set for Sept. 1.

The indie game development company Hi-Rez Studios looks like they are getting closer to releasing their long-in-development sci-fi FPSMMO title Global Agenda. This week the game's official web site gave us more info on when closed beta testing for the Unreal Engine 3 powered game will happen.

According to the update, "Closed Beta Testing Phase 1 (CBT-1) is expected to begin in July." People who have been invited to test the game during its Alpha stage will get the first crack at the Beta test and more people will be admitted into the beta in several "waves" over the next few months. The game is expected to officially launch before the end of the year.

[Via Massively]

Sony Online Entertainment is holding its annual Fan Faire event in Las Vegas this weekend and during the event the publisher revealed the next commercial expansion packs for both of their Everquest PC MMO games. The original Everquest title gets its 16th commercial expansion with Everquest: Underfoot. It will have the usual additions (new locations, monsters and more) when it's released in November.

The new expansion for Everquest II was also revealed during the event. Titled Everquest II: Sentinel's Fate, this expansion is not due for release until February 2010 but will raise the game's current level cap to 90. You can check out some concept art for the expansion at the game's official web site.

We've already mentioned the fact that the sold out San Diego Comic-Con will have a bunch of game publishers exhibiting at next month's massive pop culture event. Now we have the first word on one of the game-oriented panels that will be held at Comic-Con.

On Friday, July 24, a panel on Star Wars: The Old Republic will be held with members of the BioWare development team talking about their plans for the highly anticipated MMO game. Look for a mini-comic based on the game to be given away at the convention and the Lucasfilm booth at the con will be showing the E3 CGI trailer based on the game on their big screen at select times.

This week, Age of Conan players got to see the release of update 5, which adds all new content to the game. Game director and producer Craig Morrison takes viewers through a region a tour of Tarantia Commons, an area described as the underbelly of the kingdom. In it, players can choose sides in a riot and move outwards into the land, where plague threatens to infect them. This video provides a brief look at what players will be able to experience.

Download HD Age of Conan 'Tarantia Commons' Developer Walkthrough (123 MB)
Check out all Age of Conan downloads

Many players of Warhammer Online were shocked to hear of the departure of the MMO's lead designer and Mythic Entertainment co-founder Mark Jacobs depart the development team he helped to create. Now Jacobs is updating his personal blog site with a little more info about what happened. He states, "Early in May, Electronic Arts let me know that they wanted to make some changes within the Games Label and as a result of those changes I have been out of the office (and out of touch with the team, game, etc.) since that day." His departure was made public on Wednesday.

Jacobs takes time to thank the team at Mythic for all their work over the years but added, "if you are looking or expecting me to damn EA or anyone there, you will be sorely disappointed. Over my 23 years of making games professionally I have refrained from attacking the competition, former and/or current partners, other game developers, etc. except on a few very rare instances. I have no intention of breaking with tradition at the present time and I hope my track record in this regard remains unchanged for the rest of my career." So far he has not yet stated what he plans to to next.

[Via Massively]