Empire: Total War - A Great Spectator Game
April 24, 2009 by tcgames · Leave a Comment
Empire: Total War
Even watching someone else play is a treat. A YouTube user, PrinceofMacedon, has compiled several commentary videos he’s done online with a variety of opponents. During the replay, he presents a running commentary that includes details about his and his opponents’ army, tactics that he’s delpoying, and even historical anecdotes thrown in as well.
I’ve got one of his videos below here for you to watch. It’s a Russia vs Britain battle, with PrinceofMacedon playing as the Russians. Read more
Report: Despite Economy, Online Gaming is Growing
March 11, 2009 by tcgames · 2 Comments
Though the economic conditions here and abroad continue to worsen, a new report from analyst firm NPD reveals an impressive increase in online gaming over the last year.
“Online gaming for video game consoles and portables enjoyed a statistically significant increase from 19 percent in 2008 to 25 percent in 2009,” according to Online Gaming 2009, a market research report released this morning.
Additionally, the report claims that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 dominates the online gaming charts, holding 50 perecent of the market, “despite the noteworthy changes among other major console systems.”
“Use of Nintendo’s Wii increased from 18 percent in 2008 to 29 percent in 2009, while PS2 fell dramatically and PS3 moved up from fifth place to third place,” the report states. “This is a testament to the strength of Xbox 360, both overall, and particularly in the online gaming sphere.”
Warhammer Online Now Offers Free 10-Day Trial
Have you been meaning to try Warhammer Online, but don’t necessarily want to pay for a month’s worth of play time? Luckily for you the game now offers a free 10-day trial for new players.
“A call to arms has been issued! With the new free trial we are making it possible for everyone to experience non-stop Realm vs. Realm combat wrapped up in a next generation MMO,” said Mythic Entertainment general manager Mark Jacobs.
“What started out as a great game has only gotten better as the team has added an incredible amount of content with our first live expansion. For gamers that have yet to experience the glory of WAR, there is no better time to join the battle!”
Prospective players of the 10-day free trial are also invited to join the game’s current “Bitter Rivals” event, which will allow players early access to the planned Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer character classes, should they decide to spring for a full, paid subscription after the trial ends.
The Top 10 Money-Making MMOs of 2008
Game industry analyst DFC Intelligence will publish a comprehensive study of massively multiplayer online worlds next month, and was nice enough to give us an advance peek at their list of MMOs and MMORPGs that earned the most revenue in 2008.
The numbers are primarily estimates based on publicly available reports, DFC’s David Cole told me, and are decidedly on the “very conservative” side. The wide revenue spreads reflect the fact that 2008 earnings are still being counted, though more exact numbers are promised in the firm’s Feb. 16 report. “We indicate ranges because these numbers are estimates for 2008 based on where we think these products will end up,” said Cole. However, when the final numbers are reported, the rankings below should remain the same, though “maybe a slot here or there” will change.
While no one will be shocked by World of Warcraft’s heavy earnings, Cole believes the Asian MMOs, which are developed at far lower budgets, have a higher profit margin. “Profit margin on Asian games is incredibly high,” he told me. That’s true even though most of the Asian MMOs charge the equivalent of 5-6 cents an hour with usage cards, Cole noted, a model that has yet to be widely adopted by Western developers.
Speaking of which, it’s notable that the bottom of the top 10 is where the big budget MMORPGs in the World of Warcraft vein — LOTRO, Conan, and Warhammer — reside. (All below the no-frills Runescape, which we wrote about last July.)
1. World of Warcraft, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG; client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Monthly subscription, retails sales, prepaid cards (in Asia)
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $500 million-plus
2. Fantasy Westward Journey, launched 2004
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million
3. Maple Story, launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG for kids, client install with 2D graphics
Revenue sources: Microtransactions, prepaid cards, international licensing
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million
4. Shanda (company, includes Legend of Mir and World of Legend series), launched 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics
Revenue sources: Prepaid cards, virtual item sales, freemium subscriptions
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million
5. Lineage I and Lineage II , launched 1998 and 2003
Genre/Platform: Asian MMORPG, client install with 2.5 graphics (Lineage) and 3D graphics (Lineage II)
Revenue sources: Subscription, prepaid cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $150-$500 million
6. Runescape
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG for kids, web-based with 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscription, prepaid cards, real-world advertising
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
7. Club Penguin, launched 2006
Genre/Platform: Virtual world for kids, web-based 2.5D graphics
Revenue sources: Premium subscriptions, prepaid game cards
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
8. Lord of the Ring Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
9. Warhammer Online
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
10. Age of Conan
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
The most popular MMO among this 10, in terms of active players? That requires more speculation, but it’s almost certainly not World of Warcraft. Cole points out that Fantasy Westward Journey registered an astounding 2-3 million concurrent players last August. Though Warcraft now boasts some 11 million+ subscribers, “You’re lucky to get 5-10 percent [of them] playing at the same time,” he said. Maple Story developer Minho Kim told me last December that his MMO has 87+ million registrations, but wouldn’t specify how many of them were monthly active users. DFC’s Joost van Dreunen estimates it to be 15-20 percent of that figure — i.e., 13-17.4 million regular Maple Story players.
Conan and Warhammer were released in 2008, but otherwise, Cole says the rest of the list is fairly similar to that of 2007. That will probably remain true this year, though watch for hotly anticipated MMOs like Free Realms and Lego Universe to make a concerted effort to crack the top 10.
Source: GigaOm
Free Online Games See Sharp Increase
February 2, 2009 by tcgames · 2 Comments
comScore data released this week showed online casual gaming has reached 86 million users in 2008, an increase of 27% year over year. Additionally, the time individual users spend on gaming sites increased 42%. Casual gaming is the category where Yahoo is definitely king, with 19.5 million unique visits in December, a 20% increase over 2007 and 4 million visits more than second place EA Online, and 6 million more than Disney Games, which holds third place.
Edward Hunter, comScore’s Director of Gaming Solutions said "Not only have consumers turned to outlets such as gaming to take their minds off the economy, but as they curtail their discretionary gaming-related purchases they are turning to free alternatives." Because users are opting to play ad-supported games, it is not surprising that the ad market in this sector is booming. Some 8.6 billion ads were viewed in 2008 at a stable 127 ads per viewer, a nearly 30% overall increase over 2007. This is attributed to a reduction to what is known as ad clutter, or the amount of display ads per page view, which decreased 17%.
Source: Beta News
World Of Warcraft 3.0.3 Patch Notes
Massively.com has posted a complete list of patch notes for the latest World of Warcraft patch 3.0.3…
Today the 3.0.3 patch for World of Warcraft has dropped! Of course, our brethren over at WOW Insider are all over it. Within the sacred patch contains a laundry list of tweaks, changes and bug fixes. Just about every class is touched on here, so there’s plenty to look through. Inscription is also given plenty of attention with lots of little tweaks. Achievement addicts will be happy to know that the “Hallowed Be thy Name” achievement is now much easier to obtain with this patch as well. Most of the bug fixes seem to be class related, but there are a couple of stability fixes in there so hopefully servers will be as smooth as possible for the Wrath of the Lich King launch day.
- General
- Removed “A Mask for All Occasions” as criteria for the “Hallowed Be thy Name” meta achievement.
- Replenishment: Players below level 50 can now benefit from this effect.
- Resilience: The damage reduction component of resilience has been increased from 2 times the critical strike chance reduction to 2.2 times the critical strike chance reduction. In addition, the maximum damage reduction to a critical strike from resilience has been increased from 30% to 33%.
- Racial
- Blood Fury: No longer triggers global cooldown.
- Shadowmeld: The cooldown will now start on use instead of on break.
- Druids
- Druid talents points have been refunded. Players will need to visit a class trainer to relearn spells and abilities.
- The Swift Flight Form is now available on the trainer at level 71, requiring 300 riding skill, and Flight Form learned.
- Bash: The interrupt from this ability will now work on targets that are immune to the stun.
- Berserk: Now clears the cooldown on Mangle Bear.
- Earth and Moon and Moonfury (Balance) reduced from 5 ranks each to 3 ranks each.
- Eclipse: Buff duration extended to 15 sec and bonuses doubled. The cooldown has been increased to 40 seconds.
- Growl: Cooldown changed to 8 sec.
- Insect Swarm: Tooltip corrected to indicate it does not affect hit chance with spells.
- Moonkin: Only single target spell critical strikes can trigger the mana gain from this talent.
- Nature’s Swiftness: This ability will no longer give chances to trigger Omen of Clarity.
- Omen of Clarity: Will no longer be triggered by the Honorless Target buff gained when entering the world.
- Survival Instincts will no longer be on the Global Cooldown.
- Swiftmend: now benefits correctly from Genesis talent.
- Tiger’s Fury: Ranks 5 and 6 have had their damage bonus decreased.
Please visit Massively.com for the complete list. Read more
The Top Ten Pay-To-Play MMORPGs
June 2, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
According to Game Ogre, the top ten pay-to-play MMORPGs are:
1) World of Warcraft - Game Lair
The best MMORPG yet because WoW mixes the right amount of depth and simplicity better than any other game in the history of the genre.
2) Lord of the Rings Online
Very smooth launch with a very popular beta phase. Already one of the most popular MMORPGs with good population levels on all servers. Plenty of solo content adds to the game’s already tremendous mainstream appeal.
3) Eve Online
The best sci-fi MMORPG with player-run corporations and a thriving economy.
4) Age of Conan
Mature-themed MMO with brutal combat and large-scale warfare.
5) Final Fantasy XI - Game Lair
The second best fantasy MMORPG after WoW with a quality story, great game play, and large subscriber numbers.
6) City of Heroes/City of Villains - Game Lair
Combined, City of Heroes and City of Villains are easily the second best MMORPG for casual gamers. With the addition of the well-balanced villain types and the use of bases, City of Villains completes the potential that fans have been craving for ever since City of Heroes launched. To top it off, hardcore gamers now also have a reason to like CoH/CoV with its ultra-quick PvP.
7) Pirates of the Burning Sea
Deep game where the actions of players really matter in many areas of the game such as the economy, storylines, and PvP.
Dark Age of Camelot
Has usually been one the best major MMORPG for PvP combat due to its 3 realm system. Also, DAOC has remained one of the steadiest MMORPGs over the years in terms of quality. However, the game is starting to show its age and other MMOs have incorporated similar or better PvP systems.
9) Tabula Rasa
Innovative sci-fi MMO that combines shooter and RPG elements.
10) Dungeons & Dragons Online
Instead of offering all the usual MMO features such as PvP and crafting, this MMORPG instead provides a high quality gaming experience through well-written quests. Improved a little recently by catering more to solo players.
