other games

Leaderboard: SWTOR vs. GW2 cinematic cutscenes

Justin Olivetti from over at Massively had a few things to say about SWTOR cutscenes- a huge part of what TOR is all about. Star Wars is all about the storyline and in SWTOR, this is one of the things that we see which sets in apart from other games, namely other MMORPGs. But they are not completely alone in this as GW2 has some cutscene action of their own. Olivetti decided to explore this area of the game in a Leaderboard column for the popular gaming website, Massively. He says: “OK, you knew that sooner or later there’d be a face-off between Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 in this column, although today’s poll might not be what you were expecting. Instead of getting into “Which game that hasn’t released is better than the other game that hasn’t released?” let us examine each title’s approach to…

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World of Warcraft Loses 2 Million Subscribers in a Year

If you are interested in getting into the game, Here is a world of warcraft digital download price comparison tool. Another great resource is WoW-Strategy.com that helps you find WoW guides that can show you how to level 3x faster and make more gold. Gamasutra Reports WoW subscriptions are down and despite plans to turn things around and a new upcoming expansion, is it too late for Blizzard? Sure, there will always be WoW fans but part of the appeal is starting to wear out for a lot of people. Add to this the buzz and excitement for SWTOR and you can see where the SWTOR vs. WoW wars came from. Gamasutra says: “As of September 30, the game stood at 10.3 million players, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime revealed Tuesday in a Gamasutra-attended conference call. This is down nearly a million from the 11.1 million reported three months prior, and significantly less than a…

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Can AoC survive The Old Republic?

Many people are talking about SWTOR and the impact it will have on other similar games in the industry. It’s been called a WoW-clone and a WoW-killer and there have been comparisons made to Rift and other MMOs. Just in time for another MMO comparison, Massively brought us an article that asks Can AoC survive The Old Republic? Massively says: Even if you’re heavily invested in other games, chances are good that you’ll at least try SWTOR, amirite? I myself will be moonlighting in a galaxy far, far away at some point, and while I don’t plan on making a permanent home there, it will likely take a chunk of my gaming time for a month or two. Truer words could not be spoken. Just about every MMO player I know wants to at least try SWTOR. Some if for no other reason than to stubbornly prove it’s not going…

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SWTOR Not a Threat to WAR

BioWare Mythic says WAR is not in any danger from SWTOR but will not be going free to play. With SWTOR bringing in some amazing numbers just before its arrival, it threatens to knock many other games out of the way as it approaches. But we also have to remember that this is not the first time EA has worked on an MMORPG. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning is still there and BioWare Mythic VP Eugene Evans confirms it is not going anywhere anytime soon. He said “All of these games appeal to different people for different reasons. I’m very proud to be able to say that I’m running the studio that’s run Ultima Online for as long as it has – 14 years. Dark Age of Camelot just celebrated 10 years. We hope we can run these games for as long as there is player interest.” So it’s a definite…

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Analyst Says World of Warcraft Will Regain TOR Subscribers

Game industry analyst Michael Pachter had some new words to say about SWTOR once again. You may remember him from Pach Attack and Wedbush Securities. He recently appeared on MSNBC’s In-Game to talk about Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ and World of Warcraft™. As if the comparisons have not gotten old already, it’s now time for an industry analyst to weigh in on the topic. While he sticks to his early report that SWTOR will have 2 million or more subscribers at launch, he says that only 1 in 3 of those will come from active WoW players. He also adds that most of them will return to WoW once the initial appeal and interest in SWTOR fades. It certainly won’t be the first time that WoW has gone head-to-head with other proposed giants in the MMO field and they still came out victorious. It’s not likely that any one…

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WoW Number One Due to Lack of Competition

For the past seven years, World of Warcraft has ruled the MMORPG scene. I know as I have played off and on since beta. I took “WoW breaks” and it seemed I would return again and again when I grew bored of whatever MMO I was playing at the time. It’s a great game despite what some haters will say but even I, a longtime fan, grew bored of it. I wanted something new, something different, something more… but I still loved many of the things that made WoW so great.  Some people believe that WoW has survived for so long because it has not had any real competition. Although I love many things about the game, I have to agree on this. I’ve tried many other MMOs, including nearly every free-to-play MMORPG I could find to download to my computer and none of them had the total package that…

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GDC Online: Taking Your Game Everywhere

GDC Online officially kicked of yesterday in Austin but today was the first day at the industry conference where Bioware developers were scheduled for sessions. One session that was especially interesting was “Taking Your Game Everywhere”. This panel featured BioWare’s Erik Olsen, Curse’s Donovan Duncan, ZAM’s Cody Bye and Red 5′s Mark Kern and was led by former BioWare Austin Co-Studio Manager and current Playdom exec Gordon Walton. This session addressed the idea that gamers want to be able to take their online games with them, outside of the game itself. Make sense, right? I mean it’s like a handheld but where you can still check in to your online game. It combines the appeal of games and apps for our smartphones, iPads and other mobile devices. This popular trend is something that game studios will want to get in on. Gamasutra has a summary of the panel which gives…

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How SWG Will Be Won

The last days of Star Wars: Galaxies are drawing near and the game plans to close off “with a gigantic PvP throwdown for dominance” that will tell us all who runs the galaxy- Empire or Rebels. Of course some fans are saying that this is not the end and that SWG will live on- even if unofficially- but for the sake of technicalities, the end is coming. So how will this official end of it all battle be scored? How will SWG be won? Winning the Galactic Civil War explains in detail: “Meanwhile, let’s say Region Two is worth 3%, and that in this same period of time three Imperials earn 50 GCW [Galactic Civil War] points in the region and no Rebels show up at all. Region Two would give the Imperials a full 3% in the galaxy score for next to no effort compared to Region One. All…

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BioWare Hinted the Possibility of a Mass Effect MMO

How great would it be to have a Mass Effect MMO? There are certainly a lot of fans out there rooting for this very thing right as we speak. While BioWare is busy cranking out SWTOR to have it ready to ship by the promised date in December, we hear rumors that there could be more online titles in the future. It would be a win-win for BioWare and gamers alike if SWTOR was a huge success that led to more MMO titles in the future… possibly even a Mass Effect MMO. BioWare heads Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk seem open to the potential idea and even hint around that it might be considered in the future. “You never know,” Zeschuk replied to the Mass Effect MMO query by Industry Gamers. . “”I think once The Old Republic is done, we’ll take a fresh look at the market….

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BioWare Talks Future of RPGs and Narrative Maturation

What does the future hold for Bioware? They have made a name for themselves in the world of RPGs with titles like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Star Wars. What might the future hold for them and the genre? The game environments are changing dramatically and companies that want to keep up will need to be able to move with the progression. Can BioWare continue their trend of successful RPGs? In speaking to Sarcastic Gamer during the Eurogamer 2011 Expo, BioWare boss Ray Muzyka said they intend to “broaden the genre.” These days, there are different approaches to take and more options available. “The vision for us is a broadening of the genre. We see a lot of other genres incorporating features of RPGs and in turn RPGs are incorporating features of other genres. There are more action elements, there’s different ways to tell a story, there’s different ways to…

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Blizzard Revealing Project Titan Next Month? – Gloves are off!

Update: In a comment to IGN, a Blizzard representative stated that its ‘unannounced MMO’ will not be talked about at this year’s BlizzCon The rumor mill is out and it looks like the long awaited “casual MMO” from Blizzard code named Titan may be revealed next month at BlizzCon 2011. Pressures from the release date announcement of SWTOR and the delay of Diablo 3 may have led Blizzard to push up the release of news about their new secret project. At least one analyst believes the news might be coming sooner than we thought. “If they are holding any juicy details, it’s going to be announced at BlizzCon,” M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon said. “”The big news is probably going to be a Diablo 3 date and a possible new announcement about one or more new properties.”” Previous reports have revealed rumors about this potential project. They tell us…

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Did EA Capitalize On the Diablo III Delay by Announcing the Release Date of Star Wars: The Old Republic?

The guys over at DualShockers.com had a really interesting theory on the announcement of SWTOR coming after the Diablo III delay. The piece they wrote on the day after the SWTOR announcement describes a possible connection between the news about Diablo III and the release date announcement: “Yesterday Blizzard announced the delay of Diablo III to early 2012, today Electronic Arts announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic for December the 20th, on a Saturday. Extremely convenient. Even a bit too convenient, maybe.” I’m not usually the conspiracy theory type but it’s a pretty good point they make here with the linkage of the two announcements. Did EA/Bioware see this as their ideal time to jump on the announcement of the official release date? Sounds like a good theory to me… The article gives some pretty compelling ideas about why this theory might be true: “Thirdly, by…

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LucasArts Post Job Openings for New Open World RPG

It’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything about a new game from LucasArts but it appears that could be about to change. Metro.co.uk talks about a job listing that indicates there is a new “open world” RPG in the making. This is exciting news but it also raises a lot of questions and peaks the curiosity of all types of gamers. The last title released by LucasArts was “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II”, which seemed to leave a lot to be desired for many gamers. The idea of a new game is exciting for many. There’s no way to know if this will be something related to Star Wars, Indiana Jones or something completely different. Job ads are the most dependable source when it comes to leaning about new games but they’re very vague about the information they provide. It simply states that LucasArts is looking for more people…

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You Control the Story in the Next Generation of Video Games

A story on NPR yesterday talks about the next generation of video games where story is of the utmost importance and gamers get to take the reins. This isn’t really a new concept, especially to game companies like BioWare who have been doing this already for decades, however, it’s nice to see mainstream media bringing attention to the matter.   Like most media pieces written by non-gamers, this article had some flaws, but nevertheless it was an informative piece that brings attention to the fact that games are just child’s play. There is a serious market for good games and video game developers know this which is why companies like BioWare are putting out great story-based games like the highly anticipated SWTOR.   Speaking of TOR and BioWare, the article makes a reference to it:   “Daniel Erickson, the lead writer of the “Star Wars” game, said the amount of…

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SWG Shutdown Recap Video

FTW Broadcasting compiled a pretty cool recap video about the SWG shutdown and several of our articles are featured in the lineup. It’s a full 10 minutes recapping the issue of Star Wars closing down from the initial date the news was released through the petition, Sony shutting down the petitions and the eventual class action suit along with some comedy and parody and of course, the Goofygirl video that we brought you ourselves.  The video is a great way to catch yourself up on the full story about Star Wars Galaxies that has the community in an uproar.  When it comes to the gaming community a as a whole, the population seems pretty split. Some people agree with the reactions regarding the shutdown and feel like SWG players are entitled to something more for a game they purchased and have invested so much into.  On the other side of…

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Blizzard lights a fire under Bioware with D3 beta?

Diablo fans might be in for some interesting news. Apparently, they recently sent out some invitations to press and fansties for a July 27th visit to try out their latest Diablo 3 beta build. The lucky few selected will be able to try out the beta early and no visit to Blizzard headquarters is complete without checking out some cool stuff that no one else gets to see. They will also get to see the functionality of Battle.net 2.0, sit in on a developer Q&A and get information about the new features in Diablo 3. It’s a Diablo fan’s dream come true! Could Blizzard’s timing be just what is needed to light a fire under BioWare’s behind to push SWTOR to stay on schedule for a release before the close of 2011? The anticipated MMORPG of the year, Star Wars: The Old Republic is already set to be the major…

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End of an era: Star Wars: Galaxies shutting down later this year

Later this year – December 15th, to be precise – will see the end of Star Wars Galaxies, the MMORPG first released by LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment back in 2003, and the more recent Trading Card Game (2008). So that’s the main “on-brand” competition for SWTOR gone then…. The official announcement – from the game’s official site – read as follows: We write to you today to inform you that on December 15, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and LucasArts will end all services (MMO and Trading Card Game) for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game. We are extremely grateful to all of the SWG fans. We have had the rare opportunity to host one of the most dedicated and passionate online…

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BioWare brings Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II DLC to San Diego Comic Con

On BioWare Social, Chris Priestly announces that Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age II DLC will come to San Diego Comic Con.   “BioWare is once again returning to the San Diego Comic Con and this year, we are bringing Mass Effect 3 and a never before seen, Dragon Age II DLC with us. Comic Con begins Thursday July 21 and runs through Sunday July 24 and we will have all sorts of awesome BioWare coolness at our base in the Hilton Gaslamp hotel. This will be the first opportunity for fans to play Mass Effect 3 as well as the next Dragon Age II DLC. In addition, we will be hosting the first annual BioWare Costume Contest on Friday, July 22 for the best BioWare inspired costumes. We’ll be giving away awesome convention swag, opportunities to meet members of the BioWare staff, and we’ll have a special designated area…

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BioWare Pulse ep2 – SWTOR & Mass Effect at E3

BioWare have it’s own online show named Pulse now. The show is available via EA’s new online service Origin.com and EA’s official Youtube channel, and is published each Monday. The second episode of the show was released this week, and has an interview with BioWare Co-Founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk. The interview was made immediately after the EA press conference held a last Monday, so it’s up to date stuff! In the interview the doctor talks about what we get to see at thus years E3, as well as his own personal faction preferences in the game. The SWTOR section of the movie starts around 3:40. Check it out below:

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Chinese Prisoners Forced to Farm Gold in Online Games

“There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.” Says a prisoner at the Jixi labor camp, Liu Dali who shares his story of being imprisoned and forced to work hard labor by day and farm for in-game currency by night. Chinese gold farmers have become something of a joke in online gaming. Anyone who spends time collecting in-game currency is commonly referred to as a “gold farmer”. While many gamers have mixed feelings about the subject, most will admit they don’t actually know where the gold comes from. Most gamers don’t understand how many of these companies get their gold and make a profit. Some gold-selling companies have been known to steal or hack accounts and use these characters…

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MMORPG stock market

Do you play the MMORPG stock market? Whether you play the market in the real world, or find real-world pleasures from virtual scenarios that allow you to escape from the day-to-day grind that is life, there is something to be said about the value of the MMORPG industry.    More people are playing MMOs today than ever before. There is also a larger demographic- young and old, men and women, families, friends and couples are all playing together. There are also more types of MMORPGs than one could ever imagine. Your average fan could spend a lifetime trying them all out and still not get them all.  From subscription based to free-to-play, action-adventure to science fiction, there are more MMORPGs to keep you happy than one could ever find the time to play. For some people, investing in a new MMO is a bit like playing the stock market. Will…

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Could a Mass Effect MMO top The Old Republic?

Could a Mass Effect MMO beat out TOR when it comes to profits? In a recent investor’s note, Mike Hickey predicted that a hypothetical Mass Effect MMO could make more money for Electronic Arts than Star Wars: The Old Republic will. But is this really shocking news? First, the ME franchise has done really well for EA and there is a historical weakness surrounding Star Wars games, which is part of what Hickey made his predictions based on. This is due in part to the fact that royalties have to be paid on all Lucas Arts titles and themes. Hickey said, “Looking forward, we believe BioWare could develop an MMO based on their highly successful Mass Effect franchise, which should have a considerably better (relative Star Wars MMO) margin profile, given the dilutive nature of the LucasArts royalty.” But of course, there is more that goes into making a great…

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Mass Effect 3 delayed to Q1 2012

Interesting news for Mass Effect fans today. BioWare says that Mass Effect 3 will need to wait a little longer to be ready for release. While it was a much anticipated release for fourth-quarter, they have now announced that it will be bumped up to the first three months of 2012 for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. So no ME3 for Christmas guys, sorry. Could this delay have anything to do with the push of SWTOR MMO and the attempts and expectations to get it out before the end of 2011? It’s quite possible as it’s apparent that BioWare is putting most of their eggs in the Star Wars basket. However, another thing to remember is that pushing up the release date on Mass Effect 3 will put it right in the same timeline as the release of Mass Effect 2 in January 2010, bringing the 3rd installment…

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Star Wars Republic Commando Sequel?

SWTOR is quite possibly the most anticipated MMO ever, but what about those gamers who don’t really dig the MMORPG scene? Could there be something else in the works for Star Wars fans?       If you remember, we recently wrote about Lucas Arts getting the license for Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games but no one has any idea why, right? Well could it possibly be for a Star Wars Republic Commando Sequel?   It’s been on our wish list for years but recent news developments say it just might be true.   I’m a big fan of first-person-shooters: a long time admin of some of the biggest TF2 servers and a Counter-Strike girl since before the hackers took over. :p I played Battlefront and while I enjoyed it, the game just didn’t quite hit the standards set by other shooters.   But Republic Commando, now that was…

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