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  Second Life’s Community convention took place this weekend and attracted close to 800 attendees, several hundred more than last year.

Second Life Founder Philip Rossdale made declarations about the expected growth of online worlds over the internet, positing that these worlds are likely to be a far bigger phenomenon than the current World Wide Web. The Founder’s statements were contradictory in some areas as he spoke of Second Life’s relative newness on the one hand, and then simultaneously hyped the growth potential of the platform.

Second Life was covered in several press articles a few months ago in what for the burgeoning world amounted to a media blitz. Several companies rushed to setup shop in the Virtual World, but thus far these ventures have seldom converted to actual retail sales.

Second Life staff spoke about starting direct retail sales via the Second Life Virtual World, similar to web based e-commerce sites today. The potential for these types of arrangements are indeed exciting, as a company such as Nike can showcase their shoes and you can wear them on your avatar that could perhaps be made to your own body dimensions. Imagine checking out the interior of the latest car on the market and getting a virtual drive in the mobile before deciding to head down to your nearest dealer where the paper work could be prepared ahead of time for you. There are several businesses that could benefit from a realistic 3D Virtual World to market their wares, and if sales can be direct to the consumer it makes it much easier to convert that presence into real value.

I’ve tried Second Life myself, and while I found the concept fascinating I realised that in some ways it was simply too open-ended. I saw a need for some sort of World Wide Web based hub that could categorise and collate all these disparate areas of Second Life and allow one to go directly to these areas of interest. The very fact that Second Life is so open to full customisation and you can meet avatars where everything is custom made by the person controlling it, is a technological challenge in and of itself. It means that whereas in traditional MMORPGs every user has every texture and object in the game stored on their machines, in Second Life every object, every texture, every script may need to be downloaded the first time the user encounters it. This results in a very laggy, uncomfortable experience when first visiting a location. The game engine also shows its age, and the standard of graphics has been eclipsed by just about every MMORPG released in the last four years. This does, however, allow a wide range of machines to run Second Life, you don’t need the fastest 8800GTX graphics card to experience the world.

Already various educational institutions are considering using Second Life to train in Disaster Preparedness and enhancing the classroom experience of today’s internet savvy kids.

In my view the concept is an excellent one, however the technology or perhaps just general high bandwidth availability, has  a ways to go before a fully customisable world becomes quick and easy to navigate through and is really accessible to newcomers.

Read More about the Convention Here

And check out what CNET had to say

It started on August 21, Sword of the New World expanded their FREE2PLAY experience, removing all level restrictions so that their players can enjoy Sword of New World without limitation for FREE! There’s supposed to be no level caps, no trade restrictions and to time limits. As if that weren’t enough, K2, the Taiwanese maker of the game are doubling all experience earned from August 21 to August 28. If you’re not acquianted with Sword of the New World, there’s no better time to play and try it out.

All current subscribers will receive 1,000 Gold per unused paid month plus three Unique Player Characters (UPCs): Adelina Esperanza, Lisa Lynway, and M’boma!

K2 Network prides itself, according to their own words, on being the first and leading MMO service company in the Western Hemisphere for proven, successful online game titles from Asia. Climbing rapidly, they are supposed to be one of the fastest growing companies in the fastest growing segment of the video game industry. K2 Network has an operational presence in the United States, Korea, and India.

K2 apparently wants to grow and expand its player database but somehow we feel, despite the beauty of the characters and astounding graphic play, the ‘Hentai’ is not where most western players would want to go. K2 Network itself seems to speak whimsically of its ‘Killer Work of Art’; some players will agree that the game is all about ‘Art’ as Numero Uno and ‘Kill’ as Numero Dos or the other way around. We’ve heard like statements from those players dedicated to a more gentle fantasy MMORP that sounds much like - rather than choosing a story-driven quest, players at Sword of the New World are more interested in hours of bashing and killing each other than to waste time playing out a story line.

Further, having gotten rid of the Premium Bundle for the time being, K2 is promising to bring the most exciting new costumes, new cash shop items, UPCs and consumable items. That sounds like we’re in for a real artsy treat, even if the existing one is damned good; no Hentai is satisfied unless there is constant creation in (beautiful) art and in the magic of creating items - all of them (we assume) would beat back anything brought in other games not concentrating on perfection and beauty as only the Asian game can master.

Pros:

• Sword of the New World offers multi-character control (MCC), players are able to command up to three characters simultaneously. Players can instantly switch between their favorite character classes or control them all at once.
• Astounding graphics
• exceptionally beautiful characters,
• breathtaking places and magnificent cities
• swift game play
• supports a variety of systems
• even more beautiful characters and costumes coming up soon
• the game has been ‘westernized’ with more story line - enhanced storyline,
• a more robust character creation process,
• better pacing,
• AI optimization,
• a more intuitive control system,
• hundreds of new quests and many other game enrichments

K2 Network Delivers MMORPG New World Paradise Setting.
Set on a mysterious, dangerous continent with a story inspired by Europe’s exploration and conquest of America.

Art Direction: Sword of the New World features a bold, original art direction inspired by the supremacy of Europe’s Baroque period. Striking graphics, handsome and beautiful character models, eerie and fantastic dungeons, breathtaking landscapes and magnificent cities.

Music: Evocative music completes each unique area of the game world and makes Sword of the New World nothing less than a masterpiece of adventure.

Design Features, Game play & Graphics:
Groundbreaking design features, fast-paced gameplay and amazing graphics.

Character Classes: musketeer, wizard, fighter, scout, elementalist, and the unique player characters (UPCs).

Combat Possibilities: player vs. environment (PvE) and player vs. player (PvP) combat; the latter lets you combat family versus family and even city versus city.

Awards: Best Graphics (Korea); 2006 Presidential Award for Game of the Year

Developer: Granado Espada was developed by Hakkyu Kim, CEO of imcGAMES and creator of Ragnarok Online.

K2 promises that players will finally get to experience the sort of MMORPG gameplay they have been craving for years but the real question is, can the players craving the type of experiences K2 has to offer battle it out in numbers on a world platform very much westernized in nature and can they win over the quantity of gamers that World of Warcraft attracts. If they find their niche and their own large appreciating crowd, it can only be a beautiful thing indeed.

The makers of Sword of the New World Granado Espada are hoping that the game is destined to dominate the world of MMORPGs by virtue of its groundbreaking design features, fast-paced gameplay and amazing graphics.

You can download the game here

According to Nina Fefferman of Princeton University in a telephone interview, who worked on the report with her (then) student Eric Lofgren, “It really looked quite a bit like a real disease,”.The virus outbreak  ‘Corrupted Blood’ was an accidental consequence of a software challenge added to the World of Warcraft game in 2005 and was introduced by maker Blizzard Entertainment Inc. as an extra challenge to high-level players. But, just as a real virus might spread, it was accidentally carried out of its virtual containment area.

“Soon, the disease had spread to the densely populated capital cities of the fantasy world, causing high rates of mortality and, much more importantly, the social chaos that comes from a large-scale outbreak of deadly disease,” Ms Fefferman and Mr Lofgren wrote.

….

“No one have ever looked at what would happen when people who are not in a quarantine zone get in and then leave.”

Fefferman will now incorporate such behaviour into her scenarios, and is working with Blizzard to model disease outbreaks in other popular games.

“With very large numbers of players (currently 6.5 million for World of Warcraft), these games provide a population where controlled outbreak simulations may be done seamlessly within the player experience,” she wrote.

Ms Fefferman noted that Ran Balicer of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel came to a similar conclusion in a paper published in the journal Epidemiology in March.

Read the Full Report HERE 

Talk about asocial? Well, WoW gamers can certainly teach real life people a thing or two! WoW player “Dredd GaRayn” (Level 60 Human Paladin), diagnosed with a rare cancer, had to turn to his fellow guild members who lent a helping hand when his family letters to his congressman and President Bush went unanswered.

According to Dredd GaRayn:

“Last December, before Christmas, I was diagnosed with a very rare and very lethal form of cancer known as Burkitts Lymphoma.

When the state, charities, governor, news agencies, senators and even the president of the united states did not respond to my familys pleas for help to keep a roof over our head, help to keep the power company from shutting us off from a $1,500 power bill and keep food on the table for my kids while we incurred expenses of me missing work, my Guild stepped up.”

Take that, those who think that gamers are losers and have no real life; Dredd would have died if his WoW gamer friends didn’t step in!

So, I hit level 10 on my Warlock character, Wibbles.  Unlike the imp spell, in order to get the Voidwalker pet you need to complete a  quest. There was no clear indication of where you needed to go however, or even that you were required to complete a quest in order to get the Voidwalker.

I found out from reading various message boards, but it would have been far better if there were some in-game indication for such an integral part of the Warlock repertoire.

As a Gnome, the quest required me to travel to Stormwind to visit the Warlock Trainer there.  This trainer started me off on the first part of the quest into the surrounding countryside to kill an NPC and return an item to the warlock trainer. This was a difficult quest, as the hut in which the NPC was located was surrounded by several level 6 to 8 bandits.

The NPC herself was protected by two bodyguards, so the fight involved you somehow clearing the surrounding area of bandits so you would not get jumped, and then somehow defeating all three NPCs.  This wasn’t easy, and I almost gave up thinking that I needed a group. However, I had already run so darn far and cleared the surrounding bandits that I didn’t feel like waiting. So I persevered. Accompanied only by my pet Imp, Chomir, I cast several D.O.T.S on the primary NPC whom I had to kill, and then instructed Chomir to attack one of the advancing bodyguards. Meanwhile, I ran like crazy for a nearby river which was unfortunately crawling with hostile murlocs.

After I returned from the graveyard, which was itself a long trek, the primary quest NPC was still dead. I ran quickly to the body, which unfortunately had fallen close to the door of the hut and within aggro range of the two NPCs inside, and stared looting. This allowed me to recover the magical choker that was required. I now had to turn my attention to the two bodyguards that were attacking Chomir. A Fear, then a few damage over time spells such as Corruption and Immolate soon had them chasing after me. I made a desperate run for the river again, and managed to take them down…but unfortunately I drew the attention of several now respawning bandits.

The trip from the graveyard back to the NPC inside Stormwind was a shorter one. Once he got the Choker, he sent me on another quest to subdue a summoned Voidwalker. This second part of the voidwalker quest is a bit tricky since you need to go down some stairs behind the NPC, which I did not find readily apparent from the quest dialogue. Eventually after making your way through an unnecessary maze of rooms (how about a straight path to the summoning room!) you find yourself in a room with another acolyte and an odd pink symbol on the floor. Chomir and I managed to quickly dispatch the voidwalker, which clearly was not up to the regular strength of a summoned Voidwalker. I am certainly not complaining about this fact at all , though!

  At the end of the quest, I gained the ability to summon a VoidWalker. See my fearsome blue marshmellow : THANNOS!

I also got introduced to the idea of SoulShards. SoulShards take up a slot in your inventory, and you need them for summoning Voidwalkers, Succubi (another Rogue pet you get later) , healthstones and other Warlock goodies. They are quite easy to obtain. You cast Soul Drain on any creature that would give you XP, and if it dies while you are Soul Draining it , you get a soulshard in your inventory. This means that if you are ever in need of soulshards just go find something lower in level and easily kill it, and get a soulshard. You’re not required to face off against equal or even higher level opponents to obtain them. 

So how is playing with the Voidwalker? Quite different from the scrappy fights I used to have with Chomir, the imp. Thannos isn’t able to deal out much damage, but he has high armor that reduces the damage he receives by about 30%. A Warlock relies on spells that deal damage to opponents over a period of time, say 5 damage every second for 10 seconds or something similar. So the fact that Thannos can stand there and take hits and the attention of opponents from my fragile Warlock gives my D.O.T spells time to work and defeat whatever we’re fighting.Between my D.O.T spells and Thannos’ armor we can probably handle about two to three even level opponents at a time, with me making use of Fear to have one or more of the opponents flee in terror, further giving my D.O.T spells the time they need to work. My Warlock can also cast Shadow Bolt, which does damage immediately to an opponent, but takes nearly 3 seconds to cast.

All in all, the Voidwalker is a game changing addition to the Warlock’s repertoire. Before you give up on playing the class you need to get to Level 10 and experience the gameplay with the Voidwalker, as this will be your style of play for most of your Warlock’s gameplay. I suspect things will change again when you get your Succubus at level 20. I’ll report back soon on play with Wibbles in the future as the character progresses, but for the moment I would say that the Warlock is a solid choice for Solo play, however it requires some thought and maintenance in the form of Soulshards, use of Fear and understanding of Curses and Damage Over Time spells. It isn’t a totally hands free character class, but then neither is the Hunter. 

BEIJING, Aug 15, 2007

Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. has confirmed on August 15th in Beijing, China, that they have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on World of Warcraft (WOW) in the China mainland, against the game’s US game developer Blizzard Entertainment. Founder Electronics is a well-known Beijing-based provider of across-media information transmission technologies, products, and services and is the largest provider of Chinese fonts in China.

Almost 90% of the press offices, publishing houses and printing plants in the People’s Republic of China use Founder Electronics fonts to typeset and print enormous quantities of newspapers, books, magazines, textbooks, documents and packages and 60% of the oversea Chinese-language newspapers and magazines are printed with the database.

Claims for compensation are as much as CNY 100 million, Founder Electronics has confirmed. Blizzard Entertainment has been accused of using five Founder fonts from the Founder Font Database, which Founder Electronics have patented. The use of the fonts by Blizzard Entertainment without permission also violates the Copyright Law of the People’s Republic of China.

The copyright infringement brings a loss of more than CNY 1 billion to Founder Electronics, according to its preliminary estimate. The case has been accepted and heard in a Beijing court.

Blizzard Entertainment has apparently run into a series of copyright protection accusations in China. In recent years, the US government has often criticized the Chinese government for incapably protecting intellectual properties in China, resulting a lot of US companies suffer from losses.

This new development is certain to have an impact on the release of the more troubled simplified Chinese-language Burning Crusade, the first expansion version of WOW in the mainland.

The9, Blizzard Entertainment’s Chinese Partner, is said not to have gotten approval for the version’s commercial operation in the mainland from Chinese regulators. This was disclosed by persons close to the company, who chose not to be identified. The9 is therefore unable to commercially operate the expansion version this year and has attempted to cover up the news in front of millions of Chinese WOW gamers who are already furious about their service.

Chinese WoW gamers have been enraged at the repeatedly delayed release of the version in the Chinese mainland steered by The9 who have accused by players as ‘arrogant’ and many have called for boycotting all the games operated by The9, including WOW.

As a result, Blizzard Entertainment’s finances may be seriously affected due to these latest developments in China.

MMORPG is the short term for “Massive(ly) multiplayer online role-playing game”. It is a genre of online role-playing games (RPG or ORPG) for video and computer in which a very large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world over the internet. Some of the MMORPG games have Player versus Player (PvP) options.

As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character and control the character’s actions, called ‘role-playing’. Players even get into their roles during communication with others online and continuously pretend to be and speak as the ‘warlock’, ‘dwarf’, ‘elf’ or other role they have chosen, much as if they were experiencing a fantasy novel in real-time. The fictional characters are mostly of the fantasy world and place names that sound as if taken from the Lord of the Rings book series or other fantasy literature are the norm.

In the virtual world, players also travel routes to different cities, places and towns whilst ‘leveling-up’ their characters. Leveling-up is a term used by the online players which is the action of the character becoming a higher, more powerful role-player whilst playing through specific regions, places or cities within the game and gathering ‘points’ and even ‘virtual’ money to buy equipment and armor to suit their character.

MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the sheer quantity of online role-players (therefore called ‘massively multi-player’), and by the game’s continuously existing world. The games are typically hosted by the game’s publisher and therefore require internet connection; one cannot play an MMORPG game without connecting to the internet. MMORPG games continue to exist and evolve while the role-player is away from the game or their computer.

MMORPGs are very popular throughout the world, with combined global memberships in subscription and non-subscription games exceeding 15 million as of 2006.

Of the largest MMORPG games worldwide, the World of Warcraft (WoW), Everquest, and Guild Wars are perhaps the most popular. WoW was featured in an episode of the popular television series South Park which strengthened some public opinion that online role-players live in a world of their own to a negative degree which degenerates their real life situations.

A recent study completed by the Trent University has reported that, contrary to public opinion, online role-playing gamers as far from asocial characters as previously thought to be and quite the opposite, close true friendships and even partnerships online which are more lasting and deeper than real-world relationships. It has been demonstrated that even amongst partners and family, they share a dedicated co-existence.

Players have been known to expand their online friendships out into the ‘real world’ in the sense that players have met in real life and continued new, deep and rewarding relationships.

Since the millennium, MMORPGs began to attract the attention of the psychology and economics academia and non-gaming publications. Both positive and negative reactions are common.

Some MMORPGs have developed sophisticated economies with equipment, currency, and characters. All have been exchanged online for real money - a step from the ‘virtual’ into the real-world. Many earn a living online by selling characters, currencies and special equipment to other players. As a result, the study of “synthetic economies” has evolved.

To find out more about what an MMORPG is, you can visit the following links for more information:

1. Wikipedia MMORPG
2. Bella Online Computer Games What Is explanation
3. Wise Geeks’ MMORPG What is

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. has recently announced on their official World of Warcraft (WoW) website that they will now be accepting subscription payments via the Paypal online payment system and the payment option would be applicable to both old and new WoW players.

Players interested in taking advantage of this new arrangement are advised to visit the Account Management page, where one can select Paypal as one’s automatic payment method.

With The Wrath of the Lich King now the next big thing in WoW, Blizzard is hoping that this new transaction system will make the WoW MMORPG more accessible and hassle-free for online players.

The ArchLord client is allowing you to play their MMORPG for free! Download the full game of ArchLord now for FREE with NO monthly subscriptions!

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Do you have what it takes to become the ArchLord in this next generation MMORPG? Players can work their way up from pretender to contender as they embark on their epic mission to raise aloft the single biggest prize in MMORPG gaming - to become the all-mighty, all-powerful ArchLord. Become the single ruling ArchLord and control the entire world affecting the lives of thousands of players in this new breed of FREE TO PLAY Massively Multiplayer Online Game.

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For more information on ArchLord please visit http://www.archlordgame.com

According to a recent study entitled “Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers” done by Nottingham Trent University and reported by GamesIndustry.biz, MMORPG players are not socially introverted. The report, which was published in the US journal CyberPsychology and Behavior, dispels the myth that online gamers are asocial.

Nottingham Trent University professor Mark Griffiths has stated “This study has revealed many aspects of MMORPGs that were not known before … Previous research has suggested that gamers are socially inactive, but MMORPGs are actually extremely social games, with high percentages of gamers making life-long friends and even partners.”

The study took in nearly 1,000 MMORPG online gamers from around the world, researchers found that three quarters of gamers make good friends with the people they meet online. Almost half have met in real-life situations, and one in ten went on to develop physical relationships.

According to the study, gamers played an average of 22.85 hours per week. The most popular MMORPG in the study was World of Warcraft.

Other finds of the study were:

• 30 per cent of gamers found themselves attracted to another player,
• 40 per cent chose to discuss sensitive issues with online friends rather than real-life friends.
• 81 per cent of gamers play with real-life friends and family as well as make good friends online

In the final analysis, the study reported that - “The virtual world that these games offer, allows players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their appearance, gender, sexuality, age, or other factors. They also offer a place where teamwork, encouragement and fun can all be experienced.”