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Role Playing (Games) Software Linux

Online World News 96

Posted by Zonk from the from-lands-far-far-away dept.
Several tidbits of info for you today regarding developments in Online Worlds. Lineage II is going to be adding a gambling component. Players will be able to place bets on monster races or purchase lottery tickets. MMORPG.com has a story discussing the fact that the excellent crafting based game A Tale in the Desert now has a Mac Client. Players on Windows, Linux, and Mac can now experience the Second Telling. Anarchy Online is now available for free download. Prospective players can download the client and have 14 days to experience the game before they have to decide to take up the monthly fee or not. Starting next week FilePlanet will be giving away 20,000 Beta Slots for The Matrix Online. Speaking of Betas, the Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs Beta application is now available. Congratulations also to Mythic Entertainment and DAoC, who is celebrating it's 3rd Anniversary this week. The Blizzard site has up a new Q&A about World of Warcraft. It sounds like some features of the game are going to slip to post-launch. Combined with the rapidly approaching Open Beta this would seem to confirm that the game will be launching within a month or two.
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Online World News

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  • EQ2 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    You forgot to mention Everquest 2... probably the biggest competitor to WoW at this point.

    -fanboy

  • Too much text (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Not enough line breaks... head exploding.

  • Don't know about you lot... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @01:34PM (#10479943) Homepage
    ...but I'm still playing on a neverwinter nights persistant world. Being addicted is bad enough without having to pay by the month for it.

    • [Offtopic]

      Which one is that, and do you have open slots? I'm tired of logging onto unknown servers and being booted for not having the time to slough through 8 pages or more of willy-nilly rules, so I commit the heinous crime of resting in chainmail (sigh).

      I just wish to find a nice place to play and have fun, without too many strange rules (I can even live with the rules, just let me read them once and be done with it), and a good player-base.

      I miss my times at the server I hung out in a year back. It w

      • The New Adventurer's Domain, and there are open slots: 129.241.186.207:5121

        It's an action-orientated PW with light RP and it's pretty huge now. Powerplaying is gently discouraged, but no one will bitch at you for having a fighter(10)/bard(1)/rdd(10) - unless you happen to be trying to use dev crit kukris :)
  • I would be sold if they included a BFG and railgun.
    • Hey, Eve has railguns!

      I love Eve. I am concerned about Blizzard though. They are developing this MMPORG as if it was a regular rpg or hack and slash. They seem to think they can create balance before launch and are thus taking an eternity to launch this thing. They of all people should know better.

      Boy am I glad I did not wait on WoW. I been playin Eve for about 6 months now...
      • Before you get bored with EVE's utter lack of content.

        I got myself a battleship, then promptly got bored completely, despite being in a relatively large corp that did lots of PvP (Xanadu). I just never liked EVE's PvP... Hours of boredom camping gates/jumping around for 10 seconds of excitement.

        I returned to DAoC this summer, after having experienced another game, I can appreciate DAoC's endgame much more, partly because they overhauled their RvR (DAoC's equivalent of PvP) system completely with their N

  • Is it worth trying Anarcy Online? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by carlivar ( 119811 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @01:47PM (#10480010)
    I've always been curious about AO but I never have any desire to pay much for Massive Multiplayer games after Everquest. To me, it is ridiculous that they make you pay for the original game media and then ALSO charge you a monthly fee! And then keep grabbing for your money with expansion packs, ugh.

    So anyway, since AO is free for 14 days is it worth giving it a shot? I played EQ for a couple years, was addicted to it, got depressed by my "/played" and quit it one day. I've been playing a bit of Planetside lately because that's only $10 to download, but I doubt I'll keep it up much longer. It gets rather boring and repetitive. Is AO "EQ in space"? Or is it more interesting?

    Carl

    • Economics (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Draconix ( 653959 )
      To me, it is ridiculous that they make you pay for the original game media and then ALSO charge you a monthly fee! And then keep grabbing for your money with expansion packs, ugh.

      Unfortunately, it kind of needs to be done if they're going to make any money off it. The first buy is because a lot of work went into making the software, the monthly fee is necessary to maintain the servers, pay the GMs, etc., and the expansion packs cost money for the same reason the main software does. TANSTAAFL.
      • Unfortunately, it kind of needs to be done if they're going to make any money off it. The first buy is because a lot of work went into making the software, the monthly fee is necessary to maintain the servers, pay the GMs, etc., and the expansion packs cost money for the same reason the main software does.

        I think this is because they structure their pricing so that the initial media pays for the development and the monthly fee pays for servers, bandwidth, support, etc.

        I would rather they just charged

        • Doesn't work well, because then if people get bored and leave, that's x potential revenue lost. It would be _nicer_ if companies did that, but it's not really economically feasible.
    • Is AO "EQ in space"?

      Depends. If you play lots of mmporgs, you'll probably think they are very different. If you play mostly other genres of games, they'll seem essentially the same. Turn based combat, special attacks on timers, role based team play. Both are enourmous time-sinks.

    • It's different. I'd say give it a shot, 14 days should let you know whether or not its different enough. I played for about a year and a half before I just lost interest.
    • I played it for a few months and enjoyed it, though I can't really compare it to other MMORPGs because I've never bothered with any of them (and no, I'm not just saying that because I have a referral link in my sig).

      My only real complaint was that Shadowlands made it way too easy to powerlevel.

    • I played the 14 day trial of AO and found it to be quite fun. I really hunger for a good Sci-Fi game, but I ended up not staying with it. You will probably have fun if you do the free trial.

  • Anarchy Online in Linux (Score:3, Informative)

    by RedneckNinja ( 307407 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @01:48PM (#10480011) Homepage
    It is worth mentioning that you can play Anarchy Online in Linux using CVS Cedega:

    AO Linux [rit.edu]

    Works great for me! I use Windowmaker and while playing full-screen, desktop switching still works without texture corruption (I get texture corruption switching desktops running in windowed mode).
    --

  • Online gambling (Score:5, Interesting)

    by idesofmarch ( 730937 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @01:48PM (#10480018)
    That really makes me question when this kind of thing is going to run afoul of U.S. gaming laws. Ultimately, if it can be shown that virtual currency has quantifiable value and and exchange rate with real world currency, would this not constitute real gambling? I am aware that Lineage may not be hosted in the U.S., but many online games are. Any opinions from lawyers or others who may be knowledgable?
    • Except in game currency could never be found to have an exchange rate with real life currency, since most games list such things as against the TOS

      • Re:Online gambling (Score:5, Informative)

        by idesofmarch ( 730937 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @02:17PM (#10480150)
        All the TOS could do is officially prohibit a player from selling in-game currency. However, there are many websites where players can do exactly this, and the game companies are powerless to stop this and, in some instances, may not want to, as it would decrease the popularity of that particular game. I think it can be established that despite the TOS, many in-game currencies have very real value.
        • I play L2 regularly: You can ebay "adena" (the games currecny" for somewhere around $30 US per Million Adena, and its done by many more people than would care to admit it.

          The GMs in the game ban if they catche someone that looks like they are "buying adena" and ban "farmer bosses" (who control clans that play just to make adena) from time to time, though its rare.

          Also, Lineage 2 does have 8 US servers. It was originally a Korean game, but has an english version out that follows the korean version clos

          • I play L2 regularly:

            I'm sorry.

            I played Lineage II during the open beta, and while the core game is okay, (blatant grind) The thing that really made it suck was the people playing it. It seems like the game attracted the lowest common denominator of the MMO population. It's full of '1337' 12 year olds, griefers, and farming bots. The day I walked into a dungeon for my daily grind and realized the ENTIRE place was useless because it was full of bots, I closed the game, uninstalled, and ran screaming ba

        • Right, but since the company is officially against and real-life currency conversion, wouldn't they also be exempt from US gambling laws? Sort of like p2p software. Some people use it illegally, but the developers don't, so it's still legal.

      • Re:Online gambling (Score:5, Informative)

        by jericho4.0 ( 565125 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @02:25PM (#10480179)
        That TOS might not hold up, though. In the U.S. 'possesion is 9/10ths of the law'. If I belive I 'own' a piece a chainmail, say, and the game supports my 'ownership', than that chainmail might legally be mine, regardless of the TOS.

        TOS or not, if I can sell my chainmail right now for $50.00, then it has value. As much as the Federal Reverve would like you to think otherwise, the value of currency will always be decided by supply and demmand.

        This article [walrusmagazine.com] is a very interesting look at the realities of the online gaming economy. It notes that per-capita wealth of EverQuest players is $2,266 (Real Cash $$), making it richer than China.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • um online gambling goes on all the time by US citizens and nothing happens to them. Currently the primary money transfer system is through www.neteller.com which is basically an off shore paypal - players set up a free account, make a free EFT from their bank to their neteller account, make a fee-less buy in to their casino or poker room of choice and the reverse to get money out. Online gambling may be illegal in a couple states but is basically not proscuted. Oh, unless you don't pay taxes of course.
      • There is no question that gambling within online games, even if ruled illegal by U.S. standards, can take place, assuming that the hosting company jumps through enough hoops. Currently however, no hoops need to be jumped through, as the players are not gambling with anything of real value, much like anyone can legally set up a gambling site that only uses play money. I was just wondering if this can remain the status quo, with respect to MMOGs.

  • Old News (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Gambling in MMORPGs has already been done for a while now. I know for a fact that Star Wars Galaxies has both slots and roulette, and I'm sure other games have similar gambling systems with in-game money. Whoever is posting this stuff really should do a little more research than believing whatever they read on the internet..
  • I expect many people to drop whatever they are playing to switchover. I know people that cancled their five year old everqust accounts after playing WoW for an hour.

  • What about Vendetta Online? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tjwhaynes ( 114792 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @02:12PM (#10480130)

    If space MMORGs are your thing, you might consider checking out Vendetta online [vendetta-online.com], which is currently in Beta testing and features Windows, Linux and Mac clients.

    This is the same Vendetta that had been alpha testing for ages, looked like it wasn't going to happen, got all but abandoned and yet somewhere from the ashes the developers have pulled out the stops and built a mission-based, group-orientated space fighting and trading MMORG. So far so good and if you see "Nexus 6" knocking around, give me a couple of shots across the bows and say hello.

    Cheers,
    Toby Haynes

    • As for another space MMO, Eve Online is set to release their first expansion, Shiva, within a month or so. Shiva represents a massive change to the game, adding a ton of new features, and I find it unique that a game company would release such a major upgrade to their product for free to their subscribers. While I dunno about linux/mac clients, Eve is definately a unique game, the simple facts that its beautiful, runs well on low hardware systems, and the UI is extremely clean keeps me very happy.

      If you'r

  • Guild Wars (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jlefeld ( 814985 ) on Saturday October 09, 2004 @02:16PM (#10480145)
    Guild Wars is the next mmo i'm going to get in to. It has mmo features but looks like it will remove the tedious parts from mmos. Plus there is no monthly charge. But out of the current mmo's I think WoW looks the coolest. I played it till level 4 and I was impressed about how cool the early quests were.

    www.guildwars.com
    • Too bad guild wars isn't actually an MMORPG. Unless you're in a party or in town, all the zones are solo. If you're in a party, it's ONLY your party. Sort of like Diablo 2, which was by no means an MMORPG...
      • Thousands of players online, okay thats the massively multiplayer part taken care of.

        Develop a character by getting new and better equipment and exp from killing monsters. Well that sounds to me like a CRPG.

        Half the other MMORPG's have instanced / solo content.
      • You are correct, but at the same time you're not.

        It is not a standard MMO, that is true. Missions are instanced, yes. However, coop play is the point of the missions. Instancing these missions allows them to be alot more complicated (and entertaining) as you don't have to worry about random players being affected by what your party is doing. No more queueing for spawns, no more camping, no more griefing, no more crowded dungeons. The death penalty is situational, and doesn't set your character develo
  • and it wanted my credit card number. Why? I know World of Warcraft [worldofwarcraft.com] didn't required it. I wonder if the beta will require it too.
    • Well if fileplanet is "giving" them away then you will have to be a fileplanet subscriber to get it. Perhaps thats what the credit card number was for?

      I can't bring myself to pay for something like fileplanet when the rest of the internet offers what they have for free. I understand that bandwidth isn't free but when my ISP downloads all the major demos to their local file servers so that they save bandwidth, it just doesn't make sense.

  • Your spinning the World of Warcraft thing a little. How many MMORPGs have shipped complete? That's right: 0! In fact, some launches have been total disasters, such as WWII online, Horizons, Shadowbane. World of Warcraft even "incomplete" is more complete and stable than most existing MMORPGS. It's for the best that WoW launches soon, because if Blizzard was not given a shove from Vivendi they would not have released it until 2006 :)
    • frankly, I think FFXI which is it not getting enough credit is years ahead of most of these other mmorpg's mentioned.
    • I didn't catch any spin there. Not only are most MMORPG's shipped incomplete in some regard, one could argue that Blizzard games are generally shipped...unfinished. They certainly work, yes, but there are always features that they'd hoped to get in that didn't make it.

      Of course, unlike most companies, they do eventually get around to implementing most of them, even in their non-MMO games.

  • Bah (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Syberghost ( 10557 )
    Lineage II is going to be adding a gambling component. Players will be able to place bets on monster races or purchase lottery tickets.

    Please, please, PLEASE let them not convince Cryptic to do this bullshit in City of Heroes too.

    It's going to be bad enough that Captain_Reno will get this idea now; don't let it happen EVERYWHERE.
  • Jump To Lightspeed [starwarsgalaxies.com] (the expansion to SWG) is also entering a public beta and should ship sometime soon.
  • My small business, MultiUser RolePlay Entertainment, is currently in the process for the development of a Java game engine plus a Java-based combination online game client integrated with a distributed, streaming MPI client (i.e. Seti@Home, Capcal, etc) that only runs while the user is online playing games.

    For more info on the work being done, feel free to check out our site: http://www.murpe.com/ [murpe.com] and look under the 'XML Game Client' link.

    -- M

  • Planetside news. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Several weeks ago there was a major shake-up in the Planetside [sony.com] universe - the story was that the Ancients (the alien race known as the Vanu) briefly returned, activating technology that displaced the landscape. This was, of course, just cover for the developers to delete one of the maps (which sucked and was the least-liked) and add three completely new maps to the game instead.

    This laid the groundwork for the series of additions coming this month to owners of the Core Combat expansion pack - a whole new c
  • Another enjoyable game is Saga of Ryzom [ryzom.com] which resently launched.
  • ...these features that won't make retail have been known for quite some time that they won't be in retail. No big news here.....

  • Interesting that there was no mention of Cryptic Studio's game, City of Heroes http://www.cityofheroes.com/ [cityofheroes.com] Recently hit the 200,000 subscriber mark and is still going strong.

    So far CoH is a nice change from any other MMORPG that I have played. No items, no player economy, no camping and lots of action. Hopefully the fun factor in this game will influence new games in the future to think outside the box...
    • Yes, I play this also- I thought that lack of loot would be the downfall of the game, but there are actually things to do besides camp for hours only to have someone steal your kill.

      We can actually go on adventures fighting crime and/or evil!!!!!!!!!!

      Every comic book readers dream.
  • If you aren't in to the lastest FPS and don't really want to invest 80 hours a week building up your charaters, you can play some classic and fun games at Game Table Online [gametableonline.com]. The have Kill Dr. Lucky and other card games and usually have players available. I found them at Gen Con and signed up as soon as I got home.
  • In fact, Anarchy Online was one of the first, if not the first, MMORPG to offer a free trial. The 'news' here is that the trial length has just been increased from 7 days to 14 days.

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