HellForge

BioWare RPG Cliche Chart

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:55:08 -0500

Though their games are original, well-written and fun, I’ve always found similarities in BioWare RPGs – particular clichés unique to their games and even a few of Obsidian’s. Inspired by JackSlack’s “Bioware Trope Chart” [link], currently work-in-progress, I decided to make my own chart based on my experience with their games over the years.

Please note that the list I've created is rather tongue-in-cheek and takes none of the nuances of each game's narrative into proper account. Be sure to click the image for a larger version.

Dragon Age: Origins Toolset Released

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:25:05 -0500

Bioware has officially launched the toolset for its new RPG, Dragon Age: Origins.

The Dragon Age Toolset, which comes in a 472mb-sized package, provides everything you need to create your own adventures in Dragon Age. The toolset is equipped with the same utilities and features that were used by the designers at Bioware to create all of the game’s content, including the main campaign. Additionally, the toolset includes several enhancements and is polished specifically for the benefit of end users.

Among creating your own add-ons to extend the length and life of the game’s official campaign, the Dragon Age Toolset will also allow you to tell stand-alone stories in the Dragon Age setting or a setting of your own creating. Users will be able to share resources with other modders or work on collaborative efforts via the Bioware Social Network.

The application also allows you to view how existing content in Dragon Age was designed and scripted, so the more ambitious modders among you may well be able to create a full game with the toolset.

The official description for the toolset is as follows:

The level editor supports both indoor and outdoor terrain, with complete control over the placement of structures and props. You can create a dungeon by piecing together large prefabricated tunnel pieces, or stack wooden mugs one by one on a tavern counter. Visual effects and lighting conditions can be combined to produce any mood.

Conversations, plots and scripting are tightly integrated; you can use simple plots and pre-defined triggers to handle most common aspects of adventuring or delve deeply into the game's inner workings to produce more specialized effects. Much of the functionality that in previous games would be hard-coded into the engine is instead handled by scripts that an experienced modder can easily override.

Also included is a dedicated cutscene editor with a wide variety of powerful cinematic capabilities. The cutscene editor is a movie-making toolset in its own right; it is quite capable of producing stand-alone works of machinima if one so desired. All of the in-game footage in Dragon Age was produced using it. Lip-syncing and facial animation is fully automated, making lifelike performances easy to accomplish.

Grab it here.

Update: If you are having problems installing the Toolset with your Steam version of Dragon Age: Origins, simply head over to the following thread.

Diablo III: Fixed Camera All The Way

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:49:36 -0500

The Diablo series and other games like it (Titan Quest, Mythos, Torchlight) were always confined to a fixed axonometric camera. With the exception of Mythos, which allowed for WASD controls, Diablo’s fixed view was always one of its greatest strengths as it allowed for the designers to map out locations, pace encounters and design set-piece boss battles based on the confines of the fixed perspective.

Blizzard representative Bashiok addressed the forum’s question regarding the fixed view in Diablo III.

It's a fixed camera. Back when we announced the game we had our dialogue interaction set up where the camera would zoom in, and you'd see the characters up close and they'd talk to each other in this zoomed in view. We threw that out a long time ago though just because it was too intrusive, it stopped the game, pulled you out of the action, and just felt like too much. There was also a point where we zoomed in on the character in one of the videos to show some attack animations and item switches better, but that's not a feature of the game.

The camera doesn't zoom or tilt or rotate, it's a fixed camera.

It's kind of fun to watch people that have never played a Diablo game before, or it's been a long time. They immediately go for the WASD keys, and when those do nothing they then try holding down the right mouse button to rotate the camera. Sometimes by accident they're reminded it's click to move.

It's just not a control scheme and camera angle that are used a lot these days, there's maybe been a handful of games in the past five years that qualify as isometric arpg's? So anyway, props to all those games and the developers keeping the style alive. We're continuing the tradition, proudly, because we feel it's the best way to present a sequel in the Diablo franchise.

Online Retailers Boycott Modern Warfare 2

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:28:06 -0500

Due to the requirement of Valve’s Steamworks in the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, online retailers like Direct 2 Drive, Impulse and GamersGate are refusing to carry the Infinity Ward title on their lists.

Speaking to Kotaku, a Direct2Drive representative said, “We don’t believe games should force the user to install a Trojan Horse.”

Infinity Ward is using Steamworks to handle everything from installation to save-game management and DRM, similar to Valve’s own games.

Direct2Drive also told the website they told publishers that they would stop selling any games that came coupled with Steamworks, such as Dawn of War II and Empire: Total War, two games which came out earlier this year and that they would only pick the titles up if they were ‘decoupled’ from Steam.

The "Trojan Horse" remark is ironic coming from Direct2Drive, the same company which used an invisible rootkit to handle DRM for products from their store. As an end-user, you'd be better off hedging your bets with Steam's lesser evil.

John Carmack: No Dedicated Servers for Rage

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:21:58 -0500

id Software’s John Carmack dropped a bombshell today when he announced that the company’s upcoming game and next-generation FPS, Rage, would have no plans to support dedicated servers.

In the wake of Modern Warfare 2’s omission of dedicated servers on the PC, Variety asked id Software co-founder and video game god John Carmack the company had any plans to follow suit with their upcoming game. Carmack’s replied: “It’s not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don’t think we will have dedicated servers.”

While id Software has yet to announce what system they plan on using for Rage, I would strongly speculate that it’ll be something along the lines of Infinity Ward’s locally hosted listen servers via a system similar to Infinity Ward's IWNet.

Still speaking to the magazine, Carmack stated he believed that dedicated servers were “something of a remnant” of the early days of PC gaming and that he realizes that affinity many PC gamers have with such systems. He says that he is glad that Rage will not be leading the charge, and simply following in step of the many new and upcoming titles that have no plans to support dedicated servers.

“The great thing is we won’t have to be a pioneer on that,” he says. “We’ll see how it works out for everyone else.”

On that note, it sounds like id Software's decision to omit dedicated servers from Rage will depend entirely on the success and feedback of IWNet in the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. Should it be poorly received, id Software might reconsider their decision.

Carmack's comments about Rage may seem strange and even a little disappointing, especially given his past support for the PC and modding community in general. id Software and Splash Damage were very quick to confirm that dedicated server support would be present in the upcoming id Tech 4-driven FPS, Brink, so we can only speculate on their decision.

Source: Variety

Mass Effect 2 Collector's Edition Announced

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:55:18 -0500

As most of us hack, slash and burn our way through Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2 looms on the horizon. I can almost detect a BioWare plot to keep us permanently indoors and out of sleep during the winter months with their time-devouring role playing games.

Ever eager to cater to the whims and demands of the more ardent collectors among us, BioWare has announced the Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition. It includes:

A tin case
48-page hardcover art book
Issue 1 of Mass Effect Redemption, the official comic book
Bonus DVD with “making of” footage (as is Bioware tradition)
Exclusive in-game weapons and armor

The collector’s edition will carry a price of $69.99 and $59.99 on the Xbox 360 and PC respectively. Both regular and special editions of Mass Effect 2 are slated for release on 26th January, 2010 (29th in Europe).

The exclusive in-game armor can be seen below:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:20:24 -0500

Infinity Ward has released the launch trailer for Modern Warfare 2 and it looks better than anything they've released thus far. It is, in a word, awesome.

Recent unfortunate controversies aside, Modern Warfare 2's single player campaign is definitely shaping up to deliver the excellent experience that Infinity Ward is best known for.

China Orders World of Warcraft To Cease Operations

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:39:15 -0500

An agency of the Chinese Government has ordered NetEase to immediately suspend its operations of World of Warcraft in China, after the company supposedly violated regulations created by China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) with regards to the Burning Crusade expansion pack.

The government body posted a statement on its website forbidding NetEase from collecting revenue from paying users and to disallow new account registrations.

The news comes in the wake of the government’s attempts to exercise tighter control over content in online gaming. As recently as October, the government banned foreign investment into the online gaming industry which is expected to grow 30-50 percent this year up to US$4 billion.

Analyst Adam Krejcik was quoted by Reuters as saying that the government’s move to clamp down on the game was not surprising, as NetEase had launched the game on September 19th without proper approval from the regulatory agency.

He went on to further state that the present situation reflected a regulatory turf battle between the GAPP and the ministry, which had approved the game for release.

“These guys are essentially stuck in the middle of this power struggle,” Krejcik said of NetEase.

NetEase spokesperson Kristen McNally could not say if NetEase would be complying with the GAPP suspension. The GAPP followed up by saying that it would be evaluating whether to impose fines on the company for not going along with its orders.

It’s only a matter of time before the Chinese press gives the government initiative to control online gaming content a flashy name like “Golden Sparrow Youth Guardian”.

Source: Reuters

Adam Sessler Calls Out Infinity Ward For Homophobic Slur

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:11:14 -0500

G4TV host and game journalist Adam Sessler has spoken up in his latest episode of Sessler’s Soapbox about Infinity Ward’s “Grenade Spamming” viral video that referenced a homophobic slur.

Sessler makes it very clear that he’s not a fan of hate speech and goes on to lament the issue, especially in its rampant use on Xbox Live and PSN.

Video Game - E3 2009 - Sessler's Soapbox

As for anyone defending the use of the word by claiming that it isn’t being used in a hateful context: I will echo Sessler’s words and say that it’s only a very comfortable position that one can take when the person defending its use is gay.

Modern Warfare 2: Infinity Ward Reiterates Its Position on Dedicated Servers

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:02:56 -0500

Infinity Ward isn’t letting up with their decision to use IWNet and strip Modern Warfare 2 of its dedicated server functionality on the PC.

In a new web-based live chat with the gaming community hosted on BestBuy.com, Infinity Ward’s Ryan Lastimosa, Mackey McCandlish and boss Vince Zampella answered questions regarding the situation with dedicated servers and upheld the idea that the implementation was to the benefit of PC gamers.

Asked if they would consider implementing dedicated servers in the near future, Mackey replied that the company’s current focus was on making sure the game as it is will work well when it is released on platforms more than anything else.

Pressed on with the same question, Zampella stated: “We feel the PC game is great in it's current form. We put a lot of work into IWnet in an effort to make the PC experience better for our users. If there is a need for somthing more in the future we will address as needed.”

“IWnet was designed to make the MP experience on PC easier and more balanced,” he said.

Mackey McCandlish added: “Our goal is to provide the best experience for our users, so nothing is ever "off the table". We are always evaluating our options.”

He went on to state that games hosted on the PC version would be capped out at a reasonable 9v9, in contrast to the 12v12 or larger games on dedicated servers. Infinity Ward also confirmed that host migration, which happens when the player hosting the game leaves, would be in effect on the PC version with a 5-second delay.

When irate gamers pressed Infinity Ward about the 178,000 or so signatures demanding dedicated servers, Zampella reiterated that the system was changed to make it a “better and easier experience.”

“Also, not all of the names on that list are legit,” he added.

Torchlight Six Word Story Competition

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:06:55 -0500

Ernest Hemingway once wrote a story in six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never used.”) and he was purported to have called it his best work. In love with the idea, Wired Magazine challenged writers to take a shot at writing their own six word story, many of which can be found here.

With that in mind, I am happy to announce that Hellforge is hosting the Torchlight Six Word Story Competition in which you, our readers (and would-be writers), will have a chance to win one of two copies of Runic Games’ astounding action RPG, Torchlight.

The competition is open to a worldwide audience. We aren’t restricting our winners to North America. If you can come up with a clever story, you can win.

All you have to do to participate is to register for an account on Hellforge (if you haven't already) where I can contact you if you’re the winner, and post a reply to this thread with your original six word story. The only prerequisite is that the story must be tangentially related to gaming.

We’ll be giving away two copies of Torchlight, courtesy of Runic Games.

Rules, for people who like lists:

You can submit as many six word story entries as you like to increase your chances of winning.
One account per person.

That's it! The two winners will be announced on November 10, 2009.

Happy writing!

Alganon: Where Have I Seen This Before?

no.spam@gameriot.com (bilingue) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:10:14 -0500

The term "WoW Clone" has inspired thousands of debates but in this case it might be literally a WoW Clone. Let's start with a proper introduction. Alganon is an MMORPG developed by Quest Online and scheduled for release on December '09. Since I have not played the game, I will not be comparing any of the features or classes in the game; however I will point out certain similarities with WoW in the graphical department. Before I continue please read this excerpt taken from Alganon's wikipedia page:

Designed from scratch and based in a uniquely created world, the initial goal in designing Alganon was to provide "Simple Gameplay with Unlimited Growth in a massive world of immersion and interaction".

Is it me or this world looks familiar?

Maybe I am just biased because I play too much World of Warcraft and to be fair I haven't played the game yet. I should look for some videos.

This approach is quite different and it will be very interesting to see how it plays in the future. The last game I thought felt like WoW was Runes of Magic but Alganon easily wins. Who knows, maybe Quest Online can release a copy worthy enough for the Chinese government to approve.

Edit: This blog was written by someone who actually played the game. A quote from the review:

"That key icon on the far left? It's only there because WoW has a keyring with that button. Alganon doesn't have a keyring but they forgot to remove the icon when they copied the UI design."

Check out the talent window comparision.

Modern Warfare 2 Disables Party Chat on Xbox Live

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 23:23:34 -0500

When support for dedicated servers was cut from the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, it raised the ire of the PC gaming community. Today, Infinity Ward dropped another bomb on the game’s userbase when a poster on NeoGAF discovered that the 360 version of the game would be disabling Party Chat. Attempts to join a game in party chat will prompt players to switch to in-game chat or otherwise leave the game.

Robert Bowling has yet to comment on the absence of party chat, but he did mention on his Twitter account that the leaderboards and levels will be reset just prior to the Modern Warfare 2’s official launch in order to ensure no unfair advantages are given to players with advance copies of the game.

"It definitely looks like a full leaderboard / level reset is in order just before the release date to ensure no unfair advantages," wrote Bowling.

Though Bowling has yet to address the missing support for party chat, I can’t even begin to speculate on the reasoning that went behind the removal of that particular feature.

An Entertaining Machinima Movie: Alkasir 4

no.spam@gameriot.com (bilingue) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:18:02 -0500

I try to avoid posting WoW content on Hellforge but I really, really liked Alkasir's new movie. If you can tolarate the WoW scenes, in my opinion, you can find a very entertaining Halloween themed movie. While there are better machinima movies out there with high production values, Alkasir reminded me of those B rated movies that sometimes we love.

This is definitely a tired cliché but it works. I found the voice overs and music superb for this type of video but take note that I am just judging the "story" bits of the video. I recommend skipping all the pvp footage and just watch the intro and ending unless you like WoW PvP movies.

After the intro is done, go ahead and skip to 24:48 to see the conclusion of the story. I really wanted to share this kind of movie with the more serious community in Hellforge and if you have any links for more player created content like this, please feel free to share.

CollegeHumor: The Sims as a Horror Movie

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:50:04 -0500

Halloween has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy horror movies. With that in mind, CollegeHumor has conceived what it would be like if The Sims were a film; a horror film directed by a player sadistic enough to remove the ladder from the swimming pool and other cruel shenanigans.

Team Fortress 2: Survival Tips from Saxton Hale

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:21:42 -0500

As if mastering the art of viral marketing wasn’t enough, Valve has sent out a number of laminated prints to any gamer enterprising enough to print out and mail the coupons contained at the bottom of the last TF2 update pages to the company in Washington.

While it could be argued that the company is only catering to those who mailed in the coupons, it’s certainly viral thanks to the fact that everyone has since caught wind of the stunt.

Reddit user crow711 posted the following scans of Saxton Hale’s amazing exploits.

Sharks!

Gorillas!

Bears!

Dragon Age: Origins Tailored for Each Platform

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:25:59 -0500

Dragon Age: Origins is slated for a release on a multitude of platforms, including the PC, 360 and PS3, with some major differences between the PC version and its console counterparts.

Interviewed by polygamia.pl, Bioware online producer Fernando Melo answered questions about comparisons between Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

He stated that it would be very easy for anyone who enjoyed Mass Effect to transition into a game like Dragon Age, especially on consoles as the game was converted from the ground up to play much more like a traditional console game. “The action is a little bit quicker, even though you have the same access to tactics and pause and play, there's no need for you to use much of that. So it feels more like an action game. So these gamers will probably consider Dragon Age a good addition to their library.”

Whereas Mass Effect is primarily an action game with a strong story component, Dragon Age: Origins was always thought of as a successor to the Baldur’s Gate, Bioware’s first RPG.

“Dragon Age was always thought of as a a successor to Baldur's Gate, there were many things that we wanted to transfer from there, and part of that is what we enjoy about that kind of game, the combat system, pause and play tactics, party members, these things are the core of the game, and it doesn't translate as well to an action game. But it depends on the kind of gamer that you are. You can totally play it without pausing as well, but on the PC you have a lot more advantage, a lot more incentive to use pause and play and more tactics than you would on the console.”

Asked about the differences between the platforms and why the axonometric view was taken out of the console versions, Melo answered that the biggest reason was due to memory limitations on the console. “For us to do something like that, we would have to sacrifice a lot of things that we didn't want to.”

He elaborated by saying that the console experience, the balancing of combat and the way the controls are set up on the console are done so that it should feel like a console game, rather than a port.

“And for me, to enjoy a console game, you shouldn't need a top-down view, you shouldn't feel like you're missing that. But we also know that we have a lot of PC fans that also have 360 and I'm sure that they'd love to have that as well, but to do that we would have to sacrifice other things that were much more important to the game.”

Dragon Age: Social Experience in a Single Player Game

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:53:41 -0500

Bioware launched the Bioware Social Network a few weeks ago in anticipation of Dragon Age: Origins’s imminent release with plans to offer a very social experience for Dragon Age players.

Speaking with Polish enthusiast press polygamia.pl, Bioware online producer Fernando Melo talked about the advantages of having a social website for a single player game.

“The biggest advantage is that we can bring it all together as a single community, whereas, for example, with Neverwinter Nights before, we had great websites for modders, builders, but most of that was actually placed outside of our own websites and it fragmented the community,” explained Melo.

“I think nowadays we can get all of that under a single umbrella, we can connect players a lot more with modders, and create much better ties between those, we can actually help modders find other modders as well, to create better content. We also have a lot of data that is going to be uploaded from the game to the social site. It's also a way for us to tell interesting stories that people are going to experience as they play the game. So one of the things is being able to share all the interesting little side quests and other things you discover. It's an absolutely huge game, so having people be able to explore all the little things that your friends have been doing, even if you've been to the same area, you could have completely missed things that they had discovered.”

When asked if he thought whether the feature added a multiplayer experience to a single player game, Melo replied, “It’s something like that.”

He explained: “I think the most important part, really, is that we see this very much with games nowadays that they require a kind of social experience of some kind. And typically that’s always been multiplayer. It doesn’t always have to be, though. I think something like this, where people have a way of sharing stories, talking tog one another and collaborating in the sense of creating mods, it’s just as much of a social dialogue, which is really what drives the community and drives people to remain attached to Dragon Age.”

Melo stated that the company had plans to continue supporting the game and its social network for two release after the game’s release and that the company would be listening to the player community, which is able to voice its opinions through the social site’s forums, built-in wiki system and blog posts.

“So it's going to be less about what we think people want and what they actually want to play. It's very important for us.”

Left 4 Dead 2 DLC Rumors Shot Down

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:27:35 -0500

Valve’s point man and Left 4 Dead 2 writer Chet Faliszek shot down rumors that Left 4 Dead 2 would be launching with two DLC packs upon its release. Users discovered the presence of the “Miracle Pack” and “Apocalyptic Pack” in the demo’s .txt files a few days ago.

The titles were associated with other DLC-related strings which indicated that players would have to download the content from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

The titles appear in the .txt files with error messages under the heading "DLC strings," indicating that a player has done something in-game that requires DLC, which read, "Please, download Miracle Pack content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace" and prompting if the player "Would you like to download Survival Pack 1 content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace now?"

Meanwhile, the Apocalyptic Pack names its content explicitly: "Would you like to download Apocalyptic Pack content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace now?"

Answering questions at the recent EuroGamer Expo, Faliszek explained that the code was merely there for testing purposes to simulate DLC, and that Valve had no imminent plans to release any packs.

Warhammer Online Trial: Play As Long As You Like

no.spam@gameriot.com (bilingue) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:47:43 -0500

I thought this could be very interesting for those looking for a small break. Mythic will be removing the 10 day restriction from it's trial. Warhammer is not a bad game but it suffered from hype, a lot of it. This is a great way to give players a taste of what the game is about. There are some limitations to the trial:

All trials account are restricted to Tier 1 content and Capital Cities.
Trial accounts may receive mail and purchase from the auction house; however, no sending mail or create auctions is allowed.
Trial accounts are limited to designated servers.

Some of these restrictions are in place to prevent population exploitation and gold sellers spam but it does't really affect what the trial is about. I had a blast when I played the game in Tier 1; Nordenwatch was one of my favorites BGs in WAR and we used to roll alts just to keep playing in this BG. Tier 1 RvR was not bad at all but the occasional zerg fest could happen from time to time.

This is an interesting move from Mythic; If you are bored or just want a break, give the trial a chance.

Warhammer Online Videos

Modern Warfare 2 Ad Wants You to ‘Fight Against Grenade Spam’

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:21:09 -0400

While I would simply love to defend Infinity Ward for their efforts in pushing the envelope with Modern Warfare 2's narrative and the like, their latest marketing release displays everything that's wrong with gamer culture and revels in it.

The “*******” remark as uttered by Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels comes off misogynistic, betraying a kind of ignorance on part of Infinity Ward, but it is by far a lesser evil to the completely abhorrent acronym that makes up the title of this video and the text at the end.

In case you missed the acronym, it spells out “F.A.G.S.”

As I posted on reddit, using such words only betrays an inarticulate, intellectually stunted mind. Don't use them unless you want to sound like an idiot.

Lest anyone think to defend Infinity Ward for this debacle by attempting the claim that Activision may have been responsible for it rather than the developers themselves, I need only to point you in the direction of the following interview, wherein Infinity Ward PR man Robert Bowling talks about how the developer holds itself accountable for most of the game’s marketing.

“Not only do we know the game but we know the gamer. We know what to expect from them and what they expect from us. So it helps us guide design decisions and decisions overall, including with PR.”

He continued, “There are certain things that are good for a press release and there are some things that are good if we presented them in a casual way – such as through Twitter.

“It is why I started the Twitter account in the first place. I have direct line to our audience and the press. Many editors will follow me, and they can direct message me and I can clarify things. There is no middleman. We are responsible for what we say and what we do, and we can be held accountable for our successes and failures.”

A transcript and further commentary can be found at While Not Finished, for anyone who can't access the video.

Update: Robert Bowling posted the following tweet and has since pulled the video from YouTube, stating, "I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns. Pulled."

MMO Basics: Hellforge RIOT MUD (Open Source)

no.spam@gameriot.com (EeriePanda) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:00:17 -0400

IT HAS BEEN COMPLETED! (and in only about 200 lines)

Details after the jump.

The first revision of the Hellforge RIOT MUD has been completed and is available at:

http://the-mcp-riot.googlecode.com/files/hellforge.RIOTMUD.rar

The source code is found at http://code.google.com/p/the-mcp-riot/source/browse/#svn/trunk

NOTE: This is licensed under the LGPL so do whatever the hell you want with it.

So what exactly is in here?

a MUD engine ( Hellforge MUD )
a Telnet Client ( PuTTY )

To start the server:

Unzip the archive
Install Python 3.1 if you do not have it already... http://python.org/download/releases/3.1.1/
FOR WINDOWS USERS: run start.bat
EVERYONE ELSE: run python server.py from the command line

Congrats! You are now running the MUD server on port 23.

To connect to the server:

Start PuTTY or another telnet client
For Host Name enter "localhost"
For Port enter "23"
For Connection Type select telnet
For Saved Sessions enter "My MUD"
Click save
Click open

Congrats! You are now connected to your own MUD.

To reconnect to the server:

Start PuTTY
Double click on My MUD in your saved sessions list

Notes:

To create a new account type CREATE name password
You are auto logged in after creating so type JOIN 1
Use HELP
All commands are case insensitive
Check out game.cfg to make the game your own

Have fun with this guys and feel free to expand it. Also, post ANY questions you have as comments on this thread and post ANY bugs you find on Google Code.

Project V13: Concept Art and Developer Commentary

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:26:46 -0400

Developers of Interplay’s Project V13 (the Fallout MMO) have released a quad of new concept art images drawn by artist Serg Suleiman on the official Interplay forums, with some commentary from lead designer Chris Taylor.

As Chris Taylor took feedback from the public, he explained that the limited colors in the original Fallout were largely due to technical limitations pertaining to graphics engine rather than out of any conscious effort to make the game bland and dirt-like.

“One thing to keep in mind is that with Fallout 1 & 2, we were limited technically by our engine as to what we could display,” stated Taylor. “Looking back almost everyone on the team thought that our palette choices were a little too limited. For V13, we're trying to have a little more differentiation between areas. That means using more colors than just shades of brown.”

With regards to the sky color, Taylor stated that the sky color in Fallout 1 could only be seen in a few cutscenes, and that the team had never really discussed it, as the color of the terrain was far more important due to the axonometric camera angle in the engine. “In fact, I cannot recall a single conversation regarding the sky color in FO1. The artists probably did, but it never came up in team meetings or amongst the designers,” said Taylor, while adding that Damnation Alley was a source that the team used as inspiration for the original game.

Of the new game, Taylor stated that the team wants for color palettes to add to the uniqueness of each of the game’s locations and that they don’t want players seeing a single palette for the entire game as it would make the game incredibly dull. “Color is also used to impart emotions, and it's a tool that we'll be selectively using,” added Taylor.

More art will be released on the game’s official forums in the days ahead.

“Desert”

"One of the themes we will be dealing with is regrowth and rebuilding. After X amount of time (notice that sly dodge about the timeline), there is bound to be some amount of rebirth. We've had some long (LONG) discussions about how much of that we want to present, how much is natural and how much is man-made."

“Survivor”

"The gun is undefined. Doesn't look like a plasma gun to me. Maybe it's chemical sprayer or something. This piece of art isn't part of the weapon/armor conceptualizing stage. Just part of a series looking at characters in general."

“Graveyard”

“Factory”

Thanks Ausir.

Torchlight Gears Up For Upcoming Patch

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:21:51 -0400

Torchlight has been released for a few days now, but the crew at Runic Games remains ever hard at work and has announced the release of a huge patch due sometime next week. With so many different modes of distribution, the game will be seeing a patch unique to each platform.

Runic Games has released an incomplete list of issues that will be remedied in the upcoming patch. Here’s a snippet:

Missing saves - obviously this is a critical issue, but the circumstances of it seem pretty variable. We are under active investigation and trying to solve this as quickly as possible. We are gathering a few guinea pigs to take test builds to see if we can isolate and protect against this issue. ( Overwrite protection added, as well as save backups for last save - we don't consider this resolved yet, though - 11:46AM )
Long load times - We are actively investigating this now, and have some possible leads (UPDATE - FIXED - 2 fixes actually! ISAWHIM's fix, as well as several internal fixes to the way that resources are handled should really help this )
Poor ingame performance on certain machines, when there really shouldn't be - this may be related to B) - under investigation ( UPDATE - some improvement due to B's fix as well! )
Brink bug ( Brink doesn't follow you on subsequent plays, and fails to show up at cinematic ) Fixed
Console not activating on Steam builds - fixed
ADDITION : Rimlights, HW Skinning, and VSynch can all be altered from the Settings menu now.

Check out the rest of the (constantly updated) list here.

Litigation Between Interplay and Bethesda Rages On

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:55:35 -0400

The battle between beleaguered game developer Interplay and goliath Bethesda rages on in the courts according to a new post by Interplay lawyer Chris Nelson on the company’s official forums who also stated that the court hearing was “weeks away” despite reports on NMA-Fallout that IPLY had already won the case.

Hey, everybody.

You will not often hear from me, but as Interplay’s in-house lawyer I feel the need to set the record straight here…

The Court has not ruled on Bethesda’s Motion for Prelminary Injunction. A proposed order was filed with our Opposition to the Motion, but that is not the same as an Order of the Court. The hearing is weeks away. Interplay will issue an official statement if there is a material development that needs to be addressed. Please do not rely on rumor or speculation.

In the meantime, we all appreciate your enthusiasm and support.

Thanks,
Chris

Credit to Ausir for the scoop.

God of War III Ultimate Edition Announced

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:03:19 -0400

Sony has announced a special collector’s edition of their upcoming game. Dubbed the “Ultimate Edition”, this version of God of War III will come in a high-end sculpted replica of Pandora’s Box and a limited edition God of War artbook.

Customers will also gain access to exclusive digital content that will be made available via Playstation Network on the day of the game’s launch, which includes the following goodies:

• God of War Combat Arena containing an exclusive environment and seven challenges
• Premium Kratos Skin – Dominus
• God of War: Unearthing the Legend Franchise Documentary – a full-length movie documentary depicting the history of the God of War franchise
• God of War Trilogy Soundtrack – God of War, II, and III scores from the game (mp3 digital download).
• God of War: Blood and Metal EP – a heavy metal homage featuring original music inspired by God of War (mp3 digital download).

Joining the ranks of the many other games that have absurdly linked demo access to pre-ordering, Sony has announced that anyone who pre-orders the Ultimate Edition from GameStop, Amazon or GameCrazy will be able to download the God of War III E3 2009 Demo immediately.

Game Censorship: Australian Political Party Founded To Oust Michael Atkinson

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:00:57 -0400

A new Australian political party calling themselves the Gamers4Croydon has been founded with a single issue and with the sole purpose running a political candidate against the one man standing in the way of an R18+ implementation in the country’s censorship system.

Atkinson doesn’t believe that such ‘sick filth’ ought to be made available to the Australian public, because game developers can’t be expected to ‘be responsible by not glorifying terrorism’, among other issues, as if Australian adults are too stupid to make these decisions on their own.

David Doe, the founder of Gamers4Croydon believes that running against Atkinson (and winning) is the only way to give Australian gamers a rating system in line with other developed nations.

“The entire purpose of this site is to have the R18+ classification rating added to the ratings currently allowed for videogames in Australia,” said Doe.

“There a number of ways to do this, but the most straightforward is to place political pressure on the South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, as he is currently the only Attorney General voting 'no' on the issue of an R18+ rating for videogames. This is despite overwhelming evidence that the average age of gamers in Australia is 29 and above, and despite evidence that a majority of Australians support an R18+ rating for videogames.”

Gamers4Croydon is accepting volunteers and financial support at their official website.

Aussie gaming website games.on.net notes that defeating Atkinson will be an uphill battle, as he earned 76% of the vote during the last election.

Source: games.on.net

MMO Basics 101: Persistence

no.spam@gameriot.com (EeriePanda) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:35:39 -0400

Persistence is the hardest problem to solve for a MMO. Fortunately for us there has been ten plus years of solving this problem. In this article we'll take a look at storage solutions and persistence methods.

The two base "storage solutions" are:

Memory
Files

You may be surprised that I included memory here (as memory is volatile), but Persistence includes any data that the Simulation and Presentation can retrieve and is not presently aware of.

For Example:

My Simulation currently is serving five players but the MMO has had ten players logged into it. Somewhere on the same server in memory there is a list of all ten players with their information. As you can see the memory in this case is acting as the Persistence.

Memory Persistence is relatively easy to implement and super fast; of course there are draw backs as well. What would happen when the example crashed? *Poof* All the data is gone. There are also hard constraints on the amount of memory available on a single computer.

File storage is straight forward as well. You simply read and write to nonvolatile files. This obviously has the huge benefit of keeping data around even after a crash or two. This of course comes with a massive speed penalty as opening/reading/writing/maintaining files destroys your disk I/O (your hard drive can only write/read so fast). It also becomes pretty unwieldy FAST.

So both of these have MAJOR drawbacks that would make implementing Persistence with a single solution impossible. So how do MMOs not only keep your data around forever but serve it up for thousands of users instantly?(pray the memory server doesn't crash) what? NO!

The answer is simple: Combine Them.

Many of you are familiar with Databases and all these mystical things are a glorified file structure that heavily utilize memory to speed things up considerably. Of course databases still have drawbacks. They require an immense amount of configuration and generally are not well suited to MMOs; who write way more than they read due to the Simulation having much of the data readily available already. You can generally think of databases as more file than memory.

Example databases:

MySQL
MS SQL
Oracle
Postgresql

So if databases are ill suited then what is?

Datastores (memory database) keep the majority of data in memory and only write to files to backup in case of restart or crash. Datastores are extraordinarily fast and are well suited to MMOs. They are not without their cons as well though. Datastores generally have to load a considerable amount of data into memory at startup, they are more susceptible to hardware failures (bad ram arggg), and off the shelf solutions all universally suck.(looking at you memory tables)

Example Datastores:

Google Datastore (awesome)
Cryptic Studio's Object DB

So now that we know a little about the storage solutions, how and when do we backup?

There are two paradigms of thought:

On Change
Set Intervals

Much like the storage solutions these two are often combined where important changes (such as leveling up) are immediately stored while others(like number of kills) can be stored at set intervals.

Next up on The MCP: Presentation (or how I need a better name for this component)

Epic Mickey Was Originally Bound For PC, 360, PS3

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:29:02 -0400

Speaking with Official Nintendo Magazine, game designer Warren Spector mentioned that the upcoming Disney-themed Steampunk title for the Nintendo Wii was originally slated for a PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 Release but such plans have since been scrapped for an exclusive Wii release.

When the magazine asked Spector if there was pressure to bring the game to other formats, he replied, “The reality is that we started Wii development in 2008, but before that we were a PC, PS3, and 360 title.”

“It’s burned in my brain – Graham Hopper [Disney Interactive boss] pulled me into my office one day and said ‘What does it take to deliver on the goals we have for this product? And I said, well, you need enough time and enough money to be competitive. And it’d be awfully nice if we could focus on one platform.

“At that time we were talking about a Wii port and I was begging people – no, we can’t just port to the Wii, it’s not going to work. It needs to be its own game. A lot of the design ideas just won’t work on the Wii, we need to give the Wii its dues. Graham looked at me and said ‘What do you think about a Wii exclusive?’ And I went ‘Holy cow – yeah!’

“They walked away from three other platforms – no other publisher on the planet would have done that. It was a magic moment for me. No-one has even mentioned other formats since that point.”

There's little doubt in my mind that an exclusive deal between Disney and Nintendo sweetened the whole affair in addition to the team's desire to focus on the single platform most popular with the "casual gamer" demographic.

Children’s Lobby Group Expresses Outrage at Modern Warfare 2 In Australia

no.spam@gameriot.com (Sol Invictus) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:20:43 -0400

A prominent children’s lobby group, the Australian Council on Children and the Media called upon the Australian classification board to rescind its decision to rate Modern Warfare 2 at MA15+ after footage of a scene in which the player massacres dozens of civilians in an airport with assault weapons surfaced yesterday.

Jane Roberts, president of the lobbyist group and the principle policy officer in Western Australia’s Department of Premier and Cabinet, said in a statement to the press, “The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that's meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against.”

“We understand that it's a game but ... we're not far off when you look at the images that you could actually put it on a Channel Nine news report and you'd think maybe that is real.

“If that material was on the internet about how to become a terrorist, how to join a group and how to wipe out people - that would be removed because it would not be acceptable.”

Australia’s leading campaigner against violent video games, South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson echoed the statement by saying, “Expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment.”

Activision and its lawyers have been working to remove all traces of the footage by issuing DMCA takedown notices to any and all websites which had the footage hosted online and the company, along with the game’s developer, Infinity Ward, posted official responses to the footage earlier today.

Australia’s Classification Board defended its decision to give the game an MA15+ rating by commenting on the scene: “Several civilians are shot with blood burst bullet wounds; civilian corpses are strewn across the airport floor, often in stylised pools of blood; injured civilians crawl away with lengthy blood trails behind them.”

It further noted that no post-mortem damage may be inflicted on the corpses, and that killing civilians at any other point during the game results in mission failure.

Nicholas Suzor, a spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, a lobby group for game developers and software producers stated that games like Modern Warfare 2 highlighted a need for an R18+ rating for video games in the country. At the present, games that exceed the rating of M15+ are denied classification and effectively banned from retail.

Suzor argued, “Films often show the villain's perspective and, by doing that, they get across the character's story and the heinous nature of people who carry out atrocities. Games, too, are becoming more expressive, and are telling more involved stories.

“We may make an argument that these sorts of topics are not suitable for children, but I don't at all accept that it is unsuitable for adults.”

A spokesman for the Classification Board said to Sydney Morning Herald that it would not be reviewing its decision to rate the game and that anyone who wanted to request a review would have to make an application through the proper channels.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald