Continue reading »]]> Frogster America, Inc. today announced the start of the open beta for Runes of Magic, its highly anticipated free-to-play Massively-Multiplayer Online (MMO) game being created by Runewaker Entertainment. With more than 190,000 players already registered, Runes of Magic is ready to put the final tests in place to ensure the game is ready for release to the public later this year.

In the coming weeks, Frogster will activate all of the content currently implemented, including the item-shop, where players can buy items to support their questing, adventuring and battles within the game. Since all player accounts were reset at the end of the closed beta, everyone will be able to create new characters and begin their adventures at level one.

“Runes of Magic is going through its final stress tests and polishing phase which will enable us to ensure a high level of quality and an entertaining and immersive experience for the players,” said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America, Inc. “Since we’re allowing all characters created in the final beta phase as well as any items acquired or purchased to carry over into the live game, the servers are essentially open for business.”

Shortly after the start of the open beta, Christmas will arrive in Taborea. Special event costumes and quests, as well as lots of surprises will be in store for all players starting Friday, December 19th. The official website, www.runesofmagic.com will also hold a competition to accompany the events. Everybody, who creates something Runes of Magic-themed, has the chance to win a rare in-game Christmas mount. More details will be available on the site starting on the 19th.

Runes of Magic – A World Full of Wizardry and Adventure
With an extensive range of features, Runes of Magic is redefining the standard of free-to-play MMO games. Right from the launch, Runes of Magic will convey its absorbing story through more than 1,000 quests across an exciting and vibrant world. Players can choose from six main classes and secondary classes, offering 36 individual character combinations to suit all play styles. All characters possess unique skills with impressive combo attacks, and can use mounts for traveling around the game world.

For guilds and players, it’s possible to arrange your own virtual homes and guildhalls with individual furnishings. Thanks to an extensive crafting and reputation system, thrilling PvP, dangerous dungeons and boss-monsters, there is something to keep everyone playing in the game. Taiwanese studio, Runewaker Entertainment, has developed Runes of Magic to appeal to a global audience, with more than three years of effort put into the game. The studio will provide new challenges for players every three to four months with free add-ons and updates. You can find more information, screenshots, art and videos on the official website at: www.runesofmagic.com.

Features

• Free2play: no monthly fees, free download
• Extensive dual class system (six primary and secondary classes)
• Versatile spell and attack combinations
• Engaging background story
• More than 1,000 quests and quest series at launch
• No zone boundaries thanks to a seamless architecture
• A mix of instanced, tile based, and persistent dungeons to explore
• Individually developable skills and spells
• Armor sets with special bonuses
• Dynamic item system with hundreds of upgradeable runes
• Optional PvP system with arena battles and guild wars
• Ranking system with player-ranking lists
• Unique mounts including horses, tigers, striders and more
• Epic crafting system with the ability to improve existing items
• Personalization of player houses through individual furnishing
• Reputation system
• Customizable user interface with the ability to use Add-Ons
• Map and radar system to easily find item dealers, resources and quests
• In-game auction houses for trading items
• Teleport-Runes for instant travel
• Mouse and keyboard controls for movement
• Regular updates with new content
• Cross-server fights through three-server-battles (in development)
• Guild houses in special zones (in development)

Incoming search terms:

• unofficial server runes of magic

Continue reading »]]> Burda:ic, a publisher of online games worldwide, today released a major update for the free-to-play, maritime MMORPG Florensia. The update includes a number of smaller changes, from land quest balancing to slight modifications to the user interface, but the biggest addition comes in the form of elemental resistances and attributes. These additions permeate the structure of the entire game so players both new and old will find the fantasy world of Florensia an exciting and dangerous place to adventure.

Each skill in the game has been assigned an elemental aspect like Fire, Ice, or Holy. In addition, monsters and characters now carry resistances to the various elements. Thus, players in Florensia should be wary in choosing their foes, as they might find they just aren’t doing as much damage as expected. Parties no longer simply mean strength in numbers; they mean a wider range of damage across the elemental spectrum.

Of course, these new skills aren’t limited to the players. Four of Florensia’s major bosses have discovered elemental abilities of their own, making them all the more dangerous for those who would challenge them. Be especially cautious if your travels bring you face-to-face with Lanoir, Draug Brenin, Vampire Lord Robinson, or Serbetus, as their newfound powers may spell your doom.

About Florensia

• Florensia is a free-to-play, maritime MMORPG that blends vibrant, colorful graphics with classically accessible gameplay. Choosing one of four starting classes, from the sword-wielding Mercenary to the spell casting Noble, players will do battle with a huge variety of weapons and magical abilities as they explore expansive, underground dungeons and sail uncharted seas. Thousands of players have already signed up and headed out in search of adventure, and there has never a better time to join them in the wild and wonderful world of Florensia.

About Burda:ic

• Burda:ic GmbH is an online games publisher that markets and distributes massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) such as Ragnarok Online, Florensia, and Hello Kitty Online. Furthermore, Burda:ic has established interactive gamer communities like alaplaya.eu or sanriotown.com. More information about Burda:ic is available at www.burda-ic.com.

Incoming search terms:

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• Published News Upcoming News Submit a New Story Groups mercenaries 2 weapons
• florensia
• Published News Upcoming News Submit a New Story Groups elements of art
• Published News Upcoming News Submit a New Story Groups spectra physics
• Published News Upcoming News Submit a New Story Groups world adventure travel

Continue reading »]]> Last month we learned exactly how the connectivity between the Wii and DS would work in the upcoming Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, but if the latest rumor from Quartermann in the the January issue of EGM is to be believed, Square Enix will not stop there with the new technology. Our favorite gossip master has heard that the RPG giant will be bringing Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky to the Wii as well as the DS.

While Dragon Quest IX being announced for the DS rather than a home console was a big enough surprise in the first place, fans of the long-running series were even more shocked to discover that this latest entry will sport faster-paced gameplay and a surprising MMO-lite option to play with up to four friends. Assuming this multiplayer mode works similarly to the DS-and-Wii-linking Echoes of Time, it makes sense that Square would bring DQIX to the console as well.

The only question that remains is whether or not the Wii port will receive a graphical upgrade – the Wii and DS versions of the new Crystal Chronicles are going to be identical, after all. Hopefully Square will confirm this news soon and give us more details.

In the mean time, check out 1UP’s most recent preview of Dragon Quest IX for information on how the multiplayer team-ups will work and what else sets this apart from previous games in the franchise. And stay tuned for more Quartermann rumors throughout the week!

Continue reading »]]> Last August, Las Vegas-based developer Petroglyph unintentionally made headlines. The shop, which traditionally specialized in such real-time strategy games as Star Wars: Empire at War and Universe at War: Earth Assault, posted a job listing for a massively multiplayer online role-playing game designer.

The position’s duties were described in detail, with the hire being “responsible for understanding, refining, maintaining, and disseminating the game design vision, game design, mission building, gameplay balancing, and game proposal development of a massive multiplayer online game.”

With such unambiguity, the question wasn’t if Petroglyph would announce an MMOG, but when: Today, as it turns out. This afternoon, the company unveiled Mytheon, a new project that will focus on the same Greek mythology that inspired God of War. According to the developer the game “uniquely combines the best elements of action, strategy and RPG gameplay with a heavy emphasis on collectability and combat.”

“Emphasis” indeed: Mytheon will be free to play, getting its income solely from microtransactions. Gameplay will center on a variety of “power stones” that can be used to cast spells or summon minions. In real-time combat, the game’s three character classes will each specialize in a different type of stone, which presumably must be purchased a la cards in Magic: The Gathering. Mytheon will also feature more traditional MMORPG elements such as player versus player, group raiding, and social networking services in addition to solo play.

Published by Orange County-based start-up True Games, which is controlled by Indian multimedia company UTV Software Communications, Mytheon will go online in fall 2009. Though no specific territories were mentioned in the announcement, the teaser site for the game has region-specific editions for the United States, Spain, Turkey, Germany, and France. It should be noted that the site also references Norse mythology, with allusions to the Egyptian pantheon appearing Mytheon’s press materials.

Continue reading »]]> The update you’ve all been waiting for, 1.0.6, is almost here! We wanted to thank everyone who tested and provided feedback on this update’s content.

On Tuesday, 12/2/08 all servers will be brought offline to begin the update. North American servers will be brought down at 6:30AM EST with Oceanic servers to follow at 9:00AM EST.

This is our biggest update yet! It’s chock-full of exciting career changes and heralds the debut of the highly anticipated Black Guard and Knight of the Blazing Sun careers.

If you’ve finished the Heavy Metal event and have opened your Heavy Metal Chest, then you will be able to play a Black Guard and Knight of the Blazing Sun when this patch goes live (before anyone else!). For those of you who did not complete the Heavy Metal event, don’t fret! You, too, will be able to play these two new careers starting next week.

This update is so massive that we needed to split the notes into two sections.

Highlights

• New Careers Released! – With this version we are happy to announce the release of the Empire’s Knight of the Blazing Sun, and the Dark Elf’s Black Guard! These new careers are available early for players who have successfully completed the Heavy Metal Event!
• Mastery Point Refunds – Due to a number of significant changes to many of our careers, we are providing a full Mastery Point refund to certain careers. Players who belong to one of the careers below will need to speak with a Trainer to retrain their Career Mastery:
  • Bright Wizard
  • Chosen
  • Engineer
  • Ironbreaker
  • Magus
  • Shadow Warrior
  • Sorcerer
  • Squig Herder
  • Swordmaster

• Morale Responsiveness – Morale abilities will now be much more responsive. These abilities will now fire immediately when activated by the player on the first attempt, and will display their cooldowns correctly at all times.
• Root Responsiveness – We have made a number of adjustments to root spells to ensure that they break properly and feel more responsive to players. Changes include a chance to break on ANY damage including DoT damage, as well as a 5 second immunity to being rooted again after the current root effect breaks.
• Auto-Attack Animations – Improvements have been made to auto-attack animations. Players will now see smoother, more consistent weapon swaps when players change from ranged to melee auto-attacks, and vice versa.
• Ability Activation Responsiveness - The responsiveness of ability activations has been improved. Players will now see less of a delay between the activation of an ability and the corresponding animation.
• Guild Promotion/Demotion – Fixes have been made to issues which were causing guild promotion and demotion to not work properly.

Combats

• We’ve fixed an issue that was causing the buff icon on various marketing rewards to display incorrectly.
• We fixed an issue that was causing weapons and armor to not display their proc effects in the item display.
• Opponents may no longer right-click item effects to remove them from themselves, and the Boost, Blades, Barrier, and Barricade effects will now proc far more reliably.
• Tactics gained from Tome Unlocks have been renamed.
• Damage over Time abilities: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of these abilities has been made consistent across the board. This generally resulted in an increase in damage, but some abilities have also been brought down. Individual abilities are noted in the specific careers’ sections below.
• All Unstoppable tooltips will now mention Knockdown.
• Root effects, with the exception of Morale Roots, will now grant a 5 second Freedom effect to the victim when they break, and will no longer stack with other roots.
• Root effects will now properly have a chance to break on ANY damage event. This includes individual tics of Damage over Time spells.
• Fixed assorted issues where certain movement reductions/increases would stack, slowing or speeding targets more than intended. This also addresses cases where snared players would find themselves essentially rooted when in lava.
• All Tactics now give their bonus when the character that has them slotted is stealthed, mounted, or has a Standard out.

• Centuries of Training (Elves): The tooltip for this Tactic has been changed to be more clear.
• Sigmar’s Favor (Empire): This Tactic will now be triggered only by direct heals.
• Stoutness of Stone (Dwarfs): This Tactic will once again reduce the effectiveness of Stuns and Knockdowns.
• Tzeentch’s Warding (Chaos): This Tactic will now get the bonus when the character is mounted.

Archetype Abilities

• Alter Fate: This ability’s tooltip now displays the correct values.
• Champion’s Challenge: Neither the player nor the player’s enemy may be knocked back while this Morale is in effect.
• Divine Protection: This ability now lists the amount of damage absorbed in the tooltip.
• Force of Will: This ability will now display a visual effect when used.
• Frenzied Slaughter: This ability will now display a visual effect when used.
• Juggernaut: This ability will only fire when the player is rooted, snared, silenced, or disarmed.
• Misdirection: This ability will now display an effect on the caster while the ability is active, and place a brief effect on anyone damaged by the effect.
• Point Blank: This ability will now correctly ignore Knockback and Knockdown immunity, as well as not trigger it.
• Rampaging Siphon: This Morale ability will no longer be affected by points spent in Career Mastery. Additionally, this ability now heals the group for each target hit, instead of only once.
• Raze: This channeled ability will no longer be interrupted while on the move.
• Relentless Assault: This ability will now display n visual effect when used. Additionally, the ability will no longer remove snares and roots.
• Restorative Burst: This tactic’s tooltip now correctly states the number of Action Points gained from triggering it.

• Balance Essence: The damage for this ability has been increased.
• Balanced Mending: The HoT portion of Healing Energy will now benefit from this tactic. Additionally, this ability will now correctly provide a bonus to heals on other players, and a penalty to heals on the caster.
• Boon of Hysh: This ability has had its cast time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and the setback amount reduced to half a second.
• Dissipating Energies: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased slightly to make it consistent with other Damage over Time abilities.
• Drain Magic: This ability will now increase in potency with High Magic. In addition, damage will now correctly increase based on Career Mastery Points spent in the Path of Asuryan instead of the Path of Vaul.
• Funnel Essence: This ability will now correctly behave like a channeled ability, will channel correctly, and will correctly heal the target.
• Healing Energy: The stat contribution for this ability has been fixed. This was previously receiving more stat benefits than intended.
• Hurried Restore: This tactic will now stun the player when the resurrect is cast, instead of when it is accepted.
• Increased Conductivity: This Tactic will now increase the damage for all abilities listed in the tooltip.
• Law of Conductivity: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been slightly increased to make it consistent with other Damage over Time abilities.
• Mistress of the Marsh: This ability has had its cast time reduced.
• Prismatic Shield: This ability will no longer fail if the caster’s defensive target is not a group member.
• Radiant Gaze: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other Damage over Time abilities. Also, this ability will now correctly reduce the target’s chance to critical hit and damage by the correct amount.
• Radiant Lance: This ability will now reliably consume High Magic.
• Rain Lord: The tooltip for this effect now lists all stats affected.
• Scatter the Winds: The amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased slightly to make it consistent with other Damage over Time abilities.
• Storm of Cronos: This ability will now correctly reduce Spirit resistance for the correct amount.
• Transfer Force: This ability’s damage has increased. Additionally, the amount that stats contribute to the damage of this ability has been increased to make it consistent with other Damage over Time abilities.
• Wild Healing: This tactic will now correctly provide a 50% reduction to AP costs on direct healing abilities when triggered.

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Word is spreading throughout the Internets that LucasArts and BioWare are at long last prepared to pull the curtain and speak more about the long-awaited co-project between the two companies.

The event, which many suspect will be the official announcement of the Knights of the Old Republic MMO, begins on October 21, 2008. Invitations were already dispatched and now the package is all but unwrapped.

You know what the best part is? None of you are invited (and neither are we).

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello confirmed the existence of a KotOR MMO, while first reports about the October announcement were spotted last week. Whichever way you spin it, there’s no doubt this will be one of the biggest announcements this year (right up there with Diablo III).

KotOR MMO Announcement on Oct. 21?

Continue reading »]]> MindFuse announces that they have secured $1 million in convertible note funding from Keiretsu Forum angel investors for the development of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) and virtual worlds. The company has raised a total of $1.75 million since inception in 2006. MindFuse was founded by industry veterans Matthew Le Merle and Joseph Walters, formerly of Shockwave and Skunk Studios and.

"The richest massively multiplayer universes have been largely violent fantasy worlds", said Joseph Walters, Chief Executive of MindFuse. "Casual, friendly games on the other hand feel more like a snack than a feast. MindFuse is going to bring the two types of gameplay and players together – simple, compelling games embedded in a deep three dimensional world".

Funds will be used for working capital, expanding the core team based in Berkeley, and the development of a world class customer service and marketing organization. MindFuse is currently looking for a few outstanding additions to their team. The first game developed by MindFuse will be announced shortly, with a public beta in the spring of 2009.

MindFuse Secures $1 Million in Convertible Note Funding

Continue reading »]]>

Nothing can prepare you for the journey that is unfolding… The Galaxy is in a fragile state, balancing on the brink of War and Peace. New threats are emerging from the untouched regions of space that threaten with an iron grip to bring the known inhabitants to their knees.

Will you aid your faction when duty calls? Or will you serve your own needs?

Will you fight side by side with your comrades in an epic struggle against a hardened, blood-thirsty foe or will you go it alone, facing the imperil dangers as they approach?

Do you long for the thrill of combat or do you prefer the call of merchant – always on the look out for a quick, opportune trade.

Your decisions are your own, and the rewards are yours for the taking.

Jumpgate Evolution is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game set in the open expanse of space. With breath-taking visuals and an innovative twitch-based space combat, Jumpgate is the definitive space combat MMO, putting you at the heart of the action as you embark on your mission to explore the galaxy and progress from space rookie to elite commander.

• Sign-up
• Jumpgate Evolution :: Features