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Mysterious Facebook page teases what looks like a new entry in the catchphrase-spouting shooter series; is it a rebranded Duke Nukem Forever, the Gearbox title, or much ado about nothing?

Get the full article at GameSpot

Posted on November 30th, 2009 at 8:21pm by GameSpot's News
Filed Under: Uncategorized

A guest post courtesy of Dave S.  from Koku Gamer.

It’s hard to believe that picture is still all we’ve seen of the next big Zelda game.  Eijii Aonuma, the director of the Zelda series, has revealed a few snippets of information about the already eagerly anticipated game.

Speaking in a interview earlier today, Mr. Aonuma had this to say:

“We’re taking advantage of MotionPlus. It’s become very natural – the movement of your arms is precisely reflected in the gameplay. Thanks to the technological advancements, we hope the gameplay can be more accessible to people.

“We’re making efforts regarding the total flow of the Zelda game. So far, the basic flow of the Zelda games is you’re exploring a field, you go to a dungeon, you conquer it and return to the field. We’re looking at altering that traditional flow. That’s all I can say.

“You will have to wait until next year when we can elaborate on this and many other things. But what I can tell you is that yes I have read some of the speculation, and some of it is right! That is all I can say at the moment.”

Eee, Nintendo can be such a tease! We by and large knew all this already, it really seems we’ll have to wait till next year (most likely E3!) before we get any new substantial information. As for what speculation has been right, I wonder which he is referring too? My guess it would be that the being in the picture is the incarnation of the Master Sword, a theory which has gained large acceptance amongst Zelda fans.

Posted on November 30th, 2009 at 3:00pm by HardestLevel's HardestLevel
Filed Under: Uncategorized

Going to gaming conventions is something every gamer would love to do.  Let’s face it though, it costs a lot of money between airfare, hotel, and all that jibba jabba.  What if you could avoid all that and go to the convention right from your Xbox 360?  Sounds like a dream right?  Well, it might be a dream that one day might come true.

A recent online survey asks you to imagine, imagine what it would be like to have “interactive, online versions” of conventions.

Imagine that interactive, online versions of E3, BlizzCon, GamesCon, ComicCon and every other major video game convention were made available through Xbox Live.

Here is a look at the rest of the page from which the excerpt above was taken. (click image for full size)

On top of everything listed as to what you can do, the best part about this is,

Attending a Virtual Video Game Convention would be FREE

As we stated earlier, it is pricey to actually go to the conventions, so FREE for these “Virtual Video Game Conventions” would be great for gamers.

While it will never compare to the real deal, it would be great for those not able to go to the actual event to still get a taste right from home.  While this is still just a rumor and only a rumor, this would be something great for not only gamers but Xbox live users as well.  Imagine being at a virtual E3 and playing all the same demos the press is, and without spending the money or waiting in a long line like they did!

This all seems too good to be true.  IF and WHEN anymore information on this is made available we will definitely update you.  For now kids, lets say our prayers and hope this comes true.

Posted on November 30th, 2009 at 6:26am by Kreyg
Filed Under: Conventions, E3, News, Surveys, Xbox 360, gaming Conventions, hot, rumor, xbox-live

Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Academic, Virtual worlds

One of the major problems of a game in which you can do anything is that… well, there’s not necessarily much of a reason to do anything. That’s a Terrible Idea recently had an interesting piece on the difficulty of generating goals and objectives in MMOs, especially in contrast with single-player games where your goals are equally pre-generated. The difference, as the article notes, is that single-player games have individual characters with a large impact on the game world. There’s no issue of making quests compatible with a wide variety of characters of different races and classes, until the individual motivations and goals can no longer fit into the equation. You don’t have anything but the end of content to shoot for.

So what’s the answer? The original post notes that it’s not really possible to reconcile anything but achievement-oriented goals within MMOs due to the fact that the character will still inhabit a static world no matter what you do. Certainly, there are attempts to create larger-scale impacts for individual characters, but so long as every character goes through the same content or has the same opportunities, there’s less of a sense of distinct accomplishment. Player-generated content in games such as City of Heroes offers an opportunity for a different path for each character, but there’s still not much of a difference in the actual process. Procedural generation is also bandied about as a solution to the issue, though it lacks any truly successful implementation at this point. Is there even a solution, or is this simply part of the weakness of the genre?

The trouble with goals in MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 29th, 2009 at 8:00pm by Eliot Lefebvre
Filed Under: academic, city-of-heroes, city-of-villains, coh, cov, cox, culture, game-mechanics, opinion, player-generated-content, thats-a-terrible-idea, virtual-worlds

In a news story that we’re sure will surprise precisely nobody at all, The9 — China’s previous operator for World of Warcraft — has reported a serious decline in profits for this last quarter. Since last year when The9 still had World of Warcraft in its stable of games to now, they have seen a staggering 94% drop in revenue. Since the split became final in June of this year, there was also a 91% drop between last quarter and this one. Between The9’s lawsuit against Blizzard for (among other things) software copyright infringement and selling nearly 15% of its shares to Activision Blizzard competitor, EA, The9 has pretty well ensured that there’s never going to be any kissing-and-making-up over this whole mess.

Still, not everything is completely negative for The9. In the on-again-off-again World of Warcraft presence in the Chinese market altogether, owing to the squabble between The Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of the Press and Publication (GAPP), they’ve seen an increase in players from when they initially lost World of Warcraft. According to reports, the increase — a modest bump from 3.2 to 3.4 million players — is owing largely to a new update to Soul of the Ultimate Nation, as well as their other games Sword of the New World, FIFA Online, and Atlantica Online. Now, so long as more of their shareholders don’t wind up suing them for making misleading statements about their connection with Blizzard, things might just start looking up for this former major player in the Chinese MMO market.

Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO industry, News items, Legal

The9 sees enormous drop in profits after split with Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 29th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Krystalle Voecks
Filed Under: WoW, activision-blizzard, blizzard, china, ea, lawsuit, legal-problems, profits, the9, world-of-warcraft, year-on-year, year-over-year, yoy