MMO

Watching the birth of Flickr co-founder's gaming start-up

SAN FRANCISCO--Stewart Butterfield and his business partner Cal Henderson stared at the MacBook Pro in front of them.

For nearly a year, they'd been struggling to figure out what to call the game their start-up was building. Any time a team member loaded a working version, they'd sit through a few seconds of a splash screen with nothing on it but a generic title featuring little more than the name and logo of their company.

But now, the group had finally given their baby an official moniker: Glitch. And this was one of the first times the two … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 972: New Zune in June?

According to the Office 10 Twitter account, Zune lovers will be happy in June. If that wasn't weird enough, they also warn you not to buy an iPhone or Palm Pre, which is probably standing orders at Microsoft. Also Natali carries knives in her sports bra quite often. Or so we have come to understand.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 972

Report: Intel to join Microsoft in EU antitrust purgatory http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/05/report-eu-readying-to-fine-intel-for-antitrust-violations.ars

Apple freezes Snow Leopard APIs http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/0213242

Greece puts … Read more

Subscriptions driving MMO game revenue

Massively multiplayer online, or MMO, games are generating serious dollars these days and doing so in a way that suggests that revenue opportunities are still nascent.

Counter to what we see with console games, the bulk of the revenue appears to be coming from subscriptions. Generally speaking, subscription revenue for MMOs and MMPORGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) is better than license revenue for console games because it has a longer life span. Call it support, maintenance, or whatever you like, but a recurring revenue stream is what drives every software-as-a-service and open-source company.

GigaOm has reported on the Top 10 money-making MMOs of 2008 and the ways in which they all make money.

A few interesting points it makes:

The top MMOs all require a piece of software to be installed to the local machine Subscriptions and prepaid cards are clearly working well Microtransactions are picking up

Buzz Out Loud 891: Jazz hands and a testosterone venti

Leo Laporte joins the cast today to discuss, of course, Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence, the problem with filters (yes, it's the problem you think it is), the future of bendy gadgets, and how to dance like Bollywood. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 891

Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/01/14/apple-jobs-to-take-medical-leave-of-absence/

Analysts: he probably won’t come back http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/01/why-jobs-isnt-c.html

In the interim, who’s leading Apple? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10143030-37.html

PC shipments up just 1.1 … Read more

iPhone apps of the week

Before I get to this weeks apps, I found out about some bargain basement prices for a small selection of apps from Ambrosia Software. Aki Mahjong Mobile, Mondo Solitaire, and Mr. Sudoko are all on sale for 99-cents at the app store until November 30th (usually $9.99). If you have any interest in these games, now is the time to start downloading!

For this weeks apps, I'm including one free and one paid app.

The Weather Channel for iPhone and iPod touch offers a wealth of weather information beyond what you get from the free app that's … Read more

Aurora Feint II: The Arena

We were already big fans of Aurora Feint: The Beginning, but with the addition of online battles and even more features, The Arena has become one of our favorites on the iPhone. Like the earlier iteration of the game, the action is centered around moving blocks to match up groups of three or more. Excellent graphics and rich sounds enhance the action as you mine for various elements.

As you stockpile each type of block, you can enhance gameplay by buying items at the in-world store which effect gameplay. These items then get better as you purchase upgraded items. We … Read more

Hello Kitty gamers raise food for charity

Sometimes the line between virtual world and real world is blurry. It's been known that Chinese gold farmers make a real living out of the WoW gold. On Friday, Sanrio Digital, maker of the Hello Kitty Online game, for the first time turned the in-game food to real money for a good cause.

The company announced the conclusion of the first Hello Kitty Online charity event called "Food for Friends." The event was held in the final week of the Hello Kitty Online closed beta.

Players created and submitted 344,965 in-game food items. Based on the … Read more

Online gamers fete Hello Kitty's birthday

Believe it or not, Kitty White (aka Hello Kitty), has been aging along with the rest of us, and Saturday marks her 34th birthday. Judging from her look, however, it seems the alternately much-loved and much-reviled feline icon hasn't really grown up much and is still an appropriate representation of childlike cuteness.

To help celebrate this occasion, Sanrio Digital has organized a week-long in-game celebration in the Hello Kitty Online massively multiplayer role-playing game. The event includes a series of quests and events, including an in-game guild contest that lets players convert online efforts into real cash donations for … Read more

Focus testing Gaia's 'zOMG'

SAN JOSE, Calif.--How do you fine tune a game that has been long in the making and is just a couple of months from going public?

That was the central question behind a focus group I sat in on Tuesday, as the developers behind the wildly popular casual virtual world Gaia Online invited seven devoted players to put zOMG, their new massively multiplayer online game, through its paces.

During the session, which lasted about two hours, the seven players--five women and two men ranging in age from 19 to 25--were asked to pound away at zOMG in a bid … Read more

'Warcraft' maker wins round in exploit 'bot lawsuit

A federal judge has sided with the maker of World of Warcraft in its attempt to shut down a third-party application that allows players to advance more quickly in the game than they normally could.

Blizzard Entertainment won a partial victory on Monday when a court granted its request for summary judgment on copyright infringement grounds. Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly of MDY Industries, which sells the WoWGlider (or MMO Glider) utility for $25 and has sold some 100,000 copies.

U.S. District Judge David Campbell ruled that because using the Glider 'bot is prohibited by Blizzard's World … Read more

MMO