mmo

Once upon a time, SXSW was a music festival and then it became something else that I don't understand. So, just when I thought that SXSW was only about Sarah Lacy vs. Marc Zuckerberg I read about this great contest to come up with the worst website idea. The sad part is that I could see all 7 of these getting funded a few months back.

Based on the descriptions, my winner is: Entrepreneur: Lane Becker, co-founder of GetSatisfaction Bad idea: MMOmmerce, the future of the future of commerce The pitch: Shop for real-life items within MMOs. Frag Nazis … Read more

After three years of running its own system to let some players of EverQuest II conduct trades of in-game assets for real money, Sony Online Entertainment is turning it over to a new partner, Live Gamer.

In 2005, SOE, the publisher of the groundbreaking online game, EverQuest, as well as EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies, and other titles, decided to try an experiment that took its industry's traditional approach to players buying and selling in-game assets for real money and turned it on its ears.

Previously, the industry standard was to scream loudly that such activity was illegitimate and … Read more

With Thanksgiving over and the biggest shopping day of the year under way, Power Downloader decided he would avoid the throngs of people and have a quiet day at the Powerlair. After going through his usual maintenance tasks to speed up his computer and check for spyware, Power headed over to Download.com to find a new game to play.… Read more

The average video game can give you anywhere from eight to 80 hours of solid, fun playtime. You pick it up, pop it in, play it until you're done, and put it away (or trade it in for far too little in-store credit). Some games can pull in gamers for far more time. They're called MMOs, massively multiplayer online games, and they offer a persistent online world for gamers to explore and conquer with each other. They're the digital equivalent of crack, and can easily turn the eight-to-80 hour playtime of a normal game into an easy … Read more

World of Warcraft has been a goldmine for Blizzard, but that can't be all it's working on. Back before WoW ate countless lives with its grinding, raiding, and leveling, Blizzard was known for awesome strategy games such as Warcraft and Starcraft, awesome action RPGs such as Diablo and Diablo II, and even awesome platform-puzzlers such as The Lost Vikings. All of these games seem to have been left at the wayside while Blizzard focuses on keeping its WoW servers up and running, and its players chipping in their monthly fee.

That can't be the whole story. Rumors … Read more

Just a reminder that Blizzard Entertainment will be releasing "World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade" on January 16 in North America and Europe. The expansion pack for WoW will be available for about $40, with a special collector's edition for $70. Auctions of the collector's editions on eBay have already began to solicit bids of up to $200 at last look.

Blizzard will be extending its technical support hours and staying open for two consecutive Saturdays in order to accommodate possible issues or questions that may arise from installation of "The Burning Crusade," the … Read more