everquest

What women who play Everquest II really want

They may not realize it or admit to it, but women who play Everquest II log in more hours than men or teenagers, are less likely to quit, and report being not only healthier but happier than their male counterparts, according to new research out of the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism.

The data reveals that while 80 percent of players in the study of 7,000 are male, and averaged 25 hours of play a week, the 20 percent who are female averaged 29 hours a week. And that's not all. Women underestimated their playing time … Read more

Sony Online turns Station Exchange over to Live Gamer

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

Ex-IGE chief: Margins are shrinking

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Brock Pierce, the CEO of Affinity Media, which used to own IGE, one of the world's largest marketer of the virtual goods and currencies of games like World of Warcraft, EverQuest and others, is looking tired.

Earlier this year, Affinity sold IGE, but it still has a hand deep in the market for virtual weapons, currencies and the like.

For years, Brock's companies, which in many ways have created--or at least perfected--the booming secondary market for the virtual worlds of those games, have been seen as all-powerful entities that almost laugh in the face of … Read more

I will game: Anatomy of MMO addiction

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

Web news roundup: John McCain, Flip, Gmail, Amazon and TiVo, Ransomeware, Vodafone and MySpace

>> Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images. John McCain wants to give surveillance duty to your Internet service provider and to Web sites to crack down on child pornography. All questionable images would be flagged and sent to the authorities with your IP address. (CNET News.com)

>> Flip launches. Conde Nast's answer to MySpace and other social networks. The service, aimed at teenage girls, lets you create a scrapbook of sorts in the form of a flip book. Your flip book can then be shared on other services. (Mashable)

>> Gmail leaves beta. Lately … Read more