Monthly Archives: December 2008

WoW World’s Leading Guild Interview

Questions by Cavan (Tohrazer), Onrpg Writer
Answered by Ales “Toxin” Ostanek, leader of one of the world’s best World of Warcraft Guilds

I’ve gotten in touch with Toxin, leader of Incorporated Guild; and I’m going to pick his brain…

One of the oldest World of Warcraft guilds going, Incorporated, have recently had an influx of new star players, to bolster their already strong lineup. The guild is looking a strong contender for those World top 10 kills, and has secured itself a sponsorship deal, meanwhile we’ve secured ourselves the exclusive story behind it all..

Onrpg: Can you tell us more about the guild, is there a story to tell?

Toxin: The guild has existed for 4 years now and the current aim for this expansion is being a guild to be reckoned with in PvE and PvP. With Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) coming and us being able to get quite a few members from the world’s top guilds and getting sponsors as well, our goals are now as high as it gets.

Onrpg: Sponsors? Can you elaborate on that? We want details!

Toxin: Our main sponsors would like to stay invisible for now. The sponsorship however was made public and after displaying such effort at the start of WotLK, the whole guild is getting a bonus. Everyone is getting rewarded for the effort they put in the guild. Basically the motto of our sponsors is “We will make sure that anyone who puts effort into the guild gets something in return as well”.

Onrpg: I’ve also heard the incorporated name linked with Steelseries recently, would you care to comment on this?

Toxin: For now, we’re still in talks with Steelseries, however we will be appearing on DreamHack 2008 Winter as the main event. We will be raiding on the big screen from the Steelseries booth. I look forward to working with them in the future though, as I believe there is a lot of perspective in a possible future partnership.

Onrpg: I don’t suppose you could be more specific with regards to members being rewarded, are we talking hardware, promotion, money?

Toxin: We’re talking money, but it’s not limited to that in any way. There will be other rewards as lotteries within the guild, rewards for special achievement and such. For example the first person within our guild to reach level 80 was rewarded with a Spectral Tiger mount.

Onrpg: Lotteries? What are the prizes up for grabs?

Toxin: We’ll be awarding some people with a new year present. I can’t tell what it’s going to be yet though.

Onrpg: Ok fine.. keep your secrets! But what’s this I hear about an influx of ex members from top guild such as SK gaming, Nihilum, and Forte?

Toxin: It’s true, we have quite a few members that have played in top guilds before. Some of them came with being invited, some of them are old friends from previous servers, but all in all, they’re still hardcore people that understand the game and wish to rise to the top again.

Onrpg: Sounds promising! Now, whilst the consensus amongst the hardcore raiding community seems to be that Blizzard is catering for Casual gamers at the expense of deep and challenging gameplay, it could be argued, on the other side of the proverbial coin, that catering for the Hardcore raiders would alienate the majority of their subscriber base, what are your thoughts on this?

Toxin: I don’t believe that the content will remain as easy as it was for the start of Wrath of the Lich King. They remade Naxxramas for level 80 which is a move I really liked since a lot of people didn’t see Naxxramas in vanilla WoW. It was in my opinion the best instance ever made. I hope that they realize however that the content they did release now actually was too easy and I hope they implement some feature so raiders can choose a difficulty of the instance or something similar. They need to make some content for the top guilds to compete on. Casual players indeed couldn’t do Sunwell Plateau but they still were keeping track of progress of the top guilds and it’s still a drive to the community on what the “real hardcore players” are doing.

Onrpg: What is your opinion on the leveling content on WOTLK, did it live up to your expectations, and Blizzard’s usual high standards?

Toxin: Yes it did! I liked the way they made Northrend, it’s an impressive sight. I especially liked the feature they implemented that a certain zone changes for a person that is on a certain quest, allowing people to be leveling in the same zone while not getting in the way of each other.

Onrpg: Could you go into a bit more detail about this feature?

Toxin: They did something we call “phasing”, I don’t know if that’s an official Blizzard name for it, but what the thing does is for example: when starting in the Death Knight zone, you are told to speak to a certain NPC which will start an attack on Light’s Hope Chapel. You partake in that battle, fight with the death knight forces and it’s a really long “role-playing” event. At the same time the event is going on, someone not on the quest does not see the player doing the quest or the mobs that are fighting. He can be doing quests at the same time in that zone without actually interfering with the event or being bothered by it.

Onrpg: That sounds pretty neat, so I take it you guys are aiming to pose a serious challenge to the #1 spot over the course of this expansion? That’s obviously a long term and lofty goal.

Toxin: Indeed that’s our aim. We know however that the road is long but we’re ready to deal with the challenge.

Onrpg: Great, we’ll be looking forward to seeing more of you in the future, is there anything else you would like to add?

Toxin: For now, thanks to everyone who’s stuck with us from day one and hopefully, we’ll have this conversation again when our goals are reached!

Onrpg: Thanks, it’s been a pleasure!

Toxin: Same to you sir! Anyways off the record now?

Onrpg: Well, not yet.. we are now :P.
It will indeed be interesting to see how it shapes up over the course of the new expansion. The SK-Nihilum merged “Ensidia” are without a doubt something else to think about right now, having secured private sponsorship from a Dubai based business. Being an Ex-SK member myself, I will be pulling a few strings and trying to secure an interview with the Ensidia leaders at some point over the next few weeks, stay tuned! and thank you for reading.

Story in Star Wars: The Old Republic

“BioWare’s vision is to deliver the best story-driven games in the world.”
BioWare mission statement

“To create games that inspire, challenge and engage players.”
LucasArts philosophy

Creating great stories in video games is a hallmark for both BioWare and LucasArts. Star Wars: The Old Republic marks the beginning of a joint effort between these two companies to bring epic storytelling into a massively multiplayer online game. We believe that there are four pillars of the roleplaying experience: progression, exploration, combat, and story. Achieving a high degree of quality in each of these will create a rich, challenging, and emotional gameplay experience. Among massively-multiplayer online games, story hasn’t always received the same level of attention given to the other pillars. Star Wars: The Old Republic brings a new dimension to the MMO experience by putting story front and center.

What does this mean to you? When you play Star Wars: The Old Republic, you will experience a new level of immersion achieved through the following features:

  • Epic Star Wars environments and story arc
  • Class-specific storylines that evolve based on player choice
  • Companion characters with individual motivations and personalities that will change based on player interactions

In Star Wars: The Old Republic you will have an emotional attachment to your character and face decisions in the game which will guide the development of your character and determine the direction of the character’s storyline. Whatever your choices may be, you’ll still be the hero (or villain) of an epic storyline which gives extra meaning to the other gameplay pillars. Character advancement will be much more than coming up with efficient statistics. Exploration will be about experiencing new places, new people, and new stories. Finally, instead of just reaching for that next level, you will be engaging in visceral combat reminiscent of the Star Wars movies where you’re motivated to fight for more than just yourself – but also for a cause.

We believe that choice is the most gripping and crucial element of these stories. The team has left a lot open so that your decisions have a significant impact on the way the storylines and the characters develop. Because each storyline offers multiple paths, Star Wars: The Old Republic writers create much more content than you would expect from a linear game storyline. In fact, Star Wars: The Old Republic will contain more story content than all other BioWare games combined. As with the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, some stories intertwine, and some decisions may lead your character down a completely unexpected path. Smaller choices may yield small results, but on some occasions may later lead to larger consequences.

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, your class means more than just the amount of hit points your character has or how many skills you can choose. Each class has its own epic storyline that will drive the majority of your character’s journey. These storylines reflect the spirit of the class you chose, some more traditionally heroic, some more sinister. Class-specific content allows you to play through a tailored experience based on your choices.

Along your journey, you’ll come across a feature that made the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series so immersive – companion characters. Companion characters are your non-player character (NPC) allies, each with their own personality, thoughts, and struggles. Companions will fight by your side and get caught up in your storyline. You might even get caught up in theirs as well. Because each of your companions has a mind of his or her own, they will react to the choices you make and may support or even turn against you.

With compelling choices, class-specific epic storylines, and fully developed companions characters, we are making a strong commitment to put the concept of story at the forefront of Star Wars: The Old Republic. By focusing on these story-driven features, our goal is that you will become immersed in your character and others around you, explore exciting environments, and in the end, get lost in your own Star Wars saga. Stay tuned to the official website for more updates and behind the scenes looks at Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Atari acquires Cryptic Studios

Infogrames Entertainment today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to fully acquire Cryptic Studios Inc., one of the world’s leading developers, publishers and operators of Massively Multiplayer Online games.

Cryptic is currently developing three unique MMO franchises, planned for release over the next three years on PC and next-generation consoles, including Champions Online to be released in 2009 and Star Trek Online to be released in 2010. A third game currently in development will be announced in the near future. Established in 2000 and headquartered in Los Gatos, California, USA, Cryptic has a proven track record of delivering successful MMO franchises (City of Heroes and City of Villains sold to NCSoft) generating over USD 100 million in lifetime revenues and up to 180,000 peak subscribers.

David Gardner, CEO of Infogrames, said: “The acquisition of Cryptic Studios brings to Infogrames an outstanding creative organisation, with a proven track-record of success in the fast-growing MMO category. Cryptic’s success is founded on leading-edge technology and the vision of a seasoned executive management team. I am impressed with the tools and technology that Cryptic has developed to make MMOs less expensive to build. Creating vast worlds and interesting interactions can be very people intensive but with the use of Cryptic’s toolset they have a proven way of cutting average production costs in half. This is exactly the type of company we wanted to acquire in order to build Atari for the 21st century.” “We share a common vision with Atari and their leadership team.” said John Needham, Chief Executive Officer of Cryptic Studios, “With our game development and online platform technology skills, we’re very excited about the opportunities that this unique combination with Atari creates. I am committed to helping Atari grow into a leading online game company and look forward to being part of the team.”

Rakion

Rakion is an online strategy action MMORPG. The game focuses on intense sword battles with characters and settings from a fantasy world, along with the strategic battle plans to provide the ultimate battle experience.

You can now experience exciting battles of console games online. Gamers can improve their combat skills and work out several strategies to win the battle alone or as a team.

Through the level-up system, you can upgrade your character’s skills and equipment as well as your summons. Summoned creatures will become much stronger as you level up.

Voyage Century: Business Ships to Get Rich

Today the folks at Voyage Century are going to talk to you a little bit about business ships and how they can help you corner whatever particular market you’re in.

If you’re a businessman in Voyage Century, and want to get rich, you may not need to be extremely smart or shrewd, but owning a business ship is an absolute necessity, because it’s the passport to riches. Now let’s check out these business ships and see which one would be right for your business.

Zhenghe Treasure Ship
The unique features of this ship are the dragon totem at the fore, and the 2 vivid dragons featured on both sides of the ship, as well as a loft in the middle of the ship for crew and storage. The inspiration for this exquisite design comes from ancient Chinese ship building styles.

The overall performance of this ship is very good, and it has decent carrying capacity, so many businessmen who ship goods in relatively large amount on a regular basis have come to really appreciate this vessel.

Ocean Multi Mast Trade Ship
The explosion of the sea trade has promoted the rapid development of ship manufacturing in Europe. This ship is specifically designed for the modern sea trade, where a large capacity, high sailing speed, and high safety are essential. It is a level 11 business ship.

Heavy Multi Mast Trade Ship
This ship is the top dog among business ships. Magnificent design, ample power, high sailing speed, and unmatched safety system make this ship a dream for businessmen. Ordinary sea storms don’t even pose a threat to this ship! It is more than a ship actually, it’s a symbol of status in Voyage Century. Only a few powerful businessmen own this ship.

Tales of Pirates: Skeletar Isle Review

In Tales of Pirates, the ghastly Skeletar Isle is deep and dark, and is rumored to be the pirates’ Treasure warehouse. It is a dangerous place to be, but this has never discouraged thieves and others from attempting to raid the massive stores of treasure hidden within its depths. You can see the debris from broken and rotten treasure chests scattered all along the Isle. If you can brave the dark labyrinth, then you will face the feared treasure guardian monster Barborosa. If you have enough courage, and want to test your limits, you will have chance to win both honor and a huge fortune. The BOSS waiting for you here is definitely powerful and knows that you come seeking his treasure. Players who want to challenge him must be Level 40+ and are advised to go in a team.

1. Treasure Hunting
There are Treasure Chests scattered here and there all over Skeletar Isle. You can’t imagine what surprises you will find after opening the chests. Some of them contain valuable treasure, but some hide evil curses. If players open a cursed chest, they will find they’ve taken on various surprising effects that are not easily removed. If you really want to find fortune, challenge the monsters and the BOSS Barborosa, they drop all kinds of fantastic treasure.

2. Challenging the Kraken and Barborosa
The monsters on the island are almost all high level, like the Skeletar Pirate – Tutu (Level 80), Skeletar Pirate – Lala(Level 75), and Skeletar Pirate – Kaka (Level 75). When you see a treasure chest, you are supposed to have a fierce fight with the treasure guardian monster — Barborosa, who is a monstrous Level 85. If you defeat Barborosa, get the treasure and think there are no more powerful monsters to fight, you would be wrong… dead wrong. The most powerful BOSS on Skeletar Isle is certainly the fabled Kraken, which can shoot water arrows, and discharge Lightning Curtains. Challenging this monster is no small feat, but the rewards are as good as the Kraken is ugly. Angelic Dice, the Poseidon Framestone, the Poseidon Clawstone and much more await those that succeed in challenging it.