Yearly Archives: 2011

Welcome to a Fantastic Age!: One Man in a Land of Children

Welcome to a Fantastic Age!: One Man in a Land of Children

By Stephen Boyd, OnRPG Journalist.

Fantage is for kids. And I’m not saying that because I think it’s childish, or silly. The game was designed for children. It is closely monitored by the developers to try and provide a safe environment for children between six and fourteen and I think that anything that builds the next generation of gamers is a great thing.

 

Fantage Start

Fantage starts with creating your avatar in the nigh omnipresent ‘kiddy manga’ style used by most free to play games these days. While the art style does not appeal to me personally, it is obviously popular with the seven million players of Fantage worldwide.

While the initial options for your avatar are limited, in-game stores sell new hairstyles, clothes, shoes and accessories. From investigating the first few ‘Towns’ in-game, the variety of looks on display seems to almost limitless.

Navigating the game world is very simple. Your standard old school point and click interface navigates you around the screen and a World Map can be used to fast travel between destinations.

 

Fantage Worldmap

Fantage currently boasts ten towns, each with its own social hub. These hubs are used as meeting places for avatars and also host a set of mini games. The Star Café in the starting zone was packed when I entered. Icons on the wall displayed portals to each of the mini games. Fruit Stack was a Connect Four like game where you chain apples or oranges to win. Memory Mix Up plays like your standard match the tiles puzzler. Snack Tac Toe, as you may imagine, was a Tic Tac Toe or Noughts and Crosses using Cookies and Donuts rather than Xs and Os. Winning these games earns you stars and these stars can be used to buy certain items.

 

Fantage Beach

Each town has shops to purchase new looks for your character and house. When I tried to buy a stylish new moustache, even though I had enough stars, I was blocked as many items are only available to Premium members. This may be a problem if you have to explain to your child why they cannot buy that sparkly pink hat they want.

 

Adding a touch of variety to the mini games I have already discussed are the Special Agent Missions. It seems that even in the peaceful land of Fantage, dastardly villains are out to get us.
By accessing the secret underground base, your avatar can be drafted in to assist the Secret Service to battle all manner of ne’er do wells and malefactors.

 

Mission Center Fantage

In your first mission, if you choose to accept it, you will face off against evil Ninja Monkeys to rescue General Gopher and retrieve the Golden Monkey of Hanoi. But you will not face them alone; at your side will be the ninja’s natural enemy, the pirate.

While you do not go into combat directly on these missions, Flash animations show your allies battling enemies while you go off and solve puzzles to achieve your objective.

 

Fantage Cutscene

 

All in all, I felt that during the two hours I spent in Fantage I barely scratched the surface. There are dozens of mini games and missions to complete, each leading to currency rewards and unlockables. While Fantage may not be for me or you, the game seems fun and likely highly playable for the younger gamers out there. The UI is simple and intuitive and a great learning tool for those using a PC for the first time. And let’s face it, any game where you get to smash Ninja Monkeys with a giant hammer can’t be a bad thing, right?

Faxion Announces Second Closed Beta Phase

Faxion Announces Second Closed Beta Phase

 

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust – as the eternal battle between heaven and hell continues, and the forces of Heaven and Hell are recruiting you for the war. UTV True Games announced today that its combat driven, free to play MMORPG, Faxion Online, entered the second phase of beta testing. Register at www.FaxionOnline.com, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter to get exclusive keys, news, item giveaways and more.
 
 
New players chosen for beta test two, along with existing closed beta players, will experience all new content, features, bug fixes, and balancing that was addressed based on valuable feedback from the community. Some of the key improvements include an all-new user experience where the Heaven class begins behind the pearly gates, and the Hell class starts their experience amongst fire and brimstone, complete with a more intuitive tutorial. The second Closed Beta also features a polished and rebalanced multi-classing system that clearly indicates how skills improve through ranks, and how attributes are distributed as a user invests more in secondary and tertiary classes. In addition to these major system adjustments, additional content, maps, and convenience features like teleportation stones have been added in the latest patch to improve the overall player experience.

 

Faxion Second Phase of Closed Beta Is Announced
 
“The responses to the first closed beta have been incredible in helping us determine updates for this second phase,” said Frank Lucero, Studio Head at UTV True Games. “Our community has provided invaluable feedback and we are looking forward to their response to the latest content in the second closed beta patch.”

 
Players can side with Heaven or Hell in the relentless struggle for ultimate domination over the seven deadly sins.  With a comical twist, Faxion Online is one of the first free to play MMORPGs to deliver aggressive and robust PVP game play and a unique territory control system that allows the different factions to battle for the fate of the seven deadly sins.  With a unique multi-classing system, players will have the freedom to play the way they want with achievement and glory through adventure and combat.

Runes of Magic Goes Browser-Based! (ish)

Runes of Magic Goes Browser-Based! (ish)

 

Frogster and Kalydo are working on a fully playable browser and Facebook version of Runes of Magic, the first glimpses will be at GDC in San Francisco.

 

Runes of Magic will be entirely playable in a browser window and on Facebook starting in Q2/2011. The international publisher has closed a cooperation agreement with technology partner Kalydo. The Dutch middleware provider will realize the browser integration with a browser plug-in and a scalable server platform running on cloud computing that they developed. Using the so-called Kalydo Player, the originally client-based MMORPG can then be enjoyed through any browser on practically every Windows PC without any constraints.

 

Runes of Magic on Facebook

 

The initial focus of the partnership will be Facebook integration. For the registration, the partners will use the social network’s user-friendly single-opt-in function, allowing every Facebook user to dive straight into the virtual world without having to complete any additional registration procedures. Once inside the social network, Runes of Magic can be played in either full screen or window mode without limiting any of the game’s functionality. The Kalydo team has already started with the technical implementation of the browser version. Frogster will show a first test version to selected media partners at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco from 28th of February until 4th of March. The publisher can be found on a common booth with Gameforge in the North Hall of the Moscone Center, booth No. 702.

“We are expecting to see a marked increase in the numbers of players for Runes of Magic through this cooperation with Kalydo. Powered by the impressive Kalydo technology the browser version will enable us to attract new target groups who previously have found the download, installation and registration process too complicated”, commented Andreas Weidenhaupt, Chief Licensing Officer of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG on the signing of the contract.

Doki Tops, CEO of KalydoDoki Tops, CEO of Kalydo agrees with him:  “This is the future of gaming. Players enter the game with a single click of the mouse instead of spending hours on a download and installation and get the exact same experience. We praise Frogster for recognizing this potential and taking a leading role with us in pioneering this massive new style of gaming.”

Kalydo has already incorporated the 3D role-playing game GodsWar into Facebook, which has gone from strength to strength.

Colony of War

It’s the year of 2627. Five generations have passed since the new era of space colonization began and humans have fully adapted to their lifestyle in space by expanding colonies and modifying robots. As more were forming, profit-making was irrefutable for humans. Nearby colonies were conquered and alliances were made. This brought the beginning of two separate nations, the SUF (Solar System United Front) and UGA (Universe Government Allies). No longer was it about living in space but surviving in your own colony of war.

Colony of War is the newest web browser game which includes a basic building concept as well as creating robots to have a war in universe.( invade other players’ colonies.)  There is 50 different types of robots and more will be created after collecting a feedback from players.

While players build, manage, and operate their own colony, they can build robot troops to enjoy fighting in a battle for other colonies.   Furthermore, players are able to place their own robot as a commander of an army to boost entertainment.

Key Game Description:
1.    Space Colonization
–    Develop colonies and activate robots
–    Attack colonies using your army force and space warcrafts
–    Defend your colony from space invaders and opponents from other nations
2.    Robot Production & Fusion
–    Construct robots of various rank and class based on resources and technology
–    Fuse two existing robots to create a brand new one
3.    Real Time Battle (Battle in Space)
–    Travel and battle in real time (MMORTS Game)
–    Open PvP
4.    Space (Map)
–    Space is divided into 63 zones and 9 planets with space stations in each zone. Transport to other planets and launch through “Space Gates” in the universe.

Angels Online: Spotlight on Rare Pet Eggs

Angels Online: Spotlight on Rare Pet Eggs

 

Angels Online is an MMORPG that stresses friendship and companionship, so it’s no wonder pets is such an essential element of the game. Skill-laden pets are armed with special (and sometimes deadly) abilities that help their masters quickly rise through level after level. Players invest a lot of attention and care in these loyal companions. As it grows, a pet develops based on training styles that can influence its abilities. With a wide range of possibilities, different players can train similar eggs and end up with very different results. Pets can even change their masters as players adapt their fighting style to take full advantage of their pets’ skills.

When it comes to finding and nurturing the perfect pet, rare pet eggs are always in demand. To get them, players must defeat Bosses and trust in lucky drops. If you’re searching for a rare pet egg, we’ve got the lowdown on several favorites to help you decide which one you want to make your own.

Brute’s Egg
With exceptional defenses and stats, this egg transforms into a Blood Wolf, Evil Werewolf or one of six other possibilities when it reaches mid-levels. With incredible defenses and some amazing abilities, these pets are great choices for those looking for a defensive stalwart.

Beast’s Egg
The Beast’s Egg has a low drop rate and is only available from a few select Bosses. Like the Brute’s Egg, it features has impressive stats. It also gains incredible strength as it levels up. With each skill it learns, its appearance undergoes dramatic changes, until you end up with a majestic pet that is both attractive and powerful.

Nature’s Egg

Nature’s Egg is one of the rarest in Eden. Along with its unique appearance it has great basic stats. In an evolved form, such as the Crying Cactus or Shouting Cactus, it will grant players a much-sought-after advantage in PVP battles.

Elf Egg
One of the rare pets from the “Lost Atlantis” series, the Elf Egg pet’s bubbly and cute appearance makes it irresistible to many players. Though adorable, its ability to leech at higher levels is very useful when you want to keep other players occupied in PVP battles.

 

Angels Online Mount

 

Dragon Egg
In China, the mystical dragon is a symbol of authority that has always been revered for its power and regal appearance. Though some may wonder if its reputation is greater than its value, many would rather run from a fight than face this creature’s mysterious abilities on even terms.

Fuzz Ball Egg
Despite its strange appearance, the Fuzz Ball is most prized for its looks. Its cuddly and furry form also sports a small set of wings that give it an angelic appearance. The Fuzz Ball comes in many colors, including black, white, yellow, pink and green.

Travian First Impressions – You’ve got some Gaul!

Travian First Impressions – You’ve got some Gaul!

By Steve Boyd, OnRPG Journalist

The world of Travian is rocked with conflict. Three tribes; The Romans, The Teutons and the Gauls struggle for land and resources as they attempt to conquer their world. As I write this there are 16, 700 players battling it out on my server. They form the 300 or so alliances currently active. Me? I am all on my own.

Almost.

When you enter the game world of Travian, you only have two things going for you. You are shielded from attacks by enemy players for three days and you have an ally in the form of the Taskmaster.

 

Travian Taskmaster

The Taskmaster is your mentor and tutor as you take your first steps on the way to establishing an Empire. He will advise you on gathering resources, exploring and adventuring and even renaming your settlement.

You also have the protection of your Hero unit. Your hero will carry the bulk of your burden in the early going and will explore nearby adventure spots in the hope of finding hidden resources and even troops for your nascent military forces.

 

Travian Naked Character

As with all games of this type, the key to success is thoroughly investigating the function of items and troops before deploying them. As I leapt headlong into the game without really doing my homework, certain tasks took a lot longer than they should have. Upgrading your Main Building at the start of the game reduces your build time by four per cent. Upgrading it to level 3 brings the build time down by another six. And as you only have limited workers to begin with, getting jobs done and moving on to the next one is important.

And to complete these tasks you need resources. Resources in the world of Travian come in three flavours; crops, iron, clay and lumber.

 

Travian Map

All tasks cost a certain amount of each so having diverse resource gatherers is also important. A quick spoiler or hint here-remember your workers need food, so focus on your cropland at the start. Once you have claimed your resource spots, you can also upgrade your production facilities there. These upgrades take time, but can be completed instantly if you spend a little gold. Gold will be awarded to you once you complete the missions assigned to you by the taskmaster and can be earned later by trading with your neighbours or by auctioning loot discovered by your Hero on his adventures.

 

Travian Ingame Map

I don’t normally enjoy resource based strategy games, but something about Travian clicked with me. The interface is clean and easy to navigate and the built in tutorial in the form of the Taskmaster led me by the hand from the very beginning. If you are familiar with this type of game, you may find it a little too simple for your taste but, if you are like me and have not played a huge amount of strategy style adventures, Travian may well be the one to introduce you to a new genre.

Event – GDC 2011 (Games Developers Conference)

Photos and News coming soon. We’ll be at the show the first week of March.

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and MMO games.

We can’t wait for the various parties. The Gpotato and the Toga party sound interesting and the Bigpoint/Playboy party is ALWAYS exciting!

Open Letter to Trion Worlds: Please Don’t Do What WAR Did!

Open Letter to Trion Worlds: Please Don’t Do What WAR Did!

By Nic van ‘t Schip, OnRPG Admin

 

On the day of the head start launch of RIFT I want to take a moment and reflect on something that has been bothering me about the last big MMO launch that I was really excited about: The Warhammer Online launch.

 

Warhammer Online

I don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of what was and is wrong with that game and instead want to focus on one single phenomenon that has haunted many MMO launches in the past couple of years. The very quick rise of the game population just after launch, inevitably followed by a sharp decline. And how MMO companies react to this effect.

I think a lot of people confuse the drop of population in an MMO with that game being “bad” but this is simply not true. It is completely normal and utterly predictable that an MMO will spike in population right after launch. People have been eager to play it, sometimes for years, and now they finally can. It’s not unheard of for people to take time off so they can focus their full attention on it those first couple of days. Others may have just gotten swept up by the hype and started playing the game to be with their friends.

Some of these people will inevitably not continue playing after the first couple of weeks. Add to that the fact that people may settle into their normal routine of only playing a couple of hours per week and all of this results into what the community will perceive as a decline in the game’s population.

But let’s take a step back and look at what happened shortly after the launch of Warhammer Online. The game was extremely popular and sold a lot more boxes than anyone really expected. Queue times to get into the servers were long and the community demanded more servers.

Mythic and GOA listened to them and added a LOT of extra servers. Queue times went down and for a little while the situation was much improved. However shortly after that the population declined slightly because of the reasons mentioned above. As there were way now too many servers players were spread too thin. The result of this was that the game was doing great in terms of how many players were online at the same time, but because every server had about 90% of the population it needed to feel “healthy” people were complaining and started claiming the game was dying.

This is the single worst thing for an MMO to happen. People are flock animals and if they get the idea that an MMO is suffering they start looking for their next game. The painful thing was that at this stage WAR was doing fantastic. The number of concurrent users online as well as the number of people subscribing were nothing short of phenomenal. But none of this mattered to the community. When they queued for a battleground in-game it took a couple of minutes too long to find enough players and when they went roaming for RvR they found some of the zones weren’t packed with enemies to farm. As this was happening across 90% of the servers any players on those servers were having a bad experience. And this is where things started to go really wrong.

There was no plan in place for the merging of servers. In fact, because of a certain quote from a certain CEO of Mythic the merging and subsequent shutting down of servers was a big taboo and even suggesting it would cost someone some evil stares from management. (“If we are opening up new servers six months from now, I consider the game a success. If we are closing servers down, we have done something wrong “- Mark Jacobs)

If Mythic and GOA had swallowed their pride and admitted they were too aggressive in opening servers after launch, and if they would have been more on the ball with the merging of servers to give the players that remained in the game full servers to enjoy I believe WAR would have been in a much better state.

And this brings me back to RIFT. In some ways their situation is now comparable to that of Warhammer Online. They are enjoying some awesome momentum and this is bringing many players into the game that will quite likely not continue to play their game after the first month. A mere two hours after the head start of the game Trion has already added quite a large number of servers and queues on some servers are up to three (!) hours already. Not all of these servers may still be required in a couple of months.

 

Rift Twitter

As long as they realize that this is perfectly normal and act accordingly and work diligently on both adding but sometimes also closing servers, RIFT can become very, very successful. Because as we already discussed here, the game is just very very good.

Next Expansion for MMO Heroes of Gaia Announced

Next Expansion for MMO Heroes of Gaia Announced

SNAIL GAMES USA today announced the next expansion to their popular free to play browser MMO Heroes of Gaia will launch on March 10th, 2011. The expansion, called “Ascension” will add an enormous amount of new content and features to what is already one of the deepest browser MMOs available today.

 

Heroes of Gaia Ascension

 

Heroes of Gaia: Ascension calls upon players to rise up and conquer the immense challenges placed before them and acheive new levels of power that were never before possible. Some of the main features of Heroes of Gaia: Ascension include:

– Raised Fame Levels – Five new Fame levels for players to achieve. The Immortal, Doom Messenger, Death Messenger, Lord of Chaos, and Lord of Order.

– New Elite-level Co-op Instances – Players can team up and do battle in two new high-level instances. Players must defeat the first level for a chance to gain access to the second, and defeating both will results in epic gear drops.

– Mercenary Heroes – Players and Guilds can hire temporary Heroes to fight on their behalf and seige enemy Castles.

– New “Command Style” System – Players can choose their own path by selecting a primary focus of development in their Castles. Militant, Prolific, or Preventative will allow them to choose between training troops faster, increased resource production, or reduce the effects of attack respectively.

“This is only the first of two major expansions we have planned for Heroes of Gaia,” says Snail Games USA Director of Operations Mark Hill. “We have an extremely dedicated group of players on HoG, and we are proud to offer them these new and exciting ways to experience the game.”

In addition, the Heroes of Gaia: Ascension expansion includes:

– A Vagabond Camp that players can visit every day to obtain valuable items.

– Equipment Sundering and Enchanting, which allows players to split their gear into various base materials, and choose their own gear bonuses.

– A new Castle building upgrade which gives players the power to carry more troops into combat with each new level.

– Rebellion Quashing system that allows Guilds to put down rebellions against Capitols they own.

– Redesigned tutorial and adjustment of Novice Gift pack allowing new players to more easily gain the skills and equipment they need to compete.

Heroes of Gaia is a browser-based, fantasy MMO where players choose from among four warring factions (Human, Undead, Elf, or Orc), build massive castles, recruit devastating armies, embark on epic quests, and engage in amazing PvE, PvP, and GvG battles. Recently, Heroes of Gaia has reached over 1 million active players worldwide, 10 Million plays on Kongregate and Snail Games is continuing to deliver major expansions and content updates. Previous expansions include Babel,Blood Fort, and Rise of the Guilds.