BT Gold » RuneScape Gold

Curse, Inc. Continues to Grow with a New U.S. Headquarters

BTGold.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:47:22 +0000

Curse, Inc. continues to grow with a new U.S. headquarters in downtown San Francisco, additions to the executive team and a growing staff of nearly 25 full-time employees.

With more than 4 million unique visitors each month, and over 6 million projected by early 2008, Curse reaches the MMO player demographic in a way that no other site can, and offers publishers the opportunity to connect directly with their users. A centralized hub for MMO gamers, the company recently announced more than $5 million in Series-A funding.

As a result of its growth and expanded service offerings, the company has gained the expertise of industry veterans Kurtis Buckmaster and Lars Koschin. Curse also underwent a management restructuring: Founder Hubert Thieblot continues as the company’s CEO, with General Manager Wilson Kriegel assuming the duties of Executive Vice President in addition to his previous role. New addition Lars Koschin will manage the technical direction of Curse as CTO, with Kurtis Buckmaster rounding out the executive team as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development.

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Sword of the New World: Granado Espada’s Cash Shop Expanded

BTGold.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:46:56 +0000

K2 Network has announced the expansion of the cash shop within its epic Age of Exploration MMORPG Sword of the New World: Granado Espada.

There is more than 30 new and exciting items that have been added to the cash shop for gamers to buy will allows players to personalize and enhance their gaming experience while playing Sword of the New World: Granado Espada.

On offer will be a plethora of must-have items including:
- School Costumes – A unique costume that changes your character’s appearance overriding any armor that your character may be wearing. School costumes apply to all base classes.
- The Memoir (Veteran) – A book that will restore stat points used after reaching Veteran Status, In Sword of the New World one stat point can mean the difference between life and death, so don’t waste time with a stat point in the wrong spot.
- Triumph Fillers – Acquiring these will increase attack and defense ratings for 10 minutes and with the addition of this item ALL players will gain the ability to complete Irawain’s quest line and obtain his UPC card. Irawain is a UPC from the Far East who specializes in the Mui Thai fighting style. He is a powerful ally to have in the dangerous new world.
- Forgotten Dungeons – The wide selection of items from the expanded cash shop vary from changing appearance, to gameplay updates like the new Forgotten dungeons which lets players access new premium-only dungeons where they can fight stronger monsters with better loot!
- Wings – Give your characters that epic look and feel everyone desires! While wings won’t actually let you fly, they are the perfect way to make your characters shine.
- Combat Manuals – Increase the amount of experience your character receives from killing monsters. These Manuals come in multiple bonus experience levels and last anywhere from 15 to 30 days. Hardcore gamers and Casual players alike will find these manuals a useful tool to advance their characters.
- Strategy Manuals – Increase the amount of experience your character gains from using their stances and skills. With several levels of Strategy Manuals available players will be able to cut the amount of time to max out their stances and skills in half. These manuals will last anywhere from 15 to 30 days.

Many more invaluable items will be offered and whatever the players style or needs, there is something for everyone at the Sword of the New World: Granado Espada cash shop.

Player can purchase gold to spend on items to make life a little easier via a simple online process.

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Why is Episodic Gaming So Hard?

BTGold.com — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:44:13 +0000

Valve has once again wowed us all with the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2. The latest chapter in the journey of Gordon Freeman has received rave reviews for good reason, allowing gamers to quickly forget any frustration that might have been caused by the wait between episodes (a little under two years for Episode 1, a little over a year for Episode 2). After all, Games For Windows Magazine (then Computer Gaming World) once graced its cover to their magazine exclaiming, “A new Half-Life every six months!”

There has been a subtle but perceptible shift in tone when Valve representatives discuss the Half-Life Episodes since their original announcement. The developer has moved away from the term “episodic content,” despite being one of its biggest supporters when Episode One was announced. More recently (and explicitly), Valve co-founder Gabe Newell admitted that they might re-think episodic gaming after their trilogy is finished.

Newell and company weren’t interested in discussing this subject with 1UP, so we hit the streets and talked to other developers that have tried their hand at episodic gaming — successfully and not.

The Success Story — Sam & Max
When we heard (for the second time) that classic adventure game superstars Sam & Max were returning — this time in episodic form — people were understandably wary. Upstart developer Telltale Games quickly calmed our nerves, showing that they could map the fast-paced comedy of traditional Sam & Max to a monthly release schedule with very few mishaps. We ask Sam & Max Season Two co-designer Dave Grossman how they pulled it off.

“We spent almost two years proving out our engine and our production methods in situations that were less precarious before we actually started work on the tremendous overlapping effort that is Sam & Max,” he said. “We do a lot of intricate planning, which is adjusted constantly to reflect changing conditions, and we’ve got a lot of solid, highly professional people working here to pull it off. Also, elves come into the studio at night while we’re not looking and finish everything.”

In developing any game, Grossman says every studio goes through a phase where they are “planning more than you can realistically accomplish. [It] covers the industry like a bad rash.”

Sounds like what happened to Valve, right? “[Not knowing when to stop] is easy for us to avoid; Telltale is just too small to be able to afford to keep the team on any particular game for very long. I imagine that a big house like Valve, conversely, might go well over the deadline because it can afford to do so. And, to be fair, that might be a perfectly rational decision for studios other than ours.”

Not everything episodic has gone perfect for Telltale, though. While Sam & Max was on time, keen-minded readers will recall the series they gave up on, Bone, which apparently “got shuffled to the side because the studio just wasn’t big enough to do both titles at the same time.” The original episode, Out from Boneville, was released in September 2005, with the follow-up, The Great Cow Race, arriving seven months later. Since then, the series has come to standstill.

In the same interview where Valve’s Newell discussed reconsidering episodic content, he mentioned an interest in comparing notes with the much speedier Sam & Max team. We decide to ask Grossman for that advice, which he’s already given to the folks at Hothead Games, who are working with Penny Arcade.

“I think we did give them some advice, though oddly I can’t quite remember what I said after Vlad [Ceraldi, Hothead President] handed me that martini with the little fizzy tablet-shaped thingy in the bottom. It was probably something like ‘work all the kinks out of your production line before you go episodic, plan everything at least three times, and make sure you’ve lined up the funding for the whole season up front.’ They were already pretty far along, so it was probably too late for any of that to help them, but maybe it will be useful to somebody else.”

The Misfire — SiN Episodes
SiN Episodes: Emergence was far from bad, but plagued by a release date too close to Half-Life 2: Episode One and behind-the-scenes development drama. These factors brought the series to a halt after only the first episode and played a part in Ritual’s acquisition by casual games developer MumboJumbo. Ritual level designer Richard “Levelord” Gray spoke openly with us on just what went wrong with SiN Episodes:

“We sort of under-estimated the cost and schedule effects of the first episode. We anticipated that the first episode would require more work and time because of the foundation of the game series that was needed to be laid out before any true game development was started. Although we thought about this, we did not plan sufficiently, and the costs and schedules fell out of control,” he said.

Unfortunately, Gray brings bad news to any gamers holding out for a continuation of the cliffhanger narrative begun in Emergence: there are “no definite plans as of right now” to finish the second SiN episode, but says the existing episode provides “a worthy 4-8 hours of gameplay for only $19.” We seemed to like it well enough, scoring it a “Good” 7.0. Though now working under MumboJumbo, fans of Ritual Entertainment may be interested to hear the team is busy creating the next Luxor, as well as the upcoming The Office videogame based on the NBC show.

That’s a little depressing.

Gray shares his advice to budding episodic game developers by pointing out where they failed. “Try to estimate your costs and schedules for episode 1, then multiply these figures by three!”

The Future — Penny Arcade Adventures
Despite such differing experiences with their respective games, Grossman and Gray have surprisingly similar answers when asked if they think episodic gaming has a future. Grossman says “studios are figuring out ways to accomplish it, and I do think you’re going to see more episodic titles in the future.”

Gray more or less agrees, while also pointing to his new field of interest: “I personally think we will see more episodic development and distribution as time goes by. I wouldn’t be surprised to see episodic AAA and casual games meet some day.”

True to their prophecies, more developers are opening themselves up to the idea of episodic content. Major next-gen titles like Grand Theft Auto IV and Mass Effect will supposedly employ episodic add-ons in some way. In terms of new fully episodic games, that torch is being carried by a robot who loves to hump fruit.

We cornered Hothead Games CEO and Penny Arcade Adventures producer Joel DeYoung to ask him why they would risk episodic format in their effort to bring Penny Arcade to videogames. His answer is fairly in line with the early rhetoric for how episodic gaming was supposed to revolutionize the industry: “It lets us get the game in people’s hands sooner and at a lower price. Then once the first episode is out, we can take feedback from players and incorporate changes into future episodes…episodic [also] provides a great framework for storytelling.”

Despite the tribulations others have faced, DeYoung says the team doesn’t believe the Penny Arcade IP is necessary to launching a new game series. “I think more and more games are going to come out in this format, and they will likely run the gamut of genres, styles and stories,” he says, unknowingly parroting the thoughts of Grossman and Gray.

“I think episodic games are going to grow in popularity. The economics of making large games for traditional retail channels is making less and less sense for a lot of game developers,” he says. “Episodic solves a lot of problems that developers are currently facing. So the predictions of a couple of years ago may have simply been a bit ahead of their time.”

With hits in this format still so rare, we remain cautiously optimistic, but DeYoung provides one heartening note. His ideas for how Hothead will pull off something so many have struggled with echoes the way Telltale say they eventually perceived and dodge the pitfalls Ritual fell in.

“Obviously, you have to build a solid engine base so that each episode’s content can be created and integrated easily… right now we’re finishing up episode 1 but have a lot done on episode 2 already. And we’ll be starting early work on episode 3 very soon… Currently we’re gunning for a new episode every 3-4 months.”

Publishing successful, timely episodic games requires traits rare among game developers: intense planning that is also flexible, an engine open to accommodate frequent additions, and a vision large and engaging enough to draw an audience but contained to prevent development from spiraling out of control. If a developer wants to do an episodic game, they need to learn to operate in a completely new and unique way

Or, if you’re Valve, have enough money (and loyal fans) to take all the time you want.

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Eidos Sets Release Date for Tomb Raider: Anniversary for PSP

BTGold.com — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:42:50 +0000

Eidos Interactive says that Tomb Raider: Anniversary for PlayStation Portable will be released on October 26th throughout Europe. Inspired by the first Tomb Raider videogame, originally released in 1996, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary is a totally new adventure for Lara, faithfully preserving the elements which made the original Tomb Raider such a classic (selling over 7 million copies worldwide). The Tomb Raider series is still one of the best selling videogame franchises of all time with over 32 million copies sold and two major feature films released, starring Angelina Jolie.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary will also be available on Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii this holiday season and is already available on PlayStation 2 and PC Games for Windows.

Dragoneer’s Aria Fires Up PSP

Second Lifers Now Get the Cash Alternative

BTGold.com — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:41:14 +0000

Residents of Second Life can now become cash buyers for land and property in their virtual world. By stepping up to the Ukash terminals located in the Bulido Money Service outlets in the phenomenally successful virtual world, the millions of Second Lifer residents can now use Ukash cash vouchers to get Linden Dollars, the official Second life currency. Cash consumers, and those without credit cards or with concerns about providing their financial details online, get Ukash vouchers from thousands of convenient locations across Europe.

“Ukash transactions are growing across Europe because of the convenience and security it provides to those who wish to spend cash online, so it’s natural to offer the same benefits to those who wish to transact within Second Life”, says Mark Chirnside, Chief Executive Officer at Ukash.

“Over $6 million were traded at LindeX, Second Life’s currency exchange during the second quarter of 2007, and nearly 100m residents of the virtual world have premium membership that allows them to buy and sell land within Second Life so there’s a new and booming economy that we’re pleased to be opening up to the cash consumer”, added Mark Chirnside.

The transaction is completed in real time, putting Linden Dollars into the resident’s account immediately. Residents can also make return visits to the Bulido website to get Linden Dollars without needing to be logged into Second Life, adding even more convenience to the Ukash and Second Life experience.

The Bulido Money Service is designed and operated by Crafty Studios Games Development GmbH of Pöttsching, Austria.

“We know that there are millions of Second Life residents unable to participate fully in the virtual economy as they can’t get Linden Dollars so working with Bulido to provide a convenient and secure cash payment method will open up new opportunities to these currently excluded consumers”, concludes Mark Chirnside.

Consumers can get Ukash from payment terminals found in newsagents, grocery stores, post offices and petrol forecourts across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany and The Netherlands. Ukash is also available online and via banks in these countries and a further 15 across Europe. There are no fees charged to get Ukash, meaning consumers can use the full amount of their Ukash when spending online.

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Rising Force Online Goes Free to Play

BTGold.com — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:40:39 +0000

Codemasters Online announce§í that RF Online is now a completely free-to-play MMORPG with the full game now available for download with no monthly subscription required.

RF Online is an epic mix of traditional fantasy and futuristic Sci-Fi set in the deep space galaxy of Novus where three races compete in an ultimate struggle for power and resource. Celebrating the games re-launch, new players can now also experience the all-new free expansion, Episode II: Pioneers of Novus available for free to all players of the game.

Following the recent re-launch of ArchLord as a free-to-play game growing the games player base by 700%, Codemasters Online are looking forward to attracting a surge of new interest in this amazing and now free MMORPG.

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THQ Releases Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth

BTGold.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:40:10 +0000

THQ announces the release of the Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth video game, based on the animated Nickelodeon television series. Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth is currently available for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo’s Wii home video game system, Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance. In addition, the game is scheduled to be released for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft next month, marking the debut of the first Nickelodeon title for this system.

Based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series from Nickelodeon, players will follow the storyline of the second season as Aang puts up a courageous fight against the evil Fire Nation to restore balance in the war-torn Earth Kingdom city. Players will be able to experience an epic adventure playing as five new playable characters including Appa, Jet, Toph, Zuko and Uncle Iroh as they experience brand-new firebending moves and go head-to-head in the all new Arena Combat for intense fighting action. Dramatic air battles will also take place as players experience new flying levels while playing as Momo and Appa.

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Perspective Studios Hires Kohnke Communications

BTGold.com — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:39:42 +0000

Perspective Studios has entered into an agreement with Kohnke Communications to manage the company’s corporate strategy and public relations interests. Kohnke Communications, a San Francisco-based agency with strong ties to the gaming and digital entertainment industries, will be coordinating press outreach for the accomplished production studio.

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Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis for Wii

BTGold.com — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:39:12 +0000

Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, announces that Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis for the Wii home video game system from Nintendo is now available at North American retail stores.

Developed by Rockstar Leeds in collaboration with Rockstar San Diego, Table Tennis utilizes the Wii’s motion-sensitive Wii Remote to offer a frenetic and intense experience. Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis for the Wii is rated “E” for Everyone. The title will reach European retail shelves

Hero’s Path Games, a Web-portal for Heroic Games Grows Tenfold

BTGold.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:38:39 +0000

Promaginy announces that Hero’s Path Games has reached a new milestone of 60 games, expanding tenfold from the six games it started with in November 2006. Utilizing the Reflexive Entertainment GameCentre Solution, fifteen high quality downloadable computer games are available for sale. These new games continue to capture the spirit of the hero’s path. Players can now find classic heroic games like Crimson Tide to recently released games like The Dark Legions and Grimm’s Hatchery All games are freely downloadable so that customers can try before they buy.

Players will find Action & Tactical games in the first Stage of the Hero’s Path: Call to Action. All heroes are spurred into action because they are forced to. These games force the Hero to think fast and to act smart.

Adventure & Roleplaying games are found in second Stage of the Hero’s Path: A Heroic Journey. Following the elimination of the threat, the Hero must set out on a dangerous and exciting journey to discover himself and the surrounding world around him.

Strategy & 4X games are found in third Stage of the Hero’s Path: Return as Ruler. Knowing who he is and what dangers lurk in the surround lands, the Hero returns to his home and begins his reign as ruler of the kingdom.

BT Gold » RuneScape Gold

Curse, Inc. Continues to Grow with a New U.S. Headquarters

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Sword of the New World: Granado Espada’s Cash Shop Expanded

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Why is Episodic Gaming So Hard?

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Eidos Sets Release Date for Tomb Raider: Anniversary for PSP

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Second Lifers Now Get the Cash Alternative

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Rising Force Online Goes Free to Play

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THQ Releases Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Burning Earth

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Perspective Studios Hires Kohnke Communications

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Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis for Wii

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Hero’s Path Games, a Web-portal for Heroic Games Grows Tenfold

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