MMOs You May Not Know About

In the MMO Metaverse, there is one juggernaut that rules supreme when it comes to subscriptions. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft first hit store shelves in 2004 and has since surpassed 10 million active subscribers. With a community that covers the majority of MMO gamers, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there is a huge catalogue of MMOs out there that don’t get as much attention. In the interest of fair and balanced journalism, we’d like to spend some time with a small sampling of our favorite MMOs that sometimes go unsung.

Lord of the Rings Online

With something of a sticky start, this MMO has quickly come into it’s own. By listening to their audience and taking their recommendations and advice to heart, Turbine has released multiple updates since launch which have tweaked everything from the user interface to housing to character customization. The gameplay, user interface, and setting are all comparable to World of Warcraft, but with the wealth of characters, story and lore coming from Tolkien’s Middle Earth, the tone is a bit more serious.

Fellowships are essentially the Lord of the Rings Online version of guilds, where players join larger groups in order to take on larger tasks within the game. However, LotRO has a unique feature called Fellowship Maneuvers. During a battle, any member of a fellowship can activate the maneuver, which prompts a skill wheel to pop up on each player’s screen. Each player then contributes a different element to the maneuver, choosing between Ent’s Strength, Spider’s Guile, Eagle’s Cry, and Stallion’s Spirit. Depending on the level and combination of these elements, fellowships can pull of a multitude of maneuvers, aiding them in health, strength, stamina, magic, or other skills.

Another major difference between LotRO and WoW is the way they approach the warring factions within the canon. All players in Lord of the Rings Online play as one of the free races of Middle Earth, fighting against the forces of evil. Since that doesn’t leave much room for Player versus Player combat, Tubrine introduced something called Monster play. Basically, it’s a separate PvP game that allows players to take on the life of a Minion of Mordor so that they can face off against players who stay loyal to their Fellowship. Players are free to switch between the regular game and Monster Play at will, with each realm allowing for it’s own tree of skill and character development.

Tabula Rasa

Coming from the legendary game creator Richard Garriot, Tabula Rasa attempts to break the formula of classic click and wait MMOs. Taking place on a foreign planet where an alliance of free races fight against evil aliens known as the Bane, the setting and atmosphere differ greatly from the typical sword and armor based MMOs we’re used to seeing.

Combat is where Tabula Rasa offers a unique approach. Players use advanced ballistic weaponry and futuristic alien technology to take on the Bane, which adds a new level of strategy. Weapons like grenade launchers, machine guns, and rifles all come with their own range and stats, which are of course upgradeable and customizable over time. The environment itself lends a new flavor to the combat as well. Garriot created a dynamic battlefield where small skirmishes and large-scale battles take place along with and sometimes independent of players. This means that you may log in to the game and spend some time pushing back the front lines in a full on push against the Bane, only to find that when you log in tomorrow that same area is overrun with enemies, forcing you to spawn in a different location, and giving you the choice of either attempting to take it back or moving on to the next waypoint. This also folds into the ethical parables Garriot added to the game, giving players ethical decisions to make during quests that will affect the people and environment around them.

With some new approaches to the genre, Tabula Rasa does break new ground without overhauling the concept. While these alternatives do offer a breath of fresh air in a genre that can sometimes seem stagnant, the basic core of item collecting, fetch quests, and grinding are still intact and offer a sense of familiarity.

Eve Online

Eve Online may not have the large subscription numbers that other games do, but with a totally different setting and playstyle, a complicated and intricate character progression, and an incredibly devout fan-base, it could be argued that their contribution to the MMO Metaverse is just as valid.

Eve Online is a space based role-playing game. Each player begins as a meager spaceship captain working his or her way up through the intergalactic trading business. By running odd jobs like mining asteroids, transporting goods, salvaging abandoned ships, or recycling space debris. If the player so chooses, they could spend their whole time simply completing jobs across the galaxy, building up their trade armada; but that’s not much fun. With the money gained, players can upgrade their ships with weapons, armor, and other accessories built for piracy, smuggling, or bounty hunting.

Eve Online gives the players more options for gameplay, allowing each person to develop their own existence in the persistent world that has been built for them. Some people say that Eve is boring, and focuses too much on menial tasks, but it’s this level of immersion that is a draw to certain types of players. True space conquest role-playing combined with unlimited progression paths can sometimes leave a gamer feeling overwhelmed and lost, but you can’t ignore the devout follow that Eve Online has built for itself.

Honorable Mentions

Guild Wars

Guild Wars is one of those sleeper hits that seem to come out of nowhere. Having just sold 5 million copies of the game and its subsequent expansions, their fan base is devout and loyal. While Guild Wars may not break any ground in terms of design or gameplay, but where they truly shine is in their sense of humor. Right from the start, ArenaNet wanted a tongue-in-cheek feel for their game, and did so by turning the MMO community and fantasy genre on its ear. However, while you can get a chuckle from achieving your Incorrigible Ale-Hound skill, the game on a whole is far from a joke, and offers countless hours of right-clicky MMO fun.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Age of Conan is set to release in May, so we can’t pass judgment just yet, but what we’ve seen of this game so far is impressive. In an attempt to make the combat more visceral and violent, developers have included a combo system into the game. No longer will you click on an opponent and watch the seconds tick by while both of you go through canned animations until someone falls over. By clicking directional melee attack buttons you can not only target a specific spot on an enemy’s body, but you can also chain together these attacks for devastating combos. Throw in rhino and mammoth mounts, very mature levels of sex and violence, PvP that includes siege combat, and the ability for guilds to build, defend, and lose their own city, Age of Conan is definitely an MMO we’re hoping lives up to the hype.

When it comes down to it, no game in the MMO market can even attempt to reach for World of Warcraft’s 10 million active subscribers. Yet. With developers pushing the envelope and challenging what we think can be done with massively multiplayer online games, there’s no telling what will happen in the next few years. While that level of success rarely happens twice within a small, often shunned demographic, the number of people who play MMOs is growing every day. And hopefully someday, if we’re lucky, we will be able to discuss topics such as this in public without fear of becoming social pariahs. A boy can dream, can’t he?

Nokia Ain’t Never Scared of PSP Phone

Nokia, makers of the N-Gage, are officially not scared of a possible PSP phone.

N-Gage division president Jaakko Kaidesoja said, “I’m not scared about anybody. The real question is how do they [Sony Ericsson] do it? Can they create a link between the PSP games and a phone? Can they do the multiplayer and online stuff? We’ve been doing this for two years and it hasn’t been easy.”

Hey, Jaakko… we’ve got an answer for you. You make a videogame platform first and add a phone to the mix… not the other way around.

That’s a freebie, enjoy.

Last.fm Embraces Mid…er, Widgets

Music streaming network Last.fm has begun promoting the various websites and other online services that use its free music streaming feature via a selection of widgets and applications. Housed in its Build.last.fm section, the widgets and applications were developed using open platform and free web service tools.

The company says it will expand its web services this year, encouraging others to include Last.fm’s functionality in their programs. Expansions include a BBC application that allows listeners to add music streamed on BBC to their Last.fm profiles, and a Skype application that lets Skype users share tracks and playlists.

Celebrity Photos Online Lead to Arrests in China

BEIJING (Reuters) – China has arrested two more people for posting nude photos of Hong Kong pop stars on the Internet, state media said on Saturday.

The two were sentenced to five days detention for spreading at least ten photos of singer and actor Edison Chen in bed with female celebrities, a scandal that has touched off a media frenzy in Hong Kong and feverish downloading of the photos.

The two men were arrested in the central province of Hunan after an online post showing the nude photos attracted more than 100,000 hits, Xinhua news agency said.

Eleven others across the country have already been detained for producing or selling the photos or posting them on the Internet, Xinhua said.

Some 1,300 private shots of the celebrities were stolen by the staff of a computer repair shop from a faulty laptop believed to belong to Chen, Hong Kong police have said.

Last week, Chen said he would quit the Hong Kong entertainment industry to “heal himself.”

The Canada-born Chen, a hip hop artist and Asian film star, has admitted that most of the pictures circulating on the Internet had been taken by him and said that he never intended to show them to anyone.

Hong Kong police have made at least 10 arrests in connection with the scandal.

China prohibits the production or distribution of “pornographic products even without the purpose of making profit” and offenders can face detention of up to 15 days, Xinhua said.

(Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch)

EU Objects to TomTom’s Bid to Buy Tele Atlas

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission is sending a “statement of objections” to TomTom on its plans to purchase its main map supplier, Tele Atlas, a source with knowledge of the situation said on Saturday.

TomTom, the world’s biggest maker of car navigation devices, had offered some remedies to meet concerns within the European Commission that the deal would be anti-competitive.

While TomTom submitted its remedies the formal notice of objections hung in the balance

But in the end, the European Union executive was unable to accept them before the deadline for sending the “statement of objections,” which lays out competition problems with the deal.

The statement does not, however, mean the deal will be rejected. Instead, it means that TomTom will have to come up with better remedies. The deadline for a decision is May 5.

Experts say that if a statement of objections is issued it slows and complicates the process because it creates a formal, written record of problems with the deal.

The deal would let TomTom move beyond hardware where double-digit profit margins are expected to decline in line with other consumer electronics makers, analysts said.

Tele Atlas also supplies online mapping Web sites such as Google Maps, as well as mobile phone maker Nokia.

TomTom and Tele Atlas said when the deal was announced they planned to tap into TomTom’s user base to get feedback on where maps were out of date and gather statistical information on traffic flows to create new features such as daily map updates and predicting traffic jams.

(Reporting by David Lawsky, Editing by Peter Blackburn)

E-Menus Replace Waiters in Some Restaurants

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Meet the e-waiter.

Restaurants in Europe, the United States and Japan are testing technology to let diners order their food direct from a screen at their table instead of depending on a fellow human being to note their choice — sometimes grumpily or erroneously.

Besides cutting costs, companies that sell the “e-menu” argue the bytes-for-bites approach has a novelty value that can lure younger customers, and boost revenues as tantalising photographs of succulent steaks and gooey desserts tempt diners to order more.

It also could extend the TV dinner. How about a computer-game dinner?

The idea may be only the latest gimmick in a trade which is driven by consumer appetites and where fads help. But at least for now, it appears to be boosting business.

Tempting Customers

In Israel, privately owned start-up Conceptic has already installed e-Menu technology in sushi bars, pubs and family restaurants. The system is based on touch-screens already used in self-service canteens or for ticketing in airports and cinemas.

“It’s about impulse-buying,” said Adi Chitayat, Conceptic’s chief executive. “If a person starts looking at pictures of chocolate cake, the chances are he’ll order it.”

The firm has also supplied its systems to restaurants in France, South Africa and Belgium.

Frame, a trendy sushi restaurant in Tel Aviv which has installed the system, said sales on tables with the e-Menu have increased by about 11 percent. Customers often call ahead to reserve spots equipped with the screens, manager Natalie Edry told Reuters.

At one of the e-Menu tables, information technology worker Gil Uriel and his young family were enthusiastic as they checked out pictures of the dishes on offer and squabbled over desserts.

“It’s more visual,” said Uriel, as his children clicked away furiously on a games function between courses. “We can still choose, we can still argue — but it’s much easier when you can all see it.”

Transformation Tech?

In Japan, a company called Aska T3 has produced a similar system. But the field is attracting more than startups.

Microsoft says its new Microsoft Surface system, which transforms an entire table into one big touch-screen, is due to go live in spring 2008 in some U.S. hotels and casinos, letting customers order food direct as well as play music and games.

The Seattle-based giant says on its Web site it will “transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.” Both Conceptic and Microsoft argue their examples of interactive and communal technology represent the future.

“We are living in a technology age,” said Conceptic’s Chitayat. “People are not afraid of screens.” The company, which launched its pilot in 2006, expects to turn a profit in mid-2009, he added.

From restaurants which use conveyor-belt dish delivery to one at the Dutch university of Wageningen which tracks diners with concealed cameras, technology is increasingly penetrating eateries, in a bid to boost sales.

Chitayat said taking computers into restaurants is an obvious next step after technology revolutionized the workplace, although he noted restaurants with the e-Menu — including Frame — still rely on waiters to deliver the food.

His company is also piloting a Web-based version, to let customers log on to a restaurant’s WiFi Internet network and place their orders from their own laptops, hand-held computers or cell phones.

Some Prefer Humans

But many diners doubt the e-menu idea will take off.

“I don’t believe in screens, I believe in humans,” said businessman Yoash Torkman as he lunched at Frame. “I’ll wait for 15 minutes for a waitress instead of using this. It’s a gimmick and gimmicks have very short lives.”

In Europe, where dining out is a time-honored tradition as much about good conversation and etiquette as staving off hunger, waiting staff were unsurprisingly circumspect.

“See this man here? He’s been coming here for 25 years,” said a waitress at Italian restaurant Rosticceria Fiorentina in Brussels, who gave her name only as Giovanna.

“I know his wife, I know his daughter. Do you think it would be better if he was welcomed by computer?”

Some analysts also wonder if the appeal will extend beyond early-adopters like the Frame customer Uriel, to evolve into a tool that changes the way people eat out.

“There are always some people who embrace a new technology but others will avoid it for as long as possible,” said Jackie Fenn, emerging technology analyst at Gartner consulting group.

“Will a bunch of teenagers have a blast using it? Yes. But it will take time to move from being an attraction in a small number of restaurants to something that is widespread.”

(See the Reuters online video about the system)

(Additional reporting by Elana Ringler and Brian Love in Brussels; Editing by Sara Ledwith)

More Americans Go Online for News

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch, and nearly half are turning to the Internet to get their news, according to a new survey.

While most people think journalism is important to the quality of life, 64 percent are dissatisfied with the quality of journalism in their communities, a We Media/Zogby Interactive online poll showed.

“That’s a really encouraging reflection of people who care A) about journalism and B) understand that it makes a difference to their lives,” said Andrew Nachison, of iFOCOS, a Virginia-based think tank which organized a forum in Miami where the findings were presented.

Nearly half of the 1,979 people who responded to the survey said their primary source of news and information is the Internet, up from 40 percent just a year ago. Less than one third use television to get their news, while 11 percent turn to radio and 10 percent to newspapers.

More than half of those who grew up with the Internet, those 18 to 29, get most of their news and information online, compared to 35 percent of people 65 and older. Older adults are the only group that favors a primary news source other than the Internet, with 38 percent selecting television.

Howard Finberg, of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, said the public often doesn’t understand that the sources they are accessing online such as Google News and Yahoo News pull stories from newspapers, television, wire services and other media sources.

“It’s delivered in a non-traditional form, that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t traditional journalism underneath it,” he explained.

But Finberg said the study does support the belief among many large media companies that focusing on local issues is important to their journalistic and economic survival.

MySQL Acquisition Hints of Sun’s Priorities

Sun last week closed its US$1 billion deal to buy open-source database vendor MySQL, and with the news came a bold proclamation from Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.

“In my view, this is the most important acquisition in Sun’s history, and the most important in the modern software industry,” Schwartz said during a conference call.

MySQL‘s CEO, Marten Mickos, is now senior vice president of a new database group within Sun’s software division. “In terms of the business model, technology and culture, the fit with Sun is perfect,” he said.

During the conference call, Schwartz acknowledged that Sun’s acquisition plans aren’t over, but said future deals will likely concern “more tuck-in assets.”

“MySQL was the crown jewel of the open-source marketplace. As far as we can see, there are no more higher-value assets we can acquire,” he said.

Bargain Buy?

Despite Schwartz’s characterization of the MySQL deal as a pinnacle moment for Sun, its price tag is much lower than other acquisitions, such as the $4.1 billion it paid for StorageTek in 2005.

In addition, Schwartz’s boasts belie the fact that deals from other vendors — such as the $8.5 billion Oracle is plunking down for middleware vendor BEA Systems, an acquisition announced in January — dwarf the MySQL buy.

Schwartz acknowledged that “in terms of relative valuation, the financials are one way to look at it.”

But “looking forward, MySQL is profound for a very basic reason,” he said. “It has a customer base in the millions, if not tens of millions.”

However, since the acquisition was first announced, users have urged Sun to deal with various performance and scalability limitations within MySQL.

Teams are already working on such issues, particularly regarding scalability, said Rich Green, executive vice president of Sun’s software group, in an interview following the conference call. “It’s a really high priority for us to deal with the improved scalability issue. We’re all over it.” Green declined to provide a release road map.

Juggling Priorities

Despite the potential scale of the business Sun could build around MySQL, its partner relationships with makers of proprietary databases will not be affected, Green asserted.

“The simple answer is, that’s going to go unchanged,” he said. “We’ve built an enormous customer base with companies like Oracle and Sybase. We’re going to go full speed in those partnerships.”

In an interview, Mickos said his initial job will be to ensure business runs as usual for existing MySQL customers: “The first thing is to do no harm.”

The new Sun executive cited the “energy” generated by MySQL’s user base as one of its key strengths.

One question is how being acquired will alter MySQL’s relationship with its community. “I think it will change. I think it will improve,” Mickos said, adding, “there will always be someone upset with something. If nobody is upset, that means nobody cares.”

Sun is now offering subscriptions and services for MySQL’s full range of products. It is also introducing MySQL Enterprise Unlimited. For a flat annual fee, customers can deploy an unlimited number of MySQL Enterprise Servers.

More than 100 million copies of MySQL’s database have been downloaded and distributed, according to Sun. The daily rate has grown from 50,000 to more than 60,000 since it announced its plans to buy MySQL, Sun said.

Pirates of the Caribbean Online Updated

Disney Online announced Friday that it has launched new content for its Pirates of the Caribbean Online game for Mac OS X and Windows.

It costs US$9.95 per month to play ($4.95 for the first month).

A Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), Pirates of the Caribbean Online is set in the same fantasy world as you’ve seen in the movies — the high seas of the Caribbean, where you search for adventure, fame and fortune while interacting with other players and characters from the movies.

Pirates of the Caribbean is rated E10+ by the ESRB (suitable for everyone 10 and older)

In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, you create your own pirate character, set sail on your own pirate ship, embark on ship and land-based missions using secret maps to locate buried treasure, use voodoo magic, earn extra look playing poker and blackjack, and join a band or guild of other players.

New features now in Pirates of the Caribbean include customization options that let you refine your character with new hairstyles, tattoos, jewelry and clothing. “Unlimited Access” members also get an exclusive skull bandana they can pick up from any tailor before midnight on Sunday, March 2, 2008.

“Emotes” are now supported — the ability to communicate with other players using actions, such as laughing, clapping, crying, flexing, dancing and more. A new “Looking for Crew” (LFC) feature lets players tell other players they’re interested in crewing up for an adventure.

Disney Online also announced plans to release additional content in 2008 like a new “Black Pearl” boss battle, an expansion of ship customization options, extensions of quest story lines and the addition of new enemies and challenges.

System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4.6 or later, G4 or better, 512MB RAM, 700MB free hard disk space and a broadband connection.

Covad Deal Revives Stalled Silicon Valley Wi-Fi Plan

Covad Communications has jump-started a stalled public wireless project in Silicon Valley with a plan to target businesses first.

The competitive broadband provider will build a long-delayed Wi-Fi test network in one local city with an eye to a commercial rollout that might include other technologies and partnerships with incumbent mobile operators. But the initial concept is far more narrow than what a regional nonprofit and a consortium including Cisco Systems and IBM had once envisioned.

Ambitious Project Stalls

Like many municipal Wi-Fi plans, the one proposed in early 2007 by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and Silicon Valley Metro Connect sailed into rough seas in mid-2007. Azulstar, the startup that was to build and operate the network, couldn’t get funding even for two test networks at about US$500,000 each.

Some critics said the planners would have to back down on an estimated US$100 million concept that spanned about 40 municipalities and 1,500 square miles, with several types of networks and services designed for government, consumer and business customers.

After Azulstar pulled out, Metro Connect set out to find another partner and found that Covad’s hopes overlapped with its own. Covad, based in San Jose, California, provides high-speed fixed wireless service to businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area and other markets using proprietary pre-WiMax networks. It wants to reach a larger number of smaller customers, including home-based businesses, with a service that can be deployed for less money and carry a lower monthly rate.

Test Territory Set

For the test network, which will cover one square mile of downtown San Carlos, California, for three months, Covad will roll out Wi-Fi base stations on light poles and other locations, and use its own wired and wireless infrastructure to link those to the Internet. Covad plans to deploy Wi-Fi access points in the test area over the next 30 days. The company wants to find out whether it can make money selling a Wi-Fi service on unlicensed spectrum to small businesses. City governments and public safety agencies are a secondary target, said Alan Howe, vice president of wireless strategy at Covad.

“Our commitment is primarily to serve our own internal needs,” Howe said, noting that no taxpayer funds will go into the test network. The grander vision of signing up cities across the region is attractive but too much to dive into now, he said. “We want to make sure we walk before we run.”

New Partner Welcomed

Working with Covad suits Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, which has been hoping for a viable operating partner since the beginning, according to Seth Fearey, vice president and chief operating officer of the group. Cities and companies in the area felt burned by Metricom, which operated the popular Ricochet service in the 1990s but later failed and left its equipment behind, he said.

“We just want someone to come in and offer good-quality service and make money at it, so that it can be upgraded, kept current and be valuable for the long term,” Fearey said. The ill-fated choice of Azulstar was made by Metro Connect, the partnership of Cisco, IBM and nonprofit SeaKay, he said. There’s no guarantee of Covad’s future, but the company brings valuable assets such as its existing backhaul network, he said. A Cisco representative was not immediately available for comment.

The partners are now taking a “calmer, more rational” approach to the project, said independent municipal network analyst Craig Settles. He still believes that governments may be a more ripe market because of ample grant money available for such initiatives. A regional wireless network would be ideal for police and fire in the area because the cities are small, and response to big emergencies is often a joint effort.