"Join in NOW and help Capture Obama and the renegade Cong. Defeat the Union Troops and other allies of the former President and help safeguard American Freedom. " It's the online survivalist game/wish fulfillment entitled "2011: Obama's Coup Fails" (via) [more inside]
posted by bardic on Oct 18, 2009 - 171 comments

The gaming website Eurogamer posted a scathing review of the MMO Darkfall, yet the developers claim that the reviewer only played the game for two hours. Eurogamer refused to take down the review and became hated by the Darkfall community. This lead to what might be the most sublime nerdrage in the history of mankind. To Eurogamer's credit, they commissioned a second review of the game by Kieron Gillen. [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla on Jul 17, 2009 - 86 comments

While it's been noted Obama is the first presidential candidate to run political ads in video games and one of his transition team leaders plays World of Warcraft, there's no real evidence as yet that the coming administration encompasses the gaming experience and mindset. Since future ones undoubtedly will, as video and computer games go mainstream, it's worthwhile to ponder what things would be like if gamers ran the world. (via) [more inside]
posted by Doktor Zed on Dec 8, 2008 - 52 comments

There have been many efforts at measuring Azeroth, and MeFi's own Hogshead has the latest, which not only determines the land area but also touches on the geophysical properties of the planet's most populated fantasy world.
posted by Pope Guilty on Jun 27, 2008 - 16 comments

Still paying a monthly fee for an MMO? Free-MMOs boasts an exhaustive (exhausting?) list of games that are free to join, free to play; try the excellent dungeon crawl Gods of Time, or the odd abandonware homebrew Ultima 6 Online.
posted by jbickers on May 21, 2008 - 24 comments

In this way, Lu Yang became one of the "RMB gamers" she disdains. More than 10,000 RMB was quickly and nearly imperceptibly spent. In the game, the "queen" possessed fearsome power. She carried out vengeance for herself and her friends, she accepted entreaties, and she protected the caravans of the kingdom. At the same time, she went out with the heroes to invade other kingdoms. Her reputation spread far and wide. [...] "Long live the Queen!" People bowed to her in submission. That was the high point for Lu Yang on ZT Online, and for that one fleeting moment, she felt that the time and money she had spent was worth it.

The System is a translated Chinese article examining ZT Online, an MMORPG that has taken fleecing gamers to a new level.
posted by Kattullus on May 6, 2008 - 34 comments

The Straylight release of Nexus War, a browser based PvP MMO in the vein of Urban Dead (thought significantly more complex) and Kingdom of Loathing (thought significantly more serious in tone), occurred today. It brings with it a host of changes, new skills, upgrades, and expansions, shaking things up for the old player base and making it an ideal time for new players to join, both because the status quo is being rewritten and because of a vastly expanded in game help menu. [more inside]
posted by Caduceus on Apr 26, 2008 - 22 comments

Metaplace
"We modelled this on the web," said Mr Koster, "You can think about each world being a webpage and every object within in it is a link."
Raph Koster has unveiled Metaplace, an easy to use virtual world creator. The BBC reports: article, video of Raph demoing the app [youtube].
posted by MetaMonkey on Sep 19, 2007 - 16 comments

Well, it's official. After numerous rumors, leaks, and even someone with a sharp eye for trademark searches, it was revealed this morning with the first entrants to BlizzCon in Anaheim, California that the next World of Warcraft expansion will be called Wrath of the Lich King, complete with new areas to explore, new hairstyles and character customizations, level 80, and the first new class to be introduced to the game since it opened.
posted by thanotopsis on Aug 3, 2007 - 76 comments

Raising for Ryzom. Saga Of Ryzom's parent company is having some sort of undisclosed trouble, and a group of users are raising funds to purchase the source code and art assets. So far, they've raised 60k in euros.
posted by ®@ on Dec 1, 2006 - 3 comments

Get your game on with Kaneva. Billing itself as "The world’s first digital entertainment marketplace!" Kaneva is a beta launch of a concept that maybe interesting to gamers, media creators, and consumers as well. An Atlanta based company, Kaneva.com aims to be an exchange/market portal for game and media creators, who can directly create Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) games using the Kaneva Framework, and for digital media creators seeking distribution. The business model is innovative, and has been described as "a kind of multi-media flickr (pre-fame) meets eBay on steroids, or an online marketplace for folks hyped on digital entertainment. An Intertainment Hub. A platform and host." The company recently presented its concept at the June meeting of the International Game Developers Association, and back in April Computer Gaming Magazine had an article. During the beta test phase, the site's tools are free to all comers, and there is already a limited amount of content available for those who just want to play something new.
posted by paulsc on Jun 18, 2005 - 8 comments