Get Bonus Points for Linking to My Blog, The Must-Watch Gaming Speech This Week

You get 50 points for visiting my blog!

Apparently, a speech has made its way around the net given by Jesse Schell at the DICE Summit last week which focused on the future of gaming, where it is headed and looking beyond Facebook’s successful games like Mafia Wars and Farmville.

He goes on to talk about the psychological hook that these sort of games have of kids and adults alike and how games are trying to break into reality rather than have players escape that reality by playing games. Total mind-f***, I know. And then he gets to the part about real-world activities gaining achievements and points through what ads you pay attention to and if you decide to walk rather than drive to work and all that jazz. Seems kinda scary, but it could be just a tad exaggerated, but the idea is still there and and the speech itself holds more than what I’ve said above, so click on the jump for 50 more points! Oh and the video…
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First Post of 2010, Bethesda Working on “World of Warcraft type MMO”

So, I know it’s been almost 3 weeks with no word from me but trust me, there’s not a whole lot you missed. Yes, it’s 2010, and we have a little less than 2 years until our absolute destruction but in the meantime, did you know Bethesda missed it’s big reveal of the Elder Scrolls MMO in 2009? I know, I didn’t know either! According to VG247, “Development on the game has apparently been ongoing since late 2006, said the documents, with “tens of millions of dollars” invested and “close to a hundred people” working on it.” To add to that, there was another slip up from book publisher Waterstones saying the next Elder Scrolls game would take place 200 years after Oblivion.

Whoops.

But we already know of Zenimax, Bethesda’s parent company, opening a MMO division headed by DAoC’s own Mike Firor who have been working an an unannounced title. Well this is it. Maybe.

Jeff Strain Strains My Relationship With ArenaNet, Leaves NCSoft West

So, aside from my day without the internet (that day being yesterday), and a doctor’s appointment that took an hour longer than it should have, I had a somewhat a-okay day. Upon my return to the virtual world, however, I find that all is not well in the land of MMOs. According to an article at MMORPG.com, Jeff Strain and David Reid are done with NCSoft.

NCsoft West Public Relations Director Ryan James had the following to say about the departure of Strain:

“With a successful history creating MMORPG games, NCsoft has made an indelible mark on the games industry. Last year, the South Korea-based NCsoft created a division to follow a vision of bringing AAA MMOs to the West called NCsoft West. This organization was formed as part of NCsoft’s ongoing vision to be the premier global MMO publisher in the world. With that vision, change in a growth industry is inevitable. NCsoft West announces the departure of Jeff Strain, President of Product Development, who has chosen to leave NCsoft under amicable terms and NCsoft wishes him the best in his new endeavor. This does not change our plans or negatively impact our upcoming launch of Aion, and NCsoft remains very excited about the game’s launch on September 22nd in the U.S. and September 25th in Europe. These changes do not influence any other teams, development schedules or other launches.”

Bullshit! This is yelling to me that ArenaNet is slowly dying out, and Guild Wars 2 will soon fall into a “Duke Nukem coma”, while the original Guild Wars withers away in a painful death that has been shared by Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault. With Aion soon to be released in a little over a month, NCSoft had better get its proverbial shit together before it hits the proverbial fan if they want to become a global MMO juggernaut, but, as for me, NCSoft is dying, Aion will not do as well as they need it to over here in North America, and with all the player-hype it has, it only has room to plummet to its death…only to has its heart replaced by a battery and kept alive by shocking itself with jolts of fanboys.

Jeff Strain and David Reid Out At NCsoft @ MMORPG.com [via Massively]

Happy News Year’s Eve, NCSoft Accused of Violating MMO Patent

Happy New Year’s Eve, NCSoft! Guess what? You’ve been sued for infringing on a patent of a system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space filed Aug 3, 2000 by Worlds.Com Inc. If you actually read the patent (as partially as I did) then you’ll realize this could be almost any 3D MMO. Now, that means, a lot of beloved games like Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, the dying Tabula Rasa, and a lot of others, are in danger, IF the patent is valid and enforceable.

So, why is NCSoft first in their attack? Well, they have a couple of MMOs that didn’t do so hot (Auto Assualt, Tabula Rasa) and their other MMOs are not as popular as say, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. But, again, if the patent is viable, I can only assume what will happen to other MMOs, especialy the 15 korean MMOs released yearly.

All that we can do is pray. Pray and somehow end the tirade through online petitions and flaming forum posts!

[Worlds.com Files Suit Against NCsoft... on Virtual Worlds News]

Nintendo Hit with Another Lawsuit for Waggling

Over at Game Daily there’s an article of yet another lawsuit filed against Nintendo for their Wii Motion Control. That’s right, another. Back in May, Nintendo was ordered to pay $21 Million to Anascape Ltd. for violating its patents (Wii Classic, WaveBird and GameCube controllers). So here we are again! This time, an Ohio-based company, Motiva, is saying that Nintendo’s Wii controllers are violating their patent, which dates back to sometime in June 2004.

More after the jump.

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