Is there any escape from spammers? Well not if you’re online there isn’t. In fact spammers are even infiltrating games now. They are approaching gamers in MMO games like World of Warcraft and touting in game items and levelled up characters in exchange for cash.
Sony Online Entertainment have decided enough is enough and they’ve put together a team of spam busters who police games like Everquest and Free Realms stalking spammers and building up a picture of their evil organisation. Just like undercover cops they wait to find Mr Big before they call SWAT in and fill them all full of lead…or ban their accounts at least.
Most of these characters farms are based outside the reach of the US so there isn’t much the publishers and developers can do about the trade which is estimated to be worth several million dollars every year. You can read about this in more detail here.
I love the idea of that job working for Sony. What is their job title? Virtual Detective? MMOG Police? It must feel really rewarding to bust spammers, they should raid them in game and stick their characters in stocks for gamers to throw rotten veg at before they ban their accounts. Then hang, draw and quarter them and leave their heads on poles as a warning to other spammers.
Tags: Sony Online Entertainment, spam, spammers
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Have you ever heard of Multiverse? They are middleware providers of an MMO engine and tools which they give away for free to developers in return for a share of the commercial spoils, if the resultant games ever go commercial.
Back in 2006 they announced a Firefly MMO game after signing a deal with Fox. Joss Whedon fans everywhere wet their pants in excitement and Multiverse went on the hunt for a developer to make their game. A couple of years later they announce they are going to make a Buffy MMO game but this time they are doing it themselves. This new Buffy game means that Firefly is now on hold. That was back in September last year and they haven’t said anything since.
I’m thinking Firefly is never going to see the light of day but it would have made a much better MMORPG than Buffy. On the other hand there aren’t enough horror MMO games out there, even some of the exciting prospects in development have now halted work and will probably never come out. There are a few free vampire MMORPGs but they are mostly text based and very simple. We definitely need a decent horror MMORPG, personally I’d go for a zombie infested world with simple survival as the aim but hey vampires would do.
The truth is most MMO games that get announced never actually make it to market. Even big projects at wealthy companies often disappear after a few years and with the associated cost it shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Not only do you have the usual difficulty of producing a game which is enjoyable to play and works technically but you also have to launch it into a busy market, make sure you provide plenty of server support and promote it enough to build a decent player base. Failure with any of these factors and your MMO game will sink without a trace.
I’m really tempted to download the Multiverse engine and have a play with it. Maybe knock up an MMORPG in which you take on the role of a young developer and challenge you to build a bankroll by slaying investors, conquer fickle fans and ultimately face off against the big bad evil of the games industry - the publishers.
Tags: Buffy MMO, Firefly MMO, MMO Games Development, Multiverse
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Well real life banking has proved to be a total disaster lately with Scottish banks in particular making a stunning mess of things. While the real world economy seems to be struggling virtual worlds are turning over more and more cash every year.
Gaming economies have been growing steadily and the amount of money changing hands in virtual worlds has now reached impressive heights. One of the leading examples is the MMO Entropia which boasts the most expensive sale ever in an MMO. It is now set to rake in even more money with the news that the developers, Mindark are about to open fully functioning banks which will allow you to deposit your wages, pay bills or even borrow cash from the in-game bank. They claim that over $400 million changed hands in Entropia last year.
The Entropia economy has an exchange rate of 10 Project Entropia Dollars to 1 real US dollar. It is a free piece of software but the game is full of micro-payment transactions, basically you can buy all sorts of content or pay for various services in the game world. Some people are even making a living from it.
The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority have actually granted them a license so virtual banking is now tied to the real world. They have deposit insurance up to $60,000 and to combat fears of criminal money laundering they are giving regulators oversight of the transactions.
With all that cash you’d think Entropia would have more users, they claim nearly a million registered but regular users number under 100,000. Anyone fancy joining up? I’m looking to put together a crew for the first virtual bank heist in history.
Tags: Entropia, virtual banking
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