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We could tell you more, but then we'd be shot

Blizzard chief executive Mike Morhaime is letting us know that the much anticipated (and somewhat feared) Warcraft movie is still moving forward. Even though the project has been in the works for more than a year now, and there still isn't a director on board, Mr. Morhaime says the script is being written.

In other words, it ain't coming anytime soon - but they'd still like to do it.

Though no director has been set for the movie, the film is said to be set a year before the events of the game and fix on an all-new hero.

Mr. Morhaime wanted to share more with the community, but would have been shot if he did. Wise choice there, keeping quiet.

For more information, please check here.

At least Mythic is shaping up for a weekly update

It's the third week in a row we have a content update from Mythic Entertainment for Warhammer Online. And that's not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. This week it looks like some little details that have been missed will be making their appearance.

* A regional chat system, apparently a much-requested piece of the MMO puzzle. The /1 channel now corresponds to a general region chat channel, where 'regions' are basically zone pairings (Nordland and Norsca, for example). The /2 channel is an RvR chat channel that is enabled when you're in the RvR lakes or (on Open RvR servers) all the time.
* A 'new mail icon' to alert players when mail has arrived.
* Improvements that will make NPCs less chatty.
* All you have to do to report a goldseller is now type /rg after you get a goldseller /tell. It fills out a report on the last player to msg you, so be sure to act quickly!

Hopefully the chat in game from actual players, not NPCs, will be a little bit more robust.

For more information, please check here.

Or so says the analyst.

One of the many analysts out there, Colin Sebastian, is looking into his crystal ball of facts and sees a new set of 1 million subscribers for World of Warcraft. He also sees WoW and WAR peacefully co-existing.

"We expect a net addition of ~1 million new subscribers to World of Warcraft over the next 12 months, driven in part by the launch of the expansion pack, as well as by ongoing growth of the game in China," wrote Sebastian in an investors' note reproduced on Edge. The game currently boasts 10.9 million subscribers.

"We do not expect [Warhammer Online to have] a significant negative impact in the near-term on World of Warcraft," commented Sebasian, adding, "[we] note that preorders of the upcoming [World of Warcraft] expansion pack rank as one of the best selling games on Amazon.com and other retail websites."

He very well could be right, but we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?

For more information on Mr. Sebastian's predictions, please check here.

Torn down to foundations and built again!

The dev's over at Pirates of the Burning Sea, particularly Isildur, have been taking a very close look at the current state of avatar combat in the game. And they don't like it. Luckily, they see potential, and they're starting to let us in on their plans for improvement!

I’ve always said that our avatar combat was a good foundation on which to build. With this overhaul, I’m actively enthusiastic about what we’ve built on that foundation. I find myself concocting reasons to ‘test’ the avatar combat, often for much longer than it really takes to test anything. I’m having a great time with the new stuff, and I believe you will too.

For the full information on what changes are coming, please check the Pirates of the Burning Sea official site.

Next one will take more time, though.

Mike Morhaime, chief executive at Blizzard, says that they are currently aiming to release an expansion for World of Warcraft every year or so. However, the next one after Wrath of the Lich King will undoubtedly take longer than that.

"That's still the ideal goal," he told Eurogamer, when we asked if Blizzard still planned to release an expansion each year. "But as with anything, there is this underlying rule that trumps everything, which is that we'll take as much time as we need until... it reaches the expectations of ourselves and our players."

"Right now we're on the longer-than-a-year plan," he explained. "The next one, I think it is still unlikely that we're going to get it down to a calendar year."

For more information, please check here.

No more free lunches you freeloaders!

In a move that should surprise no one, and upset even less, CCP has announced that they will be removing the ability for players to unsubscribe to EVE Online yet still allow their characters to skill up. No other game allows this that I know of, so really this has been a "feature" ready to be cut. CCP in their typical gregarious community relations falls all over themselves to make the fans understand, but from a business and gamer perspective, this makes perfect sense. From Torfi Frans Olafsson, Senior Producer:

"We can look at this from a variety of angles, but it all comes down to:

1. There was a way to progress a character in EVE without an active subscription
2. CCP noticed a surge in the trend and decided to fix the leak
3. Players now have to pay a subscription for characters to have them progress

We truly hope that the community will understand our actions and continue to enjoy playing EVE as much as we enjoy making it."

Again, I can't imagine letting players progress their characters by not paying the subscriptions, so like the Bobs in Office Space, CCP has "fixed the glitch." To read the rest of the developer blog, head over to My EVE (subscription required).

Anime MMO moving to new gaming portal.

Get out your whiteboard because this may get confusing. The real news is that Lunia has been acquired and is available via NHN USA's gaming portal, ijji.com which boasts over 6 million users. Lunia is a anime influenced MMO:

"...with an extremely detailed combo system of action controls for movement and attacks that users control via their keyboard, rather than being restrained by the non-adaptable "click/command" style. In addition, users can create custom movements and attack skills to personalize their controls.  The game has highly advanced player vs. player elements, enabling users to compete against each other to become the best PvP player in both ongoing rankings and periodic tournaments.  Users can also join forces with friends and fellow players to attack monsters and raid bosses in force."

According to the press release, those of you who enjoy manga comics with cell shaded graphics should really dig this game. The rights to Lunia have been purchased by NHN USA a publishing company which owns the gaming portal ijji.com. Therefore, new and old players alike can access their Lunia accounts via the portal ijji.com unless you are a current subscriber and then you will want to migrate over prior to January, 2009.

EA needs to increase its online presence in Asia.

Now that Warhammer Online has made such a splash in North America and Europe. EA is setting the stage to export it's art of WAR. According the Associate Press, EA is putting pressure on it's online games to help bolster their presence in Asia. From the AP:

"EA's main business in the West comes from packaged games software for consoles and personal computers, but online games are more popular in Asia, EA President for Asia Jon Niermann told The Associated Press."

Jon later says that income from Asia account for only six percent of the overall EA income. That is what really needs to increase. What is interesting to me is that EA uses a few different publishers in Asia, but is now using The9 for it's latest game "Need for Speed Undercover." If the company name The9 sounds familiar it is probably because they publish World of Warcraft in China. Conflicting stories point to the Blizzard-The9 partnership being on the rocks, so this may be a test run for bigger and better things between EA and The9.

At least Blizzard is consistent.

Those of us patiently (maybe?) waiting for the latest World of Warcraft update may have to wait just a little longer as they sort out the issues of the last patch before Wrath of the Lich King. According to the realm status page, I've found the error "404 File not found" so it looks like they are using the Blizzcon ticket dispenser somehow. Apparently the official word is that the realms going live is imminent and should be up shortly (I would link the forum post but the forums just went down too).

Keep checking in though, the 1.2GB patch has brought networks and machines to their knees so hopefully they will get it ship shape soon. While we wait, make sure you check out the Ten Ton Hammer Blizzcon 08 Coverage.

Age of Conan Hyborian Adventures siege mounts have been getting a lot of discussion on the official forums lately. In the thread "Pre order mounts and their future?" started on the Official AoC Forums by Nolf asks the question about siege mounts being made available to the community that did not receive one with a preorder. Funcom's Svein Erik "Sharum" Jenset dropped in to respond and let the community know that there might be siege mounts available in the future.

We might make an attempt at "making everyone happy" by adding new Siege Mounts to the game and letting the War Mammoth and Killer Rhino remain pre-order exclusives. Who knows what the future might hold :>

Not everyone was happy about this statement and some went as far as to accuse Funcom for lying about making preorder siege mounts exclusive to preorders only. While I recall the look of the preorders being said to be exclusive, I don't recall hearing the actual siege mounts as being exclusive. I'm pretty sure from the beginning of the siege mount discussion that Funcom stated there would be other siege mounts in the game, even though they have yet to make it in. Svein Erik "Sharum" Jenset
responded to one such post in this thread to try and set the record strait.

We never promised anyone that, through pre-ordering, they would gain access to a type/class of mounts that would be unavailable to everyone else; on the contrary we (even me personally) have said time and time again that while we have no direct plans to make the Killer Rhino and War Mammoth available to people that didn't pre-order we've been playing with the idea of making other types of siege mounts available to the public.

One other option would be to NOT include other siege mounts, of any kind, in the game; which could easily be viewed as disruptive to game balance. Furthermore, should we implement other siege mounts but make them more powerful those that pre-ordered would most likely feel cheated.

So, as it was intentionally and as it it still is, our plans involve releasing further types of siege mounts into the game in the future; and doing so without disrupting the game balance. The Killer Rhino and War Mammoth will still be exclusive in their appearance, and as such should depict anyone mounted on one as someone who pre-ordered the game.

• You can read and participate in the thread here.
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