Gamertell

So how did you feel about the announcement Blizzard made regarding their upcoming sequel to the decade old and still selling RTS game, Starcraft II, would be split up into three games, or at least one game and two expansions? Did you not care? Are you one of those players that only cares for the multiplayer experience? What about those that do enjoy Starcraft’s story? What was the first thing you thought about? My money (no pun intended) is that you thought Blizzard was at it again with a new scheme to nickel and dime players. Well, Blizzard COO, Paul Sams, begs to differ and speaking with Videogamer.com makes his point clear (or at least tries)...

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If you want to purchase downloadable games on the current generation of consoles, only one company has made it counter-intuitive. It’s not Sony - they charge actual $US money for games. Neither is it Nintendo, which uses and one-to-one, point-to-penny system.

Why the hell, then, does Microsoft bother with a non-equal point system? I have two guesses: misdirection and laziness.

For those of you who fear math, click through and check out a few online and downloadable Microsoft Point converters…

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Virtual worlds are luring a myriad of people hungry for living virtual lives that run parallel to their real lives. Virtual worlds are an industry by themselves with spectacular growth prospects, and many investors have already taken note. A prominent media firm, Virtual Worlds Management, which keeps track of the virtual worlds industry, has revealed that investors poured in $425 million into virtual worlds in the fourth quarter of 2007.

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Ubisoft has released a financial statement which says three things: 1) they’ve done really well from September to December 2008, raking in $625.81 million, thanks in no small part to Assassin’s Creed; 2) they intend to rake in a total of $1.21 billion for this fiscal year, which ends this April Fools Day; and 3) they’re going to release a new Prince of Persia game within the next fiscal year.  No platform(s), gameplay or story details have been announced.

I was always under the impression that the past three games were supposed to be their own self-contained trilogy, so this game could be the start of a whole new plot arc, possibly with a different prince.  On the other hand, the current prince changed his accent and…

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These days an ideological line seems to divide the whole world into two halves. On one side of this ideological equator are the gamers and on the other side are the detractors of video games. Due to the increasing number of controversies around video games, some of which lead to court cases, video game lawyers are experiencing a windfall. Another major reason for video game lawyers earning serious bucks is the fact that the video game industry is flooded with cash and future growth prospects look even better.

The games industry is on an all time high and is expected to overtake even the music industry in terms of sales sometime next year according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The firm has also pegged video game sales this year at $10.4 billion, an increase of 15.5% 2006. The boom in the video gaming industry has provided new, lucrative avenues to lawyers. They tend to perform a wide array of legal tasks within the games industry…

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Five teens arrested and charged for the virtual theft of furniture from various residence in Habbo Hotel, a popular virtual networking hang out website for youngsters.

Many people reading this article may not see why Amsterdam police officers and creators of Habbo Hotel are taking this problem way too seriously. The crime committed is that the teen and the virtual furniture and items are paid for with real world money. The arrest of one of the online thief makes this the first ever online law enforcement action.

The thief, a Dutch 17-year-old who has yet to be named, is accused of computer fraud and stealing more than £2,800 (approximately $1,400 in US dollars) of furniture and other from the virtual homes of other members on Habbo Hotel and moving them into their own virtual rooms. The 17-year-old is not alone in this virtual criminal activity, having received help from four 15-year-olds who were traced and called by the Web site’s owners and taken for questioning by the Dutch police.

“We are trying to bring charges of theft. It is a little difficult and new. There has not yet been a judgment in a case like this,” said a spokesman. “The furniture may not be physical objects but because it represents a certain value we think theft is involved.”

Habbo Hotel, which was launched seven years ago by Finnish Internet company Sulake, claims the website has 80 million registered users in 31 countries. The site allows users to create their own characters and decorate their personal hotel rooms using credits which they pay for with real money.

Officials from Sulake believe that the six teens have gained access to other members rooms by tricking the members into giving up their personal login and password information.

“The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites,” explained a Sulake representative. “In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people’s personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a while. We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is the first case where the police have taken legal action.”

This case has already raised concerns over internet security and teenagers having the ability to spend money online.

“We got involved because of an increasing number of sites which are pretending to be Habbo,” the Sulake representative added. “People might then try and log in and get their details stolen.”

Because the trickery wasn’t big enough to warrant full attention by Sulake, users are asked by Sulake to protect themselves by never giving out their passwords, beware of phishing scams and for added security type in the URL by hand to access their accounts instead of using the auto-login function on their PC.

Read [Reuters] Also Read [The Telegraph] Site [Habbo Hotel]

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London games publisher Kwari today (August 30, 2007) announced eponymous Kwari, an online first-person shooter with an entirely new online play agenda. While competitive online games based on cash bets are nothing new (just look at all the poker sites), the concept has never been applied to a first person shooter… until now.

Kwari is an Unreal-style online game that is free to download but not to play: Players will use real life moolah to buy ammunition and lose a bit of money every time they are hit. On the plus side, kills equal cash for skilled players.

Also interesting is the Jackpot feature. All self-inflicted injuries, including falls and suicides, subtract money from the player at fault and go into a global pool which spans across…

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