[GameRatty] tag: conan

Gaia's zOMG! Recruiting for Open Beta

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:24:23 +0000

Building on the success of its social networking site, Gaia Online is taking a step into the MMO field by opening the zOMG! Beta to the public. ZOMG! is a free to play, flash-based so it doesn’t require downloading a client. The game combines social networking with community activities and streaming music.

Gaia Online has a very well developed community with strong ties. I imagine Gaian’s that have been reading and creating artwork and stories about their world and avatars will find zOMG! a natural step to take into MMOs. Key features for zOMG! follow the break. Players can get into the beta from the Gaia Online zOMG! website.

Key Features:

Beautiful Worlds to Explore – Unique worlds define the virtual landscape, creating different experiences whether through open grass fields, dense jungles, sandy beaches, ancient ruins, zen gardens, and more.
Interactive Gameplay – Engage in quests and combat against monsters either by playing alone or by combining forces with other players.
Collect In-Game Items – As players move through the world, fulfilling tasks and exploring new areas, they will find many treasures and items of value including battle rings and recipes.
Original Storyline and Characters – Converse with NPCs and combat monsters as the storyline evolves over time.
Entertaining Activities and Events – Interact with other community members by playing mini-games, meeting at dance halls, watching movies, racing cars, or by just simply exploring the landscape.
Streaming Music – Enjoy original and licensed music tracks that change over time, providing a fresh and unique in-game experience.
Accessible to Everyone – Begin playing instantly in an Internet browser as the MMO doesn’t require downloads and is a wholly flash-based game.

---
Related Articles at Gaming Today:

Conservative Christian Investment Firm goes gay bashing in games

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:41:21 +0000

If the Gay-dar rings, don't buy it. This is what the conservative Christian investment firm, The Timothy Plan, warns for parents planning to get games for their kids. Apart from the usual gaming no-no's, such as sex, violence, and substance abuse, the investment firm also flags games with homosexual content as inappropriate and unsafe for minors.

For this, The Timothy Plan hands out a list of the 30 "most offensive" games on the market. They maintain a "Do Not Buy List" for morally responsible consumers, against publishers that trade in abortion, porno, anti-family entertainment, and vices. They evaluate games on these eight categories: Sex, Nudity, Gay & Lesbian, Violence, Language, Drugs, Alcohol, and Game Addiction. They also specified if games have "demonic" content.

The usual suspects are all here: Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) and Saint's Row 2 (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) (both of which have a check mark on seven of eight categories - even gay content), Fallout 3 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC), and Age of Conan and World of Warcraft to name a few. If they're such phobes about gay content, I'm surprised they didn't tag Manhunt 2 with a gay title.

They made a lot of comments that made me laugh, here are a few of my favorites:

God of War II: "This game has a sex mini-game. During the "game," you press one of the four main PS2 buttons when indicated, which causes the women to moan louder, helping them reach climax." Now that's a detailed review!
Saints Row 2: "Homosexual Encounters: ...Characters like Randy the Tranny were used in marketing the game."
BioShock: "Strong Language: Strong profanity including the f-word , as well as numerous others we prefer to not include in this report." Wow, that's some hardcore swearing! Not to self: Get BioShock.
Manhunt 2: "Strong Language: Strong Language: The game's first two words are "Holy F k."
Blitz: The League II: "Suggestive Themes: Females appear in miniskirts with thong underwear only to be spanked by players during touchdown celebrations."
Bully: Scholarship Edition: "Homosexual Encounters: Gay achievements such as over the rainbow can be reached on the Xbox 360 when you kiss 20 boys."
Army of Two: Homosexual Encounters: (not mentioned): Somewhat homo-erotic undertones between the two main characters are present.

Well, I guess they're not looking forward to joining FLAG, but hey, this was worth a few laughs. If you wanna see the full pdf, just click on the source link below

More on censorship and game ratings:

Conservative Christian Investment Firm goes gay bashing in games

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:41:21 +0000

God of War II: "This game has a sex mini-game. During the "game," you press one of the four main PS2 buttons when indicated, which causes the women to moan louder, helping them reach climax." Now that's a detailed review!
Saints Row 2: "Homosexual Encounters: ...Characters like Randy the Tranny were used in marketing the game."
BioShock: "Strong Language: Strong profanity including the f-word , as well as numerous others we prefer to not include in this report." Wow, that's some hardcore swearing! Not to self: Get BioShock.
Manhunt 2: "Strong Language: Strong Language: The game's first two words are "Holy F k."
Blitz: The League II: "Suggestive Themes: Females appear in miniskirts with thong underwear only to be spanked by players during touchdown celebrations."
Bully: Scholarship Edition: "Homosexual Encounters: Gay achievements such as over the rainbow can be reached on the Xbox 360 when you kiss 20 boys."
Army of Two: Homosexual Encounters: (not mentioned): Somewhat homo-erotic undertones between the two main characters are present.

Well, I guess they're not looking forward to joining FLAG, but hey, this was worth a few laughs. If you wanna see the full pdf, just click on the source link below

More on censorship and game ratings:

Conservative Christian Investment Firm goes gay bashing in games

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:41:21 +0000

God of War II: "This game has a sex mini-game. During the "game," you press one of the four main PS2 buttons when indicated, which causes the women to moan louder, helping them reach climax." Now that's a detailed review!
Saints Row 2: "Homosexual Encounters: ...Characters like Randy the Tranny were used in marketing the game."
BioShock: "Strong Language: Strong profanity including the f-word , as well as numerous others we prefer to not include in this report." Wow, that's some hardcore swearing! Not to self: Get BioShock.
Manhunt 2: "Strong Language: Strong Language: The game's first two words are "Holy F k."
Blitz: The League II: "Suggestive Themes: Females appear in miniskirts with thong underwear only to be spanked by players during touchdown celebrations."
Bully: Scholarship Edition: "Homosexual Encounters: Gay achievements such as over the rainbow can be reached on the Xbox 360 when you kiss 20 boys."
Army of Two: Homosexual Encounters: (not mentioned): Somewhat homo-erotic undertones between the two main characters are present.

Well, I guess they're not looking forward to joining FLAG, but hey, this was worth a few laughs. If you wanna see the full pdf, just click on the source link below

More on censorship and game ratings:

Conservative Christian Investment Firm goes gay bashing in games

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:41:21 +0000

God of War II: "This game has a sex mini-game. During the "game," you press one of the four main PS2 buttons when indicated, which causes the women to moan louder, helping them reach climax." Now that's a detailed review!
Saints Row 2: "Homosexual Encounters: ...Characters like Randy the Tranny were used in marketing the game."
BioShock: "Strong Language: Strong profanity including the f-word , as well as numerous others we prefer to not include in this report." Wow, that's some hardcore swearing! Not to self: Get BioShock.
Manhunt 2: "Strong Language: Strong Language: The game's first two words are "Holy F k."
Blitz: The League II: "Suggestive Themes: Females appear in miniskirts with thong underwear only to be spanked by players during touchdown celebrations."
Bully: Scholarship Edition: "Homosexual Encounters: Gay achievements such as over the rainbow can be reached on the Xbox 360 when you kiss 20 boys."
Army of Two: Homosexual Encounters: (not mentioned): Somewhat homo-erotic undertones between the two main characters are present.

Well, I guess they're not looking forward to joining FLAG, but hey, this was worth a few laughs. If you wanna see the full pdf, just click on the source link below

More on censorship and game ratings:

Age of Conan: Server Merges Begin This Week

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:21:09 +0000

Funcom has posted an update on the Age of Conan server mergers which were announced by Game Director Craig Morrison back in late September. The Update also states that when the merges are complete, players will be given free character transfers and several new 'fresh start' servers will be introduced.

Age of Conan Still Coming to the Xbox 360 Eventually

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:32:29 +0000

If you think it is funny to see a naked female “pet” running past you in Age of Conan on the PC, just wait until it hits the Xbox 360. That is, unless they cut stuff like that out–but it sure as hell would not be a “Conan” game without a bit of breasts if you want my honest opinion. Then again I have no problem with such thing, but that is for a different post.

Anyway, my inane ramblings aside, despite recent lay-offs at Funcom and no new information on the promised port for the Xbox 360, the developer of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is sill planning on releasing it in the future.

According to a recent interview with Funcom Product Manager Erling Elligsen on MTV Multiplayer, the game is still in production for the console but they not “committing to any specific dates” at this point. Also Elligsen wanted to reassure players that the lay-offs happening at the company will not have any impact on the further development of the PC or console version:

“Our aim is for this to not affect development of Age of Conan, or any of our other games, at all. We are sticking firmly to our plans.”

Hopefully Funcom can fix the major gaming woes that players have experienced and get the console version of to a bang on launch day. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed.

(Thanks Shacknews)

---
Related Articles at Gaming Today:

Age of Conan server merge information released

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:00:00 +0000

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Server downtime

We've been following the efforts of Age of Conan director Craig Morrison to keep the player community more 'in the loop' since he took on the role a few months ago. Now the community team is laying out the details of one of the projects he headlined when he first stepped up: server merges. Community Manager Famine has put up a post in the official forums laying out details on the procedure. Which is good, because it's a little complicated. Here are the highlights: All servers will not be merged at once. Instead, they'll be staged with "Hyberborea" and "Bloodspire" seeing a merger during...

Age of Conan server merge information released originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Funcom reaffirms commitment to AoC on PC and Xbox 360 following layoffs

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, MMO industry, Consoles

After the rumors of staffing cuts at Funcom turned out to be true last week, many of you may have been predicting bad things for the future of Age of Conan -- or at least, enough of you to have Erling Ellingsen provide MTV's Multiplayer blog with a short statement regarding the health of their flagship title: Our aim is for this to not affect development of 'Age of Conan,' or any of our other games, at all. We are sticking firmly to our plans. The Xbox 360 version of the game is still in production, but as before we are not committing to any specific dates. I wish I could give you more...

Funcom reaffirms commitment to AoC on PC and Xbox 360 following layoffs originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Age of Conan 360 still in development, says Funcom

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:18:41 +0000

In an email to MTV, Age of Conan product manager Erling Ellingsen said that despite last week’s staff cuts the MMO’s 360 version is still very much in development. The note in full: Our aim is for this to not affect development of ‘Age of Conan,’ or any of our other games, at all. We are sticking [...]