Chris Chester
Jupiter, FL - http://
Originally hailing from suburban New Jersey, Chris is doing his gaming from sunny Florida these days, where he supplements his gaming fascination with frequent trips to the beach. A former Tabula Rasa game lead, Chris plays an eclectic mix of MMOs, including Age of Conan, Dungeon Runners, and Club Penguin (no really). A greenskin at heart however, look for him to grow increasingly orcy as Warhammer Online moves closer to release.
by Chris Chester 
Jul 23rd 2008 (1 year ago)
While much of the coverage of the union between Activision and Vivendi Universal has focused on the people reaping the benefits--including
those indirectly affected by Blizzard's rockstar status as well as those
who saw direct monetary advantage--little attention has been paid as yet to the victims of this mega merger. According to recent reports, Activision Blizzard
will be making cost-saving staffing cuts in Vivendi's UK divisions. Several Sierra titles are also reportedly getting the axe as part of the merger.
Just in case any Massively readers in the UK were wondering, this won't affect your
World of Warcraft experience at all, as Blizzard's European division is being left to its own devices. This seems to only reaffirm the long-espoused notion that Blizzard was really the only prize in which Activision was actually interested. If Vivendi's other games fall by the wayside, we doubt the ActiBlizz senior management would bat an eyelash. Still, our hearts go out to the folks who have lost their jobs, and we wish them a fruitful and speedy job hunt!
by Chris Chester Jul 23rd 2008 (1 year ago)
DC Universe Online
SOE
This blogger has always been rather jealous of San Diego residents. In hosting
Comic Con, they not only get to meet the best and brightest that the comic industry has to offer, but increasingly, they're getting attention by big names in the MMO industry too. We knew that SOE was
going to be in attendance, showing off
DC Universe Online in playable form. We've now gotten word,
via Grimwell's Blog, that they'll also be hosting a block party on Saturday the 26th outside of the Con proper for anybody in the San Diego area who wants to stop by, Con attendee or no.
They'll be busing people to and from the Con to their location, where they'll have food, unreleased games to play, a live band, and plenty of SOE employees to bug about their games old and new. As icing on the cake (do you really need icing?), Jim Lee be making an appearance from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. To say this blogger is simply jealous would be a gross understatement.
by Chris Chester Jul 23rd 2008 (1 year ago)
WoW
At this point, we work under the assumption that there are probably very few people reading this blog that haven't had the pleasure of playing a Blizzard game from start to finish. But even if through some extraordinary happenstance, there was somebody out there who hadn't played
World of Warcraft, there's s chance that they haven't yet had the opportunity to play some of the other Blizzard classics. Though
Diablo 3 didn't turn out to be an MMO as we'd hoped, its progenitors are still fantastic games to have on call in the odd occasion that your internet goes down.
That's why we recommend that you take a peek over at Amazon today, as they'll have
5 of the latest Blizzard games on sale today through their Deal of the Day and Lightning Deal promotions. The
WoW Battlechest (which includes the original game,
Burning Crusade, and a guide) will be up all day, but the
Diablo Battlechest, the
Burning Crusade expansion, the
Warcraft III Battlechest, and
Warcraft III proper will be on sale for a limited time and in limited quantities. You can't beat that with a stick.
[Via
Cheap Ass Gamer]
by Chris Chester Jul 23rd 2008 (1 year ago)
Champions Online
Cryptic
July is a good time of year to be nerd. E3, though not quite the spectacle it used to be, still carries in its wake
loads of exciting news for fanboys in the know. It's followed a week later by the comic convention to end all comic conventions -- the San Diego Comic Con. While we were a bit disappointed to see that Cryptic wasn't going to be sporting a booth this year, they did
put up an announcement on their website saying that they'll be holding a meet-and-greet for any budding
Champions Online fans in attendance.
For those interested in making an appearance, they'll be in the Oni Press area around booths 1834-1837 both on Friday the 25th at 1:15 and Saturday the 26th at 2:45. Writer John Layman (the man behind
Tek Jansen) and combat designer Geoff Tuffli will be in attendance, ready to take your questions, complaints, suggestions, diatribes, and anything else you can throw at them. Don't miss the chance to pick their brains.
by Chris Chester Jul 22nd 2008 (1 year ago)
Jumpgate Evolution
Of all the unlikely comparisons we've heard over the years, one we hadn't really anticipated was the comparison between
Jumpgate Evolution and
Gran Turismo. And just the same, there it is, smack dab in the middle of a recent
interview Gamasutra conducted with NetDevil's Scott Brown. Brown says that in
Jumpgate Evolution, instead of merely relying on a level-based progression system, you can achieve ranks in specific classes of weapons and ships in a manner not unlike
Gran Turismo's license system.
Brown goes on to talk about their priorities when it comes to putting the game through beta, the lessons they've learned from both
Auto Assault and
Jumpgate Classic, and the iterative development strategy they've employed. The interviewer also expressed shock--as many have--about the game's relatively lilliputian group of developers, with only 13 people developing such a brilliant-looking game. It's worth a read if you consider yourself a pilot-to-be.
by Chris Chester Jul 21st 2008 (1 year ago)
For those of us not fortunate enough to be part of the
Wakfu closed beta, the game has remained something of a mystery. A beautiful, sexily-rendered 2D turn-based mystery, but a mystery nonetheless. We've
seen a few screenshots, we know its release is going to be accompanied by an animated series, and we know the game is going to be in the same general vein as sister series
Dofus, but beyond that it's still a little vague.
The marketing team over at French developer
Ankama Games has passed a trailer our way that really highlights the synergy between the animated series and the game proper. It also puts the game engine into motion, giving us a better idea of what the gameplay might be like, including some glimpses of player-to-player interaction, albeit in French. Check out the video after the jump if this sounds like it might possibly be your cup of tea.
by Chris Chester Jul 11th 2008 (1 year ago)
WoW
In sports, it's fairly common practice for successful teams to sign their top talent to long-term contract extensions--both to shore up a sense of security for the owners over the long term, but also to demonstrate in straight forward monetary terms how much they mean to the team. This is not quite unlike what has happened over at Activision-Blizzard, where the
senior talent at Blizzard has signed five-year contracts with the company to reaffirm their commitment to the team. It's not immediately clear how many people this is meant to include.
Activision-Blizzard also reportedly offered similar deals to blockbuster developers Infinity Ward and Neversoft, who are responsible for the other big money-making franchises in the ActiBlizz portfolio. When you consider the speculation from the other day that
developers might be gaining greater control of their projects and the news that
EA Mythic is getting their Mythic Entertainment moniker back, it seems likes its a good time to be a proven developer. They suddenly have leverage they could only grumble for over the past few years.
by Chris Chester Jul 11th 2008 (1 year ago)
WAR
Mythic
It's been a big day for
Warhammer Online fans, and in spite of our expectations, not entirely in a good way. We've been having enough trouble attempting to process the news that
Mythic is cutting four capitol cities, but wrapping our heads around the idea of a world without
Choppas has been trying indeed. In spite of our scarcely contained nerd rage, we haven't been entirely immune to the good news that's come out : namely, that the
Warhammer Online closed guild beta should begin some time today.
Or at least, that's what the press release says. A straw polling of our many internet spies shows that, as of the time of writing this, guild beta centers have not been updated for those who were accepted into this round of testing. We expect lots of page refreshing to ensue.
by Chris Chester Jul 9th 2008 (1 year ago)
Few developers in the world have the leverage with their publishers that
Blizzard has enjoyed over the years. Where most companies involved in major mergers or corporate hullabaloo end up being cut up and sold for scrap, Blizzard actually
had a major say in which parties their parent company dealt with.
The resulting mega-corp is even partially adopting their name. Not bad for a developer started many moons ago by a trio of UCLA grads.
Some are now speculating that the spectacular success of outfits like Blizzard and Bungie may be prompting publishers to
reconsider their relationships with other rockstar development houses like Infinity Ward, the folks behind the best of the
Call of Duty series. It seems the suits are finally coming around to the idea that trusting in their proven talent can yield benefits far exceeding the cost of a delay here and there. EA, for instance, appears to be demonstrating patience with Mythic's treatment of
Warhammer Online, but only time will tell whether these aren't just isolated cases.
by Chris Chester Jul 8th 2008 (1 year ago)
WAR
Earlier today, we posted a link to
an article over at Warhammer Alliance that accused Mythic of conducting a "marketing magic show" on their fan-base by refusing to come forward with many of the juiciest, most controversial details about
Warhammer Online yet to be released. Judging by
the comments on that post, the disagreement about the quality of Mythic's efforts to date is stark indeed.
In a demonstration of class and forthrightness, Mythic co-founder and designer Mark Jacobs
stepped forward on the WHA forums today to address the editorial directly, taking apart the argument piece by piece. He outright rejects the notion that the marketing department is calling the shots when it comes to the release of details, saying that the flow of information begins and ends at his desk. He further disputes the notion that the game is unfinished or lacking in the fun department, citing the imminent guild beta as proof of the confidence they have in their product.
Given the volume of information we were allowed to show off in our
Massively goes to WAR coverage, we're inclined to side with Mark. For a site whose message of the day for many moons now has been, "
The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last," we hope the writers and posters over at WHA regain their patience.
