Massively^™

Social networking and virtual worlds are related technologies; they're both digital spaces where people can form and maintain relationships with one another. Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are commonly used to market products and services. MMOs are both products and services, so putting them on Facebook makes sense.

Realtime Worlds thinks so, anyway, as it has opened an official APB Facebook page where it can hold contests, and post news and media, and where fans can converse about the game. While pages are often used as half-hearted attempts to keep brands visible, Realtime Worlds is swinging for the fences by making its APB page an integral part of its public relations strategy.

WarCry talked to Realtime Worlds community manager Chris "Ulric" Dye about that decision, and he described in detail what the company is trying to do and why it's trying to do it. It's an interesting read, and there are a couple more general game-related questions slipped in. Most of them are artfully dodged, though! Nevertheless, Dye announced a fan art contest. Go to the Facebook page and submit your "best APB-themed graffiti/artwork" to win an as-yet-unannounced prize!

The MMO genre is more than World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online. Here's what's going on in the rest of the world.

Battleground Europe launches new website
Playnet Inc.'s Amy-Lynn Engelbrecht informs us that the destination site for Cornered Rat Software's World War 2 MMO, Battleground Europe, has gotten a significant makeover. With a focus on providing information that's more helpful to members of its strong and active community, the new updated site also features an RSS feed for news, or the option to receive regular updates by Feedburner email. Join up and fight with a 14-day free trial!

Ankama Games announces new Wakfu features
The spiritual and temporal successor to Ankama's previous title Dofus, Wakfu is an up-and-coming 2D MMO with a currently unreleased launch date. However, bits and pieces of news trickle out from time to time, such as the following: There will be an Enchantment profession, in which items are dismantled for their runes, then grafted onto new items for special powers. Taking a page from World of Warcraft?

Secondly, Wakfu will have no NPCs to offer quests. Instead, the game will have "Dynamic Challenges" -- quests that arise when environmental conditions are right, such as time, area, etc. The types of Challenges include Kill, Ecosystem, Social, and Discovery. Each will be available in both solo and team play.

Following yesterday's announcement from Realtime Worlds concerning their upcoming beta for All Points Bulletin, we now have confirmation that the "Register your interest" page has gone live. This is all thanks to the overwhelming response from APB fans who became members of their Facebook fan group yesterday. Their initial goal of 500 was achieved within 3 hours of posting the news!

So now, much earlier than expected, Realtime Worlds has launched the interest page for anyone looking for a chance to get into the APB beta. This is simply the first step in the process, but rest assured that more news will be coming soon. Plus, if you haven't had a chance to sign up to their Facebook group yet, you can join and help them grow even further.

In light of the recent positive news surrounding Realtime Worlds' upcoming crime MMO All Points Bulletin, they've just announced that beta signups will begin soon. In anticipation of this, they've set up a website where fans can register their interest in the beta, which will enable fans to get their email added in anticipation, and ensure up-to-date news from Realtime Worlds regarding APB and future projects.

Before Realtime Worlds decided to create the "Register Your Interest" page as part of their growing community activities, they wanted to make sure there would be enough enthusiasm for the game. So to gauge this enthusiasm, they promised that the sign-up page would go live after they reached 500 members on their APB Facebook page. Well, they reached that goal in only a few hours, proving that this game is very highly-anticipated.

Realtime Worlds Studio Head Colin Macdonald spoke with the site videogaming 247 about the developer's lengthy work on their titles Crackdown and All Points Bulletin. According to Macdonald, the team at Realtime has been working on these games for over a decade, striving to create something momentous and lasting. He views APB as the culmination of all their hard work; "It's where we want to go in terms of sandbox gameplay and everything that started with Grand Theft Auto and was evolving through Crackdown."

He thinks APB will bring a number of very special and unique offerings to the genre, and looks forward to players getting a chance to experience the game. That's not too far off, either, as Beta is growing ever closer and launch is "much closer" than many might expect.

[Via RPS]

I'm going to start this week's The Digital Continuum off with an obvious, yet necessary, disclaimer: This is my (ie Kyle Horner's) opinion and not Massively's.

A high horse can be ridden and a dead horse can be beaten, but can some people get over their assiduous horse fetishes? Apparently, no, they can't. I'm speaking of course about knee-jerk, marketing-mannequin reactions that some people seem to have when Warhammer Online is compared to World of Warcraft. It's almost as though doing such a thing has become a sacred cow, which cannot -- and verily should not -- dare be brought up. Why? "Well, because such discussion occurs ad infinium." someone will say. I say to them, "And rightfully so." Because for all the things Warhammer Online does that are unlike World of Warcraft, it's still a very comparable MMO.

Every year it's customary to roll out predictions on what will and won't show up at the current year's E3 event. With Massively heading in the direction of the LA Convention Center already, we thought it might be fun to offer up some likely (and highly unlikely) predictions of what might get talked about next week. In reality, this is sort of a "future of the MMO industry list" as everything on here is more-or-less a current or upcoming trend. The only question is whether any given item will get discussed next week.

Each of those nice images is a link, which will take you into our E3 Predictions Gallery. Don't know who Carbine or Red 5 are? Not sure about Copernicus? If you don't understand one of our bingo squares, be sure to dig down and find out what all the fuss is about. We'll be bringing you all the MMO dirt you can stand next week, so hopefully this will tide you over until then. Enjoy!

Seems like every week now on WRUP we've been looking forward -- from Warhammer to APB, we can't wait to get our hands on some of the biggest MMOs still "coming soon." But this week, we think it'd be a good idea to take a step backwards -- this weekend, we recommend you go back and try playing a game that you haven't touched in a while. Maybe it's Lord of the Rings Online with some of that Monster Play, or maybe check in with that creepy Bling Gnome in Dungeon Runners, or even go back and visit Star Wars Galaxies just in time for the anniversary. Why are we spending all of our time waiting for new games when there's so much out there to play right now?

Of course, the post is called "WRUP," not "WTYWWWYTP" (We Tell You What We Want You To Play) so the choice is, as always, yours: What aRe yoU Playing this weekend in the world of MMOs? There's a certain charm in going back and visiting old characters, and you never know -- maybe an update since you left an old game or a little bit of leveling will show you a lot more in the game that you didn't see before and get you interested all over again.

And if not, you can still just wait for Warhammer. It's up to you.

Fansites have always been a labor of love. People create, share and maintain them at a cost simply because they're passionate about something. In the case of APB-Evoloved.com that passion lies with Realtime Worlds' upcoming grand-theft-style MMO All Points Bulletin. Their love for the customization-centric MMO certainly isn't singular. In fact, another thing that their love for APB isn't is unnoticed. The fansite's webhosting woes were recently resolved through a $1,000 donation made by none-other than Realtime Worlds itself. How's that for fan appreciation?

This is by no means a common occurrence for fansites and certainly shows how much Realtime Worlds appreciates what the guys at APB-Evolved.com are doing for their game and its community. Although this isn't the first time that the fansite has seen some love from the developer. With a fully open beta coming sometime in the future it's starting to seem certain that All Points Bulletin will have a very strong community -- especially if these sorts of things continue to happen.

[Thanks, Tom]

"There's a misconception among MMOs," says Realtime Worlds' Colin Macdonald, "that they don't need to look as good as other games." Macdonald, studio manager for the developers of upcoming street-crime MMO APB (All Points Bulletin), was speaking about the general state of MMOs at the GameHorizon conference in Newcastle, England. "We think that when people look at a screenshot of APB, they won't think 'it's not so good, it must be an online game' -- they won't know."

While we definitely agree that APB is turning out to be an excellent looking game, we thought that World of Warcraft and EverQuest II had settled the 'no compromise, great looking game' issue ages ago. Modern releases like the oft-maligned Vanguard and more recent titles such as Lord of the Rings Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea and Age of Conan have spared no effort in making sure their games are as graphically luscious as possible.

Mr. Macdonald, it's great that you're proud of APB's graphics, be real. Modern MMOs are every bit as graphically gorgeous as single player games.

There's a clip over at GameVideos (embedded above) that depicts All Points Bulletin's character customization system. We say "customization" instead of "creation" because we doubt all the exhibited features will be available to new players. We learned at GDC (in the very same session this video originated from, actually) that visual customization options will be among players' rewards for successful play.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Kieron Gillen was nevertheless impressed with all the options. He commented on the exhibit, and posited that APB has that Grand Theft Auto je ne sais quoi. The culprit: the art style, which when combined with creativity will give the game a human quality that transcends the mechanics of the game. Because of that, Gillen is looking forward to APB more than he is to any other MMO.

He took a jab at World of Warcraft, saying that because each item of clothing in WoW has critical stats tied to it, no one expresses him or herself through clothing. Stats are more important than self-expression in WoW society, right? Gillen prefers the City of Heroes approach, which he believes APB shares. But does it? We don't really know yet, do we? Maybe your clothing style affects your skills. That's something to wonder about. We'll see.

Hot on the heels of the announcement that an APB public beta is in the foreseeable future comes this message from fansite APB-Evolved.com to its forum members: "Whilst I can't give you any more specific info on the beta at this time, I did come over to give you one bit of information exclusive to you guys. Everyone who is a member of APB-evolved as of the time and date of this post, is guaranteed beta access as soon as we reach a suitable stage."

Now, it's assumed that the "suitable stage" the poster, Ulric, is referring to belongs to Realtime Worlds, and not APB-evolved; he's saying that as soon as the game is ready for beta, members will get first crack at it. It's also assumed that he's worked out some sort of deal with Realtime to provide this promise, else why bother announcing it? But there's been no mention of this on apb.com, even as a possibility, so until the actual day arrives, we'll just have to potentially envy the forum-goers of this site.

[Thanks, Tom!]

We haven't heard too much in the past month about the cops and robbers MMO All Points Bulletin from developer Realtime Worlds. At least not until recently, we haven't. While gameplay information may still be scare at least we now know that APB is entering its Alpha stage with an eventual fully public beta on the horizon. This information all comes from Mario Rizzo, Realtime Worlds' business development manager.

While it's no official announcement, it is the next best thing. We can certainly understand why a public beta would do a game like All Points Bulletin a lot of good -- it's not exactly your typical MMO or sandbox action game. Heck, it's very likely that many players will simply be enamored with the character creation process that was such a smash hit at GDC this year. You can count on us spending the first hour or two of our time with the game's beta making an awesome character.

All Points Bulletin is one of those games that fans of Grand Theft Auto have been wanting for years. Merely saying 'want' cannot convey the unbridled desire that a number of people have expressed for an urban crime game where you're not completely isolated from other players. There is a certain person on the Massively team -- blown away by GTA: San Andreas years ago -- who would go to sleep with whispered prayers in the dark, that his deviant rampages could be shared online with his equally deviant friends around the world, day or night.

The allure of this type of game is strong, but equally strong is the likelihood of an overdose on pure chaos. One imagines a map full of amped up Criminals in desperate need of Ritalin, taking to the streets with RPG's and flattening traffic jams in backward-firing tanks, countered by a legion of overzealous Enforcers dispensing 'justice' with reckless abandon. Therein lies the problem: Part of what makes GTA so successful is that as Tommy Vercetti, or C.J. (or any of the other questionable protagonists a player becomes in the legacy title), there's no one else out there who's as badass as you. But what happens when mobs of Criminals or Enforcers of your caliber are turned loose in the city? What if they're even worse than you are? Welcome to the blender.

Two Hammers at MMO-centric blog gamebunny writes that Webzen is slowly making a retreat from the North American market. The Korean publisher, currently developing the much-anticipated Huxley, has cut Parfait Station and Wiki (aka Project Wiki) from its game roster on the North American site. Although Webzen has not announced cancellations of the titles, only three games remain displayed on the site: MU, Soul of the Ultimate Nation, and Huxley. Release dates are not set for SUN and Huxley.

The disappearance of Parfait Station and Wiki comes on the heels of Webzen relinquishing their publishing rights to All Points Bulletin, three years after having obtained them. Real Time Worlds bought back the rights to APB in April. These changes could diminish Webzen's presence in the North American market for the foreseeable future, and their radio silence on where Huxley is in terms of release doesn't help matters. Quite a number of people seem to be excited about Huxley, particularly among the Massively team; we can only hope that Webzen is just re-prioritizing their projects and releases for North America, and that they're not going to disappear on us anytime soon.