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It seems that oftentimes Australia and the Oceanic region gets the shaft when it comes to MMO server allocation. Most of the time, Aussies find themselves choosing between an American or European server, with incompatible peak playing times.

Today, Warhammer Online fans in the Oceanic region will be pleased to hear that their own server has not gone ignored, as the WAR Oceanic Beta has officially begun. Players in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore should check their inboxes for a beta invite which will pave the way for the simultaneous launch of Warhammer Online across North America, Europe and the Oceanic region on September 18th.

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It's been what, three hours since we've heard the last research study on gaming addiction? It almost seems like we could feed every starving child in the world with this research money given to these studies, but with the ever-growing popularity of online gaming, the concern is certainly no surprise.

In a shocking change of pace though, a recent study conducted by Australia's Victoria University psychology Honours graduate Dan Loton shows that gamers are in fact not social rejects. Out of 621 gamers -- mostly male, mostly Australian -- only 93 could be described as "problem gamers". This is defined as people who spend more than 50 hours a week playing online games. Curiously enough, Loton added, "We found that those who played Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, such as World of Warcraft, were more likely to exhibit problematic game play." Aww, and we were so close, too.

Well, sort of -- it is hard to be precise in the scant space that a headline provides. University of Southern Queensland (Australia) has a patent in the pipe at the moment that covers the extraction and avatar expression of avatar emotions -- at least if we're reading this right.

The idea is that the system is supposed to work out emotional content based on input text or voice, generate an overall emotion plot in a multidimensional coordinate system, and then express that emotion through your avatar. Essentially your avatar is animated and expressive according to your detected mood in order to communicate the non-verbal cues normally associated with that mood.

Will you see this in (say) Second Life, for example? Probably not. The Second Life Terms of Service grant an "a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have" to Linden Lab and all Second Life users as a part of pushing content in or through the virtual world.

That scares the pants off of enough IP-lawyers right there, so it isn't very likely we'll see this show up in Linden Lab's virtual domain.

While a lot of news reports focus on the breaking up of real marriages because of Second Life, a surprising amount of partners actually log in together. One couple, Blair Fizz and Alegria Garden, were in a documentary, Our Brilliant Second Life, last year. Created by Mixin Pixel to show a different side to virtual relationships, it ended up being shown at the Aspen Shortsfest in 2007!

If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.

It's one of those little Melbourne bars, not so much wider than the bar that runs much of the length of it, with some seating near the front for the smokers (who are nearly out in the cold, literally), and a smaller lounge area in the back with a tiny little stage.

It's poorly lit (too dark for clean photography), and the cramped space is moderately crowded. The focus is, strangely, two men, and their laptops. Their laptop screens are projected against the walls, and strange ambient music is circulating through the room. This is a living performance in Second Life created solely for an audience in the physical world.

Drop bears. Death kangaroos. Surly emus. Australian gamers have a unique sense of humor, something they share (obviously) with the sensibilities of Warhammer Online. EA Mythic has taken their threatening marsupials very seriously, and announced in an interview with Gamespot that they'll be offering local servers to Aussie players when the game launches later this year. In fact, they're working right now to add an AU server to the Beta.

The ever-informative Josh Drescher told the game news site that their support of the gamers down under is entirely about personality and recognition. In Drescher's eyes the Australian Warhammer fans have been incredibly supportive, whether in the form of Beta signups, forum postings, or angry stuffed animals mailed via parcel post. The associate producer credits their relationship with EA here - this is another element to the game they may not have been able to offer if they hadn't partnered with the software giant.

At the end of the day, Drescher says it's about recognizing an under-supported marketplace: "It's clear to us that it's a completely viable new market that hasn't got the attention it deserves ... I don't know the exact location, but we'll be hosting the server somewhere in East Asia, so it will be in the correct time zone. At the moment we are targeting it squarely at Australia and New Zealand." The full transcript of Gamespot's interview is also available, where Drescher offers up some familiar (but always entertaining) insights into the world of Warhammer.

Doctor Helen Farley (Lecturer in Studies in Religion and Esotericism) and Doctor Rick Strelan (Senior Lecturer in Studies in Religion) were awarded a $30,000AUD Strategic Teaching and Learning Grant by the University of Queensland (Australia) in October of last year to construct an island in Second Life for Studies in Religion.

Dr Farley has already had practice teaching meditation via Second Life, and used it successfully for student work thus far. The new University of Queensland island will be attached to the New Media Consortium region, which has over 250 educational institutions involved.

Running until the 26th, the 2008 Merovingi Fashion Awards are on now. If that name seems familiar it may well be because Gabriel Merovingi (Sebastian Oxide in SL) and Australian based Merovingi Group ran them last year, as well. This year the show is fund-raising for Doctors Without Borders, and the National Cancer Society.

The prizes for the category winners this year include L$ and Apple hardware.

Nexon, maker of Maple Story and other, weirder MMOs, has announced that their intriguing title Mabinogi will hit North America with an open beta on March 5th. However, this is for residents of North America only; gamers in Europe and Australia will be s.o.l. [note: adult language] until such time as Nexon feels they're ready to hit the rest of the world.

There's apparently more to Mabinogi than previously suspected -- more than just aging the character over weeks, time is a much more involved element to the game. The storyline itself will evolve over generations, and a character's diet also affects its appearance. I'm all crazygonuts excited to play this, so expect a First Impressions from me shortly after launch!

And make sure you check out the videos on their website -- they're short tutorials on how to get around and do things in the world, presented by a girl and her sheep. While a little broad in its humor, it's still cute and has some good tips in between the silliness.

Although it's been possible to purchase Pirates of the Burning Sea online since its release, the official launch for Australia and New Zealand means that the dedicated Oceanic server is up, and Bigpond's free game offer is in effect. There is also still time to apply for an Ambassador position to help new player's on the Oceanic server, and score a year's free playtime in return.

But there is one other very important thing to note about this launch -- any character made on the Australia/NZ server within its first month of opening will get a cockatoo to show off on their shoulder. This is certainly pretty neat, but don't expect to be the coolest cat in the Caribbean, because everyone on the server will have one of these squawkers.

More Pirates of the Burning Sea love has been sent Australia's way, with Flying Lab Software's announcement of the Australian Ambassador Program. Full details of the new program can be found here, however you may need to log in to view the page, so here's an excerpt : "We believe that the best way to introduce new players to a game is by introducing them to people who know it best: the fans. We want a cadre of experienced players to create new characters and get in on the ground floor with their fellow Australians. You won't be required to do anything more than play Pirates of the Burning Sea!"

As an incentive for being involved in the program, the appointed "ambassadors" will have their subscriptions paid up for an entire year. Unlike the free account program for Australians, you will need to be specifically chosen after applying to get the years free subscription, and applications will close on the 7th of March. The requirements state that you must be a current subscriber, and reside in Australia (duh). If you meet the criteria, you may as well apply and see if you can score a year of free PotBS.

The CEO of Flying Lab Software, Russell Williams, has been busy promoting the fantastic deal that involves Aussies getting Pirates of the Burning Sea for free, and has stopped in at the Australian branches of both GameSpot and IGN to discuss the finer points of the game.

Both online publications have worthwhile articles, but while IGN's is intended (and named) as a PotBS Primer, the GameSpot interview with Williams focuses on the game's launch in Australia. Williams says that there is no retail launch planned at all for the Australian market, and that PotBS will only be available as a digital download through the aforementioned deal. He also says that there will be Australian servers -- although they won't actually be located in Australia. Check out both of the articles from the links below.

GameSpot: Flying Lab Software on Pirates of the Burning Sea down under
IGN: A Pirates of the Burning Sea Primer

The entire Auran staff may have been let go earlier this week, but former Producer David Gillespie has a post up on his personal blog that defends Auran's staff, and the decisions made by management. This is the "Game flopped and the entire team was laid off, but the staff were the best!" law -- a far too frequent occurrence in the gaming industry. This law works in opposites, too. Sid Meier eats babies.

David Gillespie left Auran long before it went into administration, but he obviously had a lot of respect for everyone there. I didn't know Auran were the same developers responsible for 90's RTS classic Dark Reign, though. And there's an industry lesson to learn from this -- no matter how talented your team, how great your working environment, how successful your studio has been up till now -- if you make a commercial MMO that's a failure, you're in a whole world of trouble.

Maybe now that Fury is free, I should download it just to see what it was really like-- but on second thoughts, I think I'll pass for now.

[Via warcry.com]

Sad news for the Australian games industry. GameSpot has the scoop on Auran, the Aussie developers of Fury, going into voluntary administration (meaning an independent and qualified party will take complete control of the company to attempt to resolve financial difficulties in the best manner possible). From here, subject to a meeting with the company's creditors, they will either be restructured or liquidated. But one thing is a certainty: all staff members, nearly 70 employees, have been laid off.

Last week we reported on a widespread rumor that, due to Fury's commercial flop, Australian developer Auran was going to be the subject of a big lay-off, and that a significant chunk of Fury's development going forward was going to be out-sourced to China. Auran CEO Tony Hilliam recently addressed these concerns, and his comments were posted on Auran's official forum.

While promising to revolutionize the way PvP in MMOs works, critics have lampooned the game for its muddled combat, and the fact that it only loosely qualifies as an MMO in the strictest sense. Interestingly, though Hilliam tries to take an upbeat tone in his remarks, he really doesn't deny any of rumors he claims to be debunking, saying, "The future will focus on a smaller, more agile core team of Fury developers." That's fairly transparent executive speak for "all non-essential personnel are being laid off." He also confirmed rumors that much of the future development is being out-sourced to China.

Perhaps the only solace for these non-essential Auran developers is that neighboring Aussie developer Tantalus is looking to snatch a few of them up to help develop DS and Wii titles. That's at least one bit oh holiday kindness, amidst a pile of bad news.