ireland posts

The Daily Grind: What little events do you celebrate?

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 17th 2010 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Events, real-world, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor

It's Saint Patrick's Day, and if you're in the US that means a celebration of Irish culture... or at least, it means a celebration of wearing green clothing and drinking an exceptional amount for the middle of the week. And while it's not the biggest holiday, some people look forward to it as much or more than major seasonal events. A few games even celebrate the event, such as Fallen Earth with a pub crawl and Everquest II with its Brewday celebrations. It's a holiday with no real overarching purpose except enjoyment, and that's hardly a bad goal.

Every game has little events that keep running long after they're no longer hugely pertinent. Every gamer has anniversaries or dates they remember, or holidays that they feel are important even if the game doesn't have a holiday event. So what small holidays or events do you observe in your favorite games? Do you make a point of memorizing important in-game lore dates and celebrating their anniversaries? Do you take part in no-longer-vital elements, such as the Elemental Invasions in World of Warcraft? Or do you just take the opportunity on days like today to outfit your Star Trek Online crew in green uniforms and hang around drunk?

Tags: anniversaries, celebrations, drinking, enjoyment, eqii, everquest-ii, fallen-earth, fe, intoxication, ireland, irish, saint-patricks-day, star-trek-online, sto, tdg, the-daily-grind, world-of-warcraft, wow

UK game tax policies has Realtime Worlds considering move to Ireland

by James Egan Sep 28th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Economy, MMO industry, News items, All Points Bulletin

Realtime Worlds is becoming synonymous with Scotland's game development with their upcoming title All Points Bulletin, but there are reports the company may consider relocating to Ireland. As one of Scotland's most prominent development studios, Realtime Worlds is keenly aware that as the computer games industry grows the UK lags behind other countries in terms of tax incentives. (Edge Online has an excellent overview of the situation which details how UK firms pay tax on R&D while countries like Canada and France provide rebates for game developers.) The situation as it affects Realtime Worlds and other Dundee-based companies is that if corporate tax breaks aren't possible in Scotland, they may need to head to greener pastures. Even moreso if such pastures include a 5-year tax holiday, which was mentioned at last weekend's Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin.

Herald Scotland quotes Colin Macdonald, Realtime Worlds Studio Manager, as saying,"If the package on offer in Ireland was attractive we'd have to give it serious consideration. [...] Dundee is a great place to be based, one of the main hubs for computer games in Britain, but at the end of the day we've got to look after our bottom line."

Tags: all-points-bulletin, apb, colin-macdonald, dublin, dundee, economy, edge-online, herald-scotland, ireland, mmo-industry, realtime-worlds, scotland, taxes, united-kingdom

Dragonica enters open beta in Europe

by James Egan Jun 11th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New titles, Free-to-play, Casual

The free-to-play game Dragonica has entered open beta in Europe as of June 10th. Dragonica is a 3D side-scrolling MMO developed by Barunson Interactive and operated by gPotato (Gala Networks Europe Ltd.). The title is currently offered in English, French, and German languages and has very low system requirements, so it should run well on older hardware or even on netbooks from what Gala Networks Europe states.

Just for additional clarification, this open beta is for the EU's Dragonica operated by gPotato, not to be confused with the North American version of the game titled Dragonica Online, which we previewed at E3 2009.

Tags: barunson-interactive, betas, dragonica, dublin, eu, europe, european-union, fantasy, free-to-play, gala-networks-europe, gpotato, ireland, new-titles