Massively^™

It's always a thrill when one of your favorite game-developers announces that they're working on an MMO or virtual world or when a developer takes on one of your favorite properties. Developer Headlock is well along on one such virtual world now.

Japanese developers are working on a number of virtual worlds (which we hope to get more of a handle on over time). This one, ai-sp@ce, is set in Akihabara and will also feature characters from Visual Novels Clannad (クラナド), Shuffle!, and Da Capo 2 (D.C.II). Yes, it's the world of Japanese Visual Novels come-to-life in a 3D virtual world!

Author Michael Crichton's entire body of work can be summed up in the phrase 'Just because you can, doesn't mean you should'. Similarly, it might be possible to create an MMO that will operate on cellphones and be an interesting enough game to justify the cost of producing it, but why bother? Sure, Japan is famous for their cellphone usage, which includes all manner of non-call related diversions, but can you imagine trying to grind levels between home and work?

Actually, depending on the length and duration of your commute, you might find that prospect intriguing. But if the scenario of having your call suddenly drop after wandering outside of the range of a tower, just as you're trying to take down a boss as part of a 10-player raid doesn't frighten you -- then you must work for John Carmack. Cellphone MMOs: need it, or pass it by?

As a part of a sweet nod to Valentine's tradition (or perhaps more technically to 義理チョコ - giri-choko), the Japanese Pocky people, Ezaki Glico Company, are holding a festival on their new Pocky island in Second Life. The Pocky festival runs all the way until White Day (ホワイトデー, March 14).

Popular Japanese ska girl group, Ore Ska Band (オレスカバンド) will be playing on the island 29th of Februrary and 1st of March at 7PM and 10PM - though we're not sure which side of the dateline or which timezone that's in exactly. We'd figure Japan Standard Time so you'd be looking at the day before, japanophiles. That's the safe way to play it. If it turns out to be in SLT (US Pacific) you've at least not missed it.

Earlier today we discussed interviews held by Mr. Chris Chung, the new president of NCsoft, with 1up and Game Informer. Massively also had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Chung about NCsoft as a company, and we came away with a few interesting tidbits about the future of the world's most diverse MMO publisher.

In our discussion with Mr. Chung, we primarily focused on the future of the MMO business. We talked about where the future products like Exsteel and Aion fit into the company's stable of games, and examined a bit why NCsoft has been historically so open to alternative business models. Mr. Chung also hints at future plans for the company aimed at younger players.

I particularly found his discussion of possible future ideas for their well-known superhero title City of Heroes intriguing:

Massively: You said that you don't forsee bringing newer business models to subscription games; there's no interest in applying that to a game like City of Heroes?

Mr. Chung: In terms of games like that, the issue is finding out what the players actually want. We need to make sure the players have ways to access the game the way they want. Instead of saying "here's a half-finished product and you're going to pay for the other half" ... if we do offer microtransaction items for City of Heroes we need to ask the fanbase directly what they want that isn't already in the game. We need to figure out what they want, what they'll pay for, before we offer it to them. As we explore this we need to carefully tread this water.

Read on for more of our conversation with NCsoft's new president.

Always on the lookout for new opportunities, criminal elements have been interested in MMO players for some time now. A great 'in' to credit card records and personal information, player accounts are also ripe with virtual goods that can be easily liquidated into in-game currency and then resold for real funds. A warning last year about hackers interested in World of Warcraft accounts has been mirrored in recent weeks by researchers cautioning players of Korean and Japanese titles.

Security software groups Ahnlab and Symantec have both seen increased reports of criminal hackers working to gain access to eastern MMOs in recent months.

For more on this subject, the site SecurityFocus has up a recent interview with the writers of the book Exploiting Online Games, discussing the reality of security research as it pertains to Massive titles. The authors indicate that MMO development houses are still a ways off from fully appreciating the dangers of lax security measures managing these systems.

The Xbox version of Phantasy Star Online is going to be shut down, notes SiliconEra and the official PSO.jp site. The Japanese version of the well-known console MMOG will be closed almost five years after its initial launch on Microsoft's platform. Sega hasn't announced any similar plans for the US version of either the Xbox or 360 versions of the title.

[Via Game|Life.]

It was so exciting at first to read that Phantasy Star Universe is headed for the PSP. Developers have theorized before that a PSP MMO might be worth trying, and PSU is the perfect candidate because of its small-scale group battles and its pick-up-and-play approach. At first, it looked like this would finally be the big break!

Or not! Sega has announced a Japanese PSU port for the PSP, but its multiplayer features are only ad hoc -- meaning it works over a local wi-fi connection between PSPs, not over the internet. So they've taken PSU, stripped out the "Massively" and "Online" parts of "MMO," and ported it to the PSP.

Bad form, Sega -- bad form. Looks like we'll be waiting a bit longer for an MMO-on-the-go that isn't a cell phone game meant for 'tweens. Maybe NCsoft is PSP MMO fans' only hope.

Via Raph Koster's website, news of the launch of a most unusual virtual world: Chipuya Town. Developed by the Media Groove company, it's an online space aimed at Japanese teenagers addicted to their cell phones.

Users create a custom avatar, then step into a cute-ified version of Tokyo's Shibuya shopping district that's accurate right down to the advertising overload. (Companies pay up to $4,000 a month for ads on in-world billboards.) Players socialize with other avatars and rack up currency - called Grooves - by recruiting friends, going on treasure hunts, and attending sponsored events.

The launch comes after a summer-long beta period, which was as much about attracting advertisers as it was users. The mobile site Infinita has a better look at the minimal gameplay on offer in the product, as well as its positioning in the marketplace. The site believes that Media Groove is positioning the VW as a direct competitor to the mobagetown offering.

While Chipuya Town doesn't feature mobile games (as opposed to mobagetown), it does seem to have a more advanced virtual economy, and to be taking a cross-platform approach: In an Second Life-inspired take, users can use a free PC-based Flash application to actually create avatar items such as clothes and avatar home accessories themselves, that they can then use for own their own avatars or sell to others.

Japanese IT and Communications giant Fujitsu yesterday opened three islands in the virtual world of Second Life, to interact with customers, evaluate virtual worlds as a tool, promote their brands and host experimental projects. The islands opened on 2 November at 6PM (Japan Standard Time).

The three islands are Fujitsu, featuring company information, history, services and general activities; Fujitsu 2, exhibition spaces, attractions and collaborative projects; Fujitsu 3, results of collaborative research on brain functions undertaken with Riken and Japan Shogi Association, exhibition space on shogi history, a shogi game hall, and more.

The island is the work of Japanese Metaverse developer Meltingdots, and while the bulk of material is in Japanese there are tidbits for English speakers as well.