Massively^™

MMO portal Aeria Games has acquired a new game called Cronous, which was originally developed by Lizard Interactive. Cronous' gameplay is similar to that of Diablo, Mythos, or Dungeon Runners. That makes it somewhat unique in Aeria's library, which is otherwise made up mostly of games of a different character such as Dream of Mirror Online and Shaiya.

The game's info page lists most of the usual action-RPG features, plus "nonlinear storytelling" with regards to quests, guild castle building and management, and siege warfare. We don't fully understand the nonlinear storytelling bit, although it's included in the press release as one of the major selling points of the game. It sounds cool up front though.

Sign-ups are already underway for a closed beta test, so if you want to give the game a try, that's probably your best bet.

[Via Ten Ton Hammer]

Making blanket statements is never really a good idea, because then things like this happen. Warren Spector recently made the statement that 100-hour games are on the way out. If that's true then somebody better tell the millions of online gamers who've spent (and will probably continue to spend) anywhere between 100-500 hours on various MMOs that they're not supposed to be doing that!

All right let's remove our tongue from the inside of our cheek. We all know that some games take more time from our lives than others. While World of Warcraft and Age of Conan may absorb upwards of a hundred hours of play, other games like Portal and Bioshock clock in around seven-to-twelve hours at best. So does that mean Warren is right? No, because we're pretty sure that Warhammer Online -- a game that isn't even out yet, mind you -- will be a fairly immense timesink for tens of thousands of players at the very least. Between the free-to-plays, the subscriptions and the coming hybrids -- 100-hour games probably aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

As part of a thank you note to its fans, videogame-themed television brand G4 has announced that it will bring back a host of favorite past shows for the Summer. Among these shows are the classics Arena, Judgement Day, and Portal. For those who missed it the first time around, Portal is the story of a guy named Dave, who was responsible for managing the Hub, an entrance to the various online MMO worlds of the day.

The shows will re-air beginning June 2nd as the G4 Rewind series, and will run until August 29th. Given that there are considerably more MMOs available these days, it's possible that Portal could enjoy a second chance, depending on its reception with the viewing audience. If this happens, we'd bet the show will have to rename itself to avoid confusion with the Valve game of the same name. Sure, the show came first, but walk into any geek gathering and see which property gets the recognition when mentioned.

We nearly missed this one, but thankfully one of our readers didn't, and sent us this screenshot of a chest in EverQuest II. Looks just a little bit different doesn't it? Another nod to the gaming world's beloved Portal, it seems that players were treated to Weighted Companion Chests in EQII for April Fools' Day. Hopefully you looted that quest starter before tossing the chest in the Emergency Intelligence Incinerator, Rollins!

[Thanks, Rollins]

Aikiwoce sent us this pic over on the WoW Insider tipline (here's ours, if you have a tip for us), but it was just too good not to share with you Massively-ers, too (Massives? Massivliers?). Love is in the Air has started up for Valentine's Day in the World of Warcraft, and there is a familiar-looking heart-adorned cube sitting outside of the major cities. Yes, anyone who's played Portal (not an MMO, but my choice for GotY last year-- it was a triumph, and a huge success) will immediately recognize this as a tribute from Blizzard to another terrific PC game.

No wonder Wrath of the Lich King is taking longer than expected-- all the developers at Blizzard must have been spending all their time looking for cake.

K2 Network, the folks behind the localization of titles like Sword of the New World, Red Stone, MU Online and others, has announced a new MMO portal called GamersFirst (or G1) that will give players access to all of their free to play titles using one centralized account. Sounding remarkably like the plans we've been hearing from NCsoft all of last year, you'll be able to purchase G1 Credits that are usable in all the titles in their portfolio. This is welcome news for those brave enough to dive into the world of the free MMO with any regularity, as managing a myriad of accounts across multiple games (and let's be honest, you can burn out on free MMOs pretty quickly) can be hazardous to one's mental health and the safety of one's credit information. The site is also considerably less obnoxious looking than we expected, which is an added bonus.

As a cherry on the proverbial sundae, they're running a myriad of giveaways over the next twelve weeks to bribe you into virtual submission. At stake are Creative Headphones, an Alienware PC, an 8gb iPod touch, a 19" Samsung monitor, and more. They never really elaborate on the more, but we're sure it's fancy. From poking around on the contest page a bit, it seems that you can enhance your odds of winning these goodies by buying G1 credits, inviting friends to join the network, and playing a flash version of that boardwalk game where you throw darts at balloons. The registration process is a bit of a pain, but hey, free stuff, right?

Back when I was in college, when we asked a professor how long our papers should be, he answered thusly: "Like a skirt-- short enough to keep it interesting, but long enough to cover the subject." More and more, it seems that you could say the same thing about videogames. In days past, the length of a game was a selling point-- the more gameplay you could get out of it, the more the game was worth. And so MMOs especially ask for a lot of investment, and were asked to give a lot of gameplay in return. I used to beat old NES and Game Boy games in minutes, and now, like Fullbright, I've got days and weeks logged in the MMOs I play.

But is that a good thing? I hate to keep harping on it, but Fullbright brings up Portal for me (a game that seems destined to redefine what we think of as games this year)-- there's a game that only takes a few hours but delivers an experience that lasts much longer than that. In terms of MMOs the current trend seems to be both towards shorter gameplay and less investment for that gameplay.

MMOs may be the exception here-- you sit down to create one character, and heading into a persistent world should make you want to be there. But with many MMOs on the market than before (and an older, busier audience than ever), the trend seems to be headed towards shorter games, not longer. That's not to say that a great game shouldn't cover the subject (no game should end before its time), but designers are feeling more and more pressure to make things short enough to keep it interesting, rather than throwing in random FedEx quests to brag about a few more hours of gameplay.

[Via GSW]

KillTenRats has a good commentary up on lore and its role in MMO games. Story in videogames is a tough thing to get right, and it's even tougher in a world where you don't just have one hero-- you have hundreds or thousands of them. (Sidenote: while it's not an MMO, Portal-- my vote for Game of the Year this year-- deals excellently with story, and you should read this long but insightful debate between N'Gai Croal and Stephen Totilo about it). How do you describe a changing narrative in a place where the world itself is designed to be persistent?

The common answer is world events, but those are still so complicated that even their little brothers, instanced events, are still in the stages of infancy. We may be able to clear out a castle in an instance, but can we destroy one? And the very fact that it's instanced means that we can leave, walk back inside the door, and nothing has changed. We chalk it all up to coding right now that the prisoner we just rescued a few minutes ago still remains in his cell, and we simply sigh, resigned to the fact that we're not really changing the world, just leaving it reset for the next group of players.

Still, there have to be some ideas floating around that could work to bring around a great story in a persistent world.