world of warcraft

Sams: No Free WoW

It's currently popular to theorize that nearly all gaming will end up free or nearly free at some point, distributed via browser and monetized through ad support, microtransactions or scalable subscription models. Faith in this business model's been instated by the early success of many free-to-play web-based MMOs (many of them for kids, mind).

But what about the arguable king of all MMOs, World of Warcraft? Will it ever get on the trendwagon and go free, or offer a free option, at least? Not so much, says Blizzard COO Paul Sams, as part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview:

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Manga Fighter is an excellent way to introduce your children to the world of third-person shooters without having to worry about them being 'desensitized to violence'. Unless of course you're a cartoon cat, in which case you're screwed. OnNet USA is celebrating the Grand Opening of Manga Fighter, a free to play MMO shooter with cutesy characters and anime sensibilities. They'll be holding several in-game events with prizes they assure us are "great". Great!

"We are huge fans of other MMO shooter games," said YJ Jin, Producer of Manga Fighter. "But we're tired of gory, violent and gruesome games. With Manga Fighter, we've created something fun - yet non-violent - so that gamers of all ages can jump in and have a great time."

To give the game a try, head over to mangafighter.gamescampus.com and sign up for a free account. More »

legal trouble

Teardown's Space Hulk Torn Down

Back on Tuesday we posted about an excellent free-to-play update to the video game of the board game Space Hulk, crafted loving by a team calling themselves Teardown with "the blessing of both EA and the Games Workshop." Since then they've had nothing but trouble, first with bandwidth issues after gamers flocked to the site to download 327 gigs worth of data, and then with Games Workshop, who kindly asked them to pull the game from the downloads section. Apparently the whole blessings thing was a bit of a reach. From the latest Teardown news post:

We still havn't had any contact with Games Workshop. We called them but they told us that someone would get back as soon as they could. Perhaps the fact that they do not chase us around 24 hours a day is a good sign? We'll soon find out. once more thank you for all conerns and support. Time will tell if it is worth something.

I don't expect this to end well. Those of you who downloaded the game enjoy it, because I've a feeling we won't be seeing it again.

Website is closed [Teardown - Thanks Mark]

NCsoft's free-to-play hack and slash game Dungeon Runners is getting another update, only this time it isn't a full blown "Chunk" expansion - merely a "Heave" - there's that trademark highbrow Dungeon Runners humor for you. New content includes Balzack's Barrow, which is a new dungeon for players 55 and up, an NPC snowman named Chill Bill *groan* available at level 30 that helps players fight enemies, and a visit to Townston by Shivery the Incorrigible Snowman, a victim of dungeon warming that gives players a special quest while telling them they were adopted. 51 new quests, new armor sets, new mythic items, a two-handed ranger rifle and some general interface tweaking round out the update.

"I think that Dungeon Runners players will find these new features, especially the snowmen as being pretty cool...literally," said Stephen Nichols, Dungeon Runners' producer.

Well that's some relatively mild hype. Pretty cool? I mean...oh wait...I get it! Snowmen! Cool! Hahahaha! I'm going to go cry now. Hit the jump for the full press release and more frosty screenshots. More »

Disney's free-to-play unless you want the good stuff MMORPG Pirates of the Caribbean has officially set sail, charting a course to Macs and PCs around the globe. Create your own pirate character, captain a ship, and follow the fabled call of the booty wherever it may lead as you interact with other players as well as characters from the blockbuster movie franchise. The game features a Voodoo magic system, gambling parlor games like poker and blackjack, and just a whole lot of pirate goodness for the low price of free. Players opting to spend $9.95 a month ($4.95 the first month) for Unlimited Access get the ability to form guilds, special equipment, better ships, and are generally better pirates because they are giving Disney money. You can visit www.PiratesOnline.com to give the game a go. May god have mercy on your soul. More »