Icarus Studios, who is behind-but-set-Fallen-Earth-LLC-as-a-separate-entity-to-develop-Fallen-Earth, has announced a dramatic restructuring of its internal personnel. If you take Icarus’ LinkedIn as accurate, they used to have about 110 employees, which is now down to 28 core staff members plus customer service / GM staff. (Comments that “80% of staff have been laid off” often depend on … Continue reading
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Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Even If It Is Second Life
One frequent request in MMO circles is to not railroad the player into linear tasks, but to let them have greater freedom. “I’m tired of the level grind and an environment where nothing changes – let me shape the very face of the world!” is asked for at various times. In the file marked “Never … Continue reading
Warner Brothers Buys Turbine; Probably Not Releasing The Matrix Online 2
It’s all over the place, but Warner Brothers has bought Turbine studios for up to $160 million (including performance payments). Following declines in other areas, WB appears to be looking at gaming to generate some big money for it, no doubt leveraging the wide range of intellectual property WB has, including DC Comics, what came … Continue reading
Someone Tries To Explain the Champion Online Gear and Stats System
Someone tries to explain the way stats and gear interacts in Champions Online. Good on them. I’ve been playing ChampO since alpha (before gear and stats!) and I have never understood it. Casual games can certainly benefit from a “easy to pick up, hard to master” mentality, but ChampO seems to have an “easy to … Continue reading
Catching Up: Employment Moves and Console Non-Moves
Two interesting things I saw recently: 1) Cryptic bows out of trying to get either Champions Online or Star Trek Online onto consoles. There are some out there who saw these moves as vindication that Cryptic is a horrible company who deserves to fail, but it is probably more a case of Microsoft being incredibly … Continue reading
World Class Villains 