HIT AND RUN PART SOMETHING OR ANOTHER [Author: Lum the Mad]
Not really massively multiplayer unless you count all of Art Bell’s callers, but well, Majestic is one of the places where EA.com is spending their money now so you may as well check it out.
Developed, tweaked and debugged over the course of several months or years – – often at a cost of millions of dollars — most titles get out the door and its authors are on to the next game.
The Internet changes all that, by letting game companies release well- spaced chapters that can be downloaded or played on corporate servers. While the technical challenges of making the game accessible via a narrowband connection aren’t small, game companies equate online titles with steady subscription income.
Current research supports that theory. According to Olhava, revenues from online gaming, including subscriptions, advertising and sponsorships, will grow from $347 million in 2001 to $1.7 billion in 2004.
Majestic is one of these episodic games; the first (free) chapter can last from 3 to 5 days. “Three if you let the game call you at all hours of the night.” Um, yeah. Obviously these guys haven’t been paying attention to Everquest, which already has a fully staffed contingent of screaming paranoiacs, thank you kindly…
Speaking of Everquest, the Fan Faire is currently going on in San Diego. Topics of discussion include Camping the Perfect Spawn, How to Take Nerfs Like A Man, Yo! This is MY Server, biyotch! and Jesus Christ, They Let You Out In Public Like That? Seriously, this is when Verant usually announces upcoming plans like expansions and whatnot, so if any actual news is generated we’ll let you know. If no actual news is generated, we’ll follow standard operating procedure and just make some crap up at random.
Great Bob, recently let go from Origin and now working on Wing Commander Online or something similar, has an interview up at the Corporation. I understand it would have been up earlier, but the Corporation’s fearless leader was detained at the border by customs for hours, convinced that being stylishly dressed as he usually is, he must have been either a drug dealer or gay. And he denied being gay, so… (Note: he’s not the one on the right. The one on the right probably wouldn’t make it through customs, either, though.)
And finally, this just in, the Internet is STILL collapsing. This time it’s NBCi, owner of Snap (the portal you never use) and Xoom (Mahir’s favorite webhost). There can be only one…