December 15th is the kickoff for the first of the holiday events NCSoft has planned for its MMORPGs. Players can expect traditional events with fresh content as well.

City of Heroes leads off with its Winter Event 2008. City of Villains is also included because naughty players like gifts too. A festival atmosphere has already taken over Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, and will linger December 15th until January 4th, 2009. You can look forward to lots of goodies this year although you may still have to take your lumps of coal.

The Lineage II Saving Santa Event is next up running December 16th to December 30th. Players will face the nefarious Thomas D. Turkey to save Santa and Christmas.

Guild Wars‘ Wintersday 2008 event begins December 19th. The Eye of the North will be decked out for the Wintersday for the first time, and that’s only the beginning of new content planned for this event. Players will receive a special gift for attending the Wintersday Finale January 5th.

Get the full scoop on these winter holiday events after the break.
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Guild Wars is kicking off the holiday season with its Wintersday Art Contest 2008. Players are invited to express their love of Guild Wars in any creative outlet they choose.

Contestants submit a scanned or photographed JPGS of their illustrations, costumes, or even ice sculptures which would be particularly appropriate for the season. It’s legal to use any and all screenshots, renders, concept art, icons, photographs, or any other Guild Wars images as part of your creation. Winners will be featured on the Guild Wars Community website.

Here comes the incentive:

• Grand Prize Winner (1 awarded): Grand Prize Winner (1 awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; one VisionTek Radeon HD3650 graphics card, a full set of four Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Prints; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print (Approximate total retail value of package: $450.00 US.)
• Second Place Winner (1 Awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; a full set of four Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Prints; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print    (Approximate total retail value of package: $250.00 US.)
• Third Place Winner (1 Awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; one randomly selected Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Print; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $130.00 US.)
• Fourth Place Winners (7 Awarded): One randomly selected Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Print; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $60.00 US.)
• Honorable Mentions (10 awarded): One randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $20 US.)

You have until 12:00 Noon PST on Monday, January 5, 2009 to get your entry in so get those ideas flowing. For complete contest rules and submission instructions visit the Guild Wars Community website.

1UP is appealing to gamers to take a 5-10 minute break from their games to fill out the 2008 MMO Gaming Study survey. Those who make time for this no fail quiz by December 1st will be entered in a Sweepstakes to win a $300 American Express Cheque.

Attention FileFront Community!
We want to hear about your MMO gaming experience. Help shape how MMO games are built and be entered in an exclusive sweepstakes drawing to* win a $300 American Express Cheque. * Survey only takes about 5 to 10 minutes and your input would be greatly appreciated.

In addition, you can earn additional entries into the sweepstakes. The first 500 completed surveys will earn a double entry into the prize drawing.

*Directions for the survey:*
1. Step#1: _[CLICK HERE TO START SURVEY]
2. Fill out the entire survey to be eligible for the drawing. *Please fill out the entire survey by December 1st in order to be eligible.*
One entry per household only, additional entries will be void. The winner will be notified as soon as a winner is selected.

Thanks again for your continuing support.

All modders and aspiring developers out there should pay close attention to a new article up on Blend Games. The author takes aim at RPGs calling them on their weaknesses and shortcomings while acknowledging the true greats in “Reasons Your Role-Playing Game Is Disappointing.” This of course translates to “Why your RPG sucks”.

Most of the games that come under fire are Western RPGs with only one JRPG in the mix. As you might expect, there are Bioware titles mentioned in abundance such as Neverwinter Nights 2, NwN2: Mask of the Betrayer, Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic and Baldur’s Gate. Arcanum, Final Fantasy VII and Fable get mentioned as well. the only Western RPG that wasn’t touched on was Planescape: Torment.

ERPG Cardinal sins including getting the story started to slowly. FF7 and Mass Effect are held out as sterling examples of what sucks players into a game right off the bat while the intro to Fable is used as an example of what not to do. NwN2 is slammed as well, but NwN2: Mask of the Betrayer is given Kudos for getting the player’s attention immediately. I’ve got to admit that waking up in a crypt hundreds of miles from home is much more interesting than going out for the prize at your local fair.

Also on the hit list is the over use of Fed Ex quests, slow travel between points of interest and unwieldy inventory systems like the one that plagues players in Mass Effect. Fable is once again sent to the corner for repetitive combat. Hopefully we won’t see these shortcomings in Fable 2. Catch the best and the worst of RPGs on Blend Games.

According to the new Guild Wars 2 FAQ, the game won’t be ready for beta testing this year. ArenaNet and NCsoft have offered an explaination for the change in plans.

Although we publically alpha- and beta-tested the original Guild Wars while it was still in early development, with Guild Wars 2 we will commence beta testing closer to the game’s release. With that in mind, we will not start beta testing in 2008 as we had originally planned. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations of its quality. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it.

Gamers can also find answers to questions on the basics like playable races, character progression and system requirements. To stay informed on the beta and other Guild Wars 2 issues, sign up for the news letter at the Guild Wars website.

via Guild Wars

ArenaNet Developers have updated the Guild Wars Wiki with information on upcoming changes to the Guild Wars Hall of Monuments. Players will be able to switch between accomplishments displayed by character by account. All accomplishments will be sent to Guild Wars 2 by account and will be available to every Guild Wars 2 character on your account. Another change in the Hall of Monuments will be support for Tormented weapons. Complete details follow the break.
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NCSoft’s COO, Sebastien Vidal talked with GamesIndustry.biz about the MMO business in the site’s first of several interviews kicking off its MMO week. Vidal started by revealing the secret of NCSoft’s success in the MMO market.

Our publishing and development strategy has always been to provide a wide range of titles from subscription based to free to play, from fantasy to science fiction. And there is even more diversity to come in the next few years, both on the business model and genre sides.

Unlike some publishers who focus on one or two MMO titles, typically within the fantasy setting, our strategy is to provide players with a portfolio of online gaming options, catering for all tastes and payment options, for both hardcore gamers and the casual audience.

The interview takes a look at current plans for NCSoft’s line up and also gives readers an idea of what the future holds for several of it’s MMOs. You’ll find information on Lineage and Lineage II, Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 and a bit on Aion as well. Vidal also touches on City of Heroes and City of Villains.

Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa has been a big project for NCSoft. Vidal talks a lot about the complexity of the game, which has had a very rocky start. NCSoft has been concentrating on balancing and polishing existing content rather than rushing to add more “end game” elements. The company plans to initiate a series of online trials in the middle of May to get more people to try the game, and hopefully stay.

Vidal is confident MMOs have a future on consoles. In fact he feels the change is inevitable. He stated NCSoft’s deal with Sony is just the beginning.

Well, in the end it’s just a platform – the important thing is the game itself, and whether you’re playing with a keyboard and mouse, or a control pad…a game designer can come up with something good for either interface.

So I can’t see any reason why they won’t do well on consoles – it’s a huge market, although the biggest market right now is the Nintendo Wii and DS, which aren’t the best platforms for MMOs.

But all the consoles, including the DS, can go on the web and browse, so really the platform is the web, and the console is simply the interface for the web. So I think in the future, for me, you can design a game for the web and it will be playable on any platform – the DS, Wii, PS3 or anything.

via GamesIndustry.biz

Guild Wars is celebrating three years online. In addition to player in-game perks, NCSoft and Arena.net are offering North Americans, with the exception of Quebec, a chance to win some very nice stuff.

The Grand prize, which I’m claiming now, is an Alienware Area-51 laptop. Five ATI Radeon HD  3870 512MB video cards are up for grabs for first prize winners. Three second prize winners walk away with Logitech G51 5.1 Speaker Systems. Third prize winners will snag a Logitech G9 gaming Mouse, Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card or a Logitech G15 keyboard. The article doesn’t mention how many of each of those thrird prizes are up for grabs.

No Purchase Necessary to enter or win. Sweepstakes begins April 28, 2008 and ends May 31, 2008. This sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada, 13 years of age or older at the time of entry. Void in Province of Quebec and where prohibited by law. For complete rules click here.

If you’re interested, and who’s not interested in free loot, get over to the Guild Wars website, take a short survey and sign up for your chance to win something.

There’s an interview with Daniel Dociu whose distinctive art style is featured as concept art for Guild Wars. He’s found he enjoys working on video games because of the flexibility an artist have within the medium.

Dociu particular forte is architecture. As any player can see from the settings of Guild Wars and its expansions, Dociu is particularly influenced by many styles of architecture, and his work is quite eclectic.

I look back all the way to the dawn of mankind: to ruins, and Greek architecture, and Mycenean architecture, all the way up to the architecture of the Crusades, and castles in North Africa, and the Romanesque and Gothic and Baroque and Rococo – even to neo-Classical and art deco and Bauhaus and Modernist. I mean, there are bits and pieces here and there that make a strong impression on me, and I blend them – but that’s the beauty of games. You don’t have to be stylistically pure, or even coherent.

Incidentally, Daniel Dociu’s concept art and Simon Fowler’s photography were beautifully combined for use with Sarah Brightman’s latest release, “Symphony.” Dociu’s art is also used in the trailer for the CD. For more information, check out the Gaming Today article on the collaboration.

via BldgBlog

The latest Guild Wars State of the Game update from the folks over at ArenaNet updates everyone on the state of the 2008 RAWR Cup. With the spring season in full swing and the article details this real world tourney and mentions the cash prizes associated with the competitive Guild Wars G v. G gameplay.

Billiard, moderator of Guild Wars fansite – GuildWarsGuru, describes the process of the tournament and announces the winners as well as explaining how the RAWR third-party competition came to be.

The juicy details can be found at the Guild Wars website.