Warhammer announced today that they have licensed the SpeedTreeRT tree rendering engine for use in their upcoming MMORPG "Warhammer Online."  Used in many games today, SpeedTreeRT offers developers the abililty to include trees in their enviornments that are beautiful, diverse and realistic - with little overhead.  Here is the official press release along with a couple screens:

June 9, 2004 - COLUMBIA, SC - Warhammer Online, Ltd., developing a much-anticipated online version of its popular fantasy roleplaying system, has licensed SpeedTreeRT to ensure an outstanding level of realism and efficiency with the game's trees. "SpeedTree has been fantastic in enabling us to bring the tree-covered wildernesses of the Warhammer World to life in a visually exciting, but cost efficient and effective way," said Robin Dews, General Manager of Warhammer Online, Ltd. "For the first time in a game such as this, thanks to the technology behind SpeedTree, we have been able to recreate deep, dark, dangerous environments, the type that keep this game really authentic to the grim, dark and gritty World of Warhammer." "SpeedTree is efficient, robust, easy to use, well documented and cost effective; in short, it's everything a programmer wants from middleware. The results in Warhammer Online are visually impressive and I'm continually delighted with our decision to use it" commented Iain Cantlay, 3D Engine Programmer for Warhammer Online. Keep your eyes on www.warhammeronline.com for more news on the development of the game.

Valued Knight Online Players, Our IDC has been facing problems lately due to multiple virus attacks. This is the cause of the high latency that all are facing in the game. Rest assured, the Knight Online Team will do what we can to resolve the matter. The scheduled Logos Game Server Lunar War at 8.00PM (GMT +8)will be lauched at 8.45 (GMT +8). Any and all inconvenience is greatly regreted. Regards, The Knight Online Team

Also, for all you Malaysian Knight Online players, there will be an unofficial player gathering on June 11th.  Read more about it here.

Click here for the official Knight Online website.

Robc has posted the newest Empire Echoes, which is the second part of a two part feature covering City Capture:

I already mentioned that every empire must have at least one vulnerable city every cycle. This will be the city or cities with the lowest score. Even if one clan owns 10 cities in an empire there will still be one city made vulnerable by default. Or if all city owning clans are in alliance and nobody votes anyone else down, a city will still made vulnerable. There are several ways to do this, Cal says it might be chosen randomly... or the more devious solution is to let the system work as designed. If every city gets a zero score (no votes) then they all tie for the lowest score and all ten should immediately become vulnerable! Evil! I think that dominant clans or alliances will strategically choose to vote out one of their own cities rather than lose all ten ;) So you can rest assured that at least one city will be vulnerable every cycle no matter what, and perhaps as many as ten! A city that has just been captured is given a ?safe? period to allow the new owners to get a foothold. That city will not be vulnerable in the next political cycle. The length of grace period is not decided yet. But it is comforting to know that a newly acquired city will not fall again in the next cycle. (Note that Part I was wrong on this matter? but you should still send cookies over to your neighbors! :)

Is the failure of the vaguely similar, car-centric MMO, MOTOR CITY ONLINE a concern for the team? Ryan Seabury: No, not at all. I never got a chance to play that title myself, but from what I understand we're about as different to MCO as say... Grand Theft Auto is to Gran Turismo. Auto Assault is by no means a simulator. Our focus is squarely on over-the-top vehicular combat and mayhem -- almost arcade-y -- and action-oriented play style, with character development behind the vehicles. Judging from the reaction we had at E3, it seems like we're really hitting an aspect of MMO games that has been overlooked so far.

Glad to hear it!  Anticipation seems to be growing for this title.  You may read the interview in its entirety here.

Also, the E3 Cinematic trailer for Auto Assault has been posted in the downloads section of the official website.  You can view the movie in Quicktime format by clicking this link.

Follow this link to the official Auto Assault website.

According to the official Saga of Ryzom website, focus beta testers (and you know who you are!) now have access to the "Fair Haven" chat server.  More on the focus beta stage as it develops.

Also, the history section of the site has been updated with the part one of the tale of Mabreka. 

After the destruction of the rainbows during the kitin war I had taken to the bush with my family and a dozen survivors from our village. I still recall the continual pang in my stomach, the anxiety, the insecurity. We roamed from one shelter to the next oft times sleeping in trees whenever the smell of kitin was still thick in the air. We had been living this precarious life for full four years when one day tidings came to my father from a Kami of a road that would take us to new lands, where the rainbows had delivered our brethren.

Follow this link to read it in its entirety.

Visit the website for The Saga of Ryzom here.

SOE has opened up their European beta application form!  Players from Europe are not going to want to miss this one!  You can signup at this link (SOE Station Login Required):

http://eq2beta.station.sony.com/beta_reg/uk/register.jsp

Good luck to you!

Our own Richard Duffek (Kunou) with the help of the MMORPG.COM community, has just completed an interview with Mike Fisher (Producer) and Jason Kramer (PR & Marketing Lead) of Lyra Studios, the company behind the upcoming MMORPG "Reclamation."  This in-depth interview sheds light on many of the elements that will make this title a unique and true RPG experience.  Here is a snippet:

MMORPG.COM: Exactly how do you plan to get rid of or deal with non-roleplayers in Reclamation? Mike Fisher: Our first goal would be to ease them into roleplaying by showing them how fun it is. We want them to be roleplayers and will make every attempt to show how fun that can be. We will do our best to help people out and show them roleplaying is fun but we certainly won't let those who diminish the environment by not staying in character and participating properly remain in our roleplaying dedicated worlds. Depending upon interest, we may allow for separate worlds for non-roleplayers to play but right now our heart and soul is dedicated to maintaining the integrity of our roleplaying environment. Reclamation does have many features that we hope will appeal to players who don't normally consider themselves roleplayers. If we can bring them in and show them what roleplaying is all about, all the better.

You can read the full interview in our Reclamation Features section at this link.

ArenaNet has updated their "Letters" section with several letters and quotes that they received during and after the "E3 For Everyone" event in May.  They continue to get letters every day, and they thought Guild Wars fans might enjoy reading them.

You can check out the new letters at this link.

Kitterwen is keeping busy over at the Wish website.  His latest update to the bestiary concerns the Ichneumon: 

When asked what creature rules the wilderness, almost everyone will answer with "dragon." Little do they know that there is a beast that not only kills dragons, but actively hunts them out. No one knows exactly where the rare ichneumon originates from, but it has obviously evolved or been bred specifically to counter the formidable abilities of the dragon. With a sleek shape, armor plating and a pointed snout, the ichneumon waits in hiding until it springs at its prey and latches on. The ichneumon then burrows in between the dragon's scales until it reaches soft, vital tissue. Once this happens, there is little the unfortunate dragon can do to defend itself.

The official Wish website has more information on this upcoming title.  Visit it here.

Nevrax has announced the end of open beta for The Saga of Ryzom.  The next stage, called "focus beta", is upcoming:

Since this morning, The Open Beta is over, Hail Focus Beta. Focus Beta-Testers will have their own server and tools to collaborate with their CSR and Nevrax. You can still have access to the Klient chat and to the community forums and websites. On those website you will be explained the process in order to be enrolled as a SoR Focus Beta-Tester. There will also be an application form in order to participate in the week-end events if you are not already a SoR Beta Tester. More infos soon...

As soon as more information is available, we will have it here.  In the meantime, visit the official website of The Saga of Ryzom for more info on this upcoming title.

Square Enix has published their 4th census on the people playing Final Fantasy XI.  The figures are astonishing.  Here are the highlights of the report:

• There are now over 500,000 active and paying accounts
• There are 1,200,000 registered characters
• The average Japanese player has 3-4 characters while the average North American player has 1-2 characters

You can read the official census at this link.  Make sure to check out the links at the bottom of the report...there are many pages about races, professions, logins and other data from Final Fantasy XI.

When Linden Labs announced several months ago that players would retain ownership rights to property within its online game, Second Life, many saw that as a potential turning point in the "virtual property" paradigm.  Where most publishers have either fought players to maintain rights to digital property or have remained indifferent to the practice of buying and selling online items, Linden has embraced the concepts of virtual/real world commerce and virtual property ownership, even going so far as to "tax" real estate within the game.

It is apparently paying off, as CNN reports in this article, outlining the success of Second Life:

It turns out people are motivated to buy virtual real estate for some of the same reasons they buy it in the real world. "My vision is to buy real estate in 'Second Life' with one or two other investors and make it available to new players as a business," says a Portland-based player known as Merwin Marker. Marker owns an ocean-front spread on which he heads Awakening Avatars, the fourth-most-popular social group in the game. His two-thirds of an acre property could fetch as much as 10 Linden dollars a square meter, or $106 at today's exchange rate, a bit higher than the average price of about $100 for an acre. Since the company began allowing the sale of property, growth of the game increased by two-thirds and the company adds between 30 and 40 new computers a month, each creating a new island out of an endless digital sea. The company, which is backed by Lotus Development Corp. founder and high-tech investor Mitchell Kapor, has about 10,000 active players.

While the number of players may seem small compared to titles such as EverQuest and Lineage, it is apparent that Second Life is carving out a niche for itself and is blazing conceptual trails that "bigger" games may be forced to follow.

Visit the official Second Life website by clicking here.

Intelligent but not technologically advanced, the Alliz Ew have lived in the same crude tents and crumbling ruins for countless ages. Viewed by other races as primitive and savage, they have unwavering devotion to the god of Fear and speak an ancient language few can understand. Expeditions sent to the Alliz Ew rarely return, but those who do speak of a new power rising deep in the jungle.

Also, a page outlining the Nightblood may be found here:

The Nightblood are a threat to every being they encounter. Where these powerful fiends hail from is unknown; they traverse the many dimensions to access terrestrial realms, where they pervert the land with their malevolence. The Nightblood are pure evil, feeding upon the sinister aura produced by the corruption they inflict upon all who cross their path.

These and other EQII Creatures may be seen on the official EverQuest II Website.

The team at UO Stratics has posted wallpaper of the original Ultima Online box artwork by Tim and Greg Hildebrandt.  UO is approaching its seventh anniversary and many MMORPGers who cut their teeth on this venerable title remember their first time in Britannia with great fondness.  Just looking at the image is bound to make some players nostalgic.  You may download it by clicking on the thumbnail below.

Visit the official Ultima Online website for the latest on UO's 7th anniversary.

We are very proud to announce the addition of a new sci-fi space game to our list of MMORPG titles...Vendetta Online!  They claim the game will be ready this summer and will support many thousands of users in a single persistent universe.  It will feature "twitch" based combat and strong RPG elements.  One of the most amazing feats of this game is that it will launch simutaneously for Windows, Linux and Mac!  Here are a few screen shots from our new Vendetta gallery:

For more information you should check out the official Vendetta Online site.

This past week, NP Cube posted the trailer from their upcoming MMORPG, Dark and Light.  The trailer was created using 100% in-game video and shows some of the nice transportation features of the game.  It also shows some combat and weather effects.  Coming in at 3:45, the trailer is quite large and requires the Two Degrees client to download.  Both are available here.

Visit the official Dark and Light website for more info.

Scheduled for a fall release, Crowd Control is working on the upcoming EVE Online add-on.  The Shiva expansion will include many new features and CCP has updated the Shiva section of the features page with, "...loads of information on the features, updates and changes coming with EVE's future expansion."  Here's a sample:

They are more commonly knowns as dungeons, that consist of many scenarios tied together, are not surrounded by walls and do not have undead space rats. So we call them Complexes. They are multi-leveled with escalating difficulty, have more structured game play, ideal for new players and offer big rewards at the end. They also look pretty damn good. The main difference from single level Scenarios is that structures are destroyable, you need to go through a linear path and the loot drop is more varied since you are shooting down battlestations, not ships, so expect mineral or ore drops, blueprints, various commodities and skills. They will vary in difficulty, usually based 2 to 4 security levels below the security level they are residing in i.e. an Complex in 0.7 space would have 0.5-0.3 difficulty. Commanders and Officers might show up in them, as they will in asteroid belts and other locations, but they are as rare as hair on an Gallente back.

Also, a Shiva Design and Feedback board has been added to the official forums as a place where players and developers may discuss the design aspects of the expansion.

More information on EVE Online may be found by visiting the official home page.

   The developers of Deloria are seeking anyone with experience making sound effects or music that would be interested in making sound effects for their game. If you are interested, visit the link below to the Deloria website.

Official Deloria website: http://www.deloriaonline.com/