RPGs: Stop Making Bad First Impressions 
Is Hitman's Next Target Assassin's Creed? 
Why Kotaku Australia Should Never Work With Children... Or Robots 
Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land The AIDS epidemic in China is huge and of serious concern to a lot of people (the best work I’ve seen to date is the wonderful and heartbreaking To Live Is Better Than To Die, an underground documentary by Chen Weijun on a hushed-up tragedy in Henan), but the Ministry of Education is using computers and ‘games’ of the quiz variety to fine effect: Launched by the Ministry of Education and sponsored by the China AIDS Roadmap Tactical Support Project, the contest ran for three months last year, yet its effect continue – the site remains up and nearly 19 million people have logged on.
Americans lurve online gaming. But what about Japanese? Nope! An online questionnaire poled 15,000 members of Japanese internet community MyVoice about their feelings towards online games. The sample was 54 percent female, 2 percent teen, 16 percent twenty-something, 37 percent thirty-something, 28 percent forty-something and 17 percent fifty-something. Over half of them were not interested in online games! That’s not including the 12 percent who are totally indifferent. And when asked what their image of online games was, the most common response was “Geekish.” And get this, only 1 percent of those poled use Macs to play online games. At least we have that in common!
Hit the jump for the full breakdown:
The KartRider beta has kicked off today in the US. Never heard of KartRider? It’s only the biggest thing to happen to Korea since someone decided the 38th parallel was as good a place as any to call it splits. Imagine if Mario Kart was free. But totally online. And while it was free to play, new characters, new carts and bananas all cost you a tiny amount of money. Sound any good? Well, as mentioned, Korea’s gone batshit loco for the thing, so the least Nexon could do is see if it works in the West. You can check it out at the link below, see if its your cup of microtransaction tea. [Kart Rider Official Site]
In a recent report by research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, it was concluded that games with an online component sell nearly twice as many copies, on average, than their onlineless counterparts. You ever wonder why every game, no matter how unsuited, seems to be sticking in a multiplayer component? Now you know why.
Of course, there could be confounding correlations at work here, like between a game’s budget and its propensity to have online play, or taking the possibility a step further, a game’s level of marketing and said budget. Still, it’s an interesting theory. Has the promise of multiplayer ever tipped the scales for a game you almost didn’t purchase?
Games with strong online components outsell the competition [arstechnica]
PlayNoEvil keeps an eye on skill gaming – playing for cash, and (usually) in a different category than straight up gambling – and points to SkillGround, which has some new offerings, including a fighting game, a FPS, a racing game, and more in the pipeline. Of course, with money comes problems – particularly because some of these games are particularly vulnerable to all manner of bots.
There are some interesting risks for online skill games. First, “turn-based physics” games like golf, darts, and pool are very conducive to “analytic bots” that find optimal shots or allow players to test shots before they take them.
Barbie, everyone’s favourite anatomically impossible plasticine play thing now has her own MMO: BarbieGirls. Following in the footsteps of things like Club Penguin, just a lot pinker and more irritating, it’s a brilliant marketing strategy and already boasts 4 million users. And they haven’t even gone out of beta yet. And continue to sign up new users at the rate of 45,000 a day. Wow. Not to be left behind, Bratz – the trashier, more badly made up version of Barbie – is also opening their own Be-Bratz MMO.
Deceptively difficult (or deceptively easy, depending on your perspective), Gimme Friction Baby by Wouter Visser also has a deceptively lascivious title – it’s really just a fun, addicting little game of angles. If an orb bounces back over the dotted line and shatters into pieces, you lose. The game won the jayisgames.com Casual Game Design Competition #3, and there are several other worthy timewasters to take a gander at if Friction doesn’t strike your fancy.
Nexon and Wizards of the Coast have paired up to offer the US and Canada the ‘MapleStory iTrading Card Game (iTCG),’ starting this November (aren’t we so lucky?). The cards will offer players the chance to, uh, do the card battle thing, but also give access to new (and exclusive, mind you) parts of the regular game. I’m having bad flashbacks to elementary school, when Magic: The Gathering was all the rage.
The government of China’s Zhejiang province decided to go after children and teach them in no uncertain terms that corruption is bad and everyone ought to do their part in ensuring corrupt party members, their families, and mistresses ought to die a painful death – in late July, they introduced ‘Incorruptible Fighter’ so players can slash their way through corruption and to a wonderful, corruption-free paradise that has no earthly connection to the China of today:
“Players fight their way through one level after another, overcoming all obstacles to eliminate corrupt officials and enter a spring-like paradise filled with birdsong and the scent of flowers, a peaceful world where people live in love, harmony and national prosperity,” the Ningbo [Zhejiang province]city government said in a statement.
If you have an online score to settle in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects—obviously, you don’t—you’d better make it snappy as EA is shutting down the online servers for that game and dozens more. The majority of EA’s 2005 and 2006 sports entries will go offline on September 1st with support for Burnout Revenge, Need For Speed Underground and Need For Speed Most Wanted going black on November 1st. This applies to the previous generation console versions, of course, including a few PSP and PC games. The full list of online artifacts is after the jump.
