Merry Christmas from MMORPG-Info!

Each of the thumbnails links directly to the game.

Thin Ice	Christmas Zombies
Infectonator Christmas Edition	Learn to Fly
Winterbells	Civiballs: Xmas Levels
Polar pwnd 2	Colour My Fate
Gingerbread Circus 2	Factory Balls Christmas Edition

All of them are at least briefly amusing – well, I thought so, anyway. If you believe I’ve missed a great (free) Winter or Christmas-themed browser game, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Alice is Dead takes place in Wonderland but things are not as they should be. Alice is dead and it’s up to you to make your way through. The artwork is creepy and lovely and the text tips made me laugh out loud.

• Alice is Dead 1
• Alice is Dead 2
• Alice is Dead 3

The gameplay is straight-forward point-and-click to interact with items and solve the puzzles to make your way through the next area. Each episode is fairly short but some of the puzzles are quite difficult, so I paused the game a few times to try to think about what I’d missed.

Jay is Games gave the first episode a sterling review and has posted a walk-through in case you get really stuck.
Alice is Dead: Episode One Walkthrough Guide

More Brothers Grimm than Lewis Carroll, Alice is Dead is a short but sinister little noir-ish tale that will entertain even if the plot twist at the end is a little predictable. Play it on a coffee break, or play it with the lights down low and the sound turned up. You didn’t need those sweet dreams anyway, did you?

One of the developers posted in response to the many positive comments, saying:

In regards to the length of the game, truth be told this first episode was a bit of an experiment. We had no idea how people were going to react, and this overwhelmingly positive response has been such a pleasant surprise for me and Hyptosis.

So give it a go and see what you think. If you enjoy it, be sure to let them know so they create more!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Merry Christmas from MMORPG-Info!

Each of the thumbnails links directly to the game.

Thin Ice	Christmas Zombies
Infectonator Christmas Edition	Learn to Fly
Winterbells	Civiballs: Xmas Levels
Polar pwnd 2	Colour My Fate
Gingerbread Circus 2	Factory Balls Christmas Edition

All of them are at least briefly amusing – well, I thought so, anyway. If you believe I’ve missed a great (free) Winter or Christmas-themed browser game, feel free to let me know in the comments.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Barclays have launched a free online game called 56 Sage Street and they’re running a special Christmas competition to entice players to join in.

56 Sage Street is a browser-based Flash game full of exploration and puzzles. You play a teenager with four pounds to your name and just one chance to make it in London . A mysterious dying man called Mr C is looking for his successor and will set you a number of tasks to complete. You have a mobile phone and three stats: Reputation, Energy and Appearance. Explore around the world to find work and opportunities for food, rest and reputation building. You’ll need to make money-management decisions and complete the mini-games for each area in order to progress towards 56 Sage Street and the chance to take over Mr. C’s empire.

Your game is saved via Facebook so you need to connect to your Facebook account in order to keep track of your progress as you make your way towards your goal. You can check your progress against the league table there as you collect the in-game awards (50 in all, listed on your mobile phone).

As a special incentive, 56 Sage Street is running a Christmas competition. Starting today, there is a hidden object in the game. If you find the object, you will unlock a secret mini-game. Complete the mini-game to be entered into prize draw with real-world prizes.

Complete the mini-game to enter a prize draw to win some amazing prizes such as an LG 42LE4900 42″ FULL HD LED TV + LG HT305SU 5.1 Home cinema system, five Apple iPod 8GB Nanos and four Nintendo Wiis with copies of the Sports Resort game. Terms and conditions apply, see the official website for details.

The hidden items are in 56 Sage Street right now so visit the website and try the game for yourself!

This is a Sponsored Post for 56 Sage Street

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Trust your Primal Instinct is the name of the series and it’s broadcast on YouTube as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game.

Here’s the starting sequence:

At the end of the script, you make a choice to hunt down the case:

• Turn Vault to Kong
• 270 Cat

That’s probably the weakest link: I really wasn’t sure what those choices meant and ended up choosing at random. However, after the first sequence, the options become clearer with explicit choices such as “Grab the case” and “Take a short cut” so that I felt that I was in control of the character and what he was doing. I followed the “game” to the end and enjoyed the resulting reward: a 2 minute video on the making of the clips.

I don’t know that this will make me try the snack food but it certainly has brought their product to my attention. The repeated sequence showing a good looking young man snacking on a bag of Fridge Raiders certainly can’t hurt.

Is this the wave of the future? I hope so. I’d certainly rather engage with advertisements like this than put up with flashing neon ad banners on websites.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Guide Survivors Through the City

As operatives of the National Emergency Control and Relief Agency (NECRA) sealed in secure locations, players must guide their small group of survivors through the zombie-filled streets of over twelve thousand square kilometers of Los Angeles County, competing for scarce resources against other players to survive. You progress your group by surviving, fighting and exploring.

Competition for Limited Resources

Your survivors need food and drink and over time they suffer from fear and fatigue. Initially, there are plenty of locations to loot but supplies dwindle over time unless you stash things away. You are in competition with other groups of survivors for resources, with PvP combat and theft integrated into the game. The PvP is described as hard-core because of the permadeath system: If your survivors die, they can’t be resurrected and their corpses can be looted. As an operative, you will have to find other survivors willing to accept your guidance and help – which may become difficult if you don’t deal with their needs.

Skill Development per Character

Each survivor has his own inventory and skill development paths, allowing you to customise your group for survival, fighting and exploration. You also have the option to establish safe-houses and claim territory.

The game is designed by Ballardia, founded by the Kulpreet Singh who was the Chief Game Designer at Jolt Online. The game is currently in a closed beta and won’t be available until the beginning of next year.

Competition

But you don’t have to wait! We have 10 beta keys to give-away if you’d like to try the game out now!

If you would like access to the closed beta, simply leave a comment here answering one simple question.

(Reciprocal link: Looking for more competitions? Try Online Competitions)

The best answers will receive a beta key in order to access to World of the Living Dead which you can play using any popular web-browser. Complete the form with a valid email address so that we can contact you if you win! We will not use your information for any other purpose.

What would be the best thing about a zombie apocalypse?

Add your answer as a comment to take part.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

First, although I don’t play a lot of Facebook games, I’m really glad they exist. It means my more mainstream friends no longer whisper “she spends her free time playing games” in a snide voice when I walk into the room. But another great thing about the Facebook phenomenon is how much conversation is being created as the gaming industry tries to understand what the hell is going on.

As a case in point, I wrote a facetious article about Cow Clicker over the summer. Cow Clicker is a Facebook app which encapsulates everything that is “great” about the latest crop of social games:

You start with a single cow and a pasture. In your pasture, you can house your friend’s cow. When your cow moos, the other cows in your pasture moo. Clicking your cow earns them clicks and when they click you get credit. This is viral game sharing at its best.

In the barn, you can collect different cows. You start with a plain cow but you can swiftly move up the ranks and get exciting upgrades like a Holstein Cow or a Hereford Cow or even a Bacon Cow! If you are impatient, you can buy Mooney which allows you to click more often or simply buy that handsome new cow you have your eye on. At a rate of 1,000 Mooney for $10, it’s a bargain!

Ian Bogost, the developer, gave a talk at GDC Online about his experiences with Cow Clicker. A write-up of his speech is on Gamasutra which discusses the backstory of the game (Bogost originally used the term Cow Clicker as a pejorative term for click-oriented play such as FarmVille) and why he created it (Raph Koster suggested that he make a game in the genre himself before being so critical).

Gamasutra – News – GDC Online: Ian Bogost’s Troubling Experiences With Cow Clicker:

He finds it “incredibly disturbing” that the game went on to be what he calls the most successful piece of art he’s ever made. Its numbers are not impressive by social game marketplace standards — 50,000 cow clickers at the game’s peak, clicking around two million times, a number that has since declined. But he watched the game’s users to see how many users actually “got” the satire. And people seemed to receive Cow Clicker as satire, judging by amusing puns, jokes and meta-satire that players left on the game’s Facebook page.

Something one finds “evil” doesn’t become less so because it’s coupled with intent and design, Bogost notes. “I don’t know what you can make of the fact that you’re celebrating your ability to sell tripe to people who want it,” he says. But he’s encouraged, in some ways, by the “fuck the users, whatever I need to do to get revenue” party line of many social gaming companies: “At least I know where to put that in my frame of understanding,” he says.

Raph Koster blogged about the talk the same day, following a comment on Twitter: “I don’t think Ian learned the right things from Cow Clicker.” Koster makes the point that he thinks Bogost should consider the experiment to have been a positive success.

Raph’s Website » Thoughts on Cow Clicker:

I also think that there is a danger in saying, as he did, that he is concerned that people actually play Cow Clicker for entertainment. It is a mistake for a creator, IMHO, to believe that they “own” the “proper” uses/interpretations of their creation once it leaves their hands, and it has a whiff of worrisome elitism. This may perhaps be implicit in its origins as a satire. When I mentioned this point to him, he agreed, but said “But I don’t need to like it.” And that is also equally true.

It amused me somewhat that within the top ten comments to the blog post is someone asking Bogost to reveal how he got 50,000 users. But more interestingly, there is a comment by Richard Bartle as well:

Raph’s Website » Thoughts on Cow Clicker:

There was something bothering me about this after the talk, and finally I realised what it was. What Ian dislikes about this kind of game – the mercenary approach, the lack of ideals, the lack of respect for players – was not a factor in the creation of Cow Clicker. Ian could never create a game of the kind he was challenged to create because that would involve his doing it for the reasons such games are created, rather than doing it to see what it was like to operate one.

Cow Clicker is a parody, and a pretty good one at that. Ian does make his point. However, because most players know it’s a parody, they’re not playing the game, they’re playing the meta-game. It’s the Facebook equivalent of Mornington Crescent: the game itself is pointless, but, knowing this is what makes the playing of the game fun.

End result: in trying to make the essence of a bad Facebook game, Ian captured the essence of a good one.

Richard

I think Bartle is exactly correct. I looked at the game (and spread the word) because I loved the fact that it was such a perfect parody. My friends posted updates on their walls in retribution for all the Farmville and Mafia Wars wall posts we’ve had to endure. The banners and the descriptions and even the money grubbing were amusing. The people arguing that players will shell out for any old tripe are completely missing the point.

Bogost complains that Richard (and others) are underestimating the number of players who are not playing the game ironically. I would posit that instead, Bogost is overestimating his players’ ability to be humorous. Playing the game because it is silly is not the same as playing the game despite the fact that it is silly.

Which has reminded me that I have a cow to click. I shall click it, if only to keep the conversation going.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Monsters’ Den: Book of Dread, a free online game on Kongregate

Top tips:

• Get rid of the chat and other tabs. Play full-screen in your browser
• Clear every level so that you can travel back down to heal and rest
• The best loot in the game comes from the boss fights. Don’t be tempted to skip them.
• Vampiric and Reflect items are overpowered. Use them.
• Customise your party with this Custom Portraits Tutorial
• Don’t stay up all night in “just one last fight” mode. And if you do, don’t blame me!

See you next week!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

No, I’m not making this up. Although I laughed out loud at one commenter who asked if the acronym stood for Massively Mormon Online Game.

The Bible Online is based on the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Players can meet and play the real heroes of Genesis, Abraham and his descendants. The game is designed for users to actually experience the Book of Genesis by fulfilling quests of Abraham, which is based on the true stories of the Genesis. As a MMORTS, players are to lead their tribe, build buildings, maintain resources and engage in warfare with other tribes. However, players do not stay in one place, but will go on a quest to go to the Promised Land.

The first chapter, Heroes, focuses on Abraham who needs to take his tribe to the promised land. You take on the role of Abraham and his descendants and work to grow your tribe through expansion and battle. You are given progressive quests which take the format of a biblical quote, a task, a hint and a reward. You will need to gather resources to build buildings to grow the tribe. A large tribe is important for recruiting soldiers for battle, including sling soldiers, spearmen, archers, cavalry and apparently St. Michael. I may have misunderstood that bit.

Your goal is not just growth though – you will need to gather your people to lead them to Ur and then lead them to Haran and then finally lead them to the Promised Land in Cana’an.

The Bible Online: Ch.1 The Heroes also offers additional elements of RPG. When Abraham dies, Isaac becomes the tribe leader and after Isaac dies, Jacob leads the tribe. There are also quests for users to experience Genesis according to the history of the Bible. For example, as it is written in Genesis 14:13~14, there is a quest for Abraham to lead 318 men to rescue his nephew Lot.

FIAA, who also developed Kalos War and Operation7 is a German company who is releasing the game into Open Beta today, the 6th of September. They’ll be giving away prizes to the most obsessive best players.

Unfortunately, their website seems to be fairly unstable and it took me a couple of tries to sign up for the beta test. Once I managed to register, log in and click the Join Beta button, I got a php error followed by a page which simply said “!!!IMPORTANT!!!” Not a great start for a browser-based MMO. Maybe they should have waited for the 7th day?

Let the “God Mode” jokes begin.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html

It may appear simplistic but the Cursor * 10 gameplay had me enthralled through multiple plays, trying to work out the best way to make it to the top.

I’m pleased to see that there is now a new set of puzzles: Cursor * 10 2nd Session.

Although there is scoring, that’s the wrong thing to focus on – the goal is to make it to the 16th level. In order to solve the puzzle, you have to help future instances of yourself get up the stairs. I have to admit that the air turned blue on floor six when I cursed my past-self for snatching the key that I needed – how rude!

I still think that this is a very clever new look at basic gameplay and I’d love to see further twists on this concept. Now I just have to work out how my future-self can help the previous instances of myself to get that high score…

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.