News

After only a couple of weeks of registrations, Stargate Worlds devs announced that they have surpassed the 100,000 mark.

Holy Hannah! In only half a month the closed beta registration list for Stargate Worlds has exceeded 100,000 applications!
"This is a huge milestone for our game," said Community Manager David Read, "but as a big Stargate fan myself this comes as no surprise. In the words of Executive Producer Brad Wright, this franchise has 'got legs,' no matter what medium it reaches. Stargate Worlds is sure to excel."

If you haven't gotten around to registering for closed beta, now is the time!

Fans have reason to be proud today. Thank you, community, for helping to spread the word.

If you haven't yet, do it!

Gamespot UK has posted a Q&A with Stargate Worlds developers Joe Ybarra, Rod Nakamoto and Dan Elggren. The discussion focuses on the progress devs are making towards a 2008 release and Project: Ascension.

GSUK: Can you tell us more about Project: Ascension?

Rod Nakamoto: Project: Ascension is a code name for a framework for fun games, much like a shopping centre is a framework for stores. A mall has big anchors like Macy's and Nordstrom's here in the United States. In much the same way that a mall brings together disparate stores and restaurants to offer a great entertainment package, Project: Ascension will bring together a variety of games, all in the online space. There's much more to it than that, but that's all we can tell you about [it] at this time.

Obviously Stargate Worlds won't have the full dynamic of Project: Ascension at launch. The full depth can't be achieved until there are multiple titles existing in the framework. We'll be announcing more of those titles this summer.

There's lots more to be read at Gamespot.

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

Stargate Worlds devs proudly announced that one day after opening beta sign ups, they had surpassed the 65,000 mark:

Only a day since the official announcement, the beta list for Stargate Worlds is already pushing 65,000 sign-ups!
"We are extremely excited and overwhelmed by the positive response by fans to get a chance to beta test," said Senior Community Manager Katie Postma. " It gives the dev team a feeling of support and encouragement to know that so many people want to share this game with us, and work with us to make it better and better!"

Remember that the beta process has just begun, so please be patient if you have not been accepted yet. Testers will be added slowly over time, ramping up with much larger numbers in the coming months.

If you have yet to register for beta, do so now!

You can sign up for the beta HERE.

Closed beta applications are now being taken by Stargate Worlds. Publisher Firesky announced that the registration process is now live in the following bulletin:

MESA, Ariz. - April 24, 2008 - Stargate Worlds, the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) from new publisher FireSky, is now taking registrations for closed beta at http://www.StargateWorlds.com.

The closed beta is an invitation-only test of the upcoming science fiction MMORPG Stargate Worlds. Invitations will be sent out this spring and summer as the Stargate Worlds team ramps up the numbers for testing.

Check out the rest by clicking below.

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

SGW IRC has announced a developer chat with Stargate Worlds developers coming on Friday, May 9th. Here are the details:

Yeah since I fail at making pretty glazing announcements. I'm just going to cut to the chase today.

We will be having a developer chat with a developer who likes to hang out on our network on May 9th at 4PM East USA, 1PM West USA, 9PM UK. He is one of the system designers for Stargate Worlds. We commonly refer to him as Aruspex around the community. Ok ok, enough with introductions...

Who? Aruspex of CME.
What? A live IRC developer chat with him for an hour.
Where? irc.sgwirc.com in channel #stargate-worlds ( Java: http://www.sgwirc.com/chat )
When? May 9th 2008 at 4PM East USA time, 9PM UK. Get there early to put your questions into the bot*.

* The bot is a little tool we use to collect questions to screen before being asked.

See you there this May 9th!

Be there with your burning questions.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.

Register for the Stargate Worlds website and keep your eye peeled for a minuscule box that indicates you wish to sign up for the Stargate beta.

Update: Katie from Cheyenne informs us that the Beta is due to begin in a few weeks time.