The Empire Changes Strategy [Star Wars: The Old Republic]

Guomundsson has been working with EVE Online since 2004, when he was struck by the innovative idea behind the game's design — players would interact with each other to develop and trade the items they need within the game. EVE's 250,000 subscribers take part in up to one million transactions involving about 5,000 different items each day. They generate so much economic data that Guomundsson can't study it all, so he's looking for academic researchers who might be interested.

You might be wondering what the chief economist of a virtual world actually does. Guomundsson described his job as having three parts:

1. Gather economic data about EVE Online, then publish that information in EVE's quarterly economic journal.
2. Talk with the game's developers about potential changes to the game and what economic fallout those changes might bring.
3. Get the academic world interested in studying EVE's virtual economy.

As for what we might learn by studying these economic microcosms, he had some interesting points:

We can learn from watching the market behavior within a confined world like EVE Online and learn about how price bubbles, for instance, are formed, and what triggers them. I think if someone were to mine through our data, they would be able to find some interesting cases and examples of that.

We can also see in terms of social interaction...how people form groups, and what it is that makes people work together. EVE is a harsh world of hard competition, but still people come together to work for a common cause. What is it that lets those people come together?

He also pointed out that EVE Online would make an excellent business simulation. Business students could set up and run their own corporations, and see how their decisions play out in a complex market.

Image by: CCP. An Economist on the Virtual Economy. [BusinessWeek]

The self-destruct power features a warning siren and a huge knockback explosion that pretty much vaporizes any enemies standing near you. Of course, it leaves you dead and untargetable, so you can't be brought back to life unless a teammate has an area of effect rez. There are videos of Self-Destruct in action here and here.

Hero-Con 08 will be held in the Bay Area (Santa Clara, specifically) on Oct. 18. Attendees will get to see panel discussions, workshops and Q&A sessions with the game developers, participate in live mission events, win prizes in contests and get a bunch of swag. Plus, their characters will get an in-game power, a toggled Harlequin costume. Not enough? Anyone who registers and attends will gain access to City of Heroes' closed betas, including the beta for the upcoming Issue 13.

Speaking of Issue 13, it's finally been announced. Subtitled "Architect," it will include the usual costume additions, new story arcs and missions, and improved zones. There will also be two new power sets, Shields and Pain Domination (which is villains-only). Then there's the new Merit Rewards, which haven't been fully explained yet, and the all-new "Day Job" system. This allows your character to gain abilities and badge credit depending on where you're standing when you log off. Log off in a hospital, gain healing related powers. Log out in the university, gain research rewards. And we haven't even mentioned the biggest aspect of Issue 13 yet - player designed missions. The developers are promising a rich, full-featured designer that will include actual map design, enemy spawn design, plus narration and dialogue creation. It will supposedly not be exploitable, and will have a rating system so the most well-done missions can rise to the top. Image by: NCSoft.

EVE Online has long been known for having one of the most complex economic systems of any MMORPG, and for being visually stunning. It is a pleasure to simply fly around the many star systems and take in the scenery, though you will eventually get your ass handed to you by pirates. With Empyrean Age, freebooters have become the least of your problems. Even high-security systems have fallen into the conflict, and everyone is choosing sides. Players have the opportunity to advance in ranks through their chosen militia by accepting missions from their warfare agent. Taking over a system control bunker will give your faction control of the system, but it will take a highly coordinated assault to get the job done. The expansion also opens a new region of space, The Black Rise. Fighting for control of these 49 new systems will affect the future shape of EVE Online. The war drums are beating (even though no one can hear them, on account of the vacuum). Image by: CCP.

War Is Coming: Empyrean Age. [CCP Games]

Last week, NCSoft released "Issue 12," the latest batch of free content for City of Heroes/City of Villains. In addition to epic villain archetypes, a bunch of game tweaks and improvements that players have been asking for were rolled out. Both heroes and villains also gained access to two new areas of play: the Midnight Club is the hideout for a secretive group of heroes and features an interesting puzzle game that gives characters access to an in-game badge; Midnight Clubbers can time travel to a realm in ancient Rome called Cimerora, which results in some pretty awesome robot vs. centurion battle scenes.

The Champions Q&A revealed some of the difficulties designers are having adapting the pen and paper Champions RPG to an online game. Certain power types will be tied to certain archetypes. If you have a defensive archetype, you can still choose offensive powers, but they'll be more expensive than your defensive powers. It appears that powers will be customizable via advantages and limitations, but not right away at level one. And also, no fatties.

Randy Mosiondz: Scaling will allow you to make "chunky" characters, but nothing on a massive (Blob-level) scale.

Champions Online Q&A Decoded. [Rock, Paper Shotgun]

Branching level paths, new powers and unique costume options for villains are just a few of the additions in store for CoH fans. Episode 12 will also feature a set of missions that will send heroes and villains through time to ancient Rome to aid the Midnight Squad. New super powers will be unlocked for the game's pre-existing archetypes, and a host of tweaks and improvements to gameplay will make it even easier to save (or destroy, as you prefer) Paragon City.

If anyone wants to go heroing with an io9er, stop by Infinity server and say hi to Cyber Sabre. Electric blasters rule. Image by: NCSoft.

Issue 12: Midnight Hour. [NCSoft]

You can download Air Rivals, create an account and play the game completely for free. Like Exteel, the giant robot fighting MMORPG we talked about a few weeks ago, you can spend a few bucks to buy better weapons and cosmetic upgrades, but you can also earn credits to buy those things just by completing missions.

The in-game graphics are not stunning, but at combat speed you don't really notice. The ships and characters are anime influenced - between missions you leave your ship (called a Gear) and walk around a spaceport. There you can meet other players or select new missions. The loading screens feature some truly awesome sci-fi art.

Your craft is controlled through simple mouse movement, and the dogfights can be pretty exhilarating. As you advance in levels, you'll be asked to select a faction in a galactic rebellion. You can then compete in battles that will earn points for your faction. When a faction hits a certain point threshold, the game automatically sends a massive mothership to attack the other side.

The game can seem a little off-beat at times. Much of this can be chalked up to its origins with a German developer (Gameforge 4D), like this description of weapon upgrades:

Legend system is for upgrading weapons and armors to upper-class with virtue and wickedness vigor.

Exteel strips the RPG right out of MMORPG. It's all about the fighting. From the main screen, you can set up or join any of the usual modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Territory Control and a variation called Last Stand that lets you team up to take on computer opponents. Players can form clans and move up a ranking system. Each battle earns you experience points to upgrade your pilot and credits to upgrade your mech. You can also buy NC Coins from publisher NCSoft, which in turn can be used to purchase a new paint job or that sweet Hellrazor Plasma Shotgun.

Running through the tutorials gives you enough credits to upgrade your basic trainee mech, and from there you can spend a little or a lot to outfit your robotic engine of destruction. I've been having a lot of fun with a modest mech I equipped with just a $5 outlay.

With no real storyline to speak of, Exteel is not quite as compelling as, say, a good Battletech MMORPG would be, but it has some high points:

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• Low system requirements. You can run this game on a pretty modest PC rig.
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• Lots of mech customization options. Massive swords, rocket launchers, winged jet packs, and a variety of color schemes are available.
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• Cool maps, including a futuristic sports arena, a city criss-crossed by highways and filled with hoverbuses and laser tanks, a space battleship and high-tech military installation.
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• Purchasable skills. With the right weapons equipped, you can trigger a sweet combo with a single button push, like impaling your opponent with your energy sword, then blasting him point blank with a sub-machine gun before kicking him away. pwned!
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