Carnival of Gamers X - Winter Carnival

Carnival of Gamers X (10 for the non-romans out there) has graced the front page of the KillTenRats blog. Go over and check out the articles linked. There is a great selection!

This is my first Carnival of Gamers appearance and I submitted my "MO5 - The SOE effect… part II… MMORPG madness" article.

Trust Me, an article from the Escapist on MMORPG economies

The Escapist, an online magazine, has an interesting article looking into the heart of MMO economies. The article covers both happenings in EVE Online and Second Life.

Quote:
But business is good only because it's not actually ISS that owns the outpost. An ISS corp operates the outpost (and technically, within the game's mechanics, owns it), but real ownership has been vested with the pilots of EVE, through what has become the first publicly owned company in the game.

If there was a great article out there to start 2006 with... it would be this article. A great read that poses a lot of good questions.Freedom is the premise of most online worlds.

However, many fail to even get close to freedom. EVE Online and Second Life have shed that approach and have told their players "Try what you want." It is dangerous ground to stand on, but as the article highlights it can be the most rewarding.

2005 into 2006

Happy New Years!



As we leave 2005 I wish the best to all of you for 2006. Look for a wrap up of 2005 sometime this week. Enjoy!

Xbox 360 outsold by Gamecube in Japan?

According to this report from Nintendojo the Xbox 360 can pretty much be wrapped up as a complete failure in Japan. It is failing to outsell the Gamecube and this is not because of lacking supplies. Japan has a massive excess of Xbox 360's. Me thinks that Microsoft's marketing campaign to drive hype by shortchanging supply only works in the American market... go figure.

Here is a cut and paste of the top selling consoles and games from Japan from the linked article.

Hardware

1. DS - 597,628


2. PSP - 161,332


3. PS2 - 97,475


4. GCN - 36,646


5. GBASP - 35,764


6. GBM - 19,261


7. Xbox360 - 5,674


8. GBA - 906


9. Xbox - 141

Software

1. PS2 - Kingdom Hearts II, Square Enix - 727,591


2. DS - Animal Crossing: Wild World, Nintendo - 416,132


3. DS - Mario Kart DS, Nintendo - 302,742


4. PS2 - Naruto: Narultimate Hero 3, Bandai - 216,966


5. DS - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Blue Rescue Force, Pokemon - 157,786


6. GBA - Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Red Rescue Force, Pokemon - 156,430


7. DS - Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop!, Bandai - 156,181


8. PS2 - Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, Konami - 103,894


9. GCN - Mario Party 7, Nintendo - 100,130


10. DS - DS Training For Adults: Work Your Brain , Nintendo - 93,240

Goldeneye Source HL2 Mod

One of my all time favorite multi-player games was Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64. Many of my high school days were lost to the pure joy that was Goldeneye 007 multi-player! It seems the game has left a mark on quite a few other people as well. So much of mark that they have made a Half Life 2 Mod to recreate the Goldeneye experience.

Goldeneye Source is a multi-player (with limited single player) mod for Half Life 2. It features many faithful recreations from the original Nintendo 64 version. There is plenty of servers out there running the mod and the action in game is intense.

So step back in time with me a bit and indulge into a bit of gaming nostalgia. Enjoy!