Beginning February 9, 2001, on Obsidian, the world will be watching as 8 strangers are stranded on an unknown island. There, they must work together to survive, while eliminating each other one by one every three days. The lone survivor will walk away with $500,000! What kinds of challenges are there Answer: There are two kinds. One is a "reward challenge," in which Survivors compete for luxuries, such as reagents, tents, fires, etc. The second is an "immunity challenge," in which Survivors compete for the most valuable prize--immunity from being voted out of the island at Tribal Council. The winning individual of an "immunity challenge" can not be votes out at the end of a three-day period, while everyone else can. Occasionally, the "reward" and "immunity" challenges were combined: winners received both a reward and immunity from being voted.

Check out the news page for more information on how to sign up for the contest.

The server went down today because of a Macro being used on a shop. The person who used the macro bought scrolls instead of potions. The macro corrupted various player inventories. I already know who was infected so please don't come and tell me it was you.

I have put some macro detection code into the game. If the game finds that you are guilty of using a macro, you will be kicked from the game. And I will be notified of your actions.

This comes on the heals of previous macro abuses, and a exploit of a bug in the system that shut down the game servers.

Q: Can you SHORTLY summarize Warzone Online?
A: Warzone Online is a tactical action game where the player chooses one of six armies to fight with. From these armies the player has a certain number of soldiers and vehicles to choose his troops from. Depending on the nature of the mission, the environment of the warzone, the time of day (in the warzone) and other factors the player must select an able force.

The game itself is very fast and even if its still a strategic game it contains very fast (and fierce) battles that we up to now have only seen in first person shooters.

More drool material here.

She says her fiance stays logged into the fantasy role-playing game for as many as 20 hours a day, leaving her and her daughter alone at the dinner table and everywhere else. He was in the delivery room for the girl's birth. But he brought along a laptop computer so he could help a less-experienced player kill something called "Dorn."

"My fiance and I have no relationship," Erickson says. "I speak, he grunts. I ask him to do something, I do it myself. I want to go back to work, but I do not trust him alone with our daughter, simply because when I am here she will be crying and he will not do anything about it."

Now, I personally know of someone (whom I still call "friend") who didn't show up for work for a week. When my other friends found him, he was sitting in his apartment with a week's worth of food garbage scattered about the floor, and the stench of his unwashed body filling the rooms. Yes, he was playing EverQuest.

But is EQ to blame here, or is it yet again the outlet for those few of us who get so massively obsessed with any sort of escape that we tend to forget that which holds us in the real world? In the 70s and 80s, it was D&D (did anyone see Tom Hanks in Mazes and Monsters?), in the 90s it was Magic: The Gathering. Will the scapegoat of the new decade be MMORPGs?

You can judge for yourself if the Trib is the shadow of the new sensationalism.

1. The game must be very profitable.
2. The game must be fun.

...Of course, she then goes on to elaborate on those points for the next 10 or 12 paragraphs.

Will Spellcasters get pets?

Yes. Each Realm will have at least two spellcasters that can utilize summoned or enchanted creatures to aid them as they adventure.

Additionally, a number of other casters (and semi-casters) per Realm also get the ability to charm, mesmerize, and otherwise control NPC monsters they find wandering about.

In fact, we should have simply had a scaling system that adjusted ALL encounters in the game according to party and player composition and level. Neverwinter Nights and all of our future role-playing game will be using a scaleable encounter system.

Wow, and I thought BG2 actually had a scaling system...I guess that's a testament to a good interface, eh?

In the words of Josef Hall, President of Wolfpack Studios, Inc. "Today marks a unique turning point on our journey from 'development house' to 'entertainment provider'." For more information, view our latest Press Release: WolfPack Studios, Inc. Announces Phase One Beta Test of Shadowbane!

You can now go straight to their new SB Beta Page, where they plan to keep all information regarding this and future phases of the testing. Unfortunately, they're no longer accepting application for testers.