***05-28-2010 Update We are almost done some 79 or so articles to go***

We are retroactively adding old Zownder.com content to Fantasy-rpg.com.  Please forgive us for clogging up our twitter stream.  We just wan’t to make sure we have all of the articles you loved added to the Fantasy-rpg.com archives.

Thanks for your patience.

“Tagged members are highly engaged with social games and gifting virtual goods. We chose to partner with Social Gold to streamline purchasing for our members,” said Greg Tseng, CEO and co-founder of Tagged. “We have a large international membership and Social Gold’s support of local payment methods will provide a frictionless payments experience for our members in other countries.”

Social Gold will provide Tagged members across the globe with the most relevant payment methods for purchasing virtual currency and subscriptions whether visitors prefer credit card, bank transfer, mobile payment or other options. Social Gold offers a seamless payments experience for Tagged members across the entire site, including those who wish to purchase virtual goods in social games, such as Pets, which attracts over 400,000 daily players.

“We’re expanding our reach to players across multiple platforms, and our relationship with leading global networks such as Tagged and Miniclip.com are examples of this expansion,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Social Gold. “Our end goal is to help developers optimize their virtual economy through user engagement and a frictionless payments experience. As we grow our network of partners, both in the U.S. and internationally, we’re enabling developers to further monetize their properties across platforms where users play games and interact with virtual goods most often.”

In February, Social Gold announced a partnership with Miniclip.com to enable virtual economies across their catalog of over 550 game titles, providing their community of over 57 million game players with a seamless, in-Flash payments experience and a secure online wallet. To learn more about how the Social Gold virtual goods monetization platform helps optimize virtual economies for leading platforms such as Tagged and Miniclip.com, please visit http://getsocialgold.com.

About Social Gold™

Social Gold™ is an industry-leading global virtual goods monetization platform owned and operated by Jambool, Inc. The Social Gold platform enables developers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, provide an unparalleled payments experience to their users, and optimize their virtual economy using robust analytics. Through an innovative in-Flash payments solution and direct integrations with the most relevant payment methods in global markets, the Social Gold platform streamlines the purchasing experience and drives conversion. Jambool, Inc. was co-founded by Amazon.com veterans Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Singapore. For more information, please visit http://getsocialgold.com.

About Tagged

Tagged is an industry-leading social network focused on social discovery. While other social networks leverage existing friendships, Tagged is a place to meet new people. The site enables its members to play popular online social games, build and customize profiles, give and receive gifts, meet other members with similar interests and more. Tagged has over 80 million registered users worldwide. More information is available at http://www.tagged.com/about/.

© Jambool, Inc. All rights reserved. Jambool and Social Gold are the trademarks of Jambool, Inc. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The scholarship fund honors Beaumont who was a great leader and visionary in the interactive entertainment business for over twenty years. He had been at Capcom since 2005, serving as both senior vice president and executive vice president before being promoted in April 2008 to the role of COO. Capcom is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, where Beaumont was also on the Board of Directors.

“Never one to seek the spotlight, Mark Beaumont has been a patient and invaluable mentor to me and the hundreds of other people he has touched over the course of nearly three decades in the industry. When you look at all of the games and brands he’s touched and people whose respect he has earned, I can think of no one that is more deserving of this honor than Mark,” said Christian Svensson, corporate officer/vice president of strategic planning & business development, Capcom Entertainment, and AIAS board member.
Prior to Capcom, Beaumont was executive vice president of publishing at Midway Games for five years, along with stints at Time Warner Interactive for 2 years, where he was also executive vice president of publishing, and five years as a general manager at Activision. Preceding Activision, Beaumont had successful spells at Data East, Mindscape, Sony’s Psygnosis and Atari.

Beaumont graduated from University of California at Berkeley in Business Administration and Marketing.

“Mark Beaumont exemplified the qualities that define success within the world of interactive entertainment. The Academy Foundation believes that encouraging young adults to pursue careers within the business of interactive entertainment is the most fitting way to honor Mark and his accomplishments,” said Joseph Olin, president, AIAS.

The scholarship committee is comprised of AIAS board members Rich Hilleman, Electronic Arts; Don Daglow, Interactive Entertainment and Mike Capps, Epic Games, along with the University of Southern California’s Chris Swain and Carnegie Mellon’s (former AIAS board member) Jesse Schell to select scholarship recipients.
For additional information on the Mark Beaumont Scholarship Fund and the application process please visit www.interactive.org

To make donations to the Mark Beaumont Scholarship Fund, please send checks to the AIAS Foundation/Mark Beaumont Fund 23622 Calabasas Road, Suite 220 Calabasas, CA 91302

About the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) was founded in 1996 as a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote, advance and recognize common interests and outstanding achievements in the interactive arts and sciences. The Academy conducts its annual awards show, the Interactive Achievement Awards, to promote and acknowledge exceptional accomplishments in the field. To further enhance awareness of the Academy’s vision, the organization created the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in 2002, a once yearly conference dedicated to exploring approaches to the creative process and artistic expression as they uniquely apply to the development of interactive entertainment. With the success of D.I.C.E., the Academy took the exclusive event to Singapore to launch the first ever D.I.C.E. Summit Asia this year. With more than 20,000 members, including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, THQ, Day One Studios, Epic Games and Insomniac Games, The Academy is the leading advocate of video games worldwide. More information can be found at http://www.interactive.org and http://www.dicesummit.org

Since its inception, The Academy has created and collaborated on a number of unique programs that promote the industry. AIAS oversees Into The Pixel, in partnership with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a juried exhibition of art from video games. In addition, the Academy sponsors several education programs including the Randy Pausch Scholarship, which awards students pursuing their dreams of becoming an interactive entertainment creator, and The Academy Scholar, a program sponsored with The Guildhall at Southern Methodist University (SMU). The AIAS most recently collaborated with Gamestop and The Guildhall at SMU on the Indie Games Challenge, a competition for professional and non-professional video game developers to create their own video game. More information is available at: http://www.interactive.org and http://www.intothepixel.com

# # #

Contact

Wendy Zaas/Debby Chen
Rogers & Cowan
310-854-8148 / 310-854-8168
wzaas@rogersandcowan.com / dchen@rogersandcowan.com

Geri Gordon Miller
Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences
818-876-0826 x202
geri@interactive.org

Women in Games International works to promote leadership, inclusion, and advancement of women in the global games industry, and is centered around the philosophy that diversifying the game development, media, academic and publishing workplace results in not only a more equitable space, but better products.

“For the 3rd annual GDC event, we’re focused on expanding awareness among growing and emerging markets within the games industry,” said Asra Rasheed of Women in Games International. “We are delighted to have Social Gold as our title sponsor as they represent our initiative to diversify and encourage involvement from other areas of gaming.”

Social Gold provides a full-featured virtual economy platform that enables publishers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, provide an unparalleled payments experience to their users, and optimize their virtual economy using robust analytics. The company has an experienced and dedicated team founded by veterans Amazon.com, who were responsible for engineering such products as Amazon.com’s Flexible Payments Web Service and Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk.

“As the industry-leading virtual economy platform for powering virtual currency and payment solutions, we are pleased to be officially co-hosting this year’s GDC VIP mixer with Women in Games International,” said Vikas Gupta, founder and CEO of Social Gold. “With the growth of the virtual goods market, we see many opportunities to foster this growth among our industry peers, including events like the event hosted by WIGI.”

The event team also extends a big thank you to additional event sponsors whose support continues to help build and grow Women in Games International. Sponsors include: The Entropia Platform; Garvey Shubert Barer Law; LOGIN Conference; Vivox; Disney Interactive Media Group; Red Octane; and Gibney Anthony & Flaherty, LLP.

To register for the event, please visit http://socialgoldwigiparty.eventbrite.com and enter the code WIGIGOLD.

About Women in Games International

Women in Games International (WIGI) was founded in 2005 in response to a growing demand around the world for the inclusion and advancement of women in the games industry. Managed by a steering committee comprised of like-minded individuals, WIGI is supported by corporate and media sponsors, and directed by a global advisory board. For more information, please visit www.womeningamesinternational.org.

About Social Gold™

Social Gold™ is an industry-leading virtual economy platform owned and operated by Jambool, Inc. The Social Gold platform enables developers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, provide an unparalleled payments experience to their users, and optimize their virtual economy using robust analytics. Through innovation in Flash-based payments solutions, a sophisticated fraud management system and an easy-to-integrate API, Social Gold has received recognition as an outstanding platform for powering virtual economies. Jambool, Inc. was co-founded by Amazon.com veterans Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Singapore. For more information, please visit http://getsocialgold.com.

© Jambool, Inc. All rights reserved. Jambool and Social Gold are the trademarks of Jambool, Inc. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

NEW YORK, NY, February 22, 2010 – These days it is harder than ever for independent bands to get noticed in the music world and break through to the next level.

That’s why when New York City-based rock/rap group Shinobi Ninja created their app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, they knew it had to be not only new and different, but also a property that would help market their unique brand to their fans, and even expand their fan base. In the first three weeks of
availability, “ Brooklyn to Babylon: Shinobi Ninja Attacks!” has been downloaded more than 5,000 times, and Twitter followers, Facebook fans and MySpace friends have also increased. “It’s like we have rocked five sold out shows at Grammercy Theater in less than one month,” mused Dave Machinist, drummer and bandleader.

Perhaps the biggest positive development for the band has been the industry reaction to Shinobi Ninja since the app released on February 1, 2010. “We had A&R requests from three major record labels and several booking agents the day after our app released,” said Machinist. “That was way beyond what we’d hoped or even dreamed.”

“Everybody’s using social media to connect with fans, but until we came along there were few bands that were building apps that were good at driving deeper fan engagement with their music and their overall brands,” said manager Stephen Sternschein. “Our app has already begun to help us achieve our goals of bringing our current fans closer to us, and it’s expanding our fan base far beyond New York City, to places as far away as Asia and the U.K.”

Shinobi Ninja has realized a 10 percent conversion rate from the free “lite” version of the game to the full retail version (i.e., users downloaded the free app then paid to download the retail version), which compares favorably to the industry standard conversion rate of half a percent to five percent for iPhone apps. According to Sternschein, “our conversion rate is so much higher than average, because we’ve been focusing mostly on our strong fan base for initial sales, and we expect it to climb even higher, when we take it on the road to the South by Southwest Music Festival in a few weeks. It’s a great tool to help new fans discover the band and stay connected with us, once we’ve performed in their home towns.”

About “Brooklyn to Babylon: Shinobi Ninja Attacks” iPhone App
Part cartoon video game, part music video, and part music/video player, “Brooklyn to Babylon: Shinobi Ninja Attacks!” is an app developed by rock/rap band Shinobi Ninja for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It integrates digital music and video into a classic eight-bit video-game environment, so players get immersed in the band’s imagined cartoon world and are rewarded for playing with free music downloads, music videos, and promotional merchandise. Developed by Shinobi Ninja Video Game, Llc., a partnership of Shinobi Ninja and Heard Games, “Shinobi Ninja Attacks” was designed and animated by Interabang Entertainment, with software programming by Cerulean Games. A “lite” version is available free from the App Store; the fully loaded retail version sells for $3.99.

About Shinobi Ninja
Shinobi Ninja, is an independent rock/rap group comprised of six New York City performers: lead singers DA and Baby Girl, bassist Jonny on the Rocks, drummer Terminator Dave, guitarist Maniac Mike, and DJ Axis Powers. Inspired by acts as diverse as Nirvana, Janet Jackson, Faith No More, Sublime, and the Beastie Boys, Shinobi Ninja crafts their own brand of party music into an eclectic mix of musical styles designed to appeal to a wide variety of music fans. Shinobi Ninja recently debuted their latest extended-play (EP) single, “Brooklyn to Babylon,” and they recently released their first video game app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch,
“Brooklyn to Babylon: Shinobi Ninja Attacks.” Their latest music video can be viewed here. Shinobi Ninja’s next album is scheduled for release Spring 2010. Join Shinobi Ninja at Twitter.com/shinobininja. For more
information, visit www.shinobininja.com.

Story Line: Here is one area that impressed me right away.  The story line is really in-depth with this Alawar title, as you play a ruler that has lost his city, his love, and has angered his god.  Your task is to rebuild your city in a new place and try to regain the favor of the god that has shunned you.  Throughout the game, there are little cut scenes that give you even more to the story line and each of these are extremely well done.  You also learn a bit about the story line as you go through each level, encountering your citizens that offer different insights on how they can improve the lives of the others with different machines, techniques, and so forth.  I give the story line of Settlement: Colossus a solid 10 out of 10.

Game Play: I play a lot of hidden object games and I play a lot of strategy games – I love them, I’m addicted to them.  But, I have to admit that all of my guilty pleasures have falled to the wayside when I started playing Settlement: Colossus.  Not only is this a city building game where you have to rebuild your city and keep your citizens happy, it is also a strategy game as you have to plan out how much food you have and will need, how much of each resource you need, and how to gather it all up to complete your goals.  Now, add in the hidden object games in each level and you have one seriously addicting little game.

During the game, you start off with a goal, such as build stronger homes or build a school.  As you progress through the level you will have primary goals and secondary goals that you have to meet to complete that level and move on to the next.  During the level, you can see from the layout of your city what resources you can gather from where and you can also see from the interface of the game how much of each resource you have and need.  When you need to build something or work on a specific area, there will be a little bubble arrow that will tell you what you need to complete it.  (I love this, as it makes it easy to see what you need instead of searching for it.)

The hidden object games in Settlement: Colossus are amazing.  In each different one, you’ll be searching for different items and you’ll never know what they will look like.  For example, when you are finding food, it can be apples, berries, squash, watermelons, and more.  And as you go along and add on different items to your resources, there will be more items to find in one specific area.  Suddenly you aren’t just looking for food on the farms, you’re looking for grapes, wine, cheese, oil, olives, and more.  This also really makes you keep an eye on your resources on your interface as you have to split what you find into the different areas and you don’t gather as much food or firewood in later levels as you did in the beginning.  To me, this is a great touch, as it really adds to the strategy part of the game.  As far as the game play goes in this Alawar title, I have to give it a 10 out of 10.

Sounds: I actually like the sounds of Settlement: Colossus as they make you feel like you are really somewhere in the Mediterranean.  The sounds aren’t too loud but they aren’t too soft either, and they aren’t annoying – which is always a good thing.  Even the voice acting in the cut scenes is well done, and adds credibility to the story line and the overall game.  So when it comes to the sounds, I have to give them a 9 out of 10.

Graphics: The graphics in Settlement: Colossus can be split into several different parts: the cut scenes, the levels, and the city.  The cut scenes play out like a short animated movie, but the people and the details are excellent.  The levels are so well done that if it weren’t for the hints, I doubt I’d be as far as I am in the game right now.  You really have to search for the hidden objects in each level, and they get harder and harder as you go.  They don’t just jump out at you because they were placed there as an after thought.  They are really part of the background and hard to spot at times.  And then we come to the city, which is cute but still detailed.  As you build different parts of the city, the buildings are added in and people are placed by them as well.  There is so much to take in when it comes to the graphics in Settlement: Colossus that it will take you a while before you really start to see everything that has gone into creating this great little game.  When it comes to the graphics in this great little Alawar game, I have to give them a 10 out of 10.

Overall, I was completely impressed with this game.  It provides the perfect mix of hidden object games with strategy games and throws in the building aspect of sim games as well – creating a unique game experience.  I love this one, and I have to admit that it’s by far one of my favorites to come out of Alawar Games so far.

• 100% More Levels!
• Still Free!
• Super meta!
• Tons of Puzzling Stages!
• Defy logic, gravity, and the space-time continuum!
• Two of Those Things are True!
• Space Out Staring at the Whirling Level Timer!
• Bounce into the Spikes and Watch Your Death Toll Skyrocket!
• Unlockable Velociraptor!
• Use All Four Arrow Keys!
• Hone Your Speedrun… at Work!

The original game has been played over 7 million times on Armor Games’ site alone. Check out the sequel, and take on the “Heroic Quest to Complete Another Level” in This is The Only Level TOO.

About Armor Games

Armor Games is the leading developer of casual Flash and iPhone games. Based in Irvine, California, the company was founded in 2005 by Daniel McNeely, and has developed and released such hit games as Crush the Castle, Sonny, Shift, IndestructoTank! AE and Upgrade Complete!

“By incorporating Social Gold, Miniclip will continue to provide an immersive, premium entertainment experience for our global community,” said Jeremy Wadia, COO of Miniclip. “Social Gold’s in-Flash solution removes all friction from the payments experience, allowing our players to make in-game purchases without ever leaving the game. This not only drives free to paid conversion, but also turns one-time purchasers into repeat purchasers.”

“This partnership brings together the highest quality Flash games and the most elegant virtual economy platform for Flash,” said Vikas Gupta, founder and CEO of Social Gold. “We are proud to deliver a superior user experience, a breadth of local payment methods and single-click purchase capabilities to the Miniclip community.”

Social Gold enables any publisher – whether in Flash or not – to create its own white-labeled virtual currency, provide an unparalleled payments experience to its users, and optimize its virtual economy using robust analytics. Social Gold is the first completely secure, completely in-Flash payments solution, where end users enjoy a seamless purchase experience by remaining within the game itself. With the integration into Miniclip’s catalog of games, Social Gold will enhance and extend Miniclip’s high production value and superior user experience.

To start integrating the Social Gold API, please register at http://getsocialgold.com.

About Social Gold™

Social Gold™ is an industry-leading virtual economy platform owned and operated by Jambool, Inc. The Social Gold platform enables developers to create and manage their own white-labeled virtual currency, provide an unparalleled payments experience to their users, and optimize their virtual economy using robust analytics. Through innovation in Flash-based payments solutions, a sophisticated fraud management system and an easy-to-integrate API, Social Gold has received recognition as an outstanding platform for powering virtual economies. Jambool, Inc. was co-founded by Amazon.com veterans Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein and has offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Singapore. For more information, please visit http://getsocialgold.com.

© Jambool, Inc. All rights reserved. Jambool and Social Gold are the trademarks of Jambool, Inc. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About Miniclip.com

Miniclip.com is the world’s largest online games website with over 57 million unique users per month. It has grown rapidly through organic, word of mouth marketing, without any paid advertising. The company was founded and funded in 2001 by, Robert Small. Miniclip has seen dramatic growth since inception and has been profitable for seven years. It now operates in 15 languages and has a truly global presence. Miniclip focuses on providing high quality online entertainment experiences. The games are fun, intuitive to play, and quick to load.

“As online worlds become the gold standard for engaging experiences, HeroEngine’s applications grow far beyond their MMO roots,” said Neil Harris. “More than 20 years worth of experience has been incorporated into HeroEngine, and the result is unmatched agility and speed for anyone looking to bring their online world to life.”

HeroEngine revolutionizes online world development by enabling teams around the world to collaborate in real-time. The engine has recently been licensed for a broad array of projects including a multi-title deal with a US publisher, virtual worlds with government and non-profit applications for a European organization, and stealth-mode projects from startups and major studios in China, Europe and the US. Details on these projects will be announced in the coming months.

Previously announced HeroEngine licensees include BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic game and a stealth project from ZeniMax Online Studios.

As a result of the growth in new HeroEngine licenses, the company is undergoing rapid expansion of its development teams located near Washington, DC and St. Louis, MO. Said Herb Marselas, “We are expanding our team by hiring even more world-class engineering talent. This is an exciting opportunity to help develop the next generation of technology for a global audience.”

As President, Simutronics Games, David Whatley will focus on the development of new games for social networks and iPhone. “From our early days pioneering some of the first immersive online gaming experiences, Simutronics has been focused on two things: developing great technologies, and making great games,” said David Whatley. “I’ve always had a passion for creating games, and our new corporate structure lets us take what we’ve learned over the past two decades and focus exclusively on applying it to new gaming platforms.”

D.I.C.E. Summit attendees can learn more about how HeroEngine supports agile, collaborative 3D online development in the D.I.C.E. Lounge, located on Veranda C at the Red Rocks Casino Resort & Spa, February 16-19, 2010.

About Simutronics

Simutronics Corp. has 20 years of expertise in the business of multiplayer online games, developing innovative original entertainment and technology solutions. The company’s two divisions, HeroEngine and Simutronics Games, focus on technology development and licensing and the creation of original games, respectively.

HeroEngine is the world’s only 3D online agile development platform that supports real-time development and collaboration, reducing time and cost to market for virtual worlds and MMO (massively-multiplayer online) games. Licensees include BioWare (Star Wars: The Old Republic), ZeniMax Online, and many more around the world who demand a better process for developing and maintaining online worlds.

Simutronics Games created pioneering titles like GemStone, DragonRealms, and CyberStrike, which were best-selling games on AOL and other online services during the 1990’s. The games division now applies this expertise to titles for social and mobile gaming platforms.

Simutronics has offices in St. Charles, MO and Gaithersburg, MD. Additional information is available at www.play.net and www.heroengine.com.

Join Armagan Yavuz, Lead Developer at Taleworlds Entertainment, as he takes players through the new multiplayer modes of Mount & Blade: Warband at the Paradox Interactive Convention.

“This is one of the most exciting features for us and also for the fans as well,” says Armagan, as he speaks on the new multiplayer aspect. “If you like the idea of fighting on a horse and fighting with tough guys with swords…you are going to enjoy Mount & Blade: Warband.”

View the complete interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqTIMvpGPOk

Mount & Blade: Warband will be available late March 2010.

Mount & Blade: Warband Game Features:

• Multiplayer battles with up to 64 players.
• Multiplayer modes include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Conquest, Battle, and Siege.
• Seek adventure alone, or recruit and train an army fit for a king. You and your companions will gain experience and skills while your soldiers evolve into a deadly fighting force.
• State-of-the-art rendering technologies combine with a more informative interface, allowing new and advanced players alike to enjoy an unprecedented level of immersion.
• The ability to marry a lady of the realm for romance or cold political gain. Try to win a lady’s heart through poetry or bravery.

For more information visit www.paradoxplaza.com/games/mount-blade-warband

About Paradox Interactive

Since 1999, Paradox Interactive has been a leading global developer and publisher of PC-based strategy games. World-renowned for its strategy catalog, the company holds a particularly strong presence in the United States and Europe. Its steadily-growing portfolio includes originally developed titles such as the critically acclaimed Europa Universalis and the Hearts of Iron franchises, as well as publishing titles such as the Elven Legacy series, Mount&Blade and Majesty 2. Paradox stands poised to make an explosive entry onto consoles during 2010 with the release of Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West. For more information, please visit www.paradoxplaza.com and follow @pdxinteractive on Twitter.