***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.

Players in the mood for adventure can now head to the Lava Plateau to challenge the new boss monster, Ignis. Those who can withstand his fiery attacks will be rewarded with never-before-seen weapons, so gear up and get ready for a fight if you want to be one of the first to wield them!

The update also brings a handful of new random boxes and stat-boosting outfits to the Florensia Item Shop. Players looking to quickly gain a few levels should especially try out the twelve new Sakura Kimono and Hakama costumes, as they provide a 30% boost to land EXP and a 15% boost to HP recovery. After all, what’s not to like about looking sharp when you hit the open seas?

For more information about the update and Florensia’s adventure-filled world, visit http://www.florensia-online.com/.

About Florensia

Florensia is a free-to-play, maritime MMORPG that blends vibrant, colorful graphics with classically accessible gameplay. Choosing one of four starting classes, from the sword-wielding Mercenary to the spell casting Noble, players will do battle with a huge variety of weapons and magical abilities as they explore expansive, underground dungeons and sail uncharted seas. Players from every corner of the globe have already signed up and headed out in search of adventure, and there has never a better time to join them in the wild and wonderful world of Florensia.

About burda:ic

burda:ic GmbH is an online games publisher that markets and distributes massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) such as Ragnarok Online, Florensia, and Hello Kitty Online. Furthermore, burda:ic has established interactive gamer communities like alaplaya.net or sanriotown.com. More information about Burda:ic is available at www.burda-ic.com.

The University, notorious for its financial troubles, was deemed “too big to fail” by the Elanthian Education Department and was subsequently bailed out with a generous, albeit undisclosed, endowment.

“We’re delighted, simply delighted!” said Thaddeus Lackpants VIII, a professor at the school, at the press conference held earlier today. “The entire faculty and I are committed to our students receiving the finest Adventuring Education that delicious government funding can provide!” he added, a pile of Fubars tumbling out of his beard onto the floor.

The University justifies its new financial stability by touting its record of producing Class-A Adventurers. Many of its alumni have gone on to long, spectacular deaths, such as Dodgebrawler extraordinaire Randy McDandy, who put up a valiant effort against the fabled Badgerdragon before being summarily consumed and digested.

Opponents of the school, however, call the bailout “an affront to common decency,” and refer to F.U. by its initials with a bit more fervor than is socially acceptable.

Anyone interested in a hall pass for an early visit to Fantasy University (via the school’s “Closed Beta-Eta-Pi” summer session) should contact the PR flak listed below.

For more information, please visit the University’s Facebook and Twitter pages, download the information pack or peruse Professor Lackpants’ scintillating lectures and updates.

About Fantasy University

Fantasy University is a unique social adventure game on Facebook that puts a new spin on the old-school MMOG with grown-up humor and a plethora of pop-culture references. Created by gaming industry veterans Simutronics (whose founders created Gemstone IV, the longest-running commercial MUD in the world as well as Cyberstrike and Dragonrealms), Fantasy University combines exploration, combat, puzzles, and—above all—snarky intelligent humor with a uniquely appealing graphic style.

About Simutronics

Simutronics Corp is a leader in the business of massively multiplayer games. Incorporated in Virginia, Simutronics has offices in the St. Louis, Missouri and Washington, DC areas with more than 300 employees and contractors around the world. The company is privately held. Founded in 1987, the company has seen more than a million paying players around the world.

As an example of how different the characters in LOCO can be, consider the fighting styles of Very Mary Bell, the “master of confusion,” and Kilmor, the “iron wall.” Very Mary Bell relies on teleportation and illusions to avoid attacks and confound her enemies, making her a sneaky-yet-powerful offensive character. Only the truly observant even realize she’s nearby before she unleashes an attack.

Kilmor, meanwhile, is built to survive the heavy damage sustained in close-quarters combat. His Dragon Bash ability lets him quickly rush an enemy and knock them to the ground, and his Jade Cannon and Awaken skills both boost his strength significantly at the cost of agility. Kilmor isn’t the type to sneak up on an opponent, but his power and high HP mean he doesn’t need to use deception to win.

To learn more about the secrets within the Spellbook of Laair Hathy and the Book of Heroes, which contains a wealth of information about the history of LOCO’s warriors, visit http://loco.alaplaya.net/chronicles

Users who are interested in being one of the first players to set foot in the Land of Chaos should also make a trip to the alaplaya Facebook fan page. If they reach 10,000 fans before the end of Closed Beta registration on May 17, burda:ic has promised to hand out extra closed beta keys to their followers on Facebook!

For more information about registration for the Land of Chaos Online Closed Beta Test, head to www.loco.alaplaya.net/closedbeta

About LOCO – Land of Chaos Online

Developed by Danal Entertainment, Land of Chaos Online is a truly next-gen MMO that features high-end graphics, a roster of 30 playable characters with unique skills and personalities, and hectic online combat. LOCO’s unique combination of RTS, Action, and RPG elements is guaranteed to give players around the world a gaming experience unlike anything they’ve ever seen.

About burda:ic & alaplaya

burda:ic GmbH is a leading free-to-play PC online games publisher headquartered in Munich, Germany. burda:ic markets and distributes massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) such as Avalon Heroes, S4League, and Florensia. Its innovative alaplaya Gaming platform has continued to grow rapidly since its launch in summer 2007, with an expected 10 million registered users by end of 2010. More information about burda:ic is available at www.burda-ic.com.

In May of 2009, what started with only two servers and a vision to create the best possible user experience has evolved into a MMO phenomenon played around the world on 210 servers.

“This is an amazing moment for the Evony team, all made possible by a community that has shown us amazing support over the game’s first year,” said Walt Yarbrough, Vice President of Operations at Regan Mercantile, LLC. “Our goal with the Evony franchise is to achieve player happiness through engaging gameplay and a low barrier to entry. Year one marks only the beginning of the journey, as we continually look for new ways to give players a fun, immersive experience.”

“Today marks a special occasion for the Evony community,” said Tony Cerrato, Marketing Officer at Regan Mercantile, LLC. “We share our passion for Evony with a staggering number of players from all over the world. In just a year, we have built a rich community of players, from hardcore gamers to those discovering free-to-play gaming for the very first time. Evony is proud to welcome all types of gamers from all over the world as we head into our second year.”

The recently launched Evony: Age II features new quests involving historical heroes and cities, a redesigned graphical interface, and Facebook Connect integration, providing innovative ways for players to build their own kingdoms, form alliances with friends, conquer enemies and make new friends – all from a simple browser interface.

Join the celebration today at www.evony.com. For Evony updates, follow @EvonyOfficial on Twitter and connect with Evony on Facebook.

About Evony, LLC

Evony, LLC was founded to bring a new kind of game to life – a fun, competitive, and social empire-building experience that is unlike anything else online. Evony: Age I and Evony: Age II are the culmination of the company’s vision; in under a year, the game has recruited over 19 million users, and continues to grow. Evony, LLC owns the rights to the Evony brand, and with a focused and passionate team, the company oversees the development and management of the game through partnerships with proven vendors, including Regan Mercantile, LLC.

About Regan Mercantile, LLC

Regan Mercantile, LLC is an international organization that handles the development and management of online games and payment gateways for game owners. An efficient and effective model for the evolving online gaming landscape, Regan Mercantile works with game owners to ensure their vision is implemented and upheld. The company works with Evony, LLC to oversee the management and operation of Evony: Age I and Evony: Age II.

“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.

As Chapter III opens, players can expect new rewards including precious armor that can now be endowed with individual attributes by swapping gold and ‘Ancient Mementos’ for special items. In response to community feedback, less-experienced players can now select a difficulty level when entering the dungeons ‘Hall of Survivors’ and ‘Heart of the Ocean’. Cautious players can now also save their game progress in specific instances which means that when loading a saved game status, they no longer need to tackle bosses that they have already defeated.

This first phase of Chapter III also introduces an expanded in-game Monster Card System allowing players to gain valuable cards that are dropped by NPC opponents once they are defeated. The monster cards now have additional attribute points to improve their character’s stats. Update 3.0.0 also contains the announced three new guild drill grounds, six new guild quests and stone fortifications to expand the guild castles. Furthermore, elite skills have been adjusted in order to optimize the game balance.

As with all Runes of Magic expansions, the update is free and will install automatically when the game is started. For more information on Runes of Magic Chapter III – The Elder Kingdoms and a ten-week training program designed to fully prepare players for the third chapter see the official Runes of Magic website: http://www.runesofmagic.com/us/chapter3.html

About Runes of Magic
Runes of Magic has redefined the standard for free-to-play MMORPGs in terms of gameplay, fun and quality. The online role-playing game has an exciting, multi-layered story, driven by more than 2,400 quests set in the fantasy world of Taborea. To date, Runes of Magic has attracted more than three million registered users, making it one of the most successful free-to-play titles on the market, and a must play game for all fans of RPGs and MMO games. Runes of Magic features a unique dual class system enabling players to combine one of eight primary classes with a secondary class. The result is a deep player experience that expands upon the game’s broad customization offering. There are two different playable races, Elves and Humans, from which players can choose. Each dual class combination produces its own powerful elite skills. Another popular feature is the opportunity to furnish your own virtual home, and guilds can construct guild castles, which can be expanded with additional buildings. Thanks to comprehensive crafting and reputation systems, gripping PvP features, deep customization and demanding dungeons, Runes of Magic has something for everyone. Taiwanese developer Runewaker regularly expands the game world with new free content and challenges.

Runes of Magic Features
- Dual class system with eight classes and unique elite skills
- Individual furnishing of player housing and guild castles
- In-depth story experienced through over 2,400 quests laced with epic quest-lines
- Gripping Player-versus-Player duels in arenas and on the battlefield
- Easy travel using portal stones and a wide range of mountable animals
- Challenging boss-combat in dangerous and extensive dungeons with up to 36 simultaneous players
- Entertaining mini-games offering variety to the hero’s routine
- Dynamic crafting and customization of items
- Regular comprehensive free updates with new game content
- Free-to-Play: No monthly subscriptions, free to download the game

About Runewaker Entertainment Ltd.
Runewaker Entertainment was founded in August of 2004, with headquarters located in Taichung, Taiwan. The founding members were all very experienced in the field and decided to come together to pursue their dream. Currently Runewaker employs over 100 highly skilled programmers, designers and artists and is constantly expanding. Runewaker specializes in making massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG). The company has built their own engine from scratch which rivals some of the best available on the market. Runewaker is constantly producing more content for Runes of Magic. Internet: www.runewaker.com

About Frogster
The Berlin based Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, listed on the stock exchange, has focused on the growth sector of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) at an early stage already. The company licenses, markets and operates its virtual worlds for millions of players in Europe, Asia and North America. In Europe its subsidiary Frogster Online Gaming GmbH is taking care of the operating business of the Frogster group. The Korean joint venture Frogster Asia Co. Ltd. based in Seoul develops new MMO games with an internal team and markets virtual worlds in Asia. Frogster America Inc. based in San Francisco, USA, markets and operates MMO games in North America. At their offices in Berlin, Seoul and San Francisco, the Frogster group employs more than 150 staff members in the fields of game development, licensing, IT, web design and web development, product management, marketing, PR, web publishing, community management, customer support, hosting, sales, billing and finance/administration. In the year 2008, Frogster won the “Landmark in the Land of Ideas”, a competition under the patronage of the German President Dr. Horst Köhler. Additional information is available at: www.frogster.de

Upon logging in to your account, you will be given a purse of in-game currency to spend on virtual items for your avatar and at the tables. Step into a room and pull up a seat, where games of up to five players will already be in progress, 24/7.

Similar to Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, a dealer will display three cards in the community hand – the first displaying the question category, followed by two hints at the answer. Players will then have the option to match the pot to continue playing based on the cards shown. The fourth card displays another hint, while the fifth and final card displays the question that players must correctly answer. Fold at any point in the game if you’re not confident in the final question and answer, or bluff your way to the end and force your competitor’s hand. Call your opponent’s bluff and win bonus currency if they don’t know the answer.

“We’ve spent months experimenting with ways to combine the best aspects of trivia and Texas Hold ‘Em Poker into one game and are pleased to finally offer early access to the Open Beta of The Big Bluff,” said Eric Arlt, Chief Executive Officer, himojo. “The game offers an online trivia experience through Facebook unlike anything else out there. Poker and Trivia are two huge activities that are beloved around the world and we look forward to everyone experiencing this new hybrid of the two games in a competitive, free-to-play and social environment.”

The Big Bluff Features:
• Facebook Platform – Play the game by logging into your Facebook account on either Facebook.com or on TheBigBluff.com
• Real-time Online Multiplayer – Step into a room for five and watch opponents and friends play you live from across the table
• Chat System – Real-time chat during the game, allowing players to put on their poker face and play their bluff
• Customization – Access the dressing room and customize your avatar from head to toe with publicly available and exclusive items
• Virtual Currency – Earn in-game currency by winning a hand, daily check-ins and by purchasing with real-world money
• Global Leaderboard – Win rounds, build up your purse, unlock high-roller rooms and gain stardom by making it onto a central leaderboard

To start testing your trivia knowledge and betting big on your skill, visit the official The Big Bluff website at www.thebigbluff.com and log in using your Facebook information. Be sure to connect with us on our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/thebigbluff and follow us on Twitter @thebigbluff for daily trivia and giveaways.

A press kit may be downloaded here (16MB):
www.triplepointpr.com/dl/himojo/TheBigBluff_EPK.zip

About himojo

himojo, also known as Renovatio Media Group Inc., is a user-centric, technology-driven company, devoted to delivering the best of breed in social games and entertainment. Its flagship title, The Big Bluff, is a multiplayer Facebook game that blends mechanics of Texas Hold’em Poker with trivia, integrating various avatar customization features and virtual currency built on a microtransactions model. The title is scheduled for launch in Q2 of 2010, playable on both Facebook and TheBigBluff.com. The company was founded in 2010 by Hollywood and Silicon Valley veterans and is based in Los Gatos, California.

Sibblingz enables developers to take advantage of the massive growth in PC and mobile social game adoption. Sibblingz’ social game engine is built to create games on Facebook’s PC site as well as Apple’s iDevices and Google Android devices.

Launch partners include social games company, CrowdStar, and game development studio, SiXiTS. The Sibblingz social game engine was used to develop one of the most successful social games of all time, CrowdStar’s Happy Island, which has 12 million monthly average users and millions of daily active users.

“Game play on the smart phone and tablet is different from social game play on the PC like Facebook. iDevice gamers want more skill-based mechanics with console-like gaming feel,” said Peter Relan, Executive Chairman of CrowdStar. “By using the Sibblingz engine we can make a game optimized for the iPad that is connected to the same back-end data as the Facebook version. Sibblingz gives us multi-device reach with the flexibility to make a game experience unique to that device.”

With Sibblingz, developers will be able to save millions in game development costs and decrease their time to market on launching cross-platform.
Sibblingz will allow them to reach the broadest possible consumer audience.

“A solution like Sibblingz can have a dramatic impact on brands and developers looking to build a game that has scale from a cross-platform perspective,” said Michael Cai, Vice President of Video Games at the research firm, Interpret, LLC. “Right now it’s quite expensive to build a game on multiple platforms, and it’s a big hurdle for someone looking to create the next social game phenomena across devices.”

With Sibblingz, a game can reach the hundreds of millions of smart phones and tablets flooding the consumer market in the coming year, having access to the many social games expected to be available on the devices.

“After gamers on social networks have played a cross-platform game that can be used across all devices, they’ll come to expect it from all games,” says Ben Savage, Founder of Sibblingz. “Adding these features to a game after it’s been developed is difficult and expensive. We look forward to a new era where a studio starts a title with Sibblingz, giving the title a great foundation to scale.”

Sibblingz will increase time to market of cross-platform launches, launching them in less than three months.

Also, Sibblingz will provide the ability to monetize free-to-play games with virtual goods based on a common production art pipeline.

“Our goal is to create high quality social games and experiences that are available on the most devices, so they can reach the largest audience in the shortest time,” said SiXiTS CEO, Euan Macdonald. “Sibblingz is the only avenue available that allows us to do that.”

Sibblingz Public Launch Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fm6CjRV3zI Media companies, brands and game developers interested in the Sibblingz platform should contact partners@sibblingz.com for more information.

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About Sibblingz:
Sibblingz is a YouWeb incubated social games technology firm with offices in Burlingame, California. The company offers the first game engine made for the multi-device world enabling developers to take advantage of the massive growth in PC and mobile social game adoption. The Sibblingz platform gives developers the ability to build a social game that plays across all devices including uninterrupted game play. Games built on Sibblingz, enable consumers to play a specific game and continue the experience across the most popular PC platform such as Facebook as well mobile platforms including Google’s Android and Apple’s iDevices.

By committing to the PCGA, these companies join others in the gaming ecosystem to push the PC gaming industry forward for the benefit of consumers world-wide. Their contributions will keep PC gaming at the forefront of the industry, help it to overcome its challenges, and continue to fulfill its limitless potential.

“These members bring a wealth of experience and a rich diversity of products and services to the PCGA that will significantly enhance our existing membership base”, said Randy Stude, PCGA president. “By joining our rapidly growing organization, they are demonstrating their support for expanding the PC Gaming industry and their commitment to improving the PC gaming experience.”

“We’re honored to be elected to the PC Gaming Alliance Board of Directors,” said Min-Liang Tan, CEO, Razer. “There is so much synergy between Razer’s core DNA – an essence of pure commitment to improving the PC gaming experience with state-of-the-art peripherals – and this organization’s drive to establish high standards and quality guidelines for the evolving industry at large. Both Razer and the PC Gaming Alliance are dedicated to addressing the needs of a maturing category and its largely sophisticated audience.”

“Arxan is pleased to join the PCGA in support of this global forum that enables and enhances the development of the PC gaming industry, including security controls for game tampering for the purposes of piracy and cheating,” said Kevin Morgan, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering, Arxan Technologies. “Our software security expertise in game protection can be leveraged to formulate proven and best-of-breed approaches to implement business practices and technology solutions that preserve code integrity, user experience and business models throughout the PC gaming ecosystem. As a member of the PCGA, Arxan looks forward to participating in various initiatives, such as the anti-piracy sub-committee, to ensure that due consideration is given to the protection of intellectual property, preservation of game integrity and unobtrusive DRM models, especially as PC games are exposed to collaborative and continuous hacking attempts that result from the increase in global digital distribution models.”

“Corsair is pleased to be joining with the PCGA to further the PC gaming experience”, said Andrew Paul, President of Corsair. “We’re looking forward to helping shape the future of PC gaming and working with the other key members to bring even more innovation to our award-winning product families.”

To find more about the PCGA’s role as the voice of the PC gaming industry, visit www.pcgamingalliance.org.

About the PCGA
The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) is a nonprofit corporation whose mission is to drive the continued growth of gaming on Personal Computers, the world’s most popular platform for gaming. The PCGA provides an open forum where companies can cooperate to develop and promote solutions that drive the PC gaming industry forward, exchange information and views to promote PC gaming, and share promotional activity designed to grow the PC gaming industry. According to the PCGA 2009 Horizons Report, the industry’s most comprehensive analysis of the PC Gaming market, PC gaming software revenue was $13.1 billion, making the PC the highest revenue generating and most prevalent gaming platform in the world

Contact:
John Ehrig
PCGA Program Manager
jehrig@inventures.com About the Razer Group:
Razer™ is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming products and peripherals that are designed “For Gamers. By Gamers™”. Headquartered in Carlsbad, California, Razer’s award-winning lineup of products includes desktop speakers, headsets, keyboards, mice, software, and gaming surfaces. Since 1998, Razer has collaborated with leading professional gamers to develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge gaming peripherals using proprietary technologies that give gamers the competitive edge. Razer products offer the best in precision, sensitivity, usability and distinctive product design and have a reputation for being leaders in gaming peripheral technology.

For more information, please visit www.razerzone.com.