Max Schaefer
Co-Founder and COO
Flagship Studios

What is an RPG? Taken literally, it simply refers to a game in which you play the role of one or more characters. But in practice, I think the term means different things to different people, and from my experience in making them, it's a topic of considerable passion for many gamers. At times, it can resemble a religious war. I was fortunate enough to work on all the games in the Diablo series, a title that is today most commonly considered an action RPG. The arguments about how to classify it were strangely heated, with some people insisting that it was a full-fledged RPG, and others who refused to accept that it was an action RPG... or even that such a category was valid.

Figure 1-2. Identification of Sandbox Games

If you want to understand the immensely popular sandbox genre, there’s no better way than to study a carefully constructed flowchart. Figure 1-2 will aid you in the identification of most sandbox crime games. Try it on your friends – it’s 123% accurate.

Well, there's no point in beating around the bush any longer, so let's get right down to it. A few months ago we were contacted by Blizzard in regards to the Diablo3.com domain name. While they appreciate all the work that's been put into running this big Diablo fan community over the years, they still want the domain name. Hmm, I wonder why? Now before you get all up in arms about it, allow me to explain a few things.

First off, this fan site isn't going anywhere, it's just getting a new name: Diablofans.com! Blizzard is actually being really cool about it, giving us all the time we need to make it a smooth transition before we hand the old domain over to them. So be sure to update all of your bookmarks and point 'em to diablofans.com instead. Your user accounts will all still be perfectly functional and, along with this new site name, we'll soon have a big site redesign up and running as well. A new name, a new look. Huzzah!

Secondly, while Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn't be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we've been waiting for all these years. They acquire new domains all the time. While this is true, I personally can't help but think that this is a confirmation of sorts that they're working on the next Diablo game. Sure, they can claim it's because they want to protect their intellectual properties 'n what have you, but I can't imagine they would all of a sudden be so interested in the diablo3.com domain if they weren't working on a new Diablo 3 game behind the scenes.

Hermosa Beach, Calif.—April 30, 2008— Deep Silver, Inc., a publisher of interactive entertainment software for PC and consoles and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Media, today announced the opening of their office in the Los Angeles metro area. The office will serve as headquarters for US sales and marketing activities, as well as North American developer relations.

"The opening of our United States office represents an important milestone in the development of Koch Media," commented Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media. "In the last five years, Deep Silver was able to successfully position itself as a quality brand, and now enters the North American market with its own branch office. With a presence in the USA, we can market our own products more efficiently, all over the world."

"Opening an office in America means establishing Deep Silver in the world's largest market for games," said Cathy Tische, vice president of sales and marketing at Deep Silver. "The geographical location right in the center of the American games industry is ideal for future growth, and for building a network of business partners."

Deep Silver, Inc. is located at 2615 Pacific Coast Highway #225, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254-2250, USA.

In the past years, Koch Media recorded continuously growing sales. The overall turnover of the entire Koch Media group grew by double-digit percentages each year. The Koch Media group's annual sales volume for the year 2007 came to € 231 million. In 2007, Deep Silver Vienna was founded as the first own development studio; the focus is clearly on own brands and multi-platform products with global market potential. The US expansion reinforces Koch Media's position as a leading independent publisher.

About Deep Silver
Deep Silver develops and publishes interactive games for all platforms. The Deep Silver label means to captivate all computer and video gamers who enjoy and share a passion for thrilling gameplay in modern game worlds. Deep Silver works with its partners to achieve a maximum of success while maintaining the highest possible quality, always focusing on what the customer desires. Deep Silver products are designed to equally appeal to professionals and beginners, children and adults.

Deep Silver has published around 40 games since 2003, including the most successful adventure of 2006, Secret Files: Tunguska, the bestseller ANNO 1701 (co-published with Sunflowers), the challenging CrossworDS knowledge puzzle game, the horse simulation Horse Life DS, and the soccer MMO World of Soccer Online. Current developments include Warhammer® - Battle March™ (in cooperation with Namco Bandai), the action role-playing game Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (in cooperation with Ascaron), S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Clear Sky, the sinister Chernobyl shooter for PC, and the new game from the Piranha Bytes team. Deep Silver's own developing studio Deep Silver Vienna opened in 2007. For more information please visit http://www.deepsilver.com

Koch Media is a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products (software, games and movies on DVD). The company's own sales activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, and it has formed strategic alliances with numerous software and games manufacturers: Ascaron, Braingame, D3P, G-Data, Gamelife, Kaspersky Lab, Lexware, Namco Bandai, Pinnacle, Square Enix, Sony Online Entertainment, System3, etc. Headquartered in Planegg near Munich/Germany, Koch Media owns publishing and distribution branches in Germany, England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the USA. http://www.kochmedia.com

This grandeur intersects with gatekeeping, a function felt most consistently in RPGs and shoot ’em ups, but regularly occurs elsewhere. Bosses are a plump full stop to bring a stage to an end, open up a new area or provide the next widget fragment in your quest to reunite the mystic widget medallion. They’re the reason to conserve medikits, special attacks and fancy-pants ammo, and hone your skills. When the beast topples and the chaos settles, it’s a definite crescendo-closure that lets you breathe out a heavy sigh before hungrily breathing in whatever fresh treats await around the next corner.

Still, players needed something to generate the experience -- where do the "forest" or "castle" come from? Gygax and Arneson's answer was another human brain: the Dungeon Master's. The DM of a D&D campaign runs and arbitrates the game, doing everything from designing the world and describing it to his players to providing goals and obstacles to controlling the actions of NPCs.

Contemporary video games also have a Dungeon Master, but there he's much harder to pin down, because his job is spread across many people: dozens of programmers, artists, and designers all lend a hand in creating a game's challenges and rewards, visuals and atmosphere. Hardware and software also share some DM responsibilities, by for example controlling NPCs and by drawing the game world on TV screens.

We were also lucky enough to get a sneak peak at Dungeons & Dragons Interactive while at NY Comicon. The D&D Insider gives players a lot of interactive tools to help run their game and make life easier. The days of the never ending notebook are over. Now many of these resources can be found online. D&D Insider hosts digital version of Dragon Magazine and Dungeon Magazine as well as helping with organized play, community efforts, and utilities.

The character visualizer allows you to make a very customized 3D version of your character to use in the online Game Table program. There are loads of armor, skins, weapons, and styles to make your character look unique. This model is similar to an MMO character creation screen, however it allows for tons of options. The D&D game table gives players a place to move their virtual miniatures on the game board. The game table is designed by the DM in advance with some very easy to use tools.

Take the phenomenal Planescape: Torment. The game has the text compositions of many novels over, all carefully detailed to compliment the artistically designed ambiance. This is a game which combines literary brilliance, an amazing script, with a rather weak but carefully crafted game-engine - meaning the player can use both their imagination and their vision to pull together the world within their mind.

The enjoyment I derived from this masterpiece, yes - masterpiece, and the artistic meaning and merit which I attribute to this game is far superior to that which I would give to any book or painting.

Interactivity helps a lot, but with free choice aside the mere nuts and bolts, the expression, of PS: T is worth a couple of Mona Lisas in its own right. It's unfortunate you can't hang videogames on the wall. But who do you know with a van Gogh original in their hallway anyway? And books aren't asked to fulfil this requirement, either.

A few years ago, a lovely chap writing a thesis on gaming visited PC Gamer to chat about what they believed made a great game. I remember incoherently trotting out the usual buzzwords: story, characterisation, freedom. In my head flickered Planescape, Deus Ex, System Shock 2... I really believed that story is all.

What a fool I was. How could I not see that story is what's holding games back from true greatness? Show me your finest cutscene, your most shocking twist, your most moving endgame cinematic, and I will give you exactly the same response as I would to the worst, the most predictable, the most leaden. All it does is rub in my face all the things the game won't let me do myself.

Diablo
Diablo is the second of Blizzard's "Big Three" games, and for good reason. It is one of the most well-known games in the action RPG genre and features a random level and monster generator. There are also multiple paths that can be taken so that no two playthroughs are exactly alike. It was awarded Gamespot's Game of the Year in 1996. A sequel and three expansion packs helped keep this one of Blizzard's top games.

Alex St. John: “In the 1940s you went to the movie theatre to watch a film and also to watch serials and news. When TV came, the model changed completely. We still go to the movies to watch Titanic, but we watch the news and serial entertainments on TV, with an ad-supported model. The game industry is going through the same process now. $60 boxes will still be with us but online will be the model, heavily supported by advertising. It will be a community-dominated market.”

The premise of Wife Swap is that one parent from each household swaps places for a week to experience how another family lives. It is an incredible family experience and opportunity to both learn and teach different family values.

Wife Swap is a fascinating story of what happens when two couples see themselves and their partners in a whole new light. The New York Post says, "It should be called 'Life Swap' because it's not just the wives who learn something here. It's the families."

Potential families can live anywhere in the United States, but we ask that families applying for the show consist of two parents and have at least one child, age 7 or older, living at home. Specifically, I'm looking for families whose lives have been transformed by the world of RPG! If your family loves spending time together by playing fantasy role play, I want to hear from you! To submit for the show email a family photo and description to: gaby.wifeswap@gmail.com.

Families featured on the show will receive a $20,000 honorarium. If you refer a family that is selected you receive $1,000.

If you are a family unit (two parents and children between the ages of 7 and 17) who love an adventure, and live in the continental US,

I would love to hear from you today!

More information is available at: http://abc.go.com/primetime/wifeswap

Single player RPGs are few and far in between these days. Even those RPGs that do come out, most now have online game play, which it seems is where gamers want to be. So what’s an RPG do? Unfortunately there isn’t much that can be done. The online revolution is in full swing and has been for some time. Gamers not only want an immersive storyline, but they want to be able to interact with real people while playing and single player RPGs just can’t deliver.

In terms of the social environment, almost anything goes. Outside has a vast network of guilds, many of its players are active participants in designing the game's social environment, and almost any player will be able to find company to undertake their desired group quests. On the other hand, gold-buying is rife, the outskirts of virtually every city zone in the game are completely overrun by farmers, and the developers have so far proven themselves reluctant to answer petitions, intervene in inter-player disputes, or nerf broken skills and abilities. Indeed this reviewer will go so far as to say that the developers are absent from the game entirely, and have left it to its own devices. Fortunately, server uptime has been 100% from day 1, despite there being only one server for literally billions of players.

Bioshock

Let’s consider Bioshock. It’s safe to say that Bioshock was one of this year’s best-written games.

***Spoiler Alert****

If you haven’t played Bioshock and you’ve read this far into this article, you really should just put this down and go play it...

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The basic question in Bioshock is, “Is Randian Objectivism a valid real world concept?” The dialogue in the game is cleverly crafted to present both sides of this question. Initially the writing team even presents the player with two characters who appear to represent different sides of this question. In the end the player discovers that the characters are really just two sides of the spectrum (pragmatism vs idealism) and then they are left to decide for themselves what the true value of Objectivism is.

The Diablo Loot Piñata provides the same fun and excitement as traditional piñatas while also letting longtime Diablo players relive their epic battles with the Prime Evil. In place of candy, the Loot Piñata’s adorable shell is stuffed with fully functional replicas of iconic Diablo items* and artifacts. Parents will be delighted to know that instead of the empty calories and sugar rushes yielded by typical piñatas, their kids will be getting additional exercise while they re-enact their favorite Diablo moments, such as the burning of Tristram or the slaughter of the Zakarum priesthood, all while using authentic weaponry from the game.

IRVINE, Calif. - April 1, 2008 -- Overwhelmed by an army of angry and impatient fans, Blizzard Entertainment® today reluctantly unveiled Diablo® III, the third groundbreaking title in its highly acclaimed role-playing game series and sequel to the award-winning Diablo® II: Lord of DestructionTM, at the company's very first surprise press conference at its newly opened headquarters.

The announcement took place in the Blizzard Entertainment campus courtyard, in front of select members of the press who received a startling impromptu presentation that included a ten-second, freshly pre-rendered Diablo III cinematic trailer and a physically re-enacted gameplay demonstration by the development team taken hostage by the gamers.

Under threat of a forum member's taser "of teh win," public relations staff explained that designed to be a revolutionary single-player and online role-playing experience, Diablo III will set players on a multitude of dynamically generated quests on the path to defeat the demonic forces of Diablo and his demon brothers Baal and Mephisto. Eight brand new and re-imagined character classes [zzap! aieee!] will be highly customizable in appearance and abilities, with 20 hero-specific skills per character and 10 shared abilities used to battle over 300 varieties of monsters in and an immersive 3D-graphics world.

In the past, publishers may have thought that the most important task was to sell boxed software. In this age of ubiquitous internet socialization, it would be unwise to release a game without allocating resources to communication with the community.

If the people who play your games feel part of something bigger -- a network with its own rules, its own stars and its own language -- they will be less likely to move to another game, because they will remain loyal to where they belong. Just as it can be difficult for someone to leave their country, it can be hard to quit a community.

Is it any good?
Far better than any other novel in our list, which is quite probably down to Karpyshyn's direct involvement with the actual game. Instead of filling out a pre-prepared plot in a pre-prepared universe, Karpyshyn is exploring a galaxy he helped to create and populate, and his own interest and passion is clear from the pacy and engaging action. That said, the dialogue is typical dreary genre stuff, and the characters are your sci-fi regulars - gruff but thoughtful men and strong but passionate women.

Most games fail to create immersive interactive narratives - they just chuck in a few plot-building scenes and hope for the best. Open-ended titles like Deus Ex and the Grand Theft Auto series point us in the right direction. Now it's time to explore the route further. The dream is that everyone who plays a game gets an entirely different experience. The huge computing power of the current consoles and high-end PCs, together with a new breed of open-minded developers, may turn this into a reality.

Next-Gen: One of the fears for the games industry or for adult games players is that somehow your recommendations might stop people from playing adult games. Is there any way that this might come out as a result of what you’re recommending?

Byron: Absolutely not. That’s certainly not what I’m recommending. I’ve worked with a lot of gamers throughout the review and I do believe that adults have the right to make decisions about the content that they access, whether it’s viewing or interacting.

There’s a huge moral debate around content in videogames. I’m very clear, that wasn’t the remit of my review to pass judgment on that and I do believe that content for adults is content for adults. It should be rated that way.

I can understand that gamers fear that there will be a ‘you can’t play these games anymore.’ I’ve not said that, I’d never say that, and certainly if I heard people beginning to use my review to try and imply that I will be very quick to say that that was not and will not be a recommendation of mine.

Given the recent glut of sequels and spin offs (how many Prince of Persia games are there?) do you believe that the trend of the close to yearly sequel is helping or hurting the industry? And what is your company doing to perpetuate your view?

There is no simple answer to that question. What prevails for us is that a game shouldn't be released until it has gotten the final polish in order to make sure it meets the high quality standards our gamers expect. We do not hesitate to give more time to a team if additional development is required to reach the expected quality. But making a good game is not always a question of time. The key is having a motivated and skilled team as well as cutting-edge technology. The games industry regularly demonstrates that a sequel can be a drastic improvement compared to the previous installment.

Video game ratings need to be overhauled to make them easier for parents and children to understand, a UK government-backed review has said.

Carried out by psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, it says more games need to be rated by official bodies.

It calls for the creation of a UK body to draw up and oversee a national strategy to keep children safe online.

It also recommends that new PCs be sold with software that will help prevent children seeing harmful online content.

As the game progresses, Gygax veers from the scenario into a series of entertaining digressions. When the group enters a pub, he recites lines from Monty Python. As they learn of nearby river caves that may house treacherous beasts, he describes a dream he had in which an African elephant was chasing him around his backyard. At one point, he breaks into a spontaneous rendition of the song, "Too Fat Polka (I Don't Want Her, You Can Have Her, She's Too Fat for Me)." One or two brave members of his party join in.

This is what Gygax thinks his legacy should be. People playing games together in the flesh, with a real, live dungeon master guiding them. That's what he thinks is wrong with the new direction for Dungeons & Dragons with its new 4th Edition. "D&D is not an online game," he says. "There is no role-playing in an online game that can match what happens in person."