If you haven’t read last week’s article ‘The Gamers’ Guide to Writing for Games — Part One’ yet, I suggest you take a peek at it before reading further here. That’s partly because you’ll find that information relevant when reading ahead, but mostly because I get paid more if you do. Why the honesty? Because self-promoting (as nasty as it sounds) is one of the best ways to achieve success in this here writing business, and that’s mainly what I’ll be talking about today. Getting started. Getting better. And getting known.

 

Getting started, getting better, getting known; and get hired

 

Getting hired in the writing industry (and doubly so when writing for games) is a long, tedious and often painful process — and unfortunately, there

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W

hen we’re young and invincible, we believe we can become anything. From Astronauts to Aeronautical Engineers, Paramedics to Porn Stars, nothing is a stretch; nothing seems too far out of our reach. When I was young, I wanted to be a writer. More than that, I wanted to write about video games. It seemed like the logical choice really, I spent my childhood playing them; studying them, reading about them, cherishing them and criticising them — why not do it for a living?

 

But it was just a dream. Just one of those goals you set, but always know you’ll never really achieve. I wasn’t going to get paid to write about games any sooner than I was going to make my living designing aeroplanes or exploring the bitter reaches of space.

 

At least, that’s what everyone kept

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It’s no great secret really, that despite its many shortcomings the MMO business is doing quite well. As far as making a few bucks go they really hit the sweet spot with this one; design a game that never ends, and charge people by the month to play it. It’s ingenious.

 

The problem though (that is, with ingenious ideas) is that everybody wants a piece of the action. Design a game that makes millions, and millions will begin re-designing your game. Of course, those millions are more often than not Korean, and as Koreans are about as good at emulating the success of World of Warcraft as a sock is a condom, things tend to turn south fairly quickly.

 

Skip ahead a few years and you’ve got an industry made up almost entirely of these ‘WoW clones’, and e

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The Darkfall Chronicles

A lesson in manners, rudeness, and the improper way of things

 

 

1:30 AM…1:31 AM…1:32 AM… 1:33 AM…

 

Hitting the F5 key on my Zboard for what I can only imagine to be the seven thousand, four hundred and sixty ninth time; I let forth a sigh of raw depression as the page begins to load once more, revealing yet again the same lifeless pane as it had every other time I had done so these past eighteen hours.

 

1:37 AM… 1:38 AM… 1:39 AM … 1:40 AM…

 

In an attempt to escape the monotony I entered once more into the forums, an infinite abyss of human deprivation and indecency; a place where deformed versions of the English language ran rampant amongst a race of creatures that were oblivious to their very existence. Wading through the unforgiving trenches in the search of information, I quickly came to my senses, and escaped back to the entrance. I hit the F5 key again.

 

1:48 AM… 1:49 AM… 1:50AM… 1:51 AM…

 

Thinking back to a message I read a day earlier—containing the second last piece to my unfinished puzzle—I decided to read it once more in the

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A Week in the Wrath of the Lich King

By Neramaar

If you’re reading this, then you probably already know that today marks the one-week anniversary for the latest World of Warcraft expansion – Wrath of the Lich King. You also probably know that with its release, a plethora of new content and features were added to game, the level cap was raised to 80, and an entire new continent – Northrend – was added for players to quest and explore. What you might not know however, is how it all turned out. Read on to find out.

Viva le France!
Undoubtedly the question on the mind of most gamers at the minute is who was the first player to reach level 80? Well, wait no more – this achievement was completed by the French player Nymh, who made it from level 70 to 80 in only 27 hours. By using extensive knowledge gained in the WotLK Beta Test, and with the help of an out-of-party Priest to assist with weakening enemies Nymh achieved a gaming world record, and has my fullest congratulations. The following days saw many players reaching the elusive level 80 cap, and with any luck it shouldn’t be more than a few days before I too join their ranks, and face the many

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**WARNING** This article contains information regarding World of Warcraft (WoW) – a game that since birth has attracted the worst of Internet Trolls, and continues to do so today. For the benefit of our eyes (and intelligence) please, do not read this article, or post comment below if you do not take interest in WoW.

With the release of the much-awaited expansion Wrath of the Lich King looming closer with each passing day, World of Warcraft is once again filled with a very familiar buzz – one that many of us have experienced before. It is the buzz of anticipation, the buzz of adventure, and of 12 Million people making ready for the next WoW expansion.

To make things even more hysterical, Blizzard have recently released their latest content patch (3.0.2) – adding numerous new additions to the game, the most noticeable and time-consuming being the achievement system. The achievement system rewards player's points for completing various tasks, the likes of completing a certain number of quests, exploring every corner of every zone, killing players of the opposing faction and hugging them afterwards, and killing the final boss in every instance.

Experiencing

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I’ve never really met a gamer that didn’t dream of being paid to play video games. I mean, as far as dream jobs go, playing games and getting paid for it is up there with exploring space and making porn. In a perfect world, you could do this at home, games would be sent to you for free daily, and you’d receive a large paycheck at the end of the week. Unfortunately, this job doesn’t really exist. Playing games isn’t supposed to be profitable; it’s supposed to be fun, and as much as we would all like to believe it to be true – having fun and making money simply don’t mix well. Any form of profit is going to require you to work; the trick is to find a way of working while you’re playing game

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"Spore is a bit like Lego. If you are the kind of person to buy a kit, assemble it and that's that - Spore will not be for you. If you like to assemble new things from lots of kits and apply them to different circumstances - then Spore may just be what you are looking for." –Luther Blissett (Australian Gamer Forums)

 

The Process of Evolution
Given the massive press coverage that Spore has received over the past few months you would literally have to be living in the primordial soup to not know at least a little about it by now. But for those of you not gifted with the abilities of a sentient being – Spore is the hottest new thing from developer Maxis, the guys who brought you Sim City and The Sims. Fortunately, this time around you won't be building cities or managing the pathetic lives of your digital idols – you'll be creating an entirely new species of creature, and helping it grow through all five key stages of it's evolution.

Soup's up!
Spore begins exactly as it should – with a chunk of meteor carrying an assortment of single-cell organisms crashing into an uninh...

 

When Age of Conan was first released I avoided it like the plague. I did this not because of the hefty price tag or the monthly subscription, nor the gigantic download or the fear of it being a bad game – I did it because I was scared of losing another 4 years of my life to a great MMO. You would need to have been living in a different solar system to avoid the hype of Age of Conan, and after hearing about the new combat system and amazing graphics I feared another WoW.

 

But alas, a few short months down the track and the temptation was too much to resist. I decided that it was time to put the fear of MMO Addiction behind me, and take a chance with a game that clearly deserves my attention. Thus it saddens me to say that the next few days of

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Innovation – in-no-va-tion.

1. Something new or different introduced: Numerous innovations in the high school curriculum.

2. The act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.

(Source: Dictionary.com)

I've spent a great deal of time lately wondering what we can do to save MMORPGs from their grim fate. It's no secret that over the past few years the fantasy MMORPG genre has been slowly dying, this mainly being caused by the hundreds horrible games that are released on an almost weekly basis.

As a gamer the solution to this problem is simple – stop playing them - as if we stop playing them, then companies will stop making them and we won't be bothered by the problem any longer. However, as a game reviewer the solution is not so simple. We are required to p

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