As promised, I’m here to present you with the with the winning entries to the first ever Cinemanila Machinima Festival. Before you get comfy and begin viewing the winning videos, however, I’d like to first congratulate all participants for making the event a worthwhile endeavor.
No, I’m not an official of Cinemanila. I’m just a fan of machinima who loves being entertained by the creativity of my fellow gamers. So with that out of the way, and without further ado, I give you the winning entries to this year’s Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival:
Best Short Film:
Shelf Life Episode 1 by Pixel Eyes …read more

Leave it to Sony Online Entertainment and its highly successful massively multiplayer online game Free Realms to transform common, real-world stuff into virtual items and events. Take, for example, the recent launch of SOE’s newest update for the game, Goal Time.
Free Realms‘ Goal Time introduces a new job, the Soccer Star, into the growing roster of classes you can choose for your toon or avatar. And what’s a Soccer Star without a soccer field and hundreds of adoring fans? Goal Time also comes with an all-new 3D soccer minigame for two three-man teams.
Players can try out the new Soccer Star …read more

Thank the gaming gods for giving us variety in free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing games in the market. In the past few weeks, I’ve been searching for new MMOs to sink my virtual teeth into, and so far my quest is gaining ground. I’ve narrowed the MMORPGs-to-try list down to a select few, including Shaiya and Shin Megami Tensei from Aeria Games.
While most of the online games I’ve found are good, according to the factors that convince a player to stay and continue playing an MMO, they don’t have payment facilities for players who access the games from outside North …read more

It’s almost like Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients but on a smaller scale. Well, at least that’s my first impression of the new player-versus-player mode of Runes of Magic, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game from Frogster Interactive Pictures AG.
Upon closer inspection, however, Runes of Magic’s The Visdun Fortress looks more like an evolved form of Wizard’s Chess—you know, that game that Harry and Ron played in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that Hermione had labeled as “totally barbaric.”
Going back to, ehem, Runes of Magic, The Visdun Fortress features, well, two fortresses that two teams of three members …read more

I’ve got to hand it to Gamepot (USA) Inc., the publishing division of Japanese gaming behemoth Gamepot Inc. in the United States, for championing the free-to-play revolution in a market that patronizes subscription-based massively multiplayer online games.
Gamepot has a cool teaser page that pretty much explains why its games are free to play, and I’d like to share its contents with you:
What’s Free to Play?
Here at Gamepot, we believe in three ideals:

Love your Games
Fun is Free
Respect the Players

The best way for us to stand by these ideals is to offer all of our games for free. There is no velvet …read more

All I can say is, “It’s about bloody time!” Seriously now. I think NDOORS, developer and operator of Atlantica Online is on the right track, opening the doors to new players starting with members of online games publisher ijji.com.
Here’s the official announcement from NDOORS:

Today, we would like to extend a warm welcome to users of ijji.com. NDOORS has entered into a partnership with ijji.com that will allow its members access to Atlantica Online, opening up the world of Atlantis and Oriharukon to even more enthusiastic players. As of now, this door is open, and ijji players can begin playing.
As this …read more

First off, my apologies to friends up at True Games Interactive. I’m really not in touch with North America published massively multiplayer online role-playing games. This blog, MMOtaku, is after all about Asian-made MMOs. So pardon my ignorance when I ask, “What the heck is Mytheon?”
It’s a good thing trailers and screenshots of Mytheon are now available. But first a word from True Games Interactive about Mytheon:

True Games Interactive, an international multiplayer online game publisher, in conjunction with renowned game developer Petroglyph have released the first official trailer for the upcoming online multiplayer action-strategy game Mytheon.
The companies have also released …read more

Finally, a peek into the next season of the casual online golf game Pangya!
Ntreev USA, publisher of Pangya in North America, has been beating the drums to herald the coming of the new update since its relaunch in April, but this is the first time a preview is being shown.

Okay, before I goad you into watching the preview with me, let’s take a gander at what Ntreev has to say about it:
Ntreev USA releases first look at Season 4 content with video for its popular online golf game, Pangya
Ntreev USA, a leading online game developer and publisher, has released its …read more

While playing your favorite massively multiplayer online game, do you ever ask yourself what all those numbers which represent your character’s vitals and statistics mean and how they affect combat and other in-game interactions?
Your answer is probably the same as the one most MMORPG players give: “Yes, I’m curious about these numbers and how they affect the way my character moves and interacts with other game elements, but it matters little when I’m busy hacking and slashing.”
Spoken like a true video games fanatic.

True Games Interactive, publisher of new MMORPG Warrior Epic, begs to differ, if its recently released tutorial on …read more

With the North American closed beta test for Zhu Xian, er, I mean Jade Dynasty in full swing, it’s only prudent for the game’s developer and operator, Perfect World Co. Ltd., through its US-based subsidiary Perfect World Entertainment, to release marketing collateral in preparation for its commercial launch.
What better way to whet the appetite of massively multiplayer online role-playing game fanatics than to release a high-definition trailer of Jade Dynasty. Here’s a copy of the trailer:
Magnificent, eh? Too bad I didn’t enjoy playing Jade Dynasty, er, Zhu Xian when it was launched by E-Games in the Philippines. It’s a wonderful …read more