Well it appears that the in-game adverts have arrived on the European servers and i have to say they look good.
Well done NCSoft on a good implementation.

If I'm completely honest there was a worry that adding adverts could seriously distract from the gameplay.
During my years playing Planetside the ingame adverts were only ever available if you where playiing from the US, but using an ISP like AOL would allow you to see them in the UK.

I think the important thing to remember is that advertising need to fit in with the game and not appear to be just thrown in, just so that the company can make a cheap buck. This golden rule was lost on SOEs Planetside where 3 factions in a distance galaxy were getting adverts for todays films, kind of spoilt the immersion experience of the game-play.

With the rising costs of games development and continued service ingame advertising gives a very natural method to generate more income for the game without the killer move of increasing the subscription rates.



Giving players the ability to toggle adverts on and off was an addition nice move, that will help out players without high-speed connections. But for all those that keep the adverts turned on there isn't anything to worry about as they fit in just right and bring a little mordern edge to the game.

As you know I tend to like Halloween events in online games and developers always tend to go overboard on ideas. Last year I wrote up a sumary on various activities that occured in all the games I was playing at the time.

I was delighted to read and see that NCSoft plan to enhance this years activities in City of Heroes and Villains with an event called Zombie Apocalypse, which was tested recently on the US test server.

The name itself is enough to attract every classic horror movie fan combine that with the superheroes/villains versus zombies element that is sure to grab the attention of anyone that has read Marvel Zombies.

In the extended news item is a video I seen linked from COHPodcast, it should give you a general feel of the event, kind of like a Rikti invasion only with rotten flesh and a need for brrrrraaiins!

[ Continue reading here ]

In a rather bold move NCSoft have taken another large step forward in the domain of game-real world cross-over. Enchancing the newly added shop feature with the ability to purchase a respecification for a character of your choosing.

After a quick search around I believe this to be the first time a feature of this type has been made available in a MMO game.

Great work NCSoft who continually amaze me with their continually improvements.

Update 01/08 23:15 : I just nipped on and checked the price of the Respec oustide of the game, it's currently showing at £5.99.

Just spotted a quick story over at the Manchester Evening News, only short but a great plug for the City of games.

6 months in the making and finally my brute reaches level 50.

Now to plan my respec yay for Mids.