WB Games Boston is an American computer game developer that develops 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Turbine was founded by Johnny Monsarrat, Jeremy Gaffney, Kevin Langevin, and Timothy Miller as CyberSpace, Inc., changing their company name in 1995 to Turbine, Inc.
Asheron's Call (AC) was a fantasy MMORPG for Microsoft Windows PCs, developed and published by Turbine Entertainment Software. Though it was developed by the Turbine team, it was published as a Microsoft title until 2004. The game was set on the island continent of Dereth and several surrounding smaller islands and archipelagos on the fictional planet of Auberean. The game was played in a large seamless 3D virtual world which could host thousands of players' characters at a time.
Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings was a fantasy MMORPG for Microsoft Windows-based PCs which was released on November 22, 2002 and shut down on December 30, 2005. In 2012, it was relaunched as a beta for active Asheron's Call subscribers. It is a sequel to 1999's Asheron's Call, although content, graphics and gameplay dynamics differed greatly from its predecessor.
A massively multiplayer online game is an online game with large numbers of players, typically from hundreds to thousands, on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although some games differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including the personal computer, video game console, or smartphones and other mobile devices.
Daybreak Game Company LLC is an American video game developer based in San Diego. The company was founded in December 1997 as Sony Online Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment, but was spun off to an independent investor in February 2015 and renamed Daybreak Game Company.
Scott Jennings, also known as Lum the Mad, is an American commentator on MMORPG games. He is best known for creating a website, The Rantings of Lum The Mad, a pioneer blog, which existed from 1998 to 2001, when Jennings was hired by MMO developer Mythic Entertainment, where he remained until 2006.
Free-to-play video games, also known as free-to-start, are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying. Free-to-play can be contrasted with pay to play, in which payment is required before using a service for the first time.
The Lord of the Rings Online is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows and OS X set in a fantasy universe based upon J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings. It took place during the time period of The Lord of the Rings. It was developed and maintained by Turbine after Jeffrey Anderson secured the rights from Vivendi.
Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine for Microsoft Windows and OS X. The game was originally marketed as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, then renamed Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited upon switching to a hybrid free to play model, and was finally rebranded Dungeons & Dragons Online, with the introduction of Forgotten Realms-related content. Turbine developed DDO as an online adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), based loosely on the D&D 3.5 rule set. The game is set on the unexplored continent of Xen'drik within the Eberron campaign setting, and in the Kingdom of Cormyr within the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
Stratics is a portmanteau of the words strategy and statistics. It is currently a website dedicated to supporting the community of the Ultima Online Massively multiplayer online role-playing game and is the oldest, continuously running MMORPG news and fansite having been formed in 1997. The domain name Stratics.com was registered on January 27, 1998 to facilitate the community's uniqueness and purpose. The earliest instance of any part of the site is recorded in the WayBackMachine on December 19, 1998.
The history of massively multiplayer online games spans over thirty years and hundreds of massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) titles. The origin and influence on MMO games stems from MUDs, Dungeons & Dragons and earlier social games.
K2 Network, Inc. was an American producer and publisher of videogames based in Irvine, California.
It pioneered the use of the free-to-play business model among North American and European MMO game publishers in 2004.
Virtual goods are non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games. Digital goods, on the other hand, may be a broader category including digital books, music, and movies. Virtual goods are intangible by definition.
Video game monetization is the process that video game publishers use to generate revenue from a video game product. The methods of monetization may vary between games, especially when they come from different genres or platforms, but they all serve the same purpose to return money to the game developers, copyright owners, and other stakeholders. As the monetization methods continue to diversify, they also affect the game design in a way that sometimes leads to criticism.
In video gaming, games as a service (GaaS) represents providing video games or game content on a continuing revenue model, similar to software as a service. Games as a service are ways to monetize video games either after their initial sale, or to support a free-to-play model. Games released under the GaaS model typically receive a long or indefinite stream of monetized new content over time to encourage players to continue paying to support the game. This often leads to games that work under a GaaS model to be called "living games" or "live games", since they continually change with these updates.
