Earth & Beyond was a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Westwood Studios and published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game was released in September 2002 in the United States. EA shut down Earth & Beyond on 22 September 2004. It was the last game developed by Westwood Studios.
Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings was a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Microsoft Windows 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.
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had nine major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), and Dragonflight (2022).
A Game of Thrones: The Card Game is an out-of-print collectible card game produced by Fantasy Flight Games. It is based on A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of novels written by George R. R. Martin. The first set was Westeros Edition and was released in August 2002. It has since won two Origins Awards. The game's primary designer is Eric Lang, the lead developer is Nate French, with Damon Stone serving as associate designer.
Guild Wars is an online role-playing game franchise developed by ArenaNet and published by NCSOFT. The games were critically well received and won many editor's choice awards, as well as awards such as Best Value, Best Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), and Best Game. Guild Wars was noted for being the "first major MMO to adopt a business model not based on monthly subscription fees", its instanced approach to gameplay, and the quality of the graphics and play for computers with low specifications. In April 2009, NCSoft announced that 6 million units of games in the Guild Wars series had been sold. The sequel and fourth major entry into the series, Guild Wars 2, was announced in March 2007 and released on August 28, 2012. It features updated graphics and gameplay mechanics, and continues the original Guild Wars tradition of no subscription fees. The Guild Wars series had sold 11.5 million copies by August 2015
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, first released in 1985 for the Apple II, is the fourth in the series of Ultima role-playing video games. It is the first in the "Age of Enlightenment" trilogy, shifting the series from the hack and slash, dungeon crawl gameplay of its "Age of Darkness" predecessors towards an ethically-nuanced, story-driven approach. Ultima IV has a much larger game world than its predecessors, with an overworld map sixteen times the size of Ultima III and puzzle-filled dungeon rooms to explore. Ultima IV further advances the franchise with dialog improvements, new means of travel and exploration, and world interactivity.
Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa is a defunct MMORPG developed by Destination Games and published by NCsoft, designed in part by Richard Garriott. The game is a role-playing video game that blends certain shooter aspects into the combat system. It was officially released to retail on November 2, 2007, with customers that pre-ordered the game allowed access to the live servers from October 30, 2007. The development team released updates, called "Deployments," nearly every month following launch. The game required a monthly subscription.
A quest, or mission, is a task in video games that a player-controlled character, party, or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward. Quests are most commonly seen in role-playing games and massively multiplayer online games. Rewards may include loot such as items or in-game currency, access to new level locations or areas, an increase in the character's experience in order to learn new skills and abilities, or any combination of the above.
Guild Wars Factions is a fantasy action role-playing game and the second stand-alone campaign in the Guild Wars series developed by ArenaNet, a subsidiary of NCSOFT corporation. It serves as both a standalone game and first expansion pack to the base game, which is referred to as Prophecies. Simply referred to as Factions, it introduces the continent of Cantha, inspired by East Asian cultures, where two warring factions, the Luxons and the Kurzicks, are locked in a global persistent war. Players are able to join in this conflict, assisting their chosen faction in claiming towns on the game map.
Titan Quest is an action role playing hack and slash video game developed by Iron Lore Entertainment for Microsoft Windows. It was published by THQ in 2006. It was released on Steam in 2007, and later ported to mobile devices by DotEmu and released in 2016; later versions were published by THQ Nordic. Versions for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch were released in 2018. The story follows a player-created protagonist as they navigate Ancient Greece, Egypt and China on a quest to defeat the Titans after they escape from their ancient prison. The gameplay is similar to the Diablo series, with player navigation being handled with a mouse-driven tile-based interface, and gameplay revolving around role-playing mechanics and real-time combat. Four expansions were released for the game: Titan Quest: Immortal Throne in 2007, Titan Quest: Ragnarök in 2017, Titan Quest: Atlantis in 2019 and Titan Quest: Eternal Embers in 2021.
Jewel Quest is a tile-matching puzzle video game created and published by iWin. First released for Windows, it has been redeveloped for Symbian S60, the Nintendo DS, the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade and other platforms. iWin also released a series of sequels and spin-off games.
World of Warcraft, or WoW, is set in a fictional universe, its primary setting being the planet of Azeroth. The first expansion, The Burning Crusade, introduced a second planet, Outland. Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expanded upon Azeroth and respectively added Northrend, the frigid northern continent of Azeroth, and drastically changed various other continents by destroying some and unveiling new ones. The next expansion, Mists of Pandaria, added Pandaria, the southern continent previously hidden behind a perennial mist cover. Warlords of Draenor introduced the planet of Draenor, a version of Outland in a different timeline before its partial destruction. The Legion expansion took adventurers to the Broken Isles, an island chain near the Maelstrom in the middle of the Great Sea, and the damaged planet Argus, the headquarters of the Burning Legion. The seventh expansion, Battle for Azeroth, added two new island continents to the center of Azeroth: Kul Tiras and Zandalar. The latest expansion, Shadowlands, introduced the eponymous Shadowlands, a realm composed of five major zones: Bastion, Maldraxxus, Ardenweald, Revendreth, and the Maw.
WonderKing Online was a free-of-charge, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by the South Korean company ToWinGames.
The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood is the second retail expansion pack for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online, released on December 1, 2009, in North America and December 3, 2009, in Europe. Unlike the base game and the first Mines of Moria expansion, it had no CD release and one was only available via web based download.
A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster or referee rather than by another player. In video games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay, but will not necessarily be the product of true artificial intelligence.
MapleStory Adventures was a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling social network game developed by the South Korean company Nexon for Facebook and launched in July 2011. MapleStory Adventures was a simplified version of MapleStory’s basic gameplay and included creating an avatar, fighting monsters and completing quests. Although the gameplay was altered for the social networking conventions and includes freemium content, the main storyline of the game remains the same. MapleStory Adventures was free to play, but players had the option of purchasing premium content. On July 31, 2013, the game was shut down and removed from Facebook.
WWE Immortals was a fighting game based on the professional wrestling promotion WWE. It was released on January 15, 2015, for Android and iOS. The game was developed by NetherRealm Studios in conjunction with Phosphor Game Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game was free on both app stores. On February 28, 2019, the game was shut down and no longer sold in-app purchases as of December 31, 2018.
Twenty-nine full expansions for the MMORPG EverQuest have been released. Expansions are purchased separately from the original game and they provide additional content. For example: raising the maximum character level, adding new races, classes, zones, continents, quests, equipment, and additional game features. Additionally, the game is updated through downloaded patches.
Shadowgun Legends is a free mobile first-person shooter video game developed and published by Madfinger Games for Android and iOS devices. It is the third primary installment of the Shadowgun series, and a sequel to the original Shadowgun and Shadowgun Deadzone, both multiple award-winning games from 2011 and 2012, respectively. It was released on March 22, 2018. It appeared on the Google Play Store on March 21, 2018. A release for the Nintendo Switch was announced in June 2018 but never came to fruition.
Hearthstone is a digital collectible card game released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2014, available for Microsoft Windows and macOS PCs and iOS and Android smartphones. The game is free-to-play, with players gaining in-game currency and card packs via winning matches and completing quests, while real-world money can be spent to acquire additional card packs and cosmetic items. The game has been critically well-received and financially successful, estimated in August 2017 to earn nearly US$40 million per month. As of November 2018, Blizzard has reported more than 100 million Hearthstone players. Blizzard has continued to expand the game with the addition of multiple expansions, adventures and game modes.
