Society (video game)

Last updated
Society
Developer(s) Stardock
Publisher(s) Stardock
Director(s) Paul Kerchen
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release
Genre(s) Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Society is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game in development by Stardock. It is to be initially released on their online distribution service, Impulse for free. First announced in 2005, development progress was slow in the coming years, and by February 2009, the game's development was placed on-hold in favor of wrapping up another of the company's games, Elemental: War of Magic . Upon its release in August 2010, development was restarted in January 2011, though the company has been quiet on the game's status since.

Contents

Gameplay

Society plays as a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy. [1] The game starts with the player obtaining a single province, of which 50,000 exist on a single server. [2] From there, the player must build up their province, creating buildings, schools, factories, and other infrastructure necessary for a subset of people to exist. [2] Upon the creation of a successful province, the player must decide on how to interact with all of the other provinces, many of which are other player's provinces, whether it be forcefully taking them over through war, or using diplomacy to forge cooperation between provinces. [2] The game's world exists in a continual 24-hour world that never stops; progress in the game continues even when the player is away. Artificial intelligence will take over and defend a province when the player is not present. [3] To avoid having players return to the game with their empire entirely destroyed, only 1/4 of a player's provinces may be contested during any one day, and players can band together into empires to take over the defence of each other's provinces, fighting on one another's behalf. [3]

Development

The game was first announced by Stardock in May 2005, [1] with the company featuring the game as an upcoming title the next month at E3 2005 as well. [4] There, Stardock stated that, while there was no firm release date, they loosely were shooting for a timetable that included an alpha release by the end of the year, a lengthy World of Warcraft -like beta release by late 2006, and a likely release in 2007. [2] [4] [5] Development was announced to be led by Paul Kerchen, who had previously worked for Maxis on Simcity 3000 and Simsville . [1] The game was also announced to be free to play, a concept that was much more rare in 2005, before the boom of mobile gaming. [6] [7]

Development on the game proved to be difficult and slow in the following years. The team worked on the game throughout 2005 and early 2006, with the goal of having footage to be shown by June 2006 at E3 2006. [7] Unfortunately, the team missed this goal, with progress slowing further as the development team was understaffed, and working on wrapping up production on Galactic Civilizations II and its subsequent expansion packs. [7] Stardock was quiet about the project until 2009, where the company stated they would refocus their development on the game after they shipped their next title Elemental: War of Magic . [8] After said game's release in 2010, in February 2011, Stardock announced that Society was experiencing funding issues, but that the company was searching for ways to address the problem through the expanding of their business units and finding partners to work on it as well. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>Quake 4</i> 2005 video game

Quake 4 is a 2005 military science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It is the fourth title in the Quake series, after the multiplayer Quake III Arena, and a sequel to Quake II. Raven Software collaborated with id Software, who supervised the development of the game as well as provided the id Tech 4 engine upon which it was built. The game has an increased emphasis on single-player gameplay compared to previous installments; its multiplayer mode does not support playable bots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">4X</span> Genre of strategy-based video and board games

4X is a subgenre of strategy-based computer and board games, and include both turn-based and real-time strategy titles. The gameplay involves building an empire. Emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development, as well as a range of military and non-military routes to supremacy.

<i>Counter-Strike: Condition Zero</i> 2004 video game

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ritual Entertainment, Turtle Rock Studios, and Valve, and published by Sierra Entertainment and Valve. The follow-up to Counter-Strike (2000), it was released in March 2004 for Windows. Condition Zero utilizes the GoldSrc engine and has a multiplayer mode, which features updated character models, textures, maps and other graphical tweaks. It also includes two single-player campaigns; Tour of Duty and Condition Zero: Deleted Scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GameSpy</span> Defunct video game company

GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1996 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for the game, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameSpy brand to other video game publishers through a newly established company, GameSpy Industries, which also incorporated his Planet Network of video game news and information websites, and GameSpy.com.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stardock</span> Software and video game developer

Stardock Corporation is a software development company founded in 1991 and incorporated in 1993 as Stardock Systems. Stardock initially developed for the OS/2 platform, but was forced to switch to Microsoft Windows due to the collapse of the OS/2 software market between 1997 and 1998. The company is best known for computer programs that allow a user to modify or extend a graphical user interface as well as personal computer games, particularly strategy games such as the Galactic Civilizations series, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, Elemental: Fallen Enchantress, and Ashes of the Singularity.

<i>Age of Empires III</i> 2005 real-time strategy video game

Age of Empires III is a real-time strategy video game developed by Microsoft Corporation's Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The Mac version was ported over and developed and published by Destineer's MacSoft. The PC version was released on October 18, 2005, in North America and November 4, 2005, in Europe, while the Mac version was released on November 21, 2006, in North America and September 29, 2006, in Europe. An N-Gage version of the game developed by Glu Mobile was released on April 28, 2009. It is the third game of the Age of Empires series and the sequel to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. A remaster titled Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition was released on October 15, 2020. Its successor, Age of Empires IV was released October 28, 2021, for Windows.

<i>Empires: Dawn of the Modern World</i> 2003 video game

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World is a 2003 real-time strategy video game developed by Stainless Steel Studios and published by Activision. Set in a world-historical period that extends from the Middle Ages to World War II, the game tasks players with guiding one of nine rival great civilizations to victory. Customer surveys from Stainless Steel's previous game, Empire Earth, were used as a starting point for Empires: these inspired the team to take a more minimalist design approach, and to include civilizations without overlapping styles of play. Empires was positively received by critics, who enjoyed its multiplayer component. However, certain reviewers disliked its single-player mode, and opinion clashed on the game's level of uniqueness compared to competitors such as Rise of Nations. The sales of Empires, when combined with those of Empire Earth, totaled 2.5 million units by 2004.

<i>Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords</i> 2006 video game

Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords is a 4X turn-based strategy by Stardock for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to the 2003 game, Galactic Civilizations, and was released at retail and on Stardock's online subscription service, TotalGaming.net, on February 21, 2006. An expansion, Dark Avatar, was released in February 2007. A second expansion, Twilight of the Arnor, was released in April 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Wilco (software)</span> Voice-over-IP client program

Roger Wilco is one of the first voice-over-IP client programs designed primarily for use with online multiplayer video games. Roger Wilco enabled online gamers to talk to one another through a computer headset or other audio input device instead of typing messages to each other. Within a year of the software's introduction, over 2 million online video gamers were using the application.

<i>The Temple of Elemental Evil</i> (video game) 2003 video game

The Temple of Elemental Evil is a 2003 role-playing video game by Troika Games. It is a remake of the classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure The Temple of Elemental Evil using the 3.5 edition rules. This is the only computer role-playing game to take place in the Greyhawk campaign setting, and the first video game to implement the 3.5 edition rule set. The game was published by Atari, who then held the interactive rights of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Wardell</span> American novelist

Bradley R. Wardell is an American businessman, programmer, author and AI Engineer. He is the founder, president, and chief executive officer of Stardock, a software development and computer games company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glu Mobile</span> American video game developer

Glu Mobile LLC is an American developer and publisher of video games for mobile phones and tablet computers. Founded in San Francisco, California, in 2004, Glu offers products to multiple platforms including Java ME-based devices, Android, Windows Phone, Google Chrome, and Amazon. It was previously listed on Nasdaq before it was acquired by Electronic Arts in April 2021.

<i>Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space</i> 2004 video game

Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space is a platform video game developed by Artoon and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox. Released in 2004, it is the sequel to Blinx: The Time Sweeper. Like the previous installment, it is playable on an Xbox 360 using backwards compatibility.

<i>Sins of a Solar Empire</i> 2008 video game

Sins of a Solar Empire is a 2008 science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is a real-time strategy (RTS) game that incorporates some elements from 4X games; its makers describe it as "RT4X". Players are given control of a spacefaring empire in the distant future, and are tasked with conquering star systems using military, economic and diplomatic means.

Ironclad Games is a Canadian PC game developer. The company was founded in 2003 by former employees of Rockstar Vancouver. Ironclad is located in Burnaby, British Columbia.

<i>Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar</i> 2007 video game

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar is the first expansion pack to the turn-based strategy game Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. It was released by Stardock in February 2007, both as a separately downloadable expansion and the combination retail box Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition.

<i>Elemental: War of Magic</i> 2010 video game

Elemental: War of Magic is a fantasy 4X turn-based strategy game developed and published by Stardock, released in August 24, 2010.

<i>Total War: Shogun 2</i> 2011 video game

Total War: Shogun 2 is a strategy video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega in 2011. It is part of the Total War series and returns to the 16th-century Japan setting of the first Total War game, Shogun: Total War, after a series of games set mainly in Europe and the Middle East.

<i>Kameo</i> 2005 action-adventure video game for Xbox 360

Kameo: Elements of Power is a 2005 action-adventure video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The player controls Kameo, a 16-year-old elf, who must travel across the land, rescuing her family while collecting Elemental Sprites and Warriors in a Beat 'Em Up style combat against the trolls that stand in her way. Kameo's ten elemental powers let her transform into creatures and use their varied abilities to solve combat-oriented puzzles and progress through the game's levels.

<i>Star Control: Origins</i> 2018 video game

Star Control: Origins is an action-adventure game developed and published by Stardock Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, released September 20, 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gamespot Staff. "Stardock announces Society". GameSpot. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Jason Ocampo. "Society E3 2005 Impressions". GameSpot. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  3. 1 2 "GameSpy: Society - Page 2". gamespy.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  4. 1 2 "E3 2005: Society First Look". IGN. 20 May 2005. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "GameSpy: Society - Page 4". gamespy.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  6. ↑ "GameSpy: Society - Page 1". gamespy.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  7. 1 2 3 "Society". societygame.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Andrei Dumitrescu (2009-02-06), "Stardock Expanding, Working on Society and new RPG", Softpedia, retrieved 2010-03-25
  9. ↑ "Sins of a Solar Empire sequel hinted at in Stardock's annual customer report". bigdownload.com. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.