The Agency


The Agency is a fast-paced, online persistent shooter in a modern setting of bullets, bomb blasts, and betrayal.




Live the life of an elite agent in a world of super spies and rugged mercenaries, who use both the highest technology and the lowest tactics to accomplish their goals. Featuring cooperative and competitive play, The Agency is designed to provide instant action and long-term strategy for all fans of espionage, intrigue, and explosive gameplay.










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Teen marriages on the rise - in cyberspace

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They are married, widowed, divorced - all before they are even old enough to get a provisional driver's licence.

Teen gamers at MapleStory, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), get hitched at the rate of a couple a day in a range of weddings that cost between $30 and $40.




As part of the game, they can buy wedding tickets - cosy, sweety and premium packages - which enable them to receive anywhere between 10 and 60 guests, and obtain virtual wedding rings that add to their avatars' prowess.

Amanda Lee, a 14-year-old Raffles Girls' School student in real life, has had no fewer than five 'serious boyfriends' in the game.

She has been 'married' three times.

'It was definitely not for love,' she said. 'More for the ring and the protection my spouse can offer me in-game.

Other teens take their couplehood more seriously - offline.

Away from the game, they become real-life couples after getting married online.

Others who are already in an offline relationship make things official with an in-game wedding.

Like real marriages, not all work out.

When they fail, players need only wait four days and cough up 500,000 mesos - MapleStory's game currency - to get a Maple divorce.

Breaking up is easy to do because it allows game developers to sell wedding tickets to the same players repeatedly, said Mr Ray Chua, a senior executive at Touch Cyber Wellness and Sports, a charitable organisation that provides community service.

He added: 'I would hesitate to read too much into the differences in pricing between marriages and divorces in MapleStory.'

Even so, the trend can be worrying for those who take their Maple mates too seriously.

Jiray Teo, 17, was in Secondary 4 when he met a fellow Singaporean student and was attracted to her sweet online disposition.

The pair dated offline too.

But when she plotted to test his feelings by pretending she had been in an accident in real life, he wanted out.

He now says: 'I was too quick to enter the relationship because I really did not expect someone to be so different from her online persona.'

For first-year ITE Clementi student Soon Zhao Hui, love hurt - his pocket.

His 'spouse' emptied his game credits when he took a break from the game to study. Bemoaning giving her his account details, he said: 'I really regretted trusting her.'

Mr Chua warned that 'cyber marriages and relationships can greatly increase the game immersion factor'.

And when emotions from virtual relationships become as powerful as real-life ones, this can 'increase the risk of the gamer becoming addicted'.

Already, some gamers realise they spend too much time with their Maple mates.

A Secondary 4 student, who wanted to be identified only as Albert, confessed: 'There is both a longing and a commitment to 'see' her every day. Although I have O levels this year, I can't resist logging on when I see the computer.'

Many with failed Maple marriages feel scarred.

'Breaking up with my Maple boyfriend affected me so much that I didn't know what to do with my life,' said Amanda Lui, 17, as she recalled the end of a four-month relationship.

'I still haven't really gotten over it.'

By Lim Jun Yi

Sources here from http://digital.asiaone.com


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The Chronicles of Spellborn

The Chronicles of Spellborn is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game set in the Enclave of the Five Sacrifices, and uses the Unreal 2.5 Engine.

The Chronicles of Spellborn (TCoS) is an MMO under development by Spellborn NV using the renowned Unreal® Engine™. Players take the role of heroes in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting where a vast adventure unfolds in an authentic living world.














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Free Realms Overview

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Free Realms, the free-to-play casual friendly MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment has finally made it out of beta.

Free Realms is aimed at a younger audience than the average MMORPG, but actually manages to offer something for everyone. The game has a graphical style – and level of polish – on a par with World of Warcraft, but instead of grinding, raiding, and PVP-ing, the game offers a much wider range of activities.


In Free Realms you don't pick a specific character class when you start the game. Every character swap jobs at will. Swapping jobs is done by changing the clothes you're wearing – kind of like putting on a uniform to go to work.
Each job has its own activities associated with it. Combat jobs – like brawlers and ninjas, would fight monsters – such as the Robgoblins you meet in the game’s tutorial area. Chefs, Miners and Blacksmiths get to play various mini-games to gather ingredients, process them, and make things. The games range from bumper-car racing to 'Simon Says' style games, rhythm games, and puzzles similar to the classic 'columns' game.


There are also collection quests – which work similar to the collection quests in other SOE games, except that you just pick up items around the world, rather than having to loot monsters for them.

Free Realms has a trading card game built-in. The game has a heavy focus on deck building, and is about combat between the cards in play, rather than the objective-focused play of the Everquest, Star Wars and Stargate trading card games.

The game is free to play, but certain professions are locked to free users. Also, there are certain items that can only be bought using Station Cash – which is bought with real life money.

The mini-games, and combat, are both activated by clicking on items in-world. This means that a younger player who is either not interested in combat, or not quite up to that level of keyboard and mouse usage, does not have to take part in it. This avoids the frustration that would inevitably be felt if they 'died' – although things don't actually 'die' in Free Realms. Even the baddies are just temporarily knocked out.

The mini-games are ranked based on their difficulty. The easiest difficulty games are very simple, while the challenging ones are pitched at a difficulty that most adults should enjoy. The main objectives are very easy to achieve – most likely again for child friendliness, but there are bonus objectives which are much harder.

I very much doubt that Free Realms will become the game of choice for hardcore MMO playing adults, but as a family game – or a 'few minutes of fun' game, it shows a lot of promise. There's so many things that players can do in the world, and each challenge only takes ten minutes or so. Travel time is kept down thanks to the ability to teleport to your friends, and running between quests is a trouble free experience too. Job level progression is very fast compared to traditional MMO games, but there are leaderboards and elite objectives that will keep the game fun for the more serious and/or experienced players.

Children will love the graphics, the character customization, and the freedom, and thanks to the different difficulty levels of the challenges, adults and older siblings will be able to join in and still have fun.

The game is easier to install than most MMOs – just go to the web site FreeRealms.com and install the browser plugin. The game downloads as you play, and has very low system requirements. That, combined with the low subscription cost, free play modes, and high level of polish, should make this a very successful family game. Heck, I find myself dipping in and out, and I'm a bitter hardcore gamer that doesn't have any children to use as an excuse!

Related Resources here from http://www.myth-games.com


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LEGO Universe

LEGO Universe is a full-featured MMOG complete with character advancement, expansive social and community features, and will provide a child-safe alternative to other MMOGs on the market. As a player, you'll be able to customize your mini-figs and interact in the universe as any character you choose, providing unique opportunities for players to expand and explore with their creations.





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