News

From July 16th this year, PSP owners in the U.S. will have access to another old classic in the form of Cyan Worlds' Myst. The Playstation Network will add this to the likes of Bionic Commando and Final Fantasy VII in their catalogue of games. No word as yet about a European release, but that doesn't exactly come as a surprise.

Initially released in 1993, Myst took the PC gaming crowd by storm with its complex puzzles and labyrinthine plotline. Old boy and newbie alike will be able to enjoy this extravaganza of storytelling with improved visuals to make the most of the PSP's hardware. Needless to say, it looks beautiful. In addition, this release will include the New Rime Age which was withheld from the 1993 release. Aside from these changes, the PSP Myst will be unaltered from the much-loved original.

Source: Gamers Daily News

One particularly ambitious San Francisco resident has taken Square Enix to court for breach of competition law, false advertising, and unjust enrichment. The class action sets forth the complaint that Square Enix are not clear about the fees and penalties in their MMORPG Final Fantasy XI. The class is none other than the 100,000 gamers on the Final Fantasy XI database. 'All persons who purchased or played the online games four years prior to the filling of this lawsuit to the present' to be precise.

Over $5,000,000, exclusive of interest or legal costs, is sought to be given back to the gamers. If they pull this one off, players will be told of their compensation either by email or on the Final Fantasy XI website. One source believes that Californian courts can be inclined to produce verdicts leaning more towards consumer protection. Don't let me get your hopes up too much.

See below for the complaints against Square Enix, taken directly from the lawsuit:

This case narrowly focuses on Defendants' deceptive advertising, unfair practices, and fraudulent concealment to conceal certain critical information about their online games. The deceptive advertising, unfair and undisclosed business practises, and concealment concern, among others:
i. Licensing of the online games software disguised as a sale;
ii. Monthly fees ("fees") to play the online games;
iii. Penalties for the late payment of the fees;
iv. Interest charges for late payment of the fees;
v. Charges while the online game account is suspended;
vi. Termination of the right to use online games for late payment of the fees;
vii. User restrictions and conditions related to the online games;
viii. Termination of game data for late payment of the fees.

What stands out the most from this complaint is the predominantly negative reception from the gaming community and press. Either they do not understand that this is a conjoined lawsuit, and the complainer merely represents the class, or that this is typical blind support of Square Enix who, ironically, are actually sitting on the opposite side of the table from all players of Final Fantasy XI. Why don't we raise the plaintiff, Esther Leong, on our shoulders and say: "yes we don't want to pay interest and penalties for late payment of gaming fees, this is a fantasy RPG not a credit card."

Source: GamePolitics, Plaintiff v. Square Enix (via GamePolitics), Law of the Game

It appears that writing web code as my everyday job, instead of just managing people who write web code as their everyday jobs, kind of speeds up the CoN development process a bit, too. This is evidenced by the new feature we're rolling out today - the brand-new CoN news section. I'm not going to lie to you, there are a lot of parts of this news section where the enhancements might not be completely obvious to you visitors and members, but that's okay. There's also a lot of stuff that's obvious and useful, too!

First, let's say that you're particularly interested in news we've posted related to Final Fantasy VII or its spinoffs. Well, great, because now all the Final Fantasy VII news is neatly categorized into its own section, and you'll quickly be able to grab all of that and peruse it without having to also see me chatter on about the site. (Of course, if you love seeing me chatter about the site, you can do that too because all of the major types of news we post are also categorized.) Also to help out in quickly finding the news you want, the majority of our news posts also now carry post icons to give you a visual clue as to the main focus of the news. Of course, that's not the only way you can filter. If you've been out to see without internet for the last couple months, you might want to check out all the news we posted from June 2009 in order to catch up, which as you can see from the link is now totally possible. Hey, if you're really interested enough, you can even check all the way back to June 2002, the very first month of modern news at CoN, and every month in between. Hey, we even break it down by author, so if you just have the burning desire to news-stalk laszlow, we're going to give you the option.

Another neat feature we're giving you now is the ability to read news articles and associated commentary by your fellow members without having to go all the way to the forums, should you wish. Not only that, you can even add your own comments right there, too. As an example, check out this very news article that you're reading now. You can view this for every single news article we've posted in the last seven years, and if there are just too many comments, we'll link you right into the forums to view them all and post just like you used to.

Now, here's the biggest kicker as it relates to you guys. This system now enables you non-staffers out there to submit news to us, too. We know that there have been times where you guys have found news and we've been frustrated because you beat us to it; sometimes this results in threads being duplicated in the news forum, people not knowing where or how to post, and things like that. It doesn't have to happen any more, because we're giving you control to write up news just like we do it and submit it for our approval. If we approve it, your own username will show up on the site homepage and in the news forum just like ours, and we'll even track the number of user submissions we get from you guys and display it on every news article you have on the site. It's like postcount, but better! Even if what you post doesn't quite meet our editorial standards, though, we might be able to clean it up a bit for you, and if so you'll be credited right in the post, too.

So, that brings me to my new contest here. We want you guys to share news you find with us, and we're looking to help you get motivated to do it. So, for the next three months or so, we're going to keep special track of what you post and what we approve from your postings. At the end of September, we'll check to see who outside of staff has posted the most approved news items, and if it's greater than five, that person's going to grab up a $25 (or the equivalent in pounds sterling, Euro, or Canadian dollars) in an AmaCoN gift card. If we get more than ten people who post five or more stories, we'll give out another $10 to one of you chosen at random, too. And, hey - if you show up and rock our... socks... with the quality of your news posting, there might be an opening on our permanent news staff for you as well.

You might be wondering, "how best to get my news approved?" It's not too hard. Make sure you write with good grammar and spelling, make sure you post news that's really relevant to our audience (obviously, we focus on Square Enix news, RPG news, and news that impacts big portions of the console RPG audience like important corporate news), and make sure you cover lots of details in your post. Preview your post before posting it. Make sure your sources are accurate, and for bonus points, throw a little bit of your own personal opinion in there too. Follow that formula consistently and you'll be on the way to that gift card in no time.

Let us know if you have questions, we're looking forward to getting your submissions!

Yesterday, on 6 July, the next three "Stories" in the After Years canon were released to the WiiWare store at a cost of three hundred Wii points apiece. The new stories belong to Edge, Palom, and Yang; however, details around each story are still sketchy in nature.

So, that being said, who among you has gotten these stories downloaded and can fill in the rest of us with regards to what's going down? If you plan to get them, you had best get started as the next batch will be out in under a month's time. After that, there's just the final large chapter coming in September and then this Final Fantasy IV spinoff will be fully in the books.

Source: Wikipedia: FFIV: The After Years

Asteroids, the 1979 arcade and Atari 2600 classic, is receiving an adaptation on the big screen. Universal allegedly won out over three other film studios for the film rights to Asteroids, and the project will be written by Matthew Lopez and produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (a co-producer of Transformers 2: Rise of the Fallen).

Now, a screen adaptation of Asteroids is particularly intriguing, since the game is completely devoid of storyline, dialog, or even visuals beyond black and white lines and curves. Check out some Asteroids gameplay here: thanks, YouTube! Universal also has film rights to the classic board games Candy Land and Battleship, which are similarly lacking in narrative.

So what will come of this? No director has been named and the screenwriting process has only just begun, so we know next to nothing about the project thus far.

Source: Gamespot, The Hollywood Reporter

It's only 2 months until Dissidia: Final Fantasy is released in Europe, so put September 4th in your calendar. Also, only for us glorious Europeans (at least, those who own the PSP), a limited edition will be available with all sorts of extras, which include a unique packaging, a book of the game's artwork, the strategy guide, an OST, and more. Standard copy is £25, and supposedly the limited edition is the same price, but we've yet to see an official difference in pre-order anywhere.

In addition, for anyone who still hasn't a clue what Dissidia is or is about (and where have you been?), the official site is now open.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy

Source: RPGamer