Leaked Music Sheets for the upcoming BlizzCon ‘07 to be performed by the Video Games Live orchestra at the shows finale have gaming news sites buzzing in speculation.

Three pieces are said to contain the name “Northrend” and appear to be original works as no known tracks have been seen in any past Blizzard game titles.

If you don’t hear of a WoW Northrend expansion by the end of BlizzCon, a 10 lvl increase, and the future opening of an Arthas raid dungeon we’ll be very surprised.

One has to question if another 10 levels of WoW would really help the aging MMORPG, or do they have something up their sleeves to shake the game up and bring back a fun 1-60 style experience for the non-raiding players?

We can’t imagine anything more absurd than the rumor mongering of a World of Warcraft expansion by music sheet notes, but wierder things have been known to happen. -DR

The Cartoon Network snubbed the E3 2007 convention, instead using Comic-Con ‘07 to premiere its upcoming massively multiplayer online game Fusion Fall. It brings the entire Cartoon Network IP from Ben 10, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Megas XLR, Power Puff Girls, and more together in a fantasy world invaded by green goo.

This simplified kids game leads players into combat against ordinary objects, such as barrels or garbage cans that have mutated into monsters due to contact with the goo.

Combat is a basic one click MMO whacking affair, whether it be with an oversized wrench or sword, or blasting with a cartoony gun, dispatching enemies for experience.

A unique and likely addicting feature for kids to get attached to is the summoning of Nano’s, deformed versions of characters from the Cartoon Network like Mojo Jojo or Dexter. Each gives special attack powers or physical abilities that will aid in the players adventures through the game.

While still in development, given its clean and bright style with some addictive elements clearly aimed at the kids MMO market (which is already growing at a rapid pace with Barbie Girls MMO at 3 million users, most signed up with multiple MMO services) we expect the service to do rather well.

Here’s looking forward to yet another generation hooked on MMO’s! Cheers!

Perhaps this month has just been one of those months with rampant hypocrisy and pandering to the media for free press. Hearing EA’s latest CEO call for more innovation in the gaming industry was certainly a telling omen of more to come.

In a keynote speech at the Develop Conference in Brighton, UK Richard Garriot denounced the industry saying, “there are many things that have now become the standards and, although they’re great in ensuring people become obsessed with the games, they’re not the right way to go for the future.”

Although MMOs have been around for 10 years, we’ve barely become competent in story telling. Basically missions are just a case of going somewhere and killing someone. You don’t know why you’re doing it and you can pretty much skip all the text.

Leaked beta reports about Richard Garriots own MMORPG Tabula Rasa claim that not more than your first hour into the game you’ll encounter the same collect 10 or kill 5 mission gameplay he chides the MMO industry against. The missions featuring ethical decisions made in conflict with other NPC’s have also been said to be a extremely small part of the content and easily skipped through.

Garriott’s claim of Tabula Rasa, “starting from scratch to innovate in as many areas of game design as possible.” just doesn’t match up with what we’re hearing on his current MMORPG title.

Rather than using standard respawning as a gameplay mechanic Garriot went on to explain, “everyone is involved in this kind of intergalactic war. When a control point is taken, then all the shops in that area go offline, for example. The world is different.” How does Tabula Rasa handle respawns? Drop ships fly over beaming down fresh troops which appear instantly.

It’s hard to not respect the man for what he’s accomplished, especially the release of Ultima Online back in 1997 as a MMORPG pioneer, but 2 months shy of 10 years since your last serious defining contribution to the MMO space? You can’t fool your fellow developers, nor the MMO gamers that have been part of this game genre since UO and EQ for nearly 10 years.

This market desperately needs innovation, but the next time an industry icon wants to make the call to action, all we ask is he takes care of his own game first and forgoes plugging it over 20 times during the speech as an “example” to the rest of the industry.

As my favorite movie quote goes, “Either you’re slingin’ crack-rock, or you’ve got a wicked jump-shot. Nobody wants to work for it anymore.”

I’m afraid the MMO industry right now is still all about the easy money slingin’ the WoW crack-rock. -DR

It was recently confirmed that WoW will see its in-game voice support in the next PTR 2.2 test and should be implemented on the following client patch.

This implementation so soon after the announcement of its development should be a welcome addition to the game for individuals without access to private voice servers.

Whether in-game voice in WoW is a blessing or curse remains to be seen… Perhaps the game was better off without having to listen to kids with the voice of Screech ala “Saved by the Bell” in your pug group bringing you the Best Of Barrens Chat Live(tm) to your headphones. Now where’s that mute setting…

July hotfixes also went into effect on live servers:

• Warlocks can no longer summon players while in a Battleground.
• Shartuul should now properly be un-attackable if you are not involved in the summoning event.
• Season 2 Arena vendors should now no longer disappear upon a realm restart or following maintenance.
• Vendors in Halaa now sell Mystic Dawnstone jewelcrafting recipe.
• Insignias of the Alliance/Horde and Medallions of the Alliance/Horde no longer remove Unstable Affliction.

Whats that? Another warlock nerf? Blizzard you’re such a kidder! -DR

Disney Online has announced that they’ve pushed back the launch of their MMORPG Pirates of the Caribbean Online to the fall. Originally scheduled to launch this summer, the developers revealed today that they need extra time, based on current feedback (Probably from the Kids saying that the graphics suck and the game action looks as jinky as the original EQ).

Pirates of the Caribbean Online - Launch Update

Disney has been in the beta testing process for Pirates of the Caribbean Online for the past several months. After a careful internal assessment of the state of game development as well as a review of external feedback, we have elected to spend additional development time and move to a fall launch. We will use this extra time to further enhance the game, respond to additional data we’ve collected during beta testing and incorporate more of the input we have gathered. July 16 will conclude phase 1 of the beta testing and we will resume phase 2 with a new game build in September.

In the meantime, we will continue to support and grow the strong community that has congregated around Pirates of the Caribbean Online through monthly developer diaries and newsletters, the delivery of new screen shots and assets, hosting a variety of in-game and fan events and through other exciting creative campaigns. All new materials and community information can be found at www.PiratesOnline.com.

Now after reading this and realizing that the Pirates of the Burning Seas MMO hasn’t been delayed, you know the Pirate MMO we actually care about, you can now go on about your business! -DR