By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

DESPITE being its best launch so far, IP e-Games has said it does not see its new game Cabal Online competing directly with its most successful game RAN Online.

According to IP e-Games president Steve Tsao, Cabal Online is targeting a different market segment. While Cabal is set in a more medieval fantasy world, RAN has a modern world setting.

Tsao did not reveal the number of registered players in Cabal but said they have “a 110- percent server capacity” and that it is becoming a problem. He also said their concurrent user number is exceeding 40,000, with their servers already operating at full capacity.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

AMPED GAMES has recently partnered with local startup game publisher GPlayon to market and distribute N-Age, a new massively multiplayer online role playing game that is set in an “urban jungle.”

Amped Games director Mitch Padua told hackenslash that GPlayon will still build the infrastructure for the game while Amped Games will serve as the marketing arm and game distributor.

“Our top-up cards can also be used to play N-Age,” Padua said.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

NEARLY a year since it introduced the game in the Philippines and the region, entertainment software publisher Asian Media will hold a major relaunch of Lineage II that is expected to have major overhauls in gameplay that will make it into a more “casualized” game.

The overhaul in the Lineage II strategy of Asian Media will affect its operations in Singapore and Malaysia.

In an interview with hackenslash, Asian Media chief operating officer Ronald Allan Aquino said there had been complaints that the game was difficult to play, making it appealing only to more serious players. By changing some aspects of the gameplay, Lineage II can allow casual players to have an easier time when they start playing.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE PHILIPPINES will be the host country for this year’s Ragnarok World Championship (RWC). This will be the first time in four years that Ragnarok Online developer Gravity has hosted the RWC outside South Korea.

Online game publisher Level Up!, which distributes RO in the Philippines, will organize the RWC, which it will happen concurrently with Level Up Live!, an annual event highlighting the company’s games and other services. Level Up Live! is set for October 18 to 19 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

In an interview, Gravity general manager for Business Development Changki Kim said the choice for a host country for the RWC was a difficult one to make as Level Up! was competing with AsiaSoft, a game publisher from Thailand.

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By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

IMAGINE running around a multi-level, 350-square-meter arena holding a laser gun called a phaser and tagging supposed enemies you find hiding behind a dark wall.

For 15 minutes, this high-tech game of tag using specially-made laser-fitted guns allows players (a maximum of 24) to relive a favorite childhood game.

“This is not about war. It’s more a tagging game,” said Maureen Scherrie Delantar, marketing and operations manager of Aslag Philippines’ LazerXtreme Arena, noting that children as young as six years old can play the game without risks of getting hurt.

Here’s a photo I took of Delantar showing the special vest and laser-fitted gun.

And here’s INQUIRER.net multimedia specialist Erika Tapalla interviewing Delantar. Video taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villafania.

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