SoraNews24 —Japan News—

After an initial announcement in 2013, and then a scrapped alpha test, the Record of Lodoss War massively multiplayer online role-playing game, set in the world of the hit anime, has a 2016 release date.

Japan, Korea
(anime • MMORPG • online games • Record of Lodoss War • video games)

Paying to play – Catching up with a Chinese leveling service

KK Miller
Jul 11, 2015

Growing up, many of us wondered how we could turn our favorite hobbies into a career. For a lot of us, that thing we love is gaming, and here at RocketNews24, we are definitely guilty of spending entire afternoons daydreaming about playing games professionally and making tons of money. Unfortunately though, the peak years for reaction time are well behind, so our life goal of being a pro gamer is simply a pipe dream.

Thankfully there are still ways to turn gaming into a profession, and a golden case currently exists in China.

Gamers and savvy business people offer leveling services to casual gamers who pay to start powerful, rather than slogging through the low levels themselves. But is such a business actually a viable career? And does the income and resultant lifestyle make it worth it?

China, Internet
(leveling service • MMORPG • online games • video games)

Japanese farming simulator rewards players with actual crops delivered to their door

Mike
May 12, 2015

Remember back in the day when all of your older relatives and the kids you knew from school but never speak to any more would send you invites to play Farmville? Remember how seeing a new notification on your Facebook toolbar that just turned out to be yet another invitation to play f’$%ng Farmville would fill you with impotent rage?

Well think about how different your reaction might have been if your “friends” hadn’t been backhandedly asking you to help them raise their not-actually-existent virtual ducks and cabbages, but were in fact asking you to help them put real, actual food in their mouths.

One Japanese startup, Telefarm, is hoping that the future is online games that reward players for good performance with actual products delivered to their door. And they’ve been running a farming simulator prototype for a little over a year now to test that model’s feasibility.

Japan
(culture • farming • games • online games • Simulators • technology • vegetables)

Life imitates (Sword) Art (Online) as Japanese gamers find they can’t log out of online RPG

Casey Baseel
Dec 15, 2014

The big selling point of online multiplayer role-playing games that they never end. Unlike a stand-alone, single-player RPG with a comparatively distinct path from start to finish, the adventure in online titles can go on indefinitely, thanks to periodically added extra content and the huge supply of new companions to go questing with.

But as appealing as a game that never has to end may be to hard-core gamers, many of them recently found out they were playing one that couldn’t, as the logout function mysteriously disappeared from one of Japan’s most popular online RPGs.

Japan
(anime • online games • Phantasy Star Online • Sega • Sword Art Online • video games)

March over to Yahoo! Games for the beta release of Dragon Quest Monster Parade!

Rachel Tackett
Aug 20, 2013

Dragon Quest is a long-running series of role-playing video games with a sizeable selection of spin-offs, novels, manga, and anime adaptations. Most people recognize it for its mascot, the mostly harmless bouncing blue slime, a googly-eyed monster present in each of the title’s many incarnations.

Although Dragon Quest is usually categorized as a console game, the newest title to be added to their list of very special spin-offs is an online PC game playable through Yahoo! Games. It’s called Dragon Quest Monster Parade and is sure to draw the attention of slime lovers everywhere! Curious parties can try out the game’s open beta test starting in just a couple days, and anyone who registers to play early will get a special present from makers Square Enix!

Japan
(beta • Dragon Quest • online games • slime • Square Enix • video games)

Anthropomorphized anime warships game inspired by prewar Japanese tourism poster?!

Cara Clegg
Jul 6, 2013

From countries and camera lenses to burgers and government corporations, Japan has a vibrant moe culture of personifying inanimate objects – in other words, turning them into cute, giant-eyed anime characters. The latest addition is a game populated by beautiful, shapely “warships”, which seems like a very modern idea but may actually have its origins in the prewar era.