Publisher Funcom has announced that its forthcoming MMO Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will be delayed an additional eight weeks for more polish, following its previous delay from the second half of 2007.

In August of last year Funcom first delayed the title to March 25th, following feedback from its beta testing. The game was originally intended for launch in the second half of 2007, after receiving some positive feedback during previews over the last year.

Now Funcom has said the game will launch on the 20th of May, "allowing Funcom to deliver a more polished MMO experience when the game launches."

"Despite great feedback on vital aspects like immersion, fun factor and the exciting combat system," the company said, "the management of Funcom has decided to polish the game even more. Eight weeks of development work is therefore added to stress game systems and polish the game further leading up to launch."

Said game director and producer Gaute Godager, “The companies standing apart in the gaming market today are those with a relentless drive to achieve quality. Even though we regret delaying the launch, I am certain we made the right choice. I hope that our followers and fans will support our decision, and respect our commitment to quality."

[The preceding article originally ran on Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra.]

Electronic Arts has announced a new title in the popular Battlefield series of multiplayer shoot ‘em-ups, named Battlefield Heroes. The game will be a part of the company’s new “Play 4 Free” range of free to download online PC-only titles, and will release later this summer.

As such, the game will be aimed at a more mass market audience with a new cartoon-like art style similar to Valve’s Team Fortress 2. Despite the changes, the game will still be developed by Swedish studio DICE, the creators of the original Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2.

Battlefield Heroes will be offered completely free for download and features a built-in matchmaking system. What's interesting here is the The Play 4 Free business model, intended to generate revenue through advertising and microtransactions, and the evidence that this disruptive trend in online gaming has begun reaching the major developer-publishers with firm involvement in the console gaming world. It's also significant to see a company like EA offering a microtransactions-based online game aimed at a broader audience and less at the traditional 'core baseline.

“Online gaming garners a massive audience,” said Gerhard Florin, EVP publishing Americas-Europe at Electronic Arts. “People want to play games in new ways, with easier access that is quick to the fun. With Battlefield Heroes, EA brings its first major franchise to North America and Europe with a new distribution model and pricing structure adapted to the evolving way that people play.”

“We put a different twist on this Battlefield game going with the cartoon-style graphics and gameplay,” added Ben Cousins, senior producer at EA DICE. “There’s something here for all types of players - be it our core Battlefield fans or casual gamers. With the new online model, we will continually add new content to keep the game fresh and keep players engaged, while integrating player feedback in real time. As a game developer, it is such a cool new way to make games.”

We often discuss the financial impact of broadening virtual world adoption, as we look at businesses employing the technology for collaborative work environments, or the ways in which free-to-play online social gaming is evolving the landscape of play. But there are social ramifications too that, while not necessarily huge to the biz-savvy, beg interesting discussions about the rapid strides made in person-to-person communication online.

An example of this is a recent advice column in Kansas' Wichita Eagle, which cites an expert consensus that online infidelity can lead to real infidelity. The issues of Second Life romances or teen Habbo hookups have been discussed at the fringes of our culture, but as broader audiences gain access and mastery of virtual worlds and online interaction, it's possible that such discussion topics will feature front-and-center in the social lexicon of the 21st century.

The column's author, Jessica Yadegaran, visits the online support community EverQuest Widows -- somewhat ironically, an online social community to unite women who've been jilted by their husbands for online avatars of other women, or simply by a spouse's excess of time investment in an online world. The article takes a wide lens to consider the effects of the issue:

Legally, cyber affairs don't, by themselves, constitute adultery. However, if cyber-cheating leads to a real-life affair, then the actual adultery can be grounds for divorce in jurisdictions that consider fault.

Furthermore, if cyber-cheating is egregious and leads to a regular pattern of cruelty in the marriage, or causes the cyber-cheater to abandon completely his marital responsibilities, it could be considered grounds for divorce in fault and mixed-fault divorce regimes, says Melissa Murray, a family law professor at UC Berkeley's School of Law.

"In the future, family law and other aspects of the law will have to wrestle with the question of how to deal with conduct in these virtual spaces," Murray says.

According to the article, lecturer Lisa Rein feels that these kinds of destructive online interactions are only a small part of the picture -- that instead, relationships in worlds like Second Life represent a natural evolution in humans relating online. But clinical psychologist Kimberly Young, director of the Center for Online Addiction Recovery in Pennsylvania, estimates that 60 percent of her private practice clients deal with online affairs.

The column even offers tips for what to look for in a spouse who may be cheating emotionally with another avatar: Demand for privacy, evidence of lying and decreased interest in the relationship, to name a few.

[Via Kansas.com]

IEEE Spectrum, the monthly magazine published by the IEEE tech and business organization, has identified several projects in its annual "best and worst of global technology" issue, and Forterra Systems' OLIVE virtual worlds software platform made the 'best of' list, along with IBM’s new chipmaking process and Sprint’s Xohm high-speed wireless broadband data network.

Glenn Zorpette, executive editor of the magazine, explained, “To pick the winning and losing projects, we considered the feasibility of the goals described by the project leaders themselves. We analyzed these goals in light of technical and technology-related factors: regulation; competition; relevant technology and market trends, and more. Forterra should be very pleased with this endorsement of their transformative technology by our editors.”

Forterra’s OLIVE™ (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment) software platform lets end users develop 3D environments that can be navigated with a keyboard and mouse. Previously, the Serious Games Institute and the Defense Department’s Joint Advanced Distributed Learning announced they were using the OLIVE platform.

Added Forterra CEO David Rolston, "We agree 2008 will be an inflection point in our industry as more proof points are published about enterprise business processes being transformed by 3D applications. We will be making exciting announcements this year about customers using virtual applications for new forms of training and collaboration. Fundamentally, we are addressing how enterprises and their extended ecosystems can work more productively and effectively by operating virtually. Within 3 to 5 years we envision the typical business worker spending large portions of their day in immersive 3D environments.”

Mochi Media's online games ad network MochiAds has launched the "Flash Rock Star Games Contest” with Gaia Online, hoping to recognize talent among new Flash game developers.The three-month contest will accept game submissions to be judged by a professional panel with input from the Gaia community. The contest winner receives over $25,000 in cash and prizes, and possible game development contracts with Gaia.

Flash games are currently considered a major growth area for casual online gaming -- MochiAds says one in three Internet users plays casual Flash games online. They require fewer developer resources compared to traditional games, and distribute easily in the free-to-play format. Because of the reduced resource requirement, the Flash development scene attracts many independent developers, and MochiAds says it hopes to help bring some of this innovation to light.

MochiAds offers a custom API allowing developers to create games with custom leaderboards and the ability to communicate with publisher sites. Gaia Online integrates MochiAds games into its chat and avatar system, through an agreement that provides Gaia with a premium catalog of games through which Gaia users can earn virtual currency and goods for playing.

Mochi Media CEO Jameson Hsu commented, “This contest is a unique opportunity for Flash game developers to get the exposure they deserve. There are a lot of talented developers out there, and we’re excited to bring them tools that increase community interaction with their games.”

Visiting Lotusphere, ZDNet's Dave Greenfield got to catch up with some key folks developing virtual world-related apps for business -- in addition to the anticipated unveiling of "Second Life For Business" Bluegrass, the collaborative professional world, he found out about Wormhole, which renders real-world objects as avatars. He also noticed that using online spaces for team building is a sustaining trend.

His observation? Says Greenfield from Lotusphere: "I think what all of these projects have in common beside the raw technology is that the work environment should be made to be a bit more fun. Games, online interactions, and the like are parts of 'playing' with one another that leads to more effective teams. I think it’s an interesting idea. What do you think?"

We've noticed that the virtual worlds and gaming spheres have begun to share best practices and common goals, one of the major aims of our upcoming Worlds in Motion Summit (don't forget to register!). Could virtual worlds also be becoming a quintessential bridge between work and play?

[Social Software: It's Just A Game | ZDNet.com]

The advantage Unisfair touts over Second Life is that its environments are closed and secure -- no chance of people flying through the presentation or creating a scene in animal mascot costumes during the pie chart slideshow. According to GigaOM, Unisfair claims to have grown 350 percent in 2007. The company was founded back in 2002, however, and seems to have hit it big after specifying virtual meetings and the "software as service" business model. Among its customers now are Cisco Systems, National Instruments and business intelligence firm Cognos.

[Unisfair Nets $10M For Virtual Trade Shows | GigaOM]

Where do griefers come from, and what are they after? An absolutely fascinating new Wired article explores the phenomenon and those behind it, as well as those affected by it. Denizens of the Web's most stalwart enclaves and habituated online gamers -- an audience who'd been living in an "online world" of sorts long before Linden Lab, IBM, and a legion of earnest-minded entrepreneurs came along -- had a bit of a jump on the concepts of the virtual worlds movement, and were waiting to defend their space with simultaneous harmless amusement and utter, sometimes objectively frightening sincerity.

From the article:

"As the media hype around Second Life grew, the Goons began to aim at bigger targets. When a virtual campaign headquarters for presidential candidate John Edwards was erected, a parody site and scatological vandalism followed. When SL real estate magnate Anshe Chung announced she had accumulated more than $1 million in virtual assets and got her avatar's picture splashed across the cover of BusinessWeek, the stage was set for a Second Life goondom's spotlight moment: the interruption of a CNET interview with Chung by a procession of floating phalluses that danced out of thin air and across the stage.

People laughed at those attacks, but for Prokofy Neva, another well-known Second Life real estate entrepreneur, no amount of humor or creativity can excuse what she sees as 'terrorism.' Prokofy (Catherine Fitzpatrick in real life, a Manhattan resident, mother of two, and Russian translator and human-rights worker by trade) earns a modest but bankable income renting out her Second Life properties, and griefing attacks aimed at her, she says, have rattled some tenants enough to make them cancel their leases. Which is why her response to those who defend her griefers as anything but glorified criminals is blunt: 'Fuck, this is a denial-of-service attack ... it's anti-civilization ... it's wrong ... it costs me hundreds of US dollars.'"

Julian Dibbell's article is one of the few accurate and thorough explorations of this objectively anti-social behavior and its numerous sources in unique and long-standing internet culture, and a must-read for anyone who thinks that online society is a "new" concept.

[Mutilated Furries, Flying Phalluses: Put the Blame on Griefers | Wired]

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that World of Warcraft has recently passed 10 million subscribers worldwide since its launch on November 23, 2004. According to Blizzard, WoW now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia.

Blizzard adds that the first WoW expansion, The Burning Crusade, was the best-selling PC game of 2007 in North America and Europe, and holds the record for fastest-selling PC game of all time, selling nearly 2.4 million copies in its first 24 hours and approximately 3.5 million in its first month. The also company recently announced it is developing its second expansion, Wrath of the Lich Ling

World of Warcraft is currently available in seven languages, and Blizzard says a Russian version is in development and scheduled for release later in 2008. In addition to North America and Europe, World of Warcraft is available in China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Blizzard also took the somewhat unusual step of explicitly defining who it counted as subscribers, clarifying that the 10 million number refers to those who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. The count does not, however, include free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions or prepaid cards. Blizzard also counted Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days. The subscribers of its licensees were also counted under the same rules.

Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime said, "It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft. We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”

CCP has announced that its EVE Online MMO will be made available through Valve's content delivery platform, Steam. Concurrent with the launch, EVE Online will offer a 21-day free trial period for all Steam users, with a discount for those who join.

EVE Online, set in a futuristic space world, recently claimed some 200,000 players, all of them residing on the same single-shard server system. Its most recent update introduced significant graphical upgrades.

Valve business development director Jason Holtman says that EVE is the first MMO to become available through steam. "The team at CCP continues to expand EVE's universe and gameplay for the legions logging in to play each month, just as we continue to expand Steam's consumer and developer features," he said.

CCP VP of sales Magnus Bergsson commented, "We are immensely excited and honored that EVE Online will be the first MMO on Steam. Steam has been the leading online distribution platform for a long time and home to some of the most dedicated gamers around, so we couldn´t think of a better fit for EVE Online."

Ntreev USA (Pangya) has announced the launch of open beta service for the Korean-developed online action title Grand Chase, set to begin on January 31st. Grand Chase is free-to-play, and has seen some upgrades since the Korean version, including updates to the 3D graphics, fine tuning to the control mechanics, USB controller access and localization featuring English voice acting.

The game mechanics encourage players to team up to combat monsters, earn items and invest in the fantasy world. There's also player-versus-player individual and team combat.

Funcom has announced it has added a tiered subscription system to its free-to-play Anarchy Online. There are now three options -- the free version, the $5/month, and now a $14.95/month model. The lower subscription opens up new areas in the Shadowlands, one of Anarchy's expansion packs, and subscribing players are able to reach the maximum level. The higher, or "premium" tier, have no content restrictions at all.

In other words, the new tiered model provides for a "middle ground" between the restricted free-to-play mode and the full-access premium mode. Producer and game director Craig Morrison commented, "A lot of our free players have really wanted to explore more of Anarchy Online, without committing to a premium subscription. We therefore hope that many will take advantage of the option we are now giving them. With a great range of subscription choices, a brand new graphics engine and a constant update of fresh content we aim to deliver a great MMO experience for many years to come."

Sulake says Habbo's 1.6 million online citizens will vote for which of the top 30 WWE Superstars they think will play various roles in the event (e.g., ultimate winner). Users whose predictions are correct are entered into a sweepstakes to win a trip to Florida to see Wrestlemania 24 in March.

The WWE likes the chance to promote their brand in Habbo. We checked out the site, and noticed that users aren't just voting on the avatars -- they're enjoying using them to roleplay their own WWE tournaments and discuss their favorite stars. Marketing EVP Geof Rochester said, “WWE is giving fans access to our brand in new and exciting ways– utilizing virtual worlds, social networking sites, widgets, and much more. This promotion with Habbo’s large, active community is a perfect fit for our expanding digital footprint.”

Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger commented, “Habbo pioneered the booming youth virtual world space and is one of the most internationally successful communities of its kind. We're especially pleased to be inaugurating our presence in Habbo with our longstanding client WWE. That aside, the ‘Habbo Royal Rumble’ campaign is jam-packed with fun, innovative programming and the stakes are high - the prize is among the most valuable we've ever offered in a promotion."

This is another example of the growing convergence trend, in which entertainment media properties are finding valuable extensions online, in virtual worlds and with game-like content. Reuben Steiger will be speaking on that very topic at our upcoming Worlds in Motion Summit at GDC (don't forget to register!)

With the rise of microtransactions and MapleStory, South Korean gaming has been growing in respect and relevance in the west.

There's a lot to learn from this rich, constantly evolving market, which grew up along lines so different from the U.S., Japan and Europe that it's difficult to compare -- and compete with.

To that end, Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra has compiled five complete interviews with a variety of members of top companies in the market, conducted principally at the annual Gstar trade show, to offer their perspective on the industry in 2007 and going forward.

This time, Gamasutra speaks to Stephen Lee, manager of international business development at Nexon, about the big schism between rapid Korean development in a thriving online game business versus the much smaller, slower retail box and console-focused market. Now that Nexon is creating versions of its hit casual PC MMO Maple Story for DS and Xbox 360 with Nintendo, Lee reveals some interesting implications. The full interview follows the jump.

NHN USA ’s ijji.com, U.S. subsidiary of South Korean internet company NHN, is pointing out its new site logo and a shift in focus. The MMORPG portal, which offers games like Luminary: Rise of the GoonZu and Gunbound, is showing off a new logo that makes the letters of ijji look like people hanging out together, and the slogan is "Where Gamers Unite."

NHN USA's new slogan was actually chosen by the site's users -- 17,000 of whom submitted more than 22,000 entries to pick the “Where Gamers Unite" slogan.

Seems strange that a company would make a point of highlighting a logo and slogan change, but there's clearly a deeper issue. Korean MMORPGs have historically had a traditional audience among hardcore online gamers, but many companies who publish these games in North America and Europe -- a rising trend -- are aiming to market them as less 'core level grind and more social online experience.

Is there a validity to this strategy? MMOs used to be publicized and popularized based on how complicated, in-depth and addictive they were. The richer the world and the more elaborate the stat system, the more, it was often reasoned, the gaming audience would appreciate them. But we're entering the era of the "casual MMO," where networked play and avatar-based socialization are seen as a trend that can be expanded to a new audience. Korean MMOs are often characterized by a cute or especially aesthetic art style, and colorful, poppy home worlds, and as Nexon's Steven Lee pointed out in our recent interview, hip accessories to purchase for fully customizable avatars grew years ago out of the need to save that market from huge piracy losses.

Therefore, in many ways, the trends that are driving the virtual worlds movement -- cute, accessible avatars, microtransactions-driven personal items, and socially driven environments -- were conceived and developed to an advanced degree in these Korean MMORPGs that are now hitting U.S. shores, hoping to use those elements to reach an audience that perhaps might have overlooked traditional Western online games.

Social virtual worlds are not the same thing as MMOs, no matter how cute, accessible and customizable these imported games might be. But it's clear that both types of networked entertainment are trying to learn from one another, with social worlds trying to pull in some of the long-running loyalist user base that traditionally becomes deeply engaged with an MMORPG driven by game mechanics, and with MMORPGs hoping to highlight their colorful social and personal elements to reach a broader audience than might have paid attention to them before.

NHN USA CEO Whon Namkoong, explaining the logo change, summed it up similarly: "ijji.com is an online gaming site where people can enjoy a variety of multiplayer games. We are extremely excited about the new site logo and slogan which effectively communicates social gaming and community that ijji.com stands for.”

Virtual Worlds Management has come up with a handy roundup of the virtual worlds-related investments during the fourth quarter of 2007, finding that both venture capital and media firms have invested some $425 million dollars in 15 different virtual worlds companies during 2007.

Two acquisitions that made the list -- Microsoft's pickup of Multimap and Big Fish games' purchase of Thinglefin -- account for $50 million, while the remaining $375 million was investments in the 13 other companies on the list.

It's not clear that Microsoft plans to use UK-based Multimap online mapping service to develop an online environment -- but then, that depends on whether or not you'd call Google Earth a virtual world. Certainly there has been a lot of interest in whether Google, with its SketchUp 3D modeler combined with its mapping services, might pool its resources to enter the online worlds space, but it's worth pointing out that mapping services aren't "virtual earth" quite yet.

Virtual Worlds Management notes that another company on the list, ZeniMax, is "only partially focused" on virtual worlds, but it's not clear what the MMO developer and Bethesda Softworks (Oblivion) parent is planning outside of more traditional multiplayer online games, as they don't seem to have made an announcement or offered information to that effect publicly.

We regularly cover some MMORPGs here at Worlds in Motion, particularly when their business model, social elements, or target audience influences or is influenced by the more purely virtual worlds space, so it's fair to say that the ZeniMax investment is still relevant - but if we include ZeniMax's hefty $300,000,000 investment from Providence Equity partners, why not include some of the big acquisitions of and investments in MMO studios that have taken place?

It's tough these days to find out where to draw a line between the business and socially-focused "virtual worlds space" and the area of multiplayer online games targeting traditional audiences. Virtual Worlds Management's report correctly notes that many of the software companies who received funding fall somewhere in a gray area, neither specifically game developers nor virtual world developers, but a bit of both.

Gaia Online, Hidden City (Bella Sara), Numedeon (Whyville) and Star in Me, in which Electric Sheep took a stake, represent four companies on the list that focus specifically on online games and virtual worlds for the young audience.

According to the report, investors during the Q4 2007 period include: Omnicom, Alloy Ventures and Storm Ventures, Vickers Financial Group, DHX Media Ltd., Benchmark Capital, Canaan Partners, GrandBanks Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, Rustic Canyon Ventures, Providence Equity Partners, Charles River Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners and Pequot Ventures, Gigamedia, Sony and Time Warner, Microsoft and Big Fish Games.

Virtual Worlds Management executive director Christopher Sherman commented, "Most of the investors in Q4 were venture firms. Sony and Time Warner, the only two media companies investing during the period both opted for Gaia Online. Meanwhile Omnicom invested in virtual worlds agency Millions of Us, and television personality Pat Sajak became a significant shareholder of Numedeon. The largest investment by far was ZeniMax's $300 million financing from Providence Equity Partners."

[$425 MILLION INVESTED IN 15 VIRTUAL WORLDS COMPANIES IN 4TH QUARTER 2007 | Virtual Worlds Management]

Virtual worlds agency Millions of Us has named a new artist to its artist-in-residence program, which focuses on discovering and promoting emerging artists in the spheres of virtual worlds and social networking. The company sponsors the artists discovered through the program, offering them the opportunity for informal collaboration with the Millions of Us creative team, and to use the company's technical resources to work independently on their own projects in a "relaxed atmosphere" and "unstructured program."

Mark Stephen Meadows will be the firm's second artist-in-residence. Meadows is a portrait artist and author who is also releasing a book titled "I, Avatar; The Culture and Consequences of Having A Second Life." In his residency with Millions of Us, the company says Meadows will build six different self-portrait avatars in six different virtual worlds, creating a first-person travelogue of each.

The first artist named to the program was UK-based Rob Wright, known as "Robbie Dingo" in Second Life, whose short film, a 3D interpretation of Van Gogh's famous Starry Night painting, was produced entirely in Second Life. His first commission through the program is a film interpretation of the song "Meteors" by electronic music performer Kirsty Hawkshaw.

Nexon America has announced some new updates for MapleStory, most notably upping the ante with an "elite tier" fourth-level job class, proving that while easy-access free-to-play business models and customizable avatars might draw more casual, social players, the company's still interested in keeping MapleStory attractive to its hardcore players.

MapleStory's job system currently allows players to pick a career after level 10, and then through the course of gameplay achieve three additional career tiers depending on the direction in which they develop their characters. The fourth job class adds a new classification for players who have completed the third tier of their career, and even Nexon notes it's a challenge for MapleStory's most dedicated denizens.

In an additional nod to its hardcore audience, MapleStory has also added a new town, Leafre (shown), for players level 100 and up, where those advanced users can get some of the game's more powerful equipment, fight some of the toughest monsters available, and accessories and socialize with other high-level players.

Nexon's adding mounts, too, for players over level 70. Earning a mount to ride on at higher levels is a benchmark achievement in many of the traditional, hardcore-oriented MMOs, so it's interesting to see trusty steeds like wild hogs and red dragons entering the MapleStory world -- and another sign that Nexon wants to make sure it's not just maintaining a social world for casual users.

The new update brings some enhancements to the user interface as well. A new meter shows how many hit points an enemy has remaining, an automatic item organizer sorts players' property, and a new world map is aimed to help players find their way around. MapleStory is a massive online world, even though it presents as a 2D sidescroller, and without the traditional 3D top-down or three-quarters view, it can be a bit challenging to get a sense of how all the areas interconnect, so an improved map is a necessary enhancement given this layout.

The Entertainment Software Association has highlighted new NPD data on the PC game market, following full-year analysis on the $18.85 billion dollar video game industry pertaining specifically to PC software sales.

Computer retail game sales in the United States totaled $910.7 million, or 36.4 million units, a decrease over last year's results, when PC games sold in a retail setting saw revenue of $970 million.

Following the ESA-trailed results, NPD released the top 10 best-selling PC games of 2007 to online outlets including Worlds in Motion sister site Gamasutra, revealing two major franchises - Vivendi/Blizzard's World Of Warcraft and Electronic Arts' The Sims - dominating much of the charts. The full run-down is as follows:

1. World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Vivendi) - 2.25 million
2. World Of Warcraft (Vivendi) - 914,000
3. The Sims 2: Seasons Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts) - 433,000
4. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) - 383,000
5. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Electronic Arts) - 343,000
6. Sim City 4 Deluxe (Electronic Arts) - 284,000
7. The Sims 2 (Electronic Arts) - 281,000
8. The Sims 2: Bon Voyage Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts) - 271,000
9. Age Of Empires III (Microsoft) - 259,000
10. The Sims 2: Pets Expansion Pack (Electronic Arts) - 236,000

However, digital downloads were not factored in to the NPD data, since the firm only tracks bricks-and-mortar retail sales currently, making it difficult to track exactly how the PC market is trending as a whole with the rise of casual games and even digital downloads for more 'hardcore' titles.

How would the PC market's revenues shape up if microtransactions and other predominating business models were factored in? It's hard to imagine that we won't at least have a better idea of this next year. And yet it's worth pointing out, on the other hand, the number one item of PC software, Warcraft, which is the industry's killer app with a recently-announced 10 million users, is a subscription-based retail title -- a business model lots of people think may be on the outs with the advent of free-to-play and RMTs. Go figure.

We recently raved about Julian Dibbell's Wired article treating the phenomenon of internet subcultures that have given rise to virtual worlds griefing behavior, and now it's worth pointing out another item of his work: one of his books, with the hefty title "My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World (Being a True Account of the Case of the Infamous Mr. Bungle and the Author's Journey, in Consequence Thereof, to the Heart of a Half-Real World Called LambdaMOO)."

Even though Dibbell's writing, 'Part memoir and part ethnography," is about a text-based precursor to the online environments we know today, the immersion factor is no less relevant in his truthful, descriptive account of living a virtual life. Like the Wired article, another must-read! Especially since Dibbell has just made the entire works available as a free .pdf from Lulu. If you dislike reading on your computer, you can purchase a proper paper copy from Lulu, too.