The News Review:

- Miniclip’s Newest Game Uses Silverlight Plug-In Technology
- Special: Why World of Warcraft Made It Big
- Testronic Labs Launches MMOG Performance Test Solution

Miniclip’s Newest Game Uses Silverlight Plug-In Technology
PR Web – PR Web (press release) – Mar 28, 2008
com the Internet's largest online games website with 43 million game players today announced a new Miniclip online game using Microsoft Silverlight. Miniclip and Microsoft are working together to produce and distribute a new online game using the Silverlight plug-in. It's the first large scale release of an online game using the Silverlight technology. The new Miniclip game called 'Zombomatic' allows kids parents and gamers of all ages from around the world to enjoy high-quality entertainment with family and friends or with gamers from around the world. The object of the game is to connect the conductors quickly in the correct order to allow the electricity to flow again and power the Zombomatic machine. "Using Microsoft Silverlight for a popular online game Web site such as Miniclip will showcase the capabilities of Silverlight to millions of game players across the Internet" said Peter Barr-Watson senior manager in the developer division at Microsoft Corp.

Special: Why World of Warcraft Made It Big
Gamasutra – Mar 28, 2008
]Massively Multiplayer Online Games are officially mainstream. A title from the genre has had an entire cartoon episode made about it features in an advertisement starring Mr. T and hosts some ten million players worldwide. World of Warcraft is a fundamentally important element to the MMO landscape but more than that it’s an ecology a society all its own. We know WoW has hit it big… Compared with the guessing games of previous online games World of Warcraft’s quest journal was a revolution. This system of directed experiences is another well-referenced reason for the game’s success. Even though players may be ignoring the story reasons for completing quests the rewards of xp and in-game currency lead them down that storied road just the same. Quests act as landmarks and signposts in what would otherwise be (and was in previous games) aimless wandering and meaningless grinding for rewards. The trick is that even as quests attempt to tell a story what they’re really doing is leading the player around by the nose.

Testronic Labs Launches MMOG Performance Test Solution
sys-con.com – Mar 28, 2008
VENUS Blue is the only performance testing tool capable of emulating a large number of MMOG players enabling developers and publishers to fast-track testing processes for even the most complex MMOG games. Its powerful load testing architecture allows precise control over any network and MMOG host server. There are no limits to the number of virtual users that can be loaded into the testing tool thus enabling vigorous performance testing in much shorter times and in a far more manageable way compared to open Beta testing. “Historically MMOG has proved one of the most challenging areas in which to deliver world-class quality assurance” comments Neil Goodall CEO for Testronic Labs.