ECTS Awards Announced
 Black & White, Gran Turismo Win Most Accolades, Denki Blocks is Best Game of the Show
The award winners of the European interactive entertainment industry were announced in London at ECTS - Europe's premier trade show for the interactive entertainment industry.
World of Warcraft - The Newest MMPOG Contender
Just as growth of the two-and-a-half-year-old, 400,000-player EverQuest is likely nearing its peak, Blizzard is entering the scene with Worlds of Warcraft, a massive multiplayer game based on the Warcraft series. The company says sales of the original game, Warcraft, which debuted in 1994, totalled almost 5 million copies.
Product Profile:
Seascape
Seascape from Digimation is a flexible and powerful tool that enables the animator to create realistic ocean scenes that can interact with the environment in 3ds max. The effects are based on real world physical representations of wave systems and ocean models.
In My Opinion
Sierra Online: Nobody's Done it Better
by Denise Harrison
Back, oh, roughly 10 years ago, the story goes, Sierra founder Ken Williams wanted a place for his mother to play Bridge with her friends. So he set out to develop an online method for doing this. Sometime later, The Sierra Network had become a full featured proprietary multiplayer online game system.
NetImmerse Game Engine Powers The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Bethesda Softworks went with the NetImmerse game engine and toolkit when creating The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the third chapter in the Elder Scrolls series of roleplaying games. NetImmerse 3D Game Engine is an object-oriented C++ software toolkit for creating real-time games and other interactive 3D content for Windows, Windows NT, PlayStation 2, and GAMECUBE.
Empires and Kings
Ensemble Studios Brings Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings to Life With 3ds max r3
by Gordon Davies
 Empire building is nothing new to Ensemble Studios. The award winning Microsoft Age of Empire's computer game, developed by Ensemble Studios, has created innumerable desktop kingdoms and fired the imagination of would-be despots and merchant moguls worldwide. Recently, Ensemble created Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, with expanded features and even more stunning visual effects, developed with the advanced modeling and animation capabilities of 3ds max™ 3 from Discreet.
SIGGRAPH 2001 -- Making Your Job Easier
by Denise Harrison
There was so much news at SIGGRAPH 2001 for game developers that we're going to devote the entire issue of Levels to news this time.I don't know that there was anything so new that you'd have fallen to your knees in gratitude, but most companies had either new versions, new plug-ins and, significantly, new interoperability to other apps just means your job is easier and your capabilities are expanded.
There's Gold in Them Thar Cellulars
by Chris Mann
 Games for cell phones are opening an entire new market for developers. One company, Riot Entertainment (www.riot-e.com) has a good start in the market with the exclusive handheld rights to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Spider-Man and X-Men.
In My Opinion:
A Home of Their Own
by Denise Harrison
To nest is human, from your locker in high school, your studio apartment in college and a home of your own later on. It only makes sense that gamers prefer personal space in games, too, such as the houses in Ultima and The Realm, and guildhalls in other games.
A Slightly Closer Look at gmax
by Denise Harrison
While we've been reporting news about Discreet's gmax, we haven't yet said exactly what it is! So we figured it's time for a slightly closer look at this new way of developing and publishing games.
In My Opinion:
Death of the The Player Killer
by Denise Harrison
One of the questions developers have to ask anymore is whether or a new game should include player killing. PKing is why co-workers who used to bolt from the office toward happy hours instead began to stick around the office for a friendly game of Doom over the company network. Gunning down co-workers, or buddies on your home network, was a successful formula that has been carried out on other games as well. And on others, player killing was the very demise of the game.
Next Generation Servers Can Support Tens of Thousands of Users
by Chris Mann
It's expensive, and it's a pain, to buy and maintain rooms full of servers if you're one of the highly popular massive multiplayer game companies. Zona, an MMOG server solution provider, might have an answer.
Better Ramp Up the Console Biz -- 2001 Promises to be Lucrative
by Denise Harrison
If the poll-takers have their way, 2001 can line the pockets of console makers, and associated game makers. The new Digital Gaming in America Survey shows a whopping 42 percent of video gamers planning to buy at least one of the next generation game consoles due out by Christmas.
NPD Reports U.S. Video Game Industry Continues to Show Substantial Growth in the First Half of 2001
Retail sales of U.S. video game hardware, software and accessories increased 28% during the first half of 2001 (JanuaryJune), compared to the same time last year, according to marketing information provider, The NPD Group, Inc. Unit sales of video game hardware, software and accessories also rose 11% during the first half of 2001 vs. first half 2000.
Maya Drives Development on Gran Turismo 3
With sales in Japan having exceeded 1,000,000 in its first two days on the market, GT3 is possibly the most anticipated game in PS2 history. For Polyphony Digital, GT3 has been a game of firsts: it was their first title for the PS2 and their first game developed start-to-finish in Alias|Wavefront's Maya 3D animation and effects software.


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