Not only am I offering an official Stargate Worlds beta key as the prize for the competition but I have also got the buy-in of a celebrity judge to decide the winner!

The official bio from the Wizard’s of the Coast author/artist bio page says:

Denise Graham is the author of two books in the Knights of the Silver Dragon series and a number of shorter works. She lurks in her supervillain secret lair deep in the heart of darkest mid-America with her co-supervillain, the inimitable Ron Morris, and their henchmen, er . . . henchdemons, Kafka and Morrigan.

The rules of the fiction contest:

1. Write a Stargate Themed story WITHOUT using any well-known cast members, except in a peripheral sense (pass them in a corridor, see them in the cafeteria, etc)
2. Only one entry per person
3. 500-1000 words in length, using proper grammar and spelling
4. Closing date for submissions: July 17th
5. Email entries to: gatebuzz@gmail.com
6. Entries will be judged by Denise Graham - a published fantasy author
7. The winner will be submitted to CME to receive a spot in the beta and further contact regarding the beta will be handled by them
8. The top 3 stories (maybe 5 if I am feeling generous) will be read on-air on upcoming episodes of GateBuzz

I look forward to hearing from you!

If you haven’t already read the news, Don Davis passed away from a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, June 29th 2008. He will be sorely missed.

I’ve created a page that the team here will attempt to keep up to date with what’s happening as far as the Stargate Worlds Beta Program is concerned. Add the page to your bookmarks. Visit it early, visit it often!

If you’re interested in the progress of the Stargate Worlds Beta Program, stop by the “progress of the beta” page here on GateBuzz!

Sneak peak:

Key points along the way:

• 04-17-2008, 02:42 PM - Khatie

  We’ll be sending invitations to REGISTERED FORUM MEMBERS in the next couple of weeks. Once you register you’ll be put into a database and from that database we will be pulling in early beta testers VERY soon!!

• 04-22-2008, 01:24 PM - Khatie
  

  Friends and Family beta began in the past couple of weeks with the company employees testing as well as a handful of friends and family.

  We will be ramping up soon.

  IF YOU GET ASKED TO REGISTER and/or JOIN the friends and family testing, please keep your NDA agreement. We will take action on anyone who is dishonoring this. Thank you.

• 04-22-2008, 03:01 PM - Khatie
  

  We’re gonna link to the registration page soon. When that happens you’ll all sign up and from that database we’ll start selecting users a few at a time and ramp up over the next weeks to more and more.

  Be patient guys. Don’t want to break our baby game eh?

Even I am going to have that page bookmarked!

As promised in the podcast, here’s the raw information I found as I was investigating “FireSky”

1. “whois” command output for “FireSky.com”
2. “traceroute” command output for “FireSky.com”
3. The “Wayback Machine” archive of “FireSky.com“
4. Netcraft survey results for:
   • www.stargateworlds.com (link)
   • forums.stargateworlds.com (link)

note: the server software for “forums.stargateworlds.com” was upgraded from IIS v6.0 - I misread the survey when I did the research … apologies if it misrepresented anyone!

Ideallo.co.uk had a nice publicity piece for Stargate Worlds, highlighting the wisdom of basing the graphics engine on Unreal Engine 3.

Everything started with Roland Emmerich: the film Stargate from 1994 has since grown into a whole universe of stories: Television series and books are commercial successes. No surprise then that a computer game is now in development too. But Stargate Worlds is really giving effort and looking to be an ambitious MMORPG project. Thanks to the Unreal 3 Engine and multisided scenarios the graphics look absolutely stunning, like in most MMORPGs.

The “Make” e-zine blog reported finding aluminum molds in a scrapyard. Case in point, the stuff I found this week in a bin of what’s called ‘New Aluminum’ in the scrap metal trade. They looked like 12″x12″ pieces of 3/8″ aluminum plate until I flipped one over to reveal… The StarGate. In absolutely jawdropping detail. Really. Take a moment to scope these detail images and fantasize about what you could make if you had a cnc mill with this kind of resolution. Un-freakin’-believable… and there was a pair of ‘em! Both sides of a mold made specifically to crank out weensy little StarGates about 9″ across. Personally, I’d always thought Richard Dean Anderson was taller than that, but whatever… These things had come into the yard in a load of stuff from one of the movie industry prop shops…they’d seen some use (there were a few stray bits of resin visible), but were nearly new. I’ve done a fair bit of casting and mold-making over the years, but I experienced a complete WTF moment when I realized that this particular mold had no sprues.

I’ve a friend who’s picked up a few things while dumpster diving, and is a total wizard when it comes to garage sales (I mean, a total wiz!) but I could never have imagined anyone scoring movie/tv props like these!

Talking of sweet images, the recent WarCry Preview of Stargate Worlds (forum members got an exclusive look at the hi-res images linked in the article) showed off some nice details.

The article has some nice quotes:

Which leads into the second major differentiator for Stargate Worlds, and it’s all in the title. Unlike the last three sci-fi/rpg/shooter games [Hellgate: London, Tabula Rasa, Mass Effect], they have a major intellectual property behind them: Stargate.

They’re very aware of their own IP and have gone to great lengths to weave the style of the show into all facets of gameplay. Nowhere is this more evident than in their approach to classes and, as a result, basic gameplay.

“Frankly, we have the best writing staff in the game industry and we understand how to tell stories in the interactive space,” boasted Klug. He cited the team’s experience from Earth & Beyond, Ultima Online and other past projects as examples of their strength.

I play The Matrix Online for the ongoing story, and the chance to participate in the story. A quote that claims “the best writing staff in the game industry” sends shivers through me as it hits my “hot button” for gaming. Why else would my favourite XBox games be

• “Knights of the Old Republic” (I and II)
• Jade Empire
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (original, and Chaos Bleeds)

Yeah, I like story.

The WarCry article finished off saying an encouraging

They did say Stargate Worlds remains on schedule for a Fall 2008 release, but did not get into public testing timelines. The target date should put it up against some stiff competition in the form of EA Mythic’s Warhammer Online and potentially Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion to World of Warcraft. Nonetheless, Cheyenne doesn’t seem too worried. “All you can really do is make the best game you can,” Klug said.

I cant wait! Roll on Q4!!

To design the collectors edition … or at least put up your ideas, Head over to here to post your comments.

Kevin Balentine spoke with Curse.com in a recent interview:

Stargate Worlds Exclusive

Stargate Worlds, which is being developed by industry new comers Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, will allow players to take control of a character in the Stargate universe. Players will be able to explore an ever-expanding galaxy of planets, spaceships and aliens all the while waging war as part of one of two player factions – the light side or the dark side.

The interview features two nice screenshots of worlds in the game.

MMORPG.com have declared Stargate Worlds to be “Game of the Week”. The buzz here is that they

…will be speaking with Cheyenne Mountain about the game at this week’s Game Developer’s Conference.

Take a look at their site, and what they have to say about the game. It would have been a lot of fun to visit the GDC (Game Developer’s Conference) in San Francisco all this week (Feb 18-22, 2008). Maybe I could swing a trip to it next year on the grounds that it’s on right around my birthday? It would certainly beat visiting the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, that’s for sure!

So, keep your eyes open for news out of the GDC, I would put money on this being a venue for CME releasing new information and creating buzz.

Stargate Worlds Diary #1

Cheyenne Mountain’s Chris Klug discusses storytelling in massively multiplayer games and the writer’s primary job

Stargate Worlds Diary #2

The Creative Director on Cheyenne Mountain’s online project discusses scenes and their role in conveying a story

Stargate Worlds Diary #3

A new segment from Cheyenne Mountain on more of the creative thinking underlying the title’s storytelling element

Stargate Worlds Diary #4

A deconstructed mission to show us some of the thought processes employed by Cheyenne Mountain’s writing team

Today the 31th or the 1st depending where you live is the 2nd Anniversary for the Stargate Worlds forums. I think we should give a round of applause for the moderators and CME workers. It’s not often that a community for a game is launched so early in its production, But as you can see it paid off well. Bringing such members together like Jayna, Zoeff and Ryst making what the forums are today! Three Cheers for SGW and CME. Hip Hurray, Hip Hurray, Hip Hurray.

Full Story Here.

~Uplink