Contests

The crossover potential of the Defiance MMO and television series has only really been felt with a few main characters so far, but Trion Worlds wants to take that one step further by giving you a chance to be on the show.

How does that work? Simply register yourself at the official contest page and head into the game to earn the most ark salvage per hour during the contest period from 12:00 a.m. PDT April 30 to 11:59 p.m May 12 in the Most Wanted: Competitor and Most Wanted: Rogue's Gallery in-game pursuits. Of course, this is you, not your character's likeness, that we're talking about here, but it won't just be a simple screenshot pushed in the background. Artists from the series will render the winning player into an upcoming episode of the show.

[Update 4:15 p.m. EDT: The press release says that "the winner will have artists from the Defiance series render their character's likeness into a special place in an upcoming episode," but Trion's PR team has separately confirmed to Massively that it will in fact be you, not your character, whose likeness will be imported into the show.]

[Source: Trion Worlds press release]

The CCP Presents Keynote at the annual EVE Online Fanfest is usually a fairly tame retrospective on how CCP has a company has done the past year and where it's going in the future, but for EVE's tenth anniversary, CCP broke out the big guns. In addition to announcing a massive new collector's edition, the studio has also revealed plans to turn real stories of events inside the sandbox into professional comic books and even a TV series.

Industry giant Dark Horse Comics, the company responsible for comics like Hellboy and Sin City, will be publishing the 54-page graphic novel this winter in both a paid-for print form and a free digital download. For the lore buffs among us, Dark Horse will also be producing a colossal 184-page glossy colour hardback book covering all of the NPC backstory and lore behind EVE Online and DUST 514. Titled EVE Source, the book will be an in-character almanac of everything in the EVE setting that isn't player-created and will even include previously unreleased concept art.

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If you're an EU player with thoughts of creating a guild in Dragon's Prophet, now's a good time to act. In conjunction with launching a new guild registration page, Infernum Productions is holding a contest that will grant one lucky guild a floating island to call home! The grand prize includes a mansion for the guild leader, five housing plots for officers, four medium houses, an exclusive in-game title, early access to open beta, and a year's subscription to Enjin guild hosting. All registered guilds will receive early access to closed beta and 30 days of Enjin premium hosting.

To enter, register your guild on the site and tell Infernum why your guild should get access to closed beta, and then have 10 others activate the guild code you provide. Only guilds with 10 or more members will qualify for the contest. Want a glimpse of the housing to whet your appetite? Then check out the trailer after the break.

[Source: Infernum Productions press release]

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Want to leave your mark on Above & Beyond Technologies' new Repopulation sandbox? You can via a contest that will allow players to name a newly created zone in the sci-fi game. Entries must be submitted via a forum thread or Twitter, and finalists will go into a pool of five from which the winner will be selected by a poll.

Said winner will receive a $100 Kickstarter pledge to the game or a bump if you're already an early adopter. Full details are available at The Repopulation's official site.

About five years ago, on April 27th, 2008, I joined the Massively team and wrote the very first issue of the EVE Evolved column. Five years later, the column is still going strong and delivering its weekly dose of EVE Online to thousands of readers. I used to worry about running out of ideas to write about, but regular game updates and hilarious player shenanigans mean there's always something interesting going on in New Eden. When EVE hits its 10th anniversary in May, this column will have been running for just over half of the game's lifetime. In that time, I've written over 250 in-depth articles, guides, in-game stories and opinion pieces on EVE Online and a few on DUST 514.

As usual, I'll be celebrating this anniversary by rounding up this year's column highlights and giving away two 30-day Pilot's License Extensions to two lucky readers. To enter the competition, write a comment explaining which EVE Evolved articles from this year you liked best and what topics you'd like to see covered in the coming year. You will need an active EVE account to claim the prize, so be sure to include your character name in your comment if you want to be in with a chance. If you'd rather not give out your character name or don't have an EVE account but would like to give the game a go, you can sign up a new trial account and use the name of your new character.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the highlights from the column's fifth year!

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Want an early look at the first 20 minutes of The Elder Scrolls Online? Get it while you can after the cut, as a lengthy snippet of leaked gameplay footage has made its way onto YouTube.

The clip shows off character creation, nine playable races, and a choice between three classes (Dragonknight, Sorcerer, and Templar). You can also see the UI, skill trees, and various quests at different points in the video. There's plenty of combat on display, too, both third- and first-person.

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This week we have a special GDC edition of Some Assembly Required. I had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Roberts and talk about his highly anticipated space sim sandbox, Star Citizen. We talked lore, the game's PvP/PvE sliders and living universe concepts, guilds, and when players can expect to get in some dogfighting. Roberts also delved deeply into the crafting and economic aspects of the game.

If you miss the days of carving out a name for yourself and your wares and/or cornering the market and building an economic empire, you'll definitely want to keep an eye on Star Citizen.

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Our favorite birthdays are the ones when the guests get gifts instead of giving them. Apparently Runes of Magic feels the same, as Gameforge is pulling out the stops to make the 4th anniversary of the game one for the history books.

Runes of Magic's 4th anniversary page has the scoop on all of the gifts, contests, events, and bonuses to be enjoyed over the next week. Players will get a lot of goodies just for logging in and leveling up, although there are additional quests if you want to reap all of the rewards. Players will also enjoy buffs to XP, talent points, and drop rates through the 25th.

Finally, Gameforge released a special video that shows the progress of Runes of Magic from beta to today, ending with several impressive statistics. If you don't watch it, you'll go mad always wondering what it might have been. We'd hate to see that.

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Have you been waiting for a good reason to check TERA out for the first time? If free-to-play isn't enough incentive, En Masse has created a "No Sleep 'Til 60!" promotion that rewards brand-new players who log in and power-level to the endgame.

The promotion begins tomorrow and is open only to players who do not have a TERA account. By hitting certain milestones, players will accumulate rewards that increase the higher they get. The first tier of prizes begins at level 30 with the best being reserved for those who get to level 60 by March 26th.

The prizes include strongbox keys, XP boosts, reputation boosts, mirrored shades, mounts, and an extra character slot.

A few weeks ago The Secret World offered musicians the chance to weave their original melodies into the fabric of the conspiracy-laden game. Many heeded that call and over 300 submissions were received, some containing multiple compositions.

Instead of the originally intended five, 11 selections were chosen for inclusion in TSW. The winning music -- with titles like When Scouts Go Bad, I'll be the Death of You, Save Me, and The Zombie Stare -- will be introduced in Issue #7. Players will hear these pieces played on different radios throughout the game, such as those at The Ravens Knock and Susie's Diner in Kingsmouth, PC Bang in Seoul, and London's The Crusades nightclub. Congratulations to all the winners!

[Thanks to Samantha for the tip!]

It's Vanguard's sixth birthday today, and if you haven't read our recent dev tour of the game's progress since free-to-play, we're going to have a strong word with your mother. As for SOE's part, the studio is giving away five 'schwag bags' full of awesome Vanguard goodies -- but you'll have to sign up quick to get your chance at winning something.

The prize package contains a signed copy of Vanguard's collector's edition, a backpack, a $15 Station Cash gift card, a mug, a mobile stylus, and a phone case. It's open to everyone 18 and older, but all entries must be in by tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. EST. You can head over to the official contest page for more details and your chance to win.

From suspenseful music to creepy background noises to the crackling of tunes on a radio, sound is a key element in the ambiance of The Secret World. And now, players have the chance to add their own music to the atmosphere of the game thanks to a new competition. Folks can get together with friends or record a piece solo and submit it for consideration to be included in TSW.

Entries to this music contest will be accepted from today until February 19th, 2013. All submissions must be the entrant's own composition or sent with the consent of the creator. Simon Poole, Funcom's audio director, will evaluate all submissions and choose the winners. For full details on how to submit your musical piece, check out the official guidelines.

Are you ready to strap on some armor, load up a gun, and go shoot things like they've never been shot before? The staff behind Firefall certainly hopes so because the game is opening its gates on Friday, January 25th, for the first of three upcoming beta weekend events. Everyone can log in and play for free starting at 1 p.m. EST, but the developers have also decided to sweeten the pot slightly by adding a contest to the weekend festivities.

The Skillshot Contest will be running during the open event and is available to all participants in the beta, even normal closed testers. Take a video or screenshot of your best moments for a chance to win prize packs including new Razer mice and Firefall gear. In addition, all participants will receive a special decal in-game to place on their battleframes. If you still need a little more convincing, you can check out a new trailer for the weekend just past the break.

[Source: Red 5 Studios press release]

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