Skotos Launches Associate Games
With Meridian 59, Underlight and Gang of Four
BERKELEY, CA Skotos Tech, a
gaming community offering a channel of multiple games to its players for a
single price, recently launched its Associate Games program. This program offers
existing online games to the Skotos community. Meridian 59 and Underlight, two
veteran Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPGs), along with
Gang of Four, a tabletop strategy game, are the first to join Skotos as
Associate Games.
"We’ve got a great gaming community
that allows users to play many different games," said Shannon Appelcline, Vice
President of Skotos. "The Associate Game program allows other game designers to
take advantage of that." Associate Games get to benefit from Skotos marketing,
branding, and business development. They also become members of a game
designer’s community which jointly has more clout when talking with carriers and
portals than any game would individually. A sophisticated royalty system ensures
that each game shares user fees from every player proportionately.
Meridian 59 was one of the first
MMORPGs on the market, originally offered by 3D0 and now published by Near Death
Studios. Players explore a fantasy world while gaining skills, learning magic,
and engaging in combat. Skotos is offering a special Sacred Haven shard for
Meridian 59 which encourages cooperative player gameplay.
Underlight is a MMORPG set in the
Awakened city of Underlight, it centers around roleplaying, socialization, and
joint storytelling. Quests and even skill gain are ultimately based upon player
interaction, thus creating a real, virtual society. Underlight is produced by
Lyra Studios.
Gang of Four, on the other hand, is
a deceptively simple card game which originated in the Orient and is now being
produced by Days of Wonder. Its gameplay strategy is fiendishly complex,
requiring careful play to ensure a player of the ability to go out. Whereas the
MMORPGs can be played for months or years, Gang of Four plays in 30-45 minutes;
together they thus outline a whole spectrum of possibilities for Skotos players.
Skotos Tech is actively looking for
more developers to become members of the Associate Game community. "Last month
we had four Skotos games," said Shannon Appelcline. "Now we’ve got seven, and by
the end of the year I’d love to have at least twelve. It’s a win-win for
developers, because we don’t need guarantees of exclusivity, and we’re able to
send our Associates players who wouldn’t have otherwise known about their
games."
Developers interested in learning
more about the Skotos Associate Game program should contact Shannon Appelcline
directly at [email protected].
Players interested in trying out
Skotos’ new games should visit www.skotos.net
for a free trial month.
About Skotos Tech Inc.
Founded in 1999, Berkeley,
California-based Skotos Tech Inc. (www.skotos.net) is a developer and publisher
of multiplayer games. Its games all center around socialization and new
Internet-based communities. Other games currently published by Skotos include
Castle Marrach, The Eternal City, Galactic Emperor: Hegemony, and Grendel’s
Revenge.
