After a lengthy Closed Beta phase, Perfect World Entertainment is finally comfortable enough with its monster hunting MMORPG to push the game to Open Beta. RaiderZ will be heading to Open Beta testing on October 24. There’s been no details on the expected transition patch. Instead, PWE hit us with news of early adopter Founder’s packs.

PWE will be offering two distinct Founder’s packages, both including a Scroll of Heroes to maximize character progression from increasing XP and drop rates to reducing various costs and the Guardian’s Life Stone, awarding instant resurrection. The $9.99 Basic pack also includes an exclusive Breath of Artisan which increases the success of high level enchantments.

The biggest draw of the Elite pack for many is guaranteed access to the upcoming closed beta process of Neverwinter. Sweetening the deal for others is an included mount, costume items and the aforementioned Scroll of Heroes and Guardian’s Life Stone. The Elite pack is currently available for $29.99.

Check out all our RaiderZ coverage, including numerous interviews, zone introductions and recaps at the game’s official page.

RaiderZ is shaping up to be a monster hunters perfect outlet. With dozens of unique monsters to hunt across the world of Rendel, the upcoming MMORPG from Perfect World Entertainment will quench any dungeon crawlers loot requirements. And launch is closer than you think, as Mark Hill discusses in his most recent interview with LoreHound.com

Executive Producer Mark Hill recapped the importance of the title’s closed beta process, dubbing the culmination of the CB as “living in the forums” before he began detailing the upcoming patch for Open Beta. PWE added a parade of new content to the title before wrapping CB, including the teased monster transformations, but there’s plenty more to come. Additional transformations, a level cap increase to level 35, the new Grand Wall of Silence zone, feasts – including weaponized food! – and additional horizontal systems.

Hit the cut for gameplay shots of the cat and bunny transformations, screenshots and gameplay of the Grand Wall of Silence boss encounter and what gamers can hope for from the 2012 release. Again, it’s all about “Having fun. Continue Reading

Systems Designer Lindsay Haven walked iTZKooPA through the Foundry system in Neverwinter. First introduced in Star Trek Online, Cryptic Studios is employing a customized and updated Foundry for players to create their own adventures in Neverwinter. Applicable, given how mod friendly and community supported the previous Neverwinter titles were.

After delivering a quick demonstration of quest construction and instance building, Lindsay goes into further details surrounding the unique feature. Authors will be limited in the amount of content they can create. However, the rating system will enable players to suss out the drivel from the gems. In doing so, those with a high average of gems will unlock additional room for content.

Hit the jump to find out about monetization of the system, monetary rewards for quality creators, further restrictions and when to realize your dream of being the ultimate GM. Continue Reading

Speaking earlier today at the Evolve conference in Brighton,  Michael Pachter a videogame analyst for Wedbush Securities, stated that he believed the MMO market is as big as it’s ever going to get stating:

In the next couple of years [following 2008] MMOs peaked; we didn’t know that [it had peaked] untilStar Wars launched. I, and many other likeminded people thought that Star Wars would expand the market place.

Star Wars was supposed to bring in all of these new people that had never played an MMO before, just because they loved the brand. We know that Rift just took players from other existing MMOs, and the same with Conan and Lords of the Rings. Now the same thing has happened with Star Wars.

It looks to me as though the MMO market is as big as it’s ever going to be – as far as subscription MMOs. People willing to play $15 a month.., there are six or seven million of them. Period. If Star Warscouldn’t expand it, when it’s made by BioWare, nothing can do it.

That’s why Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios went out of business, because he couldn’t get financing [for his MMO].

This analysis of the market seems very short sighted to me. While I fully agree that the current state of the MMO marketplace is flat, it has in no way reached its limit and how could it? There has been zero innovation to the industry for nearly a decade and the industry is only 15 years old.

I remember when RPG’s were a niche market in gaming during the 80′s and 90′s, but over the last decade with series like Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, Fallout and BioWare’s other Star Wars RPGs, they’ve vastly expanded the market. Today you have games like Skyrim shattering sales records.

If you go back to the early days of Elder Scrolls, Fallout and even the original Diablo, sure they were popular, but they were still in a niche market compared to the rest of the gaming industry. Today RPGs are the considered mainstream thanks to the innovation from developers over the last 15 years or so.

On the other side, MMORPG’s have barely changed despite what some studios claim. They’re stale, repetitive and rely entirely too much on developers ability to push out new content.

There’s no doubt MMORPG are in a slump, but I don’t believe the genre as a whole has peaked, it’s just waiting for a development studio to break the mold and light the way.