Love is in the air, as IGG just announced that Moliyo Shanghai's MMORPG Tales of Pirates will hold a Valentine's Day Special Activity event. To share the love, the ToP team is going to allow players to design their own events to celebrate Valentine's. More details at the full article.

 

The Warcry Network is reporting on one online gaming company that wants players to do something unique if you're one of their subscribers and have been banned from playing for one reason. They just want your blood.

Before anyone starts screaming out "OMG Emo Goth MMO people," here's the kicker about this company. Apparently, the Chinese online company known as Moliyo will reactivate closed or banned game accounts in Cabal Online in exchange for donations for a blood drive. Here's the info that Warcry got from Pacific Epoch:

Chinese online game operator Moliyo has announced that it will reactivate closed (banned) game accounts for its licensed 3D MMORPG Cabal Online if the players donate blood in a donor drive on March 18, reports 17173.com. Moliyo cut off 120,000 game accounts in early March because the accounts were using plug-ins (automated software). Moliyo will unlock game accounts for blood donors within three days. Game players may also receive special Cabal Online game accounts by participating in the blood drive.

While the drive has already come and gone, it's an interesting way to get people to participate in good causes. Our only hope is that they didn't let just anyone donate, because some people might be too sick to give their blood to begin with. For instance... what if Hakkar gave his blood, right?

The closed beta of Pirate King Online (PKO) has ended. The open beta will now begin. The closed beta attracted more than 20,000 players, and the open beta is bound to make that crowd bigger. This is true when you factor in the aspects of the game that might attract casual players and satisfy serious gamers:

1. Hardcore players can join the Navy (to fight the pirates) or make their own bands of Pirates.
2. Casual players who just want to be left alone can be Traders, Merchants, and Fisherman.

• This means that it's not only non-linear gameplay, it's also got different styles of gameplay. We'll have to see if this multiple-appeal approach will work.

1. PKO lets players custom build ships when they reach level 15 and take to the high seas.
2. This is a great bonus to the huge continent maps and different terrains (jungles, cities, and underground mining caves) that you've been exploring since the beginning of the game.

• This is a departure from many MMO games that only allow you to play as your character in games where most of the map environments are similar (it's all on land, for example).

By the way, there was even a party to celebrate the launch of the open beta. If most of our readers didn't get an invite, that's because the party was in Singapore; PKO is from Sing-Gium International from Singapore.