`MOR` THIRD SEASON SIGN-UPS UNDERWAY
(31 August 2005, 19:50 | RoN) Interested Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots players can now register for Masters of RoN`s (MoR) third season. Since the end of the second season, the staff at MoR have re-designed the league`s website and added new features too.

A new collection of prizes await would-be contestants should they prove to outlast their competition. - DanQ

EMERGES AS THE WINNER
(26 August 2005, 23:36 | RoN) In the second season of Video Game Radio now archived, show co-hosts David "GoldLeader" Swan and Jeremy "StoneGold" Goldstone host a one-and-a-half hour awards show for the best computer and video games released in the year 2003. In the `Real-Time Strategy` (`RTS`) category, Rise of Nations is up against Command & Conquer Generals and the Warcraft III expansion pack. RoN emerges as the winner.

RoN was developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios, a division of the MicrosofT Corporation. - DanQ

OH SO LOVABLE
(20 August 2005, 22:57 | RoN) For the year 2003, GamerDad (GD) gives the nod of `PC Game of the Year` to Rise of Nations. RoN edged out Railroad Tycoon III, Auran`s Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 and Age of Mythology: The Titans for the honour. Says the GD staff, RoN is the most complicated of games; it is the most streamlined of games. [..] It is, quite simpl[y], the most ambitious well designed game ever made.

GD gives a similar treatment to the GameCub, PlayStation 2 and X-Box gaming consoles. - DanQ

`GETTING IT` IS GOOD
(20 August 2005, 22:52 | RoN) Look back to the start of the new year 2004. GamerDad`s Doug Hanna gives his picks of "The Top 10 Games of 2003". In third sandwiched between Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the GameCub platform in fourth and Madden NFL 2004 on the four leading electronic gaming platforms is Rise of Nations from developer Big Huge Games and publisher Microsoft Game Studios. A fast-paced real-time strategy game that "gets it", Hanna holds. You`ll find no better strategy game on the market today for beginners or experts alike.

Six of the ten titles Dy lists are for the PC platform outright. Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour took first. - DanQ

HISTORY IS A LOVABLE SNEAK
(20 August 2005, 22:48 | RoN) Look back to the start of the new year 2004. GamerDad`s Bernie Dy gives his picks of "The Top 10 Games of 2003". In fourth sandwiched between Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando for the PlayStation 2 platform in fifth and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 for the PC in third is Rise of Nations from developer Big Huge Games and publisher Microsoft Game Studios. I love how Civilization snuck a love of history into a great strategy game, and [RoN] does a similar thing, Dy writes.

Seven of the ten titles Dy lists are for the PC platform, and even make-up the top four. Call of Duty is second and Knights of the Old Republic first. - DanQ

FOR STRATEGIC TEENS
(20 August 2005, 22:43 | RoN) Rewind to mid-December 2003. GamerDad`s Andrew S. Bub publishes the site`s`s PC buys as part of their "Holiday Gift Guide" for the year. In the `Eleven [to] Eighteen` category, Rise of Nations is the eighth of nine titles mentioned. Its description is short but sweet. The deepest historical R[eal] T[ime] S[trategy game] ever made. A brilliant game, not for the young but strategy teens will love it.

Its company includes RailRoad Tycoon III, Age of Mythology: The Titans, Sim City 4 and its Rush Hour expansion and Simpsons Hit & Run. - DanQ

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION FROM PUBLISHER
(15 August 2005, 23:43 | RoN) For the first time, gamers with broadband Internet connections can now download full versions of Microsoft Game Studios (MGS) published games for the PC including notable titles Age of Empires, Zoo Tycoon and Rise of Nations, the latter most developed by Big Huge Games. Exent Technologies today announced that it has secured worldwide rights to digitally distribute [MGS] products over its network of Games-on-Demand [(GoD)] services, GameSpot`s (GS) Brendan Sinclair reports. Exent`s [GoD] services charge gamers a monthly subscription fee to rent from a rotating selection of full-version titles.

GS notes that this is not the first time that MGS titles have been distributed digitally legally. Its X-Box Live Arcade service lets gamers download simpler games onto their X-Box. - DanQ

PRODUCED FROM WITHIN
(13 August 2005, 23:58 | RoN) In his first article for the bi-monthly digital journal Innovate, Richard Halverson suggests that not only [do] valid learning theories lie beneath the entertainment veneer of video games but also that [educational] leaders could benefit from experiencing video games first hand, potentially learning about school leadership -— through a carefully designed "serious" game such as those available in other fields —- and awakening to the possibilities of gaming in the classroom. Entitled "What Can K-12 School Leaders Learn from Video Games and Gaming?", one of the games Halverson mentions in this respect is Rise of Nations, first described along with Civilization III as endogenous and later in the ~4,300 word piece a turbo-charged version of the popular board game Risk. The discussion continues.

[Real-time strategy (RTS)] games such as [RoN]... are designed around complex models of variable interaction intended to approximate the evolution of social-political systems. [..] [It] uses real-time strategy episodes to decide conflicts in which players must build sufficient economic, agricultural, financial, political, technological, and military resources to withstand assaults and conquer territories. [..]

Learning to play the game is a challenge in itself. [..] [F]rom a schooling perspective, learning to play the game successfully is a different question than what can be learned from the game. Here the question arises about the "real-world" conclusions players can draw from gameplay. [..] Recognizing the analogies between the "rise of nations" and [RoN] requires opportunities to understand why... rather than simply recognizing that [particular] functions are related. [..]

[A] key to integrating endogenous video-gaming into schooling requires instructional designers to reflect carefully on what players do, and do not, learn from gaming and to design learning environments to help students bridge the gap between game-insights and school content knowledge. In the case of RTS games, connecting gaming to schooling will require instructional designers to establish and maintain robust connections between game-based systems interaction and school-based content.

Halverson is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This write-up appears as part of Innovate's current and sixth issue to date, August/September 2005, released on its website earlier this week. To read this and other articles in the online publication, Internet users need to subscribe for a free access account. Innovate is a publication of Nova Southeastern University. - DanQ

ENTERTAINING WITHOUT VICE OR VIOLENCE
(5 August 2005, 14:15 | RoN) The man behind an up-and-coming real-time strategy (RTS) title has praised the team behind another RTS. Troy Lyndon the Chief Executive Officer of developer Left Behind Games, dedicated to bring the "Left Behind" (LB) Christian book series to the computer medium. It’s made to appeal to the masses and to be appealing to Christians, he says. But it’s not presented in a condemning format. It’s presented as part of a fictional story. [..]

[W]e certainly believe that, given a choice, gamers and gamers’ parents are going to flock to buying games that have any kind of redeeming value to them.

This is where a reference to Rise of Nations from developer Big Huge Games comes in. In terms of creating quality entertainment that clearly isn’t of a sexual nature or explicitly gratuitous violence, they’re doing a great job, says Lyndon. His comments appear in an article focusing on the LB title by reporter Bill Hutchens in today`s The News Tribune based in Washington state. - DanQ

SECOND SEASON, SECOND CHAMPIONS: `MOR`
(23 July 2005, 23:17 | RoN) The Rise of Nations clan Tactical Warfare Collective (TWC) unseated the "Masters of RoN" (MoR) defending champ AU in the league`s second season. Both teams boasted impressive records during season play: 16-0-2 and 13-0-05 respectively. Recorded games available for download from the MoR website document the action which resulted in TWC walking away with a $1,000US prize purse provided by RoN developer Big Huge Games. - DanQ