Via the Guardian's gameblog, a BBC "Blast" sponsored game design contest for teenagers. They're looking for new ideas from folks ages 13 - 19, and the winning design will be made into a game for the Blast site. They also have a nifty (though flash based) Game Quiz which covers not only the history of games but also game design issues as well.

Based on Robert Howard's classic Conan the Barbarian series, The Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures is in production by Anarchy Online developer Funcom. On top of the setting, Funcom apparently plans to shake up the traditional massive formula. From the article: "Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures will be a PC 'online action RPG' that will be a mix of 'story-driven single-player experience and a massive and brutal multiplayer endgame.' According to Funcom game director Gaute Godager, it will begin as a single-player RPG adventure, and when that portion's story is complete, it will let players bring their characters into an MMORPG universe."

It has been officially announced that Madison, Wisconsin based developer Human Head studios is currently working on the Prey title. Prey, formerly a 3D Realms title, is now on track and will be shown off at this year's E3. From the article: "However, while he did make Prey's comeback official, Broussard did not reveal all his cards. He did not answer posts asking if the game would use the Doom 3 engine, as Morris claimed. Nor did he say when the game would come out. 'Each game will ship when it's ready.'"

Gamasutra.com is hosting an analysis of Myst IV: Revelation. The author explores the good and bad points of the game's production, and reveals interesting moments from the development process. From the article: "Less than a year before the end of the project, things were not going well on the Myst IV: Revelation team: no single zone was in a finished state, communication was difficult between team members and puzzles were taking too long to prototype. We looked at the quantity of work remaining and started brainstorming on how to close this project before the end of September."

HamOperator writes "Tho Fan is a made-up language spoken by unreal people in the XBox game Jade Empire. The New York Times has an interview with the creator of the language." From the article: "...they wanted to avoid using Chinese or any other Asian language that might shackle their invented universe to actual historical events. At the same time, they did not want to resort to unintelligible nonsense."

The Guardian's gamesblog has an interview up with Matt Adams, one of the members of the company Blast Theory. Blast theory was given the "Maverick Award" at GDC 2005 for their Alternate Reality Game Uncle Roy All Around You, which uses mobile technology to insert players into a virtual landscape while traversing real London streets. From the interview: "Games are an expression of the ways in which the virtual interpenetrates our lives in ever more complex ways. Desert Rain took the Gulf War of 1991 as a critical moment in this process: when it became widely understood that the killing itself was 'off screen' and the imagery of war was taking over. Soldiers themselves are taught in increasingly computer generated spaces and have less direct contact with their enemy. And many of them are avid games players. America's Army is a game funded by the US Army to bring in new recruits."

63N1U5 writes "Sources close to Microsoft tell GamesIndustry.biz that the company plans to ship two versions of the new XBox console. The premium version of the console will include a hard drive, and could possibly ship with a version of Microsoft's WebTV installed." We've been reporting on this since the end of last year but it's nice to have some firmer details.

OMG! writes "In an open letter to the community John Smedley, the president of Sony Online Entertainment, announced their new service 'the Station Exchange' which will allow players of Everquest II to trade their items for real live money. Sony Online is the first major player in the MMORPG genre to embrace commercial trading of in-game items." Commentary available from all the usual suspects, including Wired, the Players, Terra Nova, F13, and Grimwell. This would seem to be a total reversal of the policies of certain other MMOGs.

The next-generation Nintendo console, codenamed Revolution, may not be shown at this year's E3. Eurogamer reports that the Japanese console maker is going to keep the console under wraps to keep the features of the new system out of the limelight a little while longer. From the article: "Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata is worried about rivals nicking all his best ideas at this early stage. That's how revolutionary the new console is, apparently... and also the exact same line Nintendo used to avoid showing Mario 128 at a previous E3."

We reported late last week that FFXI was under a DDOS attack. The Japanese origin of the title may be the reason for the attack, as Ludonauts asks the question of whether chinese crackers may attacking the game because of political frustration. From the article: "Discussion on the Allakhazam forum points the attack at Chinese protesters angry about the deletion of references to Japanese war atrocities from history textbooks: the DDOS attacks began on April 9, the same day as the protests in China. In FFXI, this issue is linked to the question of 'gil-sellers,' players who farm in-game resources for real-world cash, who in FFXI are usually characterized as Chinese: many who are suspected of being gil-sellers have placed comments in their searchable information fields like 'Resisting all Japanese goods, long live the People's Republic of China.'" Commentary available from game girl advance, Broken Toys, and Terra Nova.

Because I know you haven't had your fill of the surreal today, Grand Text Auto has up a link to a Flash movie which depicts a climactic battle between the consoles of old and the PSP...using the end of Final Fantasy VI. Commentary available at Game Girl Advance. My favorite part is where the GBA, GameBoy, GameCube, and N64 team up to defeat the Master Famicom and Rob. Actually pretty cool, if long.

The Video Game Ombudsman, Kyle Orland, discusses Game Informer Magazine's two million strong subscriber base and their coverage in the Washington Post. GI is the house organ for Gamestop, making its subscriber base not much of a surprise. What is surprising is that their two million readers puts them within half a million subscribers of "O", the magazine stamped with the Oprah brand, and just outside the top 25 magazines in the country. From the post: "The rest of the article is a semi-interesting look at the life of the editor of the country's most popular game magazine, and I have to say... it sounds pretty awesome! Here's to a gaming mag cracking the circulation top 10 sooner than later."

Anime publisher Bandai has announced that they will be shipping UMD and DVD discs together for some of their releases, and GamesIndustry.biz has the tale. From the article: "Brand new anime series Eureka 7, which has been created by the team behind the hugely successful RahXephon, will be the first to get the treatment - with a single box housing both UMD and DVD, for slightly more than the price of buying both separately." UMD stands for Universal Media Disc, and is the proprietary format that Sony uses for the PSP.

Gamespot.com has word that the first set of new Halo 2 maps will be available for download on April 25th, with a second set being made available on June 28th. From the article: "The two free maps are titled Containment and Warlock. Containment is a massive level blanketed with snow, and Warlock was influenced by the Halo: Combat Evolved map Wizard. The Killtacular Pack will include Turf and Sanctuary, and it will sell for $5.99."

Available now from the World of Warcraft Patch servers, the Honor System has been put into production. The Patch Notes are available on the official site and besides the Honor System includes new art, bug fixes, and new live events in Kalimdor and the Gurubashi Arena. There will also be, starting in May, a "Children's Week" celebrated in Orgrimmar and Stormwind. "It is a time to give back to the innocents of war: the orphans!"

The new producer for Everquest Live, Craig Knapp, has put up an introductory letter to the community on the official site. He discusses his expectations going into the job, and mentions some of the issues he'll be addressing going forward. From the letter: "First, we'll be instancing the Plane of Time to alleviate the bottle neck that many of you may face as a result of higher populations. Second, at the request of the players, we're going to combine the servers that have established a voluntary rotation system for raid targets. The Rathe and Karana will now be combined. The communities on The Rathe and Karana servers have put forth an extraordinary amount of time and energy to create their rotational systems and we want to do what we can to support these players and their chosen play style. As a result of this change, Bertoxxulous and Tholuxe Paells will be combined."

Via Kotaku, the news that a Hollywood Bowl concert to be held on July 6th of this year will feature music from several AAA game titles, and will be performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. From the concert's set list: "Games scheduled to be included are: Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Warcraft, Tron, Myst"

Tim Grube writes "Electronic Arts has released the very first image of Madden NFL running on the next-generation consoles. This Saturday, on April 23rd, the NFL Draft begins on TV and EA has already scored a promotional commercial to unveil Madden Next-Gen. It will air on ESPN."

1up.com has details as released by Activision and id about the upcoming first person shooter Quake IV. The game, in development by Madison, WI company Raven Software, QIV is going to return to the single-player roots of the second Quake title. From the article: " The Strogg are quickly regrouping. However, with the Strogg's planetary defenses still destroyed, Earth's forces can deliver a full and final assault. This time, you're not alone. You are Matthew Kane, an elite member of Rhino Squad, and part of Earth's next invasion wave. An army of soldiers are fighting with you and an arsenal of weapons and vehicles are at your disposal in this heroic and epic battle between worlds."

Dram writes "Business Week, among others, is reporting that GameStop will buy Electronics Boutique for $1.4 billion. Hopefully this will allow both chains to better compete with Wal-Mart and Best Buy for our gaming dollars."