Casual gaming seems to be making a lot of money these days that everybody else wants a piece of the casual gaming pie.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has named the casual games market a rising, lucrative industry currently estimated to be worth EUR 450 million and predicted to rise to EUR 1.5 billion in the US alone in the next two years. This fast-growing sector of the gaming market is now the focus of Bolton University, with its aim to make its surrounding region the "centre for casual games development"

Andrew Williams, academic leader for games at the university, predicts that the move will boost the support for the UK gaming industry, adding that "by focusing on the casual games sector, we will tap into the fastest growing sector of the games market."

Bolton University is currently launching Casual Games North West, which offers a range of fully-funded business support packages aimed to help games, new media and web companies in Northwest England to secure a niche in the market.

This project, supported by Game Alliance, is expected to enable companies from all over the region to learn about and target the newer markets. According to Senior Lecturer Phil Carlisle, the opportunities made by new platforms and new methods of delivering content makes the present an ideal time for anyone considering entering games development.

Bolton University has been offering computer game design courses since 2002. Starting this month, the university will be establishing interest in CGNW in the North West region by alerting companies and holding a networking event for them in May.

    

"Secrets within secrets. Black helicopters and balaclavas. Shadowy agencies with limitless slush funds, and black-hearted agents with licenses to kill. Hushed conversations on internet chat-rooms that mysteriously vanish. Men in black with blank identities, and deadly women with a dozen passports. A high-tech paramilitary force divided into clandestine cells and dispersed around the globe..."

It's not the CIA, nor PNAC, nor even Halliburton, Inc....it's City of Heroes newest villains, the Malta Group. They are the men (and women) in the shadows, controlling global events from behind the scenes, yet rarely - if ever - exposing themselves to the light of day.

Young heroes may never see one, yet veterans encounter them on occasion. While these black-garbed agents, carrying forged identities, claim to be from any number of real or fabricated agencies, they all share some things in common. Resembling "future infantry soldiers," they arm themselves with the latest and deadliest weapons - assault rifles, tasers, fragmentation and web grenades. Officers may carry stun grenades as well, to disorient and paralyze targets. Wearing cutting edge armor capable of detecting both the wearer’s vital signs and monitoring a target’s condition, they are able to deploy mini-field artillery with lightning-quick reaction speed.

Deadliest of all are the "Sapper units;" battle-hardened soldiers equipped with a Bio-Energy Feedback Inducer which hunts down and neutralizes super-powered beings.

Malta also recruits veteran assassins, who go through a rigorous training regime. Though lacking super powers,  these "Special Qualification Marksmen" can take on a super-powered hero mano-a-mano. Not only do their formidable arsenals contain weapons capable of taking down a super hero, they also have short-range teleporters, allowing them to get up close to a target before pulling the trigger.

Some heroes report "mobile armored walkers" at several Malta bases. These are powerful robot war machines, equipped with tremendous firepower, including plasma blasts, gas swarm missiles and incendiary swarm missiles.  When injured, two of these "Hercules Titans" can combine into a larger unit.

The various Tactical Ops teams of the Malta Group are organized in "cells" -  insulated, scattered, and autonomous. It's nearly impossible to get accurate information about the leadership manipulating the course of Malta, because each agent knows only small pieces of compartmentalized information.