| The Anvil of Crom: Ranging across the border Posted: 19 Jun 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Age of Conan, Lore, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom " Know, O prince, that between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the world like blue mantles beneath the stars. Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet." -- The Nemedian Chronicles Conan fans will recognize the above passage as one of the most famous in the barbarian's extensive canon. It appears at the beginning of 1932's The Phoenix on the Sword and serves as a brief teaser for the history that underlies the world of Hyboria. Being something of an MMO lore junkie (and given the fact that I'm slowly working my way through Robert E. Howard's Conan library), I've often wondered about the origins of the Nemedian Chronicles and the people who wrote them. While Nemedia itself is not yet accessible in Age of Conan, Funcom's nods to Nemedian culture are numerous, and nowhere is this more evident than the Border Range. Join me after the cut for some impressions on this war-torn zone and the stories behind it. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Ranging across the border  The Anvil of Crom: Ranging across the border originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Global Chat: Follow the money edition Posted: 19 Jun 2011 08:00 AM PDT |
| The Daily Grind: Would you play a truly evil faction? Posted: 19 Jun 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous You know what bugs me these days? How superhero movie villains have to be portrayed as sympathetic -- good guys, really, who have an understandable stumble into darkness. No longer do we see truly evil characters who are kicking puppies for the heck of it; no, a dog has to, like, eat his family and bark all night to turn this tortured soul into Dr. Doompuppy. It also slightly bugs me that MMOs don't let you play as evil, not really. Sure, some titles like City of Villains or EverQuest II might offer an "evil" faction, but they're not really that much worse than the good guys, and they're downright saintly when pitted against the demonic forces that plague the game world. Darker factions are mostly for flavor and discounts at Hot Topic, methinks. But what if an MMO allowed you to be part of a truly evil faction? Would you do it? Would you be part of the rampaging armies of death that are sweeping over the land? Would you be the name that all stouthearted heroes curse daily? And would you -- this is important -- kick puppies if you got XP for it?  Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!The Daily Grind: Would you play a truly evil faction? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 19 Jun 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Not So Massively: Dreamhack tournament edition Posted: 18 Jun 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Video, Culture, New titles, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Not So Massively Welcome to Not So Massively, our weekly roundup of the top news from popular multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs) and other multiplayer online games that aren't quite MMOs. Published every Saturday, the column covers games such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Rise of Immortals, Bloodline Champions, and more. Last week was massive for gaming, with a ton of exciting news pouring out of E3. We shared news of the next three champions coming to League of Legends and got talking to developers at Riot Games to find out what's on the game's horizon. We also got an in-depth look at Vorp!, the Asteroids-esque shooter by END Games. We heard about plans to add a new DotA mode to Vorp! and found out that the game could feasibly be ported to smartphones and other platforms in the future. We also looked at Realm of the Titans' crystal upgrade system and showed a MOBA Champions interview with Rise of Immortals' community manager Matthew Anderson. Following last week's deluge of news, this week's Not So Massively offerings are a little more muted as most of the current MOBAs prepare for competitive tournaments at Dreamhack 2011 in Sweden. Competitive online gaming as a profession is an old idea, but it's one that has seen growing support in the West over the past few years. Dreamhack is the world's largest LAN party and possibly the biggest event in the competitive gaming calendar, with dozens of companies sponsoring tournaments with massive cash prizes. We also get a look at Aida Arenas' Arena Hustle gameplay mode and new online World War II RTS Operation Gamma 41. Continue reading Not So Massively: Dreamhack tournament edition Not So Massively: Dreamhack tournament edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Full auto Posted: 18 Jun 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log For this week's installment of The Mog Log, despite my hints last week, I'm going to do something fairly conventional. I'm going to type at about 500 words a minute. More accurately, I'm going to discuss the two-minute preview we received earlier this week regarding the game's combat with auto-attack, and at the usual length of this column that winds up at right about... yeah, you got the joke. Of course, it's not just the video preview that's interesting in the producer's letter. The preview is nice, don't get me wrong, and it gives a good idea of what sort of things we can expect to see when 1.18 launches... but we also have more specific information given on exactly what players can expect from the system changes. And there are some pretty big ones mixed in there, either stated or implied by the video, which ties into the state of Final Fantasy XIV at the moment and where it's going to be in the future. Continue reading The Mog Log: Full auto The Mog Log: Full auto originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| One Shots: A familiar name Posted: 18 Jun 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Guilds, Free-to-play, One Shots Today's One Shots guild screenshot comes to us from a Lord of the Rings Online guild that's familiar to more than one Massively team member: Mae g'ovannen! This is my kin, Council of the Secret Fire. The picture was taken back in December during the Yule Festival; you can see us rocking our various winter outfits.
We play on LotRO's Landroval server. It's a pretty diverse kin, with members who group every week for a Smite Night while others prefer to just hang around the kin house or even are still learning the game. We also seem to be overly populated with bloggers and the like (/waves "Hi" to a certain Massively writer). If someone has stopped by LotRO to fight the darkest enemies of Middle-earth but needs to see a friendly face, we're there for him. Next week is Massively Team Favorites week here on One Shots, so keep your eye out for that -- and some fun upcoming themes! One Shots: A familiar name originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| June's engineering report available for Star Trek Online Posted: 18 Jun 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Star Trek Online Season 4 is approaching fast for Star Trek Online, with the newest patch's content available on the public test server for everyone to experiment with. But it's coming after a bit of a long dry spell for new content updates, something that the game's latest engineering report is seeking to assuage. While the patch isn't quite live, the report details just how massive the entire undertaking of Season 4 became and why the patch has been so long in coming. Duty Officer Rosters are one of the features that's been in development for quite some time, with most of the code in place but the system itself not currently active on the test server. The newest report also goes into details about future improvements, including expansions to the KDF areas of the game and more detailed plans for the Duty Officer system down the road. Star Trek Online players should take a look at the full report to get a sense of what's on the plate for the game in the immediate and more distant future. June's engineering report available for Star Trek Online originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Snail Games introduces The Chosen with closed beta keys from Massively! Posted: 18 Jun 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Contests, Free-to-play, Giveaways Snail Games has introduced a new free-to-play title and is almost ready to start closed beta testing. The Chosen is " set in a legendary war-torn China, where you must pledge allegiance to one of five Chinese dynasties vying for dominance over the region." Choose your faction, select one of the six available classes, and dive into the conflict between dark and light. The Chosen boasts seven PvE and PvP battle systems, trainable pets, mounts, and more. The game will begin closed beta testing on June 22nd, so if you'd like to give it a try, visit our giveaway page to pick up a beta key. Once you've done that, create a game account, activate your key, and download the client to jump right into The Chosen! Snail Games introduces The Chosen with closed beta keys from Massively! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Designing the missions for City of Heroes Posted: 18 Jun 2011 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Patches, News items With more than seven years of content, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes of City of Heroes when new content is being developed. The regular developer dispatch newsletter, The Intrepid Informer, has just kicked off the first in what promises to be a series of writeups about the process of creating new task forces, missions, and other content. In the first entry, John "Protean" Hegner details the role of the Lead Mission Designer in the process. As Hegner explains, the game's storylines and overarching foci are all planned out, with certain elements coming into prominence or moving to the background depending on the focus of a given issue. The early part of development centers around figuring out which parts of the game's ongoing story will be explored and how much space the designers have been given to do so. If you're a City of Heroes veteran, the full dispatch is well worth a read for a look at how missions get made at Paragon Studios. Designing the missions for City of Heroes originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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