| The Road to Mordor: Riders of Rohan pre-launch guide Posted: 13 Oct 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Launches, Free-to-play, Massively Meta, The Road to Mordor, Guides The other night in kin chat, I said how I'm just not mentally ready for Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan. My Captain may be prepared to saddle up and venture forth, but the notion that we're on the verge of one of the most significant expansions this game has ever seen is taking me a little while to absorb. Fortunately, many of my friends assured me that I wasn't alone in this. With just two days to go until players can head into Rohan, we're running out of time to prepare, and I'm not just talking about pre-purchasing the game (although that too). Riders of Rohan contains a host of content and changes, not the least of which is the new mounted combat system. I don't know about you, but I hate heading into expansions completely blind, so I decided to spend this week putting together a big roundup of everything you need to know about LotRO's fourth expansion. Read well, my friends, but get your rest as well. You may not get it this coming week. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Riders of Rohan pre-launch guide  The Road to Mordor: Riders of Rohan pre-launch guide originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: Context edition Posted: 13 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous You are a primate that, due to several freak mutations, has developed an overly large brain capable of handling abstract thought. You live on a ball of dirt and water that hurtles through an empty and uncaring void with only a thin layer of breathable gas to prevent your complete and utter annihilation. Every single action you undertake is the result of having a brain capable of abstract thinking that is still governed by the basic instincts that were relevant when your ancestors were foraging for grubs. It's important to put everything into context, so there you go. Now that that's out of the way, we hope you enjoy this week's installment of WRUP! It's the Massively staff's rundown of our weekend plans. We also discuss how much gaming time we get on average, which seems to be a pretty solid average. Take a look past the jump, and let us know what your plans are down in the comments. Keeping context in mind, of course. Continue reading WRUP: Context edition WRUP: Context edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What game do you feel has changed too much for you to return? Posted: 13 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous We've all got games that we like, but sometimes even the games you want to play have to be placed on the back burner for a while. In the old days, it could be a matter of not being able to pay a subscription fee for a couple of months. That's less of an issue with free-to-play becoming ubiquitous, but there are still times when other projects, heavy workloads, or simple burnout necessitate putting a game down for a while with the intention of returning later. Unfortunately, sometimes later comes around and you don't recognize the game any longer. Obviously, no game will freeze in place as we take care of other issues; updates will happen and the game will change. But sometimes you turn to go back to an old favorite and find out that the game's entire progression method has been redesigned, stats have been altered, and your favorite classes or skills are nearly unrecognizable. You no longer see the game you want to return to, and you don't want to start the game all over. So what game do you feel has changed too much for you to ever go back, even if you might be tempted?  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: What game do you feel has changed too much for you to return? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| DAoC celebrates 11th birthday with new race and class pairings Posted: 12 Oct 2012 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Dark Age of Camelot, Classes, Races, Anniversary It may not be as perfectly round and special as a 10th anniversary, but 11 years for any MMO is a great achievement even so. Dark Age of Camelot crosses that line this year, and to celebrate its 11th birthday, the devs announced that each of the three realms can now roll two new race/class pairings. With the changes, Albion residents can roll Inconnu Minstrels and Half Ogre Maulers, Midgardians can make Kobold Berserkers and Troll Maulers, and Hibernians can unleash Lurikeen Blademasters and Firbolg Maulers. Massively is getting ready to celebrate DAoC's 11th anniversary with Rise and Shiny this coming Sunday, so don't miss it! DAoC celebrates 11th birthday with new race and class pairings originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: October 6 - 12, 2012 Posted: 12 Oct 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, News items, Betawatch, Miscellaneous When it rains, it pours, but when it doesn't rain, there's a distinct lack of... rain-like substance. After last week's beta onslaught, this week has been far more quiet, with only the semi-MMO-related shooter District 187 entering into open beta. Of course, that doesn't mean that this week was devoid of betas altogether, with several still running nicely and the upcoming RaiderZ hosting an open stress test for the weekend. Not to mention that this past week saw the annual GDC Online conference, which meant several opportunities to check out titles currently in beta in slightly more detail. So there's still some fine testing afoot if you need it. There's just not a lot of changes. Of course, if you missed last week, you're probably still unsure of what's in testing and what falls under the dreaded "soft launch" category. (It's assumed that category is dreaded.) So take a look past the jump for our full list, and if we've missed anything, let us know down in the comments! Continue reading Betawatch: October 6 - 12, 2012 Betawatch: October 6 - 12, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Vanguard releases October producer's letter Posted: 12 Oct 2012 06:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, Vanguard, Free-to-play Vanguard's new producer, Harvey "Rahtiz" Burgess, released a new producer's letter today to keep players informed on what's been going on since the F2P launch. Burgess mentions more team members coming aboard, more changes in the coming weeks, and what may be a big blow to the community involving Salim "Silius" Grant, but it's not exactly bad news for him. While it's not exactly a giant pumpkin full of news-candy, Burgess also makes mention that City of Brass will finally be out by late November, plus more information on top of last week's SOE Webcast about player studio. For the full story, hop on over to the official Vanguard website. Vanguard releases October producer's letter originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Playing the role and playing the game Posted: 12 Oct 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous Roleplayers are usually keenly aware of the split between roleplaying in the game and actually playing the game. Roleplaying does not tend to play nicely with the actual game, see. The game expects you to perform a variety of tasks to accomplish things, and none of those tasks is accomplished when you're sitting in town and talking about metaplot elements with RPers. At the same time, you want to roleplay, and roleplaying is not really accomplished by just playing through the game's content and reaching the level cap. You have to strike a balance between the two, something that's often very difficult when you compare the nature of the game to the nature of the characters you play within the game. Continue reading Storyboard: Playing the role and playing the game Storyboard: Playing the role and playing the game originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Lawsuit claims patent infringement by Turbine Posted: 12 Oct 2012 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Legal Ever heard of Treehouse Avatar Technologies? Yeah, neither have we, but a lawsuit filed this week is aiming to get the Canadian-based web services company a little publicity. After being awarded a patent for the "Method And System For Presenting Data Over A Network Based On Network User Choices And Collecting Real-Time Data Related To Said Choices" on May 15th of this year, Treehouse is going after Turbine for what they consider infringement with both Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. The lawyer-speak in the suit itself is not for the faint of heart, but a few of the claims include the fact that LotRO and DDO are "character-enabled" and "have character-attribute data linked with one or more character data." We can't help but be reminded of the Worlds.com vs. NCsoft lawsuit filed a few years ago claiming an infringement on "scalable chat," but it seems a bit far-fetched that a patent suit can be won over games that came out several years before the patent was even issued. But hey, that's why we write about video games and don't swing a gavel around. Lawsuit claims patent infringement by Turbine originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mad King comes to Guild Wars 2 on October 22nd Posted: 12 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, Guild Wars 2 Mad King Thorn hasn't been seen in Tyria for over 250 years. Well, lore years, that is. He was actually seen this time about a year ago in the original Guild Wars, which as you know has since given way to its much-heralded sequel. Guild Wars 2's first Halloween event is called Shadow of the Mad King, and ArenaNet has announced that it will go live on October 22nd. Look for "new minigames, new dynamic events, and more," according to the blurb on the GW2 official site. There's even "an epic adventure in four acts" that runs through October 31st! The Mad King comes to Guild Wars 2 on October 22nd originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| GDC Online 2012: A (severed) hands-on with The War Z Posted: 12 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Real life, Galleries, Screenshots, Video, Interviews, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, MMOFPS, First Impressions, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox Everyone loves zombies. We all enjoy shooting them to bits, pummeling them with a hammer, and watching them die... again. But I'd been feeling a bit tired of the zombie genre, even though some of my favorite titles are heavy on the zombs. Then I sat down and played through a bit of The War Z, a new post-apocalyptic horror shooter MMO that tosses players on servers up to 60 miles square and holding up to 250 players. Those zones are chock-full of zombies, so players who care to risk it all can hope to survive as they run, gun, and generally get their wits scared out of them. I wasn't alone during my short time in the game, thanks to Alex Josef, Director of Communications for Hammerpoint Interactive We sat down for an interview and wound up smashing zombie heads with a flashlight. Ah, the perils of writing about games! Join me past the cut to read what I thought. Continue reading GDC Online 2012: A (severed) hands-on with The War Z GDC Online 2012: A (severed) hands-on with The War Z originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| RaiderZ stress test kicks off today Posted: 12 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT |
| GDC Online 2012: Flying high with World of Warplanes Posted: 12 Oct 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Interviews, War, Free-to-play, Massively Event Coverage, World of Tanks, World of Warplanes Wargaming.net CEO Viktor Kislyi is a busy man in charge of one of the fastest-growing online studios in the world. Since the launch of World of Tanks and its rise to superstar status, Wargaming.net has grown to encompass 1,200 people in 11 offices around the world. Half of these are developers on the studio's three main projects, while the other half run support for the highly lucrative World of Tanks. With World of Tanks under their belts, Kislyi and his team are preparing to press the starter switch for World of Warplanes. If you haven't paid much attention to it yet, perhaps you should, particularly if you're a fan of flight simulators. World of Warplanes covers the early days of air combat from 1930s-era biplanes to Korean War jet fighters. We grabbed a few minutes of Kislyi's time at GDC Online this week to see how World of Warplanes was shaping up and whether there were any new surprises that the team was prepared to reveal at the event. Read on, flyboys and flygirls! Continue reading GDC Online 2012: Flying high with World of Warplanes GDC Online 2012: Flying high with World of Warplanes originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Some Assembly Required: Citadel of Sorcery interview reveals a dynamic world Posted: 12 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Massively Interviews, Some Assembly Required, Crafting When word filtered to us that a new virtual world was in the works with unique features, I said what any other sandbox-loving player would: Yeah ri... er, I mean, "Show me what you've got." And that's exactly what the folks making Citadel of Sorcery did! And they didn't just tease me with a couple of phrases and leave me dangling; they offered a deluge of information about the upcoming game. In fact, they sent me enough to complete five different articles. That's more Some Assembly Requireds than you can shake a stick at. Not only did I get to learn many facts about Citadel of Sorcery, but in sitting down and talking with Philip Blood, Director of Game Design at MMO Magic, Inc., I also got to experience first-hand the passion that the developers have for their game. Philip graciously answered a barrage of questions (perhaps part of the reason the interview grew so long!) and helped paint CoS as a game that might satisfy the longing of players who yearn for a vibrant, living world where their choices make a difference. Unlike traditional games, CoS promises a vast world where each player will experience the game in very different ways. In all, the game sounds innovative and exciting. But don't just take my word on it; check out the details for yourself in this in-depth interview. Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Citadel of Sorcery interview reveals a dynamic world Some Assembly Required: Citadel of Sorcery interview reveals a dynamic world originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| GDC Online 2012: Paul Barnett reimagines Ultima with a chicken and a spoon Posted: 12 Oct 2012 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Business models, Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, Massively Event Coverage, Miscellaneous Paul Barnett is a great storyteller with a passion for games. Anyone who followed Warhammer Online early on can't forget the engaging speeches and videos Barnett made through beta and launch. But it's no longer 2007, and he's long since moved on from Warhammer. Instead, he's been working on Ultima Forever, a browser-based, online rendition of Ultima IV. This week at GDC Online, he told the story of how the game came to be. He was given a chicken and a spoon and told to go away and try to make something. The only boundaries was that he couldn't have any other stuff, the game had to be good, and he had to do it quick and without help. Did Barnett succeed with his chicken and spoon? Read on for Barnett's tale of Ultima Forever as well as a look at the lessons he learned along the way. Continue reading GDC Online 2012: Paul Barnett reimagines Ultima with a chicken and a spoon GDC Online 2012: Paul Barnett reimagines Ultima with a chicken and a spoon originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMO Blender: Eliot swings for internet spaceships Posted: 12 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Opinion, Miscellaneous, MMO Blender Honestly, EVE Online always depresses me. I know some of you really love the heck out of EVE Online, and that's great. The problem isn't that the game is bad but that it's a game which holds basically zero interest for me except for the fact that it's a game about spaceships that you play on the internet. That part interests me because it's almost a textbook description of the things that I find interesting. Throw in some giant robots and psychological horror and I'm completely sold. Move on to open PvP, corporate warfare, and shuffling through spreadsheets while playing the ore market, and you've lost my interest. This isn't a lamentation on the fact that games exist that aren't meant to please me. No, this is a lamentation of the fact that I want another internet spaceships game. I want my spaceships on the internet, but I want them to be my kind of spaceships. And so with all due respect to the existing contenders, I'd like to talk about my version. Continue reading MMO Blender: Eliot swings for internet spaceships MMO Blender: Eliot swings for internet spaceships originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Firefall's latest dev diary highlights Chosen Warfront metagame Posted: 12 Oct 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, Dev Diaries, Firefall Last week, Red 5 Studios discussed changing Firefall's progression system. In the newest developer blog, attention turns to the upcoming Chosen Warfront feature ("warfront" being the moniker given the ongoing war between the Chosen and the Accord factions). The Chosen Warfront dynamic aims to create a deeper metagame, giving players the chance to take the fight to the Chosen solo or in groups to keep the lands safe. Designer Clancy Powell explains the feature by telling folks to think of the Chosen Warfront as a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game, where the Chosen and the Accord will be working to control territories and resources and build up military forces by implementing different strategies for both offensive and defensive goals. Developers are currently working on a number of events, including Chosen Thumpers and Chosen Drop Pods, as well as reworking the watchtowers from the ground up. The changes won't stop here; over time, devs want to add multiple types of objectives to add more variety to the warfront dynamic. More details can be found in the full developer blog. Firefall's latest dev diary highlights Chosen Warfront metagame originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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