| The Perfect Ten: Franchises that would make great MMOs Posted: 04 Jul 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Humor, Perfect Ten, Miscellaneous Any MMO player worth his or her salt has a binder full of ideas for games, usually based on a favorite book, television, or movie franchise. We've talked about it before. We've discussed whether or not it's a good idea to even have IP-driven MMOs. But you know what we've never done? We've never consulted me. I'm hurt, to be honest. I know that I'm just one of millions of MMO players, but I have a binder too! It's a vintage Trapper Keeper with a wizard on the cover who is dashing among abstract geometric shapes. My mom thought it was cool and my friends think it's totally rad. Inside are the secrets to hit MMOs that studios are just too scared to make but would be bigger than World of Warcraft if someone would just take the chance. I know it. Today I'm going to open up that binder and shove my ideas in your face. And then, knowing how these things go, I will raise up every geek voice against my picks in the comments section. Bring it on. My wizard can handle all of you. Continue reading The Perfect Ten: Franchises that would make great MMOs  The Perfect Ten: Franchises that would make great MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Jul 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Ask Massively: Everything in moderation Posted: 04 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business Models, Culture, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous Happy Fourth of July, Americans, and happy new columnist day to Massively! Yes, it's official: Anatoli Ingram will be joining the Massively staff this month as our new Guild Wars 2 columnist. Those of you who dwell in the land of comments and trolls might recognize him from his erudite posts as Ring Bonefield. We're thrilled to have him on board to lend a pen and a critical eye to such a popular game, and we were equally thrilled at the impressive pool of applicants. Thank you all for applying! Speaking of commenters, we have comments on the brain today in Ask Massively. Let's review how -- or more specifically, when -- we moderate the comment section. Continue reading Ask Massively: Everything in moderation Ask Massively: Everything in moderation originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Jul 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Do you have an MMO budget? Posted: 04 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business Models, Culture, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, The Daily Grind One of free-to-play's many annoyances -- to me, at least -- is the fact that I have to add up various micropayments if I want to accurately track my MMO budget. With subscriptions, it's an easy $15 line item, whereas with F2P titles that don't offer an elite/legendary/accelerated/spiffy/member option, I'm forced to enter $4.99 for an armor set here, $9.99 for a gambling pack there, you get the idea. Or I could just say screw it and buy all the incidentals without bothering to keep track, which is no doubt the dream scenario for game company accountants. I don't do that, though, and as a result I know exactly how much money I spend on MMOs in a given period of time. What about you, Massively readers? Do you have an MMO budget, or do you just buy what you want and get on with 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: Do you have an MMO budget? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 04 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Choose My Adventure: Firefall's content bomb and a missed invasion Posted: 03 Jul 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, PvE, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, Choose My Adventure, Firefall, MMORPG In last week's Choose My Adventure poll, I asked the Firefall community one simple question: What, exactly, is there to do in Firefall besides run around and hook up with random thumping squads? Firefall-ers responded with passion, of course, and sent me on my merry way to experience one of the intense invasions suffered by a couple of key New Eden cities. I return now a grizzled man. My time on the frontlines was as brutal as it was enjoyable. I'm not sure my loved ones will recognize the old me behind the thousand-yard stare that has taken over my face. In short, I've seen things. Unfortunately, none of those things was an invasion. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Firefall's content bomb and a missed invasion Choose My Adventure: Firefall's content bomb and a missed invasion originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Art of Wushu: Exploring China with true parkour Posted: 03 Jul 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Historical, Free-to-Play, Guides, Age of Wushu, The Art of Wushu, MMORPG I'm a bit spoiled by Age of Wushu's flying skills. Parkour in Wushu is one of the most satisfying things in any game, as heroes can truly go anywhere and do anything. When I was first playing the game in beta and was unsure about everything else, I said with certainty, "Any game with airdashes can't be bad." As it turns out, the parkour in Age of Wushu stands head and shoulders above the travel in any other game. Other games have jumping puzzles that are awkward, and some games have flight or other Z-axis travel that allows players to freely go wherever they like. In Wushu, it takes effort to get to hard-to-reach places, but the feeling you get when you climb the highest heights and explore places no one else might ever see is truly satisfying. Continue reading The Art of Wushu: Exploring China with true parkour The Art of Wushu: Exploring China with true parkour originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| First major Dragon's Prophet content update coming next week Posted: 03 Jul 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Events (In-Game), Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Dragon's Prophet  Sony Online Entertainment's latest free-to-play offering, Dragon's Prophet, has been in open beta for about a month now, and that means it's about time for more content, right? Right. Next week, Dragon's Prophet will be receiving its first major update since the open beta went live, and it looks like there's plenty on offer for players of all kinds. For starters, players will be able to take part in the first annual Shadow Festival, an in-game event hosted "in remembrance of the great Warthorne who sacrificed his life during the Second Dragon War." Of course players might be more interested to know that participating in the festivities will earn them a unique title for their troubles. The update will also add a new zone to the game: the frigid Wintertide. This frosty new area contains three new dungeons in which players can put their skills to the test. And to top all of that off, players will finally be able to take up residence in their very own homes thanks to the introduction of dream islands. Oh, and there's a new level cap (yes, already). Players will now be able to adventure all the way up to level 70. The official post promises more information in the coming days, but in the meantime you can head over to Dragon's Prophet's official site for a peek of what's to come. First major Dragon's Prophet content update coming next week originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| ZeniMax talks Kwama, dungeon roles, and TESO beta invites Posted: 03 Jul 2013 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, PvE, Dungeons, The Elder Scrolls Online ZeniMax updated its Elder Scrolls Online website this week with a trio of articles touching on various aspects of the upcoming fantasy title. First up was a feature that examined player roles and AI behavior in TESO's dungeons. Of particular interest here was the article's contention that players can change between DPS, healer, and tank roles on the fly thanks to the open-ended skill system. Next was a blurb about a new round of beta invites. Yes, they've been sent, so check your email. Finally, we got a closer look at the insectoid Kwama thanks to a dev diary and an associated video, the latter of which you'll find after the break. Continue reading ZeniMax talks Kwama, dungeon roles, and TESO beta invites ZeniMax talks Kwama, dungeon roles, and TESO beta invites originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| World of Tanks celebrates July 4th via a big tank tournament Posted: 03 Jul 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Historical, Culture, Events (In-Game), News Items, War, Free-to-Play, World of Tanks Tomorrow is the fourth of July, and if you're not aware, in the United States that date is kind of a big deal. So the staff behind World of Tanks decided that the best way to celebrate America's independence day is by having a bunch of armored vehicles take potshots at one another for big prizes. A tournament is running through the weekend for Tier III through Tier X tanks, with a big package of microtransaction cash going to the winning teams. All teams will be paired up into groups, fight other teams in the same group, and be scored according to victory or loss. Battles will be limited to 10 minutes maximum. The big winners will be the teams with the highest score after the dust settles. If this sounds like it's your sort of celebration, there's still time to gather your team and register; if you'd rather just play the game, there are also plenty of promotions running over the holiday weekend just the same. [Source: Wargaming.net press release] World of Tanks celebrates July 4th via a big tank tournament originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WildStar Wednesday details player-created addons and mods Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, News Items, Dev Diaries, WildStar, Player-Generated Content  You may remember that earlier this year, our very own Bree Royce had the opportunity to attend a WildStar press event where she got a nice, tasty scoop on Carbine's hopes of fostering the creation of user-developed UI mods within WildStar's community. Well in today's WildStar Wednesday, Jon "Bitwise" Wiesman takes a closer look at the addon development tools players will have at their disposal and also highlights the first-ever WildStar mods to come out of the game's closed beta. Players will have access to a development tool known as Houston, which allows players to "easily create [their] own addons to extend WildStar's UI," as well as providing "full access to all of the Carbine-authored source code." A player by the name of PacketDancer has already put Houston through its paces, and she has the honor of being the developer of WildStar's first UI mods, which range from a group-finding tool to a roleplaying mod library. The WildStar devs are obviously thrilled to see the community embracing the addon tools this early in beta, and we have to admit we're looking forward to seeing what other craziness WildStar players dream up. In the meantime, though, check out all the addon development details over at the game's official site. WildStar Wednesday details player-created addons and mods originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Bungie releases full Destiny E3 demo footage Posted: 03 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Previews, News Items, MMOFPS, Events (Massively's Coverage), Destiny Destiny, the first post- Halo project of former Microsoft indentured studio Bungie, received a nice long play demo at E3 2013 showing off its open-world and MMO elements. And thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can now watch the 12-minute clip for yourself in full, glorious HD. Check out the video after the jump, and for the complete E3 experience try watching it after cramming into a room with 200 strangers while nursing a faint hangover. Continue reading Bungie releases full Destiny E3 demo footage Bungie releases full Destiny E3 demo footage originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| ArenaNet details Guild Wars 2 account rewards Posted: 03 Jul 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, News Items, Guild Wars 2, MMORPG, Buy-to-Play Guild Wars 2 might not be seeing an expansion in the near future ( or ever), but ArenaNet has some other goodies in store for fans of the MMORPG. The studio's latest dev blog outlines new account achievement rewards for Guild Wars 2 players. It works like this: Every time you complete an achievement, you earn achievement points. As your points score rises, you unlock new rewards for your account. Rewards so far include exclusive armor and weapon skins, permanent experience bonuses, raw currency, utility items, titles, and more. The new achievements system is accompanied by a revamped UI panel designed to make it easier for players to track achievements and see where they stand. Oh, and the whole thing is retroactive, so achievements already completed will count towards your score total. Account rewards are set to go live with the next Guild Wars 2 release. ArenaNet details Guild Wars 2 account rewards originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wizardry Online hit by duping and hacking, bans issued Posted: 03 Jul 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Culture, Economy, News Items, Free-to-Play, Wizardry Online Some things never presage good news. Case in point: Wizardry Online has been hit with what appears to be a round of hacking and item duping, leading to hyperinflation and a great deal of player outrage on the forums. Exact figures about how much gold was dumped into the economy are hard to come by, but most players seem to agree that it's a matter of several million gold sometimes foisted on unwitting victims. After claiming that the matter was being investigated, Sony Online Entertainment representatives locked some of the threads related to the topic while simply stating that suspensions had been issued and further discussion did not help the community. No statements have yet been issued regarding permanent bans or any potential rollbacks to the environment. What long-term effects this will have on the game's viability remain unclear, although several players are protesting SOE's apparent lack of action quite vigorously. Wizardry Online hit by duping and hacking, bans issued originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Guild Wars 2 might never have an expansion [Updated] Posted: 03 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Expansions, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play Whether or not you like the "Living World" style of Guild Wars 2, you may very well see it as a long-running prelude to a full expansion. ArenaNet's lead content designer Mike Zadorojny recently went on record puncturing that particular balloon, saying that if the team manages these updates correctly, it will "probably never do an expansion and everything will be going into this Living World strategy." This stands in direct contrast to previous speculation and forecasts that the game would receive one on some sort of timetable. According to Zadorojny, the end goal is to provide the same sort of content as in an expansion, simply at a faster pace with a more episodic nature. He likens the experience to television, providing constant motivation to tune in next week for something new and exciting. While he declined to offer hard numbers on the game's performance, he did say that the game is doing quite well and has no plans to sell powerful items in the gem store, with the current business model supporting the game without any need for an expansion. [Update]: Game director Colin Johanson has posted a clarification on the GW2 forums. Just to clarify a bit, as Mike said there are numerous teams beyond our Living World teams, and some of them are working on much longer term projects which we'll go into details on much further down the road.
It's entirely possible some of the types of content which you might traditionally find in expansions would be released through an expansion in the future for Gw2, and it's possible we'd try something different when it comes to integrating those type of releases.
We have no final plans one way or another about expansions at this time, and certainly haven't ruled them out, it's something we'll discuss more in the future.
Edited to add: Our primary focus right now is on making the core Gw2 experience as strong and compelling as possible, we'll release a blog post later this month detailing more specifically our plans for Gw2 in the second half of 2013. Guild Wars 2 might never have an expansion [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Neverwinter's Malabog Castle is not a great place to vacation Posted: 03 Jul 2013 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Neverwinter, MMORPG Neverwinter may have only been actually, really released a couple of weeks ago, but there's already an expansion on the way. Revealed in late June, Fury of the Feywild is a big chunk of content that includes a new region, new campaign areas, new enemies, new loot, and new everything else one would expect. In today's Neverwinter dev blog, Cryptic outlined one of Fury of the Feywild's key new additions: an all-new dungeon known as Malabog Castle. The castle is home to a corrupt king who seized control with the aid of a blue dragon, and it is from this dark throne that he seeks to rule all of Sharandar. Players brave enough to enter the dungeon will face a menacing Cyclops and the dark King Malabog himself. Fury of the Feywild is due for launch this summer. Neverwinter's Malabog Castle is not a great place to vacation originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Leaderboard: Which game's business model do you like best? Posted: 03 Jul 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business Models, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Leaderboard, Subscription, Buy-to-Play I was doing a little hard drive housecleaning yesterday, and I couldn't help but notice all of the different MMOs currently installed on my gaming machine. With few exceptions, the business models for all these titles are some form of free-to-play, freemium, or weird hybrid that requires a conversion matrix and an advanced STEM degree to decipher. As I was patching -- and, in some cases, uninstalling -- I couldn't help but compare and contrast all the different business model flavors, and I figured that such an exercise would make for a serviceable Leaderboard. So, head past the break to vote for your favorite MMO business model. If yours isn't listed, share it in the comments!  Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!Continue reading Leaderboard: Which game's business model do you like best? Leaderboard: Which game's business model do you like best? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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