General Gaming Article

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• AMD Refreshes Mobile APU Lineup with Beema, Mullins
• Intel Plans to Open Several Pop-Up Retail Stores for the Holiday Season
• Google Transparency Report Reveals Dramatic Rise in User Data Requests
• AMD's Console Strategy Nets Additional x86 Market Share
• CyberPowerPC, EVGA Tag Team Hadron Hydro Mini ITX Gaming PC
• Surprise! Lenovo is World's Third Largest Smartphone Vendor
• Newegg Daily Deals: Seagate 4TB Desktop Hard Drive, MSI Z87-GD65 Motherboard, and More!

AMD Refreshes Mobile APU Lineup with Beema, Mullins Posted: 14 Nov 2013 01:51 PM PST Double the performance with AMD's security processor in tow Bye-bye Kabini and Temash. Hello Beema and Mullins. Those are the names for AMD's two new mobile APUs announced at the APU13 Developer Summit. The promises are lofty: twice the performance per watt and PC gaming in a tablet. According to TechRadar, Mullins is the clear poster boy. Designed for use in fanless tablets, convertible notebooks, and standard laptops, Mullins and its little brother Beema are made to pack more punch despite running on lower power.  Beema and Mullins will both be available in dual- and quad-core Puma flavors. Included in the APUs are Graphics Core Next Radeon graphics with everything on a 28nm chip. Beema replaces Kabini with a 10W minimum TDP. Mullins has a minimum ~2W SDP (Scenario Design Power) replacing the 3-4W TDP minimum of Temash. Both APUs are expected to be available before Computex 2014 with demo units on display during CES. AMD's also excited about the AMD Security Processor which is an ARM Cortex-A5 core with support for ARM TrustZone. The technology is supposed to provide a trusted execution environment to help prevent software-based attacks like malware while also providing secure ways to handle user authentication and payment processing. Both APUs are geared towards Windows 8.1, but AMD Director of Marketing Gabe Gravning says that it's "working with partners to put Android over Windows." Follow Ben on Twitter.

Intel Plans to Open Several Pop-Up Retail Stores for the Holiday Season Posted: 14 Nov 2013 10:41 AM PST These are not your typical retail stores As the holiday shopping season comes into view, Intel has revealed that it plans to open a series of "Intel Experience Stores" in various locations, starting with the first opening in NoLita, New York on November 23 at 10 AM. Since they're being designed for the holiday season, these stores will stay open until the latter part of January, during which time patrons will be able to walk in and play with Intel gear, recycle used electronics, and even test drive new Intel products at home. These stores are aimed at pushing Intel's products and to promote its brand, but in a unique way that's not typical of your average brick-and-mortar location. In a promotional video, Intel describes these as "free to attend events." As opposed to a regular store where you walk in, browse and maybe buy things, and then leave, Intel will be giving out free coffee, playing movies for free every Friday, and presenting speakers from the community. The pop-up stores will change physically three times each day with new programming each day as well, Intel says. Local tech inventors and makers will be invited to come in and showcase their skills, and even participate in challenges that will give back to the community. Have a look at the video describing Intel's plans and let us know what you think about this in the comments section below! Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Google Transparency Report Reveals Dramatic Rise in User Data Requests Posted: 14 Nov 2013 10:10 AM PST There's even more than what Google's allowed to show Everything changed when news of the U.S. government's PRISM spying program came to light. In an instant, we went from assuming our dealings online were mostly kept private (or as private as we wanted them to be) to knowing that virtually nothing is out of bounds, not even instant messaging conversations. The government will contend all this snooping is in the best interest of national security, which also happens to be the same reason why Google can't share certain statistics with us. What the company is able to share, however, is pretty staggering. Google today updated its Transparency Report for the eighth time. Revealed in the update is a 100 percent uptick in the number of government requests for user information over the past three years, Google says. The search giant was also quick to point out that these figures only include the requests it's allowed to publish, suggesting that the real number of requests could be much higher. "Over the past three years, we've continued to add more details to the report, and we're doing so again today. We're including additional information about legal process for U.S. criminal requests: breaking out emergency disclosures, wiretap orders, pen register orders and other court orders," Google explained in a blog post.  "We want to go even further. We believe it's your right to know what kinds of requests and how many each government is making of us and other companies. However, the U.S. Department of Justice contends that U.S. law does not allow us to share information about some national security requests that we might receive," Google added. Google shared a series of graphs related to the topic of data requests, one of which shows that the number of inquiries has jumped from 3,580 in Jul-Dec 2009 to 10,918 in Jan-Jun 2013. However, many of those were related to law enforcement -- 68 percent were subpoenas and 22 percent were warrants. The rest were made up of other court orders (6 percent), pen register orders (2 percent), and emergency disclosure requests (1 percent). Keep in mind those only pertain to what Google is allowed to show. A fourth graph labeled "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Requests" is blacked out. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

AMD's Console Strategy Nets Additional x86 Market Share Posted: 14 Nov 2013 08:47 AM PST Finding new ways to fight with Intel Since the beginning of time (or thereabouts), Intel has dominated the x86 scene, even when AMD blazed a trail into 1GHz territory (Athlon) and 64-bit computing (Athlon 64) on the consumer side several years ago. Both of those architectures represent design wins for AMD, and if we fast forward to today, AMD has done well to get its hardware inside all three major game consoles, especially the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, both of which feature x86 foundations. AMD has already shipped millions of semi-custom x86 chips for Microsoft's and Sony's upcoming game consoles, says Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research, according to IDG. In doing so, AMD has grown its x86 market share to 19.3 percent in the third quarter of 2013, up from 16.1 percent in the same quarter a year ago. That's still a distant second from Intel's 80.2 percent share, though Intel's slice of the pie got a little thinner, dropping from 83.3 percent a year prior. VIA Technologies collected the scraps to sit in third place with a 0.4 percent share, down from 0.6 percent. "It ties in with AMD's long-term goal of getting outside the PC market," McCarron said, who added that it's a good strategy since the growth is coming from custom chips for non-PC products. While AMD's strategy is paying off, if we narrow our focus strictly on the PC side, it's a different story. Intel bumped its share of the x86 PC processor market from 83.3 percent to 83.8 percent, while AMD's share declined from 16.1 percent to 15.8 percent. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

CyberPowerPC, EVGA Tag Team Hadron Hydro Mini ITX Gaming PC Posted: 14 Nov 2013 08:18 AM PST Living large in a little chassis Boutique builder CyberPowerPC is teaming up with EVGA to offer an exclusive series of mini ITX based gaming rigs loaded with powerful hardware. Specifically, the system the two companies are pimping is the Hadron Hydro, a compact gaming machine that measures 6.6 inches wide by 13.7 inches high by 12.1 inches deep. It's only 1.7 inches taller than the Hadron Air, though this version comes with EVGA's liquid cooling kit. A base setup runs $1,275 and includes the above mentioned liquid cooler with a 500W 80 Plus Gold certified power supply nestled inside EVGA's Hadron Hydro mini ITX chassis, Intel Core i5 4670K processor, Gigabyte Z87-N WiFi motherboard, Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 graphics card, 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory, 1TB hard drive (7200 RPM), EVGA 24X slot-loading DVD burner, and Windows 8.1 64-bit. The liquid cooling arrangement cools the Haswell chip and is also capable of running through an optional EVGA Hydro Copper GeForce GTX GPU. It has a 240mm radiator, high performance CPU block, stainless steel fittings, tubing, and coolant. Like the Hadron Air, the Hadron Hydro is customizable and can accommodate more powerful hardware, including Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780 Ti or AMD's Radeon R9 290X. The Hadron Hydro is available now. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Surprise! Lenovo is World's Third Largest Smartphone Vendor Posted: 14 Nov 2013 07:47 AM PST The No. 1 PC maker is also No. 3 in smartphone sales Life is good for Lenovo. The OEM figured out the secret formula for thriving in a technological landscape that finds itself in a midst of a transitory phase, and as such, it grew its desktop PC shipments last quarter by 1 percent when the industry averaged a 6 percent decline. Laptop sales went up 8 percent, and as for the mobile handset sector, Lenovo is now the world's third largest smartphone vendor. Part of Lenovo's "PC Plus" strategy entails focusing on the mobile market while continuing to dominate in traditional PC sales. As a result, Lenovo is the world's largest PC supplier and the third largest vendor of smartphones, the latter of which is the result of increasing its smartphone sales to 12.9 million units in the third quarter of 2013, according to data released by Gartner. That's an 85 percent year-over-year bump. Out of the more than 455 million smartphones shipped in Q3, Samsung led the way with 80.3 million units, followed by Apple at 30.3 million. With Lenovo's rise to No. 3, LG was bumped down to fourth place with 12 million units, followed by Huawei (11.6 million) and all others. In terms of platform dominance, Android is found on nearly 82 percent of the world's smartphones. Google's open source OS is crushing every other contender, including iOS (No. 2), which is way back in Lenovo's rear-view mirror with a slightly better than 12 percent share of the market. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Seagate 4TB Desktop Hard Drive, MSI Z87-GD65 Motherboard, and More! Posted: 14 Nov 2013 06:11 AM PST Top Deal: "They used to laugh at my tinfoil hat and my 'wild' conspiracy theories. But that was before Eric Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA's PRISM antics. Now we know, Big brother IS watching, and you won't catch me uploading senstive data to the so-called cloud. Time to stock up on hard drives. You feel me? If so, check out today's top deal for a Seagate Desktop 4TB 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $153 with free shipping (normally $180 - use coupon code EMCWWWV22). It has 64MB of cache, a SATA 6Gbps interface, and free DiskWizard software to enable capacities above 2TB on legacy PC BIOS and Windows XP systems. Also, no satellite tracking chips -- I've taken one of these apart." Signed, Joe Paranoia Other Deals: AMD FX-4300 Vishera 3.8GHz (4.0GHz) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor for $100 with free shipping (normally $110 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWV25]) MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Extreme OC High Performance Triple CFX/ SLI Intel Motherboard for $163 with free shipping (normally $188 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWV232]; additional $10 Mail-in rebate) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory for $126 with free shipping (normally $148 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWV29]) Asus GTX660-DC2O-2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card for $180 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWV43]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate)

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MMO Updates

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• Hands-on with SWTOR's Galactic Starfighter
• The Stream Team: Cleansing the toxic tower in Guild Wars 2
• Cute adventures in Alfheim Tales Online begin November 26th
• Uncharted Waters Online relaunch set for November 28
• Ask Massively: Why WoW's 1.3% matters
• The Daily Grind: What MMO systems or content revamps would you like to see?
• The Stream Team: SWTOR's night of the living Dread Masters
• Choose My Adventure: A Neverwinter storm is brewing
• Fight your way into War Thunder's ground forces beta
• The Stream Team: Every World of Warcraft dungeon needs a healer
• Free for All: Five ways to create immersion in MMOs
• How Turbine plans to make Helm's Deep matter
• MMO Family: How to raise an astute gamer (even if you aren't one)
• RIFT's Deepstrike Mines dungeon revamped for level 60
• Allods Online debuts class change coupons
• Neverwinter's new paragon paths detailed
• The Stream Team: I see dead dragons in EQII's Tears of Veeshan!
• Trion starts the Trove teasing
• Humble Bundle includes LotRO Steely Dawn pack
• Bless announces beta plans for next year
• Diablo III's lead designer says offline mode was 'wrong', reaffirms online requirement
• Leaderboard: What do you play on patch day?

Hands-on with SWTOR's Galactic Starfighter Posted: 14 Nov 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Expansions, Previews, Opinion, Hands-On, Star Wars: The Old Republic The objective is just on the horizon. We're a ragtag group of journalists -- no, starfighter pilots -- and we're hellbent on taking a key objective from the enemy. The problem isn't the defending turrets; it's the five red squares that have just popped on our HUDs: Sith fighters. In a few moments, we'll lose each other in a storm of blaster fire and exploding ships. The ship to my right engages the turbo on his engines, rocketing forward. One by one, we all follow into the fray. This is Galactic Starfighter, the new expansion coming to Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic. The new ships, their customization options, and the chaotic, free-flight-PvP space combat make it one of the largest feature upgrades since the game's launch. It won't put you in the Death Star's trenches, but it will get you close. Join me in the cockpit as I tell you about my experience in rail-less throes of space mayhem. Continue reading Hands-on with SWTOR's Galactic Starfighter Hands-on with SWTOR's Galactic Starfighter originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: Cleansing the toxic tower in Guild Wars 2 Posted: 14 Nov 2013 08:30 AM PST Filed under: Video, Guild Wars 2, Hands-On, Livestream, The Stream Team The nightmare continues in Guild Wars 2's latest patch, The Nightmares Within, and players are once again facing the machinations of their nemesis. Scarlet Briar is Tyria's consummate matchmaker, bringing unlikely pairs together to form the likes of the Molten Alliance, the Aetherblades, and the Toxic Alliance. The krait and the Nightmare Court have made a mess of Kessex Hills, and their tower of nightmares is seriously impacting property values of the local residents. Massively's Richie will be climbing the poison-filled structure armed with ample amounts of weed killer in order to put an end to this waking nightmare. Watch him live at 11:30 a.m. EST as he checks out the Nightmares Within patch in Guild Wars 2! Game: Guild Wars 2 Host: Richie "Bog Otter" Procopio Date: Thursday, November 14th, 2013 Time: 11:30 a.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Cleansing the toxic tower in Guild Wars 2 The Stream Team: Cleansing the toxic tower in Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Cute adventures in Alfheim Tales Online begin November 26th Posted: 14 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Browser If you've been sitting back and thinking, "Gee, I just don't have enough cute in my MMO diet," we've got some news for you. You'll be able to serve yourself up some on November 26th at 9:00 p.m. EST: Alfheim Tales Online, a new browser-based fantasy world with a heaping helping of cute, is opening up for adventurers. Produced by the Hong Kong-based Ray Media Group, this game sports cute characters with cute pets romping about the fairtytale-esque world of Carlyl on cute mounts. And if combat can actually be considered cute, this game probably has a lock on that as well. [Source: Ray Media Group press release] Cute adventures in Alfheim Tales Online begin November 26th originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Uncharted Waters Online relaunch set for November 28 Posted: 14 Nov 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Historical, Launches, Free-to-Play The relaunch of Uncharted Waters Online has been dated for November 28, 2013. This relaunch will see the historic seafaring MMO enjoy a new publisher with OGPlanet. The current UWO service will conclude on November 25, but all current accounts will seamlessly transfer over to the OGPlanet service when players sign up on November 28. Steam users can link their account with a new or existing OGPlanet account at any time through the 25th. [Source: OGPlanet press release] Uncharted Waters Online relaunch set for November 28 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ask Massively: Why WoW's 1.3% matters Posted: 14 Nov 2013 06:00 AM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous Welcome back to Ask Massively! Let's play with numbers and WoW. I like numbers and WoW. "I'm no WoW fan, but a change in population of 1.3% either way is nothing worth writing about," wrote a Massively commenter last week on the pre-BlizzCon news that World of Warcraft dropped another 100,000 subscribers over the last quarter. Sure it's worth writing about! Ever hear the phrase "no news is good news"? Continue reading Ask Massively: Why WoW's 1.3% matters Ask Massively: Why WoW's 1.3% matters originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: What MMO systems or content revamps would you like to see? Posted: 14 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, PvE, The Daily Grind MMO revamps are a thing this week, what with RIFT retooling its Deepstrike Mines dungeon and DC Universe Online augmenting its pre-30 leveling curve with additional quests and various NPC/AI tweaks. That got me to thinking about what other pieces of MMO content or systems I'd like to see reworked. There's Age of Conan's long-in-development crafting revamp, of course, and I'm also keen to see Lord of the Rings Online's housing after Turbine's done blowing it up and putting it back together. What about you, Massively readers? What MMO revamps would you like to see? 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 MMO systems or content revamps would you like to see? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 14 Nov 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: SWTOR's night of the living Dread Masters Posted: 13 Nov 2013 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Guilds, Endgame, PvE, Free-to-Play, Massively Meta, Hands-On, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Livestream, Dungeons, The Stream Team, MMORPG Massively's Larry Everett continues his quest to end the fear-filled reign of the Dread Masters. With the guild Nefarious Intent, Larry travels to the moon of Oricon to bring an end to the Dread Masters' power once and for all. Join us live at 9:00 p.m. EST for this 16-man Star Wars: The Old Republic operation. Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic Host: Larry Everett Date: Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 Time: 9:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: SWTOR's night of the living Dread Masters The Stream Team: SWTOR's night of the living Dread Masters originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Choose My Adventure: A Neverwinter storm is brewing Posted: 13 Nov 2013 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Choose My Adventure, Neverwinter, Player-Generated Content Making a Foundry mission is difficult, but not because Neverwinter makes it difficult -- not yet, anyway. The number of elements used in creating a good mission is bigger than I had initially thought. However, we will stumble through it, as I did this weekend. When I initially tried out the Neverwinter Foundry, there were many elements that were just clunky. I constantly had to switch from Foundry mode to 3-D-mode just to add objects, and I had to hope that they were placed correctly. With the recent changes, I can now pop into editor mode and place objects directly into the world, an amazing step forward. The tough part comes in creating the story and building the world in which the story takes place. Today, I'd like you to help me with a few of the elements I still need to round out my story. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: A Neverwinter storm is brewing Choose My Adventure: A Neverwinter storm is brewing originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fight your way into War Thunder's ground forces beta Posted: 13 Nov 2013 04:30 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Historical, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, PvE, War, Free-to-Play War Thunder's devs have come up with a novel way for interested gamers to get in on the game's upcoming ground forces closed beta test. Starting today, Gaijin is hosting special in-game daily missions, the completion of which could lead to a spot in the beta. There are no guarantees, unfortunately, but Gaijin's announcement says that "the more you complete the higher your chances are." Today's mission involves destroying 60 ground units in War Thunder's arcade mode or 30 ground units in the title's historical battles mode or full real battles mode. War Thunder currently features instanced World War II-era aerial combat. The dev team is in the process of adding ground and eventually naval combat as well. The ground forces closed beta is scheduled to start "before December 4th." Fight your way into War Thunder's ground forces beta originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

The Stream Team: Every World of Warcraft dungeon needs a healer Posted: 13 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Video, PvE, Massively Meta, Hands-On, Livestream, The Stream Team, Subscription, MMORPG If you're going to slash your way through a dungeon, murdering monsters and stealing loot all the way, you're going to need someone to watch your back. Generally, you'd want that person to be a healer. Join Massively's Mike Foster as he dusts off his resto Shaman and groups up with a few random internet strangers in the hopes of toppling tough foes and moving his character just a bit closer to the current World of Warcraft level cap without suffering a nasty pick-up group wipe. Mike's dungeon runs start at 7:00 p.m. EST. Game: World of Warcraft Host: Mike Foster Date: Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 Time: 7:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Every World of Warcraft dungeon needs a healer The Stream Team: Every World of Warcraft dungeon needs a healer originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Free for All: Five ways to create immersion in MMOs Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Culture, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Roleplaying, Virtual Worlds, Free for All, Sandbox Immersion. I've used the word so much over the past several years that it has almost lost all meaning. I've played around with my Immersion Project, a set of rules designed to force me to play in a way that creates an almost physical connection with my characters. I've written about immersion and why it is important. I've even played the other side and fell in love with MMOs that are seemingly designed to be anything but immersive. It's one of those flashy terms that sounds more complicated than it is. The fact is that it's important only to those who value it. And those who value it do not value it all the time. Immersion is simply a feeling of being lost in an MMO. It's the same feeling we get when reading a good book or when completely entrenched in a good movie. It's a feeling that designers must pay attention to, but if you pay too much attention to it, the game you design can miss the mark. So what defines immersion for me? Well, it's easier to list off some specific game elements that help me feel immersed. Continue reading Free for All: Five ways to create immersion in MMOs Free for All: Five ways to create immersion in MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

How Turbine plans to make Helm's Deep matter Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play Turbine's latest Lord of the Rings Online dev diary is worth reading if you're wondering how the dev team plans to generate suspense in a narrative where it doesn't actually exist. We know how the battle of Helm's Deep turns out, in other words, and so gameplay in LotRO's forthcoming expansion presents a design challenge when it comes to keeping players engaged. Turbine's solution involves the moment-to-moment state of a battle whose ultimate outcome is already decided. "How many soldiers survive the wall, how many banners were burnt down, how many injured Rohirrim survived a diversionary assault," the firm asks. "All of these questions, and more, matter for various quests and objectives within Helm's Deep." How Turbine plans to make Helm's Deep matter originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev diary

MMO Family: How to raise an astute gamer (even if you aren't one) Posted: 13 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Opinion, Kids, MMO Family, Family, Miscellaneous As we trudge towards winter here in the States, the frigid temperatures make outside playtime a lot more difficult. And while we're hunkered down inside during those bitterly cold days, more and more kids choose to log in and do a little gaming to get through the winter doldrums. For many parents, though, negotiations with their children over video game time is about as pleasant as a snowball to the face. Many of us have come across parents who don't play video games at all and are struggling to make sense of the whole thing. What advice is crucial to the uninitiated parents of gaming children? How can they instill healthy gaming habits and get a handle on video gaming in general? Let's look at a few tips that might help in this week's MMO Family. Continue reading MMO Family: How to raise an astute gamer (even if you aren't one) MMO Family: How to raise an astute gamer (even if you aren't one) originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

RIFT's Deepstrike Mines dungeon revamped for level 60 Posted: 13 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, RIFT, Dev Diaries, Dungeons RIFT is returning to Deepstrike, according to Trion's latest blog post. The devs have revamped the dungeon for level 60, in large part due to the mass influx of F2P players who leveled right on by some of the classic game's dungeon crawls. Deepstrike Mines was the winner of a player vote to see which classic dungeon would receive the upgrade treatment, and senior game designer Andy Kirton has plenty to say on said revamp's particulars. RIFT's Deepstrike Mines dungeon revamped for level 60 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Return to Deepstrike

Allods Online debuts class change coupons Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Allods Online, MMORPG If you're feeling stuck in a rut in Allods Online and think changing up your class might freshen things up, today's announcement from Webzen might be the news you've been waiting for. The studio has just unveiled a new in-game item that allows you to instantly change your character's class and try life on the other side of the fence. Here's how it works: Once per week, core morpher coupons will appear on the Allods auction house. Only one coupon per class will be available. If you win the auction, you'll be able to grab the coupon out of your in-game mail (for subscribers) or redeem it via the item shop (free players). Once in your inventory, the core morpher coupon enables you to switch to a new class while keeping all of your equipment progress through a system that gives you class-appropriate items that match the rarity and power of the items you currently have. Webzen advises that you mull the decision carefully, as you may change classes only once per month and you'll be competing with many other players to win your class's weekly auction. Allods Online debuts class change coupons originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Winds of Changes: Closer Look at Pure Soul

Neverwinter's new paragon paths detailed Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Classes, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries, Neverwinter Neverwinter's upcoming Shadowmantle module will finally be giving players a second option with their paragon paths. A new dev diary from the folks at Cryptic gives an overview of these new paths along with details regarding the skills involved. Devoted Clerics will get a buff-centric path, Trickster Rogues will be flinging knives more, Control Wizards will go all pyro on their enemies, and Guardian Fighters and Great Weapon Fighters will be swapping each other's paragon path for a different playstyle. Don't just take our word for it: Check out the Shadowmantle paragon paths preview video after the jump for a visual inspection of these lines. Continue reading Neverwinter's new paragon paths detailed Neverwinter's new paragon paths detailed originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev diary

The Stream Team: I see dead dragons in EQII's Tears of Veeshan! Posted: 13 Nov 2013 12:20 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Expansions, Free-to-Play, Livestream, The Stream Team You didn't think Tears of Veeshan content could be summed up in just one stream did you? Of course not! That's why Massively's MJ is heading back into EverQuest II's newly released expansion to highlight all the various bells and whistles and, perhaps most importantly, to hobnob with all the dead dragons! Join us live at 3:20 p.m. EST for more adventures in the Eternal Broodlands. Game: EverQuest II Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 Time: 3:20 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: I see dead dragons in EQII's Tears of Veeshan! The Stream Team: I see dead dragons in EQII's Tears of Veeshan! originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Trion starts the Trove teasing Posted: 13 Nov 2013 12:15 PM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Miscellaneous Trion Worlds made news earlier this week by registering several domains with the word "Trove" in them. While the studio made no announcement regarding new games in development, most speculation centered firmly on Trove being Trion's next big project. Today we've received another little tidbit on the topic via Trion's official and brand-new Trove Twitter account. Posting under the name TroveGame, Trion asked simply, "Where will you go?" It's not much in terms of information, but the Twitter username at least confirms that Trove is a game. The profile information says only, "Something new from Trion Worlds." Stay tuned. Trion starts the Trove teasing originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: TroveGame Twitter Account

Humble Bundle includes LotRO Steely Dawn pack Posted: 13 Nov 2013 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Free-to-Play, Promotions For the next five or so days, Warner Bros. is participating in a new Humble Bundle that includes a special package for Lord of the Rings Online. Humble Bundle allows players to name their own price for a collection of games, and as long as customers pay more than the average amount (currently $4.62), then the Steely Dawn pack will be tossed in for LotRO players. The Steely Dawn pack includes a unique cosmetic armor set, the Evendim quest pack, five XP boosts, and 500 Turbine Points. To use the pack, you have to access LotRO through Steam. Humble Bundle includes LotRO Steely Dawn pack originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Humble WB Games Bundle

Bless announces beta plans for next year Posted: 13 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New Titles, News Items Before we go any further in this post, you should know that Bless is still a long way away from any sort of western release no matter how its beta testing goes, seeing as it has no announced localization plans whatsoever. That having been said, the game is heading toward beta testing starting early next year, so if you're reading the site from Korea or are just deft at translation, you can look forward to that. According to the development team, the plan is to open up the beta test toward the beginning of the year with a January-to-March test window. Barring unusual developments or unforeseen glitches, the game is also slated to launch by the end of the year. From what we've seen of Bless so far, it certainly looks gorgeous with a focus on story and endgame content. Only time will tell when and whether we get to experience it firsthand. Bless announces beta plans for next year originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steparu

Diablo III's lead designer says offline mode was 'wrong', reaffirms online requirement Posted: 13 Nov 2013 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, News Items, Diablo III If you've been holding out hope that Blizzard would cave in and offer an offline mode on the PC for Diablo III with its Reaper of Souls expansion, don't hold your breath. A recent dev interview really put the kibosh on that idea: Lead designer Kevin Martens stated pretty clearly that dividing the community into online and offline groups is not now, nor will it be, in the cards. When asked about the offline mode in Diablo II, he pointed out that the community back then was very unhappy about that division and added: "That was the wrong choice to allow people to play offline, and we still stand by that. And we think Internet access is widespread. If someone has no Internet access, then yeah, Diablo III is not the game for them." In the interview, Martens and Art Director Christian Lichtner also talked about the direction of Diablo's III and the game's economy sans auction house -- notably, that stockpiling items before the change won't give much of an advantage because the post 2.0 patch economy will be full of new items that can be acquired only through play. Diablo III's lead designer says offline mode was 'wrong', reaffirms online requirement originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Rock, Paper, Shotgun interview

Leaderboard: What do you play on patch day? Posted: 13 Nov 2013 10:00 AM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, Patches, Opinion, Leaderboard I was as surprised as anyone to see SOE drop DC Universe Online's GU31 patch yesterday. It's not that the patch itself was a surprise, of course, but the timing was unexpected. Fortunately for me, I have other hobbies -- not to mention 1,138 other games. In the late 1990s, though, when I was a wee lad and there were like three MMOs in existence (only one of which I wanted to play), unexpected patches could be quite vexing. So, how about you, Massively readers? What do you play when your favorite MMO is down for the patch day count? Or do you actually go outside or something? Vote after the cut! 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: What do you play on patch day? Leaderboard: What do you play on patch day? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Nov 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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