MMO Updates |
- The Game Archaeologist uncovers Shadowbane: Talking with Josef Hall and Todd Coleman, part 1
- APB Reloaded gets North American retail distributor
- EVE is Real contests open for voting
- 'Blow your minds': The Secret World dreams of large-scale PvP
- EverQuest II's GU61 pushed back to Thursday
- Sony reinventing Playstation Home to be more like an MMO
- The Daily Grind: Are appearance tabs essential?
- Not So Massively: Diablo III's Inferno mode and million-dollar tournaments
- Gamescom wrapups for WildStar tease a few more nuggets of information
- Final Fantasy XIV talks about the new stealthy gathering
- Lost Pages of Taborea: Runes of Magic's potential for EVE combat
- One Shots: Past, present, and future
- STO's August engineering report on plans for Feature Series 4
- Flameseeker Chronicles: Information overload
- Wings Over Atreia: Till log do us part
| The Game Archaeologist uncovers Shadowbane: Talking with Josef Hall and Todd Coleman, part 1 Posted: 23 Aug 2011 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, PvP, Massively Interviews, The Game Archaeologist  Today we're going to kick off a two-part interview with the makers of Shadowbane, Josef Hall and Todd Coleman. It's interesting to realize that while MMOs come and go, many developers remain in the industry, moving between projects in surprising ways. In this case, both Hall and Coleman went from the brutal lands of cutthroat PvP to a colorful kids title: Wizard101. It's hard to imagine two MMOs being more different, but that goes to show you that developers, like gamers, don't always like being pigeonholed into specific roles. The duo were extremely eager to talk about Shadowbane, as you'll see from this interview. Buckle up -- you're in for a treat! The Game Archaeologist: Can you introduce yourself to us and explain how you became involved with Shadowbane? Josef Hall: I'm Josef Hall, co-founder of Wolfpack Studios, the creator of Shadowbane. Currently, I'm the Vice President of Development at KingsIsle Entertainment, creator of Wizard101. Todd Coleman: And I'm Todd Coleman, co-founder of Wolfpack. I'm currently the VP of Production and Creative for KingsIsle. Josef and I still work together; we were the two first people brought in start the dev studio for KingsIsle here in Austin. Hall: In fact, Wizard101 was our idea, which is a bit odd, given that we were also the first two people to come up with the core idea behind Shadowbane.
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| APB Reloaded gets North American retail distributor Posted: 23 Aug 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Real life, Business models, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin, Crime, Miscellaneous  Apparently those rumors were more than idle scuttlebutt, and senior marketing VP Rahul Sandil's statement that GamersFirst was evaluating its options was more than idle PR-speak. In a new press release issued this morning, GamersFirst revealed that it is partnering with Interactive Gaming Software to bring the massively multiplayer shooter to your local gaming store. Sandil says that "the response from retail has been so overwhelming that we are considering launching with a half-million units." What will retail customers get for their $29.95? Aside from the box and manual, the package boasts $50 worth of in-game items including a permanent high-performance vehicle, a permanent in-game weapon, and 30 days of premium account access (which grants increased mission rewards, reputation gains, and a 20% cash shop discount).
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| EVE is Real contests open for voting Posted: 23 Aug 2011 09:30 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Sandbox  Aside from ogling all the internet spaceships, visitors to the site can also get in on the voting to determine the best of the best when it comes to capturing stills and making movies in New Eden. Users may vote for one image and one video prize each day, and winners will receive one of 20 video cards (for the image category) and one high-end Dell PC (for the video category). Voting runs through September 1st, so lay in a course for the EVE is Real website today!
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| 'Blow your minds': The Secret World dreams of large-scale PvP Posted: 23 Aug 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Horror, Sci-fi, Interviews, PvP, The Secret World  Unlike The Secret World's smaller PvP battlefields, the warzones are persistent with a much larger population. So instead of waiting for a match, experienced players can hop right into a warzone for the glory and honor of their faction. In the warzones, players can capture respawn points to help out their faction and work on their secret society ranking while doing it. Tornquist said that the first warzone is in a Chinese city, although it doesn't have a name yet. Tornquist stated that the game should provide players with "several hundred hours" of PvE experience, not to mention the title's PvP and optional internet quests that will have the dedicated hunting through websites for arcane clues. Funcom's project lead thinks the total sum of The Secret World will be unlike anything we've ever seen before: "When the story and the respective events are ready to show off, we are going to blow your minds."
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| EverQuest II's GU61 pushed back to Thursday Posted: 23 Aug 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play  The AA changes are, of course, the biggest tweak, and EQ2Wire notes that the old "spider-web" method has gone the way of the dinosaur. In its place is a more consistent ability unlock system as well as new subclass trees for each of EQII's 24 classes. As we told you earlier, the Shadows tree is now reserved for players at level 50 and above, so plan accordingly if you're fond of specialized crafting characters or other departures from conventional class wisdom.
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| Sony reinventing Playstation Home to be more like an MMO Posted: 23 Aug 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Consoles, Virtual worlds, Miscellaneous  When it relaunches this fall, PlayStation Home will look radically different, resembling something like a sleek mall with plenty to do and faster functionality for those who want to get right to their games. But between playing commercial titles, gamers are encouraged to hang out for a while, which is where MMO elements come into play. The new Home has a number of districts, as an amusement park would, and in them players can pick up quests, go on treasure hunts, and explore these video game-themed zones to find hidden mysteries. Sony also promises that it will incorporate persistent, ongoing stories, similar to those you'd find in MMOs, such as an alien invasion that affects all of the areas. Sony is hoping that the 23 million Home users will embrace this new experience and form stronger social connections through it.
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| The Daily Grind: Are appearance tabs essential? Posted: 23 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind  Along with housing, crafting, and other MMO gameplay staples that have fallen by the wayside in recent years, appearance tabs are often scoffed at by the combat-only crowd and consequently treated as low-priority by devs and publishers. Clearly a lot of players want to be able to customize their characters, though, as even the mighty Blizzard has finally caved in to fan requests (although it did take World of Warcraft designers a good seven years to wrap their heads around the concept). What about you, Massively readers? Do you feel that appearance tabs are essential to your MMO enjoyment?  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!
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| Not So Massively: Diablo III's Inferno mode and million-dollar tournaments Posted: 22 Aug 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Trailers, Video, Culture, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Not So Massively  It's been a huge week for online gaming, with DotA 2 being shown for the first time at Gamescom and new details being released on Diablo III. In this week's Not So Massively, we give out beta keys for upcoming online action game Brawl Busters and reintroduce MMO-esque online FPS Blacklight: Retribution. Heroes of Newerth makes some controversial changes this week with patch 2.1.5, putting a free courier in every game and reorganising items in the shop. The biggest news came out of Gamescom this week was the conclusion of Valve's massive $1.6 million US DotA 2 tournament The International. League of Legends retaliated with the announcement of a $5 million US total prize fund for competitive tournaments in season two. Blizzard also attended Gamescom to reveal new details of Diablo III's difficulty settings, which will include a brand-new Inferno endgame mode designed to challenge even the best players. Skip past the cut for details of this week's biggest news from the world of MOBAs and other online games. Continue reading Not So Massively: Diablo III's Inferno mode and million-dollar tournaments
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| Gamescom wrapups for WildStar tease a few more nuggets of information Posted: 22 Aug 2011 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, Endgame, News items, WildStar  The fact that the game will include PvP is almost a no-brainer, but the endgame has been stated to be diverse for all players. If you don't enjoy raiding, the game will still have a world story for players to explore and get engaged by. The world will feature both open areas and instances, as well, with a definite spread of different ways to ensure that players can experience the game with their friends. Last but not least, classes will be versatile and armor will be heavily customizable -- the game is being shaped to be something where each player can make his or her mark and have a unique look. If the game interests you, our own staffers will be getting a hands-on experience with WildStar on Friday.
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| Final Fantasy XIV talks about the new stealthy gathering Posted: 22 Aug 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV  Named after the cat-like monsters found across the series, the new ability permits gatherers to enter an undetectable state for various tiers of levels at the cost of a severe drop in movement speed. Stealth can be maintained even while gathering, however, allowing players to sneak right past aggressive monsters and take their bounty from the land with ease. While Coeurl Step is exclusive to the gathering classes, there are few players who haven't picked up one gathering class or another, so most of the playerbase will benefit from the option to go incognito.
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| Lost Pages of Taborea: Runes of Magic's potential for EVE combat Posted: 22 Aug 2011 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea  RoM's gear-modification system lends itself to EVE-esque combat. Keep in mind we're not talking about how the mechanics or guts of the games are similar or different; we're talking about how the same itch is being scratched. In the case of RoM's PvP being like EVE, it's more like tickling the itch with a feather, which makes you want to scratch it even more. I want to scratch that itch with a Brillo pad by exploring how RoM's open-world PvP could function more like EVE's, thanks to the arcane transmutor. Let's start with how I think battlefields differ from open-world PvP. Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Runes of Magic's potential for EVE combat
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| One Shots: Past, present, and future Posted: 22 Aug 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, One Shots  The amount of care Guild Wars puts into its environments is astounding! My favorite has got to be the amount of planning that has gone into keeping visual lore continuity between Eye of the North and Guild Wars 2.We're looking at the best MMO environments all this week. Do you have a favorite landscape, particularly eye-catching weather effect, or hidden jewel in an out-of-the-way location? Snap a screenshot of your favorite MMO area, tell us a bit about what and where it is, and send it to oneshots@massively.com.
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| STO's August engineering report on plans for Feature Series 4 Posted: 22 Aug 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, News items, Star Trek Online, Dev Diaries  STO executive producer Daniel Stahl has offered up a post that kicks off with praise for Cryptic's new overlords at Perfect World Entertainment. He goes on to state that subs are up as players stream in to check out the new Ground Combat system and that the team is working extra hard to push out the long-awaited Deep Space 9-themed Feature Series 4. Stahl also outlines the devs' fall plans for the REDSHIRT closed beta server and notes that the upcoming September 22nd update "will be pretty big [...] some might say even bigger than the launch of Season 4." Finally, the post winds down with a meaty list of game features and bug fixes currently in testing, including tweaks to the Duty Officer system, random Borg encounters, the group-finder tool, lore quests, and more.
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| Flameseeker Chronicles: Information overload Posted: 22 Aug 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, PvP, PvE, Guild Wars 2, Races, Flameseeker Chronicles  It's OK, you can laugh -- I am. Talk about trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon! There is one thing I can wrap up for you: Last week there were ArenaNet blog posts and site updates, over a dozen interviews and articles written, nine photo galleries (one from ArenaNet), 17 video interviews, and over 100 game footage videos. So how do you even begin to process all of that, especially when you consider that there's another wave coming in just a few days? Follow along after the jump and let's take a look! Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Information overload
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| Wings Over Atreia: Till log do us part Posted: 22 Aug 2011 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Wings Over Atreia  Relationships. They are everywhere; heck, Aion even nods (and markets) to relationships by offering a wedding dress/tuxedo through the NCsoft Store. When something commands as much of your time and attention as playing your favorite MMO does, relationships of some type are bound to form. And some are even lucky enough to have their real-life partners play right alongside them; wife-aggro takes on a whole new meaning when she shanghais you for an Udas Temple run! Whether they're in-game, a part of real life, or just an online fling love affair, relationships can and do have a profound affect on game play in Aion for everyone, not just those within said relationship. And while a Balaur's share of the effect is drama, that luckily is not the totality of it! Sometimes relationships create stability and camaraderie for groups and are beneficial to the community. Lovers'-leap over the break for Wings Over Atreia's look at relationships and their effects in Atreia. Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: Till log do us part
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