MMO Updates |
- The Perfect Ten: Why Elves are the scourge of MMOs
- Bombshell: End of Nations to be free-to-play
- Warspear Online update features new currency, numerous gameplay tweaks
- Fallen Earth state of the game talks 1.9.2, economics, and more
- World of Tanks surpasses five million registered players in time for first birthday
- Exclusive: Lucent Hearts shows off the Scaena expansion's dance moves
- Age of Conan: Unchained conquers 300,000 new players, doubles revenue in a month
- The Daily Grind: Do you think Diablo III's RMT policy will affect MMOs?
- LotRO displays the true power of Saruman
- Origins website hints at lofty sandbox goals
- All Points Bulletin slays lag and improves matches
- World of Tanks update brings free two-player platoons, new map, and more
- Forsaken World unlocks the Chains of Kluer
- Trion details RIFT, End of Nations, and Defiance plans for Gamescom
- Choose My Adventure: No more lightsabers!
- A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Someone dies at the end, part two
- Massively Speaking Episode 160
- Free for All: The best-looking games in free-to-play
- Life's betrayal: The lore of RIFT's House Aelfwar
- One Shots: Familiar cage fighters
- Enter at Your Own Rift: How gold farming really hurts the economy
- S'all about style, baby: Carbine Studios' Matt Mocarski on art and design
- Vanguard goes on a bug bash with a new update
- NCsoft shares its Gamescom schedule with the public
- Eden Eternal update features Territory Wars, new content
| The Perfect Ten: Why Elves are the scourge of MMOs Posted: 11 Aug 2011 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Races, Humor, Perfect Ten, Miscellaneous  As the axiom goes, where there is fantasy, there are Elves. Blame J.R.R. Tolkien for popularizing a race of what used to be cookie and Santa helpers. Almost overnight Elves became in vogue in geek culture, and efforts to root them out with flamethrowers have been in vain. Any fantasy MMO that is announced is required, by some arcane law that can only be broken with the blood of a virgin god, to include Elves as a racial choice -- or, if the developers are feeling particularly sadistic, more than one choice. Wood, night, blood, dark, light, mystical -- take your pick. There are plenty of Elves for everyone! Well, I'm not having it. Elves don't get a free pass on my watch, and I'm not afraid to stand up to the powerful Pro-Elf lobby and nail my 10 theses as to why Elves suck on the doors of this blog. Consider your pointy ears on notice, you woodland freaks -- the jig is up! Continue reading The Perfect Ten: Why Elves are the scourge of MMOs
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| Bombshell: End of Nations to be free-to-play Posted: 11 Aug 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, War, Free-to-play, MMORTS  Trion's Dave Luehmann hopes this will give End of Nations a competitive advantage when it launches: "Being able to offer a premium game such as End of Nations for free sets us apart in this industry. At Trion, we strive to innovate online gaming while emphasizing the delivery of the best core gameplay experience available. Our decision to release End of Nations as a AAA free-to-play title is guided by these principles." Trion will be offering an optional subscription package and a game store to enhance players' experience. The store will sell customization and convenience items, and Trion has clearly stated that it will not be selling "pay-to-win items" through it. During our hands-on impressions from last year, we noted that the title was probably not best suited for a monthly subscription, so it's good to see Trion freeing the game from that business model. End of Nations will be available to players at this month's Gamescom.
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| Warspear Online update features new currency, numerous gameplay tweaks Posted: 11 Aug 2011 09:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Mobile, Casual  Chief among these changes are the miracle shop and miracle coins, the latter of which serve as a new currency available for real-world money. Also noteworthy is the addition of a friends list, a minimap, two-handed weapons and heavy armor, and new rune and crystal special items that players may slot in their equipment to enhance its characteristics. Warspear has also transitioned from a ranking system to a leveling system, and there are various tweaks and bug fixes in the update as well. The official Warspear forums feature a post with all of the details, so be sure to head over and give it a look-see.
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| Fallen Earth state of the game talks 1.9.2, economics, and more Posted: 11 Aug 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Dev Diaries, Sandbox  The good news is that "the heavy lifting is over" in terms of the account and services migration to GamersFirst. Croall says that the Fallen Earth team is a smidge over halfway through the entire transition process, so for now it'll still cost you a few bucks to log in and get your post-apocalyptic sandpark fix. Croall spends some virtual ink talking about this month's fast travel/1.9.2 patch, and she also goes into a bit more detail on the combat changes that came with it. Finally, she touches on the game's second anniversary (yeah, it's been two years already!), which happens next month and will also herald some economic changes designed to make the game's well-regarded crafting system pack a little more punch. There's more too, but much of it is farther down the development pipeline, and we highly recommend heading to the official Fallen Earth dev blog to check it out.
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| World of Tanks surpasses five million registered players in time for first birthday Posted: 11 Aug 2011 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Real life, MMO industry, News items, War, Free-to-play, World of Tanks  That's a lot of tank commanders, and apparently more than the company anticipated. "We didn't expect World of Tanks would become this popular. The game's success has given us [the] confidence we needed to continue our expansion into the world of online wargames," said CEO Victor Kislyi. World of Tanks also set numerous peak concurrent user records during its first year, and owns the Guiness World Record for simultaneous player connections at 91,311.
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| Exclusive: Lucent Hearts shows off the Scaena expansion's dance moves Posted: 11 Aug 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, Free-to-play  There's more to the expansion than just the opportunity to set your dance troupe on fire with a Nyan Cat-based dance routine. There are new guild-vs.-guild battles, new areas for players to explore, and new enemies for players to fight. But you don't have to take our word for it; the trailer is just past the break to show off all of the coming update's moves. (And the Nyan Cat dance is also a real thing, for the record.) Continue reading Exclusive: Lucent Hearts shows off the Scaena expansion's dance moves
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| Age of Conan: Unchained conquers 300,000 new players, doubles revenue in a month Posted: 11 Aug 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Business models, MMO industry, Patches, Free-to-play  Apparently the servers are packed full and Funcom is raking in the moolah, too. The studio announced that servers have quadrupled activity during this time period, and revenues have more then doubled. This is certainly good news for the 2008 title, which is now being supported by a mix of subscription and cash shop options. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas is pleased as (a) punch: "The launch of the hybrid business model has been very successful so far. The activity levels on the servers are booming with a fourfold increase in players during July, we more than doubled the revenue generated from the game, and we have experienced a positive development in subscriber numbers. This definitely gives us great hope for the game's future." Age of Conan is set to release a movie tie-in update later this month called Savage Coast of Turan to take advantage of the Conan the Barbarian movie coming to theaters on the 18th.
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| The Daily Grind: Do you think Diablo III's RMT policy will affect MMOs? Posted: 11 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  While hardcore fan- and forum-outrage was palpable, it's likely that the title will shatter sales records anyway, and we'll be that much closer to a gaming world devoid of offline play and festooned with microtransactions. What does all of this have to do with MMOs and Massively? That's where you come in, dear readers. Do you think Diablo III's real-money auction house will affect MMOs? How so (or why not)?  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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| LotRO displays the true power of Saruman Posted: 10 Aug 2011 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-play  Two of the screens show Saruman looking into his palantir and calling down the forces of nature on his enemies, two give a better view of his incredibly detailed Orthanc tower, and the last pair shows the sort of warm welcome we'll be getting from the denizens of Isengard. Rise of Isengard is slated for a September 27th release, and it will bring a number of welcome changes to the game including itemization improvements. You can check out the new screenshots in the gallery below.
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| Origins website hints at lofty sandbox goals Posted: 10 Aug 2011 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Sandbox  The title is the brainchild of Burning Dog Media, a Canadian development firm founded by Michael Dunham and Dave Cruikshank. While specific gameplay details are left to our fertile imaginations, the newly revealed website does hint at a feature set downloaded directly from the minds of starving sandbox fans everywhere. No classes? Check. The ability to change the game world? Check. A conspicuous lack of scripted boss fights? Check. And would you believe mob AI that stalks players over a period of several days, waiting for the right time to attack? The world itself seems to be a mixture of fantasy and sci-fi, and the Origins website contains its share of screenshots, concept art, and bestiary info. [Thanks to James for the tip!]
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| All Points Bulletin slays lag and improves matches Posted: 10 Aug 2011 06:30 PM PDT Filed under: Real life, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin  Beyond the technical side, however, there have been some adjustments and re-examination of the game's threat level system. The rating system is meant to ensure that players fight against other players of roughly equal skill, but due to some issues with the data the average players wound up being pushed into a handful of tiers, resulting in a few tiers with huge variances in levels. The blog entry outlines the changes being put into place to fix the issue, as well as future updates for the game in its current incarnation.
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| World of Tanks update brings free two-player platoons, new map, and more Posted: 10 Aug 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Historical, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, War, Free-to-play, World of Tanks  The new map is called Siegfried Line, and the new armor takes the form of several German tank models including two premium Skodas (the T-15 and T-25). Wargaming.net has also added the option for free-to-play gamers to form 2-player platoons at no cost. Head to the official World of Tanks website for the full update notes.
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| Forsaken World unlocks the Chains of Kluer Posted: 10 Aug 2011 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, News items, Free-to-play  Call your pets and mount up, Forsaken World players, because the newest update Chains of Kluer is upon you. This newest addition to the free-to-play MMORPG brings a number of new features to the game. For starters, the level cap is being raised from 70 to 80. New events are being introduced, including "the revamped Eternal Faith, a Hunting Festival, and an advance pet catching dungeon." Guilds can also now upgrade their guild bases to level three, which includes "higher construction buildings" and lower maintenance fees. Pets can now assist players on their daily quests and events, and death can come more quickly than ever with the addition of mounted combat. To top it all off, in order to commemorate the new update, Perfect World Entertainment is running a contest for players. Anyone who manages to bring down the eponymous ogre Kluer will be entered into a drawing to win a $300 statue of the ogre, an in-game Kluer pet, or an item that will transform players into the creature itself. Good luck, players. Get out there and show that ogre what for!
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| Trion details RIFT, End of Nations, and Defiance plans for Gamescom Posted: 10 Aug 2011 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, News items, MMORTS, RIFT  For starters, there will be a lot of lip service given to RIFT's "Endgame for All" initiative, specifically the new Chronicle instances coming with the 1.5 patch. Gershowitz also mentions the Hammerknell weekend warfront and says its a way for Trion to "spice up the normal warfront grind" via new gameplay and additional rewards. Said new gameplay takes the form of a new mode called escalation, which is essentially the Telaran equivalent of capture-the-flag. The interview also touches on Trion's End of Nations and Defiance titles, both of which will also be featured at Gamescom (though it's worth noting that Defiance will be restricted to industry previewers as Trion says the title "isn't quite ready for its player debut").
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| Choose My Adventure: No more lightsabers! Posted: 10 Aug 2011 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Age of Conan, City of Villains, EverQuest II, Perfect World, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Global Agenda, Free Realms, Black Prophecy, Choose My Adventure, RIFT, Vindictus  Choose My Adventure is a chance for Massively readers to guide one member of the writing staff on an adventure in a game of the readers' choosing. For the next six weeks, I want you to choose my adventure for me. As I mentioned, I have tried nearly every major title in the last decade, but I haven't necessarily spent a lot of time in all of them. After the break, I will describe some of the games that I believe will be great for this task, and you can choose one for me via poll. Then, as a special bonus, on Friday at 6 p.m. EDT I will introduce you to each of the games on Massively's Livestream channel. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: No more lightsabers!
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| A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Someone dies at the end, part two Posted: 10 Aug 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Events, in-game, Lore, Free-to-play, Humor, A Mild-Mannered Reporter  Of course, there were a lot of other theories in the comments last week, including suggestions that death is coming for one or two of the members of this week's list. And there were some good arguments in there... but those are arguments that can just as easily be wrong, something I'll address when we jump past the break and start off with the only survivor who doesn't have a task force to his name. Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Someone dies at the end, part two
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| Massively Speaking Episode 160 Posted: 10 Aug 2011 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, Culture, Opinion, Massively meta, Humor, Massively Speaking  If you're interested in learning more about the Game Programming Instructor position Shawn mentions on previous episodes, check out the job listing or contact Shawn for more info. Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to shawn@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes.  Massively Speaking is the official podcast of Massively.com. Hosted by Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster and Community Manager Rubi Bayer, Massively Speaking takes on the week's biggest news and dev interviews with plenty of opinion, rants, and laughs thrown in for good measure. Join us every Wednesday afternoon to listen in and see what we'll say next!Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 160
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Free for All: The best-looking games in free-to-play Posted: 10 Aug 2011 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Culture, Opinion, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Humor, Free Realms, Kids, Free for All, Dragon Nest, Family, Clone Wars Adventures, Faxion Online  Art is also in the eye of the beholder. Our games are spread across a wide spectrum of styles, and many of us have very strong feelings about what we like and will not tolerate. I have seen people turn down great games simply because of the way a screenshot looked. Heck, I've done it myself. With as many games as I look at every week, occasionally it is smart (and fun) to organize them into lists. This week I am taking stock of my game list and figuring out the games that I feel look the best. Of course, you might not think so. I decided to leave off games that are in testing or not available for the public yet. Click past the cut and see if you agree with me! Continue reading Free for All: The best-looking games in free-to-play
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| Life's betrayal: The lore of RIFT's House Aelfwar Posted: 10 Aug 2011 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, News items, RIFT  The cult of Greenscale is a name that's sure to strike fear into many of the denizens of RIFT's Telara. Today we have an insider's look at the current cult of the dragon of the plane of life, a group known as House Aelfwar, courtesy of Trion Worlds. Once protectors of nature and life, the members of House Aelfwar changed drastically after the Mathosian civil war and the death of Shyla Starhearth. What was once devotion to nature had become fanatical zealotry. House Aelfwar rejected the gods and goddesses of Elven society and took a new deity: the terrifying dragon Greenscale. With its newfound power, House Aelfwar now works to destroy civilization and bring it to nature's reclamation. For the full story on the rise and fall of the once-noble House Aelfwar, step on past the cut. Continue reading Life's betrayal: The lore of RIFT's House Aelfwar
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| One Shots: Familiar cage fighters Posted: 10 Aug 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, One Shots, RIFT  This is an entertaining scene I came upon in RIFT featuring two NPCs training to be cage fighters. Any fans of the movie Napoleon Dynamite will catch on to this immediately. Not only from the classic fight between Napoleon and Kip, but also the titles: Cage Fighter and Bo Staff Style.We're celebrating pop culture in our MMOs this week. Developers sneak references in all over games, whether it be via NPCs, quests, or items, and we want to see your favorites. Grab a screenshot, tell us a bit about what it is, and send it to oneshots@massively.com. We'll be featuring the best of these all week.
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| Enter at Your Own Rift: How gold farming really hurts the economy Posted: 10 Aug 2011 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Opinion, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift  As I was browsing the Auctioneer the other day, I was reminded of Scott's statement because gold farming has sucked a lot of the fun out of in-game economies in virtual worlds. Markets early on were lively, unpredictable, exciting, and full of freedom but very vulnerable because of the growing illegal trade of in-game currency for real money. In an effort to combat the rising real-life value of gold, games like RIFT have moved away from gold toward a system of non-tradeable tokens. But while these tokens have helped to curb the value of gold and reduce the demand for third-party RMTs, they've also removed a lot of the freedom from players. After the cut, we'll take a closer look at how exactly that's happened and why it hurts the economy. Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: How gold farming really hurts the economy
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| S'all about style, baby: Carbine Studios' Matt Mocarski on art and design Posted: 10 Aug 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, News items, Miscellaneous  Nothing seems to stem the tide of dev diaries flowing out of NCSoft's Carbine Studios, and that's just fine by us. Today we have a new post from Carbine's art director Matt Mocarski regarding the visual style of their upcoming title, and which just so happens to include a sneak peek at a screenshot from the title's upcoming debut trailer (which you can see as the header to this post). According to Mocarski, the team began work on the project with a simple goal for the art: It had to be unique and iconic; something that would be instantly recognizable as belonging to Carbine's MMO. With that in mind, the artists began drawing on the collective influences of the team, specifically American and European comics and American and Japanese animation, and came together with an art style that would be unique and memorable for their future fantasy game. It took a few iterations, but eventually the team settled on what Mocarski describes as an illustrated and hand-crafted style. Judging by the still provided, we think it's going to be quite interesting to see the team's work in motion when the game premieres at Gamescom next week.
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| Vanguard goes on a bug bash with a new update Posted: 10 Aug 2011 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Bugs, Patches, Vanguard  This "bug bash" update is precisely what it says: a patch dedicated to fixing a number of troublesome errors in the game. These changes will impact the UI, repeatable events, items, abilities, and quests. While the patch itself would be seen as a routine update in any other game, the fact that Vanguard players are seeing something after all this time is cause to celebrate. A month ago Sony Online Entertainment promised the community that it hadn't forgotten about Vanguard, so hopefully this patch is an indicator that the company plans to make good on its promise to support and expand the game.
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| NCsoft shares its Gamescom schedule with the public Posted: 10 Aug 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Guild Wars 2, Massively Event Coverage  Guild Wars 2 will, of course, feature heavily in the company's presentations. Along with several big-screen live demos, ArenaNet plans to host several Q&A panels covering design, art, PvP, and more. There's even a costume competition planned and several chances to score sweet loot from the dev team. The NCsoft booth will be located in Hall 9 at A11, and the company has provided several ways that travelers can keep track of the weekend's events via social media. Visitors will have the opportunity to check out these new games in addition to chatting up the many developers who will be on hand for the event.
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| Eden Eternal update features Territory Wars, new content Posted: 10 Aug 2011 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play  The new class takes the form of the Warlock, a practitioner of the dark arts who specializes in spawning parasites on his targets and manipulating said targets with an array of spells. The content update also brings the Delphi Forest and Blackflame Peak adventuring regions to Eden Eternal players, and the game's southwestern continent now features the Sunset Desert and Skyreach Jungle areas for high-level characters. New quests and dungeons are also in the offing, as is a loyalty shop that rewards players with Aeria Points for completing standard gameplay tasks. Finally, the Territory Wars system takes a bow, and guilds can go for the jugular in free-for-all brawls that Aeria's press release says will "push the limits of teamwork." More info is available in the patch notes located on the official Eden Eternal website.
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