MMO Updates

---

• Leaderboard: Subscriptions vs. free-to-play
• Exclusive: Trickster Online's Songs of Love and Fate
• Undead Labs moving right along with Class3
• MV Guide: October 3-9, 2011
• The Daily Grind: Should devs listen to player councils?
• Newest Star Trek Online blog entry outlines the Duty Officer system
• MMO Week in Review: BioWare blunder
• EVE Evolved: Time dilation and the war on lag
• Rise and Shiny recap: Kultan
• The Anvil of Crom: Surviving the craftpocalypse

Leaderboard: Subscriptions vs. free-to-play Posted: 03 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Polls, Business models, Opinion, Free-to-play, Miscellaneous, Leaderboard For our very first Leaderboard, it was imperative that we pick one of the great white sharks of MMO debates. Cosmetic top hats vs. berets wouldn't cut it, oh no -- we needed a topic that players far and wide can never seem to settle. We needed a battle of the business models: subscriptions vs. free-to-play. Subscriptions have the advantage of simplicity (pay-and-forget), of keeping games from being "nickel-and-dimed to death," of being fairly affordable compared to other forms of entertainment, and of being easily understood by most consumers. Free-to-play removes the barrier for initial access but seeks to mine players' wallets through microtransactions by either presenting tempting purchases or making progress difficult in the game after a point. Long-term history seems to favor subscriptions, but recent developments have definitely shifted the market in favor of F2P models. It's the aging stud against the unconventional upstart in today's Leaderboard! Which will be triumphant? View Poll 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! Leaderboard: Subscriptions vs. free-to-play originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Exclusive: Trickster Online's Songs of Love and Fate Posted: 03 Oct 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Lore, News items, Free-to-play Heads up, Anime fans: SG Interactive's Trickster Online is on the verge of releasing what it's calling "the largest episode in the history of Caballa Island." The cutesy, free-to-play, 2-D isometric MMO out of South Korea aims to launch Episode VI, the grand finale of its second season of content, on October 6th. The episode, titled The Songs of Love and Fate, includes a new escort system, 18 new characters, 23 new maps, 17 new monsters, 15 new normal quests, and 41 new scenario quests. And as you might guess from the title, the update will tell a love story rather than focus on the mysteries of the island itself. Who says a game has to be 3-D to tell a good story? Past the cut, we've got an exclusive teaser video with the highlights from this upcoming content patch. Enjoy! Continue reading Exclusive: Trickster Online's Songs of Love and Fate Exclusive: Trickster Online's Songs of Love and Fate originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Undead Labs moving right along with Class3 Posted: 03 Oct 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Video, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Consoles The end of September marked a graduation of sorts for members of the Undead Labs development team. The company's untitled maiden voyage has officially crossed the threshold from pre-production to in production, and a blog post on the firm's web site celebrates the milestone with something of a rah-rah speech from founder Jeff Strain. "I'm blown away by how far we've come in such a short amount of time. Our task now as we move headlong into the production phase is to take this fun little gem and turn it into something we're proud to show the world," Strain wrote. The gem he's referring to is currently known only by its Class3 codename. We do know that it's about zombies, and it's only for consoles. Aside from that, the title is shrouded in a fair bit of mystery. Strain's post also features a time-lapse video that shows off the game's CryEngine 3-powered time-of-day effects, and you can check that out after the cut. Continue reading Undead Labs moving right along with Class3 Undead Labs moving right along with Class3 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Class3 blog post

MV Guide: October 3-9, 2011 Posted: 03 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively's Livestream channel. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During livestream events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, livestream events are subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule! Continue reading MV Guide: October 3-9, 2011 MV Guide: October 3-9, 2011 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Should devs listen to player councils? Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Real life, EVE Online, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management started as an idea with good intentions, as a way to bring the players' ideas and wishes to the development staff. But the scandals surrounding EVE's CSM seem to undermine its potential for constructive feedback. Few gamers seem to believe that the Council, dominated as it is by megacorps with their own agendas, truly acts in the best interests of the game or the playerbase. And in spite of CCP Games' declarations of cooperation, few players believe that the CSM is much more than CCP's way of paying lip service to the community. But perhaps that's as it should be. What say you, Massively readers? Should games bother with councils of players reps? Are players simply too narrow-minded or corrupt to be trusted with such power? And should devs be strong-armed into listening to the mandates of such players? 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: Should devs listen to player councils? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Newest Star Trek Online blog entry outlines the Duty Officer system Posted: 02 Oct 2011 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play One of the issues that Star Trek Online has always faced when emulating its source material is the simple issue of size. Players take the role of a captain overseeing an entire ship, crewed with numerous people, a ship that in the television series would be filled with actors and recurring faces. But in gameplay, that sense has always been a bit more difficult to convey... and it's an element being addressed with the new Duty Officer system. In the latest entry in the Path to F2P blog, Geoff Tuffli outlines the goals and overall thrust of the Duty Officer system. Players will receive Duty Officers as rewards in a variety of ways, including spending time in the academy for each respective faction. The officers can be placed in departments, sent on assignments, or otherwise managed by players in order to receive the greatest amount of benefit from the support staff. It's a feature that's long been promised by the development team, and as the game moves toward a hybrid business model, it looks to finally be moving to release. Newest Star Trek Online blog entry outlines the Duty Officer system originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Path to F2P blog #3

MMO Week in Review: BioWare blunder Posted: 02 Oct 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Massively meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week? You've come to the right post. There's no question that this week's highlight was BioWare's accidental mass-email to potential Star Wars: The Old Republic testers, whose hopes were quickly deflated. But SWTOR delivered more than a giant oops this week: BioWare announced that the game will launch with achievements, released a nifty 3-D map of the Star Wars galaxy, and promised an "aggressive" post-launch plan. And for those of you lost in a sea of SWTOR lore, our own Larry Everett posted a timeline of the era's history. Check out the rest of this week's top MMO stories behind the break. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: BioWare blunder MMO Week in Review: BioWare blunder originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: Time dilation and the war on lag Posted: 02 Oct 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, EVE Evolved, Sandbox When EVE Online launched back in 2003, it quickly gained a following of over 40,000 subscribing players. With around 5,000 solar systems for players to explore, those players spread themselves throughout the galaxy rather than gathering in one place. Players would often come together to trade or make war, but the server generally kept up with the action. As the number of subscribers rose, the size of the average PvP fleet increased and CCP upgraded the EVE server to handle the additional load. 2005 saw EVE's subscriber numbers explode from just over 50,000 to around 100,000 players. Server upgrades suddenly didn't cut it any more, and lag began to set in during large fleet battles. Ever since then, CCP has waged a largely unseen war against the impossibility of keeping all of EVE's players in one single-shard universe. Holding on to that core ideal that's made EVE the successful sandbox game it is today, developers have pursued every avenue in the fight against lag. While funding research into Python's Stackless IO and constantly optimising code, CCP built the biggest supercomputer in the games industry to house New Eden's growing population. With over 400,000 players now inhabiting the same world and a typically weekly peak concurrency of over 50,000 characters, CCP has been forced to develop some big guns in the war on lag. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the biggest developments CCP has made in the war on lag, including the new Time Dilation feature that literally slows down time to let the server catch its breath. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Time dilation and the war on lag EVE Evolved: Time dilation and the war on lag originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rise and Shiny recap: Kultan Posted: 02 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, Rise and Shiny, Livestream Bigpoint's latest browser-based game is called Kultan, and it's a game that does plenty to show that the developer is continuing to push the boundaries of what a browser and the Unity engine can do. It's always comforting to have somewhere to point people when they ask, "A browser MMO? What's that?" I imagine that Bigpoint is not planning on stopping anytime soon, and Kultan will take its place as one of the rungs in a very tall ladder. How important will Kultan be considered in the future of Bigpoint's portfolio? In some ways, very important. In other ways, I can see it losing itself in an endless line of kill-10-rats grinders, but we'll talk more about that. Click past the cut and let's cover the details. Continue reading Rise and Shiny recap: Kultan Rise and Shiny recap: Kultan originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Anvil of Crom: Surviving the craftpocalypse Posted: 02 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Economy, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom, Crafting So last week we started talking a bit about Age of Conan's 2012 crafting revamp. I laid out a few things that foul up the current system -- from a tradeskiller's point of view, naturally -- but I didn't quite get around to talking about solutions. Though that's on the to-do list, I may not get around to it this week either, since a few mails and some forum discussions brought up a couple of interesting tangential points that I hadn't considered. Surprisingly, I got email from folks who aren't really looking forward to the big tradeskill upheaval that Funcom game director Craig Morrison hinted at in the August development update. Even more mind-boggling was the fact that these folks aren't even crafters. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Surviving the craftpocalypse The Anvil of Crom: Surviving the craftpocalypse originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

You are subscribed to email updates from Massively To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610