MMO Updates |
- Previewing the nuts and bolts of MechWarrior Online
- Massively's 2011 winter holiday event roundup
- League of Legends' Viktor wields science for evil
- RIFT offers cheap client, lots of bonus XP for Christmas
- Square-Enix says no user info stolen during security breach
- The Daily Grind: Which MMOs would you marry, kiss or kill?
- City of Heroes opens up friend referrals once again
- Guild Wars 2 dev blog talks achievements, Thief tweaks
- Dawntide temporarily closes beta server
- EverQuest II holiday producer's letter focuses on dungeon finding and making
- RIFT wishes fans happy holidays with a new Fae Yule video
- Stephen Reid addresses SWTOR server load issues
- Star Wars: The Old Republic's hype train barrels onward
- On the eighth day of giveaways, Enjin gave to me...
- The Soapbox: Tunnel vision
- The Game Archaeologist crosses Meridian 59: An interview with Brian Green (part 1)
| Previewing the nuts and bolts of MechWarrior Online Posted: 21 Dec 2011 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Screenshots, Interviews, New titles, PvP, Free-to-play, Massively Interviews, MechWarrior Online  Massively joined the press roundtable for the game this week and snagged some juicy information. We talked with Piranha Games' President Russ Bullock and Creative Director Bryan Ekman about how the development process is going, how their philosophies influence design, and how the game will actually play. Click past the cut, and watch out for heat! Continue reading Previewing the nuts and bolts of MechWarrior Online
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| Massively's 2011 winter holiday event roundup Posted: 21 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Massively Meta, Guides, Miscellaneous  We've been rounding up all the details on celebrations happening in our favorite MMOs, combining them into a handy guide. Follow along after the jump for your map to all of the can't-miss MMO winter holiday events for 2011! Continue reading Massively's 2011 winter holiday event roundup
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| League of Legends' Viktor wields science for evil Posted: 21 Dec 2011 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Free-to-play, MOBA  Viktor is the latest champion on League of Legends' drawing board, and Riot Games has given us a sneak peek at the awe and terror that he will bring to the game. Viktor is written as the creator of fellow champion Blitzcrank, but is a wee bit upset that his work got stolen from under his nose. Instead of joining a therapy group, Viktor turned his body into a robotic slaughter apparatus and is out for some good ol' fashioned revenging. Viktor's passive ability, Evolving Technology, allows players to purchase an item from the store to modify his bonus to suit the players' needs. He can also shoot a beam that bounces back to him as a shield, set up a Graviton Field to slow and stun enemies in his immediate vicinity, and fire a massive Death Ray that cuts through multiple foes. His Chaos Storm is neat as well, allowing Viktor to send out a cloud that silences and damages enemies caught within it.
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| RIFT offers cheap client, lots of bonus XP for Christmas Posted: 21 Dec 2011 06:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, RIFT, Promotions  To help you in your quest to save the world from demons and bad Christmas music, Trion is running a pretty spiffy promotion from December 22nd through January 2nd. RIFT subscribers will enjoy 15% bonuses on kill XP, favor, prestige, plaques of achievement, marks of ascension, and planarite throughout the holidays, and you can learn more about the game at its official website. [Source: Trion press release]
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| Square-Enix says no user info stolen during security breach Posted: 21 Dec 2011 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Final Fantasy XI, MMO industry, Legal, Final Fantasy XIV, Miscellaneous  Square-Enix posted the following notice as an update: As a result of our continuing investigation, we have now confirmed that the database in which we store personal information was NOT accessed during the recent server intrusion. Therefore, your personal information was NOT compromised by an unknown third party.
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| The Daily Grind: Which MMOs would you marry, kiss or kill? Posted: 21 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor, Miscellaneous  Which games would you marry, would you kiss, and would you kill? By which, I mean:
 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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| City of Heroes opens up friend referrals once again Posted: 20 Dec 2011 07:00 PM PST Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, News items, Free-to-play, Promotions  Any player who does not have an active City of Heroes account or has an account that's been inactive for 90 days is eligible for the referral, which can be processed through the official site or via the in-game market. Assuming your target subscribes for at least one month, you receive an extra month for free, and the referred player receives a bonus of 500 Paragon Points in the market. Paragon Studios, meanwhile, gets another player. So really, everyone wins.
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| Guild Wars 2 dev blog talks achievements, Thief tweaks Posted: 20 Dec 2011 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Guild Wars 2  As it turns out, GW2's achievements come in three flavors, and they comprise long-term goals, dailies, and monthly tasks that "encourage a variety of play and reward you with gold and experience." Peters details recent changes to Thief class gameplay, and he pays particular attention to the steal and backstab abilities. He also spends a bit of time talking about improvements to combat timing and animations. "Making these improvements has been really interesting and fun because it has shown us how our game can feel appropriately action-oriented without taking away the familiarity of the MMO genre," Peters explains.
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| Dawntide temporarily closes beta server Posted: 20 Dec 2011 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Dawntide, Sandbox  WAI says that the servers will be offline "for a period of one to two months," and the company intends to keep players posted via weekly news updates and screenshots of the work in progress. Dawntide is a non-linear open-world title featuring skill-based advancement and a deep crafting system. You can check out our first impressions of the beta client via Some Assembly Required.
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| EverQuest II holiday producer's letter focuses on dungeon finding and making Posted: 20 Dec 2011 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play, Dungeons  Before all of Sony Online Entertainment's developers fly out to see family and spend the holidays away from EverQuest II, the team decided to give players one last Frostfell present. Today's producer's letter takes a look at a number of new features coming to Norrath. The dungeon finder will see a couple of updates, such as the addition of contested dungeons to the dungeon finder and increased rewards for using the dungeon finder system. Dungeon-makers, meanwhile, will be granted a number of new treats. New effect objects will be available in the marketplace, and many items such as spawners, decorations, and maps will be purchasable with Station Cash as well as in-game currency. A number of general improvements have been made as well, including a revamped rating system for houses and dungeons and a couple of smaller tweaks. For the full details, click on over to the full letter below.
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| RIFT wishes fans happy holidays with a new Fae Yule video Posted: 20 Dec 2011 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, News items, RIFT  Trion Worlds has released a new video in order to wish its fans happy holidays from RIFT's land of Telara. The new Fae Yule-themed video shows Telara on holiday, with people standing in line for presents, riding some rather derpy reindeer across a snowy landscape, and of course, beating the ever-loving daylights out of a gargantuan treant wrapped in lights. To get your dose of Telaran holiday cheer, just click on past the cut for the full video. Continue reading RIFT wishes fans happy holidays with a new Fae Yule video
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| Stephen Reid addresses SWTOR server load issues Posted: 20 Dec 2011 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic  Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to prove itself overwhelmingly popular as the official launch day progresses. Perhaps a little too popular, in fact. Stephen Reid stopped by the official forums today to post a short warning on high-population servers. Many players are experiencing extended queues to log in to their servers, but Reid focuses on a few "consistently high-population servers... [which] are closing in on their absolute population cap." These servers have reached or nearly reached the maximum amount of players the server can handle and "will likely have a queue to enter even at off-peak playtimes." The servers in question, organized by region, are The Harbinger, The Swiftsure, and The Fatman for North America, and Bloodworthy, Frostclaw, Legions of Lettow, The Red Eclipse, Tomb of Freedon Nadd, Darth Revan's Mask, Darth Traya, Jar'Kai Sword, and Hrakert Rift for Europe. Reid adds that server transfers are a common request, but even though the ability to transfer servers is being worked on, "there is no ETA on when it will be available." Also of note is the announcement that SWTOR will be launching in Australia and New Zealand in the spring of 2012. Reid states that right now the team is aiming for March 1st, though that may change. And if you've already imported the game, don't worry. Reid says that "[BioWare] will be investigating solutions to allow you to continue to play on a local server once they come online in March." For the full details, click on over to the SWTOR official forums.
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| Star Wars: The Old Republic's hype train barrels onward Posted: 20 Dec 2011 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Launches, MMO industry, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic  December 20th is finally here, and Star Wars: The Old Republic is as live as it's going to get. The title's official launch has sent ripples through the interwebs, and MSNBC, Gamasutra, and Kotaku all have new features highlighting various facets of the new title. Gamasutra has a few words with BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk and creative director James Ohlen regarding the game's post-launch strategy. Zeschuk claims that the team is "really busy working on future SWTOR content as well as continuing to improve the service. This will never end." Never is quite a long time, we think, but we'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, MSNBC sits down with SWTOR's Lead Writer, Daniel Erickson, about BioWare's much-touted story pillar. He claims that the game's 20 writers worked together for a total of over 60 man-years of labor on the game's story and writing. And lastly, Kotaku has another few words with Zeschuk. When asked if SWTOR could potentially make a move to F2P like, say, DC Universe Online, Zeschuk replied, "Free-to-play works best when a game is built that way from the ground up... We're not saying never ever, but we certainly have no plans like that in the foreseeable future." For the full features, click on through the links below.
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| On the eighth day of giveaways, Enjin gave to me... Posted: 20 Dec 2011 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Contests, Guilds, Giveaways, Miscellaneous  On the seventh day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... seven years of memories! On the sixth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... six retail packs! On the fifth day of giveaways, Trion gave to me... five subscription codes! On the fourth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... four pet items! On the third day of giveaways, Wargaming.net gave to me... three premium years! On the second day of giveaways, BioWare gave to me... two warring factions! On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP! Day eight has arrived, bringing with it gifts not just for a single person but for an entire gaming guild! Enjin, the host site to the Massively forums, has added eight gifts to our virtual pile: four one-year hosting plans and four 25-slot Mumble VOIP servers! The Mumble servers can accommodate the chattiest raid group, and the Enjin hosting packages include a host of extras to make a all-in-one guild home. It's easy to enter: Just leave a comment letting us know which prize you'd prefer and why. (Want to add a little bit about why your guild is awesome? Feel free!) The entry deadline is tomorrow, December 21st, at 4:00 p.m. EST. When the deadline arrives, we'll choose and contact eight winners for a holiday gift for their guilds. Check our contest rules and FAQ for eligibility, and best of luck!  
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| Posted: 20 Dec 2011 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous  As everyone knows, social gaming is doomed to failure. Mindless, repetitive drivel like FarmVille is just an enormous waste of time and clicking with no actual gameplay aspects involved, and there's no real depth to keep someone hooked. It's not even remotely close to an MMO, and obviously pretty much everyone will get bored with it and stop giving Zynga money in a couple of months. The only thing that stands in the way of that clearly correct opinion is the piles of money it continues to make. Of course, the above is what several gamers have been stating ever since the first seemingly innocent Facebook game came around. I'm restating it here not because I'm talking about social games but because it's a symptom of a larger problem. As gamers, we love to predict which MMOs will work and which ones won't, but we're also suffering from a terrible sense of tunnel vision that makes us really awful at that. Continue reading The Soapbox: Tunnel vision
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| The Game Archaeologist crosses Meridian 59: An interview with Brian Green (part 1) Posted: 20 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Meridian 59, Culture, Interviews, MMO industry, Free-to-play  As I'll recount over the next two episodes of The Game Archaeologist, I sat down with Brian Green, a blogger and game developer who oversaw the resurrection of Meridian 59 in the early 2000s and ran it for the better part of a decade. Green graciously agreed to participate, saying that he always loves talking about games -- and this one in particular. The Game Archaeologist: Hi! Please introduce yourself and your current position and project. Brian Green: I'm Brian "Psychochild" Green, a long-time MMO designer and programmer. I'm known for my professional blog and my work on Meridian 59. I'm currently working on the Storybricks project as the MMO Wizard. We're a startup, so that means I do whatever needs to be done at the moment. Continue reading The Game Archaeologist crosses Meridian 59: An interview with Brian Green (part 1)
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