| The Anvil of Crom: Deconstructing the dev update - PvP Edition Posted: 07 Aug 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom It's been quite a while since I devoted an Anvil of Crom entry to deconstructing one of Craig Morrison's monthly Age of Conan development updates, and what better time to resurrect an old tradition than on the heels of one of the lengthier producer letters in recent memory. The end-of-July document took a decidedly pro-PvP approach, and since I've been spending the majority of my game time on the new Blood and Glory server lately, reading between the lines on the bossman's latest state-of-the-game manifesto seems like the thing to do. Join me after the cut for a bit of discussion on PvP, the future, and a bunch of interesting bullet points. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Deconstructing the dev update - PvP Edition  The Anvil of Crom: Deconstructing the dev update - PvP Edition originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Global Chat: Racial edition Posted: 07 Aug 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Races, Global Chat, Miscellaneous Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! A variety of playable races is usually a big selling point for MMOs. If we're going to play in a fantasy world, the ability to step outside of our human skin is icing on the cake. We had quite a bit of discussion of various playable races here at Massively this week, so follow along after the jump to see what everyone had to say! Continue reading Global Chat: Racial edition Global Chat: Racial edition originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What existing game would you like to see on a console? Posted: 07 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Consoles, Miscellaneous Console MMOs have always been a limited breed, due in no small part to the limited lifespan of consoles versus PCs. That hasn't stopped developers from trying, but somehow the games that are set to be ported to consoles later never quite make the transition -- Age of Conan and Champions Online both stand out as games that promised a console adaptation and then later reversed that promise. Most developers don't even promise that a game will eventually be on a console, either from lack of desire or lack of resources. Despite this, there are no shortage of games that prompt the thought of playing on a console. Action MMOs in particular frequently focus on a control scheme that would feel natural on a gamepad, even if the game isn't intended for play on your television. So today we ask you -- what currently-active MMO would you like to see available on consoles as well, even if the odds of that happening are somewhere around nil?  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 existing game would you like to see on a console? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 07 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| North Korea employing MMO hackers to fund government Posted: 06 Aug 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Lineage, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items What's a dictator to do when his third-world economy is wheezing along on its last legs? Hack some video games, of course! According to a report in the New York Times, North Korea's Kim Jong-il unleashed an army of young computer crackers on popular South Korean online gaming portals to find ways to make quick cash. South Korean authorities claim that a squad of approximately 30 hackers operated from a base in China and were given the mission of breaching online gaming servers (including those of the immensely popular Lineage) to set up bot factories and automated farming collectives. The digital booty was then sold to gamers for a reported $6 million over two years. Chung Kil-hwan, a senior officer at South Korea's International Crime Investigation Unit, says that the hacker group "reports to a shadowy Communist Party agency called Office 39, which gathers foreign hard currency for Mr. Kim through drug trafficking, counterfeiting, arms sales, and other illicit activities." North Korea employing MMO hackers to fund government originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Massively Exclusive: RIFT's Drowning in Snow, part three Posted: 06 Aug 2011 04:00 PM PDT |
| One Shots: On a grand scale Posted: 06 Aug 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Galleries, Screenshots, Wurm Online, Free-to-play, One Shots, Sandbox Wurm Online is center stage again for today's One Shots, and today's entry illustrates the huge scale available for player-created content. This one is a submission from two Massively readers, Acesfury and Shoden, co-mayors of the city of New Eminence: Sorry I couldn't make it a single screenshot, but it's simply too big a place to fit in one image. New Eminence was constructed at the opening of the Freedom server over two years ago. Myself and two others decided the top of the island would be a great place for our new city.
However, going from the bottom to top and vice versa wasn't an easy task. This simple fact required the construction of the Eminence Ramp simply to give us better access. Since we had already planted the city up top we built the ramp from the top down and really had no idea how large it was going to become. The hill side was all forest, you couldn't see how high we actually were. It took over 400hrs by two players over a six-week period to complete the ramp and open up access.
The Upper City has gone through many reincarnations and reconstructions finally coming the the final version (shown in screen #2). With the excess dirt being generated at the city by all the changes we carted it down and built the port at the base of the ramp to better store and secure our ships. The port is over 30,000 units of dirt to push the land out into the water and create the wharves shown. The alternate views of New Eminence can be seen after the jump. We've got one day left in Some Assembly Required week, so if you've haven't gotten around to sending an image of your favorite creation, the time is now! Next week's theme is pop culture in MMOs. 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 next week. Continue reading One Shots: On a grand scale One Shots: On a grand scale originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Tattered Notebook: Great Sprockets, Tinkerfest is here! Posted: 06 Aug 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: EverQuest II, Events, in-game, The Tattered Notebook, Guides As I've indicated in past columns, I'm not a fan of Gnomes. In general, my history with them has been checkered at best. It could be my rejected application to the Anklebiters of Prexus, or perhaps it was watching Corka the Gnome perform leaping backstabs on players to pass the time in Emerald Jungle during a warrior epic camp. Most likely, it was the years of Gnomish abuse, as I tried in vain to verbally spar with Corka, only to wind up on the losing end of the battle. Whatever the reason, I view Gnomes the same way that the Grinch used to view Whos down in Whoville. But when it comes to Tinkerfest, the Gnomish festival held every year over in Steamfont, I have decidedly mixed feelings, because I love steampunk, and this year's Tinkerfest event has lots of new items that almost make it worth spending time at Gnomeland Security. I was faced with a dilemma: should I go hang out with Gnomes and build up my steampunk collection? In this week's Tattered Notebook, I decided to don my Environmental Hazard Suit 3000 and march straight into the lion's den, to take a look at Tinkerfest 2011. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Great Sprockets, Tinkerfest is here! The Tattered Notebook: Great Sprockets, Tinkerfest is here! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Native media playback support has been steadily improving in Windows over the years, but what most people don't realize is that this functionality comes at a price. Dozens of third party licensing agreements are needed to playback all the different forms of audio and video you're likely to stumble across, and over the years Dolby has benefited quite handsomely from the inclusion of its 
When the folks over at One Laptop Per Child set out on a mission to build a sub $100 laptop for developing nations, we wished them on their mission. It is after all, a great cause. When India announced that it would begin building $35 ultra-low-cost laptop for students however, we called them mad, stark raving mad. Turns out India's minister for human resource development was determined to prove us all wrong, and this week has announced they will be producing more than one million of the devices which will be sold to colleges and universities across the country.
