| The Anvil of Crom: Celebrating the selfless gamer Posted: 13 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Culture, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom Oh sh... it's time for another installment of Massively's Anvil of Crom! If I sound a bit harried, it's because there's simply not enough time in the day for all the gaming goodness going on lately. Whether we're talking about the MMO space where I'm currently dabbling in AoC, DC Universe Online, EverQuest II, and Global Agenda, or the single-player smorgasbords of Arkham City, Uncharted 3, and Skyrim, sometimes it sucks to be an adult with responsibilities! Those "sometimes" are usually during the pre-Christmas release window when game publishers all get together and decide to make our entertainment lives miserable by releasing 35 badass titles at once. Hello geniuses, how's about we stagger the badassery throughout the year; you'll still be rolling in money and your customers won't be rushing through one title to get to the next. Anyway, I'm continually on the lookout for interesting tidbits from Funcom's Hyboria, and over the past couple of weeks I've been struck by a noticeable uptick in what I'm going to call the quality community. Since AoC's 2008 launch, the game's community has been alternately awful and tolerable, and whether that's because of the game's mature rating (and the immature people it attracts) or some other factor, it's been a rare occasion when I've had cause to highlight the nice folk. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Celebrating the selfless gamer  The Anvil of Crom: Celebrating the selfless gamer originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 13 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Global Chat: November 6-12, 2011 Posted: 13 Nov 2011 07:00 AM PST |
| The Daily Grind: Are beta weekends a good timeframe for testing? Posted: 13 Nov 2011 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous The big problem of betas, of course, is that they aren't launched games. That means that every quest you complete, every enemy you kill, and every level you gain is just going to have to be re-done at launch. For some people, however, the testing environment before launch is something they want to take part in, even knowing that they won't be able to take it with them once the game goes live. Prior to launch, RIFT used a series of beta weekends to give players a chance to test, and Star Wars: The Old Republic has been following the same footsteps. On the one hand, this is enough time to get a feel for the game and test it out without letting you get too invested in your accomplishments. On the other hand, it also means that it's hard for players to really level past a certain point, thus leaving the higher levels more difficult to test -- if not impossible. So what do you think? Are beta weekends a good trend, or is it too little time?  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: Are beta weekends a good timeframe for testing? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| SWTOR pits the Trooper against the Inquisitor Posted: 12 Nov 2011 07:30 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Classes, PvP, Star Wars: The Old Republic The second of the four-part Choose Your Side video series has been released over at Star Wars: The Old Republic, and this time it creates a hypothetical showdown between the Republic's Trooper and the Empire's Inquisitor. In it, four BioWare devs jaw about who would win in a fight and what each of these classes has going for it. These videos are proving to be a great way to get a better feel for classes' strengths and weaknesses, particularly in a PvP setting. On one hand, the Trooper is said to have an advantage in terms of health, armor and range, with plenty of tricks to keep the Inquisitor at bay and, er, dead. On the other hand, the Inquisitor's Force powers and double-bladed lightsaber may make for a completely unfair fight against the Force-less Trooper. The devs reveal a few tidbits about the two classes' philosophy while they're calmly laying out the smack talk. The Trooper comes off as a "shoot first and ask questions later" type of character, while the Inquisitor is portrayed as a mastermind pulling the strings from behind the stage. You can watch the full video after the jump! Continue reading SWTOR pits the Trooper against the Inquisitor SWTOR pits the Trooper against the Inquisitor originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| League of Legends prepares for Fizz patch Posted: 12 Nov 2011 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Video, Patches, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MOBA All this week, Riot Games has been releasing snippets of information on upcoming League of Legends champion Fizz, the Tidal Trickster. Fizz's mechanics preview gave a first glimpse into the sea monster's skills, including his ability to dodge attacks with his trident and to call a shark to eat the target enemy. A new art spotlight video gave us our first look at the champion and showed off both his signature trident weapon and one mean-looking shark. Today Riot published a patch preview video for the upcoming Fizz patch, detailing all the other changes coming with the update. Ranged carry champions are the focus of rebalancing efforts in the coming patch, with Caitlyn, Kog'maw and Graves being nerfed and Corki, Miss Fortune and Tristana due for buffs. With tournament season approaching, Riot is being careful to make these changes very minor to avoid upsetting current lane balance. Sona's auras are being nerfed a little, which isn't a surprise as Sona's usually the obvious choice for support. The season two summoner spell changes we discussed earlier in the week will also be going live with this patch, along with revamped mastery trees. Skip past the cut to watch the full video in HD. Continue reading League of Legends prepares for Fizz patch League of Legends prepares for Fizz patch originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| This Week in MMO: Really? Bigpoint? Edition Posted: 12 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Video, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Humor, Warhammer 40k, DC Universe Online, WildStar Welcome to another super-exciting edition of This Week in MMO. On this episode, host Gary Gannon and a pair of Mikes have a bit of fun with the announcement that Bigpoint will be taking the helm of an MMO based on the super-trendy A Game of Thrones. Meanwhile, is WildStar a theme-park or a sandbox? Well, we don't know, but the TWIMMO guys have a bit to say on the matter. DC Universe Online gets a wild playerbase boost after its transition to free-to-play, and speculation abounds as to whether the upcoming Warhammer 40: Dark Millenium Online MMO could be free to play. For the full show, just jump on past the cut. Continue reading This Week in MMO: Really? Bigpoint? Edition This Week in MMO: Really? Bigpoint? Edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Class philosophy Posted: 12 Nov 2011 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Game mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log I'm willing to bet that there are MMOs out there with more classes than the online Final Fantasy installment, but there aren't any that spring to mind with such a wide array of classes and such a schizophrenic outlook on how they work. In both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV you can switch between classes freely, each class with its own emphasis... and yet you can also port abilities from one class to another in some fashion, thereby blurring the distinction of each individual class compared to its peers. If it isn't obvious, I've been thinking a lot about classes, how they work in the games, and where the two different implementations succeed or fail. So I'm going to start off by taking a look at classes as an overarching construct, what they should be providing for both games, and what the developers seem to want from the classes in a game-wide sense. If this sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry, next week we'll be taking a break to talk about moogles. For now, though, let's talk about what a class should have. Continue reading The Mog Log: Class philosophy The Mog Log: Class philosophy originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Tattered Notebook: What free-to-play means for EverQuest II Posted: 12 Nov 2011 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook Thursday was quite the news day for EverQuest II. Normally, the announcement of pre-order specifics and details on the new expansion would be pretty big news by itself, but it was completely upstaged by the announcement that all EQII servers will be free-to-play. As expected, there are lots of mixed emotions from the players regarding this new transition. Here at Massively, readers generally welcomed the move with open arms, but on the official forums and on the fansite EQ2Flames, there was a lot more trepidation. That's understandable because this move could change quite a lot going down the road. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll look at what the free-to-play transition means for the future of EQII. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: What free-to-play means for EverQuest II The Tattered Notebook: What free-to-play means for EverQuest II originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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