| The Perfect Ten: Ways to prepare for the coming of SWTOR Posted: 24 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Launches, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Perfect Ten Welcome to a very special edition of The Perfect Ten, the column that my two toddlers contribute to with their awe-inspiring counting abilities! With last week's dropping of Star Wars: The Old Republic's NDA, the internet has exploded with information, testimonials, and poorly spelled flamewars between the camps of believers and non-believers alike. It's a good time to be alive, eh? In the spirit of the NDA drop and the upcoming December 20th launch -- less than a month! -- I've put together a list of 10 excellent ways that a SWTOR fan can prepare him or herself for the coming MMOcalypse. I totally understand that it can be frustrating to be waiting for an anticipated game launch, feeling impotent with your inability to speed up time. However, taking action in other ways can help with the wait and make us feel like we're being productive. That's what I'm here for today. It's OK, there's no need to thank me. I get Light Side points for this. Continue reading The Perfect Ten: Ways to prepare for the coming of SWTOR  The Perfect Ten: Ways to prepare for the coming of SWTOR originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Massively's big fat Black Friday roundup: 2011 edition Posted: 24 Nov 2011 07:00 AM PST Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Promotions, Miscellaneous So apparently there's this thing called Black Friday. This is news to me because shopping isn't really my thing, see, especially if it involves looking for parking spaces, Christmas music, or entering a retail establishment of any sort (regardless of season). OK, I do occasionally make allowances for the grocery store. Anyway, when it comes to holiday consumerism, fortunately there's this place called the intarwebs, where savvy merchants have taken to selling all manner of whatever and delivering it directly to your front door with the bare minimum of fuss. I hear there are even a few deals and steals for the budget-conscious MMO fiend in this land of digital plenty, and you should head past the break for links to a few of the more noteworthy sales. Continue reading Massively's big fat Black Friday roundup: 2011 edition Massively's big fat Black Friday roundup: 2011 edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What's the most you'd spend on a virtual item? Posted: 24 Nov 2011 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Business models, Economy, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind So Bigpoint is apparently rolling around in piles of money these days, in no small part because of virtual item windfalls like the one resulting from its €1000 DarkOrbit space drone. Expensive cash shop items are nothing new, of course, and whether we're talking about World of Warcraft's $25 sparkle pony or EverQuest II's propensity for making you buy items for each character on your account, companies have figured out that there's a certain segment of the MMO-playing population with a good amount of disposable income. For today's Daily Grind, we're curious about your cash shop spending limits. In a nutshell, what's the most you've ever spent -- or that you'd be willing to spend -- on a virtual item?  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's the most you'd spend on a virtual item? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WindSlayer 2 patch brings PvP, updated UI Posted: 23 Nov 2011 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Patches, PvP, News items, Free-to-play Ignited Games' upcoming title WindSlayer 2 just entered open beta earlier this month, but the team is already rolling out updates. The latest patch to hit the game introduced players to Team Match PvP, which is the first PvP mode introduced to the game. In addition, the update brought changes to the game's UI and graphics settings as well as added 52 new item shop products. To get in on the side-scrolling PvP action, just head on to the WindSlayer 2 official site and sign up. [Source: Ignited Games press release] WindSlayer 2 patch brings PvP, updated UI originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Supremacy puts players' artistic ability to the test with new contest Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:30 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Contests, News items, Free-to-play Star Supremacy entered open beta earlier this month, and the game's developer, Barbily Games, wants to give one lucky player an opportunity to have his or her artwork turned into an in-game ship. That's right, Star Supremacy wants your ship designs, and the winning entry will be used to create a new spacecraft within the game. There's only one week left in the competition, so if you want to put your artistic skills to the test, just head on over to the game's official site. [Source: Barbily Games press release] Star Supremacy puts players' artistic ability to the test with new contest originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New contest celebrates the launch of Torhead Posted: 23 Nov 2011 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Contests, Culture, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic If you've been following Star Wars: The Old Republic for long enough, you're probably tired of hearing it compared to World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, the launch of the beta version of Torhead isn't going to ameliorate those comparisons, as it's clearly meant to function in the same fashion as Wowhead (and is designed by the same team, no less). Even if you're not lucky enough to be in the beta yet, you can scour through the database and play with the skill calculators already. To celebrate the launch, the site staff is kicking off a contest, and appropriately enough, the more helpful content you upload to the site, the more contest entries you get. The grand prize winner gets a new Razer Naga and an Astro A40 Gaming Headset, both of which should be quite useful once the game launches. But even if you're not in the beta, you can still browse and comment to enter, something that might help assuage the waiting. New contest celebrates the launch of Torhead originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| South Korea puts the 'Cinderella Law' into effect Posted: 23 Nov 2011 04:30 PM PST Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items, Legal, Miscellaneous South Korea's burgeoning online gaming market has brought the country a great deal of business success, but it's also brought the dread specter of video game addiction to the forefront of public awareness. Hoping to curb addiction before it starts, the country has brought into effect a new law requiring all online games to block players under age 16 from playing between midnight and 6 a.m. Dubbed the "Cinderella Law," it also affects online services such as PlayStation Network and XBox Live. As expected, the law has several vocal critics, who assert that the law infringes upon the civil rights of children. The Korea Association of Game Industry, a group including companies such as Nexon and NCsoft, is in the midst of preparing a lawsuit based on its claim that the law is excessively prohibitive. Of course, many gamers have been trying to circumvent the ban already by connecting to Western servers, which have no such restriction... although it could be argued that connecting to another country's servers just to play for a six-hour period sort of reinforces the whole argument about addiction. South Korea puts the 'Cinderella Law' into effect originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New Champions Online archetype available in regular and controversial editions Posted: 23 Nov 2011 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Business models, Classes, News items, Free-to-play, Champions Online It might seem a little late for a demonic archetype, but Champions Online has still rolled one out into the store. The Scourge is a new ranged archetype focused on poisoning and debuffing the target, with less durability and melee power to balance its slow ranged ramp-up. Like all archetypes, it's free to subscribing players and available for free players in the cash store. But it's also tied to a new grab bag offered in the cash store, which is provoking a few player concerns. The Cursed Grab Bag, among other things, contains a special token to unlock the Cursed archetype, which is essentially a color-shifted version of the Scourge archetype. Some players are a little concerned about the slippery slope being established here, as the Cursed archetype is not free to subscribers (although color-shifting powers is). As a result, concerns have been raised about what this cosmetic change might mean for future archetypes being released, although as others point out, you can always just change the color if you subscribe to begin with. New Champions Online archetype available in regular and controversial editions originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Volume III, Book 5 diary available for Lord of the Rings Online Posted: 23 Nov 2011 03:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Lore, Previews, News items, Free-to-play One of the challenges facing the storyline in Lord of the Rings Online is that it has a very definite deadline to contend with. While the story runs in parallel to the events in the books, it also has to line up in terms of what's taking place, which is why players will be parting company with the Grey Company starting in the next installment. Instead, as outlined in a new developer diary, Book 5 of Volume III will see players working with Prince Théodred, heir to Rohan, as he works to organize the defense of his country's borders. The diary also gives a firm date to mark story progress by; according to the book's timeline, Frodo should reach Mount Doom in about a month. Players will find this book to be a bit shorter than the previous installment, but it should still be a vital component as the game approaches the climax of the trilogy. They'll also receive a cosmetic set of equipment at the beginning of Book 5 to help them look like a Ranger, which is appropriate considering the story progress up to this point. Volume III, Book 5 diary available for Lord of the Rings Online originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Wars: The Old Republic approaching the final phase of testing Posted: 23 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Guilds, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic It's hard to believe that after all this time, Star Wars: The Old Republic is launching in less than a month. As you would expect, the game is making its final testing pushes for players. According to Stephen "Rockjaw" Reid's Twitter feed, players selected for the final testing weekend will be seeing schedules sent out over the next 12 hours, with players allowed to start testing either Friday or Saturday, starting at 11:00 a.m. EST. Existing testers and visitors to the site will also have to contend with some degree of maintenance trouble, as the site is experiencing an understandable groundswell of traffic. The final push also means that the deadline is approaching for players to get in on the Pre-Launch Guild Program, which ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on December 2nd. This means that players who fulfill all the requirements will be able to transfer their guilds straight into the live game -- but they'll have to finalize everything before the deadline. So if you're a guild leader with a few things left to finish up before launch, the holiday weekend might be an ideal time. Star Wars: The Old Republic approaching the final phase of testing originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Choose My Adventure: A fond farewell Posted: 23 Nov 2011 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Opinion, Hands-on, Humor, Choose My Adventure, Final Fantasy XIV Well, ladies and gents, the time has come for the final edition of my run with Final Fantasy XIV on Choose My Adventure. After many travails, I was still unable to hunt down a leveling party, so I'm afraid that is one thing I'm not going to be able to provide my views on during this feature. It's been a good run with good ol' FFXIV, though, and I enjoyed the bite-size samples of each feature I inspected (well, mostly anyway). So after the cut, I'm just gonna recount my general impressions of the game, something of a tl;dr for the ADD folks in the audience. I do want to preface this with a disclaimer, however: This is by no means a comprehensive or complete review. This is my take on the game after playing it casually (about three to five hours per week) for the duration of this CMA. There are many features in Final Fantasy XIV that I didn't get to explore, such as the later levels of crafting, the later levels of combat (which apparently introduce some keen new features such as Battle Regimens), and so forth. That being said, follow on past the cut for my final opinion of my time in FFXIV. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: A fond farewell Choose My Adventure: A fond farewell originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MechWarrior introduces the DRG-1N Dragon BattleMech Posted: 23 Nov 2011 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Lore, News items, MechWarrior Online MechWarrior Online's steady media drip continues today with a short lore piece introducing the DRG-1N Dragon BattleMech. This particular 'bot is a result of the work of the Draconis Combine, and through the flavor text, we can pick out a few details about the new addition. The 'Mech is described as a "long-range focussed 'Mech capable of handling threats at all ranges." The Dragon comes armed with "a Telos DecaCluster LRM-10, an Imperator-A Autocannon/5, and two Victory 23R Medium Lasers." The brief states that "the Dragon will be able to bring down most foes before they even get into the range of its two Victory 23R Medium Lasers" through the use of the long-range Autocannon/5 and the "indirect-fire capabilities" of the DecaCluster. To get the full details on this new 'Mech, just head on over to the game's official site. MechWarrior introduces the DRG-1N Dragon BattleMech originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Iris Online celebrates its first birthday Posted: 23 Nov 2011 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, News items, Free-to-play Iris Online publisher gPotato has a very optimistic outlook on sharing a birthday with a holiday, saying that "you can either be sad that all your friends are busy doing holiday things or you can throw such a tremendous party that they make time to drop by and visit you!" Of course, the studio is choosing the latter (we still feel for you, people with late-December birthdays) to celebrate Iris Online's first birthday. The celebration begins today and runs until November 26th. For the duration of the festivities, players will be granted experience, skill, and battlefield point boosts. Drop and enhance rates will also be increased, and to top it off, any player who's been part of Iris Online since September will be given a unique costume just for logging in. To get in on the celebration, just head to the game's official site. [Source: Gala-net press release] Iris Online celebrates its first birthday originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| PlanetSide 2 rallies the Vanu Sovereignty with new video Posted: 23 Nov 2011 01:00 PM PST |
| Free for All: What I am thankful for Posted: 23 Nov 2011 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Humor, Free for All, Miscellaneous Here in the United States we are gearing up to celebrate well, whatever it is exactly that we give as the reason to get together with friends and family and eat more than humanly possible on the last Thursday in November. To be honest, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because I truly do use the occasion to take stock of how good I have it and to decide what is important to me and my future. I wanted to take similar stock with you all, my readers. After all, work can be a major part of our lives, and this is my work. Over the year and a half I really have learned a lot and became a better writer through the experience. So I am thankful for a lot. Click past the cut and I'll tell you just what I am thankful for. Continue reading Free for All: What I am thankful for Free for All: What I am thankful for originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Snakes Posted: 23 Nov 2011 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Lore, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter For the first several villain group spotlights, I haven't been focusing on problems that are unique to the Rogue Isles. This is not entirely by accident -- City of Heroes was what came first, and generally speaking, I'd say the most relevant villain groups started out in Paragon City. And most of those groups do wind up interfering with your activities for Arachnos, too, so it sort of balances out. But Mercy Island faces its own problem, one that starts slithering up from the depths... Unfortunately, this is also a threat that very quickly gets sent back underground. The Snakes are not really what you'd call a big-ticket villain group; they skulk in the shadows and are very quickly supplanted by other villainous organizations. And with the revamp to Mercy Island, they're no longer even your first enemies off the boat. So it's probably for the best that we remember the Snakes now because there might be no more Snakes to remember tomorrow. Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Snakes A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Snakes originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Enter at Your Own Rift: Will RIFT survive the SWTORacolypse? Posted: 23 Nov 2011 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift It's coming. In just a few weeks, Star Wars: The Old Republic will launch, and on every gamer's mind is the subject of how many players it will lure away from other games. It's quite likely that every MMO will suffer a dip in numbers when SWTOR launches -- heck, even World of Warcraft is bracing for impact with a stock downgrade. But as gamers know, a launch is one thing, but how a game does in the months after is more important. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'm going to grab that third rail and look at a few ways in which SWTOR and RIFT differ, to see what effect SWTOR's launch might have on the game. Keep in mind that I am a fan of RIFT (hence the regular column), and I also really enjoyed my time in SWTOR's beta, have it pre-ordered, and plan to play the game when it launches. So I'm not saying one is better than the other; rather, I'm looking at differences that might appeal to one playstyle over another. Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: Will RIFT survive the SWTORacolypse? Enter at Your Own Rift: Will RIFT survive the SWTORacolypse? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A couple of days back, Microsoft announced plans for new Kinect hardware specially tailored for PCs, something we faithfully reported to you that very same day. But the motion sensing camera, which holds a world record for being the fastest selling consumer electronics item in history, is now rumored to be headed to "next-generation television sets" as well.
Originally scheduled for sometime during the third quarter, the launch of Intel's next-generation "Cedar Trail" Atom chips was pushed back to November owing to driver issues and the chip maker's failure to secure WHQL certification for them. We have almost come to the end of the month and there is no sign of the Cedar Trail-M platform yet. But not everyone is clueless.
Hey, have you heard about Twitter? It's kind of a big deal. Apparently people use it to communicate in 140 characters, detailing revolutions, protests and intricacies of knitting free-ranged wool sweater for cats. Thanks to the service's soaring worldwide popularity, there's no shortage of applications designed to help get your tweets out, few are as easy to use as Twitter's native homepage. Thanks to 
Are you rocking a preview build of Windows 8? If so, you don't need to go without CPU-Z. There's a new update available, the first one in about five months, that brings CPU-Z up to version 1.59. Among the short list of changes is official support for Windows 8. The new build also recognizes Intel's Core i7 2960X, 3930K, and 3820 Sandy Bride-E processors.
While many people were getting ready to stuff their faces with turkey and watch the Detroit Lions not suck for once on Thanksgiving (or just Thursday), Google's been busy doing some off-season spring cleaning. Again. This time, Google zeroed in on seven services it plans to shutter in the near future, including Google Wave, which will soon become a read-only service.
'Tis the season to watch in horror as your bank account whimpers out a pitiful final breath – tralalalala. That's how the song goes, right? Fortunately, as is its wont, Steam's attempting to make things a bit easier (or infinitely more difficult, depending on your inability to resist and pouncing on a perfect deal and savaging it like a rabid wolverine). Starting now and running until November 27, Valve's ubiquitous download platform will be 
