MMO Updates |
- New WAKFU dev diary highlights player freedom, sandbox features
- MMObility: Some new gear, and some new news
- The Firing Line: Thousand-player dogfights and more PlanetSide 2 conjecture
- Firefall beta shutting down to protest SOPA
- The Daily Grind: How early should guild creation be allowed?
- This Week in MMO: Lawsuits edition
- The MMO Report: Baby names edition
- Behind the Mask: The dangers of roleplaying as an outlet
- RIFT flags more trial servers
- Ask Massively: No idea what's coming edition
- James Ohlen hits back against critics, defends SWTOR's innovation
- Massively interviews TwitchTV's Justin Kan
- The Guild Counsel: Star Wars guilds need more love!
- RIFT introduces 3-month, 6-month, and yearly subscription plans
- City of Heroes Issue 22 update features heaps of new content
| New WAKFU dev diary highlights player freedom, sandbox features Posted: 13 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Economy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, Sandbox, Crafting  "We really wanted to make WAKFU a game based on freedom, a game which puts the player in control," says Ankama designer Azael. "Most current MMOs create a game and then insert the player. With WAKFU we aimed to create the game around the players." WAKFU features very few NPCs (and no traditional vendor NPCs at all), and it also boasts mobs that don't drop money. Players create the game's currency themselves by harvesting ores and making use of minting machines, and players are also responsible for seeding the world with monsters since they don't respawn on their own. You can learn more about WAKFU by viewing the video after the break. Continue reading New WAKFU dev diary highlights player freedom, sandbox features
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| MMObility: Some new gear, and some new news Posted: 13 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Business models, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Casual, Miscellaneous, MMObility  In my opinion, it's not a matter of if but when this switch to portable, cloud-based gaming happens. It just makes sense when you look at all of the ways we have switched to a more cloud-based world. I write these articles through the cloud; I do my banking on a website that is hosted somewhere far, far away. If you've ever bought a product online, you have trusted the internet in more ways than one. So let's take a look at some of the exciting new mobile goodies I discovered this week! Continue reading MMObility: Some new gear, and some new news
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| The Firing Line: Thousand-player dogfights and more PlanetSide 2 conjecture Posted: 13 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, The Firing Line  How do ya like them apples? Anyhow, that's not all I'm going to talk about, as a couple of other online shooters made news over the last seven days. Most of you know that I can't pass up the opportunity to mention Tribes: Ascend, and oh yeah, would you believe there's an aerial combat game that supports 1,000-player dogfights? Continue reading The Firing Line: Thousand-player dogfights and more PlanetSide 2 conjecture
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| Firefall beta shutting down to protest SOPA Posted: 13 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Culture, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Legal, MMOFPS  The lights will remain off for 24 hours, and Red 5 CEO Mark Kern has some strong words for the bill and those who support it. "We are extremely disappointed in this misguided legislation. We are also ashamed of the ESA for supporting a bill which is clearly not in the best interests of gamers or the game industry," he told ShackNews. Kern went on to say that Red 5 has canceled its plans to attend this year's E3 "unless ESA reverses their stance."
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| The Daily Grind: How early should guild creation be allowed? Posted: 13 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  But the topic of guild creation has varying schools of thought. Most MMOs let you create a guild in the early stages of the game, as long as you have the required resources. Others gate guild creation by level, rare materials, geographical location, or more. I can see how this would be beneficial, as it would allow characters to learn how to work with random strangers before establishing a familiar group. Many times, once players are in a good guild, they don't venture outside of that comfort zone, almost nullifying the "massively" part of the term "MMO." So now we want to know your thoughts on the subject. Should guild creation be immediate (or even before the game launches, as with SWTOR), or should it be something to work up to?  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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| This Week in MMO: Lawsuits edition Posted: 12 Jan 2012 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Video, Opinion, Humor, PlanetSide 2  It's that time again, folks. Gary Gannon and guests Mike B. and Mike Schaffnit bring you this week's edition of This Week in MMO, and today the spotlight is set on the Bethesda-Interplay lawsuit, which was recently resolved in Bethesda's favor. Meanwhile, console gamers everywhere are surely pleased to hear that they won't be left out of Blizzard's upcoming Diablo III, as it was recently confirmed that the game will be making the jump to consoles as well as PC. And finally, to top it all off, the guys have a chat about SOE CEO John Smedley's thoughts on the free-to-play business model and PlanetSide 2's newest trailer. If you've got an hour to kill, just click on past the cut for the full episode. Continue reading This Week in MMO: Lawsuits edition
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| The MMO Report: Baby names edition Posted: 12 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Video, MMO industry, Opinion, Humor, The MMO Report, Miscellaneous  Finally, Casey dips into the mailbag to dispense advice to aspiring game designers and gratitude to a pair of gamers who are planning to name their first child after Casey himself. Says the Beard: "I am equally honored and aghast... I'm just a loudmouth with a camera who reads hit-or-miss jokes about nerd stuff off a teleprompter so that someone can put it on the internet." Watch Casey blush at the prospect of little baby beardlings in the full MMO Report video tucked behind the break. Continue reading The MMO Report: Baby names edition
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| Behind the Mask: The dangers of roleplaying as an outlet Posted: 12 Jan 2012 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Opinion, Free-to-play, Roleplaying, Champions Online, Behind the Mask  This is as much a topic for Storyboard as it is for Behind the Mask, but because it is very common among Champions Online roleplayers, I feel it deserves extra consideration. This article isn't going to finger-point at bad roleplayers and say why they're wrong. Rather, the point of this column is to inform good roleplayers about elements of RP that can quickly ruin people's fun. Continue reading Behind the Mask: The dangers of roleplaying as an outlet
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| Posted: 12 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, News items, RIFT  But that's not quite what's going on. As explained by community manager Elrar quite some time ago, trial servers are lower-population servers that are essentially being put to one side for large-scale trial programs. Character creation for subscribers is disabled on those servers, and there's a message encouraging you to move to another server with a free transfer, but it's not a shutdown, just a ramp-up to a larger trial period for non-subscribers. According to Rift Junkies, a total of 11 servers are seeing the trial tag applied, and players are encouraged to move off these servers by January 18th. If you've got a character on Belmont, Galena, Atrophinius, Crucia, Alsbeth, Estrael, Shadefallen, Sunrest, Freeholme, Dayblind, or Faemyst, now would be a good time to start planning for greener, non-trial pastures. [Thanks to Celestial Lord for the tip!]
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| Ask Massively: No idea what's coming edition Posted: 12 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous  This week's Ask Massively received several questions that require me to be more confident about my predictions than I actually am, but it does contain a question about the future of Aion and a question on the past, present, and future of cheating. If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, leave it in the comments below or send it along to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity. Continue reading Ask Massively: No idea what's coming edition
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| James Ohlen hits back against critics, defends SWTOR's innovation Posted: 12 Jan 2012 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, Launches, Star Wars: The Old Republic  For the most part, players and critics have praised the game, Ohlen shares, and BioWare is seeing an "exceptionally high" desire among its playerbase for continued subscriptions. But was BioWare prepared for the backlash as well? Ohlen says it was: "We knew that there was going to be people who wanted us to fail. But that's just the nature of the game. If you're going to build a huge game and try to go out to a lot of people, you're going to have people who just react poorly." He does push back hard against claims that SWTOR failed on the innovation front, stating, "We wanted to take the lessons that have been developed in that genre over years and years and years and basically refine them, much like other companies do with other genres. So, I don't know, it's just the way it is, but I don't see us as not being innovative. We're actually a lot more innovative within the MMO space than comparable games in other spaces like the first-person genre, the action genre -- games like that."
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| Massively interviews TwitchTV's Justin Kan Posted: 12 Jan 2012 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Business models, Culture, Interviews, Massively Interviews, Miscellaneous  Justin Kan, president of Justin.tv (of which Twitch is a part), sat down and answered several of our questions about the livestreaming service. Click past the cut to read the interview! Continue reading Massively interviews TwitchTV's Justin Kan
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| The Guild Counsel: Star Wars guilds need more love! Posted: 12 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Guilds, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Guild Counsel  In fact, at one point, I had to ask myself if there was any benefit at all to being in a guild other than having guild chat and a cool tag. I'm certainly haven't lost hope yet because after all, it's only a few weeks into the game, and features like the guild capital ship have already been mentioned as being on the way. But this week, I'm playing amateur developer and adding my list of guild-friendly features that are must-haves for SWTOR (and for all MMOs, actually!). Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Star Wars guilds need more love!
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| RIFT introduces 3-month, 6-month, and yearly subscription plans Posted: 12 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, News items, RIFT  It's a new year, and the folks at Trion Worlds want you to spend it in Telara. In order to entice players to stick around, the studio has announced three new subscription plans for those who are tired of dropping $15 US every month. RIFT players can now subscribe for three months for $12.99 US per month (that's $38.97 US, billed every three months), six months for $10.99 US per month ($65.94 US every six months), or one year for $9.99 US per month ($119.88 US every year). But wait, there's more! For a limited time only, Trion is offering players a discount on the yearly subscription package. Instead of paying $9.99 per month, players will pay $8.25 per month for a total of $99.00 per year. So if you're one of the many RIFT players who have been waiting for multi-month subscription options, all you have to do is head on over to your account page and make the switch. For more details, check out the game's official subscription information page.
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| City of Heroes Issue 22 update features heaps of new content Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Galleries, Screenshots, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play  Chief among the updates are tweaks to the Dark Astoria zone (it becomes a Co-op Incarnate Zone tailored for level 50-plus heroes). Also noteworthy is the new darkness power set for Controllers and Dominators, which should cause a cackle of glee for those of you who relish summoning spectral minions and commanding shadows. There's also a new trial called Dilemma Diabolique in which heroes and villains must join forces to take down the evil sorceress Diabolique before she makes good on her nefarious plan to rule the world. And that's just the tip of the new content iceberg. More info on Issue 22 is available at the CoH website. [Source: NCsoft press release]
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