MMO Updates

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• Rise and Shiny recap: Thirst of Night
• Previously on MV TV: Week of January 16th, 2012
• The Daily Grind: How do you define MMO?
• EVE Online reveals full Crucible 1.1 patch feature list
• Diablo III senior producer leaves Blizzard
• The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round four
• Captain's Log: Cryptic's Lead Designer responds to questions
• The Tattered Notebook: Plat, loot, and the morality of cash

Rise and Shiny recap: Thirst of Night Posted: 22 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Business models, Previews, PvP, Opinion, War, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, MMORTS, Post-Apocalyptic, Rise and Shiny, Livestream I love my MMORTS games, for sure. I've had to work on my ability to look at them with the freshest eyes that I can possibly muster, mainly because I see so many of them. It really is a genre of details. The gameplay in different titles is often almost exactly the same, but little details will set them apart. Thirst of Night, a new MMORTS by Kabam, tries hard to set itself apart from the pack, but does it do enough? I also have to consider that, for many players, these experiences I go through every week are brand-new experiences. For a good number of people, the games I cover are their first or second ones. While it is hard for me to fathom, I have to keep that in mind. So while I saw a game this week that was lacking and tired in some areas, I know that those same areas would be pretty exciting to a new gamer. Like I said, I'm working on it. Continue reading Rise and Shiny recap: Thirst of Night Rise and Shiny recap: Thirst of Night originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Previously on MV TV: Week of January 16th, 2012 Posted: 22 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, Previously on MV TV Welcome to Previously on MV TV! Our livestreaming schedule has picked up a lot over the past few weeks, and our readers have busy lives, so we know it's impossible to watch every single streaming event live. Fortunately for you, we save all of our streams all for posterity on Massively's Twitch TV channel so that you can view them at your leisure. Even better, we've got a roundup of a few of last week's MV TV highlights from the livestream team. Follow along after the jump for the best of the best! Continue reading Previously on MV TV: Week of January 16th, 2012 Previously on MV TV: Week of January 16th, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: How do you define MMO? Posted: 22 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Defining "MMORPG" isn't difficult: it means "massively multiplayer online roleplaying game." It's an acronym. But drawing the line between what is and is not an MMO is significantly more difficult. Guild Wars has persistence and shared areas, for instance, but as soon as you leave a town, you're in an instance unique to you and your party. There are elements of persistence in games like League of Legends. Heck, there was a time when people wondered if you could call World of Warcraft an MMO with its instanced dungeons and lack of housing. As with a lot of subjective categories, there's really no right or wrong place to draw the line, but pretty much everyone seems to think that there's a line to draw. More often than not, it's not even a matter of quality so much as a set of consistent characteristics. So what about you? Where do you draw the line between an MMO and something else? How do you define a game as being an MMO instead of a similar sort of game? 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: How do you define MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Online reveals full Crucible 1.1 patch feature list Posted: 21 Jan 2012 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Sandbox The feature page for EVE Online's next major patch Crucible 1.1 has gone live, with a comprehensive list of the features we can expect when it's released on Tuesday January 24th. As the patch has probably now entered feature lockdown, the feature page is now a complete listing of the updates we can expect. The patch finalises the changeover of player owned starbases to the convenient new fuel block system, and the six changes revealed in Team BFF's last devblog will also be going into effect. The neocom will receive its big update with the patch, but the two biggest changes are issues that players have begged CCP to address since 2008. Tech 2 assault frigates are finally being rebalanced to bring them in line with other ships, and alliances will now be able to sign up for faction warfare. Other big changes include a boost to all sizes of Null blaster ammo and the release of new deadspace invulnerability fields for shield users. Head over to the official Crucible 1.1 feature page for a full list of changes. [Thanks to Knoodlepot for the tip!] EVE Online reveals full Crucible 1.1 patch feature list originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Crucible 1.1 feature page

Diablo III senior producer leaves Blizzard Posted: 21 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Miscellaneous Blizzard's Steve Parker dropped a bit of a bomb via Twitter this weekend. The Diablo III senior producer is leaving the project and the company for reasons unknown. "I'm no longer working at Blizzard or on D3," Parker wrote. "I've had a great five years there and those guys are going to kill it with Diablo." While Blizzard is currently listing Diablo III as an early 2012 release, the company continues to make major changes to the hotly anticipated action title. Diablo III senior producer leaves Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Parker's Tweet Via: IGN

The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round four Posted: 21 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Game mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, The Mog Log One of the funny things about writing a regular column is that sometimes, when you start out writing a series of connected columns on a topic, you have a point you want to make. Other times, you find a point making itself as you go, and you realize that it's a pretty good point. After our first three columns covering the various classes in Final Fantasy XI, that effect is on my mind, especially as I move into the fourth installment. As before, the standard caveats apply. Nothing below is meant to debate relative power levels or overall worth; instead, I'll judge the class solely on its own merits -- how much does it offer other jobs, does it have a unique mechanical identity or not, and how cool is the darn thing. With that in mind, let's round out the advanced jobs from the core game with Beastmaster, Summoner, and Bard! Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round four The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round four originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Captain's Log: Cryptic's Lead Designer responds to questions Posted: 21 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Interviews, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Captain's Log The weekend before Star Trek Online launched its free-to-play format, Cryptic Studios' Lead Designer, Al Rivera, responded to a lengthy list of player concerns, rants and questions via the STO community podcast PodcastUGC. PodcastUGC usually focuses its broadcasts on issues revolving around the game's user generated content tool, The Foundry, but as of late the co-hosts of the show (including me!) have been desperate for specific Foundry issues to discuss due to the lack of changes since last year. In the previous week's episode, I let my opinions fly along with my frustrations about what I felt was a severe lack of story-based content. I asked aloud, "What the hell have they been doing the past year?" To our surprise, we were contacted by Al Rivera, who set aside his day off to talk with us about just that. Continue reading Captain's Log: Cryptic's Lead Designer responds to questions Captain's Log: Cryptic's Lead Designer responds to questions originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Tattered Notebook: Plat, loot, and the morality of cash Posted: 21 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Economy, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook There's a dirty little secret going on in EverQuest II, and every now and then it bubbles up to the surface in forum complaints from players. With the arrival of Station Cash, the Marketplace, and Legends of Norrath cards, players have worked out a way to buy in-game coin with real money, without fear of getting banned. And with the transition to free-to-play, it seems like that practice has grown even more. The problem is that there are several things that factor into the plat-for-cash scenario, so it's impossible to find a quick fix. Are we at a point that SOE should just put plat on the marketplace and be done with it? Let's look at a few reasons for and against it. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Plat, loot, and the morality of cash The Tattered Notebook: Plat, loot, and the morality of cash originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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