MMO Updates |
- Anarchy Online's future is so bright, it's gotta wear shades
- WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition
- The Daily Grind: What originally got you into MMOs?
- New Darkfall development blog touches on key points
- Storyboard: Flag a server
- Champions Online cuts the craft in favor of the mod scene
- Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012
- Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu
- Star Wars: The Old Republic blog talks about refining the PvP experience
- Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings
- The Anvil of Crom Extra: Craig Morrison on new content, crafting, and customizable communities
- Kissing cousins: SWTOR's legacy system explained
- TERA PvP battlegrounds won't be in at launch, delayed until 'late summer'
- Age of Conan dev update details free content, spiffy server tech
- MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks
- Blizzard opens the Mists of Pandaria floodgates for 100,000 annual passholders
- Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation
| Anarchy Online's future is so bright, it's gotta wear shades Posted: 31 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Anarchy Online, Economy, Previews, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries  Probably the biggest change on the immediate horizon is a brand-new global market interface that will allow players to buy and sell goods to each other. The market will be accessed at special terminals in the main cities as well as portable terminals, and can trade across all dimensions. Free players can browse the market, but only subscribers can buy or sell in it. Work-in-progress screenshots of the market were also posted to the main site. She reports that while the team was happy to show off the upgraded graphics engine this past week, there's still a ways to go before it hits live. Other projects that occupy the devs' time are improving the new player experience, balancing professions, and a streamlined game launcher with a graphical character selection screen. [Thanks to David for the tip!]
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| WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition Posted: 31 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous  This week's WRUP does not entirely focus on PAX, of course, mostly because that's not happening this weekend. But we do talk about our plans for the current weekend as well as our opinions on the pervasive shroud of muscled men that make up MMO beefcake. Take a look at what we'll be up to past the cut, and let us know what you're planning on playing over the weekend in the comments! Continue reading WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition
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| The Daily Grind: What originally got you into MMOs? Posted: 31 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  Most of us have changed our game-playing (and paying) habits because of MMOs, and the beginning of that wasn't too far back. The transition usually started with a trusted developer (Blizzard, Sony) or IP (Ultima), but not all of us started at the very beginning. So that's where your stories come in. Tell us how you first got into MMOs.  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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| New Darkfall development blog touches on key points Posted: 30 Mar 2012 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Sandbox  Although the terminology used in the blog is a bit vague due to the fact that specifics on the system are under wraps, it's made very clear that the point system is not simply an achievement system (which will also be added). Rather, using points in-game will fuel certain abilities or grant access to new abilities, allowing players to open new paths as a reward for their accomplishments. There's also a few updates on the future of crafting, all of which should give Darkfall players something to look forward to when version 2.0 finally goes live.
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| Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous  This prompted me to ask whether anyone actually expected roleplaying servers to be policed, but honestly, that's a tangent to the real issue. I can convincingly argue that there are ways that the servers should be policed, but regardless of whether or not roleplayers expect this to happen, I think it's pretty absolute that not having a roleplaying server is much more slipshod than having one with inadequate support. The alternative suggests you really don't care whether your game has roleplayers or not. Continue reading Storyboard: Flag a server
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| Champions Online cuts the craft in favor of the mod scene Posted: 30 Mar 2012 06:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Champions Online, Crafting  The old crafting skills, meanwhile, tie into the new method of fusing Mods by helping you create stronger Mods and harvest new ones. Extant crafters will also be integrated into the new system; all existing crafted benefits will stay in place (although new ones won't be available), and the crafting-specific travel powers and bags will be moved to other vendors. It's a pretty radical reinvention of the game's current dynamic, but it will hopefully make the game a bit more fun for crafters and non-crafters alike.
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| Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012 Posted: 30 Mar 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Betawatch, Miscellaneous  Tired of standard MMOs? MMOFPS Firefall has announced its next stage of beta, and fans of Roguelikes can pile on the Path of Exile public stress test all weekend (thanks to reader Carson for that tip). Don't forget our coverage of the latest and greatest Guild Wars 2 beta media event! The full Betawatch roundup is tucked behind the cut. Continue reading Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012
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| Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, New titles, PvP, PvE, Massively Interviews, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Crafting  Back then, Burning Dog Media made the bold statement that it would absolutely release its flagship game in 2012, with a target of early 2012 to boot. But as the first quarter of the year quickly drew to a close with scant information available, it became pretty clear the game is still a ways off. In the realm of games, no news is not necessarily good news... and we definitely hit a drought in news. Now that drought has ended. In our second exclusive interview, we spoke with Michael Dunham, Producer, Jason Mitchell, Senior Developer, and Dave Cruikshank, Art Director, to learn what's been going on behind the scenes and get the scoop on more details about those very features that have sandbox lovers salivating. Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu
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| Star Wars: The Old Republic blog talks about refining the PvP experience Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic  There's also a new set of Warzone rewards in the new War Hero set, as well as a number of additional improvements to purchasing rewards and earning commendations in battle. More medals will encourage more active participation, while a new vote-kick system will discourage AFK players. If all of this sounds like something you'd like to check out in person, the update with some of the PvP improvements will be playable at PAX East next weekend, providing an opportunity to test out the battles and give some immediate feedback.
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| Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Historical, Business models, News items, Miscellaneous  So what's next for the game? The forum thread on the letter claims that the game's servers will keep running and funding them isn't an issue, but no new development will be taking place until the funding can be found for a free-to-play conversion. As the game hasn't come anywhere close to recovering the cost of bringing it to market, that doesn't bode well for the future. Whatever happens next, this is certainly a dark day for the Roman game, and we can only hope that better news is on the horizon. [Thanks to Jason for the tip!]
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| The Anvil of Crom Extra: Craig Morrison on new content, crafting, and customizable communities Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Classes, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Patches, PvP, News items, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom, Dungeons  This week sees the introduction of tier four raiding content in Khitai as well as a lengthy Morrison-authored update letter that provides a roadmap for the rest of 2012. Follow along after the break as we talk raiding, the upcoming crafting revamp, and the community potential (and perils) of Funcom's spiffy new single-server technology.
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| Kissing cousins: SWTOR's legacy system explained Posted: 30 Mar 2012 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Game mechanics, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dev Diaries  After choosing a Legacy surname (which many players have already done), BioWare will allow you to connect your characters through a family tree in the Legacy panel. Characters don't have to just be blood relatives; they can be allies, rivals, and adopted family members as well. Wallace explained that through these Legacy connections, characters have inherited many traits that run strong in families. These unlocks come in the form of shared emotes (which come at the end of Chapter 2), shared heroic abilities (unlocked at the end of Chapter 3), and the ability to roll the same race no matter what the class (unlocked at level 50). The Legacy system will also allow companions to unlock passive stat bonuses shared across all companions of that same archetype. Ship improvements, including mail, GTN access, and droids, are other perks of this system. However, players will have to wait until Update 1.3 to purchase per-character perks. These, as Wallace hints, will allow players to "customize the way their characters progress, as well as new rewards, conveniences, and all kinds of other fun surprises."
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| TERA PvP battlegrounds won't be in at launch, delayed until 'late summer' Posted: 30 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, PvP, News items, TERA  TERA fans who were looking forward to proving their mettle in PvP battlegrounds at launch are in for a bit of disappointment. En Masse community manager Minea stopped by the forums a few days ago to give fans an update on the game's development, and in doing so, revealed that battlegrounds will not be in the game when it launches in May. But before you take to the forums to kick up a frenzy (please don't), keep in mind that just because battlegrounds won't be available at launch doesn't mean that they're not in the works. Minea goes on to announce that battlegrounds are planned to be added to the game "late this summer." We hope that the extra development time will allow battlegrounds to be nice and polished when they finally hit the live servers. Until then, though, players will have to make do with open-world PvP and guild-vs-guild battles.
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| Age of Conan dev update details free content, spiffy server tech Posted: 30 Mar 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play  This month there are quite a few interesting tidbits, including a mention of the game's next adventure pack, the crafting update, and of course, the new tier four Khitai raids in and around the Jade Citadel. Also noteworthy is the latest mention of Funcom's single-server tech. You may recall that Morrison mentioned this in 2011 as a way for players to form their own niche communities within the larger server community. Not much has been said about it since, but Funcom's Dreamworld engineers have been working on it behind the scenes to get it ready for its debut in The Secret World. After that, Morrison says, the tech will make its way into AoC, and chances are you'll have a chance to vote on the implementation. "This will most likely be the main subject of our summer surveys this year given how radically we could change the experience with this technology," Morrison explains. "It is one of those things that could be implemented in a way that you don't even notice, or it could be deployed to make things work in ways that are not typical for MMO games (like potentially allowing players to define their own communities, or even, at the furthest fringes of what's possible, defining their own rulesets!)." Look for our exclusive interview with Morrison later this afternoon.
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| MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Horror, Game mechanics, Previews, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Hands-on, Casual, Miscellaneous, MMObility  Parallel Kingdom isn't the only location-based game out there, though. I thought it might be cool to take a look at some of the other titles to see what the competition has to offer. So far I have only found a few that are stepping up in quality. Read on to see what I think of the rest! Continue reading MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks
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| Blizzard opens the Mists of Pandaria floodgates for 100,000 annual passholders Posted: 30 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Betas, Fantasy, Expansions, News items  As everyone who isn't willfully ignoring recent news is aware, World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion is currently undergoing beta testing, and we know that many of you can't wait to get your hands on all the new content for yourselves. Well, if you're a World of Warcraft annual passholder, today might just be your lucky day. Bashiok stopped by the official forums to let players know that Blizzard is in the process of sending out a whopping 100,000 MoP beta invites to annual passholders. Bashiok closes the announcement by reminding players that all annual passholders will be invited to the beta before any opt-ins, though there's no telling how many of them are still awaiting invites or how long it will take before the poor/cheap among us get a crack at Pandaria, but hopefully it will be soon rather than soon[TM].
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| Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation Posted: 30 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, Otherland  Fans of Tad Williams' deliciously cyberpunk book series Otherland are almost certainly waiting with bated breath for gamigo and RealU's upcoming MMO adaptation of the universe. In hopes of making the wait just a tad easier, gamigo has released a new developer diary video focusing on the EightSquared universe of Otherland. EightSquared, as you may have surmised from the name, is a simulation in which an entire medieval countryside has sprung forth from a gargantuan chess board on which the Red and White armies are locked in an eternal war/game. But something has gone wrong with the simulation: The armies are no longer following the rules of warfare (i.e., rules of chess), and it's up to players to find out where the problem lies before things get too far out of hand and cause the destruction of the simulation itself. The full dev diary also provides a look at the game's Lifecycle AI, which breathes life into the world by providing NPCs who follow their own day-to-day schedules. So what are you waiting for? Log in to the Net and go take a look for yourself. [Source: gamigo press release] Continue reading Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation
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