MMO Updates |
- Is Notch's 0x10c an MMO?
- The Perfect Ten: MMO tributes to real-life people
- Wings Over Atreia: An interview sheds light on the new BlackCloud
- The Daily Grind: Do you like beta weekends?
- The Secret World reveals Hell
- Aion opens the BlackCloud Marketplace, adds eternal weapon
- What's this? A new commenting system on Massively? Is this real life?
- Maelforge and Laethys soar into action in RIFT's latest Infernal Dawn trailer
- MMO Family: Do kids belong in guilds?
- TERA sheds some light on open beta as test weekends draw to a close
- A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Countless marvelous powers
- Guild Wars 2's character creator brings celebrities to Tyria
- Step inside MechWarrior Online's MechLab and choose your weapon
- Second Life used to teach relaxation techniques
- SOE time-lapse video shows PlanetSide 2's Scope 4X
- Choose My Adventure: Dark Age of Camelot, week four
| Posted: 05 Apr 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Miscellaneous  First of all it's hard science-fiction, and second of all, it has an ambitious feature list that boasts an advanced economy, space battles, seamless planetary landings, and "lots of engineering." It's also got a nifty ship system wherein players will need to manage a generator and wattage to power various onboard systems. Finally, there's a fully functioning computer within the computer game. Notch says that the "emulated 16-bit CPU can be used to control your entire ship, or just to play games [...] while waiting for a large mining operation to finish." The only question left in our minds (other than when can we play it) is whether or not it's an MMO. The website hints at single- and multiplayer functionality "via the multiverse," and it also mentions a monthly fee.
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| The Perfect Ten: MMO tributes to real-life people Posted: 05 Apr 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot, Dungeons and Dragons Online, EverQuest II, Culture, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, Guild Wars 2, Perfect Ten, Miscellaneous  So while death and illness are depressing topics to dwell upon, I find the many MMO tributes that studios and even gamers have erected to be inspiring and a celebration of individual players' lives. With the help of my fellow Massively staffers, I researched 10 wonderful in-game tributes that serve to honor the lives of fellow gamers. Continue reading The Perfect Ten: MMO tributes to real-life people
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| Wings Over Atreia: An interview sheds light on the new BlackCloud Posted: 05 Apr 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Expansions, Interviews, Free-to-play, Massively Interviews, Wings Over Atreia  Welcome to the Massively Gold Rush. OK, so maybe a "rush" is a bit of an overstatement, but I have discovered a few golden nuggets about Aion's renovated cash shop and impending 3.0 expansion. I had the chance to catch up with Producer Adam Christensen and learn a bit more about what Daevas will find in the BlackCloud Marketplace as well as get some details about various new upcoming features like housing, mounts, and the level 60 Daevanion armor. And with the BlackCloud Marketplace finally opening its doors, Daevas can check out the selection for themselves and pre-purchase items to be delivered at Ascension's Launch. Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: An interview sheds light on the new BlackCloud
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| The Daily Grind: Do you like beta weekends? Posted: 05 Apr 2012 06:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, MMO industry, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind, The Secret World, TERA  Personally I'm not a fan, as my weekend gaming time ranges from limited to non-existent, and if I'm hyped enough to play a marketing beta, I'd just as soon play it several hours a night. It's especially aggravating in the case of Guild Wars 2 and TERA, both of which can't even be bothered to turn on their testing servers every weekend! What about you, morning crew? Do you like beta weekends?  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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| Posted: 05 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-fi, Screenshots, Events, real-world, Previews, PvE, Opinion, The Secret World, Massively Event Coverage, Dungeons  Remember the movie Constantine with Keanu Reeves? Remember what Hell looked like there, when he stared into the cat eyes and moved to that realm? Well, this version of Hell is just like that -- with you in the middle. In The Secret World, Funcom brings us a stunning Hell, with burning winds that scorch the landscape, making things hard to see, silencing you completely when you're in the winds, and burning your precious skin to a crisp if you stand in it too long. You have to run from cover to cover to stop the damage you're taking and allow to use your abilities. But the cover is never safe; enemies are waiting for you. Continue reading The Secret World reveals Hell
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| Aion opens the BlackCloud Marketplace, adds eternal weapon Posted: 05 Apr 2012 05:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Business models, Events, real-world, News items, Free-to-play  Besides the expected pets, consumables, emotion cards, and appearance items, the marketplace also offers XP amulets and special boost packs including immunity from XP loss upon death, boosted AP, and boosted Empyrean Crucible points. From now until 6:30 a.m EDT April 11th, Daevas will receive a bonus pre-order gift for purchasing a large C.U.B.E. -- a level-60 eternal-grade Tahabata weapon. After this time, only the appearance skins will be sold. The weapon type will be class-appropriate for the character the player chooses when first purchasing the C.U.B.E. Other than the restrictions that characters must be level 30 or above, players can buy as many large C.U.B.E.s as they wish during this time to obtain multiple weapons. Once purchased, the weapons will be delivered after server maintenance on the 11th and will be soul-bound. To get your special deal or even just window shop, check out the BlackCloud Marketplace today.
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| What's this? A new commenting system on Massively? Is this real life? Posted: 04 Apr 2012 06:45 PM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta 
If you've been a reader for a very long time, you may be irked to learn that we are not importing your old comments into Livefyre. Rather than delay the upgrade in order to preserve so much content of questionable relevance, we opted to start everything anew. Provided you're already part of the supported social networks, signing in will be a cinch, and we hope the reduced anonymity will make for friendlier conversation. (Protip: Choose a unique handle and/or a clean Twitter account if you don't wish your posts here to link to your real personae.) We'll be ironing out some bugs too, so let us know if you see anything weird and upsetting throughout the night. With your help, we'll get this new comment system up and running little by little, and you won't even need to deal with the word "Unverified" anywhere.
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| Maelforge and Laethys soar into action in RIFT's latest Infernal Dawn trailer Posted: 04 Apr 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Patches, News items, RIFT, Dungeons  In the recent weeks, we've been inundated with information on RIFT's upcoming patch 1.8 and the accompanying new raid, Infernal Dawn. We've already gotten up-close-and-personal looks at the big baddies of Infernal Dawn, Laethys and Maelforge, but today Trion Worlds has released a spankin'-new trailer to get players hyped up to take on the dastardly duo of draconic deities. The trailer itself takes players inside the raid proper to give them a look at the many enemies they'll be squaring off against. It also gives us the first look at Laethys and Maelforge live and in action, and to say that these two appear formidable would be quite an understatement. They look, in layman's terms, like they're willing and able to mess your day/week/life right up. You can see for yourself in the full video, so why don't you go take a gander? Continue reading Maelforge and Laethys soar into action in RIFT's latest Infernal Dawn trailer
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| MMO Family: Do kids belong in guilds? Posted: 04 Apr 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, Kids, MMO Family, Family, Miscellaneous  Should kids be allowed in guilds? Are there any benefits to sharing a tag with your children, or are they better off staying unguilded? Continue reading MMO Family: Do kids belong in guilds?
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| TERA sheds some light on open beta as test weekends draw to a close Posted: 04 Apr 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, News items, TERA  TERA's launch is now just beyond the horizon, and that means that it's almost time for the game's closed beta testing to draw to a close. Specifically, it means that this weekend will mark the fifth and final closed beta test weekend, so En Masse Entertainment has put up a new blog post discussing what was learned from CBT 4 and what players can expect from CBT 5, open beta, and launch. One thing that the team is looking at very intently for open beta and launch is the difficulty of the starting experience -- or perhaps more appropriately, the lack thereof. Players have long said that the starting experience is not challenging enough, and the team has been listening. On top of that, En Masse has been working on a number of other changes as well, including tweaks to the enchantment system, some additional equipment and skill options, and even an entirely new tutorial zone that "serves as the precursor to the current Island of Dawn experience." The full details, of course, can be found in the official post over at TERA's official site, so go on and read up and we'll see you in in Arborea again soon.
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| A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Countless marvelous powers Posted: 04 Apr 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter  Of course, Transformers are meant to be toys for children, so the marketing strategy is pretty defensible. But I'm beginning to wonder whether City of Heroes isn't adopting a similar attitude with the steady onslaught of new powersets. Since Freedom hit, we've seen an absolute explosion of new sets with new mechanics and new ways to play... but we've also seen a real dearth of anything tying players to a given powerset. It's novelty on a steady basis, but we might not have appreciated the slow pace of new sets before. Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Countless marvelous powers
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| Guild Wars 2's character creator brings celebrities to Tyria Posted: 04 Apr 2012 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, Guild Wars 2  In under three minutes, this player whisks us through pages of sliders, hairstyles, and facial details to create Guild Wars 2 lookalikes of Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, Megan Fox, and Scarlett Johansson. Apart from its value as amusement, the video highlights the range of looks and styles that the character creator can be coaxed into generating. Check it out after the break and see just how uncanny these avatars ended up being compared to the real deal! Continue reading Guild Wars 2's character creator brings celebrities to Tyria
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| Step inside MechWarrior Online's MechLab and choose your weapon Posted: 04 Apr 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, MechWarrior Online  Over the past weeks, we've been seeing a steady drip of information about MechWarrior Online's various BattleMechs and the customization options available to players to make each 'Mech unique. Today, Piranha Games is giving players an inside look at the MechLab, which is the in-game interface players will use to modify their machines of death and destruction. The MechLab uses what the studio calls a hardpoint system, which essentially means that weapons can only be swapped out for other weapons of the same type. For instance, energy weapons can be swapped only for other energy weapons, while ballistic weapons can be changed out only for other ballistic weapons. 'Mech customization also relies on a weight system meaning that each 'Mech has a maximum weight that it cannot exceed, so players will have to pick and choose between numerous lightweight enhancements or fewer, heavier ones (or some combination thereof). The full system, as fans of the series undoubtedly expect, is quite robust, so hop in the cockpit and jump-jet your way over to the official dev blog for the full details.
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| Second Life used to teach relaxation techniques Posted: 04 Apr 2012 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items, Second Life, Virtual worlds, Miscellaneous  The study found that by doing away with the limitations of face-to-face meetings (and easing the minds of participants who are uncomfortable in real-world group settings), virtual worlds can foster more relaxing and healthy experiences. The study featured 24 individuals who were divided into three groups and subjected to eight weeks of online sessions in Second Life. Researchers found that participants "showed reductions in depression- and anxiety-related symptoms," though it's also important to note that participants had prior experiences with virtual worlds.
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| SOE time-lapse video shows PlanetSide 2's Scope 4X Posted: 04 Apr 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Game mechanics, Lore, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, Sandbox  Sony Online Entertainment has put together a three-minute piece detailing the NC's Scope 4X (and no, we're not kidding -- it really is a video about a rifle scope). While the 4X may seem like an odd choice for a dev diary clip, it's actually indicative of the amount of work SOE is pouring into its open-world MMOFPS. SOE senior artist Patrick Ho steps us through the complete design process, and we get a long look at thumbnail sketches, 3-D modeling, painting, and the fine details that typify PlanetSide 2's gear. Continue reading SOE time-lapse video shows PlanetSide 2's Scope 4X
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| Choose My Adventure: Dark Age of Camelot, week four Posted: 04 Apr 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Dark Age of Camelot, PvP, Hands-on, Choose My Adventure  But with all of you as my puppet masters, I have the added pressure of not wanting to let any of you down. I know that last week some of you were disappointed with my progress (or lack thereof) and could identify dozens of things I was just doing flat-out wrong. That's another layer to this experience, I think: It gives experienced vets the chance to see the game through virgin eyes and to pass down sage advice that they themselves wish they had gotten right out of the gate. So this past week was all about taking in your advice and attempting to execute it to the best of my ability. Some of it worked, and some did not, but the end result was a series of Dark Age of Camelot play sessions that were far less frustrating -- and even, dare I say, intriguing? Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Dark Age of Camelot, week four
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