MMO Updates |
- E3 2012: Hands-on with Neverwinter combat
- The Guild Counsel: Finding the best times to recruit
- E3 2012: Exploring the freedom of LotRO: Riders of Rohan
- E3 2012: RIFT 1.9, Storm Legion, and beyond
- The Daily Grind: Which MMO features your favorite community?
- ArenaNet shares world and gem store details for Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event
- Free for All: Making the perfectly flawed character
- A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Underused enemies in City of Heroes
- Naoki Yoshida talks about Final Fantasy XIV with Famitsu
- Star Trek Online's June Ask Cryptic discusses fleet advancement, Foundry rewards
- Pathfinder Online blog on designing in the game and on the table
- China's online gaming industry booming; $6.1 billion expected in 2012
- LotRO: Riders of Rohan instance cluster coming after expansion launch
- Guild Wars 2 devs answer anything, including launch date speculation
- SWTOR upgrades classes and starts merging servers [Update]
- Dungeons and Dragons Online unveils new Menace of the Underdark screens, video, open beta [Updated]
- E3 2012: SWTOR's Allies patch aims to give back to the players
- E3 2012: Talking with Nick Konkle about The Elder Scrolls Online's design
- ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien heading to Reddit for AMA
- Choose My Adventure: Preparing for TERA
- Infographic shows the numbers behind Diablo III's opening day
- E3 2012: Fragging undead on your phone with Parallel Zombies
- E3 2012: Gamigo shows off Grimlands and Otherlands
- E3 2012: Hands-on with SOEmote
| E3 2012: Hands-on with Neverwinter combat Posted: 07 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Previews, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage, Dungeons, Neverwinter  Massively's own Eliot Lefebvre took on the game at PAX, so follow on past the break and I'll try to work off of his observations based on my experience at this year's E3. Continue reading E3 2012: Hands-on with Neverwinter combat
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| The Guild Counsel: Finding the best times to recruit Posted: 07 Jun 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous  We're all familiar with the launch-day, mass influx of players to an MMO, and we've seen the waning numbers over time, meaning a smaller pool of candidates to recruit. But there are actually peak times during the course of the year when recruiting becomes easier. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at a few prime opportunities to seek out good members for your guild. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Finding the best times to recruit
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| E3 2012: Exploring the freedom of LotRO: Riders of Rohan Posted: 07 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Interviews, Free-to-play, Massively Event Coverage  It's apparent that Riders of Rohan has a ton to give LotRO subscribers. Turbine's chosen to release the east side of Rohan first, leaving out the west side for future development. The expansion features customizable mounts, impressive graphical upgrades, a slough of customization options, new NPCs, new content, and even a new orchestral soundtrack. Without further ado, let's dive in to explore the freedom of Rohan! Continue reading E3 2012: Exploring the freedom of LotRO: Riders of Rohan
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| E3 2012: RIFT 1.9, Storm Legion, and beyond Posted: 07 Jun 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Expansions, Previews, Massively Event Coverage, RIFT  At E3 this week,we got some information on not only 1.9, but RIFT's first full expansion: Storm Legion. Continue reading E3 2012: RIFT 1.9, Storm Legion, and beyond
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| The Daily Grind: Which MMO features your favorite community? Posted: 07 Jun 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  If you've played in the genre for any length of time, though, you've probably run across one or two game communities where everything seemed to come together. Folks were pulling in the same direction more often than not, moderators and devs listened to the playerbase, and people were genuinely happy to be playing the game and building relationships both inside and outside of it. For today's Daily Grind, let's accentuate the positive. Which MMO, past or present, boasts your favorite community (and why)?  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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| ArenaNet shares world and gem store details for Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event Posted: 06 Jun 2012 07:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, News items, Guild Wars 2, Dev Diaries  Unless some crazy Asura experiments are playing havoc with the timestream, the much-anticipated second Guild Wars 2 beta weekend event is getting closer all the time! In preparation for that, the ArenaNet blog is now sporting a new dose of information about worlds and world transfers in this beta weekend. One of the big changes for this BWE is the inclusion of dedicated French and German servers. A number of the European servers have been marked specifically for French and German, two of the officially supported languages. New players will be able to pick any of the 96 servers (that's 48 US-based servers and 48 European) to be their home world. Players from the previous BWE will have a 30-hour window from 3:00 p.m. EDT on Friday to 9:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday during which they can transfer between worlds without spending any gems. After that time-frame, transfers will cost the normal 1,800 gems. Each account will be credited with 500 free gems automatically. Players will also be able to get an additional 2,000 gems; you won't actually be charged for the transaction, but you'll have to enter valid credit card details in the Gem Store. Check out the exhaustive server list on the the official post.
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| Free for All: Making the perfectly flawed character Posted: 06 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Culture, Opinion, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual, Roleplaying, Mabinogi, Free for All, Miscellaneous  I don't play MMOs to be the hero, at least not most of the time. I don't want to kill the largest boss or get the best armor. I'll leave that to gamers who like that sort of thing. I play an MMO to sort of lose myself inside the world of a character of my own making. Over the years I've noticed a pattern in how I establish a great character, one that I want to continue playing. Originally, I wanted to refine this process into a list in case other players wanted to compare, but the list keeps evolving, so instead, I'll give some examples of how I have been creating unique and wonderfully flawed main characters in some of my favorite MMOs. Continue reading Free for All: Making the perfectly flawed character
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| A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Underused enemies in City of Heroes Posted: 06 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Lore, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter  Surprise! Not this time. For all that I love the Column (and their continual curbstomping of their pale imitation in the Council), that wasn't my goal this week. No, this time around I want to highlight other groups that I think Paragon City could use a bit more often, enemies that either fall off the radar or just don't get as much attention as they're due. Even in a game that's been around as long as City of Heroes, there are certain enemy groups that just never get the love they deserve. Maybe the future can fix that for some of these guys. Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Underused enemies in City of Heroes
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| Naoki Yoshida talks about Final Fantasy XIV with Famitsu Posted: 06 Jun 2012 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Previews, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV  As Yoshida sees it, the game needs to have a stronger connection to previous titles in the franchise. Fans can expect to see familiar elements like the Crystal Tower (Final Fantasy III), Magitek Armor (Final Fantasy VI), and areas reminiscent of Ivalice (Final Fantasy XII/Tactics). The new client is also meant to be highly customizable and capable of running on low-end machine or high-end machines as needed. Take a look at the full translation for more teases on what's around the corner for Eorzea. [Thanks to Ring for the tip!]
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| Star Trek Online's June Ask Cryptic discusses fleet advancement, Foundry rewards Posted: 06 Jun 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Community Q&A  Hope you're settled in, Star Trek Online players, because the June Ask Cryptic is quite a read. As you might expect, a good many of the questions revolve around the upcoming fleet advancement system slated for release in Season Six. Dan Stahl takes the opportunity to provide a bit of insight into the specifics of the fleet base system, which will allow fleets to create their own base-of-operations. He also reveals that the studio is working on implementing a system of rewards for completing player-made Foundry content. The studio's "temporary solution" to this is to feature Foundation content in the mission journal. Stahl says that "this will allow [Cryptic] to attach premium rewards to specific player-made content that is being featured." All this and more is on display in this month's Ask Cryptic, so for the full skinny, head on over that way and give it a read.
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| Pathfinder Online blog on designing in the game and on the table Posted: 06 Jun 2012 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, Sandbox  According to writer Rich Baker, the first problem encountered during design was the fact that the book is written with Thornkeep as a somewhat lawless place, while Thornkeep in the MMO will be a starting point for new players. As a result, Thornkeep has a strong central leader with a capricious streak, enough to convey the sense of lawless air while still keeping things sufficiently safe for new entrants. The blog also discusses dungeon design for the book and the tech demo. If either one sounds interesting to you, you've still got a couple of days to jump on the Kickstarter wagon to help fund the development team.
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| China's online gaming industry booming; $6.1 billion expected in 2012 Posted: 06 Jun 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Economy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Miscellaneous  While recent events may have some questioning the state of the MMO industry in North America, a recent study by Asian game market analysis company Niko Partners shows that the industry in the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets is still going strong. In fact, the study reveals that the Chinese online gaming market alone is set to bring in a whopping $6.1 billion US in 2012 alone. So what is the reason behind the Asian market's continued success? According to Niko's reports, a good deal of credit should be given to the free-to-play business model. The F2P model reportedly encourages fledgling gamers to move from more casual social games to "advanced casual" games such as MMORPGs, resulting in a larger pool of money-spending players. Also of note is the fact that the use of internet cafes is declining in major cities. Whereas internet cafe revenue once made up "at least 50%" of gaming revenue, by Niko's current estimate, "up to 2/3 of revenue comes via the home channel." The full article offers interesting insight into one of the largest online gaming markets in the world, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, head on over to Forbes and give it a read.
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| LotRO: Riders of Rohan instance cluster coming after expansion launch Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-play, Dungeons  "We are working on an instance cluster," Sapience confirms. "Currently it is planned to be part of an update due to release after the Riders of Rohan expansion has shipped." He also mentions that Riders of Rohan will contain "a new type of repeatable content" that Turbine has yet to disclose. Sapience promised that further information on these two topics will arrive later this summer.
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| Guild Wars 2 devs answer anything, including launch date speculation Posted: 06 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Guild Wars 2, Humor, Community Q&A  Some of the questions answered included confirmation that there will be a way for guilds to raise their membership cap, word on bug fixes, a detailed explanation of the new trait system, and excitement for the upcoming beta weekend event. For those hoping to hear word on playable Asura or Sylvari, however, the rote response throughout the Q&A was, "Watch this space." What bug will the team actually miss? "Sit jumping," Mike Ferguson replied. "I don't know why, but it seems like everybody loves it (except the guy that introduced it). I'll actually be sad to see it go." O'Brien did directly address the rampant curiosity surrounding the game's launch date: "The fundamental issue here is that we just don't have a release date right now. We're using beta testing in the traditional sense. When beta testing shows that the game is where we want it to be, we'll lock in a release date. We're not that far off. We're obviously going to release in 2012, and any statements to the contrary are absurd."
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| SWTOR upgrades classes and starts merging servers [Update] Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Patches, Star Wars: The Old Republic  The most notable and requested change grants all tank stances 100% threat generation. "We've received a lot of feedback from tanks regarding how easy or difficult it is to hold threat on various encounters," Peckenpaugh explains. Then he clarifies by saying that single-target taunting will generally remain unchanged, but because of "smart" AOEs that avoid crowd-controlled enemies, AOE-threat generation should improve significantly. Secondly, BioWare is well aware of the population issues on a large portion of servers. That is why on June 12th, the team will begin the free character transfer service. In a soft server merge system similar to the one implemented by Star Wars Galaxies, BioWare will open up specific servers as origin servers and others as destination servers. To help BioWare maintain a bit of control over the situation, the transfer precess will be "gradual and staged," according the developer blog post. The specific details regarding which servers will be affected have not be released yet, but rest assured that Massively will let you in on the latest details when they become available. [Update: Community Manager Joveth Gonzalez gave more detail on the official forums about how the origin and destination servers will work: "In order to ensure an optimal playing experience for every server, we'll be offering direct transfers from one origin server to a pre-selected destination server."]
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| Dungeons and Dragons Online unveils new Menace of the Underdark screens, video, open beta [Updated] Posted: 06 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Video, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Expansions, News items, Free-to-play  On the 25th of this month, Dungeons and Dragons Online players will have the opportunity to set foot in the treacherous caverns of the Underdark for the first time with the launch of the game's next expansion, Menace of the Underdark. To help players prepare for this momentous excursion, the folks at Turbine have released a new behind-the-scenes video that introduces players to some of what they can expect from the depths of the Drow homeland. Drow, of course, are a given. Players can look forward to squaring off against the race's nefarious priestesses and mutated dryders while they explore the city of Sschindylryn below the King's Forest of Cormyr. A number of deadly creatures await curious adventurers, including a new dragon for players to hunt. For the full details on what to expect from the Underdark, just check out the gallery below and then click past the cut for the full video. [Source: Turbine press release] [Update: Turbine likewise announced today that the expansion is in open beta, so head to the forums and jump in!]
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| E3 2012: SWTOR's Allies patch aims to give back to the players Posted: 06 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, PvP, News items, PvE, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage, Star Wars: The Old Republic  Continue reading E3 2012: SWTOR's Allies patch aims to give back to the players
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| E3 2012: Talking with Nick Konkle about The Elder Scrolls Online's design Posted: 06 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Interviews, Massively Event Coverage, The Elder Scrolls Online  Konkle dives into what will make TESO its own unique creature. One of the mechanics he explained was the game's hotbar. The first two buttons are dedicated to whatever weapon you're wielding, the next three are chosen abilities from your class, and the last button is an ultimate skill derived from your class. "In addition to those six things, everyone has these skills that are always available: sprinting, ducking, and blocking," he said. What is ZeniMax doing to ease those familiar with the lore but not MMOs into the game? "From the very beginning, we didn't set out to make a really big, standard MMO," Konkle said. "Nor did we set out to make a Skyrim clone and just put it online. We set out to make a great game. So we don't just have the standard MMO controls, abilities, and rotations like you're used to." You can watch the 11-minute interview after the jump for more information on TESO's combat and social systems. Continue reading E3 2012: Talking with Nick Konkle about The Elder Scrolls Online's design
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| ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien heading to Reddit for AMA Posted: 06 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, News items, Guild Wars 2, Community Q&A  Guild Wars 2 fans, do you have some deep, profound questions gnawing away at your brain that will simply drive you to the depths of madness if you don't get an answer? Well, we probably can't help you there, but if you've got any questions regarding Guild Wars 2 or its upcoming beta weekend event, there is a solution: Head over to Reddit's /r/gaming subreddit at 3:00 p.m. EDT to catch ArenaNet's latest Reddit Ask Me Anything. Join ArenaNet president Mike O'Brien and other members of the ArenaNet staff who will be on-hand to answer your pressing Guild Wars 2 questions. As we've seen in the previous AMAs with Jon Peters and Mike Ferguson, these events tend to get hectic quickly, so if you've got something you want answered, get yourself over to /r/gaming and prepare your interrogation.
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| Choose My Adventure: Preparing for TERA Posted: 06 Jun 2012 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Polls, Classes, Game mechanics, Opinion, Races, Choose My Adventure, TERA  I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that I've had a more back-and-forth relationship with than TERA. When I first heard about the game, it didn't make an impression on me. Then I started seeing the screenshots, and I was interested. Then I saw more, and I was suddenly less interested... and then I started hearing about the game's actual gameplay, and I swung back around in the other direction. It's a polarizing game for a lot of people, but it's a game that deserves a little more love past those elements. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Preparing for TERA
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| Infographic shows the numbers behind Diablo III's opening day Posted: 06 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Diablo III  Would you believe that all of the box copies of D3 sold on day one would stretch from the earth to the international space station and back if stacked end to end? Did you know that D3's $210 million first-day take is enough to give every Blizzard employee a cool $42,000? These and other absurd facts are yours for the viewing courtesy of the graphic design wizards at Video Game Design Schools. We've also embedded the infographic for you after the cut. Continue reading Infographic shows the numbers behind Diablo III's opening day
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| E3 2012: Fragging undead on your phone with Parallel Zombies Posted: 06 Jun 2012 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Business models, Economy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Mobile, Casual, Crafting  If Per Blue and the Parallel prefix sound familiar, it's because Parallel Kingdom has been out for the better part of three years now. But what's this I hear about zombies, you say? Continue reading E3 2012: Fragging undead on your phone with Parallel Zombies
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| E3 2012: Gamigo shows off Grimlands and Otherlands Posted: 06 Jun 2012 10:15 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Interviews, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage  Yesterday, we spoke to Gamigo about its upcoming titles Grimlands and Otherland. Grimlands was, admittedly, not quite on my radar until Gamigo's Anthony Guzzardo said the magic word: sandbox. I'd heard a few things about Grimlands already, such as skill based over levels, lots of customization, intelligent AI, vehicular combat, and yes, something about owning clan territory. Oh, and it's supposed to be free-to-play. Sadly, E3 was having internet issues at the time of my interview, so while I couldn't play the game, Anthony was able to answer some questions for me. Continue reading E3 2012: Gamigo shows off Grimlands and Otherlands
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| E3 2012: Hands-on with SOEmote Posted: 06 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Roleplaying, EverQuest Next  SOEmote is one of those things that you'll either love or hate. In a nutshell, it's facial scanning technology that takes webcam input and outputs it to your avatar. EQII's toons already boasted some of the most visually expressive animations in the genre, complete with a laundry list of /emote commands that's longer than this article. SOEmote takes that to the next level (and it also adds voice-modulating capabilities, though these weren't exactly listenable due to the din of noise that is the E3 demo floor). The tech is scheduled to hit the game's live servers toward the end of this month, and it'll be met with both huzzahs (from the roleplayers and the immersion enthusiasts) and WTFs (from the raiders and progression fiends). Continue reading E3 2012: Hands-on with SOEmote
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