MMO Updates |
- GDC Next coming to LA in 2013
- How Wargaming.net launched itself to the top
- ArenaNet talks Guild Wars 2 dungeon difficulty
- MV Guide: September 17 - 23, 2012
- Funcom is ready to take The Secret World F2P if need be
- The Daily Grind: How would you balance a guild perk system?
- ArcheAge flagging system, piracy options explained
- MMO Week in Review: Two million sold
- EVE Evolved: Four ways Guild Wars 2 is like EVE Online
- One Shots: Go directly to jail
| Posted: 17 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Miscellaneous  GDC Next focuses on gaming development related to smartphones and tablets as well as social and cloud gaming. The new ADC is dedicated to app technology and development. Attendees will be able to sign up for the individual conferences or receive a special price to attend both. More information can be found on the official sites.
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| How Wargaming.net launched itself to the top Posted: 17 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Events, real-world, News items, War, Free-to-play, World of Tanks, World of Warplanes, World of Warships  In essence, Wargaming.net got its real start the day IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer beat Garry Kasparov at chess. Viktor Kislyi, Wargaming.net's CEO, came to the conclusion that civilization had moved on and that computers were the future. His first game, made over the course of two years with his brother and played by only two other people on the planet, was Iron Age, a turn-based strategy game in the traditions of Risk and Civilization. After that, Kislyi worked on translating the miniature wargame De Bellis Antiquitatis to the virtual (but still historically accurate) world. After the success of DBA, Kislyi and those around him created the Massive Assault games, Galactic Assault, and Order of War. After that, development for World of Tanks began, although in the early days it was a drastically different game. The game began as a "fantasy arena style battle game," but circumstances intervened and eventually World of Tanks as we know and love it was born. Want to brush up on your history? PC Gamer has the full details of the rise of Wargaming.net. There'll be a quiz.
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| ArenaNet talks Guild Wars 2 dungeon difficulty Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Game mechanics, Launches, News items, Guild Wars 2, Dungeons  ArenaNet has already taken a stance of waiting for players to adjust to the current state of the game before making big changes to skills and overall balance in Guild Wars 2. That mindset, as laid out by Game Director Colin Johanson in a forum post, is also being applied to dungeon difficulty. Rather than rushing to adjust to initial player feedback, ArenaNet devs are taking the long view and waiting for players to get used to the game and its difficulty. They took a similar approach with the original Guild Wars' dungeons and elite areas, to eventual success. Johanson talked about player outcry when the Domain of Anguish was first introduced, and how just months later without real balance changes, "people viewed it as the most fun thing in the game." He went on to explain: We're actively monitoring every dungeon and working on balancing issues we encounter appropriately. We'll be keeping an eye on bosses we think don't have enough varied mechanics to warrant their large health pools and updating them over time to make them more varied/interesting fights. We'll be monitoring, and continually tweaking/adding to dungeon rewards over time and of course balancing where we see the need. And of course, we'll be looking at adding more dungeons as well!
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| MV Guide: September 17 - 23, 2012 Posted: 17 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide  Every week, the Massively Stream Team logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises each week, so you'll find a variety of titles to watch. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, or simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule, and let us know if there's a specific game you'd like to see streamed next week! Continue reading MV Guide: September 17 - 23, 2012
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| Funcom is ready to take The Secret World F2P if need be Posted: 17 Sep 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-fi, Business models, Interviews, Free-to-play, The Secret World  "We tried leaving our options open during development so that we could launch with a different model should we have decided during development that's what we wanted, but eventually we did settle on the subscription model and that's what informed much of the game's design," Schreiner said. "That said we definitely have the tools to turn The Secret World into a free-to-play game -- or even hybrid -- should we decide to do that somewhere down the line." Schreiner admitted that it's become difficult for subscription titles to thrive in a F2P-dominated field. He added that The Secret World is now a "profitable operation" following the studio's restructuring: "Despite the obvious challenges, I definitely think we're heading into a promising future for Funcom."
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| The Daily Grind: How would you balance a guild perk system? Posted: 17 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Game mechanics, Guilds, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  Guild Wars 2, for example, performs random attendance checks and doles out points based on guild activity. The more people you load into your guild, the more points you farm and perks and consumables you can buy. This creates a "rich get richer" scenario for guilds that are already "winning," and eventually, no one will join guilds that aren't maxed out and providing a steady stream of perks to help them "win" even more (as seen in World of Warcraft). Why not go with Lord of the Rings Online's system, which bestows guild perks according to a guild's age rather than its recruiting binges? Should games keep rewarding guilds strictly for their size, or is there a better way? How would you design and balance an MMO guild achievement system?  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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| ArcheAge flagging system, piracy options explained Posted: 16 Sep 2012 06:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, ArcheAge, Sandbox  Pirate factions can only be joined by other pirate players, and you won't be able to interact with NPCs on the game's starter continents (you'll also aggro the guards). Fear not, though, as pirate players do have access to their own island filled with friendly NPCs and quests. Click past the cut to see some booty-plundering gameplay courtesy of a twelve-minute video. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!] Continue reading ArcheAge flagging system, piracy options explained
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| MMO Week in Review: Two million sold Posted: 16 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous  Guild Wars 2 broke the two-million-sold mark this week, in spite of having only just resumed digital sales. After releasing GW2's admittedly bizarre launch trailer, ArenaNet took to its blog to discuss the game's endgame, balance, and economy before declaring to fans that "responsible MMO companies" give away lots of content for free. And our own Flameseeker Chronicles hosted a thoughtful debate on the game's leveling journey. Read on for more of this week's top MMO stories. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Two million sold
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| EVE Evolved: Four ways Guild Wars 2 is like EVE Online Posted: 16 Sep 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Economy, Game mechanics, PvP, PvE, Guild Wars 2, EVE Evolved, Sandbox  EVE's PLEX system lets people buy game time for in-game ISK and undercuts illicit RMT by giving players a legitimate way to buy ISK, a system that's very closely mirrored in GW2's gem trade. GW2's Karma system resembles a heavily restricted version of EVE's loyalty point mechanic, and PvP in both games may be more similar than it appears. The same strategies that work for faction warfare fleets in the depths of space are currently helping guilds win World vs. World vs. World PvP. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at four Guild Wars 2 game mechanics that are similar to those in EVE Online and how lessons from EVE can be applied to GW2. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Four ways Guild Wars 2 is like EVE Online
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| One Shots: Go directly to jail Posted: 16 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Galleries, Screenshots, Guild Wars 2, Massively Meta, One Shots, Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, TERA, Miscellaneous  I came upon this jail in the Sylvari capital, The Grove. Every cell is a Venus Fly Trap. Loved the design!Follow on for the color screenie plus a few more One Shots beyond the break. Continue reading One Shots: Go directly to jail
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