MMO Updates |
- World of Tanks rolls out improved physics and lighting
- RuneScape puts bots on trial
- The Secret World Issue #3 The Cat God is now live
- Choose My Adventure: Go break a (zombie) leg in TSW
- A Mild-Mannered Reporter: To save City of Heroes, we must be jerks
- The Daily Grind: Do you like having achievements broadcast guild-wide?
- Fan-made video promotes the movement to save City of Heroes
- RIFT saves pandas with expansion
- Guild Wars 2 patches up dungeon rewards and difficulty
- Hyperspace Beacon: Six reasons to return for SWTOR update 1.4
- The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed
- Massively Speaking Episode 217: Shawn into the sunset
- Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest II's soundtrack
- Blizzard's Morhaime: MoP is a 'bigger, meatier expansion' than Cataclysm
| World of Tanks rolls out improved physics and lighting Posted: 26 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Video, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, World of Tanks  World of Tanks is getting a little bit shinier and a lot more realistic today. The game's new Update 8.0 includes an overhaul of the physics and lighting of the game. Wargaming is calling this the "most important upgrade since the game's release." In addition to more realistic physics and improved lighting, Update 8.0 is bringing in new optimization for the UI, better rendering, adaptive camouflage, and new mini-map functions. Four new tank destroyers are gracing the branches of the USSR tech tree, and the Matilda Black Prince, the first premium British machine, is available for purchase in the in-game shop. Skip below the cut to see how the new physics engine will change your gameplay. [Source: Wargaming press release] Continue reading World of Tanks rolls out improved physics and lighting
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| Posted: 26 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, Patches, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Legal, Humor  Coming soon to RuneScape is a brand-new area called Botany Bay. It's here that players can be the judge, jury, and executioner for convicted bots, voting on their ultimate punishment. Jagex gives two warnings to botters, after which the player is ejected from the game and his or her avatar is sent to Botany Bay for final judgment. Botters' avatars may be smooshed by a dragon, vaporized, or pelted with rotten fruit. Lead Designer Mark Ogilvie hopes this will deter players from naughty behavior: "We have wanted to do this for some time and we hope that by bringing the actions of those who cheat to the attention of the wider community, we can make a massive step towards eliminating botting from the game." You can watch a trailer for the new Botany Bay area after the jump. [Source: Jagex press release] Continue reading RuneScape puts bots on trial
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| The Secret World Issue #3 The Cat God is now live Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Real life, Patches, News items, The Secret World  Catching back up to its aggressive monthly update schedule, The Secret World's third update is now live on servers. Issue #3 The Cat God comes right on the heels of Issue #2 Digging Deeper, which launched just last week after a few delays.Besides various tweaks and fixes, The Cat God offers two new missions, The Binding and Dogs of War. The Binding is an investigation mission that takes you to the City of the Sun God in Egypt, while Dogs of War focuses on the conflict between the vampires and their allies. For full details about the changes, check out the patch notes. The Cat God, for whom the update is named, will make a personal appearance in October closer to the Halloween holiday. A special Halloween event will run through the end of October and the first week of November that will include the beginning of a new storyline and a new villain. We'll keep you updated as more information becomes available.
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| Choose My Adventure: Go break a (zombie) leg in TSW Posted: 26 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Real life, Polls, Opinion, Massively Meta, The Secret World, Choose My Adventure  Or to take arms against a sea of undead, and by opposing, end them... You're darn tootin' I'm going to end them! That's me, taking up arms against the hordes of zombies. Or more accurately, chopping them off, along with legs, heads, and anything else that gets in the way of my blade! If you have zero interest in fighting reanimated townsfolk with flesh dripping off of them, then The Secret World is probably not the MMO for you. However, if you don't mind dicing, slicing, slashing, shooting, chopping, blasting, or otherwise obliterating said undead, then Kingsmouth really is the place to be! If zombies were a cash crop, that little town would be swimming in the moolah Scrooge McDuck-style. For the second act of our co-production, Choose My Adventure undertook a massive scenery change. Instead of the concrete jungle of NYC where we began, the story played out in the sleepy streets of a quiet new England town. Well, quiet if you don't count the lip-smacking of the zombies gnawing on everyone. Armed with my rifle, my sword, and of course, your directions, I set off to explore, ameliorate suffering, and eviscerate the hordes of evil in The Secret World. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Go break a (zombie) leg in TSW
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| A Mild-Mannered Reporter: To save City of Heroes, we must be jerks Posted: 26 Sep 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Culture, Events, real-world, News items, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter  If you missed it, this week has not been a good one for efforts to keep the game alive. I'm not going to reprint everything laid out in TonyV's recent post, but the short version is that there are currently no signs that things are changing. NCsoft has set up an email for players to send letters, one that I suspect is not read vigilantly, and there have been no signs that any of the various talks about the game's future have resulted in anything. It's the email thing that really set me to wondering about whether or not City of Heroes fans are the right people to be protesting. While I love you guys -- beyond a shadow of a doubt -- there's a certain revolutionary spirit necessary for an effective protest. I'm not entirely certain that we've got that. And if there was ever a chance to save the game, we may just be unable to do what's necessary. Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: To save City of Heroes, we must be jerks
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| The Daily Grind: Do you like having achievements broadcast guild-wide? Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Guilds, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  Yet I've come to prefer games that do broadcast achievements guild-wide. Why? Because not all of us are so attention-seeking that we constantly write about what we're doing... but if the game's doing that for us, oh well. It's not me being egotistical, it's the game's doing. But if you happen to notice what I'm doing? So much the better. I genuinely like seeing what my guildies are up to as well. It feels like we do come together for the typical "grats" after an achievement notice, or even the rare "holy crap, that's awesome!" for significant milestones. Of course, sometimes these games can get silly with the number of trivial achievements, so it can hurt the legitimacy of the real ones. What do you think? Do you like having achievements broadcast guild-wide, or would you prefer it kept quiet (or even turned off)?  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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| Fan-made video promotes the movement to save City of Heroes Posted: 25 Sep 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Video, City of Heroes, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Machinima  Starting with the unexpected August 31st announcement, the video shows off excerpts from several of the news stories surrounding the announcement and the major in-game rally at Atlas Park, with footage by several notable fans. The narration is spliced together from a variety of sources, including some quotes from our own Massively Speaking. The video also contains links and information for anyone looking to take part in the Save CoH movement. You can see the full video just past the break. Continue reading Fan-made video promotes the movement to save City of Heroes
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| RIFT saves pandas with expansion Posted: 25 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, Humor, RIFT, Promotions  Starting tomorrow, every copy of RIFT: Storm Legion pre-ordered will prompt Trion to donate a buck to Pandas International. Pandas International is an organization devoted to saving the Giant Panda, who probably would not need saving if they were martial arts monks (just saying). The pre-order has to take place through the game's website, and it ends after October 3rd. If you're up for a laugh, make sure to read the small print on the official announcement. Maine is always the bane of any good panda party.
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| Guild Wars 2 patches up dungeon rewards and difficulty Posted: 25 Sep 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Guild Wars 2, Dungeons  Players now receive dungeon tokens by reaching the end of an explorable chain rather than via individual boss kills, which prevents players from farming the first boss that drops tokens. To help increase the overall rewards from a single run, the chains will offer 20 tokens on completion and an additional 40 the first time you clear one in a given day. Thus, clearing all three chains in a given dungeon in one day will reward you with 180 tokens in total. Read up on the full changes, along with some minor balance adjustments and bugfixes, in the full patch notes.
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| Hyperspace Beacon: Six reasons to return for SWTOR update 1.4 Posted: 25 Sep 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, PvP, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, Free-to-play, Roleplaying, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Community Q&A, Hyperspace Beacon  That's kind of what happened to me with Star Wars Galaxies. When the game launched, I thought it was great to explore the Star Wars universe I'd grown up with as a kid, but I couldn't latch on to the game because of the bugs and other minor issues. It wasn't until about six months after launch that I was actually able to grasp the game and play it long enough to find out why people were so smitten. Perhaps Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the same kind of game. When it launched nine months ago, there were bugs, though not as big as SWG's bugs, mind you. The content needed a little tweaking. And certain systems like the Galactic Trade Network did not function well. But now with update 1.4 coming tomorrow and free-to-play on the horizon, it might be a good time to invite your friends to come back or even come back yourself. Let's examine some of the reasons to do so. Continue reading Hyperspace Beacon: Six reasons to return for SWTOR update 1.4
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| The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed Posted: 25 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Game mechanics, Patches, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, The Soapbox, Diablo III  The Diablo III beta showed only the first few levels and part of the game's highly polished first act, and soon after release it became obvious that parts of the game weren't exactly finished. PvP was cut from release, the Auction House was a mess, and Inferno difficulty was a poor excuse for an endgame. Poor itemisation made the carrot on the end of the stick taste sour, and the runaway inflation on top-end items is crying out for some kind of ladder reset mechanic. But there is hope for improvement, with new legendary items, the Paragon level system, and the upcoming Uber boss mechanic taking a few steps in the right direction. In this opinion piece, I look at some of the fundamental flaws in Diablo III's endgame and suggest a few improvements that would make a world of difference. Continue reading The Soapbox: Diablo III's endgame is fundamentally flawed
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| Massively Speaking Episode 217: Shawn into the sunset Posted: 25 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, City of Heroes, Darkfall, MMO industry, News items, Guild Wars 2, Massively Meta, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous  Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes. Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 217: Shawn into the sunset
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| Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest II's soundtrack Posted: 25 Sep 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, EverQuest II, Culture, Free-to-play, Jukebox Heroes  SOE tapped composer Laura Karpman for the project in the early 2000s. The four-time Emmy-winner spent time getting acquainted with the first EverQuest before creating the music for the sequel. Following EQII's completion, Karpman remained on staff at SOE from 2005 to 2006 as the resident composer. She would leave the team after doing the score for EQII's first expansion, Desert of Flames. "This was one of the most rewarding opportunities I have ever had," Karpman said in 2003. "We had an amazing time recording the score in Prague, a wonderful city with equally great players." The one-hour soundtrack came with the collector's edition of the game, and a friend mailed me his copy, which I deeply appreciated. There's a lot to enjoy about this score, so let's dig in! Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest II's soundtrack
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| Blizzard's Morhaime: MoP is a 'bigger, meatier expansion' than Cataclysm Posted: 25 Sep 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Expansions, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, News items  He also talks about the ongoing post-launch plans for Diablo III as well as the e-sport community surrounding Blizzard's StarCraft franchise. Morhaime also offers a frank assessment of the reasons for Star Wars: The Old Republic's quick move to a free-to-play model. "Probably if they [BioWare] had to do it over again they might have held the game over and worked on the endgame content a bit more," he said.
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