MMO Updates

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• The Summoner's Guidebook: Learning to multitask in League of Legends
• Bots 'out-human' humans in competition
• The Perfect Ten: Most interesting retired Massively columns
• Rumor: Nexon and NCsoft eye Valve buyout
• The Daily Grind: Has F2P made your MMO habit more expensive?
• City of Heroes issues sunset FAQ, event schedule
• Free for All: Killing monsters in my undies in C9
• Phantasy Star Online 2 will be free-to-play on the Vita in Japan
• Star Wars: The Old Republic launches update 1.4 and takes aim at faster patches
• Enter at Your Own Rift: Macro this!
• WildStar catalogues lore in its Galactic Archives
• ArenaNet accepting apps for 2013 internships
• Black Desert Facebook page hints at parkour system
• SWTOR's 1.4 patch is live
• Turbine releases new LotRO video dev diary and Harvestmath Festival screens

The Summoner's Guidebook: Learning to multitask in League of Legends Posted: 27 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Miscellaneous, MOBA, The Summoner's Guidebook Multitasking is a skill that is fairly useful in any competitive game. Even if there's not a huge need for external situational awareness, the ability to multitask lets you do things while paying attention to other elements of a PvP match such as in-game resources, the timer (if present), and the actions of enemy players. If you can't multitask, you are stuck focusing mostly on what you're doing and can't adequately counter what the enemy is doing. League of Legends requires a lot of multitasking. While it's not a true real-time strategy game, LoL still requires players to be aware of the minimap, the current state of minions at their location, and the potential positions of enemy players who are not visible on the minimap. Couple this with the "normal" flow of a PvP game where a player must juggle her positioning with that of her opponent, and you have a game that is very taxing on a person's mental resources. While multitasking is a hard skill to develop, learning it is intensely satisfying when knowledge about the "big picture" leads to a decisive, game-winning play. This week in The Summoner's Guidebook, we'll look at how you can improve this critical skill. Even if you don't play League of Legends, it might be worth it to follow along. While many examples I'll be discussing will be LoL-specific, the broader concepts we'll cover after the jump can be applied to many different games, whether competitive or not. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Learning to multitask in League of Legends The Summoner's Guidebook: Learning to multitask in League of Legends originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Bots 'out-human' humans in competition Posted: 27 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Miscellaneous Who's a bot and who is not? Careful with your guess, you might just have it backwards! Alan Turing, a mathematician and computer scientist born 100 years ago, argued that the best measure of sentience in a machine is whether it can fool us into believing it is human. And in a recent gaming tournament pitting AI bots against humans, two artificially created virtual gamers did just that. Set in Unreal Tournament 2004, the competition gave players "judging guns" to tag which competitors they thought were human and which they thought were bots. Two bots created by scientists convinced the judges that were more human than half of the human competitors. In fact, both bots mimicked human behaviors well enough to receive a humanness rating of 52%, whereas the human players in the tournament averaged only 40%. [Thanks to Matt for the tip!] Bots 'out-human' humans in competition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: EurekAlert

The Perfect Ten: Most interesting retired Massively columns Posted: 27 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Humor, Perfect Ten, Miscellaneous One of the perks of working at Massively is that you get to see everything "behind the scenes," as it were. There's not as much drama as you may think, but there's an awful lot of weirdness, detailed conversations about inconsequential whimsy, and Jef's cat pictures. It's also given me access to lists of all of the site's history, including a list of all of our retired columns. Not every column goes on indefinitely, and some die only to be resurrected at a later date. But one day I got curious about all of them -- especially the ones before my time here on the site -- and that curiosity led to my creating a list of the most interesting ones. So today, let's examine 10 columns you won't see on Massively these days (for better or worse), ones that were certainly captivating during their run. Continue reading The Perfect Ten: Most interesting retired Massively columns The Perfect Ten: Most interesting retired Massively columns originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rumor: Nexon and NCsoft eye Valve buyout Posted: 27 Sep 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Legal, Miscellaneous A South Korean newspaper is reporting that MMO companies Nexon and NCsoft are joining forces to consider buying Valve. The two companies have been gathering together funds via stock sales and real estate deals. A meeting between the three companies supposedly happened in Hawaii on September 26th to haggle on a $893 million-plus deal. The three companies are already entangled in various business dealings. Nexon is NCsoft's biggest shareholder, and both companies have titles represented on Valve's Steam service. Additionally, Nexon licenses Counterstrike in Asia and announced that Counterstrike 2 was on the way. NCsoft said that "there is no truth to this rumor" while Nexon refused to comment. Valve has been the subject of other attempted buyouts, including a reportedly $1 billion-plus deal from EA. Valve CEO Gabe Newell has gone on record saying that it would be more likely for Valve to disband than the company selling out. Rumor: Nexon and NCsoft eye Valve buyout originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: GamesIndustry.biz, The Verge

The Daily Grind: Has F2P made your MMO habit more expensive? Posted: 27 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business models, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Two years ago I used to have fewer than five line-items in my Quicken budget for MMORPGs. I maintained three or four monthly subs more often than not, and it was easy to keep track of how much I spent as well as determine whether or not it was worth it to continue doing so based on playtime, enjoyment, and various other factors. Nowadays I'm more likely to have a dozen MMORPG-related line-items every month on account of cash shops and the fact that flat-fee payments no longer include all of a given game's content. In a nutshell, playing multiple MMOs has gotten more expensive for me with the transition to free-to-play. What about you, morning crew? Assuming you keep a careful watch on your gaming expenditures, has free-to-play helped or hurt your bottom line? 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! The Daily Grind: Has F2P made your MMO habit more expensive? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

City of Heroes issues sunset FAQ, event schedule Posted: 26 Sep 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play Paragon Studios -- or what's left of it -- has just released an FAQ aiming to clarify the sunset process for its doomed superhero MMO City of Heroes. Like last week's status update, the FAQ reminds players that the game will formally close down on November 30th, and though you can spend existing cash shop points, you cannot create new F2P accounts or upgrade your existing account to VIP. The FAQ outlines the refund process in detail; NCsoft will be refunding outstanding subscription and gametime card balances. In happier news, Assistant Community Manager Jessie "Hitstreak" Lawrence took to the forums this afternoon to post the schedule of sunset events, which appear to be existing holiday and themed events from seasons past: Summer Blockbuster: October 5 - October 8 Double XP: October 18 - October 22 Halloween Event: October 26 - October 29 Winter Event: November 9 - November 12 Rikti Invasion: November 23 - November 30. City of Heroes issues sunset FAQ, event schedule originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: City of Heroes sunset FAQ, City of Heroes forum thread

Free for All: Killing monsters in my undies in C9 Posted: 26 Sep 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Classes, Game mechanics, Previews, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Free for All Calling your game an "unrivaled action RPG" is a pretty daring thing to do. After all, we play in a market that offers games like Vindictus, TERA, Dragon Nest, and Dungeon and Dragons Online. Action-based MMOs are nothing new, really, but they do seem to become more extreme with every new title that comes out. Where Vindictus goes for dark realism and DDO strives for classic gameplay, C9, aka Continent of the Ninth Seal, goes for over-the-top combos and incredible boss battles. It delivers on its promises for the most part. I've played pretty much every action-based MMO on the market, and so far, the bold claims seem true: Nothing rivals C9's loud, combo-liscious approach to combat. Not all is perfect, of course, but most of the issues I had with the game resulted from art design or customer service. Those areas might be easier to fix than a boring game. Continue reading Free for All: Killing monsters in my undies in C9 Free for All: Killing monsters in my undies in C9 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Phantasy Star Online 2 will be free-to-play on the Vita in Japan Posted: 26 Sep 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play, Mobile, Consoles Japanese audiences will not be hurting for ways to play Phantasy Star Online 2 when it releases next year. Forget consoles or PCs; if you have a PlayStation Vita, you can jump right into the game for free. A fan translation of information presented at this year's Tokyo Game Show confirms that the game will be free-to-play on the Vita. Of course, there are restrictions to using the free version. Vita players will be limited to only certain shared areas with PC players and will also be unable to play the game in any sort of offline mode. Players will also need to swap memory cards to change accounts, as the free version is tied to the PSN account information stored on a memory card. Will this be true of the Western version as well? It's unknown, as Sega has yet to officially announce that Phantasy Star Online 2 will be on the Vita in the US. Keep your eyes peeled as the game gets closer to its Japanese release and more information comes out about localization. Phantasy Star Online 2 will be free-to-play on the Vita in Japan originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PSO2 JP: Q&A corner Via: Joystiq

Star Wars: The Old Republic launches update 1.4 and takes aim at faster patches Posted: 26 Sep 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, Patches, Endgame, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dungeons The fourth major update for Star Wars: The Old Republic is live right now, but some players may find patch 1.4 a bit lighter than previous updates. According to a new development blog, this isn't by accident but by design. Creative director James Ohlen explains that the development team's previous strategy of launching a single big update every few months did result in big patches but at the cost of long stretches without anything new for players. Starting with 1.4 and moving onward, the team is moving to prioritize more frequent updates. Ohlen places a rough estimate of every six weeks but notes that it's only an estimate and a target rather than a firm schedule. He goes on to state that the team is planning on three more patches by the end of the year in addition to the free-to-play conversion, with more large-scale improvements and updates due in 2013. If you're mostly just interested in cutting through 1.4's new raid mode, of course, most of this is immaterial, but you can still check out the trailer for the patch just after the break. Continue reading Star Wars: The Old Republic launches update 1.4 and takes aim at faster patches Star Wars: The Old Republic launches update 1.4 and takes aim at faster patches originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Welcome to Update 1.4 Via: Darth Hater

Enter at Your Own Rift: Macro this! Posted: 26 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Opinion, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift You know that saying about never discussing religion or politics around the dinner table? I'd like to add one more to the list: RIFT macros. Some players love them, and some players hate them, to the point that the topic completely turns them off from the game. Each camp has some very valid arguments, and there doesn't seem to be too much of a middle ground on the subject. In this week's Enter at Your Own Rift, I'd like to take a look at that polarizing issue and explain why I grew to love macros. Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: Macro this! Enter at Your Own Rift: Macro this! originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WildStar catalogues lore in its Galactic Archives Posted: 26 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Lore, WildStar Senior Narrative Designer Cory Herndon is all about the lore of WildStar, which is why he's equally excited about the methods to relay it to the player. In the most recent WildStar Wednesday, Herndon unveils the game's Galactic Archives, which will do just that. The Galactic Archives will seem familiar to codices in other MMOs and RPGs. Entries are categorized into locations, creatures, sentient species, notable individuals, plants, minerals, technology, lore, enemies, and allies. Players will naturally unlock Archive sections as they play, expanding each individual article as more is discovered in-game. Herndon points out that while the Galactic Archives aren't the only method of relaying story, they are a crucial tool in gathering everything the player's experienced into one handy location. He also says that players pursuing the scientist path will enjoy expanded and additional selections beyond what others experience. WildStar catalogues lore in its Galactic Archives originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: WildStar Wednesday

ArenaNet accepting apps for 2013 internships Posted: 26 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-play Think you have what it takes to work for ArenaNet? Are you willing to spend a year toiling for peanuts and attaboys? If you answered yes to both of those questions, head to the official ArenaNet blog and read over the company's class of 2013 internship post. ANet is offering experience in disciplines ranging from character and environmental art to animation and programming. Best of all, you'll get a year's worth of networking opportunities, not to mention resume fodder from one of the industry's most successful firms. ArenaNet accepting apps for 2013 internships originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

Black Desert Facebook page hints at parkour system Posted: 26 Sep 2012 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, PvE, Sandbox, Black Desert Black Desert is rapidly approaching too-good-to-be-true territory, at least for this sandbox-starved gamer. While there are still a ton of unanswered questions regarding the newly announced Korean import, we have seen some spectacular visuals and an interesting twist on player housing. Today the Pearl Abyss Facebook page has updated with a look at the game's parkour system. Steparu.com reports that players will be able to "run up on walls, jump on obstacles, climb balconies, and stuff." There's no video as of yet, but there is a screenshot montage that shows a free-runner vaulting over ground-based obstructions and climbing onto a balcony. Black Desert Facebook page hints at parkour system originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Facebook Via: Steparu

SWTOR's 1.4 patch is live Posted: 26 Sep 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, PvE, Star Wars: The Old Republic It's patch day in a galaxy far, far away. BioWare has officially unleashed Star Wars: The Old Republic's 1.4 update to the masses, and there's a summary of all the changes up on the game's official website. There's a new operation (Terror from Beyond) on the remote world of Asation. There are new weapons and armor courtesy of Dread Guard gear. Finally, the group finder has been tweaked, as have moods, emotes, and companion color choices. Check out more details on 1.4 in our weekly SWTOR column. SWTOR's 1.4 patch is live originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

Turbine releases new LotRO video dev diary and Harvestmath Festival screens Posted: 26 Sep 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Video, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Expansions, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries A major component of the Riders of Rohan expansion for Lord of the Rings Online is the epic journey of the fellowship. In the latest video dev diary, developers discuss the game's return to the core of the Lord of the Rings story. It is during this part of the adventure that the war in Middle-earth gains momentum and the fellowship falls to pieces. You can watch the dev diary after the break. Turbine has also released a number of screenshots highlighting this year's Harvestmath Festival, which is going on now through October 14th. During the festival, players can explore the Haunted Burrow beneath the Party Tree, participate in games of skill, join the horse races, and even play tricks on various citizens of Middle-earth. New Harvestmath-themed housing items as well as a new Harvest-brew steed are available. Check out the Harvestmath images below. [Source: Turbine press release] Gallery: Lord of the Rings Online Harvest Festival Gallery Continue reading Turbine releases new LotRO video dev diary and Harvestmath Festival screens Turbine releases new LotRO video dev diary and Harvestmath Festival screens originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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