General Gaming Article

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Raspberry Pi Delayed Further Over CE Mark Compliance Issue Posted: 30 Mar 2012 11:41 PM PDT The $35 Raspberry Pi Linux computer continues to be dogged by delays. Earlier in March, the Raspberry Pi Foundation announced a "minor" manufacturing hiccup, which involved the diminutive PC getting fitted with the wrong type of Ethernet jack by accident. Now the UK-based charitable organization responsible for the eponymous Pi is having compliance issues in the land of the stiff upper lip. Hit the jump for more. "Following on from last week's discussions, both RS Components and element14/Premier Farnell have now informed us that they are not able to distribute the Raspberry Pi until it has received the CE [European Conformity] mark," the Raspberry Foundation stated on its blog. "While this differs from our historical view (as we've said before, we believed that the uncased Raspberry Pi was not a "finished end product", and could be distributed on the same terms as earlier versions of the BeagleBoard and other non-CE-marked platforms), we respect their right to make that decision." However, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has been told by the UK's Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) that the CE mark, a mandatory conformity mark for certain products in European Economic Area (EEA) countries, is required in their case (no pun intended).  Apparently, BIS does not deem the Pi a development board, for the "volumes involved and the demographic mix of likely users" is most likely to result in it being used as a finished product. "The good news is that our first 2,000 boards arrived in the UK on Monday and that we are working to get them CE marked as soon as is humanly possible, in parallel with bringing the remainder of our initial batch into the country."

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Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

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• Cabal Online MMORPG Review
• Bright Shadow MMORPG Review
• Dragon Nest (KR)
• Hollywood’s Video Game Invasion of the ’90s
• Brawl Busters MMO Review
• Path of Exile
• Nexon Korea
• Notorious Food-Based Games of the ’90s

Cabal Online MMORPG Review Posted: 31 Mar 2012 08:23 AM PDT Cabal Online is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG that takes place in the world of Nevareth. The game tries to have realistic graphics and has an interesting set of features and maps to explore.       Publisher: ESTsoft Playerbase: Medium Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Low PvP: Realm Vs Realm /Duels Filesize: ~ 2500 MB Website: http://www.cabal.com/ Pros: +Unique dueling system with betting. +Unique 'skill' combo system. +Varied environments. +Good music. +Good content updates. +Beautifully animated skills. Cons: -Unique and prolonging quest text. -Lots of 'spambots' in the game. -Most 'fun' features locked away until endgame.   Cabal Online is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG that used to be published by OGPlanet, but is now published by ESTsoft, the game's developer. The game was officially released in North America on February 28th and is known for it's unique set of features and solid gameplay. Start off your adventure in one of the game's three newbie towns and explore the large fantasy world of Cabal Online. The game's six playable classes are: Warrior - As the name applies, the 'warrior' is the standard tank / melee character. The warrior relies entirely on his strength and uses the two handed sword as his main weapon. Blader - Bladers are proficient at using dual swords and can deal damage very quickly but have incredibly low hit points. They are strong PvE characters, as they have high defense. Wizard - The Wizard is the standard offensive spell caster archetype in Cabal. They can deal massive damage from a distance but are vulnerable to attacks in melee range. They have the lowest hit points in the game. Force Blader – Force bladers are proficient with both spell casting and melee swords. They are quick and agile and can do a great deal of damage very quickly, but are unable to wear heavy armor. They are regarded as one of the best 'pvp' classes. Force Shielder - Force Shielders are the standard 'tank' archetype in Cabal, they have the best defensive capabilities, but relatively weaker damage than the other melee classes in the game. They are capable of using both defensive and offensive magic and are considered strong 'PvE' characters. Force Archer - As the name applies, the Force Archer is the generic 'archer' character in Cabal Online.     Cabal Online System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / ME CPU: 800 MhZ Pentium 3 or Equivalent RAM: 512 MB HDD: 2.5 GB Free Space Graphics Card: Any 3D Accelerator Card Recommended Specification: OS: Windows XP / Vista / ME CPU: 1.4 GhZ Pentium 4 or Better RAM:  2048 MB (2GB) RAM or Better HDD: 2.5 GB Free Space Graphics Card: Nvidia 6600GT or equivalent VGA Card Related posts: Bright Shadow MMORPG Review Blade Wars MMORPG Review Black Prophecy MMORPG Review

Bright Shadow MMORPG Review Posted: 31 Mar 2012 06:13 AM PDT Bright Shadow is a nicely animated, 3D, anime-inspired fantasy MMORPG published by Beanfun (The game used to be available through GamePot USA, but they shut it down and BeanFun picked up the service). The game is set in the fantasy world of Luciena and has a strong emphasis on item collection, community and exploration. Those looking for a simple, lighthearted MMORPG should find some substance in Bright Shadow.       Publisher: BeanFun Playerbase: Medium Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Medium PvP: N/A Filesize: ~1,550 MB Website: http://www.brightshadowonline.com/ Pros: +Detailed card collection system. +Unique instance system. +Interesting soul power feature. +Crafting system. +High level cap 95+. +Great music. Cons: -Looks very similar to other anime inspired games. -Interface could be better. -Clunky combat mechanics.   Bright Shadow is an anime-inspired MMORPG that both looks and feels a lot like Outspark's popular Fiesta Online title. Perhaps the game's most unique feature is its detailed card collection system. Players can find and collect over 500 special monster cards that can be obtained by defeating enemies. These cards have numerous uses, from being used as currency for items to unlocking special abilities. Bright Shadow does have numerous unique features and a lot of content which makes the  game worth checking out. The game boasts over twenty playable classes, but there are only four starting ones. The game's four starting classes are: Warrior – Warriors in Bright Shadow are masters of 'close quarters' combat. They can inflict a great deal of damage to their enemies in melee combat and also absorb quite a bit of hits due to their remarkably high defensive capabilities. Machinist – The machinist is a fairly unique class, as it's only found in Bright Shadow and a handful of other titles. They are a mix between an archer and a merchant. They have a powerful long range attack with both bows and guns. They can also craft weapons and armor. Shaman – With numerous healing and buffing spells, Shamans are the primary supportive class in Bright Shadow; think of them as a mix between a druid and a cleric. Even though shamans are primarily a support class, they still have some offensive magic. Mage - Like nearly every other MMORPG, a Mage in Bright Shadow is the primary offensive spell casting class in the game. They have devastating area-of-effect and direct damage spells, but have extremely low physical attack and defense. They command the powers of both fire and ice.     Bright Shadow System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 2000 CPU: Intel Pentium 3 1.0 Ghz RAM: 256 MB HDD: 4.0 GB Free Graphics Card: Any nVidia GeForce3 series GPU / ATI Radeon 8500 or better Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 2000 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz RAM: 1024 MB HDD: 4.0 GB Free Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce FX 5900 / ATI Radeon 9700 or better Related posts: Blade Wars MMORPG Review Black Prophecy MMORPG Review Brawl Busters MMO Review

Dragon Nest (KR) Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:46 AM PDT On 1st April, which is tomorrow in Korean time, Eyedentity Games will be adding the latest dragon into their debut MMORPG, Dragon Nest. This is also part of the game’s 2nd anniversary in Korea, as well as to celebrate its global success so far. Have a look at the new trailer below. Called the Transparency Dragon, the entrance to this dragon will be an invisible portal somewhere in towns. Cool eh? Killing this invisible dragon will grant players drops of level 50 equipments, the Transparency set. Wearing the full set will grant players 70% less sense of existence/ presence and Academics will gain a 30% increase in loli ratings. Below are some details of the full Transparency set.  Other than the Transparency set, there will be a new Transparency horse mount added as well, as seen in the screenshot below. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/dragon-nest-kr-new-dragon-coming.html Related posts: Dragon Nest goes to Russia Dragon Nest Japan Dragon Nest goes to Indonesia

Hollywood’s Video Game Invasion of the ’90s Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:44 PM PDT Hollywood has always had its fingers on the pulse of popular culture, so when video games began to blossom during the ’80s, Tinseltown saw an opportunity to expand. Within a few years, the gaming market was awash with titles featuring A-list actors, iconic athletes, and all manner of celebrity in-between. It’s hard to imagine a time when star-power had such sway in video games, especially when you consider that the concept of celebrity has devolved over the past decade into anyone who’s willing to share their messy existence of a life in front of a Bravo TV camera. The number of actors, musicians and athletes who lent their likenesses to video games throughout the ’90s is absolutely staggering. There’s no way we could go through all the instances where the player could interact with a celebrity, so we narrowed the list down to a select few games that represent the vast scope of this strange trend. Actors Privateer 2: The Darkening - PC ’96 In all honesty, this list could’ve been populated purely by installments of Wing Commander, but for the sake of our collective sanity, I’ve pared it down to arguably the most star-studded entry in the series. 1996′s Privateer 2: The Darkening starred a fresh Clive Owen long before his fortune turned around with roles in Sin City and Children of Men. It also featured the talents of fabled thespian John Hurt, who won an Oscar for his work in The Elephant Man as well as the my personal award for Best Cinematic Death in Alien. While his role as a deranged bartender may have been slightly below his pay grade, you can’t help but notice how much fun he was having the whole time. But throughout the years, Privateer 2 has become synonymous with one name in general. Christopher Walken lends his strangely hypnotic talents to the game, and in typical Walken fashion, seems very confused with his presence in the universe. Walken is one of those actors who’s such an iconic figure, that his mere presence in a role pulls the audience out of the experience and causes them to focus on the strange and unnatural world that is his life. Apocalypse - PSX ’98 It really seems like Apocalypse was originally conceived as a film, but ultimately transformed into a piece of interactive entertainment. The 1998 PSX title famously plastered Bruce Willis’ name and mug on every single piece of promotional art imaginable. The action icon lent his voice and likeness as Trey Kincaid, a wise-cracking meat-head who just so happens to be the only thing that stands between us and armageddon. If you look past the clunky action and dated visuals, you’ll find an interesting piece of video game history that featured one of the strongest attempts by Hollywood to create a game that was cinematic not from a mechanical perspective, but rather in terms of how the product was marketed. The phrase “Starring Bruce Willis” accompanied the title whenever it was mentioned. While the game itself is sadly forgettable, its legacy lives on in the fact that developer Neversoft’s next project would be the immensely popular Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Musicians Revolution X – Arcade ’94 It might’ve taken them nearly 25 years to reach the peak of their popularity, but Aerosmith was smart to capitalize outside the world of music while on this precipice. One of these non-musical ventures was Revolution X, an arcade light gun shooter that later got ported to most home consoles of the mid-’90s. The game presented a dystopian future where the world government declared war on this planet’s unfortunate youth. Lucky for us youngins, Steven Tyler and friends were on hand to lend their support during our uprising. Most of the band was nearing their 50s by the time the game was released, which makes me question which side of this conflict they would really support. The game culminated in a final battle at London’s legendary Wembley Stadium — why the war ended here was never quite explained, but many theorize that Aerosmith was still bitter over being snubbed from 1985′s Live Aid. Still, no matter how cheesy the idea of an aging rock band leading a Gen-X revolution is, Aerosmith can still rest easy knowing that they were never subjected to a Make My Video title for Sega CD; Mark Wahlberg is still trying to live that one down. Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/news/hollywood-video-game-invasion-90s Related posts: Corporate Schlock: Advertising Tie-Ins to Video Games Footage of Cancelled Avengers Game Leaks to the Internet Review: Saints Row: The Third is The Craziest Game You’ve Ever Played

Brawl Busters MMO Review Posted: 30 Mar 2012 06:13 PM PDT Brawl Busters is a 3D action fighting MMO that has the same graphic style  as the popular shooter Team Fortress 2. Brawl Busters is a streamlined game with a small client size, and the ability to quickly jump into matches, yet it still manages to offer high quality graphics and plenty of customization options.       Publisher: Rock Hippo Productions & Weezor Playerbase: Low Graphics: High Quality Type: MMO EXP Rate: Low PvP: N/A Filesize: 243 MB Website: http://planbaction.com/main/index.aspx Pros: +Stylish animated graphics. +Fast paced gameplay. +Switch between 5 classes. +Streamlined registration and lobby, start playing right away. Cons: -Limited map choices. -Suffers from technical issues; bugs and lag. -Repetitive gameplay   Brawl Busters is a fast paced fighting game that plays a lot like a third person shooter. The graphic style resembles Team Fortress 2, but is even more goofy. With a strong emphasis on pick up & play gameplay, anyone can start playing Brawl Busters within minutes. The client size is very small, and there's no need to register on the website. Players simply enter a username and password after launching the game and are good to go! All players have access to five classes in Brawl Busters and can switch between them either prior to starting a game or each time they die. The only game mode available is Team Deathmatch, and matches only last a few minutes each. Classes: Slugger – Smack opponents with your bat, or send three baseballs their way with one swing. Special Attack charges up and sends one powerful baseball. Firefighter – Spray nearby opponents with flames, or shoot out grenades. Special attack creates a temporary barrier in front of the Firefighter. Rocker - Slap opponents with your electric guitar, or shoot out lighting from its tip. Special Attack is point blank area of effect burst. Boxer - Punch opponents or charge at them first-first. Special Attack shoots out 5 rays, hitting everything in front of the Boxer in a large arc. Blitzer - Pummel opponents with your fists, or strike the ground immediately in front of you for heavy damage. Special Attack launches the Blitzer forward a fair distance where he strikes the ground dealing area of effect damage.     Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 CPU: Pentium Duel Core RAM: 512MB HDD: 1GB Graphics Card:  Geforce 6 series DirectX: 9.0c Recommended Specification: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 CPU: Pentium Duel Core or better RAM: 1024 MB or more HDD: 2 GB free Graphics Card: GeForce 7 series of better DirectX: 9.0c or better Related posts: Blade Wars MMORPG Review Bloodline Champions MMO Review Black Prophecy MMORPG Review

Path of Exile Posted: 30 Mar 2012 03:42 PM PDT [Game website] A friendly reminder, Path of Exile will be entering its Public Stress Test in a couple of hours’ time. The game will be open to everyone this weekend, and that means you without a Closed Beta key. This is in preparation for Open Beta, and yes, this game will be Free to Play. Get everyone you know and prepare to crash the server! A couple of things to take note, although the interface looks like a Diablo franchise’s, I can assure you the systems such as skills and in-game currency is totally different. Try it out for yourself! Or spoil yourself watching the 2 newbie footage here and see how the skill system really works. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/path-of-exile-reminder-to-crash-server.html Related posts: Path of Exile DOTA 2: How Valve Turned From Fanboys Into Developers For This Game Ragnarok II (KR)

Nexon Korea Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:38 AM PDT It seems like Nexon Korea is still taking its own sweet time solving the mass hack “event” which happened a few months back (link). On 23rd and 24th earlier this month, a number of high level MapleStory accounts were hacked with equipments and currency stripped. Although the numbers were small, players posted on various places on the Internet and warned fellow Maplers to take precaution and proceed to authenticate their accounts.What was Nexon doing? Apparently, the incident happened near the weekend and after office hours. Yes, Nexon Korea’s customer service center is not a 24-hours one. I have worked as a GM in a much smaller MMO company, and even we have games covered for 24-hours. After the weekend, Nexon claimed the hacked players’ computer might hae been infected with trojan and stuff, but admitted the supposedly on-going security upgrades in Nexon’s infrastructures might have caused irregularities, giving the hackers a chance to access MapleStory’s database. The affected players will be suitably reimbursed. Seems like Korea’s top gaming company is the bottom in terms of security. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/nexon-korea-maplestory-gets-hacked.html Related posts: Nexon Korea revamps security system Nexon Korea MapleStory Korea

Notorious Food-Based Games of the ’90s Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:38 AM PDT Back in the halcyon days of the early ’90s, food extended far beyond the hot plate by frequently making its way into our video games. Companies across the entire edible spectrum saw this new fan-dangled medium of interactivity and thought it would be a great idea to allow gamers to violate the cardinal rule of the dinner table and actually play with their food. Sadly, most of these efforts resulted in less-than stellar results, as indicated by the following examples of product placement games. Keep in mind that a lot of these were full priced releases — this was long before the time when Sneak King came alongside a BK Veggie with cheese. Seth Macy wrote a great feature about Corporate Schlock a while back, but this time around the focus is going to be strictly on the Decade That Clinton Built. Aside from the monetary joys that stem from product placement, the question still remains: Why the ’90s were such a humid breeding ground for licensed games based on food, the places that serve food, and the mascots who champion food? Yo! Noid - NES ’90 There’s going to be a very distinct generational divide with this one, so prepare yourselves. The Noid was a mid-’80s creation by Domino’s Pizza that used each of the seven deadly sins in order to ruin your pizza experience. Delivery guy got a flat tire? Noid. Cheese is burnt? Noid. Immediately regret that you’re filling your body with the physical manifestation of shame? Well, the Noid’s only partly responsible for that. Like all great mascots of the era, the Noid got his fair share of video game titles, but the one I want to focus on is the 1990 NES classic Yo! Noid. Without a comma between the two words, one can only assume that the title is yelling in order to get your attention. Misused punctuation aside, Yo! Noid is actually a revolutionary entry into the pantheon of gaming. Instead of being a delivery boy trying to avoid the Noid, the game shook the very foundations of storytelling by placing us in control of the trickster god; in many ways, Yo! Noid is the Paradise Lost of video games. Sadly, the game commits the cardinal sin of platformers by switching the functions of the A and B buttons. Could this have been the Noid’s plan all along? M.C. Kids - NES ’92 Ronald McDonald, the Pied Piper of childhood obesity, has seen his fair share of video game adaptations throughout the years, but none were as iconic as M.C. Kids on the NES. Released fashionably late into the console’s lifespan, the game starts off with John Wayne Gacy Ronald McDonald tasking a child to hunt down the Hamburglar, and though it’s only implied, murder him. Along your whirlwind tour of revenge, you’ll come across such horrifying mascots as Birdy and the unholy abomination known as The Grimace. Aside from its motley crew of nightmarish monstrosities, M.C. Kids had some really inventive ideas for the time, such as the ability to walk on the underside of certain platforms and carrying blocks to change your character’s weight and inertia. It’s too bad that the rest of the game is a broken mess of a platformer. We’ll just gloss over the fact that this grown man in makeup and a yellow smock is enlisting the aid of a Cub Scout; maybe that didn’t seem all too weird in the early 90s? Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool – SNES ’92 So Chester Cheetah, you think you’re too cool to fool? Well, challenge accepted. The titular conceit teaches us that if you amass enough swagger, you’ll eventually become impervious to any ruse the world may place in front of you. If only this confidence could be harnessed and used to shield me from this platforming debacle. The game is a crash course in masochism that forces the player to endure shoddy controls, terrible hit-detection, and power-ups that actually hinder your progress. One example of the latter is an electric guitar that acts makes Chester temporarily invincible, which would be great except for the fact that it also causes you to lose control of the character and usually leads to falling to your death. But there were ways around these traps – instead of using a Game Genie, Too Cool to Fool allowed gamers to earn extra lives by blowing asbestos-like Cheeto dust into the bottom of the cartridge. While Chester has been absent in the gaming space as of late, rumor has it that a platformer based on the Frito Bandito was planned as a Wii launch title, but it was ultimately canceled after focus testing revealed that audiences don’t want to play a game that was, “horribly racist.” Cool Spot - Sega Genesis ’93 Spot is certainly one of the stranger mascots of the ’90s. His origin story is shrouded in mystery, but my theory is that 7 Up needed to find a way to make people forget that their drink tasted like Pine-Sol, so they slapped some limbs onto a red circle and called it a day. Much like Chester Cheetah, Spot sports a pair of sunglasses that could only be described as gnarly, tubular, and other assorted adjectives associated with the final map in Super Mario World. I like to think that the shades were less about looking cool and more having to do with protecting his eyes from harmful UV rays. Ocular nonsense aside, Cools Spot is one of the few games on this list that isn’t unbearable to play, so I feel bad about mocking it. The character movement has a claymation quality to it that resembles Vectorman, and unlike lot of licensed games, it feels like the world was built with Spot in mind. Chex Quest – PC ’96 I’m happy to say that this final entry to the list eschews from the platformer trend of its predecessors and enters the crowded field of cereal-based FPS mods. This promotional Ultimate Doom mod was built upon an oxymoron by billing itself as a “non-violent first person shooter.” Initially the game treads dangerously close to earning a dreaded AO rating by naming its difficulty options things like Easy Does It, Not So Sticky, and Gobs of Goo, but it quickly rectifies this gross little misstep by providing a pretty neat FPS that tasks you with zapping aliens while you wear a suit of armor made out of Chex. Not sure how well crispy flakes of corn-based cereal would hold up in the heat of battle, but that’s besides the point. Perhaps the most shocking thing about Chex Quest is the fact that the game was actually a pretty huge success and is attributed with causing a nearly 300% growth in sales of Chex-related products. So I guess that’s why product placement was so rampant during the ’90s. Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/news/notorious-food-based-games-90s_2 Related posts: TGS: How Food Gives Life to Namco’s Game Music Corporate Schlock: Advertising Tie-Ins to Video Games Conquering Death: How Games are Reinventing Loss

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MMO Updates

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• Anarchy Online's future is so bright, it's gotta wear shades
• WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition
• The Daily Grind: What originally got you into MMOs?
• New Darkfall development blog touches on key points
• Storyboard: Flag a server
• Champions Online cuts the craft in favor of the mod scene
• Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012
• Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu
• Star Wars: The Old Republic blog talks about refining the PvP experience
• Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings
• The Anvil of Crom Extra: Craig Morrison on new content, crafting, and customizable communities
• Kissing cousins: SWTOR's legacy system explained
• TERA PvP battlegrounds won't be in at launch, delayed until 'late summer'
• Age of Conan dev update details free content, spiffy server tech
• MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks
• Blizzard opens the Mists of Pandaria floodgates for 100,000 annual passholders
• Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation

Anarchy Online's future is so bright, it's gotta wear shades Posted: 31 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Anarchy Online, Economy, Previews, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries Game Director Fia "Lindelu" Tjernberg is absolutely pumped about Anarchy Online's future, and she's not shy about promoting it. In a massive March development update post, Tjernberg discusses many projects the team has in the works for the loyal citizens of Rubi-Ka. Probably the biggest change on the immediate horizon is a brand-new global market interface that will allow players to buy and sell goods to each other. The market will be accessed at special terminals in the main cities as well as portable terminals, and can trade across all dimensions. Free players can browse the market, but only subscribers can buy or sell in it. Work-in-progress screenshots of the market were also posted to the main site. She reports that while the team was happy to show off the upgraded graphics engine this past week, there's still a ways to go before it hits live. Other projects that occupy the devs' time are improving the new player experience, balancing professions, and a streamlined game launcher with a graphical character selection screen. [Thanks to David for the tip!] Anarchy Online's future is so bright, it's gotta wear shades originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Global Market article, March development update

WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition Posted: 31 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous Holy anything, next weekend it's time for my annual trip up to Boston for PAX East. This strikes me as intensely strange, and not just because it's taking place later than usual this year. It's going to be absolutely insane. I also don't have any major events surrounding me for the first time, so I'll hopefully be able to relax a little more. Seriously, I'm still not mentally done with January; I'm not ready for it to be this late in the year already. This week's WRUP does not entirely focus on PAX, of course, mostly because that's not happening this weekend. But we do talk about our plans for the current weekend as well as our opinions on the pervasive shroud of muscled men that make up MMO beefcake. Take a look at what we'll be up to past the cut, and let us know what you're planning on playing over the weekend in the comments! Continue reading WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition WRUP: How is it time for PAX edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Via: Image Source

The Daily Grind: What originally got you into MMOs? Posted: 31 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Do you remember where you were when you first heard about the idea of paying $15 a month for a video game? How about when you finally accepted that it's actually cheaper than most of your other hobbies? Or how about when you signed up for your second concurrent subscription? Most of us have changed our game-playing (and paying) habits because of MMOs, and the beginning of that wasn't too far back. The transition usually started with a trusted developer (Blizzard, Sony) or IP (Ultima), but not all of us started at the very beginning. So that's where your stories come in. Tell us how you first got into MMOs. 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: What originally got you into MMOs? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

New Darkfall development blog touches on key points Posted: 30 Mar 2012 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Sandbox Development on the next incarnation of Darkfall continues, promising big changes to the game's core mechanics. The latest update on the official blog addresses a variety of systems that hadn't previously been covered, starting with the game's large-scale UI improvements. The biggest revelation and item of interest, however, is the promise of the upcoming point system, which allows players to receive rewards for accomplishments that in turn fuel new play options. Although the terminology used in the blog is a bit vague due to the fact that specifics on the system are under wraps, it's made very clear that the point system is not simply an achievement system (which will also be added). Rather, using points in-game will fuel certain abilities or grant access to new abilities, allowing players to open new paths as a reward for their accomplishments. There's also a few updates on the future of crafting, all of which should give Darkfall players something to look forward to when version 2.0 finally goes live. New Darkfall development blog touches on key points originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Darkfall blog

Storyboard: Flag a server Posted: 30 Mar 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous A couple of weeks ago, Matt Daniel, Elisabeth Cardy, and I were talking amongst ourselves about the dearth of official roleplaying servers in Guild Wars 2. Lis was contending that the primary defense from ArenaNet was the idea that the GMs wouldn't be able to properly police these servers, so as a result the, studio didn't want to designate them that way in the first place. As she put it, she'd rather see them not do the servers at all than do them in a slipshod fashion, and she believed an unpoliced roleplaying server was worse than no roleplaying server at all. This prompted me to ask whether anyone actually expected roleplaying servers to be policed, but honestly, that's a tangent to the real issue. I can convincingly argue that there are ways that the servers should be policed, but regardless of whether or not roleplayers expect this to happen, I think it's pretty absolute that not having a roleplaying server is much more slipshod than having one with inadequate support. The alternative suggests you really don't care whether your game has roleplayers or not. Continue reading Storyboard: Flag a server Storyboard: Flag a server originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Champions Online cuts the craft in favor of the mod scene Posted: 30 Mar 2012 06:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Champions Online, Crafting Whether or not you're fond of Champions Online, you probably don't like the game's crafting system. Almost no one does, and apparently not even the developers have been terribly pleased with it. That's why the game is putting that system aside and replacing it with a new system. The Mod and Fusion system will work more along the lines of gear slotting as found in other MMOs. Certain gear comes with slots for Mods, and by combining Mods via Fusion, you can produce more powerful enhancements. The old crafting skills, meanwhile, tie into the new method of fusing Mods by helping you create stronger Mods and harvest new ones. Extant crafters will also be integrated into the new system; all existing crafted benefits will stay in place (although new ones won't be available), and the crafting-specific travel powers and bags will be moved to other vendors. It's a pretty radical reinvention of the game's current dynamic, but it will hopefully make the game a bit more fun for crafters and non-crafters alike. Champions Online cuts the craft in favor of the mod scene originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Mods & Fusion

Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012 Posted: 30 Mar 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Betawatch, Miscellaneous This week in Betawatch, UFO Online entered its next round of closed beta, World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria beta opened up to more annual pass subscribers, and Auto Club Revolution kicked off a testing phase of its own, thereby joining our official open beta list. Tired of standard MMOs? MMOFPS Firefall has announced its next stage of beta, and fans of Roguelikes can pile on the Path of Exile public stress test all weekend (thanks to reader Carson for that tip). Don't forget our coverage of the latest and greatest Guild Wars 2 beta media event! The full Betawatch roundup is tucked behind the cut. Continue reading Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012 Betawatch: March 24 - 30, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, New titles, PvP, PvE, Massively Interviews, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Crafting Many moons ago when the air just started to cool from summer's heat (aka, last September), Some Assembly Required had the opportunity to talk shop with a new outfit that is developing a promising new sandbox MMORPG, Origins of Malu. And you know me: Sandbox is the magic word! As skeptical as I knew I should be, I still came away from that interview with renewed hope that a game with some of the features for player-generated content could exist again. Back then, Burning Dog Media made the bold statement that it would absolutely release its flagship game in 2012, with a target of early 2012 to boot. But as the first quarter of the year quickly drew to a close with scant information available, it became pretty clear the game is still a ways off. In the realm of games, no news is not necessarily good news... and we definitely hit a drought in news. Now that drought has ended. In our second exclusive interview, we spoke with Michael Dunham, Producer, Jason Mitchell, Senior Developer, and Dave Cruikshank, Art Director, to learn what's been going on behind the scenes and get the scoop on more details about those very features that have sandbox lovers salivating. Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu Some Assembly Required: Revisiting Origins of Malu originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Star Wars: The Old Republic blog talks about refining the PvP experience Posted: 30 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic If you're playing Star Wars: The Old Republic right now, you're probably looking forward to patch 1.2 quite eagerly. The latest topic in the bag of tricks is PvP, with fans of Warzones gaining a new ranking system to help track progress and face off against greater challenges. The ranking system is described in fairly comprehensive detail -- rank changes are based upon your rank compared to your opponents, with separate tracking options for both solo and group players. There's also a new set of Warzone rewards in the new War Hero set, as well as a number of additional improvements to purchasing rewards and earning commendations in battle. More medals will encourage more active participation, while a new vote-kick system will discourage AFK players. If all of this sounds like something you'd like to check out in person, the update with some of the PvP improvements will be playable at PAX East next weekend, providing an opportunity to test out the battles and give some immediate feedback. Star Wars: The Old Republic blog talks about refining the PvP experience originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Game Update 1.2: PvP, TOR at PAX East Via: Darth Hater

Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Historical, Business models, News items, Miscellaneous Is that smoke on the horizon? Goths marching to the gates? Probably not, but for Gods & Heroes, it may very well seem that way. The newest dispatch from the development team has admitted that the game no longer has a development team and hasn't for quite some time. As the letter puts it, it was a choice between keeping the game alive as it stood or letting the team go, and without investors, the latter seemed like the better option. So what's next for the game? The forum thread on the letter claims that the game's servers will keep running and funding them isn't an issue, but no new development will be taking place until the funding can be found for a free-to-play conversion. As the game hasn't come anywhere close to recovering the cost of bringing it to market, that doesn't bode well for the future. Whatever happens next, this is certainly a dark day for the Roman game, and we can only hope that better news is on the horizon. [Thanks to Jason for the tip!] Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: State of the Republic VI

The Anvil of Crom Extra: Craig Morrison on new content, crafting, and customizable communities Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Classes, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Patches, PvP, News items, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom, Dungeons It's been a little while since we've interviewed Age of Conan executive producer Craig Morrison. In the intervening months, Funcom's bloody fantasy MMO has added developers, new content, and fresh ideas at a fairly steady pace. This week sees the introduction of tier four raiding content in Khitai as well as a lengthy Morrison-authored update letter that provides a roadmap for the rest of 2012. Follow along after the break as we talk raiding, the upcoming crafting revamp, and the community potential (and perils) of Funcom's spiffy new single-server technology. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom Extra: Craig Morrison on new content, crafting, and customizable communities The Anvil of Crom Extra: Craig Morrison on new content, crafting, and customizable communities originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Kissing cousins: SWTOR's legacy system explained Posted: 30 Mar 2012 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Game mechanics, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dev Diaries Star Wars: The Old Republic players are understandably excited about the unveiling of Legacy features in Update 1.2, but BioWare has been coy on specifics up to this point. To remedy that, Senior Game Designer William Wallace penned a blog post explaining what you'll be able to do with your familial connections in 1.2 -- and what is being tabled until Update 1.3. After choosing a Legacy surname (which many players have already done), BioWare will allow you to connect your characters through a family tree in the Legacy panel. Characters don't have to just be blood relatives; they can be allies, rivals, and adopted family members as well. Wallace explained that through these Legacy connections, characters have inherited many traits that run strong in families. These unlocks come in the form of shared emotes (which come at the end of Chapter 2), shared heroic abilities (unlocked at the end of Chapter 3), and the ability to roll the same race no matter what the class (unlocked at level 50). The Legacy system will also allow companions to unlock passive stat bonuses shared across all companions of that same archetype. Ship improvements, including mail, GTN access, and droids, are other perks of this system. However, players will have to wait until Update 1.3 to purchase per-character perks. These, as Wallace hints, will allow players to "customize the way their characters progress, as well as new rewards, conveniences, and all kinds of other fun surprises." Kissing cousins: SWTOR's legacy system explained originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Legacy dev diary

TERA PvP battlegrounds won't be in at launch, delayed until 'late summer' Posted: 30 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, PvP, News items, TERA TERA fans who were looking forward to proving their mettle in PvP battlegrounds at launch are in for a bit of disappointment. En Masse community manager Minea stopped by the forums a few days ago to give fans an update on the game's development, and in doing so, revealed that battlegrounds will not be in the game when it launches in May. But before you take to the forums to kick up a frenzy (please don't), keep in mind that just because battlegrounds won't be available at launch doesn't mean that they're not in the works. Minea goes on to announce that battlegrounds are planned to be added to the game "late this summer." We hope that the extra development time will allow battlegrounds to be nice and polished when they finally hit the live servers. Until then, though, players will have to make do with open-world PvP and guild-vs-guild battles. TERA PvP battlegrounds won't be in at launch, delayed until 'late summer' originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: TERA official forums Via: Lore Hound

Age of Conan dev update details free content, spiffy server tech Posted: 30 Mar 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play Hullo Hyboria fans, and welcome to the traditional end-of-the-month update letter recap. What's the update letter, you ask? It's Funcom executive producer Craig Morrison's way of keeping players abreast of development happenings on Age of Conan. This month there are quite a few interesting tidbits, including a mention of the game's next adventure pack, the crafting update, and of course, the new tier four Khitai raids in and around the Jade Citadel. Also noteworthy is the latest mention of Funcom's single-server tech. You may recall that Morrison mentioned this in 2011 as a way for players to form their own niche communities within the larger server community. Not much has been said about it since, but Funcom's Dreamworld engineers have been working on it behind the scenes to get it ready for its debut in The Secret World. After that, Morrison says, the tech will make its way into AoC, and chances are you'll have a chance to vote on the implementation. "This will most likely be the main subject of our summer surveys this year given how radically we could change the experience with this technology," Morrison explains. "It is one of those things that could be implemented in a way that you don't even notice, or it could be deployed to make things work in ways that are not typical for MMO games (like potentially allowing players to define their own communities, or even, at the furthest fringes of what's possible, defining their own rulesets!)." Look for our exclusive interview with Morrison later this afternoon. Age of Conan dev update details free content, spiffy server tech originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: March dev update

MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks Posted: 30 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Horror, Game mechanics, Previews, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Hands-on, Casual, Miscellaneous, MMObility I've been having a lot of fun with Parallel Kingdom lately. It's a location-based MMO brought to us by PerBlue, one that offers a layer of reality thanks to the fact that it is built on top of the real-world map. You can claim your real-life block, help other members of your city, and trade with other players from all over the world. It's actually a pretty simple design, but it helps to give the game a sense of realism. Parallel Kingdom isn't the only location-based game out there, though. I thought it might be cool to take a look at some of the other titles to see what the competition has to offer. So far I have only found a few that are stepping up in quality. Read on to see what I think of the rest! Continue reading MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks MMObility: Real-life location games for your daily walks originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Blizzard opens the Mists of Pandaria floodgates for 100,000 annual passholders Posted: 30 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Betas, Fantasy, Expansions, News items As everyone who isn't willfully ignoring recent news is aware, World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion is currently undergoing beta testing, and we know that many of you can't wait to get your hands on all the new content for yourselves. Well, if you're a World of Warcraft annual passholder, today might just be your lucky day. Bashiok stopped by the official forums to let players know that Blizzard is in the process of sending out a whopping 100,000 MoP beta invites to annual passholders. Bashiok closes the announcement by reminding players that all annual passholders will be invited to the beta before any opt-ins, though there's no telling how many of them are still awaiting invites or how long it will take before the poor/cheap among us get a crack at Pandaria, but hopefully it will be soon rather than soon[TM]. Blizzard opens the Mists of Pandaria floodgates for 100,000 annual passholders originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: World of Warcraft official forums

Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation Posted: 30 Mar 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, Otherland Fans of Tad Williams' deliciously cyberpunk book series Otherland are almost certainly waiting with bated breath for gamigo and RealU's upcoming MMO adaptation of the universe. In hopes of making the wait just a tad easier, gamigo has released a new developer diary video focusing on the EightSquared universe of Otherland. EightSquared, as you may have surmised from the name, is a simulation in which an entire medieval countryside has sprung forth from a gargantuan chess board on which the Red and White armies are locked in an eternal war/game. But something has gone wrong with the simulation: The armies are no longer following the rules of warfare (i.e., rules of chess), and it's up to players to find out where the problem lies before things get too far out of hand and cause the destruction of the simulation itself. The full dev diary also provides a look at the game's Lifecycle AI, which breathes life into the world by providing NPCs who follow their own day-to-day schedules. So what are you waiting for? Log in to the Net and go take a look for yourself. [Source: gamigo press release] Continue reading Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation Check and mate: A look at Otherland's EightSquared simulation originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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