| The Road to Mordor: Delay, delay, delay Posted: 25 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor Earlier this week, I was working on this column with the title "Preparing for Riders of Rohan." What a change a day or two makes because the body of that article quickly got changed to "Sit on your thumbs." Yes, the LotRO community got thrown for a loop this week, as Turbine announced that Riders of Rohan has been shoved back a month and a half for additional work. So we've gone from a mere two-week countdown to nearly two months, and that takes a bit of mental adjustment. On top of all that, the studio demolished the NDA wall, which sort of seems like a risky move when you've just disappointed players with news of a delay. I think we should talk about it, don't you? I'll say this up front: It's actually a very good thing. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Delay, delay, delay  The Road to Mordor: Delay, delay, delay originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: This weekend, you can sleep edition Posted: 25 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous Yes, it's true! This weekend you can take part in the activity that's sweeping the nation: falling into an unconscious state for several hours and then recovering! You can sleep in a bed, on a couch, or possibly even on a hammock. So see what all the buzz is about and give sleep a try! You'll be glad you did. Also I guess some game or another is launching early for certain players or something. You could do that, too. If you don't feel like sleeping. As will be revealed in this week's installment of WRUP, the Massively crew is not a big fan of sleeping. We are fans of video games, though, so we talk about what games we'll be playing for the weekend after the cut. And we talk about our favorite business models for video games. You get the idea. Let us know what you'll be up to down in the comments! Continue reading WRUP: This weekend, you can sleep edition WRUP: This weekend, you can sleep edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Do you log in for chance-based daily activities? Posted: 25 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Daily quests are a fixture in MMOs. Whether a game is subscription-based or free-to-play, it has a vested interest in cajoling you to keep coming back (and spending money). F2P games in particular have latched on to a very specific type of non-combat daily "quest." In Free Realms, for example, players can spin a wheel once per day to receive a chance at random prizes and rewards. In Glitch, you can shuffle your upgrade cards for a new batch every game day. And the RIFT mobile app provides "Lootables," virtual lottery scratch-off tickets that you can play a few times per day for a chance for, well, loot in the real game. These types of "dailies" can sometimes put players who play in a few long bursts at a disadvantage to those who play in many short bursts. I know I'm annoyed when I constantly feel as if I need to log in and perform routine maintenance on a game so that my "real" playtime is enhanced. And that's without mentioning that some games will happily sell the equivalent of wheel spins to those players who didn't like the results of their freebie. Today, Massively's wondering what you think of non-combat daily quests transparently designed to keep you thinking about the game even when you're not playing it. Do you log in to spin wheels, shuffle cards, and scratch off virtual lottery tickets? Or do you ignore those daily activities?  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: Do you log in for chance-based daily activities? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 25 Aug 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: August 18 - 24, 2012 Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Launches, MMO industry, Massively Meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Betawatch says farewell to Guild Wars 2 today, as the subscriptionless MMO will launch its headstart later tonight. Stay tuned for our launch coverage next week! Lord of the Rings Online's Riders of Rohan expansion has been delayed, extending the beta period more than a month. We also learned that gPotato's Sevencore open beta will kick off on September 6th, Age of Wushu is launching in the States on October 18th, DUST 514's Precursor beta client is now live, and Knight Age named August 28th as the date for its open beta. And remember that Otherland beta we told you about last week? It's been delayed indefinitely. Finally, we got a close look at RIFT's housing-system-in-testing and the beta version of Pirate 101. Hit the jump for the complete Betawatch roundup! Continue reading Betawatch: August 18 - 24, 2012 Betawatch: August 18 - 24, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Lessons from what roleplaying resembles most Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous When you get right down to it, roleplaying isn't really like a movie or a novel in which you determine the story. It's not even all that much like a video game in which you write the story; those tend to be structured better. No, roleplaying is most like making your own serial comic book. Think about it. You have a number of charcters with superhuman abilities getting into conflicts on a regular basis. Sometimes those characters pan out into a satisfying story arc, but other times characters show up and then vanish, either because they were awful or because the author didn't know what to do with them. There's a real risk of running on into boredom, and there are a lot of times when characters get kludged into other storylines for cross-promotional purposes. Regular readers will probably guess that I don't think of this as a bad thing. I like comics a lot, after all. And it means that we can take some interesting lessons from the long lifespan of comics because when you realize you're making a big collaborative comic, you earn the right to use some tricks of the trade. Continue reading Storyboard: Lessons from what roleplaying resembles most Storyboard: Lessons from what roleplaying resembles most originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| A song of trees and fire: A deeper look at DDO's Update 15 Posted: 24 Aug 2012 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Patches, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Humor Earlier this week, Turbine released Update 15: Song of Druid's Deep for Dungeons and Dragons Online. Seeing as this was the first post-expansion update and that it took us further into the Forgotten Realms setting, we had to get a closer look at what Update 15 added to the game. Lead Content Designer Ricardo Liu and Community Manager Amanda Grove invited us along to a tour of the new content. Liu said that the speed of Update 15's arrival is a sign that Turbine wants to kick up the pace of releases. The update includes a new four-quest adventure pack, the monster manual, and an additional challenge. With Update 15, many more options are available in the DDO store. Turbine's set the pricing as follows: Menace of the Underdark adventure packs are 2495 Turbine Points for all, account-wide epic destiny unlock is 995 TP, the Eveningstar Challenge Pack is free for VIPs and 695 TP for others, and the Druid class is free for VIPs and 1495 TP for others. The pricing details out of the way, we got right into the fun of all of Update 15's new adventures. It's a tale that will give the green thumbs among you a plague of nightmares. Continue reading A song of trees and fire: A deeper look at DDO's Update 15 A song of trees and fire: A deeper look at DDO's Update 15 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Dungeon Fighter Online counts over 3 million concurrent Chinese users Posted: 24 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Dungeon Fighter Online Concurrency is a big deal for most MMOs. Total numbers of accounts and subscribers might tell you how many people play the game, but concurrency tells you how many people actually play the game on a regular basis. So when Dungeon Fighter Online breaks its previous concurrency record in China, that's good news for the game and the development team. After setting an earlier record with 2.6 million users, the game peaked at just over 3 million concurrent users in June. Neople, the developer of Dungeon Fighter Online and a subsidiary of Nexon, has been working with Tencent Games to help adapt the game for the Chinese audience, as China has a long list of rules about what is and is not acceptable in a game. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can play the game now on your PC or an XBox 360, depending on your preferred platform. Dungeon Fighter Online counts over 3 million concurrent Chinese users originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Firing Line: What DayZ means to core gamers Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Horror, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, Sandbox, The Firing Line, Housing The death of the core gamer has been greatly exaggerated. Yes, MMORPGs (and gaming in general) have kowtowed to the influx of new-school players flush with cash but lacking time, and the genre has reinvented itself and turned its back on virtual world enthusiasts in the process. There's still hope, though, and so far it's not coming from any of the usual sandbox suspects in the MMO space. Continue reading The Firing Line: What DayZ means to core gamers The Firing Line: What DayZ means to core gamers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Mythic: Help us convince execs to make Ultima Online 2 Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Ultima Online, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries As Ultima Online turns the corner into its 15th anniversary next month, many fans have wondered why Mythic is focusing on its not-quite-an-MMO Ultima Forever instead of a proper sequel. Producer Jeff Skalski took to the podium to talk about Ultima's future and how fans might help the studio sell higher-ups on a return to the days of glory. Skalski says that it's important to realize that Ultima Forever and Ultima Online are being worked on by separate teams, so there's no draining of resources from one into the other. "We have a phrase here in the office that every generation deserves an Ultima game," he said. "It's been far too long." When the 15th anniversary hits, expect fun surprises, Skalski promised. He finished by making a plea for fans to support Ultima Forever, saying that it might lead to better things: "For those interested in seeing an UO2: No surprise announcements on that today, but what I will say by everyone continuing to support UO and Ultima Forever this is the kind of ammunition I need to convince the high level execs that the market is ready for more Ultima." Mythic: Help us convince execs to make Ultima Online 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Clone Wars Adventures adds embattled Carlac to planetary roster Posted: 24 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Patches, Free-to-play, Kids, Family, Clone Wars Adventures Sony Online Entertainment released a new set of hyperspace coordinates to its Clone Wars Adventures players, but be warned: If you take them, you'll be in for quite a scuffle. Today the game has expanded to include a new planet, Carlac. This isn't a peaceful world full of timeshare opportunities but rather a dangerous warzone with mercenaries and some dude named Pre Vizsla. Or that could be a car. The 2012 Pre Vizsla: It'll make the Kessel run on 30 miles to the gallon. Carlac has an impressive array of attractions for players, including four instanced missions, eight collections, two world bosses, and hundreds of enemies. SOE says that it's about the same size as CWA's Umbara. [Source: SOE press release] Clone Wars Adventures adds embattled Carlac to planetary roster originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMObility: Trying to find real MMOs on the app market Posted: 24 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, Mobile, Casual, Miscellaneous, MMObility If you spend as much time as I do scouring your favorite app marketplace, you know just how frustrating it can be to quickly download a new "MMORPG" only to find out it's not really an MMORPG. Luckily, the Play Store makes it relatively easy to get a refund on a newly purchased games, and uninstalling is easy enough. It can still be very frustrating to become excited for a title only to find out it's nothing like its description. The fact is that there are a lot of great MMOs on the mobile markets. Most are available on both Android or iOS as well. I also search on Google a lot, but the results from the search giant can sometimes be more unreliable. When it comes down to it, the only way to know whether a game is a true MMO is to download it and try it out. Or, of course, keep an eye on columns like mine. Continue reading MMObility: Trying to find real MMOs on the app market MMObility: Trying to find real MMOs on the app market originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Windows 8, for those of you who don't know, relies on something called SmartScreen Application Reputation to identify and warn users of potentially dangerous desktop apps. According to Microsoft, the operating system uses 
