| Rise and Shiny: There Posted: 16 Sep 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Video, Culture, Opinion, Casual, Virtual worlds, Humor, Livestream, Miscellaneous, Sandbox I remember years ago staying up very late, usually on the weekends, chatting about politics or religion in a wonderful social MMO called There. My wife and I would join a bunch of online friends to haunt parties and other gatherings, often getting booted out because we would bring up sensitive topics or would act too silly. There was a great world to cut my social MMO teeth on. I had already been playing Ultima Online and EverQuest starting around '99, but There was a brand-new experience. I loved it. Social MMOs are a rare thing, often ruled by half-naked people and driven by mature themes. While There did have its "private parties" (if you know what I mean), it was generally a friendly place with a better creeps-to-normal-people ratio than other social MMOs. The game shut down in 2010, and I honestly thought it was gone forever. Somehow I missed the fact that it relaunched not so long ago, and this past week I was able to not only log in to the game but resurrect my avatar from all those years ago. Unfortunately, the game seems largely empty, but I do normally visit MMOs during the day. Still, I took a few screenshots and compared them to older ones just to show how things have changed. What a week. What a nostalgic, wonderful week. Continue reading Rise and Shiny: There  Rise and Shiny: There originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Seven minutes of The War Z gameplay footage released Posted: 16 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Horror, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox What's new with zombie survival apocalyptic sandbox The War Z? That's hard to say since we haven't seen much of the game since its announcement. Any opportunity to get a further glance at its gameplay is a welcome one, though. IGN delivers the goods in the form of seven minutes of video featuring sniping, stealth approaches, and general combat. You can also see plenty of The War Z's environments as well as occasional looks at the inventory and UI. The full clip is yours after the cut. Continue reading Seven minutes of The War Z gameplay footage released Seven minutes of The War Z gameplay footage released originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Previously on MV TV: The week of September 8th Posted: 16 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Aion, EverQuest II, Previews, Professions, Opinion, Vanguard, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-play, Casual, Virtual worlds, Humor, Guides, Livestream, Miscellaneous, Sandbox, Previously on MV TV It's starting to cool down outside, at least here in Texas. Trust me, I know how strange that sounds, but the temperature during the middle of the day is moving up as usual and the mornings and evenings are pure bliss. If it's cold where you are now, settle down with a cup of coffee and take that newspaper and throw it in the trash! Who needs to read? Follow the magic links down below, and not only will you get the news, but it will be delivered in a completely non-newsy form: video game streams! Let's break down the top stories for this week. First, we'll be joined by the Pigster as he takes us on a tour of Spiral Knight's planet. Richie is still stuck in Guild Wars 2, but trooper that he is, he continues to file reports from the front lines. How brave! MJ returns this week with a recipe for Gnoll burritos from EverQuest II, a newbie tour through the character mines of Guild Wars 2, a quickie glimpse of the floating islands of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and an avocado dip recipe given to her by the pirates of Aion. I finish off by travelling back in time to a game called There, a title that kept me up for ages when I was younger. Continue reading Previously on MV TV: The week of September 8th Previously on MV TV: The week of September 8th originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Should companies offer release schedules for updates? Posted: 16 Sep 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Patches, Opinion, The Daily Grind, The Secret World, Miscellaneous If you've been following the news about The Secret World lately, you know that the game's second monthly update has now been delayed until next week, meaning that it's missing the "monthly" mark entirely. That's part of the development process; projects wind up taking more time than you expect. That's normal. But it does mean that the promise of "monthly content updates" isn't coming to fruition, and that promise may have been better off never being made in the first place. Lots of companies promise a certain rate of content delivery, and more often than not those targets get missed on a regular basis. Making the promise does serve a purpose, however, as it helps players know that the game's team is still hard at work. So are promises of update schedules a good thing? Or should studios stop saying that there will be a regular stream of updates  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! when it so rarely comes to pass? The Daily Grind: Should companies offer release schedules for updates? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 16 Sep 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Plague epidemic speeds across Azeroth Posted: 15 Sep 2012 09:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Bugs, Culture, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Patches, News items Gamers aren't known for their steadfast refusal to make use of any bugs or exploits present in a given system. While exploits are normally made to gain material or martial advantage over other players, sometimes it's just because being a scallywag is fun. Seven years ago we saw what was perhaps the most wide-scale example of such an exploit, as Warlocks and Hunters used their pets to spread a Corrupted Blood epidemic through World of Warcraft. Yesterday, a similar opportunity reared its disease-riddled head: A patch allowed Death Knights to use their plague skills on friendly players. While the Corrupted Blood epidemic is somewhat celebrated in WoW, devs apparently weren't willing to have a repeat. A fix came out in the wee hours of the morning to keep Death Knights from wreaking too much havoc. [Thanks to alert gamer Collin for the tip!] Plague epidemic speeds across Azeroth originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Tattered Notebook: Are EQII expansions a square peg in the free-to-play model? Posted: 15 Sep 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Expansions, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook Last week's announcement of a new EverQuest II expansion was a surprise in many ways, but I think the biggest surprise of all is the fact that there is an expansion coming at all. The game has gone through many changes in both its update schedule and payment model over the past few years, so it's interesting to see the announcement of Chains of Eternity, EQII's ninth expansion. We've seen the transition to free-to-play, free content game updates, and with the most recent expansion, a move toward features and away from game content. So why is EQII going back to a traditional style expansion? And in light of free-to-play and not "pay to hope," should the game even continue with paid expansions? Let's look at a few things to consider in this week's Tattered Notebook. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Are EQII expansions a square peg in the free-to-play model? The Tattered Notebook: Are EQII expansions a square peg in the free-to-play model? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: It's the countdown Posted: 15 Sep 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, Patches, News items, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log On November 1st, it's the end of the world as we know it. I'll let you know then how I'm feeling. All right, the game will still be online for another week or so, but November 1st is the last day that any progress is getting saved. You can go ahead and ignore Final Fantasy XIV after that last server photograph, unless you had an urge to spend all of your gil on airship rides but couldn't bear the thought of being broke. Not that you'll even need to worry about that after September 29th if you're not currently subscribed, as that's the last chance for people to come back even if it's just for a short period of time. It's hard to avoid looking forward to the end of the game as it stands, and the fact that we have a precise timeframe only exacerbates the problem. We've got 45 days until the ending hits, and while I've already talked about what to do with the time you have left, there are questions that need to be asked as we look at the numbers. Continue reading The Mog Log: It's the countdown The Mog Log: It's the countdown originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dogfooding is a term you hear applied to software companies quite often, however 
PC Manufacturers are working day and night to shrink Ultrabooks into impossibly thin new form factors, and one of the causalities of this push has been output display options. VGA and DVI made way for mini display port and HDMI, however even these smaller connectors take up precious space. Even if your laptop sports one, what if you want more than one external display? The answer my friends is 
