MMO Updates |
- Watch Might and Magic: Duel of Champions' producer destroy Massively
- Xsyon update focuses on in-game economy
- Trailer shows off China's upcoming Monster Hunters Online
- Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part one
- The Daily Grind: Do you like moddable MMORPGs?
- Ask Massively: Why we cover what we do, part one
- The Guild Counsel: Finding a guild with off-peak playtimes
- The Summoner's Guidebook: It takes skill to right-click stuff in League of Legends
- Black Desert interview talks active combat and the big picture
- SMITE unveils Ne Zha with a video preview
- RIFT invites players to move into a new dimension
- SWTOR reloads Bounty Hunters and Troopers
- Final Fantasy XIV shows off the jobs and professions of 2.0
- LotRO hands out daily 'Hobbit presents'
- Make your EVE Fanfest plans with the official program
- The Think Tank: Have you ever quit an MMO over an update patch or expansion?
- WildStar chronicles closed beta metrics and milestones
- New dev blog details Neverwinter's crafting
- Second Wind: Spiral Knights
- Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day two
| Watch Might and Magic: Duel of Champions' producer destroy Massively Posted: 19 Apr 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, Interviews, New Titles, Previews, PvP, Free-to-Play, Mobile, Hands-On, Trading Card Games, Humor, Community Q&A, Livestream, Miscellaneous  Might and Magic: Duel of Champions is a great game for those who want not only more strategy but also a faster pace. The tutorial walked me through some of the basics, but I learned more in the hour I played with Stephane than I had playing during the previous week. Click past the cut to watch the livestream and read up on what makes this one stand out. Continue reading Watch Might and Magic: Duel of Champions' producer destroy Massively
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| Xsyon update focuses on in-game economy Posted: 19 Apr 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Economy, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Xsyon, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox, Crafting  Trade will be bolstered through the new totems; the new trade and quest versions allow tribes to place additional totems that will serve as a marketplace and quest hub. Even better, besides the ones placed in the tribe's own land, additional quest and trade totems can be placed on allied land. For more details on this and the other new systems, check out the full patch notes. [Source: Notorious Games press release]
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| Trailer shows off China's upcoming Monster Hunters Online Posted: 19 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play  Developed by Tencent Games and Capcom, Monster Hunter Online will be powered by CryEngine 3 instead of Capcom's own engine. How big of a difference does that make? Check out the trailer after the cut and see for yourself. Continue reading Trailer shows off China's upcoming Monster Hunters Online
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| Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part one Posted: 19 Apr 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Interviews, Launches, Free-to-Play, Neverwinter  Velasquez took a half-hour out of his busy schedule to sit with us and talk about the preparations being made for Neverwinter's big moment. Read on for his candid insights into beta stories, launch day, and making tough calls when tough calls had to be made. Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part one
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| The Daily Grind: Do you like moddable MMORPGs? Posted: 19 Apr 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Player-Generated Content  As recently as last November, when SOE outlawed all mods in PlanetSide 2 -- including benign mods that enhanced graphics and FPS -- our commenters seemed split over whether mods were a good thing. One, who specifically singled out Diablo III and Guild Wars 2 as key offenders, argued that developers' "play it how we made it because we know best" attitude stifles player freedom. Another wrote that on the contrary, Guild Wars 2's anti-mod approach was the right one; he liked that everyone is made to play with the same interface because "the fact [that] you almost need different UIs and addons for endgame in WoW" is a turn off. So let's take this topic's current temperature: Do you like moddable MMORPGs? Why or why not?  Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
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| Ask Massively: Why we cover what we do, part one Posted: 18 Apr 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Community Q&A, Miscellaneous  Yes, today we're talking Scarlet Blade. In between all the crazed commenter ranting, several of you guys posed legit questions about why we covered it in the first place. Let me try to answer you without turning this into a debate about sexism. Why? Because it's not really about any one specific -ism. Continue reading Ask Massively: Why we cover what we do, part one
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| The Guild Counsel: Finding a guild with off-peak playtimes Posted: 18 Apr 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, Guides, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous  For some players, this is a constant challenge because their work, school, or family responsibilities allow them to log in only during off-peak playtimes. Last week, Massively reader Barachiel1976 brought up this very topic, and it's actually surprisingly common. So in this week's Guild Counsel, let's look at a few options for players who want to be part of a guild but can't play during peak playtimes. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Finding a guild with off-peak playtimes
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| The Summoner's Guidebook: It takes skill to right-click stuff in League of Legends Posted: 18 Apr 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook  I didn't learn to love carrying right away. It was sort of an evolutionary process, moving from support to mid to never-playing-SR-again to top to jungle to ADC. One of the things I love about ADC is that you can't be good at it starting out. You can be better than the people you're playing against, but you can't be good at it at all. The huge technical curve, more than anything else, is what attracts me to the role. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: It takes skill to right-click stuff in League of Legends
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| Black Desert interview talks active combat and the big picture Posted: 18 Apr 2013 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, Interviews, News Items, Sandbox  The game's combat system will include combat on foot or while mounted, with mounted combat having several obvious advantages -- charging while mounted can be incredibly damaging, and you have an easier time knocking down targets on foot. Combat is meant to be slightly loose rather than forcing characters to have perfect timing, but the emphasis is on "realistic" combat over a string of abilities. For more details, take a look at the full interview (scroll down to see the English version).
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| SMITE unveils Ne Zha with a video preview Posted: 18 Apr 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, MOBA  On the battlefield, Ne Zha acts as a melee assassin, with abilities to enhance his melee damage and pull himself to a distant target as needed. He also has a ranged ability to add a stacking resistance debuff and a passive ability that turns a dead Ne Zha into a healing beacon for nearby allies. As usual, the video closes out with some demonstrations of what Ne Zha can do in various combat scenarios. Ne Zha's addition also sees the inclusion of integrated streaming into the SMITE client, with a special skin available to players who stream more than 5000 minutes of the game. Check out the full list of changes on the official patch notes. Continue reading SMITE unveils Ne Zha with a video preview
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| RIFT invites players to move into a new dimension Posted: 18 Apr 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, RIFT, Housing, Player-Generated Content  The team will be livestreaming a couple of player-created Moonshade dimensions tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. EDT if you need inspiration for your own masterpiece.
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| SWTOR reloads Bounty Hunters and Troopers Posted: 18 Apr 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Classes, Expansions, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dev Diaries  Bounty Hunters should have an easier go at it now, as BioWare's handing out Hydraulic Overrides and Chaff Flares to everyone. The team also redesigned the Kolto Overload skill to give the class a huge bump to survivability when it activates. Over on the Trooper side of things, the team's brought the class' resource mechanic in line with the Trooper's Bounty Hunter counterpart. All Troopers now get Hold the Line and Diversion skills, as well as a more survival-happy Adrenaline Rush. The smaller but still significant tweaks to the advanced classes are worth reading carefully if you play one of these classes, as there are plenty to note.
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| Final Fantasy XIV shows off the jobs and professions of 2.0 Posted: 18 Apr 2013 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Classes, Final Fantasy XIV 
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| LotRO hands out daily 'Hobbit presents' Posted: 18 Apr 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Free-to-Play, Giveaways  The Hobbit Presents will drop a variety of goods, including gear, gold, boosts, and food. The weekly presents have a higher chance of dropping rare rewards. Turbine says that the system will factor in a character's class and level when generating the reward and that only one free present per account will be given daily. A double-XP weekend began today to celebrate the game's sixth anniversary, and Update 11 is scheduled to go on the test server tomorrow.
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| Make your EVE Fanfest plans with the official program Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Events (Real-World), MMOFPS, World of Darkness, DUST 514, Sandbox  Fanfest will have three keynotes about the past, present, and future of CCP's titles, respectively. There will also be several panels, including one discussing EVE Online's inclusion in the New York Museum of Modern Art. EVE Online also released a new dev blog talking about the team's war on unauthorized client modification and violations of the EULA. Apparently CCP has taken additional steps to beef up detection and prevention, and the team wanted to be clear with players as to what is and is not allowed.
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| The Think Tank: Have you ever quit an MMO over an update patch or expansion? Posted: 18 Apr 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Expansions, MMO Industry, Patches, Opinion, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, The Think Tank  But when these changes affect the original game too much, it's inevitable that some players will not like what the devs see as improvements. In the case of the infamous Star Wars Galaxies NGE, players left in droves. So I threw the question out to the Massively staff to see if anyone had been so turned off by a game update that he or she left for good. Read on to find out who left what and why Patrick might need to leave the country for a bit. Continue reading The Think Tank: Have you ever quit an MMO over an update patch or expansion?
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| WildStar chronicles closed beta metrics and milestones Posted: 18 Apr 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Bugs, Game Mechanics, News Items, Humor, Dev Diaries, WildStar, Player-Generated Content  Gaffney offers up these metrics for humor, but he's actually serious business about data parsing and player feedback even as he wants the early invitees to enjoy themselves: We're tracking almost everything that goes on in the game. Combat timings, level timings, movement, you name it. The players' actions matter to us. Betas aren't always fun per se (there's often a big difference between "playing" and "testing"), so we've tried hard to make sure the game is actually fun even in this, our very first round of external testing.Tester feedback, he says, is funneled to straight to a rapid response team to deal with on a daily and weekly basis. And if testers don't submit that feedback? "One player actually found that some taxi drivers in a fit of generosity would give you money for flying to your destination instead of taking it and spent four hours riding back and forth," Gaffney admits. "We left him with 50 copper of the 14 gold he farmed as thanks for making us laugh."
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| New dev blog details Neverwinter's crafting Posted: 18 Apr 2013 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Crafting, Neverwinter  In a nutshell, crafting involves hiring numerous NPC assets to complete crafting-related tasks. These NPCs include Leadership Mercs, Platesmithing Miners, Mailsmithing Prospectors, Leatherworking Skinners, and Tailoring Weavers. Over time, completing various tasks will award profession XP as well as resources and rewards. Your NPC assets will work on your tasks while you're out adventuring, and you can also "tinker with your professions on the Neverwinter Gateway website when you're outside of the game client," according to the diary. Learn more at the game's official site.
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| Posted: 18 Apr 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Business Models, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Browser, Hands-On, Second Wind  Browser game represent some of the coolest technological innovations in the MMO niche. They also, often, represent the very worst in predatory monetization schemes and "pay-to-win" exploitation. Spiral Knights does both. And it does both well. Continue reading Second Wind: Spiral Knights
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| Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day two Posted: 18 Apr 2013 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game Mechanics, Launches, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Hands-On, First Impressions, Sandbox  See, I'm one of those sandbox carebears who could not care less about PvP. I'll attempt to defend myself if attacked, and I'll add another body to the zerg if I'm in a clan or whatever, but I don't seek out conflict with other players. I mention this because that attitude obviously informs everything I write about Darkfall, which, at its core, is a great big high fantasy murder simulator. Yes, the game has crafting, harvesting, player housing, and better PvE than it's given credit for, but on some level all of this stuff exists to power the FFA PvP meatgrinder that in turn attempts to satiate the bloodlust of Aventurine's target demographic. And would you believe that despite that, Darkfall is still one of this carebear's favorite MMORPGs? Continue reading Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day two
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