MMO Updates

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• Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part two
• WRUP: Here, just have some kittens edition
• The Daily Grind: Do you keep games installed even when you're not playing them?
• MMO Blender: Game of Thrones, MUDs, and the perfect quest text
• Betawatch: April 13 - 19, 2013
• Star Trek Online outlines the fine details of Romulan ship progression
• Storyboard: Dramatic community
• City of Steam gets the green light
• War Thunder opens US beta server, starts development on mobile version
• SWTOR wraps up expansion class changes with the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular
• Guild Wars 2 goes on sale, releases free retro platformer
• Defiance producer addresses issues in recent patch
• World of Tanks' account security compromised
• MMObility: Hailan Rising is a lesson in confusion and miscommunication
• Second Wind Roundtable: NSFW edition
• Hands-on with Arena of Heroes' turn-based gameplay
• Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day three and recap

Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part two Posted: 20 Apr 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Interviews, Launches, Free-to-Play, Neverwinter We're back with Cryptic Lead Producer Andy Velasquez to continue our discussion of Neverwinter's beta lessons, launch preparations, and post-launch plans. We also touch on some of the comments and concerns that players had for the title and how Cryptic is addressing them. If you missed the first part of this interview, make sure you check it out before continuing! Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part two Massively Exclusive: Neverwinter pre-launch interview, part two originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WRUP: Here, just have some kittens edition Posted: 20 Apr 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous This week is not a week for my usual random nonsense. Instead, I'm just going to give you this photo of Abyssinian kittens thanks to the wonder of Wikimedia Commons. Why Abyssinian? Because they're particularly lovely cats. Just enjoy that for a moment you don't have to worry about all of the other insanity that's going on and you can just picture some gorgeous little bundles of mewling fur in your mind. No punchline this week. Just have some kittens. Of course, you might consider WRUP a punchline in and of itself, but that is also here, complete with the Massively staff's plans for the weekend. Like every week, you can feel free to let us know your weekend plans down in the comments, even if they don't include cuddling kittens. But kittens would be nice for everyone, I think. (My cat sits on my desk as I work and purrs at me; I would know.) Continue reading WRUP: Here, just have some kittens edition WRUP: Here, just have some kittens edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Do you keep games installed even when you're not playing them? Posted: 20 Apr 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Miscellaneous My adventures in Star Trek Online have come to a close now, but the client is still on my hard drive. There's no reason it needs to be there, and getting rid of it frees up some space for other games or data. I can always reinstall if I need to. Yet I find myself oddly reluctant to delete games off of my computer even when I'm not playing them, even if I know the odds are low I'll ever play them again. Part of this is because it's easier to patch up from a midpoint than to start over and install fresh, but part of it is just plain nostalgia. Still, it does create unnecessary computer clutter. So today, I ask of you: do you keep games installed even when you're not playing them? Is your desktop bearing shortcuts to games you have left behind, or does it only have online games you're actually involved with at any given moment? 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 keep games installed even when you're not playing them? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Blender: Game of Thrones, MUDs, and the perfect quest text Posted: 19 Apr 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Screenshots, Culture, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Browser, Casual, Virtual Worlds, Miscellaneous, MMO Blender Nothing seems to suck me into a game more than a good story. The brilliant thing is that the story doesn't have to be complicated or intense as long as it's original and easy to follow. I want characters to meet, locations to discover. I need to immerse myself into a story more than I need to raise a level or obtain powerful loot. In this edition of MMO Blender, I wanted to use three main games as prime examples of systems that, when combined together in some form, would deliver the best story-driven experience I can imagine. There are several factors to consider: story, movement, character, and interaction. I want to use War of Dragons as an example of movement in a mostly text environment, Gemstone IV for character and interaction, and Game of Thrones Ascent for story. Hopefully, when I am done, I'll have convinced someone to give me a few million dollars to create this dream MMO. Continue reading MMO Blender: Game of Thrones, MUDs, and the perfect quest text MMO Blender: Game of Thrones, MUDs, and the perfect quest text originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Betawatch: April 13 - 19, 2013 Posted: 19 Apr 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Previews, Miscellaneous If you've been looking at Firefall longingly and wishing you could get in on the game, the open beta has finally been announced to start on July 9th. That means everyone can get in on the destruction of various science fiction beasties. By contrast, Origins of Malu has had to push its own closed beta back slightly, with a revised date to be announced shortly. Ragnarok Online 2 and Lost Saga are both moving forward in their testing routines, with the latter hitting open beta and the former kicking off several in-game events for testers. Runescape 3 has also started its testing, The Lost Titans has moved into open beta, and War Thunder has opened a US beta server. Not too bad considering everything else going on this week. As before, there's a full set of tests in the list past the break. If something's snuck in a functioning cash shop without us noticing, feel free to let us know in the comments, or just discuss your testing experiences (where it would not violate NDAs). Continue reading Betawatch: April 13 - 19, 2013 Betawatch: April 13 - 19, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Star Trek Online outlines the fine details of Romulan ship progression Posted: 19 Apr 2013 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Expansions, Game Mechanics, Previews, News Items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play The Romulan faction in Star Trek Online's upcoming expansion does not play like mirrors of the Federation or the Klingons. The race's ships are less diverse in some ways, but its cloaking devices that allow for stealth even in combat make it clear that this is a race about subtle manipulation and careful subterfuge. A new development blog outlines the fine points of ship progression including refit ships, retrofit ships, and small craft for the faction. In addition to the cloaking devices, all Romulan ships feature a powerful Singularity Core that allows access to a different tier of special abilities for each ship. As with other factions, refits and retrofits of lower-tier ships can be purchased from the game's cash shop, complete with new customizable skins and new consoles for these variants. Players interested in seeing the full details should take a look at the development blog and get ready to remind the galaxy why the phrase "warbird decloaking" is never a sign things are going well. Star Trek Online outlines the fine details of Romulan ship progression originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Romulan ship progression

Storyboard: Dramatic community Posted: 19 Apr 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous A couple of friends of mine recently found themselves knee-deep in roleplaying community drama. For those of you who have not seen this dread beast before, let me assure you that it is the most vile of all forms of drama, in which people wind up angry at one another over elements that virtually no one else cares about. I've seen it strike many times, and it's always frustrating and unpleasant due in no small part to its sheer pointlessness. I've talked about community drama on one occasion when it comes to the Final Fantasy XIV roleplaying community, but the fact that I'm seeing it passed around elsewhere means that it's a topic worth addressing in a general sense. This isn't drama centered around what happened within the game but drama about the managerial aspects of the community, about handling site ownership and moderation and all of the associated stuff. And there are a few tricks to help minimize this before it starts. Continue reading Storyboard: Dramatic community Storyboard: Dramatic community originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

City of Steam gets the green light Posted: 19 Apr 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, New Titles, Free-to-Play, Browser, City of Steam, Steampunk The steampunk browser MMO City of Steam is happy to announce today that it has been greenlit by the benevolent members of Steam. What does this mean? It means that the people have spoken and they want to see City of Steam on... Steam, and the folks at Mechanist Games can now work with Valve to get the game up on the popular game distribution platform, opening the free-to-play title up to much more exposure. Out of 1195 games campaigning for a spot on Steam, CoS came out in "8th or 9th place," according to the team's recent news post. Up next: getting out of beta and on to a finished client-based version for Steam. Congratulations to everyone at Mechanist Games! City of Steam gets the green light originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Greenlight announcement

War Thunder opens US beta server, starts development on mobile version Posted: 19 Apr 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Real-Life, Patches, War, Mobile, Miscellaneous War Thunder, formerly World of Planes, has been soaring through open beta for several months now. Gaijin Entertainment decided that it's time to make a few flight adjustments, however, and announced that it has opened up a separate US gaming cluster to improve latency times for North American players. The developer also let slip that it has begun development on a mobile version of the game for both iOS and Android platforms. Gaijin said that War Thunder has attracted 1.5 million active users who have flown a total of 224 million missions since the start of beta. The developer recently put out version 1.29 for the flight sim; the patch makes a number of significant improvements such as four new aircraft, improved damage models, and a new economy. [Source: Gaijin Entertainment press release] War Thunder opens US beta server, starts development on mobile version originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Version 1.29 patch notes

SWTOR wraps up expansion class changes with the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular Posted: 19 Apr 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Classes, Expansions, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dev Diaries Star Wars: The Old Republic has finished up the last of eight dev diaries featuring changes to the game's classes following Rise of the Hutt Cartel's release. On the docket for today is the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular, mirrored classes that have mirrored adjustments. Both classes now have stronger heals (Dark Heal and Benevolence), cooldown-free shields (Static Barrier and Force Armor), and class-wide access to 10 seconds of faster casting and interrupt blocking (Polarity Shift and Mental Alacrity). Both classes also have been treated to a new skill, Force Barrier, which offers total protection for up to 10 seconds of channeling. There are plenty of other detailed changes to the advanced classes and roles, so check these diaries out if you're in tune with the Force in a way that makes the rest of us jealous. SWTOR wraps up expansion class changes with the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Sith Inquisitor dev diary, Jedi Consular dev diary

Guild Wars 2 goes on sale, releases free retro platformer Posted: 19 Apr 2013 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, News Items, Guild Wars 2 Have you been meaning to try out Guild Wars 2 but afraid to commit to the box price? If you have been exceedingly clever, you might have noticed that several sites around the internet have been doing their best to throw trial codes at you for a free weekend experience. If you missed that or have exciting plans for the weekend, however, you might not be quite yet out of luck. Digital and Digital Deluxe editions of Guild Wars 2 are on sale on the official site until the 28th. You can pick it up for roughly 30% less than you would normally. Given that the Super Adventure Box is going strong until the end of the month and Flame and Frost: Retribution will be wrapping up this living story arc, this seems like a pretty promising time to check it out. Meanwhile, the team has also released a dev blog chronicling the creation of the Super Adventure Box commercial mocked up for the April Fools' Day events. Turns out that the game the boy in the commercial is playing is called Rytlock's Critter Rampage; it's a real retro platformer game dreamed up by ArenaNet's Delly Sartika, and here's the best part: It's playable right now, by you, in your browser. Guild Wars 2 goes on sale, releases free retro platformer originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Sale page

Defiance producer addresses issues in recent patch Posted: 19 Apr 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Bugs, Launches, News Items, Post-Apocalyptic, Dev Diaries, Defiance No launch period is without its stresses, bugs, and crises. Defiance Executive Producer Nathan Richardsson took some time to address some of the recent drama brought on by patching in new content and fixes. He called on the old adage that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions," explaining that some of the problems in the most recent patch were due to the team wanting to get content out too quickly. "I could have pushed less and said 'no' and had it longer in testing and prepared better," Richardsson explained. He also stated that some of the problems couldn't have been caught with more thorough testing because of the differences between the live and test environments. He concluded that the team is determined to do its best by Defiance, as "she deserves it." It's quite the delicate balance, we're sure, to deal with the fact that your game is out and being adored and also that it's got some vital issues. Richardsson summed up those feelings with, "I can go from sad to twerk in a heartbeat." You can check out an ever-updating list of known issues here. Until the next patch, keep on twerkin' on. Defiance producer addresses issues in recent patch originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Official post

World of Tanks' account security compromised Posted: 19 Apr 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Historical, Events (In-Game), News Items, War, Free-to-Play, World of Tanks If you have a World of Tanks account, you will want to change your password. Developers report that "some personal information may have been compromised due to a security incident." Time to change the locks on your tanks, folks. Thankfully, you gain more than just personal peace of mind by taking the time to change your account security information. Wargaming.net is rewarding each customer with 300 gold when his or her password is successfully updated. Changing your password is simple: Just log into your account management page and fill in the appropriate blanks. Wargaming suggests that your new password consist of capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers. The devs also say that the longer your password is, the better your protection becomes. This a very important tip considering your Wargaming ID carries across all current and future Wargaming.net games, like the upcoming World of Warplanes. World of Tanks' account security compromised originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Official incident announcement, Password change event

MMObility: Hailan Rising is a lesson in confusion and miscommunication Posted: 19 Apr 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Bugs, Game Mechanics, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, MMObility I was excited to try out Hailan Rising, a new PvP-centric MMO being published by GamersFirst. It looks sort of primitive but has an old-school appeal that I thought would suit my tastes. For a long time I also thought it was a browser-based game, perhaps because it was being built in Unity, but at this point I'm confused about pretty much everything connected with the title. To make matters worse, the forums are filled with similarly confused players who just want some answers. Many of them cannot log in, but I was able to. But then all I found was an empty server, literally. I did some research and read up on some of the information we posted on this site as recently as February of this year. I checked the forums and mailed off an inquiry to GamersFirst that as of press time has not been answered. So what is Hailan Rising and what has happened to it? Continue reading MMObility: Hailan Rising is a lesson in confusion and miscommunication MMObility: Hailan Rising is a lesson in confusion and miscommunication originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Second Wind Roundtable: NSFW edition Posted: 19 Apr 2013 11:30 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Culture, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Humor, Second Wind For this edition of the Second Wind Roundtable, I thought it'd be a funny little prank to coerce a couple of my colleagues into playing Scarlet Blade with me. I was wrong. I was so, so very wrong. We lost some good men in there, but those of us who survived to talk about it gathered 'round for some group therapy over hard whiskey and mind-bleach. Coincidentally, we also transcribed it so that you can learn from our mistakes. Be warned, many screenshots below the cut are explicit, though some have been tastefully censored for the sake of all things holy and sacred. No, really, we are not kidding: This post is not safe for work/children/anyone with a sense of common decency. That being said, you can join us after the cut. I'm so, so sorry. Continue reading Second Wind Roundtable: NSFW edition Second Wind Roundtable: NSFW edition originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hands-on with Arena of Heroes' turn-based gameplay Posted: 19 Apr 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Classes, Game Mechanics, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Mobile, Hands-On, Casual, First Impressions, MOBA During the last week, I've witnessed two excellent unions: My good friend married his college sweetheart, and a MOBA reached out to the ranks of turn-based gaming. Sure, the former had an open bar, but no amount of free booze can quench my desire for something new within the MOBA genre. Enter Arena of Heroes, a new turn-based free-to-play MOBA that can be played on PC, Mac, iPad, and eventually, on Ouya, iOS, and Android. I spent the morning with Sneaky Games CEO David Godwin and Zattikka Director of Product Alexandra Tinsman to find out why this game will make me bring my iPad everywhere I go. Continue reading Hands-on with Arena of Heroes' turn-based gameplay Hands-on with Arena of Heroes' turn-based gameplay originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day three and recap Posted: 19 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, Crafting, Subscription So yesterday I kinda rambled on at length about why I'm loving Darkfall Unholy Wars. I'm not really apologizing; after all, this is my launch week diary! Today, though, I figured I might tone it down a bit and just hit the highlights of my day three play experience. After that, I'll recap and give you some final thoughts on Darkfall as it stands in April 2013. Continue reading Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day three and recap Massively's Darkfall launch week diary: Day three and recap originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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