MMO Updates

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• More details and video emerge for Age of Wushu's Legends of Mount Hua
• Lose your life and your wallet with ArcheAge's new dragon and cash shop
• The Art of Wushu: Preparing for group PvE
• Choose My Adventure: These are a few of my favorite things
• The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best combat feel?
• Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes
• MAG shutting down in January
• PlanetSide 2 gets sexy implants with GU13
• BioWare teases SWTOR's 2.4 PvE and PvP content
• Guild Wars 2 developer livestream chat discusses the fine art of world improvement
• Make-a-Wish boy becomes KingsIsle honorary producer
• CCP outlines EVE Online's upcoming industrial ship rebalancing
• Hyperspace Beacon: Celebrating new SWTOR content
• The Secret World at half price on Steam
• Massively Speaking 255: A sonnet for spreadsheets
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living whirl
• InnoGames shutting down pirate-based browser game Kartuga

More details and video emerge for Age of Wushu's Legends of Mount Hua Posted: 17 Jul 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, News Items, Free-to-Play, Dungeons, Age of Wushu What to do while waiting for an expansion? Learn as much as you can about it, of course! And thanks to the latest info from Snail Games, players anticipating Age of Wushu's first expansion can delve even deeper into the inner workings of the new systems coming in Legends of Mount Hua. In the Jianghu Gratitude and Revenge System, players have the opportunity to gain enough reputation with an NPC to convince him or her to fight alongside their character. On a darker note, players can also use that reputation (and a little gold) to hire an NPC to exact revenge upon another player. How far will the punishment go? That all depends on how much the player is willing to pay. The Jianghu Hero and Treasure System, on the other hand, focuses on rewarding players for defeating Jianghu martial arts experts in duels to the death. These earned treasures are a new type of equipment with powerful stat bonuses, varying in power ranks and benefits. How does one come into one of these duels? By catching the eye of the experts by defeating certain enemies. Players can also get a glimpse of the conflict that awaits them in Yanmen Pass, a new instance where players will choose which story to complete, in the trailer after the break. [Source: Snail Games press release] Continue reading More details and video emerge for Age of Wushu's Legends of Mount Hua More details and video emerge for Age of Wushu's Legends of Mount Hua originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Lose your life and your wallet with ArcheAge's new dragon and cash shop Posted: 17 Jul 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, New Titles, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, ArcheAge If you thought you were safe from giant bosses in ArcheAge if you avoided sailing, think again. XLGAMES' latest update introduced a massive red dragon to harass the landlubbers like the kraken does the seafarers. Massive, scaly, and with breath that can incinerate adventurers, this dragon might just drop in on your party whether invited or not. Also included in this latest update is the new cash shop. In a unique twist, players wishing to browse through and buy the wares visit an actual in-game shopping mall in the Market District. There are no generic icons to pour over, but full-scale items on display instead. Shoppers can peruse different departments filled with clothing, animals, gliders, even cars. Want a glimpse of the dragon before it lands on your head? Or need a tour of the mall before you lose yourself -- and your funds -- in it? Then take a look at the two videos below courtesy of Steparu.com, and head to the site for more in-game footage of a dragon fight. Continue reading Lose your life and your wallet with ArcheAge's new dragon and cash shop Lose your life and your wallet with ArcheAge's new dragon and cash shop originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steparu.com

The Art of Wushu: Preparing for group PvE Posted: 17 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Guides, Sandbox, Age of Wushu, The Art of Wushu, MMORPG I will be perfectly frank when I say that I tremendously dislike PvE in Age of Wushu. It's not that the PvE is bad compared to other games; it's that I feel that the point of the game is ultimately PvP, whether that comes in the form of economics or direct combat. I play Age of Wushu because I like the PvP, and I don't see the point in spending hours in co-op dungeons to get rewards that I could just buy on the market. However, the playerbase pretty much disagrees with me. Most high-level guilds focus heavily on PvE. There seems to be a very fixed mindset in place with MMO players that encourages them to go for "endgame" PvE content, even though it is really just one path of many in Age of Wushu. Therefore, I feel obligated to cover it. If you are interested in learning more about forbidden instances, I advise you to get into a high-end guild and ask questions. I can give you the basics of what to expect and how to prepare, but there are a lot of specifics and everyone does things a little bit differently. Continue reading The Art of Wushu: Preparing for group PvE The Art of Wushu: Preparing for group PvE originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Choose My Adventure: These are a few of my favorite things Posted: 17 Jul 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Polls, Opinion, Massively Meta, Choose My Adventure, Miscellaneous It's good to be back in the Choose My Adventure seat, and I'm very excited about the MMOs I have up in the polls this time around. In the past, I've always done Choose My Adventure as a roleplaying series and had fun doing it. I've been a glutton for punishment and stood to the challenges thrown at me by the readers (namely, playing "bad" games on purpose). This time, though, I've chosen a handful of my favorite games (that haven't already been written in a CMA since 2011), and I'm going to focus more on exploring the chosen game and giving my impressions of what I'm seeing. Not to say that this will be anything approaching a review, but I'm just looking forward to jumping in to one of these games and letting you know what treasures (or travesties) I find. So follow me after the jump to read more on the games I've selected for nomination and to vote for how I'll spend the next six weeks in Choose My Adventure. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: These are a few of my favorite things Choose My Adventure: These are a few of my favorite things originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Which MMO has the best combat feel? Posted: 17 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous In my informal survey of comments on Massively, one of the common dealbreakers that I see for MMOs is a combat system that just doesn't feel right for the player. Maybe the animations are off, the sounds are too wimpy, or the pacing is annoying. Whatever the case may be, the art of war isn't enjoyable and that pushes a player away. But what about the flip-side? I'd like us to examine MMOs that get combat right and provide that "feel" that hits a sweet spot in your gaming pleasure center. I love it if weapons sound the way that I think they should, that there are reactive effects when I hit the enemy, and that skills go off more or less right when I activate them. So which MMO has the best combat feel? Let's duke it out! 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: Which MMO has the best combat feel? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes Posted: 16 Jul 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Age of Conan, EverQuest II, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Allods Online, Miscellaneous, Jukebox Heroes, Music Main themes seem to be a strong favorite among video game music fans (and even the casual set), but I've talked about them a few times already. So instead of puttering around with main MMO themes, why not give expansions some of the credit? Not every expansion gets its own theme tune, of course, but plenty do. We've covered a few of them in this column so far, including Riders of Rohan and EVE Online: Apocrypha. What we haven't done is spend an entire week looking at these upstart themes and see how they compare to the originals. So strap on your headphones and prepare for symphonic excellence. Here are six great MMO expansion themes that deserve a few minutes of your time! Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MAG shutting down in January Posted: 16 Jul 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Real-Life, MMO Industry, News Items, Sunsets, Buy-to-Play MAG used to be a thing here at Massively. We wrote about it a fair amount way back in 2010, and some of us played a fair bit of it around that same period. Sadly, Sony has decided to shutter the PlayStation 3 shooter effective January 28, 2014. The news came via the official PlayStation Twitter feed earlier today. MAG development studio Zipper Interactive closed its doors in March of 2012. MAG shutting down in January originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Twitter Via: Gamespot

PlanetSide 2 gets sexy implants with GU13 Posted: 16 Jul 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Patches, Previews, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2 PlanetSide 2 is gearing up for game update 13, which is tentatively scheduled for a July 24th release. Creative Director Matt Higby marched onto the forums to give players an advance warning as to what to expect when it arrives. Among the new surprises? Implants. Sexy, sexy implants. Implants are cheap consumables that offer interesting abilities but only last for a few hours on a single load-out. One implant might protect you from fall damage while another increases the range that you can spot enemy names and health bars. Other changes coming with GU13 include a revamp of the Esamir area, four new weapons, platoon enhancements, and a ton of bug fixes. The team plans to have the update on the test server next week. PlanetSide 2 gets sexy implants with GU13 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Game update 13 news

BioWare teases SWTOR's 2.4 PvE and PvP content Posted: 16 Jul 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dungeons BioWare senior producer Bruce Maclean has posted a lengthy update on the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums. What's the occasion? Why, it seems as if the company is keen on keeping fans abreast of its Summer of SWTOR initiative. There's some hemming and hawing about the return of the Gree event (July 23rd), and there's also a mention of August 6th's 2.3 update and August 13th's Bounty Contract Week. Most interestingly, though, is the info toward the bottom of the post concerning update 2.4. BioWare is tentatively targeting October 1st for the patch, which will introduce a new short story arc (The Planet Oricon), two new operations, new 4-on-4 warzone arenas, and new "elder game PvE and PvP gear." Hit the links below for full details. [Thanks Jose!] BioWare teases SWTOR's 2.4 PvE and PvP content originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SWTOR forums

Guild Wars 2 developer livestream chat discusses the fine art of world improvement Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events (In-Game), Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play ArenaNet's Game Director Colin Johanson sat down with Community Manager Martin Kerstein to talk about the future of Guild Wars 2 and answer some questions from the community in the latest developer livestream. Johanson confirmed that while players won't be confronting another Elder Dragon this year, there will be three new Fractals of the Mists joining the lineup: fractalized versions of the popular living story dungeons Molten Weapons Facility and Aetherblade Retreat, as well as one of two brand new scenarios to be chosen for development based on the outcome of the upcoming Cutthroat Politics content. However, he warned that Lion's Arch politics aren't necessarily a straightforwardly democratic process; this is a pirate election, and pirates are known for playing dirty. Johanson further discussed the evolution of GW2's living story and the reception of temporary content, and explained some of the difficulties the team faced when the living story was in its beginning stages. While he admitted that the beginning of the year was too heavy on temporary events, the formation of four living world teams will help them deliver more permanent changes to the game. He added that some temporary events, such as trade with the Zephyr Sanctum and popular game-within-the-game Super Adventure Box are likely to return periodically. Continue reading Guild Wars 2 developer livestream chat discusses the fine art of world improvement Guild Wars 2 developer livestream chat discusses the fine art of world improvement originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Guild Wars 2 livestream developer chat

Make-a-Wish boy becomes KingsIsle honorary producer Posted: 16 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, MMO Industry, Free-to-Play, Wizard101, Pirate101 We've all heard the incredible dreams that the Make-a-Wish foundation accomplishes for seriously ill children, but what if a boy with brain cancer wanted to tour his favorite game studio and become an honorary producer instead of go to Disney World? No problem: wish granted! Eleven-year-old Ryan and his family were granted an all-access tour of KingsIsle Studios through Make-a-Wish's efforts. The studio posted an article with Ryan's adventures throughout the day, including a voice recording session, a Pirate101 play session with developers, and time spent learning about what each department does. Ryan's mother related how important the day was to her son: "For him to see some of the actors and creators in person and see how a game he loves to play is created is just so special. It's something we could never give him and just an amazing opportunity for him." KingsIsle had a special surprise in store for Ryan at the end of the day. The team created a new Pirate101 NPC named Ryan the Relentless and equipped the character with the sound files from Ryan's recording session that day. Ryan the Relentless and his Yum-n-ade stand will be added to the live game this week. Make-a-Wish boy becomes KingsIsle honorary producer originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Ryan's Make-a-Wish visit

CCP outlines EVE Online's upcoming industrial ship rebalancing Posted: 16 Jul 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Game Mechanics, News Items, PvE, Sandbox, Subscription, MMORPG CCP loves tweaking EVE Online's internet spaceships. And according to a new dev blog by CCP Rise, the guy behind the Odyssey battleship rebalance, industrials are about to get a major makeover. Not only are a bunch of them getting new names, but many are seeing their core performance shifted in other, more tangible ways. Here's the nitty-gritty: Industrials have been divided by roles instead of tiers. Every race will now have one cargo-focused industrial and one focused on travel time. Specialized bays have also been added, with dedicated bays for minerals, planetary commodities, and charges (ammunition, nanite paste, etc.) now available on specific ships. Every industrial has been given a special feature to make it more appealing. For instance, the Wreathe offers the fastest travel time, while the Badger gained slots for missile launchers. Along with all of these changes come new names for some ships: Nereus (Iteron), Kryos (Iteron Mk. II), Epithal (Iteron Mk. III), Miasmos (Iteron Mk. IV), and Tayra (Badger Mk. II). The industrial ship update is set to go live with the Odyssey 1.1 patch due later this summer. CCP outlines EVE Online's upcoming industrial ship rebalancing originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev Blog

Hyperspace Beacon: Celebrating new SWTOR content Posted: 16 Jul 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Patches, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hyperspace Beacon, MMORPG It's pretty crazy to think that BioWare's first foray into the Star Wars Universe, Knights of the Old Republic, turns 10 years old this week. For me, it doesn't seem that long ago that the game came out. Although I have trouble going back to play the game now (it's not aged well), I still appreciate what that game did to change a genre. At the time, the biggest story-driven RPGs tended to be JRPGs like the Final Fantasy series. Although Bethseda did a bang-up job with Morrowind, Knights of the Old Republic captured its audience by weaving in an amazing story with classic table-top style RPG elements. Happy birthday, KOTOR! To celebrate the tenth anniversary of KOTOR's release, BioWare gave every subscriber 500 Cartel Coins to spend any way he or she would like. And for a limited time, subscribers can buy the title Revan's Heir from the Cartel Market for 10 Cartel Coins, about 10 cents in US currency. But really this is small protatoes* compared to the new content coming out in Update 2.3, which includes Bounty Contract week, two new flashpoints, and a new daily area. With the recent update to the public test server, I was able to take my level 55 Assassin on a trip through the planet of CZ-198 (the daily area) to get a sense for what it's like to visit this Czerka-controlled world. Let me tell you that story. *protato -- a protein-enhanced synthetic vegetable, orange with no eye spots on the surface. Not to be confused with potatoes, which are vegetables shaped like Kessel that make Duros sick. Continue reading Hyperspace Beacon: Celebrating new SWTOR content Hyperspace Beacon: Celebrating new SWTOR content originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Secret World at half price on Steam Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi, Culture, News Items, The Secret World, Promotions, Buy-to-Play The Steam Summer Sale is a hard time for any gamer to save money. There was a time when MMOs were at least somewhat safe, since a discounted MMO still requires the full subscription price. But right now The Secret World is on sale for half price, and those of you who have followed the game for a while know that this is a buy-to-play title. Once you've purchased this game, you can play for free forever. Need a little time to think this over? That's understandable. The sale is running for 48 hours (well, 47 hours as of this writing), so you don't have to decide right now. But if you've been waiting for a chance to get into this modern horror and conspiracy game, $15 isn't a bad price to start in. And the game did just get a secret agent-themed update, if that floats your boat. [Thanks to Zach for the tip!] The Secret World at half price on Steam originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steam store page

Massively Speaking 255: A sonnet for spreadsheets Posted: 16 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous Spreadsheets, seesaws, and songs -- it's going to be a weird, weird show today, folks. Just giving you a heads up about it. Perhaps you should go do something exceedingly normal and boring before giving this a listen so as to counterbalance it. And as always, make sure to take a drink and shout, "MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!" any time that Bree mentions a certain deceased sandbox. Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes. Continue reading Massively Speaking 255: A sonnet for spreadsheets Massively Speaking 255: A sonnet for spreadsheets originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living whirl Posted: 16 Jul 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, PvE, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles, Buy-to-Play Hi there! I'm Anatoli Ingram, and starting today I'll be your friendly neighborhood Flameseeker Chronicles columnist. Some of you probably know me from my previous life as commenter RingBonefield, but thanks to the kindness and pure heart power of the Massively lead editors, I've evolved into my final form: a guy who not only won't shut up about Guild Wars 2 but gets paid to not shut up about Guild Wars 2. If you're anywhere near as easily distracted as I am by shiny objects placed tantalizingly out of reach, it's probably been difficult to tear yourself away from the Zephyr Sanctum. But GW2 fans have recently gotten huge chunks of information regarding the future of the game -- biweekly content updates, big plans for upcoming content, a possible lack of expansions, holy cats! -- and there's been no shortage of player concern and controversy to go along with them. Join me after the break, where I'll take a breather from dashing around as an ethereal being of light and wind to talk about what all of this potentially means for GW2's living world. Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living whirl Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's living whirl originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

InnoGames shutting down pirate-based browser game Kartuga Posted: 16 Jul 2013 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, Sunsets If you've loved the chance to have nautical pirate battles right in your browser courtesy of Kartuga, we've got sad news for you. InnoGames announced today that the the game has not managed to meet the company's standards for quality. The game also fails to meet the company's standard for cross-platform games, and with no way to bring it up to speed in an appropriate timeframe, the decision has been made to shut the game down in the very near future. Players with existing cash shop currency will be able to transfer that currency to another title run by InnoGames by August 14th. No exact date for the server shutdown has yet been established, but the official announcement specifies that the game will be available for a few more weeks. Our consolation goes out to all players and any development team members affected by this unexpected cancellation. [Source: InnoGames press release] InnoGames shutting down pirate-based browser game Kartuga originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Kartuga shutdown announcement

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