MMO Updates

---

• The Soapbox: Community or comments
• Psychologist asks designers to shorten quests to fight addiction
• SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site
• The Daily Grind: What do you spend and what do you hoard?
• SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next
• Camelot Unchained status update outlines weekly progress
• Not So Massively: Star Citizen's hangar module, Elite's black markets, and the Dota 2 world championship
• WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction
• Massively Speaking Episode 258: EverQuest Next!
• Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting
• Dark Relic wants to bring back classic roleplaying
• The Phoenix Project developers talk passion, grieving, and moving forward
• The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar
• Guild Wars 2 announces the winner of the Captain's Council Election
• Activision Blizzard facing lawsuit from shareholder over going independent
• LotRO connectivity issues outside of Turbine's control
• World of Warcraft sews together realms to solve population issues
• Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria

The Soapbox: Community or comments Posted: 06 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Soapbox, WildStar, MMORPG If there's one thing gamers love doing, it's insult games they don't play. Any news item, editorial, hands-on, review, or general pile of text dedicated to a few key games -- normally those with high profiles -- receives an instant and visceral response from a collection of commenters who seem to exist only to insult a particular game and berate its fans. Much of the time, these commenters have no actual experience with the game in question. Here on Massively, EVE Online and World of Warcraft seem to be the biggest magnets for such tomfoolery. Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic attract these behaviors as well, and WildStar is well on its way to becoming the next troll-favorite comment piñata. There's nothing wrong with not liking a game, of course. And a little conflict is good; why allow comments if everyone's going to have the same opinion? There's just one problem: If your opinion of a game is based on preconceived notions and not actual experience, that opinion is adding nothing to the dialogue. In short, you are trolling. Continue reading The Soapbox: Community or comments The Soapbox: Community or comments originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Aug 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Psychologist asks designers to shorten quests to fight addiction Posted: 06 Aug 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous It's impossible to play video games without noticing that some people have downright unhealthy gaming habits. Addiction to games is discussed a great deal, often without solutions being offered. Dr. Zaheer Hussain does propose a solution in a recent study, however, arguing that game designers need to cut down on the length of quests to prevent people from forming unhealthy habits. He suggests that designers need to look at the structure of the game and how mechanics might encourage pathological behaviors. You may feel like it's a good suggestion or you may feel like it's comparable to fighting alcoholism by selling beer in smaller bottles, but the study goes into more detail than that simple suggestion. The study, which was published in the Addiction Research and Theory journal, recommends steps be taken before games see the sort of government administration as seen in countries such as China and South Korea. It ultimately concludes that anywhere between 7-11% of all gamers suffer from "pathological" behavior. The full paper can be purchased by those interested for closer review. Psychologist asks designers to shorten quests to fight addiction originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Aug 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Psychologist calls on developers to shorten quests

SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site Posted: 06 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Launches, Events (Massively's Coverage), EverQuest Next If there's one thing we learned about EverQuest Next over the weekend, it's that we all have a zillion questions and are eager for more information. Thankfully, Wikia is prepared to help fill that void with the official arrival of the Wikia Lab, a community-driven project that allows fans to access a growing repository of information. Wikia sites have been a valuable resource across many of SOE's titles, and this weekend saw the arrival of a brand new EverQuest Next Wikia site. Read on for a closer look at the Wikia Lab, and an update on what they've already put together this weekend at SOE Live to help fans get the answers they seek! Continue reading SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Aug 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: What do you spend and what do you hoard? Posted: 06 Aug 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Game Mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous On most MMOs, my inventory is a sea of consumables. Every little boost I get -- stat boosts, healing items, resource items -- gets squirreled away to be used only when the situation is dire enough to warrant that item going away forever. The net result, of course, is that I have a level 5 stim on my level 55 character in Star Wars: The Old Republic, an item that saw its time come and go long before now. By contrast, if I'm crafting, I go through crafting materials with abandon. There's no time to stop and think that I might use these Cotton Bolls in Final Fantasy XIV in a future recipe; I'm too busy turning all of them into thread. Which isn't exactly better, since I still wind up needing more of these things if they ever become relevant again. I think everyone tends to hoard and spend differently, so today I'm asking how so. What do you spend and what do you hoard? Do you acquire huge piles of money but spend your tokens as soon as you can? Carefully measure out your class resources but go nuts with cooldowns? What are your thrifty habits and what habits... aren't? 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: What do you spend and what do you hoard? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Aug 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next Posted: 05 Aug 2013 09:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, New Titles, Free-to-Play, Races, Events (Massively's Coverage), EverQuest Next In the lead up to the big reveal for EverQuest Next, one note that gave a number of fans pause was that the world will be re-imagined for this iteration of the EverQuest franchise. The next Norrath will be familiar, but definitely not the same. But just how different is different? That question was on the lips of lore enthusiasts (who can most likely recite the entire history of the pantheon) and casual players (who've grown comfortable with their surroundings) alike. Thanks to SOE Live, we now have a partial answer to that very query. During a dedicated lore panel, attendees were treated to a Norrathian History 101 class. Those in attendance heard the philosophy behind the lore design of EQ Next as well as a sketch of the history leading up to the start of the game. And now you can benefit from the class notes! Continue reading SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Camelot Unchained status update outlines weekly progress Posted: 05 Aug 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, Crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained Mark Jacobs has posted a new update to Camelot Unchained's Kickstarter page. It's quite an epic wall of text, but thankfully he's also included some new environmental concept art and a couple of shots from CityState's UI/web interface. There's also a bit of lore regarding the Stormriders and of course a status report to catch us up on last week's road map. Click through the links below to see all that the dev team has accomplished in recent days. Camelot Unchained status update outlines weekly progress originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Update

Not So Massively: Star Citizen's hangar module, Elite's black markets, and the Dota 2 world championship Posted: 05 Aug 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Video, Business Models, Economy, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, Patches, PvP, Endgame, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Casual, Dev Diaries, Miscellaneous, Not So Massively, Sandbox, MOBA, League of Legends, Diablo III, Crowdfunding, Star Citizen, Elite: Dangerous, Infinite Crisis, Path of Exile Star Citizen fired a shot across the bow of game publishers this week as it hit $15 million US in crowdfunding. The game's hangar module has now entered code lockdown and will soon be available to owners of every ship type except the cutlass. Elite: Dangerous teased players with details of trading and black markets in a massive new development newsletter, and revealed two new luxury passenger liner style ships. Dota 2 kicked off its third annual world championship tournament, The International, with a record-breaking prize pool of $2.8 million and growing! League of Legends' smaller but still incredibly popular $100,000 EU LCS Summer Split tournament also got underway this week ahead of the colossal upcoming patch 3.10. The patch will include nerfs to champions Elise and Twisted Fate, and the removal of the popular Runic Bulwark item. Diablo III's gold economy showed further signs of runaway inflation as developers increased the size of gold stacks on the real money auction house from 10 million for $0.25 to 50 million for the same price. Blizzard also asked players for feedback on the idea of adding a Diablo II style ladder system, and announced that it has big news about the game to be revealed in Gamescom later this month. And Path of Exile showed off its new Reave skill for Shadow characters ahead of upcoming patch 0.11.4. Continue reading Not So Massively: Star Citizen's hangar module, Elite's black markets, and the Dota 2 world championship Not So Massively: Star Citizen's hangar module, Elite's black markets, and the Dota 2 world championship originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction Posted: 05 Aug 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Video, Culture, Subscription As we all know, when a baby panda grows up to be a big-boy or big-girl panda, he or she leaves the roost and sides with either the Horde or Alliance. It's just the way things go. However, World of Warcraft player Doubleagent said "nuts!" to that and has refused to leave home. Since 2012, he's slowly but surely leveled his Pandaren Shaman from 1 to 60 without leaving the Wandering Isle. Once he finished the starter quests and outleveled the mobs, he's had to rely completely on herbalism and inscription for his XP influx. He isn't using heirlooms and said he won't play the character unless it has rested XP. The end result is a level 60 Pandaren that's completely faction-neutral -- and can talk to both sides. You can check out his latest leveling video after the jump. Continue reading WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: BlizzPro Via: WoW Insider

Massively Speaking Episode 258: EverQuest Next! Posted: 05 Aug 2013 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Events (Massively's Coverage), Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous While there was plenty of exciting news coming out of SOE Live this past weekend, one story is dwarfing all of the rest: EverQuest Next. MJ joined us from Las Vegas yesterday to give us the first-hand scoop on all of the juicy details. 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 Episode 258: EverQuest Next! Massively Speaking Episode 258: EverQuest Next! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting Posted: 05 Aug 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi, Opinion, The Secret World, Chaos Theory, Buy-to-Play One of the greatest aspects of The Secret World that I love is the fact that it's set in today's world. Well, OK, it's some parallel universe version of Earth where every conspiracy, cryptozoological creature, and bizarre myth is able to simultaneously exist without a majority of the population knowing, but it's still home. Contemporary settings in MMOs are few and very far between. Fantasy takes the top spot, of course, followed by science fiction, historical (think pirates and period pieces), and geek genre settings like steampunk and post-apocalyptic. But to play a game set in today's world? It's just not done, not really. Except in The Secret World. From where I'm sitting, this gives TSW several major advantages that it can and does wield over the competition. Just because the game world resembles our own (with a few more zombies and werewolves, natch) doesn't mean it is stripped of fascinating allure. Actually, it opens doors that just aren't present in your typical fantasy game and paves the way for pop culture references that -- for once -- aren't anachronistic. Continue reading Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dark Relic wants to bring back classic roleplaying Posted: 05 Aug 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, New Titles, Sandbox If you're often yearning for the "good old days" when roleplaying actually meant something more than "making hit points disappear," then Triad Game Studios would like to make your acquaintance. The studio is working on bringing the spirit of classic RPGs back to MMOs with its upcoming sandbox Dark Relic. Dark Relic is based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign called The 6th Aspect from the early 1990s. The developers liken the project to Choose Your Own Adventure books where players can pick the path that interests them the most. Crafting is given a strong emphasis for players who would rather stay at home and tinker instead of venturing out into the world. The project is still on the fourth stage of 12 planned prior to launch. There are currently four classes and four races planned. Dark Relic: Prelude will be the first of a proposed series set in the game universe. Dark Relic wants to bring back classic roleplaying originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dark Relic

The Phoenix Project developers talk passion, grieving, and moving forward Posted: 05 Aug 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Culture, Interviews, News Items, Crowdfunding When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade; when life kills your favorite game, you make a better one in its honor. That's the philosophy behind The Phoenix Project, and a recent interview with the team behind Missing Worlds Media talks about what it's like to try making a new game after the closure of City of Heroes. And one of the game's core design principles has come about precisely because of that closure, because the team wants to make sure that even if the game isn't a major hit it can keep running in maintenance mode. Kickstarter is not the last chance for the project, as the team has no plans to shelve it if funding goals are not met, but no outside sources have been approached yet. The interview also stresses that the game is not meant to simply be a clone of City of Heroes, with a development focus on including the best parts of the game rather than simply copying everything. For a deeper look behind the scenes, read through the full interview. [Thanks to Asteria for the tip!] The Phoenix Project developers talk passion, grieving, and moving forward originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: The Phoenix Project interview

The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar Posted: 05 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Culture, Game Mechanics, PvP, Opinion, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph PvP is pretty darn problematic for modern MMOs. Part of this is a balance issue. Creating a PvP environment that's actually fair is a challenge all by itself, and creating one that's unfair does not exactly foster a spirit of lively competition. But part of this is the nature of players. You have players who run the gamut, from people who don't want anything to do with PvP (mostly due to players on the other end of the spectrum) to players who assume that PvP is a mandate to do nasty things to unaware participants (especially people on the other end of the spectrum). WildStar is stepping into this minefield, and as we all know the game is trying to provide something for everyone from the top down. So today I want to look at what we know about the game's PvP and how various camps can be courted with the overall mechanics of the game. Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Guild Wars 2 announces the winner of the Captain's Council Election Posted: 05 Aug 2013 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Events (In-Game), Lore, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play The votes have been tallied and Guild Wars 2 players have elected Ellen Kiel! Yes, that means that Evon Gnashblade will have to wait for another day for his time to shine. Whether you wanted Kiel in place because of the promise of new content or because you thought Gnashblade was kind of a jerk, voting for her meant you backed the right horse... by giving her lots of support tokens. Rather than resting on her achievement, Kiel is already working on fulfilling her campaign promises, starting with a reduction in waypoint travel prices for four weeks. She's also pushing for the expansion of Fractals into Thaumanova Reactor, introducing a rotating schedule of activities such as Southsun Survival, and reducing the mill rate in Lion's Arch by 7%. Players probably won't care about that last one, but they can still look forward to seeing what other impacts Kiel's newfound station will have in the future. Guild Wars 2 announces the winner of the Captain's Council Election originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Captain's Council Election Winner!

Activision Blizzard facing lawsuit from shareholder over going independent Posted: 05 Aug 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Legal, Miscellaneous Last week's announcement of Activision Blizzard separating from Vivendi might have made you unhappy, but it didn't make you as unhappy as Todd Miller. He's filed suit against Activision, the board of directors at Activision, and former parent company Vivendi on counts of unnecessary waste, breach of fiduciary duties, and unjust enrichment. Miller stresses that the sale nets an immediate windfall for CEO Bobby Kotick and entrenches him in a position of power within the company while failing to provide any benefit to the company as a whole or the individual shareholders. He also claims that the Activision board members are conflicted due to their previous positions within Vivendi and have no reason to resist this move, resulting in a net detriment for holders of the company's stock. Miller is calling for the purchase order to be rescinded and for Activision to institute controls so that this situation is not repeated in the future. Activision Blizzard facing lawsuit from shareholder over going independent originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Shareholder Sues Activision Via: The Escapist

LotRO connectivity issues outside of Turbine's control Posted: 05 Aug 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Bugs, Free-to-Play Access denied? Some Lord of the Rings Online players have felt as though they were being kept out of the Middle-earth club lately as connectivity issues plagued the game. Turbine has been investigating log-in issues and came back to report that the problem is outside of the studio's direct control. "This morning we have received word that one of our affiliated connection providers is taking steps to re-route services around certain areas of the internet that are experiencing issues we believe are the root cause of the reported issues," CM Rick Heaton posted. Turbine says that the issue should be resolved shortly, but in the meantime the studio encourages players to try many of the workarounds that the community has come up with. LotRO connectivity issues outside of Turbine's control originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Connectivity issues

World of Warcraft sews together realms to solve population issues Posted: 05 Aug 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Patches, Previews, Dev Diaries, Subscription Instead of simply merging some of its lower population servers, World of Warcraft is going a different way. Starting in patch 5.4, Blizzard will introduce connected realms: servers that are functionally joined together with other servers to share population and resources. While the affected realms will remain technically independent, the lines between the two connected realms will be blurred. These realms will be able to share population, have one linked auction house, and allow players of both servers to group, guild, and PvP together. So why not just merge? Blizzard's official answer reasons, "Other alternatives such as merging realms would require us to force character name changes if there were conflicts, and could lead to confusion for returning players who'd log in to find their realm missing from the realm list. Some players also feel strong ties to their realm's name or history, and we don't want to erase that." The list of what servers will be connected has yet to be released. World of Warcraft sews together realms to solve population issues originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Connected realms preview

Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria Posted: 05 Aug 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Lore, Free-to-Play, Mabinogi Following the nail-biting fifth episode which followed the acclaimed fourth episode which followed the Emmy-winning third episode which followed the controversial second episode which followed the incredible first episode, the sixth episode of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria is here. And let me tell you something: It is a wonder to behold. Episode Six is called Swarm of Demons: Truth, and it may be the darkest hour for our heroes yet. Even without mouths, these characters call to our very souls as they struggle against a dude in a red beard that likes to pop out of smoke portals. Check out the action after the jump! Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

You are subscribed to email updates from Massively To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610