MMO Updates

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• Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Dyson Sphere ground battle zone
• PlanetSide 2 is heading to Brazil
• Herokon Online brings new features in The New Order update
• The Stream Team: Standardized test edition, October 21 - 27, 2013
• The Daily Grind: Would you play a Saints Row MMO?
• MMO Week in Review: Farewell, EQ Mac; hello, EQ Next
• Dungeons and Dragons Online players protest True Heart changes
• EVE Evolved: The Siphon Unit in Rubicon
• Don't expect SWTOR space PvE any time soon
• Black Desert's beta housing system detailed
• Red 5 doubles Firefall's internal QA team, focuses on bug-squashing
• Rumor: PSO2 may not be heading to the West, despite being 'fully localized'
• Stick and Rudder: Ten space sims to fill your Star Citizen void
• Gazillion brings Squirrel Girl to Marvel Heroes

Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Dyson Sphere ground battle zone Posted: 21 Oct 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Patches, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play, First Impressions, Captain's Log Finally! We finally have some news to report involving Star Trek Online's upcoming new content! Some of the new Season Eight material is up on the Tribble test server, and the new Featured Episode will be released on October 31st! We still aren't exactly sure when Season Eight will be released, but it's now easier to see what's in store for us, including a new set of space missions and new ground missions that feature territory control. I've had a chance to jump onto Star Trek Online's Tribble server to try a few things out and to see these "dinosaurs with frikkin' lasers on their heads" for myself. So let's get to it. Continue reading Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Dyson Sphere ground battle zone Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's Dyson Sphere ground battle zone originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

PlanetSide 2 is heading to Brazil Posted: 21 Oct 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2 PlanetSide 2 is adding another stamp in its passport: It's heading to Brazil! If you happen to live in that neck of the woods, you'll soon be able to jump into the explosive action on local servers thanks to a new partnership announced by SOE today. Brazil's largest game publisher, Gamerica, will bring the free-to-play MMOFPS to the country and another company, UOL BoaCompra, will handle local payment methods. Under this agreement, Gamerica will have exclusive publishing rights for the PC in Brazil and will provide dedicated servers, local customer support, and payment gateways (through UOL BoaCompra). PS2 remains free-to-play and players can make purchases in-game using their preferred payment methods in their country. [Source: SOE press release] PlanetSide 2 is heading to Brazil originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Herokon Online brings new features in The New Order update Posted: 21 Oct 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New Titles, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser Fans of the The Dark Eye fantasy RPG have another avenue to pursue their adventures: the browser-based MMORPG Herokon Online. And thanks to the newly released beta update, there is even more for fans to enjoy. The latest update offers a totally reworked hero creation system with new specializations as well as new quests, a redesigned hero sheet, a new valley to explore, more inventory slots, and new systems for attribute and talent advancement as well as magic and combat talents. Players who haven't yet tried the game can also experience the mystery of two children and the demon that pursues them in the new tutorial. More information on this update can be found on the official forums. For a deeper look at the game, check out our Rise and Shiny coverage. Herokon Online brings new features in The New Order update originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: The New Order update

The Stream Team: Standardized test edition, October 21 - 27, 2013 Posted: 21 Oct 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Polls, MMO Industry, Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, The Stream Team Why should public schools have all the fun? We here at Massively know just how important knowledge is, so we are going to be throwing our hat into the standardized testing ring. Are you ready? Of course not because today is the the pre-test to gauge your knowledge before we get into any streaming. So before we go any further, answer each of these questions. What is the Stream Team? a) A group of highly trained professionals dedicated to your personal entertainment. b) The group that monitors salmon mating habitats. c) The best darn thing next to sliced bread (and a bag of chips, too!). If one Stream Team member had four coconuts and another had three swallows, how long would it take the editors to sail the yacht to New Zealand backwards? a) African or European? b) Depends on how many solid gold cars they have on board. c) Last week. OK, got that? Good, now we can move forward into the real lessons. Get ready to study! You can ace Quips and Quotes 101 and the Will This Work?! lab by watching this week's shows on Massively TV. And yes, there will be a test at the end! Continue reading The Stream Team: Standardized test edition, October 21 - 27, 2013 The Stream Team: Standardized test edition, October 21 - 27, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Would you play a Saints Row MMO? Posted: 21 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Culture, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Sandbox I finally finished up Saints Row IV the other day, and I'm already missing the game's silly and spectacular open-world shenanigans. I pretty much did everything you can do, too, so it's not like I can go back and try to get 101 percent completion or do much of anything besides wander aimlessly about and sample various mod community offerings. What I'm trying to say is that I wish SRIV had some sort of ongoing multiplayer component. And while I'm daydreaming, a persistent world would be swell too. While certain aspects of the game might not make for a smooth MMO transition, I'm thinking that most of it would, and in fact the series' combination of a modern setting -- lightly salted with sci-fi -- and its over-the-top irreverence would be a breath of fresh air in a fantasy-obsessed MMO landscape. What do you think, Massively readers and Saints Row fans? Would you play a SR MMO? 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: Would you play a Saints Row MMO? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: Farewell, EQ Mac; hello, EQ Next Posted: 20 Oct 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. SOE has been promoting EverQuest Next and the Landmark toolset in a flurry of community debates, producer's letters, and screenshots in the lead up to its beta signup announcement this week, but the reveals have been soured by news that EverQuest Mac and Magic: The Gathering - Tactics will be shut down next month and next March, respectively. EQ Mac had survived one death sentence already thanks to a last-minute stay of execution, but that was before August's round of layoffs at the studio. Read on for a peek at the rest of this week's top MMO stories. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Farewell, EQ Mac; hello, EQ Next MMO Week in Review: Farewell, EQ Mac; hello, EQ Next originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Dungeons and Dragons Online players protest True Heart changes Posted: 20 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Events (In-Game), News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, MMORPG A number of Dungeons and Dragons Online players are currently in the midst of an in-game sit-in spurred by Turbine's plan to remove the primary method for acquiring True Hearts of Wood, a necessary item for the game's True Reincarnation skill. The hearts, available via trade-ins of Tokens of the Twelve earned by dungeon running and other tasks, will require several times more tokens from epic-level sagas after DDO Update 20 goes live. In addition to the increase, the tokens are now character-bound, instead of account-bound, requiring even more farming. The change has stirred unrest in the Dungeons and Dragons Online community, resulting in high-profile, multi-page forum threads along with the in-game sit-in that has now lasted for over 24 hours. The sit-in is currently focused on the Wayfinder server; dozens of players now occupy the city of Stormreach under the guild tag "Update Twenty Killed Me." According to the DDO forum's dev tracker, no Turbine employee has offered a response to any of the protest threads. [Thanks to Robert for the tip!] [ Editor: Changed wording to clarify token issue.] Dungeons and Dragons Online players protest True Heart changes originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Occupy Stormreach Forum Post, Update 20 Announcement

EVE Evolved: The Siphon Unit in Rubicon Posted: 20 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game Mechanics, Patches, Previews, PvP, Endgame, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Dev Diaries, Sandbox, Player-Generated Content, Subscription EVE Online will soon let players steal valuable resources from each other, and not everyone is happy with it. The upcoming Rubicon expansion will add a new Siphon Unit structure that can literally siphon off materials from a starbase's moon harvesters and simple reactors. Preliminary details on the structure were released in a new devblog this week, sparking debate over whether the new item will be a useful tool for disrupting entrenched nullsec alliances. Many expected the siphon to be a minor annoyance to starbase owners, with the presence of a siphon being easily discovered and a limit of one siphon per starbase established. In reality, one siphon unit can rob a starbase of 60% of the output from a moon harvester or 12.5% from a simple reactor, and there's no limit to how many can be stacked on an individual starbase. It'll take only two of these to completely shut down a single moon-mining operation, and the owner will get no warning whatsoever that it's happening. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how the Siphon Unit will work, its stats, various ways to protect your starbase from it, and what the long-term implications may be for EVE. Continue reading EVE Evolved: The Siphon Unit in Rubicon EVE Evolved: The Siphon Unit in Rubicon originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Don't expect SWTOR space PvE any time soon Posted: 20 Oct 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic The Unnamed SWTOR Podcast recently spoke with BioWare devs Damion Schubert, Andrew Horwitz, and Eric Musco at Star Wars: The Old Republic's Community Cantina Q&A in New York City. According to podcast host JD, BioWare said that space PvE will not be coming to SWTOR any time soon, if ever. I asked about the possibility that Galactic Starfighter was designed with PvE in mind. [BioWare] said no, it was not. That is far far far far far down on the wall of crazy, is PvE Starfighter. [BioWare] said the biggest problems would be with scripting and 3-D AI; things that they don't have in the game they would basically have to write fresh. The good thing about PvE is the good scripting. Getting the ability in at the right time makes it interesting and fun, but not unfair. You know, getting those enrage timers right. Getting like a DOT thrown out at the right time. Stuff that has to be done really well for PvE to work right. And for them to do that in space would be a lot of work. So problems with scripting and AI would be reasons that we won't be seeing PvE Galactic starfighter. SWTOR launched with an on-rails space shooter component and is currently in the process of adding space PvP with December's Galactic Starfighter expansion. [Thanks Grand Nagus!] Don't expect SWTOR space PvE any time soon originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Unnamed SWTOR Podcast

Black Desert's beta housing system detailed Posted: 20 Oct 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox, Housing, Black Desert Hey look, it's more Black Desert beta stuff! Steparu has posted part two of a lengthy impressions piece for the sandbox title, the second portion of which focuses exclusively on player housing. As it stands right now, the system is limited to auctioned houses that are hard -- or at least expensive -- to obtain. There is no player-made housing in Black Desert's Korean closed beta just yet, so expect to spend time jostling with lots of players clustered around the auctioneer NPC if really want a home of your own. Steparu has posted plenty of both interior and exterior housing screenshots as well as a video tour which you can see after the break. Continue reading Black Desert's beta housing system detailed Black Desert's beta housing system detailed originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steparu

Red 5 doubles Firefall's internal QA team, focuses on bug-squashing Posted: 20 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries, Firefall Red 5 has a new Firefall development update initiative in the works, the first entry for which went live on the game's website recently. The dev blog mentions that bug-squashing is currently a major point of focus, so much so that the studio has doubled its internal quality assurance team. The team is also hard at work on the UI and a new HUD as well as the game's dynamic encounter systems. The details are fuzzy at this point, but Red 5 says that "Firefall is meant to be a living, breathing world with things happening at all times and something that reacts to player involvement." The rest of the dev blog covers the game's story, character progression, crafting, creatures, combat, and social integration. Read all about it via the links below. Red 5 doubles Firefall's internal QA team, focuses on bug-squashing originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev update

Rumor: PSO2 may not be heading to the West, despite being 'fully localized' Posted: 20 Oct 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Launches, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Rumors, MMORPG It looks as though Sega has no plans to bring Phantasy Star Online 2 to Western markets after all. TSSZ is reporting that a source close to the publisher has revealed that while the game has been "fully localized" for an English release, that localization is aimed at English-speaking regions in Asia and not European or North American audiences. The source speculated that Sega may be concerned about PSO2's potential profitability in the West but was clear that whispers from its contacts in the company in no way represent an official cancellation of a Western release. Phantasy Star Online 2 has had no visible presence in the Western games community since it was shown at the 2012 Penny Arcade Expo. [Thanks to BGO for the tip!] Rumor: PSO2 may not be heading to the West, despite being 'fully localized' originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: TSSZ

Stick and Rudder: Ten space sims to fill your Star Citizen void Posted: 20 Oct 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, Opinion, Sandbox, Stick and Rudder, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play This week I'd like to throw around a few ideas for enjoying yourself in Star Citizen's absence. Yeah, there's the hangar module, and it's pretty spectacular for what it is. But after dorking around in cockpits and doing a few I'll-be-in-my-bunk Jayne Cobb impersonations as I wedge my avatar into my Aurora's sleeping compartment, I ache to spool up those engines and go somewhere. Fortunately there are a ton of worthy space sims that we can use to while away the next couple of years. Or the next couple of months, because dogfighting alpha! Continue reading Stick and Rudder: Ten space sims to fill your Star Citizen void Stick and Rudder: Ten space sims to fill your Star Citizen void originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Gazillion brings Squirrel Girl to Marvel Heroes Posted: 20 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Trailers, Video, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Marvel Heroes Squirrel Girl is now available in Marvel Heroes, according to a new post on the Gazillion website. Founders get Squirrel Girl and her modern and aviator costumes for free, while other players can unlock her by buying a hero pack, buying her directly from the in-game store, or earning her via eternity splinters. Gazillion has released a Squirrel Girl teaser trailer which you can see after the cut. Continue reading Gazillion brings Squirrel Girl to Marvel Heroes Gazillion brings Squirrel Girl to Marvel Heroes originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 20 Oct 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

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