MMO Updates

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• The Mog Log: After the story of Final Fantasy XIV
• WRUP: Wombats are the last acceptable topic edition
• The Daily Grind: Do you game with your spouse?
• Betawatch: September 28 - October 4, 2013
• Storyboard: Keeping your roleplaying fresh
• Diablo III starts console digital downloads
• Cryptic on creating STO's Season 8 Dyson Sphere
• Snail teases four additional Age of Wushu school instances
• Tamriel Infinium: The Orcs in The Elder Scrolls Online
• MMObility: Manyland is deceptively simple and surprising
• Looking for Guild: More FFXIV, DCUO

The Mog Log: After the story of Final Fantasy XIV Posted: 05 Oct 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log First of all, putting this front and center: there are spoilers aplenty in the article past the cut. You have been warned, and will be warned again. I wrapped up the main story of Final Fantasy XIV a little while ago, got to see the final cutscenes that last for about a month, and was rewarded with a nice new mount for my trouble. I also got some big metaplot advancement and access to the endgame dungeons that I'll be running until we get more of them, so that was nice. But today I don't want to talk about how Amdapor Keep and Castrum Meridianum do an excellent job of being an endgame without being one, I want to talk about the actual story as a whole. Including the final revelations, the pacing of the plot, and where the game has to go from here. Again, spoilers past the cut. If you have not beaten the main story and want it to remain a secret, please, don't read past this point. Continue reading The Mog Log: After the story of Final Fantasy XIV The Mog Log: After the story of Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Oct 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WRUP: Wombats are the last acceptable topic edition Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous With the news of the past week or two, I had a lot of potential topics for WRUP this week. However, I was quickly handed a list of stipulations that I had to adhere to. No political jokes, but I expected that. No jokes about Warhammer Online, which is fair. No jokes about "that stupid giant robot film." No jokes about my wife's new haircut. Absolutely no jokes about traffic court. Point is, the list went on, and I was down to wombats. I don't know anything about wombats. Perhaps a zoologist or an Australian can enlighten me in the comments real quick-like. Oh, I do also have the usual WRUP entries past the break so that everyone can see what the Massively staffers are up to over the weekend. That's not really wombat-based. Tune in next week when I can joke about... wait, no, I can't preview that joke as it involves key lime pie. Oh well. Continue reading WRUP: Wombats are the last acceptable topic edition WRUP: Wombats are the last acceptable topic edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Oct 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Do you game with your spouse? Posted: 05 Oct 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous People who read my ramblings on a regular basis know that I've been with my dear Ms. Lady for quite some time. And we do, in fact, game together. We don't always join the same guilds or groups, we each make a point of having independent lives in our games... but we also group together whenever possible and clear the heck out of content as a team. From Star Wars: The Old Republic to Final Fantasy XIV, we're a team. This is not possible for everyone. Maybe your spouse (or significant other) doesn't like gaming, or maybe the two of you like wildly different games. Or the inverse is possible; you met in a game together and can't conceive of not playing as a team. Some couples find that playing together is a fun activity; some find it just leads to ridiculous arguments over nothing. So do you game with your spouse or other romantic partner? Or is gaming something you do separately from one another? 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 game with your spouse? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Oct 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Betawatch: September 28 - October 4, 2013 Posted: 04 Oct 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO Industry, News Items, Betawatch, Miscellaneous So, do you want to play Destiny? Go pre-purchase it and you'll get some definite beta access. It's an old plan, but it's one that works out fairly well for everyone involved. The company gets a nice chunk of purchases and plenty of beta testers, the players get an easy pass into the game. Everybody wins. Aside from the people who buy the game and decide they dislike it after the fact. They sort of lose. Beyond that, the Hearthstone wipe took place, bringing in one more patch and the promise of more open beta testing soon. And, of course, we have the usual list of games in testing just past the break. As always, we strive for accuracy, so let us know if something has opened a cash shop or the like without us catching it. Some games do so like to let those creep in without notice. Continue reading Betawatch: September 28 - October 4, 2013 Betawatch: September 28 - October 4, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Storyboard: Keeping your roleplaying fresh Posted: 04 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous The big problem with marriage is the same problem you have with always going to your favorite restaurant. Sure, you like the menu, and maybe it's even extensive enough that you could eat there every day for a month without having the same thing twice. But eventually it's just not going to be fresh. You've had everything on the menu, and from here on out it's just the same burgers until the end of time. And so you wind up leaving the restaurant and eating at a fast food place, and then you wind up in divorce court. You are not married to your roleplaying characters. But you're still in a situation where you're inside of this character's head at all times, and eventually you don't even need to guess what happens next. So just like a marriage, you need to keep things fresh even when you know your character inside and out. Which is trickier than it might sound, but still eminently doable. And it might even be that as long as I'm making the marriage analogy, some of the same advice applies. Continue reading Storyboard: Keeping your roleplaying fresh Storyboard: Keeping your roleplaying fresh originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Diablo III starts console digital downloads Posted: 04 Oct 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Promotions, Diablo III Who needs boxes when you've got the convenience of digital downloads, am I right? I am always right; you need to learn that lesson right now. Well, console fans of Diablo III are not shackled to the box-and-chain any longer, as digital downloads for the game are available on both the Sony Entertainment Network and Xbox Live. The game is $59.99 on both sites and graciously allows you to purchase a few add-ons, such as an Infernal Helm or a Treasure Goblin. Diablo III starts console digital downloads originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Sony Entertainment Network, Xbox Live

Cryptic on creating STO's Season 8 Dyson Sphere Posted: 04 Oct 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play Cryptic has posted a new Star Trek Online dev blog focused on the game's upcoming Season 8 content drop. The patch is subtitled The Sphere and "will for the first time ever in STO feature exploration in a Dyson Sphere." Creating the sphere was quite the daunting task, Cryptic says, largely because of the sheer scale involved. "The theorized Dyson Sphere has a radius of 1 AU, which is the distance from the sun to the earth, and the surface area of that sphere would be 550 million times that of the earth," the dev blog explains. Click through to the links below for more info about STO and Season 8! Cryptic on creating STO's Season 8 Dyson Sphere originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev blog

Snail teases four additional Age of Wushu school instances Posted: 04 Oct 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Sandbox, Dungeons, Age of Wushu Snail Games has published a brief look at four new School Instances in its Age of Wushu fantasy sandbox. "In order to obtain your school's apex of strength and power," Snail says, "you must face its Forbidden Instance." Today's update covers four of the game's schools: the Tangmen and their Great Poison Palace, the Scholars' Villa of the Departed, the Royal Guards' Purgatory and Wanderer's Valley's Cavern of Lost Souls. If you missed the first entry in the School Instance series, it's here along with info on the Beggar's Sect, Wudang, Emei, and Shaolin instances. Snail teases four additional Age of Wushu school instances originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

Tamriel Infinium: The Orcs in The Elder Scrolls Online Posted: 04 Oct 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Lore, New Titles, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Races, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, MMORPG, Tamriel Infinium It takes a special person to play a character who's considered ugly by our human standards. But people have been playing "ugly" player races since EverQuest with its Ogres and Trolls, for instance. Sometimes the avatars we "normal" people find strange actually end up being some of the most interesting characters to play. Such is the case with the Orcs in the Elder Scrolls Online. Admittedly, I never played an Orc in an Elder Scrolls game, but the more I study them, the more I'm intrigued by the race. To the larger world of Tamriel, the Orcs are considered barbaric, fierce, and bestial not only because of their appearance but also because of their tribal nature. Despite this, Orcs remain extraordinary loyal and actually very progressive regarding gender rank and respect. But where did this Pariah Folk come from and why do many other races look down on them? Continue reading Tamriel Infinium: The Orcs in The Elder Scrolls Online Tamriel Infinium: The Orcs in The Elder Scrolls Online originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMObility: Manyland is deceptively simple and surprising Posted: 04 Oct 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Screenshots, Video, Game Mechanics, New Titles, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Browser, Hands-On, Casual, Miscellaneous, MMObility, Sandbox, Player-Generated Content Is the primitive 8- or 16-bit design movement becoming too much of a good thing? At first it presents a cool way to see and interact with the game world, and it does so with a style that is familiar but in many ways more fresh than anything we've experienced for a while. But, then we grow used to it and it starts to feel a bit dated... even though it's only been introduced (in its unique way) in recent years! If you're a designer and you design a game with mining and artwork that looks like something that came from an 80s arcade, do you risk a backlash from writers and gamers who yawn and say "ah, more Minecraft stuff?" Of course you do. That doesn't mean that fun things can't be done within the genre, and Manyland is a great example of that. It's also free and runs right in your browser, so you have zero to lose in terms of checking it out! Continue reading MMObility: Manyland is deceptively simple and surprising MMObility: Manyland is deceptively simple and surprising originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Looking for Guild: More FFXIV, DCUO Posted: 04 Oct 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Miscellaneous, Looking for Guild It was another successful week in the land of LFG as we saw connections between guildies and guild leaders for Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, and The Secret World. It was also great to see so many positive comments in last week's article! I do plan to revisit any uncontacted submissions in future round-ups, most likely based on particular games as themes. So, for example, I may have a Lord of the Rings Online week where I repost all LFG entries that didn't find a guild yet in that game. Does this week's list have who you're looking for? Read on past the jump to see who's looking for a guild. Continue reading Looking for Guild: More FFXIV, DCUO Looking for Guild: More FFXIV, DCUO originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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