General Gaming Article

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• Velocity Micro Raptor MultiPlex XL Review
• Road to Redemption? EA Eliminates Unpopular Online Pass Program
• MiniX Neo X5 Review
• David Gerrold Tries Kickstarting "Star Wolf" Novels to Television
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Still Headed for a May 23 Release
• Newegg Daily Deals: Casing the Best Bargains
• Lenovo, Best Buy Now Accepting Pre-orders for IdeaPad Yoga 11s Convertible
• Steam Trading Cards Reward Gamers with DLC and Game Coupons

Velocity Micro Raptor MultiPlex XL Review Posted: 16 May 2013 02:30 PM PDT Is there still room for big a HTCP? It's hard to talk about the Velocity Micro MultiPlex machine without thinking back more than 15 years ago, to the earliest days of "PC-TVs" and "PC Theaters." Back in the late 1990s, vendors such as Compaq and Gateway were pushing Pentium II–based PCs capable of watching DVDs, displaying electronic programming guides, and browsing the Internet, along with other futuristic capabilities, on gigantic 36-inch CRT televisions (we say that both literally and sarcastically). The MultiPlex is a traditional HTPC, but fully capable of playing Big Picture Steam games, too. In comparison to those early pioneers of living room PCs, the Velocity Micro MultiPlex is like a starship dropping out of warp speed while you look on from a covered wagon trying to get over Donner Pass without having to eat your fellow travelers. The MultiPlex chassis harkens back to those early PC-TVs, but rather than sporting a 266MHz Pentium II, a whopping 2GB hard drive, 32MB of RAM, and an analog TV tuner, the MultiPlex is pretty much state-of-the-art: liquid-cooled Core i7-3770K clocked up to 4.3GHz, 16GB of DDR3/2000, a GeForce GTX 680, 240GB SSD, and 3.6TB of RAID 5 storage. Besides Gigabit and 802.11n, and the Blu-ray drive, Velocity Micro opted for a Ceton quad-channel CableCARD tuner to help fill that massive RAID 5 array. That RAID array, for the record, is made up of three 2TB WD Caviar Black drives. If one drive fails, you won't lose it all—we're just not so sure we'd care if we lost it, though. Since the MultiPlex is intended to quietly sit in the living room sucking up television through the Ceton card, a drive failure wiping out, say, every episode of Glee or The Walking Dead, wouldn't be as bad as losing 2TB of your family videos and pics. Frankly, we think that a straight 6TB JBOD array would be just fine on a PVR box, but if you do intend to store your memories on the machine, the RAID 5 is warranted. Performance of the box was in line with our expectations. Obviously, up against our zero-point system's hexa-core and dual-GPU setup, it's no contest. But against HTPC/gaming boxes like Digital Storm's Bolt and Falcon Northwest's Tiki, it's pretty much a tie, as all three feature overclocked 3770K parts and GeForce GTX 680 cards. Of course, you might wonder if it's fair to compare the MultiPlex against those much smaller HTPC machines. That's a good question. Both the Tiki and Bolt are more likely to be used as simple SFF gaming boxes in your office, or in your living room as "Steam Boxes" running Big Picture mode. Recording terabytes of TV isn't likely to be high on the list of their usage scenarios. That's actually where the MultiPlex comes in. It's far more traditional-HTPC shaped and sized for the PVR chores, yet has plenty of firepower to run games at 1080p resolutions. Our one complaint might be that it's a tad loud for pure PVR duties. If you're watching, say, a Michael Bay flick, you'd never hear the fan and drive noise, but if you're trying to catch the nuanced acting in, um, Jane Eyre on Blu-ray, you could find those sounds distracting. This won't be an issue in gaming, of course, but it's worth noting. Pricing for the rig is fair. At $3,200 it's a full grand cheaper than the Falcon Tiki we reviewed last September. The Tiki did, however, pack a pair of 512GB SSDs, which adds up, but then the MultiPlex has three drives plus a CableCARD tuner. Overall, the MultiPlex brings a lot to the table if you're still living in a cable world—we're just not sure how many of us there are in today's post-cable environment. $3,200, www.velocitymicro.com

Road to Redemption? EA Eliminates Unpopular Online Pass Program Posted: 16 May 2013 12:55 PM PDT You can almost hear a golf clap erupting from GameStop stores. It's no secret game publishers loathe the second-hand sales market, prompting many of them to have a love-hate relationship with GameStop, the world's most popular used games retailer. But is GameStop really the frenemy that some publishers view it as? Perhaps not. Electronic Arts (EA) has come to the conclusion that its Online Pass program isn't worth pissing off its customers and has decided to reverse course, a move that's perhaps indicative that EA wasn't losing as much money to used game sales as it thought it was. Battlefield 3, Madden NFL, and a few other titles used the Online Pass system. The way it worked is that gamers would input a code included with new games to unlock online gameplay. The single-use code wouldn't transfer to a second owner, so if you bought a game used from GameStop or anywhere else and the code was already used, you'd have to purchase another one from EA. Well, not anymore. "Yes, we're discontinuing Online Pass," EA senior director of corporate communications, John Reseburg, told GamesBeat in an email. "None of our new EA titles will include that feature." Reseburg went to say that "many players didn't respond to the format," which is the primary reason why EA decided to abandon the program. It was an unpopular program among gamers to begin with, but given EA's sometimes stubborn nature and willingness to put up with criticism, it seemed unlikely the publisher would reverse course. It looks like Kevin Garnett was right, after all. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

MiniX Neo X5 Review Posted: 16 May 2013 12:14 PM PDT Meet the android on TV box We have some bad news for you and you're not going to like it, as few parents ever want to hear anything negative about their baby. Well, here it is: Your so-called Smart TV really isn't that smart. The Android on TV box idea may be the future, but probably not this one. Sure, the guy in the blue shirt said that your fab 60-inch plasma was top of its class and graduated cum laude, but the truth is, your TV spent most of its schooling playing beer pong and is a actually a class-A moron. The only reason it's called "Smart" is because it was pledged as a legacy. That's where the MiniX Neo X5 comes in. Running Android Ice Cream Sandwich, this inexpensive black box gives your TV an actual browser and access to applications that aren't coded in the language Ass++. The Neo X5 sports a dual-core Rockchip RK3066 ARM processor with a quad-core Mali 400 graphics chip, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. For connectivity, it has 802.11n, Bluetooth, HDMI 1.4a, Fast Ethernet, and an optical S/PDIF out. For additional storage, the Neo X5 has an SD slot. MiniX even includes a short HDMI cable and USB OTG cable. For those of you who don't subscribe to Obscure Ports Quarterly, OTG lets you use the box's Micro USB port as a standard USB port, or—if we could figure it out—hook the Neo X5 to a PC's USB port to use as a storage device. Think of it as a USB port that swings both ways. As we said, we couldn't figure it out and that's perhaps one of the most vexing problems with the Neo X5. It's pretty much stock Ice Cream Sandwich, but a lot of things were simply not intuitive or not working. We couldn't, for example, figure out how to zoom in or out, and many apps that are intended for touch just didn't work correctly for us. Granted, we were using it with a wireless keyboard and mouse, but that's how the device would normally be used in a living room since the remote it ships with feels like it came out of a gumball machine. The performance of the Neo X5 didn't impress us, either. It felt sluggish in most instances, with a subpar user interface. Some benchmarks told us otherwise. We compared it to a Tegra 3–based Nexus 7 (admittedly not the most direct comparison, but a good measure of relative Android performance) and the X5 took most of the wins. The Nex7 certainly felt smoother but that's likely due to Jelly Bean and its Project Butter improvements. Overall, the Neo X5 feels underspec'd to us. Even the display at 1080p output looked so soft we had to double-check which mode it was in. Security is also an issue, as there is no way to secure the unit. Since you'd be logged into your Gmail account at all times on it, you're leaving your email fly down for anyone on the device. The Neo X5 is mainly marketed as a media player and it does fine there—to an extent. We could play various MP4 files, from GoPro cams to handycams to still images without hiccups, and there is an extensive set of codecs supported. Netflix was also fine but did exhibit more compression artifacts than we expected. YouTube videos were also pretty low-res despite being checked off as "HD." What we have here is essentially a work in progress. As is, it's still far more usable and much faster than 95 percent of the "Smart" televisions on the market, but there's much improvement to be had. MiniX is promising a Jelly Bean update at some point that may greatly change the experience—which it needs. $110, www.polywell.com

David Gerrold Tries Kickstarting "Star Wolf" Novels to Television Posted: 16 May 2013 09:00 AM PDT Former Maximum PC columnist turns Kickstarter campaigner. There are several ways you might be familiar with David Gerrold. We've had the pleasure of working with him as a former columnist for Maximum PC magazine, in which he penned technology pieces under the "Future Tense" heading. He's also a screenwriter and novelist who wrote scripts for the original Star Trek episodes, and is the author of the Star Wolf series of books, which he's now trying to port over to television with the help of Kickstarter. Sure, this is off the beaten path of typical Maximum PC fodder, but hey, we like Gerrold, and we'd like to see him get a chance to bring his novels to television. To do that, he'll need to raise $650,000, which would fund the first episode. Every additional $500,000 beyond that would fund an additional episode, though with less than $47,000 in pledges with just 17 days to go, his Kickstarter campaign's going to need a serious kick in the pants. Why turn to Kickstarter in the first place? "Because the old way of doing things doesn't work any more -- and not at all for science fiction," Gerrold's Kickstarter page explains. "Star Trek, The Original Series got cancelled because NBC executives didn't understand what they had. Firefly got cancelled because Fox executives didn't understand what they had. Babylon 5 was cancelled because the network executives didn't understand what they had. Even a profitable series can be cancelled if the numbers don't work for the accountants. And anything less than three million viewers isn't considered enough." It seems like a long shot with the limited interest at this point, but check it out and if you like what you see, toss some green at an old friend of ours. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Still Headed for a May 23 Release Posted: 16 May 2013 08:33 AM PDT Rumors point to the GTX 780 launching next week. Near the beginning of the month, news and rumor site Fudzilla reported that Nvidia was planning to launch its GeForce GTX 780 graphics card on May 23 at 6:00 AM PDT. That date is now only a week away, and so far, things are looking good. Withing naming anyone, Fudzilla says it's now heard from "multiple sources" that the May 23 launch date is accurate, at which time Nvidia's hardware partners will debut reference clocked cards. As with most video cards these days, overclocked versions will inevitably pop up, though most of them will come out "several weeks" after the initial launch. Reference cards are said to be using a GeForce Titan cooler quality since it's a high quality design. You may even spot overclocked cards using the same cooler, though vendors typically like to slap on their own cooling solutions, which often do a better job than reference at whisking away heat and run quieter to boot. According to Fudzilla, the GTX 780 part based on reference specs should sell for around 500 Euros. That's about $645 USD, though PC component pricing doesn't always follow a straight currency conversion from one market to the next. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Casing the Best Bargains Posted: 16 May 2013 08:11 AM PDT Top Deal: You probably put a lot of thought and research into picking out your home or apartment, so why not extend the same courtesy to your PC parts? We have plenty of deals on cases today, including our top deal for an NZXT Phantom Red White Finish ATX Full Tower Compuer Case for $108 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code:[NZXT10M]; additional $20 mail-in-rebate). It has the looks and the ability to keep your PC parts chilly with 7 fan cooling options. Other Deals: Rosewill Blackhawk Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $70 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code:[EMCXRWS89])  Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $40 with free shipping (normally $60 - use coupon code:[EMCXRWS94]) Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Computer Case for $43 with free shipping (normally $70 - use coupon code:[EMCXRWS263]; additional $10 mail-in rebate) DIYPC Alpha-DB6 Acrylic Bench Computer Case for ATX/Micro ATX motherboards for $40 with shipping for $4 (normally $60)

Lenovo, Best Buy Now Accepting Pre-orders for IdeaPad Yoga 11s Convertible Posted: 16 May 2013 07:56 AM PDT Is Yoga in your summer plans? Lenovo first began showing off its IdeaPad Yoga 11S at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this past January, and now four months later, you can place your pre-order on Lenovo's website or through Best Buy, the latter of which will carry the hybrid laptop in stores starting June 23. Why is it called Yoga? Simply put, Lenovo's convertible bends in ways that makes our back ache just looking at it. The Yoga 11S is an 11.6-inch Ultrabook convertible that flips and folds all the way around to function as a tablet when desired. It has a touchscreen IPS display and is of course wielding Windows 8. "Consumers around the world loved our first Yoga for its unique flip and fold and multi-mode design," said Jay Parker, president, Lenovo, North America. "We're continuing to develop the Yoga franchise with the new Yoga 11S, and due to Yoga's popularity already, we've created a pre-sale program so customers can get their hands on one before it even hits the shelves." It's available in "Clementine Orange" and "Silver Gray," both of which start out at $800. For that, you get an Intel Core i3 3229Y processor (1.4GHz), 4GB of DDR3-1600 RAM, 128GB solid state drive, 4-cell battery, and Windows 8. Upgrades are available, including faster processor options, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of solid state storage. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Steam Trading Cards Reward Gamers with DLC and Game Coupons Posted: 16 May 2013 07:47 AM PDT The feature is currently limited to only six games A mysterious database entry for something called the Steam Trading Card popped up in the Steam database late last week and all sorts of theories began doing the rounds on the Web. Some saw it as a harbinger of a trading game being developed by Valve, while others suspected it to be a new Steam service for facilitating the trade of in-game items. Valve on Wednesday finally put all that speculation to rest when it officially announced Steam Trading Cards,  a new service that rewards gamers for, well, gaming. In its press release, the company described the new service thus: "Released in beta today, Steam Trading Cards allows customers to earn Steam rewards for playing the games they love. Those who participate will receive game-specific trading cards that can be collected to earn rewards such as game badges, profile backgrounds, emoticons, coupons, and more." But  how does one go about collecting these cards? To begin with, you will need to join the Steam Trading Cards beta, which is currently limited to Don't Starve, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and Half-Life. You can then collect up to half the card set through the actual act of playing, while the other half has to be collected from other community member. Once you complete a card set for one of the above participating games, you can craft them into a game badge. Just like current badges, game badges are associated with your game account. According to the official Steam Trading Cards page, these badges bring with them "marketable" rewards like emoticons, profile backgrounds, and DLC/game coupons, What's more, they can be levelled up as many as five times, allowing you to earn more items. "All badges now have XP which contributes to your Steam Level, a summary of your badge collection," reads the Steam Trading Cards page. "You can view someone's Steam Level by hovering over their avatar. Leveling up earns you non-tradable items like profile showcases, extra friends list slots, and more" Follow Pulkit on Google+

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MMO Updates

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• LoL video previews 3.7 patch, introduces Custom Item Sets
• The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaching ourselves LoL matchups
• The Think Tank: What got you started in MMOs?
• Wargaming celebrates 15 years with new World of Tanks tournament
• EA to publish new Dawngate MOBA
• The Daily Grind: Which MOBA do you recommend for newbs?
• Free for All: Celebrating MUD May with Gemstone IV
• MMO Family: First Impressions of World of Trinketz
• TUG hopes to make guilds more meaningful by not having them
• Vivendi still trying to sell Activision-Blizzard
• Catch ArenaNet's Spring Break tour of Southsun Cove replay on Twitch
• A Mystical Land changes name to Villagers & Heroes, adds content
• STO's Legacy of Romulus expansion adding Nimbus adventure zone
• Get your epeen on with these new Final Fantasy XIV screenies
• Choose My Adventure: Beyond the walls of safety in Darkfall
• Unicorn poop, beer cans, and housing dungeons: WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney preps us for closed beta 2
• Hi-Rez reveals SMITE's Isis, the Goddess of Magic
• Kingdom Under Fire II gets 2013 launch window in SE Asia
• A Mild-Mannered Reporter: How Champions Online could get its groove back

LoL video previews 3.7 patch, introduces Custom Item Sets Posted: 16 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, Patches, PvP, Free-to-Play, MOBA, League of Legends Instead of just rolling out a wall of text to discuss the changes and updates hitting League of Legends in the 3.7 patch, Riot Games offers players a video preview to get a glimpse of what's to come. And among the goodies is one of the most player-requested features -- Custom Item Sets. Want to create a specific set of items, tailored to individual champions and/or maps before you get into a match and the fighting begins? Or how about just browse through the entire item shop on PVP.net just to see what's available? Both will be possible with the new Custom Item Sets feature. Initially, these custom builds will be stored on players' local machines only, but the devs plan on adding server-side storage in the future. The video also discusses some balance changes to the champions Rumble, Twisted Fate, Caitlyn, and Nunu. Check out the specifics after the break. Continue reading LoL video previews 3.7 patch, introduces Custom Item Sets LoL video previews 3.7 patch, introduces Custom Item Sets originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PC Gamer

The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaching ourselves LoL matchups Posted: 16 May 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook I'm always looking for things to teach players in the Summoner's Guidebook. We have, however, covered a lot of the low hanging fruit in one way or another. In League of Legends, and virtually every other asymmetric competitive game, matchup knowledge comprises the huge bulk of information that is truly useful to read about. This week was originally going to be a counter-Ryze guide, but then I decided to cover a broader topic to help reach more people. I don't really like discussing specific character matchups largely because the character you're using matters almost as much as your opponent's. What does Ryze do against Kassadin in lane, for instance? The answer is not a whole lot if the Kassadin is decent. I could write a counter-Kassadin guide, but a lot of it wouldn't be usable by Ryze. Instead, this week we'll discuss how to think about the opponent's kit and develop a strategy to win on your own (or at least survive). Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaching ourselves LoL matchups The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaching ourselves LoL matchups originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Think Tank: What got you started in MMOs? Posted: 16 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, The Think Tank Can you remember your first MMO buying experience? What series of events led to your interest in massively multiplayer gaming? What made you finally accept that paying monthly for a game is a thing that's OK? Or did you wade through countless free-to-play games before finding one that suited you? As the guys and gals you turn to each day for your MMOs news, the team at Massively has a solid history with this genre. So I dug a bit deeper to get those stories from a few members of the team. Feel free to leave your own MMO origins story in the comments below as you enjoy our own after the jump. Continue reading The Think Tank: What got you started in MMOs? The Think Tank: What got you started in MMOs? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wargaming celebrates 15 years with new World of Tanks tournament Posted: 16 May 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Events (Real-World), Events (In-Game), War, Free-to-Play, World of Tanks You may be familiar with Wargaming through the development studio's wildly successful game World of Tanks, but did you know that the company has been around for 15 years and has developed almost a dozen other games? To help celebrate this special 15th anniversary, Wargaming has announced a global World of Tanks tournament that will see winning teams from Europe, North America, Russia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, China, Vietnam, and more represent their regions with an all-expense-paid trip to the World of Tanks studio in Minsk, Belarus. The tournament will be a traditional 7 v 7 format and will run from May until the end of June. Check out the Wargaming site for more info. Wargaming celebrates 15 years with new World of Tanks tournament originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 May 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Wargaming Press Release

EA to publish new Dawngate MOBA Posted: 16 May 2013 06:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, MOBA "Dawngate is a new MOBA, built from the ground up to look and feel familiar while offering a whole new way to experience MOBA gameplay." These are the opening words of a new website for Dawngate, developed by Waystone Games and published by EA. Joystiq notes that the Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube links on the site are either inactive or private, leading us to believe that this game wasn't exactly meant to be public knowledge just yet. There is also speculation that Waystone Games is a dev studio reborn from the ashes of Dead Space 3's Visceral Games, which dissolved last year. You can register for the upcoming beta through your EA Origin account. EA to publish new Dawngate MOBA originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 May 2013 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Joystiq

The Daily Grind: Which MOBA do you recommend for newbs? Posted: 16 May 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, MOBA Thus far I've sat out the whole MOBA craze. I don't have a good reason, really, other than all of the rest of the games on my plate coupled with a lack of time to play them. Lately I'm getting more and more intrigued, though, and I've been nosing around websites and forum communities to see which title might make a good starting point. SMITE looks promising, and I'm a big fan of Hi-Rez thanks mostly to all the fun I had in Global Agenda. Infinite Crisis looks cool, too, though admittedly that's because I'm an incurable fan of the IP. And of course there's League of Legends, HoN, and the other big dogs. What say you, Massively MOBA players? Do you recommend a particular MOBA for newbs? 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 MOBA do you recommend for newbs? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 May 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Free for All: Celebrating MUD May with Gemstone IV Posted: 15 May 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, Interviews, MMO Industry, Opinion, Roleplaying, Free for All, Subscription MUD May has been a blast so far, but I won't lie to you and say that I hope to even make a dent in the decades-old history of many of these titles. I decided instead to use some examples from my favorite MUDs that I have come across over the last couple of years. It's admittedly been a challenge to think about what to cover. Do I cover the communities? The in-game mechanics? The publishers? This week I decided to attempt to kill several birds with a handful of stones (and questions) and snagged Simutronics Producer Eric Latham for an video interview. Simutronics has been in the business for 26 years, and the publisher makes my favorite MUD, Gemstone IV. Latham has been with the company for 15 of those years! Technically I am using the interview and video as part of my Rise and Shiny series, but the questions and answers are more relevant to the general topic of MUDs. You might see it now as well as later, but it will hopefully provide some insight into the world of making MUDs. Continue reading Free for All: Celebrating MUD May with Gemstone IV Free for All: Celebrating MUD May with Gemstone IV originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Family: First Impressions of World of Trinketz Posted: 15 May 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business Models, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Browser, Hands-On, First Impressions, Kids, MMO Family, Family, Miscellaneous I have to begin this week's column with a disclaimer: I am not a fan of Facebook, and I'm even less a fan of Facebook games. The only one I found enjoyable was Ian Bogost's Cow Clicker because it was a giant middle finger to the bottom-feeding practices so commonly found in Facebook Villes. But when I got a Google alert in my inbox about the world's first family-friendly 3-D MMO for Facebook, I had to head back to the blue-and-white wasteland of Facebook and see it firsthand. Could it be that the era of isometric views and mindless clicking is finally over? Have we finally moved on from agriculturally themed games? I decided to check out World of Trinketz to seek some answers. Continue reading MMO Family: First Impressions of World of Trinketz MMO Family: First Impressions of World of Trinketz originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

TUG hopes to make guilds more meaningful by not having them Posted: 15 May 2013 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Guilds, News Items, Sandbox, Crowdfunding Guilds are pretty much ubiquitous in MMOs -- they serve as a way to bind players together into a group. But the team behind TUG thinks that all too often guilds come about mostly so you can have a name and a chat channel all to yourself. Which is why the latest design post about the game explains that the designers want to remove that sense of artificially created communities. To strengthen that sense of forming player groups, guilds have to go. As the post explains, too often guilds become things formed for the purpose of having a guild, placing an artificial limitation on what groups players belong to. Instead, the goal is to get players to form societies and groups organically, creating more freedom by removing arbitrary restrictions. It's an idea with a lot of promise, and as the game's Kickstarter continues you can decide if that promise is something you feel like supporting. TUG hopes to make guilds more meaningful by not having them originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: On Guilds in TUG

Vivendi still trying to sell Activision-Blizzard Posted: 15 May 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Economy, MMO Industry, News Items French telecom company Vivendi is still looking to sell off gaming giant Activision-Blizzard, according to the Wall Street Journal. Vivendi announced its quarterly results yesterday and also said that Acti-Blizz's board of directors is still weighing multiple sale options for a company that's been up for grabs since the summer of 2012. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Activision-Blizzard was worth more than $8 billion when it was put on the open market. Vivendi still trying to sell Activision-Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Wall Street Journal Via: GamesIndustry.biz

Catch ArenaNet's Spring Break tour of Southsun Cove replay on Twitch Posted: 15 May 2013 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events (In-Game), MMO Industry, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play Did you miss ArenaNet's Southsun Cove developer livestream? Do you have a spare 27 minutes and 31 seconds? If you answered yes to both of those questions, you can head to the Guild Wars 2 Twitch page and watch the replay. Even if you didn't answer yes to both of those questions, you can still watch the replay, and yes, I am attempting to fill out what is otherwise an extremely cut-and-dried news post. Let's see, what else? ANet's Scott McGough and Leah Rivera are the developers on record, and there's plenty of gameplay footage and commentary packed into the half-hour block. Catch ArenaNet's Spring Break tour of Southsun Cove replay on Twitch originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Twitch

A Mystical Land changes name to Villagers & Heroes, adds content Posted: 15 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Casual, Player-Generated Content Remember A Mystical Land? Well, forget about it, at least under that name. Mad Otter and Neonga have sent out a press release announcing that the title is now called Villagers & Heroes in an effort to "better match the content and focus of the game." The name change isn't the only change, either, as gameplay has been upgraded by the addition of player-created custom gear, new realms to explore, and new epic bosses. Animal ranching is a thing now, too, so you can raise sheep, chicken, and pigs alongside those crops in your backyard. Additional improvements are planned for future updates, and Villagers & Heroes is also seeking your approval on Steam's Greenlight service. [Source: Neonga press release] A Mystical Land changes name to Villagers & Heroes, adds content originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

STO's Legacy of Romulus expansion adding Nimbus adventure zone Posted: 15 May 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Expansions, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, PvE, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play Cryptic is pumping out the Star Trek Online dev blogs as the game's Legacy of Romulus expansion draws near. The latest comes to us from content designer Sean "Commander Ander" McCann, and it's all about the Nimbus adventure zone. Nimbus is a crime-ridden locale currently lorded over by the Orion Syndicate. The new episode series Wasteland takes gamers all over the planet, from the run-down fugitive haven of Paradise City to a destroyed ship that doubles as an Orion stronghold to a Gorn-filled canyon that houses some sort of mysterious project. Nimbus also boasts dailies, open missions, and accolade rewards for said missions and for exploration. More details are yours at the official STO website. STO's Legacy of Romulus expansion adding Nimbus adventure zone originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Nimbus blog

Get your epeen on with these new Final Fantasy XIV screenies Posted: 15 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Final Fantasy XIV, Subscription My, that's a large... sword that you're holding at a very interesting angle, there. Compensating for something, perhaps? Maybe it's impotence caused by the long wait until Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn comes to a home PC or PS3 near you? Then we have the cure! No, it's not a little blue pill; it's a new gallery full of FFXIV screenshots and concept art from the upcoming reboot. Check them out and feel assured that your epeen will once again be in action. Gallery: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn screenshots and concept art [Source: Square-Enix] Get your epeen on with these new Final Fantasy XIV screenies originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Choose My Adventure: Beyond the walls of safety in Darkfall Posted: 15 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Polls, Darkfall, PvP, Opinion, Choose My Adventure, Sandbox Man up MJ, you said. Forsake the fetters of safety and wander the wilds of the world. Yes, folks, for the next phase of our Choose My Adventure project, you directed me to leave the confines of the starting cities and surrounding lands to explore and harvest in the unprotected areas in Darkfall Unholy Wars. That, and get familiar with the workbench for crafting. So said you all, and so I did. I ran little Emey Brokenclaw beyond the bounds of the safe zones and introduced her to the vast lands stretching across Agon. I enjoyed some exciting experiences as well as learned quite a few things during that journey, though not necessarily what you'd expect. Gallery: Choose My Adventure: Darkfall Unholy Wars Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Beyond the walls of safety in Darkfall Choose My Adventure: Beyond the walls of safety in Darkfall originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Unicorn poop, beer cans, and housing dungeons: WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney preps us for closed beta 2 Posted: 15 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Interviews, Previews, PvP, WildStar, Dungeons, Housing "This is going to be the best game most of us have built in our lives," Carbine Studios Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney said bluntly. The game in question, of course, is WildStar, and it represents Gaffney's 10th or so trip through the beta development chute on the way to release. There's an undeniable note of pride and calm confidence in his voice as he talks about the baby that's growing inside Carbine's womb right now, and he was definitely not shy in opening up about all of the decisions and work the team's made as WildStar heads into its second trimester... er, closed beta test. Before that, however, Gaffney provided a recap of the first closed beta test. He said that it was pretty limited, with only 2,000 players testing out the lowbie Exile zones. The team moved some of the elder game content down in level so that people could test it out, and developers spent some time doing impromptu Q&A sessions with players in the field. As a result, Carbine is ready to shift over to the Dominion side and greatly expand the beta in size and content. Read on for the full scoop on what the next step will entail. Continue reading Unicorn poop, beer cans, and housing dungeons: WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney preps us for closed beta 2 Unicorn poop, beer cans, and housing dungeons: WildStar's Jeremy Gaffney preps us for closed beta 2 originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hi-Rez reveals SMITE's Isis, the Goddess of Magic Posted: 15 May 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, MOBA Ready for the latest SMITE character reveal? Isis is here, and Hi-Rez has published a blog post and a gameplay video heralding her arrival. The Goddess of Magic is a sceptre-wielding mage -- no surprise there -- who relies on her Funeral Rites passive ability and spiffy attacks like Wing Gust and Spirit Ball. Hi-Rez has also tweaked SMITE's level system in the latest patch. God leveling earns you worshippers after every victory, which in turn translate to God Rank for a given avatar. The devs have also changed the old player level to something called Beta level. If you reach Beta level 30 prior to SMITE's official release, you'll get a free Ymir Cocadeamon skin. There's more info on all the changes at the SMITE website, and don't forget the Isis trailer after the cut. [Thanks Don!] Continue reading Hi-Rez reveals SMITE's Isis, the Goddess of Magic Hi-Rez reveals SMITE's Isis, the Goddess of Magic originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Isis reveal

Kingdom Under Fire II gets 2013 launch window in SE Asia Posted: 15 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Launches, Free-to-Play, Consoles, MMORTS It's been a couple of years since we last heard about Kingdom Under Fire II, so it's good to check in with one of our neighborly MMOs to see... oh hey! You're launching! What are the odds that this would happen during a completely random house call? OK, so the good news is that Kingdom Under Fire II has been scheduled for a 2013 launch. Unfortunately, the bad news is that so far this release will be limited to Southeast Asia at first. Apparently developer BlueSide wants to see the game in action in that region first before rolling it out elsewhere. The title is a combination of action-RPG and real-time strategy, promises battlefields with "thousands" of soldiers fighting at once, and will be launching on the PC and PlayStation 3. [Thanks to Steparu for the tip!] Kingdom Under Fire II gets 2013 launch window in SE Asia originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Steparu.com

A Mild-Mannered Reporter: How Champions Online could get its groove back Posted: 15 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Champions Online, A Mild-Mannered Reporter, Player-Generated Content It's hard to be a fan of Champions Online right now. The game has not been in a good state for pretty much any of its life cycle, but as I've discussed previously, its woes have really come into focus lately. It's been a long time since the game really sat down and advanced any sort of story, and it's been even longer since the game offered players something new in the endgame. When Cryptic has two other games with lots of ambition and promise, Champions Online is left looking like the unwanted sibling. Part of the problem is the fact that CO currently has a skeleton crew working on it and a minimal budget. I suspect (without having hard numbers) that it's at the same sort of uneasy place as Vanguard was for a long while -- making just enough money to justify its continued operation while not making enough money for additional development staff. So with all of that in place, what can the game do to prop itself up a bit more without requiring a huge infusion of additional money? How can Champions Online get its act back together? Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: How Champions Online could get its groove back A Mild-Mannered Reporter: How Champions Online could get its groove back originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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