| One Shots: Jump! Jump! Posted: 30 Jun 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Culture, Star Wars Galaxies, Guild Wars 2, One Shots, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Miscellaneous Do you like jumping puzzles in MMOs? Then you and I can no longer be friends. I am sorry to draw the line there, but if this is the case, then there is something seriously wrong with your head. Maybe you like the small jolts of anxiety and tension as you try to hop from platform to platform, but I would rather chew on tinfoil than go through that again. Reader John will be your friend if you're a jumper, however. He's mastered one tricky hoppery-doo in Guild Wars 2 and lived to tell the tale. "This is the view from one of the high points in the Hidden Garden. It's a jumping puzzle you reach by killing one of the four keepers in Mount Maelstrom, opening a portal. I always enjoy the landscapes of this game." I enjoy the landscapes too, John. From ground-level. I wonder what other landscapes we'll be seeing in this week's collection of player-submitted screenshots? Continue reading One Shots: Jump! Jump!  One Shots: Jump! Jump! originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Stick and Rudder: The best bits of Star Citizen's 24-hour livestream Posted: 30 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Trailers, Video, Business Models, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, PvE, Opinion, Events (Massively's Coverage), Livestream, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Stick and Rudder, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play There are livestreams, and then there are livestreams, and Star Citizen's 24-hour marathon that concluded yesterday was a prime example of the latter. The event was crammed full of developer roundtables, celebrity cameos, and enough internet spaceship shenanigans to keep me watching for far longer than I originally intended. Cloud Imperium revealed several new spacecraft, along with additional stretch goals that blew my mind, plenty of slickly produced videos, concept art, and more. Continue reading Stick and Rudder: The best bits of Star Citizen's 24-hour livestream Stick and Rudder: The best bits of Star Citizen's 24-hour livestream originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Do sports MMOs matter to you? Posted: 30 Jun 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous For the longest time, whenever you'd hear the word "MMO," you'd have to mentally add "RPG" at the end. The two were inseparable, making up most of the games that we here at Massively cover. But now we're facing an evolving genre that includes MMOFPS and MMORTS titles as well as many others. There's always been one MMO genre that hasn't gotten a lot of coverage or general enthusiasm from the wider MMO playerbase, and that's the sports MMO. I know its out there. I've heard whispers and rumors of its legend. There's even solid evidence of its existence, as we just heard of the development of a new racing MMO called The Crew. I'm guessing that in addition to racing games, there are baseball, soccer, and even golf MMOs. They're just not within my sphere of interest. But what about you? Do sports MMOs matter to you? Do you follow or play any of them?  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 sports MMOs matter to you? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| TERA's Corsair Stronghold patch now available for preloading Posted: 29 Jun 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, TERA TERA's new Corsairs' Stronghold battleground won't be playable until July 1st, but it's coming in the midst of such a massive patch that En Masse is making it available for you to preload. There's five gigabytes worth of stuff to install, too, so the sooner the better. The update post notes that the patch will not preload while you play, so you'll need to leave the launcher open for a bit. [Thanks Dengar!] TERA's Corsair Stronghold patch now available for preloading originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wings Over Atreia: Initial impressions of Aion 4.0 Posted: 29 Jun 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Aion, Classes, Expansions, News Items, Opinion, Free-to-Play, First Impressions, Wings Over Atreia After a bit of a rocky start (though an extended patch beats hours of waiting in a queue any day!), Aion's next big expansion finally made it out of the starting gates. And boy, did it hit the ground running! If you tried to make a new character, be it one of the new classes or not, you were tripping over new Daevas-to-be on the regular server and dealing with wait times to get on the very full Fast Track server. I, myself, made a new Asmodian Songweaver. Sadly, contrary to previous expansion launches, the new publish date for Wings Over Atreia did not leave me with nearly enough time to really wade into all the new content. There's simply so much I was barely able to dip my toes in! So diving even deeper into Dark Betrayal will have to wait until next time; for now, I'll just share my initial impressions gleaned from my first glimpses of 4.0. Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: Initial impressions of Aion 4.0 Wings Over Atreia: Initial impressions of Aion 4.0 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Darkfall adds shipbuilding mastery, warships, harbors, and more Posted: 29 Jun 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, Sandbox, Crafting Yesterday's Darkfall patch added some noteworthy new content to Agon. First up is a new crafting skill called Shipbuilding Mastery, which requires Shipbuilding 100 and Prowess 10.000. The mastery skill is a prerequisite for the game's new warships, which -- you guessed it -- also debuted in yesterday's patch. Aventurine has added a Coastal Runner, which is the fastest ship in the game. It's a good thing it's so quick, too, because it has no cannons. There's also the Pinnace, a warship featuring three cannons. Harbors and shipyards are also available to build in clan holdings as of the patch. There's more, including plenty of gameplay tweaks and general fixes. The Darkfall forums has a listing of the full patch notes. [Thanks Dengar!] Darkfall adds shipbuilding mastery, warships, harbors, and more originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 16 - 29, 2013 Posted: 29 Jun 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business Models, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, Crowdfunding, Make My MMO Go ahead -- make my MMO. And here you thought this phrase only worked when interrupting a robbery! What was a unique phenomenon in the not-too-distant past has become an increasingly popular trend: crowdfunding new MMOs. Whether they're using the Kickstarter funding platform or another, more and more developers are turning to the public instead of publishers to take their designs from the drawing board and into reality. In fact, sometimes it feels like there are just too many to keep up with! Besides the new campaigns that seem to be popping up like dandelions, there are the successfully funded games to keep an eye on. So here's what we're going to do for you: We'll make it easier for you to keep tabs on both the new campaigns hitting the crowdfunding scene and the progress of those MMOs that already made their goal and have moved on in their development journeys (but haven't made beta yet). Join us past the break for the inaugural Make My MMO, a biweekly accounting of all MMOs crowdfunded. Have you heard about new campaigns that aren't listed? Send us a note and let us know! Continue reading Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 16 - 29, 2013 Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 16 - 29, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's buffet effect Posted: 29 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log A little under a year ago, I wrote a column about how Final Fantasy XIV needs to generate a wow factor. It needs to surprise people, have something unique and special to offer. There was a lot of stuff that felt distressingly rote, and that wasn't good. So what's changed since then? Well... not a huge amount, honestly. There are several features in the beta that feel like rehashes of things we've seen in other games, like FATEs and quests and instanced dungeons and so forth. Yet the game is clearly generating a wow factor, something that I'm happy about. This week, I want to throw that previous article out completely. Just kick it to the curb. As I've been playing the beta weekends and seeing what the game has to offer, I've realized that there was something I was completely failing to embrace and consider. It's the power of the buffet. Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's buffet effect The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's buffet effect originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| SWTOR adding killer Ewok companion in 2.3 Posted: 29 Jun 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic Ewoks may no longer be number one on the list of George Lucas' crimes against humanity -- we'll give that joint honor to Jar Jar Binks and Howard the Duck -- but they're still pretty polarizing amongst fans of a galaxy far, far away. Naturally, then, BioWare has decided to add a new Ewok combat companion to Star Wars: The Old Republic as part of the forthcoming 2.3 patch. Dulfy.net reports that you'll need to have a level 40 legacy and a million credits to unlock the cuddly little booboo, who also happens to use heavy armor and boasts a heal and tank stance. Dulfy includes plenty of stats and spoilerific cutscene video in the preview article, so click through at your own risk! [Thanks Dengar!] SWTOR adding killer Ewok companion in 2.3 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Texas teen still in jail after February League of Legends argument Posted: 29 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Legal, MOBA, League of Legends  Texas teen Justin Carter has been in jail since March 27th due to comments he made on Facebook that stemmed from a February confrontation with another user in League of Legends. Carter, 18, reportedly posted "oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still beating hearts." According to his father, his next two lines of text were "lol" and "JK." After a Canadian woman saw the Facebook post and called the police, Justin Carter was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat, Gamespot reports. Carter faces up to eight years in prison. Family and friends have started an online petition asking for his release as well as adjustments to anti-terrorism legislation. Texas teen still in jail after February League of Legends argument originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 29 Jun 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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