| Dragon's Prophet EU crowns cosplay winner at Gamescom Posted: 06 Sep 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Video, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Dragon's Prophet Back in June we reported that Infernum Productions was holding a costume contest for Dragon's Prophet EU and a special fashion show for the best at Gamescom called Dragon Cosplay Summit 2013. The game itself may still be in beta, but the players released some impressive skills to create a variety of DP themed costumes to take part in the show. In the end, only one was crowned the winner with the €2,500 worth of prizes and the ability to design a virtual costume to be added into the game -- Laura "Lightning" Jansen. Check out how these players brought virtual characters to life in the gallery below, starting off with Jansen's winning costume. Then watch highlights of the fashion show in the video after the break. [Source: Infernum productions press release] Continue reading Dragon's Prophet EU crowns cosplay winner at Gamescom  Dragon's Prophet EU crowns cosplay winner at Gamescom originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Xsyon reaches the top 100 in Steam Greenlight Posted: 06 Sep 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Culture, News Items, Xsyon, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox It's not surprising that a title as odd as Xsyon has had a hard time receiving much funding. The game has a dedicated community, but it launched a Kickstarter campaign last year that failed rather thoroughly. But the team at Notorious Games is still swinging for the fences, this time by putting together a pitch for Steam Greenlight in the hopes of getting on Valve's popular digital retail client. And as of this writing, that's going pretty well. Greenlight is Steam's process for vetting smaller games in the community, allowing new developers to submit a game and the community as a whole to vote it up or down based on whether or not they want to play it. Xsyon has made it into the top 100, ranked at #83 of over 1,000 games currently looking for approval. Players and fans who want to see the game succeed can head over to Steam and vote for the game now. Xsyon reaches the top 100 in Steam Greenlight originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Dragon Quest X expansion set for TGS 2013 reveal Posted: 06 Sep 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Events (Real-World), News Items, Consoles, Miscellaneous, MMORPG Square Enix has announced plans to reveal a brand-new Dragon Quest X expansion at Tokyo Game Show 2013. Titled The Ghost That Never Sleeps, the content addition will expand upon the main Dragon Quest X story and add new maps, systems, jobs, and crafts. This announcement follows news that a PC version of Dragon Quest X would be seeing release on September 26th and comments from Square Enix indicating that the game is edging closer to an overseas launch. Tokyo Game Show begins September 19th. Check out the trailer for the PC launch after the break. Continue reading Dragon Quest X expansion set for TGS 2013 reveal Dragon Quest X expansion set for TGS 2013 reveal originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Tamriel Infinium: The Elder Scrolls Online's stress test, Daedra, and Coldharbour Posted: 06 Sep 2013 07:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Lore, New Titles, Opinion, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, MMORPG, Tamriel Infinium Beginning this article, I'm giving a huge shout-out to everyone who read the last two Tamriel Infiniums. I know not everyone agreed with my assessment of The Elder Scrolls Online's payment model, and I appreciate that immensely. If I didn't have respectful discord and constructive disagreement, my articles -- and my writing of said articles -- would be far less interesting, and I thank all my readers who commented whether in agreement or disagreement with what I said. You help me propel and perpetuate the topics that I discuss in this column. So keep up the good work in the comments, and I will do my best to keep writing columns that interest you. This, of course, leads me to today's article. Several of you mentioned that you will have to wait to see what the game is like before making a comment on the payment model. And some of you (and many other ESO fans on Twitter) announced how excited they were to receive a beta test invite. First, congratulations! Second, read the rest of this column; I have some words for you regarding your experience in the stress test starting in just a couple of hours. Continue reading Tamriel Infinium: The Elder Scrolls Online's stress test, Daedra, and Coldharbour Tamriel Infinium: The Elder Scrolls Online's stress test, Daedra, and Coldharbour originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The first month of RuneScape 3 by the numbers Posted: 06 Sep 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, News Items, RuneScape, Free-to-Play, Browser It's been a bit more than a month since RuneScape updated to RuneScape 3 -- an overhaul of the graphics and mechanics that still retains the core of the same game. But how well has it done in that month? The team at Jagex has crunched some numbers and they look pretty favorable. Over the past 30 days, 100,000 players have reactivated old accounts, and 300,000 players have started completely new accounts to play the game. About 600,000 hours of play have been logged per day on all new, existing, and reactivated accounts, which is pretty staggering. Since the game's launch event players have killed 60 million enemy soldiers and collected 1 billion Divine Tears (remnants of a now-dead god whose death kicked off the current state of the game). While one month is too early to call success or failure, it's a sign that even the older games on the market can still have quite a lot of life in them. [Source: Jagex press release] The first month of RuneScape 3 by the numbers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Final Fantasy XIV's Yoshida sheds some light on PlayStation 4 remote play Posted: 06 Sep 2013 06:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, News Items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, Subscription If you're thinking about getting a PlayStation 4 for Final Fantasy XIV, you'll be interested to know that you aren't just shackled to playing on the console. We don't mean in the sense you could also play on your PC, either. The game will support the system's remote play functionality with the Vita, allowing you to log in and play on your handheld even when you're nowhere near the actual console. Producer Naoki Yoshida discussed the functionality with Famitsu recently, explaining that while remote play won't be appropriate for large-group endgame content, there are a variety of things that can be done just fine remotely. Gathering and crafting, for example, can be handled without much loss from the handheld device, and even low-impact questing should work out just fine. Sure, that means that you can't fight a Primal while leeching off of the Starbucks wifi, but at least you can harvest some in-game goods whilst waiting for a coffee. Final Fantasy XIV's Yoshida sheds some light on PlayStation 4 remote play originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Do you play MMOs without spending money? Posted: 06 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business Models, MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Yesterday, Massively's Beau Hindman pointed me to a Touch Arcade article that explains to readers how to spend as little real money in The Simpsons: Tapped Out as possible. I know, I know; it's not an MMO. But that urge to beat the system by playing a free-to-play game without paying a dime is one that MMO players feel more and more in an era characterized by free-to-play and hybrid MMOs. Some folks call it frugality; others call it leeching. But today, we want to know whether this is how you play free-to-play MMOs. Do you try to spend as little as possible, even turning your ability to save money into its own sort of game, or do you chip in money as thanks to developers for a game well done? Are your attempts to penny-pinch thwarted by clever but annoying monetization design? Have you ever successfully hit endgame in a free-to-play MMO without spending any real-life cash, and why?  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 play MMOs without spending money? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Sep 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Summoner's Guidebook: You're wrong about the LoL community Posted: 05 Sep 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Events (Real-World), Opinion, Free-to-Play, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook I'm finally home from PAX, and I'm exhausted. And if there's one thing everyone I talked to mentioned, it's that Riot Games was the elephant in the con. Everyone was comparing something to a similar thing Riot did, whether that was mistakes made or successes had or risks taken. League of Legends is enormous, and even as a columnist for the game, I didn't really grasp just how big it was until now. Let me paint you a story. I'm familiar with fandoms. They're not a new thing. However, when you go to a huge convention and you see that probably a quarter of the people play League of Legends, it changes your perspective. When every non-Riot developer talks about LoL, it opens your eyes to just how pervasive the game is. There was another unified thing about everyone I talked to who played LoL: All of them hated jerks. None of them were intentional trolls, and everyone loved the game and wanted to make it better. All the Riot staffers I talked to preached the same mantra: "It's all about the fans." It's clear that their attitude has paid some pretty big dividends. There's a lot of you guys, and you're all pretty awesome. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: You're wrong about the LoL community The Summoner's Guidebook: You're wrong about the LoL community originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Guild Counsel: Building a roster from the ground up Posted: 05 Sep 2013 06:00 PM PDT |
| Marvel Heroes update 1.2 gets Frosty Posted: 05 Sep 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play, Marvel Heroes Gazillion Entertainment has deployed the biggest content update yet to Marvel Heroes, bringing a collection of enhancements and tweaks to several core aspects of the game. The defense system has been completely overhauled, survivability has been re-tuned, and a new hero has joined the fray. Update 1.2 adds the Heroic and Super Heroic difficulty modes for all heroes. Players who defeat Dr. Doom or reach level 30 can access Heroic mode; Dr. Doom must be defeated in Heroic (or players must reach level 45) before Super Heroic is made available. Both modes offer new loot and enemies to match the increased difficulty. Also new to the game are relics, which offer special stat boosts to heroes as well unique items that are as powerful as they are rare. Finally, Emma Frost is now a playable character, providing new powers like mind control and Diamond Form tanking. She can be purchased individually or through a special hero pack. Marvel Heroes update 1.2 gets Frosty originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Allods Online's Everlasting Battle update is now live Posted: 05 Sep 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, Guilds, Launches, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Allods Online, Subscription, MMORPG Today's a big day in the world of Allods Online. Webzen has launched the game's Everlasting Battle expansion, and with it come huge changes for Allods players. For starters, the expansion creates a new subscription option for Allods; players can move from the item shop model to a "subscription-based" server. The sub server allows players to earn in-game items by completing quests, killing bosses, or purchasing those items with in-game gold, in lieu of buying the items via real-life cash. As for the game itself, Everlasting Battle introduces a new friends system that enables mount sharing and ability boosting, along with major overhauls to the Mage and Summoner classes. Additionally, guilds with more than four groups waiting for PvP battles will have the option of participating in a Dominion Raid, which pits up to 48 players in a battle for guild superiority. Finally, German, Polish, English, and French servers have been merged into one enormous European server. Players will be able to use the existing game client to access it. [Source: Webzen press release] Allods Online's Everlasting Battle update is now live originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| EVE's Second Decade CE ships October 24 Posted: 05 Sep 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, MMO Industry, News Items, Promotions, Sandbox, Subscription EVE Online's massive Second Decade collector's edition now has an official ship date. It's October 24th if you're curious, though CCP says that it may take a couple of days for the boxes to make their way to New Eden pilots from the Atlanta, Georgia and Nortorf, Germany distribution centers. CCP has also announced the third and final CE pre-purchase offer which takes the form of two Genolution implants. The firm has also put together a digital promo pack including all the CE pre-purchase items as well as discount voucher for the box set purchase. EVE's Second Decade CE ships October 24 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Secret World's bonus weekend features double AP, Gilded Rage event Posted: 05 Sep 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, The Secret World, Buy-to-Play If you're searching for something MMO-related to do this weekend and you're tired of the usual fantasy level grind, Funcom is putting on a promotion in The Secret World that's worth a look. First of all, the firm is offering double AP from Friday through Sunday. There's also the Gilded Rage event, which is a continuation of the year-one anniversary shenanigans that involves the hunt for a Golden Golem and plenty of "unique rewards." Gilded Rage also begins Friday but unlike double AP, it runs for a full two weeks! Finally, Funcom is offering 30% bonuses on cash shop point purchases as well as free membership months for recruiting your friends. [Source: Funcom newsletter] The Secret World's bonus weekend features double AP, Gilded Rage event originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| LotRO starts beta test for Helm's Deep, talks Burglar changes Posted: 05 Sep 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries Lord of the Rings Online has begun the closed beta test for Helm's Deep, Turbine announced on Facebook last night. "Invites have already been sent, so make sure you check your spam filters," the studio notified fans. As the expansion contains changes to all of the classes, the team released the first of many developer diaries detailing what's to come for Burglars. The diary says that the three trait lines will home in on what makes each of them unique: massive burst damage (for Quiet Knife), control and attrition (for Mischief-maker), and the element of chance (for The Gambler). Finally, Turbine is compensating VIP players for the game outage this past weekend: "For any VIP accounts that were subscribed during the outage, we will be extending the subscription by two days. Lifetime accounts will receive 250 Turbine Points." LotRO starts beta test for Helm's Deep, talks Burglar changes originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Lost Continent: On the 'failure' of ArcheAge Posted: 05 Sep 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Culture, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, ArcheAge, Sandbox, Lost Continent This week's rumored XLGAMES restructuring brought with it a predictable cascade of "fail" catcalls from pundits and commenters who never climbed on board the ArcheAge hype train to begin with. Leaving aside the fact that it was a rumor as well as the fact that post-release game teams routinely suffer staffing cuts, I have to wonder at the cocksure I-told-you-so crowing with which some folks declared ArcheAge dead well before it's even arrived on Western shores. While some starving sandbox gamers may have prematurely labeled ArcheAge as the second coming, anyone who has actually played the game or followed larger MMO industry trends could have told you that it's a niche title regardless of how much money XLGAMES gambled on its development. Continue reading Lost Continent: On the 'failure' of ArcheAge Lost Continent: On the 'failure' of ArcheAge originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Destiny celebrates its summer appearances Posted: 05 Sep 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Video, Events (Real-World), Consoles, MMOFPS, Destiny Like a well-dressed soldier ducking and weaving around enemy bullets, you can enjoy a few tantalizing seconds of Destiny if you dodge the back-patting that goes on in Bungie's summer celebration video. Destiny is hot off a string of trade show appearances, and the studio is using this opportunity to show a few glimpses of the crowds that came to see it, the awards that Destiny won, and several in-game shots of high-tech parkour. So if you're the type of person who likes to torture yourself with glimpses of something you weren't able to see in person and won't be able to play for a while to come, we've got the full video after the break! Continue reading Destiny celebrates its summer appearances Destiny celebrates its summer appearances originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| PAX Prime 2013: Breaking tables in DC Universe Online Posted: 05 Sep 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Game Mechanics, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, Consoles, First Impressions, Events (Massively's Coverage), MMORPG  During this year's PAX Prime, I was able to grab some hands-on time with the PlayStation 4 version of DC Universe Online. The demo was made up of content from the brand-new DLC, Sons of Trigon. The DLC features three new duos and an alert, whereas I feature slightly rusty DCUO skills. In fact, nearly all of my DCUO experience has been with a keyboard and mouse, so I reached for the controller with hesitation. I managed to pull slightly more confidence from a long history of PlayStation gaming and Sony's staunch refusal to change the basic layout of its controller for 19 years and counting. Continue reading PAX Prime 2013: Breaking tables in DC Universe Online PAX Prime 2013: Breaking tables in DC Universe Online originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Ask Massively: The best and worst of PAX Prime 2013 Posted: 05 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Events (Massively's Coverage), Miscellaneous PAX Prime is the last major western gaming con of the year, and we'd like to believe it's given us all something to think about as we head into a winter full of special snowflake games. Alas, PAX Prime this year seems to have left us all bewildered at best and underwhelmed at worst, at least when it comes to pure MMORPGs. Now it's time to explain why. We're going to tell you about what was for us the most surprising reveal, the most disappointing offering, and of course, the best MMO in show. The ground rules for our discussion? They're basically the same as for E3: - It had to be a game or topic we can justify covering on Massively.
- Every staff member was permitted to chime in (though not all did).
- We stuck to three big categories rather than create so many that every game could "win" something, not that these are really awards.
Roll the dice! Continue reading Ask Massively: The best and worst of PAX Prime 2013 Ask Massively: The best and worst of PAX Prime 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 05 Sep 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Professional audio quality at a not-so professional price
25 pictures of cosplayers, booth babes, and more from PAX Prime 2013
High end specs abound
Maybe PC component and mobile device prices won't rise, after all
Gamers are holding out for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4
