| The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review Posted: 30 Dec 2013 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Culture, Opinion, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph, Subscription, Buy-to-Play I started this column early in December of 2012, which means that as of now I've been writing about WildStar once a week for a little over a year. It's also nearly the end of the year, which makes it an ideal time to write about the changes that we've seen to the game over the past year. So I'm just going to go ahead and ignore the slight discrepancy and use this column for both year-in-review elements. Obviously it's not exactly possible to look back at the changes to the game over the past year, since we're talking about a game still in the midst of its testing cycle. But we started the year without even knowing about one of the game's factions beyond a vague mention, much less the game's lore and classes. So let's look back at the last year of news and the last year of columns in their entirety. Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review  The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014 Posted: 30 Dec 2013 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Polls, MMO Industry, Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, The Stream Team Happy Newb Year, my friends! It's that time again, when a new year rolls around and all our thoughts turn to one thing. Forget resolutions, our minds are on the new MMOs that are slated for this year! A new year promises us new games to play, and who isn't looking forward to becoming a newb again? Even better, The Stream Team can help whet your appetite for these new titles by showing off advanced footage on Massively TV (like a certain closed beta that will be featured this week). Of course, there are also plenty of other shows starring your old-but-not-forgotten favorites, so check the schedule and then tell us which games you are most looking forward to playing in 2014. Continue reading The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014 The Stream Team: Happy Newb Year edition, December 30, 2013 - January 5, 2014 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Do you consume all available leveling content? Posted: 30 Dec 2013 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, The Daily Grind I've been dabbling in Lord of the Rings Online again lately, and much to my surprise, I've managed to go from level 58 to level 71 in fairly short order doing nothing but the now-soloable epic quest line. On one hand this is fantastic because I dislike themepark level grinds and am only playing the game again in order to get my character "home" to Rohan. On the other hand, I feel a little bit guilty about speed-rushing through Eregion, Enedwaith, Dunland, etc., because the devs have filled these and other post-Moria areas with what appears to be a lot of quest content. In fact, I think I'm pretty much talking myself into slowing down and enjoying more of the Tolkien-flavored locales and quest text, since that stuff is really the only reason to play LotRO at all. What about you, Massively readers? Do you take the time to consume all of the available leveling content, or do you save some for alts or otherwise power on through?  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 consume all available leveling content? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Dec 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013 Posted: 29 Dec 2013 05:00 PM PST 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. The holidays are quiet as MMO studios have emptied out in favor of egg nog and family and snowglobes filled with dancing quaggan. Fortunately, that makes this a great time to recap the year's drama for the genre and the industry. To celebrate the end of 2013, Massively posted its annual awards and explained the controversial bits, selected the top 10 MMO stories of the last 12 months, and made predictions for the new year. Stay tuned this week as we toast the top indie MMOs and highlight the MMOs you should be anticipating in 2014. Read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013 MMO Week in Review: The end of 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1 Posted: 29 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall, EVE Online, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, PvP, Endgame, Opinion, Ultima Online, Shadowbane, Mortal Online, EVE Evolved, Perpetuum, Sandbox, Player-Generated Content, Subscription When I'm not playing or writing about EVE Online, I can usually be found huddled over my computer typing lines of code into a compiler and chipping away at bugs that make varying degrees of sense. Designing my own hardcore space game is a really fun challenge and very fulfilling work, but I have a dirty little game dev secret: I've actually always wanted to make a fantasy game. While the budget and personnel required to take on a project the scale of an MMO remain quite far outside my grasp for the moment, it's still fun to think about how I might design such a game if the opportunity arose. The MMO genre seems to be heading for a sandbox revolution this year, and there's no bigger sandbox than EVE Online, but could all of EVE's gameplay translate to a fantasy game? EVE is probably the most atypical MMO out there, maintaining a subscription-based single-shard PvP sandbox in a genre that's typically headed in the exact opposite direction. There are several new sci-fi sandboxes on the way that may or may not qualify as massively multiplayer titles, but the vast majority of MMO gamers still prefer to keep their feet on the ground in fantasy lands. I often find myself wondering how much of EVE Online's core gameplay is possible only because of its setting -- and how much could actually be applied to a fantasy MMO. Not only should it be possible to adapt most of what makes EVE great to a modern land-based game, but many of the mechanics sandbox gamers now attribute almost solely to EVE actually started life in classic fantasy MMOs like Ultima Online. In this week's unusual EVE Evolved, I'd like to start a game design thought experiment as I delve into the hypothetical world of EVE Onland. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1 EVE Evolved: Designing EVE Onland, part 1 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories Posted: 29 Dec 2013 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Stick and Rudder, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play What say we recap 2013 from a Star Citizen-focused perspective? It was a huge year for Cloud Imperium's space sim sandbox, and no, I'm not just talking about the ever-increasing crowdfund windfall. Continue reading Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories Stick and Rudder: 2013's essential Star Citizen stories originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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