MMO Updates

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• Flameseeker Chronicles: Taking Guild Wars 2 job specialization to a new level
• The Soapbox: Launching with a subscription is still a good idea
• First RuneScape poll invites players to choose big update
• Massively Speaking Episode 280: Alpha is the new beta
• Exclusive preview of Guild Wars 2's Origin of Madness release
• The Daily Grind: How patient are you with explanations?
• Not So Massively: LoL team cheated out of winnings, SMITE's $100,000 tournament, and Star Citizen on plotting jump points
• Chaos Theory: The best of The Secret World in 2013
• The Stream Team: Perfecting mechanics in Dota 2
• SWTOR's rakghoul event starting... soonish?
• Lord of the Rings Online renews license through 2017
• The Stream Team: Solving the puzzle that is Myst Online: Uru Live
• Brad McQuaid's Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen launches Kickstarter campaign
• Captain's Log: Investigating Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 revamped missions
• The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's great big sexist elephant in the room

Flameseeker Chronicles: Taking Guild Wars 2 job specialization to a new level Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles, Buy-to-Play Have you been missing something in Guild Wars 2? Do you wish your character had a way to unlock new abilities that was more involved than spending a handful of skill points? Did you ever dream of subclasses? If you've wanted any of that -- or, conversely, if you haven't -- it might interest you to check out the progress of the horizontal progression collaborative development initiative thread on the GW2 official forums. Colin Johanson and Chris Whiteside have both been involved, giving feedback on everything from reward systems to ways in which subclasses might be unlocked and helping direct the discussion. If ArenaNet were to implement anything similar to what's being proposed, it would mean a massive shakeup in how GW2 plays, so let's break down how it could be implemented and why it might be useful for enhancing character progression. Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Taking Guild Wars 2 job specialization to a new level Flameseeker Chronicles: Taking Guild Wars 2 job specialization to a new level originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Soapbox: Launching with a subscription is still a good idea Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Business Models, Launches, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Massively Meta, The Soapbox, Subscription, Buy-to-Play The massively multiplayer online game industry is constantly changing, but one thing about it never will so long as capitalism stands: MMOs have ongoing costs, and those costs are passed on to the end user. Exactly how they're passed on is one of the things that has been changing, but new methods don't mean old methods don't have their place. New isn't good because it's new. New is good because it can provide solutions to old problems. When an old method is seen as the source of a problem actually caused by something unrelated, shoving a new method in there can just create new problems. So why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over games trying out a subscription before they move onto other models? And why all the wailing and gnashing of teeth in retaliation to this opinion? Continue reading The Soapbox: Launching with a subscription is still a good idea The Soapbox: Launching with a subscription is still a good idea originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

First RuneScape poll invites players to choose big update Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Polls, MMO Industry, News Items, RuneScape, Free-to-Play In a move to ensure that RuneScape's continued direction is shaped at a grassroots level by its players, Jagex has introduced an in-game polling system and launched the first question: Invention skill vs. Elf City -- which do you want first? If you have a preference as to which content releases first, you have until January 31st to log in and vote. The series of polls -- part of the company's Power to the Players strategy for this next year -- will involve monthly Dragonstone questions on major topics like the one presented as well as more frequent Diamond and Ruby polls, which focus on mid- to low-tier topics like what dragon to add to the game and themes of holiday festivals. [Source: Jagex press release] First RuneScape poll invites players to choose big update originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively Speaking Episode 280: Alpha is the new beta Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous In this week's riotous podcast, Bree and Justin give each other the silent treatment. Yup, it's 65 minutes of pure cold, stony silence that will make you feel so uncomfortable that you yourself will end up babbling just to hear someone talk. Naw, we actually have a lot to talk about, including what's coming in 2014 for many of your favorite MMOs and studios. What, you thought we could actually shut up? Never! Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes. Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 280: Alpha is the new beta Massively Speaking Episode 280: Alpha is the new beta originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Exclusive preview of Guild Wars 2's Origin of Madness release Posted: 14 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Interviews, Patches, Previews, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play The end is near! After a brief period of peace and quiet, Guild Wars 2's update cadence will begin again, and ArenaNet has no plans to ease Tyria gently back into the groove. Next week brings the first of four releases, which will culminate in the end of GW2's Scarlet Briar story arc. Massively was invited to sit down with Colin Johanson and Meelad Sedat to discuss the teaser trailer for the upcoming release, Origin of Madness. While we can't reveal too many of the secrets we've learned about Tyria's future (we wouldn't want to spoil any big surprises), we're pleased to bring you an exclusive peek at some of the content you'll find in the January 21st release. Read on to check it out! Continue reading Exclusive preview of Guild Wars 2's Origin of Madness release Exclusive preview of Guild Wars 2's Origin of Madness release originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: How patient are you with explanations? Posted: 14 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Game Mechanics, Endgame, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Dungeons I run a lot of random dungeons in Final Fantasy XIV. It's not uncommon to wind up grouped with someone who hasn't seen one of the newer dungeons, or even someone who just happened to forget the mechanics in a lower-level fight. That's fine, and I have no problem explaining the fight in detail to people. What gets my goat is trying to re-explain as someone either ignores the directions or does exactly the opposite time and again. Some people are far more patient than I am. I've watched players explain the same mechanics a dozen times without ever showing signs of irritation. And of course, there are people far less patient than I -- people who explain the fight only once in mangled shorthand or even outright refuse to explain anything. So what about you, dear reader? How patient are you with explanations about fights, areas, mechanics, or anything else in your game of choice? 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: How patient are you with explanations? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 14 Jan 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Not So Massively: LoL team cheated out of winnings, SMITE's $100,000 tournament, and Star Citizen on plotting jump points Posted: 13 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Business Models, Events (Real-World), Expansions, Patches, PvP, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Legal, Dev Diaries, Not So Massively, Sandbox, MOBA, League of Legends, Diablo III, Player-Generated Content, Star Citizen, Elite: Dangerous, Path of Exile Members of competitive League of Legends team Absolute Legends revealed this week that they still haven't seen a penny of the combined $11,500 in winnings from November 2012's IEM Singapore tournament. Absolute Legends CEO Tim "WetDreaM" Buysse has been accused of holding onto all of the prize money despite his contracts with players entitling him to only a small cut. Dota 2's unique monthly player total broke the 7,000,000 mark this week, and new stats suggest that almost 10% of those logged into Steam may be playing the game. And SMITE announced details of its $100,000 launch tournament, which will see four of North America's best teams take on Europe's finest four at the end of March. Chris Roberts answered more fan questions on Star Citizen this week, revealing further details on exploration and mapping space and confirming that plotting a new jump point will be a very risky business. In a new interview on Elite: Dangerous, David Braben outlined the massive scope of the game's upcoming online features, which will include huge conflicts between NPC factions that players can influence. Blizzard announced that it's aiming to release the pre-download for Diablo III's upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion by the end of January and confirmed that vendor-sold items will no longer be salvageable in the next expansion beta patch. Finally, Path of Exile kicked off race season six this week with some fantastic prizes and revealed that PvP tournaments may be coming in Patch 1.0.6. Continue reading Not So Massively: LoL team cheated out of winnings, SMITE's $100,000 tournament, and Star Citizen on plotting jump points Not So Massively: LoL team cheated out of winnings, SMITE's $100,000 tournament, and Star Citizen on plotting jump points originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Chaos Theory: The best of The Secret World in 2013 Posted: 13 Jan 2014 04:30 PM PST Filed under: Horror, Real-Life, Opinion, The Secret World, Chaos Theory, Buy-to-Play When December wrapped up, so too did The Secret World's first full calendar year, having debuted the summer prior. Coincidentally, the timing also marked the first year of the buy-to-play business model; the game transitioned in December 2012. Looking back over those 12 months, I wonder what can be said of the horror-themed MMO. Certainly updates and new content didn't come as quickly as players would have preferred (what game can ever deliver that?!), but there was still plenty of activity during that time. We're going to delve into highlights of TSW's year that started with awarding all players a coveted pet to counter an exploit discovered during the 2012 holiday event and ended with Hel on earth. Continue reading Chaos Theory: The best of The Secret World in 2013 Chaos Theory: The best of The Secret World in 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: Perfecting mechanics in Dota 2 Posted: 13 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, PvP, Free-to-Play, Massively Meta, Hands-On, Livestream, MOBA, The Stream Team Dota 2 is a MOBA of immense depth. Just when you think you understand it, you discover something entirely new that dramatically alters the way you approach the game. Outside of the raw strategy element, there are numerous mechanical things to learn. Last-hitting, denying, creep stacking, and positioning are all critical, fundamental components to Dota 2's gameplay. Tonight, Massively's Mike Foster is playing a mechanics-focused match in which he'll practice those basic skills that all Dota 2 players must know to ensure the success of their team. The action begins at 7:00 p.m. EST. Game: Dota 2 Host: Mike Foster Date: Monday, January 13th, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Perfecting mechanics in Dota 2 The Stream Team: Perfecting mechanics in Dota 2 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

SWTOR's rakghoul event starting... soonish? Posted: 13 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Events (In-Game), MMO Industry, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic Do you like space werewolves? Do you like Star Wars? If you answered yes to both of those questions, may I recommend some Dark Horse comics and an old BioWare RPG called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. You've probably heard of it. If not, surely you've heard of its distant MMO cousin Star Wars: The Old Republic. The latter also features space werewolves rakghouls, and according to a brief community team blurb on the SWTOR forums, the title's recurring rakghoul event is coming soon. BioWare's Courtney Woods wrote earlier this morning that "strange animal attacks have been reported by soldiers serving on Alderaan. An investigation is currently underway." There are a couple of other in-character postings in this thread, but there's no firm date for the event just yet. SWTOR's rakghoul event starting... soonish? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments SWTOR forums

Lord of the Rings Online renews license through 2017 Posted: 13 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO Industry, Free-to-Play Turbine has secured the license for Lord of the Rings Online -- for a few more years, at least. Community Manager Rick Heaton confirmed the license renewal on the official forums today: "I just wanted to drop in and address the concerns surrounding the license, again. We have said as far back as July of 2013, we plan to support LotRO for many years to come. I really want to be as clear as possible on this subject to avoid any further confusion or misunderstanding. The license was renewed." For more on the issue of LotRO and the license to Tolkien's works, you can check out last year's Road to Mordor column on the subject. Lord of the Rings Online renews license through 2017 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: LotRO forumsContains Moderate Peril

The Stream Team: Solving the puzzle that is Myst Online: Uru Live Posted: 13 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, Free-to-Play, Casual, Roleplaying, Livestream, Miscellaneous, The Stream Team Myst Online: Uru Live has been through the ringer, as far as MMOs go. Despite being based on a very successful line of standalone adventure games, this MMO version just seemed to fall flat. Luckily the community and the developers agreed the game should be resurrected! Join Massively's Beau Hindman as he explores the mystery of this puzzle-based MMO. Game: Myst Online: Uru Live Host: Beau Hindman Date: Monday, January 13th, 2014 Time: 4:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Solving the puzzle that is Myst Online: Uru Live The Stream Team: Solving the puzzle that is Myst Online: Uru Live originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Brad McQuaid's Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen launches Kickstarter campaign Posted: 13 Jan 2014 12:30 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New Titles, Crowdfunding, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Ready, set, go: One of the industry's most notorious developers has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $800,000 or more for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. Visionary Realms head Brad McQuaid's super-secret project is labeled as "a group-focused MMORPG based on challenging gameplay and open world high fantasy." Pantheon takes place in a world where both gods and heroes roam and where players will be on a quest to reclaim their lost glory and power. According to the feature list, Pantheon will have a heavy social focus, an open and non-linear world, the ability to customize your class by "bonding with the spirits of fallen warriors," action combat, an emphasis on travel instead of instant ports, exploration as part of character development, and "designed downtime" as part of the game experience. While McQuaid is asking for $800,000 to add more employees and fund development of the game, his stretch goals continue to the $6.7 million mark. Will you help pony up the $3.2 million needed for a Bard class? Brad McQuaid's Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen launches Kickstarter campaign originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Kickstarter

Captain's Log: Investigating Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 revamped missions Posted: 13 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Patches, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play, Hands-On, First Impressions, Captain's Log It's not very often that the devs at Star Trek Online manages to completely surprise the playerbase with something unanticipated. This week Star Trek Online Community Manager Brandon Felczer posted a list of patch notes for the Tribble test server as well as a new screenshot for the Friday gallery, stating that the screenshot was from the upcoming "Season 8.5" patch. The patch notes contained a lot of changes that none of us was truly expecting, most of which (but not all, of course) are being generally well-received. The biggest shock is that the patch will include the first new PvP arena in years. Also included in the notes was the announcement that the devs have been busy revamping several of the low-level Starfleet missions to improve their look as well as their pacing. I've had the opportunity to jump on the Tribble test server to check out some of the revamped missions. Of the 12 missions on the list, I've played four: Stranded in Space, Kuvah'Magh, Researcher Rescue, and The Ultimate Klingon. Many of the screenshots are from the updated missions, so beware -- there be spoilers ahead! Continue reading Captain's Log: Investigating Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 revamped missions Captain's Log: Investigating Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 revamped missions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's great big sexist elephant in the room Posted: 13 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Culture, Opinion, Races, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph, Subscription, Buy-to-Play There's a subtle problem in WildStar that we've all seen lurking around the edges. It's not huge, and it's not glaring, but it's there, and it's pretty obvious. It's the elephant in the room, and much like the traditional elephant, it's something absolutely no one wants to actually point out because it is not fun to point out. But it's pretty obvious as soon as you look at the races that the male Mechari are built like linebackers and the female Mechari are wasp-waisted blowup dolls in a permanent pair of heels. I've been a fan of WildStar since its first teaser trailer, and while I'd hoped for detailed character customization, the beta came without any body sliders or any other options for customizing a character's build. And while the Mechari are easy to cite as problematic (mostly because none of the other women has high heels as part of her feet), this sort of subtle and passive sexism weaves its way into the game on a consistent basis. Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's great big sexist elephant in the room The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's great big sexist elephant in the room originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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