MMO Updates

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• Massively Rewind: LotRO's cold comfort, Guild Wars 2's upcoming update, and ArcheAge's alpha
• SOE hiring language-specific Community Reps for EQN Landmark
• Some Assembly Required: Pre-NGE SWG's proper sandbox PvP
• The Soapbox: Enough with selling alpha tests already!
• The Daily Grind: Do you heed or even read Steam MMO reviews?
• The Stream Team: Fighting the Filth in The Secret World
• Defiance chat upgrades coming with February DLC
• The Summoner's Guidebook: Wards win League of Legends
• The Guild Counsel: There are no bad players, only bad guild matches
• The Repopulation aiming to fill the MMO non-combat void
• Star Trek Online updates Klingon War episodes
• Alter Ego: Issue #6 - Gargoyles' Gaze
• Hearthstone promises fewer card changes in open beta
• World of Warcraft introduces Iron Skyreaver mount
• Brad McQuaid explains more of his design goals for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
• Armories arrive in DC Universe Online
• The Think Tank: What change do you fear in the future of MMOs?

Massively Rewind: LotRO's cold comfort, Guild Wars 2's upcoming update, and ArcheAge's alpha Posted: 17 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, MMO Industry, News Items, Opinion, Massively Meta, Humor, Miscellaneous, MMORPG, Massively Rewind Each week, Massively Rewind gives you another reason to enjoy Friday as we recap the top stories in the MMO world. If you missed last week's inaugural episode, there's no need to cry in your coffee; we live in an age when everything can be viewed on demand. Isn't that convenient? This week, we discuss the good and bad news for Lord of the Rings Online fans, the next content patch for Guild Wars 2, and the Friends & Family testing for ArcheAge. We also poke some fun at Brad McQuaid's new kickstarter project and Quantum Mechanix's Firefly Online. Continue reading Massively Rewind: LotRO's cold comfort, Guild Wars 2's upcoming update, and ArcheAge's alpha Massively Rewind: LotRO's cold comfort, Guild Wars 2's upcoming update, and ArcheAge's alpha originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Jan 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

SOE hiring language-specific Community Reps for EQN Landmark Posted: 17 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, EverQuest Next, Sandbox If you've got a passion for EverQuest Next Landmark and you are a native speaker of French, German, or Castilian Spanish, then SOE has a job opportunity for you. The Community Management Department, headed by Linda "Brasse" Carlson, is seeking Community Representatives for each of these languages to work on the upcoming sandbox. The positions are part-time and you work from home (so no need to relocate to San Diego!). If interested, send cover letter and resume to lmcalson@soe.sony.com. Good luck to all who apply! SOE hiring language-specific Community Reps for EQN Landmark originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Jan 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SOE seeking Community Reps for EQNL, Native speaker job op

Some Assembly Required: Pre-NGE SWG's proper sandbox PvP Posted: 17 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox A few weeks ago I ranted at indie sandbox devs who continue pumping out poorly conceived FFA PvP games. I didn't have any wordcount left at the end of that novella to propose any solutions, so I'm going to do that today. And hey, it's pretty simple, at least conceptually. All a dev team needs to do is iterate on Star Wars: Galaxies' pre-NGE PvP system. Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Pre-NGE SWG's proper sandbox PvP Some Assembly Required: Pre-NGE SWG's proper sandbox PvP originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Jan 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Soapbox: Enough with selling alpha tests already! Posted: 17 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Business Models, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous, Crowdfunding The dam has burst, restraint has been cast off, and caution has been thrown to the wind. Seemingly overnight, game studios all over the place have thrown the doors open to the general public to get in on alpha testing, usually as a reward for loyalty and financing. Steam has an entire Early Access section that's dominating the sales charts, offering players a chance to hop right into an anticipated game while it's still in the middle of development. Kickstarter games routinely offer alpha and beta access to their financers as part of their reward structure. Trove, Elite: Dangerous, Shroud of the Avatar, Star Citizen, and EverQuest Next Landmark are among the vanguard of upcoming MMOs that have promised alpha or early access to players willing to shell out a few bucks right now. It's not enough to covet and chase after a beta key these days; all of the cool kids are in the alpha, apparently. The willingness of developers to wield alpha access as a reward and the enthusiastic acceptance by gamers to literally buy into it has me very concerned that this could poison the industry, the community, and the future of our games. Continue reading The Soapbox: Enough with selling alpha tests already! The Soapbox: Enough with selling alpha tests already! originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Jan 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Do you heed or even read Steam MMO reviews? Posted: 17 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, Massively Meta, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous As more and more MMOs come to Steam, where user reviews were implemented just a few short months ago, the subject of reviewing MMOs seems relevant once again. 2012's RaiderZ, for example, just launched this week on Steam, and before the first day was even done, the action-MMO had collected 80 reviews, most negative, to go along with its 64/100 metascore. We've talked before about the specific difficulties of reviewing and assigning numerical scores to MMOs, but that doesn't seem to stop gamers from posting (and presumably, reading and heeding) these abbreviated and often nonspecific opinions. Or does it? Do you read Steam reviews, and if so, do you find they influence your buying and trying decisions, especially when it comes to MMOs? 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 heed or even read Steam MMO reviews? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Jan 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Stream Team: Fighting the Filth in The Secret World Posted: 16 Jan 2014 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Horror, Real-Life, Video, The Secret World, Livestream, The Stream Team, Buy-to-Play It truly is filthy in The Secret World! Massively's MJ and her cleaning crew couldn't keep up with scrubbing out the Filth in last week's lair and it washed over them in a mighty painful way! But that doesn't mean that the dirt wins. No, she's heading back to conquer the sludge -- if not in the lair with friends, than somewhere on Solomon Island or Agartha. Join us live at 9:00 p.m. to cheer on (or be a part of!) the cleaning crew. Game: The Secret World Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Thursday, January 16th, 2014 Time: 9:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Fighting the Filth in The Secret World The Stream Team: Fighting the Filth in The Secret World originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Defiance chat upgrades coming with February DLC Posted: 16 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, Defiance, Buy-to-Play Trion's latest Defiance dev blog talks up changes to the sci-fi shooter's chat interface. Creative lead Trick Dempsey says that "one of the most frequent requests" from players since the game's launch has been chat improvements, and Trion's in an obliging mood. In a nutshell, the UI is simpler and "free of the commands/emotes/etc., that bloated the viewport in the previous iteration." When can you get your virtual hands on this fine new chat system? Sometime in February, Dempsey writes. Keep your eyes peeled for the 7th Legion DLC which will feature the chat improvements and "even more steps to improve quality and ease-of-use for Defiance." Defiance chat upgrades coming with February DLC originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev blog

The Summoner's Guidebook: Wards win League of Legends Posted: 16 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook A lot of you have noticed that I've been talking a lot about wards over the past several months. This is for a good reason: Wards win League of Legends! I think that every one of my past wins on Summoner's Rift has been either due to wards or a complete blowout laning phase. Of those two things, there's one you have almost zero control over, even as a jungler. You can outlane the person you're against, but there's no telling when your opponent is just better than you. If you're a jungler, sometimes the enemy lanes don't give you any openings or your lanes just throw kills away to the enemy jungler. No matter how good you are, someone can always be better than you -- or your allies can be horrible. However, in Season 4, if you place down a ward, in probably 90% of circumstances you're getting vision for the full duration of the ward. No matter how good the enemy team is, if it moves through that area, you get intel. If it doesn't, you also get intel. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Wards win League of Legends The Summoner's Guidebook: Wards win League of Legends originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Guild Counsel: There are no bad players, only bad guild matches Posted: 16 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous If you had to pinpoint the source of what causes most guild drama, it almost always comes down to the guild's screening process. We've certainly looked at recruiting before and how important it is to create a system that effectively matches up your guild with like-minded players, but all too often, when there is a problem with a new member, the frustration boils over and the finger pointing begins. Is it the player's fault for being a bad seed, or the guild's fault for poor management and vision? Guild leaders and players often hold long-standing resentment, and you can see it in the comments section here at Massively as well, but it's time for a change. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at why even the "worst" player has a good guild match out there and why popular thinking needs to change when it comes to judging who is "bad" and who is "good." Continue reading The Guild Counsel: There are no bad players, only bad guild matches The Guild Counsel: There are no bad players, only bad guild matches originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Repopulation aiming to fill the MMO non-combat void Posted: 16 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, PvE, Sandbox, The Repopulation The Repopulation dev team took to Reddit yesterday to field a bunch of questions relating to the upcoming sci-fi title. While many of the queries came from people who are newly aware of the game, it still made for an interesting discussion if you like MMO sandboxes. Above & Beyond was pretty open about the fact that it's modeling parts of The Repopulation after Star Wars: Galaxies, particularly the latter game's friendliness toward crafters and other non-combat types. "If you aren't a combat person, you can make your living in trade skills. Advancing in trade skills is independent of combat and does not force you into a combat role. We have a complex trade skill system which allows for a high degree of customization by mixing and matching components. It also has a high degree of interdependency on others, which we feel is going to drive the economy," the team explained. Also worth noting is the fact that The Repopulation won't "have caps to the number or mastery of skills, so you can invest in each skill line how you see fit." The Repopulation aiming to fill the MMO non-combat void originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Reddit

Star Trek Online updates Klingon War episodes Posted: 16 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Patches, Previews, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries As we heard yesterday, part of Star Trek Online's Season 8.5 will be devoted to revamping a dozen early episodes from the game in order to bring them up to par with later efforts. Cryptic Designer Jesse Heinig wrote a dev blog explaining what these changes will entail for the Federation's Klingon War story arc. "Rather than turn one or two more episodes into feature episodes, though, we've chosen to go through and make noticeable improvements on all of them," Heinig explained. "The stories remain the same and much of the gameplay is still there, but we've tweaked the missions to be faster, more dynamic, and more visually interesting." The revamped episodes will take advantage of better encounter pacing, removal of unneeded encounters, accomodation for player ships with cloaks, additional art and environments, cleaned-up dialogue, career-specific options and rewards, and fly-out messages from NPCs to enhance storytelling. Star Trek Online updates Klingon War episodes originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev diary

Alter Ego: Issue #6 - Gargoyles' Gaze Posted: 16 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Screenshots, MMO Industry, PvE, Free-to-Play, Comics, Roleplaying, DC Universe Online, Alter-Ego Last time in Massively's DC Universe Online comic, Batman tasked Kid Critical with finding out what Bane's thugs are doing in Gotham City's East End. As it turns out, the enforcers are offloading crates of the masked madman's venom at the Cape Carmine docks. Can The Kid stop them before Bane's strength-boosting street drug makes its way through Gotham's criminal underworld? Find out in Alter Ego: Issue #6 - Gargoyles' Gaze, after the break! Continue reading Alter Ego: Issue #6 - Gargoyles' Gaze Alter Ego: Issue #6 - Gargoyles' Gaze originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hearthstone promises fewer card changes in open beta Posted: 16 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Trading Card Games, Family, Dev Diaries, Hearthstone All CCG and TCG players fear "the big nerf" that will change a beloved card, and in turn, an entire deck. However, such changes and tweaks are part of any card game, and in a blog post today, Lead Designer Eric Dodds explained the team's philosophy behind keeping Hearthstone balanced. Dodds said that such changes need to be made when cards cause non-interactive games, are frustrating to play against, are causing confusion, aren't intuitive enough, are too strong compared to other cards with a similar cost, or are too weak. "Hearthstone is at its most fun when you're solving an interesting puzzle each turn," he wrote. "Your opponent's minions, your minions, and the cards in your hand are all pieces to this puzzle, and when your opponent removes parts of the puzzle, it can be less fun to play." Even with these reasons, Dodds promised that the team plans to make "very few card changes" when Hearthstone goes into open beta. "Giving you confidence in your cards and the play environment is very important to us, and each card change we make potentially undermines that confidence," he said. Hearthstone promises fewer card changes in open beta originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Card balance philosophy

World of Warcraft introduces Iron Skyreaver mount Posted: 16 Jan 2014 11:30 AM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, News Items, Subscription Have you ever wanted to fly around on a two-headed dragon with freaking jet turbines strapped to it? If so, you're scaring us, but you're also in luck because World of Warcraft has just unveiled its latest cash-shop sparklepony, the Iron Skyreaver. This fierce, armored chimera steed will let you explore the lands of Azeroth in style, and the twin afterburners on its back ensure a swift journey while doubling as Gnome-roasters in a pinch, so that's a win-win. If you'd like to see the new mount in action before you shell out your hard-earned cash, just click on past the cut to check out the Iron Skyreaver's announcement video. Continue reading World of Warcraft introduces Iron Skyreaver mount World of Warcraft introduces Iron Skyreaver mount originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments World of Warcraft -- Iron Skyreaver

Brad McQuaid explains more of his design goals for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Posted: 16 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, New Titles, Previews, News Items, Crowdfunding Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has only just opened its Kickstarter campaign, and it's about an eighth of the way to its initial goal with more than a month to go. Perhaps you're still on the fence about whether or not you want to donate, however, wondering what sort of game you'll be getting out of it when all is said and done. So why not let the game's creator tell you about it? In the second of a series of community Q&A sessions, Brad McQuaid explains more about the design goals of Pantheon as well as how the game will handle specific mechanics like fast travel, quests, and items. McQuaid also explains what inspired the team to make the game and how far along the development process is at the moment. Check out the full video past the break, and keep your eyes peeled for a third part in the near future. Continue reading Brad McQuaid explains more of his design goals for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Brad McQuaid explains more of his design goals for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Kickstarter

Armories arrive in DC Universe Online Posted: 16 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Game Mechanics, News Items, Free-to-Play, DC Universe Online, Housing, Subscription So you're max level in DC Universe Online, and you have a lot of different options available to you. You have a setup you like to use for dealing damage, a setup for healing teammates, even a setup for when you absolutely need to get across an entire zone in less than three minutes. Swapping between those is a bit more taxing, though. Wouldn't it be nice if you could just instantly swap between a full loadout and appearance with just one click? Yes, that's exactly what Armories do: they allowing players to save an alternate build that can be accessed out of combat instantly. A free armory slot is given to every character following a quest, with additional slots (for additional builds) available in the marketplace for $6 (or less if bought in bulk). Each player base can hold four slots for a grand total of 16 Armory slots, giving you plenty of space to store all the alternate builds you could ever want. Armories arrive in DC Universe Online originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Armories now available!

The Think Tank: What change do you fear in the future of MMOs? Posted: 16 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, The Think Tank MMO vets have a reputation. No, I don't mean the basement thing, I mean we're often seen as being afraid of change. Back in our day, we had to wait an hour for a raid boss to spawn, and we liked it! But ironically, the free-to-play push has turned MMO gamers against anything said to be releasing with a sub, as seen with the recent backlash against The Elder Scrolls Online. So I polled the Massively staff members for their opinions on the changes we see in our favorite genre. Is there anything they're particularly afraid to see as they glare into the crystal ball? Continue reading The Think Tank: What change do you fear in the future of MMOs? The Think Tank: What change do you fear in the future of MMOs? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 16 Jan 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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