MMO Updates

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• Day-long player carnival slated for May 17 in Lord of the Rings Online
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience
• Darkfall getting armor dyes
• Marvel Heroes prepping for big patch, Big Ten weekend
• SOE's All Access transition now slated for April 29
• The Daily Grind: What's your ideal MMO group size?
• Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal
• Destiny digs in for the final pre-launch stretch
• World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden
• Phantasy Star Online 2's beta ends in Southeast Asia
• City of Steam getting new US and EU servers
• Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million

Day-long player carnival slated for May 17 in Lord of the Rings Online Posted: 22 Apr 2014 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events (In-Game), MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Player-Generated Content Do you play Lord of the Rings Online? Do you play on Landroval? If so, you'll want to mark May 17th on your calendar and plan to stop by The Lonely Mountain Band's day-long Spring Racing Carnival. SRC is a player-run event which includes "nine horse races, a horse parade, a mounted fashion contest, barrel racing, rodeo clown comedy acts, a demonstration by the formation riding team, name-that-breed and name-that-song contests, eight musical performances, and a final concert and fireworks show." [Thanks Chris!] Day-long player carnival slated for May 17 in Lord of the Rings Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Forum thread

Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, PvE, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles, Buy-to-Play On April 15th Guild Wars 2 got its first feature pack, as packed with features as advertised. After the first day or so of trying to figure out where our town clothes disappeared to, it's becoming clear how much has changed: There's a lot more to take in and adjust to than might be immediately apparent. The experience for new GW2 characters has changed so much that I rolled up yet another alt post-patch to try it out. That was my plan all along, and I didn't do it because I just bought another character slot and didn't have an Asura yet. I chose a profession that's known for being less fun without traits, so I could see what it's like to not have them before level 30. It was not because I wanted another Engineer and already have two Necromancers, two Guardians, and two Mesmers. It was also necessary to use a total makeover kit for legitimate data-gathering purposes. Aww, look how cute he is! I can use all of my unlocked dyes on him, and dress him up in outfits, and -- right, down to business. Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Darkfall getting armor dyes Posted: 22 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Sandbox, Subscription Darkfall players are no strangers to dying, but now at least they'll get to look good doing it. Aventurine is adding armor dyes to its fantasy PvP MMO, and while we don't know a lot of specifics just yet, we do know that green and gold are both options thanks to a couple of newly released screenshots. Will some dye colors be rarer than others? Will dyes be craftable and applicable to existing armor pieces? Will someone make a Mahirim-only Pink Panther clan with matching uniform requirements? Time will tell. [Thanks Dengar!] Darkfall getting armor dyes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Forum announcement

Marvel Heroes prepping for big patch, Big Ten weekend Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Marvel Heroes Gazillion has collected player votes regarding Marvel Heroes' top 10 game events from the last 10 months and is bringing back all of them this weekend. Whether you're partial to the game's Christmas, Easter, or Valentine's events or you prefer the Buy-One, Get-One promotion for heroes, they'll each be available starting Friday morning. Marvel Heroes' latest patch will also be debuting at that time. It's bringing with it a new hero -- Invisible Woman -- as well as Squirrel Girl and Black Widow updates and a complete powers pass. Read all about it on the official MH forums. [Thanks Steve!] Marvel Heroes prepping for big patch, Big Ten weekend originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

SOE's All Access transition now slated for April 29 Posted: 22 Apr 2014 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Super-hero, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, DC Universe Online, PlanetSide 2 SOE has again postponed its transition from Gold individual game subscriptions to a single All Access pass. Community guru Colette "Dexella" Murphy posted the following announcement on SOE's forums. In an effort to ensure that the transition to the new All Access membership plan is as seamless as possible, we are going to be taking a little more time to test. So, we will be pushing the launch date of All Access to Tuesday, April 29th. Because of the portfolio-wide nature of this plan, this may prevent us from doing any individual game updates in EverQuest, EverQuest II, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online. These updates will resume normally after the All Access launch. We appreciate your patience and you'll agree that our new membership offering is worth the wait. SOE's All Access transition now slated for April 29 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SOE forums Via: EQ2Wire

The Daily Grind: What's your ideal MMO group size? Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Dungeons Massively's commenters got me thinking on MMO group size after an article a few weeks ago about socially soloing in games. Even though I like and support the option to solo in MMOs, my favorite games have actually had very large group sizes, far larger than the now-standard World of Warcraft five. Some newer games cut that down to four! But I really loved classic Star Wars Galaxies' 20-person groups and even City of Heroes' and Guild Wars 1's eight-member parties. Something about throwing a huge swarm of people into a group and going out and just Doing Something really appealed to me in a "the more, the merrier" way, especially when the game scaled to meet our needs rather than tried to mash us into a mold for prefab content. And nothing seems worse than having six guildies online and being forced to leave one behind because parties cap at five bodies. What do you think -- what's your ideal MMO group size? 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: What's your ideal MMO group size? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal Posted: 21 Apr 2014 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, Trailers, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, Previews, PvP, News Items, PvE, Mobile, Trading Card Games, MMOFPS, Community Q&A, Not So Massively, MOBA, Infinite Crisis, HEX, Hearthstone, Virtual Reality Welcome back to No So Massively, where every Monday we round up the highlights from the past week in the world of MOBAs, roguelikes, MMOTCGs, and other games that aren't quite MMOs. Hearthstone landed on the iPad, and we gave our first impressions. Star Citizen broke the $42-million-dollar barrier and celebrated with -- what else? -- towels. Richard Garriot announced a contest to remake his first game. Sony talked up Project Morpheus, its VR toy. Upsilon Circuit made its bid to redefine MMOs. We gave upcoming sandbox Windborne a detailed first look. HEX is set to begin its closed beta on April 23rd! Starbound explained its update slowdowns. Infinite Crisis introduced a new character: Blue Beetle. The video is after the cut! Continue reading Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Destiny digs in for the final pre-launch stretch Posted: 21 Apr 2014 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, MMOFPS, Destiny Commenting that it is on "final approach" for Destiny's September 9th launch, Bungie posted an article last Friday articulating the mood of the team at this time. "This week at Bungie, our inboxes were flaring up with status emails about every facet of the experience," the team posted. "According to the big green font at the top of each page, we are ON TRACK. Those two simple words in repetition are packed with emotion, and even a tiny bit of relief." The post goes on to say that press thoughts on pre-alpha builds will be shared with the public soon, and from there Destiny will progress into serious alpha and beta testing runs. Destiny digs in for the final pre-launch stretch originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Bungie weekly update Via: Polygon

World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden Posted: 21 Apr 2014 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Events (In-Game), News Items, Subscription Maybe you're a little burnt out after eight months of raiding World of Warcraft's last content patch. Do you know what you need? You need to cuddle some bunny rabbits. It's time for Noblegarden once again, and that means hunting for eggs, putting on bunny ears, getting a seasonal mount, and generally traipsing around in the woods for colorful treats. And if you've already gotten the rewards in previous years, well... the treats are still nice, yes? The official event page serves as a good top-level overview of player activities during the event. In short, players will be collecting eggs, doing daily quests directly related to collecting eggs, and giving chocolate (found in eggs) to vendors for egg-related prizes. Players have a week to collect their eggs, as the event runs from today until April 28th, more than enough time for all the Azerothian egg-hunting you could want. (Hopefully.) World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Noblegarden is here!

Phantasy Star Online 2's beta ends in Southeast Asia Posted: 21 Apr 2014 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Interviews, Launches, News Items, Consoles While Phantasy Star Online 2 is unreleased here in North America, the residents of Southeast Asia will soon get to experience the game in English. The servers for this version of the game are region-locked, but it's still as close as the game has gotten to a local release thus far. Curious about how it went? The team working for local publisher Asiasoft shared thoughts regarding the beta experience in a recent interview. The team states that while the game already has new race/class options available in Japan (as it has been out for some time), releasing these options in the localized version will depend partly on player progress. Tie-in events such as those found in the Japanese version are also nixed, as most of those cross-promotional events are strictly for Japanese marketing and wouldn't make much sense to the audience. For more details, take a look at the full interview. Phantasy Star Online 2's beta ends in Southeast Asia originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: MMOCulture

City of Steam getting new US and EU servers Posted: 21 Apr 2014 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, City of Steam, Steampunk Mechanist Games has announced that its steampunk browser MMO City of Steam is on the cusp of delivering a long-awaited European server. There's no firm launch date just yet, and Mechanist also notes that EU players who have been biding their time on the existing US servers will not be able to transfer their characters to the new EU shard. Electrum will be transferable, though, so there's that. The devs also said that a new east coast US server is in the works. City of Steam getting new US and EU servers originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement Via: ZAM

Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million Posted: 21 Apr 2014 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, Free-to-Play Perfect World Entertainment announced today that it will enter into a share purchase agreement with rival Chinese MMO company Shanda Games Limited for 30 million shares valued at $100 million. The purchase is expected to finalize in 30 days. Shanda Games publishes over 20 MMOs for the Chinese market, including Aion, Luvinia Online, and Final Fantasy XIV. This proposed agreement, as well as agreements with other top companies, would put the total value of Shanda at around $1.9 billion. Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Shanda Games Announcement Via: GamesIndustry.biz

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