MMO Updates |
- FFXIV's Yoshida answers fan questions in live producer letter video
- The panel is true: The Secret World preps a NYCC appearance
- Trion CEO: RIFT has the 'most dynamic gameplay ever' and is a 'serious competitor' for WoW
- Newest F2P blog for Star Trek Online talks about dilithium
- The Daily Grind: Do cartoony graphics bother you?
- Winning the Star Wars Galaxies GCW
- Behind the Mask: The separation of newbie and expert
- [Updated] Jump into Recursive Colony with a free booster code from Massively and Global Agenda!
- The Guild Counsel: Making a new guild work in an old game
- The MMO Report: Taunting beta-testers edition
- Snikt! Wolverine enters the fray of Marvel Universe Online
- Prime: Battle for Dominus gets professional with new crafting details
- Captain's Log: Testing out the future
- Otherland dev talks timelines and Tad Williams' influence
- Ask Massively: Unpopular decisions edition
- The Perfect Ten: Excuses for ditching a dungeon run (from least to most insane)
- Preparing for the apocalypse (again): GamersFirst on Fallen Earth's F2P shift
- Fighting the EverQuest hacking wildfire
| FFXIV's Yoshida answers fan questions in live producer letter video Posted: 07 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, News items, Final Fantasy XIV, Dev Diaries  If wading through an hour and a half of rapid-fire Japanese (sans subtitles) isn't your thing, Square-Enix has provided a few text highlights to help you make sense of the Q&A session. Among the interesting tidbits are potential new races (to include demi-humans and dragons) as well as a mention of the dev team's priority focus on improving FFXIV's linkshell system and its party formation features. Yoshida also offers a quick progress report on the process of transforming FFXIV from its launch state into a proper Final Fantasy game. "To be honest, I consider that we're about half-way to the point where we can confidently call it Final Fantasy," he says. Continue reading FFXIV's Yoshida answers fan questions in live producer letter video
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| The panel is true: The Secret World preps a NYCC appearance Posted: 07 Oct 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Previews, The Secret World, Massively Event Coverage  The panel will take place on Friday, October 14th at 4:00 p.m. EDT in room 1A24. It's here that Funcom devs Ragnar Tørnquist and Dag Scheve will not only present an all-new live demo of the upcoming conspiracy MMO but field questions from the audience in as candid a manner as possible. Of course, considering the game in question, we note that this could be a trap by the Old Gods to swallow the souls of all those attending and turn them into husks to do the Old Gods' bidding, but that's just the chance you'll have to take.
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| Trion CEO: RIFT has the 'most dynamic gameplay ever' and is a 'serious competitor' for WoW Posted: 07 Oct 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Interviews, MMO industry, RIFT  Thanks to RIFT's success and the recently announced Red Door development and social networking platform, Buttler sees Trion as uniquely positioned to make headway in the post-WoW MMO marketplace despite the specter of Star Wars: The Old Republic looming on the horizon. "I'm actually extremely excited about what's happening in our space. When we started five years ago, there was only WoW. Now there's RIFT as an absolute serious contender, with the most dynamic gameplay ever. Then there's Star Wars, then there's End of Nations coming. Then there's Defiance coming [...] so we're not afraid at all. We actually look forward to it with great excitement. It makes our point," Buttler says.
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| Newest F2P blog for Star Trek Online talks about dilithium Posted: 07 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play  The most important role that the ore will play will be in replacing the existing free ship tokens that had previously come when players achieved a new rank. Earning a new ship will now be a more difficult and involved task, with a discount coupon and a free offering of refined dilithium to make it easier to earn a ship on a rank increase, but it won't be automatic. The entry goes on to state that the current implementation on the test server is not quite right, and it includes more discussion about how much effort is meant to be involved in getting a brand-new ship.
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| The Daily Grind: Do cartoony graphics bother you? Posted: 07 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind, Kids, Miscellaneous  Glitch is a perfect example of a game that looks like it's meant for a younger crowd, but the sense of humor and content actually requires a 14-or-older rule to play the game. This has, in the past, been a barrier to entry for those players who won't play something unless it's ultra-realistic in the graphics department. But I'd like to think our opinions have lightened up in the last few years. So what's your stance? Do you see cartoony graphics as a complete turn-off? Are you attracted by the brighter colors and whimsical mood? Or does your opinion lie somewhere in between? Let us know!  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!
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| Winning the Star Wars Galaxies GCW Posted: 06 Oct 2011 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, PvP, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Dev Diaries, Sandbox  A brand-new dev post today divulges the details of how the Galactic Civil War that's been raging across the game's servers for the last eight-plus years will be won. In short: "Whoever controls the galaxy at the end will win the war." The Rebels-vs.-Imperials PvP conflict will be settled through the existing planetary control system, in which each side vies for control over key cities on most of the game's planets. The team plans to tweak that system, weighting contributions and important regions to ensure that cheating and early landslide victories are simply not possible. As Mepps himself notes, "a smaller faction fighting smarter still has as much of a chance as a larger faction that assumes it will win." He also promises additional events and methods of GCW point gain as the finale approaches. Star Wars Galaxies is due to close down mid-December, so players have only a few months left to save or dominate the galaxy once and for all.
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| Behind the Mask: The separation of newbie and expert Posted: 06 Oct 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Champions Online, Behind the Mask  I was asked this burning question a few times, and I've made my opinion clear: that Elite should be for the top tier, the tip of the iceberg of player ability. Don't take that to mean Gold players only. There is a sharp divide between an expert Silver player and a poor Gold player. In fact, the poor Gold player is likely to be worse than a bad Silver player. How good is good enough? This week, we'll find out. Continue reading Behind the Mask: The separation of newbie and expert
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| [Updated] Jump into Recursive Colony with a free booster code from Massively and Global Agenda! Posted: 06 Oct 2011 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Contests, Free-to-play, Global Agenda, Giveaways  In the spirit of "it's never too late," we've partnered with Hi-Rez Studios to offer you just the thing to bring you up to speed: booster codes! When applied to your account, booster codes give you double XP, tokens, and credits as well as apply 2,000 tokens to your account every day. Booster codes can be purchased in the Global Agenda store, but we've got some free three-day codes here. [UPDATE: To apply your code, type "/claimpromotion" in-game rather than applying the code on the Global Agenda site] 
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| The Guild Counsel: Making a new guild work in an old game Posted: 06 Oct 2011 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous  One of the toughest challenges for any guild leader is creating and building a guild from scratch in a game that's been around for years. I experienced that when I moved our guild from Vanguard to EverQuest II, where I had played for a few years before. We were the little fish in the big pond, and since everyone was either starting there for the first time or re-rolling on the server we chose, we had to build everything from the ground up. What made it hard was that as we leveled together and struggled through the content together, it became more and more tempting for people to jump ship and move to an established guild that was ahead of us. Building a new guild in an older game is difficult but not impossible, and there are a few areas to be mindful of if you want to run a guild that can survive the test of time. In this week's Guild Counsel, we'll look at a few ways that guild leaders can make a new guild in an old game actually work. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Making a new guild work in an old game
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| The MMO Report: Taunting beta-testers edition Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Video, News items, The Secret World, All Points Bulletin, Humor, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The MMO Report, Miscellaneous  Welcome to another edition of The MMO Report, where everything's made up and the points don't matter. That's right, the points don't matter, just like those emails you got for the SWTOR beta. You're still not in it. First up on the agenda is Blizzard, which recently announced that the Foo Fighters, long known for their connection to the gaming industry [citation needed], will be playing at BlizzCon. Information on the upcoming Titan, however, will not be making an appearance. Meanwhile, Red 5 and Webzen have settled their legal dispute. Webzen came away with some healthy monetary compensation, while Red 5 gained global publishing rights to Firefall. Next we go deep into the 'hood of APB: Reloaded, where the devs have been busy dropping banhammers on the thick skulls of the game's less savory sorts. Anyone found using exploits or hacks has been mercilessly dispatched by, we presume, a series of drive-by shootings. Ragnar Tørnquist took the time to drop a few information bombs on fans of The Secret World, detailing the team's design philosophy and outlining how the game will place emphasis on lore and story. And last, but certainly not least, we have the curious case of BioWare's misplaced emails. A number of players had their hopes raised and then contemptuously dashed by a survey email that asked them to tell BioWare what they thought of their time in SWTOR. Needless to say, a furious uproar ensued, as millions of voices suddenly cried out in anger and were not-so-suddenly silenced. For the full MMO Report, complete with Uncle Casey's Mailbag, head on past the cut. Continue reading The MMO Report: Taunting beta-testers edition
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| Snikt! Wolverine enters the fray of Marvel Universe Online Posted: 06 Oct 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Marvel Universe Online  Shh! Everyone, do you hear that? It sounds an awful lot like something going "snikt!" You know what that means, right? Everyone's favorite Canucklehead with an anger issue is coming to Marvel Universe Online. That's right, players will be able to take on the claws of Weapon X himself in the upcoming superhero MMO. Wolvie joins the roster alongside the Merc-with-a-mouth, Deadpool, bringing the total number of announced playable characters up to two. Who will be next to join the duo in the ranks of MUO? I'm putting my money on Northstar, personally. Why? Because he's fabulous, that's why. (Make it happen, Marvel!)
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| Prime: Battle for Dominus gets professional with new crafting details Posted: 06 Oct 2011 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Professions, News items, Crafting  A few months back, we got our first look at Prime: Battle for Dominus' profession and crafting system, but it was a bit scant on details. Thanks to the game's updated profession page, however, we're absolutely drowning in details. Drowning, I say! To recap, for those of you just joining us, the available professions are Armortech, Weapontech, Biotech, Chemist, Inventor, Harvester, and Soldier for Hire. Players can partake of any and all professions, but they can only choose to specialize in a single one. In order to create an item, players require schematics, which can be acquired in one of a few ways. Schematics can be learned from trainers, or they can be gained by reverse-engineering an item to discover what makes it tick. If you're the sneaky, saboteur type, you can even steal schematics from other factions and turn the enemy's own tools against them. The page features myriad details on all of the available professions, but perhaps most interesting is the new information about the oddball Soldier for Hire. The Soldier for Hire is not a crafting profession in the strictest sense but rather is more like a bounty hunter who can sell his services through an in-game interface. The new page reveals that players will have good reason to hire a Soldier for Hire over some random schmuck, as the Soldier will have access to gear and weapons exclusive to the profession. For the full details on the game's various crafting professions, head on over to the Prime: Battle for Dominus official site and have a look.
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| Captain's Log: Testing out the future Posted: 06 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Previews, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Captain's Log  Hello, computer (and players)! As you have must have seen by now, open beta testing of Star Trek Online's new F2P model is well underway; the developers have been posting dev diaries about the impending changes for the last couple of days. Because testers on the Tribble test server were required to start new characters, and because character transfers will not be an option for at least a few weeks, many players have begun a mad dash to level up their test characters in order to test out some of the retooled endgame content. Since testing, especially in this manner, can be confusing, I have decided to dedicate this week's Captain's Log to those who are willing to take on the challenge. Past the jump, you will find a checklist of sorts that you can use while testing (or, ultimately, playing) the new content and updates. I suggest reading each section and then checking it out in-game. While some recommendations may seem less interesting than others, I suggest you give each a fair shot so you can provide feedback on what can make the game better. Ensign, warp 10! Let's give our dedicated Tribbleites some structure to their testing time... Continue reading Captain's Log: Testing out the future
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| Otherland dev talks timelines and Tad Williams' influence Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Otherland  Then there's Otherland, gamigo's ambitious MMO based on Tad Williams' famous sci-fi cycle. A new interview with gamigo CEO Patrick Streppel sheds a bit of light on the title's timeline and canon and teases fans with glimpses of what they'll see and do when they plug in to what amounts to a virtual world set in a virtual world. "Tad [Williams] has been very involved in the project from the beginning and provided lots of input to the development team on top of the source material. He is truly passionate about his vision being turned into a game," Streppel says. How will the game present that vision? It is "essentially a sequel" to the novels, and as a result of the dramatic conclusion at the end of the fourth and final book, it will now "be up to the players to get [Otherland] back online." The interview also delves briefly into gameplay topics, character creation, and more, so head to MPOGD.com to have a look.
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| Ask Massively: Unpopular decisions edition Posted: 06 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Massively meta, One Shots, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous  You probably all know what I'm talking about already, so go ahead and jump past the break for the explanation and a bit of discussion. As always, your questions are welcome in the comments or via mail to ask@massively.com for inclusion in a future installment of the column, hopefully one in which I go back to posting public domain artwork as the header before rambling on about elephants. I like those introductions better. Continue reading Ask Massively: Unpopular decisions edition
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| The Perfect Ten: Excuses for ditching a dungeon run (from least to most insane) Posted: 06 Oct 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Humor, Perfect Ten, Miscellaneous, Dungeons  I'm not saying that all dungeons are boring or anything, but rather that when you start one, you've kind of committed to seeing it through (unless you're the jerk who always teams up with me through the LFG tool). Unfortunately, that means you're locked into an unknowable span of time during which narcolepsy, hunger, and brilliant flashes of insight about how to cure Chronic Giggling Syndrome (CGS) can strike. What can you do? Usually, nothing other than to suffer through the slow plodding of your four other ball-and-chains and start burning small sacrifices to your deity of choice in hopes that this run will end soon. Or you can pull out an excuse and get out of Dodge. I'm not saying you should use these every night -- you will build up a very negative reputation, quickly, if you do so -- but sometimes you just need an escape hatch so you can go sleep, eat or call the CGS laboratories in Albuquerque. That's what I'm here to help you with today by providing 10 tested excuses to ditching that disastrous dungeon run and getting on with your life. Continue reading The Perfect Ten: Excuses for ditching a dungeon run (from least to most insane)
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| Preparing for the apocalypse (again): GamersFirst on Fallen Earth's F2P shift Posted: 06 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Business models, Interviews, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox  Like many current players and potential clones, we are understandably curious about the implications and (pardon the pun) fallout from such a fundamental shift in the business model. Will F2P be the savior of this niche game? What's being done to prepare for the change? To answer these questions and more, we talked to Joseph Willmon, an associate game director for GamersFirst. Massively: How are you preparing your servers for the added influx of free-to-play tourists? Joseph Willmon: We're still wrapping up some of the final stages of settling the Fallen Earth servers into their new homes at GamersFirst, so soon they'll be as optimized as we want them to be. We're lucky in that Fallen Earth was designed from the ground up to support lots of people playing -- we'd have to blow all estimates out of the water really quickly in order for population to be an issue, which wouldn't be such a bad problem to have! Continue reading Preparing for the apocalypse (again): GamersFirst on Fallen Earth's F2P shift
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| Fighting the EverQuest hacking wildfire Posted: 06 Oct 2011 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, Bugs  In a three-part series, Ten Ton Hammer exposes the systematic problem of rampant hacking in the game, especially on the new progression servers. While guilds are doing their part to crack down on hackers in their midst, it doesn't seem to be enough to stem the flow, especially as with a much smaller team in place these days. Ultimately, fighting this problem does not seem to be SOE's current priority. EQ Producer Thom Terazzas addressed the issue of hacking by saying, "The expansion is something that we're really focused on right now. That has gotten, I would say, 80 percent of the focus here. So doing anything that dramatically combats the hacking is something that we would really like to do, but it is not something we've been able to do." Terazzas followed that up by talking with the Customer Service team and promised that the hackings will receive higher priority once the expansion crunch is over. In the meantime, he urged players to file reports with CS if hacking was observed.
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