| Mark Jacobs elaborates on departure from EA Mythic Posted: 04 Oct 2011 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Legal, Miscellaneous It's been a couple years since Mark Jacobs abruptly left -- or perhaps was let go -- from EA Mythic, but curiosity around the split persists in the MMO industry. Yesterday, Jacobs opened up about the event that occurred after EA's acquisition of Mythic and BioWare. Long story short, the merge brought about changes and Jacobs wasn't on board with it: "They made a decision on a direction they wanted to go and obviously, as we put out in our joint statement, that wasn't a direction that had a role for me, or at least the role that I wanted. It really is as simple as that. Or at least publicly. Whatever went on behind the scenes, whatever we talked about, I have no intention of sharing that." Jacobs insists that EA has been kind to him in the subsequent years: "One thing I'll say publicly about EA, they have been very good in what they've said post-departure regarding me. Similarly I've been good about what I've said about them post departure." He has since gone on to form a new company to create social and mobile games. In an ironic twist, Jacobs says that the idea for getting into the social gaming market took root while he was at Mythic, but he left before acting on that notion.  Mark Jacobs elaborates on departure from EA Mythic originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wurm's epic cluster coming October 28th Posted: 04 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Wurm Online, News items, Sandbox Onetwofree's latest news blurb features some good news for fans of the the firm's long-running Wurm Online sandbox MMO. The game's new epic cluster is officially set to debut on October 28th, and lead developer Rolf Jansson is among those psyched about the launch date. "The epic code is something I've been working on for several years, and it feels really good to finally release it," he says. Epic's aim is to "provide the players with a full circle of purpose and something really big to strive for," according to the Wurm website. The cluster features warring gods duking it out on the moon of Valrei, and players who complete missions (and multi-mission arcs called scenarios) will set dramatic events in motion. What kinds of dramatic events? The release mentions terraforming events tied to volcanoes, as well as the chance for players to become demigods and possibly even full deities complete with their own religion and a stake in the celestial battle royale. Wurm's epic cluster coming October 28th originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New website provides online opt-out services for game EULAs Posted: 04 Oct 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Miscellaneous If you're like most of us, you don't read the giant wall o' legalese that serves as a speed bump on the way to your favorite virtual world. A group of Redditors have, and they've set up a new website designed to assist gamers in opting out of the clause that prevents participation in potential class action lawsuits leveled against gaming service providers. Apparently opting out requires that a physical letter be mailed to the gaming company in question, and GamersOptOut.com purports to do the tedious work for you (either for free or for a voluntary donation). The catch is that you'll need to provide personal information including your name, address, and game account name. The website's creators page lists the online handles (as well as Xbox Live, PSN, and Twitter identities) of those responsible, but given the anonymous nature of the site and the privacy concerns raised by providing your personal info, we suggest you proceed with caution. Currently the website features an opt-out form for Sony's PlayStation network and Electronic Arts' new Origin digital delivery service. New website provides online opt-out services for game EULAs originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Fallen Earth kickstarts its second anniversary live event a week late Posted: 04 Oct 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Patches, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic "At Fallen Earth? Our events are fashionable. We have fashionable events," the latest Fallen Earth blog begins. "How fashionable, you might ask? So fashionable that they arrive fashionably late." When the servers go back up today with the new patch, Fallen Earth's second anniversary live event will be ready to go. The six factions are duking it out over New Flagstaff and looking to recruit all the clones they can in order to win the war. Players can sign up for PvP or PvE service in any of the sectors and do their part for the glory of their faction (and a nifty novelty item awarded for participation). The live event will occur on Wednesday the 5th at different times for European and North and South American players. The patch contains a number of changes to the gathering and crafting systems in the game, and also puts in place the new cosmetic appearance system. Unfortunately for the fashionably conscious, you can look at the wardrobe but not touch -- until October 12th, that is. When Fallen Earth goes free-to-play on that date, GamersFirst will flip on the switch for the wardrobe and there will be much rejoicing. Fallen Earth kickstarts its second anniversary live event a week late originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Divine Souls is taking a time out Posted: 04 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, News items, Free-to-play, Divine Souls It's not you, it's them. Specifically, it's the development team behind Divine Souls. The game has been out for only a little while, but the team is apparently unhappy with the reception thus far, not to mention the game's bugs and other instabilities. So without any major notice, the game has been essentially put on hiatus, taking it offline so that the team can bring it back to the drawing board for more refinements and adjustments. While the game has already been taken down, there's no decisive frame for when it will come back online, with the closure notice acknowledging that it may be some time before the bug fixes and refinements are complete. Players will receive a partial refund for any in-game currency purchase since the game's launch, with the amount refunded dependent on how close to the closure it was purchased. It's not an ending, just a pause, but it's still sad news for the game. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!] Divine Souls is taking a time out originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: How do you feel about AFK progression? Posted: 04 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous AFK progression is an accepted part of many MMOs these days. Crafting in Fallen Earth can be set up, started, and done while you're logged out. Come back after a certain amount of time and you've got a new vehicle and a load of XP. The newly-launched Glitch is another example -- you can learn your skills while you're doing other things in game, and learning continues while you're logged out. There are various other methods set up by developers here and there for players to advance while they're afk and logged out. On one hand, it makes quite a bit of sense. If crafting a vehicle in Fallen Earth takes over a full calendar day, for example, it can seem a little unreasonable to expect a player to sit there and work on it the entire time. On the other hand, many players argue that it's unreasonable to reward players for not playing the game. What do you think? Hit the comment button and let us know! The Daily Grind: How do you feel about AFK progression? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Final Fantasy XIV prepares a new company page in anticipation of tomorrow's patch Posted: 03 Oct 2011 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, Patches, News items, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV Tomorrow will see the truly massive patch 1.19 go live for Final Fantasy XIV, bringing with it a plethora of updates and expansions to the game as well as a renewed focus on the Grand Companies of Eorzea. So it only makes sense that before the patch goes live, the official page for the companies has been updated in full. Rather than providing a single and somewhat disorganized list, the revamped page gives each of the companies a spot for in-universe updates and a new feature honoring the recent heroes of each company. Starting on October 6th, the page for each company will track the contributions of players on each server, displaying the names of those individuals showing exceptional dedication to the cause. Each page also features one of the national newspapers reporting on the activities of the company, promising more lore and connected updates for players to follow. It's not the patch itself, but the page should give Final Fantasy XIV players just one more thing to look forward to in the coming days. Final Fantasy XIV prepares a new company page in anticipation of tomorrow's patch originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Not So Massively: Eurogamer Expo 2011 edition Posted: 03 Oct 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, PvP, News items, PvE, Hands-on, Consoles, Not So Massively Welcome to Not So Massively, our weekly roundup of the top news from popular multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs) and other multiplayer online games that aren't quite MMOs. Published every Monday, the column covers games such as League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Rise of Immortals, Bloodline Champions and more. It's been just over a week since Eurogamer Expo 2011, where countless upcoming and released games were demonstrated to attendees and made playable on the show floor. While some of them neatly fell into singleplayer or MMO categories, action adventure Dark Souls and the beautifully zen Journey sought to blur the line between those categories more than any game I've seen to date. Both are singleplayer games in which other players can seamlessly enter your world during play, a fascinating concept that I'm now dying to dig into. Red 5 resolved its dispute with Webzen this week, allowing Firefall to continue development unhindered by legal drama. Brawl Busters enters a new phase of closed beta, and we have a dump truck full of beta keys to give away. League of Legends reveals details of upcoming champions Xerath and The Nine Tail Fox, in addition to a new livestreaming site designed to collect money for gaming charity Child's Play. Rise of Immortals launched on Steam this week and released its first post-launch Immortal Trovoc, the Last Dragon. Finally, hints at a console version for Diablo III or console controls for the PC version have surfaced this week due to some cryptic forum responses by Blizzard staff. In this week's Not So Massively, I give some first impressions of Dark Souls and Journey from Eurogamer Expo 2011 and delve into all the latest news from games that aren't quite MMOs. Continue reading Not So Massively: Eurogamer Expo 2011 edition Not So Massively: Eurogamer Expo 2011 edition originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Lost Pages of Taborea: Fixing the economy Posted: 03 Oct 2011 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Opinion, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea I've got one more article concerning the current state of Runes of Magic's economy. To round out my trilogy, I'm taking a look at actual fixes to what could be seen as a broken mechanic. If the current inflation is indeed seen as something that is broken and could quickly damage the playability in RoM, then the fixes would likely be band-aids. It would take too long to rework an entire system filled with thousands of items, each affecting the other. The fix would also need to be implemented quickly. That puts some limitations on our speculations. What does the fix need to concentrate on? The problem seems boil down to the excess amounts of gold that can be hoarded -- hundreds and hundreds of millions can be saved up. It's also possible for high-level, well-geared players to accumulate gold rather quickly. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to take a look at gold sinks (including one Frogster is testing), gold-caps, and some other ways to tame the economy. Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Fixing the economy Lost Pages of Taborea: Fixing the economy originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| City of Heroes thinks you deserve a facepalm emote Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Contests, News items, Free-to-play, Roleplaying, Giveaways If you've been enjoying City of Heroes' recent F2P conversion, then you're probably aware of the one great truth of the superhero genre: Customization is everything. You can never have too many costume pieces, auras, capes, and emotes. Perhaps that's why Paragon Studios is giving away 10,000 /facepalm emote codes as part of its ongoing series of Facebook contests. The contest is open to large parts of North American and Europe for the duration of October, and all you have to do is subject yourself to the wilds of Facebook and click a "like" button or two to get your exclusive emote. What are you waiting for? The plebes of Atlas Park await your well-placed /facepalm. City of Heroes thinks you deserve a facepalm emote originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Prime releases web-based guild creation tool Posted: 03 Oct 2011 04:00 PM PDT |
| Flameseeker Chronicles: Round two - Fight! Posted: 03 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Game mechanics, Patches, PvE, Opinion, Hands-on, Flameseeker Chronicles Winds of Change part two has arrived to Guild Wars, and there was definitely much rejoicing. I've been looking forward to this content for a while now for many different reasons. Many of you probably know I dived in headfirst with a nice-sized audience with a livestream event an hour after the update arrived, and let me tell you: There's nothing like stumbling through unfamiliar high-level content with a few hundred people watching. Including some of the people who created that content. That's right, ArenaNet team members John Stumme, Andrew Patrick, John Foreman, and Joe Kimmes joined the livestream chat room. They watched the livestream, offered tips, talked Winds of Change with the viewers, and answered questions. I want to take a moment to extend my thanks to these guys. They were incredibly gracious and wound up staying in chat for not only the entire livestream event but over an hour afterwards as well. I think everyone attending really appreciated that they took those hours from their busy schedules for this. What about the rest of Winds of Change? Follow along after the jump and let's talk! Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Round two - Fight! Flameseeker Chronicles: Round two - Fight! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wings Over Atreia: Immersion 101 Posted: 03 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Wings Over Atreia This week's course: What were they thinking?!? Maybe it was running smack into the garish sugary confection amid the beauty of Pandaemonium. No. Honestly, it was a combination of many things that finally exploded my synapses; the sight of that gaudy cake that made me whip my head around looking for little Hansel and Gretel was just the catalyst. I may be missing something, but I just don't quite understand why a game -- one that obviously put a lot of effort into not only making a visually stunning world but interweaving lore throughout the entire experience -- would toss in such jarring breaks of immersion. There is no denying (even the hating haters agree) that Aion is an extremely beautiful and detailed world; the team even rolled out a graphics upgrade to enhance it. The developers have also obviously spent time developing lore for the players to experience: The campaign quests give personal cutscenes sharing this lore. This implies, at least to me, that the devs want you to immerse yourself and envelop yourself in their world. So why in the Seraphim Lords' names would they toss in things that not only break the suspension of disbelief but yank players out of it so forcefully that they are left dizzy and disoriented? Join the class beyond the break for Wings over Atreia's look at immersion, why it is important, and what destroys it in our favorite game, Aion. (BTW -- the cake is not a lie!) Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: Immersion 101 Wings Over Atreia: Immersion 101 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Darkfall update talks camera, physics improvements Posted: 03 Oct 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Sandbox What's up in the lands of Agon recently? Quite a lot if the latest Darkfall dev update is any indication. The lengthy wall o' text touches on current development tasks including the possibility of an improved third-person camera, momentum mechanics, and ragdoll physics for the game's animations. Starter areas are also getting a makeover, and Aventurine producer Tasos Flambouras says that new and more powerful guard towers will deter newbie ganking without creating full-blown safe zones. Additionally, there's a bit more explanation regarding the ongoing siege and clan tweaks, and the devs continue to work on Darkfall's new armor specialization mechanics. Unfortunately there's still no word on either character wipes or a timeline for Darkfall 2.0's release, but there is quite a bit of other info available to peruse on the game's official site. Darkfall update talks camera, physics improvements originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Hellgate is cursed... in a good way Posted: 03 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Patches, Hellgate: London, Free-to-play, MMOFPS Just when we thought we'd be stuck in London forever, Hellgate Global took us across the world to the ravaged vista of Tokyo late last month. To celebrate the good times and charred corpses all across virtual Japan, the resurrected MMOFPS is bringing a set of new challenges for players to overcome. For those who scoff at curses and camping out on top of primitive burial grounds, Hellgate dares you to activate your Curse of Dawn mode and attempt to take out Imhotep and Anaksunamun. Those who do so will be on the receiving end of rewards beyond imagination. Also, in-game currency. Other challenges heading into the game include a guild battle system, and the return of Boss Time Attack. It's not all work and no play, as players will enjoy bonus supplies, free gifts at specific levels, and XP boosts. For a limited time champion monsters will drop lucky coupons, which can then be exchanged for rare items. These will only be in the game until the end October 15th, as luck can only last for so long. [Source: T3 Entertainment press release] Hellgate is cursed... in a good way originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| BioWare founders: We make the decisions, not EA Posted: 03 Oct 2011 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic BioWare has a message for critical fans who blame the company's perceived inadequacies on its corporate overlords at Electronic Arts. "I always chuckle because we are EA, we're BioWare -- we're both, and we still have huge autonomy in terms of what we do," co-founder Greg Zeschuk recently told Eurogamer. Zeschuk and partner Ray Muzyka cover a lot of ground during the sit-down, and the docs indicate that they still play BioWare's games despite delegating day-to-day development duties to various project leads. "Most of our games, before we ship them, we finish them several times. The Old Republic, we're probably at that level or higher, in terms of hours," Zeschuk says. Times have changed though, as both men acknowledge that today's BioWare is not the same company that made Neverwinter Nights or MDK2. "Way, way back, years ago, we didn't even consider those [commercial elements], we just made stuff," Zeschuk explains. BioWare founders: We make the decisions, not EA originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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