MMO Updates

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• King of Kings III's Moon Goddess patch adds dungeons, raises level cap
• Riot releases new art and screenshots for League of Legend's Graves
• Glitch developer says mobile gaming is dominating the games industry
• BioWare Mythic isn't playing favorites with free-to-play and subscriptions
• MV Guide: October 24-20, 2011
• The Daily Grind: Will Pandaren lure you back to WoW?
• MMO Week in Review: BlizzCon 2011
• EVE Evolved: The human casualties
• RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday
• League of Legends turns two this Thursday, celebrations planned

King of Kings III's Moon Goddess patch adds dungeons, raises level cap Posted: 24 Oct 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Dungeons As cool names go, gamigo's King of Kings III ranks right up there, and the "ultimate PvP MMORPG" is continuing that tradition with its new Moon Goddess update. The patch also brings quite a lot of new content to the free-to-play title, including 200 new skills and 24 new maps. If that's not enough to wet your whistle, how about a level cap increase from 140 to 180? Let's see, there are also four new dungeons, including an Angel Arena wherein players will battle six celestial henchmen before squaring off against the fearsome Gabriel. Daily dungeons are also available, and they offer "big-time action without all the build-up skirmishes." This means you can skip the trash mob grind and go right into a series of boss fights. Head to the official King of Kings III website to learn more and to download the game. [Source: gamigo press release] King of Kings III's Moon Goddess patch adds dungeons, raises level cap originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Riot releases new art and screenshots for League of Legend's Graves Posted: 24 Oct 2011 09:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, MMO industry, PvP, News items, Free-to-play Riot Games recently released its latest League of Legends champion, and the ranged damage-dealer known as Graves has proved popular with players thus far. The company is looking to keep its new gunslinger in the spotlight, and to that end it has released several new pieces of concept art as well as a gaggle of screenshots of Graves in action. The one constant in all the shots -- aside from various versions of the BFG9000 -- is damage, and whether the new champion is throwing smokebombs, spraying cone nukes via his buckshot ability, or chasing down other champions who've decided to run away, he'll be pumping out a lot of damage (and he'll look good doing it). You can learn more about Graves at the official League of Legends website, and be sure you check out the art and screens below. [Source: Riot press release] Gallery: League of Legends Riot releases new art and screenshots for League of Legend's Graves originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Glitch developer says mobile gaming is dominating the games industry Posted: 24 Oct 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Mobile, Miscellaneous Forget consoles and PCs -- mobile gaming is prepped to be the number one gaming platform for the next decade, according to Glitch developer Tiny Speck. Vice President of Product and Operations Kakul Srivastava says we're already seeing it everywhere: "It is what is happening right now. I think the killer console is going to be your mobile device. That is absolutely where people will play more rich and involving, and even graphically intensive games." With the newest editions of smartphones outpacing their predecessors and coming out much faster than the next console generation, Srivastava thinks it's not surprising that mobile gaming has momentum in the industry. "That pace of change is why mobile devices are going to be the console of the future. The way player interaction and player needs are changing, it's much faster than the five to seven years [of console development] that we're talking about," she said. She points to BioWare's comments that the studio would be looking into mobile versions of its established franchises as an example of this shift. Glitch developer says mobile gaming is dominating the games industry originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: GamesIndustry.biz

BioWare Mythic isn't playing favorites with free-to-play and subscriptions Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Business models, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, Free-to-play, Star Wars: The Old Republic BioWare Mythic says that the market is big enough to support both free-to-play and subscription models -- and everything else in between. Talking with Gamasutra, GM Eugene Evans said that the company has to acknowledge that there are people who don't like F2P and those who do, and it's important to reach out to both groups. With Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes in beta testing, BioWare Mythic is testing the waters of free-to-play while preparing for Star Wars: The Old Republic's massive subscription launch. "We often got asked about taking our old games free-to-play, and in the case of Warhammer, we felt there was a different way of doing it," he opined, going on to say that the Mythic branch was learning a lot about polish and quality from the BioWare team. Evans commented on the observation that the widening global market means that no one business model is guaranteed to work in every country: "We're all still figuring out what free-to-play means, what the best way to monetize is, and how to run it as a business and engage players in ways they're prepared to accept." BioWare Mythic isn't playing favorites with free-to-play and subscriptions originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Gamasutra

MV Guide: October 24-20, 2011 Posted: 24 Oct 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively's Livestream channel. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During livestream events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, livestream events are subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) It's no surprise that we're heavy on the Halloween festivities in this week's MV Guide. Nearly every game out there is partying with the ghosts and goblins, from the newly discovered Little Horrors (pictured above) to the familiar Free Realms. Our livestream team is going to spend plenty of time checking out events in various games. If Halloween's not your thing, don't worry -- we've got plenty of regularly scheduled gameplay as well, so follow along after the jump for this week's lineup! Continue reading MV Guide: October 24-20, 2011 MV Guide: October 24-20, 2011 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Will Pandaren lure you back to WoW? Posted: 24 Oct 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Classes, Expansions, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Races Blizzard Entertainment is taking a gamble on its next expansion, Mists of Pandaria. World of Warcraft is still on top, but since Cataclysm it's nevertheless taken a beating. Some players attribute recent subscriber losses to games like RIFT; others blame it on natural gamer fatigue. Still others point to blunders in Blizzard's game development decisions. Wherever the blame lies, there's little question that MoP must deliver, especially with a few other likely blockbusters just beyond the horizon. But on WoW's official forums, existing players aren't exactly united in praise for BlizzCon's reveals. While some fans are happy for the new race, class, and zones, others complain of cute-overload and yet another massive do-over for talents. And on non-WoW sites like Massively, gamers are already suggesting that the expansion is jumping the shark. What do you think -- are Pandaren Monks, a new Asian-inspired setting, and new dungeons enough to lure you back to WoW? Or is there nothing Blizzard can do to win you over? 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: Will Pandaren lure you back to WoW? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: BlizzCon 2011 Posted: 23 Oct 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Massively meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week? You've come to the right post. BlizzCon owned the week with details of World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion Mists of Pandaria, Diablo III teasers, and the re-reveal of Blizzard DOTA (with which we even got a hands-on). We know Massively's often a haven for people who want to play something other than WoW, but some of us can't help but be excited anyway. Pandaren! New character models! Monks! Pandaren! New zones and dungeons! Pet battles! Pandaren! Scenarios! New talent systems (again)! Pandaren! Now all Blizzard has to do is release it before we're old and grey. Check out the best stuff from the con along with this week's other top stories just past the cut. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: BlizzCon 2011 MMO Week in Review: BlizzCon 2011 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: The human casualties Posted: 23 Oct 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, World of Darkness, EVE Evolved, DUST 514 This time last year, EVE Online developer CCP Games was an untouchable powerhouse in the games industry. In addition to servicing around 350,000 EVE subscribers, the company was also developing the World of Darkness MMO and the full scale MMOFPS DUST 514 set on the planets of EVE. Everything seemed to be going fine, but with the release of Incarna at the end of June, CCP faced the biggest crisis in the company's history. Due to a series of missteps and internal leaks that has come to be collectively known as Monoclegate, player confidence in CCP plummeted to record low. Following the CEO's recent letter of apology promising a refocusing of development on in-space EVE features, news of highly requested features due for inclusion in EVE has gone a long way toward restoring confidence in CCP as a developer. With the return of ship spinning earlier this week and news of updates from hybrid turret rebalancing and implants being added to killmails to the release of the player-designed Tornado battlecruiser, the process of refocusing on EVE is well underway. Unfortunately, the good news of upcoming gameplay updates has been marred by the sobering reality that over 20% of CCP's worldwide staff have been laid off as part of the refocusing effort. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the human casualties of the recent EVE drama and speak to an insider at CCP about what's going on within the company. Unless quotes or facts in this article are specifically attributed to this insider, they are my own views and opinions based on publicly available information. Continue reading EVE Evolved: The human casualties EVE Evolved: The human casualties originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday Posted: 23 Oct 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, Patches, RuneScape, Free-to-play Last week we reported that veteran browser MMO RuneScape was losing its ongoing war on bots. Players have begun botting on a massive scale, and it's become increasingly difficult to distinguish bots from ordinary players. Developer Jagex asked for help from the playerbase in solving the botting problem and announced its intention to continue fighting legal battles against the creators of bot programs. In a new community update this week, Jagex Chief Executive Officer Mark Gerhard announced the release of a new doomsday weapon in the war on bots. In an upcoming patch on October 25th, Jagex will be "launching our most formidable bot-busting weapon in our history, targeting what we believe to be 98% of the bots seen in game." This update permanently prevents reflection bots from working and the effects should be immediately visible in-game. To celebrate "bot-nuking day", Tuesday's patch brings four days of events and minigame bonuses for regular players. [Thanks to David for the tip!] RuneScape celebrates 'bot-nuking day' this Tuesday originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Jagex announcement

League of Legends turns two this Thursday, celebrations planned Posted: 23 Oct 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Events, real-world, News items, Free-to-play, Not So Massively The relatively new MOBA genre has seen a massive surge in popularity over the last few years, due mainly to the popularity of DotA remakes like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. It's hard to believe it, but League of Legends is already almost two years old. The free-to-play giant celebrates its second birthday this Thursday the 27th of October, and the developers at Riot Games aim to make sure the day goes down in players' memories. Celebrations have been planned for the big day, but Riot is keeping the details a secret until the day. Players are urged to keep an eye on the LoL website on Thursday. To help celebrate reaching the two year mark, Riot has released an interactive development timeline page showing the game's development from launch day all the way up to last week's Graves patch. The timeline shows when each of LoL's champions was implemented, as well as major developments like the Twisted Treeline 3v3 map, the player-mediated banning tribunal and the recent release of the Dominion game mode. League of Legends turns two this Thursday, celebrations planned originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Interactive development timeline, Birthday announcement

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General gaming

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• Review: Kirby Treads Familiar Ground in His Return to Dreamland
• PC Review: Battlefield 3's 64-Player Matches Make Up for Lackluster Single-Player
• An Interview With Diablo 3's Game Design Team at BlizzCon 2011

Review: Kirby Treads Familiar Ground in His Return to Dreamland Posted: 24 Oct 2011 12:03 AM PDT Kirby games come in two flavors: Simple, saccharine platformers, and wildly innovative (and saccharine) experiments in any number of genres. The latest chapter of the series, Return to Dreamland, falls squarely into the former category. It's a perfectly decent little platformer, but coming hot on the heels of the brilliantly inventive Mass Attack and visually imaginative Epic Yarn, it feels decidedly mundane. The title "Return to Dreamland" is strictly an invention of the Western localization, but it's fitting enough; the game is more than slightly reminiscent of Kirby's Dreamland 3, with absolutely beautiful graphics and a heavy emphasis on Kirby's companions. The main difference between this adventure and that Super NES classic is that the companions this time around aren't adorable animals (though those guys do show up in a random blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual reference); instead, they've been supplanted by other players thanks to a drop-in/drop-out multiplayer format that can totally transform the play experience. More Kirbys Return to Dream Land Videos

PC Review: Battlefield 3's 64-Player Matches Make Up for Lackluster Single-Player Posted: 24 Oct 2011 12:01 AM PDT Battlefield is back. After a lengthy detour with two console-exclusive titles, a trip to the future, two Bad Company games, and two free-to-play releases, the game hailed as the true successor to Battlefield 2 has finally arrived. This is no Call of Duty clone; it genuinely deserves the title Battlefield 3. Before diving into the heart of Battlefield 3, I should address the window dressing: Namely its single-player campaign. As I mentioned in a preview several weeks ago, this portion of the game really is a round of terrorist whack-a-mole, just like Call of Duty. You'll face an unending wave of brain-dead suicidal terrorists until you manage to inch your way up to whatever checkpoint controls enemy spawning, take a few seconds' break, and do the whole thing all over again. It's not bad, but it is frankly uninspired. The gameplay itself is indistinguishable from COD, though the narrative trappings are a bit more down-to-earth. While this works well (in the sense that it's one of the few elements of the campaign that distinguishes itself from the game's competition), BF3's reach exceeds its grasp near the end of the campaign when the story takes a sharp left turn into crazy town. The campaign trades in its pseudo-realistic credentials for a finale straight out of an '80s action movie, with giant plot holes to match. The schizophrenic nature of the single-player is disappointing in light of the campaigns in the Bad Company spin-offs, which also take cues from COD but manage to maintain their own narrative voice.

An Interview With Diablo 3's Game Design Team at BlizzCon 2011 Posted: 23 Oct 2011 12:40 PM PDT The Diablo series is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year (I can't believe it has been that long) and it seems everyone has some story to share, including what they're most looking forward to with Diablo 3. At BlizzCon this year I had a chance to sit down with two members of the game's team: Wyatt Cheng, senior technical game designer, and Andrew Chambers, senior game designer to talk about these topics as well as their thoughts on working on a project that has this much staying power in this industry. 1UP: So how long have you worked for Blizzard?

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MMORPG News

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• General: BioWare Mythic's Paul Barnett to Keynote GDC China 2011
• Free Realms: Super Spooktacular Begins
• Prime Battle for Dominus: Getting Ready for 'Prime' Time
• World of Warcraft: Pandaren Monk Impressions
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pokemon (and DOTA)!
• Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: Come for PvP, Stay for WAAAGH!

General: BioWare Mythic's Paul Barnett to Keynote GDC China 2011 Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:41 AM PDT Paul Barnettt, senior creative director over at BioWare Mythic is set to deliver the keynote at this year's upcoming GDC China.

Free Realms: Super Spooktacular Begins Posted: 24 Oct 2011 08:19 AM PDT Running from October 13 to November 23, the 'Super Spooktacular' Halloween event has returned to the world of Free Realms.

Prime Battle for Dominus: Getting Ready for 'Prime' Time Posted: 23 Oct 2011 12:16 PM PDT MMORPG.com Associate Editor Suzie Ford recently had the opportunity to head to Pitchblack Studios. While there, she met with the team and checked out Prime: Battle for Dominus, a game that is set to bring three-faction PvP back to the forefront of the MMO market. Read on to find out what Suzie discovered about the dev team and about Prime. Let us know what you think in the comments.

World of Warcraft: Pandaren Monk Impressions Posted: 23 Oct 2011 06:58 AM PDT Blizzard rocked World of Warcraft fans with the expansion announcement for Mists of Pandaria. Most exciting about the news is the arrival of the playable Monk class. MMORPG.com's Joe Iuliani had the opportunity to check out the Monk and has a hands on report for our readers. See what Joe thought about the Monk and then weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pokemon (and DOTA)! Posted: 23 Oct 2011 07:13 AM PDT Several brand new features will be coming to World of Warcraft when the Mists of Pandaria expansion goes live "when it's ready". MMORPG.com's Joe Sanicky is pretty hyped up on this stuff and has a lot to say about them. Check out Joe's thoughts and then let us know what you think in the comments.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: Come for PvP, Stay for WAAAGH! Posted: 23 Oct 2011 06:26 AM PDT Warhammer Online is one of the small handful of games that continues to make steady progress throughout the years of its life despite a less than stellar launch. MMORPG.com's Som Pourfarzaneh gives a nod to that fact and has our latest re-review of WAR. Check out what Som discovered about WAR and then let us know what you think in the comments.

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