| The Anvil of Crom: Thanksgiving leftovers and what's new in Hyboria Posted: 27 Nov 2011 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom What's up, Age of Conan fans? Hopefully all of you had an overindulgent Thanksgiving (I'm picturing clusters of barbarians hunched around roaring campfires, gnawing the blackened meat off the bones of whatever game animal happened to pass by). For my part, I spent the last couple of days avoiding work, gaining weight, and catching up on recent news from Funcom's Hyboria. I've been a bit distracted with various online shooters lately, but I always find myself coming back to AoC because of its unique fantasy world and rough-and-tumble themepark mechanics. Join me after the break for a few recent tidbits that piqued my interest. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Thanksgiving leftovers and what's new in Hyboria  The Anvil of Crom: Thanksgiving leftovers and what's new in Hyboria originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Global Chat: November 20-26, 2011 Posted: 27 Nov 2011 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Global Chat, Miscellaneous Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! Games we love, games we don't, and games we're not sure of are all on the menu for this week's Global Chat. Everyone loves to talk over upcoming games and expansions, sharing his thoughts and debating various points. Follow along after the cut to see what our readers had to say about that last week! Continue reading Global Chat: November 20-26, 2011 Global Chat: November 20-26, 2011 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What do you do when you're in a queue? Posted: 27 Nov 2011 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous It's not hard to find an MMO player who's gotten to experience the singular joy of the server queue. Maybe you were trying to log in to DC Universe Online right after it switched business models; maybe you've been taking part in this weekend's beta testing for Star Wars: The Old Republic; or maybe you were around for the launch of World of Warcraft. There's no debate to be had over whether or not server queues are good -- not even the developers consider them something good, just occasionally something necessary. No, today's question is about how you handle it. Do you wait it out and watch the time tick down? Read a book while you wait? Whip out a handheld game system? Play some Solitaire? Fix a snack? When the worst-case scenario happens and you're stuck in a server queue, what do you do to help pass the time between the start of the queue and the time when you get in?  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 do you do when you're in a queue? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 27 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Uncharted Waters Online sets sail for Tierra Americana Posted: 26 Nov 2011 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Historical, Culture, Expansions, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Crafting If you're basing a game in the Age of Exploration, however loose its historical basis may be, you have to eventually wind up dealing with the Americas. That's the case for Uncharted Waters Online, which has just launched the large Tierra Americana expansion to set players into the New World. America is the place to establish Pioneer Cities, special player-created towns that can be built up by player companies and then visited by others. That's only part of the update, however, which also includes the cities of Paris and Firenze. Paris is, of course, the city of culture and fashion; it lets players show off their discoveries and try to set new trends in the fashion world. Firenze, meanwhile, offers crafters special improvements and gives new incentives to player-made goods. The update also features new ships and updates to the ship systems, giving Uncharted Waters Online's players ways to ensure that they traverse the newly expanded ocean in style and safety. Uncharted Waters Online sets sail for Tierra Americana originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MapleStory breached, 13 million accounts exposed Posted: 26 Nov 2011 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Legal The famously hacked Sony has a sympathetic shoulder this week, as Nexon recently discovered a massive breach that's exposed over 13 million MapleStory player accounts to cyber ne'er-do-wells. Discovered this past Thursday, the breach was solely limited to South Korea, as Nexon hosts separate countries on their own servers. This means that any South Korean MapleStory player's information is at risk, including user IDs, names, passwords, and residential registration numbers. This information could potentially be stolen and used for a variety of crimes. While there's been no word whether actual personal information has been stolen, Nexon nevertheless urged these 13+ million subscribers to change their passwords. The company has contacted the police to ask for a formal investigation. This comes at an unfortunate time for the company, as Nexon is poised to present its IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December. MapleStory breached, 13 million accounts exposed originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 1 Posted: 26 Nov 2011 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Game mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, The Mog Log The character creator in Final Fantasy XI was my first exposure to character creation in MMOs, which is disappointing. There's no way to paint it as a good system, at least not to someone who is more or less powered by character customization. But it did give you your first six options for character class, and since we're starting the no doubt many-part series on character classes in both games as of today, it's relevant. At the beginning of the game, you choose a class selected from the same six classes that have made up the "default" arrangement for the series since, well, 1987. Today, I'm going to take a look at the three physical classes from that initial assortment: the Warrior, the Thief, and the Monk. We're going to be using the same initial criteria that kicked off this series, so take a moment to look at that if you're unfamiliar. Without further ado, let's get to classes! Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 1 The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 1 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Tattered Notebook: Will Age of Discovery be the last EQII expansion? Posted: 26 Nov 2011 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Business models, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook It's amazing how much can change in just over a year. At the end of last summer, we were wrapping up Fan Faire and looking forward to Destiny of Velious, the upcoming expansion and the first of what was supposed to be a two-part expansion. This past weekend, just over a year later, I was headed to #OccupyNorrath to check out the planned protest, part of which was aimed at the cost of the new expansion, Age of Discovery. While the protest was light, to put it mildly, there has been quite a bit of rumbling on the forums about this upcoming expansion and the fact that while it might be heavy on features, it's pretty light on new content. Now, when I question whether Age of Discovery will be the last EverQuest II expansion, I'm certainly not predicting that all production will cease and desist in the game afterwards. But I think it's worth asking whether we're seeing a shift away from the traditional expansion model. Let's take a look back the past year and a half because I think it offers hints that might help explain the bigger picture for the game. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Will Age of Discovery be the last EQII expansion? The Tattered Notebook: Will Age of Discovery be the last EQII expansion? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Life has taught me that death and taxes are constants, and it's also reinforced the concept that dropping my camera in the ocean is pretty much game over when it comes to my vacation photos. Fast forward to 2011 however, and Google + has made the impossible, possible. Deep sea diver 
Lots of great alternatives to Microsoft's deluxe office suite have emerged over the past few years, but if you find yourself only occasionally in need of a tool to edit Word or Excel files, the hefty $159 price tag for the full home and student edition can be a bit hard to justify. Google Docs or even Microsoft's own online versions of office can help in a pinch, but nothing quite matches the native experience you get from running the desktop app. If the above scenario describes you, 
While its harsh to judge a device against the oft-outlandish rumors preceding its launch, the disappointment surrounding the iPhone 4S launch was justified as the upgrades did not seem commensurate with the long gap between the 4S and its predecessor. However, the smartphone's voice-activated personal assistant Siri is an entirely different matter, with even Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently calling it a "significant development." Microsoft's Craig Mundie, though, is not in awe of Siri.
