MMO Updates |
- Bethesda and Interplay may be close to settling Fallout dispute
- Star Trek Online holds 'last chance sale' before F2P kicks in
- SWTOR's Daniel Erickson on pulling players' moral strings
- The Daily Grind: What are your 2012 MMO resolutions?
- Behind the Mask: Between this world and the next
- Ask Massively: Further answers to the same questions edition
- MechWarrior Online rolls out the '12 Catapult
- The Guild Counsel: Does SWTOR need a better LFG tool?
- The Perfect Ten: Most significant MMO stories of 2011
| Bethesda and Interplay may be close to settling Fallout dispute Posted: 30 Dec 2011 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Legal, Post-Apocalyptic, Fallout Online  GamePolitics cites a Fallout wiki entry and the leak of a partial court transcript from earlier this month that says "both sides have previously agreed to drop this from the case (Bethesda raised it, and Interplay agreed). The case now just concerns future Fallout games." The website points to another source that claims that Bethesda is attempting to seal parts of the case (which is often a harbinger for an out-of-court settlement).
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| Star Trek Online holds 'last chance sale' before F2P kicks in Posted: 30 Dec 2011 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Promotions  During the sale, players can snag anything they want -- excluding duty officer roster slots -- for 20% off the regular price. According to Cryptic, this will mark the last time (hence the name) that players can buy these items before the new free-to-play pricing kicks in. The Last Chance Sale begins today at 1:00 p.m. EST and will wrap up on January 5th at the same time.
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| SWTOR's Daniel Erickson on pulling players' moral strings Posted: 30 Dec 2011 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Lore, MMO industry, Star Wars: The Old Republic  Probably the most revealing is how Erickson admits that the writers are trying to pull players in multiple directions through a series of moral influences: the game's own light and dark side system, players' own morality, companions' own likes and dislikes, and multiplayer dialogue. Ideally, he said, one of the goals of the writing team was to make quests that would challenge players' set paths to make them want to change. "It's interesting to watch all those dynamic forces affect the player, see how they interact with the storytelling method," he said. Erickson also says that the project got initial pushback over the notion of centering it on story, because of the past limitations of MMOs and "the expected norm" that had grown over the years: "It was clear, when you played the early MMOs, that they were trying to put as much as they could in for what was there. There were people on each one of these projects that clearly cared passionately about the lore, and were really trying to get it across to the players. So we knew that that was there and we knew from the single-player games what did it." The interview continues to cover a wide range of writing challenges, including coming up with the script for Huttball, quests that the team was sure would get cut by the ESRB, and how the team enjoyed coming up with intricate stories, connections, and romances for companion characters.
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| The Daily Grind: What are your 2012 MMO resolutions? Posted: 30 Dec 2011 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  Ahem. So now we're curious about your own resolutions for the new year. Have you promised yourself (or your family) that you'll cut back on MMOs? Are you looking forward to returning to an old favorite to spite the new shinies? Let us know what your MMO plans are for 2012, and as an extra bonus, let us know if you kept 2011's resolutions!  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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| Behind the Mask: Between this world and the next Posted: 29 Dec 2011 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Lore, Opinion, Free-to-play, Champions Online, Behind the Mask  This week we're going to look at alternate dimensions in the Champions universe. I was going to take a more indepth look at the background behind the war between Heaven and Hell, but unfortunately there is so much information that paints necessary frameworks for those story elements. It's unfortunate, but the information I have to go over this week is pretty crazy stuff. Before you go through this, you may want to check out some of my other lore articles, including my magic lore article and my general lore primer. I do restate all the necessary stuff here, but having a broader understanding of what's going on can do nothing but help. A lot of the information here is from The Mystic World sourcebook, but there's also a fair bit of stuff cobbled together from ingame lore and some other sourcebooks. Definitely check them out if you want more information on these subjects. Continue reading Behind the Mask: Between this world and the next
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| Ask Massively: Further answers to the same questions edition Posted: 29 Dec 2011 03:00 PM PST Filed under: New titles, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous  As you may have guessed, this week's installment is all about the persistent question of Star Wars: The Old Republic's getting a devoted Joystiq-flavored site. I suspect most of our regular readers are playing the game and not really thinking about asking questions. If you've got a question for next week, you can leave it in the comments below or send it along to ask@massively.com. Questions may be edited slightly for brevity or clarity. Continue reading Ask Massively: Further answers to the same questions edition
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| MechWarrior Online rolls out the '12 Catapult Posted: 29 Dec 2011 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Previews, MechWarrior Online  If you're in the latter category, then you're going to love MechWarrior Online today, as the devs revealed the latest in the 26th century lineup: the CPLT-C1 Catapult. This heavy 'Mech may be a tad on the slow side, but it more than makes up for it with firepower and 10 tons of armor. The two-legged Catapult boasts missiles, lasers, and jumpjets, although it can only go a little less than 65 kph on the battlefield. The Catapult will be available to the Terran Hegemony and seems suitable for those who prefer slow, powerful brutes to quick, nimble machines. If walking piles of death metal are your thing, make sure to catch up on our preview of MechWarrior Online.
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| The Guild Counsel: Does SWTOR need a better LFG tool? Posted: 29 Dec 2011 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Guilds, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Guild Counsel, Dungeons  Often, this column has focused on guilds and communities in MMOs, both the good and the bad. With the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, it's interesting to look at the ways in which a community is slowly gelling on each server. Already there are players I'm bumping into more and more often, and while I tend to huddle around guildies most of the time, I find that I enjoy things much more when I'm surrounded by a good community of players. There's already been a lively discussion among SWTOR fans about whether the current LFG tool is good enough or something more is needed. Do we need something more "meaty" to help do the job of grouping for us or not? Read on for some pros and cons, and weigh in on whether more is needed to help bring the community closer. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Does SWTOR need a better LFG tool?
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| The Perfect Ten: Most significant MMO stories of 2011 Posted: 29 Dec 2011 11:00 AM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Aion, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, EverQuest II, Fallen Earth, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Trek Online, RuneScape, Global Agenda, Champions Online, DC Universe Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, Perfect Ten, Miscellaneous  So in my last Perfect Ten of 2011, I put together the 10 most significant MMO stories of the year. Ten seems like an awfully small number for such a great big field, so I had the rest of the staff members chime in with their nominations just to make sure I wasn't too off-base with any of these. It was a whopper of a year, and Massively was there for all of it -- the ups, the downs, the queues, and the QQs. It's time to wrap it up with a pretty bow and dedicate it to the history museum! Continue reading The Perfect Ten: Most significant MMO stories of 2011
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