| DC Universe Online crafting goes live today with Game Update 8 Posted: 10 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, DC Universe Online, Crafting It's patch day for DC Universe Online, and when the superhero title comes back up, denizens of Gotham and Metropolis will have a new research and development system to play with. The R&D mechanic is DCUO's answer to traditional MMO crafting, and characters at level 10 and above will want to head to either the Watchtower or the Hall of Doom for an introduction to the new mechanics. The R&D system brings equipment mods and superior consumables to the game, and it's broken down into four major gameplay spheres: researching, gathering, salvaging, and collecting. Researching involves finding upgrade plans throughout the game world while gathering involves acquiring exobytes. Salvaging is all about turning items into crafting materials, and collecting hinges on getting drops from various boss mobs. The new mechanics are free for all players via the game's eighth major update. The patch notes can be viewed on the official DCUO forums. [Source: Sony Online Entertainment press release]  DC Universe Online crafting goes live today with Game Update 8 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Reddit author offers custom SWTOR load screen mod Posted: 10 Jan 2012 09:30 AM PST |
| The Secret World's Illuminati week reveals backstory, ranking mission Posted: 10 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Lore, MMO industry, New titles, News items, The Secret World Don't tell the Illuminati, but someone's been whispering its secrets in a very public place. Funcom has revealed a bit of backstory on the secretive faction, which is only natural since it's Illuminati week at The Secret World website. Funcom says that prospective Illuminati players will need to find the group's secret headquarters in New York City, as well as undergo "rigorous psychological tests." The group then molds its raw recruits into "focused and efficient Illuminati machinery," and the end goals are victory in the eternal war for influence, knowledge, and power. The article also hints at an Illuminati ranking mission that involves a young United States senator not yet under the group's thumb. Read all about that and more at MMORPG.com. The Secret World's Illuminati week reveals backstory, ranking mission originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The SOPAbox: Defeating online piracy by destroying the internet Posted: 10 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Legal, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are you've heard of SOPA and PIPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act are two radical pieces of copyright legislation currently being pushed through the US government. Although the stated intent of the new legislation is to provide companies with additional tools with which to combat piracy, the bill's loose wording has raised some serious alarm bells. Opponents to the proposed law say it would give corporations the ability to shut down any almost any website under the guise of protecting copyright infringement. Gamers will be affected worst of all, as the loose wording of the law makes any website with user-submitted content potentially vulnerable to a shut down order. That could include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, any blog with a comment section, or even any online game with a chat system. Perhaps the scariest part is that you'll be affected even if you're not in the US, as one of the new law's enforcement mechanisms is to remove a site from the DNS records, a move that assumes the US has jurisdiction over the global Domain Name System. AOL is among many huge companies strongly opposing SOPA, and so naturally Massively opposes it too. In this week's massive two-page Soapbox, I make the case for why you should be worried about SOPA, and I suggest what can be done to tackle piracy in the games industry. Comments can be left on page two. Continue reading The SOPAbox: Defeating online piracy by destroying the internet The SOPAbox: Defeating online piracy by destroying the internet originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Raising the quality bar: gamigo CEOs talk F2P success Posted: 10 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Miscellaneous If you want to get the full scoop on how to make a free-to-play publishing studio work, there are few better people to talk to than the guys running Germany-based gamigo. Co-CEOs Patrick Streppel and Rainer Markussen have had years to experiment and learn from the free-to-play market, as gamigo has been involved with dozens of titles across the globe. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, the duo says that the studio splits their attention between self-produced titles and already-made Asian MMOs that are transplanted to a different market, and the two are quite different indeed. "With our self-produced titles we are trying to merge the two branches, so in a game like Cultures Online you have traditional browser-game monetisation like saving time, spending a little bit of money here and there. But they also have the more Asian-style revenue streams like crafting, enchanting, and paying for increasing the probability of success," Streppel said. The CEOs state that F2P actually caters better to hardcore players since those players will presumably be around for a long time and F2P will save them money over subscriptions. They also discuss how gamigo's had to "raise the quality bar" to stay competitive. The free-to-play world isn't about cutting-edge graphics, Streppel says, but instead "balancing, more about features, about gameplay depth." Because of their experiences, the CEOs have said that they've had to abandon complete genres such as sports and racing that proved to be failures for the company. They also predict that F2P will be coming soon to consoles in a big way, just as the iPhone and iPad market has embraced it. Raising the quality bar: gamigo CEOs talk F2P success originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Diablo III heading to a gaming console near you Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Consoles, Miscellaneous For some time, the Diablo franchise has been touted by PC-gaming purists as one of the landmark reasons that PC gaming is superior to all others. Well, not anymore! Though Blizzard has made numerous statements that they were "seriously considering" a console version of the title, CM Bashiok tweeted today that the upcoming Diablo III would be making the jump to consoles, giving us our first official confirmation. Josh Mosqueira, who has worked on such titles as Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, is heading the charge as the console version's lead designer. Aside from those small details, however, we know absolutely nil about the title's console version (or to which consoles it will be coming, for that matter), but now that the news is out and about, we imagine that Blizzard will be making an official announcement very soon, so keep your eyes peeled and we'll bring you the latest as it comes. Diablo III heading to a gaming console near you originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| John Smedley: EverQuest II seeing 'amazing growth' following F2P Posted: 10 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Business models, MMO industry, Free-to-play, DC Universe Online Following a rocky and often-troubling year for Sony Online Entertainment in 2011, it's got to be good to have a clear win for the team. So we certainly can't begrudge SOE President John Smedley from climbing to the mountaintops to trumpet EverQuest II's success following its full free-to-play transition last month. According to a series of tweets, Smedley says that the numbers are looking impressive: "We are seeing some amazing growth in EQII. 40% increase in daily logins since going F2P, 300% increase in new players, and 200% increase in item sales. Plus we have added a lot of new subs. All during the time that some really good competition hit the market." Smedley also says that SOE is "very excited" with its partnership with ProSiebenSat.1, which grants exclusive publishing rights in Europe to eight of the studio's titles, including EverQuest, DC Universe Online, and Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures. John Smedley: EverQuest II seeing 'amazing growth' following F2P originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Are you a part of your game's community out of game? Posted: 10 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous The foundation of an MMO is people playing together. While there are plenty of soloers -- and the smart developer will make content for them as much as for the group players -- there's a definite community inside of an MMO. That community often continues after logout, though. Thanks to forums both official and not, social media groups, IRC chat, and even real-world meetups, players can continue the social interactions beyond guild or group chat. Of course, that's if they're comfortable with it. Players vary widely on this, so where do you stand? Do your in-game friendships extend beyond the walls of Azeroth, Telara, The Wasteland, or Tyria, or do you prefer that what happens in game stay in game?  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: Are you a part of your game's community out of game? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Secret World's engine takes center stage Posted: 09 Jan 2012 07:00 PM PST Filed under: Horror, Real life, Game mechanics, Interviews, News items, The Secret World, Miscellaneous Unified engines for MMOs have long been a rarity, simply due to the time needed to develop a game and the number of different companies developing separate products. The Secret World manages to buck this trend, using the same core Dreamworld Engine as Funcom's Age of Conan. A recent interview with lead programmer Øystein Eftevaag discusses the way that the engine interacts with the newer game, how the unified engine helps both games, and what special features the game is using in a technical sense. Eftevaag explains that the Dreamworld Engine benefits chiefly from cross-pollination; improvements made in terms of optimization for Age of Conan can be imported to the engine on The Secret World with minimal extra legwork. The engine also uses a series of dynamic equations to determine what player characters should be able to see, subsequently leaving obscured areas blank to save on processor cycles. It's an interesting look under the hood at the technical side of Funcom's upcoming conspiracy and horror title, even if this particular dream world is tilted toward a nightmare. The Secret World's engine takes center stage originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Dr. Greg Zeschuk talks about the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic Posted: 09 Jan 2012 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Culture, Interviews, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic It's been just about a month since Star Wars: The Old Republic began its early access period, throwing open the doors for players all around the world. But the release wasn't just an interesting point for the many players anticipating the game -- after all, it had been BioWare's big project for many years. Fan site TORwars recently had a chat with Dr. Greg Zeschuk about his thoughts on the game at launch and a look back at what could have gone differently. As Zeschuk says, there were definitely some aspects of the development that he would do differently if he could go back in time, including expanding the testing schedule and roster. He also shares his stories of getting his character going once the game went live, something that wound up being unexpectedly problematic. It's not filled with world-shattering revelations about the future of the game, but for players who are starting to look back over their first month with the game, it's certainly a nice look at the other side of the fence. Dr. Greg Zeschuk talks about the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Not So Massively: Hints of a Diablo III release date and more Posted: 09 Jan 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Game mechanics, New titles, Patches, PvP, News items, Opinion, Free-to-play, Not So Massively, MOBA League of Legends kicked off the competitive year with the closing of 2011's final event and showed off some hilarious fan-made videos this week. Firefall continued its cosplay program video series with the inclusion of Hollywood actor Lee Reherman, and we finally got to see the finished mech suits for the game's signature characters Mourningstar and Typhon. Has Diablo III's release date been accidentally leaked? This week we saw compelling evidence to suggest that the highly anticipated title has finally got a release date -- and it's not far away! Heroes of Newerth fans foamed at the mouth with Patch 2.5.4's introducing a potentially overpowered new hero but none of the crash fixes or balance tweaks the game desperately needs. Rise of Immortals announced the winners of its holiday competition and released a new spotlight on Ichorr. Finally, Wrath of Heroes announced the next stage of its ongoing beta, which is scheduled to begin this week. Continue reading Not So Massively: Hints of a Diablo III release date and more Not So Massively: Hints of a Diablo III release date and more originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Taking a look at the world bosses of ArcheAge Posted: 09 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, Endgame, News items, ArcheAge, Sandbox The upcoming sandbox game ArcheAge has turned quite a few heads with its design principles, graphics, and game mechanics. But mechanics alone don't make a game fun to play -- you need to have some content to make use of them, after all. Content like, say, a large number of bosses wandering the world for players to take up arms against. The folks over at Steparu have gone out and shown off precisely those bosses with a new series of videos, showing the latest beta build in action by demonstrating pitched fights against these enemies. As the preview indicates, defeating bosses rewards you with enchantments, equipment, and reputation, with the last being quite useful to gain access to new prizes through the game. The first of several videos is embedded past the cut, but if you want to see the full spectrum of enemies you can fight like a boss, you'll need to check out the full array of videos yourself and possibly join the legions of hopeful fans wondering when the game will get a stateside release. [Thanks to ArcheAge Fan for the tip!] Continue reading Taking a look at the world bosses of ArcheAge Taking a look at the world bosses of ArcheAge originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Bethesda and Interplay settle Fallout MMO lawsuits, Interplay's rights revoked Posted: 09 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Legal, Post-Apocalyptic, Fallout Online, Miscellaneous Bethesda and Interplay have been embroiled in a legal battle for quite some time now, arguing over whether or not Interplay had the rights to create a Fallout MMO. Well, that lawsuit has finally been settled and it appears that Bethesda has come out on top. In a press release today, Bethesda announced that "under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately." Bethesda fails to make any mention of whether or not the studio will use its freshly re-acquired rights in order to actually make a Fallout MMO, however, so the future of the online wasteland remains in flux. [Source: Bethesda Game Studios press release] Bethesda and Interplay settle Fallout MMO lawsuits, Interplay's rights revoked originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Leaderboard: Free-form space combat vs. on-the-rails shooter Posted: 09 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Black Prophecy, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Battlestar Galactica Online, Leaderboard If mankind's exploration into outer space has taught us anything at this point, it's that sooner or later we're going to need to strap big guns on our bubbles of life support and blast each other out of the cosmos. It's already a prevailing theme among MMOs, with titles like EVE Online, Star Trek Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Black Prophecy, and Battlestar Galactica Online allowing us to jump forward a few hundred years of technological growth so we can have some space shootin' fun. As of late there seems to be two camps developing regarding MMO space shooters. With the advent of SWTOR, some are warming up to the cinematic on-the-rails style of its space combat game. Tunnel shooters allow for a more scripted -- and potentially more exciting -- experience, and this type of combat has a long history in single-player games dating back to Starfox and before. Of course, the other camp just loathes rail shooters, much preferring the ability to fly anywhere one wants and engage in combat on one's own terms. The freedom of this style of space combat appeals to the inner individualist who doesn't want to conform to what everyone else is doing. In which camp have you struck your tent? Are you for free-form space combat or on-the-rails shooters? Let your vote be heard after the jump! Continue reading Leaderboard: Free-form space combat vs. on-the-rails shooter Leaderboard: Free-form space combat vs. on-the-rails shooter originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wings Over Atreia: Happy Newb Year! Posted: 09 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Roleplaying, Humor, Wings Over Atreia Oh, that feeling when a game is new and everything is an adventure! Say what you will, but I cherish those moments of still being a newb and getting to experience things for the first time while exploring a new world (mind you, that is newb as in "new person," not n00b meaning "hopelessly moronic"). The problem is, once you have been in a game for a while, that whole aura dissipates and you lose that feeling of wonder. I envy those just now coming to Aion, as those of us who have been here for the past two plus years have lost that initial excitement. And when you've lost that newbie feeling, then it's gone, gone, gone, whoa whoa whoa... Or is it? When you have played the game for a long period of time, you tend to settle into a rut that is hard to break out of. Log in, do dailies, do arenas, do dredge. Toss in a siege. Rinse and repeat. In the past, Wings Over Atreia has delved into some of the reasons to stay in game when things become a bit monotonous and we sludge through some of the more difficult times. But why should we sludge? Why not find ways to make Aion more interesting when you hit that plateau? Some players have done just that. A little creativity (and sometimes some really insane friends) can really make a difference and bring back that newbie feeling -- or at least make things interesting while adding some variety to gaming. Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: Happy Newb Year! Wings Over Atreia: Happy Newb Year! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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