| Leaderboard: Lockboxes yea vs. lockboxes nay Posted: 27 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Polls, Business models, Opinion, Miscellaneous, Leaderboard While the concept of lockboxes -- or gift boxes, or super packs, or whatever nomenclature you prefer -- are certainly not new to MMOs, it seems like they're finally making headway into some of the biggest free-to-play titles as of late. From Star Trek Online to Lord of the Rings Online to City of Heroes, studios are making beaucoup bucks from hosting these mystery treasure chests that cost real-world money to acquire or unlock. Some love them and some despise them, but the truth is that they're incredible moneymakers for companies. But money isn't what Leaderboard is about; we're in search of public opinion. Do lockboxes have an acceptable place in MMOs? Not only would finances seem to suggest so, but the psychology of these goodie bags offer euphoric rushes that normal monster looting does not provide. Sure, maybe it's gambling, but nobody's forcing you to buy them -- and if you do, you're guaranteed to get something somewhat useful, if not incredibly rare. Should lockboxes be shunned and boycotted from all MMOs? Are they ruining the reputation of F2P and representative of the worst mentality this business model has to offer? Do lockboxes kill koala bears and deforest Brazil? Has a lockbox been the cause of one or more breakups in your dating life? Let's put it to a vote: lockboxes yea or lockboxes nay? Keep in mind that if you've spent money on one or more in a game, then you don't want to come across as hypocritical in this poll! Continue reading Leaderboard: Lockboxes yea vs. lockboxes nay  Leaderboard: Lockboxes yea vs. lockboxes nay originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Guild Wars 2 beta signups peaked at 4,000 a minute Posted: 27 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, News items, Guild Wars 2  Last week we brought you the news ArenaNet had received over a million signups for the Guild Wars 2 beta. In a press release today, that success was further clarified with an impressive statistic: during peak periods of the signup, the company recorded more than 4,000 signups a minute. That seems to be a huge testament to player's anticipation of the upcoming MMO, if the feat of achieving 1,000,000 tester signups in just under 50 hours wasn't cool enough. The press release also contained some details about future tests, saying that the next bout of closed beta testing will come in late March and "will provide players with an opportunity to experience its deep RPG game elements, epic World v. World battles and inviting social gameplay while helping the team load test the servers." According to a blog post from January, this will be followed up by larger events in April leading up to the eventual and long-awaited release. [Source: NCsoft press release] Guild Wars 2 beta signups peaked at 4,000 a minute originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New Korean MMO Bless reveals English website Posted: 27 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items Stop us if you're heard this one before. There's a new MMO coming out of Korea. It's drop-dead gorgeous, it's built on the latest version of the Unreal engine, and it features fantasy armor that doesn't leave much to the imagination. No it's not Aion, or even TERA. The new kid on the block is called Bless, and though we told you about the game back in October, it's taken Neowiz a while to come up with an English website. That website is now live (though it does take forever and a day to load). The site features a trailer, a few screenshots and character concepts, and brief snippets of lore that seem to indicate two factions (Cosmopolis and Hierapolis). We've heard a rumor that Neowiz has more than 150 developers working on the project, some of whom worked on Aion, TERA, and Lineage II. We'll bring you more on the new title as it becomes available. New Korean MMO Bless reveals English website originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MV Guide: February 27 - March 4, 2012 Posted: 27 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Previews, Hands-on, Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. 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 our streamed 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, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule! Continue reading MV Guide: February 27 - March 4, 2012 MV Guide: February 27 - March 4, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| DDO's Menace of the Underdark releasing June 25th, opens up pre-orders Posted: 27 Feb 2012 05:15 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Classes, Expansions, Previews, Free-to-play, Promotions Speaking of Guinness World Records for video games, I wonder whether Dungeons and Dragons Online would be eligible for "Longest time between game release and launch of its first expansion?" Six years may just be the longest we've ever witnessed, as DDO released in 2006, and it wasn't until 2012 that Menace of the Underdark was revealed. The good news is that come June 25th, the drought will be over. We asked Turbine why now seemed like a good time for an expansion. The devs said that Atari had made some noise back in the day about one, but it never came to fruition. With the success of free-to-play, Turbine wanted to see whether the expansion model was still viable, so Lord of the Rings Online was chosen as a test subject. When Rise of Isengard became the best-selling expansion for the company, the company felt secure letting DDO have a chance, although there was quite a lot of wrangling with Wizards of the Coast about the details and permissions. Record or no, it's an exciting event for DDO players, and the today, Turbine has announced the two biggest details for the expansion's schedule. The first is that Menace of the Underdark has a release date, and the second is the opening of pre-orders. Read on to get all of the juicy infos. Continue reading DDO's Menace of the Underdark releasing June 25th, opens up pre-orders DDO's Menace of the Underdark releasing June 25th, opens up pre-orders originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Should players get a vote on content? Posted: 27 Feb 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Sandbox Nevermind games with complicated player councils -- TinySpeck's browser sandbox Glitch puts the power in the hands of the people. The game is free-to-play and back in beta, but once the game relaunches, those who've subscribed can make use of their accrued benefits, which include up to five votes per month in dev-led referenda on the game's content. Players can save their votes up and then cast them all at once or one at a time on whatever issues they feel deserve prioritization, although it's the devs, not the players, who will decide what each referendum entails. So what do you think -- is it a good idea to let players vote (or pay to vote) on what content makes it into a 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: Should players get a vote on content? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMO Week in Review: One million served Posted: 26 Feb 2012 05:00 PM PST 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. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. One million eager players signed up to test Guild Wars 2 during ArenaNet's two-day closed beta blitz this week. Whether those one million will be invited to the actual test is still unknown, but while you wait, there are plenty of GW2 snacks to nibble. Why not check out our closed beta impressions, the latest Flameseeker Chronicles, our video guide to crafting, and the latest on the game's anti-queue overflow servers? This week's other top MMO stories are just behind the cut! Continue reading MMO Week in Review: One million served MMO Week in Review: One million served originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| CCP: DUST will offer a 'more intuitive' EVE experience Posted: 26 Feb 2012 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Consoles, MMOFPS, DUST 514, Sandbox Rock, Paper Shotgun has a new interview with CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson and CMO David Reid. The pair have a few interesting nuggets to share about DUST 514 and EVE Online, as well as how the two games are related. Petursson says that initially, DUST mercenaries will not be riding the proverbial space elevator into orbit to parlay with their capsuleer counterparts in EVE. As in the eight-year-old spaceship MMO, though, the design will evolve and change, and "the two experiences are going to be more and more crafted over time." The interview also also posits that DUST's accessible shooter design may lead new players into the world of New Eden in spite of EVE Online's legendary learning curve. " EVE is a very particular type of experience, made for people who want to commit a lot of energy to have a game experience like that," Petursson explains. "Over the years we've seen a lot of people interested in the EVE universe, the single shard and the political drama, but [they] might not be particularly looking for an experience like the game itself. We see DUST as a way to allow people to participate in this universe by offering them a more intuitive, familiar, speedier, quicker, shorter time-commitment type of experience." CCP: DUST will offer a 'more intuitive' EVE experience originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| EVE Evolved: Setting the universe on fire Posted: 26 Feb 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved, DUST 514, Sandbox This week CCP Games announced the name and focus of EVE Online's upcoming summer expansion. The Inferno expansion aims to re-invigorate PvP with some long overdue gameplay changes. CONCORD-sanctioned wars will be iterated on for the first time in half a decade, and faction warfare will hopefully be getting the updates it should have received in 2008. Following on from the success of the Crucible expansion with its hundreds of small features and gameplay changes, Inferno will also contain dozens of small gameplay changes, usability fixes, and minor improvements. We'll hear more about DUST 514 in the coming months as CCP reveals more concrete details of the game's link to EVE Online and the motivations behind planet-bound wars. Incarna fans will apparently also see some movement, with Team Avatar focusing on avatar-based updates for this release. While Inferno is a rather uninspired name and coincidentally would make three of the last four expansions start with the word "in," the expansion's content is genuinely exciting. Fundamental changes are coming to EVE's PvP mechanics for the first time in several years. CCP hasn't revealed the exact changes, but that hasn't stopped players from speculating on what might be heading their way. In this week's EVE Evolved, I speculate on the changes coming in the upcoming Inferno expansion and what changes I think might be coming to EVE's PvP. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Setting the universe on fire EVE Evolved: Setting the universe on fire originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| League of Legends reveals Fiora, The Grand Duelist Posted: 26 Feb 2012 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Game mechanics, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MOBA, League of Legends If you're fed up with all the recent mage champions added to League of Legends, you'll be happy to know that the next champion due to hit the scene is a true melee carry. Fiora is a competent initiator able to dash around a teamfight picking off fleeing heroes. Fiora's passive causes her to regenerate health every time she hits a target, stacking up to four times if the target is an enemy hero. Her first move, Lunge, is a double-dash that can be used to land a hit and escape, chase down a fleeing target, or initiate teamfights. As if that weren't enough mobility, Burst of Speed gives bonus movement speed for every basic attack or lunge that hits while it's active. Burst of Speed also provides an attack speed boost, and its cooldown resets if Fiora kills an enemy champion. Riposte gives Fiora a massive attack damage buff, causing the next basic attack or spell against her to be reflected back at the attacker. Fiora's ultimate, Blade Waltz, makes her rapidly bounce between nearby enemies, slashing each one for physical damage. Fiora is invulnerable during the move, but could easily be counter-attacked when it ends. League of Legends reveals Fiora, The Grand Duelist originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dell has begun shipping its first ultrabook, making it the latest PC vendor to jump on the ultrabook bandwagon. Announced last month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the 
With all the talk about the hot new tablets and smartphones at this year's Mobile World Conference, it's easy to forget about the lowly netbook. Once the cool kid in the computing club, netbooks have suffered an amazing fall from grace, with sales plummeting even faster than Congressional approval ratings. How bad are things for netbooks? About a year ago, Lenovo was pumped about 
Asus is one of the few manufacturers who have been able to carve itself a niche in the Android tablet market, but the company isn't about to rest on its laurels following the successes of the Eee Pad Transformer and Transformer Prime. Two new Transformer products -- one high end, one low end -- were unveiled today at the Mobile World Conference, the smartphone/tablet/notebook hybrid called the PadFone got hard specs and a release date, and if that wasn't enough, Asus dropped the "Eee" and started calling its tablets plain ol' "Transformer Pad."
The more things change, the more they stay the same, as the old saying goes. The cliché looks to be in full effect in Windows 8. No, Microsoft hasn't suddenly and miraculously decided to drop the contentious-to-some Metro UI for its upcoming operating system, but it will be killing two other branding efforts. Windows Live and Zune are all rumored to be going the way of the Dodo, dropped in favor of Apple-esque simplified program names.
We've never been so confused about a processor launch date as we are now. Actually, it's Intel that appears the most confuzzled over when exactly Ivy Bridge will make its official debut, as conflicting and incomplete reports continue to surface. The latest we're hearing is that Ivy Bridge is definitely being delayed until June, but let's back up a moment and see if we can make some sense of it all.
Once you post something on the Internet, it takes about a nanosecond for it be picked up by a wandering Web surfer with his or her finger on the Print Screen key, let alone Google's Web crawling bots that take cached snapshots of everything it finds. So even though Hewlett-Packard has taken down a couple of driver documents that made references to Windows 8 SKUs, we can still take a peek thanks to a pair of cached copies.
It's fair to say that Intel has conquered the desktop market and will probably remain on top for a long time to come, but it when it comes to mobile platforms like tablets and smartphones, ARM is the one with a stranglehold on the market. The Santa Clara chip maker has long said it plans to make a serious run at mobile devices, and starting soon, you'll see a bunch of smartphones sporting Intel inside.
Mobile World Congress is now in full swing, which means an added emphasis on mobile devices and related technology announcements. One of the more interesting to come out of MWC is Qualcomm's unveiling of its upcoming Snapdragon S4 Pro MSM8960 processor. The S4 Pro adds a bit of graphical kick with an Adreno 320 GPU baked in.
