| Captain's Log: Facility 4028 -- The jailhouse rocks! Posted: 05 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Previews, PvE, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Captain's Log Like previous columns about The 2800, this column is an overview and will contain spoilers. If you have not yet played this mission or do not want to know about what happens, stop right here! Star Trek Online continues its recent featured episode series, The 2800, with Facility 4028, a meticulously created mission that places the player's character into the unenviable position of being caught in the middle of a Starfleet prison when all hell breaks loose. It's a fun little trip, and I believe it's an installment worthy of the reputation garnered by the more intricate missions seen in STO's previous series, Cloaked Intentions. Join me for a recap of this adventure! Continue reading Captain's Log: Facility 4028 -- The jailhouse rocks!  Captain's Log: Facility 4028 -- The jailhouse rocks! originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| SWTOR's Guild Summit kicks off -- and lurkers are welcome Posted: 05 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Guilds, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Livestream BioWare has assembled guilds from all across the world this week for a Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit, and proceedings have already begun. Over 160 guilds have assembled in Austin, Texas, from places as far away from Norway, Brazil, and France. The good news is that even if you're not reading this post from a spot on the summit floor, you can still tune into the panels and discussions via livestream. Today's events include a patch 1.2 presentation (which is coming "soon"), discussions about operations and flashpoints, and panels covering PvP, the Legacy system, the economy, roleplaying, guild features, and the user interface. BioWare also announced its Friends of Star Wars program, which will give all current players the ability to give three one-week trials to others to check out the game. Finally, BioWare teased a new world events system. Check out all of the action on SWTOR's Guild Summit livestream right now! SWTOR's Guild Summit kicks off -- and lurkers are welcome originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Line of Defense unveils new website, beta signups Posted: 05 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS Are you curious as to what Derek Smart has been working on lately? Line of Defense is in the midst of a considerable PR push, and the latest salvo comes in the form of a new official website. Beta signups are also live, so if you want to get in on all the sci-fi MMOFPS action, head over and register. You can also check out the 3000AD YouTube channel to get a look at the game's official trailer, and keep your eyes peeled later in the week as Massively talks to the dev team at the Game Developer's Conference. Line of Defense is a large-scale MMO shooter that features ground, air, and space combat as well as two factions. [Source: 3000AD press release] Line of Defense unveils new website, beta signups originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wings Over Atreia: Ode to 3.0, verse three -- crafting Posted: 05 Mar 2012 07:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Patches, Professions, Opinion, Wings Over Atreia, Crafting When, oh when will my expansion get here?
Oh when, oh when could it be?
With its new recipes
and crafting dailies,
Oh when, oh when can it be? I just can't get this song out of my head. No matter how hard I try, I can't keep my mind away from Aion's upcoming 3.0 patch/expansion, Ascension. Ignoring it didn't work. Taking one little peek didn't either. Perhaps sharing and getting the tune stuck in someone else's head might do the trick? Nope; I've tried that for the last two weeks to no avail. I have even tried replacing it with other ditties, jingles, and orchestrations, but the melody always morphs back into something about that tempting little patch. My last hope is to play, but since that won't be a viable option for a while (still no definitive date, dagnabbit!), I guess that leaves me with just one choice: If you can't beat it, join it. Yup, I will just have to hum along while busying myself learning more about all the neat little tidbits, like the ones coming the way of the crafters. Ah, you thought that perhaps adventurers were the only ones getting the goods? If so, you thought wrong. Beyond recipes, Ascension actually introduces some intriguing (and useful) new features specifically related to crafting. Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: Ode to 3.0, verse three -- crafting Wings Over Atreia: Ode to 3.0, verse three -- crafting originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MV Guide: March 5th - 11th, 2012 Posted: 05 Mar 2012 07:00 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: March 5th - 11th, 2012 MV Guide: March 5th - 11th, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| DUST 514 Vita version is companion app, not full game Posted: 05 Mar 2012 06:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Mobile, MMOFPS, DUST 514, Sandbox If you were hoping to play a mobile version of CCP's upcoming DUST 514 shooter, you might want to adjust your expectations just a bit. The EVE Online-inspired MMOFPS will be making an appearance on Sony's PlayStation Vita device... but as a companion app rather than a full-blown game. CCP's Brandon Laurino explained the details to Eurogamer in an interview over the weekend. "At the most basic level, you can do transactions on the market, equip and customize your character, your vehicles, set up strategies with your friends and corporation members -- all of these sort of companion functions on the go," he says. Laurino also says that the DUST Vita launch date has yet to be determined but that gamers should keep an eye out for further iterations of the app after its initial release. "As we continue to explore what the possibilities are between Vita and PS3, of which there are many, we'll keep updating the app with stuff like that over time," he explained. DUST 514 Vita version is companion app, not full game originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Are you an MMO hoarder? Posted: 05 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor, Miscellaneous My guildies will tell you I'm a little bit OCD when it comes to my in-game MMO organization. I keep a pristine inventory, bank box, and house, assuming the game offers these features. I simply cannot log out of a game without emptying my mailbox, selling off junk loot, and making sure every stack of ore is just so. Other players game as if every MMO were an episode of Hoarders. We're not talking insects and pizza boxes here, but quest items from three expansions ago aren't out of the question ("maybe I'll use it for RP?"). In a way, I'm even a little bit jealous of these laissez faire folk, and I wonder whether they waste more time searching through their messy inventories than I do organizing mine obsessively. What about you -- are you an MMO hoarder?  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 an MMO hoarder? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| DUST 514 will be F2P and free to download Posted: 04 Mar 2012 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, DUST 514, Sandbox CCP may not be jumping on the free-to-play bandwagon with EVE Online, but the company has told Eurogamer that it is making use of the new payment model for its EVE-based MMOFPS called DUST 514. If you're scratching your head because you thought this had been announced already, here's the skinny: The firm initially intended to charge between $10 and 20$ to download DUST over the PlayStation network. There was some sort of confusing payment scheme in the works by which the original cover charge would be converted to in-game credits that could then be spent in the cash shop. Now, though, DUST will be fully free-to-play (and download), with optional microtransactions on the side. CCP executive producer Brandon Laurino tells Eurogamer that DUST isn't cut from the standard pay-to-win cloth, either. "It's the classic microtransaction dynamic of 'I can pay and get this item' or 'I can invest my time and get this item.' But neither of those options will give me an unfair advantage over the other," he explains. There's more to the article, including some bits about the types of cash shop items on offer. Head to Eurogamer for the full report. DUST 514 will be F2P and free to download originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMO Week in Review: Doom and gloom Posted: 04 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: MMO industry, 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. Quit depressing us, MMOverse. This week has been pure pain for MMO developers, as we learned that Blizzard suffered layoffs, EverQuest Online Adventures and Lime Odyssey Korea are shutting down, Stellar Dawn and Dawntide are halting development, Black Prophecy is in trouble, gamigo was hacked, and CCP's North American president moved on. Let's aim for a rosier news roundup next week as we head to GDC 2012, shall we? In the meantime, the rest of this week's top MMO stories await you behind the break. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Doom and gloom MMO Week in Review: Doom and gloom originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| EVE Evolved: Five scams to avoid Posted: 04 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Professions, PvP, EVE Evolved, Guides, Sandbox Anyone who's familiar with EVE Online will have heard stories of the game's criminal underworld, from devastating corporate infiltration to the daily grafting of common con artists. Most players will never perpetrate a scam, but those who do are constantly coming up with new tricks to part you from your hard-earned ISK. For every genuine smooth-talking con-artist who comes up with new schemes and socially engineers his way to a fortune, you'll find dozens of copycats who flood popular chat channels with scams they've seen perpetrated in the past. On an average day, over 90% of the chat in Jita's local channel is people posting copycat scams, with legitimate offers completely drowned out. There may not even be anyone at the helm with these scams, as a script could easily paste the scam message every few minutes for an entire day. Not confined to Jita, these scams are often replicated across all of the game's main trade hubs and popular mission-running systems. Knowing how these scams work is the first step to protecting yourself from making an expensive and extremely embarrassing mistake. In this week's EVE Evolved, I explain the trick behind five of EVE's most common copycat scams and how to protect yourself from them. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Five scams to avoid EVE Evolved: Five scams to avoid originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The gates hiss open for a peek at City of Steam Posted: 04 Mar 2012 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, New titles, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Miscellaneous The steampunk genre is loved by a lot of gamers, but it has yet to see a surfeit of titles. The good news for fans is that City of Steam is on the horizon, and it's promising a free-to-play browser-based experience for anyone who wants to take part in exploring ancient mechanical ruins. Of course, the question then becomes whether or not the game is worth the investment of time... something that can be solved by taking part in the game's currently running sneak peek event. The sneak peek is available only to players who already snagged a code for access, meaning that players just coming into the game will be out of luck. It's certainly an encouraging sign that the game is moving toward its full release, which should make fans of clockwork automatons and arcane science quite happy. And if you're one of the players taking part in the sneak peek... well, all the better, right? The gates hiss open for a peek at City of Steam originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Rise and Shiny: A bit of Wakfu, a smidge of Spiral Knights, and some Lime Odyssey Posted: 04 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Screenshots, New titles, Previews, PvP, PvE, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Casual, Humor, Rise and Shiny, Miscellaneous, Sandbox This week in Rise and Shiny, things did not go as planned. This sort of thing actually happens often enough to almost be a problem: I pick out a title or am tasked with taking a look at a certain game, but communication lines are crossed and the game I was supposed to give a first impressions-style look at closes down its beta in the middle of the week. Like I said, it does happen, enough to force me to plan out my articles on a month-long calendar. Even then, things can change. So instead of talking about the game I said I was going to be this week, Seven Souls Online, I decided to go over the three games that I gleefully jumped into over the last few days. This will not be a typical first impression-style piece but instead will hint at the specific adventures I had while playing these games. These wonderful, wonderful games. Continue reading Rise and Shiny: A bit of Wakfu, a smidge of Spiral Knights, and some Lime Odyssey Rise and Shiny: A bit of Wakfu, a smidge of Spiral Knights, and some Lime Odyssey originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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