MMO Updates

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• Spirit Tales livestream giveaway happening this Friday
• City of Steam fashions a pressurized skill tree
• The Repopulation broadcasts its first public gameplay footage
• MV Guide: April 9 - 15, 2012
• The Daily Grind: When do you consider a game to be 'dying'?
• MMO Week in Review: PAX on, PAX off
• Buffs coming for League of Legends' Kayle, Teemo and more
• New Diablo III launch site collapses under the weight of fans
• One Shots: A new dawn
• Ready, aim, Firefall: Impressions of the closed beta

Spirit Tales livestream giveaway happening this Friday Posted: 09 Apr 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Contests, Free-to-play Spirit Tales is counting down the days until its open beta goes live on April 25th, but that doesn't mean there's nothing for players to do between now and then. On the contrary, KoramGame is hosting a livestream event on April 13th to both show off the game and hand out prizes to its devoted fans. By tuning into the Spirit Tales livestream on Friday at 5:00 p.m. EDT, fans can get an eyeful of the game prior to open beta and have a chance at winning one of several giveaways. The livestream will cover a variety of topics, from character creation, PvP, dungeons, and the pet system. You'll need to be logged into Twitch.tv to have a chance at winning. In addition to the livestream giveaways, KoramGame is awarding one Tt eSPORTS Challenger gaming keyboard and five in-game pets to winners of a future drawing. To get a shot at this, you'll need to register for a free account at the Spirit Tales website. Spirit Tales livestream giveaway happening this Friday originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Spirit Tales livestream, Giveaway page

City of Steam fashions a pressurized skill tree Posted: 09 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Previews, Dev Diaries Many MMOs have skill or talent trees, but when you're doing a steampunk game, why not take a bland staple of the genre and turn it into something awesome? That's the thinking behind City of Steam's Lead Designer Dave Winking, who shows off the team's ideas for turning the mundane into the fantastical. After taking feedback from previous generic builds, City of Steam's dev team revamped the skill tree's visuals and mechanics to entice a "whoa!" out of its players. The concept is that the tree is now a maze of pipes, boilers, and valves. Players will build up "pressure" over time which can be vented into different pipes. The more pressure in a pipe, the higher a skill goes, and once a skill hits 100% pressure, it's usable by the player. Winking says that players have more options than just filling up a pipe; they can over-pressurize pipes to achieve higher skill ranks, and take multiple paths to achieve better skills. There's even a mystery skill that Winking says will "make your character explode into pieces of bread with cat's heads stuck through them." Of course, he then says he's probably teasing about the last thing. City of Steam fashions a pressurized skill tree originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Skill tree dev journal

The Repopulation broadcasts its first public gameplay footage Posted: 09 Apr 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Video, Previews, Sandbox, Crafting Drips and drabs of information about the sci-fi sandbox The Repopulation have been coming in, but as with any title in early development, it's never enough to satiate the masses who want the whole scoop. So consider today's bounty of the first gameplay footage and a lore piece as an appetizer to tide you over until the main course. The gameplay video demonstrates one of the core features of The Repopulation: its city-building system. During the 12-and-a-half minutes the video runs, fans can check out how cities are put together piece by piece using a wide variety of tools and fellow player cooperation. The devs also take this opportunity to discuss the UI, controls, and how alliances work in the game. The team also posted a lore piece called Leesa's Story on the site. The vignette introduces the titular character, a cook who also happens to be a cook, and her misguided adventures going duck hunting. The Repopulation is currently accepting signups for its alpha testing, which begins in June. You can watch the full video after the break. [Thanks to J.C. for the tip!] Continue reading The Repopulation broadcasts its first public gameplay footage The Repopulation broadcasts its first public gameplay footage originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: YouTube, Leesa's Story

MV Guide: April 9 - 15, 2012 Posted: 09 Apr 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Previews, Opinion, 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: April 9 - 15, 2012 MV Guide: April 9 - 15, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: When do you consider a game to be 'dying'? Posted: 09 Apr 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor, Miscellaneous If you listen to internet negativity, every game is dying. World of Warcraft is dying, some folks say, because it's lost a fraction of its population after seven years. RIFT is "obviously" pushing out tons of content only because it's desperate and dying. Two million players and queues in Star Wars: The Old Republic also mean the game is dying. A game goes free-to-play? Dying. Keeps a subscription? Dying. Box on sale? Dying. Moves to Steam? Dying. Merges servers? Dying. Doesn't merge servers? Dying! It's true that some games have gone under, but many more are hanging in there after a decade, even if they aren't blockbusters that impress people used to seeing populations in the millions. If World of Warcraft dwindled to as few players as, say, Asheron's Call, I still wouldn't call that dying. It might be small, but it's still alive and still getting updates, and that's more than I can say for some games. What about you -- when, exactly, in a game's timeline do you consider that game to be dying? 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: When do you consider a game to be 'dying'? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: PAX on, PAX off Posted: 08 Apr 2012 06:00 PM PDT 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. This week, Massively sent four feisty writers to PAX East 2012 to bring back interviews and impressions of the games on offer, and boy did they ever deliver! We got hands-on time with The Secret World, World of Warplanes, SMITE, PlanetSide 2, TERA, Neverwinter, Firefall, Guns of Icarus and Dungeons and Dragons Online... and we're not finished yet! Read on for a roundup of this week's other top MMO stories! Continue reading MMO Week in Review: PAX on, PAX off MMO Week in Review: PAX on, PAX off originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Buffs coming for League of Legends' Kayle, Teemo and more Posted: 08 Apr 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Video, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MOBA, League of Legends It's been a long time coming, but a major buff patch is about to hit League of Legends. The patch that will introduce new champion Hecarim comes with a whole host of balance changes to other champions and gameplay mechanics. Kayle's Divine Blessing is being improved to provide a much bigger heal and haste buff at the cost of more mana, making her more a effective support or carry without imbalancing lane sustainability. Teemo is getting some much-needed buffs along with a major bug fix that should increase his damage output significantly. The bug was responsible for Teemo's damage output's dropping after level 6 or so and not scaling properly with attack speed. After talking to players and running some numbers, Riot Games discovered that offensive rune pages were always inferior to just stacking magic resistance. Flat magic resistance runes are being nerfed, while flat magic penetration and ability power runes are getting buffed. The biggest change coming in the patch is a tweak to the experience given out for killing enemy champions. To prevent games from quickly snowballing out of control, Riot is increasing the experience gained by killing players who out-level you and is decreasing the reward earned by killing lowbies. This should let losing teams get back in the game if they can win several teamfights. Skip past the cut to watch the full Hecarim patch preview video! Continue reading Buffs coming for League of Legends' Kayle, Teemo and more Buffs coming for League of Legends' Kayle, Teemo and more originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Official LoL website

New Diablo III launch site collapses under the weight of fans Posted: 08 Apr 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Contests, News items, Diablo III With just over a month left until Diablo III is released, Blizzard launched its new Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise minisite to get people excited. Fans can enter an art contest with some big prizes or create a banner to unlock an exclusive in-game banner sigil that will never be given away outside this event. The site is one big social media campaign, with exclusive content that unlocks when players share enough contest entries on Facebook and Twitter. Fansite DiabloFans revealed that the unlocks will include developer diaries, wallpapers and more. Once the share meter reaches 100%, a final epic unveiling will occur that Blizzard's Bashiok says "is going to melt people's brain meats." When the site first launched, fans reported everything from PHP errors to lost connections and 404 pages. The site has since been stabilised but doesn't appear to be working as intended. The galleries are no longer updating, confirmation emails are not being sent for entries, and the unlock level hasn't budged from 0%. As we'll need just under 3% per day to meet the 100% goal, players are concerned that if the meter isn't broken, then expectations may have been set too high. New Diablo III launch site collapses under the weight of fans originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Darkness Falls, Heroes rise minisite

One Shots: A new dawn Posted: 08 Apr 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, One Shots, RIFT, Miscellaneous One Shots is making a tentative return in its new format and timeslot this weekend! Kicking off the screenshot-madness is Johanis, who's delivered a gorgeous shot of what looks suspiciously like a sparklepony in RIFT (and seriously makes me want to resub). He writes in, I wanted to share a picture of Samya, my level 20 Mathosian Mage in RIFT. This particular shot was taken just as she had received her achievement awarded for climbing to the highest mountain in Silverwood. I had to climb quite a few mountains before I hit this spot, and the view made the climb worth it. Just beautiful. She was also quite proud to be riding her newly acquired Nebula mount, which she earned during the current Carnival. Johanis' screenshot, along with a few other gems from this week, is just behind the cut! Continue reading One Shots: A new dawn One Shots: A new dawn originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ready, aim, Firefall: Impressions of the closed beta Posted: 08 Apr 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Previews, Free-to-play, Hands-on, MMOFPS Last year at PAX Prime, I had the opportunity to get my hands on an early version of Red 5 Studios' upcoming MMOFPS, Firefall. The game's come a long way since then, having gone into closed beta shortly after PAX Prime. As of Friday, the game's NDA has finally dropped, and I can finally tell you fine folks all about my experiences with the game's beta. For those of you somehow not in the know, Firefall is essentially two games in one. On the one hand, you have the title's open-world PvE content that sees players exploring the lands of New Eden in an attempt to find a way to fight back the destructive alien force known as the Melding. On the other, there's the competitive e-sports-esque PvP, which lets players test their skills against each another to see who's the best shot in New Eden. So how much has Firefall changed between PAX Prime '11 and PAX East '12? Continue reading Ready, aim, Firefall: Impressions of the closed beta Ready, aim, Firefall: Impressions of the closed beta originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

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• PAX: Mark of the Ninja Proves Stealth Can Work in Two Dimensions
• DK Online
• Counter-Strike Online 2 (KR)
• New Neverwinter Video Shows In-Game Visuals, Gameplay
• PAX: How Firaxis is Upholding the X-Com Legacy

PAX: Mark of the Ninja Proves Stealth Can Work in Two Dimensions Posted: 08 Apr 2012 11:40 PM PDT Max Payne and I go way back. Throughout the series’ first two installments, I was wholly immersed in its stark shadows, smoky atmosphere, and hard-boiled dialogue. I brandished my pistols and dove sideways more times than I could count. I cherished the horror and violence of his revenge as if it were written by Raymond Chandler himself, and yet, a place that I’d never experience Max Payne’s world was online. That void was quickly remedied when I got my hands on a small slice of the multiplayer portion of Rockstar’s next effort, Max Payne 3. MP3 is attempting to destroy the barriers between single and multiplayer in a wide variety of ways. We’ve written about the solo portion before, but this time we got to spend some time in the online Gang Wars. The story in Gang Wars, the most fleshed out mode of multiplayer, runs alongside that of the solo campaign. The skirmishes you take part in online will oftentimes be set moments before Max’s arrival to a location during the story, or sometimes in the charred remains of where his whirlwind tour of revenge previously swept through. While third-person works fine offline, the perspective can oftentimes lead to ineligent combat that feels more like a frantic crapshoot than a strategic faceoff; even phenomenal titles like Red Dead Redemption suffer in moments of intense action. While I was a bit worried that MP3′s multiplayer would stall under the same stress, I’m happy to report that the impeccable energy from the series’ singleplayer campaigns transfers over quite well into the online arena. Yes, there were still a handful of moments where it seemed like my opponent and I both cracked under pressure, especially once combat became an up close affair, but the game remained a controlled experience for the most part. Rockstar showed off a slew of game matches, most of which were slight variations on genre classics like team deathmatch and king of the hill. One unique mode is called Payne Killer, which starts off as a free-for-all until someone scores the first kill. After this occurs, the killer becomes Max Payne, while the victim transforms into his singleplayer sidekick Passos. These two characters come equipped with special weapons, higher health, and unique abilities. It then becomes the task of the remaining players to work together in taking down these two protagonists. Whoever scores the kill against Max or Passos earns the right to play as the powerful hero. This mode encouraged players to work together in short spurts to take down the two powerhouses, but those alliances you make will quickly be severed once one member gets the kill and joins the other side. Similar Article: http://www.1up.com/previews?cId=3186963 Related posts: PAX: Super T.I.M.E. Force Demonstrates the Chaotic Potential of Elegance PAX: How Firaxis is Upholding the X-Com Legacy Nintendo Dubstep Experience 3D Looks to Reinvent the Rhythm Genre

DK Online Posted: 08 Apr 2012 11:40 PM PDT If you have not read about DK Online before in my blog, do visit my previous posts (link) on the game. Basically, DK Online is a massive online PvP title, with an in-depth Baron hierarchy system which allows players with power to rule over territories. Expect open PvP and tons of castle siege action. Oh, before I forget, Aeria Games will be the publisher for the North American and European server. I am not sure if this is good news as the company just closed several games recently… Similar Article: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/04/dk-online-confirmed-for-north-america.html Related posts: DK Online Black Gold Online [TPGS 2012] Planet Legend Online

Counter-Strike Online 2 (KR) Posted: 08 Apr 2012 11:39 PM PDT As you can see in the official game logo above, Counter-Strike Online 2 is confirmed to be in development. Similar to its prequel, Nexon Korea will be developing the game, using Valve’s latest version of the Source engine. The sequel will sport more detailed and smoother graphics, with game content enhanced and new ones added. Counter-Strike Online is currently still a big hit in many Asian countries such as Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan and the Southeast Asia region. More details of the game will be revealed at a later date. Similar Article: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/04/counter-strike-online-2-kr-developement.html Related posts: Wizardry Online (JP) Red Blood Online (KR) Power Rangers Online (KR)

New Neverwinter Video Shows In-Game Visuals, Gameplay Posted: 08 Apr 2012 05:39 PM PDT The Neverwinter MMO is available at PAX East, and has demoed this video to show you a bit more of what you can expect. Perfect World and Cryptic Games have been at PAX East showing off their new MMO Neverwinter (that used to be a co-operative RPG and, before that, a browser based game). The video (below) doesn't show much of what you can expect beyond the usual undead and dragons and colour spell effects, but it's certainly an interesting watch. It's looking quite sharp though, there's a lot of clarity in the models and the design of the world, and it'll be nice to see a reworked version of one of the more famous cities in the Forgotten Realms in a modern engine. Look closely and you'll be able to spot a lot of details like classes you can expect and even possible spells you'll be able to use but for now this is the best you're going to get. Similar Article: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/uncategorized/new-neverwinter-video-shows-in-game-visuals-gameplay/ Related posts: Neverwinter Hollywood's Video Game Invasion of the '90s The Best and Worst Video Game Compilations

PAX: How Firaxis is Upholding the X-Com Legacy Posted: 08 Apr 2012 11:39 AM PDT Max Payne and I go way back. Throughout the series’ first two installments, I was wholly immersed in its stark shadows, smoky atmosphere, and hard-boiled dialogue. I brandished my pistols and dove sideways more times than I could count. I cherished the horror and violence of his revenge as if it were written by Raymond Chandler himself, and yet, a place that I’d never experience Max Payne’s world was online. That void was quickly remedied when I got my hands on a small slice of the multiplayer portion of Rockstar’s next effort, Max Payne 3. MP3 is attempting to destroy the barriers between single and multiplayer in a wide variety of ways. We’ve written about the solo portion before, but this time we got to spend some time in the online Gang Wars. The story in Gang Wars, the most fleshed out mode of multiplayer, runs alongside that of the solo campaign. The skirmishes you take part in online will oftentimes be set moments before Max’s arrival to a location during the story, or sometimes in the charred remains of where his whirlwind tour of revenge previously swept through. While third-person works fine offline, the perspective can oftentimes lead to ineligent combat that feels more like a frantic crapshoot than a strategic faceoff; even phenomenal titles like Red Dead Redemption suffer in moments of intense action. While I was a bit worried that MP3′s multiplayer would stall under the same stress, I’m happy to report that the impeccable energy from the series’ singleplayer campaigns transfers over quite well into the online arena. Yes, there were still a handful of moments where it seemed like my opponent and I both cracked under pressure, especially once combat became an up close affair, but the game remained a controlled experience for the most part. Rockstar showed off a slew of game matches, most of which were slight variations on genre classics like team deathmatch and king of the hill. One unique mode is called Payne Killer, which starts off as a free-for-all until someone scores the first kill. After this occurs, the killer becomes Max Payne, while the victim transforms into his singleplayer sidekick Passos. These two characters come equipped with special weapons, higher health, and unique abilities. It then becomes the task of the remaining players to work together in taking down these two protagonists. Whoever scores the kill against Max or Passos earns the right to play as the powerful hero. This mode encouraged players to work together in short spurts to take down the two powerhouses, but those alliances you make will quickly be severed once one member gets the kill and joins the other side. Similar Article: http://www.1up.com/previews?cId=3186964 Related posts: PAX: Super T.I.M.E. Force Demonstrates the Chaotic Potential of Elegance Nintendo Dubstep Experience 3D Looks to Reinvent the Rhythm Genre PAX: Double Dragon Neon Brings Back the ’80s, But Not in a Good Way

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MMORPG News

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• The Repopulation: Nation & City Building Trailer
• Spirit Tales: Live Stream Event Coming
• Neverwinter: Cryptic's Dark Horse Rising
• General: The Best of PAX East 2012 Awards
• DUST 514: Fanfest Preview
• General: PAX East - The Future of Online Games

The Repopulation: Nation & City Building Trailer Posted: 09 Apr 2012 07:36 AM PDT The Repopulation team has released a brand new trailer featuring nation and city building in the game. In addition, a new lore piece has cropped up on the official site called "Leeza's Story".

Spirit Tales: Live Stream Event Coming Posted: 09 Apr 2012 07:23 AM PDT The Spirit Tales team has announced that it will be hosting a live stream event on Friday, April 13 at 2:00PM PDT. During the event, players will get a sneak peek at the game prior to its open beta launch. In addition, several prizes will be available to attendees.

Neverwinter: Cryptic's Dark Horse Rising Posted: 09 Apr 2012 12:18 AM PDT Cryptic Studios has been quietly hacking away at Neverwinter for a couple of years now, barely showing anything to the outside world. Then this past weekend at PAX East, they came out of nowhere to shock fans and media alike with a polished, fun, and potentially epic MMORPG set in the Forgotten Realms.

General: The Best of PAX East 2012 Awards Posted: 09 Apr 2012 01:30 AM PDT PAX East is one of the first game conventions of the year and we had a team of boots on the ground. Once the dust settled on the weekend, we compiled a 'best of' list for MMORPG.com. See which games took our top honors in Best of PAX East 2012 Awards.

DUST 514: Fanfest Preview Posted: 08 Apr 2012 04:05 PM PDT During the recent FanFest, we had the chance to preview CCP's Dust 514, to find out more about this ground-breaking game. See what we discovered and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

General: PAX East - The Future of Online Games Posted: 07 Apr 2012 07:05 PM PDT MMORPG.com brings together some of the top developers in the industry to discuss the next decade of online games and their growing mass market appeal. Game Developers from: Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, TERA, Age of Conan: Unchained, Planetside 2, Defiance and Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur will be on hand to answer your questions and talk directly to fans about their games and the future of the industry.

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