MMO Updates |
- Wurm Online website down after SQL attack
- Hands-on with The Secret World character creator
- Diablo III is Amazon's most pre-ordered PC title ever
- RuneScape and Transformers Universe appearing at London MCM Expo for the first time
- Trion dev posts ARG messages on RIFT forums
- Hands-on with The Secret World's Illuminati experience
- The Daily Grind: Should we be disconnected for idling too long?
- Hands-on with The Secret World's Templar experience
- The Guild Counsel: Saluting Scott Andrews on five years of valuable guild advice
- The Summoner's Guidebook: Getting out of Elo hell
- Fallen Earth trimming up the game experience for new players
- Pathfinder Online's technology demo gets soundly kickstarted
- MechWarrior Online unloads six preview videos
- World of Warcraft unveils cross-realm zones
- WildStar Wednesday discusses quality of life
- Perpetuum putting player-built settlements on new test server tomorrow
- LotRO's Fornost 'joining the modern MMO world'
- Mike O'Brien: Guild Wars 2's beta weekend 'overwhelming'
- German studio SilentFuture resurrecting Earthrise
- War of the Immortals expansion adds new class, 540-player PvP arenas
- Nexon grows in Korea and China, 'underwhelms' in America
- Storybricks' alpha web client goes public
| Wurm Online website down after SQL attack Posted: 11 May 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Wurm Online, News items, Sandbox  All of the affected pages have since been removed, and the Wurm team is currently deciding on a PHP-free solution for its web presence going forward. The news blurb on the temporary front page says that the decision will likely come next week. In the meantime, fans can keep up with developer happenings via Tumblr and the MMORPG.com forums. Wurm is an open-world sandbox MMO that was developed in Java. It originally launched in 2006. [Thanks to Bob for the tip!]
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| Hands-on with The Secret World character creator Posted: 11 May 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Real life, Video, Age of Conan, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Hands-on, The Secret World, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Miscellaneous  The real secret to The Secret World is that it's the Matrix (see the above picture from the character creator that resembles Carrie-Anne Moss). Actually, the first and most important stop for an MMO gamer is the character creator. Now when you're in beta it might not be as important because the character will be tossed away in a few short weeks. However, in the live game, this character will not only be the same one you might see for years to come, but it's also a reflection of you as a player. There are some players who insist on playing the ugliest races in the game; Others want the prettiest or the strongest looking. Personally, I will lean towards playing female characters -- I'm not sure what that says about me. The creation of our character says so much about us as it is extremely important that western RPGs and especially MMORPGs allow us to express ourselves. The Secret World's character creator has its good elements and its bad, but the most important part is how much does Funcom's version allow us to express our personality. Continue reading Hands-on with The Secret World character creator
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| Diablo III is Amazon's most pre-ordered PC title ever Posted: 11 May 2012 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Diablo III  Blizzard could probably sell cow chips if it branded them with the D3 logo, and the latest evidence of the rabid fan anticipation comes courtesy of Amazon. You see, Diablo III is now the most pre-ordered PC title in the history of the online retailer, according to our bros at Joystiq and a company spokesman. "Today, [Diablo III] became the most pre-ordered PC game of all-time on Amazon.com -- even exceeding pre-orders for Blizzard's own StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm," the spokesman said.
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| RuneScape and Transformers Universe appearing at London MCM Expo for the first time Posted: 11 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Events, real-world, MMO industry, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Transformers Universe  At the convention, RuneScapers will get a deeper look into how the game is developed, watch the creation of concept art, and have the opportunity to pick up one of several player packs for the game. The packs will come in two varieties: a starter pack and a premium pack that includes cosmetic items, membership, and an exclusive t-shirt. Transformers Universe fans also will get to meet the dev team and have the opportunity to reserve their name for the game when it releases later this year. Brian Cooney, the managing director of the expo, is thrilled to have the studio on board: "Each year people ask me if they are coming and finally I can say 'Yes!' The Jagex stand promises to be a 'must see' for show visitors." The London Expo takes place from May 25th through the 27th at the Excel.
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| Trion dev posts ARG messages on RIFT forums Posted: 11 May 2012 07:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, RIFT  A company representative has taken to posting poetry, cryptic messages, and even a numeric user handle on the title's official boards. Thus far, RIFT fans believe that the user name 3 3228466 787 is code for three-faction PvP (or possibly three-faction RvR). Is this a herald for a third RIFT faction, factional changes, more races, or something to do with the mercenary system? We're not sure. We are sure it's entirely coincidental that Trion is doing this on the same day that Funcom has lifted part of its press embargo for The Secret World, a three-faction MMO which has been marketed via similar ARGs since 2007. We'll update the post as more info becomes available. [Thanks to Jeff for the tip!]
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| Hands-on with The Secret World's Illuminati experience Posted: 11 May 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Opinion, Hands-on, The Secret World  Dark days are upon us, and I, for one, couldn't be more pleased. For the past few days I've had the pleasure of exploring the dark corners of the press beta for Funcom's upcoming horror-fantasy MMO, The Secret World, and now the embargo is up and I'm finally able to share my impressions with all of you. You may recall that I got some hands-on time with the title at PAX East earlier this year and came away from the experience fairly pleased. But that was an hour of playtime at the most, so how does the game hold up with extended play? I decided to hop into the (rather stylish) boots of an Illuminati initiate to find out for myself. Continue reading Hands-on with The Secret World's Illuminati experience
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| The Daily Grind: Should we be disconnected for idling too long? Posted: 11 May 2012 06:30 AM PDT Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  I certainly understand why the developers add that feature, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that idling all day in TERA not only is allowed but also grants me the Full Time Job achievement, which tickled me to no end. So what's your opinion on idling out? Should you be allowed to be AFK as long as you'd like, or should idlers always be disconnected after a certain amount of time? How much time should be allowed? Let us know in the comments!  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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| Hands-on with The Secret World's Templar experience Posted: 11 May 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Galleries, Screenshots, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Hands-on, The Secret World, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions  The basic premise, of course, is that everything is true. Every myth, legend, and spook story that our rational minds scoff at has a place in this particular riff on reality. The Secret World is also quite heretical when it comes to gameplay. It eschews the tried and true class-based approach for a complex grimoire of a skill system featuring an ability wheel made of hieroglyphs and higher math (or so it first appears). To come right to the point, though, I bought into the game almost immediately. Continue reading Hands-on with The Secret World's Templar experience
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| The Guild Counsel: Saluting Scott Andrews on five years of valuable guild advice Posted: 10 May 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Guilds, MMO industry, News items, Miscellaneous, Anniversary  Whether you've just heard of Officers' Quarters or you're a longtime fan, let's look at a few reasons Scott Andrews deserves a tip of the hat and a hearty salute. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Saluting Scott Andrews on five years of valuable guild advice
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| The Summoner's Guidebook: Getting out of Elo hell Posted: 10 May 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, Guides, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook  At the higher ratings, matches tend to improve in overall quality despite the smaller pool of players. It is virtually impossible to maintain 1600 Elo or above (top 10%) without being somewhat decent at the game. While weaker players can occur in any matchmaking level, they are still two advanced players who know the game. At 1300 Elo (top 50%), there's a very large chance that a matchup inequality is an intermediate player battling an opponent who has no clue what he is doing. Elo hell is extremely frustrating because nothing worse is having your chance at winning taken out of your hands and put in the hands of a terrible player. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Getting out of Elo hell
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| Fallen Earth trimming up the game experience for new players Posted: 10 May 2012 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Culture, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play, Post-Apocalyptic, Dev Diaries  The change that will have the biggest impact on everyone in the game will be the consolidation of several gear slots, meaning that players will no longer have to scrounge for corresponding pieces when starting out. The addition of sector chat and a beacon leading toward the nearest garage will help players find others and receive aid as needed. And the team is looking ahead to future improvements as well, all in the hopes that your first moments in Fallen Earth are fun enough to convince you to stay.
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| Pathfinder Online's technology demo gets soundly kickstarted Posted: 10 May 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, News items, Sandbox  But maybe you're one of the backers already. If you're still eager for more information on the game, the weekly developer blog has gone live, discussing the rationale behind the Kickstarter project and some of the future steps of the game's production. You can also take a peek at details behind the upcoming tabletop book available for backers, which might help motivate you to donate if you haven't already. [Thanks to Nick for the tip!]
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| MechWarrior Online unloads six preview videos Posted: 10 May 2012 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, MechWarrior Online  Aside from a variety of gameplay footage (clearly unpolished but still encouraging), the videos give some insight into the game's design goals. Rather than following the route of the classic MechWarrior games that placed the heaviest 'Mechs at the top of the food chain, MechWarrior Online wants all machines to have a place on the battlefield depending on player style and battlefield objectives. But why read about it when you can watch it in action just past the break? After all, that way you're learning the same information and watching giant robots shoot at each other. Continue reading MechWarrior Online unloads six preview videos
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| World of Warcraft unveils cross-realm zones Posted: 10 May 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Betas, Fantasy, News items  One common issue with MMOs is that certain zones become sparsely populated as the playerbase outlevels them or skips them in favor of newer, more exciting zones, which can lead to frustration for players who want or need to complete group content in those zones. Blizzard is aiming to nip that problem in the bud with a new feature coming to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta: cross-realm zones. The feature does exactly what it says on the tin: When a zone is underpopulated, the players in that zone will be given the option to form a group with players from a select pool of realms (presumably the server's battlegroup) with whom they can run about and quest as usual. In addition to treating underpopulation, the new feature will allow overpopulated zones -- such as new race starting zones -- to be split into multiple instances to prevent overcrowding. It will also allow players to group with their RealID friends just as they would for a cross-realm dungeon, so players who want to level up with friends on other realms should be quite pleased with the addition. Between this new feature and Guild Wars 2's guesting, the days of being separated from your cross-server friends might just be numbered. The full details on the new feature can be found at the official World of Warcraft site, so if you're wondering how this newfangled technology is going to work, just head on over and check out the handy FAQ.
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| WildStar Wednesday discusses quality of life Posted: 10 May 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, News items, Dev Diaries, WildStar  Mobility is key when you're adventuring on an exciting frontier planet. Taking this to heart, WildStar developer Carbine Studios is building in some quality of life improvements to speed Settlers along their way. All players traveling on roads in WildStar will benefit from a speed boost, whether they're on a noble steed or going afoot. Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney mentions that, more than just cutting down on travel time, this allows developers to plan on players running into each other as they travel through the world as well as aiding in the design of exploration-driven content and proper timing of encounters. If players are really gung-ho about speed and being (profitable) good Samaritans, they'll have opportunities to add new taxi points to remote areas, pitch a vendor stall to sell mounts to lowbies, and set up speed-boosting machines at outposts, among other player-driven additions. Hopefully, this means that the more folks are in an area, the more luxuries are available -- or you can be the pilgrim running out into the wilds to spur on the advance of civilization. Speaking of running out into the wilds, we know no one likes doing that only to get called in 15 minutes later to pick up a new quest. Players' communicators are a big part of the accessibility of the world in WildStar. Many quests can be picked up and turned in via comm call, freeing players from the drudgery of having to actually track people down. To sum up, Gaffney listed the goals of this design approach. "Focus on the fun parts of the game. Eliminate tedium. Keep the challenge in there for advanced gamers. Overall, let you play the way you want to play."
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| Perpetuum putting player-built settlements on new test server tomorrow Posted: 10 May 2012 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Perpetuum, Sandbox  PBS, or player-built settlements, are exactly what they sound like. They're also a part of Avatar's bid to strengthen Perpetuum's control and capture mechanics, which should give players and clans something to fight for beyond bragging rights. Be sure you have an active sub if you want to check them out on the test server tomorrow. Avatar also says that you'll also want to set up a separate installation (i.e., don't load the test client over an existing Perpetuum install).
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| LotRO's Fornost 'joining the modern MMO world' Posted: 10 May 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Previews, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, Dungeons  The third instance ever created for Lord of the Rings Online will be chopped up from its current super-long state to four manageable dungeons. The devs said that it was designed from an EverQuest mindset of long dungeon crawls, but so much has changed over time and most players no longer have the time or effort to conquer it. With Update 7, Fornost will turn into four element-themed six-person dungeons. Each of these dungeons should take well less than an hour to complete and scale from level 30 to 75 with two tiers of difficulty. The team's reworked positioning, bosses, and quests to reflect the upgraded experience. For those who might miss the old Fornost, the team says that playing all four instances back-to-back will replicate the grand tour that it used to be.
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| Mike O'Brien: Guild Wars 2's beta weekend 'overwhelming' Posted: 10 May 2012 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Guild Wars 2, Dev Diaries  According to O'Brien, while the feedback from the event was quite positive, the team had to struggle with unexpected demand for the game. Even after the management temporarily turned off the ability for players' ability to pre-purchase the title through ArenaNet, the game's 48 servers couldn't contain the influx of testers and beta tourists. It wasn't just a PR stunt, however. "This was definitely a real beta, designed to find problems, gather player input, and learn what work still needs to be done before we ship the game," O'Brien stated. The team is anticipating a bigger crowd with the next beta weekend, which is why it's running a seven-hour stress test on May 14th to test new changes.
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| German studio SilentFuture resurrecting Earthrise Posted: 10 May 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Free-to-play, Earthrise, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox  Fans of Masthead Studios' late sandbox MMO, Earthrise, have cause to rejoice today. The Wuppertal, Germany-based studio SilentFuture announced in a press release today that it will be taking over development and operation of the title, which was shut down in February earlier this year. According to the press release, the studio is currently working on a complete overhaul of the game, from backstory to gameplay to technology. SilentFuture plans to have the game up and running again sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. Earthrise will return as a free-to-play title in which players "no longer find themselves in a post-apocalyptic world" but rather are "part of the apocalypse itself." Sounds promising! Hopefully we can look forward to more details in the coming weeks, but at least we know one thing for sure: Earthrise is back! [Source: SilentFuture press release]
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| War of the Immortals expansion adds new class, 540-player PvP arenas Posted: 10 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Classes, Expansions, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, PvP, News items, Free-to-play  This last bit involves "re-tooling the team matchmaking system," PWE says. The changes allow for three teams of up to 180 players to duke it out in a single battle arena (that's 540 players at once if you're counting at home). There's also a new trailer for the Lost Omen expansion. Check it out by clicking past the cut. [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release] Continue reading War of the Immortals expansion adds new class, 540-player PvP arenas
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| Nexon grows in Korea and China, 'underwhelms' in America Posted: 10 May 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business models, Economy, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Miscellaneous  Nexon exceeded its first-quarter performance projections on the strength of F2P growth in the Korean and Chinese gaming markets. These gains were "slightly offset by an underwhelming performance for its games [in] North America," which was blamed on "certain operational challenges." Though Nexon's monthly active user count declined from 86.2 million to 82.8 million, its paying user rate increased (from 8.3 to 10.9 percent in year-over-year comparisons).
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| Storybricks' alpha web client goes public Posted: 10 May 2012 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, News items, Miscellaneous  Attention, all would-be MMO creators: The Storybricks alpha client has been made public, allowing players to utilize their creative urges to create in-depth adventures that can be shared with fellow players across the globe. The site seems to be getting slammed at the moment, so some patience may be required before you get your hands on the game proper, but if you're at all interested in Storybricks' particular brand of tale-weaving, it's definitely worth a look. And stay tuned because later today we'll have a hands-on impression of the alpha client as well as an interview with the folks behind it all. In the meantime, though, just click on through to the alpha client below and jump right in.
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