MMO Updates

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• The Tattered Notebook: Changes in the Dark(light)
• WRUP: Remember that several people work here edition
• The Daily Grind: Is looting important in MMOs?
• LotRO: Riders of Rohan beta invites ride forth from Turbine [Updated]
• Betawatch: July 7 - 13, 2012
• Stabbing someone isn't OK, even if World of Warcraft is your life
• Star Wars: The Old Republic posts another weekly question-and-answer session
• ArenaNet posts studio tour video
• MMObility: Fourteen MMOs that you can play anywhere
• Storyboard: The RIFT project
• Sound guru brings The Secret World's ur draug monster to life
• Matt Higby says PlanetSide 2 beta is 'not just a game demo'
• The Firing Line: DayZ, Forge, and Rapid Assault

The Tattered Notebook: Changes in the Dark(light) Posted: 14 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Patches, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook EverQuest II's Qeynos update is due in just a few weeks. In recent editions of The Tattered Notebook, we've looked at some of the bigger changes, like "play as your avatar" and "level agnosticism" in the dungeon maker as well as the Qeynos city revamp. But in the build-up to the patch's due date, there has been a quiet change at the low levels. The new-player experience received yet another reworking with a few small, yet potentially significant, changes. In this week's Tattered Notebook, we'll spend some time looking at what's new for newbies in EverQuest II! Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Changes in the Dark(light) The Tattered Notebook: Changes in the Dark(light) originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

WRUP: Remember that several people work here edition Posted: 14 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous It is important to note that Massively does not consist of one person hitting a keyboard furiously. There's a staff list to one side for a reason. Not every installment of Choose My Adventure was written by the same person, not every installment of The Soapbox was penned by the same person, and not every news post is reviewed by the entire staff. Equally relevant is the fact that the writers are not the people who moderate comments. There are a lot of moving pieces. As an example of the sheer number of moving pieces behind the scenes of the site, we present to you WRUP, in which the Massively staff members explain to you what they're doing over the weekend. We also talk about whether or not we've ever been intimidated starting an older game after it's been out for a while. So go on and take a look at our multiple separate plans, and then go ahead and tell us what you'll be up to in the comments. Continue reading WRUP: Remember that several people work here edition WRUP: Remember that several people work here edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Is looting important in MMOs? Posted: 14 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Dungeons As I play City of Heroes, rolling through the Summer Blockbuster content, I'm reminded that CoH's looting system is really weird. As in, there kind of isn't one. Recipes, enhancement, salvage, and influence just sort of magically appear in their respective trays. There are no sparkly bits to tell you that hey, you should totally come click this monster because its still-warm corpse has shinies for you. You never have to worry that you missed a piece of choice loot back in the last room. And players never, ever fight over loot because at the end of an important mission, everyone gets a drop. At the same time, CoH is missing some of the thrill that comes when you best the random number generator and finally get your purple shiny sword of doom. The near-intangibility of the game's drops means fewer crushing defeats when that freaking Hunter rolls on your tanking sword, but it also means fewer victory laps. You give up the rush from clicking on a monster just to see what he has; that step is completely stripped out. What do you think -- is a physical "looting" process critical to MMOs? 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: Is looting important in MMOs? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 14 Jul 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

LotRO: Riders of Rohan beta invites ride forth from Turbine [Updated] Posted: 13 Jul 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-play According to reports from our readers, beta invites for Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming expansion are zipping across the electronic highways and into players' inboxes. The test will run on July 18th and July 20th: From 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 18, 2012, help us push the limits of LotRO! Get your first look at Rohan! Cross the Great River from Parth Celebrant and follow the road south through the Wold to the city of Langhold. Your first quest will be available in this city. Spend a couple hours exploring LotRO's newest regions, check out the new quests, admire the great scenery and battle your way through its newest creatures! From 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Friday, July 20, 2012, help us push the limits of LotRO! Get your first look at Mounted Combat! Go to Elthengels in the Norcrofts and prepare to fight from horseback in the open plains of Eastern Rohan! Riders of Rohan is releasing on September 5th. Massively recently got hands-on time with mounted combat in the expansion and was quite impressed! [Update: As A Casual Stroll to Mordor and Sapience on the forums rightly clarify, this beta is under a strict NDA. Please obey it, here and elsewhere!] [Thanks to Ron for the tip!] LotRO: Riders of Rohan beta invites ride forth from Turbine [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Betawatch: July 7 - 13, 2012 Posted: 13 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Massively Meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous This week on Betawatch, we say farewell to Brick Force, which has officially launched! Soul Captor Online moves from our closed to open beta list, while both Sevencore and RaiderZ have announced closed beta dates (July 16th and August 8th, respectively). Meanwhile, PlanetSide 2's devs have confirmed that the game will be headed to beta within the next month, a new round of beta invites has gone out to ArcheAge's Korean testers, and Aeria is now accepting beta applications for its new F2P shooter, Born to Fire. Finally, we learned that the Sylvari and Asura will be playable in Guild Wars 2 final beta event. One more week to go! The complete Betawatch roundup is tucked beyond the fold. Continue reading Betawatch: July 7 - 13, 2012 Betawatch: July 7 - 13, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Stabbing someone isn't OK, even if World of Warcraft is your life Posted: 13 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Real life, Culture, Crime, Miscellaneous Just when we were basking in the warm glow of the charitable deed that World of Warcraft fans banded together to perform, someone decided to remind us that just as people can be really, truly awesome, people can be really, truly reprehensible. Two days ago WoW player Justin Williams decided it was a reasonable (or at least viable) course of action to stab his neighbor in the chest to convey how important the game is to him. According to Canoe, Williams was having a loud exchange of ideas about the game both in-person and via headset when his neighbor showed up and told him that there was no need to be "freaking out about World of Warcraft," that it was "just a game." Williams took that remark rather poorly and responded with, "It's not a game, it's my life," before grabbing the neighbor by the throat, punching him in the face, and then stabbing him in the chest. The neighbor was hospitalized but appears to have since been sent home, hopefully to an abundance of flowers and extremely sincere "I'm sorry I put you in the hospital" notes from Williams. Stabbing someone isn't OK, even if World of Warcraft is your life originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Man stabbed over video game Via: GamePolitics

Star Wars: The Old Republic posts another weekly question-and-answer session Posted: 13 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Community Q&A This week's set of community questions for Star Wars: The Old Republic asked about classes. Specifically, there were two big questions asked about Deception-specialized Sith Assassins and Operative melee mobility. Consequently, the two big answers this week were about those two classes. Operative mobility is apparently a hot topic among the developers at the moment, as high-mobility fights are seen as an excellent mechanic and they can cause issues with the class. Deception spec, by contrast, received a more in-depth response explaining that the developers consider the spec to very much be a hit-and-run playstyle rather than a melee class meant for long engagements. Its performance winds up varying a great deal depending on the player: Those who understand the design intent usually have more success than those expecting higher endurance. But even if neither of these answers appeals to you, there are still other questions answered in the latest round, and you can always post a question for next week. Star Wars: The Old Republic posts another weekly question-and-answer session originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Community Q&A: July 13th, New question thread

ArenaNet posts studio tour video Posted: 13 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-play This is a Guild Wars 2 news post. In fact, said news is a studio tour (though it is presented in video format, so that's something). Nevertheless, you will read this post and watch this video because you are achingly desperate for every tiny scrap of information even tangentially related to Tyria (we know, because we are too). We sincerely hope this nugget tides you over until next weekend's beta. Failing that, we hope that ArenaNet sees fit to give us something exciting to write about in the interim. As always, videos may be watched after the proverbial cut. But we bet you already knew that. Continue reading ArenaNet posts studio tour video ArenaNet posts studio tour video originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: YouTube

MMObility: Fourteen MMOs that you can play anywhere Posted: 13 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Culture, Previews, Opinion, War, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Casual, MMORTS, MMObility, Sandbox I thought it'd be fun to make a list of go-anywhere MMOs this week. It's not really hard to find portable MMOs that run on laptops or netbooks. The real issue is locating MMOs that can be played on your desktop while you're at work (while the boss isn't looking, of course!), then on your phone at lunch, and then on your laptop while you sit in bed later that night. The technology to make constantly accessible MMOs is there, namely in the form of HTML5. Adobe recently announced that not only is it moving away from Flash for mobile devices, but it is also specifically targeting Android Jelly Bean. There is a new wave of web technologies coming that will hopefully, once and for all, put an end to the need for special lists like this one. Not all of my choices are HTML5-based, but I tried to keep all of them open for all devices. If you notice any oddities while playing them on a certain device, let me know in the comments section so I can note it. I get a lot of requests for lists like this, so I want to keep things tight. In the meanwhile, enjoy the list. There are others out there, but I wanted to pick out some that give pretty much the same result across whichever device you use. Continue reading MMObility: Fourteen MMOs that you can play anywhere MMObility: Fourteen MMOs that you can play anywhere originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Storyboard: The RIFT project Posted: 13 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Polls, Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous The biggest problem with roleplaying in an MMO is that there's a certain amount of enforced stasis. No matter how determined you are to bring about long-term change in your group, there's the simple fact that you generally need to have characters working together and staying alive. Game considerations force you to refrain from anything that would rock the boat too severely. So most main characters have plot armor, most relationships need to stay at a functional professional level, and most villains have to be guest stars. It's a compromise we make so that the game itself remains playable. But what if you didn't have to make that compromise? This isn't a story about RIFT, and it isn't a story about PAX East, but both of those elements come into play because that's how the idea came to me. What would it look like if you had a month during which there were no restrictions on roleplaying? How would things play out if you could feel confident about a month of play that's completely self-contained, with no need to preserve characters any longer than the story required? Would it make roleplaying more interesting, or would nothing change? Continue reading Storyboard: The RIFT project Storyboard: The RIFT project originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Sound guru brings The Secret World's ur draug monster to life Posted: 13 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Video, MMO industry, New titles, News items, The Secret World If you've ever wondered how MMO sound designers do their thing, a new developer video by Creating Sound will probably be music to your ears. Sound designer and "audio generalist" Alexandre Saba takes us through the creation of The Secret World's ur draug sound suite. What the heck is an ur draug? It's a "creature from the deepest, darkest oceans, a Lovecraftian, god-like creature," according to TSW creative director Ragnar Tornquist. Since Funcom couldn't just go out and mic the nearest ur draug, it turned to Saba, who performs a number of foley tricks to bring the creature's bellow, skin, and wing sounds to life. Look, listen, and learn after the cut. Continue reading Sound guru brings The Secret World's ur draug monster to life Sound guru brings The Secret World's ur draug monster to life originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Creating Sound

Matt Higby says PlanetSide 2 beta is 'not just a game demo' Posted: 13 Jul 2012 11:45 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, PlanetSide, Events, in-game, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, Sandbox PlanetSide 2 faithful, your long wait is almost over. Well, for some of you anyway. Creative director Matt Higby took to the PlanetSide Universe forums recently to elaborate on the game's forthcoming beta schedule. He said that testing will begin this week (between July 9th and July 15th, to be specific). He also reiterated Sony Online Entertainment's invite priority system. The firm is staggering its closed beta invite phases. First up are a few PlanetSide veterans and those with priority keys from devs, E3 giveaways, and PC Gamer. Higby also encouraged vets to be sure and update the email addresses associated with their station accounts, as that's how they'll know exactly when they can log in and test. Test is the operative word, too, as this is definitely not a marketing beta. "We are doing true beta testing, not just a game demo, and we implore those of you who are invited to understand and respect that," Higby said. "Things will break, the server will be unavailable sometimes, and we will cancel scheduled tests when we find something that breaks before the test starts. All of this will help us make a better final game." [Thanks to Scott for the tip!] Matt Higby says PlanetSide 2 beta is 'not just a game demo' originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: PlanetSide Universe

The Firing Line: DayZ, Forge, and Rapid Assault Posted: 13 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox, The Firing Line A couple of interesting items came across The Firing Line desk this week. One of them was the fact that PlanetSide 2's beta will be cranking up inside of a month. And there was much rejoicing. OK, now that that's out of the way, the other items concern games that are decidedly smaller in scale but no less interesting. Join me after the break for a look at the latest from the devs behind World War II Online (or Battleground Europe, if you prefer), and a new title called Forge. Oh yeah, and 500,000 of you are playing something called DayZ. Continue reading The Firing Line: DayZ, Forge, and Rapid Assault The Firing Line: DayZ, Forge, and Rapid Assault originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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General gaming

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• Will Ultima Finally Get the Update It Deserves?
• Five Failed Alternative Comic Adaptations
• PlayStation All-Stars Feels Familiar in All the Wrong Ways
• Weighing the Light and Dark of Calvin and Hobbes
• Every Game is G.I. Joe
• OP-ED: Ouya (and its Kickstarter) Fail to Inspire Confidence
• What the Hell is Fortnite?

Will Ultima Finally Get the Update It Deserves? Posted: 13 Jul 2012 08:21 PM PDT "The problem with MMOs is there are no consequences," BioWare's Kate Flack told me in an impromptu San Diego Comic-Con show floor interview. She made a sweeping motion, taking in the press of bodies around us. "I don't care about these people. After this show ends, I'll never see them again. What we're aiming to do is make players stop and think about what they're doing." As lead designer of the newly announced Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, Flack has been tasked with the challenge of restoring video gaming's most influential role-playing franchise to its former luster. At the moment, Ultima looms over Electronic Arts as the spectre of one of the company's greatest missteps: Long ago, EA acquired Ultima developer Origin and allowed the groundbreaking RPG franchise to wither on the vine. Ultima IX shipped seemingly unfinished, Ultima Online 2 never happened, and Ultima X vanished midway through development. For nearly 15 years, the series that defined computer RPGs has been missing in action. Now, EA has put BioWare Mythic on the case.

Five Failed Alternative Comic Adaptations Posted: 13 Jul 2012 07:42 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 9 | HOW COMICS SHAPED GAMES Five Failed Alternative Comic Adaptations Cover Story: This collection of unfinished projects proves that not every comic needs its own game. I n most cases, when a developer bases a video game on a comic book series, they usually select one from the "capes and powers" category. Sure, we can't discount that inexplicable Watchmen game or the series of Penny-Arcade RPGs -- and I'm pretty sure there has to be an interactive version of UserFriendly where you steer its hideous mascot through a field of dangerous clip art -- but the majority of comic-to-game adaptations have you taking the role of a protagonist with an alter ego, a tragic past, and many powerful toys. If you've walked into a comic shop recently, though, you know that even though game developers have a much wider spectrum of subject material to choose from, alternative comics have been completely ignored. Since the most popular specimens of this genre feature deeply flawed characters dealing with a healthy assortment of troubling topics most media shies away from, these stories are fated to remain forever trapped on the printed page. Still, the subject matter hasn't made the alternative comics genre completely forbidden; in recent years, developers have made a few fleeting attempts to bring these very personal stories to an entirely new audience. As you'll learn from the following examples, though, execution is everything. Ghost World: The Arcade Game

PlayStation All-Stars Feels Familiar in All the Wrong Ways Posted: 13 Jul 2012 03:51 PM PDT It's safe to say that reception to Sony's mascot bonanza has been less than stellar. When Bob saw Sony All-Stars Battle Royale at its unveiling back in April, he couldn't help but notice that it bore more than a striking resemblance to what Nintendo has been doing with the Super Smash Bros. series over the past decade or so. Our comrades over at IGN are equally skeptical over whether or not the game will be able to capture that special kind of magic that Nintendo has perfected. After getting my hands on it, I have to agree -- while I appreciate Sony paying tribute to their deserving stable of heroes, it's more than a bit strange that they're doing so via a game that is so heavily influenced from their direct competition. The main gripe I had regarding my time with the game was ironically with one of the main elements that was completely cut from its acquisition of Super Smash Bros. features. One of rare and refreshing aspects of Nintendo's brawler is that a skilled (and lucky) player can survive after taking an insane amount of damage, yet still deliver a few knockout blows to his or her competitors. The percent damage system that resides over all three installments of the series helps change each match dynamically depending on the state of the respective combatants. It's a system that's worked well since the inaugural Nintendo 64 title, and will hopefully continue to work well on the Namco-developed Wii U/3DS installment. All-Stars removes itself from this winning system by completely forgoing any form of damage in exchange for having each successful attack slowly raise your special meter. This three-tiered system can be used as soon as you pass the first threshold, or be saved up for a screen-shattering mega special at the third level (Kratos turns into a giant version of himself, while PaRappa delivers an world-destroying freestyle). The only way to score a knockout blow on your opponent is by connecting with a special attack, and while there is a bit of strategy regarding whether you save up your meter or opportunely use it at a lower level, I couldn't help but feel like my fighters were wrestling around using incredibly cushy boxing gloves up until the point someone would use a special attack. Without a rising health gauge, so much of the brawling in the game comes across as sterile and unimportant, which is not a good feeling to have during a fighting game. Nevertheless, it's not all overcast on All-Stars, particularly when it comes to the care that was delivered with the levels, and more specifically, their mashing of elements.

Weighing the Light and Dark of Calvin and Hobbes Posted: 13 Jul 2012 02:35 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 9 | HOW COMICS SHAPED GAMES Weighing the Light and Dark of Calvin and Hobbes Cover Story: What the greater thematic trends in Watterson's work mean for video games. I n the history of the comic strip, few works have garnered such specific and profound acceptance as Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes. The strip, which ran from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995, followed the day-to-day adventures of the wily and exuberant Calvin and his "imaginary" best friend and tiger, Hobbes. Content within the strip varied greatly, featuring any number of thematic and narrative elements that ranged from the hardships of trying to make it in elementary school and galaxy hopping intrigue with Calvin's wild imaginary alter-ego "Spaceman Spiff," to the quiet of a child finding his place in a world that seemed so big, so scary, and so thrillingly beautiful. Where most comic strips are content simply to entertain with an empty chuckle, Bill Watterson took what most would describe as a lesser form in the "low" comic strip and constructed a complex and dense work, both in its aesthetic and its dissection and address of various philosophical and societal issues. Bill Watterson's work is undoubtedly art, but what is more important is what this means for dissonant media like that of video games. Calvin and Hobbes is proof that mass perception does not make a truth -- that a preconception of elitists or the uninitiated about what is and isn't art doesn't make it so.

Every Game is G.I. Joe Posted: 13 Jul 2012 01:26 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 9 | HOW COMICS SHAPED GAMES Every Game is G.I. Joe Cover Story: How comics' real American heroes impacted video games. I f you think it strange to write about G.I. Joe -- most famous as a toy and cartoon property -- during a week dedicated to the impact of comic books on video games, perhaps a short refresher is in order. Yes, the G.I. Joe toyline has been around for roughly half a century, and most people likely think of Sunbow's schlocky afternoon cartoon and its mandatory PSA stingers ("Knowing is half the battle!") when they hear the name G.I. Joe, but the fact is that the cartoon, the enduring toyline, and even the modern movies owe their existence to comic books. G.I. Joe's reinvention from kung-fu grip Barbie-sized warriors to tiny action figures was inspired by Kenner's success with its Star Wars line. Joe creators Hasbro wanted a similar success and rightly recognized the appeal of Star Wars lay at least as much in the movie property as in the toys themselves. So, they collaborated with Marvel Comics to create a multimedia sensation: A line of comics to flesh out the toy line mythos, animated ads to promote the latest issue of the comics, and ultimately a syndicated cartoon. But working on a toy property had the stigma of failure among Marvel's creators, so the task ultimately worked its way down the totem pole to indie comic auteur Larry Hama.

OP-ED: Ouya (and its Kickstarter) Fail to Inspire Confidence Posted: 13 Jul 2012 12:05 PM PDT Ouya first garnered headlines earlier this month when a report began to circulate that a cheap, free-to-play-centric, Android-based console would be coming to market for $99. Backed by Ed Fries, who played a prominent role in the development of the Xbox, and designed by Fuseproject founder Yves Béhar, this seemed relatively notable and legitimate. A pitch for the project then showed up on Kickstarter earlier this week where it managed to attract nearly $1 million in less than a day. As of this writing, that figure is up to nearly $4.5 million with 26 days to go, an impressive feat considering it was seeking $950,000 -- a lot by Kickstarter standards, but not very much considering this is a console, not a game. There's clearly a lot of excitement surrounding the system, though I'm finding it difficult to see a promising future for it based on what we've seen and heard so far. In fact, there are so many different concerns I have that it's difficult to even know where to begin. As the pitch video below explains, Ouya ("OOO-yah," since you were no doubt wondering) is all about providing gamers with a cheap, open console that allows them to play free-to-play games on their television. Examining the Kickstarter immediately highlights one misleading detail in that description, which is the notion that the games will all be free-to-play. Ouya's definition of this model is not one where the majority of the game is freely accessible and microtransactions support it, but one where something is playable for free. In other words, having a demo and then allowing players to purchase the full thing -- you know, like every game on Xbox Live Arcade -- would be enough to classify a game as free-to-play. Gamers who are still averse to the F2P model may be pleased to hear this (and to those people, I'd recommend you check out Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and Tribes: Ascend to see free-to-play isn't so bad), but it's just one of several points I take issue with.

What the Hell is Fortnite? Posted: 13 Jul 2012 08:27 AM PDT Outside of last year's brief teaser, mum's been the word for Fortnite, Epic's latest title that's being developed alongside the Gears of War series. The teaser (unveiled at last year's VGA Awards) seemed to allude to a creative, sandbox experience that took a page from Richard Matheson's fantastic novella I Am Legend and presented a binary world where you prepare during the day for a supernatural onslaught at night. Lucky for attendees of Comic-Con, the project was fully revealed a few hours ago when Cliff Bleszinski and the folks at Epic released the floodgates and revealed just what the hell Fortnite really is. Early on in the panel Cliff was quick to note that this game is special because, "In a world of sequels, this is a new IP, and that's exciting." The PC-exclusive aims to expand the sandbox market by delivering a multiplayer survival experience that appeals to all types of gamers. If you like your titles more strategic, you can make it through a bulk of the game avoiding combat. By nesting at the base and helping fortify your defenses, you'll help your team be able to repel the onslaught of nocturnal critters. That being said, if Gears of War gave you an insatiable sense of bloodlust, you can indulge in your most violent fantasies. Upgrade your combat abilities and engage the enemies head-on using a variety of wildly customizable weaponry. Once you built your completely customizable character, you're given roughly 12 minutes of relative safety to scavenge for items throughout the world -- anything from mailboxes, to bushes, to homes can be destroyed and gathered as precious resources. These items are the foundation of what Cliff referred to as, "real estate porn." The building aspect of Fortnite is an extension of our fascination with building, tinkering, perfecting, and then moving on to the next location. As you collect resources throughout the environment, the game allows you to quickly and easily build fortifications through a fairly simple interface; laying down a series of walls and topping it with a roof takes only a few seconds, and voila, you have a home. For those with a bit more time, you can add windows, arches, balconies, and other accoutrement to deck out your structure. Put some thought into where you place your resources, and you can quickly create a sniper's nest for you or a teammate to perch up in and defend your fortifications.

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MMORPG News

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• Guild Wars 2: TMORBG: Guild Wars 2 Redefines Open World PvP
• Guild Wars 2: Get Your Beta Weekend 3 Key Now!
• DayZ: Live Stream Q&A with 'Rocket' -- Give Us Your Questions!
• End of Nations: Miss Yesterday's Action? No Worries!
• Ikariam: Game Update 0.5.0 Now Live and Giveaway!
• Cartoon Universe: A Looney Tunes MMO?

Guild Wars 2: TMORBG: Guild Wars 2 Redefines Open World PvP Posted: 14 Jul 2012 05:04 AM PDT We've added TemperHoof's "Temper's Massively Overblown Ranting Blog [about] Gaming" blog to our Highlighted Blog roll and today we're featuring Temper's latest entry: Guild Wars 2 Redefines Open World PvP.

Guild Wars 2: Get Your Beta Weekend 3 Key Now! Posted: 12 Jul 2012 06:34 PM PDT MMORPG.com has been given a very limited number of beta keys for the Guild Wars 2 3rd beta weekend. Get yours while supplies last!

DayZ: Live Stream Q&A with 'Rocket' -- Give Us Your Questions! Posted: 12 Jul 2012 05:22 PM PDT Our very own Hillary 'Pokket' Nicole will be conducting a live stream play session and interview with DayZ creator Dean 'Rocket' Hall next Thursday, July 19th and we're looking to get you involved! If you have a question (or questions!) for Rocket about DayZ leave 'em with us in the comments below. You never know, we may select yours during the session!

End of Nations: Miss Yesterday's Action? No Worries! Posted: 13 Jul 2012 04:55 PM PDT Members of the End of Nations development team were on hand yesterday showing off their MMORTS. Senior Producer Chris Lena, Community Directory Elizabeth Tobey, and Community Manager Lance James gave viewers a first look at Icebreaker, a 2v2 Base vs. Base map. If you missed all the action, no worries! The team has posted the video for you to check out at Twitch.tv.

Ikariam: Game Update 0.5.0 Now Live and Giveaway! Posted: 12 Jul 2012 05:17 PM PDT We're giving away three codes good for 120 Ambrosia in Gameforge's free-to-play title, Ikariam, in order to celebrate the launch of game update 0.5.0!

Cartoon Universe: A Looney Tunes MMO? Posted: 11 Jul 2012 08:36 PM PDT Most kids (and adults!) are aware of and adore Warner Bros. stable of cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Scooby Doo among many others. We have a preview of their upcoming browser title "Cartoon Universe". Read on!

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