| One Shots: Swimsuit issue Posted: 21 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Screenshots, City of Heroes, Culture, Star Trek Online, One Shots, The Secret World, Humor, Miscellaneous Oh yeah, I'm going to totally suck you in with the tantalizing promise of itsy bitsy teeny weenie yellow polka-dot bikinis and then pull a bait-and-switch on you today. Shh. Don't tell your consciousness as it is already reading the next paragraph. We kick off today's swimsuit-laden issue of One Shots with this summer vacation shot of reader Draxos on Star Trek Online's Risa. "This is a shot of my Orion character as she ponders what she'll have to do for more Lohlunat Favors. Dance competitions, Horga'hn Hunts, meeting someone called Pavyl at remote locations on the island at night, all in order to earn a few Favors; it's just such hard work. Well at least there's been no mention of Jamaharon... so far." It's called "sex," Star Trek writers. You can use the word without giggling these days. Anyway, let's move on where more scantily clad flesh awaits! Continue reading One Shots: Swimsuit issue  One Shots: Swimsuit issue originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Jul 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What mistakes did you make when you first started in MMOs? Posted: 21 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Looking back at my first steps in MMOs, it's breathtaking just how little I understood about how these games worked. I mean, a lot of that was on the developers because early MMOs didn't exactly go out of their way to teach me squat. It was a lot of trial, error, and often continued ignorance until someone laughed at me and told me how to actually play. I wasn't aware of guilds when I was puttering around in Anarchy Online in the early days. I think I played City of Heroes without slotting any enhancements for the longest time. And there were those initial World of Warcraft dungeon runs where I thought nothing was wrong with rushing into fights even though I was just DPS and the tank was over there beating his head on the wall due to my stupidity. But enough about me! Let's hear about you: What mistakes did you make when you first started in 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: What mistakes did you make when you first started in MMOs? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 21 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Hi-Rez's Todd Harris argues Tribes: Ascend is a 'complete' and 'content-rich' experience Posted: 20 Jul 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Interviews, MMO Industry, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS We reported earlier this week that Hi-Rez decided to stop updating Tribes Ascend in favor of user mapmaking tools because the studio feels that the Tribes experience is "complete" as-is. In a follow-up interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Hi-Rez's Todd Harris has now discussed the development hiatus in more detail and answers some tough questions on extant issues with game balance. He argues that not only is the game complete, but it's already feature-rich and a bargain for the price. Since launch, we added 54 new weapons. We added a new game mode, a new leveling system, custom servers, server browser, shielded base assets, 29 new maps - all free - and all that in a brief period of time. We also added an option for people to pay one price and get all the weapons. I don't know of any other free-to-play game, other than our own SMITE, that has that option. It's free-to-play, but it does have a twist. You can get all the gameplay elements for the price of a normal game. It's fairly complete in its content. Harris also tells RPS that a new tutorial would be only a "modest improvement as far as new people sticking with the game"; instead, he says, he hopes to facilitate community resources. But mostly, he appears to believe the game has already found its audience. "The days of major changes in the game are behind us," he says. What about insinuations that the studio bit off more than it could chew? Harris explains that the studio has three small teams working on multiple games and has learned "learned the value of focus." According to Harris, Tribes has supported itself commercially and profits were always returned to the game's development. Even so, the studio is focused on the MOBA space: " SMITE is doing well enough that it's justifying a large amount of resources on it . . . we see the biggest studio opportunity on SMITE." Hi-Rez's Todd Harris argues Tribes: Ascend is a 'complete' and 'content-rich' experience originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Jul 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Tattered Notebook: Speculation's last stand for EverQuest Next Posted: 20 Jul 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, Free-to-Play, The Tattered Notebook, EverQuest Next I found myself in an interesting predicament this week. Today's Tattered Notebook was slated to be my last big speculation about EverQuest Next before I learned the real scoop at SOE Live 2013. However, as many of you know, I actually got the goods in a special preview a couple of weeks back! So until I can talk about what I know, my speculation days are done... at least on the features front, that is. What I can still ruminate on is the hype surrounding the game. After all, who needs concrete information when hype is involved? Hype is a powerful tool, able to work people into quite a frenzy. As often as we've been burned by unfulfilled promises, you'd think we we'd skip the hype boat, but that's not the case; we often book a ticket and hop on anyway. We just can't help but feel our heart strings pulled and hope renewed when a new title comes out flashing our favorite buzzwords. And EQ Next has offered a few: emergent gameplay, sandbox, innovation. From there, every little morsel of news -- no matter how few and far between -- has been like a drop of fuel to the fire, elevating our hopes and building expectations. Is the hype justified? We'll all have a better idea of that soon, though not soon enough. Until then, here's a recap of what we do know to chew on until the main course is served in two weeks. Then you can let your speculation run wild, even if I can't! Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: Speculation's last stand for EverQuest Next The Tattered Notebook: Speculation's last stand for EverQuest Next originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV makes me happy in small ways Posted: 20 Jul 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log Final Fantasy XIV makes me happy for a variety of reasons. Some of them I've written about, and some things make me slightly less than happy on a whole. The point is made either way: I like the game, and there's a lot of stuff to write about, a lot of big issues that easily sustain a whole column on their own. Not everything I want to write about does that. There are a lot of things that I think the game does right that can't be discussed over the length of a column without repeating myself several dozen times. I don't want to write that column and odds are good you don't want to read it, either. What I can do instead, though, is compile several of those points into a single column. I want to look at the things that I like about the game that aren't big enough to merit a whole column but are big enough to be worth mentioning. Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV makes me happy in small ways The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV makes me happy in small ways originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 20 Jul 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Trek Online state of the game update talks Season 8, reputation, and more Posted: 20 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT |
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