MMO Updates |
- The Soapbox: Community or comments
- Psychologist asks designers to shorten quests to fight addiction
- SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site
- The Daily Grind: What do you spend and what do you hoard?
- SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next
- Camelot Unchained status update outlines weekly progress
- Not So Massively: Star Citizen's hangar module, Elite's black markets, and the Dota 2 world championship
- WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction
- Massively Speaking Episode 258: EverQuest Next!
- Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting
- Dark Relic wants to bring back classic roleplaying
- The Phoenix Project developers talk passion, grieving, and moving forward
- The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar
- Guild Wars 2 announces the winner of the Captain's Council Election
- Activision Blizzard facing lawsuit from shareholder over going independent
- LotRO connectivity issues outside of Turbine's control
- World of Warcraft sews together realms to solve population issues
- Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria
| The Soapbox: Community or comments Posted: 06 Aug 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Soapbox, WildStar, MMORPG  Here on Massively, EVE Online and World of Warcraft seem to be the biggest magnets for such tomfoolery. Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic attract these behaviors as well, and WildStar is well on its way to becoming the next troll-favorite comment piñata. There's nothing wrong with not liking a game, of course. And a little conflict is good; why allow comments if everyone's going to have the same opinion? There's just one problem: If your opinion of a game is based on preconceived notions and not actual experience, that opinion is adding nothing to the dialogue. In short, you are trolling. Continue reading The Soapbox: Community or comments
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| Psychologist asks designers to shorten quests to fight addiction Posted: 06 Aug 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous  You may feel like it's a good suggestion or you may feel like it's comparable to fighting alcoholism by selling beer in smaller bottles, but the study goes into more detail than that simple suggestion. The study, which was published in the Addiction Research and Theory journal, recommends steps be taken before games see the sort of government administration as seen in countries such as China and South Korea. It ultimately concludes that anywhere between 7-11% of all gamers suffer from "pathological" behavior. The full paper can be purchased by those interested for closer review.
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| SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site Posted: 06 Aug 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Launches, Events (Massively's Coverage), EverQuest Next  Wikia sites have been a valuable resource across many of SOE's titles, and this weekend saw the arrival of a brand new EverQuest Next Wikia site. Read on for a closer look at the Wikia Lab, and an update on what they've already put together this weekend at SOE Live to help fans get the answers they seek! Continue reading SOE Live 2013: SOE and Wikia unveil The Lab and new EQ Next site
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| The Daily Grind: What do you spend and what do you hoard? Posted: 06 Aug 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Game Mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous  By contrast, if I'm crafting, I go through crafting materials with abandon. There's no time to stop and think that I might use these Cotton Bolls in Final Fantasy XIV in a future recipe; I'm too busy turning all of them into thread. Which isn't exactly better, since I still wind up needing more of these things if they ever become relevant again. I think everyone tends to hoard and spend differently, so today I'm asking how so. What do you spend and what do you hoard? Do you acquire huge piles of money but spend your tokens as soon as you can? Carefully measure out your class resources but go nuts with cooldowns? What are your thrifty habits and what habits... aren't?  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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| SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next Posted: 05 Aug 2013 09:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, New Titles, Free-to-Play, Races, Events (Massively's Coverage), EverQuest Next  During a dedicated lore panel, attendees were treated to a Norrathian History 101 class. Those in attendance heard the philosophy behind the lore design of EQ Next as well as a sketch of the history leading up to the start of the game. And now you can benefit from the class notes! Continue reading SOE Live 2013: The lore of EverQuest Next
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| Camelot Unchained status update outlines weekly progress Posted: 05 Aug 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, Crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained  There's also a bit of lore regarding the Stormriders and of course a status report to catch us up on last week's road map. Click through the links below to see all that the dev team has accomplished in recent days.
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| Posted: 05 Aug 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Video, Business Models, Economy, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, Patches, PvP, Endgame, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Casual, Dev Diaries, Miscellaneous, Not So Massively, Sandbox, MOBA, League of Legends, Diablo III, Crowdfunding, Star Citizen, Elite: Dangerous, Infinite Crisis, Path of Exile  Dota 2 kicked off its third annual world championship tournament, The International, with a record-breaking prize pool of $2.8 million and growing! League of Legends' smaller but still incredibly popular $100,000 EU LCS Summer Split tournament also got underway this week ahead of the colossal upcoming patch 3.10. The patch will include nerfs to champions Elise and Twisted Fate, and the removal of the popular Runic Bulwark item. Diablo III's gold economy showed further signs of runaway inflation as developers increased the size of gold stacks on the real money auction house from 10 million for $0.25 to 50 million for the same price. Blizzard also asked players for feedback on the idea of adding a Diablo II style ladder system, and announced that it has big news about the game to be revealed in Gamescom later this month. And Path of Exile showed off its new Reave skill for Shadow characters ahead of upcoming patch 0.11.4.
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| WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction Posted: 05 Aug 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Video, Culture, Subscription  Since 2012, he's slowly but surely leveled his Pandaren Shaman from 1 to 60 without leaving the Wandering Isle. Once he finished the starter quests and outleveled the mobs, he's had to rely completely on herbalism and inscription for his XP influx. He isn't using heirlooms and said he won't play the character unless it has rested XP. The end result is a level 60 Pandaren that's completely faction-neutral -- and can talk to both sides. You can check out his latest leveling video after the jump. Continue reading WoW player levels Pandaren to 60 without picking a faction
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| Massively Speaking Episode 258: EverQuest Next! Posted: 05 Aug 2013 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Podcasts, MMO Industry, News Items, Massively Meta, Events (Massively's Coverage), Massively Speaking, Miscellaneous  Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air! Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page: Read below the cut for the full show notes. Continue reading Massively Speaking Episode 258: EverQuest Next!
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting Posted: 05 Aug 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Horror, Sci-Fi, Opinion, The Secret World, Chaos Theory, Buy-to-Play  Contemporary settings in MMOs are few and very far between. Fantasy takes the top spot, of course, followed by science fiction, historical (think pirates and period pieces), and geek genre settings like steampunk and post-apocalyptic. But to play a game set in today's world? It's just not done, not really. Except in The Secret World. From where I'm sitting, this gives TSW several major advantages that it can and does wield over the competition. Just because the game world resembles our own (with a few more zombies and werewolves, natch) doesn't mean it is stripped of fascinating allure. Actually, it opens doors that just aren't present in your typical fantasy game and paves the way for pop culture references that -- for once -- aren't anachronistic. Continue reading Chaos Theory: Advantages of The Secret World's contemporary setting
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| Dark Relic wants to bring back classic roleplaying Posted: 05 Aug 2013 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, New Titles, Sandbox  Dark Relic is based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign called The 6th Aspect from the early 1990s. The developers liken the project to Choose Your Own Adventure books where players can pick the path that interests them the most. Crafting is given a strong emphasis for players who would rather stay at home and tinker instead of venturing out into the world. The project is still on the fourth stage of 12 planned prior to launch. There are currently four classes and four races planned. Dark Relic: Prelude will be the first of a proposed series set in the game universe.
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| The Phoenix Project developers talk passion, grieving, and moving forward Posted: 05 Aug 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Culture, Interviews, News Items, Crowdfunding  Kickstarter is not the last chance for the project, as the team has no plans to shelve it if funding goals are not met, but no outside sources have been approached yet. The interview also stresses that the game is not meant to simply be a clone of City of Heroes, with a development focus on including the best parts of the game rather than simply copying everything. For a deeper look behind the scenes, read through the full interview. [Thanks to Asteria for the tip!]
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| The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar Posted: 05 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Culture, Game Mechanics, PvP, Opinion, WildStar, The Nexus Telegraph  Part of this is a balance issue. Creating a PvP environment that's actually fair is a challenge all by itself, and creating one that's unfair does not exactly foster a spirit of lively competition. But part of this is the nature of players. You have players who run the gamut, from people who don't want anything to do with PvP (mostly due to players on the other end of the spectrum) to players who assume that PvP is a mandate to do nasty things to unaware participants (especially people on the other end of the spectrum). WildStar is stepping into this minefield, and as we all know the game is trying to provide something for everyone from the top down. So today I want to look at what we know about the game's PvP and how various camps can be courted with the overall mechanics of the game. Continue reading The Nexus Telegraph: Courting PvP in WildStar
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| Guild Wars 2 announces the winner of the Captain's Council Election Posted: 05 Aug 2013 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Events (In-Game), Lore, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play  Rather than resting on her achievement, Kiel is already working on fulfilling her campaign promises, starting with a reduction in waypoint travel prices for four weeks. She's also pushing for the expansion of Fractals into Thaumanova Reactor, introducing a rotating schedule of activities such as Southsun Survival, and reducing the mill rate in Lion's Arch by 7%. Players probably won't care about that last one, but they can still look forward to seeing what other impacts Kiel's newfound station will have in the future.
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| Activision Blizzard facing lawsuit from shareholder over going independent Posted: 05 Aug 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Legal, Miscellaneous  Miller stresses that the sale nets an immediate windfall for CEO Bobby Kotick and entrenches him in a position of power within the company while failing to provide any benefit to the company as a whole or the individual shareholders. He also claims that the Activision board members are conflicted due to their previous positions within Vivendi and have no reason to resist this move, resulting in a net detriment for holders of the company's stock. Miller is calling for the purchase order to be rescinded and for Activision to institute controls so that this situation is not repeated in the future.
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| LotRO connectivity issues outside of Turbine's control Posted: 05 Aug 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Bugs, Free-to-Play  "This morning we have received word that one of our affiliated connection providers is taking steps to re-route services around certain areas of the internet that are experiencing issues we believe are the root cause of the reported issues," CM Rick Heaton posted. Turbine says that the issue should be resolved shortly, but in the meantime the studio encourages players to try many of the workarounds that the community has come up with.
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| World of Warcraft sews together realms to solve population issues Posted: 05 Aug 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Patches, Previews, Dev Diaries, Subscription  While the affected realms will remain technically independent, the lines between the two connected realms will be blurred. These realms will be able to share population, have one linked auction house, and allow players of both servers to group, guild, and PvP together. So why not just merge? Blizzard's official answer reasons, "Other alternatives such as merging realms would require us to force character name changes if there were conflicts, and could lead to confusion for returning players who'd log in to find their realm missing from the realm list. Some players also feel strong ties to their realm's name or history, and we don't want to erase that." The list of what servers will be connected has yet to be released.
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| Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria Posted: 05 Aug 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Lore, Free-to-Play, Mabinogi  Episode Six is called Swarm of Demons: Truth, and it may be the darkest hour for our heroes yet. Even without mouths, these characters call to our very souls as they struggle against a dude in a red beard that likes to pop out of smoke portals. Check out the action after the jump! Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Episode 6 of Mabinogi the Saga: Iria
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