| The Road to Mordor: LotRO's big battles and you Posted: 24 Aug 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game Mechanics, Free-to-Play, The Road to Mordor So... does anyone else think it's a little strange the Turbine's more or less gone dark about Lord of the Rings Online: Helm's Deep? The last we heard anything about the next expansion was back in April, after which we've had a chasm of silence. In the past couple of years, the studio was already into high promotion mode regarding its expansions come summertime, which leads me to believe that something is holding Helm's Deep up -- and I don't think it's looking good for a 2013 release. I have a hunch that this "something" is the big battle system, the brand-new feature that will be the cornerstone of Helm's Deep the same way that mounted combat was for Riders of Rohan. Recently, Turbine broke its expansion silence to deliver a series of 20 questions and answers about the big battle system, although oddly enough it kept this confined to the forums. Whether or not LotRO's fifth expansion is coming this year, Helm's Deep's big battles do sound audacious and worth the wait. Let's see if we can't get to the core of what this new system will offer and what the studio is trying to do with it. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: LotRO's big battles and you  The Road to Mordor: LotRO's big battles and you originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Aug 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: Finally home edition Posted: 24 Aug 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous I've been writing about Final Fantasy XIV since before it launched. I've been playing the game since it did launch. I've weathered the changes, figured things out, roleplayed, laughed, loved, and lost. And I've spent the past nine months waiting for my game to come back, looking to the future, trying to be patient, enjoying the test weekends as best I could while still wanting to have the game back for good. This morning, that wait ends. You can't go home again, but you can move to a new home. So absolutely no one needs to read what my WRUP entry this week looks like. For the rest of the Massively crew, there's more variation, so you can check past the break for all of those plans. Oh, and you can let us know what you'll be up to down in the comments, whether it's as transparent as my own weekend plans or not. Continue reading WRUP: Finally home edition WRUP: Finally home edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Aug 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What was your most memorable launch day? Posted: 24 Aug 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Launches, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous The day World of Warcraft launched its first expansion, my wife and I stayed up for the midnight launch. We rushed home, installed the game, made our characters, and slept for a few fitful hours before getting back up and playing until we could play no more. Pizza was ordered, soda was drunk, and the entire day was a celebration of The Burning Crusade. We don't play any longer, but all I need to do to bring a smile to both of our faces is to just mention that launch. Considering how important MMOs are to many of us, I'd bet it's almost certain that you've had a launch day that meant the world to you, a day when you broke from your normal routine and did something really neat and out of the box. So we want to know about it today. What was your most memorable launch day? And was it a game you still play or one you've left behind?  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 was your most memorable launch day? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Aug 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Gamescom 2013: Dewback mounts spotted in SWTOR cantina tour files Posted: 23 Aug 2013 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Events (Real-World), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic BioWare's latest Star Wars: The Old Republic cantina tour descended on Gamescom this week, bringing with it a glimpse at the sci-fi MMO's not-too-distant future. Fan website Dulfy.net obtained the files from the thumb drive handed out at the event, and has posted several images from the upcoming content additions. Let's see, there's concept art for a dewback mount, screenshots from the planet Oricon, and an image of the F5-SC battle droid refer-a-friend award, among other goodies. Click through the links below to see for yourself. [Thanks Austin!] Gamescom 2013: Dewback mounts spotted in SWTOR cantina tour files originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: August 17 - 23, 2013 Posted: 23 Aug 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Launches, MMO Industry, News Items, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Players enjoying Firefall's open beta were probably pleased to hear about the plans being made for the game's next phase of open beta testing, although a bit less pleased that the announcement didn't specify what those plans actually were. Players enjoying World of Warplanes, on the other hand, had absolutely no ambiguity to cope with regarding the game's announcement of a September 26th release date. And World of Tanks has expanded its console beta testing to Europe, giving players a new chance to enjoy the game on a different platform. There are things to be said about other games that happen to be in beta testing, but this is Betawatch, not Businessmodelwatch. As a result, you can find a list of games in testing just past the break -- and if you see something that's missing or has sneaked a cash shop into open testing, let us know down in the comments! Continue reading Betawatch: August 17 - 23, 2013 Betawatch: August 17 - 23, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Gamescom 2013: DayZ standalone delayed, Hall not worried Posted: 23 Aug 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Horror, Events (Real-World), Interviews, MMO Industry, News Items, Post-Apocalyptic, Sandbox DayZ creator Dean Hall told Joystiq that the standalone version of his ultra-popular zombie sandbox mod no longer has a release window. "The awkward thing is the only thing we're waiting on is the core network architecture," Hall said, speaking at this week's Gamescom. "That's the kind of thing only a few people can work on. It's very specialized. It's like, you can't throw more pilots at a plane. You put a thousand pilots in a plane, it's not going to fly any faster." Hall said that art, animation, and design work is ongoing while the network architecture is being ironed out. He also touched on the high expectations for what started as an Arma 2 mod. "If most of the community who maybe thought DayZ was cool a year ago now they think it's lame, I think that's probably good for us," Hall explained. "We don't need to sell that many copies to break even. We want to be a hardcore game and I think if we make a good game people will come back." Gamescom 2013: DayZ standalone delayed, Hall not worried originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Gamescom 2013: Black Desert devs eyeing next-gen consoles Posted: 23 Aug 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Consoles, Sandbox, Black Desert Korean MMO studio Pearl Abyss is talking to the press about its jaw-droppingly gorgeous Black Desert title at this week's Gamescom. According to DualShockers, part of the discourse included the possibility of porting the PC title to next-gen consoles. The website reports that while speaking with Pearl Abyss COO Jaemin Youn and CFO Brian Oh, the duo "enthusiastically answered that, yes, not only [are they] considering porting to the game to both PS4 and X-Box One, but they actually already had meetings with Sony Computer Entertainment." [Thanks Erik!] Gamescom 2013: Black Desert devs eyeing next-gen consoles originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Blizzard removes Titan from careers page Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:00 PM PDT |
| Guns of Icarus Online coming to PlayStation 4 Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:30 PM PDT |
| LotRO challenges servers to complete the Bounder's Bounty Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events (In-Game), Expansions, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries A brand-new event is dawning on Lord of the Rings Online, and this one isn't your typical festival fare. The Bounder's Bounty is a long-term event that starts today and will run up to the release of the Helm's Deep expansion. The goal is to collect tokens, finish deeds, and help your server complete a collection goal. Players will find these new Bounder's Tokens from mob drops, quests, and other places. Turn enough in to a vendor in Michel Delving, and you'll earn personal rewards from a nearby vendor. However, if the whole server works together to collectively meet a grand goal, then a second vendor will unlock to sell cool items like war-steeds, mounts, and other goodies. In addition, the server goal of Bounder's Bounty will grant everyone a persistent buff until the expansion releases and help to erect a new statue in the center of Michel Delving. Speaking of the expansion, Roger at Contains Moderate Peril did a bit of file rummaging and came up with several possible maps from the expansion. Thanks to Andang for the tip! LotRO challenges servers to complete the Bounder's Bounty originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log Extra: Cross-class skills in Final Fantasy XIV Posted: 23 Aug 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Game Mechanics, Launches, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log, Guides A little over a year ago, I talked about all of the really stand-out cross-class skills in Final Fantasy XIV. Astute readers will note that some of the abilities I reference in that article no longer exist, and several of them have completely different effects now. It's almost as if the game has completely relaunched or something. It's crazy. This might not sound like a big deal, but it is because cross-class skills are one of the big aspects of character customization in the game. You level up as an Archer with the expectation that you'll pick up a few more skills along the way to augment your strengths. So which ones are worth picking up? As of the last beta weekend, there are a lot of skills available, and I went through everything as best I could to try to pick out what's available. So now you can plan out your leveling in advance and know just what you want for those 10 extra slots in your class. Continue reading The Mog Log Extra: Cross-class skills in Final Fantasy XIV The Mog Log Extra: Cross-class skills in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Guild Wars 2 seeing 'slow but steady growth' in players Posted: 23 Aug 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play Buy-to-play games can be difficult to judge in terms of metrics. You can't point to the total number of people who have bought the game because there's no proof those people are still playing. Guild Wars 2 has sold plenty of boxes, and according to lead designer Isaiah Cartwright those boxes are translating to long-term players after all. In fact, Cartwright told Polygon that the game is experiencing growth in both overall and concurrent players after launch. While the game did experience a population drop after launch, Cartwright stressed that this was entirely normal and something that every designer should plan for. He declined to give hard numbers on player growth, but he did state that the game's current update plan came about as a result of looking at the game's metrics and determining what players were more likely to log in for. Guild Wars 1 is also apparently maintaining a solid number of players, and while the game is in maintenance mode, Cartwright states that it's in no risk of shutting down. Guild Wars 2 seeing 'slow but steady growth' in players originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMObility: Ultima Forever is tons of fun, even with repairs Posted: 23 Aug 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Business Models, Game Mechanics, New Titles, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Mobile, Casual, MMObility, Dungeons EA's new toy, Ultima Forever, is a fun mobile game that is loosely related to the first great MMO I ever played, Ultima Online. It's set in the same universe, 21 years after the events of Ultima IV, and it made me happy to see many of the same names and places that I remember from my yearly field trips back into the original, but the game still plays and feels differently from the classic. You'll have fun with the mobile version anyway, hacking and slashing your way through classic dungeon after dungeon. But is the effort worth it? Is EA just asking for veteran players to come along and torpedo this latest effort in the Ultima series? How will potentially curmudgeony old-school players adapt to a title that forces them to play on a tablet (or later, a browser)? Because after playing Ultima Forever for a while now, I can safely say that this is not a game made only for veterans. Continue reading MMObility: Ultima Forever is tons of fun, even with repairs MMObility: Ultima Forever is tons of fun, even with repairs originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Aug 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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