MMO Updates |
- Looking for Guild: We want to help you find your next guild!
- Filth invades Agartha in The Secret World's collaborative event
- Shadow Cities closing down October 7
- Experience TERA with a free high-level character
- World of Warplanes bumps release dates to November
- The Daily Grind: Have you ever scored an MMO world first?
- The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL Season 3 World Championships' group stage
- Lord of the Rings Online explains Hunter changes in Helm's Deep
- New trailer shows off the best of PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Ask Massively: The order of all the things
- The Guild Counsel: Running an MMO guild on an empty server
- A virtual economist's defense of the subscription model
- Camelot Unchained reveals the HelBound class
- Neverwinter gives rewards for transferring ZEN
- The Think Tank: How do you feel about community involvement with an MMO's development process?
- Wander winds its way to the PS4
| Looking for Guild: We want to help you find your next guild! Posted: 20 Sep 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, Looking for Guild  We'd like to think that Massively readers are a unique bunch and should all be playing these games together, so we're going to do what we can to help that along. While we've done similar community pushes in the past, we want to present this current column as a more personalized approach to finding a guild or guildie. Think of it as a personals ad for the guildless or under-guilded. Continue reading Looking for Guild: We want to help you find your next guild!
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| Filth invades Agartha in The Secret World's collaborative event Posted: 20 Sep 2013 09:30 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Real-Life, Events (In-Game), News Items, The Secret World, Buy-to-Play  The Whispering Tide event will escalate as the months go by, and the culmination of the event will pit the community against a brutal foe whose defeat will open the Tokyo portal and herald the release of the much anticipated Issue #9. [Source: Funcom press release]
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| Shadow Cities closing down October 7 Posted: 20 Sep 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Real-Life, Sci-Fi, Sunsets  Finnish developer Grey Area has announced that they will be closing down Shadow Cities on October 7 of this year. The game has already been removed from the iTunes App Store as of today and it will not accept new Mana Potion purchases. [Source: Grey Area release]
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| Experience TERA with a free high-level character Posted: 20 Sep 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Giveaways, TERA, Promotions  To get your free level 58 character, you must create a brand-new character between 1:00 p.m. September 19th and 2:59 a.m. September 22nd and give it a name ending in ".Levelup" (i.e. Bob.Levelup, Jane.Levelup). All newly minted level 58 characters will be supplied with gear, a mount, access to all story quests, and a name change voucher. For full details, visit the official site. [Thanks to John for the tip!]
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| World of Warplanes bumps release dates to November Posted: 20 Sep 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Historical, Launches, New Titles, War, Free-to-Play, World of Warplanes  The previous date was given at this year's Gamescom, but this postponement "seeks to offer gamers a richer, more immersive multiplayer experience at launch. " On launch day, all XP earned during open beta will not reset and will be evenly distributed between pilots of low-level warplanes from each of the five national lines. [Source: Wargaming press release]
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| The Daily Grind: Have you ever scored an MMO world first? Posted: 20 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Culture, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, The Daily Grind, Humor, Miscellaneous, Sandbox  Back then, games didn't reward you with a pretty badge or fancy title for being "first," but modern MMOs do. Players and guilds will go to ridiculous lengths to ensure their place in history as "first guild to down such and such boss with 13.5 players" or "first tailor to sew hot pink level 500 epic boots." How about you guys? Have you ever landed a world or server first, recorded or otherwise, and what was it?  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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| The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL Season 3 World Championships' group stage Posted: 19 Sep 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Events (Real-World), PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook  The matches haven't been the only thing good about the tournament. Riot has added a lot of presentation quality, including pro interviews and an analysis desk. In spite of some minor technical issues, this has been a very solid tournament thus far. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL Season 3 World Championships' group stage
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| Lord of the Rings Online explains Hunter changes in Helm's Deep Posted: 19 Sep 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Classes, Expansions, Previews, News Items, Free-to-Play  The Bowmaster is a stationary high-DPS ranged specialization that requires a steady spot for consistent damage. The Huntsman, meanwhile, emphasizes mid-range mobility and rapid output of weaker attacks. Trapper of Foes fills out the roster by focusing on crowd control and AoE, trading in some damage for more group offerings. Players can start enjoying these changes when the expansion goes live in November. On an unrelated but important note, players impacted by the game's outage issues earlier in the month have now been compensated via time extensions for subscribers and free Turbine Points for lifetime members. It's not a class revision, but it's certainly a welcome bit of recompense.
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| New trailer shows off the best of PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic Posted: 19 Sep 2013 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Trailers, Video, PvP, News Items, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic  Existing players will probably recognize all of the warzones pictured (and potentially question why so many people are standing in place fighting duels in a Huttball match), as the trailer doesn't contain any footage of the upcoming arena PvP maps. But if you're unfamiliar with what the PvP looks like in the game, you could do worse than taking a gander. Here's a hint: It involves a lot of lightsabers. Continue reading New trailer shows off the best of PvP in Star Wars: The Old Republic
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| Ask Massively: The order of all the things Posted: 19 Sep 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO Industry, Opinion, Massively Meta, Ask Massively, Events (Massively's Coverage), Community Q&A, Miscellaneous, Crowdfunding  Our first question is from Siphaed, who wondered about the entries in our Week in Review: I'm a bit confused why The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Citizen got above FFXIV. Don't get me wrong, I honestly don't like either game and still prefer the one above all three (Guild Wars 2). However, I see that FFXIV has four key articles dedicated to it this past week and the other two have only three each. I would think that it would get a slight priority in the pecking order based on that. If not, what are the credentials for one game getting priority over the others in the article listing?I love that you guys think we're sitting around steepling our fingers trying to decide which game should go on top and get the golden star sticker for the week, but unfortunately, it's nowhere near that much fun! Continue reading Ask Massively: The order of all the things
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| The Guild Counsel: Running an MMO guild on an empty server Posted: 19 Sep 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Guilds, Opinion, The Guild Counsel, Miscellaneous  For MMOs that have multiple servers, this means some servers will begin to feel empty, and that can take a toll on the guilds that play there. When you're running a guild in a graveyard, it's harder to recruit, more difficult to find others to group and raid with, and harder to keep morale up. But is moving the guild really the best answer? Let's explore your options in this week's Guild Counsel. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Running an MMO guild on an empty server
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| A virtual economist's defense of the subscription model Posted: 19 Sep 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Miscellaneous, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, MMORPG, Buy-to-Play  Knowles (who works under game economist Edward Castronova) posits that there are three primary criticisms with the sub model: it incentivizes players to rush through content, it requires the steady release of expensive content, and it prevents companies from price discriminating (charging players for how much those players value the game rather than a flat rate). He then works to dismantle each criticism, using math as his primary weapon. If you're into detailed looks at payment models, the full blog is worth a read. Hit the jump for a quick summary of Knowles' main points. Continue reading A virtual economist's defense of the subscription model
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| Camelot Unchained reveals the HelBound class Posted: 19 Sep 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Classes, Lore, PvP, Dev Diaries, Camelot Unchained, Subscription  "Becoming a HelBound means pain and pleasure, power and weakness for we are as our mother, creatures of a dual nature," the backstory intones. The HelBound is given the choice of a HelMark that will distinguish the character as either a healer or a death-dealing fighter. The class has cool half-masks that channel special effects due to an ancestor hopping along for the ride. According to Jacobs, the HelBound are "quite intriguing and just a wee bit dark."
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| Neverwinter gives rewards for transferring ZEN Posted: 19 Sep 2013 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Free-to-Play, Promotions, Neverwinter  From today through September 23rd, players who purchase ZEN (Perfect World's premium currency) and then transfer it into Neverwinter can receive rewards based on the amount of money spent. If you lock in 500 ZEN, you'll get a Sun Mask sent to all of your characters. Spend 3,000 ZEN and you'll get the mask and the Fey Wolf mount. And if you transfer 6,000 ZEN, you'll get all of the above and a Quickling companion. The in-game rewards will become available on September 27th.
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| The Think Tank: How do you feel about community involvement with an MMO's development process? Posted: 19 Sep 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Miscellaneous, The Think Tank  A game's community has become more important to the development of modern MMOs as studios are paying more and more attention to what the players actually want versus what publishers want. This is evident in games like EVE Online with its player council, and Kickstarter has opened up a whole new avenue for the players to influence that dev process. But sometimes, that player influence isn't always for the best. In the famous words of poet John Lydgate, "You can't please all of the people all of the time." Yet many developers still try. So I threw the question out to the Massively staff to get some fresh opinions. Should we all be able to play the part of an armchair developer, or should we leave the design up to the paid designers?
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| Wander winds its way to the PS4 Posted: 19 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Galleries, Screenshots, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Consoles, Sandbox  What can players expect when wandering in Wander? Explorable land totals 64 square kilometres so far and players will start off as a giant tree exploring a rainforest. Throughout their journeys, they can morph into a total of five different forms: Ent, Polynesian Elf Girl, Griffon, Azertash (sea creature), and Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger). You can get a taste of the world in the gallery below. [Source: Wander Game press release]
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