General Gaming Article

---

• Bitcoin Mining 101
• Microsoft Plucks Gears of War Franchise from Epic Games
• More Mantle Delay Rumors Surface in Relation to Battlefield 4 (Updated)
• Legal Dispute Prompts Microsoft to Rebrand SkyDrive as OneDrive
• Google Apologizes for Gmail Outage, Yahoo Sorry for Throwing Stones
• Newegg Daily Deals: Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM, Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case, and More!

Bitcoin Mining 101 Posted: 27 Jan 2014 04:27 PM PST What is Bitcoin Mining? Here's everything you need to know to start cranking out cash with your PC Bitcoin is a new kind of virtual currency that exists only in the mysterious world of the Internet. It sprang up after the financial crisis of 2008, when people fearing that the sky was falling began investing in gold bars and silver coins. Many geeks also feared the apocalypse was nigh, but they chose to invest not in old-world currencies, but in a new currency created from scratch and made up of digital bits. That currency is Bitcoin. What's really interesting about this brand-new currency is that it's mined through good old-fashioned hard work—by your PC though, not you. You simply run a program on your computer and eventually a virtual coin will appear. The more powerful your setup, the faster the coins will arrive, theoretically at least. It's very similar to the SETI@home and Folding@home programs, in that it uses spare computing cycles to help churn through complicated equations, but this time the equations result in a payday for the person willing to devote the resources necessary to acquire them. Of course, it's not quite that simple, and there are pitfalls and caveats, as always, so follow along while we take you on a brief tour of this brave new frontier. And if you become a virtual millionaire down the road, we want a finder's fee. What Is Bitcoin? Terminology Bitcoin = system bitcoin = unit of currency Bitcoin is a decentralized virtual currency that exists solely online. You generate bitcoins with your computer, stuff bitcoins into a virtual wallet, trade them with others, and eventually cash out if you want. Since there is no central authority or government agency providing oversight, users are allowed to semi-anonymously transfer money to one another, making it similar to any other peer-to-peer transaction, except this time, instead of swapping torrents, you're swapping virtual cash. This lack of oversight is one of the key benefits, and downsides, to Bitcoin at this time, making it the latest frontier in the battle over how much freedom should exist in the online world. This state of anarchy has also made Bitcoin quite intriguing for people who have a lot of spare GPU cycles, which is a wide swath of the Maximum PC readership. But before you fire up your GPUs and quit your day job, let's examine the basics of Bitcoin so you can decide if it's something you even want to bother with, because—spoiler alert—it's not for everybody. Bitcoin Basics *Note: This article was originally featured in the October 2013 issue of the magazine.  Bitcoin currency consists of four denominations, with the largest being one bitcoin (BTC), followed by a milicoin with a value of 0.001 BTC. One step lower is a microcoin with a value of 0.000001 BTC, and the smallest denomination is a satoshi, with a value of 0.00000001 BTC. Since its inception in 2009, bitcoin value has varied widely: $1 could buy you one bitcoin at the beginning of 2011, but you'd need $230 to buy that same bitcoin in April 2013, making it a damned good investment for those who got in early. Bitcoin is a different kind of currency though, so naturally it works a bit differently than traditional currencies. While your local bank keeps a private ledger for deposits and withdrawals, Bitcoin's ledger, called the block chain, is public, and everyone can download a copy. This allows anyone to effectively audit transactions sent over the network, which has elicited fears of a Panopticon of constant surveillance. This ease of monitoring has also caused many users to actively conceal their identities on the Bitcoin network, which is somewhat easy to do since bitcoins are sent to an alphanumeric address that is randomly generated by a virtual wallet (more on that in a moment). This structure helps keep users anonymous by allowing them to create a new address for each transaction, which also means others can't see any previous transactions from a particular user. While all transactions and wallet addresses are recorded in a public ledger, the keys needed to access funds are private, which ensures that only you have access to your bitcoins. Each transaction over Bitcoin is verified by a software program that generates an SHA-256 hash, which is sent to the public block chain. Once it's in the block chain, it is confirmed that the money has been left at your address. Donating hours of CPU/GPU cycles and electricity to compute these hashes in order to maintain the public ledger isn't going to attract many sane people, so part of the genius of Bitcoin is that the person who computes the newest block of the public ledger, or block chain, is rewarded with bitcoins. The people who actually do this work with their PCs are called miners, and these power users carefully calculate the cost/benefit ratio of computer hardware and electricity costs against the bitcoin exchange rate. Miners make money by exchanging their bitcoins for local currency through exchanges. We know it sounds good, and you're raring to compute some cash, so let's take a look at what you need to do to acquire some bitcoin. The block chain tallies all transactions, and features a ticker showing the latest payouts. I Want Bitcoins The most popular method of acquiring bitcoins is to mine them by crunching algorithms on a PC, but the fastest way to get them is the old-fashioned way. No, not stealing them, but buying them. If you're looking to anonymously exchange cash for bitcoins, BitInstant (www.bitinstant.com) offers a network of retail locations that let you do just that. If you're willing to sacrifice some anonymity, you can use a service such as Coinbase (www.coinbase.com), which allows you to add funds through PayPal. If you're a smooth talker and have friends in the Bitcoin community, you can always solicit them to send funds to your address, but be warned: There is no way to reverse a bitcoin transaction! Bitcoin Mining The more interesting way to acquire some coin, at least for our audience, is to use your PC to mine them. To get started, you register online to either join a mining pool or start mining solo. There are dozens of popular pools, with some reaching over 30,000 users, and they are always accepting new members. You just need to find a pool and register, then download a mining program that will start crunching numbers for your pool. GUIMiner is one of the most popular mining programs for new users because it's one of the few applications with a graphical user interface, so it keeps users away from the command line and will have you mining in only a few clicks. If you had to register for your pool, select your pool from the server box, insert your username and password in the appropriate boxes, then click "Start mining." If your mining pool is not listed, select Other and insert your mining pool's URL and port number. A lightweight client that can be used with any mining pool, GUIMiner is a good way to start your bitcoin mining career. What Kind of Hardware Do I Need to mine Bitcoins? Before 2010, people were crunching numbers using their CPU; then the GPU was introduced to bitcoin mining and drastically changed the game. With its fleet of specialized compute units, GPUs crunch bitcoin many factors faster than even an Intel Core i7 CPU. As an example, a Radeon HD 7970 can reach over 700Mhash/s, whereas a GTX 680 can crunch a little more than 110Mhas/s, and an Intel Core i7 4770k can only achieve a paltry 8Mhash/s! Keep in mind, though, that one Radeon HD 7970 would take over a year to chew through a Bitcoin block, so you'll need some major firepower to increase the speed at which the transactions occur. One more problem: As more users compete to mine bitcoins, the difficultly is automatically adjusted, making it harder to mine, ensuring bitcoins are constantly mined at approximately one block every 10 minutes. To use your GPU to mine bitcoins, you need to install OpenCL or CUDA, which are included in the latest driver packages from AMD or Nvidia, and then select your GPU in the GUIMiner device box. GUIMiner's Extra Flags box allows you to specify the GPU load you want and even the fan speed to keep things frosty. For best performance on AMD cards, we generally found "–v –w128 –f0" to be the optimal settings, and "–f0 –w128" on Nvidia cards. ASIC Miners: The Bitcoin Specialists An application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC, bitcoin miner is a microchip specifically designed to run the Bitcoin calculation. These chips' physical circuits are built only to mine bitcoins, really fast. While an Asus Ares II Radeon HD 7990 can mine bitcoins at a blistering 1,420Mhash/s, a similarly priced ASIC miner can hash 25,000Mhash/s! Almost 20 times faster at the same power rating, making ASIC miners the go-to hardware for those trying to get rich mining bitcoins. There are a variety of companies designing these bitcoin mining integrated circuits, but sadly most are still vaporware, even after taking pre-orders. Butterfly Labs, Avalon ASIC, and ASICminer have managed to ship their products in limited quantities, starting at around $100 for a plug-and-mine USB model that can mine at about 300Mhash/s and going as high as $1,250 for a 25,000Mhash/s miner. But with the difficultly of bitcoin mining increasing and the high price of really powerful ASIC miners, many people are doubtful that serous money can be made, even with these specialized devices. Butter Fly Lab's 5,000Mhash/s Jalapeno ASIC miner costs $275 and mines bitcoins 10 times faster than a similarly priced GPU.   Click the next page to learn how to manage your Bitcoin. Managing Your Bitcoin Now that you've got your gear and are mining away in a pool, you had better get ready to receive your first bitcoin, and to do that you'll need to set up a virtual wallet. Since Bitcoin is all about user control, you can decide how you want to set up your wallet, so you can choose an online wallet such as Blockchain or an offline wallet such as MultiBit (www.multibit.org). Online wallets are the most convenient, as all your addresses and private keys are stored in the cloud, though this does leave them vulnerable to hackers and other malicious attacks. In contrast, desktop wallets are stored locally and are best for people who like to have all their data where they can see it; you just have to manage your private key files yourself. Once you've chosen a wallet and set it up, you will then need to know your address so that you can receive bitcoin. Using MultiBit, you can simply select the wallet where you want to receive the funds, select the Receive tab, and MultiBIt will show the address of that wallet. To help people preserve anonymity, a new wallet and address can be used for each transaction by one individual, which makes tracing transactional histories almost impossible. MultiBit is one of the most popular offline bitcoin wallets, thanks to its clean interface and ease of use. Spending bitcoins is just as easy as receiving them—you just click the Send tab within MultiBit and insert the alphanumeric destination address of the person or organization you are sending bitcoins to, and hit send. If you are sending X number of bitcoins, the software will display conversion rates from the biggest currency exchanges so you know the USD equivalent, and you can also specify an amount in your local currency, which is automatically converted to bitcoins by the software. AMD vs. Nvidia for Bitcoin Mining AMD is head-and-shoulders above Nvidia when it comes to mining hardware, and that's a fact, not an opinion. Its dominance is due to two main factors: the type of algorithm Bitcoin uses, and AMD's hardware configuration. For example, the SHA-256 algorithm crunched by bitcoin miners uses a 32-bit integer right-rotate operation, something that takes later-model Nvidia GPUs (excluding Titan) three steps to do, while an AMD Radeon can do it in a single step. Mining bitcoins also favors a higher number of compute units, so AMD also has the advantage here since the Radeon HD 7970 has 32 compute units compared to the 14 SMXs in a GTX Titan. AMD's performance advantage is so large that a $100 Radeon 7750 can mine bitcoins at about 140MHash/s, which is about 20 percent faster than a $450 GTX 680. Nvidia's flagship GTX Titan narrows the performance gap with GPU compute optimizations, but still falls behind. Mining bitcoins with a GTX Titan will give you 340Mhash/s while an Asus Ares II (Radeon HD 7990) can give you 1,420Mhash/s, over four times the performance. With four Radeon 6970s and two Radeon 5870s, this rig uses a custom open case to keep the GPUs cool. This monster machine hunts for bitcoins at about 2,400 MHash/s. Getting Paid When a Bitcoin block is completed, the 25-bitcoin reward is split among the pool miners in one of several different methods. Pay-per-Share (PPS) is one of the safest ways to pool-mine bitcoins, as the pool operator pays you immediately for each share of the block you compute. The operator pays users out of his or her own pocket before getting reimbursed for the block by the Bitcoin network. Since he or she is fronting all the virtual cash, they usually take a higher percentage fee from each block reward in exchange for assuming all the risk. Another method of compensation is named a Score pool, and it rewards you for your share of the block, but your payout is weighted by the amount of time that has passed since the beginning of the block, so with a Score pool you are rewarded for crunching the most numbers and for your loyalty to the pool. Alternatively, a Pay-on-Target (POT) pool rewards each user based on the difficulty of their compute contribution. This is an attractive pool for those with high-powered PCs. Some of the most popular mining pools include 50BTC.com (a PPS reward system), Mining.bitcoin.cz (a Score reward system), and BTCGuild.com (a variant of the PPS reward system).  Many applications allow you to see all your Bitcoin transactions and account balance. Also, in order to ensure an even pace of bitcoin development, the reward amount is cut in half every four years and currently is set at 25 bitcoins a block. In the year 2016, it will be cut in half again, and that will continue until 2140, when all 21 million bitcoins will be mined and bitcoin production will stop. What You Can Do with Bitcoins? Now that you have bitcoins in your wallet, you will need to know where you can spend the crypto currency. The anonymity that bitcoin offers first attracted a lot of adult and underground illicit websites like Silk Road that accepted bitcoins for payment. However, with Bitcoin gaining mainstream attention, large e-commerce sites have started accepting the digital currency, so today you can buy everything from discount flights (BTCtrip.com) to webhosting (WordPress.com), and even TigerDirect.com just recently announced it would be taking Bitcoin as a form of payment. There is also a bitcoin-only marketplace named Bitmit (www.bitmit.net) and, of course, you can always donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) with bitcoins. Paying with bitcoins is streamlined on e-commerce sites, so you just click the button labeled "Pay with Bitcoin" and you are generated a unique bitcoin address to send your payment to. At checkout, the final price shown in bitcoin is accompanied by the price in dollars, making it easy to know how much you are spending. Along with the anonymity of bitcoin, many businesses that accept bitcoin offer discounts of up to 10 percent for the using the digital currency. The Future of Bitcoin As the currency gains mainstream awareness, more retailers will start accepting bitcoins and more startups will develop services to make Bitcoin easier to use. Many believe the currency will continue to rise in value, as mining bitcoins becomes increasingly difficult and more people start to use them. Companies are also developing Bitcoin ATMs that will easily let you transfer your cash into a bitcoin wallet. Bitcoin debit cards are in the works, too, which will allow you to pay retailers by automatically converting your bitcoins to dollars. On the hardware side, the advent of ASIC bitcoin mining boxes has made the act of using a PC to mine bitcoin a big waste of time and money, causing PC hobbyists to abandon bitcoin mining altogether. ASIC miners are so much faster that GPU miners can't compete. As the ship has sailed for GPU mining enthusiasts, most GPU miners have sold off their mining rigs or moved to a new currency named Litecoin. Litecoin is a digital currency based on Bitcoin, but it grants rewards every 2.5 minutes as opposed to the 10 minute average interval for Bitcoin. More importantly, it's much harder to create ASIC litecoin miners and none exist so far. Like any other phenomenon that goes from underground to mainstream, so goes Bitcoin, and as it does, companies will try to profit from Bitcoin and enthusiasts will move to newer, cooler crypto currencies. Lamassu is a company offering Bitcoin ATMs that convert cash to bitcoins and deposits them in your bitcoin wallet.

Microsoft Plucks Gears of War Franchise from Epic Games Posted: 27 Jan 2014 10:36 AM PST Gears of War finds a new home Microsoft Studios just acquired the rights to the Gears of War franchise from creator Epic Games, including rights to all existing and future titles, along with entertainment experiences and merchandise. Straight and to the point, all future releases will continue to be published by Microsoft Studios, which published previous Gears of Wars titles, ensuring the franchise remains exclusive to the Xbox. Black Tusk Studios in Vancouver, BC will take over development of the Gears of War franchise, while Rod Fergusson, former Director of Production at Epic Games, will join Microsoft in a "key studio leadership role" on the development of future titles, Microsoft said. Microsoft's interest in Gears of War boils down to how successful the franchise has been on the Xbox platform. There have been over 22 million Gears of Wars games sold to date, grossing over $1 billion. "It all comes back to our commitment to Xbox fans. The "Gears of War" franchise has a very strong, passionate and valued fan base on Xbox," said Phil Spencer, Head of Microsoft Studios. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

More Mantle Delay Rumors Surface in Relation to Battlefield 4 (Updated) Posted: 27 Jan 2014 09:41 AM PST Mantle might not show up until February Several months ago, AMD Product Manager Deveon Nekechuck boldly claimed that the Radeon R9 290X would be able to "ridicule" Nvidia's GeForce Titan graphics card when running Battlefield 4 with Mantle, AMD's new graphics API. It's worth noting that the the R9 290 sports a 438 square mm die versus the Titan's 550 square mm GK110. Unfortunately for us and everyone else wanting to put that claim to the test, the Mantle patch for Battlefield 4 might to be delayed once again. A Mantle patch for BF4 was originally supposed to ship in December of last year. It was delayed until the week of January 20th, which has come and gone with no sight of Mantle, and now it looks like the patch won't come out until sometime in February. Twitter user Ruben Santana tweeted a picture of a chat transcript with an Electronics Arts support person, who indicated "it will be released next month." Further confusing the matter, Santana posted an update from Roy Taylor, VP of AMD's Global Sales Channel, who said the update will launch this month as scheduled. However, it's believed he was referring to AMD's updated drivers, not the BF4 patch that will enable Mantle. Update: We asked AMD what the situation was with the Mantle update, and Robert Hallock, PR manager for AMD Graphics and Gaming, replied by stating, "Mantle is still on track for January, in-line with the last date made publicly available." That would mean the release is immenent, as the month ends Friday. Given last week's spawning issues with BF4 though, this timeline seems optimistic since the game is supposed to be "fixed" before Mantle or DLC are released. However, we'll take AMD at its word and wait and see what happens this week. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Legal Dispute Prompts Microsoft to Rebrand SkyDrive as OneDrive Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:48 AM PST Same cloud service, different name It's time to say goodbye to SkyDrive and hello to OneDrive, the new name Microsoft is giving its cloud-based file storage service launched back in 2007. Why the name change, and why now? It has to do with a trademark dispute filed by British Sky Broadcasting, known as BSkyB, and subsequent settlement back in July of last year in which Microsoft agreed to a name change. The name OneDrive comes from Microsoft's desire to offer its users a single place to store their most important digital data, including photos, videos, and documents, all seamlessly connected across different devices. "Of course, changing the name of a product as loved as SkyDrive wasn't easy. We believe the new OneDrive name conveys the value we can deliver for you and best represents our vision for the future," Microsoft stated in a blog post. "We are excited about what is to come, and can't wait to share more." SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro users don't need to do anything in preparation for the name change. The service will continue to operate normally, with user content being made available on OneDrive (replaces SkyDrive) and OneDrive Business (replaces SkyDrive Pro) as the new name gets rolled out. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Google Apologizes for Gmail Outage, Yahoo Sorry for Throwing Stones Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:21 AM PST Software bug causes Google services to go offline Judging by some of the hysteria on Twitter and other social sites, the relatively brief outage of several Google services on Friday, including Gmail, nearly signaled the end of the world as we know it. Luckily for mankind, Google was able to restore its services within an hour, and much sooner for many users, thus narrowly dodging an apocalypse, though not before being hit with a stone that was thrown from Yahoo's glass house. "Earlier today, most Google users who use logged-in services like Gmail, Google+, Calendar and Documents found they were unable to access those services for approximately 25 minutes. For about 10 percent of users, the problem persisted for as much as 30 minutes longer," Ben Treynor, Google's VP of Engineering, stated in a blog post on Friday. "Whether the effect was brief or lasted the better part of an hour, please accept our apologies—we strive to make all of Google's services available and fast for you, all the time, and we missed the mark today." Treynor blamed the issue on a software bug found crawling around an internal system that generates configurations and tells other systems how to behave. The bug caused it to send an incorrect configuration to live services, causing user requests for data to be ignored. As a result, those services generated errors, which users began seeing. During the outage, Yahoo suffered from a temporary lack of judgement and decided to call out Google's Gmail outage on Twitter, having apparently forgotten that its own email service suffered trouble of its own for a good chunk of December. It was a simple tweet saying that Gmail was down along with a pic of the error message users were seeing. "Earlier today, a tweet that reflected bad judgment was posted and has been deleted. We apologize to Google and the Gmail team," Yahoo posted in a followup tweet. In other words, Gmail goes down and Yahoo is the one that ends up looking silly. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM, Corsair Obsidian 750D Full Tower Case, and More! Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:48 AM PST Top Deal: Time is running out for Windows XP users, support for which is scheduled to expire in April. It's been a good, long ride, but now is the time to seriously think about and OS upgrade. You have options, including today's top deal for Windows 8.1 64-bit (OEM) for $80 with free shipping (normally $90 -- use coupon code: [EMCPWHF46]). Windows 8.1 improves upon Windows 8 with a boot-to-desktop option, resizable tiles, and lots of other tweaks. Other Deals: Corsair Obsidian 750D Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case for $150 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHF49]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) OCZ Vertex 450 Series 2.5-inch 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD) for $85 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHF96]) LG 27EA33V Black 27-inch 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor for $210 with free shipping (normally $230 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHF57]) Seagate Hybrid Drive 2TB 3.5-inch Desktop SSHD for $110 with free shipping (normally $130 - use coupon code: [EMCPWHF22])

You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

MMO Updates

---

• The Repopulation closes its second Kickstarter with triple funding
• Blade Hunter beta gets big content update
• Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen to livestream game development tonight
• Smedley confirms EverQuest Next will arrive on PlayStation 4
• The Stream Team: Spring or else edition, January 27 - February 2, 2014
• TUG project update details alpha and beta plans
• The Daily Grind: What do you need to do every day in your games of choice?
• MMO Week in Review: Quadruple sunsets
• EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now
• Rise and Shiny: League of Angels
• Elder Scrolls Online Q&A focuses on group mechanics
• Stick and Rudder: It's the Massively Star Citizen guild

The Repopulation closes its second Kickstarter with triple funding Posted: 27 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, News Items, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, The Repopulation The development team at Above and Beyond Technologies went back to Kickstarter to ask for a little extra funding to develop The Repopulation. The project's goal was set at a very reasonable $50,000. Now the campaign is over, and it turns out that the company's philosophy of starting low and using stretch goals worked out quite well. Funding for this campaign closed out at around $176,000, more than triple what was initially requested. Despite that high number, not every stretch goal was hit, but that's what happens when the developers build a high ceiling. Still, it means that the game squeaked past the mark needed to unlock gladiatorial arenas in player-run cities. It's good news for the game's developers, backers, and even fans who elected not to back the second campaign. The Repopulation closes its second Kickstarter with triple funding originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Kickstarter campaign page

Blade Hunter beta gets big content update Posted: 27 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, New Titles, Patches, News Items, Free-to-Play The side-scroller Blade Hunter, which started beta a little over a month ago, just received a large content update that brought UI improvements, new game systems, mounts, quest lines, cosmetic options, and a raised level cap to the action MMO. Players can boost their stats with elemental companions called sprites starting at level 39, and higher level characters can equip more sprites. Additionally, players at any level can nab a pair of wings through either in-game challenges, crafting item recipes, or Diamond recharge bonuses; however, only level 80s can upgrade and personalize wings beyond the standard buff. If faster travel is more your speed, combat mounts are now available in a variety of types, from horses to dragons. You can ride that mount to the Citadel, a new instance unlocked at level 79 that promises a challenge that puts even Nightmare Mode to shame. [Source: R2Games press release] Blade Hunter beta gets big content update originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen to livestream game development tonight Posted: 27 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Community Q&A, Livestream, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen If you've ever wanted to get an insider's look at MMO development, Visionary Realms is offering that chance. The studio will stream sessions of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's development from the desktop of Senior Artist Vu Nguyen live on Twitch while various team members offer commentary and answer audience questions from chat. The first show airs on the Rob and Dan Show tonight, January 27th, at 7:00 p.m. EST. Additionally, Chief Creative Officer Brad McQuaid will host a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything at 4:00 p.m. EST Wednesday, January 29th. "We've said from day one that we want the community involved every step of the way, and this is a chance to prove that we're committed to that," noted Director of Development Salim Grant. [Source: Visionary Realms press release] Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen to livestream game development tonight originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Smedley confirms EverQuest Next will arrive on PlayStation 4 Posted: 27 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Consoles, EverQuest Next Although CEO John Smedley's Reddit AMAA last Friday was to address the closures of four SOE games, he also fielded questions about other titles. And one tidbit that Smedley slipped in was that EverQuest Next will definitely be available on the PlayStation 4, a fact that he all but assured players last November but stopped short of confirming. For those who weren't following the AMAA (or maybe lost that brief announcement in the conversation), it was also officially tweeted when the AMAA closed. Smedley confirms EverQuest Next will arrive on PlayStation 4 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Smedley Reddit AMAA

The Stream Team: Spring or else edition, January 27 - February 2, 2014 Posted: 27 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Polls, Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, The Stream Team After a month that involved a polar vortices and a polar plunge (I'm surprised we didn't end up with polar bears!), I know a number of people who are threatening to carry out bodily harm to a certain weather-forecasting critter if he deigns to suggest that winter will be extended. Spring or the groundhog gets it! That's the cry I hear around these parts. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but if you have any furry friends show up on your doorstep this week asking for asylum, you just might want to grant it. Invite them in to watch some Stream Team adventures on Massively TV. And whatever you do, keep them out of the sun on February 2nd! Continue reading The Stream Team: Spring or else edition, January 27 - February 2, 2014 The Stream Team: Spring or else edition, January 27 - February 2, 2014 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

TUG project update details alpha and beta plans Posted: 27 Jan 2014 05:30 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox, Crowdfunding Developer of the Kickstarter-funded sandbox MMO The Untitled Game, Nerd Kingdom, has announced a new update regarding the status of the game's alpha and beta, and it's a bit of good news and a bit of not-so-good news. The not-so-good news is that the developers have "decided to push back calling the game's current state a 'beta' and keep it in the alpha phase." The good news, though, is that many of the systems the devs were hoping to implement are ready to go live, and "[the devs have] had a chance to refine many things for this next major milestone." In the update e-mail, the devs tell fans that they are entering a "new phase of development" that will require the community's help to spread the word about the game and expand the game's fanbase. In addition, the devs are making a push to open more lines of public communication with the community, such as public updates on the game's tech development, more dev blogs and vlogs, and "a stronger presence with a bunch of [TUG's] YouTube content creator friends." On top of that, the devs announce they are planning to drop the price of alpha access while also working with the internet-favorite Humble Store to "allow for a much smoother purchasing process for everyone who is supporting [the game]." Last, but not least, TUG's devs are "preparing to launch a Steam Greenlight campaign on January 29th," so fans will have the opportunity to help bring TUG to everyone's favorite online game-delivery platform. "This year is certainly going to be our year," the e-mail closes, "and we could not be more excited or grateful to have you guys here to help push us." [Source: Nerd Kingdom press release] TUG project update details alpha and beta plans originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: What do you need to do every day in your games of choice? Posted: 27 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous My wife and I have been exploring Loot Island (or Timeless Isle, as it's more commonly known) in World of Warcraft as sort of a daily lark. It's not our main game (that honor goes to Final Fantasy XIV) and we don't really need to keep getting more gear, but it's a lot of fun for us to just partner up and clear our way through several Elites without blinking. Actual daily quests are a third or fourth priority for us; we just need to get in that little romp. Pretty much every MMO provides some sort of incentive for logging in every single day, but there aren't many players who actually use that as their to-do list. The question for today is what do you need to do every day? Do you want to get your daily quests out of the way every single day? Do you want to run at least one dungeon? Roleplay? Earn PvP currency? Craft? Even just stand in the center of a city and spam chat channels? 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 do you need to do every day in your games of choice? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: Quadruple sunsets Posted: 26 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous, Sunsets At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. With less than a week to go before the presumptive launch of EverQuest Next Landmark's alpha, SOE dropped a bomb on its core fans with the news that the studio will be shuttering four of its MMOs, making its all-access pass that much more unattractive. Vanguard, Wizardry Online, Free Realms, and Clone Wars Adventures are all slated for execution in the coming months. SOE CEO John Smedley told Reddit followers that he believed his company has "watered down [its] gaming a little too much" and "no longer [had] the resources to dedicate" to keeping the games secure and in-sync with SOE's overall gaming platform. He also promised Star Wars Galaxies fans, still smarting from their own sunset two years ago, that SOE's next (unannounced) game is dedicated to them. Massively's MJ made her farewells to Vanguard in yesterday's column, but stay tuned for more sunset coverage from our team. And in the meantime, read on for a look at the rest of this week's top MMO stories. Most of them are happy, even. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Quadruple sunsets MMO Week in Review: Quadruple sunsets originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Jan 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now Posted: 26 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, EVE Online, Business Models, Culture, Expansions, Game Mechanics, Guilds, PvP, Endgame, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Sandbox, Housing, Player-Generated Content, Subscription MMOs have absolutely exploded in popularity over the past decade, with online gaming growing from a niche hobby to a global market worth billions of dollars each year. Once dominated by subscription games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, recent years have seen free-to-play games take centre stage. Global MMO subscriptions have been reportedly shrinking since 2010, and EVE doesn't appear to be immune to this industry-wide trend. Though February 2013's figures showed EVE subscriptions have technically grown year-on-year, those numbers were published just after the Chinese server relaunch, and CCP hasn't released any new figures since. Developers have done a good job of catering to current subscribers and polishing existing gameplay with the past few expansions, but the average daily login numbers are still the same as they were over four years ago. EVE will undoubtedly hook in plenty of new and returning subscribers when its deep space colonisation gameplay with player-built stargates and new hidden solar systems is implemented, but time could be running out on these features. Hefty competition is due in the next few years from upcoming sandbox games such as Star Citizen, EverQuest Next, Camelot Unchained, and Elite: Dangerous, and CCP will have to release something big soon to bring in some fresh blood. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether CCP should focus on new players and suggest plans for two relatively simple colonisation-based expansions that could get EVE a significant part of the way toward its five-year goal in just one year. Continue reading EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Jan 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rise and Shiny: League of Angels Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Business Models, Game Mechanics, New Titles, Previews, Opinion, Hands-On, Rise and Shiny I do not enjoy writing guide-like articles. I am no fan of reading walls of text that detail how to "properly" perform in an MMO, and I will not break my policy this week. It wouldn't really matter, anyway, because this week's Rise and Shiny game comes from the mind-bogglingly strange genre of hands-off browser-based MMOing. I've discussed the massive, massive success that browser-based gaming has seen in China and other places, but I always preface that discussion with a warning: It is not going away. There are plenty of players in the West who will (and do) gladly participate in this hands-off gaming. There is nothing so special about Western gamers -- and their tastes -- to prevent our MMOs from becoming single-click level races, and nothing more. I should have known as soon as I saw League of Angels that the game would ask nothing of me but to babysit the mouse and keyboard, making sure that neither ran out of juice. Sure, a player will occasionally need to look up from his Wyatt Earp biography to read two or three words of text on the screen, but generally the game does all of the work. That leads me to the two questions that always pop up when I play a game like this: Who does enjoy such a title, and why make such a title in the first place? Continue reading Rise and Shiny: League of Angels Rise and Shiny: League of Angels originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Jan 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Elder Scrolls Online Q&A focuses on group mechanics Posted: 26 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Community Q&A, Dungeons, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription ZeniMax Creative Director Paul Sage fielded 42 questions from the Tamriel Foundry community yesterday about grouping and other Elder Scrolls Online topics. Sage elaborated on various mechanics that PvE group members will encounter, such as healing, experience bonuses, role-swapping, switching alliances, and armor usage. He said that not every instance will require a four-person group to have the holy trinity, although the tougher dungeons will demand this. Skill synergy was a topic that Sage addressed at great length: "Synergies are those abilities which another player casts, they are useful by themselves, but take on new dimension if another player comes over and activates the synergy effect. They are much more about reacting to situations and using them at the right time. They aren't necessary, but they do provide a large advantage when used correctly and may be the difference between life and death in harder combats." Head over to Tamriel Foundry for the full read! [Thanks to Phanes for the tip!] Elder Scrolls Online Q&A focuses on group mechanics originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Tamriel Foundry

Stick and Rudder: It's the Massively Star Citizen guild Posted: 26 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Game Mechanics, Guilds, MMO Industry, New Titles, Opinion, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Stick and Rudder, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play I love me some guild management tools, which is strange since I don't manage guilds all that often. It's a bit of work, see, as one look through the titles and topics in our Guild Counsel category will make clear. At any rate, I can't stop playing around with Star Citizen's recently launched Organization stuff. Continue reading Stick and Rudder: It's the Massively Star Citizen guild Stick and Rudder: It's the Massively Star Citizen guild originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 26 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

You are subscribed to email updates from Massively To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

MMORPG News

---

Excalibur: New Features Inbound with Next Update Posted: 27 Jan 2014 05:18 AM PST Excalibur: Knights of the King is slated to be updated in the very near future. R2Games has announced that new features have been added to the medieval-themed mobile MMO that bring new content into the game.

Shroud of the Avatar: Release 2 Test Period Extended Posted: 26 Jan 2014 01:05 PM PST Backers who have been trying out Shroud of the Avatar Release 2 will want to take advantage of the extra day's game play opportunity. According to the latest blog post, the game has been extended due to several key updates since Thursday's start of the event.

You are subscribed to email updates from MMORPG.COM News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610