| Massively Rewind: SOE's shutdowns, ESO's pre-orders, and Funcom's raided offices Posted: 31 Jan 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, MMO Industry, News Items, Opinion, Massively Meta, Humor, Miscellaneous, MMORPG, Massively Rewind There was no shortage of juicy MMO news this week, so it's a good thing Massively Rewind is here to make sure you don't miss the good stuff. We're kind of like a devoted parent pointing out landmarks to gawk at during a cross-country family road trip... except you don't have to play the license plate game. Grab a Pop-Tart, watch the show, and if you're interested in the finer details, click these conveniently located links to learn more about each story. While SOE is putting down a smattering of struggling MMOs, Riot Games is boasting insane numbers of League of Legends players. Elder Scrolls Online makes waves with its pre-order bonuses and extended cinematic trailer. And finally, Funcom gets raided, but not in the fun kind of way. Continue reading Massively Rewind: SOE's shutdowns, ESO's pre-orders, and Funcom's raided offices  Massively Rewind: SOE's shutdowns, ESO's pre-orders, and Funcom's raided offices originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Infinite Crisis travels to Russia Posted: 31 Jan 2014 08:30 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, MOBA Russian-speaking DC Universe fans across the pond will be able to play Infinite Crisis in their native tongue thanks to the combined efforts of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Fabrika Online. The MOBA will be available in Russia, Ukraine, the CIS countries, and Georgia with full Russian language support. David Haddad, Senior VP of Digital Publishing at WBIE noted that this was just the first step toward delivering this competitive experience to gamers around the world. Regarding the collaboration with Fabrika Online, Haddad stated, "We are very excited about the launch of Infinite Crisis in Russian and are especially thrilled to be working with Fabrika Online. The company has a huge footprint in the local online gaming market with the ability to activate the community and provide customer support." The Russian closed beta is available now; interested players can sign up on the language's official site. [Source: WBEI press release] Infinite Crisis travels to Russia originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Moving day: Settling in to your WildStar house Posted: 31 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Previews, WildStar, Housing, Subscription Player housing is more than fluff, as detractors claim; it is settlement, personal expression, and ownership in a way that we don't always get in an MMO. I've been in MMOs without housing and been distressed to be an eternal nomad. I've been in MMOs that have had sub-standard housing and felt the pain of "what could have been." And I've seen MMOs that have incredibly robust housing that becomes one of the most talked-about features in those titles. I'm sincerely hoping that WildStar will prove itself to be the latter, especially given how much Carbine has been talking up the system. WildStar's focus on customization options for players is readily apparent when you finally arrive at your personal floating island in the sky early on in your adventures. Once you hit level 14, you'll get a quest to go to your capital city and travel by transporter to claim your land. Why we need floating houses instead of a carved-out chunk of the massive untamed wilderness on Nexus was never explained to me, but I didn't mind. I was a homeowner! Continue reading Moving day: Settling in to your WildStar house Moving day: Settling in to your WildStar house originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Nightcrawler live in Marvel Heroes Posted: 31 Jan 2014 07:30 AM PST |
| McQuaid and Garriot collaboration starts with cross-game cloak for backers Posted: 31 Jan 2014 07:10 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Crowdfunding, Shroud of the Avatar, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen If you've supported the crowdfunding efforts of either Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar or Brad McQuaid's Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, the devs have an offer for you: back both games and get a special cross-game reward. Starting today, fans will see the cross-promotion pledge tiers for both games, Pantheon's on its Kickstarter and SoA's on its website. The reward is a cloak in each game emblazoned with the symbol of the other game. The cloak reward -- which symbolizes community between players, developers, and even games -- is just the beginning of the collaboration between Visionary Realms and Portalarium. McQuaid stated, "The evolution of how MMOs are made is happening right now. We're getting back to having the gaming community deeply involved in how the games are not only funded, but designed. A collaboration like this one only makes sense to further strengthen that growing community that involves not just the players and backers, but the developers as well." [Source: Visionary Realms press release] McQuaid and Garriot collaboration starts with cross-game cloak for backers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Stream Team: Fear WildStar's Draken Stalker Posted: 31 Jan 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Hands-On, Livestream, WildStar, The Stream Team, Subscription, MMORPG WildStar's Planet Nexus is rife with flora and fauna ready to dismember hapless, would-be adventurers. Fortunately, Richie's Draken Stalker (and his keen-edged claws) are prepared for such dangers. Watch him level up in Deradune live at 10:00 a.m. EST. Game: WildStar Host: Richie "Bog Otter" Procopio Date: Friday, January 31st, 2014 Time: 10:00 a.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Fear WildStar's Draken Stalker The Stream Team: Fear WildStar's Draken Stalker originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Tamriel Infinium: Fleecing Elder Scrolls Online fans with preorders Posted: 31 Jan 2014 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Culture, MMO Industry, New Titles, Races, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription, MMORPG, Tamriel Infinium Are you as excited as I am about the Imperial Edition of the Elder Scrolls Online? When I introduced the announcement to my friends, I said something closer to, "Welp, this is a thing." Don't get me wrong; I am looking forward to the launch, and I will likely get the Imperial Edition because I want to play an Imperial. I played one in Skyrim and Oblivion; I want to play one in ESO, too. Some players are upset that if you get this collector's edition, the Imperial race is open to any faction. Even some of my friends are annoyed. Another issue that struck them hard -- probably harder than the Imperial race addition -- was the preorder bonuses. And I'm not talking about the five-day early access. No, the hate swelled over the preorder ability to play any race in any faction. I'm sure that some of them would say that I am being obtuse, but I really can't wrap my head around why they seemed more upset about this bonus more than previous bonuses given for MMORPG preorders. Continue reading Tamriel Infinium: Fleecing Elder Scrolls Online fans with preorders Tamriel Infinium: Fleecing Elder Scrolls Online fans with preorders originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Would we be better off without WoW? Posted: 31 Jan 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Back in 2012, Massively's Justin Olivetti speculated that if World of Warcraft had never existed, SOE might have continued to dominate the MMO space, many aborted MMOs might have released as planned, subscription prices would have gone up, and MMOs might have stayed out of the mainstream and in their happy niche of sandboxes and sandpark games from the early aughts. Even though another game would likely have come along to fulfill WoW's role in gaming history thanks to the rise of easy-access internet and the mass-popularity of PC gaming in general, we might have been seeing copycats of beloved sandboxes all this time rather than more and more iterations on themeparks, a trend that is only just now finally beginning to reverse course. But would we be better off? Would you want to pay $30 subs, play EverQuest VI: The Sandboxening, or consider 200,000 players a spectacular launch? Would you want to play MMOs without ideas and conveniences like the group-finders and UI mods and auction halls and quests that WoW popularized? Would you prefer a genre taken even less seriously by mainstreamers and studios and investors than it is right now? Would we, in fact, be better off without WoW?  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: Would we be better off without WoW? originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Stream Team: Celebrating Vanguard's seventh birthday Posted: 30 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Vanguard, Free-to-Play, Livestream, Anniversaries, The Stream Team Today is Vanguard's birthday, and Massively's MJ is going to party! While it's true the game won't make it to see another year pass by, that's all the more reason to celebrate all that is great about it now. MJ will scour the lands looking for anniversary events, tour favorite places, and hang out with fellow players. There are still six months to enjoy Telon, and MJ plans on doing just that -- starting right now. Join us live at 8:00 p.m. to party hearty. Perhaps you'll even see some of the snowmen stalkers, giant frogs, or a massive pink dragon! Game: Vanguard Host: MJ Guthrie Date: Thursday, January 30th, 2014 Time: 8:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Celebrating Vanguard's seventh birthday The Stream Team: Celebrating Vanguard's seventh birthday originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Guild Counsel: Guild-friendly Vanguard features I know I'll miss Posted: 30 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Guilds, Opinion, Vanguard, Free-to-Play, The Guild Counsel When the news of Vanguard's sunsetting broke, I got thinking about what best describes the Vanguard experience to those who didn't play it. And the one feature that sums it up best is the /rope command. When the game launched, it came with more than a few bugs, and one nagging problem was that players would get stuck in the terrain or even fall through the world. To help solve the problem, players could target the stuck player and use the /rope command to summon him out and up to their spot. Much of Vanguard was like that: moments of frustration from bugged content, but also moments of teamwork and community pulling together to make it work. Vanguard was the diamond in the rough that never got polished. It was a gorgeous world, with some hints of truly innovative gameplay, but it was often overshadowed by intrinsic problems at the core of the game. Despite it all, Vanguard has one of the best communities around, and there were many ways in which the game brought players and guilds together. Let's look at what will be missed in this week's Guild Counsel. Continue reading The Guild Counsel: Guild-friendly Vanguard features I know I'll miss The Guild Counsel: Guild-friendly Vanguard features I know I'll miss originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Funcom back to business as usual after Økokrim document seizures Posted: 30 Jan 2014 03:30 PM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Legal Yesterday's Økokrim raid on Funcom's Oslo development office is in the company's rear-view mirror according to director of communications Erling Ellingsen. Ellingsen told Massively that while Funcom is "fully cooperating" with the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime, it's now back to business as usual. Production on all Funcom games continues as normal, and the company remains fully committed to games in development as well as the continued operation and updating of existing live games. Yesterday's events is not expected to have any impact on the company's continued operation or the development on future releases.
Funcom's key priorities are the development of the upcoming LEGO Minifigures Online, as well as supporting and expanding on the live games Age of Conan, The Secret World and Anarchy Online with new and exciting content.
In terms of The Secret World, developers are currently in the process of finalizing its ninth content update, which will send players on a grand adventure through Tokyo, and Funcom will be releasing new information and screenshots from this update soon. Trading in the company stock was only suspended temporarily yesterday, and trading was back to normal shortly thereafter. Funcom back to business as usual after Økokrim document seizures originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Summoner's Guidebook: Stop worrying about the LoL metagame Posted: 30 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST Filed under: PvP, Opinion, Free-to-Play, MOBA, League of Legends, The Summoner's Guidebook If there's one thing that seems to be fairly static among low and mid-level League of Legends players, it's that they dislike the metagame. If I weren't such an exception (being a kind of bad player overall), I'd say that probably 100% of low-level players challenge the meta. This kind of complaint hits the comments, my email inbox, or IMs all the time: " LoL is so dumb! There are only four viable champs in each role, and the meta is static." The first thing I'd like to point out is that those statements, regardless of variation, are all wrong. LoL as a game changes wildly from patch to patch and season to season, and while the existing Summoner's Rift solo queue metagame is more or less fixed in terms of roles (duo bot, one jungler, a "support" who does not CS in favor of giving it to an ally), none of that applies to premades of three or more players or other game modes. Even between the roles, there's a wide variation in expectations of what those roles should do. Stop blaming the game; think outside the box and start seeing the game for what it really is. Continue reading The Summoner's Guidebook: Stop worrying about the LoL metagame The Summoner's Guidebook: Stop worrying about the LoL metagame originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Citizen's starship design competition down to 24 teams Posted: 30 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Contests, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Star Citizen, Buy-to-Play Star Citizen's Next Great Starship competition is getting serious. A total of 270 teams from 65 different countries entered the event with hopes of seeing their spaceship design realized inside of Chris Roberts' upcoming space sim sandbox. The judges have eliminated all but 24 teams, with the next round of cuts scheduled for January 31st. You can watch some of the judging via the Roberts Space Industries YouTube channel at 6:00 p.m. EST on the 31st. "The quality of the entries has been amazing," said Roberts via press release. "And we had quite a variety of entrants including a husband-and-wife team, a father-and-son team, several high school level teams, automotive designers, bartenders, DJs, filmmakers, and of course several professionals from the gaming industry." [Source: Cloud Imperium Games press release] Star Citizen's starship design competition down to 24 teams originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Darkfall adds weather effects, duel system Posted: 30 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, PvP, News Items, Sandbox, Subscription  Darkfall's sporting a new patch this week, and no, I'm not talking about one of those old-school iron-on things that your mom put on your jacket when you were a kid. This patch contains performance tweaks, new environments, a duel system, and the new weather effects system. Aventurine says that "74 new environments have been added all around Agon." The update post on Darkfall's official website -- viewable via the links below -- contains a full list of fixes and changes. Darkfall adds weather effects, duel system originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Think Tank: Do you pay attention to developer livestreams? Posted: 30 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST |
| TUG's Steam Greenlight campaign is now active Posted: 30 Jan 2014 12:30 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, PvE, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, MMORPG TUG: The Untitled Game has just made its debut in the Steam Greenlight program. Fans and backers of Nerd Kingdom's upcoming MMO can now choose the game's Steam fate by voting on whether or not Valve should allow TUG to be offered through the Steam digital distribution platform. For those out of the TUG loop, Nerd Kingdom describes the game as being influenced by "classic survival sandbox games with more robust multiplayer RPG gameplay, offering simplicity of design and an emphasis on player freedom." The game is currently in alpha testing with a 2015 release window. TUG's Steam Greenlight campaign is now active originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| ArenaNet co-founder heads to Undead Labs Posted: 30 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Horror, Guild Wars, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, PvE, Post-Apocalyptic, MMORPG Undead Labs announced today that it has hired Patrick Wyatt, co-founder of ArenaNet and co-creator of the original Guild Wars. Wyatt, who left ArenaNet in 2008, joins fellow Guild Wars co-creator Jeff Strain at the State of Decay studio, which has not been shy about its intention to build a zombie-themed MMO. State of Decay, codenamed Class3, launched in 2013 and was confirmed by the studio as a test run for an eventual MMO release, codenamed Class4. Here's Strain on the announcement: Today, I'm very happy to announce that Patrick has joined Undead Labs, and will be working shoulder-to-shoulder with Team Zed as we dive into the development of...well, what's next, and beyond. Undead Labs recently struck a multi-game agreement with Microsoft, paving the way for the studio to continue work on the Class4 project. ArenaNet co-founder heads to Undead Labs originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Defining sandparks within the MMORPG space Posted: 30 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Business Models, Culture, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Humor, Miscellaneous, Sandbox One of the most common subjects of debate and conversation on Massively focuses on sub-genres. While I think we can all agree on what the letters in "MMORPG" superficially mean, things become a little muddier when we talk about the different types of MMOs and what falls where on the MMO spectrum. There are MMORTS titles, MMOs that offer city-building and massive strategy, and MMOFPS titles, shooters that host thousands of players, for example. We even talk about MMO- like games, or games that are multiplayer but not massively concurrently multiplayer, like MOBAs. And what about games that toe the line between sandbox and themepark, games that offer a bit of sand in their parks or linear questing in their virtual, open worlds? Themeboxes? Sandparks? Let's talk about what makes these MMO mutts so important and so fun to play. I'll list some examples of games that could fit the hybrid definition, but feel free to chime in with more. Continue reading Defining sandparks within the MMORPG space Defining sandparks within the MMORPG space originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Pantheon posts Dwarf reveal, new pledge addons, McQuaid AMA [Updated] Posted: 30 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, New Titles, Previews, News Items, Community Q&A With the imminent closure of Vanguard after seven years, there are a lot of eyes on Brad McQuaid's Kickstarter project for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. With 23 days to go on the project, McQuaid took to Reddit to answer a variety of fan questions about the game's design goals and his feelings about Vanguard's closure. He's sad to see his previous game close down, but he also states that he's happy it had seven years of life before it went. As for the design goals, if you had any doubt remaining that the game would be a very group-centric venture, McQuaid puts that theory to bed. He stresses again that the game is inheriting a variety of traditions from the original EverQuest, including corpse runs and uncapped raids for immense numbers of people. It's a throwback to an earlier time in MMO history, even if McQuaid does emphasize that the game should be playable in 1-2 hour increments. [Update: Pantheon's Kickstarter page has also just posted the Dwarf reveal and new pledge addons.] Pantheon posts Dwarf reveal, new pledge addons, McQuaid AMA [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Trek Online posts a four-year infographic Posted: 30 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST |
| Music MMO Anthymn making progress on prototype Posted: 30 Jan 2014 09:30 AM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Crowdfunding We haven't heard about the musical MMO Anthymn since its unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign last July. But String Theory Entertainment has broken the silence with an announcement that is music to fans' ears: The project continues, and a prototype is currently in development. Anthymn's official Facebook page thanks the community for all its support and assures fans that it has continued to make its unique vision a reality. The announcement also noted that the title will be undergoing a small revision. As a part of this transition, the current site, Facebook page, and Twitter feed will all be closed and relaunched. Once relaunched, the main site will feature a dev blog, artist showcases, and news on progress and highlights. Music MMO Anthymn making progress on prototype originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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A fanless PC that looks like a router
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