| The Road to Mordor: The horse-whisperer Posted: 18 Aug 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-play, Humor, The Road to Mordor A ragged messenger galloped up to me while I stood hip-deep in the dead, Uruk-hai blood dripping down my greatsword. "For you, ma'am," he said, saluting and riding away. I unrolled the scroll and quickly scanned its contents. The world around me grew very still for a moment and then resumed its course in the next heartbeat. I sucked my teeth and read it completely, looking for nuance and meaning between each word in the missive. Finally, I tucked it away and whistled for my steed. "Sorry, Pippin, Merry," I apologized. The Hobbits looked up at me with frantic, bulging eyes, their hands and mouths still bound by their now-deceased captors. "I know your quest is important, but this takes precedence. Fare thee well." With that I kicked my mount's side and began the thousand-mile trek back to my roots. Back to Combe. Back to a little stable where a lost horsie needed my help. Oh, yeah. I'm a hero, all right. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: The horse-whisperer  The Road to Mordor: The horse-whisperer originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: There might not be 50 ways to leave your lover after all edition Posted: 18 Aug 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous It always bothered me that the song referenced in the title (and if you haven't heard it, take a listen) doesn't list a full 50 ways to leave your lover, not to mention the fact that pretty much all it does list is just the act of departing. After wracking my brain, I found the highest number I could get to was 25 ways to leave my lover, and that included the genuine possibility that I acquired superpowers and had to travel to a secret dimension to fight the ur-demon Zalgamorn. Are there 50 ways to read WRUP? Probably not. But there are at least 50 things we could all be doing over the weekend, and until you jump past the break, you'll have no way of knowing. We also talk about whether or not we really want innovation in our games, and as always, we've left you plenty of room in the comments to tell us what you'll be up to. Also whether or not you can come up with lover-leaving method number 26. Continue reading WRUP: There might not be 50 ways to leave your lover after all edition WRUP: There might not be 50 ways to leave your lover after all edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: How should MMOs handle character names? Posted: 18 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Names are a big deal in MMOs. I've struggled through many a horrible launch to score a good name and camp names for friends until they can log in because only rarely does a game allow unlimited copies of a name. Ultima Online is one such game, as is Champions Online, though your global handle there is yours alone. The Secret World requires a unique nickname; your "real" name can be a duplicate. But most games just code for one use of a name per realm. (After all, one Malcolm Reynolds per server is plenty.) City of Heroes took a stand on the issue. Years before CoH's F2P conversion, Paragon Studios boldly adopted name-recycling. If your account was inactive for three months, your characters' names were put back into the pool for other players to use. You didn't lose your character, but you were forced to rename her the next time you logged in. It was wonderful for active players who could make more immediate use of names no one was actively using but not so great for encouraging former players to return. So how do you think MMOs should handle character names? [Thanks to Joel for inspiring this topic!]  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: How should MMOs handle character names? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 18 Aug 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMObility: How mobile devices avoid the PC upgrade curse Posted: 17 Aug 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business models, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Casual, MMORTS, Miscellaneous, MMObility In a few weeks, I will drive to the official AT&T store, talk to someone behind the counter for 30 or 40 minutes, pay a small fee of 50 to 100 dollars, and walk out with a newer, shinier, faster smartphone than I came in with. Then I'll wait two years, pay the difference between the brand-new phone in my example and an even newer new phone of the future and go home to repeat the process. If you're a customer of AT&T or another large carrier, you are probably very familiar with the situation I am describing. Is it much different from upgrading a desktop gaming machine every two years? Well, it is and it is not. I've been thinking a lot about the way we spend money on electronics. In the room where I'm writing this, I have at least nine different devices that allow me to get online, check emails, communicate, and play MMOs. Have I spent too much money, or was I smart in my decisions? What happens to all of these devices after I'm done with them? Is the gaming PC the smarter path? Continue reading MMObility: How mobile devices avoid the PC upgrade curse MMObility: How mobile devices avoid the PC upgrade curse originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: August 11 - 17, 2012 Posted: 17 Aug 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Massively Meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Upcoming sandbox ArcheAge has kicked off its fifth closed beta test this week as if to taunt those of us on this side of the pond who don't speak Korean. To tide us over, we have City of Steam, whose final alpha weekend starts up tonight; DUST 514, which aims to run a closed beta event for PlayStation Plus members beginning on August 21st; and PlanetSide 2, which will see PlanetSide vets join the beta come Monday. Meanwhile, Guild Wars 2's prepurchase headstart is just a week away, and the team delivered two stress tests this week in preparation. Not up for GW2? Give Knight Age a spin; its open beta kicks off on August 28th. Finally, Massively reader Travis tipped us off to the rumor that Otherland's closed beta will begin a week from today on August 24th. The complete Betawatch roundup went thataway! Continue reading Betawatch: August 11 - 17, 2012 Betawatch: August 11 - 17, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Guild Wars 2 makes its first soundtrack single available on iTunes Posted: 17 Aug 2012 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, News items, Guild Wars 2 Are you fond of MMO music? If you're not, then you probably won't care that Guild Wars 2 has put its first single from the soundtrack on iTunes. If you're a regular reader of our Jukebox Heroes column, however, that announcement is probably figurative music to your ears. (The actual music to your ears being, you know, the actual music in question.) Fans of Jeremy Soule's work on Guild Wars 2 can now head to iTunes to purchase Fear Not This Night, an anthem of the Sylvari people as sung by the mystical Pale Tree. If you're quick on the draw, the song is available until Monday for just 99 cents. After Monday, it's priced at $1.29. Either way, if you want a taste of the soundtrack before springing for the whole collection (which clocks in at four discs in total), you can head on over and get the first song. Guild Wars 2 makes its first soundtrack single available on iTunes originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| A reflective festival launches for Guild Wars Posted: 17 Aug 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Events, in-game, New titles, News items You might have heard about a game named Guild Wars 2 that's coming out in just a little more than a week. And that's all well and good, but what does this mean for the original Guild Wars? Shall old acquaintance be forgot? Will the game be forgotten altogether? Whatever happens next, you'll want to refresh your memories about the game before its sequel comes out, and that's the focus of the Wayfarer's Reverie running until August 30th. Players will have special festival quests to undertake, highlighting the memories and experiences of player journeys through each storyline. These questgivers can be found in each of the four major cities from the four expansions. That's not all that players can expect, however. Special drops will also be in effect for the whole of the event, and there will be several NPCs scattered through the cities to share recollections of the game's history. Guild Wars players should check out the event -- it's not a prelude to the end but the prelude to a new beginning. A reflective festival launches for Guild Wars originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Massively Exclusive: Gauging the pressure on the City of Steam alpha Posted: 17 Aug 2012 04:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Massively Hands-on, City of Steam City of Steam doesn't look good for a game in alpha; it looks good for a game in beta. And yet you can tell that the game is still in alpha testing if you read through our last tour of the game and compare it with the state of the game players will experience over the weekend. This is a game that's growing by leaps and bounds, making huge strides in development at each turn. And that's all the more impressive when you realize that it's a browser-based title from an independent studio working on what I can only assume is a shoestring budget. If you haven't heard of City of Steam before now, I invite you to take a look at our last tour through the game at the hands of the inimitable Justin Olivetti, who gives an overview of what the game is and how it played during the previous alpha test. But what about now? What's been improved and expanded? I took a brief tour with Mechanist Games' Gabriel Laforge to see the latest client and get a sense of the game for myself. Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Gauging the pressure on the City of Steam alpha Massively Exclusive: Gauging the pressure on the City of Steam alpha originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Breaking into roleplaying for the first time Posted: 17 Aug 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous Roleplaying is probably harder to do than any other game activity. The first time you run a dungeon or take part in PvP, you might fail horribly, but that's a matter of practice and statistics. But the first time you get up in front of a group of other people to roleplay, you're essentially acting on a virtual stage on which anyone can see you, with no lines, no stage direction, and no indication whether you're doing it right or not. And if you screw up, your indication that something went wrong will just be a wall of stony silence. So it's intimidating. It's all the anxiety of jumping into a new social group with added anxiety over whether your character is interesting enough for anyone to care. I'm not going to pretend it's not, but I can offer some advice to make your first attempt as smooth as possible. And hopefully provide some useful tips to recover even if everything goes horribly wrong. Continue reading Storyboard: Breaking into roleplaying for the first time Storyboard: Breaking into roleplaying for the first time originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| A quick look at Sevencore's beta Posted: 17 Aug 2012 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Video, Classes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions I spent about an hour tooling around in Sevencore this past week. Since the game's closed period had, well, closed, it was just me and a friendly gPotato GM named Vi, so my experience was limited to a few solo encounters, a brief dungeon run, and some sight-seeing. What I saw was a familiar class- and level-based approach to MMO design. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but after spending a lot of time in both The Secret World and Skyrim over the past couple of months, I didn't find myself overly excited by the prospect of a throw-back free-to-play title. And I know, I know, Skyrim isn't even an MMO, so why would I bring that up? It's just a mental baseline, really, and an indication of where I'm coming from in the interests of remaining as objective as possible. Continue reading A quick look at Sevencore's beta A quick look at Sevencore's beta originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| SOE alters ProSiebenSat.1 deal to include EQ, Vanguard, and Wizardry Online Posted: 17 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest, MMO industry, Vanguard, Free-to-play, Legal After months of insisting that the deal with ProSiebenSat.1 was locked in, SOE announced that it is expanding the library of titles that the European operator will take over and run for the region. In addition to the MMOs and other titles included with this past February's announcement, ProSiebenSat.1 looks to take over EverQuest, Vanguard, and Wizardry Online as well. All in all, it gives ProSiebenSat.1 the exclusive license to operate these titles in 40 European nations. SOE President John Smedley said that this is nothing but good news for European gamers: "ProSiebenSat.1 is the ideal partner for us to reach an even broader audience in Europe. We are confident that the combination of the media power provided by ProSiebenSat.1 and our expertise in developing high-quality online games will appeal to players in a new and captivating way, creating the perfect prerequisite for achieving great success with our games in Europe." SOE alters ProSiebenSat.1 deal to include EQ, Vanguard, and Wizardry Online originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Rumor: EA putting itself up for sale Posted: 17 Aug 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, Legal, Miscellaneous Electronic Arts, long known for assimilating numerous studios under its label, may be putting itself up for sale in return. The New York Post reports that EA is looking into such a deal with various interested firms, such as KKR and Providence Equity Partners. One of the Post's sources said that EA would be willing to sell to such a firm at $20 a share, even though the company's share value is currently just north of $13. Its stock fell from $25.20 nine months ago, although industry analyst Michael Pachter predicts that EA's stock should double within a year. EA isn't the only company looking to shore up its future, as the videogame market is slumping worldwide since last year. One bright spot is its digital sales, which are up over 2011's numbers and resulted in a $324 million revenue in the first quarter of 2012. EA refused to comment on the rumor, as did KKR and Providence Equity. Rumor: EA putting itself up for sale originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Trek Online celebrates Fleet Week Posted: 17 Aug 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Guilds, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play Space may be a cold, dark, unforgiving place, but it's also filled with exuberant co-op adventure, so say we all. The Force is strong with Star Trek Online, as Cryptic is launching an end-of-summer event in the hopes of encouraging players to unite and work for a common purpose. That's right: It's Fleet Week in STO. Through Thursday, August 23rd, players can earn bonus fleet marks for participating in solo and group content. Cryptic even has a special Foundry daily mission that awards bonus marks, and many other multiplayer activities will also result in extra currency. Fleet Week may well prove crucial to fleets attempting to construct their starbases, as the fleet marks earned during the event are used to fund these projects. Star Trek Online celebrates Fleet Week originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMO Blender: Larry's roleplay sandbox Posted: 17 Aug 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Culture, Economy, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Trek Online, Guild Wars 2, Roleplaying, Crafting, MMO Blender, Housing I can't say that I represent every roleplayer in the MMO space, but I have been a part of MMO roleplay communities going on eight years now. I think it's safe to say that I have a pretty good handle on what roleplayers want out of MMOs. Fortunately, there are existing game designs that can give us what we are looking for. When developers stop giving roleplayers new content, we -- unlike other gamers -- start to create our own. In fact, the vast majority of us don't rely on the game developers to give us any story content beyond the backdrop of the world our characters are living in, but that's not to say there aren't tools developers can give us that help with our level of immersion. Let's explore what makes a great sandbox for an MMO roleplayer. Continue reading MMO Blender: Larry's roleplay sandbox MMO Blender: Larry's roleplay sandbox originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New fan videos detail racial armor in Guild Wars 2 Posted: 17 Aug 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, New titles, News items, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-play, Races One of Massively's own livestreamers has put together four videos highlighting the racial armors of the Sylvari, Norn, Asura, and Humans in Guild Wars 2. Richie Procopio, aka Bog Otter, offers fans not only a look at the appearance of the cultural armor sets but also exact details on where to obtain the armor, how much it will cost, and what level you'll need to be to wear it. Richie even gives players the scoop on how to get the appearance of the sets before attaining the appropriate level to wear them. Each race has multiple sets of armor, and the pieces can be dyed different colors. Watch as Richie models all the individual pieces (and offers amusing commentary on things such as the brussel sprout and pine cone helms) in the four videos after the cut. Also be sure to watch more of Richie during his Massively livestreams each week! Continue reading New fan videos detail racial armor in Guild Wars 2 New fan videos detail racial armor in Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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