| The Road to Mordor: The Age of Men Posted: 01 Jun 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Free-to-Play, Races, The Road to Mordor There's a movie poster tagline that I've seen copied numerous times. It goes along the lines of, "No matter who wins, they lose (or we lose)." This implies that the best-case scenario in the film -- the heroes emerging triumphant -- will still result in a bittersweet moment of defeat, despair, or doom. This is how I've always thought of the Lord of the Rings in regard to the Free Peoples. Even through this enormous struggle against the Enemy, we know that winning still means losing something precious. In this case, it's the ascension of Men during the Fourth Age and the fading of the other races: the Ents, the Hobbits, the Dwarves, and the Elves. This grand fight for Middle-earth ultimately will preserve and strengthen just one of the races, and the most boring one at that. For Tolkien, this is because LotR is a mythological past history of our world, and we just don't see a lot of Elves walking around today except at Starbucks. In a way, I feel as if we're starting to get into the Age of Men a bit prematurely in Lord of the Rings Online. The time for Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves is past; the time for Men is just beginning. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: The Age of Men  The Road to Mordor: The Age of Men originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Jun 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: Things that are actually written by us edition Posted: 01 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous I'm not calling anyone a liar, but there's a pretty good way to tell if something is being written by the Massively staff. If an article shows up on the front page, yeah, one of us wrote that. If the article is supposedly a rough draft that got posted to a message board, well, odds are low. Especially if that draft is a barely disguised rant. We have a column for rants, it's called The Soapbox, and those aren't disguised in the slightest. Educational! This feature sometimes serves as a thinly disguised rant in the intro, but mostly it's just good old-fashioned WRUP. Like mom used to make, if mom used to serve up rundowns of what the Massively staff will be doing over the weekend. Even if your mother just served you normal stuff, though, feel free to check out our plans past the break and let us know what you'll be up to in the comments. Continue reading WRUP: Things that are actually written by us edition WRUP: Things that are actually written by us edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Jun 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: What's your favorite game that doesn't work in the US? Posted: 01 Jun 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Humor, Miscellaneous So we all found out yesterday that MMOs do not work in the US. The only two that have ever been successful at all were EverQuest and World of Warcraft. This much come as a shock to the teams behind EVE Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Star Trek Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Second Life, Defiance, EverQuest II, RIFT, Neverwinter, and countless other titles. Or the plethora of titles still running in maintenance mode. You get the idea. So today we're going to just plant our tongues firmly in our cheeks. Pick a game you like that is not one of the two MMOs that has been successful in the US, and explain why you like it. There's no need to say anything bad about the many other games that don't work in the US, just wax poetic about your favorite game that doesn't work.  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's your favorite game that doesn't work in the US? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: May 25 - 31, 2013 Posted: 31 May 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO Industry, Previews, News Items, Betawatch, Miscellaneous With E3 on the horizon, it's been a quiet week in the beta space as companies prepare for that battlefield. It's not been entirely silent, however; Dragon's Prophet took the opportunity to enter open beta in both the EU and the US. Marvel Heroes also kicked off its early access, although the general launch is not scheduled until next week. Otherwise, the quiet hum you hear is the buildup to E3, with Snail Games promising big stuff on the horizon. We also got a pre-convention look at The Elder Scrolls Online, if that's what you're looking forward to seeing on the show floor. Or reported on from the show floor, if you're not attending. Beyond that? Well, there's always the big list of games in beta testing. A list we should probably keep somewhere safe, like, perhaps... right past the break? Sounds good. Take a look, and let us know if something sneaky slipped past us! Continue reading Betawatch: May 25 - 31, 2013 Betawatch: May 25 - 31, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Getting back the spark Posted: 31 May 2013 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous People occasionally ask me, "How is it that your roleplaying is so exciting?" To which I can only ask, "How is yours so boring?" A lot happens when I roleplay. Relationships start and stop, alliances are made and broken, plots are hatched, crazy schemes are set into motion, and things generally just happen. I've had characters kill other people off permanently, had characters killed off, run through cycles of desecration and redemption. Some scenes have gone better than others, but at the end of the day, I can say that my roleplaying has been full of stuff happening. But I see a lot of people who feel their roleplaying is stagnant. Their groups have dissolved, their stories have been told, there is no more spark there. So today's column is all about getting back into the paint and turning your roleplaying experience from stagnant to dynamic, taking you from a boring set of routines into a series of stunning and enrapturing revelations. In other words, here's some advice to get the spark back in your roleplaying. Continue reading Storyboard: Getting back the spark Storyboard: Getting back the spark originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Path of Exile's next update adding Challenges and more Posted: 31 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play Grinding Gear Games has published a humongous post detailing Path of Exile's 0.11.0 patch. The content drop is currently scheduled for Wednesday, June 5th, and it looks to include a number of tweaks and rebalances designed to improve your dungeon-crawling gameplay experience. Among the noteworthy adds are a set of "very difficult goals" called Challenges that look to be some sort of precursor to a full-fledged achievement system. Grinding Gear says it isn't quite ready for proper achievements just yet, but you can think of Challenges as a sort of experiment to see how they might affect PoE's gameplay. There's much more to the update, of course, but you'll need to click through to the game's official website to read it all. Path of Exile's next update adding Challenges and more originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Perfect World creates its own gaming platform Posted: 31 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, Star Trek Online, Free-to-Play, Champions Online, Neverwinter Is your gaming world a Perfect World? If you're one of the publisher's legion of players, then prepare to encounter Perfect World's latest initiative. It's called Arc, and it's a gaming platform that seeks to tie together PWE's account system, games, and news. Similar to Steam, Origin, and other such digital distribution platforms, Arc will allow players to install and access games through a unified interface (assuming, of course, that the only games you're going to want to play are PWE's). Arc uses players' current login information to access it and offers access to billing, support, friend messaging, and coupons. There's also a browser so you can check out the forums and whatnot, although if you really need a gaming platform to do that for you in 2013, one has to wonder how you're reading this in the first place. Perfect World creates its own gaming platform originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| TUG wraps up Kickstarter, shows off art video Posted: 31 May 2013 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Dev Diaries, Sandbox, Crowdfunding TUG has crossed the finish line of its Kickstarter with its fists thrust triumphantly toward the sky, as the little sandbox that could has raised its funding goal and then some. While it fell short of its first $300,000 stretch goal, over 7,200 fans have thrown their financial support behind this quirky "social experiment." Break out a bottle of the bubbly to celebrate if you must, but we'll be drinking in this new art style video by the TUG team. At six minutes long, the video shows off TUG's concept art and models while the team discusses how it's trying to create a unique look for this title. Check it out after the jump! Continue reading TUG wraps up Kickstarter, shows off art video TUG wraps up Kickstarter, shows off art video originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WildStar economy post talks item decay, Raph Koster, and more Posted: 31 May 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, WildStar What do hyperinflation and Raph Koster's A Theory of Fun for Game Design have to do with WildStar? Well, they're both mentioned in the game's latest dev blog. As you may have guessed, it's all about the title's economy, and Senior Systems Designer Charles " Bull" Durham expends quite a bit of virtual ink talking about things like resource sinks, resource fonts, and Carbine's interpretation of "fun" as it relates to resource reallocation. Durham also mentions item decay in passing, though it's not clear whether or not the game will make use of the mechanic in some form or fashion. "We also want to make sure that when you have to make a choice, it is based on what you, the player, feels is most important. Therefore, the choices cannot be too obvious or too enmeshed in critical needs," he writes. "Item repair, for example, doesn't offer much in the way of choice, so it shouldn't be an impactful, painful thing. We will get into this particular money sink later, but it is a very handy and fair money sink to have." WildStar economy post talks item decay, Raph Koster, and more originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Nightmare in neon: SWTOR posts Update 2.2 pages Posted: 31 May 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Patches, Previews, Free-to-Play, Star Wars: The Old Republic While the news of Star Wars: The Old Republic's Update 2.2 was revealed almost a week ago, BioWare's created a couple of pages to highlight the update's key features. The Operation Nightmare page details the new level 55 nightmare-mode operations (Terror From Beyond in 2.2 and Legions of Scum and Villainy in 2.2.2). There's also information on the high-level underworld crafting plans, guild and reputation bonuses, and bonus weekends coming to a game near you. The next such bonus XP weekend is June 21st through the 24th, by the way. The guild rewards program page has the full scoop on why it's so cherry to be part of a SWTOR guild these days. Aside from the free hugs and moral support, there's a substantial increase to gained XP that guilds can provide -- especially if these guilds go on a recruiting spree. Nightmare in neon: SWTOR posts Update 2.2 pages originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| New Elder Scrolls Online video shows off gameplay Posted: 31 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Game Mechanics, Previews, News Items, The Elder Scrolls Online Have you been itching to feast your eyes on actual The Elder Scrolls Online game footage from the eyes of a player, but you haven't managed to find your way into the Bethesda offices? Thanks to Marty Sliva and Caleb Lawson of IGN, you can; the pair had the opportunity to jump in and play a couple hours of the upcoming fantasy MMO and created a video with some highlights of their adventures. As a non-MMO player, Lawson described the draw to the game and an Elder Scrolls fan. He noted that it felt like being back in that world, from Daedric quests to being dropped into Oblivion. Sliva added, "[ TESO] captures that same sort of spirit of exploration and adventure of Skyrim and Oblivion, but there is this great MMO attached to it." Lawson also shared that developers stated that hands will be added to the game to give the first-person experience even more of a Skyrim feel. Hear more of their thoughts and see the gameplay in the video after the break. Continue reading New Elder Scrolls Online video shows off gameplay New Elder Scrolls Online video shows off gameplay originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Tamriel Infinium: Everyone's a clicker in The Elder Scrolls Online Posted: 31 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, New Titles, Opinion, The Elder Scrolls Online, MMORPG, Tamriel Infinium There is enough information on the interwebs to have at least a basic discussion of The Elder Scrolls Online combat. For those who don't know, I can tell you right now that ESO combat is not at all what we expect from a typical MMO, although it doesn't exactly play like the single-player versions of Elder Scrolls games either. For a long time, I've been itching for a highly interactive and highly skill-based combat system in an MMO. Until recently, we have been restricted by inherent issues of playing online, like bandwidth. But over the last couple of years, we have started to see games that are so dynamic that we literally have milliseconds to react to a given stimulus -- there's no more gameplay with a turn-based-cooldown system. This does raise some concerns for the traditional MMO gamer: Will we be able to adapt? Continue reading Tamriel Infinium: Everyone's a clicker in The Elder Scrolls Online Tamriel Infinium: Everyone's a clicker in The Elder Scrolls Online originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 May 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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