| The Anvil of Crom: Blood, glory, and some Deathwish impressions Posted: 10 Jul 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Anvil of Crom Oy, Funcom, you're absolutely killing me here. Last week I had a column written prior to a guess-what-we're-launching- Unchained-today announcement. This week I was typing away on a review of some of the new instance content that showed up alongside the F2P update when the hey- Blood-and-Glory-launches-tomorrow bomb dropped. A veritable mad scramble ensued here at The Anvil of Crom offices, and as the piles of wadded up loose-leaf and discarded notes fluttered about, I was left wondering when my previous two pieces were going to see the light of day. If I sound somewhat perturbed, I'm not really, as this is a fantastic spot for any game columnist -- or Age of Conan fan -- to occupy. There's a lot of new content and not enough time to write about it; really we should all be so lucky. Sooo, that's my lengthy way of saying won't you join me after the cut for some initial impressions of hardcore PvP, AoC-style. Continue reading The Anvil of Crom: Blood, glory, and some Deathwish impressions  The Anvil of Crom: Blood, glory, and some Deathwish impressions originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Katamari creator to work on Glitch MMO Posted: 10 Jul 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Casual Tiny Speck has just added one of gaming's wunderkind developers to the team working on its Glitch MMO. Keita Takahashi, renowned as the brains behind Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, left Namco Bandai last year and has been keeping a low profile ever since. He's also apparently been having serious discussions with Tiny Speck, and founder Steward Butterfield says that Takahashi has a lot in common with the existing creative team. " We shared the same values -- deep beliefs in curiosity, humor, absurdity, and above all a belief in the positive power of play," Butterfield told GamaSutra. Glitch is a browser-based side-scrolling casual MMO that is currently undergoing beta testing. The game will launch sometime in 2011 according to the its official website. Katamari creator to work on Glitch MMO originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Global Chat: Of developer decisions and player perception Posted: 10 Jul 2011 08:00 AM PDT |
| The Daily Grind: When do NDAs get counterproductive? Posted: 10 Jul 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Expansions, Launches, Patches, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Legal, Miscellaneous On Wednesday, several notable Warhammer Online fan bloggers were brought to the BioWare Mythic offices to get a sneak preview of coming attractions. That in and of itself is good... but the bloggers had to sign an NDA to find out about some of the further development going on for the game. Which meant that the big cool things that the bloggers saw couldn't actually be announced to the public, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a bunch of notably outspoken fans visit your office. NDAs are an important part of keeping a company's secrets, well, secret. Unfortunately, they can also sometimes stymie useful discussion about a game's future. So when do you think an NDA has been more harmful than helpful? Has it been for an update or expansion where the leaks started too early for an NDA to matter? A neat new feature that would have built more excitement if more people had talked about it? Or do you feel like NDAs are always beneficial to the development process?  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: When do NDAs get counterproductive? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| SOE Fan Faire 2011: The future of Clone Wars Adventures with Senior Producer Todd Carson Posted: 09 Jul 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, real-world, Interviews, News items, Family, Clone Wars Adventures Clone Wars Adventures is a unique MMO that links together a children's game with the TV show on Cartoon Network. Todd Carson, the Senior Producer of CWA, sat down with Massively to talk about some of the new content that's coming for fans, as well as a new storyline in game that will complete the transition between season three and four of the TV series. Read on for highlights from the interview, including a closer look at the Battle for Iceberg 3, new housing items, and even some new mounts! Continue reading SOE Fan Faire 2011: The future of Clone Wars Adventures with Senior Producer Todd Carson SOE Fan Faire 2011: The future of Clone Wars Adventures with Senior Producer Todd Carson originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Time to relax Posted: 09 Jul 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Game mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log Time is strange. It's everywhere and yet invisible, and all we can do is represent it through measurements of time. Time flies, but time drags, and sometimes you're not sure where the time goes. Time keeps on slipping into the future, but you'll never get your time back, and you wait for the right time for what seems like an endless stretch of time. Time pushes us forward, holds us back; we put in hours of time at our jobs in order to get more time for play and relaxation, trading time for time. Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV both love time and timing. We have no shortage of timed events in both games, with the latter having almost gone overboard with the amount of time that matters. You're timed on your guildleves, which have a reset timer to contend with. The upcoming dungeons will be timed. You're even on a short clock of time when it comes to crafting. Why all the fascination with time? Do we need this much time? What would it matter if we stripped out all of the timing? Continue reading The Mog Log: Time to relax The Mog Log: Time to relax originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| One Shots: The Ent is walking Posted: 09 Jul 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Free-to-play, One Shots, Runes of Magic Massively reader Eera has sent us an intimidating Runes of Magic pet image for today's One Shots: Hi! This is a shot of my awesome Ent pet, Shambles. He may not be cute or cuddly, but he's good in a fight and having Treebeard walking around with you is awesome. We're loving the pet screenshots, but we're preparing for next week's One Shots theme as well. We've seen your gear, your mounts, and your pets; now it's time to see you! Snap a screenshot of your favorite character in your favorite MMO. Let us know about him or her by sending the screenshot, your name, and some information about the character to oneshots@massively.com, and we'll feature the character here on One Shots! One Shots: The Ent is walking originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Get your game on with a prize package from Frogster and Steel Series! Posted: 09 Jul 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Contests, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Giveaways Runes of Magic fans, listen up! The team at Frogster has partnered up with the professional gaming gear team at Steel Series, and the result is a pile of prizes for one lucky Massively reader. The prize list consists of a Runes of Magic t-shirt and aluminum water bottle, a RoM poster autographed by the GMs, a Steel Series Runes of Magic mouse pad, and a code for a permanent RoM mount. But wait, there's more! The winner will also receive a Steel Series Siberia v2 gaming headset, rounding out an already-generous goodie bag from the two companies. So what do you have to do to get your hands on this prize package? Well, as always, start by checking out our contest rules; you need to be over 18 and a United States resident. Then leave a comment here telling us a little about your Runes of Magic play: When did you start? What kept you playing? Do you have a favorite class and/or zone, or do you love it all? Leave your comment by noon EST on Saturday, July 16th. Once the deadline hits we'll draw one winner and send the items directly to him or her. Best of luck! Get your game on with a prize package from Frogster and Steel Series! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Steven Sinofsky and his team are guarding the release date of Redmond's next OS pretty carefully these days, but despite the all the clues that point to a 2012 launch we haven't had much to go on until now. According to 
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