| ArenaNet confirms Guild Wars 2 beta invites are in progress Posted: 17 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT |
| WRUP: You'd better be wearing green edition Posted: 17 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous Happy Saint Patrick's Day! Normally I'd admonish people for taking a special day out of their busy schedules just to drink heavily (everyone knows you do that throughout the week), but in this case I'm just going to admonish people not for wearing green. If you aren't wearing green, you're missing the point. Also, you could stand to do that more often. I'm just happy to see people wearing green clothes; it doesn't have to be a holiday. Me? Half of my shirts are green. This week's WRUP does not actually involve any Saint Patrick's Day shenanigans. Instead, we've opted for our usual mixture of games and some assorted musings on what games we'd play if the games in question had alternate rulesets for some servers. So go ahead and spy on our weekend antics just past the cut, and let us know what you'll be doing in the comments! Continue reading WRUP: You'd better be wearing green edition  WRUP: You'd better be wearing green edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| The Daily Grind: Do social media tie-ins annoy you? Posted: 17 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, The Daily Grind, Promotions When ArenaNet thanked Guild Wars 2 beta applicants with a special video earlier this week, the move was met with a surprising amount of angst-ridden complaining because the video was gated behind a "Like" button on Facebook. Some gamers just didn't want to sign up for Facebook just to see a video or resented the idea that the thank-you was really just a clever marketing trick to advertise the game to their friends. While complaining does seem a bit like looking a gift horse in the mouth (and it was easy enough to find a copy of the video on YouTube within five minutes anyway), I can still understand why some folks are irritated by the permeation of social media into every corner of the MMOsphere, from news sites like ours to clicking "Like" for free stuff to auto-Tweeting in-game accomplishments. What about you? Do social media tie-ins annoy you?  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: Do social media tie-ins annoy you? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Betawatch: March 10 - 16, 2012 Posted: 16 Mar 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, MMO industry, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Happy Friday, Betawatchers! This week, Spirit Tales entered closed beta, Seven Souls Online and Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances joined our open beta list, and we caught more than a glimpse of The Secret World's current beta build at GDC. Yesterday, we gave away 10,000 closed beta test keys for TERA. Apparently, you guys really wanted in because they're all gone. But if you didn't snag one, maybe you'll want to check out RaiderZ or one of the other Betawatch games in the list after the break! Continue reading Betawatch: March 10 - 16, 2012 Betawatch: March 10 - 16, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Storyboard: Sadface Posted: 16 Mar 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous I have, on occasion, joked that all of my roleplaying characters are either looking for a tragedy or recovering from one. It's not an intentional thing, but for whatever reason, an awful lot of my characters tend to have a whole lot of pain and sorrow wrapped up in their heads. My attempts at making a joke character usually derail to the point that said character is even more depressing, like the mage I played who was supposed to be eccentric and wound up being desperately lonely due to her horrendous inability to focus on any one thing for too long. While it's very easy to go into the depressingly morbid side with a tragic character, we're not going into that this week. (Another week -- you know how I roll by now.) No, this week's problem is much simpler. If you're playing a character who's beset on all sides by misfortune, eventually you're just going to wind up with sadness-induced apathy. You're going to get tired of the fact that your character always fails and never wins and that things get worse every time he or she tries to fix problems. In short, you're going to not want to play the character because said character is just plain depressing. Continue reading Storyboard: Sadface Storyboard: Sadface originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| MapleStory allies against aliens Posted: 16 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, Patches, Free-to-play It's a bad day to be an alien in MapleStory -- and a good day to be a player. Nexon has released its latest major update for the game, Alliance Unbound, and it's placing a bounty on every E.T. and Klingon you can find. Nasty space critters are causing town-demolishing earthquakes in the area, and what's worse is that their technology is somewhat more advanced than swords or clubs. While a majority of the content for Alliance Unbound is for high-level characters, there's still plenty for lowbies to do as well. The main update quest line opens up at level 15 and offers both a high- and low-level version. The update has plenty of meat to it in other ways. A gigantic 31-part quest chain has been added to Ellin Forest for level 95s in which players will jump back in time and explore the making of one of the key regions in the game. There's also a nifty and powerful alien socket system that grants players the ability to upgrade weapons. Finally, Nexon's got plenty of new Event Cards and a collection system to keep players busy. MapleStory allies against aliens originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Guild Wars discontinuing support for old operating systems Posted: 16 Mar 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, News items If you're a Guild Wars player who's still playing on a pre-Windows XP operating system, you may want to look into an upgrade soon. ArenaNet announced today that beginning on June 14th of this year, the studio will no longer be supporting Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows ME. The announcement notes that this change will only affect about .05% of the game's current players, and it will allow ArenaNet to implement "features that will improve account management and security," so we'd say it's a pretty fair trade. At any rate, any players still running any of the archaic operating systems listed above have until June to make the switch, so don't tarry! Guild Wars discontinuing support for old operating systems originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Todd McFarlane says Project Copernicus is coming this year Posted: 16 Mar 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, News items Gamers got their first look at the Kingdoms of Amalur universe in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning earlier this year, but we here at Massively are still anxiously awaiting more details on 38 Studios' MMO branch of the setting, Project Copernicus. Thankfully, it looks like we won't have to wait too much longer. In an interview with START, comic artist extraordinaire Todd McFarlane, who is providing art design for Copernicus, nonchalantly dropped news that the studio is aiming to release Project Copernicus "later in the year." He doesn't expound any further on when exactly we can expect to get our hands on the game, but with any luck we'll be getting some more details before long, so stay tuned folks. Oh, and the full interview is embedded past the cut in case you'd like to watch the full thing. The relevant quote hits at about the 11:50 mark, but the full interview is definitely worth a watch. [Thanks to John for the tip!] Continue reading Todd McFarlane says Project Copernicus is coming this year Todd McFarlane says Project Copernicus is coming this year originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Terrazas talks EverQuest F2P launch and anniversary celebration Posted: 16 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Polls, Video, EverQuest, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Patches, Previews, News items, Free-to-play March is definitely roaring in like a lion for EverQuest. It's launching its new free-to-play program, and it's also celebrating its 13th anniversary with a big bash in game. With all of the changes, players are sure to have more than a few questions about the free-to-play transition and the state of the game today. We recently sat down with SOE Producer Thom Terrazas at a roundtable to answer those questions, so read on for details on the new free-to-play plan as well as the Hero's Journey, revamped maps, birthday celebrations, and the announcement of a brand-new server! Continue reading Terrazas talks EverQuest F2P launch and anniversary celebration Terrazas talks EverQuest F2P launch and anniversary celebration originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| MMObility: Parallel Mafia is not a typical Mafia game Posted: 16 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business models, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Hands-on, Casual, Crime, Miscellaneous, MMObility If you have played Parallel Kingdom by PerBlue before, then a lot of what I am going to describe might sound familiar. If not, then it might sound very unique and exciting. The truth is that I have been attempting to get into Parallel Kingdom for a while but always found myself a bit overwhelmed, so I was excited to be invited to check out PerBlue's new title Parallel Mafia. I hoped that I might squeeze in some questions about Parallel Kingdom while I had the team on the line. Sure enough, I not only got introduced to the new title but left the interview knowing a lot more about Parallel Kingdom. I have been playing heavily since then. As I compare the two titles, I can see a lot of similarities, but there are some nice differences as well. Both titles are location-based MMORPGs. I have always wanted more options in the genre, but I imagine it's a tough one to develop in. What's the point of the real-life connection? Why would players want to play in a game that is basically spawned on top of Google Maps? Continue reading MMObility: Parallel Mafia is not a typical Mafia game MMObility: Parallel Mafia is not a typical Mafia game originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
![[Part2]Hands-on Review: Tera Is Not Terrible](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sEBLhizeApCFBl3Hhe-iC6l09-I0XrT2bCxzoOUBJAEk7PiQP9n3jy2_bLSNyVCAYFdhhqQMI9G2N4AFBPNKi8uhyKnhlVrwn5YwUB_pG0vTooba7EF-l76mTSXQwS-Q=s0-d)
