| The Road to Mordor: Making music together Posted: 23 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor I sat on the pebbly ground of Amon Sul, occasionally panning my camera around to drink in the sight of hundreds of players gathered in an impossibly small area. While the game chugged to support all of the bodies, we passed the time with chatter until the event began. It was, of course, Weatherstock IV, and I had a front-row seat for the show. Weatherstock is probably the most famous of Lord of the Rings Online's many, many player events. The four-year-running concert gathers together some of the game's best bands for hours of music as they compete for top prizes. In between the sets, the concert's sponsors occasionally blast the theme song ( Weatherstock Forever) and encourage folks to vote for their favorites. For an event that had me doing little more than sitting still and turning up the speakers, it was incredibly involving. A thought kept bouncing around in my head: Why don't more games let players do this? The richness of LotRO's music system belays any claim that it's just frills and fluffery. Player music is part of what gives this game life instead of just actions. When we make music together, we take ownership of the virtual world we inhabit. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Making music together  The Road to Mordor: Making music together originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: Don't mess with Geth Infiltrators edition Posted: 23 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous The above is not my Geth Infiltrator but rather Ms. Lady's Geth Infiltrator, who cuts quite the striking figure with a large sniper rifle and judicious use of special powers. Basically, in this house, when it's not board games or MMOs, it's Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. It's oddly fertile ground for roleplaying, assuming the role you want to play starts and ends at "homicidal robot with a large rifle and no trace of remorse." Of course, you know at least one thing I'll be playing, but WRUP is not about solely me. No, it's about all of the Massively staff members and what they'll be playing over the weekend. It's also about what MMO features we'd like to see more widely adopted. So check on past the break for our weekend plans, and let us know what you'll be up to in the comments below! Continue reading WRUP: Don't mess with Geth Infiltrators edition WRUP: Don't mess with Geth Infiltrators edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Jun 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Final Fantasy XI's fifth expansion, Seekers of Adoulin, announced Posted: 23 Jun 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Expansions, Game mechanics, New titles, News items, Consoles Final Fantasy XI players have been waiting and hoping for a new expansion for more than half a decade now. All of those hopes have come true at last with the announcement of Seekers of Adoulin, a new expansion taking players to the far western shores of Vana'diel. Seekers of Adoulin promises players new areas, new adventures, and of course new jobs. The only known new job at this time is Geomancer, which appears to be a support-style mage job with a variety of enfeebling and buffing abilities. Notably, its buffs appear to be centered on specific locations, and its enfeebling effects cannot be resisted by enemies, a trait that would make the job extremely powerful in the current environment. A short trailer has also been released with the announcement. Curiously, the official site does not list the PlayStation 2 among the expansion's supported platforms. That shouldn't stop longtime players on every system from regarding the new trailer with excitement -- it's the cap to an announcement that's been a very long time coming indeed. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] Continue reading Final Fantasy XI's fifth expansion, Seekers of Adoulin, announced Final Fantasy XI's fifth expansion, Seekers of Adoulin, announced originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Jun 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Should localization delay a great game? Posted: 23 Jun 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Sandbox At E3 this year, we were thrilled to learn that mega-sandbox ArcheAge is headed Stateside at some point in the future. We were less thrilled to realize that's probably a very distant future. As the devs told us, critical game systems like crafting aren't yet finalized let alone implemented, never mind the long and grueling process of localizing the Korean game for Western audiences, a process that involves a whole lot more than mere translation. But do you actually want an MMO to be tooled to your nationality's supposed preferences if that means long delays? Sure, garbled language and typos drive me insane (ask the writers!), but we suffer them in Western-made games already. And I'm not convinced that Western and Asian audiences are so different that any game requires a multi-year conversion. Some days, I just want the game, localization be damned. What about you? Do you think proper localization is enough of a justification to delay an otherwise-amazing MMO?  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: Should localization delay a great game? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 23 Jun 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Undead Labs on making a believable zombie apocalypse Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Horror, Consoles, Community Q&A, Miscellaneous In their gory, gruesome office, Undead Labs' devs are hard at work figuring out the best way to disembowel you and turn you into a walking nightmare. So far it's going well, according to a new Q&A by CM Sanya Weathers. Weathers sheds some light on the difficulties of creating a zombie-infested world, particularly in relation to spawn points, mob density, and artificial intelligence. "It takes surprisingly smart AI to make zombie behaviors that are believably dumb," she writes. According to her, Undead Labs' Class3 will boast "thousands" of zombies, all of which will be able to react to sounds, light, and explosions. Weathers says that the game is in the final stages of pre-alpha production and we should be seeing gameplay footage from it soon. Other topics covered in the Q&A include player weapons, how to attract zombies, types of zombies, and a fast food joint called the Swine & Bovine. Undead Labs on making a believable zombie apocalypse originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Dark past of infinite darkness Posted: 22 Jun 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Lore, Opinion, Roleplaying, Humor, Storyboard, Miscellaneous There's no reason in the world that the idea of a dark past needed to become a cliché. I mean, it has; there's no denying that. Do a shot every time you find a character with a dark past and you'll have alcohol poisoning inside of half an hour. (Do two for every character whose past is dark and mysterious and you can just call an ambulance before you start.) But it's one of those things that's been cast into the realm of the cliché before its time -- it's a legitimate element to constructing a character that's become overused. Of course, it's been sent to the horrid land of the cliché by people using it poorly and overzealously. You can still make an interesting and nuanced character with a dark past, but you have to do so with a gentle hand. You need just enough dark past that it's interesting but not so much dark past that it gets obnoxious or silly. Continue reading Storyboard: Dark past of infinite darkness Storyboard: Dark past of infinite darkness originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Wars: The Old Republic posts new Q&A and scheduled maintenance times Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:30 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dungeons The newest patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic is just around the corner. Specifically, it's aimed at next Tuesday, following an extended maintenance period on the servers. So with the fruits of the design team's labor on the close horizon, it might be interesting to get a better insight into the design process with this week's community question-and-answer session, which includes a walkthrough of the process leading to the design of a new armor set. For those wondering about how loot is randomly rolled, the answers also contain a detailed breakdown of the process for determining what an enemy will drop. There's also confirmation that players can expect more character slots in the future, which is certainly good news for any players already feeling the pinch from recent character transfers. Take a look at the full list of answers, and as always, you can submit your questions for next week on the official thread. Star Wars: The Old Republic posts new Q&A and scheduled maintenance times originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: June 16 - 22, 2012 Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Massively Meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Blade & Soul joins our open beta list this week, taunting all of us on this side of the pond with its Korean exclusivity, while the PvP-fest known as Waren Story has entered closed beta. Meanwhile, Mechwarrior Online is offering fans the chance to buy into its founder's program. The game's early access program is due to begin on August 7th. Lastly, this weekend will see the final beta event for newly NDA-free The Secret World, and Guild Wars 2 pre-purchasers will snag another chance to stress-test that title come Wednesday. The entire Betawatch roundup is behind the cut! Continue reading Betawatch: June 16 - 22, 2012 Betawatch: June 16 - 22, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMObility: What Microsoft Surface means for mobile gaming Posted: 22 Jun 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Opinion, Mobile, Miscellaneous, MMObility This week, Microsoft announced Windows Surface, a new tablet that comes in two basic flavors. Immediately the social mediasphere lit up with speculation, but specifications were limited. We know that there will be a lighter, more affordable version that will run Windows RT with an Tegra-based Arm chip, and a chunkier, more expensive one that will run on a Intel Core i5 (Ivy Bridge) processor and sport a nicer screen. It seems that the Core i5 will come with at least a few gigs of RAM, but here's my question: Don't we need to be moving in the direction that we talk about experience more than hardware specs? I imagine that someday the specs of the machine will be largely unknown... ask an iPad user what's in his. It makes sense if you think about it. This basic, $500 laptop that I am writing on right now has enough power to do certain things, but it runs those same common apps like Twitter or email services as fast as any other gaming PC in my house. When it comes to basic internet usage, does it matter that one device runs an app quickly while the other runs it seemingly at the same speed? Fast is fast. Still, I wonder how the new Surface devices will fit into the tablet gaming sphere. Continue reading MMObility: What Microsoft Surface means for mobile gaming MMObility: What Microsoft Surface means for mobile gaming originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Details unveiled about Star Wars: The Old Republic's Legacy Perks Posted: 22 Jun 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic It's always fun to hit significant progress milestones in a game... the first time. The next three or four times it can start to get just a bit more tedious. Star Wars: The Old Republic's Legacy Perks in the upcoming patch 1.3 are intended to help ensure that your alts can focus on doing the things you like the most and get a little extra boost along the way. Unlike account-wide unlocks, Legacy Perks are unlocked per character, meaning you can tailor different characters to different fashions. The perks are split into four main categories: Advancement, Convenience, Companion, and Travel. Advancement perks lets you earn more experience from your favorite activities, whether you'd prefer to advance faster from story quests or Warzones or even just exploring. Convenience perks give you access to remote vendors and mailboxes, while Travel perks grant you special teleports and earlier speeder options. Last but not least, Companion perks let you improve your crew's crafting skills, affection gains, and turnaround on missions. Take a look at the full rundown for a more in-depth picture of how your Legacy will affect individual characters in the upcoming patch. Details unveiled about Star Wars: The Old Republic's Legacy Perks originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Nexon brings free-to-play offerings to Steam Posted: 22 Jun 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business models, News items, Free-to-play, Dungeon Fighter Online, Vindictus Nexon America, the North American purveyor of Vindictus, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Combat Arms, is bringing these free-to-play titles to Steam. Vindictus is available on Steam starting today, and the other two games will follow later in the month. The games will be available to Steam players in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Steam's appeal as a platform was increased by the addition of free-to-play support in June of last year. Daniel Kim, CEO of Nexon America, says that using Steam for distribution is about making access to games as easy as possible and that " Valve has been a great global partner to Nexon for many years, and this agreement continues the marriage of Nexon's immersive content with Valve's strong distribution channel and large player community." [Source: Nexon press release] Nexon brings free-to-play offerings to Steam originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Habbo owners bringing chat back, making big changes Posted: 22 Jun 2012 02:30 PM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Habbo Hotel, Legal, Kids  Following a special report by UK's Channel 4 News on child predation and the lack of proper security in Habbo, all chat functionality in the game was taken down. Today, Habbo owner Sulake put out a statement that chat will be reintroduced, accompanied by better protection and moderation. Community members were given an opportunity to voice their concerns, reactions, and thoughts about Habbo in an event called the Great Unmute. CEO Paul LaFontaine said that feedback from the Great Unmute will "inform and direct" his long-term plan for Habbo, and that when chat functionality comes back online, it will be a "Protected Democracy," where the speech, safety, and interest of legitimate users comes first and foremost. Protected Democracy is a new concept that we are pioneering in a poorly regulated social gaming industry. It can only be realised through a mix of technology, moderation, education and engagement. This is a complex combination that cannot be achieved in a single step. That is why I will turn the Habbo site back on in phases, focusing on specific markets to test the new technology. Before then I will be carrying out live tests (beginning in Finland today), to ensure our new systems are delivering the improved safety levels we anticipate. Habbo owners bringing chat back, making big changes originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| LotRO releases first track of Riders of Rohan's score Posted: 22 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT |
| ArenaNet concept art lead Kekai Kotaki announces departure Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, Guild Wars 2 "All things must eventually come to an end." Thus writes Guild Wars 2 artist Kekai Kotaki on his Facebook page. The long-time ArenaNet employee announced his departure from the studio after eight years of working on the Guild Wars franchise. The award-winning Kotaki used his farewell message to reminisce about his journey with the studio: "This comes with a certain amount of sadness as this was my first job in the gaming industry. I first started doing ground textures for the original Guild Wars and I end it being the concept art lead on Guild Wars 2." Kotaki thanked Guild Wars fans for their support and said that he's leaving to embark on "new endeavors." He does encourage the faithful to stick around to see how Guild Wars 2 turns out. "This game will be awesome and will be a success," he writes, "and I look forward to seeing it being released." ArenaNet concept art lead Kekai Kotaki announces departure originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMO Blender: Jeremy's unholy MMO concoction Posted: 22 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EVE Online, EverQuest II, Fallen Earth, Lineage 2, Lord of the Rings Online, Wurm Online, Opinion, Vanguard, Guild Wars 2, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Post-Apocalyptic, Miscellaneous, Sandbox, MMO Blender Have you ever wished MMO developers could put away their checkbooks, pluck out the best bits of their respective MMOs, and weld them together to construct the megalopolis of MMOs? We do too! So today, we're launching a brand-new opinion column, MMO Blender, in which the Massively writers will mix and match their favorite features from existing MMOs for your amusement. But do our choices create a perfectly honed machine or a lumbering, speechless frankenstein of an MMO that deserves to be put out of its misery? First up: Livestreamer extraordinaire and Contributing Editor Jeremy Stratton with a potent, sandboxy blend of Fallen Earth, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, and more. Wet your whistle after the break and look for more MMO Blenders from the rest of our staff in the coming weeks! Continue reading MMO Blender: Jeremy's unholy MMO concoction MMO Blender: Jeremy's unholy MMO concoction originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Ask Ragnar Tornquist about The Secret World via Reddit Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, The Secret World, Community Q&A If you're interested in The Secret World, and you're not busily playing the public beta tomorrow at noon EDT, you might want to head over to Reddit for an AMA with Funcom's Ragnar Tornquist. What's an AMA? It stands for "ask me anything," and it's basically an exchange of questions and answers between fans and content producers. In this case, the producer is the man behind not only The Secret World but also well-regarded adventure titles like Dreamfall and The Longest Journey. Further info is available via Reddit and Tornquist's Twitter feed. Ask Ragnar Tornquist about The Secret World via Reddit originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Firing Line: Three reasons to love PlanetSide 2 Posted: 22 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, PvP, Opinion, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, Sandbox, The Firing Line So you've heard of this PlanetSide 2 thing, and you're fairly sure that some significant buzz is building. You know that Sony Online Entertainment wowed a lot of people with its demo at this month's E3, and you know that the game is a high-dollar sequel to one of our early genre stalwarts. It's a shooter, though, and you're either not very good at shooters or not very enamored of their gameplay. The good news is that there's still room for you on the PS2 bandwagon, and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the title even if it falls a bit outside your comfort zone. Continue reading The Firing Line: Three reasons to love PlanetSide 2 The Firing Line: Three reasons to love PlanetSide 2 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| RuneScape reveals dual-wielding in sixth behind-the-scenes video Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser Last month, Jagex revealed that a whole new combat system was on its way for the browser-based fantasy game RuneScape. Since then, players have been treated to more details about the upcoming changes in behind-the-scenes videos. Today's installment, the sixth and final one in the series, reveals a fundamental change to the combat system: dual-wielding. Now players can sacrifice a shield's defense to go all out for damage. However, this dual-wielding system is unique. RuneScape is giving dual-wielding abilities to more than just those who prefer blades by making it available to magic users and ranged combatants as well. Players can dual-wield magic, ranged, melee, or mix and match any combination. Another less dramatic change includes improved weapon stances, which add a casual stance to sheathed and attack positions. The stances also are individualized for different weapons. Finally, the devs have upgraded avatar models to include actual fingers. To see a demonstration of these changes, you can watch the video. And for even more details about The Evolution of Combat, check out Massively's interview with Lead Designer Mark Ogilvie. [Thanks to Sean for the tip!] RuneScape reveals dual-wielding in sixth behind-the-scenes video originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Some Assembly Required: Desert homes of Vanguard's Qalia Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Opinion, Vanguard, Miscellaneous, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Housing Player housing. Now there's a topic you don't hear from me much. Oh, come now, I talk about other topics, too... sometimes... once in a while! You have to admit, it's hard not to talk about housing. It's by far one of the best canvasses for showcasing player creativity available in MMOs. And Vanguard has top-notch player housing. Back at the inception of Some Assembly Required, I took you on a tour of housing on Vanguard's island of Kojan. Of the three continents, Kojan was an easy first choice; from the very beginning I wanted a house there to soak up the unique flavor of the area. However, Kojan is by far the smallest continent with the fewest housing plots; contrast its six housing isles to the 22 chunks with housing available on Qalia and you can see that more opportunities abound to find the perfect home-sweet-home in the land of Arabian nights. By the sheer volume of plots involved, you can see that touring Qalia is quite the undertaking! Not one to shirk my duties of bringing demonstrations of player creativity to you, I forged ahead to highlight the advantages of Qalian living and compile this gallery of amazing ingenuity -- including a Foosball table! Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Desert homes of Vanguard's Qalia Some Assembly Required: Desert homes of Vanguard's Qalia originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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During my many years of covering technology I've seen all sorts of horror stories when it comes to the fallout of malware, but this one left me scratching my head. Malware authors usually set out with the goal of stealing private information, enslaving your machine, or perhaps forcing you to click popups, but printing hundreds of pages of junk? 
Software patents, to put it mildly, are a bit of a mess. Its difficult for us to say that innovation which happens in bits, rather than hardware shouldn't be protected, but naturally a line must be drawn if progress is to be made. On Friday US federal Judge Richard Posner 
Mozilla isn't a company that I typically associate with grandstanding, so when their official Twitter account announced 
