| The Road to Mordor: Riders of Rohan media blitz Posted: 07 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor While talking about music and goats is all well and good for this column, I've certainly heard those of you crying out, "Talk about Rohan! Rohan! Rohan!" Understandably, the desire to discuss and think about the upcoming expansion is strong in many of our minds, but I've also been mindful of not wanting to get fatigued by talking about this and nothing else. Remember, just because you're at the endgame and are the target audience for Riders of Rohan doesn't mean everyone is. That aside, it's actually pretty hard not to talk about the expansion this week. Turbine's showing more chutzpah this year with its marketing and promotion, and part of that has come in the form of several developer diaries and music videos. I think we're used to lengthy typed dev diaries, especially ones that come a day or so before an update goes live, but this is the first time in my memory that the team's utilized video so widely to promote a product. I kind of like it. So let's take a trip through these recent releases and see what we can't glean from them! Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Riders of Rohan media blitz  The Road to Mordor: Riders of Rohan media blitz originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: New kitten edition Posted: 07 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous I've been in a sadly cat-deprived household since Ms. Lady and I moved to our new home. Last weekend, we went to the humane society to look at new cats, and now we have a new little darling named Tali (yes, really). She's a five-year-old dilute tortoiseshell with a manx tail, and she's adapting quite nicely to the new house. Except that she's incredibly squawky. Seriously, I can pretty much use her as an alarm clock most of the time. But you didn't just come here for talk about cats; you came here for WRUP. And this week's WRUP is, stunningly, about what the Massively staff is up to over the weekend. You know, like every other weekend. Plus we talk about whether or not a game's launch has lived up to our expectations. So check out what we'll be up to over the next couple days, and let us know your plans down in the comments! Continue reading WRUP: New kitten edition WRUP: New kitten edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Should MMOs recycle old rewards? Posted: 07 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Guild Wars, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous It's no shock to realize that as Guild Wars 2 approaches, the Guild Wars 1 devs are slowly getting the older game set for long-term stasis. The year's Dragon Festival was surely a sign of that: Instead of doling out brand-new festival hats as it has in previous years, ArenaNet awarded tokens that allow players to earn discontinued hats from old events. Hats are serious business. Some veteran players argue that handing old hats to new players devalues old players' loyalty. After all, why play (or pay) on day one if everyone can get the cool shiny thing eventually anyway? Guild Wars isn't alone in adopting this convention. World of Warcraft transforms previous expansions' endgame skins into the next edition's leveling gear; other games place pre-order bonus perks in a cash shop at some point down the road for people who missed the first time around. So today we're wondering what you think of this practice as it pertains to the wider MMO genre. Do you think loyalty perks like event rewards and pre-order trinkets should remain unique? Or is it fair for developers to reintroduce and recycle old gear, rewards, and rares for a new generation?  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 MMOs recycle old rewards? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jul 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Trek Online gets a new installment of Ask Cryptic Posted: 06 Jul 2012 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Community Q&A If you're looking forward to more Fleet options in Star Trek Online, you're in luck, as the newest installment of Ask Cryptic makes it clear that Fleet Starbases will be getting more love in the near future. There are plans for more PvP options, plans for more projects in the base, and plans for more fleet-specifics ships. Despite all of that, the fleet projects can be completed by almost anyone with dedication: producer Dan Stahl says you should still be able to unlock your rewards even if you have a fleet consisting of just yourself and your alts. This particular installment also focuses on other long-awaited features such as the addition of Cardassians as an official species, something that's still on the table even with the Cardassian lockbox ships. Stahl makes it clear that the team would like to allow players to switch the species of their captains if desired, although there isn't a precise timetable on that feature. That's in addition to more discussion of a future inclusion of poker, new item sets, and other future improvements to the universe of Star Trek Online. Star Trek Online gets a new installment of Ask Cryptic originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Raph Koster wants to know why we can't all just get along Posted: 06 Jul 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Real life, Culture, News items, Opinion  Raph Koster, MMO guru and erstwhile creative director of Star Wars Galaxies, has had it up to here with you people and your intolerance of one another. Yes, you, game designers. In a recent blog post, Koster makes shame carrots at those on both sides of the science-versus-humanities schism in the game design community. He states that people on either side of the spectrum can be right and that there's room for both emotional value and scientific fact in games. Too many people, he says, are entrenched in their viewpoints, and that makes progress more difficult for everyone. The result is an abundance of "hipstery, self-indulgent, artsy, self-referential, slight, pretentious work all over the place that people are claiming as the One True Way or the best way to push the boundaries of the field." Koster says that rather than fiercely defend a specific type of game design, designers need to embrace a both/and mentality, in which multiple viewpoints and approaches are accepted as valid and worthwhile. Narrative designers should try making a game with nothing but counters and dice and no story. System designers should try making a game that is about telling a story. While we're at it, the world should really learn how to sing in perfect harmony. Raph Koster wants to know why we can't all just get along originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betawatch: June 30 - July 6, 2012 Posted: 06 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Launches, MMO industry, Massively Meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Happy Friday, Betawatchers! This week, we learned that Brazilian sci-fi shooter Taikodom will enter closed beta in August. We also said farewell to Phantasy Star Online 2, which launched in Japan on the 4th of July while you were eating pie and blowing things up IRL. Trion has announced that End of Nations will kick off its first closed beta weekend event on July 20th, with guaranteed access for founding purchasers, while Joymax declared a one-week open beta event for its newest title, Knight Age, starting July 10th. Finally, if you're looking for something to play in the shorter term, try either C9, which entered open beta last Saturday and will officially launch on July 11th, or RuneScape, which is holding an open beta for its new combat upgrade this very weekend. Hop past the break for the complete Betawatch roster. Continue reading Betawatch: June 30 - July 6, 2012 Betawatch: June 30 - July 6, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A talks story, balance, and species experimentation Posted: 06 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Community Q&A  Another installment of BioWare's weekly ritual of enlightening the masses is up! The first question of this week's community Q&A touched on the selection of races available in Star Wars: The Old Republic. If the future introduction of the Cathar is successful, the team would like to introduce a broader spectrum of species for player characters, balancing things out by adding "clear positives and negatives" for playable species. On the story side of things, lead writer Alex Freed addressed a question about the timing of storylines. Class stories have roughly the same timing across the board, but aren't completely in-step, while world stories are split up by faction and can have much more significant time differences. For the most part, it's best not to worry too much about ordering individual world events unless they actively reference one another--and if they contradict one another, you can assume that we won't be writing future stories that depend on one faction's participation at the exclusion of the other. Senior designer Austin Peckenpaugh tackled some class and skill questions. Recent patches have made some fairly substantial changes to the Marksmanship and Sharpshooter trees; Peckenpaugh says these tweaks are intended to bring the specs closer to the team's original vision and encourage playstyles better fit to the peculiarities of those trees. He also talked about the delicate balance of player control and kiting and anti-kiting in the game. He says that "given the amount of skills and abilities that break and cleanse roots and snares at the moment," the team is not "very concerned" about the possibility of chainable roots. Star Wars: The Old Republic Q&A talks story, balance, and species experimentation originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Funcom extends grace period for pre-order customers Posted: 06 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Events, in-game, Launches, News items, The Secret World  There's nothing quite like the real world for gumming up the operations of the fantastical one. Some players of The Secret World pre-ordered the game and haven't yet received their retail copy, which is important because the grace period for playing without entering a retail key isn't a very big window of time and players were beginning to get antsy. In response to those concerns, Funcom announced that the grace period for pre-order key entry has been extended by 24 hours, allowing more people to slide in under the deadline. It's not an unusual step to take because launch-time distribution is known to be totally sucky. In a similar vein, some of the pre-order benefits -- the Egyptian Cat in-game pet, an exclusive in-game t-shirt, and an in-game ring -- are also extended to customers who enter their retail or digital game keys up until the end of today, July 6th. While that may not thrill true pre-order customers who liked being special snowflakes, that cat is darn adorable and everyone should get one. Funcom extends grace period for pre-order customers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| SWTOR podcast discusses operations design philosophy Posted: 06 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT |
| Allods Online previews patch 3.0.4, spills new server details Posted: 06 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Previews, Free-to-play, Allods Online Allods Online is constantly on the move, and as such, the team recently announced that the next update will be coming soon to the game. In addition to a brand-new North American server, patch 3.0.4 will witness significant changes to the mentoring and questing systems. Mentoring came with the previous update and is still being fine-tuned. With 3.0.4, mentors will be limited to 10 apprentices per character. Apprentices can be dismissed if a player is over the 10 limit and wants to add a new one. The dev team also announced a mentor/apprentice quest line that will give rewards to both. These quests can be accessed starting at level 10 and completed once per five levels beyond that. Patch 3.0.4 will also include more improvements to questing. The quest tracker and find quest feature are slated to become more intuitive, and the automove ability has been expanded to allow the system to run players through multiple zones in one go. The devs examined the quest flow as well and adjusted it to make it smoother in certain areas. The new server announced yesterday will be called Avilon and was created in response to a larger-than-expected influx of players onto the single North American shard. Players will not be able to transfer existing characters to Avilon, as the devs want to keep the server fresh and fair for those who roll there. Allods Online previews patch 3.0.4, spills new server details originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Ten questions to answer about your character Posted: 06 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Lore, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous If you have anything in common with me RP-wise, then you want your characters to seem more or less like real people. Sure, there are going to be blank spots compared to someone who's lived for the past 20-odd years, but you want to create the illusion that there's no real difference. And one of the best tools in that area is to answer questions that real people have an answer for in a few minutes at most. Usually, if someone mentions a mundane aspect of a character's background, it's meant to play into something further on down the line. But my experience is that giving those questions mundane answers helps ground the character in a much more solid foundation. So I've put together a list of seemingly innocuous questions that can help you construct a more fully formed character, someone who at least creates the illusion of a real life to recall. That illusion can make all the difference. Continue reading Storyboard: Ten questions to answer about your character Storyboard: Ten questions to answer about your character originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| A roadmap to The Secret World's ability wheel Posted: 06 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Classes, Game mechanics, New titles, Opinion, The Secret World, Guides After months and months of warning us that dark days are coming, Funcom's new horror-sprinkled title, The Secret World, has finally arrived. The game brings a number of new twists to the tried-and-true MMORPG formula, but its character progression is its biggest departure from the MMO formula. While many modern titles rely on class-based systems or other linear progression paths, TSW takes a considerably more open-ended approach with the ability wheel. However, this freedom of progression comes with a price. With more variety, there's more choice, and with more choice, there's bound to be more indecision. But don't fret: I'm here to help pull back the curtain on the mystery of the skill wheel and its many offerings. Want to know which route to take to dish out damage, take the hits, or heal and support your allies? Then follow along with me as I delve into the many intricacies of The Secret World's ability wheel. Continue reading A roadmap to The Secret World's ability wheel A roadmap to The Secret World's ability wheel originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Some Assembly Required: Six essential ArcheAge videos Posted: 06 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Trailers, Video, Classes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, ArcheAge, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Crafting Now that we know ArcheAge is in fact heading West at some point, I no longer feel bad about discussing the game at every opportunity. Prior to E3, any mention of XL's sandbox and its ginormous feature list felt a little like twisting the knife, you know? Happily, though, that's no longer the case, and I've spent the last couple of days gorging myself on some of the best ArcheAge footage the web has to offer. Some of these clips you may have seen already; some may be new to you. All are worth a(nother) look, though, if only to see just how much gameplay is coming your way courtesy of the genre's most exciting new sandbox. Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Six essential ArcheAge videos Some Assembly Required: Six essential ArcheAge videos originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Funcom shares fall, Tornquist defends The Secret World's sub fee Posted: 06 Jul 2012 10:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Business models, MMO industry, New titles, News items, The Secret World It's not all roses for Funcom following the launch of The Secret World earlier this week. Gamespot is reporting that company shares on the Norwegian Stock Exchange fell by almost 40 percent in recent days. Earlier this week Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas stepped down, citing internal restructuring as the cause. The company has thus far not responded to media requests for comment on its financial fortunes. The Secret World opened to positive reviews in both the gaming press and MMO fan circles, despite having a subscription fee in an era when gamers are increasingly clamoring for free content. Creative director Ragnar Tornquist recently chatted about the game's business model with Rock, Paper Shotgun. "The subscription fee and our business model supports a big, ongoing team. We have content plans for a very long time. We have content that's going to be coming on a regular, ongoing basis," he explained. Funcom shares fall, Tornquist defends The Secret World's sub fee originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Cisco faced a bit of consumer backlash last week when it pushed out a Firmware update that not only took away much of the advanced control users have come to expect, but actually forced them to agree to a list of anti-porn and anti-piracy clauses. Anyone with automatic updates turned on woke up Thursday to find not only could they not access their router locally, they needed to sign in through Cisco Cloud connect just to access the basics. Cisco has since backpedaled on the incident, and is in full on damage control 
Webmail clients have pretty much advanced to the point now where we aren't wishing for much more. Outlook still plays an important role in the Enterprise helping to tie together contacts, calendar, and mail into one application, and for everyone else with offline needs, there is Thunderbird. Thunderbird as an open source project has always been the gold standard on the PC as a free alternative to Outlook, even though it has never enjoyed anywhere near the same market share as Mozilla's other open source baby. You may have heard of Firefox perhaps?
The entire Fourth of July week is a bit of a write off news wise when it comes to the US tech industry, but while the boys in Redmond were enjoying some well-deserved R&R, Acer was on the attack. Company founder Stan Shih went on record with his 
In the past using a pre-release version of a Microsoft OS was a one way ticket to nowhere. Sure you got a chance to test out the latest and greatest version of Windows months before it launched, but the final version typically involved doing a clean install, wiping out all your data in the process. To make matters worse, if you were buying the "upgrade edition", this sometimes also involved re-installing the older version before moving to the final release. Most of us assumed this would still be the case with Windows 8; we were wrong.
Cisco faced a bit of consumer backlash last week when it pushed out a Firmware update that not only took away much of the advanced control users have come to expect, but actually forced them to agree to a list of anti-porn and anti-piracy clauses. Anyone with automatic updates turned on woke up Thursday to find not only could they not access their router locally, they needed...
Webmail clients have pretty much advanced to the point now where we aren't wishing for much more. Outlook still plays an important role in the Enterprise helping to tie together contacts, calendar, and mail into one application, and for everyone else with offline needs, there is Thunderbird. Thunderbird as an open source project has always been the gold standard on the PC as...
In the past using a pre-release version of a Microsoft OS was a one way ticket to nowhere. Sure you got a chance to test out the latest and greatest version of Windows months before it launched, but the final version typically involved doing a clean install, wiping out all your data in the process. To make matters worse, if you were buying the "upgrade edition", this som...
The entire Fourth of July week is a bit of a write off news wise when it comes to the US tech industry, but while the boys in Redmond were enjoying some well-deserved R&R, Acer was on the attack. Company founder Stan Shih went on record with his 
