| One Shots: Taste the rainbow Posted: 14 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Screenshots, EVE Online, Culture, One Shots, RIFT, Final Fantasy XIV, Miscellaneous I think rainbows are pretty darn cool, especially when they double up and you can freak out appropriately over them. More MMOs need rainbows, I think. Rainbows in raids! Rainbows in space! Rainbows in that dour death zone for ambiance! Reader Marshall and his crew know a good rainbow when they see one, as evidenced by our first One Shot of the day. "Some friends and I decided to try out Ragnarok Online 2," Marshall writes. "We ended up spending more time taking screenshots than playing the actual game that first night. These were some of the best ones." I think my retinas may be on fire due to the intense colors, but I don't mind. Rainbows! Will there be more rainbows in the rest of today's player-submitted screenshots? Sadly no, but we'll persevere nevertheless. Continue reading One Shots: Taste the rainbow  One Shots: Taste the rainbow originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 14 Jul 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: How transparent should developers be? Posted: 14 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Sometimes I feel for developers, as they must walk a line between being too chatty and not chatty enough with fans. On one hand, players tend to take what developers say as sacred gospel that can and should be thrown back in the devs' faces if the game takes a different path, so some measure of restraint in sharing future goals is probably necessary. On the other hand, developers who are too secretive and distant from the community end up creating an atmosphere of distrust and aloofness. So where's that balance? How transparent and open should developers be? Maybe you love devs to talk about every little aspect of the game's inner workings, lofty plans, and tricky choices. Maybe you're more willing to cut those devs some slack if things don't pan out. Or maybe you think a dev shouldn't say anything until he or she is 100% confident that what is said will pan out. You make the call today. If you were in charge of a studio, where would you set the line?  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: How transparent should developers be? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 14 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Marvel Heroes dev blogs talk fixes, price reductions Posted: 13 Jul 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Business Models, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Marvel Heroes, Dev Diaries Marvel Heroes posted a couple of updates to its official website yesterday. The first is penned by Doomsaw, an MH designer who has a quite a lot to say in terms of what the dev team is currently doing. The game's defense system is being worked on, as are difficulty modes, PvP, itemization, raids, and more. The second update concerns permanent price reductions on both heroes and costumes in Marvel Heroes' item shop. Affected characters include Wolverine, Spider-man, Storm, Hulk, Iron Man, and Deadpool. Get the full list, as well as the full development update blog, via the links below. Marvel Heroes dev blogs talk fixes, price reductions originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 30 - July 13, 2013 Posted: 13 Jul 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Events (Real-World), Lore, MMO Industry, Miscellaneous, Crowdfunding, Make My MMO The last two weeks haven't been quiet on the crowdfunding front. While Star Citizen takes the lead with the most news (from ever-expanding coffers to just "finding ways to make the game more awesome"), other titles had their own snippets to report as well. There's also some upheaval in our ranks: We gained a new MMORTS/MMORPG mix project but lost two others from our list when both Skara: The Blade Remains and Anthym didn't meet their goals. And yet another title makes its final appearance before moving on to Betawatch! That's right, folks; TUG is saying hasta la vista to Make My MMO in favor of alpha land. Curious as to what all else has transpired? Then check out the details after the break. Continue reading Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 30 - July 13, 2013 Make My MMO: Crowdfunding June 30 - July 13, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Guild Wars 2's Cutthroat Politics content launches July 23 Posted: 13 Jul 2013 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play Cutthroat Politics is the name of the next Guild Wars 2 update. It's apparently headed your way on July 23rd, according to an NCsoft press release. Players will be able to choose the next member of the Captain's Council of Lion's Arch once the content goes live. Whether war hero Ellen Kiel or Black Lion Trader Evon Gnashblade claim victory, it will "seriously impact the future events and the Living World we have come to love and cherish," ArenaNet says. The update will also introduce the Southsun Survival and Aspect arena activities as well as the Candidate Trials PvE Challenge, though the press release doesn't mention exactly what these activities entail. In other GW2 news, ArenaNet has announced invitational and regional qualifying tournaments. Full details are available on the game's official website. Guild Wars 2's Cutthroat Politics content launches July 23 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Mog Log: Forced group quests in Final Fantasy XIV Posted: 13 Jul 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log, Dungeons There are certain things I hate in MMOs. One of those things is a forced group quest. Final Fantasy XI introduced me to this idea in a roundabout way by giving every player a single quest ("accomplish something") and forcing him or her to group for pretty much all of it. I didn't need a group to walk around San d'Oria, but pretty much anything else required a full group. It made me give up on Dragoon, and it meant that I've spent most of my life feeling that forced grouping is one of the worst things that a developer can implement. That having been said, I think Final Fantasy XIV might have actually gotten it mostly right. Not perfect, but considering that the development team felt it was important to include these quests, I think they've at least provided us with the best possible implementation for this content. So the inclusion doesn't really bother me after all. Continue reading The Mog Log: Forced group quests in Final Fantasy XIV The Mog Log: Forced group quests in Final Fantasy XIV originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Wings Over Atreia: A quick guide to Aion 4.0 dungeons Posted: 13 Jul 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Expansions, Lore, Free-to-Play, Wings Over Atreia, Guides, Dungeons Last time, when sharing my initial impressions of Aion Dark Betrayal, I mentioned how the expansion was so big that there was no way one Wings Over Atreia could cover it all. Well, that's putting it mildly; there's no way two or ten can, either! in fact, I am still finding gems tucked away both in game and in the patch notes, so we'll definitely have plenty to discuss for a while. This week, we're going to try to make a dent in that pile of topics by grabbing one and just running with it. Up this week: 4.0 dungeons. Now, this guide is not going to delve deeply into tips, tricks, or strategies for Aion's newest dungeons. Instead, it's concerned with the who, the where, and the why, offering a synopsis of each new instance and a look at the lore behind it. Heck, with 12 new dungeons, that's about all we could fit in -- and only half of them at that! Check out six of these new dungeons now, and stay tuned for the second half of our guide next time. Continue reading Wings Over Atreia: A quick guide to Aion 4.0 dungeons Wings Over Atreia: A quick guide to Aion 4.0 dungeons originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| So what's in WoW's item store? Posted: 13 Jul 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Subscription The World of Warcraft item store is a thing now, of course, but what exactly can one purchase in said store? Blizzard answers that question with a new dev blog that mentions pets, cosmetic odds and ends, and even a seesaw. There's also an Iron Hitching Post that allows you and up to 24 of your friends to charge into raids, battlegrounds, or even small party content on a "unified front of ghost horses." Blizzard declines to offer any sort of release date for these items other than to say that players can expect to see them in the "near future." So what's in WoW's item store? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Internet Explorer 10 has managed to secure second place amidst all of Microsoft's browsers just last month, with its user share rising from 16.5% to 24% of all copies of Internet Explorer. 
Valve has debuted an interesting new experiment known as 
A new way of legitimizing eSports
More sizzling game deals
