| The Game Archaeologist: The rise, fall, and rescue of Vanguard Posted: 01 Feb 2014 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, Vanguard, Free-to-Play, The Game Archaeologist I have been wanting to do an article on the whole saga (small pun intended) of Vanguard for some time, and now that Brad McQuaid has returned with plans to make what appears to be a very similar game, I need no more prompting to do it. The significance of Vanguard's development, release, ongoing drama, and its recent mild renaissance is of great interest not just to game historians but to everyone who plays MMOs, period. What happened with this game caused a huge fallout in the industry, and we are still feeling some of its effects even today. As our own Bree put it in her blog, " Vanguard's implosion was a big deal at the time and marked the beginning of the post- WoW destruction of the industry that hobbled Age of Conan and Warhammer Online a few years later." While the crash and burn of Vanguard was a very well-known tale several years ago, I'm wondering if in 2014 there might be many who are quite unfamiliar with what happened to this unassuming SOE game eight years ago. Let me put on my old fogey glasses and we shall begin! Continue reading The Game Archaeologist: The rise, fall, and rescue of Vanguard  The Game Archaeologist: The rise, fall, and rescue of Vanguard originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Feb 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| WRUP: Long hamsters edition Posted: 01 Feb 2014 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Miscellaneous Long hamsters are a popular housepet in both America and Europe, available for sale at many larger pet stores. They are known to be friendly and sociable but extremely energetic, and they have a powerful scent that some people regard as unpleasant. These noble creatures are sometimes misidentified as ferrets, despite the fact that "ferret" is a common nickname for weasels thanks to their habit of ferreting out small objects. If you're interested in some long hamsters of your own, consult the internet. This week's WRUP past the cut is awfully conspiratorial. I wonder what's up with that? We're probably planning a crime or something. Go ahead and read our own vague allusions to what we're doing below, then let us know about your weekend plans down in the comments. Also, feel free to let us know if there are any facts about long hamsters that we neglected to mention. Continue reading WRUP: Long hamsters edition WRUP: Long hamsters edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Feb 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Daily Grind: Do you daydream about games? Posted: 01 Feb 2014 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous I admit it without shame. When I'm not doing my job, which is to think about MMOs for a living, one of my little free-time hobbies is to daydream about MMOs for a living. I come up with elaborate ability sets for classes that don't yet exist, because for some strange reason I find that fun. The results that we get almost never line up with what I had thought of, but I've been doing it since I started playing Final Fantasy XI and I'm not about to stop. I fully recognize that this is odd, within the larger context of our odd little hobby. But do you do the same thing, dear reader? Do you daydream about what could be the next big thing in Star Trek Online? Do you construct fanciful possibilities about endgame content in World of Warcraft? Do you daydream about games, even when you know most of that daydreaming will come to nothing?  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 you daydream about games? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 01 Feb 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Storyboard: Secrets that aren't helping Posted: 31 Jan 2014 06:00 PM PST Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous Roleplaying characters are often secretive sorts. This is understandable; a lot of people are secretive sorts. Sure, you're not deceptive, but you harbor a secret affection for Lady Gaga that you don't want to tell anyone about, or you secretly did forget to feed the cat that one time she broke into the cupboard and ate an entire bag of cat food, or you're secretly cheating on your girlfriend (but it's fine because she's cheating on you, you think). The problem is that in roleplaying, some secrets are just plain better than others. Keep in mind that I'm talking about specific secrets here, not just things that people might not know yet. There are certain secrets that are just plain counterproductive, and it's better to have these things stated outright rather than held in reserve for the future. Even if it's supposed to be a secret, some secrets are better revealed than kept because keeping 'em isn't doing you any favors. Continue reading Storyboard: Secrets that aren't helping Storyboard: Secrets that aren't helping originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Stream Team: Hunting BAMs in TERA Posted: 31 Jan 2014 05:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, PvE, Free-to-Play, Massively Meta, Hands-On, TERA, Livestream, The Stream Team, MMORPG One of the most notable and fun features of En Masse's TERA is the hunting down and slaying of BAMs, or " big-ass monsters." BAMs give TERA a sense of scale and drama that is difficult to find in other MMOs, and fans of TERA will be quick to tell you that you haven't really experienced the game unless you've downed a BAM for yourself. In tonight's stream, Massively's Mike Foster is on the prowl for these compelling and engaging foes. His goal? Why, to smack them in the face, of course. The hunt starts at 8:30 p.m. EST. Game: TERA Host: Mike Foster Date: Friday, January 31st, 2014 Time: 8:30 p.m. EST. Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Hunting BAMs in TERA The Stream Team: Hunting BAMs in TERA originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Betwatch: January 25 - 31, 2014 Posted: 31 Jan 2014 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Betas, MMO Industry, News Items, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Development on TUG is continuing, but it's shifting gears a little bit. What was originally going to be called the game's first beta phase is now still an alpha phase, even though most of the core systems are in place. But the game's still moving along, and as it enters its next major testing phase, it's looking for fans to help spread the word. The game also went into voting for Steam Greenlight, so there's another option to help support its development. For the most part, this has been a quiet beta week, but there's still our full list past the break as well as our testing notes. So dive on past the break for the list, and as always, let us know if something managed to slip a cash shop past us or launched without letting us know (which often means the same thing). Continue reading Betwatch: January 25 - 31, 2014 Betwatch: January 25 - 31, 2014 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Stream Team: Terran it up in StarCraft II Posted: 31 Jan 2014 04:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-Fi, Video, PvP, Massively Meta, Hands-On, Livestream, The Stream Team, Buy-to-Play Massively's Mike Foster is still learning the basics of StarCraft II. In his first StarCraft stream, he had the help of an expert to explain to him what was going wrong and what was going right as he staggered around in Blizzard's iconic RTS. This time around, Mike is launching himself into one-on-one matches with live human opponents. Maybe he'll win and maybe he'll lose, but in the end he'll have no one to blame/thank but himself. Catch the space-marine-shooty action at 7:00 p.m. EST. Game: StarCraft II Host: Mike Foster Date: Friday, January 31st, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below. Continue reading The Stream Team: Terran it up in StarCraft II The Stream Team: Terran it up in StarCraft II originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Camelot Unchained's internal testing begins Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:45 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, PvP, News Items, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained, Subscription Mark Jacobs just announced that fantasy PvP sandbox Camelot Unchained is officially undergoing internal testing. "Over the last 24 hours, we have done two stress tests of our client and server. This afternoon's peaked at around 407 client connections from our pool of internal testers," he wrote. "We experienced no crashes even though many players ran multiple instances of the client on their machines." Full details are available via the CU Kickstarter page. Camelot Unchained's internal testing begins originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Outerra seamless planet rendering engine will blow your mind Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:30 PM PST |
| Here's an Elder Scrolls Imperial Edition unboxing video Posted: 31 Jan 2014 03:00 PM PST |
| Elite's multiplayer alpha coming next week Posted: 31 Jan 2014 02:30 PM PST Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, Video, Business Models, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Sandbox, Crowdfunding, Elite: Dangerous, Buy-to-Play Frontier has released its 16th development newsletter for Elite: Dangerous. In it, the company says that phase two of the space sim's alpha is undergoing internal testing right now. Next week, alpha backers will be able to download it, which is sort of a big deal since phase two equals multiplayer! Beta is on the horizon, though there's no firm date just yet. "After next week's alpha 2.0 we still have two major alpha releases to roll out before we reach the premium beta stage: Outfitting, Travel and Trading." We've embedded the latest Elite video dev diary after the break, and you can click through the links below to read the full newsletter. Continue reading Elite's multiplayer alpha coming next week Elite's multiplayer alpha coming next week originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Some Assembly Required: Your home is your castle on Vanguard's Thestra Posted: 31 Jan 2014 02:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Vanguard, Free-to-Play, Some Assembly Required, Housing, Player-Generated Content, Sunsets In a painful twist of fate, this week's scheduled Some Assembly Required wraps up the trilogy on Vanguard: Saga of Heroes housing that began with my first piece for this column highlighting Kojani homes way back in 2011. I say painful because we now know that Vanguard will be closing its doors forever come July 31st. But that leaves us six more months to enjoy what's there, and since we've already seen the oriental homes of Kojan and the desert dwellings of Qalia, it's time to take a tour of Thestra. The European-flavored continent was the final of the three to visit not because it is somehow less than the other two but because it is more -- as in more land to cover! The main reason I left Thestra for last is because of the sheer size of the continent. The amount of time required to visit just a fraction of the housing settlements scattered throughout this land is daunting. The other reason is that I wanted to end on a bang with my favorite style of guild housing: the castles! Continue reading Some Assembly Required: Your home is your castle on Vanguard's Thestra Some Assembly Required: Your home is your castle on Vanguard's Thestra originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Brad McQuaid on Pantheon's partnership with Shroud of the Avatar Posted: 31 Jan 2014 01:30 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Interviews, MMO Industry, News Items, Crowdfunding, Shroud of the Avatar, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen  If today's Pantheon Elf reveal and the news that the Kickstarter-hopeful Pantheon MMO has formed an alliance with Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar for some cross-promotional goodies aren't enough for you, perhaps you'd like to hear some of the details from Visionary Realms' CCO Brad McQuaid himself. He provides a bit of insight on the decision to partner with SOTA, offers hints about what players can expect from the promotion besides the special cloak announced this morning, and touches on the impact of Vanguard's sunset on his fledgling MMO. Read on! Continue reading Brad McQuaid on Pantheon's partnership with Shroud of the Avatar Brad McQuaid on Pantheon's partnership with Shroud of the Avatar originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Rhode Island senate passes 38 Studios legislation Posted: 31 Jan 2014 01:00 PM PST Filed under: MMO Industry, Legal, Miscellaneous A major hurdle in paving over the bad feelings, poor decisions, and millions of dollars in unpaid loans that 38 Studios caused when it defaulted two years ago has been crossed, as Rhode Island's Senate has approved legislation to settle the affair out of court. The Senate unanimously passed a bill to shield from future lawsuits any party that settles with Rhode Island Commerce Corp. The RICC, formerly the Economic Development Corp., has been trying to figure out a way to recoup as much of the $90 million lost through former 38 Studios deals as possible, and the attorney for the state says that this legislation will increase any future recovery of those funds. The Rhode Island House of Representatives has to consider and vote on a similar bill for this to proceed. Lawyers say that the longer this case goes without a settlement, the larger the legal bills will be, which will diminish those funds the state does recover. Rhode Island senate passes 38 Studios legislation originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| MMObility: Exploring the confusing world of mobile MMOs Posted: 31 Jan 2014 12:00 PM PST Filed under: Business Models, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Mobile, Miscellaneous, MMObility The mobile MMO market has sort of come to a standstill, at least in the Western market. There are always new or incoming mobile titles that are MMO- like and even a handful of new fully fledged MMOs, but most of the ones I come across are either relative copies of current games or blatant repeats of current designs. There's just not much that is new coming to the table right now. It's a bit depressing because mobile devices are perfect delivery systems for massively multiplayer gaming, and yet so many developers are cutting down standard MMO design to fit into the mobile world. What I would like to suggest is a rethinking of MMOs for mobile. I'd like to see developers stop with the idea that mobile players are gaming the same way they do on a console or PC. Instead, I'd like to suggest that developers get to know how players interact with mobile devices and how that affects how and how long they play. Mobile MMOs should behave differently, but not so differently that they are no longer MMOs. There are many different types of games you will find when you search for "MMORPG" on Google Play or the App market. Most of them are not MMORPGs, however. Continue reading MMObility: Exploring the confusing world of mobile MMOs MMObility: Exploring the confusing world of mobile MMOs originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| The Elder Scrolls Online answers a variety of questions (and the CE question) Posted: 31 Jan 2014 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, News Items, Consoles, Races, Community Q&A, The Elder Scrolls Online, Subscription If you've read about The Elder Scrolls Online lately, you surely heard about the whole collector's edition thing. The latest batch of answers for community questions tackles that head-on, stressing that the only exclusive for Imperials which other races won't have is a single skill line. That line will be balanced along with all other racial skill lines, so players who decide to go the Imperial route will just have a bit of extra visual flair, not a gameplay advantage. No mention is made of the cross-faction races for pre-orders, however. Aside from the obvious question and a few corresponding bits of confusion, the array of questions cover topics from open PvP in Cyrodiil to death gates to skill resources. If you're eagerly anticipating the game or just want to see more clarification on the whole function of the Imperial option, take a look at the full set of answers for a clearer picture of the CE bonuses and the game as a whole. The Elder Scrolls Online answers a variety of questions (and the CE question) originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| EQ Next Landmark alpha begins tonight Posted: 31 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, EverQuest Next, Sandbox It's here! Sandbox fans have been waiting with bated breath for EverQuest Next Landmark's alpha announcement, and now we finally have it: EQNL will open those alpha doors tonight! Players who purchased the appropriate level of Founder's Pack (Trailblazer or Explorer) will receive a link via email with instructions on downloading and getting into this testing phase, which is touted as less testing and more interacting with the devs to help direct the actual development of the game. Director of Development Dave Georgeson stated: Later today, we will begin the Alpha for EverQuest Next Landmark and open up the game to our most committed and passionate players. This is the earliest point in the development process that we've ever let players into a game. We are empowering these players to do much more than test the game for bugs. For the first time, our players can join alongside us as part of the development team. They will have a significant voice in how the final game takes shape." Founders should be on the lookout for their golden ticket... er, email... that will enable them to dive into the new sandbox and get building. Those who don't currently own a founder's pack can still purchase one throughout the alpha stage; in fact, SOE's John Smedley promises that the studio "will offer a full refund to anyone not satisfied with the Alpha." And in case you were wondering, yes, this alpha is under strict NDA. While waiting, check out the latest Landmark screens in the gallery below. [Source: SOE press release] EQ Next Landmark alpha begins tonight originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Innogames TV shows off games and updates galore Posted: 31 Jan 2014 10:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Miscellaneous It may still be January, but InnoGames has released its February episode of InnoGamesTV. Various titles were highlighted throughout the 16-minute show. Devs shared details about Forge of Empires' latest Modern Era update that captures the spirit of the 1950s and puts it in the far east, the upcoming Grepolis Heroes feature for mobile app, and The West's update that raises the level cap to 150 and opens up the middle of the map. On top of that, you can also see a team of CMs face off against the devs in the upcoming Tribal Wars 2 strategy game and hear more about the beta server and the spring game. Check out the match and hear all the details about all of these titles in the video below. Continue reading Innogames TV shows off games and updates galore Innogames TV shows off games and updates galore originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 31 Jan 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite mod on the Citadel."
Ding! Time for another round
After much fanfare, Mantle is finally available
